BALLYLINCH Stud made many of the headlines at this year’s Arqana Yearling Sale, whether as a purchaser, vendor or through their stallions. Grabbing pride of place was their purchase of the son of Dubawi and Just The Judge for €1.4 million, the second successive year that a son of the Dalham Hall Stud sire has topped the sale.

It was a case of returning to his roots for the yearling who was sold as part of the La Motteraye Consignment. He is the first foal of the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes heroine Just The Judge and she was purchased at the end of her racing career for 4,500,000gns. The dam of Just The Judge was sold by Ballylinch Stud and descends from a female line developed by the McCalmont family.

After the purchase O’Connor said that a decision on who will train the colt will be made after he has been broken in at the Co Kilkenny farm. “He is a beautiful mover with size and scope, a really lovely colt by an exceptional sire. We were keen to buy a horse like him with a stallion pedigree, but we knew it was going to be difficult and that he would be in that price range,” O’Connor said, before adding that “he is for Ballylinch now, but it is possible we could race him with partners.”

The Dubawi colt was the only lot to find its way into seven-figure territory. Two lots sold for €900,000 and each had a strong Ballylinch link. First to that mark was a Lope De Vega half-brother to the smart juvenile Dark Vision and he was among five purchases at the sale by MV Magnier. He is a son of the French Derby winner and leading sire who stands at Ballylinch and out of a stakes-placed daughter of Dansili.

Dark Vision has established himself among the best juveniles of 2018 following his success in the Group 2 Vintage Stakes and will in future race for Godolphin. The new recruit to Ballydoyle is also a full-brother to the listed-placed Al Hayyah. Magnier said after buying the colt that “this is a very nice horse who is a lovely mover. His brother looked very smart at Goodwood recently and we hope he will be lucky for us.”

The second €900,000 lot was a daughter of the Irish National Stud’s flagbearer Invincible Spirit and she is the first offspring of the Group 3 winning Whipper mare Mayhem, a full-sister to Group 2 winner and Group 1 Hong Kong Mile runner-up Royal Bench. She was sold by Ballylinch Stud as agent and knocked down to Anthony Stroud and John Gosden on behalf of Godolphin.

Stroud was delighted to get the filly, saying “This is an extremely nice filly who was bred by a renowned breeder in Brendan Hayes. She will eventually join Godolphin’s broodmare band but in the short term no decision has been made about a trainer for her.”

Ballylinch sold six lots for in excess of €2.1 million and another standout was their Lope De Vega own-brother to the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and Lockinge Stakes winner Belardo. Out of the Danehill mare Danaskaya who was placed in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, this latest colt was purchased for €600,000 by agent Mick Flanagan for China Horse Club.

THRILLED

The agent was thrilled with his purchase. “He is a half-brother to a champion, is athletic and walks well. He is by a proven sire and out of a good daughter of Danehill, which is very important. I am delighted to have bought him.”

The first crop of yearlings by the Triple Crown winner American Pharoah made their mark at the summer sales in the USA and both his fillies at Deauville also caught the eye. American bloodstock agent Deuce Greathouse, a scion of the Glenhurst Stud family, was doubly delighted to acquire the sire’s daughter of the US stakes winner Marbre Rose, as she comes from a female line developed there.

Sold as part of the massive Ecurie des Monceaux consignment (responsible for 32 lots that grossed a quarter of the total sale turnover), the filly is the first foal of her dam whose own grandam bred the Grade 1 Selene Stakes winner Zoftig, dam in turn of a pair of Grade 1 winners. Greathouse was acting for owner Cindy Hutson and the filly cost her new owner €850,000.

The second daughter of American Pharoah was bought by MV Magnier for €750,000 and she is a half-sister to the dual Group 1 winner Shareta, successful in the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix Vermeille. Their dam is the stakes-winning Shawara, a half-sister to the Group 1 Irish Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner Shawanda. The latter mare bred Encke who denied Camelot a Triple Crown success in the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster. Magnier explained his purchase. “She is a lovely filly and a great mover, which all the American Pharoahs seem to be. She is also a sister to a Group 1 filly and everyone loved her.” Haras d’Etreham consigned the filly.

GALILEO SUCCESS

Galileo was another sire to have two yearlings among the sale’s top 10. Best of that duo was Haras des Capucines’ daughter of the stakes-placed Tender Morn, already dam of a pair of Group 3 winners, including 2017 juvenile Kenya. She was the pick of three lots purchased by bloodstock agent Justin Casse and she will head to the barn of the agent’s brother Mark.

Galileo was responsible for the first lot to step into the ring at Deauville and this was Monceaux’s daughter of the Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Naissance Royale, a multiple graded stakes-winning daughter of Giant’s Causeway. She was knocked down to Narvick International’s Emmanuel de Seroux who revealed “she will go to Japan, where she will be the perfect outcross for the Sunday Silence bloodline. She is a good-looking filly with a very good page.”

Galileo’s son Frankel also got in on the act when his son of the listed winner Sabratah, by Oasis Dream, sold for €600,000 to agent Oliver St Lawrence. The agent was in company with Fawzi Nass and said afterwards that the colt would go to England to be trained by George Peckham. St Lawrence made a further three purchases at the sale.

Camelot’s first crop of three-year-olds includes the Group 1 Irish Derby winner Latrobe and MV Magnier will have lofty hopes for the son of the Epsom Derby winner, bought from Anna Sundstrom’s Coulonces Sales for €580,000. Out of a multiple listed winner in Germany, the colt is a half-brother to this year’s Group 3 Chester Vase winner Young Rascal.

Comment

Arqana CEO Eric Hoyeau commented on the results after the first three days of the sale: “It hasn’t been plain sailing but in the end the average and median prices have all but matched levels that, one must recall, represent all-time highs. It was good to see some first time investors, notably from America and Japan, enter the fray, yet they didn’t quite fill the gap left by the reduced activity from some of the sale’s historical players.

“Despite these changes in the buying bench, the top of the market was still deep with the top 15 horses going to 12 individual buyers. As ever our wholehearted thanks and congratulations go to the breeders and consignors who produced such athletic animals and to all the buyers who bought or attempted to buy them. Let their ventures be rewarded with success on the racecourse.”