The Queen's homebred Recorder off to a flying start with yearling pair

The Queen's stallion son of Galileo, Recorder, made a striking impression at Arqana on Wednesday, when his first two yearlings to be offered at auction were sold for €52,000 and €38,000.

Haras de Montfort et Preaux is home to Recorder and multiple Classic-winning producer Le Havre, and it was former stud manager Sylvain Vidal who signed at €52,000 for Collandres, a half-brother to Listed winner Aubevoye and recent Cagnes winner Port Guillaume.

Vidal was acting on behalf of Montfort et Preaux's former owner, Gerard Augustin-Normand, who was buying out the other co-breeders of Collandres.

Later in the session Normandie Bloodstock chose to buy back Collandres' dam, Keira, the bidding having reached €105,000.

Guy Petit went to €38,000 to secure Longuerue, a Recorder yearling filly out of the Celtic Swing mare Luna Celtica and from the immediate family of black-type winners Fresles and Celtic Rock.

The purchase was for Haras de la Croix Sonnet owner Noelle Hosselet, who said of Longuerue: "She could be reoffered at the sales later, why not? But the main objective is to have a good filly and perhaps later a broodmare prospect for the Flat.

"Recorder was a good horse who unfortunately suffered from injury, but as this is his first crop we don't yet know how he'll work out."

Princess Bianca set for Caravaggio match

The highest-priced lot to change hands during the second and final session was the winning Rock Of Gibraltar mare Princess Bianca, a sister to Grosser Preis von Baden winner and Haras de Montaigu stallion Prince Gibraltar.

Haras du Cadran's Pierre Talvard gave the winning bid at €82,000 and said: "She's a good-looking mare with an irreproachable pedigree. I think she'll go to Caravaggio as we're looking to reproduce the same cross as was successful with [Richmond Stakes winner] Land Force."

Geoffrey Howson and Matt Houldsworth concluded a fruitful couple of days when paying €50,000 for Merville, a Montjeu three-parts sister to Ectot who is carrying to Australia.

"She'll go to Ireland," said Howson. "There's a lot going on in the pedigree and Montjeu mares are lovely, while I like the Galileo element with Australia.

"There are some prospects here among her other produce while one or two are breeding, and our client was particularly keen with the potential for pedigree updates in due course."

Market continues to be selective

With a lack of star dispersals, the 2020 sale was never going to match its record 2019 edition, with a turnover of €2,350,000 the lowest for three years.

More strikingly, the selective nature of Tuesday's session continued to be the theme on Wednesday and, at the end of trade, 239 of 362 horses offered had sold for a clearance rate of 66 per cent, the lowest returned in the last decade.

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Day one report