Henry de Bromhead to train 'the next Honeysuckle' after £410,000 Echoing Silence stars at Tattersalls Cheltenham

A rain-lashed Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale provided a fairytale result for Correna Bowe and her boss Sam Curling as Echoing Silence turned a purchase price of just €28,000 into a £410,000 phenomenon.

The sale is the jewel in the Tattersalls Cheltenham crown, with Friday's Boodles Gold Cup challengers Bravemansgame and Gerri Colombe among its star graduates. 

The top three lots sold at last year’s sale all contested Wednesday’s Champion Bumper, with Romeo Coolio (bought for £420,000 by Gordon Elliott and Aidan O’Ryan) finishing second and Jalon D’Oudairies (£420,000, Elliott) third. Quebecois (£320,000, McNeill family) was unplaced.

Echoing Silence came very close to that 2023 sale-topping price with Peter Molony of Rathmore Stud striking the decisive blow for the impressive four-length winner at Ballycahane this month. She arrived with a big reputation from last year's Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer, having done nothing but please since her discovery at the Tattersalls Ireland July Sale last summer.

A daughter of Doyen and the Taipan mare Taipers, the four-year-old’s pedigree received a boost when her half-brother Deafening Silence struck in the Grade 2 Winter Novices' Hurdle at Sandown in December. 

Peter Molony: "She's just absolutely stunning"Credit: Patrick McCann

The filly, who had been owned by Curling with Bowe and her father JJ, was purchased for an undisclosed client of Molony’s and is set to be trained by Henry de Bromhead.

Molony said: “I'd been told about her a few months before and she's just absolutely stunning. I actually attempted to sell her brother, who won a Grade 2, in Doncaster a couple of years ago. He went through the ring and we didn't get a bid for him. She'll be going to Henry.”

Curling said: "She's a lovely filly and has everything – size, pedigree and she’s lovely looking. I'd say she's very good." 

Bowe, who was flabbergasted by the result, said: "This is my first time bringing a horse to a sale like this and it's absolutely amazing. My dad and I picked her out and he broke her, Sam has done the rest and has been amazing. Phillip Enright's been doing the schooling but she's just been so simple and so easy."

Correna Bowe is all smiles as top lot Echoing Silence goes through the ring at CheltenhamCredit: Patrick McCann

When asked about the price tag of €28,000, Bowe said: "It was nothing, really. She was unbelievable looking and she’s been so simple. She came from Tatts July, it’s the last sale and people are probably sick of looking at that stage and we were only getting started. I don’t know how we managed it to be honest but we got her."

Bowe, who is a niece of top trainer Colin, has been working for Curling in Tipperary for the last three years after some time in showjumping in the county. Asked what she would spend the money on, she said: "Buy a house? I might have to!

"She showed so much at home, she was so ahead of her time all the time. We bought her on the Thursday, Daddy broke her, she was riding on the Wednesday. We actually had to keep a lid on her, she was so far ahead of the three and four year-olds. 

"To be going to Henry de Bromhead, that’s amazing – the next Honeysuckle! I’ve got to drive our runner Angels Dawn home, she had a fall today, hopefully she’s okay, so it’ll be a night of driving for me!"

Molony also signed for the Matty Flynn O’Connor-consigned The Big Westerner, a five-year-old half-sister to Grade 1 winner Stay Away Fay, for £120,000.

The Big Westerner: "She's a beautiful big mare and I'm very happy"Credit: Debbie Burt

Molony said the Ballycahane mares’ maiden winner had been bought on spec for an undisclosed trainer.

"I saw her win as the point-to-point is only a few minutes down the road,” he said. “She's a beautiful big mare and I'm very happy. I'd say she'll go out in a field now and then we'll make a plan.”

The Big Westerner has the pedigree to go with her ability, being out of the Oscar mare Augusta Bay, dam of last year's Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle winner Stay Away Fay. 

The Paul Nicholls-trained gelding scoped dirty after being pulled up in Wednesday's Brown Advisory Novices' Chase, but had previously landed Sandown’s Esher Novices' Chase before a fine third in open company in the Cotswold Chase.

Augusta Bay is also the dam of Queens Highway, a Presenting mare who won two bumpers for Alex Hales, while she has a two-year-old colt by Shirocco. 

The Big Westerner’s second dam is Listed-winning chaser and hurdler Penneyrose Bay, whose progeny includes two black-type performers. Also under the third dam, Pennethorne Place, is Latimer's Place, a five-length winner of the EBF Novices’ Hurdle Final at Sandown.

The action gets under way for the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival SaleCredit: Patrick McCann

Another fetching a punchy price was Order Of St George four-year-old Buckna, a winner at Kirkistown just last Saturday for Gerald Quinn.

The Caherty Stables man’s offering turned plenty of heads and it took Tessa Greatrex of Highflyer Bloodstock £350,000 to get the better of fellow bidders.

She said: “He was just a gorgeous horse. We'd been told about him and we loved him when we saw him. 

“He's been bought for Jim and Clare [Bryce], who bought another Order Of St George, Mighty Bandit, who is running in the Triumph Hurdle. This horse will go to Warren [Greatrex, husband and trainer] as well.”

Buckna is out of the Westerner mare Close Flame and is closely related to Lord Who and Meaasureofmydreams, 

This month’s Ballycahane winner Pierrot Jaguen, another from Flynn O’Connor’s Ballycrystal Stables, was the early pacesetter, the five-year-old selling for £200,000 to Olly Murphy.

The trainer said: “He's a lovely big horse and he's one for next season. He made a few quid as a store, he had a good video and a good reputation

“I bought him on spec. He's very nice and I was surprised we were able to buy him for what we did.”

By Saint Des Saints – who was on the mark with a double on the track earlier via Monmiral and Protektorat – Pierrot Jaguen is out of the Robin Des Champs mare Soif D'Aimer.

The first lot through the ring this year, seven-year-old Harmonya Maker, was sold with the attraction of a declaration at Cheltenham on Friday – though taking that up was contingent on her remaining in Gordon Elliott’s yard and she was duly recorded as a vendor buyback at £120,000. 

Harmonya Maker: Grade 2-winning chaser was bought back at £120,000Credit: Patrick McCann

The daughter of Saddler Maker out of the Kahyasi mare Hahyasi is due to contest the Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase. She is already a winner at that level this year, when turning over the odds-on Hauturiere at Thurles in January, and was third last time at the same track over a trip that might just have stretched her.

Elliott mopped up four-year-old Whinney Hill, runner-up at Farmaclaffley last month for Warren Ewing of Constitution Hill fame. The son of Jack Hobbs had been picked up by Ewing for £40,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale last year and fetched a more considerable £140,000 on Thursday night.

Ewing said: “He was a baby in his run for me but he's a really nice horse. He'll be back here next year, 100 per cent.”

Dan Skelton, fresh from another fine afternoon on the racecourse thanks to Grade 1 winners Grey Dawning and Protektorat, teamed up with Ryan Mahon to purchase back-to-back lots In The Age and Settle Down Jill, both four-year-olds, for £100,000 and £120,000 respectively.

Lisronagh winner Jo Coko was snapped up by Bobby O’Ryan for £105,000, with the agent reporting the five-year-old had been acquired to go to James Ewart for a new client.

In all, 27 lots sold for an aggregate £3,563,000, at an average of £131,963, which was down 23 per cent on 2023, and a median of £120,000 (down 17 per cent).

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