THE well-bred Queen Anne, part of a draft from Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley operation, headed trade when selling for £23,000 to Conrad Allen at Brightwells’ June Sale at Ascot.

A three-year-old daughter of Iffraaj, she won at Listowel last September for Willie McCreery’s stable and will now head to Qatar.

Bloodstock agent Richard Venn also gained a Darley horse for Qatar when signing the buyers’ sheet for the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Tijan, a four-year-old gelded son of Shamardal at £20,000. Germany’s Stephan Vogt of the HFTB Racing Agency secured Stay Strong with a bid of £18,500. A half-brother to Group 1 winner Seismos, he was also offered by Darley,

A consignment of point-to-pointers offered by Milestone Stables’ Colin Bowe included Goonjim, who was second to the highly-regarded Bun Doran at Necarne recently. He was knocked down for £16,500 to West Buckland Ltd

Turnover climbed 44% to £494,200, the average rose by 28% to £3,607 and the median was up 25% at £2,000, prompting Richard Botterill to say: “We are delighted with today’s trade. It has been solid at all levels of the market and that has been shown through the improved set of figures.”