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HOT on the heels of an action-packed two days at the Dublin Racing Festival, there is still big business to look forward to for National Hunt fans on Monday when Caldwell Construction Ltd’s entire string goes under the hammer at Tattersalls Ireland.
In the immediate aftermath of the shock news that Caldwell were departing the sport, Joey Logan, who oversees owners Andrew and Gemma Brown’s racing interests, said there had been a host of inquiries from bloodstock agents, trainers and owners looking to buy the ace team of jumpers. Lively trade is expected at the Fairyhouse complex.
None of the 29 lots have been allowed to run since the dispersal was announced, and that will have come as a blow to Gordon Elliott given he was targeting the Dublin Racing Festival with Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle winner Caldwell Potter - the most intriguing lot in the sale.
Currently as short as 8/1 for the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle and a general 10/1 for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, it is rare to see a last-time-out Grade 1 novice winner entering the sales ring a month before the Cheltenham Festival, so estimating what a young horse of his calibre will make in the ring is not straightforward.
There are several examples in recent times of select point-to-point winners making in the region of £400,000 and above, though, and the six-year-old by Martaline already cost €200,000 as a store when bought by Logan for the Browns. Elliott says he will try to buy back several of the Caldwell horses at the sale.
Record marker
If fireworks did happen to take off, the record price to beat for a jumps horse sold at a public auction is £620,000 - the fee paid by owner Darren Yates for Interconnected after finishing second in a Newbury novice hurdle in March 2019. The former British point-to-point winner spent 727 days on the sidelines before his debut for Yates and he failed to win a race in four further starts in his career.
He overtook the record from Garde Champetre, who J.P. McManus snapped up for 530,000gns in 2004 on the back of a Grade 2 win in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, having previously finished second in the Grade 1 Tolworth and fifth on his other top-level start in the Supreme.
The Caldwell dispersal features mostly young horses - 10 of which have already been given early entries at the Cheltenham Festival. One of those Festival possibles is triple-graded winner Fil Dor, who has the option of the Champion or Ryanair Chase after finishing second to Cheltenham favourites Dinoblue and El Fabiolo on his first two starts of the 2023/’24 season.
Pied Piper, runner-up in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket two starts ago and a dual Grade 2-winning hurdler, will surely have strong claims if returning to Cheltenham for the County Hurdle after his defeat by a head in the race last season. He looks an attractive proposition for dual-purpose campaigning.
Supreme and Baring Bingham entry Staffordshire Knot bolted up in a maiden hurdle by 21 lengths on his last start at Down Royal, Chemical Energy finished second in last season’s National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham and Imagine landed the Grade 2 Craddockstown Novice Chase only two starts ago. Mighty Bandit remains a promising juvenile hurdling prospect too after having a veterinary excuse for his last effort at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.
The sale takes place on Monday at 3pm, with all lots available for viewing from 8.30am on Monday morning.
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