THE 2020 Arqana Breeze-Up Sale finally found a home at Doncaster and brought with it some £9 million worth of business. While the lots sold in sterling, the French sales company on its website was reporting the results in euros.

Pride of place went to Grove Stud’s War Front filly out of the Grade 3 winner Beauty Parlor and this is the second foal from that granddaughter of the Grade 1 Rothman’s International Stakes winner Infamy.

Brendan Holland paid $185,000 for the filly at Keeneland and the hammer fell at €715,000 (£650,000) in favour of the solitary bid from Kerri Radcliffe. She was acting for US owner Larry Best.

Bidding in fact opened for the sale-topper at £400,000 but it was not enough to see off the opposition. Meanwhile, Radcliffe was biding her time, expressing some surprise that she secured the filly for one bid. This was the second successive year that Holland’s nursery has consigned the sale’s top-priced lot.

Head-to-head

Consignor Malcolm Bastard was very impressed with trade, and no wonder. The star of his consignment was a Street Boss half-brother to the US stakes winner Crystalle, a $120,000 pinhook from Keeneland. Bastard owns a share in the colt who had colleagues Matt Coleman and Anthony Stroud go head to head over, the former winning the duel at €682,000 (£620,000). Coleman was acting for Hong Kong trainer John Size.

Johnny Collins from Brown Island Stables will be sleeping better now. Having topped the recent Tattersalls Craven Sale with a son of Night Of Thunder selling for 575,000gns, he was again in clover when his €43,000 Fairyhouse Yearling Sale purchase, a son of Exceed And Excel and the winning Intikhab mare Duquesa, soared in value to €577,500 (£525,000). The colt was signed for by Jamie McCalmont, who was acting for M.V. Magnier.

Last August at Doncaster Collins paid £21,000 for a son of Olympic Glory and the four-time winning Arch mare Money Time, and back at the same ring he sold the now two-year-old for €286,000 (£260,000) to Stroud Coleman.

Hong Kong owner

Jamie McCalmont was again to the fore when he paid €495,000 (£450,000) for an American Pharoah half-brother to the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby winner Om. The agent was acting for Hong Kong-based Marc Chan, though the colt is understood to be going into training with Simon Crisford. The price was a smart return on the $140,000 he cost at Keeneland. While he sold very well, he was not to be the best of the Mocklershill consignment.

That honour fell, by a short-head, to a son of Shalaa, the first foal from the listed winner Besotted, a Dutch Art half-sister to the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) winner Tie Black. This 150,000gns yearling buy is recorded as sold to Trimblestown Stud €506,000 (£460,000). Bill Dwan was acting for Chantal Regaldo-Gonzalez and Joseph O’Brien will train the well-related filly.

Michael and Sarah Murphy’s Longways Stables struck twice at the upper echelons of the sale, selling a son of Shamardal to Alex Elliott for €506,000 (£460,000) and a colt by More Than Ready to Nick Bell, acting for his father Michael, for €291,500 (£265,000).

The Rabbah Bloodstock-bred Shamardal, from an Aga Khan female line, will go into training with Roger Varian, while the More Than Ready colt, the first lot in the ring under the Arqana banner, showed a nice return on his $140,000 yearling price.

McCartan nursery

Another significant purchase by Alex Elliott concerned a filly by Siyouni, sire of standout females Laurens and Ervedya, out of a winning juvenile daughter of Oasis Dream. She sold from Jim McCartan’s Gaybrook Lodge Stud for €330,000 (£300,000), almost four times her yearling value of 80,000gns, and will join Ralph Beckett. Another filly to return a substantial profit on her yearling price was the German-born daughter of Kingman and Group 3 winner Calyxa, by leading broodmare sire Pivotal.

Gay O’Callaghan’s Yeomanstown Stud bought her for 125,000gns and she will now carry the Godolphin blue silks following her sale for €418,000 (£380,000) to Anthony Stroud.

Stephen Hillen was on the mark for a first-crop son of The Gurkha out of the graded stakes-placed Long Face. He paid €286,000 (£260,000) for the colt who was sold by Peter and Roderic Kavanagh’s Glending Stables. This 47,000gns foal was retained as a yearling at 72,000gns in what has proven to be a wise move.

Great pinhook

The pinhook of the year must have a leading contender in the sale of a Big Blue Kitten filly out of the Rock Of Gibraltar mare Sweeter Still. Purchased at Keeneland for $5,000, she sold to David Redvers, acting for Sheikh Fahad, for €220,000 (£200,000) as her star sibling is none other than classic winner and Derby favourite Kameko.

Only 73 juveniles went through the ring as opposed to 145 in 2019. Quality prevailed over quantity and the average price of €156,265 (£140,698) was up 19% from last year’s figure. The clearance rate of 83% was a record for the sale, while 17 lots sold for €200,000 or more, one more than a year ago.