NINE horses broke the six-figure barrier at last week’s Brightwells Cheltenham April Sale and all bar one were consigned by Irish vendors. Only two of those horses are coming back to Ireland, both to be trained by Willie Mullins.

Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson are also set to receive their share of the top lots while the up-and-coming Dan Skelton will train two of the top nine, including the sale-topper Born Survivor. This was another success story for point-to-point handler Willie Codd, who topped this sale a year earlier with Alisier D’Irlande (£300,000) and also sold Tell Us More for £290,000 here in December 2013.

Born Survivor, a son of champion sire King’s Theatre, had been bought at the Goffs Land Rover Sale for €36,000. He won a four-year-old maiden first time out in good style at Ballymena on the Saturday before the sale and was bought at Brightwells by owner Richard Kelvin-Hughes with a bid of £220,000.

Kelvin-Hughes, a keen breeder of jumpers, usually sends his racehorses to Nicky Henderson and Alan King, but he revealed Born Survivor had been bought for a new partnership involving his wife Lizzie and Beverley Widdowson, and would be joining Dan Skelton.

Kelvin-Hughes said: “We just loved the scope of him and the way he moves – he’s a proper horse for the future. We were alerted to him a few days ago and liked the way he won.”

Dan Skelton said: “He’s a lovely horse, with size and breeding, and he looked very good on video winning his race – he could be outstanding. Now it’s my job to make sure I don’t mess it up!”

King’s Theatre was also responsible for the second highest price in the shape of Minella Aris, sold by John Nallen for £200,000. A €28,000 foal at Tattersalls Ireland, Minella Aris fell four out on his debut at Dromahane in March but returned to the same venue last month to win, albeit with a bit of luck.

Champion British trainer Paul Nicholls will now train Minella Aris following the successful bid of agent Tom Malone. “He’s a big, scopey sort, and I fell in love with him when I first saw him in Ireland,” said Malone. “I tried to buy him privately, but the man [Nallen] wanted to bring him to the ring and it’s paid off for him. He’s 16.3 [hands] and only four, but he could develop into his pedigree.”

Malone paid £150,000 for Durrow point-to-point winner Red Hanrahan, a son of Yeats. This €14,000 Derby Sale purchase was trained in Co Meath by Virginia Considine and owned by her in partnership with Fiona Magee. Related to Vic Venturi, Red Hanrahan was another who fell first time out before winning on his second outing.

The two Willie Mullins purchases, signed for by agent Harold Kirk, were also winning pointers. Inspired Poet had scored at Templemore for Andy and Willie Slattery of Meadowview Stables. Having cost €48,000 at the Goffs Land Rover Sale, this Yeats half-brother to the versatile Big Moment was bought by Kirk for £155,000 at Cheltenham.

Kirk said: “That’s the fourth horse we’ve bought from Willie Slattery – the first three were Cooldine, Quel Esprit and Faugheen, who all became Grade 1 winners.”

Northern Ireland trainer Brian Hamilton was the vendor of the other Mullins purchase, Lucky Pass, who made £140,000. Lucky Pass had been bought privately out of a field in France by Jeremy Maxwell, Hamilton’s step-father, and won first time out at Loughanmore last month.

Of the 71 horses offered for sale, 52 changed hands at an average price of £62,412, down 27% on the previous year’s runaway figures. Brightwells’ auctioneer Richard Botterill, said: “At horses-in-training sales you can never match one year to the next, and last year’s event may prove to have been exceptional, but we are very happy with today’s trade and the support of our vendors, for whom Cheltenham remains a priority.”