Brightwells Cheltenham Sale Notes

Pick of the Brightwell lots

Update on sales from Brightwells (previous nominations), by Seattle Dancer

I think many of my predictions in terms of the recent Brightwells Sale were borne out and you needed a good recent performance on winter ground aided by a popular sire to hit paydirt.

Jack Steel: sold reasonably well for £33,000 considering no-one wanted the sire. Handler convinced he has sold Lucinda Russell a good horse. Lucinda’s best ever point acquisition was Brindisi Breeze.

Need To Know: Not sold at £75,000 and was probably on the boat home the following day. What does not sold mean specifically? A reserve too high? Greedy connections? An underbidder at £74,000 and he was sold privately in the bar afterwards? No interest in him at all and the bidding was entirely fictitious? Public auctions are notoriously unreliable and who on earth knows what transpires unless the horse changes hands? Why would you bid for an auction lot not knowing beforehand when the horse will be on the market. (Easier ways to “win the watch” in my opinion).

Fact Of The Matter: a win on good ground and a sire rejected by Grange Stud suggests getting £42,000 for this winner was, ultimately, a good result and a reasonable return on a €16,500 investment. The horse will join Jamie Snowden and in recent times he has bought three winning 4yo maidens and two, Lough Derg Way and Present View, have been quite successful for him.

Black Jack Rover: this 88-rated son of Vinnie Roe was bought by Donald McCain for £40,000. McCain buys large numbers of pointers at public auction although there is a debate abroad at present that his horses are not running as well as they have in the past. Perhaps someone will have an opinion on this? 

Lovely Job: £30,000 (to Donald McCain) probably is a fair reflection of this fellow’s value given an unknown sire and a mid-October victory.

Kerisper: strangely, this potential one-hundred-grander was withdrawn from the sale and may have been sold privately, was under the weather at the time or may turn up in one of the December sales. One thing’s for sure, he’s unlikely to race in Wilson Dennison’s colours again.

Shantou Village: ticked a lot of boxes but perhaps a win on good ground kept the interest in check. Fetched £80,000 and this 90-rated winner will now be trained by Neil Mulholland who handled King Helissio (4yo autumn winner from 2012) in the past-won a maiden hurdle at 25/1 on his second start under rules.

Shanroe Santos: The agent Tom Malone bid £50,000 for this fellow but I’m uncertain of his new home. Jimmy Lambe will not be plotting handicap coups with this winner and I thought £50,000 was a decent price in the circumstances.

Mr Mountain: £60,000 to the final bid of Tom Malone who was busy on the night. No new home earmarked as yet.

Crosshue Boy (by Brian Boru): Not sold at £48,000 and looks overvalued at this sort of price. I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t changed hands privately since for a more realistic offer.

Battle Of Clontarf: another unsold Brian Boru gelding (at £22,000) and one can see that the market will reject certain sires after a period of time.

The Chuckmeister (5yo by Germany): another Tom Malone purchase, this time for £43,000 and another “fair” return for connections.

Stilletto: Roger Brookhouse is obviously not one for horse’s names with perfect spelling and he forked out £130,000 for this typo. No trainer has yet been chosen and the horse is being given a short break before commencing his track career.

For Instance: £85,000 was the reward for Codd at Brightwells recently and he is now with Jonjo O’Neill having been knocked down to agent Ross Doyle.

Amber Gambler’s win on winter ground was timely and propitious coming as close as it did to sale time. Gearoid Costello (partner of Rebecca Curtis) was impressed enough to give £125,000 for him and it was a sweet result for the vendor.