BUOYANT trade was the hallmark of the opening day of trade at the Arqana Summer Sale on Thursday, a day that consisted of a flat breeze-up section followed by National Hunt stores. The day’s best price, and one of nine six-figure lots, was achieved for a breezer.

Two of those six-figure sales were for flat two-year-olds and both were purchased by Marco Bozzi on behalf of Prince Saud Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Saudi prince enjoyed a major racing success in February when his colt, Emblem Road, won the Group 1 Saudi Cup. The two colts, sons of Medaglia D’Oro and Exceed And Excel will be trained by Alessandro and Giuseppe Botti in Chantilly.

The Botti’s yard currently is home to Emblem Road and that son of Quality Road is understood to be facing a French campaign now, with the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois his ultimate target.

The team struck first for a son of the veteran Medaglia D’Oro, a half-brother to two winners out of So Stylish, a winning daughter of Johannesburg who was placed in the Listed Marble Hill Stakes when trained by Aidan O’Brien. So Stylish is a half-sister to the Group 1 Phoenix and National Stakes winner One Cool Cat.

The hammer fell at €220,000 for the colt, and Bozzi said: “He’s a lovely colt by Medaglia D’Oro, a stallion that has had a lot of success in Saudi Arabia. We’ve been following the colt for a while already, and we went to see him in Ireland a month ago and really liked him.”

Purchased for $62,000 by Tom Whitehead’s Powerstown Stud last year at Fasig-Tipton, the colt had originally been catalogued for the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Sale, but instead appeared in France this week.

Busy Bozzi

Later in the session Bozzi, who purchased seven lots in all, spent €110,000 for the same connections and acquired Knockanglass Stables’ full-brother to dual winner Nationwide, himself a £525,000 breeze-up buy. The Exceed And Excel colt also has three other winning siblings and was a £48,000 Goffs UK yearling purchase.

A More Than Ready filly with a good female line from Mocklershill sold to BBA Ireland’s Michael Donohoe for €77,000, and the agent was acting for his principal client, Yueshang Zhang’s Yulong Investments. The filly was making her second appearance in the Deauville ring, having been led out unsold for €100,000 in May. Donohoe said: “More Than Ready has had great success in both the northern and southern hemispheres, and she just made a lot of sense.

Doctor Dino is all the rage

ONE sire dominated the National Hunt store section of the sale on Thursday, Haras du Mesnil’s flagbearer, Doctor Dino. He was responsible for four of the top five stores, and his eight lots sold during the day averaged €98,375.

Jean-Marie Callier sold the best of them, the two-year-old gelding Doctor Champdoux, for €210,000. His name gives a clue to his pedigree, as he is a son of the Grade 2 Grand Steeple-Chase d’Enghein winner Miss De Champdoux. That mare has made a great start at stud and her two previous foals are both winners, one earning blacktype just before the sale.

The purchaser was Bridge Consignment, a trading name for Marius Cyprés, and the gelding was raised by the purchaser’s father Thierry. The pedigree also received a major boost when a half-brother to the gelding’s dam, Hermes De Chamdoux, won the Grade 3 Prix Questarabad recently.

Cyprés spoke after the sale and said: “He’s a lovely horse. He walks very well and comes from a great family. I know him well, I saw him grow up, so I am very happy. We’ve bought him for a new French partnership, including my father, and he’ll stay in training in France.”

Champion trainer

The first six-figure sale among the stores was Magnum Opus, a two-year-old gelding presented by The Channel Consignment on behalf of Haras du Mesnil. Nicolas Bertran de Balanda spent €280,000 on a pair of sons of Doctor Dino to join champion trainer François Nicolle, the larger part, €160,000, for the first foal of an unraced Saint Des Saints full-sister to Grade 3 winning chaser Lord Du Mesnil and dual Grade 3 French winner Happy Monarch. The latter is trained by Nicolle.

“He’s a lovely colt. He ticks a lot of boxes – is a good size, is by Doctor Dino and comes from a great family. He has all the characteristics to make a good chaser,” the agent said afterwards. Later in the day de Balanda paid €120,000 for another well-related two-year-old gelding by the sire, named Earl Of Shannon, and from the same source. He is the second foal out of a winning Turgeon full-sister to Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin winner Shannon Rock, who also was runner-up four times in the Grade 1 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.

Excellent draft

Bloodstock agent Alan Harte doubled up when purchasing a pair of Doctor Dino two-year-old geldings. He paid €110,000 for a son of a placed half-sister to a Grade 3 winners, and the dam is an own-sister to the dam of the Paul Nicholls-trained Grade 2 Pendil Novices’ Chase winner Tamaroc Du Mathan. His second purchase, the first foal of a Kapgarde mare, cost €85,000.

Harte made a third purchase, also costing €85,000, and this was a two-year-old son of Envoi Allen’s sire, Muhtathir. The gelding is the first foal of three-time winner Eclipse D’Ainey. That daughter of Sholokhov is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Fleur D’Ainey, Grade 2 Cleeve Hurdle winner and Grade 1-placed Crystal D’Ainey, Grade 3 winner Etoile D’Ainey and listed winner Flower Des Champs.

Highflyer stocking up

SIX of the best, or at least that is what Highflyer’s David Minton and his team will be hoping, as the agency spent €452,000 on half a dozen prospects.

The most expensive of their purchases was a two-year-old son of Tiger Roll’s sire Authorized, the first foal out of a winning full-sister to the Ross O’Sullivan-trained Baie Des Iles. She is a Grade 2 winner in France and landed the Grade B Grand National Trial Chase at Punchestown. The gelding cost €150,000 and will join Sam Thomas and race, in time, for Dai Walters.

Highflyer spent €95,000 on a Beaumec De Houelle half-brother to Grade 3 Imperial Hurdle winner Malaya, while a Bathyrhon half-brother to dual listed bumper winner Good Risk At All, successful for Walters and Thomas, cost Highflyer €90,000.

Two other six-figure sales included a No Risk At All two-year-old half-sister to French Claim, and he gave the pedigree quite a boost when running third at the weekend in the Group 1 Irish Derby. She cost Joachim Thomas Weissmeier €105,000. A two-year-old full-brother to a dual winner this year, a son of Great Pretender, sold to Guy Petit for €100,000.