Record-breaking £660,000 Regent's Stroll staying with Paul Nicholls after the most 'nervous half an hour in all my life'

As one door closes, another opens. Chris Giles’s departure from the sport had record-breaking consequences at the Goffs Summer Sale in Doncaster on Monday as the hugely promising Regent’s Stroll changed hands for an unprecedented £660,000.

Auctioneer Henry Beeby introduced Regent’s Stroll by saying “what an opportunity” before going in search of an opening bid of £400,000. Goffs UK’s managing director Tim Kent, taking instructions on the phone on the top deck of the packed auditorium, duly obliged with an attempted king bid.

A protracted rally with Tom Malone, standing on the opposite side of the ring beside Regent’s Stroll’s trainer Paul Nicholls, ensued. The pair traded swift £20,000 increases until the half a million mark, at which point they switched to raises of £10,000. The £20,000 bids returned just before the £600,000 mark, although there was no let up in the pace of the exchange.

However, when Malone pushed the price to a National Hunt record of £660,000 there was a telling lack of response from Kent. After a brief conflab with the bidder on the other end of the line, Kent hung up the call, conceded defeat and the hammer fell on the most expensive jumps horse to change hands at public auction.

The record for the most expensive jumps horse sold in Doncaster had belonged to the infamous Interconnected, who was bought by Darren Yates and Phil Kirby for £620,000 in 2019.

That record was surpassed earlier this year when Caldwell Potter was knocked down to Highflyer Bloodstock’s Anthony Bromley for €740,000 at the Andy and Gemma Brown Dispersal at Tattersalls Ireland. That six-figure bid was struck on behalf of a partnership consisting of Sir Alex Ferguson, John Hales, Ged Mason and Peter Done, who duly switched Caldwell Potter from Gordon Elliott to Nicholls. Hales was among those ringside in Doncaster on Monday.

John Hales, Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls at Goffs UK on MondayCredit: Goffs UK

Nicholls and Malone went on to secure eight of the lots being offered on Giles’s behalf by Mill House Stud. These included the Grade 1 winner Stay Away Fay, who was signed for with part-owner Dave Staddon at £325,000, the £200,000 Rubaud and Rocket Scientist, who also fetched £200,000.

“It’s a huge relief as I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous in half an hour in all my life,” said Nicholls. “We’ve got amazing support in Ditcheat with all the owners who were determined to buy the ones back that we’ve bought. I appreciate the support we’ve got and we were always going to try and buy them back to what we thought their value was. We’ve achieved that so I’m delighted for everyone who’s bought them.”

Asked how he had found the process of seeing so many talented or promising horses heading to market, the 14-time British champion trainer puffed out his cheeks and said: “It hasn’t been easy. To start with I was a bit disappointed it happened in the first place as I’ve always counted Chris as a good friend and good owner. I’ve said to him since, ‘Are you sure you really want to be doing this, particularly with horses like Regent’s Stroll, who could be the best you’ve ever owned?’ Chris wanted to go down this route and you have to respect what he’s done.

“It was my job to put people together and get the horses bought, which is what we’ve done. Everyone’s been so supportive. I know 12 people who could’ve got involved in Regent’s Stroll. He’s been bought by existing owners in the yard headed up by John Hales and Ged Mason. Sir Alex Ferguson and Neil and Alfie Smith are involved too. There’ll be a group of them involved but they’ll sort it out tonight."

Nicholls revealed he and Malone had also contemplated the king bid tactic of opening at £400,000, saying: “We’d discussed doing that ourselves but decided we’d sit on the fence.” Malone added: “It was only us and Tim Kent. I said to Paul, there’ll be six or seven people up to £400,000 and there’ll be two people after it, and he may make £450,000 or he might make six, seven or eight hundred [thousand]. You just don’t know, but obviously Tim Kent had a strong client.” 

Nicholls also expanded on his determination to keep Regent’s Stroll in the stable, saying: “Obviously we’ve always liked him; gorgeous horse, great sire, great family, great damline. He was never flashy at home, he’s more of a galloper, so you never know with those horses. He won well at Ascot and was then very impressive giving weight away at Newbury. 

Regent's Stroll: unbeaten gelding sold to Tom Malone for £660,000 at the Goffs UK Summer Sale Credit: Goffs UK

“Ultimately he’ll be a three-miler as there’s loads of stamina in that pedigree. He’s jumped at home for two years so he’s a ready made novice hurdler. I’ve said to the guys this year isn’t about aiming high, we bought him to go chasing in the future. We’ve done well in the Challow [Hurdle] at Christmas so if we get a couple of runs into him we’ll build him up to that and see where we go. Hopefully he’ll run in a Gold Cup one day.”

Regent’s Stroll has an unblemished race record, having landed an Ascot bumper on his debut before following up with an impressive display against 19 rivals in the Goffs UK Spring Sale Bumper at Newbury.

The five-year-old son of Walk In The Park was always prominent under Harry Cobden but was briefly outpaced when the race began in earnest. However, he regained the lead over a furlong out and found plenty for pressure, looking better the further he went and eventually pulling five lengths clear.

That performance, allied to an imposing physique and immaculate pedigree, marked Regent’s Stroll out as a horse with any amount of potential for a career over obstacles.

