Godolphin Snaps Up Dubawi Colt For 1.25 Million At Arqana

Lot 21, a son of Dubawi (Ire) and the Invincible Spirit (Ire) mare Pretty Spirit (GB), was the first yearling to break the seven-figure mark at Deauville's Arqana August Yearling Sale when selling for €1.25 million to Anthony Stroud on behalf of Godolphin on Friday. Consigned by Ecurie des Monceaux, the bay is out of a half-sister to three-time Group 1 winner Persian King (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), who has his first yearlings this year. This is the extended family of G1 Prix Ganay hero Planteur (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}).

 

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‘It Shows How Much French Breeders Have Been Investing’: Powell Relishing Return of the August Sale

DEAUVILLE, France–Over the next three evenings, around 280 youngsters considered to be the cream of the French yearling crop will pass through the sale ring in Deauville, where this time last year the collective bidding stopped just north of €50 million to bring record returns at Arqana.

The term 'record-breaking trade' has appeared countless times in this and other publications, and frequent rejigging of sales formats allows that to be claimed perhaps more often than it genuinely should be, but the 2022 August Sale really was quite the blockbuster by all measures.

A tightened catalogue helped, because as the numbers were trimmed and 40 fewer horses were offered, the clearance rate improved to its highest mark of 82.5%. Furthermore, the average exceeded the €200,000 mark for the first time to settle at €209,972, and the median shot up to €140,000 from a previous high of €125,000. All things considered, it was indeed pretty good.

Several graduates from that sale have already impressed on the track, and Ramatuelle (Justify) could yet add a Group 1 title to her impressive season when challenging for the Sumbe Prix Morny on Sunday. Arabian Crown (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) chipped in with a Listed win at Salisbury on Wednesday for Godolphin, boosting the appeal of his three-parts-brother by Night Of Thunder (Ire), who sells on Saturday. They have been backed up by the Class of '21, which includes Little Big Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never), Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never), and the colt who has folk in a froth in France and beyond, Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}).

The fact that it has been a strong year on the track for French-trained runners matters immensely. Of course not all horses bought at this sale will remain in France. Last year's top lot, the brother to Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) bought for €2.1 million, is currently in pre-training in Japan. Named Shin Emperor (Fr), he will soon head to the Ritto training centre to continue his tutelage under the eye of Yoshito Yahagi, who is back in France to peruse the best of this year's sale.

But French racing prides itself on its lucrative owners' and breeders' premiums, not to mention the allure of its picturesque training environment in Chantilly and beyond. The horses have to perform here to encourage owners to want to have them in training in France, and this year they have stepped up to the mark with gusto, headed by the likes of Blue Rose Cen (Ire), Jannah Rose (Ire), Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Fr) and Mqse De Sevigne (Fr), as well as the aforementioned Prix du Jockey Club winner Ace Impact. The fact that he already has a stallion deal in place could prove to be something of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it is fantastic that he will be staying in France to stand at the Chehboub family's Haras de Beaumont, but on the other, the current dearth of exciting stallion prospects in the country may well hasten his retirement at the end of this season. We'll see.

Reflecting on this banner year on the track for the home runners, Arqana's executive director Freddy Powell said on Thursday, “The timing is pretty good, and thanks to Mr [Charlie] Appleby yesterday as well, who won the Listed race, because we have some from the family here in the sale.”

He continued, “It just shows how much French breeders have been investing in good mares and nominations. There's a great diversity of stallions and pedigrees, so we are blessed really.”

As has become tradition, Arqana laid on a plane from America, bringing in around 50 potential transatlantic buyers.

“There are plenty of international people here already and still more coming,” Powell said, and added of last year's leading buyer, Yoshito Yahagi, “We are always happy to see his hat.”

The trainer of this year's Saudi Cup winner Panthalassa (Jpn) and the Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Marche Loraine (Jpn) is noted as much for his love of foreign travel as he is for his snazzy headwear, and a colourful Panama was indeed being sported in Deauville on Thursday as the temperature started to soar and the sales ground became ever busier. 

Powell added, “It's nice to feel that most people have been around once already and they are all talking quite positively about the stock. It's important not to get too excited about things but the signs are all good and it looks like it's all falling into place.”

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From Earthlight to Wooded: 14 New Sires Represented at Arqana

DEAUVILLE, France–In a departure from the normal schedule, Arqana's August extravaganza kicks off a day early this year, on Friday. With a handful of shows having taken place on Tuesday, viewing began in earnest on Wednesday morning, with Joseph O'Brien first out of the blocks and on parade at the Haras des Capucines draft while most people were still having breakfast.

While many of the families of the horses catalogued will be familiar to potential purchasers, each new season brings with it a wave of new stallion names to grapple with, and there are 14 freshman sires with members of their first crop on offer in Deauville this week. Sottsass (Fr) is detailed in the accompanying feature, and on the same day that he recorded his most prestigious win in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, at the other end of the distance spectrum Wooded (Ire) was winning the Prix de l'Abbaye for Al Shaqab Racing. With his sire Wootton Bassett (GB) now having moved from France to Coolmore's Irish base, the sprinter was doubtless a welcome addition to Normandy's stallion ranks. Two of his yearlings are in the August catalogue and another nine feature in the V.2 sale next Tuesday, and Wooded was given an extra boost over the weekend when his full-brother Bucanero Fuerte (GB) won the G1 Keeneland Phoenix S.

