THE National Hunt breeding sector received a much-needed boost this week when Part 1 of the Goffs Arkle Sale returned a very healthy set of returns.

Excluding the new two-year-old section - which went well - the two-day sale ended with a clearance rate of 83.5%, up from 81% last year. The median price of €45,000 was up 7% and the average price of €53,554 was up almost 11%.

Three lots made a six-figure sum on day two last year. That jumped to 12 this year. A total of 16 lots in 2024 sold for €100,000 or more, and this rose to 29 this time, including the two-year-old sale topper. In 2024 there were 49 lots sold for €75,000 or more and this jumped to 72 this year.

The Doyle brothers’ Monbeg Stables were the top buyers, spending almost €1.3 million on 29 horses and taking shares in six more. Last year they spent €737,000 on 17 horses here.

Colin Bowe’s Milestone Bloodstock also made a big increase in spending, shelling out €721,000 on 11 horses. A year ago Bowe bought just four horses outright here for a total of €191,000.

Highflyer was involved in at least 34 purchases, including 13 for Jet Bloodstock, the new trading vehicle for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. These horses will be trained by Irish point-to-point handlers before being offered for sale.

But leading trainers such as Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins, Gavin Cromwell and Dan Skelton will train some of the very top-priced lots, while the actual sale-topper, a two-year-old €230,000 Walk In The Park colt, was bought by Coolmore.

Goffs CEO Henry Beeby described it as “mighty trade”, noting that the average price of €53,731 was a record for the sale.

The introduction of the section for two-year-olds was met with some pre-sale mixed reactions. Described by Beeby as “a toe in the water”, it proved to be a success, and actually yielded the sale’s top lot.

Dick Frisby and his son J.J. have been, for many years now, leading buyers of foals for their Glenwood Stud in Co Kilkenny, and they chose to support the section with a single lot. What an offering they brought to market, a colt by champion sire Walk In The Park out of the storied mare Sparky May, saved in a storm and later to become a Grade 2 hurdle winner.

From being a good racemare, the Midnight Legend mare Sparky May has gone on to become an even better broodmare, producing three racecourse winners and another who won a point-to-point last year. The best of them all is Stage Star, also a grandson of Montjeu through his son Fame And Glory, and he won the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle before embarking on a chasing career that brought him five successes, including at Grade 1.

Dick Frisby paid €110,000 for the Walk In The Park as a foal at Goffs, the second-best price for a youngster at that year’s sale, and the decision not to geld him was to add to his attraction for the ultimate buyer on Wednesday, Coolmore Stud’s Gerry Aherne. Henry Beeby’s gavel fell at €230,000 after Aherne saw off Joey Logan, both men taking instructions on the telephone.

Emotional

A visibly emotional J.J. Frisby was just about able to speak afterwards. He said: “We didn’t need much persuading to come to the sale. He was the right horse - he had the pedigree, the looks, everything.”

Aherne believes that the new initiative will be a plus for all, and was thrilled with his purchase. “He’s a beautiful individual by the best jumps sire we’ve probably seen in my lifetime, with the pedigree to match,” he said. “He made a lot of sense for our job. I’m not really sure what the plan is, we just wanted to get him first. He’s a colt so a lot of avenues are open.”

Aherne is a fan of the new academy hurdle initiative. He added: “I’ve been beating that drum for a while now, I think it’s massive. It’ll probably take a bit of time to get people into it and understand it, and for the race programme to pick up.

“Our greatest wish would be to race those three-year-olds we’ve had in France in Ireland instead. We’ve got the likes of Luxembourg and Hurricane Lane and all those high-end horses coming through, and they’re all going to be able to produce early three-year-olds. We have to be seen to help get it going and to be seen to support it.”

Goffs will review the two-year-old section, “both internally and with the wider industry”, before deciding on whether it is here to stay.

WITH more than 100 fillies catalogued, it was disappointing that just two of them were among the 29 lots that brought a six-figure sum. Both were purchased by Harold Kirk for Willie Mullins, both were bred in France. The fillies were sold within minutes of each other.

Kirk paid €145,000 for the top filly in the sale, Altesse Du Luy, a daughter of No Risk At All out of the Kapgarde mare Kapline, a winner over jumps in France. She comes from the Berlais family, and was sold by Peter Nolan Bloodstock.

“She is a gorgeous filly, a big, strapping filly that looks like she’ll be a chaser one day,” said Kirk. “Hopefully she is good, and she is by a very good sire. It is hard to get a filly of that size and substance.”

