'I fell in love with him the second I saw him' - €54,000 Harzand colt leads the way at November National Hunt Sale

Trade began to move up through the gears on Monday as the second session of the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale motored a little more smoothly with buyers in the premium formula hitting top gear for grandsons of the iconic Sea The Stars and Kilbarry Lodge Stud enjoying an excellent day.

The best result of the session came mere minutes from the end as the Drumloose Stables team of Aisling Noone and Simon Kavanagh, more familiar as consignors of top lots, turned buyers for a Harzand colt offered by Garryrichard Stud on behalf of breeder Michael Murphy, a neighbour of the Hickeys in Wexford.

A half-brother to Bold Enough, who was placed in the Grade 3 Kilbegnet and Ballybrit Novice Chases for Henry de Bromhead, the handsome bay brought a successful bid of €54,000 from Noone and Kavanagh, who saw off determined opposition from Peter Vaughan and Timmy Hillman.

"He will come back here for the Derby Sale, all going well," confirmed Noone of plans for their new purchase. 

"I fell in love with him the second I saw him, he's gorgeous and we've had success at the Derby Sale already with a Harzand gelding we sold for a client this year to Kevin Ross. It's always good to beat the big boys now and then," she added, smiling.

"We know the family quite well as Simon is friendly with Gerald Quinn who trained this colt’s Mahler half-brother Broughshane to win his four-year-old point-to-point – he's now with Jonjo O’Neill and won over hurdles in October."

Simon Cavanagh and Aisling Noone turned purchasers at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt SaleCredit: www.healyracing.ie

For breeder Michael Murphy, who has four mares on his Wexford farm, including Shuil Milan who is in foal to another Wexford-based sire in Dee Ex Bee, the sale was a welcome tonic.

He bought Shuil Milan from her trainer Paul Nolan and has bred eight foals from the 16-year-old. Having raised and prepped the foal himself, could testify as to the easy temperament that the colt possesses.

"This foal has been a pleasure to deal with all along, he has a really good temperament. Con is a very good salesman!, he replied in answer to questions as to why he sent Shuil Milan, a Milan half-sister to the Grade 3-placed Shuil Aris from the family of Liss A Paoraigh, to the Derby winner.

"Harzand was a very good racehorse and his record is good. Sometimes you have to try something different with stallions, and we are lucky in Wexford that in the county and in neighbouring counties there's a good selection of stallions to choose from."

Earlier in the session, Garryrichard consigned Murphy's homebred Success Days colt out of Les Petits Obeaux, a Spanish Moon half-sister to Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Label Des Obeaux for €17,000 to Ian Ferguson.

Bold Enough shares his sire – Jeremy – with Success Days and that was one of the reasons why Murphy sent Les Petits Obeaux to Kilbarry Lodge to visit the grey.

"Bold Enough had a big white blaze on his face, just like Jeremy and Our Conor. I really thought Jeremy [who stood at Garryrichard] was a great stallion and, having bred a nice horse by him, I've sent mares to Success Days," he added.

Falling for Harzand

Just two colts by Harzand were offered on Monday and they were two of the six most expensive foals of the session. Peter Nolan went to €31,000 for the half-brother to the ill-fated Hercule Point, who was third in a Grade 2 AQPS bumper.

Offered by Clonmult Farm, he is out of a Balko half-sister to Grade 2 Prix Congress Chase winner Echiquier Royal and the Listed winner Playing and to Rule Of The Game, dam of multiple Grade 2 winner Easy Game.

The presence of that Willie Mullins-trained horse so close up on the page is a major selling point.

"Hopefully, he will get back here to the Derby Sale, he was the foal of the day for me, the one I wanted all day," enthused Nolan. "I have great time for the sire, and this colt has a good pedigree; it's always a help when you come to sell to have a horse like Easy Game on the page."

The Harzand colt from the family of Easy Game made €31,000 to Peter NolanCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Nolan added: "The point-to-point lads like the stock by the sire – I am good friends with Jimmy Kelly and he was telling me all year about the great Harzand he had last year, and that one has gone to England."

Boy's a Diamond for Kilbarry

Harzand stands alongside Diamond Boy at Kilbarry Lodge and the O'Keeffes filled the roles of breeder, vendor and stallion master for lot 321 by Diamond Boy, who is a Mansonnien half-brother to triple Grade 1-winning chaser Golden Silver.

