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GORDON Elliott secured another top-class prospect at Friday's Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale when he and agent Kevin O'Ryan paid a whopping £385,000 for last Sunday's Lingstown mares' maiden point-to-point winner Deeply Superficial.
A daughter of Flemensfirth, she was bought at the Derby Sale in 2020 for €31,000 and trained by Matthew Flynn O'Connor.
She defeated 13 rivals at Lingstown, quickening away smartly from the second last to win by a very wide margin.
The filly is out of a Kayf Tara mare and her grandam is the top-class Georgia On My Mind while her dam is the six times winning and high class Cure The Blues.
Wexford-based O’Connor said: "She is a beauty. We bought her from Ballincurrig at the Derby Sale, and from day one she has been a queen. She is a really well-bred filly out of a Kayf Tara mare. She has done everything well and was very impressive in her point-to-point – they went a right good gallop, and going to the second last she had them all burnt off.”
O'Ryan commented: "She is gorgeous as a physical, she has a pedigree, and what she did in her race was freakish really. I wasn't there but good friend Peter Nolan rang me as she went by the line and said, 'You need to buy this filly, I haven't seen one do this for a long time.'
"The physical matched up, she is gorgeous, she is for a new client and going to Gordon Elliott's. We are delighted to get a filly, there is such a great programme now for fillies and great residual value.”
Paul Nicholls is the new trainer of £350,000 purchase Hermes Allen, a four-year-old gelding by Poliglote who won at Kirkistown last month for trainer Caroline McCaldin and her father Wilson Dennison.
McCaldin said: "We broke him, trained him and we could never get to the bottom of him. He is a brilliant horse. Dad bought him as a foal from a field. As soon as we got him we knew he was a good horse.”
The four-year-old was purchased by bloodstock agent Aiden Murphy, who said: "He has been bought for a client of Paul Nicholls. The video of his race is very good."
Nicholls also secured Lingstown winner Stay Away Fay for £305,000. This Shantou gelding was another consigned by Matthew Flynn O'Connor who bought him for £39,000 at the Goffs UK Summer Sale in July 2020.
Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk paid £310,000 for The Gunner Yeats, a four-year-old trained by brother and sister James and Ellen Doyle to win at Dromahane last Sunday. The son of Yeats was sourced for €29,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland May Sale which was held in August 2020.
"We have had some good sales, but this is our best to date, we are thrilled,” said James Doyle. “He is a fantastic horse, he is breath-taking, he took over the whole yard, he has a walk to die for. Anyone who saw him today loved his walk. He has size, presence and he has it all, I think he has a seriously big future."
An astonishing evening’s trade produced unprecedented results. The 58 horses sold in front of the packed sale ring produced a turnover of £5,584,000, the first time the £5 million mark has been breached and over £1.5 million more than the December Sale’s previous best. It is easily a record aggregate for a select point-to-point sale. Four horses sold for over £300,000, while 17 made £100,000 or more.
The record average of £96,276 for the December Sale saw the statistic break the £90,000 mark for the first time.
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