DEAUVILLE, France–First went the Irish, then the French. For some, it was a woeful weekend in the sporting world outside horseracing as the Rugby World Cup quarter finals left only England standing among the European nations to go forward to the next round at the Stade de France.
Plenty of sales folk huddled around the screen at Deauville racecourse on Sunday evening to see the home team's dreams shattered, but by Monday morning the focus was fully back on the horses and the next week of yearling action ahead.
Before the rugby started, those present at Arqana had gathered in remembrance of Lady Chryss O'Reilly, who died only days after attending the August Sale. Frederique de Chambure, Henri Bozo, Marina Marinopoulos, Nicolas Clement and Aliette Forien all spoke movingly of their longstanding friendship with the owner-breeder and in the bright sunshine of Monday morning, it was hard not to feel that an extra shadow had been cast over Yard B on the sales grounds. The Haras de la Louviere yearlings were there as usual, in their traditional spot, but for the first time their breeder is not present.
Orchestrating the viewings and juggling cards like the dab hand that he is, Mick O'Dwyer paused for a moment to reflect on his long association with Lady O'Reilly's draft.
“I've been doing this now for 17 years,” he said. “It's business as usual in a way, but she is very much missed. Everybody loved her.”
Sixteen yearlings are being presented by Haras de la Louviere this week, including a filly from the final crop of Le Havre (Ire) whose first three dams were all bred by Lady O'Reilly. As lot 473, she comes through later in the week, on Thursday, and is a daughter of Hailstorm (GB), a treble winner and herself a daughter of Verglas (Ire), winner of the G2 Coventry S. in the familiar black-and-white hoops.
With Ecurie des Monceaux, Lady O'Reilly's Skymarc Farm bred Vespertilio (Fr) (Nigh Of Thunder {Ire}), who won the G2 Debutante S. just a few days before her co-breeder's passing. That filly's half-brother by Camelot (GB) will be one of the earliest horses into the ring on Tuesday when presented by Monceaux as lot 14.
We also cannot mention the Monceaux draft without a reminder that lot 59 is a full-brother to Sottsass (Fr). He was bred by the farm from the celebrated mare Starlet's Sister (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and is offered alongside three yearlings in the draft from the first crop of his Arc-winning brother.
Arqana's October Sale usually plays second fiddle to its flashier August cousin but October is challenging for bragging rights this year as the sale from which Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) graduated two years ago, also from Monceaux. August of course played its trump card a little later with Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}). Only on Sunday, Iresine (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) gave another reminder of why it is worth seeing out the week and trying to unearth a bargain in the later parts of the sale. To his G1 Prix Ganay victory in the spring he added the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris, and he is now taking aim at Equinox (Jpn) and Liberty Island (Jpn) in the Japan Cup. At his best yet at the age of six, Iresine was picked up as a yearling at the Arqana October Sale for €6,000 and his earnings, including those vital French owners' premiums, are now in excess of €1,000,000.
As the season rolls on, more and more new stallions are being announced for 2024. France in particular looks set to benefit from a bumper new crop. We already know that Ace Impact is off to Haras de Beaumont, which will doubtless be inundated with visitors once breeders descend on Deauville for the breeding stock sale in early December. Jean-Claude Rouget's top three-year-old of the previous season, the Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse winner Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), joins Siyouni (Fr) and Zarak (Fr) at the Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval.
While doing the yearling rounds on Monday morning, Fabrice Chappet said that he was looking forward to one last outing with his stable star Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita before he takes up residence at Haras d'Etreham, while Lusail (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) has just been announced as the latest recruit to Al Shaqab's Haras de Bouquetot. In recent months, plenty have made reference to the need for France to plug the gaps left by the likes of Le Havre and Wootton Bassett (GB). In the case of the latter, the Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded (Ire) will be among an increasing number of a number of sons of Wootton Bassett attempting to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious father. He has his first runners next year, and 37 members of his first crop are up for grabs in Deauville this week.
Wooded, who is another Haras de Bouquetot stallion, was given an extra boost on the pedigree side this year courtesy of his brother Bucanero Fuerte (GB), winner of the G1 Phoenix S. and G2 Railway S. during a productive season.
“That's what we are looking for now in France,” says Al Shaqab's Benoit Jeffroy. “Wootton Bassett is gone and Siyouni is getting to an age where he hasn't got another 10 years in front of him, so we are looking for the new boys.
“Wooded has a proper chance. He has some good-looking stock. They have the depth and they can move. He had the speed, so let's hope he can pass it on.”
At the same time as Wooded retired, Al Shaqab also took charge of a stallion prospect with a slightly different profile in Robert Ng's Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who was a star for Ken Condon's stable over four seasons. His major wins included the Irish 2,000 Guineas, followed the next year by the G1 Prix Jaques Le Marois and G2 Minstrel S., and he returned to win the latter for a second time at five.
“We are very happy to be able to stand a horse like Romanised,” said Jeffroy. “We can only thank Mr Ng and Rupert Pritchard-Gordon for entrusting him to us and to France. Actually his stock have sold really well, because he only stands for €7,000, so the return on investment has been good for the breeders so far. It's hard to find a Guineas winner and a Jacques Le Marois winner, and he has been very well received.
“We all know that we have to go through a number of stallions to find horses that will be the next good ones, the improvers, so we keep dreaming now.”
Romanised's sole August Sale yearling, a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Boscaccio (Fr), was paid rather a compliment when bought by Edouard de Rothschild's Haras de Meautry for €170,000, and he had another four sold through the V.2 Sale for €87,000, €65,000, €55,000 and €27,000. He looks a stallion to keep an eye on and has another 37 slated to sell this week.
Frankel (GB) was all the rage, as usual, during Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, where one of his sons became the most expensive yearling sold in Europe this year. There is just one Frankel on offer this week in Deauville and unsurprisingly he is bred in the purple. Catalogued as lot 95 from La Motteraye Consignment, the colt is a half-brother to the dual Grade I winner A Raving Beauty (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}).
Another with the potential to star towards the end of Tuesday's session is lot 210, a filly from the first crop of Ghaiyyath (Ire) whose brother New Mandate (Ire), by another Dubawi-line stallion in New Bay (GB) is a group winner in England and Australia, while further generations of the family include dual French Classic victrix Avenir Certain (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and successful young sire Mehmas (Ire).
Business gets underway at 11am on Tuesday, while the following three days all begin at 2pm before a final 11am session again on Saturday.
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