THE 12th edition of the Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale takes place the week after next week when, thanks to the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the auction itself returns to the Amber Springs Hotel where online bidding will remain an option for purchasers.

The auction is due to start at 4pm and, while there will be no gala dinner on this occasion, the usual function room will be divided between seated and standing areas and, for the peckish, there will be plenty of choice on the hotel’s menu. Favourable room rates have been secured for those attending the sale.

As usual, photographs of successful graduates grace the front and back covers of the catalogue including Pablo C who was one of three graduates selected for this year’s world breeding championships for young show jumpers in Lanaken. At the RDS in August, the Pollux de Muze Z gelding, who was purchased out of last year’s sale, finished fourth in the Flexible five-year-old national championship where his owner/rider, Sophie Richards, was also on board the reserve champion, the 2019 Go For Gold Sale graduate, Newmarket Patriot.

Germany’s multiple medal winner Michael Jung features with the 2018 Go For Gold graduate, Kilcandra Ocean Power, who has won or placed second in his last five international starts at two- or three-star level and jumped double clear on his four-star debut in August. Kilcandra Bonnie Orestus, a three-year-old Orestus half-sister to the now eight-year-old BGS Ocean View gelding, is being consigned as Lot 63 to this year’s sale by their Co Wicklow breeder, Kilcandra Stud.

Irish Olympians, Joseph Murphy, Sam Watson and Sarah Ennis are among those who appear with Go For Gold Sale graduates on the back of the catalogue. The last-named is seen tackling a cross-country fence on Dourough Ferro Class Act who finished best of the Irish in seventh in the CCI2*L at the recent world breeding championship for young event horses at Le Lion d’Angers where three other Go For Gold graduates competed including MBF Cooley Permission To Land, winner of a CCI3*-S in the USA.

All horses entered in the sale have come through an extensive selection process, have been examined by members of the Goresbridge Veterinary Panel and will be sold with a set of digital X-rays which can be emailed to prospective purchasers on request. Videos of all lots are available for viewing on the sale’s website.