A SPARKLING day of trade on Wednesday at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale ended with the second-highest gross for a single session at the sale, while the top lot Harlem was the fifth highest-priced lot in the history of the sale.

Remarkably, only 16 of the 302 lots offered failed to find a purchaser, resulting in a phenomenal clearance rate of 95%. Harlem was one of eight lots sold from Juddmonte Farms for 100,000gns or more and their 32 lots sold contributed nearly a quarter of the day’s takings.

A listed winner last year, the four-year-old Champs Elysees colt Harlem was also placed in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly and he cost Alastair Donald and Louis Le Metayer’s Astute Bloodstock 520,000gns. Bought for a Hong Kong owner, he will head to Australia with the Sydney Cup as his target. Colin Tizzard, with Tom Malone, was the under bidder.

Some of the other Juddmonte highlights were Jorvick (220,000gns), Exoteric (180,000gns), Withhold (170,000gns) and Epicuris (140,000gns). The latter is a Group 1 winning four-year-old son of Rail Link and he will be seen by Irish racegoers as he was purchased by Harold Kirk for Willie Mullins.

Ted Voute acquired Jorvick who will continue his racing career in Saudi Arabia where, in common with other purchases this week, he will try to win the King’s Cup. The three-year-old Mizzen Mast colt won twice over nine furlongs on the all-weather in France.

Sired like the sale-topper by Champs Elysees, Exoteric was bought for Chris Waller Racing by bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster and he hopes the three-time winner will become another Group 1 winner from the Juddmonte consignment picked up by the agent. The three-year-old gelding was followed into the ring by another son of the same stallion, the dual winner Withhold, but Mulcaster came out second best when owner Tony Bloom made the winning bid.

Completing the top eight Juddmonte lots were the listed winning three-year-old colt Convey who sold for 130,000gns to RPG Bloodstock, and two winning three-year-old colts by Zamindar, Kam Sum Ho paying 110,000gns for Athlon and RA Major securing the group-placed Lawmaking for 100,000gns.

The most impressive catalogue update of the week concerned Pleaseletmewin as he won the Group 3 Horris Hill Stakes days before his appearance in the ring. Trained by Ralph Beckett, he became the most expensive sale purchase at Tattersalls made by Gassim Mohammed Ghazali at 450,000gns. His new connections are now considering whether to race him at the Breeders’ Cup where he holds an entry.

Two more Saudi Arabian-bound purchases made by Ted Voute were Real Dominion at 350,000gns and Absolute Zero, who made half that amount. Andrew Balding won a couple of races this year with the three-year-old Cape Blanco colt Real Dominion, while Roger Varian matched that feat with Absolute Zero, a three-year-old gelding by Cape Cross. One lot earlier Varian’s Kremlin House Stables sold American Artist, a four-year-old Danehill Dancer gelding and winner of four races, to John McCormack for 145,000gns.

Stroud Coleman spent most money during the sale and two more big buys on Wednesday were Tom Dascombe’s recent winner Above N Beyond for 230,000gns and Hughie Morrison’s Dutch Law for 150,000gns. Both horses look set for the Dubai Carnival.

Prince Sultan bin Mohammed gave 200,000gns for the recent Doncaster winner Laurence, a four-year-old son of Dubawi.

Two National Hunt recruits are Percy Street and Stratum. Both sold for 160,000gns with the former joining Nicky Henderson and the latter heading to Willie Mullins. Percy Street is a listed-placed winner of two races and Anthony Bromley hopes he will be a Triumph Hurdle horse, while the winning three-year-old Dansili colt Stratum may have similar ambitions.

BBA Ireland bought a pair of six-figure lots minutes apart. Four-time winner The Graduate, a son of Mastercraftsman owned and trained by the connections of Real Dominion, cost them 100,000gns and then they had to go to 120,000gns to secure Athlon from David Lanigan’s yard. The latter is a son of Arakan and the winner of three races.

Rainbow Mist, a dual winner at two this year in England and fourth in a listed race in France on his last outing was sold from Ann Duffield’s Sun Hill Racing Stables to Linden Lodge Bloodstock for 100,000gns.