THE annual Million In Mind Dispersal provided a major highlight of the horses-in-training section of the Goffs Summer Sale on Wednesday, and not for the first time. This occurred when the final lot in their six-horse draft entered the ring.

The Nicky Henderson-trained Grand Roi, a French-bred four-year-old son of Spanish Moon, topped the sale at £400,000. This was by some way the best price of the day and his price reflects the fact that he was a leading fancy for a Grade 1 hurdle at Aintree before the abandonment of that meeting. He is a bumper winner and unbeaten in two starts over hurdles.

Bids came from all quarters, including online, for the gelding, but it was Charlie Swan, standing with AP McCoy, and Gordon Elliott with his lieutenant Aidan ‘Mouse’ O’Ryan who had the battle to themselves after £200,000, with the Co Meath trainer coming out on top. The price is the second highest achieved by the Million In Mind group, surpassed only by the sale of Garde Champetre for 530,000gns 16 years ago. The sale of Grand Roi contributed the lion’s share of the draft’s total aggregate of £555,500.

Ash Hill House’s supplementary entry, the dual placed five-year-old point-to-pointer Fabrique En France, shared the day’s second highest price when selling to Olly and Aiden Murphy for £82,000. The son of Yeats was runner-up on his most recent outing at Ballycahane to Killer Kate, who subsequently sold for £300,000.

That £82,000 price was matched later in the day when Jonjo O’Neill’s dual hurdle winner Sky Pirate, who raced for Lady Bamford, was knocked down to the Wasdell Group. The seven-year-old Midnight Legend gelding won at Worcester in 2017 and 2018 but on his most recent outings he was twice runner-up over fences.

Philip Rowley’s winning point-to-pointer, Lilith, a five-year-old daughter of Stowaway, sold to Anthony Honeyball for £52,000. She beat nine opponents at Cothelstone in March on what was her third start, running out a 15-length winner.

Commenting on Wednesday’s trade and the Summer Sale as a whole, Tim Kent said: “The three-day Summer Sale has been a success from start to finish and today’s trade has been no different. This unique sale was similar in format to our traditional Spring Sale and managed to attract a diverse buying bench that was prepared to spend at all levels of the market, either in person, on the telephone or online.

“It is this varied selection of horses that helps to attract these buyers each year and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all vendors who have supported us during these unprecedented times and helped Goffs to conduct a very successful sale under a unique set of challenges.

“The obvious highlight of the day was the Million In Mind dispersal, which managed to achieve the second highest price in their history, and we are indebted to Anthony Bromley and David Minton for their continued commitment to the sales at Doncaster. It is always a privilege to offer their draft and it is wonderful to be able to achieve this result for them and their investors.

“It is also reassuring to see that sort of money being spent on horses at this time and I’m sure that the results of this week will help to reassure vendors and purchasers in advance of the Goffs Land Rover Sale in two weeks’ time. Three good days selling two categories of horse at one unique event. It was a long way from what we planned at the beginning of the year but the results were every bit as good as we could have hoped for and we would like to thank everyone who has participated at Doncaster this week – without you, this would not have been possible.”