THERE’s no doubt that the Goresbridge team did an excellent job promoting their inaugural Copper Beach Sale, which was held at their Co Kilkenny base on Monday, but Marti Rudd backed that up with some clever marketing of her husband Tomás Doyle’s Monbeg Coco Light (Lot 13).

Especially for an amateur rider, what’s not to like about a palomino filly who has been competing at 80cm and 90cm level at local shows, has two siblings jumping at 1.30m level, and has been schooled cross-country? Add to that mix the fact that the four-year-old comes from a yard with a reputation for bringing on young horses slowly and where, we found out via social media, you can’t be too young to be a member of the grooming team!

Plenty of people were impressed with all they learned prior to the sale about the mare, who is by Douglas Dun Cavalier out of PLS Suzy Q (by Castlecomer Q), and a great many of them tried her at home and at Goresbridge.

Monbeg Coco Light was the second of the four-year-olds to come under the hammer on Monday evening, with Ed Donohoe asking €40,000 for the filly who he described as “a cracker... a smasher”. The bidding opened at €20,000, rose quickly in increments of €5,000 to around the €60,000 mark when she came on the market (I think, everything was happening very quickly) and kept going to €85,000 when she was knocked down to an online bidder.

That purchaser turned out to be the USA’s Sarah Maslin Nir, who had a video of Monbeg Coco Light up on her Facebook page almost immediately. Nir had actually flown over to Ireland some days before the sale with another rider to try the filly, being escorted on her trip down to Co Wexford and back to Dublin airport by a member of the Goresbridge team.

“It was a brilliant result for us and for this new sale,” commented Rudd. “We were asked by her breeder Willie McDonnell to come look at some horses in January and, while he wasn’t that pushed about selling the filly, I’m a sucker for a palomino and had to buy her. We broke her at the end of January and she never put a foot wrong since.

“Three sets of Americans actually came in to try her out before the sale and she was hugely popular with potential purchasers on the day. She was just lovely for them all.”

Ed Donohoe asked for €50,000 as an opening offer for Eileen Mangan’s Kilderry Knight (Lot 1) and, while bidding started at €20,000, it quickly rose to the auctioneer’s suggested figure at which stage the Co Kerry vendor put the five-year-old bay on the market. The sale then lived up to expectations, as the price rose to €80,000 at which stage Zach Brandt, a 5* event rider in the USA, had the final say through a ‘phone bid.

Eileen Mangan’s Kilderry Knight was the second highest priced lot at the Copper Beqach sale, attracting €80,000 \ Tadhg Ryan/Bit Media

Kilderry Knight (Lucky Luck - Pallas Q Ball, by Castlecomer Q) was bred in Co Kilkenny by Trevor Horgan, for whom she finished third in the three-year-old potential event horse championship at the 2024 Dublin Horse Show. At that year’s Goresbridge Go For Gold sale, the still unnamed filly was, as it turned out, very cheaply purchased for €14,000 by Mangan, for whom DJ O’Sullivan started competing the bay under Show Jumping Ireland rules in late March.

Pallas Q Ball has since produced a filly (2022) and a colt (2023) by Cruising With Diamonds and a 2025 colt by Lansdowne, two of whom are skewbald like she. The 2007 mare didn’t go in foal last year, but has been scanned with a heartbeat to Amadeo van’t Vossenhof Z for 2027.

Lot 2, a gelding, was led out unsold at €50,000 while the next lot was an absentee. The trade then kicked off again with Donohoe once more suggesting €50,000 as an opening bid on Richie O’Hara’s home-bred Kilbunny Show Girl (Lot 4).

This time, the first hand went up at €10,000, but the price quickly rose to that €50,000 mark, where the five-year-old bay was put on the market. As with Lot 1, the bidding then moved on apace until, at €77,000, Kilbunny Show Girl, a bay daughter of Diarado, was sold online to the USA’s Courtney Riddle.

