Regally bred Siyouni filly tops Summer Sale breeze-up session

Arqana's Summer Sale kicked off on Tuesday with a session of Flat breeze-up horses, which was topped by the Siyouni filly out of Al Thakhira who went the way of Paul Nataf for €110,000.

Offered by Windmill Stables, the filly was bred by Al Shaqab Racing and is the second foal out of the Rockfel Stakes winner.

"She's a nice filly who did a good breeze," said Nataf. "She's by a top sire and out of a mare who's by Dubawi and was a Group winner, so everything about her was nice.

"The only thing is she's a bit small, but then the dam was very small as well, so we'd still expect her to be a top filly.

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"She'll go into training with Jean-Claude Rouget and the plan will be to try and win a Group race."

Al Thakhira boasts a perfect record as a broodmare, with her sole runner to date, the Toronado filly Eraidah, having made a winning debut at Chantilly in April.

Nataf has enjoyed some success with his past Summer Sale breeze-up buys, having sourced the progressive Mister Nino, a son of Magician who has won his last two starts, from last year's renewal at €30,000.

Paul Nataf: 'She's by a top sire and out of a mare who's by Dubawi'Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

A short while later Paul Webber entered the fray when he parted with €75,000 for the Authorized colt offered by l'Ecurie La Frenee.

"I was looking for a dual-purpose horse who can run on the Flat and then possibly go hurdling as the stores are getting so expensive," said Webber.

"He breezed nicely and he has a bit of scope, so hopefully he's the sort of horse who might get one run as a backend two-year-old, but if not we can give him a bit longer."

Authorized, the Derby-winning son of Montjeu, has spent the last six breeding seasons at Darley's French base of Haras du Logis. He has sired five Group 1-winning Flat performers, but his most famous offspring is undoubtedly the dual Grand National hero Tiger Roll.

"Authorized is a good dual-purpose sire and he keeps coming up with nice horses who seem to enjoy their jumping," added Webber. "This horse looked to have a really good attitude and it's great to have underbidders like Alex Elliott and JP!"

The breeze-up session concluded with 21 two-year-olds having brought turnover of €465,000 (up 34 per cent year-on-year), an average of €22,145 (up 104 per cent) and a median of €12,000 (up from €7,250).

Last year's breeze-up session was topped by the Dabirsim colt bought by Federico Barberini for €57,000.

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