Ten Wexford horses sold for €1m
WEXFORD HORSES dominated the first ‘live’ point-to-point sale of the year (as opposed to online), staged by Tattersalls at Newmarket recently, with Denis Murphy topping the day’s prices at £220,000 and ten horses from the county selling for a total of £850,000 (€1 million), including four of the six to break the £100,000 barrier.
The Wexford handlers worked hard to successfully get to grips with all the additional red tape required to export horses to Britain as a result of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, and made full use of the recently initiated point-to-point bumper (flat racing) cards designed to let them put their horses on show.
Murphy’s winner at Tipperary on March 24, Au Fleuron (by Crillon), went to Noel and Valerie Moran and Gordon Elliott for £220,000. The Morans are becoming influential on the Irish scene and they already have quite a few prominent horses with Elliott.
The horse had been bought by Murphy and Colin Bowe at £37,000 at last year’s Goffs UK summer sale. ‘I’m more than happy, it’s a great profit,’ Murphy said. ‘He’s a nice horse. He jumps like a stag, obviously that was irrelevant when he ran in his bumper, but he’s shown he’s got an engine. He’s gone to the right man.’
Murphy had a good day as he sold two other horses very well also. Jet of Magic (by Jet Away), a five-year-old gelding that won a debut point-to-point bumper at Punchestown on March 15, went for £75k, and General Madrano (by Ocovango) went to Highflyer for £55k.
Cormac Doyle of Monbeg Stables sold Pay The Pilot (by Telescope), owned by his brother Seán, for £130k and he is going to trainer Kim Bailey. The horse was runner-up on debut in a point-to-point bumper at Punchestown; the Doyles bought the horse at the Tattersalls Derby sale last August for €20k.
The Doyle brothers sold three others – Ahead of the Field (Flemensfirth), a sixyear-old gelding, winner of a maiden hurdle at Navan on March 22, for £40k, and a pair of five-year-old mares - Love Envoi (by Westerner), winner of a point-to-point bumper at Wexford on March 20, for £38k, and The Real Jet (by Jet Away), a point-to-point winner just before Christmas, for £35k.
Trainer Jonathan Fogarty from Cleariestown caused a bit of a stir when winning a bumper at Thurles on March 11 with Complete Unknown (by Dylan Thomas) at 50/1, owned by his mother Mary Frances and ridden by Barry O’Neill. Tom Malone and Megan Nicholls went to £115k for the horse which the Fogartys bought last June at the Goffs Landrover sale for €26k.
Colin Bowe’s Milestone Stables’ Ernest Gray (by Walk in the Park) was sold to Highflyer Bloodstock for £105,000 after winning his point-to-point bumper at Punchestown on March 15. Bowe got the horse for €62,000 at last year’s Goffs Land Rover sale.
‘He’s a good horse who jumps well and he was doing his best work at the end of his bumper. He’ll be a nice horse going forward. We’re delighted to have those point-to-point bumpers. It’s a case of any port in a storm,’ Bowe said.
Liam Kenny from Ballydarragh, Craanford, sold Green Vault (by Shirocco), a five-year-old winner of a point-to-point bumper at Punchestown, for £38k to trainer Lucinda Russell.
Tattersalls stage the next sale at Park Paddocks, Newmarket, on April 23.