Gordon Elliott splashes €350,000 on half-brother to three Grade 1 winners after going head-to-head with Emmet Mullins

From the moment the catalogue for the 50th Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale dropped through letterboxes in early May, lot 283 was circled in red by jump racing's leading owners, trainers and agents as the horse they all wanted. 

The bay gelding was the most eagerly anticipated jumps horse to come on the market since his half-brother Caldwell Potter went under the hammer in early February in the same sales ring – and Walter Connors' Doctor Dino gelding did not disappoint on Thursday. 

The March-born gelding had the best and most active current pedigree in the sale as a half-brother to three individual Grade 1 winners in Caldwell Potter, Mighty Potter and Brighterdaysahead, as well as Grade 3 winners French Dynamite and Indiana Jones. His physical attributes matched up to the spectacular page.

Just as when the Future Champions Novice Hurdle winner set a sales-ring record of €740,000 for a jumps horse almost four months ago, every conceivable vantage point in the auditorium was nabbed well in advance, with the main players and everyone else desperate to see the drama play out.

Whispers around the sales ground in the build up to the auction hinted that the store sale record of €365,000 was under threat and, indeed, auctioneer Simon Kerins asked for an opening bid of €400,000, though the action ultimately got under way at €100,000.

Walter Connors in relaxed mood at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Bidding seemed to stall and stutter around €285,000 but Emmet Mullins, who was taking instructions on the phone, injected fresh impetus into proceedings when leaping to €300,000. Mullins was stationed to the side of the bid board while the rival team of Gordon Elliott, Eddie O'Leary and Mouse O'Ryan was on the other side of the bridge – neither party could see the other.

Mullins' final bid was at €340,000, which O'Leary and Elliott, who has trained three of the gelding's half-siblings to win Grade 1 contests, countered with €350,000. Kerins exhorted Mullins to go again, even telling the Grand National-winning trainer "we will get you another phone if you've lost the connection" when he hung up, which raised a chuckle from the crowded gantries.

The hammer price of €350,000 is the joint second-best ever recorded at the Derby Sale and the highest price achieved by a store this year.

A very happy Elliott said: "Obviously I've trained a lot of the family and I'm delighted to get him too, they have been really lucky for us, so we are thrilled. The mare [Brighterdaysahead] is probably a bit bigger than him but he is not unlike Mighty Potter, a tall horse but not the broadest."

Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle winner Brighterdaysahead, who was knocked down to Elliott for €310,000 at the 2022 Derby Sale, won the Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper and the trainer has an eye on following the same path as with that Gigginstown House-owned filly.

"He's very athletic and neat, so hopefully he could be one for the bumper next year," he said.

The Doctor Dino half-brother to Caldwell Potter, Mighty Potter and Brighterdaysahead was the centre of attentionCredit: www.healyracing.ie

For Connors, who purchased the gelding and his dam Matnie from Remy Cottin three years ago having previously pinhooked both Caldwell Potter and the ill-fated Mighty Potter, it was a relief in a way that he had proved more than capable of shouldering the burden placed upon him by his half-siblings.

"I'm obviously delighted," he said. "He was always a star horse in our mind and we were not going to come if he did not match his pedigree as we point-to-point our own horses anyway.

"I'm delighted and thrilled Gordon will be training him as he has done so well with the family, and Eddie has been very good to us over the years; he bought Don Cossack [Gold Cup winner trained by Elliott for Gigginstown House] and [Grade 1 winner] Quito De La Roque. I could not be happier."

At home on Sluggara Farm near Dungarvan, the 17-year-old Matnie has a two-year-old full-brother to this horse, named Here Be Dragons by Connors' young son Harry, and Recognition, a yearling colt by No Risk At All. However, the Laveron mare, who is out of a half-sister to La Grande Dame, has struggled with holding pregnancies.

"She lost her foal this year," said Connors, who is a vet, and added: "We will do our best by her, we appreciate what she's done for us. She's earned her corner in the field."

Read more from the 50th Derby Sale

Champion trainer Mullins restocking with the pick of Derby Sale lots led by €175,000 auction-topper 

'Everyone seemed to like him' - Stormin' Norman happy with Oak Tree Derby Sale trade topped by €170,000 son of Doctor Dino 

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