'The Flemensfirth gelding was always the talk of the sales'

Patrick McCann, the pinhooker responsible for the €325,000 sale-topper at this week’s Goffs Land Rover Sale, was delighted to have his judgement vindicated having acquired the son of Flemensfirth as a foal for €110,000.

Michael Moore’s Ballincurrig House Stud consigned the gelding and he was eventually knocked down to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls.

“We were very confident before we went to the sale,” said McCann, who owns Brookland Stables in Armagh. “He had all the right people on him and we were very confident he was going to make €300,000-plus.”

The calculated risk on the most expensive foal sold at the 2015 Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale paid off in spectacular style, and McCann said: “In business we take risks every day and he was a standout foal. We were grateful he matured as we thought he would.

“His page was exceptional so that was the first thing that attracted us to him.”

McCann also has a Flemensfirth two-year-old son of Hotline - a winning half-sister to 2009 Champion Chase hero Master Minded and sister to the dam of the sale-topper - destined for next year’s store sales who McCann describes as “a very impressive specimen”.

Sadly, though, McCann lost a close friend in the run-up to the sale.

“It was a very emotional sale for me,” explains McCann. “The late Bill Ronayne sold me a number of horses over the years and he bred Twin Plan, who won five races for me and who I’m now breeding from.

“He went to Ballincurrig House to inspect foals and rang me to say there was an exceptional horse I needed to see and that he was the best foal he'd ever laid eyes on.

“The Flemensfirth gelding was always the talk of the sales and everybody was aware of him and that’s why he made the money that he did. But Bill was the man who found him and he recommended that I should buy him.”

Goffs chief executive Henry Beeby added: “The amazing top price of €325,000 for the beautiful son of Flemensfirth marks a huge achievement for this sale as it represents the highest price for a store at any sale since 2011.”

Full reports from the Goffs Land Rover Sale:

Record broken not once but three times in spectacular Land Rover opener

Land Rover Sale concludes as Jeremy and Elusive Pimpernel geldings lead way