BRITISH event rider Jessica McKie gave the top price of €6,800 for the Cormint colt Sea Costa at last Saturday’s staging of the second Mayo Roscommon Breeders’ Group select foal sale at Mullingar Equestrian Centre.

The colt (Lot 17), who was listed as an eventing foal, was consigned by Co Clare’s James Meade who bred the bay out of Topclass, a daughter of the thoroughbred stallion Top Of The World. He is a half-brother to the Condios gelding Sea Top Boy (CIC2* and CSI3*) and to the Lux Z mare Sea Top Lady, dam of Sea Topblue (CSI3*).

The Stallion Company’s Holstein stallion Cormint has been standing for the past three seasons at Drumhowan Stud whose Gladys Nesbitt says the son of Calido I seems to suit Irish mares. Saying that, a daughter of his, Dorotheental’s Canela, who is out of a Cassini I mare, was winner of the six-year-old eventing section of the recent Bundeschampionate in Warendorf.

McKie, who also deals in thoroughbreds, campaigned six horses on the British eventing scene this year, all of whom were bred in Ireland. The highest-graded of the sextet is the 12-year-old Silvano gelding Ask The Boss on whom the Northumberland rider finished fifth in the CCI4*-S at Blair Castle in August.

Irish-breds

Among the Irish-breds McKie used to ride when based with Oliver Townend was Ridire Dorcha (CCI3*) and she bought into this family when giving €4,000 for Lot 25, an unnamed Contendro I colt out of the Limmerick gelding’s half-sister, Skreenmor Dancer (by Crosstown Dancer). Other siblings of the dam are the Limmerick gelding Willows Dark Stranger (CIC2*) and the Crosstown Dancer mare Dorado Dancer who won the potential event horse class at Dublin in 2010.

While those named horses were bred in Co Sligo by Jim Tempany, McKie’s purchase was bred by John Gavin who events himself as well as being an operations manager with Oireachtas TV. Gavin lives in north Dublin but keeps his breeding and young stock, including a yearling full-brother to the Contendro colt, with his parents in Rochfortbridge.

When bidding, McKie, her sister Rose and good friend Boo stood alongside the arena, directly across from the rostrum while further back, between the stands, was Co Meath’s Eoin Gaughan who had the final successful bid at €6,400 for the show jumping foal Balou Clover C (Lot 38).

Consigned by his Co Tipperary breeder Seamus Carew, the bay Balou du Rouet colt is out of the Grade B Hermes de Reve mare Hermes Clover who is a half-sister to the dam of Cavechta (CSI3*). This is also the family of CHS Krooze (CSI5*) and Action Packed (CCI4*).

Co Galway’s Peter Glynn received €6,400 for Glynnwood Blue Rose (Lot 46), a daughter of his own Irish Sport Horse stallion, Glynnwood Cornet. The bay filly, who was purchased by Kildare’s Margaret Wall, is out of the Nonstop mare, Glynnwood All Go. This is the family of Vanquish (CSI4*) and the stallions Mermus R and Odermus R.

Peter Glynn's Lot 46, Glynnwood Blue Rose by Glynnwood Cornet \ Courtesy of Mullingar EC

Tomás Doyle and Marti Rudd of Monbeg Sport Horses hardly ever miss a sale. They don’t always buy but did on this occasion with Doyle signing the €5,800 chit for Mayo breeder Des McDonnell’s eventing colt Indoctors Little Mister (Lot 26) who is by the young Kannan stallion Jardonnay VDL. The bay is out of the Manhattan mare Manhattans Little Angel, who jumped up to 1.20m with Jonathan McDonnell.

Five other foals (four colts and one filly) made €4,000 or more with 25 of the 48 lots forward (63 were catalogued) being sold for an aggregate of €90,050 and an average of €3,602.

These figures show an increase in the clearance rate of 25% from last year with the average up 20%.

As throughout most of the country, there were some very heavy rain showers in Mullingar on Sunday which meant there was a late start to the sale itself as the organisers were forced to abandon their Plan A.

Lot 38, a bay Balou du Rouet colt foal fetched €6,400 \ Mullingar EC

“We had hoped to show the foals outside, with 10 in the arena at a time, but the rain meant we had to show them indoors and, for safety reasons, only five could be in the collecting area,” explained group chair, Noel Gilroy. “We were delighted with the good clearance rate and, while they may not have got what they wanted, there were plenty of people prepared to bid.

“We were disappointed that so many foals failed to appear, particularly as some potential purchasers had expressed an interest in the Group’s contract rearing scheme.

“However, all-in-all, we were happy with the sale and plan to go ahead again next year.”

A lot of effort had gone into producing the all-colour, bound catalogue which contained plenty of advertisements but would be enhanced if the foaling dates and full pedigree pages of all lots were included.