Coolmore reap rewards with pair of Arqana-bought debutantes

Coolmore can usually be relied upon to be enthusiastic bidders each year at the Arqana August Yearling Sale and their shopping trips to Deauville paid off spectacularly when 2015 graduate Wings Of Eagles won the Derby in June.

This week two more yearlings purchased by the operation at Arqana - both fillies sourced from Ecurie des Monceaux - have begun to earn their keep by making impressive winning debuts at Chantilly.

Wind Chimes got the ball rolling with a comfortable win as favourite in a maiden for unraced two-year-olds on the Polytrack on Monday.

Trained by Andre Fabre and ridden by Pierre-Charles Boudot, the Mastercraftsman filly had fetched €130,000 from Broadhurst Agency at Arqana last year and made her first appearance in the colours of Michael Tabor.

Bred by Monceaux, Wind Chimes is the most expensive offspring to date of the Listed-placed Johannesburg mare Militante - whose dam is a half-sister to Coolmore's 2008 Champagne Stakes scorer Westphalia.

Representing the same connections as Wind Chimes - breeder, jockey, owners and trainer - Toujours followed up by fending off stablemate Zendia in a two-year-old fillies' maiden on Tuesday.

The Galileo filly was the second most expensive filly at the Arqana August Yearling Sale last year when she sold for €650,000 to Peter and Ross Doyle, MV Magnier and Mayfair Speculators, who also secured the top lot - a Galileo filly out of Prudenzia also from Monceaux - for €1.4 million.

With a page replete with black type, Toujours is out of the French Group 3 winner Quetsche, in turn a daughter of the Seattle Dancer mare Que Belle, winner of both fillies' Classics in Germany.

Mayfair and Coolmore partnered on more expensive yearlings from the Monceaux draft at Arqana this August, parting with €1m for the Galileo half-brother to elite winners Most Improved and Ectot, and €950,000 for a closely related Galileo half-sister to Irish Oaks heroine Chicquita.

Monceaux, managed by Henri Bozo, has dominated recent editions of the Arqana August Yearling Sale and it is no wonder bidders are so keen to acquire its stock, as the stud has bred or co-bred Group 1 winners Charm Spirit, Chicquita, Ectot, Most Improved and National Defense.

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