Tatts Ireland August National Hunt Sales 2018 Review

This year's Sales Statistics

*  Average : total aggregate of sold horses ÷ no. of horses sold
** Median : place all horses sold in order, highest price to lowest price, the median is the price attained by the midpoint horse
NB : as a comparison, the average price at this years Tatts Ireland Derby Sale (NH Stores) held in June was €51,500

New for 2018, Tattersalls Ireland introduced a 1-day NH Store Sale in May, which took place about 1 week prior to rival auction house Goffs UK's prestigious Doncaster Store Sale. This new sales date for Tattersalls was in effect a switch of date of the Derby Store Sale part 2 which has been following on from the flagship Derby NH Store Sale in recent years.
As the table shows, that didn't prevent a huge increase in catalogue numbers for this year's NH Tattersalls August Sale rising to 791, thus prompting an addition of a day to the originally planned 2-day event.

This is the last of the recognised NH Store Sales of the year, though there are monthly Point-to-Point & Horses in Training sales these days. So, it's a fair indication of the strength of the market that with 75 more horses changing hands that the average of €9,395 was only slightly down from the 2-day version 12 months ago.

Dodlands Steading purchases

The usual amount of in-depth pouring over the catalogue contents had taken place in the preceding weeks, and it was a larger than normal party from Dodlands Steading that gathered at the Ratoath situated Tattersalls Ireland sales complex on Tuesday morning.
In the main, we were looking for purchases around about or just below last year's median of €6,500 and we were the under bidders for more horses than we brought home, so it was hard to buy the right horse at the right price.
We didn't quite manage to fill our order book, but here's a summary of purchases by Dodlands, friends and rivals (that's you , Ewan!) over the 3 days.

Lot86 : first strike was a stable purchase by Callum of a not overbig, but sturdy daughter of the un-raced Gamut broodmare A Long Way. This chestnut filly - a first foal -  is by the German-bred sire Durban Thunder who only has a handful of progeny to date but was a tough, top class racehorse in his native land.

 This chestnut filly will feel equally at home at Dodlands

Lot165 : a lovely bay filly by the excellent NH sire Shantou. This was snapped up by Ian & Greg Aitken. She is the first foal of the winning Definite Article mare Definite Deploy who is a daughter of the black type mare Strategic Ploy, and a half sister to 2 winners.

 A first purchase at these NH Sales for Ian Aitken - fine choice sir!

Plenty of activity on Day 2 but the only success was another stable purchase. Lot412 is a medium sized, angular chestnut gelding by Mountain High. He's a bit unfurnished at present, so will be given time to build up strength before we kick on with him.
There's plenty of promise in the immediate pedigree - he's the third produce of the black type broodmare Amber Trix and the first two have shown a good deal of ability (winner and point-placed so far).

 Another Mountain High gelding heads for Dodlands

The Buyers' Club headed across the Irish Sea with one thought in mind - to buy the full brother (Lot627) to local hero Keyboard Gangster.  But when you're pitied against the might of the Irish Point-to-Point scene in the shape of Monbeg, it can seem like an impossible task and in the end, with our bidding stretched beyond our available budget, we lost out to the Doyle Brothers.
Nevermind, there were a few back-up options and one that 'Mouse' Young and his cohorts were delighted to purchase was Lot689, a bay son of Prince Flori.
As was touched on in a Musing of last year, an interesting trait of Prince Flori is that his pedigree is free of Northern Dancer as is Presenting, Flemensfirth, Network and a few other top class NH sires.
Prince Flori is another German bred, top class middle distance horse who has had limited opportunities as a sire thus far. Knockhouse Stud acquired him in 2013 to replace their recently deceased champion Beneficial.
Anyway, this fellow is the 3rd foal of the Irish Point winner Dark Daisy and is a half brother to Stuart Edmund's progressive hurdler Classic Ben. He's a lengthy, athletic type so look out for his appearance in a bumper in about, er, 2 years time!

 This year's Buyer's Club acquisition  

Friends and 'rivals'

Friend of the stable Rob Bewley was there too, with (his son) Callum, and he bought Lot511 a well made son of Arcadio, who is another German bred and raced sire. A pattern is starting to emerge here........

 Rob Bewley's attractive son of Arcadio  

We can't recall Brother Ali ever venturing across to this sale in the past, but Ewan Whillans bought a racey-looking son of Court Cave (Lot568). A first foal of an unraced Alderbrook mare, the 2nd dam has produced 4 winners including Noble Emperor and Streams of Whiskey.

 One for our rivals...........we're pleased for you!