‘Good Horses Can Come From Any Sale’ – Search For More Hidden Gems At Arqana

[Wandering Eyes]

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE – It is the morning after the night before and Arqana president Olivier Delloye is still floating after records were broken at one of the most memorable August Yearling Sales that Deauville has seen. Doubtless there was a party, but Delloye is back on deck as there is more business to be done here in Deauville, with the one-day V2 session due to kick off on Wednesday. 

And judging by the numbers who have stuck around for V2, it's safe to assume that buyers have stood up and taken note of some of the winners that have emerged from this sale. Among the first two people through the gates on Tuesday morning was Cormac O'Flynn and Serena Stack who, along with Roderic Kavanagh of Glending Stables, produced one of the pinhooking results of the season with a horse who was sourced at this sale. 

Zanthos (Sioux Nation), who the pinhookers bought through bloodstock agent Ross Doyle for €48,000, sold for an eye-watering €1 million to Anthony Stroud on behalf of KHK Racing at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in May. The Simon and Ed Crisford-trained filly hardened her reputation as being a good advertisement for this sale when bolting up in a Newmarket maiden on debut, earning herself a TDN Rising Star in the process. 

More good horses will come out of this sale, that's for sure, and Delloye says he is hopeful that the record-breaking trade that we saw here at Arqana over the past few days can be reciprocated into the middle and lower tiers of the market on Wednesday. 

He said, “Overall, we had a very good August Sale, but Monday was an amazing day. We got off to a fairly slow start on day one but it really took off on Sunday and again on Monday. There were more very good individuals on Sunday and Monday. That was a pretty random thing, given the sale is organised alphabetically, but the quality was probably better on day two and day three. The average [€266,576] and the median [€170,000] was astonishing and the clearance rate was very strong so it was quite unbelievable. There was a good diversity of buyers at the top end and the good horses were well spread out among different consignors as well.”

He added, “It's good that, behind the top three vendors that do so well year after year, there are many more consignors who participated in what was a big party. When you have a good mare, you have to be bold to keep her. And when you have a good mare, you have to also be bold to send her to a good commercial stallion who costs a lot of money. Then you just need all of the stars to align, and that's why we are so happy that the August Sale went so well for all of our vendors who are so loyal to us here in Arqana.”

Attention now turns to V2, which cannot be described as just a one-trick pony because, outside of Zanthos, recent Curragh maiden scorer Mushaffar is also a graduate. It was Matthew White of Bushypark Stables who sourced the horse for just €28,000 here, before re-offering the son of Van Beethoven at the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale where he was sold to Blandford Bloodstock for €125,000. Group races are now on the cards for the Joseph O'Brien-trained Mushaffar and White has returned to Arqana in search of his next flagbearer.

He said, “A good horse can come out of any sale. The minute I saw Mushaffar, I liked him. That's being completely straight up now. The initial impression was good because he was just a lovely light horse on his feet. He was still a little bit immature as a yearling and was raw. I thought the Motivator dam wasn't a bad thing either and it just worked out. There was plenty of luck involved.

“I sold Jewelier (Wootton Bassett) at the breeze-up sale here last year and he was second in the Saratoga Derby the other day. The filly that I brought to the Goffs London Sale, Fairy Oak (A'Ali) [who sold for £225,000], won her maiden there at Leopardstown the other day for Michael O'Callaghan so we've been having a good time of it. I still have three in training, mind you.”

White added, “You have to go to every sale and you have to give every horse a chance. At a sale like this, there is no point in looking at the catalogue. You just have to look at every horse and draw up your shortlist. I've been coming to this sale for a few years now and it's a great place to get the yearling sale season up and running. I was the only one on the plane this morning that was coming here. The August Yearling Sale was a bit strong for me but I'm looking forward to getting the eye in here during V2 and hopefully we can find something.”

Delloye is quietly optimistic that there are enough good horses on offer during the V2 session to put the cherry on top of what has been an outstanding week for the sales company.

He concluded, “There were some shrewd and lucky pinhooks that came out of this sale last year, including the Sioux Nation who made €1 million, which is a great story. I am sure that trainers will find some decent horses who will go to the track quite early on, which is the aim of this sale.”

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