Orville Clarke, Freelance Writer

Five horses fetched prices of $1 million and over at Howard Hamilton's Dispersal Sale on the grounds of HAM Stables stud farm, Old Port Henderson Road, on Sunday.

The sale's topper was $1.25 million paid for the broodmare in foal, BROADWAY BELLE. Entering the ring as Lot 2 in the broodmares section of the sale, she attracted a number of bids before being sold to noted breeder P.J. Asher and Ian Parsard, son of trainer Harry Parsard.

A winner of two races locally, BROADWAY BELLE is an American eight-year-old chestnut mare by Theatrical out of Berga. She is in foal to Western Classic and it is due in January.

Training section

The same connections also shelled out $1.1 million for the Philip Feanny-trained American three-year-old chestnut filly PURE MUD (Lot 46) in the horses-in-training section of the sale.

A beaten favourite in the December 9 Owners' Association Trophy race over 2000 metres won by stable-companion MY LEGACY, PURE MUD, by Out of Place out of Bog Wild, has won two races locally, the more recent over 1600 metres on November 29.

Significantly, in this section of the sale, the 2004 'Horse of the Year' DISTINCTLY IRISH (Lot 41) and the American four-year-old colt DR. SOCRATES (Lot 42) were both withdrawn, having gone lame after racing on Saturday. DISTINCTLY IRISH, who won both the Derby and Superstakes in 2004, chalked up his 12th career win at Caymanas Park on Saturday.

MISS CHESTNUT, an American 4-y-o filly who has won two races locally, was purchased for $1 million - so too the U.S. stallions SAINT APPEAL and MARKET RALLY, the sire of this year's Lotto Classic (Governor's Cup) and St. Leger winner, ALLIEDFORCE.

No yearlings

The mixed sale featured stallions, broodmares, weanlings, two-year-olds and horses in training. No yearlings were sold as the eight listed in the catalogue were already sold in the November 12 thoroughbred yearling sale at Caymanas Park. The catalogue, however, was printed before the yearling sale.

In the weanlings section, a bay colt by Western Classic out of Silken Miss was taken for $800,000.

Not surprisingly, most interest was focused on the horses-in-training section. Here, COMMANDING LIGHT was purchased by Dr. Paul Wright on behalf of a client for $500,000.

POLISH MARKET, who has been enjoying good form having chased home MYLEGACY in the recent Owners' Association Trophy race, was picked up for $650,000, PLEASURE CRUISE for $520,000, sparingly-raced SPANISH FLEET for $500,000, the lightly-raced American 3-y-o filly REIGNING HEROINE for $500,000, DEVIL WOMAN for $280,000 and MARKET DAZZLE for $250,000.

The sale was fairly well attended by horsemen, many hailing it as the best mixed sale for some time. Hamilton said it achieved its objective and next year it would be even better.

"We could open it up to include horses from others next year, then it would be much larger and by extension a true representation of a mixed sale," added the popular owner/breeder who is president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA).

Auctioneer was Dr. Paul Wright, assisted by Richard Azan.