The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott partnership made an impact on the first day of the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale on Monday when they paid the equal top price for the promising three-year-old colt Imperial Aviator.

The Tattersalls HIT Sale has been the source of many of the imported horses to race successfully in Australia in recent seasons, especially for Waterhouse and the Chris Waller stable.

Waterhouse’s big winners from the sale have included G1 scorers Glencadam Gold and The Offer.

Bott attended the sale with agent John McKeever, who made the winning bid of 270,000 guineas for Imperial Aviator after he attracted interest from Waller’s agent Guy Mulcaster.

Roger Charlton has trained the Paco Boy colt for two wins at Leicester and Newbury and four to placings in nine starts for Qatar Racing, earning a Timeform rating of 108.

He was fourth at Newbury on Saturday just two days before the sale.

McKeever commented: "He is a gorgeous horse. He is an attractive stayer and we could not leave him behind.

"We have been lucky here for Gai before. Let's hope the luck continues with this horse."

The joint top lot on the opening day was the two-year-old colt Sincil Bank who was secured by Sackville Donald’s Alastair Donald for 270,000 guineas after fending off competition from Australian agent Stuart Bowman and under bidder Stephen Hillen.

Following disqualification from his initial maiden win in August, the son of Hat Trick went on to win next time out at Newcastle by three and a half lengths and was most recently third in a conditions race at Newmarket for the David Simcock stable.

He will continue his career in Hong Kong.

The sale made a strong start with a wide representation of international buyers all contributing to an opening day which saw 12 lots make 100,000 guineas or more.

A total of 247 lots were sold for 6,424,800 guineas, at an average of 26,011 guineas and a median of 13,500 guineas. The clearance rate was 91%.

Four-year-old gelding Hawke achieved the third-highest price of the day when selling to Prince Sultan bin Mohammed of Saudi Arabia for 260,000 guineas.

The Ballygallon Stud homebred by Oratorio was consigned by Johnny Murtagh’s Fox Covert Stables where he was trained to victory in the Listed Carlingford Stakes at Dundalk 10 days ago.

Jeremy Noseda’s Shalfleet Stables offered Bravo Zolo to make the fourth highest price of the day when Anthony Stroud bought the four-year-old gelding for 170,000 guineas.

The son of Rip Van Winkle won the Listed Prix du Ranelagh at Chantilly last time out and has a Timeform rating of 112.