A €46,000 yearling son of Shantou emerged as the top lot at the one-day Tattersalls Ireland February National Hunt Sale which got the Irish sales year off to a positive start with an improved set of figures.

Even though the prices at the head of the market fell short of recent editions of this sale, an enlarged catalogue helped the aggregate for the day to come at over €1.6m, which represented a 13% progression on last year. The average of €9,805 was an improvement of six points, while the €7,200 median jumped forward by some 24 points. A clearance race of 57% was marginally down on last year.