Arqana

A quartet of wildcards, including Love Affair (Study Of Man) (lot 520), have been added to the Arqana Summer Sale set for Deauville from June 30-July 3. The 4-year-old filly is in foal to Good Guess, and she is a half-sister to group winners Lazy Griff (Protectionist) who was second in the G1 Betfred Derby on Saturday, and Lambo (Protectionist). The other three wildcards are as follows: listed winner Maturlo (Starspangledbanner) (lot 397); the 89-rated winner Motion (Lope De Vega) (lot 398); and the stakes-placed Alanya (Le Havre) (lot 519),...

It was another memorable year on the breeze-up circuit for Willie Browne. The 79-year-old broke his own long-standing record at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up by selling an Acclamation colt to Godolphin for 1.4 million gns. Roll on to Arqana and the Mocklershill maestro was at it again when selling a Siyouni colt to Coolmore for €1 million. Such results were welcome, according to Browne, who joked with Brian Sheerin on this month's edition of the TDN Conversations Podcast that 'it will be the first time in a few years where...

A trio of Flat horses-in-training have been added to the Arqana Summer Sale as wildcards. The sale will be held from Monday, June 30-Thursday, July 3. The Satoshi Kobayashi-trained Short Final, who won the G3 Kronimus Badener Meile in Germany last week will be consigned as lot 412. Rated 108, the son of Zelzal will be joined by lot 400, Dioptase. By New Bay and rated 102, Dioptase was runner-up in the G3 Prix Greffulhe and is a winner over 1500m and 2000m. Rounding out the trio is Kirchner (Pinatubo)...

Tuesday's Prix Chapeau Rouge at Saint-Cloud played host to the frontrunning TDN Rising Star performance of Andre Fabre trainee Alcantor (New Bay) back in 2023 and this year's renewal witnessed another pillar-to-post Rising Star display by a Fabre nominee, Segall (Sottsass), who put his rivals to the sword in the seven-furlong contest. He follows Ultrafragola and Safia in becoming his sire's third Rising Star. Former Coolmore resident Sottsass now stands at Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan. The 13-5 favourite was swiftly into stride from the inside stall and seized an...

The catalogue for the Arqana Summer Sale, featuring over 560 horses bred under both codes, is now available online. Past graduates include Mgheera (Zoustar), a multiple group winner on the Flat, while in the jumping sphere, Game Of Storm (Motivator), Haiti Couleurs (Dragon Dancer), Mambonumberfive (Born To Sea) and Nietzsche Has (Zarak) all won over hurdles in France and across the channel. Set for June 30-July 3, the sale features 73 Flat-bred 2-year-olds, 160 2- and 3-year-old NH stores, as well as 88 mares and fillies-out-of-training. Juveniles will be put...

After four years with the bloodstock team at Arqana, Mario Gussago has this week joined Sumbe as nominations and racing manager. The Italian native previously had a long stint in Newmarket, spending five years with Marco Botti as travelling head lad and another three as second assistant to Roger Varian. "I never wanted to train so I was looking to work on the other side and I am so grateful to Arqana," says Gussago. "They've been so good to me, and not many other people would have given me this...

"The greatest gift a breeder could have." That was how the late HH Aga Khan IV described his unbeaten masterpiece Zarkava. How fitting then, that months after the retirement of the 20-year-old daughter of Zamindar and the sad passing of her owner-breeder, Zarkava's granddaughter Zarigana, herself out of the Listed winner Zarkamiya (Frankel) and by the Aga Khan Studs' homebred French champion sire Siyouni, should pick up the baton.  In giving her breeder a seventh victory in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Zarigana continues this line of extraordinary success for...

Mocklershill maestro Willie Browne was responsible for the fourth seven-figure lot of the sale at Arqana on Saturday as his colt by Siyouni went the way of MV Magnier for €1 million. Lot 164, from the family of the G1 Sussex Stakes winner and sire Mohaather, was previously a €290,000 purchase at the Arqana October Yearling Sale. It was yet another lucrative result this year for Browne, who also sold a son of Acclamation for 1.4 million gns at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale, having sourced said colt for just...

Deauville, FRANCE-Talk about timing. The Arqana Breeze-Up Sale will get underway a week to the day after star graduate Ruling Court did his thing in the 2,000 Guineas. Take that result and couple it with the fact the sales results at the breeze-up sales in America and Europe have been off the charts this year, there is rightly optimism in the Deauville air.  Three horses made more than a million-including Ruling Court who sold to Godolphin at €2.3 million-at the breeze-up sales last year. That figure has already been equalled...

Deauville, FRANCE-The breeze-up circus rolls onto Arqana this week and, following the breeze on Thursday, where 162 of some of the best-bred horses in Europe were put through their paces, a number of key industry stakeholders weighed in on what might come to fruition this week.  From market predictions, to revealing their highs and lows of the breeze-up season thus far, heavyweights Roger O'Callaghan, Roderic Kavanagh, Tessa Greatrex, Valfredo Valiani and Matt Coleman have answered some of the key questions ahead of what promises to be another blockbuster sale on...

Aidan O'Brien trainee Mount Kilimanjaro (Siyouni) needed every yard of Thursday's Listed Boodles Raindance Dee Stakes and continued the Ballydoyle maestro's dominance of this year's Chester Cup meeting with a seventh win in eight renewals, and a record-breaking 12th overall, in the extended 10-furlong contest. Last year's Criterium d'Automne winner and G1 Criterium International runner-up broke well and settled in fifth passing the judge first time, but slipped to sixth at halfway. Coming under pressure with a quarter-mile remaining, the even-money favourite was under a full Ryan Moore pump thereafter...

Maël Thibault has joined the bloodstock team at Arqana ahead of the breeze-up sale which takes place on Saturday. Thibault's role will eventually see him take charge of the inspections for Flat and National Hunt yearlings, as well as stores in France. The appointment sees Thibault return home from Australia where he had been managing the stallions at Newgate Farm, having previously spent a full sales season at Yarraman Park. In Europe, his experience includes spells at Écurie des Monceaux and the Irish National Stud, while he also completed a...