Recent winning horses from Britain’s point-to-point circuit will be going on sale next week at Goffs UK’s January Sale in Doncaster and at Tattersalls’ Cheltenham January Sale.
Lady Sally (Lot 244), who at Barbury Racecourse last month provided Jump jockey Mark Grant with a debut winner with his first runner, heads to Doncaster's two-day sale, which offers Jump-bred mares and foals on Tuesday, and pointers and horses-in-training on Wednesday (January 21 & 22). A six-year-old daughter of Scorpion, Lady Sally won a Jockey Club-sponsored maiden mares' race at the Wiltshire venue.
Quinta Do Mar (Lot 37) won a point-to-point Flat race at Bitterley last season for Phil Rowley's stable, and more recently was second at Cottenham. He is a five-year-old son of Califet, while the Tom Ellis-trained Commandingpresence (Lot 259), who was second on debut in a two-and-a-half-mile maiden at Sheriff Hutton on Sunday, is a five-year-old by Kalanisi out of a mare who won four times over hurdles.
Dragonfruit (Lot 260) also finished runner-up at Sheriff Hutton, but in a three-mile maiden. A five-year-old by Black Sam Bellamy and trained by Josh Guerriero, Dragonfruit was bred by the late Edward Crow and is closely related to a host of winners trained by his widow, Sheila.
Tattersalls is trying a new format at Cheltenham on Friday (January 24) by staging a sale in the owners' and trainers' marquee – the assembled lots will parade in the adjacent paddock.
Among entries are Give Us A Swig, who scored on debut at Alnwick for the Tom Ellis/Gina Andrews partnership. He is a five-year-old son of Trans Island.
Ripper Roo (grey, pictured above), who beat Ellis's Commandingspresence at Sheriff Hutton, is entered from the stable of Fran Nimmo. A grey son of Smadoun, he scored in impressive over two and a half miles.
Also in the line-up is his stablemate, Red Buccaneer (pictured centre in the photograph at the top of this article), a big, chestnut son of Black Sam Bellamy. He made his debut at Larkhill earlier this month and finished second to a more experienced rival over three miles.
Both sales companies are important national sponsors this season through their backing of a series of maiden races for four- and five-year-olds.
See www.goffsuk.com and www.tattersallscheltenham.com for more information.
King for a second time
One True King, who crossed the Irish Sea to score at last month's Barbury International meeting under James King (the pair pictured above), went in again at Ludlow yesterday.
Subsequently sold out of Cormac Doyle's stable, he was sent off at 8/1 and landed a bumper for Nigel Twiston-Davies under the trainer's son Sam.
Henry Franklin and Dillwyn Thomas
South Wales correspondent Brian Lee has informed pointtopoint.co.uk of the death of Dillwyn Thomas at the age of 94.
He and his late wife Barbara owned many winning point-to-pointers over the years, including Cariff Princess, Prince Haven II, Cefn Soloman and Daisy Miller. The couple also acted as officials at many Welsh meetings, and the former point-to-point course at Laleston was held on their farm near Bridgend.
Terry Selby has informed us that Henry Franklin, a stalwart of racing in the South Midlands, has also passed away. He was 91.
A press officer in his region for many years, Franklin was also a point-to-point commentator and form guru. His funeral takes place at Oxford Crematorium at noon next Thursday (January 23).