Arqana falls under the spell of Zarak as a sire of jumping stock as owner Edward James makes late splash

The drama was saved until very late in the first session of Arqana's Summer Sale but, when the second bid for two-year-old store Nietsche Has vaulted to €150,000, the auditorium's regular hum turned to gasps and then a febrile hush. 

The stacatto raises that followed reflected the careful calculations and decisions being made by three different sets of potential future connections but, as the price went up, an increasingly confident Edward James took control and emerged on top at €240,000 for the the entire son of Zarak. 

Prepared by the Channel Consignment for breeders Hamel Stud, Nietsche Has is out of a full-sister to Haras de la Hetraie's Martaline stallion, Nirvana Du Berlais. 

And it is his potential future as a jumping sire which clearly excited James as much as what he might do on the track. 

"I've got him for racing and then as a stud horse in the future," said James, who previously made a splash when partnering Jimmy Wenman to buy Irish point-to-point graduate Weveallbeencaught for £210,000 at Tattersalls Cheltenham last January. "We liked everything. He's just a nice horse and is well put together. 

"He's going back to the UK to be pre-trained and then I'll decide what to do after that. It's too early to say."

From a handful of runners over hurdles, the Aga Khan’s stallion has already thrown up Zarak The Brave - a Grade 1-placed juvenile with Willie Mullins - and Carlton Du Berlais, placed at Grade 3 and Listed level last year at Auteuil. 

Le Metayer keeps the home fires burning with Zarak purchase

The first day of selling at Arqana’s Summer Sale saw plenty of activity from British and Irish jumps trainers and pinhookers, though several of the top lots among the two-year-old stores appear destined to stay in France.

Leading the way as the last rays of evening flooded the company’s Deauville complex was Nabab Has, another son of Zarak bearing Hamel Stud’s widely recognised suffix, who was knocked down to Bertrand Le Metayer for €125,000.

Le Metayer said: “This sale has worked for us and we were lucky enough to get Fastorslow here for Sean Mulryan and some other good horses. This horse is probably one that offers the most guarantees in terms of making an Auteuil three-year-old. 

Bertrand Le Metayer is congratulated by Alban Chevalier du Fau (the Channel Consignment) after purchasing a €125,000 son of Zarak on Wednesday Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

"We got one earlier [for the family of Jim Douglas-Gordon] that is probably a touch more precocious and this one looks like he might be one for the second half of next year.

“Absolutely no plan has been made because I work with both Marcel Rolland and Arnaud Chaille-Chaille. Nothing is decided and, now he’s bought, I have to sell him."

Le Metayer’s earlier purchase - a gelded son of Goliath Du Berlais and the Listed-winning Ballingarry mare, Tornada - will carry the blue and orange Douglas Gordon colours and heads to Rolland after being sold by Ballyreddin and Bushertown for €90,000, a good return on his €27,000 price as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland. 

A new consigning partnership for this sales season consisting of Katie Rudd and John Dwan, Ballyreddin and Bushertown also sold a gelded son of Motivator from the family of Fuisse to Tom Malone at €115,000 - the agent confirmed that the horse will stay in France to race for "a group of friends" - and a €105,000 Nirvana Du Berlais filly bought by Thierry Delegue's Pegase Bloodstock, and destined to be trained by Mickael Seror before joining owner Aranaud van Robais' broodmare band. 

A stallion prospect for Willie Mullins?

Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk made their presence felt later in the session when going to €110,000 for a still-entire son of the unmissable Doctor Dino.

Out of the classy Poliglote mare Ex Fan Des Sixties, Love Me Tender was brought to market by the Channel Consignment on behalf of the Devin family’s Haras du Mesnil, where Doctor Dino stands. 

After making the winning bid from the restaurant, Kirk said: “We thought he was gorgeous; a fantastic mover, very strong and a very typical Doctor Dino. 

