BUYERS from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, America and Australia snapped up all the top lots at Wednesday's session of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale.

Of the day's top nine lots, ranging in price from 240,000gns to 500,000gns, only one will be staying in England.

Wednesday's trade was headed by the 500,000gns paid by Qatar's Wathnan Racing for the three-year-old gelding Dark Trooper. Trained by Ed Walker, the son of Dark Angel won six of his 10 starts this season, mostly over six furlongs, and has a rating of 101.

He was bought by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, purchasing on behalf of Wathnan Racing.

"The idea is to buy quality over quantity, that is the message from Qatar to Olly Tait to me and Ali Al Kubaisi, who is working the sale with me," said Brown. "This horse has been on the radar for most of the year because Al Donald, who bought him and managed, and Ed Walker, who trained him, have been trying to get me to buy him most of the year saying there is a lot more to come.

"He won a very competitive Ascot handicap on quick ground and then was unlucky in the Bengough. He is an interesting horse and will go to Qatar. There is a programme with him in that part of the world, but he is the sort of horse who could come back here. He is a gelding so can run on for a number of seasons. He will be trained by Alban de Mieulle and see how things go."

Explaining further, Brown said: "Wathnan purchased Bolthole at this sale last year– the horse went on to do very well in Qatar [third in the Amir Trophy] and then came back to France and has won a listed and finished second in a couple of Group 3 races this summer."

Of the price for Dark Trooper, he said: "He is obviously a Group calibre sprinter, he is very sound, he looks magnificent here so all credit to Ed Walker – the horse is still carrying plenty of condition at the end of a long season. We thought that he would be in that price bracket."

Sea The Casper (by Sea The Stars) is on his travels to Saudi Arabia, bought by Mubarak Al-Ruwis for 425,000gns.

A spokesman for Al-Ruwis said: "He will ship straight to Saudi. We have two horses already in Saudi, we need a quality and good horses for the big Saudi Cup meeting. We think this horse could be a champion."

Bred by Rabbah and trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, the four-year-old gelding won three times as a juvenile and on his three-year-old debut in June. He finished second last time out in the Listed Diamond Stakes at Dundalk, beaten just a neck by the Group 3 winner Piz Badile, who was a runner-up in the Irish Derby behind Westover in 2022.

Halfway Line, from the Juddmonte draft, was bought online by Michael O'Donohoe of BBA Ireland for 320,000gns.

Donohoe reported by phone: "The horse has been bought in conjunction with Niall Dalton of Stakes Horses to go to California, and is for a new client with trainer Phil D'Amato, who has had a good bit of success training European horses.

"Halfway Line was recommended by his former trainer Francois-Henri Graffard as well as Barry Mahon of Juddmonte. He should suit California – he is progressive, he goes on firm, he has a turn of foot, all the attributes you need."

Having been so active here on Tuesday, Australian buyers were spending big again on Wednesday. The combination of agent Johnny McKeever with the training partnership of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott gave 300,000gns for Royal Patronage.

Originally trained by Charlie and Mark Johnston, the son of Wootton Bassett won the Royal Lodge Stakes and the Acomb Stakes as a two-year-old. At three he finished second in the Dante Stakes then ran in the Epsom Derby.

He shipped then to the US when he finished fifth in the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes and remained in the States with trainer Graham Motion and ran in last year's Saratoga Derby. This spring he won an allowance race and ran fifth in the Arlington Stakes.

"Not only is he a beautiful type and with the form on the board, he rated very highly for us and I think he will adapt very well to Australia," said Claudia Miller, Gai Waterhouse's racing manager. "He had good form as a two-year-old, and as a four-year-old, he his very sound for us, very clean, we think he will adapt very well to and get him into the system and get him going.

"Wootton Bassett is a stallion that we have been looking at for a while as he has been very successful in Europe, and they will start to sell Down Under shortly, so great to get one in the stable."

Johnny McKeever added: "We spoke to Graham Motion about the horse and he gave us a very positive report about the horse, just had a few small training issue, nothing to worry about at all. He is an ideal horse to go to Australia. It is hard to find Group form in the sale, he has got a certain quality. We are not guessing here, we know he is a pretty good horse if all goes well for him."

The sale continues on Thursday.