Diva Luna has yet to earn her place on the catalogue cover of the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale but it surely only a matter of time before Ben Pauling's mare, whose two bumper successes were in black-type contests, earns her cover star status.

The five-year-old daughter of Diamond Boy was sold by Kilbarry Lodge as a foal here in 2019 for just €9,000 to Sam Curling but the O'Keeffe family, who stand the Mansonnien half-brother to Golden Silver at their farm on the outskirts of Waterford city were much better rewarded for their homebred colt on Monday as Tom O'Brien went to €35,000 for the first foal of their homebred Grade 3 Shannon Spray Novice Hurdle winner Kilbarry Chloe.

The exploits of Diva Luna and Willie Mullins' multiple Grade 1 winner Impaire Et Passe in particular have opened the eyes of the buying public to Diamond Boy's talents but this family, which the O'Keeffes have nurtured over generations has supplied a host of Graded performers.

Kilbarry Chloe is by Mahler and out of Kilbarry Gem, a Bob's Return half-sister to Henrietta Knight's high-class chaser Racing Demon and to All The Roses, dam of Grade 2 winner Askanna who herself is the granddam of Minella Cocooner, successful in the 2022 Grade 1 Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle for Willie Mullins and David Bobbett.

Kilbarry Gem is a full-sister to Kilbarry Demon, also unraced but the dam of last season's Graded chase winners Journey With Me, who shares his sire with Kilbarry Chloe, and Silent Approach.

It is that strong lineage which so impressed septuagenarian buyer O'Brien, as he explained.

Kilbarry Lodge Stud's homebred Diamond Boy colt sparkled at the November National Hunt SaleCredit: www.healyracing.ie

"He is from a very strong dam line, I remember Racing Demon and Merry Gale [a half-brother to this foal's third dam All Set] as racehorses," commented O'Brien.

"Diamond Boy is doing well, and this is a good model for a first foal and is very correct. We will keep him until he is three and decide then – we might sell or we race."

A retired paediatrician, O'Brien is based in County Kerry and resumed his youthful involvement in horses when he returned to Ireland around 40 years' ago, having practised at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff. 

"As soon as I came back I bought a piece of land again, we always gravitate back," he laughed. "I had David's Charm and I gave Rebel Fitz to Michael Winters. I've had a lot of good horses, and most of the foals we buy nearly won something." 

"We like to buy them as foals, and if you look after them well, and buy a nice model, most times they do something. I do have one mare, a half-sister to Bellshill, but I am not a fan of breeding to be honest."

Tom O'Keeffe, who is a well-known and respected equine vet in Newmarket, explained the origins of his family's involvement with the pedigree.

"My father [Con] bought All Set in 1997 and we have had the family ever since. It has been great for us, every year a new black-type horse comes through. Kilbarry Chloe was trained by my father and won her Grade 3 at Limerick, she's back in foal to Harzand."

No longer a walk in the park

Usually the cliches about how selling National Hunt foals is a walk in the park are difficult to resist with progeny of Coolmore's sire, responsible for two new Grade 1-winning novice chasers last season, the hottest of hot property. 

Paradoxically, now that the Derby runner-up by Montjeu is the reigning champion sire, the market for National Hunt foals is spluttering like an old engine running on empty and even the supercars are showing signs that the fuel gauge needle is hovering dangerously close to the red.

Walk In The Park posted a day two average of €28,917 at Tattersalls Ireland and twice hit the €42,000 mark with Hillview Farm's half-brother to the multiple Graded-placed juvenile hurdler Lunar Power going to JJ and Dick Frisby. 

Thistletown Stud, who consigned Sunday's session-topping Jeu St Eloi foal, sold a Walk In The Park colt out of Pikinik, a half-sister to Bravemansgame to the Frisbys, who were accompanied by Joey Logan when bidding.

Father and son team of Richard and JJ Frisby have a track record of turning a profit on their Walk In The Park stores, getting high-profile six-figure sums in the ring.

They include Firm Footings, the half-brother to Leopardstown Grade 1 novice chase winner Monalee sold by the Frisbys' Glenwood Stud for €220,000 having bought him for €68,000 and Calvino, the first foal of Listed winning chaser Antartica De Thaix for €130,000, slightly more than double what they paid for him at the 2020 November National Hunt Sale.

