IN February 2018 the sale ring at Cheltenham was lit up in spectacular fashion when Donnchadh Doyle sold the French-bred Dlauro to Joseph O’Brien for £410,000. The price narrowly eclipsed the £400,000 mark set about an hour earlier following the sale of another French-bred, Envoi Allen, from Colin Bowe’s yard to Tom Malone.

Dlauro was a pillar-to-post winner of a maiden point-to-point at Belharbour 11 days earlier and he has since run twice, landing a bumper and finishing down the field on his only subsequent outing. This is in contrast to the upward trajectory for the career to date of Envoi Allen.