€395,000 Lope De Vega filly lights up Deauville ring as major jumping prospects head for Ireland and Britain

There was fierce competition across the price ranges during Thursday afternoon’s horses-in-training section of the Arqana Summer Sale, with some real battles developing at the very top end of the market over the closing couple of hours. 

With plenty of interest from other international concerns, Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman attempted to settle matters with an opening bid of €300,000 for the Listed-placed Lope De Vega filly La Filomena, a tactic he later related is a popular way of disheartening the competition in Australia. 

It didn’t work immediately but Boman’s determination was evident throughout the rapid exchanges, and at €395,000 she was secured for Sydney-based Larry Young, though she will first attempt to embroider her credentials in Europe. 

A full-sister to Peter Brant’s useful Epic Poet out of the Lawman mare Sagaciously, La Filomena has been sparingly campaigned by Jean-Claude Rouget and was third to Left Sea in the Prix Melisande at Longchamp last month on only her fifth start.

Boman said: “It’s very rare to get a filly that’s untapped; she’s lightly raced and is last-time-out Listed-placed. She has a lovely pedigree and a great physique. She was a 310,000gns yearling and now she’s Listed-placed. It’s a funny market we work in when you pay more for something you don’t know can run. 

“We know this filly has ability, she’s very good looking and by a great stallion. The family is on the upgrade every week and it’s one Blandford is quite closely associated with through Perfect Power and also his half-brother Golden Mind, who was an unlucky third in the Chesham.”

Stuart Boman signs the docket for the sale-topping La Filomena at ArqanaCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Boman added: “She’s been purchased with Larry Young’s Speriamo Bloodstock. He’s had a bit of a hiatus on the buying front for the last couple of years but is back on the market. We’ll look to race her. At this value we need to race her and hopefully make her a Group winner.

“I stretched - I’ll probably get in trouble - and we were aggressive in our bidding at the start. We knew what the reserve was and it’s a tactic that’s often used in Australia. I was hoping it might disrupt the process and we might get her for a little bit less. 

“She could stay in France or might go to Ireland. I’d say she’ll race up here again over the summer and hopefully win a stakes race somewhere.”

'One for the big festivals' - David Pipe set to take delivery of Clayeux prospect

Emmanuel Clayeux has become one of the go-to sources of future jumping talent in France for the big Anglo-Irish concerns and there was plenty of money flying about for Jamaico, an AQPS gelding by Cokoriko who won the Prix Al Capone II by six and a half lengths over Auteuil’s chase course last month for Lord Daresbury and Jacques Cypres. 

Standing outside the ring and following a number of near-misses, it was Hubert Barbe who landed the spoils at €310,000.

Jamaico will head to David Pipe after making €310,000Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

“He’s for Professor Caroline Tisdall and will be trained by David Pipe,” said Barbe. “She wanted to find a horse to run at the big festivals. We think he’ll progress and be good enough for the big events. 

“I’ve had my eye on him for a while; he was very impressive when he debuted in a bumper at Fontainebleau. He then found it a bit tough at Auteuil next time out but has only progressed since.”

Mullins returns to trusted source for No Risk At All filly

Balyreddin and Busherstown have enjoyed a memorable couple of days consigning and the best was saved until last as Full Of Shade, a four-year-old daughter of No Risk At All sent out to be second at Auteuil by Donatien Sourdeau de Beauregard in May, was sold to the Willie Mullins team for €280,000. 

Out of the winning Septieme Ciel mare Shadline, Full Of Shade is a half-sister to a pair of black-type winners in The Reader and Vintage. 

With Mullins instructing over the phone, it was Harold Kirk who struck the bid that ensured the filly would be heading to Ireland and not Britain, while Pierre Boulard signed the docket.

Full Of Shade: Ballyreddin & Busherstown's No Risk At All filly caught the eye during the afternoon sessionCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

“Looking at the last race in Auteuil, she made a huge mistake and but for that probably would have won,” said Boulard. “She’s a very good-looking mare with a pedigree. We love No Risk At All, who is a top sire now. 