Three lots later the pair paid €110,000 for Baroda Stud’s filly by Zarak out of an unraced daughter of the Grade 1 hurdle runner-up Katkovana whose four wins were all in blacktype races. The filly was purchased on spec. Kirk said: “[Zarak] is a collector’s item. He is an €85,000 covering fee now. Very rarely now are you going to find a Zarak out of a jumping pedigree. She is gorgeous, and we bought her on spec to try and win the bumper. She is for sale. Interested parties, get in touch!”

Mullins and Kirk did not restrict their buying to fillies, and their top lot over the two days was another French-bred, the three-year-old gelding Mistral Le Dun. Sold from Church Farm Stables, he cost the duo €175,000. He was Kirk’s first purchase of the week. The son of It’s Gino is out of an unraced half-sister to the Grade 1 Prix Cambaceres 3yo Hurdle runner-up Alabama Le Dun.

Kirk liked the individual and the stallion. “He was one of the standout horses in the sale, and by a very good sire in France,” he commented. “He is a beautiful individual, a very good mover, and he stood out for me. I knew he would make money, but I didn’t think it would be that much. There is always somebody else interested.”

ONLY progeny by Walk In The Park aggregated more than Crystal Ocean at the sale. While the former is a dual champion stallion, Crystal Ocean’s first crop is just four, but he already has a blacktype jumps winner in France, a stakes winner on the flat, and his point-to-pointers are making a splash. He was on everyone’s shopping list, and had four lots who made €110,000 or more.

The best of that quartet was Ballintogher Stud’s gelding who sold to Gordon Elliott for €200,000.

He was bought as a foal for €70,000 by Sabrina Harty on behalf of Adrian McAndrew. His dam Whistle Dixie won a point-to-point, two bumpers and a hurdle race, and got blacktype in a Grade 3 mares novice hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Elliott trained Whistle Dixie [for Gigginstown] who is a half-sister to the Gold Cup winner Kicking King.

Elliott was relieved to get him. He said: “He is a lovely horse. We waited since yesterday, and all day for him, because he was the one we wanted. We knew we were going to have to pull out for him.”

McAndrew, who also sold a son of Walk In The Park to Megan and Paul Nicholls for €155,000, was another relieved man. “It’s all thanks to the horse himself and the man who got him ready for the sale, T.J. Comerford,” he said.

“He did a fantastic job. From day one the horse was always a smasher, we loved him, but he was expensive. It was a privilege to bring two very nice horses to the sale. I do think this lad had something special about him, though.”

Sabrina Harty, who trained the dual Grade 1 hurdle winner Won In The Dark, added: “Adrian puts his money where his mouth is, fair play to him. I rarely get the chance to show that I can pick them. Frank Motherway said to me yesterday ‘you’ve got a great eye’ and I said it’s easy to pick them when you’ve got the money. Thankfully Adrian had the balls to put the money down.”

Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Stud in Athboy held the top spot at the sale for a short time when Ger Morrin, acting for Sean and Bernadine Mulryan, gave €170,000 for a Crystal Ocean gelding who was purchased through Brendan Bashford Bloodstock as a foal for €32,000.

Morrin said: “I’ve been trying to buy a Crystal Ocean all sale and I thought this one was as good as any of them. He is a forward, lovely, quality horse out of a blacktype Flemensfirth mare. His movement is extraordinary.”

This was one of three purchases for Morrin under Grandeville Racing. He paid €160,000 for a No Risk At All half-brother to Grade 2 winner Grand Sancy. “We bought another horse off Ken Parkhill, a Getaway gelding out of a half-sister to City Island, for €85,000. We loved him as well and it’s an amazing pedigree,” Morrin remarked.

MARK Dwyer has a number of similarities to Norman Williamson. Both won the Cheltenham Gold Cup as jockeys, both were forced to retire at the age of 34, and both are respected sale producers. Dwyer, who at one time was Goffs’ representative in Britain, sold a three-year-old son of Newsells Park Stud stallion Nathaniel for €200,000 to tie for top spot among that age group.

The gelding’s three winning siblings all earned blacktype. They are headed by the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle winner Santini, while Rockpoint won a Grade 2 hurdle and their half-sister Dusky Legend was placed at the same level.

Purchaser Tom Malone was effusive about the gelding. “He is a smart horse. I saw the boys buy him last year in Arqana [for €65,000] and he’s a half-brother to Santini who was actually 17hh, but this lad had the action of a monster. I’ve never seen anything quite like this lad. His action for four days has been the same. Most horses get tired after showing for four days, but this lad never missed a beat. He has a pedigree to die for, and he is a horse to die for.

