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The Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale record was broken for the second time in 24 hours on Thursday when a half-brother to Talk The Talk fetched a gasp-inducing €400,000.
Tom Malone was involved from early in the piece as Paul Holden provided the first bit of resistance. As things began to get serious, Frank Berry, standing beside JP McManus on the top tier of the auditorium, entered the fray.
Malone looked in a determined mood, particularly when signalling a bid of €300,000. However, Malone and the McManus camp were ultimately relegated to the role of underbidders after Mags O’Toole and Rob Acheson, son of Robcour supremo Brian Acheson, made the unprecedented play of €400,000.
“We looked at nearly every horse on the ground and Rob, who’s a very good judge, said from day one, ‘I don’t know what we’re buying here, but I know what we’re not going home without,’” said O’Toole.
“I know it sounds an awful lot of money but four years ago Brighterdaysahead was €310,000 and others have made €350,000 and whatever, and that’s the market. Nothing ever goes down in price. We’re huge fans of Talk The Talk and this horse has everything; looks, movement, pedigree.”
Also at the Derby Sale on Thursday:
Already named Walk The Talk, the youngster was bred by Lune Vergette of Haras de Faydeau. He is by rising star sire Karaktar and is the second foal out of Walk The Walk. The dam’s first offspring is Talk The Talk, winner of the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle during the Dublin Racing Festival. There is depth to the pedigree too as the mare is also a Walk In The Park sibling to the dam of Elimay and Goshen.
Rob Acheson shakes hands with John Bleahen after securing the half-brother to Talk The Talk
Acheson picked up the thread, saying: “We were both mad keen to get into the stallion again. We’ve been waiting for the progeny of his better mares to come through as we’ve had two so far [Kala Conti and Kamikaz Du Plessis] and they’ve both won multiple races. We’ve been playing the waiting game as it’s been three years since we bought one.
“As Mags said, we saw pretty much everything here and he was just a standout. We’ve actually tried to get into the family before with horses under the second dam but it hasn’t come to fruition. When an opportunity comes along to get into a family you’ve been desperate to get into, you have to give it a go.”
Acheson said training plans would be made in due course, saying: “He’s going to Paddy Kennedy to be broken and we’ll make a decision about a trainer after that. The half-brother ran in a Grade 1 at four and he seems like a forward horse, so we’ll get ready to kick on with him.”
Asked if they had expected to be pushed into such uncharted waters in terms of price, O’Toole said: “Absolutely not! We got swept along, as did JP and Tom Malone. The standard of the horses here is just fabulous though and the market is hot, as it has been at all the sales this year. They’ve produced some beautiful horses.”
The record-breaking offering was sold by John Bleahen’s Lakefield Farm, the same vendor who topped the Derby Sale with Brighterdaysahead in 2022.
Walk The Talk brings a record-breaking €400,000
“It’s a dream,” said an emotional Bleahen. “I knew I had everybody in the place interested from the word go.”
Explaining how he came to find the record-breaking youngster, Bleahen said: “He was a very lucky find. A lot of the credit goes to my brother Hugh, we owned him together. He spotted the horse first.
“He was bred in France by Lune Vergette, who’s a great lady and a great breeder. Dancing City came from her farm too so it’s been very lucky for us. We looked at him together and bought him in ten seconds; it was an easy buy because you don’t come across horses like him often.”
Bleahen expanded on his perspective on the record-busting trade, saying: “When you’re buying these horses as foals, the dream is to get €80,000 or €100,000. That’s the dream. You can never value those horses after €100,000. It was massive to see JP appearing here himself, the whole racing industry owes him so much. Tom Malone is an absolute legend and so plucky, he kept coming back, and Mags O’Toole and Robcour, they’re fabulous people.”
He also credited the work his team put in at the County Galway operation.
“I have probably the best guy in the whole world working for me in Wesley Hayes,” he said. “He’s my eyes and ears and takes care of the whole thing. I don’t want to sound like Aidan O’Brien, but the team needs so much credit because they live and breathe these horses.”
He added: “I didn’t have any stress. The only stress was that Luke and I forgot to set the reserve! He had a €50,000 reserve because they’re here to be sold. If he’s anything like the last one, Brighterdaysahead, it’d be great.”
More Derby Sale stories:
‘At least we’re still talking!’ – Mullins and McManus trade blows at lively Derby Sale opener