“We paid a bit more than we thought, but Willie’s happy. If he is, I’m happy too.” 

Ballyreddin and Busherstown were responsible for four of the top 11 lots on day one and, with just the one horse passing through the ring on Thursday, took their sales for the two days to north of €900,000 for ten sold. 

Mullins said: “I’m always very happy to buy from [Ballyreddin Stud’s] Katie Rudd, who we got Allegorie De Vassy from and who does a great job.”

'We were getting close to my man’s max' - Tony Martin goes all out for Aga Khan colt

The first of the jackpot lots to arrive in the Deauville ring was another Rouget project, and another notable success for Lope De Vega - the Aga Khan’s Hamsiyann. A winner at Lyon on the all-weather for Rouget, Hamsiyann is a half-brother to the dam of this year’s Prix du Jockey Club runner-up, Big Rock.

His own dam, Harasiya, won the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at two and is a half-sister to Hazariya, whose offspring include dual Derby hero Harzand. Bidding on behalf of Tony Martin, it was Toby Jones who got the job done at €250,000.

“He’s got good conformation and I liked the way he raced when I saw his videos,” said Martin.  “He’s clean and sound and I thought he’d probably improve a little bit. He’s got a fabulous attitude for a colt - though I don’t think we’ll leave him a colt for too long - and he’s only a three-year-old, with a bit of size and scope. He should do both jobs, Flat and jumps.”

Hamsiyann: "He has a bit of size"Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

Hamsiyann is rated 86 on the Flat after six starts and Martin admitted he was close to calling it a day when Jones struck the winning bid.

“He was getting close to my max,” said Martin. “I have a max and a min. The min is for nothing and the max is, ‘We can’t go any further.’ We were getting close to my man’s max. 

“You have to be reasonable too, it’s another man’s money but I think a horse will always make what it should. 

“He was there for everyone and when it’s the Aga Khan, everything is so straightforward, so straight-laced. They’ll make their price in the ring and he was making it. It’s just a pity there was so much interest in him. But with a nice horse like him, there‘s always going to be.”

Oakgrove revive some Deer family history 

John Deer’s Oakgrove Stud will be welcoming a well bred prospect to the broodmare band, though hopefully with an enhanced racing reputation after farm manager David Hilton went to €185,000 to secure Mqse De Maintenon, who followed up her fourth place in the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux with a third-placed effort in the Listed Prix Lilas over a mile at Chantilly for Fabrice Vermeulen. 

David Hilton in action after signing for the Listed-placed Mqse De Maintenon at ArqanaCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Mqse De Maintenon is by Muhaarar out of the Tobougg mare Arkivi - the producer of eight individual winners including May Hill runner-up Grecian Light - whose own dam, the great Halland Park Lass, gave us both Dutch Art and Up. 

“We’re very happy to buy her,” said Hilton. "The pedigree further down the page is one we know. Mr Deer actually owned Palacegate Episode so it’s nice to be able to support that family again. I think the filly is obviously quite talented and there’s more to come. 

"There’s a nice fillies' programme back at home so we’ll look forward to talking her back and, maybe after a couple of months' break, we’ll go again with her and hopefully pick up some more black type."

Smaller day two offering can't spoil successful 48 hours

After finishing day one comfortably ahead of the key indicators for 2022's record Summer Sale, Thursday was always destined to fall back a bit, due in large part to a smaller catalogue for the breeding and horses-in-training sections.

In all, 164 of 189 lots to pass through the ring on Thursday changed hands at an extremely respectable 86 per cent clearance rate, against last year's remarkable 90 per cent. 

Beneath that broad picture the average price held steady at €35,012 (€35,676 last year), while the median price on Thursday soared from €11,000 to €14,000.

Turnover across the two days was €11,833,750, a nine per cent fall, which almost exactly mirrored the 36 fewer horses that were sold. 

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