Arqana | Horse Racing Free Tips

Burgarita First To Seven Figures At Arqana, As Godolphin Buys Dual Stakes Winner For 1.7m

The talented and well-related Burgarita (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) (lot 177) was the first seven-figure lot at Arqana on Saturday, making €1.7 million from Anthony Stroud. Bound for the Godolphin fold, the bay filly-in-training was offered by Baroda Stud. A dual listed winner, the half-sister to G3 Prix Allez France heroine Aquamarine (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) was second three times at group level and ran third in the G1 Prix de Diane. Under the second dam is the GI Beverly D. S. and GI Diana S. heroine Angara (GB) (Alzao). She made 95,000gns as a Tattersalls December yearling.

Stroud told the TDN, “We thought she'd be a good candidate for Dubawi (Ire).”

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Juddmonte Snaps Up Le Havre Half-Sister To Treve For 675k At Arqana

Juddmonte's Simon Mockridge went to €675,000 to acquire G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB})'s weanling half-sister by the late Le Havre (Ire) during Arqana's Vente d'Elevage in Deauville on Saturday. The bay foal was offered as part of the dispersal of Haras du Quesnay as lot 166. Also a half-sister to stakes winner and G2 Prix Greffulhe third Trois Rois (Fr) (Hernando {Fr}), the May foal counts the stakes-placed Trophee (Fr) (Mr. Sidney) as another half-sister. At stud, the latter has produced G2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup scorer Francesco Guardi (Ire) (Frankel {GB}). Under the second dam is the GI Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile third Tsigane (Fr) (Anabaa), who won the Listed Wickerr H.

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“Top Horses Attract Top Buyers,” Powell Optimistic Ahead Of Breeding Stock Sale

'Tis the season to be jolly and, on the eve of the December Breeding Stock Sale where a number of high-class racemares and broodmare prospects, including powerful drafts from Godolphin, the Aga Khan and the Wertheimer et Frère consignment, there was giddy excitement in the air at Arqana.

Fresh from snapping up the 5.4 million gns sale-topper Alcohol Free (No Nay Never) at Tattersalls last week, Yuesheng Zhang was kept busy viewing horses with BBA Ireland's Michael Donohoe while representatives of Juddmonte, Moyglare Stud and a host of high-end buyers combed through the stock on offer at the four-day sale.

The Wertheimer family, who will forever be associated with Breeders' Cup legend Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa), added Group 1 winner La Petite Coco (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}) to the broodmare band last week but will return to the market as sellers with 21 fillies and mares going under the hammer at the eagerly-anticipated end-of-season sale.

Pierre-Yves Bureau, manager of the Wertheimer et Frère stable, revealed that footfall at Barn D on Friday was lively and described himself as hugely satisfied with the job Arqana has done in attracting the international buyers.

He said, “We have been selling here at Arqana for four years now. It has become clear in everyone's mind that we need to sell fillies and mares every year because we want to keep the broodmare band to a certain size.

“We are very happy by the job Arqana does and I also feel a lot of buyers think that it is important to buy from the big consignments because they know we have the families. We still have the siblings, the dams, the daughters, etc, etc, so buyers know that we will continue to support these families.”

He added, “This sale can be good for us as well because sometimes the commercial buyers would do some things that we wouldn't do. We breed to race so, mostly, we use proven sires because we're not going to be selling the yearlings. When buyers try to do something different it can be a win-win.

“I think the catalogue is very strong and all of the main buyers are here which is very important. We will see how it goes on Saturday but the market was very strong in America and at Tattersalls so we hope it will be the same here at Arqana. It is probably the last big sale of the year and it looks like people are still looking for the good ones. There are plenty of people here and we have been very busy.”

Freddy Powell is one of the men faced with the task of attracting buyers and putting the catalogue together but the Arqana executive director wears such responsibility with a smile.

He simply said, “They saw the catalogue and couldn't not be here. The top horses attract the top buyers.”

He added, “We had good results last year, especially with some really good wildcards, and it hasn't gone unnoticed. The challenge this year was to consolidate the catalogue and I think we have done that. It is strong.”

Tattersalls brought the curtain down on a bountiful year with a bonanza of a December Mares Sale by recording sales in excess of 80 million gns. Powell admits that even he cannot make sense of the strength of the bloodstock market at present and is hoping for similarly lucrative results in the next few days.

“It was a very interesting year, talking with potential vendors who had good fillies and mares. Obviously Tattersalls and Goffs had very good sales, so there was a bit of competition, but it was healthy and sound. It was quite fun to put together this catalogue.

“There have been some very good results all around the world from European bloodlines and these pedigrees are very sought after which is why all of the international buyers are here. The Japan Cup winner Vela Azu (Jpn) (Eishin Flash {Jpn})l can be traced back to a good Wildenstein family, the Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip (Fr) (Outstrip {GB}) came from an Aga Khan family and even the Arc winner Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) came from an Aga Khan damline. People recognise that so it is great to be able to sell horses for those big breeders.”

He added, “I have stopped trying to understand the bloodstock market. It all stems back to what is happening on the racetrack and it has been another really good year for European racing. It's an inspiration for everyone.”

La Petite Coco, bought for 1,000,000gns at Tattersalls, has been retired from racing and will visit Dubawi (Ire) next year, according to Bureau, who revealed the classy Thinking Of You (American Pharoah) was snapped up for $1.5 million at Fasig-Tipton last month.

He said, “We bought a nice mare in America, Thinking Of You, who is in foal to Justify. She was a very nice buy. We also bought La Petite Coco, who is a Group 1 winner, at Tattersalls last week so, if we can find a mare of that level here, we would be very happy. We will keep an eye on what is going on.

“La Petite Coco was a very good performer and she has a wonderful page. She will be retired and we will be looking forward to all of her offspring running for us. We are going to send her to Dubawi to start with and we're looking forward to that. I am sure she is going to be a very nice mare for us.”

Asked what mares he expected to highlight the Wertheimer draft on Saturday, he added, “Solania (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}) is from one of our best families, is Group-placed and has a nice rating. It is the family of Plumania (GB) and we are keeping Vagalame (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who has been a good three-year-old, to race on next year.

“Nohand (GB) is a Dansili (GB) mare and is sold in foal to Camelot (GB). She is a sister to Left Hand (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) who has a very promising two-year-old called Left Sea (GB) (Frankel {GB}). She was actually a TDN Rising Star when she won on debut at Deauville and she is really exciting for next year. Regalis is also very exciting. We have a very popular group of fillies and mares but those are the three I am expecting to go down best.”

The December Breeding Stock Sale, which boasts Rougir, Al Riffa and Gold Trip among its roll of honour, kicks off at 10am on Saturday.

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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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