TRAINER Henry de Bromhead paid £235,000 on Thursday to keep the highly promising Mossy Fen Park in his yard.

The five-year-old Walk In The Park gelding, winner of a Down Royal maiden hurdle in December before finishing second in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Fairyhouse in March, was the pick of a consignment of Clipper Logistics horses who were offered for sale during Thursday's session of the Goffs Spring Horses in Training and Point-to-Point Sale at Doncaster.

De Bromhead had to stretch to £235,000 to keep the horse, seeing off challenges from all around the ring and then surviving a late scare when Noel Fehily and Dave Crosse threw in a late bid of £230,000.

“I’m delighted to get him back, he’s a horse we think a lot of,” said de Bromhead. “He’s been bought for a syndicate and hopefully we’ll have plenty of fun with him.

“The plan is to go chasing with him. He looks like a real chasing type. We’ll give him a nice break and bring him back in the autumn.”

Sporting Glory, trained by Pat Fahy to win a Fairyhouse bumper in February before running a close fourth in a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle at the same track in March, was another in-demand offering from the Clipper/Dullingham Park draft.

The eight-year-old son of Malinas was the subject of a bidding battle between Mouse O’Ryan, standing with Mags O’Toole, and A.J. O’Neill. It was O’Ryan who had the final say with a bid of £120,000.

“His form is all there in the book,” reported O’Ryan. “He’s had very few runs for his age, but he’s shown he’s a lovely horse. He finished second to Romeo Coolio on his second run in a bumper, gave him a fright too, and I’d hold Romeo Coolio in the highest regard.

“He then won his bumper and ran well on his first start over hurdles, in spite of being thrown in at the deep end in a Grade 2, so we’ve been following him for a while and were anxious to get him. When we saw this dispersal coming up, we said we’d try our hardest to take him home.”

O’Ryan said that Sporting Glory would be going to Gordon Elliott, with no specific owner in mind at present.

“He’s for sale at the moment but I’d be pretty confident I’d have him sold by the time I’m on the plane home,” he added with a laugh.

Turnover was in excess of £8.8 million and the clearance rate was more than 80%.

Million in Mind

Largy Poet, a five-year-old son of Malinas who bolted up over hurdles at Exeter and Wincanton for Paul Nicholls last season, proved the highlight of the always keenly anticipated Million in Mind dispersal.

Tom Malone won a spirited bidding battle with a bid of £90,000 and revealed that the promising gelding would be returning to Ditcheat.

“He’s going home to Paul,” said the agent. “He’s very happy to get a 132-rated horse back, and go novice chasing with him next year.

“Largy Poet is 17hh so will improve for fences. A lot of Paul’s do. They can be good in bumpers and hurdles before plateauing a little sometimes, but if they’re kept sound they usually take off again in chases. Paul gets a lot of longevity out of them that way.

Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent commented: "As we acknowledged at the end of Tuesday’s Spring Store Sale, it has not all been plain sailing and we have yet to get a proper read on the store market, but the trade witnessed over the last two days for horses-in-training and pointers has been strong which is a positive note on which to conclude this year’s sale. As ever, we are very grateful to everyone who has bought and sold this week, we can’t do it without your support."

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