Harold Kirk signs for the Doctor Dino entire, who has 'a stallion's head'Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

“He looks every inch a racehorse. We’ve been very lucky with Doctor Dino and as well as his lovely movement, this horse has a great presence and a fantastic head. Perhaps a stallion’s head.”

Pierre Boulard is best-known for his long-running role as talent scout in France for Mullins and Kirk. But it was at the behest of major French owners that he made two key interventions in the space of five minutes late in the afternoon.

Strike one came when going to €110,000 to secure a beautifully bred daughter of Constitution Hill’s sire Blue Bresil; another success for Rudd and Dwan.  

Boulard sat next to owner Xavier Papot, whose most trusted advisor, Benoit Gabeur, settled matters with a decisive raise of the finger of which legendary test umpire Dicky Bird would be proud. 

Out of the Kalanisi mare Blodge, the filly is a half-sister to Cheltenham Mares Chase heroine Impervious, and boasts Francois Doumen and Joerg Vasicek’s mighty Bilboa as her second dam.

“We really like her and Blue Bresil is definitely now a very good sire,” said Boulard. “She reminds me a lot of a very good one [of his], L’ Autonomie. She’s very strong, a very good mover, and the page is good. I hope the Papot family will be lucky with her. 

"They asked me to help them and it’s lucky we have people like them to buy some very good pedigrees to stay in France.”

Two lots later Boulard was again signing the docket, this time for a son of the late Muhtathir

From Haras du Hoguenet and already named Galactico, the gelding is a half brother to another of Zarak's jumping flagbearers in Bo Zenith, runner-up in the Grade 1 Anniversary Hurdle at Aintree in April for Gary Moore.

Explaining how the link-up with the Papot family came about, Boulard said: “Xavier Papot bought a horse from Davide Satalia - a son of Free Port Lux [Jericoacoara] - and was very pleased with the result. 

“The Papot family and some of Davide's clients have gone in together on the Muthathir. The Blue Bresil is for Xavier and his family alone. The Papot family are known for their quest for excellence and Davide is a young trainer with clients that need runners and we’ve been working together for a while.”

'She has a head like her mother's' - Jane Williams falls for Doctor Dino daughter of Let's Dance

There might have been plenty of thinking along the lines of "put the best to the best and hope for the best" when it came to the decision made by Samuel and Elodie de Barros to send Let's Dance - a hugely talented and consistent daughter of Poliglote for Willie Mullins and the Riccis - to Doctor Dino. 

The Doctor Dino filly out of Cheltenham winner Let's Dance made €110,000 at Arqana's Summer Sale

But after giving €110,000 for the filly, Jane Williams was keen to stress that the result of those deliberations had as much going for her physically as on the page. 

“She is very well put-together and she has the most beautiful head” enthused Williams after signing the docket. “She looks a lot like her dam who used to really put her head down and race to the line. This is a family of top class racemares, and we hope her daughter will have her character. 

"She will come back to Devon where she will be broken in and then turned out. She is for a very special owner of ours, and we are over the moon to be taking her home with us.”

After a career which included wins in the Grade 2 mares' novice hurdle at Cheltenham and a pair of Grade 3 mares' hurdles at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival, Let's Dance was secured at a price of €200,000 for the De Barros' Haras des Authieux by Bertrand Le Metayer at Tattersalls Ireland in November 2018. 

Dennison and Ferguson continue investment in French sires

Ian Ferguson secured one of the top lots at last week’s Derby sale on behalf of Wilson Dennison - a €240,000 son of Doctor Dino - and was in action again at Arqana on Wednesday, winning out at €100,000 for a two-year-old gelding by another of France’s top stallions in No Risk At All. 

In doing so, he has secured for Dennison a piece of one of the most celebrated bloodlines in recent Auteuil history, as the already-named Lupin Du Chenet is a grandson of the Besnouin family’s matriarch, Tchela.

Having lost out on an earlier lot by No Risk At All, Ferguson was not to be denied here.

“I thought he was an outstanding individual and I tried earlier on to buy [lot] 99, I thought maybe this horse would fall around the same price but obviously I’ve had to give more for him,” said Ferguson. 

