By Brian Sheerin
DEAUVILLE, France – A remarkable launch to the European yearling sale season continued into the V2 session at Arqana on Wednesday when bloodstock agent Paul Nataf paid a record €265,000 for a colt by the emerging young French-based sire Chachnak from Arcadia Elevage.
Continuing the trend for records tumbling at Arqana this week, the Chachnak smashed the previous V2 high of €200,000 in 2023 – just a couple of days after Coolmore set a new bar for the sale company's flagship August Yearling Sale when paying a massive €4.6 million on a close relation to star stayer Scandinavia.
A son of Kingman, Chachnak stood for as low as €3,000 in 2025 and it was his promising results with small crops of runners that convinced Nataf to take Antoine Bellanger's charge so seriously.
The agent said, “I saw every horse in this sale with no exception and he was my number one. The number one needs to get a number one price. He was a little bit outstanding for me. I thought he would sell for somewhere between €200,000 and €400,000 but, at this level, you never can tell. You have to pay big money for horses like this.”
Nataf added, “Chachnak started off the hard way. I like horses like this – you have Fairy King, Danehill Dancer and so many others who started off the hard way and proved themselves by upgrading mares. Those sort of stallions climb step by step and I think Chachnak is one of them.”
As well as a new top lot, the V2 session posted a massive 19% jump in turnover to €4,522,500 while the €34,523 average climbed by 22%. The median stayed the same at €25,000 while the clearance rate was up marginally to 86%.
Commenting on the top lot, consignor Bellange said, “He is a cracking horse – very well developed, very professional and by quite an exciting stallion to use, so it's good advertising for the stallion. A very nice individual. We expected a good price, but no, this is a big surprise.”
Sioux Nation Filly Caps “Big Week” For Dubois At €250k
Burgeoning bloodstock agent Louis Dubois capped a memorable week at Arqana by signing for the €250,000 Sioux Nation filly from Haras de l'Hotellerie to go into training with Miguel Clement in America.
“The plan for this filly is to go to America, where she will be trained by Miguel Clement. She has a beautiful page – a Sioux Nation filly out of a black-type Wootton Bassett filly and she's a great mover as well,” Dubois said.
He added, “We can see a lot of improvement in her so we are just very happy to have secured her. That was our maximum bid, so happy days. She definitely stood out the most to me in this sale. We tried to buy one in the main sale but couldn't manage to get one, so we're very happy.”
Dubois has been making waves all week. After being announced as the new Goffs agent for America, he saw his St Mark's Basilica filly – who he sourced for €98,000 from that sales house last winter – rock into €300,000 when selling to George Boughey during the main sale.
He concluded, “Look, it's been a big week for me in every way. I've got the new role with Goffs as their American agent, and I also had a fantastic pinhook with a St Mark's Basilica filly, who sold for €300,000. Now, we have secured this filly, which is the top-priced horse in the sale. So, yes, I am very excited and there are a lot of good things coming up.”
Ghaiyyath Filly Highlights Excellent Sale For Etreham
The decision to target V2 with a strong draft paid off for Haras d'Etreham with eight lots selling for €466,000, headed by a €200,000 Ghaiyyath filly to Pia Brandt.
Nicolas de Chambure commented, “The main sale is very strong so it's nice to bring some horses to V2. It gives people a bit more time, and, yeah, we always love that feeling of a strong sale. With this filly, I just thought that her pedigree may not be strong enough for her to shine in the main sale, so we decided to hold her back. We are delighted because so many people have been keen to see her and it worked out.”
Delloye Not Ruling Out Running Golden Ticket Idea At Another Arqana Sale
Arqana president Olivier Delloye has not ruled out the prospects of the Golden Ticket initiative, which provided buyers of 10 randomly selected lots during the opening session of the August Yearling Sale with a €30,000 voucher to be reinvested on another lot, to be implemented at another Arqana sale in the future.
