LAST Saturday’s Punchestown maiden hurdle winner Showbusiness was sold on Tuesday for £30,000.

Trained by Gordon Elliott for owners Noel and Valerie Moran, the five-year-old Camelot gelding was one of the top lots at Tuesday’s Tattersalls Ascot May Sale when bought by agent Tom Malone.

It was Malone who had acquired Showbusiness for Elliott and the Morans two years ago for €76,000 in France. In 10 starts over hurdles in Ireland, he was only twice out of the money.

“He is a lovely horse and Gordon has done well with him. This time he is for trainer Syd Hosie,” said Malone, who also bought Elliott’s recent Perth bumper winner Gun Runner Cash (five-year-old by Jet Away) for just £22,000. “Gun Runner Cash is coming back to me and currently is mine, but the plan is to get him sold. He is a fine, big chasing type, and I think at the price he is good value – he is a winner and Gordon told me that he thought he backed him up too quickly for his second start.”

The one-day sale produced a clearance rate of 90%. The session’s average of £6,972 and median of £4,650 were improvements of 14% and 33% on 2019, when the sale was last staged.

Good supporter

Shark Hanlon is a good supporter of Tattersalls Ascot and, bidding online under his Shark Bloodstock banner, went to £24,000 for the Godolphin-consigned Space Odyssey. By Sea The Stars, the three-year-old gelding, who was well beaten on his sole start for trainer Rover Varian last month, is out of the classic-placed mare Lady Of Dubai (by Dubawi).

Hanlon said: “He is for a new owner in the yard and is good-looking horse. He needs gelding so we will get him home, get that done and then look to bring him back to run in the late autumn. I like progeny of Sea The Stars.”

In 2019, Hanlon bought Hallowed Star at this sale from Godolphin. That son of Sea The Stars has since gone on to win three races under NH rules for Hanlon.

The sale’s top price of £31,000 was paid for Dance At Night, a four-year-old gelding by Dark Angel who has won over seven furlongs for trainer Andrew Balding. The horse was bought by owner John Neild as a National Hunt prospect.

Neild has had such good horses as Splash Of Ginge in training with Nigel Twiston-Davies, and that trainer will also receive Dance At Night. “We will put him away now and bring him back in the autumn to go hurdling,” said Neild. “He looks made for hurdling – he has form over 10 furlongs and he is a winner, that is always a good sign. He is a good-looking horse.”

The two lots sold out of Richard Hannon’s East Everleigh Stables are both set to continue their racing careers abroad. Tashkent, a three-year-old son of Acclamation and bought by Will Douglass for £27,000, heads to Qatar where he will join leading trainer Gassim Ghazali. Geopolitic was bought by Freddy Tylicki for £18,000 as a “fun horse” for German trainer Roland Dzubasz.