Prices ascend to higher plane as November National Hunt Sale takes off led by €92,000 Walk In The Park colt

From the moment Edmond Mahony received an opening bid for €10,000 for the first foal into the ring on Tuesday morning, it was clear that the November National Hunt Sale had ascended to a higher plane, and that was made plain by dramatic rise in the average and median figures for the day, which were significantly improved on the preceding two foal sessions.

Tuesday's average of €22,694 was almost double the average recorded on Monday at 83 per cent higher, while the median of €18,750 was a staggering increase of 108 per cent on Monday's figure.

The clearance rate remained frustratingly low at 67 per cent, but that was an improvement on the preceding days.

As the format of the sale has been changed this year, it is difficult to draw direct comparisons with individual sessions from previous years and the statistical picture will become clearer at the end of play.

The Frisby family are all in on Walk In The Park, but it appeared that every big player in the marketplace wanted in on Ballincurrig House Stud's colt by the champion National Hunt sire and out of Listed Prix Finot Hurdle winner En Vedette. 

Every ideal vantage point for bidding was claimed before the entrance of the half-brother to the Grade 2-placed mares Sabrina and Lady Adare, and the Frisby family had a pretty good view of the ring from their perch at the top of the stairs.

They were pushed all the way by Gerry Aherne, who stuck diligently to his task, and when he made a bid of €90,000 it seemed that either his persistence would pay off or the auction would witness its first six-figure transaction this November. 

JJ Frisby struck back at €92,000 and for a moment it appeared that the race to €100,000 was on, but Aherne had reached the limits of his budget and Frisby father and son were left in possession of their third Walk In The Park foal of the week.

This one, said JJ Frisby, 'has everything".

A day short of nine months old, the bay was bred by Louis Vambeck and is a full-brother to a three-year-old gelding who sold for £105,000 earlier this year to Ryan Mahon and Dan Skelton. 

He is also a half-brother to Grand Vendetta, by Flemensfirth, purchased at the 2023 Derby Sale by Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls, who trains their Yeats half-sister Sabrina. Grand Vendetta realised €72,000 as a foal at the November National Hunt Sale, also consigned by Ballincurrig House.

JJ Frisby and his father Richard are also strong believers in another son of Montjeu, Burgage Stud sire Jukebox Jury, and added a colt bred by County Down brothers Daniel and Peter Doran, and their cousin JP King, for €60,000 to their foal collection.

Speaking after purchasing the son of Corrie Lake, a bumper winner by Stowaway, JJ Frisby commented that it was the colt's athleticism that was his most eyecatching attribute.

"The sire is on fire, and he's as good a walking foal as was here all week," he said. "He has a good pedigree, but he is an outstanding individual with a big walk."

On the suggestion that he might top the Derby Sale in 2027, JJ smiled and said cautiously: "Well, hopefully he'll sell well anyway."

For the Doran brothers and their cousin, it was an unforgettable experience.

Sammy Murphy with the Jukebox Jury colt sold by the Doran brothers to Richard Frisby for €62,000Credit: www.healyracing.ie

"It is our biggest result in the ring," said Daniel Doran  "He's one of the better foals we have bred but, even so, we weren't expecting that and it is a huge amount of money for a foal. We're delighted."

The brothers have 11 mares at their home farm and neighbour Sammy Murphy of Stone Lodge Stud prepared the striking colt for sale and she also led him up for his turn in the sales glare.

Corrie Lake won a Fontwell bumper for Suzi Best with Jamie Moore in the saddle and the Dorans, along with cousin King, have given her the best possible opportunity to excel as a broodmare by covering her with Jukebox Jury.

Doran commented: "We gave her a good covering with Jukebox Jury for two years; we are big fans of the sire and everything has worked out well. She has crossed well with him."

Corrie Lake's first foal made €32,000 at the 2023 November National Hunt Sale, where he was bought by Tom O'Brien, who returned on Monday to purchase a Diamond Boy colt out of Grade 3 winner Kilbarry Chloe.

Like O'Brien, the Frisby family were in action during Monday's session, when they bought a pair of Walk In The Park colts for €42,000 apiece and outside the ring snapped up a son of Blue Bresil for €29,000.

Zoe spreads a little of her magic at Fairyhouse

Magical Zoe has cast a spell across two countries, with the exploits of the six-year-old mare providing some enchanting experiences for her Scottish owners Paddy and Scott Bryceland and her Irish trainer and jockey Henry de Bromhead and Adrian Heskin.

It is not an unusual occurrence to find former leading jockeys at the sales, but they do not often get the opportunity to buy a sibling to one of their star performers. However, Heskin, who holds the record with Jack Kennedy as the youngest jockey to win at the Cheltenham Festival, timed his bidding run with the same perfection he deployed in the saddle to land the odds once more at Tattersalls Ireland.

The filly in question, bought for €65,000, is a daughter of Poet's Word and a half-sister to this year's Ebor heroine, and Heskin declared that will not be the end of her connection with Magical Zoe.

"I am delighted to secure her for two good friends of mine, Paddy and Scott Bryceland, the owners of Magical Zoe," he said.

