Piper Park Tops Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale
The first Cheltenham November Sale held under the new Tattersalls Jockey Club Sales banner got the autumn season off to a solid start with buoyant trade throughout the session.
Through the evening’s sale 30 horses sold producing a turnover of £2,300,000. The average price was £74,194 and the median price £58,000, while nine horses realised £100,000 or more. The leading purchaser was Lucinda Russell and Paul McIvor, who bought five lots for a total of £460,000, while the leading consignor was Colin Bowe’s Milestone Stables who sold five lots for a combined total of £383,000.
The evening’s top price of £205,000 was given by trainer Tom Lacey for PIPER PARK (Lot 39), a daughter of Walk In The Park out of the King’s Theatre mare Shannon Theatre, an own-sister to the Grade 3 hurdles winner Blacklough.
The four-year-old filly justified being sent off favourite when a debut winner in October at Umma House, winning by two lengths and in a fast time. She was sold by her handler Harley Dunne Racing having been purchased by Dunne and Rob James at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale for €58,000 in 2022.
“I was hopeful she’d make that as she’s a beautiful filly,” said Dunne. “She was well entitled to make that, but you just don’t know when you come here. I’m absolutely over the moon for everyone involved in her and all the lads in the yard. She was going down well so I was hopeful she’d get to that kind of money, but you never know until you get into the ring.”
HONKY TONK HIGHWAY (Lot 8), a four-year-old filly by Milan and consigned by Colin Bowe Racing’s Milestone Stables, fetched £165,000, bought by Ryan Mahon and Dan Skelton Racing. She has run once when beating a field of ten in a fast-run maiden at Tattersalls at the end of October.
Out of St Gregory, a five-time-winning mare by Presenting, Honky Tonk Highway had been purchased by Milestone Bloodstock for €55,000 as a three-year-old store horse.
Bloodstock agent Ryan Mahon said: “She has been bought for an existing owner with Dan Skelton. She’s a good staying mare, she jumped well on heavy ground and kept on strongly at the line. There are a few clients at Dan’s who are looking to get a few nice fillies at the moment and this client in particular already has a few so we are just looking to expand on that. With any luck they turn out to be good and then they’ve got some residual value for further down the line.”
Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls were the successful purchasers at £155,000 of the Warren Ewing’s Bernice Stables-consigned SAINT KRISTOBAL (Jeu St Eloi). The French-bred four-year-old was a winner at Tattersalls at the end of October and is out of the black-type mare Belle Josee, the winner of five races and Listed-placed in France.
“I am a big fan of the stallion who has been purchased out of France to stand at Glenview Stud with the Cashmans,” said Malone. “Saint Kristobal is a nice sort – he is a big raw horse and a work in progress.”
The next Tattersalls Jockey Club Sale of point-to-pointers will be the Tingle Creek Festival Sale on Saturday, 9th December after racing at Sandown Park in the winner’s enclosure.