Clonmult Farm land big pinhooking touch in positive Autumn Sale opener

A spectacular pinhooking success was the highlight of the opening day of the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale on Monday, which posted a strikingly improved set of results on the corresponding session 12 months ago.

There was a healthy clearance rate of 75 per cent, which helped to boost the aggregate to €1,130,400 – up a massive 30 points on the same day last year.

The median price jumped by a similar amount, from €3,000 in 2018 to €3,800, while the average grew by four per cent to €5,918 from €5,669.

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The number of lots who sold for €20,000 or more was one up on the same day last year, with seven yearlings equalling or surpassing that amount.

The top price was also one of the highest fetched by a yearling at this sale in either its Open or Autumn Sale guise, bettered only once in the last eight years.

The crowning glory of a beautiful autumn day was the aforementioned trading coup achieved by Clonult Farm with its first-crop daughter of Middle Park Stakes winner The Last Lion.

Purchased at the Goffs November Foal Sale for a mere €1,000 by James Sheehan, the filly was the subject of a bidding war in the ring with heavy hitters Joe Foley and Ross Doyle trading bids for her.

However, it was Kildangan Stud’s Jimmy Hyland who had the final say, landing the filly for €78,000 on behalf of Rabbah Bloodstock.

Hyland knows all about the sire, who stands at Darley’s Irish base, and he was impressed by the filly by the son of Choisir.

“She's a very nice, athletic filly who is like her sire,” he reported. “She was one of the picks of the sale for us and we're delighted to get her. A trainer will be decided in due course.”

A cursory glance of the filly’s page made it hard to believe she could have been sourced so cheaply in the first place as her dam Countess Ferrama is an Authorized half-sister to a pair of Group 1 winners in Indian Haven and Count Dubois.

It was another of Countess Ferrama’s half-sisters who attracted Sheehan’s attention to the filly last November. He had previously pinhooked a Camacho filly out of a daughter of Blanche Dubois, dam of the Group 3-placed Middlemarch and second dam of Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes winner Hall Of Mirrors.

“The pedigree drew me to her; we had the Camacho filly [Stone Princess, a two-year-old in training with Brian Ellison] and we liked her so we went to see this filly,” he explained.

“Her dam being by Authorized was another plus for me and when I saw the foal I thought that she had a frame to grow into.”

Jimmy Hyland signs the docket on behalf of Rabbah BloodstockCredit: Goffs

Sheehan said he targeted this sale specifically with the sale-topping filly.

“She developed into a lovely filly with plenty of presence and we expected her to sell well,” he added. “We thought she would be a standout here and we knew her half-brother was promising so we decided to wait for this sale with her.”

The half-brother is Top Rank, a son of Dark Angel who is unbeaten in his three starts for James Tate. Countess Ferrama has a Pride Of Dubai colt foal catalogued for the Goffs November Foal Sale from Coolagown Stud and she was covered by US Navy Flag this year.

Just four lots before the sale-topper, a son of the late Champs Elysees had sold to Norman Williamson for €36,000. Consigned by Heather Crest Stud, the colt is out of the unraced Galileo mare Cordially. His pedigree is a blend of National Hunt and Flat black-type and Williamson is aiming in the former direction with the May foal.

“He's a lovely horse and was my pick of the sale,” Williamson remarked. “I've bought him with the intention of reselling as a store horse, possibly back here for the Land Rover Sale.”

It is a sale at which the Gold Cup-winning jockey has enjoyed tremendous success, selling Grade 1 winner Oscar Whisky and two Goffs Land Rover Bumper winners through his Oak Tree Farm there.

Italian husband and wife team Edoardo Botti and Cristiana Brivio were among a cast of international buyers who descended on Goffs and the couple, buying under the Razza Latina banner, purchased two of the early session-toppers.

First up was a Lumville Stud-consigned filly by Iffraaj out of the winning Street Sense mare Tawteen. The third foal of her dam, she traces her lineage to the champion Shadayid and cost €20,000.

The couple also paid €21,000 for a filly from the first crop of Rathbarry Stud’s Kodi Bear who is a half-sister to Italian Listed-placed Irishman Mark.

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