Frankel Out In Front Again At Arqana

By Emma Berry and Chris McGrath

Unmistakably, the F-word is on everyone's lips as the yearling sales season swings into gear. Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), a phenomenon on the racetrack, has made a phenomenal start to his new career and duly topped the opening session of the August Yearling Sale at Arqana when Angus Gold signed a €850,000 docket for a colt consigned from Ecurie des Monceaux.

Lot 92, of 94 catalogued for the evening, was a lissom chestnut son of Pertinence (Ire) (Fasliyev), dam of listed winner La Peinture (Fr) (Muhtathir {GB}) and from the family of Peintre Celebre (Nureyev). Gold admitted that he had been obliged to dig deep to see off a rival seated with Pascal Bary.

“Three months ago he might only have cost €400,000 but Frankel is on such a roll that I thought he might make €500,000 or €600,000,” Gold said. “But that's what happens when someone else wants a horse as well. Quite apart from the sire, I thought he was a very athletic individual, one of the stars of the sale – and Sheikh Hamdan loved him straightaway. He's a very elegant horse, very light on his feet, and the vet felt he trotted up really well. Whenever I saw him he also seemed to have a lovely attitude. He's not going to be an early type, for me, he's a May foal anyway, but I hope that we'll be seeing him on the track around this time next year. We've had a bit of luck buying off Monceaux before, they do a great job, and the mare has bred a good filly already.”

Gold, who had also bought the first of the four other Frankel colts through the ring during the session, frankly confessed himself among those bloodstock professionals who have been taken aback by Frankel's explosive start at stud.

“Obviously it's incredibly exciting, what the stallion's doing, particularly as I didn't think they looked particularly precocious individuals last year,” he said. “It looks very much as though they're doing it not because they're fast, but because they've got class, that's the thing. I was talking to Jean-Claude Rouget this morning, and said: 'I see you're running a nice Frankel filly later.' And he said: 'Yes, maybe, but I think she might be a bit tender, maybe not quite ready for a test like this.' And then she [Toulifaut] goes and wins like that! And then there was Luca Cumani's filly, at Doncaster yesterday, they say she's enormous. So I got it completely wrong – I thought they'd be 3-year-olds, that it would be all about next year. Shows what I know!”

Buyers from Qatar, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Africa, Britain, Ireland and of course France peppered the leader board as turnover for the opening session rose by 19% to €14,116,000. The clearance rate was also up – by 12% to 83.5% for 76 horses sold from the 91 offered. The average and median were both down slightly, at €185,737 (-4%) and €145,000 (from €155,000).

Frankel A Major Factor

Gold's other Frankel success was lot 17, a colt from the family of Rainbow Quest. The first foal of Faithfully (Ire) (Red Clubs {Ire}), herself once a listed winner at Deauville, was secured for €300,000.

“I thought he was a very solid little horse and looked more of a two-year-old than some of the Frankels I've seen,” said Gold, referring back to his broader observations about the sire's stock. In fairness, those initial assumptions have been borne out by the three members of his first crop in training for Shadwell. “They would all be relatively backward, but hopefully ready to run at the backend,” he said.

Certainly it seems safe to predict a broader consensus of enthusiasm for Frankel's second crop – and the word is spreading far and wide. “Everybody round the world knows the sire and how well he's doing,” said Justin Casse after signing a €410,000 docket for lot 57, a colt out of Manerbe (Unbridled's Song), on behalf of Zayat Stables. “He's a pretty hot commodity right now.”

Casse, who extolled his purchase as “debatably the nicest Frankel here”, sees the potential to extend the young stallion's reputation to a new arena. “From what I've seen, physically his foals have tended to be mare-dominated,” he explained. “And I see a lot of Unbridled's Song – himself a beautiful specimen – in this horse. There's certainly enough dirt influences in his pedigree to make trying him on dirt a possibility. Obviously he'll start training on dirt, because he'll be sent to Florida. After that, it will depend on whatever trainer they want to send him to. But the nice thing about a pedigree like this is that it gives you lots of options as to the surface.”

Naturally, access to Frankel was reserved to mares likely to give him every chance and this colt is no exception, as the third foal of a mare who has already produced a Grade III scorer in the US, and is herself a half-sister to Zoftig (Cozzene), winner of the GI Selene S. and dam of GI Mother Goose S. winner Zo Impressive and GI Acorn S. winner Zaftig. Another half-sister is Verve (Unbridled), dam of GI Preakness S. runner-up Tale Of Verve.

