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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
By Brian Sheerin and Emma Berry DEAUVILLE, FRANCE – Shattering a record set a decade ago, a Night Of Thunder colt out of the Ecurie des Monceaux blue hen Prudenzia (Dansili) was sold for €3 million to Amo Racing and was one of six seven-figure transactions on the final day of the Arqana August. There were eight across the sale as a whole. Such a lively last session ensured that the figures were well beyond those of a relatively quiet edition of the sale in 2024. The €266,576 average was not only up by 22% on last year but represented an all-time record as did the €57,847,000 turnover which was up by 18% on last year. The clearance rate rested at 80% which was up by 2% on last year while the median was by €30,000 to €170,000. It was bloodstock agent Alex Elliott who signed for the record-breaking top lot on behalf of Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing, which famously took the yearling market in Europe by storm last year and continued that momentum in a big way at Arqana this week. “For somebody like Kia, we're trying to create a dynasty, I suppose, and you've got to start with those types of horses,” Elliott explained after eclipsing the previous record of €2.6m that was set by John Ferguson at this sale for this filly's close relation Parabellum. Elliott continued, “If she never races, she's a collector's item. It's a well-used term but she is a collector's item. She's got a great body for a filly out of a mare of that age and her sister [Diamond Necklace] was a TDN Rising Star last week. The mare is still doing it, even though she is a good age. We've bought into one of the greatest families there is. She doesn't take much explaining. We'll take her home but I'd imagine she'll be one for Kevin Philippart de Foy at Freemason Lodge.” Elliott went on to sign for a Lope De Vega colt for €850,000 from Haras du Cadran before topping out Amo Racing's spend at €4.95 million on another Night Of Thunder filly – this time from Etreham – for €900,000 and a €200,000 Wootton Bassett colt from Haras de la Louviere. Speaking after landing the Lope De Vega, Elliott provided some insight into Amo Racing's buying strategy, and said, “You wouldn't describe Almanzor as being an elite stallion but the mare [Queen Trezy] is by him and she was a very good racemare. It's a wonderful pedigree and I just thought he had a must have sticker on him. Thank God Kia was brave, I love that colt.” Asked if had ever witnessed a stronger edition of the August Yearling Sale at Arqana, Elliott responded, “No, but that's the game we're in. The top is very thin but, when you are there, it's very strong. There are a lot of players who want to be there. The way the business is gone, it's all about the elite. It's all about the top. And when you want to get a horse at that level, you are going to have to pay for them. There are some superpowers in the game right now. You'd worry about the middle and the bottom as there is not a lot there. But if you want to be in the top, you've got to put the head down and that's what everyone is doing. There's no point fighting soft. You've got to fight hard.” Godolphin End Sale As Leading Buyers Anthony Stroud hinted that the majority of Godolphin's business would be done on Monday and, true to his word, the powerhouse bloodstock agent set raised the temperature almost single-handedly when spending €4.25 million on two separate lots within the space of just a few minutes early on in the session. Godolphin spent €5,950,000 on five yearlings on Monday, bringing the total outlay at the August Sale to €8,050,000 for eight lots. The day three spending spree was kick-started by a €2.35 million Frankel colt from the family of Derby winner Wings Of Eagles and consigned by Haras de Montaigu. “The horses today are strong,” Stroud rightly summed up. “There are a number of horses who should sell very well. I think today is the strongest day. A very good easy-moving horse, he has good conformation and is obviously by Frankel out of a Siyouni mare, which is a good cross. He was one of our picks of the day. It's like everything else – your first impression [of a horse] is what counts. Without doubt.” Asked if the Frankel colt could be a potential Derby horse in time, he replied, “We're all dreaming about that. That's why we're here and that's why our boss does this. We're wanting to get to that level, winning those races – the Derbys, the Arcs and whatever.” Both Juddmonte and Ed Sackville, bidding on behalf of Simon Sadler, were involved in the running for the Frankel colt, with the latter filling the runner-up spot. Stroud continued, “He [Simon Sadler] very kindly gave me a lift to the taxi yesterday. I didn't know who he was. We had a very pleasant conversation but I didn't realise we would be bidding against each other quite so early in the morning!” The dam of the Frankel colt, Orendina (Siyouni), is understood to have a Kingman foal at foot and is back in foal to the Juddmonte stallion. Haras de Montaigu's Sybille Gibson said, “He comes from an incredible family. We were expecting something big, but not this big, definitely. This is beyond dreams. This is absolutely incredible.” No sooner had Stroud finished his debrief with the media, he followed up with buying a Dubawi filly out of Group 3 winner Paix (Muhaarar) for €2 million. A series of timely updates surely contributed to that sum given the Dubawi filly's brother Parachutiste won a Listed race at Clairefontaine on Saturday. On top of that, Skydance, the two-year-old half-sister by Night Of Thunder, filled the placings in a Group 2 and Group 3 respectively this season. “Dubawi has been an extraordinary stallion for our organisation,” Stroud said. “It's rare to see fillies of such quality come up for sale, so you have to seize the opportunity. We're very lucky to have him.” 