ANYONE fortunate enough to have bought a horse at the Arqana yearling sales of 2022 or 2023, or made a purchase at the 2024 Arqana Breeze Up Sale, should ensure they have registered for the €1.2 million Arqana Series by June 1st.

Also open to foals bought at the 2022 Arqana December Breeding Sale, the Arqana Series consists of five races for two-year-olds and three-year-olds and confined to Arqana graduates. The races are run at Deauville in August and at ParisLongchamp on the Saturday of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend.

Last year the Joseph O’Brien-trained Islandsinthestream scooped €320,000 when he won the Arqana Series Haras de Bouquetot Critérium d’Automne at ParisLongchamp.

As a yearling, he cost €135,000 and he was subsequently sold to Hong Kong where (now named Stunning Peach) he finished second at Sha Tin last Sunday.

Trainer Brian Meehan and owner Martin Hughes landed a €200,000 payout when Mirador made a winning debut in the Arqana Series des Poulains at Deauville last August. The colt was a €35,000 purchase at the Arqana October Yearling Sale.

The Arqana Series evolved from the Arqana Criterium which was launched in 2017 and was originally based on a single one-mile race for October Yearling Sale horses before being expanded to include horses from all Arqana yearling sale.

In 2023 the Arqana Series was born and this year it has been expanded to include a three-year-old race over 10 furlongs (2,000 metres), which will be run alongside three two-year-old races in the Series at Deauville in August, a day before the Arqana August Yearling Sale.

Two of the two-year-old races at Deauville are over seven furlongs (1,400 metres) and one is over six and a half (1,300 metres). The ParisLongchamp race in October is over a mile (1,600 metres).

There is prize money on offer down to seventh place in three races and there are bonuses on offer to the vendors of all horses who win prize money.

Entries for all five races close next Saturday, June 1st, and the list of all eligible horses will be published on June 14th on the Arqana website. France Galop will then publish the entries for all races on July 29th and there are various forfeit stages before declaration day.

At this point owners are required to pay €1,000 to nominate for the two-year-old races and €500 for the three-year-old race. A further €1,000 is payable at declaration time.

Arqana Series Q & A

Q: When will the list of horses entered in the Arqana Series races be available?

For the races on August 15th at Deauville, the list of entered horses will be availabe on France Galop on July 29th. For the race on October 5th at ParisLongchamp, the list will be available on France Galop on July 29th.

Q: Do overseas trainers need to do anything on their France Galop account?

For a foreign trainer, once the horse is nominated with Arqana (before June 1st), it must be registered in the trainer’s account on France Galop. If the horse is already registered, there is nothing more to do at the time of the nomination with Arqana. The horse will automatically be entered in the race by France Galop. However, for the next steps (forfeits, declarations of runners), it is up to the trainer to make these declarations on their France Galop account.

Q: Must a foreign owner be registered with France Galop to run a horse in the series?

The owner must be registered in the country where the horse is trained. If the horse is trained abroad, there is no need to appply as “French owner”. However, the foreign owner must be registered with France Galop as a “foreign owner”. To do this, you should reach out to the France Galop teams. If the horse is trained in France but the owner lives abroad, then the owner must be registered as a “foreign owner” with France Galop.

Q: Is it possible to nominate a horse that doesn’t have a name?

At the time of the nomination with Arqana (from April 25th to June 1st), the horse does not necessarily need to have a name. However, it must be named before July 15th.

Q: If I cannot register a horse in my France Galop account, will my nomination still be valid?

If the trainer cannot properly register a horse in their France Galop account, the horse’s nomination will be declared null.

Web: arqana.com