Lot 21, a colt out of Funny Girl (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), and so a half-brother to Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Laugh Out Loud (GB) (Clodovil {Fr}), will be sent to Britain to be trained after being purchased for €300,000 by Khalifa bin Hamad al Attiyah, albeit he has not yet decided on a trainer. A more familiar face on the Arabian circuit, he acknowledged this to be something of a statement regarding a proposed expansion in his thoroughbred interests.

From Mongolia to Normandy

“You can't have too much of a good thing,” said Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, fresh from his adventures in the Mongol Derby and back in Deauville to ensure that he placed the successful bid on the full-brother to the Tweenhills stallion and three-time Group 1 winner Charm Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Offered by his breeder Ecurie des Monceaux, the seventh foal of the Montjeu (Ire) mare L'Enjoleuse (Ire) (lot 44) led the opening day of Arqana's August Sale until three lots from the end of play after the hammer fell in the sheikh's favour at €650,000.

“He's a stallion prospect in the making,” offered Sheikh Fahad offered, who admitted to feeling a little sore after suffering a hairline fracture to a vertebra when riding in the 1,000km challenge across the Mongolian Steppe.

He added, “This colt is as nice as, if not nicer than his brother and I think this is a good price. We've been really pleased with Charm Spirit's first foals. We won't decide on a trainer until December.”

The Dubawi (Ire) half-sister to Giofra (GB) (Dansili {GB}) (lot 25) returned whence she came, to the paddocks of Haras des Monceaux after being knocked down to Andreas Putsch at €1 million. Putsch, the owner of Haras de Saint Pair and one of a number of high-profile partners in the progressive Monceaux operation, bought the filly privately from her breeder Haras de la Perelle and has retained the daughter of Gracefully (Ire) (Orpen) after she failed to elicit a bid high enough to persuade Putsch to part with her. Despite the high-priced buy-back, Monceaux still ended the day in what is now the farm's customary position at the top of the Arqana consignors' table.

Spirited performance

Laurent Benoit of Broadhurst Agency was busy throughout the session, finishing as leading buyer with five yearlings bought for €1,230,000. The quintet was headed by lot 49, a Dark Angel (Ire) half-sister to listed-placed The Black Princess (Fr) (Iffraaj {GB}) bought for €600,000 on behalf of an undisclosed client.

The filly, whose dam Larceny (Ire) is a Cape Cross half-sister to the Classic winners Lawman (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Latice (Fr) (Inchinor {GB}), is to be trained in France by Andre Fabre and hails from Lady Chryss O'Reilly's Haras de la Louviere.

“She's from one of the great Louviere families so we will hope for the best,” said Benoit.

Invincible Spirit, the sire of three of the top six lots of the day, was in the spotlight again later when the Alan O'Flynn-bred colt out of the young Group 3-placed mare Marvada (Ire) (Elusive Quality) (lot 59) went the way of MV Magnier at €475,000.

“He's a very nice horse and a good mover. All the guys liked him and he's well bred. Invincible Spirit is capable of getting a good horse, so let's hope he's a good one,” said Magnier of the Grove Stud consignee.

The Irish National Stud stalwart, who has six yearlings sell on Sunday at an average of €345,000 was also represented by a strong colt (lot 41) in the Ballylinch Stud draft out of Kiltubber (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), the dam of three Group winners in Opinion (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}), Fox Hunt (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and this colt's full-sister Anam Allta (Ire) and member of one of the stud's strongest founding families, which includes the ill-fated G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Chriselliam {Ire) (Ifraaj {GB}).

George Scott will train the colt in Newmarket after he and agent Alex Scott stretched to €420,000 to secure him for a new English client of the young trainer.

“I thought he was the nicest colt in the sale and he's from a really good farm. I'm delighted to be able to train him,” said Scott, a former assistant to Eddie Kenneally, Michael Bell and Lady Cecil who is in his first full season of training.

Ballylinch Stud also consigned a Nathaniel (Ire) half-brother to the dual Group 1 winner Belardo (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (lot 2) made an early splash when sold to Charlie Gordon-Watson on behalf of Dr Johnny Hon for €250,000.

“He'll go to Ed Dunlop,” said the agent who also bought a colt by Galileo (Ire) for the owner of listed winner Global Applause (GB) (Mayson {GB}) for €275,000 at Arqana's Breeze-up Sale in May.

“He's a well-bred horse and I think Nathaniel is going to come good and by Book 1 [at Tattersalls] they might start to get quite expensive. This is an April foal and yearlings sold in August always improve.”

The colt out of Danaskaya (Danehill) is also a half-brother to the multiple Scandinavian Group winner Berling (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), who is owned by Benny Andersson of ABBA fame.

