DESPITE soaring temperatures, copious good food and wine, a real party atmosphere and a central London location, the crowds attending the fifth Goffs London Sale proved to be shy when it came to purchasing, with just 13 of the 30 lots offered on the eve of Royal Ascot finding a new home.

Six of these, representing more than half of the sale turnover, were knocked down to Alastair Donald and Ed Sackville of Sackville Donald and they were acting on behalf of the Leicester City FC owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. The Thai businessman was also the leading purchaser at the sale 12 months earlier.

Five of his six purchases held engagements during the week at Royal Ascot, but his biggest outlay, and the sale’s highest price, was £720,000 for the winning Dubawi mare Belle Josephine, offered from John Dance’s Salcey Forest Stud and sold with her colt foal by Pivotal. In foal to Siyouni, the mare’s best runner to date is the dual stakes-winner Mildenberger and that son of Teofilo was runner-up this year in the Group 2 Dante Stakes.

A granddaughter of Bella Colora, the dam of Stagecraft, Belle Josephine is only 10 years of age and she has a yearling colt by Kyllachy to race for her next year.

Another expensive purchase was the Nottingham debut maiden winner Shine So Bright, a grey son of Oasis Dream and from Kirsten Rausing’s famous family of Alborada and Albanova.

The colt made a huge impression on his only start for Karl Burke prior to the sale and Alastair Donald had to go to £375,000 to acquire him. On Tuesday Shine So Bright was fifth to Calyx in the Coventry Stakes.

Two of the horses in training bought by SackvilleDonald realised £300,000 each. First to the mark was Main Street who won a couple of races when trained by John Gosden for Newsells Park Stud and was listed-placed last time out at Goodwood.

That price was matched when Con Marnane’s Junius Brutus, twice a winner in France as a juvenile this year for Matthieu Palussiere, was sold. The son of Cockney Rebel is out of a half-sister to four-time Group 1 winner Twice Over.

The Tim Easterby-trained listed winner Vintage Brut, winner of this year’s National Stakes for two-year-olds, was also on the SackvilleDonald list and this son of Dick Turpin cost £280,000. Reflecting on his purchases, Donald said: “Two or three of them will go to Royal Ascot with leading chances and they have all got bright futures after Ascot too. Vintage Brut will go to the Norfolk Stakes as second-favourite and for the price he made, you could spend a lot of money on a lot of yearlings and not end up with much, so he made a lot of sense.”

Three broodmares were offered for sale and they included Bill Durkan’s Miss Beatrix, winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and the dam of three stakes-placed runners.

She is due next January to Muhaarar and her now yearling colt by that stallion sold last November at Goffs for €340,000. Ann Marshall purchased the 14-year-old daughter of Danehill Dancer and the mare will now reside at Hamwood Stud.

One of two purchases on the night heading to Australia is the 2018 French nine-furlong listed winner, So You Think’s four-year-old son Marathon Man. That victory was the fourth of his career to date. He cost Paul Moroney £380,000 but he heads to Ed Vaughan to be prepared for his racing date down under.

Matthew Smith Racing spent £300,000 to secure Dark Acclaim from Marco Botti’s Prestige Place Stales and this son of Dark Angel is a stakes-placed winner and closely related to Camelot.

Mr Reckless won two of his three starts for Jamie Osborne and this Reckless Abandon half-brother to Set To Music sold for £200,000 to Mark McStay of Avenue Bloodstock.

The best of the three breeze-up lots on view was Mocklershill’s son of Violence, and Mark Curtis, an owner with John Best, won the day at £190,000, shortly after Henry Beeby was forced to open the bidding again after a bidding dispute.

The biggest disappointment of the evening was the failure of Landikusic, a winning own-sister to Zoffany and carrying a most attractive covering by Frankel, to sell. She was led out when bidding fell short of a million pounds.

In his post-sale comment Goffs CEO Henry Beeby said: “Although the sale didn’t match last year, such are the vagaries of horses in training sales and we’re perfectly happy with the trade for the horses that sold. This is a unique sale in many ways in that many vendors are happy to keep their horses and go to the royal meeting; so if they get a good price they’re delighted but they’re also content to keep the horse and see it race at Ascot.”