OASIS DREAM SALES TOPPER

A £280,000 OASIS DREAM colt, the dearest yearling sold at Doncaster’s new auction complex, crowned a Premier Sale that saw sustained demand from its beginning on Wednesday morning to completion at 7pm last night.

It is doubtful that a horse drew a bigger crowd than the one which suddenly filled the spaces before the OASIS DREAM colt swaggered in and circled the ring in roughly half the strides of some of his contemporaries.

This extravagant mover drew bids from a number of well-known agents and pinhookers. Breeze-up specialist Willie Browne was among them, and Amanda Skiffington went to £150,000 before Darley’s John Ferguson joined in for a joust with Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown. Then in stepped Coolmore’s Eddie Fitzpatrick and, after a brief head-to-head with Brown, auctioneer Michael White brought his hammer down in the Irishman’s favour.

The successful buyer said: “He’ll be going to Ballydoyle. Demi O’Byrne was here the other day and liked the horse – he’s a smashing colt, very strong, and hopefully could be a two-year-old. We’ve been lucky this year with Power [the O’Brien-trained Gr.2 Coventry Stakes winner who is also by OASIS DREAM].

The colt’s price has been bettered only once before at this sale by the Invincible Spirit filly Tatbeeq, who made 275,000gns (£288,750) in 2006.

Date: 02 September 2011