The Golden Ticket is the brainchild of Delloye, who not only dreamed up the idea in a bid to do something special to mark the 20th anniversary of the sales house's existence, but to set a strong tempo from the outset of the August Sale. To that degree, he believes the initiative was a resounding success.
“It worked well,” Delloye reflected during Wednesday's session. “I think it was a bit of fun on the Saturday and we could see some people excited to get the vouchers, even on expensive horses. I'm still happy to see €30,000 earned to be spent on another horse. So I think that was good for the atmosphere and good for the start of the sale.”
There were 10 Golden Voucher tickets allotted randomly to the horses slated to sell on Saturday. One of those horses was withdrawn while another failed to sell. All told, there were eight vouchers handed out which in theory should cost Arqana €240,000. However, Delloye said he must wait before the invoices are circulated before he knows for sure just how much of the €240,000 was recirculated into the market. Nevertheless, he said he feels the sales company got a good bang for their buck and is therefore not ruling out going forward with the idea at another premier sale in the future.
Delloye explained, “As far as I know, at least five or six had already been spent by Monday evening, which is good. I think it was a good investment on our part because it helped get the sale off to a good tempo. It was nice to try something new, eventful and fun for clients. It brought a bit of atmosphere to the opening day of the sale, which can sometimes be a little sleepy.”
He added, “When the idea was conceived and launched, it was really only brought in for the August Sale to celebrate Arqana's 20th birthday. We don't know if it is something that we will reintroduce at another sale but at the moment, it wasn't something that was intended to be replicated. We'll see whether it has any impact on the brand and on the sales results. But, why not? I'm a pretty flexible guy so I won't rule it out. But for this moment, there is no commitment for us to do it at every sale.”
The Golden Ticket was one of many initiatives that Arqana ran this week. As well as organising private planes from Saratoga and Ireland, there were lavish parties, complementary lunches and champagne receptions. A substantial investment that Delloye was repaid in the record-breaking trade that saw over €65.5 million spent at its flagship sale for the first time.
Delloye concluded, “It has been at the very heart of this August Yearling Sale for many years to try to make this week in Deauville enjoyable and memorable for people making the trip.
It's important to have the end users on site and not rely only on professionals, trainers or agents. We are lucky to organise sales here in Deauville. We know how nice it is in August, with all the racing. When we manage to bring people here to Deauville for a week of inspections and sales, it is really up to us to try to deliver a great experience for them. We have the Arqana Series, which is organised with that objective in mind. The parties we organise, the Golden Ticket and a few other initiatives – such as inviting people to the sales ground for lunch the day before the sale – are all part of it. There are many small things. I think they are genuinely appreciated by people. When you combine them all, they make people feel welcome and well looked after, and that adds to the atmosphere of the sale.”
Buy of the Day
Perhaps not a sire that many people outside of France would be overly familiar with, but the Texas colt that Paul Harley paid €75,000 for out of Haras de Castillon was one of the standout athletes on show on Wednesday. On the face of it, €75,000 looks punchy but there are a couple of reasons why it makes sense. Texas has had a couple of interesting horses in France, including the full-sister, La Belle Isola, who is likely to get black-type on the evidence of her fifth-place finish in a Listed contest at Deauville last week. She is already a winner over 6f but her yearling brother has loads of scope and, being from the family of Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden, is likely to excel over a trip in time.
Thought for the Day
Anyone who has a nice yearling to sell over the coming weeks and months in Europe will have taken a lot of encouragement about what played out in Deauville over the past week or so. As well as a very strong top end to the market in the main sale, the middle – and even the bottom – of the market held up well right through to the end of V2. Okay, we don't know how many trainers in Britain and Ireland will be going to the yearling sales with a loaded gun. The first clues of that will be provided at Goffs during the Premier Yearling Sale. But there will be a lot of encouragement to be taken from the fact many breeze-up handlers – who on the whole endured a difficult season – got in on the action at Arqana this week. Taking everything into consideration, there are plenty of positives to carry forward into the yearling sale season from France.
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