Bred by Rita Kent, Regent’s Stroll is the ninth foal out of Pretty Puttens, an unraced half-sister to the brilliant Denman, whose 14 wins for the Nicholls camp included the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup and two runnings of the Hennessy Gold Cup, most famously the 2009 running when running off an official mark of 174. Regent’s Stroll is a sibling to four winners, including the classy bumper performer and six-time scorer Didtheyleaveuoutto.

Regent’s Stroll was making a second visit to the Doncaster ring, having sold to Malone and Nicholls for £175,000 at the 2022 edition of the Spring Store Sale. He was offered on the occasion by Willie Bryan of Worthen Hall Stables who pinhooked the up-and-comer for €40,000 from the Goffs December National Hunt Sale as a foal in 2019.

Stay Away Fay: 2023 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle winner will return to Paul Nicholls after selling for £325,000Credit: Goffs UK

The highest achiever among the draft was Stay Away Fay, winner of the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival. 

Part owner Dave Staddon was on bidding duty and won out after seeing off the attention of Charles Shanahan, bidding on the phone beside Gordon Elliott and Eddie O’Leary. At the £310,000 mark Staddon threw in a minimum increase of £5,000, prompting Beeby to exclaim: “Flippin' heck! Does anyone have any loose change?!” After the pair exchanged further £5,000 raises the hammer eventually fell at £325,000.

“Stay Away Fay has been bought by Andy Bell and Fergus Lyons, who own Golden Move with us,” said Nicholls. “A lot of them were owned in partnership so other partners have bought Chris out. Brendan McManus bought back Rubaud and Byzantium and the boys who have Jackpot D'Athou bought him back. The others have been bought for existing owners in the yard. ”

Stay Away Fay, a seven-year-old son of Shantou, showed an even higher level of form having switched to fences, winning an Exeter novice and the Grade 2 Esher Novices' Chase. He was then pitched into open company when a creditable third to Capodanno and The Real Whacker in the Cotswold Chase. That effort saw Stay Away Fay hit his peak Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 162. 

However, he failed to complete on his last two starts last season when pulled up in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase and Scottish Grand National, having reportedly scoped dirty following the former effort and suffering from a respiratory issue during the latter. 

Rubaud: multiple Grade 2-winning hurdler was the first of the Chris Giles dispersal to head through the ring at the Goffs UK Summer SaleCredit: Goffs UK

Stay Away Fay was making his fourth appearance at the sales. He first fetched €31,000 when pinhooked by Mark Dwyer’s Oaks Farm Stables as a foal before being picked up by Matthew Flynn O’Connor and Hamish Macauley for £39,000 at the Goffs UK Store Sale in 2020. 

He then reappeared on the market at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale in 2021 shortly after a facile debut victory between the flags at Lingstown. That effort did wonders for Stay Away Fay’s value as Malone and Nicholls signed the ticket at £305,000 to add the youngster to Giles’ string. 

As well as expressing his delight and relief at retaining the lion's share of the dispersal lots, Nicholls also highlighted the impact the event had on the staff at Ditcheat. “You don’t want to see horses that you’ve brought along going out of the stable,” he said. “Another big thing about this is the staff. Megan Walsh, who looks after Stay Away Fay, has been so upset he was going. She looks after him and rides him every single day, so I’ve just texted her then to say he’s coming back. 

“For the kids who've looked after these horses it’s unbelievable, these horses mean so much to them. I’ve always said to Megan don’t worry, we’ll do our best to get them back. It’s good for the whole team to have these horses back. The staff never really get thought of when horses get sold but they put so much into them and get so attached, especially to the good ones. They’ll all be delighted. It’s overridingly a good day.” 

All 11 Giles Dispersal lots offered through Mill House Stud sold for receipts totalling £1,900,000. Giles, whose pink and purple colours have been carried by the likes of dual King George VI Chase hero Silviniaco Conti and fellow Grade 1 winners Greaneteen and Zarkandar, wasn’t present in Doncaster but had previously cited work commitments and a desire to spend more time with his young family as the reason behind his exit from the sport.

The Summer Sale saw 188 lots offered and 134 sold for a clearance rate of 71 per cent. Turnover hit £3,643,000, which was a chunky 221 per cent increase against the comparable sale in 2023. The average price was also up by 139 per cent at £27,187, while the median climbed by 64 per cent to £9,000. 

In his end-of-sale statement, Goffs UK’s managing director Tim Kent commented: “What an incredible day in Doncaster, and we must start by thanking Chris Giles for entrusting Goffs to handle such a prestigious dispersal of quality horses. It has been a pleasure to work for Chris and we hope to see his colours back in the winners’ enclosure in the not-too-distant future. It has also been a pleasure to work with Juliet Minton and the Mill House Stud team who did such a fantastic job of presenting the horses for sale.

“We are obviously delighted with the results, headlined by Regent’s Stroll’s world record price of £660,000. We felt he had a right to make a significant price but you can never expect a result like that and it proves, yet again, that when we are given the best, Doncaster produces world-class, world-record results.

“We received a huge amount of interest for today’s sale, and it was great to see so many of the leading owners and trainers in Doncaster, which helped to create an electric atmosphere inside the sales ring. We would also like to acknowledge the underbidders for their part in creating these prices and it’s nice to see many of the horses sold returning to the same stables to run in new colours.

“We also saw the French Grade 1 winner July Flower sold for £350,000, another fantastic price, so all in all it has been a very successful sale and we wish the very best of luck to everyone with their new purchases.”

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