'Best Day In The Business' For Rimaud Credit to William Rimaud, farm manager at Haras de la Perelle, as he predicted big things for his Camelot colt [191] in the TDN consignor Q&A during the build-up to this sale. But selling the horse for a cool €1.2 million to Coolmore exceeded the 33-year-old's wildest aspirations for the homebred. Rimaud, who is the son of Georges, former boss of the French division of the Aga Khan Studs, was left visibly shaking with emotion following the seven-figure sale which he said represented his greatest day in the bloodstock business by far. Speaking from the restaurant behind the rostrum at Arqana, where Rimaud sprinted to in order to embrace his Haras de la Perelle bosses, he beamed, “It's great, it's awesome! The TDN kind of wrote it already this week! It feels amazing. We always knew he was nice and thought he would do well but, man, this is the top price for me and it just feels good.” He continued, “It feels like the job was well done and hopefully the horse will do great. There is no reason he won't. We really thought he'd do well but we didn't think we could get more than a million for a Camelot. I don't know if many Camelots have sold for that price before or not. It's definitely my best day in the game. By far. We will try to have more of these days in the future, for sure.” MV Magnier signed for the Camelot colt, from the family of Pensee Du Jour, who is by the same sire, alongside White Birch Farm and commented, “He's a lovely horse and it seems like Camelot does pretty well with mares from the Giant's Causeway line. “He's having a very good year again this year and we have a couple of very good two-year-olds by him in Ballydoyle. Godolphin ran a good horse by him there the other day too [Del Maro], so the stallion's flying. He's very capable of getting a good horse so let's hope this fella is one of them.” Talking Points Kieran Lalor admitted to banging his head against a brick wall on some of the millionaire lots earlier in the session. But good things come to those who wait and Lalor, bidding on behalf of Al Shira'aa Racing from his favourite spot in the restaurant behind the rostrum, went to €1.2 million for a Monceaux-consigned Wootton Bassett half-sister to Listed winner and Group 2-placed Audubon Park (Dubawi). Lalor said, “Wootton Bassett is the best sire in the world at the moment. He's on a roll. It's a family we love and obviously Rumi is at the bottom of the page. She's a real Classic-looking filly and hopefully our luck can continue with Monceaux. She was one on our shortlist today and we tried hard on the Dubawi filly and the Zarak half-sister to Vespertilio earlier. They obviously made plenty of money and I'm delighted for them. Business has been good today. This is only the mare's third foal so there's plenty more to come.” The millionaire lots just kept on coming and Lordship Stud, signing under One Agency, went to €1.1 million on a Zarak half-sister to Group 1-placed Vespertilio (Night Of Thunder) from Monceaux. Lot 205 is out of a full-sister to Prudenzia and is therefore from the family of Magic Wand and Chicquita. Lordship Stud's Tom Harris said, “She's going to go to Francis Graffard. It's an amazing family, beautifully cultivated by our good friend Henri Bozo. Over time we've been looking to buy something from this family and we loved this filly. We're delighted to get her. We've been partners with Monceaux for many years, they do a fantastic job.” Owner-breeder Craig Bernick got stuck in at Arqana and came home with three long-term broodmare prospects through bloodstock agent Hubie de Burgh for a combined €1.26 million. The most expensive of the trio came on Monday when the buying team came down on a Siyouni filly from Monceaux at €750,000. De Burgh commented, “The prize-money and the bonuses are so good in France that the obvious place for this filly to be trained is France and she will go to Francis Graffard. Craig is right in his view that, when you try to buy mares at public auction in December, it's impossible. Your only chance is to buy the fillies from the big families as yearlings and, if they are good enough to become stakes fillies, you have something that you couldn't buy in December. We're playing the long game.” Baaeed put in a pretty solid debut performance at the European yearling sale circuit with four lots selling for a total €1.53 million and an average of €382,500. Frankel ended the sale as the undisputed top dog with three horses selling for the highest average of €1,033,333, however, Wootton Bassett was the only stallion who managed to have two yearlings clear seven figures. Anyone who wanted to view the Monceaux draft over the past few days at Arqana needed to book a time slot in advance. That's how popular and how