“Courtney was on to me by email straight away after the sale,” revealed Co Waterford-based O’Hara. “The mare has been bought for her daughter Ainsley to compete in Young Rider classes.

“A good few people tried her prior to the sale,” continued the breeder. “Unfortunately, her dam (ISHD Cosmos, by OBOS Quality 004) is dead, but I still have her four-year-old filly, Kilbunny Enigma (by Conthargos) who, if not sold, I hope will get into this year’s Go For Gold (November 9th to 11th), and her Tangelo (van de Zuuthoeve) two-year-old.

“I’m also breeding out of Show Girl’s Kannan half-sister Kilbunny Vixen, who was placed in the six-year-old championship at the RDS and I have a Lansdowne two-year-old and a Tangelo yearling out of her. She is in foal to Diarado.”

Top-priced gelding

The top-priced gelding was Lisa Doyle’s home-bred Ballinaguilkey Cardi (Lot 22), who was knocked down to the Bourns family’s GLE Ltd for €35,000. This bay ISH by Cardento began the year competing in the Eventing Ireland Plusvital spring combined training series, winning at Wexford Equestrian. Ridden by Doyle, he returned to that Tomhaggard venue for the Stepping Stones series, where he finished fifth in the four-year-old final and was a wild card selection for this sale.

Ballinaguilkey Cardi is out of the Dignified van’t Zorgvliet mare Ballinaguilkey Dignified, who has 143 Show Jumping Ireland points to her credit and is a full-sister to the Tullabeg Fusion gelding Ballinaguilkey Fusion Exchange (1.40m). This is the family of Mark Q (CSI5*), EIC Cooley Jump The Q (CSI5*) and Ballinaguilkey Fortunus (CCI4*-L).

GLE Ltd gave €34,000 for Tynagh House Stud’s Wild Boy M (Lot 25), a four-year-old by Gin Flip de Muze Z, whose dam is the Andiamo Z mare Tango Time, who previously bred the 2009 Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve gelding Easy Boy (1.60m).

The same price secured the last lot in the sale, Higgins Sport Horses’ KWPN-registered Simon R (Lot 27). The buyer was later named as Britain’s Katie Fallon, but was referred to in the ring at the time as one of the ‘ladies on top’. By McAllister VDL, the chesnut is a half-brother to the 2012 Diamant de Semilly mare Henriette (1.55m).

Sportsfield Horses’ Paul Donovan signed the €32,000 chit for Lot 23, Kieran Kennedy’s ISH four-year-old CBS Vintage Blue (Conticco - Pandora Blue, by Bonmahon Master Blue), while heading further afield for the same amount is Lot 19, Declan McGarry’s home-bred ISH four-year-old MCG Carrow Falcino (Faltic HB - Carrow Pacino, by Pacino), who was purchased by Belgium-based Leonardo Sport Horses.

Following a prolonged tussle with an online bidder, Britain’s Felicity Kerr gave €31,000 for Lot 12, Higgins Sport Horses and Alice Martin-Jones’s eye-catching four-year-old Zangersheide grey Cavel VP Z (Calief Topfok - Javel der Wolven, by Cicero Z Van Paemel).

Also heading across the Irish Sea, having been purchased for €30,000 by Anna Thomas, who was bidding online, is Emma and Jodie Skelton’s ISH four-year-old Sir Candy (Lot 16). This chesnut son of Sligo Candy Boy is out of the Pacino mare Yankie Pacino, a half-sister to the 1.45m jumpers LKD Mini Q (by OBOS Quality 004) and Loughnatousa Olaf (by Cruising Harry).

The Netherlands’ Leendert Quartel also gave €30,000 for Thomas O’Leary and Alice Martin-Jones’s four-year-old SVS Kalino (Lot 20). The ISH bay by Castlefield Kingston is out of the Larino mare SVS Talino, who jumped to 1.30m herself and is a half-sister to the 1.40m performer GHS Corriana (by Cornet Obolensky).