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another two million dollar lot, with an Extreme Choice colt matching the top lot from the opening session. Bred and consigned by Kingstar Farm, the colt is a fullbrother to Group 3 winner Wollombi and will represent the familiar colours of Yulong Investments. The colt represented a familiar bloodline for Yulong’ s General Manager Jun Zhang.“ He’ s a very special colt,” he said.“ He was our only target that we definitely needed to buy.”“ We can see some stallion potential with him and also we own the sister as well, she is in-foal to Diatonic, so we try and create our own families so that is another reason why we had to get him.“ Extreme Choice is a very successful stallion and could be a history( making) stallion in the future, so this is why Mr Zhang is trying to get every Extreme Choice he can.” Arrowfield Stud were responsible for the highest-achieving filly of the sale, who topped the Day 3 session at $ 1.6 million. Out of an unraced mare, the Snitzel filly was related to numerous Stakes performers and caught the eye of purchasers Hermitage Thoroughbreds.“ There was a lot( of competition for her),” Hermitage’ s Shannon Clarke said.“ She was our top pick for the sale.”“ Obviously we’ ve had a lot of luck with a Snitzel filly recently and that’ s probably guided us into this filly today.”“ That was our limit. That was where we were going to sit and my heart was pounding at that point and I’ m happy that we were able to secure her.”“ We have a lot of luck with Arrowfield-bred horses, sold horses. It’ s a great partnership that we have and long may it continue.” Clarke was keen to point out the similarities between the new purchase and their star race filly Lady Shenandoah.“ They’ re both very athletic fillies. They just have an athletic physique, they showed that early on at their parades,” she added.“( They have) nice leg on them, good movers and we’ re just chuffed to get her.”
TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM JANUARY SALE – 24 JANUARY The Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale continued the positive recent trend, having suffered a low in 2024 when only achieving a turnover of 876,000 Guineas. The sale returned to better order in 2025 when accumulating 1,667,000 from twenty-four sold lots and increased again with a turnover of 1,719,000 Guineas in 2026 from twenty sold lots. Top billing went to Golden Current, consigned by Jonathan Fogarty Racing and purchased by Gordon Elliott Racing for 315,000 Guineas, a new record price for the sale. A winner of a point-to-point at Dromahane on debut, the gelding helped contribute to a new record average of £ 85,950, which was a 24 % increase on the previous year. Consigner Fogarty said:“ He did not come to me until July and Dermot Cantillon and David Cox own him with me. The plan was to run him as a five-year-old, but he was doing things so easily that we decided to run him at Dromahane on New Year’ s Eve – he was very impressive, and Golden Horn is a very good sire. It is great to get him here, and the Tattersalls team has looked after us so well.” Gordon Elliott added:“ It was a very good performance when this horse won. He has cost a bit more than we had planned, but a nice horse is always going to have a few lads on him. Jonathan knows the time of day and is a good operator.”
THOROUGHBID JANUARY SALE – 28 JANUARY The appeal of online auctions was further demonstrated with a successful Thoroughbid January Sale, which saw Hillberry Hill make £ 70,000. Consigned by Mags Mullins, a familiar face at the National Hunt Sales across the UK and Ireland, the five-year-old was a winner on his second run at Thurles and holds entries in major Grade 1 events at the Cheltenham Festival. He was bought by the Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls training team. Nicholls said:“ We’ re delighted to have picked up Hillberry Hill. The man he’ s been bought for, John Perris, actually spotted him in the sale as he has a very good Kingston Hill mare called White Noise, who’ s won three on the bounce, so he’ s a fan of the stallion. We liked the look of him when we saw him in the catalogue and he’ s just the type of horse we like to buy. He’ s 16.3hh,
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