Strong August National Hunt Sale Catalogue offers Top-Class Horses
The sale is always a fine source of top-class and well-produced Irish National Hunt stock, as headlined by its leading graduates: this year’s brilliant Ryanair and Liverpool Stayers’ Hurdle (G1) winner Thistlecrack and the 2015 Weatherbys Champion Bumper (G1) winner and Punchestown’s 2016 Champion INH Flat race (G1) runner-up Moon Racer.
This year’s sale features 662 lots and leading National Hunt sires, National Hunt pedigrees, Irish breeders and consignors are all well represented. 66 of these lots were catalogued at the Derby Sale and feature in the August National Hunt Sale.
Progeny by over 150 sires are catalogued, offering plenty of choice for National Hunt trainers, owners and point-to-point buyers. Well established, Grade 1-producing sires are all listed and include the popular Stowaway with 25 lots, Milan (21), Oscar (17), Gold Well (33), Beneficial (14), Flemensfirth (12) and Presenting (6), while there are young exciting sires with stock on offer too, including Westerner (23), Mahler (22), Court Cave (28), Ask (22) and Arakan (21).
Many lots boast pedigrees with recent top-class National Hunt form and Lot 108, from Whytemount Stud, is a Stowaway full-brother to the admirable and consistent chaser Hidden Cyclone. He is the winner of over €350,000 in earnings, six graded races over hurdles and fences, while the gelding has also been Grade 1 placed in England and Ireland on numerous occasions. Consignor Whytemount Stud has three lots catalogued, all by the farm’s late sire Stowaway.
Also by the sire and one that should be of interest to buyers is Lot 505, a first foal out of the Grade 2 hurdle winner Vast Consumption (Rudimentary). She is to be sold by Springhill Stud.
On the racecourse the Oscar gelding Felix Yonger has often locked horns with Hidden Cyclone and there are two chances to invest in fillies from his pedigree – Lot 502, a four-year-old by Dubai Destination, and the year younger Lot 503 by Westerner. They are out of a Saddlers’ Hall half-sister to the Grade 1 winner.
Peter Nolan Bloodstock will have a busy two days at the August Sale with a draft of 23. One of the choice lots will be Lot 392, a filly by Gold Well; she already boasts a top level black-type pedigree being a half-sister to the Champion Bumper (G1) winner Cheltenian.
Perennial leading consignor Ballincurrig House Stud has 23 lots to sell, with a Yeats gelding out of a half-sister to 2016’s Grand National (G3) winner and dual Grade 1 runner-up Rule The World a possible highlight (Lot 222).
Mount Brown Farm has nine lots catalogued, including a Pedler gelding from the leading family of Niffy Nora, Snow Drop, Holy Joe, The Wicketkeeper and L’Ami Serge (Lot 166) while Coolamurray Stud sells Lot 142, a filly by Fame And Glory out of Kates Charms, a 10-time winner and successful in the Cleeve Hurdle (G1). She is the dam of three winners, including the Listed-placed Dancingwithbubbles.
Gaynestown Stud sells for breeder Alice Kehoe a Westerner half-brother to the Challow Hurdle (G1) third, Listed bumper and chase winner Oscar Rock (Lot 617.) He is a third foal out of the Supreme Leader mare Cash And New, also dam of Miss Spent, winner of a bumper on her second career start in January. Cash And New is a half-sister to the dam of the good race mare Jessber’s Dream, and Belmont Stud sells a Mahler half-sister to the same Grade 1 performer (Lot 216).
Sunnyhill Stud has two lots to sell – a Doyen half-brother to the admirable 16-time winner and Grand National (G3) runner-up Balthazar King (Lot 538), and a grey Daylami filly out of Grangeclare Star, an own and half-sister to the black-type winners Grangeclare Lark and Scarthy Lad and (Lot 79).
From the successful National Hunt family of Hidebound and Four Trix is Lot 187, a bay gelding by Flemensfirth. Offered by Mount Eaton Stud, he is out of Laurens Trix, a half-sister to the Champion Bumper (G1) winner and Grade 1 hurdle runner-up Cousin Vinny and a full-sister to the dual chase winner A Good Skin.
From the top-class jumping pedigree of Mole Board, Puffin Billy, Deep Dawn and The Railway Man is Lot 281 an Arcadio gelding, and Lot 460, a bay Darsi filly. Both are to be sold by Castletown Quarry Stud, while Vinegrove Stud sells Lot 185, a Mahler gelding out of a half-sister to the good runners, The Bajan Bandit and The Realbandit.
All lots offered for sale qualify for the €100,000 Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper, run on 16 April 2017.