busy Henri Bozo's horses have become and it showed once again in the results with Monceaux ending the sale as by far the most successful vendor with 36 lots sold for €17,455,000. You've got to say that Bozo's loyalty to Arqana has been paid off in spades this week. Despite the record trade, many breeze-up handlers managed to get up and running for the season. Brendan Holland, Johnny Hassett, Ellie Whitaker, Mark Grant and Cormac Farrell were just some of the names who managed to get in on the action. Farrell was the busiest and spent €365,000 on three lots, including a filly and a colt by Night Of Thunder. There were a couple of good pinhooking results on Monday, notably with lot 266, a Havana Grey filly who was transformed from a 58,000gns foal to a €145,000 yearling and lot 300, a Churchill filly who more or less doubled her money at €55,000. Such results are not to be sniffed at but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing for pinhookers on the whole this week and the swashbuckling results were few and far between. The post Amo Racing Smashes Arqana August Sale Record On €3m Night Of Thunder Filly appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
DEAUVILLE, FRANCE–Americans' plans for the Arqana sale were understandably shaken up when U.S. President Donald Trump made good on his threat to impose tariffs on the European Union and others in early August, meaning that French-bred horses purchased here-like all French products imported to America–would be subject to a 15% surcharge when they are brought back into America. Several buyers are deciding to break, train and race their horses in Europe instead, while others will brave the fee and come back to the U.S. On the final day of the strong Arqana August sale, we took a poll of American buyers to see who would stay and who would go. Justin Casse picked up lot 30, a Wootton Bassett colt for €300,000; and lot 138, a Sea the Moon colt for€105,000. Neither will come to America; both will go into training with Joseph O'Brien in Ireland. Deuce Greathouse is also leaning towards keeping his Mehmas (lot 38, €120,000) here to race. She was purchased for a new group of American buyers. Ben Gowans purchased lot 56, an Acclamation filly for €240,000 and lot 139, a St. Mark's Basilica colt for €180,000, both for owner Mark Grier. “They are going back to America,” he said. “Arnaud Delacour will train them.” The pair had an Arqana-to-America success at Saratoga last week when a filly they bought here for €340,000 in 2023, Evershed (Churchill) ran second in the GI Saratoga Oaks. “I'm very happy with the horses we bought,” said Gowans. “I think we fell in a sweet spot in the area we were shopping. The top end has obviously been exceptionally strong and it has brought the numbers up, but I think there was plenty of opportunity to buy very nice horses this week for a reasonable amount of money.” Ramiro Restrepo's Marquee Bloodstock struck for just one, lot 147, a Baaeed filly out of out of a Night of Thunder Listed-placed mare from the Moanmore Stables consignment, and while he came away from the sale happy with what he got, he said that we would not be seeing her in America. “She was the most Baaeed-looking Baaeed in the sale,” said Restrepo. “She will definitely be staying in France. We are so, so thrilled. My clients and partners are over the moon.” As Mike Repole revealed on Sunday, his Dubawi filly will be headed to Italy to train at Endo Botti's training centre in Pisa, where she will be broken and pre-trained by Botti. She joins a trio of homebred colts who Repole sent over to Italy on Sunday as well. They include a yearling by Masar ex Ickworth by Shamardal; Bolt d'OroMo ex Shopping by Uncle Mo; and Kendargent exTempel by Deep Impact. Repole is the son of two Italian immigrants, and grew up in Middle Village in Queens, New York. He said that he takes one trip a year to Italy and joked that the horses would give him an excuse to go more often. Botti trains at his Endo Botti Galoppo stable in Pisa in conjunction with Cristiana Brivio, whose great-grandfather built the facility in the early 1900s. It boasts a private training track. On the final day of the sale, Repole also picked up lot 242, a Night Of Thunder filly, for €300,000. As of late Monday, plans for the filly were still undetermined. Repole's agents on the ground, Solis/Litt Bloodstock, also signed for lot 192, a filly by Wootton Bassett for €250,000 who will stay in Europe. She was purchased for the American outfit LNJ Bloodstock, and will be sent to Christopher Head. Kenny McPeek picked up a trio of fillies, all of which will eventually end up in America, and McPeek made it clear that this wouldn't be his last trip to Arqana. “This is I think the fourth time I've attended this sale,” said McPeek. “It's a great trip and I invite all of my clients to come, and I had several take me up on it this year.” Those included Mystik Dan co-owners Lance Gasaway and his wife B.J. “Historically, I've bought eight yearlings here, and I have three stakes winners from them. This year, we knocked down three fillies, a Wootton Bassett (lot 63, for €160,000), a Zarak (176, for €110,000), and a Showcasing (lot 114, for €220,000). All of these horses will be raced in America. We may pre-train here and then send them to the United States later, and they're probably going to