Powell Discusses Changes to Arqana Yearling Sales Calendar

Careful readers of the Arqana website–or those caught booking a house too early in Deauville for the summer sales–will have noticed some significant changes in the French sales calendar this year. For the past several years, the two-day select, or Part I, yearlings in the August sale sold in the evening, then were followed by an all-day open session, and then the V2, a sale targeted to more regional buyers. In all, three different classes of yearlings were sold over four days.

For 2022, the Arqana team has taken the select yearlings and has broken them up into three days: Saturday, Aug. 13 (160 yearlings starting at 2 p.m.), Sunday, Aug. 14 (80 yearlings starting at 5:30 p.m.) and Monday, Aug. 15 (80 yearlings starting at 5:30 p.m.)

Some of the former Part II yearlings will be combined with those who would have previously sold in the V2, and will be offered in a new September Yearling sale scheduled for Sept. 8-9. The traditional October yearling sale takes place from the 17^th to the 21^st.

While the sales company made the announcement in a press release in February, it was overlooked by some vendors and buyers. As the Arqana team conducts yearling inspections, Freddy Powell, the Executive Director of Arqana, took a moment to explain the motives behind the changes and what attendees could expect.

Powell said he expects the sales makeup to be a mix of precocious international and top French yearlings in August, and domestic yearlings aimed at domestic buyers in September.

Part of the impetus for the change starts with the French calendar; Assumption Day, a major public holiday in France, is Monday, Aug. 15, with most stores and businesses closed.

“It's a tradition in France to have very good racing on this bank holiday,” said Powell, reached in Ireland on a yearling inspection tour, “and therefore, we could not spend all afternoon selling our Part II yearlings.”

Another issue was stabling, which is limited to around 320 stalls on the sales grounds. “We are limited to the number of horses we can have on site,” said Powell. “In the end, it wasn't very fair to vendors selling on Monday to ship in on Sunday. We had lovely horses on Monday that buyers couldn't properly see. If we can't expose them properly, we are not doing our job.”

Horses on the beach at Deauville | Patty Wolfe photo

Adding additional stalls is not an option, he said, due to their limited space. “The great upside to being in town is that people can walk in and out. They can be on the beach at 3, and at the sale at 3:15. But at the same time, it limits the space we have.” For the December sale, horses can stable across the street at the racetrack, which is not an option when racing is being conducted in the summer.

Last year, 355 yearlings were catalogued for the main sale, and another 150 in the V2.

This year, the August sale will be limited to 320-330, and another 250-280 will sell in September. Around 50-60 of those traditional August horses will divert to September or October.

“These (yearlings moving to September) were mature, precocious types, which typically sold in August, and so we decided to create a sale in September for these 200 yearlings,” said Powell. “We will probably be able to add another 50-80 to make it a two-day sale. The profile we are looking for in September are mature yearlings who do not have to wait for the October sale. They don't necessary need a precocious pedigree; it will be a mix of V2, August Part 2 and October yearlings who have the maturity to sell five to six weeks before the October sale.”

The August sale will occur, says Powell, “in the middle of a great weekend racing with the Prix Jacques Le Marois on the Sunday and many stakes races on both days.”

A customer-service oriented company, Arqana will help to facilitate travel arrangements for international buyers. Interested parties should contact Amy Lanigan at [email protected].

But change is sometimes hard for people to accept, and Powell was asked if he felt people would be open to the new format.

“It's a new thing, so there's always an unknown, but the numbers are growing every year in entries in the sales, and we wanted to try this. I think the buyers and the vendors understand it, but the unknown is always a concern. They understand why we're doing it, mostly for logistical reasons. But in tidying up the number for August, we just have to target the numbers per sale rightly, so every horse has his place.”

The leading consignor at the sale for the past several years with his Ecurie des Monceaux consignment has been Henri Bozo, who gave the new idea his stamp of approval.

“I think it's good that Arqana has got its two main yearling sales quite far from each other in terms of time,” said Bozo. “I like the fact that there is an August sale in the middle of the fantastic race meeting. I know it's early, but it has been a successful sale in producing top-class horses. I think it's going to be nice to have three days of yearlings at the same level, and maybe open up the selection a bit more, because in the past there were times where there wasn't a lot of difference between some of the Part II horses and the Part I horses. It's the summer, you have a sale with more precocious types, and it has gone from strength to strength in the last two years.”