Hong Kong Has The Power

Hong Kong Jockey Club buyer Mark Richards outbid Mick Flanagan to take Horse Park Stud's brother of Slade Power (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}) (lot 22) back to Hong Kong with him but had to stretch to €450,000 for the privilege.

“It's good to be able to get a good horse early on and, quite honestly, if there was one horse in the sale I really wanted to go home with it was him,” said Richards.

“He's bred to be a fast horse, he looks like a fast horse and he has a great temperament. What I particularly liked about Slade Power was the fact that he kept doing it year after year. In Hong Kong, we're not about sharp, early 2-year-olds – they like to keep the horses for a good few years.”

Sabena Power, who bred and raced the young Darley stallion Slade Power, also owns his 2-year-old full-sister named Duchess Power (Ire).

Flush With Freshmen

Fiona Carmichael and Ian Jennings have had a week to remember with their Hugo Palmer-trained juvenile Escobar (Ire), who became the first stakes winner for his freshman sire Famous Name (Ire) when carrying their colours to glory in the listed Washington Singer S. at Newbury. Buying through their regular agent Amanda Skiffington, the pair invested in another first-season sire when going to €320,000 for a chestnut son of Haras du Quesnay resident Intello (Ger) out of a half-sister to G2 Oaks d'Italia winner Night Of Magic (Ire) (Peintre Celebre) (lot 84).

“He had such presence and is a really balanced colt,” said Skiffington, who also bought dual Group 2 winner Ivawood (Ire) (Jeremy) for the Carmichael Jennings team.

She added, “We've been lucky buying the stock of first-season sires. If we wait until they're proven we can't always afford them.”

Intello finished the day as leading freshman at Arqana with five yearlings sold at an average price of €240,000. This included the penultimate yearling of the session, lot 93, a daughter of the Monceaux foundation mare Platonic (GB) (Zafonic). The half-sister to Chicquita (Ire)'s dam Prudenzia (Ire)) (Dansili {GB}) went to France's leading trainer Jean-Claude Rouget who joked after signing the ticket that he had 48 hours to find an owner for her. It shouldn't be too difficult.

Another rookie stallion in unsurprising demand was Camelot (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}), a triple Classic winner of celebrated physical allure. He had eight yearlings listed in the opening session, raising an aggregate of €1,185,000–an average of €148,125.

Among those eager to support Camelot were his owners at Coolmore. MV Magnier signed a €200,000 docket for lot 38, the first foal of listed winner Keegsquaw (Ire) (Street Cry {Ire}). “He's stamping his stock really well and really reminds me of Montjeu,” Magnier said. “It was unfortunate to lose him [Montjeu] at such a young age but it would be nice to think Camelot could be the next one.”

Coolmore will also be involved in lot 64, a colt out of Miss Emma May (Ire) (Hawk Wing), after Magnier and Peter Doyle co-signed for €320,000 on behalf of a partnership with Markus Jooste's Mayfair Speculators. “I think this is a very nice horse, the nicest Camelot in the catalogue,” Doyle said. “And I do like them generally, I thought he had some lovely foals last year. Aidan O'Brien will train him.”

Rarity Value

Every sales season includes stock that has gained curiosity value through poignant circumstance: the death of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), for instance, or the pensioning of Cape Cross (Ire) (Green Desert). Lot 29, a filly by the latter, proved of corresponding interest to Al Shaqab, for whom Nicolas de Watrigant signed at €320,000.

Her dam is the Group 2 winner Hanami (GB) (Hernando {Fr}), a half-sister to dam of The Juliet Rose (Fr) (Monsun {Ger}) – who offered a timely update when second the G3 Prix Minerve just a couple of hours previously. Watrigant considered this filly well qualified to assist the bedding down of Al Shaqab's evolving farm operation. “She's a very pretty filly with a good page who we thought would have value for the future,” he reasoned.

Another sire whose stock will necessarily have the quality of “collector's items” is Al Kazeem (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), whose fertility issues seemed all the more disappointing when his sole representative in the catalogue proved such an eye-catcher: lot 39, the first foal of Keene Dancer (GB) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), a half-sister to G2 Royal Lodge S. winner Berkshire (Ire) (Mount Nelson {GB}) out of the Group 1 winner Kinnaird (Ire) (Dr Devious {Ire}). Hugo Palmer was the disappointed under-bidder for the colt, unable to match a bid of €360,000 by George Ma of Blossoms Trading & Breeding Co on behalf of Thomas Li, the CEO of the Macau Jockey Club.

“We loved the horse,” Ma said. “If he is fairly small, he has a lovely shape. The stallion is obviously new as well but we've seen other sons of Dubawi do well at stud already. He will stay here in France for a short spell while his future is decided.”