"She was on our radar for a while and I was down to see her at Louis Kennedy's [breeder] place a couple of months ago. She had everything that day and she progressed very well from then to the sale."

It's not just upon her enchanted owners Magical Zoe has sprinkled some stardust, she has also worked wonders for her dam and breeder. At this sale six years ago, she was bought back by Kennedy for €6,000 when offered by his Mount View Stud but, now that she is a Grade 3 winner over hurdles and Group 3-placed on the Flat, her family's value has boomed.

The pretty bay filly who is exactly nine months old was boosted by her young sire Poet's Word, with the first crop of the Group 1 winner conceived at the Flood family's Boardsmill Stud impressing their handlers and trainers as they begin their education.

It was a scenario that Heskin commented upon, saying: "The sire is going very well and she has a big walk on her with a great trot, a great temperament and it's a good deep pedigree, so we are delighted to get her."

Adrian Heskin, who has been in the saddle for Magical Zoe's hurdles success bought her half-sister at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

In addition to the Grade 2 Dawn Run Mares' Novices' Hurdle runner-up, the 15-year-old Fedaia has produced three more winners including Autumn Return, a seven-year-old daughter of Fame And Glory who added a Perth novice chase in late September to her list of victories for Ruth Jefferson.

Fedaia is an unraced Anabaa half-sister to the Italian Grade 2 winner Auronzo and their dam, Fedian, was a multiple Grade 3 winner over jumps in Italy.

Magical Zoe's jockey will be heavily involved in this filly's career from now on as she will reside at his and wife Danielle's farm in Kilworth, County Cork, where they have a mixture of pinhooked youngsters and homebreds. 

"The owners are from Scotland, and she will head back to my place in Kilworth for the next couple of years with the long-term plan being to race her, but she is a breeding prospect down the line," said Heskin. "Hopefully she will be lucky."

As for Magical Zoe, Heskin reported: "She is going well. After her big win at York there are plenty of big sights on the Flat for her. Hopefully this one can emulate what she has done."

It's a mighty task for the filly who is unaware of the fuss surrounding her but, if her elder half-sister has shown anything, it is that there is magic to be found in unexpected places.

Ross on the double

There was a very bittersweet postscript to the sale of the only Golden Horn colt in the catalogue who made €74,000 to Kevin Ross and Ben Case on behalf of Lady Jane Grosvenor.

The stunning deep brown colt was offered by Marie Harding's Glen Stables on behalf of his breeders Kieran and Billy Keneally, who told afterwards how their mother Cathy bought the foal's unraced third dam Solar Jet. Sadly, Cathy died at her home in Araglen, Count Cork just three weeks ago.

The only foal in the sale by Golden Horn made €74,000Credit: www.healyracing.ie

Cathy bred the colt's dam Mill Quest, who ran 48 times during her career and won nine of those contests, with five wins and six places over hurdles, and the Milan mare won four chases and added nine placings to her record, trained initially by Terence O'Brien and latterly by Gordon Elliott. Incidentally, Heskin was in the saddle for her first six starts.

She also bred Mill Quest's Graded-placed half-siblings by Turtle Island – Glenquest and Cool Quest – as well as Cool Quest's son Sole Pretender. The Grade 3 Grimes Hurdle winner was placed in multiple Graded chases, including when third in the Grade 2 Arkle Trial behind Banbridge and Tommy's Oscar at Cheltenham's November meeting for Terence O' Brien two years ago.

"Mum bought the colt's third dam Solar Jet and was still very much involved in things, she will have been looking down with pride," said her sons.

Mill Quest has a three-year-old daughter from the first Irish crop of Poet's Word and two-year-old filly by Vadamos so, naturally, the decision to send her to Overbury Stud last year to visit Golden Horn was the subject of much inquiry.

"The mare is owned in a family syndicate and one of our brothers in the UK came up with the idea as she was barren so we took the opportunity to send the mare to England to Golden Horn," said the brothers when chatting outside the colt's stable. 

"We are delighted, he was a lovely type and although we were hopeful, you can never be sure what is going to happen. He has a lovely temperament and great movement – everything you would want in a foal."

Kevin Ross can compare the Vadamos filly favourably with her younger half-brother as he bought her at the 2023 Tattersalls Ireland January Sale from Harding, and the noted judge concurred with the breeders' assessment.

Grace Baker and the Poet's Word filly out of Ballyshannon Rose who sold for €72,000Credit: www.healyracing.ie

"He is a lovely moving foal and the sire is doing very well," Ross commented. "We have this colt's two-year-old half-sister by Vadamos at home and she is a nice filly. Their dam was a tough, durable mare who won nine times, which is something you like to see on a page, and this is a lovely type of horse."

He added: "We have bought him for Lady Jane and he will be offered for resale at a premier store sale."

So will the Poet's Word filly that Kevin and Anna Ross purchased on behalf of Chris Jones's Killeen Glebe earlier in the day for €72,000. 

