THE sales calendar looks so different nowadays that sometimes it is impossible to know what sale you are following. The two-day catalogue for the Goffs UK Doncaster Summer Sale incorporated horses intended for the company’s Spring Sale and their August sale, but it was preceded by a selection of stores on the previous afternoon which saw the unusual feature of Tattersalls and Goffs selling as one.

A full day of 192 stores were offered on Tuesday, all under the Goffs UK banner, and trade was solid. Comparisons are difficult this year, but the store trade, when compared to the 2019 Spring Sale, saw a decline in average of just 8% and in the median by 5%. Fewer lots for sale contributed to a more substantial fall in turnover, while a clearance rate of 76% in these times has to be meritorious.

The session produced joint sale toppers and they came early on the day and in consecutive lots. The first to the mark, set at £80,000, was a French-bred son of Diamond Boy sold by the Bleahan’s Lakefield Farm in Co Galway. He was sourced as a foal by Hugh Bleahan. Trainer Evan Williams and Willy Twiston-Davies traded blows all the way to the sale price, with the latter, bidding on behalf of Twiston-Davies Equine, prevailing, helped along the way by advice from Ian Ferguson. Named Boy Adely, the three-year-old is the first foal of a winning half-sister to Monsieur Lecoq, a smart son of the Kilbarry Lodge Stud stallion Diamond Boy.

Twiston-Davies made another significant purchase when he paid £54,000 for a full-brother to First Approach, out of a half-sister to Emotional Moment and the dam of Riders On the Storm, offered by Trickledown Stud.

The session’s top price was matched for a three-year-old son of Soldier Of Fortune out of a Flemensfirth half-sister to the dam of the Grade 1 winning hurdler Black Op. Highlight of the draft from Ballincurrig House Stud, the gelding was snapped up by Shaun Brookhouse for £80,000 and should eventually carry the silks of the purchaser’s father Roger, the owner of the aforementioned Black Op. The latter’s trainer Tom George has a stable earmarked for the new purchase in time.

Another early highlight was the sale of Battlefield Stud’s Midnight Legend three-year-old filly out of the listed hurdle winner Annie’s Answer, a daughter of Flemensfirth and already the dam of three winners. Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock won the battle for her at £70,000. She was sold on behalf of breeders Reg and Jane Makin and heads to Ireland first. She will race for Philippa Cooper of Normandie Stud and the filly is from the final crop of her sire.

Michael Moore’s niece Sarah Rohan led up the Doyen three-year-old gelding from Ballincurrig House Stud and this half-brother to listed-placed hurdler Fairytale Theatre and 10-time racecourse winner On The Bridge sold to bloodstock agent Tom Malone and trainer Jamie Snowden for £62,000. The gelding’s grandam was the Champion Hurdle winning mare Flakey Dove. Moore was selling on behalf of his brother-in-law Richard Rohan and Fiona Magee, and that partnership paid €26,000 for him as a newly-turned yearling.

Evan Williams lost out on the Diamond King gelding from Lakefield Farm but later in the day he contributed to the Bleahan’s coffers when he paid £60,000 for their three-year-old son of Sageburg, the second offspring of an unraced half-sister to Grade 3 winning chaser and twice Irish Grand National runner-up Bless The Wings. This is also the family of the Triumph Hurdle winning filly Mysilv.

Ryan Mahon, fresh from breeding a listed Ascot winner at the weekend in the shape of two-year-old Chindit, struck late in the session for a three-year-old Sholokhov offered by Anne Marie Ryan through Galbertstown Stables. The half-brother to a point-to-point winner is from the family of the Aintree Grand National winner Silver Birch, the horse who launched the training career of Gordon Elliott, and he cost Mahon £60,000.

Rathmore reward

Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud offered a three-year-old son of Universal from the family of Champion Hurdle winning siblings Morley Street and Granville Again, and this is a family that has also yielded more recent Grade 1 winners in the shape of City Island, Hand Inn Hand and this year’s Cheltenham Bumper winner Ferny Hollow. Nicky Henderson, through Highflyer Bloodstock, secured him for £58,000. Molony bought the gelding as a newly turned yearling for just £13,000.

A filly who is worth the investment, even if she never had a saddle on her back, is the Walk In The Park three-year-old out of Nuit Des Chartreux, an own-sister to the brilliant Voy Por Ustedes, winner of the Champion Chase and the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham. The filly is a half-sister to three winners, Gala Ball and August Hill both being placed in graded chases. Paul Nolan Bloodstock consigned her and John Kilbride’s £54,000 secured her. She will be trained by Mick Channon.

Summing up

Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent said at the end of the day’s business: “Selling NH stores at the end of July was not something that we would have predicted when we were inspecting the horses for today’s sale, and the widely publicised events that have led to this week’s sale schedule have been a challenge for all attendees, but the wait has been worthwhile and we are delighted with today which has returned as vibrant a trade as we could have hoped for at the start of of the week”.