'She's the mare of a lifetime' - records smashed as Apple's Jade brings €530,000

Apple's Jade lit up the Kildare Paddocks sale ring on Thursday evening when selling for €530,000 to Noel and Valerie Moran of Bective Stud at the conclusion of a tension-filled bidding battle.

The price smashed the previous record for a National Hunt mare sold at public auction, which had stood since 2007 when Graham Wylie acquired Feathard Lady for 270,000gns at the Doncaster August Sales.

The eight-year-old Apple's Jade, who is in foal to Coolmore stallion Walk In The Park, won an incredible 11 races at the top level during a stunning career for Gigginstown House Stud, and was the jewel in the Goffs December National Hunt Sale crown.

She sparkled in the ring every bit as much as she did on the track, and the sale process in front of a gripped auditorium lasted nine minutes before Nick Nugent's hammer came down.

Bidding opened at €200,000 and rose in steady €20,000 or €30,000 increments until slowing up at the €400,000 mark. Rises of €5,000 dominated thereafter until nearer the half-million mark, when the auctioneer encouraged bidders to pick up the pace again.

Apple's Jade in the ring, where she sold for a record €530,000Credit: Goffs/ITM

Eventually it was Gordon Elliott, who had trained the mare from 2016 until her final appearance in March this year, who had the final say on behalf of his big-spending new owner-breeders the Morans.

Noel Moran said: "It will probably be an extremely long time before we ever see the likes of her in a sales ring again; she is an 11-time Grade 1 winner and mares like her are next to impossible to come across.

"We are delighted to get her and the plan is to retain her progeny and race them."

They sold their business for €327 million and now they're spending big – our fantastic interview with Apple's Jade's buyers Noel and Valerie Moran is available to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers

Elliott, for whom it was quite some day with the top two lots at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale in Newmarket heading to his yard courtesy of Cheveley Park Stud for a combined £740,000, will naturally be hoping to handle her progeny in future.

"She's the mare of a lifetime, to win 11 Grade 1 races is just incredible," he said. "Noel and Valerie followed her career through, they have set up Bective Stud for high-end broodmares, and she is top of the pops.

"Mares like her don't come up for sale very often and I hope she is very lucky for them and breeds champions for them."

Apple's Jade's Grade 1 victories included three Hatton's Grace Hurdles, an Irish Champion Hurdle and the Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and in all she won 15 of her 28 starts and earned £814,910 in prize-money.

Eddie O'Leary of Gigginstown House Stud had explained prior to the auction that the decision to sell the daughter of Saddler Maker, who is out of Apple's Forever, was down to Gigginstown not having a National Hunt breeding programme.

He said after she had been through the ring: "She is a very, very special mare, one the greatest ever National Hunt mares and one of the very few to have won that many top races in this part of the world.

"I hope she can translate that success into her broodmare career and I hope that she breeds champions for Noel and Valerie. If her foals have half of her attitude then they will be very good.

"I am sad to see her go but she has gone to a good home and I wish them all the best of luck."

In an end-of-sale statement, Goffs said of Apple's Jade: "We were truly honoured to be entrusted with her by Michael and Eddie O’Leary, and simply overjoyed that she lived up to her star billing.

"Her price of €530,000 obliterates the record for a National Hunt mare, to ensure her appearance in the sales ring absolutely matched up to her racecourse reputation, and we look forward to seeing her progeny carry on her mighty legacy, perhaps even in the Goffs sales ring en route to big-race success."

Read more:

Walk In The Park to the fore on day one of Goffs December NH Sale

St Leger hero Galileo Chrome to join National Hunt roster at Starfield Stud

'I really like the pedigree' - Criquette Head buys blue-blooded Bursa at €38,000

'The chance to own a legend' - Apple's Jade for sale at Goffs on Thursday

Members can click here to download the digital newspaper every evening from 9pm. Not a member? Click here to sign up and enjoy the digital newspaper every day.