Shalaa filly heads the market as trade cools down at Breeding Stock Sale

After two days of blistering trade and big prices, proceedings took a rather more prosaic turn at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale on Monday.

Figures were almost identical to the corresponding session 12 months ago, and the €87,000 top lot was a filly from the second crop of Shalaa who went the way of young French agent Nicolas Lefevre.

The purchaser said: "The horse will come back to the sales as a yearling. I have huge confidence in Shalaa; I saw a lot of his yearlings this year and they were a great bunch."

View full Arqana Breeding Stock Sale results and stats

The filly is out of the Listed-winning Anabaa mare Mytographie, whose four winners include Mutin, a Listed scorer by Kentucky Dynamite, and Tradigraphie, a seven-time winner by Mr Sidney.

Lefevre, whose purchase was made on behalf of a pinhooking syndicate, continued: "The mare has done really well from fairly unfashionable coverings. Now that she's been covered by Le Havre, Intello and Shalaa I think there is a good chance the pedigree can improve further. Anabaa is a great damsire too."

Shalaa's debut crop of yearlings, who hit the market this year, sold at an average of £105,950 and included a colt who was sold to Narvick International for €600,000 during the Arqana August Sale.

ARQANA BREEDING STOCK SALE STATS: DAY THREE

Offered 277
Sold 211 (76 per cent)
Aggregate €2,079,000
Average €9,855
Median €6,500

De Watrigant secures Galileo's daughter

For much of the day the market was headed by Petite Noblesse, who was knocked down to Nicolas de Watrigant of Mandore International at €74,000.

Offered by Haras d'Etreham, the ten-year-old daughter of Galileo has already produced two winners, including the three-year-old Kendargent filly Noblesse D'Argent, who provided her dam with a notable update when winning at Deauville a week before the sale.

"She's a beautiful mare by Galileo," said De Watrigant. "We also bought this mare's Le Havre yearling [for €22,000] for the owner who's invested today. She's a good-looking filly and Noblesse D'Argent has won since the catalogue came out - she's won her last two races now."

Petite Noblesse is out of Flower Bowl, an Anabaa half-sister to five black-type performers, most notably Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club hero and star sire Lope De Vega and the Group 3-winning Lady Frankel.

"It's a beautiful family with horses like Lady Vettori and Lope De Vega on the page," continued De Watrigant, who was joined by Haras du Cadran's Pierre Talvard.

"She's in foal to Wootton Bassett too, so with the pedigree and the covering it's all positive. I don't know who she'll be covered by next year but she's been bought in partnership between my client and Haras du Cadran."

Boman bags Wichita sibling

The Deauville sales ground was notably quieter than it had been during the previous two sessions, but Blandford Bloodstock's Stuart Boman was among the agents who had stayed on for day three, and his perseverance was rewarded when he secured a half-sister to one of the year's leading juveniles at €57,000.

Algtaah boasted one of the session's more eye-catching pages, as not only is the daughter of High Chaparral out of the Listed-winning Lumiere Noire, but she is also a half-sister to the Aidan O'Brien-trained Wichita - a son of No Nay Never who landed the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes by a jaw-dropping seven lengths.

"She's a half-sister to a very good horse in Wichita," said Boman. "He's already been third in the Dewhurst and could easily train on into a Guineas horse. She's a lovely mare too, a mare with a great walk; I'm happy to get her. She's been bought for an existing client."

Algtaah joined the Al Shaqab Racing ranks when purchased for €280,000 at the Arqana August Yearling Sale in 2013. She ran three times for Mikel Delzangles and won at Montier-En-Der on her final outing. The seven-year-old was offered in foal to Haras de Bouquetot's Zelzal.

Earlier in the sale Boman had been joined at Arqana by his Blandford colleagues Tom Goff, Richard Brown and Tom Biggs, and on the firm's activities he said: "We've had a good week. Between the group we've probably bought 12 or 13 lots.

"It's been strong trade but we always like coming here. It's a sale we target because there are opportunities away from the obvious horses, so if you do your homework and stay late you can buy a nice horse."

The Arqana Breeding Stock Sale concludes on Tuesday.

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