Arqana August Sale

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...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin DEAUVILLE, France -- The portents had been obvious: sales-ground talk of the increased quality of stock and an assembled cast of some of the bloodstock world's biggest buyers gathered for the start of the European yearling season on the back of a staggering sale across the water in Saratoga. But perhaps not even the team at Arqana had dared to dream of what was to come at their flagship sale. The record price for a yearling in France didn't just tumble, it was smashed...

Lot 149, a son of Frankel out of the G3 Give Thanks Stakes heroine Rumbles Of Thunder (Night Of Thunder), was purchased for €2.3 million by Anthony Stroud during the Arqana August Yearling Sale's second session. Ed's Stud bred the February foal, the sale's second dearest lot after a €2.4-million Wootton Bassett colt, who also went to Godolphin earlier in the day. Consigned by Baroda Stud, the chestnut is kin to Group 3 winner Musis Amica (Dawn Approach), placed in both the G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Prix Vermeille....

Japanese trainer Yoshito Yahagi snapped up a Siyouni colt (lot 128) for €1 million during Arqana's second session on Sunday. Yahagi bought the colt for Susumu Fujita, the owner of talented Japan-based runners Shin Emperor (Siyouni), a former Arqana August topper, and American and Japanese champion Forever Young (Real Steel). The son of stakes-winning blue hen Prudenzia (Dansili) was the day's fourth millionaire and fifth overall. The Ecurie des Monceaux-consigned bay is a half-brother to undefeated dual French Classic heroine Diamond Necklace (St Mark's Basilica), the G1 Irish Oaks scorer...

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Arqana will introduce a brand-new initiative at the August Sale, which runs from August 15-17. The 20th Anniversary Golden Ticket initiative will take place during Arqana's opening session on Saturday, August 15. The 80-lot opening session will see 10 lots randomly selected in advance, and those lots will be associated with a €30,000 Golden Ticket. The voucher will be awarded to the purchaser of the selected lot, provided it is sold in the ring. It will take the form of a €30,000 credit to be...

The Glorious Goodwood euphoria didn't last long, did it? By Monday morning, the Jockey Club had announced its intention to join Ascot and Plumpton in discontinuing its membership of the Racecourse Association (RCA) at the end of this year. The Jockey Club's portfolio of 15 racecourses spans the length of England, from Carlisle down to Exeter, with the 'crown jewel' tracks of Epsom, Newmarket, Sandown, Cheltenham and Aintree in between. Once you add in the heft of Ascot, it's not simply a matter of there being more than a quarter...

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...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE -- By Monday, it was noticeably quieter around the sales pavilion. The weekenders had packed their bags and many of the Brits had started to make their way back across the Channel, heading north for the promise of four days of top-class racing at York. But, where it mattered, things were still pretty lively, and if you run an auction house, the only action you really want to see is in the ring.  By lunchtime on the final day, six horses costing more than a million euros each...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE - Shattering a record set a decade ago, a Night Of Thunder filly out of the Ecurie des Monceaux blue hen Prudenzia (Dansili) was sold for €3 million to Amo Racing and was one of six seven-figure transactions on the final day of the Arqana August. There were eight across the sale as a whole. Such a lively last session ensured that the figures were well beyond those of a relatively quiet edition of the sale in 2024. The €266,576 average was not only up by 22% on...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE--Americans' plans for the Arqana sale were understandably shaken up when U.S. President Donald Trump made good on his threat to impose tariffs on the European Union and others in early August, meaning that French-bred horses purchased here-like all French products imported to America--would be subject to a 15% surcharge when they are brought back into America. Several buyers are deciding to break, train and race their horses in Europe instead, while others will brave the fee and come back to the U.S. On the final day of the...

The leading owners battled it out for the progeny of Wootton Bassett on a day when the Coolmore stallion was responsible for the €2.3 million top lot DEAUVILLE, FRANCE -- What more can you say that hasn't already been said about Wootton Bassett? If Aidan O'Brien was asked to sum up the stallion, you can be sure the words, different, special and unusual would be the first ones to be ticked off that bingo card.  Even the most cynical of people will have to start agreeing with the master of...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE - Pound for pound, Camas Park Stud has produced the goods like no other consignment at the Arqana August Sale in recent years.  Queen Mary third Balantina (Ten Sovereigns), Saratoga Oaks runner-up Evershed (Churchill) and genuine Derby hope Isaac Newton (Camelot) are just some of the August Sale graduates that have been strutting their stuff on the track this year alone for an outfit that sold the 2022 European Champion Two-Year-Old Little Big Bear on this sale ground.  Put simply, few people run a tighter ship than Tim...