From Sales Drafts to Stallions: Haras de Castillon Expands

[Wandering Eyes]

DEAUVILLE, France — In TDN Europe we have banned the use of the word fireworks in relation to action in the sales ring but as it is almost officially fireworks season let's just say that it would be no surprise to see a few whizz-bangers in Deauville on Tuesday.

The Arqana October Sale gets underway at 10am, with the first two days devoted to Part 1, graded each day, and the 810-lot sale continuing through to Saturday. 

Some enticing lots on paper include lot 103, Haras de l'Aumonerie's Kameko half-brother to last year's Prix de Jockey Club winner Look De Vega (Lope De Vega), who is now happily ensconced at Ballylinch Stud, and nine lots later (112) from the same draft there comes another half-sibling to a French Classic winner in the Wootton Bassett brother to Coeursamba (The Wow Signal).

Haras de Saint Pair's select draft includes the Frankel first foal – a filly – out of Andreas Putsch's homebred Group 1 winner Pearls Galore (Invincible Spirit) as lot 137, while late in Tuesday's session is Haras de Magouet's The Grey Gatsby colt (lot 211) whose half-brother Woodshauna (Wooded) is both an October graduate himself, having been sold at €70,000 two years ago, and one of the stars of the season as the winner of the G1 Prix Jean Prat.

Potential buyers who start their viewing rounds in the far corner of Yard A at Arqana will alight first at the draft of Benoit Jeffroy's Haras de Castillon which has been in the news in the last week with the announcement that the Normandy farm will be standing six stallions from 2026. They include the newcomers Tribalist (Farhh) and Classic winner Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Muhaarar).

Jeffroy, whose family has a long history of breeding cattle and horses in Brittany, has previously worked for Darley in Newmarket and ran Al Shaqab's Haras de Bouquetot on his return to France, during which time he and his wife Annabelle Aime bought Castillon.

“My grandfather started the family farm in Brittany in the 70s and then we took over in 2009 with my brother,” he says. “Castillon was bought with my wife in 2015. She's a vet and so we were really trying to find a place for us and a place near the clinic where she works. So we bought Castillon, which was 30 hectares, and now we're pretty much up to 250 hectares.”

He continues, “At the beginning with Castillon it was really just for us and for the horses that came from Brittany for the season, and then it grew with people asking to board mares. We started to consign at the sales but we really only consign for people who are boarding with us all year long, or for partners we have horses with.”

The stud's new departure into stallions includes the young sires Thunder Moon, Romanised, and the Jeffroy family homebred Texas, who was second to Modern Games in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, beating Godolphin's Tribalist into third.

“I've always been interested in stallions since I was very little,” Jeffroy says. “When I was a teenager, I was trading nominations of my dad's shares, and then I worked for Darley for five years in nominations and then setting up the operation at [Haras de] Bouquetot for Al Shaqab. We know how it works and I think now it's time to do it for ourselves. It's great to have partners like Godolphin, Jaber Abdullah and all the other partners who are following us with Thunder Moon, and Robert Ng with Romanised. It's great support to start out with.

“Since the news came out a lot of French people have come to me to say that they are so happy that Tribalist is standing in France. I think he will be popular. He won seven Group races and he's very well known. And the same for Marhaba: he's tough, he won the French Guineas, so he's well known as well. Both new stallions, I'd say, will be well received judging by the first impressions we have had from people.”

Both Tribalist and Marhaba Ya Sanafi will be available for breeders to view at Clairefontaine racecourse during Arqana's Breeding Stock Sale in December, but this week the focus is still on yearlings and Haras de Castillon has a draft of 31 spread throughout the week.

“In August we sold well. It was very selective. You have to be able to place your horses right,” Jeffroy says. “We've had a lot of shows in the last two days here. A lot of people, a lot of action, so I hope now the action will be in the sales ring.

“Every year we sell 25, 30 horses in October and I think we have a good draft all week through.”

And just to prove that it is worth sticking around until the final session of a long sale, last year's Castillon draft included Czajkowski (Flintshire), who was sold on the Saturday for €16,000 to his trainer Alicja Karkosa and earlier this month took second in the G3 Prix de Conde at Saint-Cloud.

Following Tuesday's early-bird start of 10am local time, the following three sessions will begin at 2pm, while Saturday's action gets underway at 11am.

 

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