The poster celebrating his latest major success after also winning the G2 Railway S. is already on display at the consignment of Haras d'Etreham, which sold Bucanero Fuerte last August for €165,000 and will offer his Dubawi (Ire) half-sister on Saturday as lot 214.

“We were so sure that he would win that we had it made in advance,” said Nicolas de Chambure with a smile, and he has plenty to be happy about at present.

In what may help other sons of Siyouni (Fr) coming through, Etreham's City Light (Fr) has made a decent start with his runners this season, with his eight runners to date representing a strike-rate of 40% to put him in front in the French first-season sires' table. Coming through hard on his heels are his fellow residents, Persian King (Ire) and Hello Youmzain (Fr), who have 19 and 21 first-crop yearlings respectively in the August catalogue. These include lot 50, Etreham's speedy-looking Hello Youmzain half-sister to the G3 Prix Djebel winner Fast Raaj (Fr) (Iffraaj {GB}).

Another Group 1-winning sprinter to have joined the French ranks at the same time is Sumbe's Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde (Ire), himself by the July Cup winner Lethal Force (Ire) and out of a mare by another top sprinter, Pivotal (GB).

Of two yearlings catalogued, Golden Horde has one remaining, lot 29, a colt from the family of Bloomsbury Stud's Queen Mary winner Pushy (GB).

Along with the aforementioned Wooded, another Haras de Bouquetot stallion with first yearlings is the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Prix Jacques Le Marois winner Romanised (Ire), whose sole offering in August (lot 158) is from the family of Treve (Fr) and is a half-sister to the German Group 2 winner Boscaccio (Ger) (Mount Nelson {GB}).

Ghaiyyath (Ire), Horse of the Year in 2020, heads a trio of Darley stallions in the freshman division, along with two Group 1-winning sons of Shamardal in Earthlight (Ire) and Pinatubo (Ire). Among Earthlight's three is the penultimate yearling in the ring, lot 313, a half-brother to the G1 Prix Jean Prat winner Intellogent (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), while La Motteraye offers a Ghaiyyath half-sister to G3 Prix La Force winner Chilean (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) as lot 176.

Early in Sunday's session, Monceaux will offer one of a quartet of yearlings by the 2,000 Guineas winner Kameko in the sale. Lot 227 is out of a Galileo (Ire) half-sister to the GI Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister. 

Among those with a single representative here in Deauville, but about whom we will doubtless be hearing plenty more as the season progresses, are Yeomanstown Stud's Shaman (Ire), Newsells Park Stud resident Without Parole (GB), Shadwell's Mohaather (GB), and Maximum Security, who is based at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in America. The latter's filly, in the Haras de l'Hotellerie draft as lot 246, was bred by Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals, whose Yeguada Cebturion operation is having a banner year as the breeders of Blue Rose Cen (Ire), Big Rock (Fr) and Ramatuelle, who runs in Sunday's G1 Sumbe Prix Morny.

The updates keep coming thick and fast for Arqana. On Wednesday at Salisbury, last year's August graduate Arabian Crown (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}) won the Listed Stonehenge S., his second victory in three starts for Godolphin. Bought for €600,000, he was bred by Guy Heald from Dubai Rose (GB) (Dubai Destination), and his three-parts-brother by Night Of Thunder (Ire) features in the Monceaux draft as lot 196. Heald keeps mares at both Monceaux and La Motteraye and, through the latter, he is selling a colt from the same family who is a three-parts-brother to the Group 1 winner Sea La Rosa (Fr) and Group 2 winner Deauville Legend (Fr). That pair has Sea The Stars (Ire) as sire, and it is his son Sea The Moon (Ger) who is responsible for the yearling colt (lot 77) out of Soho Rose (GB) (Hernando {Fr}), a half-sister to Dubai Rose.

The Haras d'Etreham team wasn't the only one celebrating a Group 1 winner at the weekend. Haras de la Perelle's Simca Mille (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) took the Grosser Preis von Berlin on Sunday in the homeland of his owner/breeder Jurgen Winter. Perelle has topped the August Sale before, back in 2017 with a €1.55 million colt by Dubawi out of the G1 Falmouth S. winner Giofra (GB) (Dansili {GB}). The stud offers two members of that same family this week, including a Hello Youmzain half-brother to Giofra (lot 232), and is saving the Sea The Moon (Ger) half-brother to Simca Mille for the October Sale. 

As this year's star three-year-old Paddington (GB) has shown, there's certainly no harm in being a graduate of that later auction. For now, though, all eyes are on the August Sale, as Arqana is once again the bellwether for Europe's elite yearling sales.

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Flexjet Remains Official Partner Of Arqana August Yearling Sale

Luxury aviation company Flexjet will continue as Arqana's official partner during the August Yearling Sale, which begins on Friday, Aug. 18.

Buyers will be offered a magnum of champagne with their first purchase of €500,000 or more at the Deauville venue. The top vendor at the end of each day of the sale will also receive a magnum of champagne. The Flexjet team will be present at the 360° Bar, as well as the Cocktail Bar in Courtyard A throughout the three-day sale.

“We are delighted to be involved in the August Yearling Sale again this year,” said Mike Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet. “Flexjet and Arqana share a dedication to high performance and exquisite style, and equestrian sport is a passion for many of our Flexjet aircraft owners. We're looking forward to hosting owners who are flying into Deauville for the occasion, as well as celebrating some of the most exciting transactions at our Flexjet bar on the parade ground. It promises to be a fantastic weekend.”

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