The Crystal Ocean colt bought by Tom Howley for €42,000 on MondayCredit: www.healyracing.ie

At this year's 50th Derby Sale, the Glenwood draft included a Walk In The Park gelding sold for €105,000 having cost €37,000 as a foal. He was one of half a dozen Walk In The Park three-year-olds to make €100,000 or more in this ring back in June.

JJ Frisby said: "We have been lucky with the sire before, we have had plenty by him, and he can do no wrong, and this colt is for resale. She is an older mare who has bred five winners including a good one, and she can bring a bit of speed to Walk In The Park, too."

That good one is Lunar Power who was placed three times in Graded company at four for Noel Meade while the speed Frisby referenced includes their Royal Applause half-sister Athas An Bhean, fourth in the Listed Marygate Stakes at two for Adrian Keatley.

Dam Dusty Moon is now 19 but was a winning juvenile and is a Dr Fong sister to Grade 2 Lake Placid Handicap and Listed Montrose Stakes winner Spotlight, the dam of Bengough Stakes winner Projection and second dam of St Leger runner-up Berkshire Rocco.

Dusty Moon is also a half-sister to Tyranny, dam of Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner and sire Zoffany and Group 2-winning juveniles Rostropovich and Wilshire Boulevard.

So much so that later in the day they added that second Walk In The Park colt, who is the second foal out of Pikinik an unplaced granddaughter of Danehill Dancer and a half-sister to Paul Nicholls' King George, Kauto Star Novices' Chase and Challow Hurdle winner Bravemansgame.

The March-foaled bay was the second of two Walk In The Park foals sold by the Furlong family of Thistletown Stud at Tattersalls Ireland on Monday. The first was a filly out of Listed Novices' Hurdle runner-up Cockney Wren, a full-sister to Scottish Champion Hurdle winner Cockney Sparrow and she made €21,000 to Ann Lawless.

On Sunday the Order Of St George half-brother to Cockney Wren and Cockney Sparrow was bought by Mount Eaton Stud for €28,000 from Daniel Berney.

Tom Howley signing for the Crystal Ocean coltCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Walk In The Park was also the sire of the €30,000 colt bought by Catherine Magnier on behalf of Weir View Stud. Offered by Ballincurrig House, he is out of Native Presenting, an unraced Presenting half-sister to Grade 1 Sefton Novices' Hurdle winner Pettifour.

Buyers seeing stars

Like Walk In The Park, Group 1 Prince Of Wales's Stakes winner Crystal Ocean stands under the Coolmore National Hunt banner at The Beeches Stud in Waterford.

In common with Harzand, he is a Group 1-winning son of Sea The Stars and he too was in demand at the upper echelons of the market with Tom Howley of Brook Lodge Farm going to €42,000 for Graiguebeg Stud's colt out of the winning Flemensfirth mare Run For Mary.

Howley remarked: "This is a very good moving horse, the mare was a good runner and I'm a big fan of the sire, I have few by him for next year’s store sales."

Crystal Ocean's oldest crop are only three but he is already off the mark as a National Hunt stallion. His daughter Watamu made a winning debut in a juvenile fillies' bumper at Stratford on Halloween for Pat Murphy and owner-breeder Paul Jacobs.

A total of eight foals fetched €30,000 or higher with the Murphy brothers, Brian and Eoghan, getting the ball rolling early in the day when buying a Jukebox Jury colt out of Awayinthewest, placed five times at Listed level over hurdles, for €30,000.

While their purchase on Sunday of a Jeu St Eloi colt who remains the sale's most expensive foal at the mid-way point in proceedings was for themselves, Monday morning's business was conducted on behalf of their father Jimmy's Redpender Stud.

Roles were reversed on Monday as Brian fielded the reporters' questions while Eoghan signed the docket but Brian, as his brother did on Sunday dealt deftly with the interrogation.

"He's a very nice foal by a really good sire in Jukebox Jury, who we like a lot. Although he is a May foal, he has good size and is out of a black-type mare. The intention would be to bring him back here for the Derby Sale, but you need everything to go right and get that bit of luck," he added pragmatically.

As the sale revs up and is due to hit maximum velocity on Wednesday, the statistics reflected that change with all the key indicators improving on those posted during Sunday's foal session.

Monday's clearance rate hit 65 per cent while turnover for the day was €1,699,000 with the average price reaching €12,401 and the median coming in at €9,000.

The third session gets under way at 10am on Tuesday.

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