International trade tends to be a key feature of the Tattersalls July Sale, but on 12 July it was the domestic buying that made the most noticeable impact, with 320,000gns (1,723s) .587 USD, 1gns=1.3546 USD) will join Willie Mullins Battalion.
wildcard entry moral diamond delivered a progressive record for the Park Paddocks, after losing his first card on his third visit to Limerick late last month. That performance was given a Racing Post rating of 96. The 3-year-old son of Awtaad bred by William Kennedy, trained by Michael O’Meara and deposited by Baroda Stud.
Oliver St Lawrence, Stuart Boman and Sam Haggas were clearly impressed with the scene where the trio engaged in a duel. Boman, sitting at the top of the stairs to the left of the podium, looked for a moment to have won, pushing the price up to 305,000 gns.
However, after some further attempts, longtime Mullins sales ally Harold Kirk, standing by the rails in the bidders’ quarters, waded into the end of the section with a single 5,000 gns gain , close the transaction.
“He’s coming in with Willie Mullins to be a versatile horse for an existing client,” says Kirk. “He’s going to run over obstacles and hopefully can also be a good horse. He’s a pony because he’s only had three runs and he’s improved each time. He’s also a beautiful horse.He’s healthy, rides well and won well the last time.
“Hopefully he can one day be the flat horse. Maybe one day he’ll take us to Cheltenham and another day to Royal Ascot, that’s the plan. Over the years. That Covid, we missed buying those all-in-one machines, even though we had this year’s Royal Ascot winner, so we wanted to rebuild that.”
Of his patient bidding tactics, Kirk said: “I’d like to wait and see how it ends because I know we could face huge opposition from Australia, and that’s the result. Australia can’t be. get all the good stuff, though, because Willie loves taking horses to Australia! We’re trying to build a team of Melbourne Cup (G1) horses alongside the diving athletes.”
Kirby goes again
Earlier in the session Philip Kirby added to his North Yorkshire stable with the acquisition of 210,000 gns anthem who is provided by The Castlebridge Consignment.
The winning 4-year-old son of dark Angel and winner of Queen Mary Stakes (G2) Alexander’s National Anthem was last seen running second to Commanche . Falls in a listed sprint at Curragh, where he wore the colors of his breeder, Noel O’Callaghan of Mountarmstrong Stud. That effort registered a career best RPR of 107.
Philip Kirby at the sale
While Kirby was clearly delighted to have recruited such an interesting horse in place of James and Susan Cookson, the acquisition was motivated by rather more unfortunate circumstances, as the trainer said: ” We’ve lost a good horse to the same owner and they want to replace one with another that can get us to some nice places Hopefully that’s what this horse can do.
“James Cookson bought Farhan at this sale last year and unfortunately he broke his leg right in front of Royal Ascot. He finished second in the John Porter Stakes (G3) in the second start for us. Even so, the owner’s interest has gone. They “We are lovely owners so hope that this horse can bring us good days. Joseph (O’Brien) recommended it and it seems to be able to run more than five, six and seven feathers. Interesting.”
The second of four July Sale sessions brought in 4,059,700 trillion ($5,499,333) in revenue, 23.466 trillion ($31,787) on average and 13,000 trillion ($17.610) on average. The sell rate was 89% with 173 lots sold out of a total of 195 lots offered for sale.
Tattersalls July sale will continue tomorrow at 9:30 am (local time).
