Action Lively At Arqana Part Two

After a steady start to Part 1 of Arqana’s October Sale, the first of three Part 2 sessions felt an altogether livelier affair, with figures up across the board from the equivalent day in 2014.

Five fewer yearlings were sold, but this didn’t prevent turnover rising by almost 9% to €3,284,000 for 100 horses at an easy-to-calculate average of €32,840. That marked a rise of 14%, while the median improved from €26,000 to €27,500. An 84% clearance rate was much more reassuring than the opening day and also an 8% rise from 2014.

David Redvers attended the October Sale Tuesday with Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, but was unable to stay to bid on his pick of the catalogue, lot 211, a colt by Manduro (Ger) offered by the Coulonces Consignment. Arqana representative Freddy Powell stepped into the breach on Redvers’s behalf and saw off a determined attempt by trainer John Best in securing the strong, rangey colt for €140,000.

Redvers later commented, “For me he was one of the best horses in the sale. He looks a very good middle-distance horse in the making. I was expecting to pay a fair bit for him as he is such a nice horse, but I had to stretch my budget.”

The colt is the first foal of the unraced Ajudicate (GB) (Dansili {GB}), a full-sister to Khalid Abdullah’s dual French winner Permit (GB), who has won two group races in Australia since being sold for 120,000gns to join Chris Waller’s stable. Another sibling, the 2-year-old Richie McCaw (GB) (Zamindar), won a Chelmsford maiden last week for Mark Johnston.

Powell was back in action later for Redvers when bidding €55,000 for a daughter of Sunday Break (Jpn) (lot 244) who was offered for sale by Haras de Grandcamp, where the son of Forty Niner stands. The filly’s unraced dam Belle Dame (Ger) (Pilsudski {GB}) is a half-sister to the G2 Prix Robert Papin winner Boccassini (Ger) (Artan {Ire}).

Kent-based John Best had managed to get his way when going to €60,000 for Jean-Pierre and Guillaume Garcon’s colt by Muhtathir (GB) (lot 207), a grandson of the G3 Prix de la Grotte winner Absurde (Fr) (Green Desert) out of her young Thunder Gulch daughter Abondante.

Haras du Quesnay will forever be synonymous with Motivator’s daughter Treve (Fr), and another filly by their resident stallion, and bred on the same cross, was in the limelight Wednesday evening when sold for €120,000 to Patricia Boutin on behalf of Edouard Rothschild. Lot 277 is out of the G3 Prix Miesque winner Dalna (Fr) (Anabaa) and is a sister to the juvenile scorer Do Your Bit (Fr). The family also includes another Quesnay stallion, Dunkerque (Fr) (Highest Honor {Fr}).

Commenting on her selection, Boutin said, “I love granddaughters of Anabaa and Quesnay have already bred some very good fillies by Motivator. She will be trained here in France.”

Having sold the session-toppers on each of the first two days of the sale, Anna and Etienne Drion of the Coulonces Consignment had plenty to celebrate, and that included two good results on Wednesday with yearlings by Le Havre, with whom they have a close personal association. Anna’s parents, Jan and Maya Sundstrom, bred the G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner under their Team Hogdala banner and sold him as a yearling for €100,000 to Gerard Augustin-Normand, who now stands him at Sylvain Vidal’s Haras de le Cauviniere. This year’s offerings from Coulonces Consignment contained a Le Havre colt named Storm Trigger (Fr) (lot 255) bred by Anna’s 14-year-old daughter Moa, who led the colt around the ring with tears streaking her cheeks as his price rose to €72,000 and he was bought by Vidal.

Moa was not the only one moved by the occasion, as her tearful mother explained how her young daughter came to breed the son of the Group 3-winning mare Camporese (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells).

“We have a very good client who gave the mare to Moa,” said Anna. “She put her in foal to Myboycharlie (Ire) and that filly made €30,000 last year. Moa then reinvested her profits and bought another mare. The second mare is now in foal to No Nay Never and she needs to pay the nomination fee, so this will really help and she will probably now go out and buy another mare.”

Anna added, “Moa has to do everything herself, from making the phone calls to book the nominations to presenting the horses at the sale.”

Just five lots later Le Havre brought more joy for the Coulonces team when his filly out of the winning Linamix mare Carmelixa (Ire) was bought by Alban de Mieulle for €105,000 on behalf of Sheikh Abdulla Bin Khalifa Al Thani’s Umm Qarn Farm.

“She’s a nice big filly who will be trained by Freddy Head and will be a good breeding prospect in time. I like the cross of Le Havre and Linamix,” said de Mieulle, who trains in Qatar and manages Umm Qarn Farm.

Sheikh Abdulla has been a staunch supporter of Arqana’s October Sale, and bought his multiple Group 1 winner and exciting young stallion Charm Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) from Ecurie des Monceaux for €140,000 in 2012. That support was rewarded again earlier in the day when his colt Dirgam (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})–bought for him by de Mieulle for €80,000 two years ago–won the listed Prix Vulcain next door at Deauville’s Hippodrome de la Touques.

Haras de la Reboursiere’s robust grey stallion Martaline (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}) appeals to buyers of both flat horses and jumpers and both options are open to lot 286, a March-born son of the multiple winner Ealore (Fr) (Kendor {Fr}) who was bought by Jean-Claude Rouget for €80,000. The Pau trainer signed for another member of the family, Fingertips (Fr), by the same sire at last year’s Osarus Breeze-up Sale in Pornichet. The colt has since won at Bordeaux le Bouscat and, still listed as owned by Rouget, has been sent to continue his career at the Somerset jumping stable of David Pipe.

Buying through Patrick Barbe, Chantilly-based Japanese trainer Satoshi Kobayashi stretched to €75,000 to buy lot 280, Haras d’Haspel’s Makfi (GB) half-sister to Zarwaan (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), the winner on Oct. 3 of the Listed Guisborough S. at Redcar for Ed Dunlop and Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

Mandore International bought the filly’s dam, the Cheveley Park Stud-bred but unraced Develyn (GB) (Pivotal), for just 8,500gns at Tattersalls when carrying Zarwaan, who was subsequently sold as a yearling by José Delmotte’s Haspel team for €110,000 at Arqana’s August Sale. Later offered by Willie Browne’s Mocklershill stable, he fetched 320,000gns as a breezer when bought by Shadwell.

Two young French-based sires whose stock have been well received so far this week are Rio De La Plata and Rajsaman (Fr). Five yearlings by Haras du Logis resident Rio De La Plata returned an average of €25,000 from his debut fee of €7,000, with buyers including pinhooker Con Marnane, who consigned Rio De La Plata to the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale of 2007.

Linamix’s son Rajsaman stands alongside Le Havre (Ire) at Haras de la Cauviniere and was the busiest freshman sire in France on his retirement. His six yearlings sold so far at the October Sale have averaged €44,833 from a starter fee of €4,000.

A fan of both stallions appears to be Lyon trainer Marc Pimbonnet, who bought a filly (lot 257) and a colt (lot 292) by Rajsaman for €60,000 and €52,000 for new client Fabrice Petit. Pimbonnet also signed for a well-made daughter of Rio De La Plata from Haras de Tourgeville (lot 295) at €38,000.

The sale continues Thursday at 11 a.m.