be Magdalena Racing partnerships. So we'll give some people out there an opportunity to buy into them. I'm strictly a yearling buyer. I love coming to this sale. I'll attend Tattersalls (October) and Goffs, and obviously Keeneland (September) and Fasig-Tipton (October) and that will wrap up my sales season.” Mike Akers went to €300,000 to get lot 182, No Nay Never filly, for Bregman Family Racing, and she will head back to the U.S., according to Alex Bregman, the third baseman for the Boston Red Sox who is having one of the best years of his career playing for his new team.Texting from Massachusetts where his team will play the Baltimore Orioles tonight, he said, “Her plans are to come to the United States and join our team of fillies and hopefully be a broodmare for us one day after a great career on the track.” Akers said that kind of positive attitude is a trademark of Bregman's, and he continues to shop globally to build a broodmare band with the aim of being in the business a long time. Bregman currently has seven broodmares, six of which are in foal. He will sell yearlings at Keeneland September. “We have had good luck over there,” said Akers, pointing out the purchase of No Nay Mets at this sale in 2022 for €180,000. They resold him less than a year later for £800,000 at Goffs London after he won the Royal Palm Juvenile Stakes at Gulfstream in his debut, earning a Royal Ascot berth. On the field or in the sales ring, Bregman shows a tenacity that even a tariff can't hold down, as did Americans across the board at the sale. Time and again, the market's resilience has been tested-whether it be by a global pandemic or a global tax–but in the end, the buyers have found a way to continue to do what they love. Said Akers, “It's really fun to see guys like that have success in our business.” The post Americans at Arqana: Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The 41st Asian Racing Conference (ARC) will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in February alongside the Saudi Cup meeting. The theme will be “Honouring Tradition – Shaping The Future” and the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia (JCSA) and the Asian Racing Federation (ARF) will welcome international delegates from February 9-14 at the Crowne Plaza Riyadh RDC Hotel & Convention Centre. Delegates will be able to attend the 2026 G1 Saudi Cup on February 14. The ARC Business Programme will feature a number of plenary sessions designed to address current and emerging challenges and opportunities for racing from Tuesday, February 10 to Thursday, February 12. Early bird tickets for the ARC are priced at $1,200 and available until October 16. For more information on the ARC, please visit the ARC website and for details on the 2026 Saudi Cup, go to the JCSA website. The post Asian Racing Conference Set For Riyadh In February appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
John Sheridan has been appointed the new general manager of Fairyhouse Racecourse, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) announced on Monday. Previously part of Vodofone Ireland where he was a commercial lead for the consumer prepay division, Sheridan also worked with Ladbrokes International's Betdaq. Sheridan was most recently the marketing manager of Showjumping Ireland for the last five years. Paul Dermody, CEO of HRI Racecourses, said, “I am delighted to welcome John Sheridan to the role of general manager at Fairyhouse Racecourse. John joins us at an exciting time for the racecourse team with interest in our flagship festivals increasing and an ever-growing list of race day and non-race day events demonstrating the popularity and appeal of the venue. “John will lead our engagement with the local community, commercial partners, tenants and industry stakeholders to drive Fairyhouse Racecourse on in a collaborative and sustainable way.” The post John Sheridan Named New General Manager Of Fairyhouse appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Group 1 winner Power Blue is aiming toward the seven-furlong G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes next month, according to trainer Adrian Murray. The son of Space Blues ran second in the G3 Marble Hill Stakes in May before a fifth-place run at Royal Ascot in the G2 Coventry Stakes. Back in the frame with a third in the G2 Railway Stakes to True Love (No Nay Never) at the Curragh in July, the colt defeated that filly in the Phoenix Stakes earlier this month. “I'm looking forward to the National Stakes with Power Blue and stepping up a furlong might even suit him better,” said Murray, who confirmed that Group 1 scorer Bucanero Fuerte (Wootton Bassett) will run on the same card in the G1 Flying Five Stakes after his win in the G3 Phoenix Sprint. “You would have to be looking at him being a possible Guineas horse and he would be entitled to be entered for those races. “It will all depend on how he progresses from two to three but he's done nothing but improve and he's always been competitive, even when he has been beaten. Win or lose, he always shows up on the day and he ran a blinder the other day. “His form is top-drawer stuff and he's proving he's a top-drawer horse.” The post Power Blue Handed National Test appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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