THE two-day Goffs UK Spring HIT/P2P Sale concluded on Thursday evening with an improved set of figures, boosted in the main by the continuing insatiable demand for Irish point-to-point horses. Many of the best lots came from the supplementary catalogue, capitalising on horses with recent form. In short this section of the sale is akin to the very successful boutique sales which have become part and parcel of the National Hunt trade.

The sale highlight came on the first day when Donal Coffey’s Bartlemy winner Ask For Glory sold for £280,000. The four-year-old advertised the strength of the Irish point-to-point scene, and highlighted again the loss Fame And Glory is to the sector.

Goffs UK managing director Tony Williams said at the close of business: “Yesterday’s sale topping point-to-pointer clearly demonstrates this sale’s ability to achieve exceptional prices for top-class horses. The select P2P/form horse session is growing every year and is now an established outlet for high-end young horses following our Aintree Sale in early April.

“Demand for horses across the three days this week has been excellent and today’s clearance rate of 92% is another superb result for all involved. Every year the Spring Sale attracts the who’s who of the National Hunt world and this week has been no exception; we have welcomed a huge crowd to Doncaster, delivered an exceptional buying bench and have sold so many cracking horses.”

WEDNESDAY

Donal Coffey’s home-bred Ask For Glory was hugely impressive when winning a 14-runner maiden point-to-point at Bartlemy on his debut recently and was a supplementary entry for the Goffs UK Spring HIT/P2P Sale. A winner by 10 lengths that day, he was no less impressive in the sale ring on Wednesday and sold for £280,000 to Tom Malone, standing with Paul Nicholls.

From the first crop of the sadly deceased Fame And Glory, Ask For Glory is well named and he was an object of desire for a number of leading owners and trainers. Malone revealed afterwards that the four-year-old will race for Colm Donlon, who will no doubt echo the hope of Donal Coffey that he develops into a Gold Cup winner.

While point-to-pointers mostly capture the headlines, Sam Curling sent the debut Killarney bumper winner Raya Time to the sale following his 14-length demolition of the field at the Co Kerry venue. A five-year-old son of Al Namix, he was sold as a yearling by his breeder Simon Munir for just €4,000 and won in the colours of Nicky Teehan.

This time around he was valued at £150,000 by the market and purchased by Roger Brookhouse. By coincidence Brookhouse bought Curling’s previous winner of the same Killarney bumper, Summerville Boy, for £130,000 last year and that gelding has gone on to land both the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle.

Placed on both his starts in point-to-points, the four-year-old Gameface nonetheless was popular with potential purchasers, but none had the firepower of Kieran McManus who won the bidding war at £145,000. This was a second successful pinhook for the gelding. Bought as a foal by Norman Williamson for €16,500, he was sold at last year’s Goffs UK Spring Store Sale to Martin Keating Bloodstock for £70,000. His value more than doubled in a year.

Earlier McManus bought the best of the Million In Mind Partnership lots, the Alan King-trained Canelo. The five-year-old son of Mahler sold for £110,000 to McManus who faced most opposition from Trevor Hemmings. Canelo won novice hurdles at Doncaster and Fontwell this year and will return to be trained by King at Barbury Castle. Last year Anthony Bromley bought the then point-to-pointer for £26,000 at the same venue.

Five of the top six lots on the day were supplementary entries. Paurick O’Connor’s Dromahane winner Alnadam is a five-year-old son of Poliglote and out of a winning half-sister to Foxrock Chase winner Polidam. Tom Malone won the day at £130,000 and the gelding will race for Bryan Drew and Dan Skelton. .

Paurick O’Connor struck also with his 10-length Stowlin debut winner Buster Valentine, another five-year-old and a son of Ask. Bobby O’Ryan was successful in acquiring him for £100,000 on behalf of Ruth Jefferson.

Not many sons of Dubawi win a point-to-point, or even contest one, but Nicky Tinkler sent out the five-year-old Financier to win on his debut at Witton Castle and turned a £16,000 purchase from Godolphin into a £115,000 sale horse. The gelding will now join Kerry Lee. Tinkler has enjoyed success previously with the dual Grade 1 winner Supasundae whom he picked up for just £5,000.

Best filly on the opening day of the horses-in-training and point-to-point sale was Miss Batten, a four-year-old daughter of Vinnie Roe and a half-sister to the graded chase winner Shotgun Paddy. She was sold from Pat Doyle’s Suirview Stables and bought by Peter Molony of Rathmore Stud for £115,000. She cost Gerry Hogan just €18,000 last August and won on her only start at Necarne days before the sale. She is expected to be trained by Lucinda Russell.

A private sale saw Paul Cashman’s Castle Trump, a four-year-old son of Presenting, sell for €100,000.

Highflyer Bloodstock bough three of the day’s top 11 lots. The Well Chosen five-year-old Chinensis, winner of three of his four point-to-points, was sold by Vincent Halley for £82,000 to David Minton, acting for Trevor Hemmings. The same agent and owner also acquired another three-time point-to-point winner in Diamond Brig, a son of Black Sam Bellamy. He also won a hunter chase at Kelso impressively and was sold by his owner/breeder/ trainer Wendy Hamilton for £80,000.

Highflyer’s Tessa Greatrex signed for the five-year-old Robin Des Champs mare Faithfulness for £80,000. With an exceptional pedigree page and an eight-length debut win at Monksgrange behind her, she had obvious appeal and was sold by Sean Doyle from his Monbeg Stables.

THURSDAY

A strong clearance rate on day two of the horses in training and point-to-point section of the Goffs UK Spring Sale helped to push the final turnover for the sale to a shade over last year’s returns. The day’s business was headlined by the sale of Coeur De Lion for £110,000, matching the highest price achieved on the sale day 12 months ago.

Sent to the sale from Alan King’s Barbury Castle Stables, the five-year-old son of Pour Moi will return there to race in new colours after Stephen Kemble signed for the four-time winner. Kemble attempted to throw rival bidders with an opening salvo of £50,000, but he faced stiff competition for the half-brother to Thomas Campbell and the gelding became the only six-figure lot on the day.

An enhanced programme for stayers was one of the main reasons for the interest in the gelding who comes from the immediate family of the Group 1 Prix du Cadran winner Invermark. A dual hurdle winner before he had his attention focused on the flat, Coeur De Lion is a winner twice on the level over two miles.

Burbank came within a whisker of joining Coeur De Lion in the six-figure club, eventually being knocked down to Highflyer Bloodstock’s David Minton for £95,000. The six-year-old son of Yeats is another to return to his trainer, this time Nicky Henderson. Raced by Ronnie Bartlett, Burbank is the winner of a bumper at Newbury and a maiden hurdle at Huntingdon and he was fourth in a Grade 1 at Cheltenham in 2017. This year he ran third in a Grade 3 hurdle at Ascot.