Records broken as Papa Tango Charly commands top billing

Graduates of the Goffs UK Aintree Sale have been setting the track alight with some superb performances at the highest level, and on Thursday evening they starred in the sale ring with Aintree’s iconic winner’s enclosure seeing a new record top price of £440,000.

Colin Bowe’s Milestone Stables produced Samcro to top the inaugural sale in 2016 for £335,000 and that record was comprehensively beaten at the 2019 sale with his new star, the Liscarroll winning point-to-pointer Papa Tango Charly, who sold to Aidan Kennedy for £440,000.

The French-bred son of No Risk At All, who was a first winning point-to-pointer for that stallion, is now set to go into training with Jonjo O’Neill for new owner Martin Tedham.

The market unsurprisingly looked very favourably on that Liscarroll maiden with the second and third finishers also realising six-figure sums, with Donnchadh Doyle’s runner-up Big Bresil going to Roger Brookhouse for £170,000, whilst Matt Collins’ Meyer Lansky was the last of ten point-to-pointers to reach six figures when bought by Stroud Coleman and Jonjo O’Neill for £105,000.

That was not the end of the big prices for horses consigned by either Bowe or Doyle, with the reigning champion handler also selling his Ballynoe winner, It Sure Is, to Highflyer Bloodstock for £150,000, his Monksgrange winning mare Cill Anna to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls for £115,000, and Lisronagh runner-up, Royal Crown, to Colin Tizzard for £110,000.

Doyle meanwhile off-loaded his two Portrush winners, with the newcomer Grandads Cottage fetching £200,000 to join Olly Murphy, whilst Vandemere, who won the other division of that Portrush maiden, went to Seamus Burns for £120,000.

Josh Ryan’s debut winning pointer Adrimel was another to command plenty of attention in the ring and was eventually knocked down to Ed Bailey Bloodstock for £280,000.

Goffs UK Managing Director Tony Williams commented:

“The Aintree Sale has firmly established itself as an elite boutique outlet for high-class Pointers and Form Horses. The results this sale has been achieving on the track, headlined most recently by Topofthegame, and a vintage 2019 catalogue allowed us to attract the who’s who of the National Hunt world and tonight’s results reflect its ever-growing status.

“We are indebted to the Aintree executive for their enthusiastic partnership in this sale and to our vendors who sent us outstanding horses once again which created an electric atmosphere in the ring. We now look forward to Saturday’s Randox Health Grand National and to seeing the next generation of Aintree graduates excel at the highest level.”

Sale Statistics:
Offered: 28
Sold: 25 (89%)
Aggregate: £3,198,000 ( 32%)
Average: £127,920 ( 11%)
Median: £105,000 ( 5%)