Royal Welsh Sale - 14th, 15th & 16th October 2005
Brightwells Auctioneers offered 762 Welsh Cobs, Welsh Ponies
of Cob-type and Welsh Part-Breds to packed houses on the Royal Welsh Showground
over three days when records were sent crashing and the total turnover of
£682,630 was almost double the 2001 figure of £358,938 and the average figure
of £719 shot up to £1,080.
The £17,000 paid by Robert Manchip of the Ffald Stud
on behalf of a client for Clare Willis-Burton’s eight-year-old section D mare
Tardebigge Estelle was an all-time record for any animal on these Sales.
Similarly the £12,000 paid by Steve and Carol Crutchley of the Caerddaniel Stud
in the West Midlands for Fronarth Stud’s section D filly foal Fronarth
Telynores Goch beat the previous foal record of £11,000 set up in 2001 for the
section C filly foal Synod Relegance.
Estelle was bred by Barry and Yvonne Abrey of the Tardebigge
Stud, Llanfilo, Brecon out of Tardebigge Esther, one of the most successful
current show mares in Britain having won at the Royal Welsh both as a two-year-old and as a brood mare.
Estelle was sold locally as a foal to Alan Jones in whose ownership she won the supreme youngstock
championship at Lampeter and Glanusk Welsh Breeds Shows in 1999 after which she was sold to Pentrefelin
Stud where she produced two fillies and one colt foal.
Steve and Carol Crutchley had previously created a
foal record when they bought Fronarth Elin for £5,000 on the 2000 Sales and she
has turned out to be such a favourite that they added Fronarth Telynores Goch
to their Caerddaniel Stud. The Jones family of Fronarth are experts at spotting
promising foals on these Sales; David John, who is still active at 91 years
old, bought Telynores Goch’s great-grand-sire Cyttir Telynor in 1978 and produced him
to win the Royal Welsh Prince of Wales cup in 1982 and 1987. It was his nephew Gwyn who
bought Telynores’s dam Cynon Cymen as a foal on the 1996 Sales and Cymen’s
first foal Fronarth Telynor Yr Ail was the top-priced section D on the 2002
Sales. It was good to see the fifth generation of Fronarth Joneses,
twelve-year-old Dafydd handling his own foals, one of which Fronarth Welsh Rose
sold for £4,200.
Over the last few years, breeding stock have taken a “back
seat” to ridden and driven animals but this year saw a revival of fortunes,
twelve section D mares and fillies selling for over £3,000. Robert Manchip paid
£6,000 for Menai Stud’s twelve-year-old Menai Fancy whose progeny include Menai
Firestorm, sire of some of the top lots on the recent Penstrumbly Stud Sale.
Dawn Gant of the Kirkhamgate Stud in West Yorkshire
is concentrating on section C’s and sold her top show-winning four-year-old
section D mare Synod Rhythmette for £5,600.
Welsh Cobs have been bred at Tynewydd Farm, Llandefalle
since the famous Brenin Gwalia was born there in 1934 and his descendant Newydd
Lloyd is proving to be an exceptional sire. One Newydd Lloyd daughter, the
filly foal Gwernfythan Melody consigned by Trevor Tomkins of Hay-on-Wye sold
for £5,000 to the French enthusiast Dr Etienne Stevens whose daughter keeps the
Cobs in Belgium at Overisje.
Two three-year-old colts proved the most popular amongst the
male Cobs, Kath Panayiotou’s brilliant home-bred Kallistalodge Assasin, reserve
youngstock champion at this year’s Royal Welsh Show went to join the other
champion Cob stallions at the Mason family’s Stepol Stud in Lancashire for
£7,000 and Steve Watt’s Trixies How’d You Like It went to new breeder Tom
Fountain of South Ruislip for £6,000.
Another high-achiever youngster was Glyn Jones’s yearling
Llechfryn Mabon who was supreme youngstock champion at this year’s Lampeter
Breeds Show and he went to Dave and Zoe Buckley’s Haniel Stud at Malvern at
£4,800.
Top colt foal at £4,400 was Huw and Carys Davies’s Trefaes
Black Flyer sired by the 2002 Royal Welsh Prince of Wales cup winner Gwynfaes
Culhwch out of Trefaes Black Pearl who, with her five sisters, make up the
major portion of the Trefaes Stud. Black Flyer was bought by Tom Hughes of the
Rhydeilian Stud, Llanfairpwll, Anglesey whose son Alun is one of the leading
producers in North Wales.
Stuart Morgan from the Gower produced the ten-year-old mare
Hardys Decorum in great form to top the section C’s at £4,500; one of the last
progeny of the sadly-missed Synod Replay, Decorum was sold to Yorkshire
where her sisters have been big winners.
The smart palomino yearling colt Henfynyw Bleddyn was top
male section C at £3,800. He proved a good investment for his consignors the
Owen family of Pontllyfni who bought him on these Sales last year for £1,150.
Bleddyn was bought by Lindsey Oman
whose family are outgrowing their very successful ridden section A’s.
The 69 ridden and driven animals offered on the Friday
averaged £1,462. Steve Watts came up trumps again when his nine-year-old
piebald stallion Trixies Cappuccino topped the part-breds at £5,100. Cappuccino, who was in-hand and ridden
champion at Ponies (UK) was bought by Edward James of Southampton
who is resurrecting the Abbeyfield Stud which his late father had in the
‘seventies. Top gelding at £4,100 was Tom Farmer’s seven-year-old Townies
Fenman sired by Thorneyside The Gladiator.
40 animals were sold for export, 13 to Germany, 8 to Sweden,
6 to Denmark, 3 each to Belgium, Norway, Holland and France
and 1 to Finland.
Tardebigge Estelle - Photograph by Mrs C. Willis-Burton
Fronarth Telynores Goch - photograph by Dr G. Jones
Trefaes Black Flyer - photograph by Tom Hughes
Henfynyw Bleddyn
Content and Photographs by Dr Wynne Davies except where specified.
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