Elvis the King for Treannahow Stables as Mullins sees off Nicholls for €250,000 stunner

“We call him Elvis at home because he is the king.”

Those were the words of a stunned Tony Costello as he attempted to reckon with the sale of his Galiway gelding to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for €250,000 during the second session of the Goffs Arkle Sale on Wednesday.

Elvis was most certainly the king of Kildare Paddocks as he sparked a bidding war between the reigning champion trainers of Britain and Ireland.

As has been the case so often on the racecourse over recent years, it was Ireland’s all-conquering Mullins who emerged the victor, but Paul Nicholls and Tom Malone pushed him all the way.

The atmosphere inside the sales ring was hotter than the sun splitting the stones outside, and the opening bid of €100,000 for lot 340 indicated that it was going to be a sizzler. Adding to the intrigue, both parties could be seen on the balcony, with Kirk and Mullins, who was on the phone, just around the corner from their adversaries.

With the bids increasing and both trainers showing the level of determination their best stars have displayed on the track, the session’s previous best of €185,000 was soon surpassed and quickly the €200,000 barrier was breached for the first time at this sale. 

Kirk made the play at €250,000 and the attention of everyone lasered in on Malone and Nicholls to see if they would counter, but it proved a decisive bid and King Rasko Grey duly became the third Galiway gelding to join the Closutton team this week. 

All three stores by Haras de Colleville’s Group 1 sire offered at the Goffs Arkle Sale were snapped up by the champion trainer, who has excellent reasons to rate the son of Galileo as Mullins trains the multiple Grade 1 winners Vauban and Gala Marceau, who are the best National Hunt performers so far by Galiway.

Mullins said: “He’s a gorgeous horse by a sire who has been very good to us. He was poetry in motion walking around the ring and I loved him. We’ve gone back to the source of success in Treannahow Stables.”

Tony, Thomas and Andrew Costello with Elvis at GoffsCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

At last year’s sale, Mullins and Kirk purchased Predators Gold from the Costello family and he made a winning debut for the team in the Goffs Defender Bumper at the Punchestown festival in April.

That €100,000 purchase had been the previous best result Treannahow Stables had recorded in the ring. They also sold Milo Lises, runner-up to his stablemate in this year’s Defender Bumper, and that son of Storm The Stars was purchased as a two-year-old at the same sale in France where Tony Costello bought King Rasko Grey as a weanling in January 2021 for €18,000.

Costello said: “He was an unbelievably stunning individual as a foal and developed into a special horse; this is dream stuff for us. You know you have a nice horse but you never think something like this could happen. For it to happen you need two powerhouses like them to take each other on.”

The Mullins team was determined to secure the gelding whose page is a typically strong German line. He is the first foal out of Imaginary Move, a winner over a mile as a three-year-old at Chantilly for Jean-Pierre Carvalho. By Wiener Walzer, she is a half-sister to Instigator, who was Listed-placed on the Flat in France and a winner at that level over hurdles in Australia. Imaginary Move is also a half-sister to Ismene, who won the Listed Diana Trial, and to Imi, who was third in the Deutsches Derby of 2021.

His second dam, Imagery, is by Monsun and was a Listed-winner and Group 3-placed in Germany. She is a half-sister to Idealist, whose Group victories included the Badener Meile and he was also second in the Group 1 Gran Criterium. Imagery’s other half-siblings include the Group 3 winner Imonso and Idolino, a Listed winner.

For Kirk, there was no doubt they had purchased the best store on offer this week.

“He’s the nicest horse in the sale and by a sire with whom we’ve won five Grade 1s with two horses,” he said. “He’s just a special horse and a beautiful individual with a fantastic German pedigree.

“Galiway is a fantastic sire on the Flat as well and there won’t be too many chances to buy his offspring in the future as he has become so successful.”

Willie Mullins won the race for the Galiway gelding at Goffs on WednesdayCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

Galiway’s fee was €3,000 when MM Stud sent Imaginary Move to Haras de Colleville but, with Sealiway, the Champion Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner, in his second crop, along with Vauban, who was a Listed winner on the Flat in France before racking up a sequence of Grade 1 victories in juvenile hurdles last season for Mullins and Rich Ricci, his reputation has soared. 

The sire of ten further stakes winners on the Flat and a pair of Listed-winning hurdlers in addition to Vauban and Gala Marceau, Galiway stood for €30,000 this year.

As King Rasko Grey’s consigning team attempted to process the events of the previous hour, Tony Costello was keen to emphasise the next generation of the famed Clare family from near Dromoland Castle.

“We’re a family organisation with a long tradition,” said Costello, whose sons Thomas and Andrew were an integral part of the Treannahow Stables team, with more than 150 shows for this gelding.

That is something of an understatement as his late father Tom produced six individual Cheltenham Gold Cup winners including the legendary Best Mate, and stars including One Man, Florida Pearl and Strong Flow with the latter pair trained by the protagonists in Wednesday’s battle. Costello snr died 14 years ago on Wednesday and his son confirmed it was an emotional day for the family.

“Dad’s last day out was here at the sale in 2009 and it’s his anniversary today, so I think we had some help here” he said.

Read more from the Goffs Arkle Sale

‘He’s beautiful and sharp with a pedigree to go with it’ – Nicholls and Malone win battle for €160,000 sale-topper Zamek  

‘He was bought by a very good judge’ – €95,000 Blue Bresil gelding gets new consigning operation off to great start