Consigned by the Hickey family of Sunnyhill Stud, she is the first foal out of Ballyshannon Rose, a daughter of Doyen, who had a distinguished stallion career at the Kilcullen farm before he returned to Darley for a beautifully luxurious retirement back at Kildangan.

Ballyshannon Rose was trained by Paul Fahey to win the Grade 2 Coolmore Mares' Novice Chase and she was fourth in the Grade 1 Champion Novice Chase at the Punchestown festival. 

She is closely related to the ill-fated Grade 1 Mersey Novices' Hurdle winner Three Stripe Life, a son of Leading Light who was second in three more Grade 1 novice hurdles for Gordon Elliott. The family goes back to Prix Vermeille winner Highest Hopes.

Anna Ross said of the filly: "She's very well made and a lovely mover. There is good word for the sire, the trainers seem to like them and she has a beautiful page with black type in every dam. Chris Jones of Killeen Glebe has bought her and she will come back for resale."

Pinhookers starting to play the jukebox

Jukebox Jury's rise to prominence continues and in the sale ring his prices are starting to reflect his progeny's success on the track. A total of eight foals sold for at least €60,000 on Tuesday and Burgage Stud's sire of Il Etait Temps joined Walk In The Park, with whom he shares his sire the venerable Montjeu, and Poet's Word with two representatives each in that elite group.

At an average of €25,063 for 16 sold so far, only Walk In The Park of the stallions in the top ten has achieved a better average price this week than Jukebox Jury. Although both sons of Montjeu are listed as private, Jukebox Jury's fee is considerably less than that commanded by his paternal half-brother.

Peter Vaughan (right) bought the Jukebox Jury colt from Ballymarkham StudCredit: www.healyracing.ie

As well as the previously mentioned colt out of Corrie Lake bought by JJ and Richard Frisby for €62,000, Peter Vaughan went to the same level to secure Ballymarkham Stud's colt out of Cool Grove, an unraced Presenting full-sister to Grade 2 Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle winner and Thyestes Chase third Up For Review.

Vaughan said of his purchase: "He will hopefully be back for one of the premier store sales. He has a nice pedigree and is by a good stallion so I knew he was going to make plenty."

The bay is a May foal and the third produced by Cool Grove, whose first two foals are daughters of Walk In The Park. Her now yearling filly sold for €37,000 in November last year to Kilteskill Stud.

Familiar feeling for Logan

Joey Logan's bold bidding strategy so nearly paid off in his attempts to purchase the sale's most expensive filly, who eventually went to Anna Ross at €72,000, but he shrugged off that disappointment half an hour later and bought a Diamond Boy colt out of Grade 2 William Fry Handicap Hurdle and Listed Greenmount Park Novice Hurdle second Calie Du Mesnil.

Offered by Boardsmill Stud, he is the fourth foal out of the Kapgarde mare, who is a half-sister to Athena Du Mesnil, dam of Grade 1-winning hurdler and chaser Gaillard Du Mesnil, who won the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and was third to Corach Rambler in the 2023 Grand National for Willie Mullins and the Donnellys.

Joey Logan bidding at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Logan went to €60,000 for the colt, with auctioneer Alistair Pim raising a chuckle from the crowd, cajoling another bid out of Logan with "you don't need to worry about the transport, you have the transporter [Martin Wanless] standing next to you."

"I bought the Poet's Word half-sister last year for a neighbour and she is a beautiful filly, an absolute cracker and like a gelding," revealed Logan of his prior knowledge.

However the colt spoke, or rather walked, on his own merits.

Logan added: "It's a lovely family and the mare is by Kapgarde, which I like. I wasn't expecting him to make as much as he did but when all the right men are on him, you have to pay to get them. When I saw him in the outside ring, I was impressed by the way he jumped into his step."

Too much of a good thing?

Inbreeding to Sadler's Wells accounts for a statistically significant proportion of the foals in the catalogue, including the Walk In The Park filly out of Grade 2 Kinsale Handicap Chase winner Penny Jane, bought by Gerry Hogan for €60,000.

The April-born bay is inbred 3x2 to the great sire as her dam Penny Jane is by King's Theatre, a brilliant broodmare sire. 

A smiling Michael Moore of leading consignors Ballincurrig House StudCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Penny Jane was bred by Vambeck, who also bred Tuesday's session-topping Walk In The Park colt, and sold like him by Ballincurrig House Stud, although in her case as a store at the Derby Sale, where she was bought by Kevin Ross.

Trained by Gordon Elliott for Paul and Clare Rooney, she won six and was placed six more times in her 15-race career. Penny Jane is a full-sister to Grade 3 For Auction Novice Hurdle and Paddy Power Handicap Chase winner Minella Foru and to Sumkindofking, runner-up in the Badger Ales Trophy for Tom George.

There are black-type performers under each of this foal's first four dams and Hogan said of the Clonbonny Stud-consigned filly: "She is a lovely sort by a top sire and looks a real racing prospect."

The sale concludes on Wednesday with the final session of foals, followed by a short and select broodmare section. Selling gets under way at 10am.

More from Tattersalls Ireland

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

'He cost more than we thought he would but we really liked him' - Jeu St Eloi colt tops trade at €58,000