Sons Of Westerner And Getaway Bring Six Figure Sums

Bloodstock agent Harold Kirk went to £300,000 to secure Colin Bowe’s impressive point-to-point winner Ferny Hollow (4g Westerner - Mirazur, by Good Thyne) at the Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale on Thursday.

A 15-length debut victory at Knockanard the weekend before meant that the four-year-old was in high demand, and Kirk had to fend off challenges by Noel Meade and Roger Brookhouse to bag the prize lot.

JJ Bowe, a cousin of the master handler, sourced and owned Ferny Hollow, and was understandably elated after the sale, exclaiming, “It's a brilliant price, you can't describe that feeling because there's nothing else like it, it's unreal.” On sourcing the son of Westerner for €38,000 at the Derby Sale, he said, “He was recommended highly by Ken Parkhill – who bred him – and I just loved him, he's compact but big enough for a Westerner and has a good set of legs on him.”

Ferny Hollow is now destined for the stables of Willie Mullins, as his Deploy The Getaway (4g Getaway - Gaelic River, by Deploy), for whom Kirk and Mullins gave £200,000 earlier in the day. He, too, came with lofty expectations, having won first time out at Tallow by all of 20 lengths for Donnchadh Doyle and the Monbeg Syndicate.

Kirk outbid Tessa Greatrex and Tom Malone to secure the bay and later commented, “I've bought two horses by Getaway before; Getareason and Getabird, and they're both Graded horses so he's been a very lucky sire for me. Hopefully this horse can carry that on. He's a lovely, quality, athletic horse and he could do no more than he did on debut.”

Deploy The Getaway provided a fine return on his store sale price of 25,000; money well-spent for Doyle, who said, “At the money we paid for him he wasn’t dear and as soon as we schooled him we knew he was going to be very good.” Bred by J.P.N. Parker, his dam Gaelic River also has a two-year-old gelding by the same Grange Stud sire, who stands for €7,500 in 2019.