Arqana Breeze Hits New Heights

DEAUVILLE, France–A sale which has been rapidly on the rise in recent years reached a new high on Friday with a first seven-figure breezer and record turnover at Arqana.

In what may well be one of the greatest pinhooking coups in auction history, a colt by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense was sold for €1.4 million–the highest price at a European breeze-up sale this season–having been bought at Keeneland September by Jim McCartan and Willie Browne for just $15,000. The Godolphin-bred youngster is a son of the Listed Prix Coronation victrix Mystic Spirit (Seattle Slew), a half-sister to the GI Woodward and GI Travers S. winner Alpha (Bernardini), and is another to join the expensively assembled team of Phoenix Thoroughbreds.

Agent Kerri Radcliffe has been kept busy on their behalf in Florida, Doncaster and Newmarket but claimed that this particular individual (lot 35) is the best she's seem all season.

“He's for Phoenix Thoroughbreds and will be trained in England by my husband [Jeremy Noseda],” she confirmed. A number of Radcliffe's American purchases over the last few months will be trained by Bob Baffert.

Despite his lowly yearling price, Browne and McCartan had been prepared to pay up to $100,000 for the colt but cut their budget in half on the belief that he was a crib-biter.

“I'm still in shock,” Browne remarked. “We would have paid a lot more for him but Jim rang me when I was at Bluegrass Airport waiting to come home and said we might have a problem. We cut our budget to $50,000 and lo and behold he only made $15,000.”

The Mocklershill frontman continued, “He's so placid and has always had a great mind on him. I knew last week we were in business. He had all his x-rays and they were good so another piece of the jigsaw fell into place, and then he came and did a fast breeze then spent the time walking around like he was asleep–he just has such a good attitude.

It's hard to get my head round it really but I'm just delighted to be part of it. It's all down to the team at home.”

The team at Arqana was also understandably delighted to be able to build on very strong returns from last year and surpass those figures easily. At €12,932,000, the turnover was a new record and increased by 23% from 2016 with four fewer horses sold–91 from 124 presented. That did represent an 8% drop in the clearance rate to 74% but that was the only sector which recorded a downturn. The average rose by 28.5% to €141,538, while the median shot up to €87,000, from €67,000 12 months ago.

In his post-sale address, Arqana's managing director Eric Hoyeau pointed to the increasingly international list of buyers that heads to France in May. He said, “There's real diversity among the top buyers–Kerri Radcliffe was buying here for the first time, and of course there's Shadwell, Al Shaqab, Qatar Racing. It's also good to see such demand for the offspring of French-based stallions. The likes of Siyouni, Kendargent and Style Vendome were all very much in demand.”

He continued, “Ten years ago for the first Arqana breeze-up sale the turnover was €3 million. Today it is more than four times that amount.”

Even with such a hefty outlay, Radcliffe wasn't at the top of the buyers' table, that position going to Shadwell, which added another four juvenile to the team at just shy of €1.5 million. These included the day's most expensive filly (50), who led a terrific day for her sire Siyouni (Fr) when selling for €650,000. The daughter of the Listed-placed Reech Band (GB) (Choisir {Aus}) from the further family of multiple Grade 1 winner With Anticipation was bought in the same ring last August for €75,000, and was the bestseller from Con Marnane's draft, which had been seen earlier in the week cantering en masse along Deauville beach. The sea air obviously has a positive effect as Bansha House Stables sold five 2-year-olds for a total of €1,275,000.

“She's by a very good stallion who is noted for his success with fillies and she will be trained by Jean-Claude Rouget,” said Shadwell buyer Angus Gold, who also signed for a first-crop son of Haras de Bouqutot's Style Vendome (lot 4), offered by Grove Stud early in the session, at €400,000.

Commenting on the son of the Diktat (GB) mare Irisijana (Ger), who won and was Listed-placed in Germany, Gold said, “He is a very nice, straightforward horse who appears to have a very good mind on him. The stallion has made a promising starts with a couple of winners already and the trainers like his offspring.”

Siyouni was also on the wish list of Godolphin, with Dick O'Gorman stepping in on Sheikh Mohammed's behalf to buy lot 44, a grandson of the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Porlezza (Fr) (Sicyos {Fr}) for €550,000 from Church Farm and Horse Park Stud.

By the end of the session, six Siyouni juveniles had changed hands at an average price of €332,500.

An equally popular name among the French stallion ranks is that of Kendargent, who hit the leader board with lot 95, the second foal of Rail Link (GB)'s G3 Premio Dormello winner Bugie d'Amore. An expensive yearling when bought for €115,000 by Brendan Holland at Arqana's October Sale, he became an even pricier breezer when Stephen Hillen went to €470,000 to secure him for an unnamed client.

“We tried on the Siyouni [lot 44] earlier but this is the strongest breeze-up sale I've ever been to,” said the agent. “This colt will go to Richard Hughes–I bought another Kendargent here last year for the same client and he's also with Richard. We're big fans of the sire.”

He added, “I think Arqana have done a great job with this sale. I've had more horses on my short list than ever before.”

Regularly the leading vendor at this sale, Grove Stud had to give way to Mocklershill on aggregate this time around but was still the leading vendor by average, with four sold for an average of €346,250.

Fourteen horses sold for in excess of €250,000, including another from Mocklershill, lot 113, a Zoffany half-brother to the Listed Derby de l'Ouest runner-up Dandy d'Arcis (Fr) (Silver Frost {Fr}) who had been picked up for €55,000 at the October Sale. He returned to sell for €400,000 to Nicolas de Watrigant of Mandore International on behalf of Al Shaqab Racing.

The same owner also bought lot 12, Bansha House Stables' Choisir colt–the first foal of 3-year-old winner Lady Mickell (Ire) (Raven's Pass)–for €360,000 through Ross Doyle.

“We've had luck with Choisir before, especially through Olympic Glory (Ire) and this colt came highly recommended,” said Doyle, who added that he's likely to be trained by Richard Hannon.

Intello started his stud career at Cheveley Park Stud before moving to Haras du Quesnay and Cheveley Park's principal David Thompson, who has played a significant role in this season's breeze-up sales, added one of his sons to his juvenile string when bidding €340,000 through Charlie Gordon-Watson for (lot 88). Another Grove Stud offering, the April-foaled colt is out of a winning half-sister to G3 Sprint S. winner Brazilian Bride (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}).

The strong trade continued through to the final hammer fall when David Redvers went to €260,000 for lot 139, a late entrant for Longways Stables who bought her for 16,000gns as a yearling. The filly out of the GII San Clemente H. winner Up In Time (GB) (Noverre) was of particular interest to the Qatar Racing representative as she hails from the first crop of the Tweenhills stallion Havana Gold (GB), the sire to date of three winners.

“We're really excited by the stallion,” said Redvers. “This filly did a really fast breeze and she's out of a very good racemare. We've bought three today and haven't decided on trainers yet but this filly will be raced in partnership with a client of Ghislain Bozo's Meridian International.”

This is the final year that the first two French Classics will be held in Deauville instead of at Longchamp but Eric Hoyeau stated that it is Arqana's aim to keep the sale at its main headquarters instead of returning to Saint-Cloud.

He remarked, “It's our objective to stay here even when the racing returns to Paris. The consignors have indicated that they would like that to happen. The most important things for us it to give confidence to the vendors.”