Pat Connell leads Dungar Quality Oats cash prize race

Image © Healy Racing

Pat Connell of Peria Stud is currently in pole position in the race to collect the Dungar Quality Oats breeders cash prize of €2,500.

The Tipperary-based company, which is a leading supporter of point-to-pointing, will once again give €2,500 to the lucky breeder of the top-priced four or five-year-old mare sold at public auction having run in a point-to-point this season.

Connell currently heads the standings after Heron In The Park was sold for £280,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December sale having won a Borris House four-year-old mares’ maiden on debut earlier that month.

The daughter of Walk In The Park, who is the seventh foal out of the St Jovite-sired mare Night Heron, is a half-sister of the 2022 Betfair Hurdle winner Glory And Fortune, and she was initially offered for sale as a foal by Peria Stud at Goffs in 2020 when bought by Rathmore Stud for €40,000.

But it is the £280,000 that owner Damian Tiernan parted with to secure the now Tom George-trained mare that has Connell at the top of the leaderboard.

If that price is not surpassed at any of the upcoming sales, including the marquee spring festival sales at the likes of Cheltenham, Aintree, and Punchestown, Connell will follow in the footsteps of Hilda Rothwell who scooped the inaugural cash prize last year.

The next qualifying sale is the upcoming Tattersalls Cheltenham February sale on February 21st.