Jukebox Jury Gelding Shines in Doncaster Ring

A store by Jukebox Jury (Ire) (lot 161), related to a trio of NH stakes winners, brought a session-topping £135,000 fro Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls during the Goffs UK Doncaster Spring Store Sale on Tuesday.

From the family of Grade 1 winner Master Minded (Fr) (Nikos {GB}), the bay is out of Fairy Tale (Fr) (Spanish Moon), who already has a winning point-to-pointer to her name. He was consigned by Worthen Hall Stables.

Four other lots breached the six-figure mark, with Brown Island Stables' lot 50, already named Beau Speed (Fr) (Beaumec De Houelle {Fr}), going to the same connections as the topper for £110,000. Ryan Mahone and Dan Skelton Racing bought a daughter of Walk In The Park (Ire) (lot 156) for £105,000 from the consignment of Worthen Hall Stables.

A pair of lots were sold at £100,000–Lakefield Farm's Style De Folie (Fr) (Vol De Nuit {GB}) (lot 92) to Tom Malone and Jamie Snowden, and Goldford Stud's lot 111, a filly by No Risk At All (Fr), who caught the eye of Ryan Mahon and Dan Skelton Racing.

A total of 170 lots (69%) sold from 246 offered for a gross of £4,394,050. The average was £25,848 (-12%) and the median also dropped, settling at £20,000 (-13%).

Goffs UK Managing Director Tim Kent said, “The highly anticipated Spring Store Sale is the first sale of its kind each year and, as such, is always met with much anticipation. However, this was further heightened after a number of recent sales that proved difficult away from the very top, whilst we are all very aware of the challenges that the Point-to-Point vendors have faced during the last 12 months.

“Despite all of this, we were obviously hopeful of a healthy sale and whilst we feel that plenty of people achieved this today, we cannot escape the fact that it has been a tough day for some. As ever, the top of the market has been very strong and those who had the desired lots sold very well–as demonstrated by the five horses that sold for £100,000 or more. However, other levels of the market have certainly softened as witnessed by the drop in numbers sold, though it has been encouraging to see a lot of horses sold outside the ring showing that demand is there if vendors are prepared to trade.

“Whilst we cannot draw any firm conclusions until after the comparative sales in Ireland, we are proud of the fact that we have worked extremely hard to promote this sale and this ensured that we had a strong catalogue of horses that were viewed by a diverse buying bench consisting of buyers at all levels from both sides of the Irish Sea. Whilst we are disappointed not to have matched the figures achieved in recent years, we are still enormously proud of this sale and its 63-year history.

“It may not have been plain sailing but there are a lot of positives to take away from today and we look forward to carrying that into the two-day Spring HIT/PTP Sale which kicks off tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.”