BLOODSTOCK agent Oliver St Lawrence was about the busiest man at this week’s Tattersalls August Sale. He signed for 10 purchases and was only behind Ted Voute on the list of leading buyers, and ahead of BBA Ireland (seven purchases) and Charlie Gordon Watson who bought eight lots.

St Lawrence’s top two buys were on behalf of Fawzi Nass who was present at the sale. Their most expensive purchase was the Invincible Spirit four-year-old sprinter Swindler. He cost the duo 150,000gns in the face of strong opposition from Stephen Hillen. “He is to go to Bahrain, that will be his base,” commented Nass. “He is a very talented horse. There might be a race for him on our international day but he could make up to be good enough to go to Dubai or Saudi.”

On the final day of the sale Nass and St Lawrence were again in the thick of the action. Their reward was to secure the Ger Lyons-trained five-year-old Buffer Zone. The five-year-old is a four-time winner, Group 2-placed and has finished third in listed company this season. “He has good form and should appreciate the faster ground in Bahrain,” said Nass.

He added: “He will be based in Bahrain, but we hope he can run in Dubai and Saudi. I think there is a lack of sprinters in the region at the moment. We certainly are not thinking that we would improve on the previous trainer, we will just hope to maintain the form!”

Six lots brought six-figure sums and the group was completed with the sale of the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Vindicate. The three-year-old son of Lope De Vega added a recent Wolverhampton success to a juvenile victory and he cost BBA Ireland’s Michael Donohue 125,000gns. Vindicate is one of five winners from his dam who is a half-sister to Group/Grade 1 winners Artiste Royal and Aquarelliste.

Donohue also struck for the stakes-placed Dansili three-year-old Celestran, a son of the 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes runner-up Starscope. This 85,000gns purchase is destined to race in Saudi Arabia for Sultan Al Mandeel.

Camouflaged, a successful Dark Angel half-brother to Group 1 juvenile winner Royal Marine, moves from Mark Johnston to Charlie Mann and a future career over hurdles. “He is the horse I came to buy, the only one I came for, he is a stand-out for me,” said Mann. “It was a lot of money for a horse rated 76, but he stays well, and has acted on good to firm and soft. He is for a new owner, Johnny Mayo, who has three nice horses with me.” Camouflaged cost Mann 90,000gns.

This was the same price paid by Jamie Lloyd for Whisper Not, a colt by Poet’s Voice from East Everleigh Stables. “He is for Chris Dunn for whom we bought Lady Prancealot, so he will be going to the US,” said Lloyd. “This horse has got a lot of pace, and is lightly raced – Richard Hannon said there is some more improvement to come. We have not finalised plans in the US yet – west coast or east coast, probably west – but he will come back to the farm first.” The colt won his last two starts and Lloyd added: “He won that first race by 20 lengths on a slow track [Pontefract] and then won again on the faster track at Lingfield. I think he could drop back to a mile in the US.”