The Castlebridge Consignment Returns to Arqana

Fresh off yet another productive Tattersalls December Mare Sale, where they have led consignors there for the past eight years, The Castlebridge Consignment embarked on somewhat of a less familiar journey to Deauville to hang up their well-known banner for Arqana's December Breeding Stock Sale.

The Castlebridge Consignment, which has bases in Newmarket and at Castlebridge Stud in County Meath, Ireland, has been absent from the Arqana sales grounds since 2017, but this week they returned with a group of nine fillies in training, broodmare prospects and mares in foal that will sell in Saturday's select session.

Castlebridge co-director Andrew Mead was on-site early Thursday morning to oversee setup in cour C.

“We've tended to focus on the Tattersalls and Goffs sales in Ireland,” Mead said. “Those have been going very well for us, but we reached a point where we thought it was time to come back to Deauville in December. The sales have been steadily improving and we had enough horses this year to go to Goffs, Tattersalls and Arqana.”

Mead said that as buyers descend upon the sales grounds, he expects to see a mix of both familiar faces and new ones.

“You'll see some of the same faces arriving in Deauville to try to buy the horses that they didn't manage to buy at the previous sales, but there also is very much an element that you'll see different faces here that didn't attend Tattersalls in Newmarket or Goffs in Ireland,” he explained. “To some degree, we're putting our horses in front of a different audience, but at the same time, there are many of the same faces attending all the sales. So you're perhaps getting the best of both worlds at Arqana.”

The Castlebridge consignment includes several promising fillies that could go on to further their racing success next year.

“Of the fillies in training, we've got two from Germany that are very attractive,” Mead said. “We have a filly called Libre (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) (lot 118), who is a lovely black-type filly, and we have a filly called Goldana (Galileo Gold {GB}) (lot 141) who won a stakes race in her last start. We also have a lovely filly from Italy who is a wildcard, Romagna Mia (GB) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) (lot 190). She won her last [black-type] start in Italy. She looks to have plenty of racing still in her and she'll make a lovely broodmare as well.”

The consignment's group of broodmare prospects includes lot 93, Vouchsafe (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), a three-quarter sister to four-time Group 1 winner Moonlight Cloud (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}); lot 151, Loch Lundie (Ire) (Shamardal), a stakes-placed filly from the immediate family of G1 Fillies Mile winner Lyric Of Light (GB) (Street Cry {Ire}); and lot 179, Thunder Beauty (Ire), a 5-year-old listed stakes-winning daughter of Night of Thunder (Ire) who ran second in this year's G2 Duke Of Cambridge S.

Lot 56, Sweet Mademoiselle (Fr) (Free Eagle {Ire}), a half-sister to Group 1 winner Zellie (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in foal to Almanzor (Fr), and lot 171, Boyne River (GB), a winning daughter of Kingman (GB) in foal to Night of Thunder (Ire), both represent the consignment as in-foal mares.

A perennial leading vendor, The Castlebridge Consignment was the leading seller at the Goffs November Foal Sale and a top three consignor at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale. They celebrated a successful Tattersalls December Mares Sale as they led the auction with 28 sold for a gross of over 5.4 million gns, headlined by the sale of Group 3 scorer Tranquil Lady (Ire) (Australia {GB}) for 2.7 million gns.

“We've been very lucky over the years and we seem to keep rolling along in terms of having good sales at Castlebridge,” Mead said. “I think what's behind it all is the staff at the sales, who are amazing, but also we've got a marvelous backroom team who work extraordinarily hard leading up to the sales for about four months and through the weeks of the sales. We owe all our success to the people who work for us because without them, it just wouldn't happen.”

Mead shared his thoughts on the market ahead of the final breeding stock sale of the season.

“We arrived here in Deauville straight from a very strong sale in Newmarket,” he said. “I think anybody from the horse industry following sale results would say it was a remarkable sale. We had horses selling in both the Sceptre Sessions and the non-Sceptre sessions, and we found that the market was equally strong across the board for whatever part of the sale we were selling in. Prior to that, we had come straight from a very strong Goffs sale where we had a lot of foals and they sold extremely well. I think all sale companies at the moment are riding something of a crest of the wave. They're all doing well, they're all having great sales and let's hope Arqana equally finishes the season in the same style.”

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Form Is Key To A Well-Credentialed Rauscher Draft

DEAUVILLE, France–As we have seen over the the last few weeks in Ireland and England, there remains a voracious appetite for breeding stock, and globally the Thoroughbred breeding industry continues to hold German bloodlines in the highest regard.

With this in mind, there will undoubtedly be plenty of visitors from all over the world turning up to peruse the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale draft of Ronald Rauscher, which contains a number of well-bred fillies and mares with proper racing form. German-born and now based in Ireland, Rauscher is a consignor, advisor and breeder of international repute himself with close ties to the Australian scene through his association with Australian Bloodstock's G1 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), who was bred by his long-term client Dr. Christoph Berglar.

It is appropriate, then, that the draft includes Protectionist's best runner to date, the smart and statuesque Amazing Grace (Ger), who was also bred by Berglar and in his colours has won the G2 Diana Trial at three and this season's G2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis at Baden-Baden before finishing third in the G1 Preis von Europa behind Godolphin's subsequent GI Breeders' Cup Turf winner Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). The 4-year-old chestnut filly, who sells as lot 204 on Saturday evening, is from one of the most renowned German families, which stretches back to the influential Anna Paola (Ger) and includes last year's Derby and King George winner Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). Making a consignor's job that much easier, this is a filly that Rauscher can vouch for through every stage of her life.