Waited

“This horse is going to make [the pedigree] even better. I waited and waited and waited. We underbid a good few others, but I knew there was no point in overextending on one of them, because if I had ended up with one of them I might have been a lot softer on this one, and I wanted him. He looks a proper type for the bumper next year. He looks the real deal.

“I bought a few horses for Owen [Daley] who has Bud Fox with Gavin. He won the first four-year-old maiden in Ireland this year for Derek O’Connor and then went to Punchestown and won a bumper at the Festival on his first track start. Owen is a real good guy and a new owner to the game; hopefully he will get a bit of luck now. He has some really nice stock to go to war with and they are with a great trainer in Gavin Cromwell.”

BROTHERS Niall, John and Hugh Bleahen sold under the names of Liss House, Lakefield Farm and Clifton Farm, and traded stock to the value of just over €1.9 million, a whopping 10% of the sale turnover.

Standout of the 30 lots they sold in total in Part 1 was Clifton Farm’s Cokoriko half-brother to the 170-rated Grade 1 chaser Gerri Colombe. Paul and Ellmarie Holden, in company with Derek O’Connor, saw off Mags O’Toole at €150,000 for the gelding. A day earlier they spent €190,000 for a No Risk At All, and their seven purchases included a second lot from Clifton Farm.

Paul Holden gave €140,000 for Jonbon as a three-year-old and, after the brother to Douvan won his point-to-point, he was sold for £570,000 to J.P. McManus.

Paul said of his latest purchase: “We liked him from the start, and picked him out early. He probably went for a bit more than we thought, but that is the market - it is a strong market. What we have bought we are happy enough with. We are fussy I suppose. We are buying to sell. If you can find fault in the horse after we have done our bit, shame on us. You try to buy a horse that someone else can’t say ‘I don’t like that’.”

Pressure

The No Risk At All on Tuesday topped that day’s trade and was sold by Walter Connors’ Sluggara Farm. This was the second Goffs Arkle Sale in a row that Connors sold a son of the four-time winning mare Garmerita well.

Speaking after that purchase, Ellmarie Holden sighed: “The pressure is on now again! Jonbon worked out. He cost €140,000 and we were lucky he worked out. If this guy is anything like Jonbon it will be very straightforward. Derek [O’Connor] will probably break him and we will get him going around September and see how it goes.

“Everything about him stood out – the way he walked, how he looked, and he seems a chilled-out and laidback sort of a horse who will do the job. He has a lovely pedigree, he has everything. He’s a smasher.”

A VERY significant aspect of Part 1 of the Goffs Arkle Sale was the participation at all levels of the market by the point-to-point handlers.

Colin Bowe’s Milestone Bloodstock signed for Brown Island Stables’ Kapgarde half-brother to the three-time Grade 1-winning chaser Fastorslow, while the Doyle’s Monbeg Stables were one of the biggest purchasing groups at the sale. Their most expensive buy was Rathmore Stud’s No Risk At All gelding out of Mrs Levett, a six-time winner by Sir Percy.

Donnchadh Doyle signed for the gelding. “He was expensive,” was Doyle’s first comment, adding, “but he was a gorgeous horse. We have been very lucky with No Risk At All in the past, and tried without success to get one [on Tuesday]. He has a lovely pedigree, out of a blacktype mare, and we hope he will be very lucky. He is very like his father, great quality and lots of nice things about him.

“ Trade was very solid. The point-to-point sector held up very well last year, all the sales were good and hopefully it will keep going that way. We got on well. You have to have nice stock and that’s what we are trying to get.”

DUAL champion National Hunt sire Walk In The Park had 30 sales in Part 1, and topped the sale with Glenwood Stud’s two-year-old colt at €230,000. The best three-year-old by the son of Montjeu was Ballincurrig House Stud’s son of Queen Deirdre who sold to Gordon Elliott for €160,000. He was one of just two purchases by the master of Cullentra over the two days.

Ballincurrig was acting for breeder Fiona Magee. The gelding’s dam, the King’s Theatre mare Queen Deirdre, was trained by Willie Mullins to win a bumper on her debut at Galway by 12 lengths. She only ran once more. Queen Deirdre’s half-brother Identity Thief won both the Grade 1 Liverpool Stayers’ Hurdle and the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle. He went on to win a Grade 2 chase.

Elliott said: “He is a great walker with a great way of going, and we’ve liked him more and more over the last couple of days. He’s the one we have been waiting for. He looks a nice horse and we are delighted to get him.”

When pressed if the gelding would carry the same Gigginstown House colours as Identity Thief, Elliott only said: “We’ll see what happens.”