Siyouni Colt Tops Arqana Session

A son of Siyouni (Fr) fetched a bid of €90,000 from Powerstown Stud to top a session of flat-bred yearlings on Wednesday that marked the third and final day of the Arqana Autumn Sale. The average for the session climbed marginally (2.2%) to €7,968, while the median dipped 4.2% to €5,750. With 19 more horses sold than on the comparable day last year, the aggregate was up 18.2% to €1,115,500, while the buyback rate dropped nine points to 18.1%.

Cumulatively, 445 horses–also including National Hunt-bred yearlings and horses-in-training–were sold over the three-day sale for a record aggregate of €8,608,000, which was up 3.9% from last year. The buyback rate dropped three points to 21.9%, the average was down 2.6% to €19,344, while the median remained steady at €9,000.

Haras de l'Hotellerie presented the session-topping son of Siyouni (lot 549), who is a half-brother to the stakes-winning Coup De Theatre (Fr) (Gold Away {Fr}). Agent Marco Bozzi conducted the bidding on behalf of Tom Whitehead's Powerstown Stud, and the agent said, “Tom rang me up and asked me to buy him a horse for the breeze ups. This one was obvious to me, he has everything: a nice page, good conformation and obviously Siyouni needs no introduction.”

It was a long gap to the next highest price, which was the €40,000 paid by Alessandro Botti for lot 532, a son of Le Havre (Ire) out of the stakes-placed Shining Sea (Fr) (Anabaa Blue {Fr}) from Coulonces Consignment.

The Autumn Sale included the final yearling offerings of the year for Arqana, and it's yearling sales grossed a record €67-million, a 3% gain on 2015 and 60% higher than in 2011. Arqana Chairman Eric Hoyeau said, “This is a satisfactory consolidation of the yearling market, with a record number of horses sold for the third year running. These results pay tribute to the hard work of our vendors, who have consistently upgraded their stock and brought high-quality, well-prepped individuals to the ring. I believe it also owes to the segmentation of our sales, with each of the four catalogues assembling consistent groups of horses courtesy of a graded format that our buyers are now familiar with and find adapted to their expectations, which is reflected in the clearance rate. I would like to extend our thanks to our buyers from around the world and wish them the best of success with their purchases.”