The Monart Sale is widely recognised as one of the finest selections of Ireland’s three-year-old event horses. Monart is the only sale in the world where the horses have been selected by a panel of 5-star event riders.

Organised by Niall Griffin, who has represented Ireland at two European Championships, a World Equestrian Games and two Olympic Games, he is supported by a selection panel of Polly Jackson, who has represented Great Britain at European Championships, and Australia’s Bill Levett who has amassed a number of top 10 finishes at 5* level over a glittering career. All horses are vetted by Olympic team vet Marcus Swail.

Highest priced

It was the MBF prefix that commanded the top prices, this year securing the two highest priced lots with the incredibly smart MBF Hit The Road by Tolan R selling for €34,000 and MBF Commander Bond by Comme Il Faut making €31,500.

The third highest lot was Orado C by Ballypatrick’s Jorado out of a Pacino mare and was bought for €28,000 by one of Ireland’s leading show jumping yards.

Record numbers joined the online bidding amid turbulent times in global markets. However, despite the top lots making good money, it appeared to be a buyer’s market with some surprisingly affordable hammer drops. There were 62 unsold lots on the night, almost a third of the total selected consignments.

Monart, Ireland’s only elite horse sale, run by riders, for riders, took a gamble and increased the number of horses on offer this year by 70%. With record numbers of three-year-old sport horses put forward for selection, over 170 horses were ultimately selected for the 2023 Monart Sale.

Of the increased numbers, Monart sale director Niall Griffin commented:

“I think this week’s results have been a true reflection of where the market is currently. Considering we’ve increased the number of horses by 70% and still achieved a clearance rate in the high 60% range is very positive.

Every time we’ve increased our sale in the past, even if its only by 10-20%, the clearance has always dropped to the 60s and taken a year or two to get back to the high 70-80s.

“So, to maintain the same trend with such an increase in horses and all the external factors right now - we’ve got two wars, the UK which has always been our biggest market struggling with floods and feeling the pinch of Brexit, plus the global economy struggling-we are very happy with how the sale has gone.

“What has also been extremely encouraging is the number of people following the sale online. At its lowest viewing point over the two nights, there was 6,000 individually watching and following the sale. That’s 6,000 eyes on these horses, and 6,000 interested in Irish horses and potentially, a future bidder. That’s a really good sign for the industry moving forward.”

All eyes will be on the upcoming Go For Gold Sale at Goresbridge.