Clare horse tops Tattersalls sale fetching €200,000

John Costello’s recent Quakerstown winner, Search For Glory, was the star attraction at the recent Tattersalls April Sale held at Cheltenham Racecourse.

An eye-catching winner on debut of the five-year-old geldings’ maiden under his trainer’s son Conor Costello on Easter Sunday, the son of Fame And Glory came under the hammer at the famous Cotswolds venue just five days later.

After a hectic round of bidding, leading trainer Gordon Elliott had the final say when paying £200,000 for the gelding who will join his powerful Cullentra House operation.

Fenloe House-based Costello reported: “He’s the first horse I’ve ever sold or shown here. My son Conor rode him, it was his fourth winner but he’d broken his collarbone six weeks previously and had only been passed fit to ride on the day, so it was a great result.

“He won at Quakerstown like a very nice horse, which we’ve thought he is for quite a while. He’s a super athlete, a horse that has been slow to mature and when he gets a summer’s grass under his belt he’ll be a beautiful horse.

“We’ve owned him since he was a foal. I bought him privately off his breeder Pat Connell, who I also bought the Grade 1 winner Ballyadam from.”

Costello – whose late dad Tom sold six individual Gold Cup winners (eight in total as Best Mate won three) – added: “We’ve been lucky over the years, we sold two Cheltenham Festival winners this year, my brother Tony sold Stattler (National Hunt Chase winner) and I sold the Albert Bartlett winner The Nice Guy.

😀 The Nice Guy
🏇 Five races
🥇 Five wins
🏆 G1 Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle
🏆 G1 Albert Bartlett
⭐ Superstar

The Nice Guy leads home a 1-2 for @WillieMullinsNH at @punchestownrace as he scores under @PTownend #PTown22 pic.twitter.com/qBbfpMUQD7

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 27, 2022

“We’d sell most of ours as three-year-olds but two years ago this horses’s sire Fame And Glory wasn’t quite in fashion, but it’s turned out to be a good result.”