The Welsh Pony and Cob Society
Cymdeithas y Merlod a'r Cobiau Cymreig

Brightwells Royal Welsh Sale 2007

Royal Welsh Showground
19^th, 20^th and 21^st October 2007

916 Welsh Cobs section D, Welsh Ponies Of Cob Type section C, Welsh Part-bred Cobs and Geldings were catalogued for the Brightwells Royal Welsh Sale held on the Royal Welsh showground on 19th, 20th and 21st October. This Sale is a follow-on from the Llanarth Sales, the brainchild of the late Miss Pauline Taylor in 1964 when 63 lots sold for £3,744. An indication of the enormous success of the 2007 Sale is the fact that 23 animals individually exceeded the 1964 Sale total with top prices of £11,000 for section D and £6,000 for section C. 37 animals sold for £3,000 or over.

With 109 animals not forward, 663 were sold for a total of £791,490 (up from £327,518 in 2000) which represents an average price of £1,193, the highest ever and up from £685 in 2000.

Top section D consignment of 10 animals selling for £39,950 was from the Thorneyside Stud of Mr Peter Gray and family from Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, a Stud started with the purchase of the some of the best Cardiganshire Cobs in 1973. Top of the Sale at £11,000 was the outstanding fifteen-year-old chestnut mare Thorneyside Magic Lady, daughter of Brynymor Welsh Magic which was bred by the late Mr D J Thomas of Talybont, Aberystwyth in 1973. Magic Lady has never been shown but is a regular producer of outstanding stock; her dam Thorneyside Pride is full-sister to Thorneyside The Boss and Thorneyside Flyer, the Royal Welsh champions of 1990 and 1992. Magic Lady was bought by Mr Mark Swistun of Swansea who also bought the ridden mare Cilsane Duchess for £4,200.

The three-year-old bay roan colt Thorneyside Tradition, son of Thorneyside Flyer, which sold for £10,000 is well-known within the Principality having been based at Capel Iwan for two years and his winnings this year include Glanusk and Cothi Bridge Shows. Tradition’s dam, Stormydown Dilys which was bred by John and Sooraya Cooke of North Cornelly, Bridgend, is all Thorneyside breeding, by Thorneyside More Magic out of Thorneyside Actress. Tradition was bought by Mr Hawkins of Sittingbourne, Kent who also bought the eight-year-old chestnut stallion Thorneyside The Intruder for £7,000.

The 15 section C’s from Cerdin and Doreen Jones’s Synod Stud in Talgarreg, which included 8 foals, sold for £35,900. The exquisite chestnut filly foal Synod Angelica lived up to her name and with a ding-dong battle between two local experts David Prater of Rhencullen and Richard Morgan of Parc, Angelica finally went to Rhencullen at £6,000. Top-priced foal on Saturday was the showy black filly Synod Mary Poppins bought over the telephone from Newmarket by racehorse breeders Paul and Mandy James of the Ditton Priors Stud for £3,300. Mrs Steeples of Ashbourne, Kent paid £3,200 for the chestnut filly foal Synod Ribbons and John and Jonathan Batt of Abergavenny paid £3,100 for the bay filly foal Synod Glamour, a filly whose breeding is full of Royal Welsh champions. Jakob Larsen of Denmark paid £6,000 for the eleven-year-old black stallion Synod Request who has sired a host of champions for Synod; fellow-Danish breeder Mrs Marianne Seidenfaden paid the same figure for the seven-year-old black stallion with Synod ancesters, Parvadean The Gigolo and another black stallion of Synod breeding, Telynau Deryn Du from Tom and Alun Hughes’s Rhydeilian Stud in Anglesey sold for £5,000 to Mrs Burgess of Derby. Deryn Du was offered for sale under saddle; it says much for his equable temperament that he was with Sara Ackers at her Caernarfon stables for only four weeks being broken in. Tom and Alun Hughes then spent £4,200 to buy the chestnut filly foal Popsters Love Addiction, grand-daughter of Synod Replay.

The champagne moment award of the Sale also went to Anglesey, to 74-year-old Emlyn Jones and his son Eric from the Llanidan Stud, Brynsiencyn who hit the tops of the Sale for the first time ever and received a standing ovation from the capacity Sunday afternoon crowd. Emlyn and Eric have been Welsh Cobs at Llanidan since 1968 but it was a chance visit to Beeston Castle Market last year that resulted in the purchase of the two-year-old colt Hermas Golden Lloyd bred by David Keast of Penlan, Swansea and sired by the Brecon-based Newydd Lloyd. Llanidan Stud sold four filly foals for £11,400, the silver dun Llanidan Purdie at £5,000 going to Esyllt Evans of Llwynhywel whose family have been breeding Welsh Cobs at Mabwshen, Llanrhystyd since 1897 and the cream Llanidan Peaches N Cream sold to Miss Llewellyn of Lichfield for £4,150.

Duns were very much in demand, Mr Longbottom of West Yorkshire sold the two-year-old colt Tothamhill St George to John Greenwood of Whitley Bay for £5,300. St George is a son of the 2000 Royal Welsh champion Danaway Flashjack and the vendor has a yearling full-brother at home. Sara Ackers bought the three-year-old black colt Pencalow Royal Rebel, son of Penllwynuchel Mathonwy for £4,500, no doubt he will have a successful ridden career with Sara.

Second-highest adult female at £5,500 was John and Jonathan Batt’s nine-year-old bay mare Malnor Autumn Dawn, full-sister to the 2003 Royal Welsh champion Malnor Forest King and herself placed 2nd in strong company at the Royal Welsh. Dawn was bought by French enthusiast Dr Etienne Stevens who also bought the section D equal-top filly foal at £5,000 Cascob Sweet Victory, the first daughter of the noted Cascob Matilda ever to leave Cascob.

Fronarth Stud always consign top lots to this Sale, their five-year-old black mare Fronarth Dancing Queen sold for £5,000 to Mrs Ceri Fell who has formidable sections A, C and D at her Brynseion Stud in Slough, Buckinghamshire.

Monica Davies of the Ilar Stud, Llanilar sold a bay filly foal Ilar Anest, daughter of the 2002 Royal Welsh champion Gwynfaes Culhwch to Miss Dickenson of Cheshire for £3,500 and Paul Harper of Llanedi, Pontardulais sold the attractive palomino filly foal Pantydwr Cream Dream to Mrs Morris of London for the same price.

Seven Welsh part-breds and geldings sold for £3,000 or over. The top price for a gelding was £3,300 for the three-year-old section D Dunaire Danny Boy of Maesmynach breeding. The Owen family from Caernarfon had the top part-bred price of £3,400 for their piebald filly foal Desach Legacy sired by the coloured Embla Houston out of a part-Cob mare of Gwenllan Brenin Mon breeding. Their other part-bred skewbald filly foal Desach Rosie’s Posy by the same sire sold for £1,500 and the same family sold two section C foals, the cremello filly Desach Madonna for £3,000 and the dun colt Desach Siarl for £1,100.

The average prices were £868 on Friday, £1,167 on Saturday and £1,581 on Sunday.

Article and photographs by Dr Wynne Davies unless otherwise stated

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