THIS week’s Tattersalls Online June Sale demonstrated the appeal of purchasing horses from afar, with the 52,000gns top lot Huxley purchased by Will Smith of Dare To Dream Racing over the phone from Majorca.

Offered by Donnacha O’Brien’s Bawnmore Racing, the promising three-year-old will continue his career with trainer Michael Attwater.

Smith revealed: “We’ve been wanting to get a nice horse for the syndicate to take us to some top tracks, and we think he’ll provide us with some great opportunities over the summer. He’ll be going to Michael Attwater in Epsom and that’s one of the tracks that should suit him perfectly.

“His form at Dundalk seems pretty tidy so we’d like a crack at some of the better all-weather races as well.”

Though still a maiden, Huxley boasts strong form and an official rating of 84 from six starts for O’Brien. On his second juvenile start, the Flaxman Stables homebred finished fourth to none other than City Of Troy and chased home subsequent Listed Dee Stakes winner Capulet next time out. The latter rival, who has also twice placed at Group 2 level, recently sold to Hong Kong owner Peter Lau for a sum presumably far greater than Huxley’s price.

Galileo filly

The next highest price of 49,000gns was achieved by the well-bred three-year-old World Vision, with the purchaser listed as the Wind Chimes Partnership.

Baroda Stud consigned the unraced daughter of Galileo, who had twice gone unsold as a yearling for €350,000 and €270,000. Previously trained by Karl Burke for Zhang Yuesheng, World Vision was bred by Coolmore out of their Group 3 winner and Group 1 runner-up Wind Chimes.

Over 300 bidders registered for the sale from over 20 countries including America, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Zambia and the Middle East. Their involvement produced a turnover of 677,100gns, an average price of 9,537gns and median price of 4,200gns.

Some 71 lots sold at a clearance rate of 60%, with 16 of those offered by breeze-up consignors. Tattersalls Online became the first sale to publish breeze times publicly and the fastest also proved the priciest. That honour went to Beresford Stables’ Coulsty filly, who was purchased by Jack Cantillon for 27,000gns and thus returned a tidy profit on her yearling price of €5,000.

TATTERSALLS Online will offer the unbeaten two-year-old filly and Royal Ascot prospect Hot Darling in a pop-up sale on Wednesday, June 12th.

Consigned by Amy Murphy Racing, the daughter of Too Darn Hot is being offered with an entry in the Group 3 Prix du Bois at Chantilly on June 16th, but could also be aimed at the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes on the Thursday of Royal Ascot.

Hot Darling shed her maiden tag at Chantilly on April 26th, and then won the Listed Prix des Reves d’Or at Vichy on May 15th.