Wide-margin Turtulla maiden winner tops Ascot March sale

Tattersalls Ascot March Sale concluded with a top price of £50,000 and an impressive clearance rate of 82% with 126 of the 154 horses offered sold. The aggregate concluded on £936,300, the median on £3,500 and the average on £7,258.
 
It was Irish point-to-pointer Sonru that claimed top-billing having impressed with his 25-length victory in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Turtulla for Wexford handler Donnchadh Doyle.

The son of Jeremy fetched the highest price of the day selling to Melbourne 10 Racing for £50,000, having finished third at Tinahely on his debut and he now joins the Midlands National-winning yard of Christian Williams (Lot 119).
 
Fellow Wexford handler Denis Murphy consigned a number of his horses with recent pointing form including  Whatsupwithyou, who has shown consistency throughout his career to date having won and been placed on two of his three outings.

By the highly regarded Shantou, the wide-margin Tyrella maiden winner will head to Cheltenham Festival winning trainer Ben Pauling, who signed for him for £35,000 (Lot 128).

Murphy also sold Mytermsoryours, a horse with recent winners form, and he goes to John McConnell, who paid £15,000 for the six-year-old Oldtown winner.

No horse brought more recent winning form than Aidan Fitzgerald’s Oscar Asche. The five-year-old had finished third behind Angels Breath at Moira on his debut, and went on to win at Ballyragget just last Sunday.

He was bought by Gearoid Costelloe for £30,000, whilst the runner-up in that same adjacent maiden at the Kilkenny venue, Paul Hennessy’s Special Buddy, was another to join Pauling, having been knocked down for £10,000.
 
At the conclusion of the sale, Director of Horses in Training Sales Richard Pugh commented;
 
"Today's sale has been well supported by Irish and UK vendors and has offered purchasers the opportunity to buy all categories of bloodstock.

"We welcomed a broad bench of purchasers, both domestic and international with countries represented including Germany, Poland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Jersey and Libya.

“Today's results measured well against last years and it was really pleasing to produce a clearance rate of 82% along with a top price of £50,000. We now look forward to the first European Two-Year-Old Breeze Up Sale of 2019 here at Ascot in just under two weeks' time which offers a reduced catalogue of 91 lots."