GERRY Aherne is well acquainted with being in the spotlight at any sale of National Hunt stock, and he was in that position again at this week’s one-day Tattersalls Winter Flat and National Hunt Sale. While he normally occupies that position with a son of Walk In The Park, this time it was with a yearling son of Santiago, signed for in the name of his family’s Prospect Stables.

“He is not for my employers, but for ourselves,” he explained after spending €42,000 on the half-brother to Monday’s DRF Grade 1 runner-up Kazansky. “He will be re-offered as a three-year-old. I really loved him, he has a great pedigree, and he is by a stallion who we think is going to be very exciting.” The Monroe Stables-consigned colt was bred by William O’Gorman.