“She was born at Schlenderhan and I saw her on day two and she was just beautiful then,” says Rauscher, who bought Amazing Grace's listed-winning dam Amabelle (Ger) (Danehill Dancer {Ire} as a yearling for Berglar. “She has just always had it. What she had, and what I thought was very interesting as a young foal, is that most foals at that age, they stay with very close to their mother. This was a small paddock close to the barn, and I went through the gate and she just left her mother.

“She was curious and confident, and you could touch her. That went right through her life really. She was raised then as a yearling in Bernried and she always had a great temperament and the physique to go with it.”

He adds, “She's a 4-year-old now turning five, and she's coming with a full set of X-rays and a scope. She's still a racing prospect.

“That she's coming to the sale, it's just because, as [Dr. Berglar] said, 'Look, I am the age I am. It just would take a good few years really to make sure that I'm going to see everything out of her'.”

A little earlier in the draft comes another 4-year-old, Noble Heidi (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), a former champion juvenile filly in Germany before running third in the G1 Preis der Diana. She also won this season's Listed Baden-Baden Cup.

“Noble Heidi is one of those names where you think about Japan a little bit,” Rauscher says. “I'm selling two Intello fillies this week and he's such an interesting horse, really. I remember when he ran his last race in the Arc and he finished third, and he was probably not the most commercial horse but he's such a well-bred horse, going back to that taproot mare, Fall Aspen.”

“Noble Heidi was early. We ran against her with Amazing Grace, and on several occasions, they met. As a 2-year-old, Noble Heidi had the upper hand. There was no doubt about that. She's very good physically as well, she's strong.”

Also among the 4-year-old fillies being sold by Rauscher is the well-bred Waldbiene (Fr) (lot 193), another daughter of Intello and a Group 2 winner from the black-type laden family of St Leger winner Masked Marvel (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}) and Arc winner Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}).

Then there's Penja (Fr) (Camelot {GB}), a Group 3 winner in France and runner-up in the G2 Prix de la Nonette who was bought at last year's Arqana Arc Sale for €1.2 million. In the book as lot 186, she hails from a family which includes this year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains runner-up Texas (Fr).

The 3-year-old Good Liza (Fr) is another with plenty on the page to recommend her. Offered as lot 249, she won as a juvenile in Germany and is a Kingman (GB) daughter of the Group 3 winner Good Donna (Ger) (Doyen {GB}), the producer of two black-type winners including the dual Group 3 winner and Group 1 runner-up Grocer Jack (Ger) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who fetched 700,000gns when sold at the Tattersalls Horses-in-Training Sale last year. Further back the family includes G1 1000 Guineas heroine Legatissimo (Ire) and the five-time Group 1 winner Fame And Glory (GB).

Elegie (Ire) should also attract plenty of attention as a 93-rated daughter of the late Adlerflug (Ger) with some back type to her own name and a half-sister to the G1 Deutsches Derby runner-up Enjoy Vijay (Ger) (Nathaniel {Ire}) as well as two listed winners.

The 10-strong draft is not solely fillies still in training, however. On Sunday Rauscher will offer the 8-year-old mare Izzy (Ger). Though unraced, she is by Soldier Hollow (GB), who features as broodmare sire of this year's  Deutsches Derby winner Sammarco (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), and she is a half-sister to another Deutsches Derby winner, Isfahan (Ger) (Lord Of England {Ger}). Bred by his trainer Andreas Wohler, as was Izzy, Isfahan is now standing at Gestut Ohlerweiherhof and was responsible for a Deutsches Derby winner in his first crop in the Guy Pariente-bed Sisfahan (Fr). Izzy (lot 552), who is being sold in foal to Gleneagles (Ire), has a 2-year-old colt by Protectionist who was bought by Brendan Holland of Grove Stud for €100,000 at the BBAG September Yearling Sale.

Gleneagles is an underrated sire,” Rauscher notes. “It's just the situation that Andreas, who's been terribly successful at breeding Isfahan and training him, says that he wants to cut down on his breeding stock and concentrate on a few horses and training. That's the only reason she's going.”

Two years ago Ronald Rauscher's draft was fourth on the consignors' table at the close of the December Sale behind the much larger drafts offered by the powerhouses of Monceaux, Etreham and the Wertheimers, while last year he pulled off another top-10 finish. With another strong consignment of young racing and/or breeding prospects, we can expect to see more of the same.

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Grand Glory Sold For €2,500,000

Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Grand Glory (GB) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) will form the cornerstone of a new Thoroughbred breeding operation at Haras de Hus after being bought for €2,500,000 by Anne-Sophie Yoh-Benet of YOHEA on behalf of a new owner.

The 5-year-old mare was trained by Gianluca Bietolini for Albert Frassetto, John d'Amato and Mike Pietrangelo to win six of her 18 races, including two Group 3s. There remains a possibility that she could race on at the Saudi Cup meeting in February before being covered.

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€1,950,000 for Speak Of The Devil

French 1000 Guineas runner-up and multiple listed winner Speak Of The Devil (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) brought a bid of €1,950,000 from Michel Zerolo for Peter Brant of White Birch Farm and will now be transferred to America to be trained by Chad Brown.

The 4-year-old was the third filly in training to have sold for seven figures in Deauville on Saturday evening following Purplepay (Fr) and Rougir (Fr).

A winner on her sole start at two, Speak Of The Devil was second in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and won the listed Prix de Saint-Cyr for Fabrice Chappet. Switched to Frederic Rossi this season, she won another three listed races and was third in the G1 Prix Rothschild.

Like Rougir, Speak Of The Devil was consigned to Arqana by Sumbe and was catalogued as lot 172.

 

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