“TONIGHT’S Punchestown Sale was the usual lively affair at what is the original festival sale, with some mighty prices and a huge crowd of active participants. Last year’s record-breaking sale was always going to be hard to match, but 2024 compares very favourably with previous renewals, and we have no doubt that there are some real stars amongst the graduates.”

A succinct summing up from Goffs chief Henry Beeby said it all about the Goffs Punchestown Sale held after racing on Thursday, which had its usual plethora of stars but nothing to match last year’s top price of €500,000 for Qualimita or the €450,000 paid for Histrionic.

Just hours after he saddled a Punchestown treble, including Teahupoo in the feature race, trainer Gordon Elliott spent €870,000 on three new recruits, and yet his haul did not include the evening’s top lot.

For the second year running it was a filly who headed the sale and, like last year’s sale-topper, it’s possible that this mare - Swing Davis - could also be sent to Elliott to train as she was bought for €320,000 by bloodstock agent Mags O’Toole who was standing with Teahupoo’s owner, Robcour’s Brian Acheson, at the time.

Trained in Wexford by Denis Murphy, Swing Davis (by No Risk At All) won at Loughanmore last Saturday on her second outing, and was bought by Murphy for €57,000 at the Derby Sale last June. Connections will also be hoping that the filly’s half-brother Masterboy Davis finally broke his duck last night in the bumper at Punchestown.

Good tone

The first lot in the sale set a good tone for the evening. Elliott and agent Aidan ‘Mouse’ O’Ryan spent €310,000 to buy Familiar Dreams, winner of the Weatherbys-sponsored Grade 3 bumper at Punchestown on Wednesday evening for trainer Anthony McCann. Bought by the trainer for only 4,000gns, she won four of her nine starts in bumpers, finished second three times, and paid her way with winnings of some €70,000.

Fetching the same price of €310,000 was Ciaran Fennessy’s recent Dromahane winner Ma Jacks Hill, successful at the second attempt having unseated his rider on his debut four weeks earlier. The son of Famous Name cost Fennessy just €13,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland May Sale last year and now joins the Elliott stable at Cullentra. He is from the family of the Grade 1 Drinmore Chase winner Watson Lake.

Sole outing

Koktail Brut, a four-year-old gelding by Cokoriko, will also be trained by Elliott, having been acquired from Northern Ireland handler Patrick Turley for €250,000. The horse won at Castletown-Geoghegan last month on his sole outing by 25 lengths and is a half-brother to the Irish Grand National runner-up Gevrey. He cost Turley €40,000 at the Derby Sale.

A recent winner at Curraghmore, El Cairos sold to bloodstock agent Jerry McGrath for €200,000. The four-year-old No Risk At All gelding is out of a two-year-old winning half-sister to Hinterland, successful at Grade 1 level over fences and a Grade 2-winning juvenile hurdler.