Horses in demand at Aintree

GOFF’S RAN their third Aintree sale in the parade ring after racing on Thursday of the Grand National meeting for a small but high-quality bunch of 24 point-to-pointers, with five from Wexford yards selling for £610,000.

The fillies don’t usually attract the biggest prices but there was great interest in two from Wexford that had finished first and second in a mares’ maiden at Loughanmore, Co. Antrim, on March 31,, with Rob James getting up by a head on Donnchadh Doyle’s Tara West from Jamie Codd on Denis Murphy’s Little Light.

Tara West (by Kayf Tara) was sold for £100,000; remarkably, the beaten Little Light (by Walk in the Park) was sold for £200,000 just a short while later.

Doyle and the Monbeg Syndicate sold off two other recent winners - Gaelik Coast, a four-year-old gelding by Coastal Path that won at Castletowngeoghegan on April 1 fetched £110,000, and Jillythejet, a four-year-old filly by Jeremy that won at Ballyarthur, went for £100,000.

Colin Bowe won a competitive 14-runner five-yearold maiden just last Sunday week at Dromahane with debutant Hill Sixteen (by Court Cave), ridden by Barry O’Neill, and this one went to Highflyer Bloodstock for £100,000.