SALES REPORT - ARKLE SALE

Racing Daily's sales and bloodstock reporter Gabriella Herbert takes a look back at the Goffs Arkle Sale as she reports on all the goings on and biggest stories. The Goffs Arkle Sale (Parts 1 & 2) took place this week at Kildare Paddocks and by all accounts the trade was incredibly robust. A long list of both agents and trainers strongly emphasised in their interviews with Nick Luck how much quality was being offered by the vendors this year.

In Part 1, the turnover amounted to €18,752,000 and the median price was €45,000 – both increases on the previous year. There were also higher prices at the top of the market. In 2024, the sale-topping Tunis gelding consigned by Liss House, Leader Des Bordes, was the only store to hit the €200,000 mark, making €210,000. This year there were three lots that realised €200,000 or more, with the top ten all making north of €150,000.

It was the usual suspects supplying the most expensive individuals. Haras de Montaigu’s No Risk At All, whose covering fee is as high as it ever was at the moment, continues to be perennially popular. He fielded fifteen stores at the sale, nine of which realised in excess of €80,000.

The demand for stores by the younger Coolmore stallion Crystal Ocean has also soared off the back of the savage season he has had with his first four-year-old runners. Boardsmill Stud’s Poet’s Word has done similarly well, so it is no surprise that his stock gained plenty of attention too.

It will come as no surprise that the most expensive purchase was supplied by the inimitable Walk In The Park, although many may not have guessed it would be a two-year-old that would top the sale. On the second day of Part 1, the last twenty-three lots to be lead through the ring were part of the new session for two-year-old stores. There has been lots of chat lately about getting jumps horses going earlier in the UK and Ireland, largely due to the French horses, who are often running over fences by the time they are three, dominating all our biggest races.

Goffs Ireland should receive credit for committing to a two-year-old sale alongside the three-year-olds, as it is hard to predict the appetite of the market completely – some pin-hookers could be wary of the extra year of upkeep costs associated with a younger horse, even with the advantage it could gain from an earlier education. That said, the session was timed very well, due to the HRI’s recent decision to launch a new programme of academy hurdles for unraced three-year-olds, which will start in October. There was plenty of appetite there, as sixteen of the twenty-three two-year-olds were sold, for a median of €39,000, only €6,000 behind the three-year-old median.

Glenwood Stud were responsible for consigning the top lot, a two-year-old Walk In The Park colt out of the Midnight Legend mare Sparky May, who is already the source of top-flight chaser Stage Star and the Listed-placed La Malmason. Gerry Aherne gave €230,000 for the colt, who was a €110,000 foal purchase from the December National Hunt Sale in 2023.

Tom Malone gave €200,000 for a three-year-old Nathaniel gelding that was consigned by Oaks Farm Stables. The gelding is out of a French-bred mare called Tinagoodnight, who has already produced the likes of Santini and Rock Point. Gordon Elliot was another to spend €200,000, for a Crystal Ocean gelding out of the bumper-winning mare Whistle Dixie, who hails from the family of Kicking King, Kalashnikov and Kalane.

The Arkle Sale Part 2 took place on Thursday. The top lot was a Crystal Ocean gelding out of the Presenting mare Truly Amazing, from the family of Asian Maze and Quantitativeeasing, which Gerry Hogan and Paul Nolan gave €70,000 for. The strength of the market seemed to carry over into the second part of the sale, with rises in the clearance rate, average and median.

written by Gabriella Herbert