Record-breaking Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale Topped by Echoing Silence
ECHOING SILENCE (Lot 12), the Doyen half-sister to the Grade 2 winner Deafening Silence, lived up to pre-sale expectations when selling for a session-topping £410,000, bought by Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud.
She headed up the evening’s 29-lot sale, which produced a record turnover of £3,563,000, saw three horses sold for over £200,000, 18 lots fetch six-figure prices and an impressive clearance rate of 93 per cent.
The four-year-old filly was the debut winner of her March mares' maiden point-to-point at Ballycahane and was sold by Sam Curling on behalf of owner Correna Bowe, niece of point-to-point trainer and consignor Colin Bowe and enjoying her first venture into the sale ring as a consignor.
She and her father JJ Bowe purchased the filly as a store at the Tattersalls Ireland July Sale 2023 for just €28,000.
“I never imagined this could happen,” said an emotional Bowe, who works for Curling. “I said to Mum a couple of months ago that if I was to ever own a horse and bring it to the Cheltenham Festival Sale that would be the dream – to do this on the very first time is absolutely amazing.
“Dad and I picked her out – she was unbelievable looking as a store horse, I don’t know how we managed to buy her for that money.”
She continued: “She has been so simple and easy to do. She has shown so much at home and was so ahead of her time always, we have had to keep a lid on her all the way through, we had to be so careful not to overcook her. And for a big filly to have run and won so early in the four-year-old season is amazing.”
Successful purchaser Molony said: “I was there when she won at Ballycahane point-to-point as it is just ten minutes away from home; The Big Westerner (Lot 10] won on the same day.
“I had been told about her about a month before she ran. She is just beautiful, just stunning, so we said that we will have to have a go. She is going to Henry De Bromhead.”
THE BIG WESTENER (Lot 10), the half-sister to the 2023 Grade 1 Festival winner and Tattersalls Cheltenham graduate Stay Away Fay, was also bought by Moloney and he added: “She is a lovely scopey mare and has been bought on spec, she will probably be turned away now.”
Tessa Greatrex of Highflyer Bloodstock, the session’s leading purchaser with three lots bought for a spend of £550,000, went to £350,000 for the Order Of St George gelding BUCKNA (Lot 21), who won on his four-year-old debut at Kirkistown and was sold by Gerald Quinn’s Caherty Stables.
Greatrex said: “He has been bought for Jim and Claire Bryce for whom we bought the Mighty Bandit at last month’s Tattersalls Ireland Andy and Gemma Brown Dispersal Sale – he is also by Order Of St George and he runs tomorrow.
“We are thrilled, and Buckna just looked a super professional jumper in his point-to-point. We have no plans as yet, we just want to get him home. He is only a four-year-old and he probably won’t be seen until the autumn. He will be trained by Warren.”
The Ballycrystal Stables-offered five-year-old Saint Des Saints gelding PIERROT JAGUEN (Lot 4), a third winner from the Ballycahane point-to-point on March 3, was bought by trainer Olly Murphy and his father Aiden with one bid at £200,000.
“He is a lovely big horse, a horse for next season,” said Murphy. “He has a good pedigree, he is a horse with a big engine, and he comes with a big reputation. He has been bought on spec.”
Matthew Prior, Tattersalls Associate Director, commented: “We are delighted with how the sale has performed tonight with a record turnover and a session-topping £410,000 given for a quality filly who looks to have a great future.
“We put together a quality catalogue of point-to-pointers and horses-in-training, and we are delighted that the consignors have been so well rewarded.
“We look forward to watching the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup tomorrow in which four Tattersalls Jockey Club Sales horses are taking their chances, headed by the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale graduates Gerri Colombe and Bravemansgame.”