Gelding makes world record €320,000 at Tattersalls

The Cheltenham Bumper winner for 2017 may well have been sorted yesterday when a half-brother to the versatile Publican and the winning mare, Misspublican, was knocked down to Harold Kirk at Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sales for a world record for a national hunt three-year-old store of €320,000.

Bound for Willie Mullins’s yard, the gelding is also closely related to the Carlow stable’s recent Royal Ascot winner Clondaw Warrior.

A son of Rathbarry Stud sire and fashionable ‘stallion de jour’ Robin Des Champs, Lot 260 was offered for sale by Galway’s Lakefield Farm and eventually went to Kirk after some frenetic bidding left him and Henry De Bromhead standing when the hammer eventually dropped.

Successful progeny of Robin Des Champs are no stranger to Mullins, who trains his sons, Cheltenham winners Sir Des Champs and Vautour, as well as the recently-retired wonder mare, Quevega.

“He is a lovely horse, a proper model, the most similar horse I’ve seen to Sir Des Champs,” said Kirk, before joking. “We made the stallion and now we are paying for it. But this is a beautiful horse — let’s hope he has an engine to go with it.”

All in all, it was a strong showing for Tattersalls with the average and median prices improving on last year and a healthy clearance rate of 82%.

Other highlights were the sale by Lakefield Farm of a son of Mahler to MV Magnier for €160,000, with Aiden Murphy matching it for Mount Brown Farms son of Yeats, while a Flemensfirth gelding out of Mrs Masters went to Barry Connell for €130,000.