“If the horse is good enough, the price doesn’t matter. He’s for Mr Wilson Dennison in Northern Ireland. He’s the purchaser of the horse and that’s where he will go.”

By La Nain Jaune, Tchela produced 13 winners from 16 foals, including Auteuil Grade 1 winners Saint Du Chenet and Tanais Du Chenet - both trained by Marcel Rolland for the late Magalen Bryant - while the likes of Galant Moss and Iris Royal further burnished their dam’s reputation in Britain. 

Lupin Du Chenet is the third product from Tchela’s winning Astarabad daughter, Viva Tchela, and was prepared and brought to market by Normandy-based Irish consignors Katherine Aalen and Ian Hanamy under their Haras des Loges banner.

O'Mara tastes sweet success in breeze-up section

Knockanglass Stables led the way during the breeze-up section which kicked off proceedings, consigning an €85,000 colt by Lanwades stallion Sea The Moon, as well as the very opening lot of the sale, a colt by that sire’s father Sea The Stars, who made €75,000. 

Sea The Moon's great week continues with the breeze-up session top lot at Arqana Summer SaleCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Sea The Moon was responsible for Sunday’s impressive Deutsches Derby winner Fantastic Moon and the bids rose swiftly for the colt, who is out of an unraced daughter of Oasis Dream, Apura.

From the deep roots of Ballymacoll Stud breeding featuring Spectrum, Conduit and Petrushka, he was bred by the Niarchos Family and bought by Knockanglass’ Thomond O’Mara at Tattersalls Ireland as a yearling for €52,000.

Standing in the passage to the left of the rostrum, it was the agent/trainer combination of Nicolas de Watrigant and Alessandro Botti that won out.

“I think he’s one of the best-looking colts in the sale,” said Botti. “Sea The Moon is a plus and the dam’s two runners have both been winners. He’s been bought principally for Monsieur [Alain] Jathiere and I’m very happy to be training him.”

O’Mara’s draft numbered just three and the strong start made with the Sea The Stars colt turned out to be a sign of things to come. 

He is out of an unraced daughter of Invincible Spirit and that fine racemare Sea Of Heartbreak, who numbered victory in the Prix de Royallieu and a runner-up effort in the Dahlia Stakes among her career highlights for Roger Charlton.

“He has been bought for an existing client and will go into training with Paddy Twomey in Ireland,” said Avenue Bloodstock’s Mark McStay, who struck the winning blow over the phone.

“We saw him here in May and really liked him but he had a sore foot so we couldn’t buy him. I have bought some good horses from Thomond in the past, including Wonder Legend.

“Mags O’Toole was at the sale so she very kindly watched his breeze and inspected him for us, and gave him a thumbs up. Paddy also watched the breeze and was very happy with him. This is the first horse that the client will send into training with Paddy, so he’s delighted.” 

Also at €75,000, Chantilly-based trainer Damien Artu won out for a son of Haras du Logis’ second-season sire, Cloth Of Stars, consigned by Grove Stud.

Another success for Oasis Dream as damsire, he is out of Gyrella, a half-sister to Derby winner Wings Of Eagles. 

Artu said: “He’s coming to me and we hope he might been seen out this year, though if that doesn’t happen we think he’ll be a nice three-year-old and his owner, Veronika Jud-Frei, is prepared to give him all the time he needs.”

Key indicators ahead of day one in 2022

Following on from the two key Irish store sales demand remained strong and, combined with the earlier breeze-up session, 182 of the 222 horses to pass through the ring changed hands at a near-identical clearance rate to last year of 81 per cent. 

16 more lots yielded a significant rise in turnover, which reached €6,157,250, an increase of 11 per cent and achieved at an average price of €33,831 (compared to €33,848) and a median of €24,000 (against €20,500 in 2022).

Selling on day two begins at 11am French time and consists of broodmares and fillies, followed by horses in training. 

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