Second-season trainer Harry Derham has confirmed new recruits Imagine and Mollys Mango remain on course for the Cheltenham Festival, after being purchased at the Andy and Gemma Brown dispersal in Ireland last Monday.
Bought by Derham on behalf of owner Ian Barratt, Imagine and Mollys Mango both commanded six-figure prices during the action-packed dispersal sale and will be welcomed into the Cheltenham squad.
Imagine, bought for 320,000 euros, was a comfortable winner of the Grade 2 Craddockstown Novice Chase and remains on course for the Turners Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Mollys Mango is expected to take up her entry in the Mares' Novice Hurdle at the Festival after a wide-margin success at Fairyhouse on 1 January.
"They are two very nice horses bought for Ian Barratt, who is a very nice man and also a relatively new owner to me," said Derham.
"If they are both OK, they will both run at Cheltenham – Molly in the Mares' Novices' Hurdle and Imagine in the Golden Miller (Turners Novices' Chase).
"They have to be OK and Ian and his family know it's quite an interesting time to buy a horse and there isn't that long to Cheltenham, so if they are OK, then they will run.
"But we know the more we get to know them, and my team get to know them and they get time in a new regime, then they will obviously be better.
"It's obviously nice to get two very smart horses like that. It's never nice in those circumstances, where you are taking them from another trainer, but they were there for sale and are two to look forward to.
"Monday's sales results show how serious the owner is and they are two nice horses, but as I said to my team, it's irrelevant and it doesn't matter how much they cost, once they are in the yard, they will get the same care as everybody else.
"It's lovely to get horses of that quality into the yard and hopefully we get some luck."
