Weveallbeencaught Tops Vibrant Cheltenham January Sale
The Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale 2022 picked up from where last year’s Cheltenham December Sale left off with record-breaking returns. Today’s sale, last staged in 2020, produced 11 lots which sold for £100,000 or more. The session aggregate of £2,672,000, the average of £78,588 and the median of £69,000 were all record figures for the sale. The clearance rate was an excellent 92 per cent.
Weveallbeencaught (Lot 14), a five-year-old gelding by Getaway, winner of his Domahane point-to-point at the end of December, was widely expected to be the sale highlight and he did not disappoint fetching £210,000, a new record price for the sale. He was bought by Twiston-Davies Equine and owner Jimmy Wenman from Michael Kennedy Racing.
"He is a smasher, I train a few for Conor Murphy, who bred him. We broke him and brought him on, we were hoping he would sell well and we are happy enough with that," said Kennedy, who is based in County Cork.
The gelding is out of the Grade 3-placed Curvacious (Anshan), and Kennedy added: "It is a good family and you will see a lot more winners from the pedigree over the next few years."
"I think he is the best horse in the sale, he is a real film star of a horse," enthused Wenman. "He is an out-and-out stayer and he is going to top-class trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, who specialises in top-class chasers. One day, please god, he comes up that Cheltenham hill for me, that is what I want!
"I haven't had a winner at Cheltenham, but Nigel has trained lots of winners for me and this horse has been bought with my friend Edward James. We hope to have lots of fun."
Wenman added: “I came here yesterday, we stayed overnight, I looked at lots of different horses, he just looked superb."
Lot 16, Supreme Commander (Fame And Glory), who finished second to Weveallbeencaught at Dromahane, was bought by Tom Malone / Sherborne Utilities for £120,000 from Matthew Flynn O’Connor’s Ballycrystal Stables. It is another good Cheltenham result for the handler having sold the top and third best-priced lots at the December Sale.
Lot 8 QUEENS VIC
Queens Vic (Lot 8), a November winner at Dromahane, was bought by agent Joey Logan with Gordon Elliott for Andy and Gemma Brown for £175,000. A well-bred daughter of Shirocco, she is closely related to the Cheltenham Gold Cup (G1) runner-up Minella Rocco.
"She has been bought for Andrew and Gemma Brown and they had a lovely Grade 2 winner in the Triumph Hurdle Trial here today with Pied Piper," said Logan, who bought the New Approach gelding for the couple at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale for 225,000gns.
"The couple are getting together a serious bunch of horses. We saw her and thought she was a very nice filly, a very big, scopey filly. If she can go on and get black-type she will be a lovely broodmare. The Browns are buying some smart, well-bred fillies and breeding is the long-term plan.”
Queens Vic was consigned by Aidan Fitzgerald of Cobajay Stables who said: "She really won her race well and she has a savage pedigree – the third dam is six from six, the second dam is six from seven. I can see this filly going on to win her bumper and then becoming a black-type runner over hurdles next year."
He added: "With a pedigree like that she was always going to be a good mare. She is owned with Barry Geraghty and Enda McDonagh, two very good friends. She won the same point-to-point for me as Queens Brook [£160,000 Tattersalls Cheltenham November 2019], she went on to finish third in the Festival bumper. I have 25 for this spring, hopefully some more to come back here!”
Lot 18 COPPERFASTEN
Another mare to catch the buyers’ eyes was Copperfasten (Lot 18). By Flemensfirth and out of Copper Dusht (Dushyantor), she was sold by Terence O'Brien's Woodstock Stables to Louise Bowtell / Select Racing for £160,000.
The five-year-old mare will go into training with Tim Vaughan, and there were special reasons behind the team's purchase.
"She has been bought for Paul and Louise Bowtell, who owned her half-sister, the Listed-placed Copper Gone West. Copperfasten is a lovely big mare who won first time out, she has a lovely pedigree, hopefully she will be one to breed from," said Vaughan. "We saw the video of her win and we liked what we saw. We loved Copper Gone West, we thought she would have been in the first three in the Pertemps Final, but sadly we lost her. Hopefully this will be a nice filly."
From the family of the black-type winners Copper Bleu and Give Me A Copper, Copperfasten won her maiden at Boulta on December 12.
After the sales conclusion, Tattersalls Head of Sales Matthew Prior said;
"The home of National Hunt racing has produced yet another superb sale session, once again reinforcing the enduring appeal of our Cheltenham sales. The consignors produced some quality horses and were rewarded in the ring.
“With the recent good news that all February’s Irish point-to-point fixtures can go ahead, entries for the early-season Irish four-year-old maiden races are now open and we look forward to next month’s sale.”
The Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale is scheduled for Thursday, February 24. It is a sale responsible for the Grade 1-winning graduates Envoi Allen and Ferny Hollow, and in 2018 and 2019 achieved an average price over £100,000.