'She's faultless' - Yahagi's determined bidding on well-related Frankel filly brings the hammer down at €800,000

A typically snappy outfit was not the only way Yoshito Yahagi made his presence felt at Arqana on Friday as the sharply dressed trainer also bid €800,000 for a well-related daughter of Frankel during the opening stages of the August Sale. 

A packed ring showed its appreciation by giving the determined display of bidding a warm round of applause after the hammer fell. Yahagi consigned Al Shira'aa Farms’ Kieran Lalor to the role of frustrated underbidder. 

Offered by Haras des Capucines, the filly is out of Waldjagd, making her a sibling to seven winners. The best of those are this filly’s Group 2-winning close relation Waldbiene and the Listed scorer Urwald. The page had received a notable update since the catalogue was released as Waldjagd’s two-year-old son Misunderstood won the Prix de Crevecoeur on his debut. 

Waldjagd is from the famous German ‘W’ family developed by Gestut Ravensberg, with her siblings including German Derby winner Waldpark, Listed scorer Waldvogel and the Falmouth Stakes runner-up Waldmark, who is better known as the dam of Masked Marvel and the Prix Penelope winner Waldlerche, who in turn bred Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero Waldgeist. 

Yahagi already knows plenty about the family as he trains this filly’s Kingman half-brother Awaking, a dual winner in Japan who was sourced for €560,000 at this sale two years ago. 

The Frankel filly out of Waldjagd sells at the Arqana August Yearling Sale for €800,000Credit: ZUZANNA LUPA

“I think she’s an elegant type of filly, she’s faultless,” said Yahagi. “We haven’t seen a top, top colt here yet but the standard of yearlings is very good, especially the quality of fillies here.” 

The filly is due to carry the colours of Awaking’s owner, Susumu Fujita. 

Yahagi also gave an update on his most famous Arqana graduate, Shin Emperor, with the €2,100,000 brother to Sottsass being primed for a tilt at this year’s Arc. 

“Shin Emperor is training very well at the Ritto training centre,” he said. “He will leave for France on August 26 and arrive in Chantilly on the 27th.”

Persistence pays off for Knight and Salhia stud

Richard Knight came close to pulling off a notable double in consecutive lots by Night Of Thunder.

Taking instruction from behind the door of one of Arqana’s premier lodges, Knight and the Salhia Stud team were arguably able to bear the disappointment of being outgunned at €850,000 for the brother of Beauvatier (lot 121) safe in the knowledge they had secured a beautifully bred daughter of Darley’s hugely successful stallion from Baroda Stud [lot 120]. 

Knight went to €780,000 for the filly, who is out of the Listed-winning Zoffany mare Encapsulation, and is from the family of Hong Kong star Designs On Rome and Jacques le Marois winner Romanised.

Richard Knight: "We’re delighted to get her"Credit: Zuzanna LUPA

Knight said: “We’ve had a go at a few today. We tried to buy the Wootton Bassett filly out of Channel and we tried to buy the Sea The Stars filly from Barton. 

“We very much liked this filly, obviously, and thought she was very racy, very Night Of Thunder. She has plenty of size and scope about her and is just a very athletic filly. 

"She has a really athletic way about her and she came well recommended so we’re delighted to get her.”

Standing next to Knight throughout the bidding was Newmarket trainer Kevin Philippart de Foy – who trains the Prix Yacowlef-placed Binadham for Salhia – though no decision will be made for a few weeks on who will get to guide her career.

“Kevin is one of our trainers and he’s here helping to look at all the horses,” said Knight. “We’ve still got a couple to look at here over the next couple of days but then we’ll go on to Goffs and Book 1.

“After that, trainers will be allocated based on what we’ve bought.”

Dubois strikes for regally bred daughter of Siyouni

Jean-Pierre Dubois has already enjoyed a landmark year as a breeder thanks to the exploits of Prix de Diane heroine Sparkling Plenty, in whom he subsequently sold a 50 per cent stake to Al Shaqab for £5m.

A master of just about every conceivable racing pursuit, Dubois secured Monceaux’s Siyouni filly out of Flaunt [lot 131], a Frankel half-sister to Lillie Langtry who won a Windsor novice in the colours of Bjorn Nielsen. 

The daughter of Siyouni looks the right way for the camera in being sold to Jean-Pierre Dubois for €700,000Credit: ZUZANNA LUPA

Dubois said of the purchase: “I bought her with some Canadian partners. She has exactly the kind of page you look for and it is a pedigree that means she will be a wonderful broodmare, whatever her racing career brings.”

As well as being a triple Group 1 winner in her own right, Lillie Langtry holds the distinction of producing a pair of Oaks winners in Minding and Tuesday, as well as Empress Josephine, who landed the Irish 1,000 Guineas. 

Flaunt and Lillie Langtry’s dam Hoity Toity was originally bought unraced for 15,000gns by Corrin Stud from Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum, before being acquired privately by Nielsen.

Rashabar relative does family proud

The second lot on the day to break the half-a-million mark was Haras de Beaufay’s Acclamation half-sister to Coventry Stakes winner Rashabar. The filly was knocked down to bloodstock agent Oliver St Lawrence at €600,000. 

Connections will be hoping for a swift Group 1 update as the Brian Meehan-trained Rashabar is set to contest the Prix Morny at Deauville on Sunday. 

“She’s a lovely filly and I’ve been a big fan of Acclamation for ages,” said St Lawrence. “She’s a gorgeous filly and, as Brian Meehan’s just said to me, hopefully she’ll be a half-sister to a Group 1 winner after Sunday. 

“She’s been bought for Fawzi Nass and his Bahraini interests. They haven’t worked it out yet but she’ll probably stay in France and hopefully she’s a filly who can go to the paddocks eventually. We definitely paid top dollar for her but she’s a queen of a filly.” 

Rashabar’s exploits helped his half-sister fetch significantly more than he brought in the Arqana ring 12 months ago, as the Royal Ascot winner was secured by Sam Sangster for €120,000. 

Al’Shiraa makes it third time lucky

Lalor may have missed out on the Frankel filly and the Rashabar sibling but made it third time lucky when Al Shira’aa Farms struck at €600,000 for the daughter of Wootton Bassett and Prix de Diane heroine Channel. 

“Wootton Bassett is a sire we love,” said Lalor. “We breed to him as well so it makes sense to go after these fillies. Channel is obviously a Classic winner so she suits our programme. The boss [Sheikha Fatima Bin Zayed Al Nahyan] loved her when I sent her the videos. 

“It’s a great family and Nathaniel is a broodmare sire we’re big fans of. You have the Wootton Bassett over Galileo cross too, which has already been successful. She’s a beautiful filly and she deserved that price.” 

Al Shira’aa Farms snaps up the Wootton Bassett filly out of Channel at the Arqana August Yearling SaleCredit: ZUZANNA LUPA

Lalor added: “The market is demanding that sort of price for these kinds of fillies. It’s going to be a tough time but we’ll keep giving it a go. We tried on the Frankel filly and the Acclamation earlier and that didn’t work out, so we’re delighted to get this filly on board. She’ll go back to the farm in Ireland and be turned out for a couple of months before we decide where she’ll go into training.”  

The La Motteraye Consignment-offered filly becomes the most expensive of Channel’s three offspring after her first foal, Million Miles Away, sold to Jean-Louis Bouchard through Gerard Larrieu at €400,000 in 2022, while the Kingman colt Ultrasoul went the way of Hidetoshi Yamamoto at €200,000 12 months ago.

Channel herself came under the hammer at Arqana, first when fetching €70,000 at the breeze-up sale in 2018 and latterly when going the way of Katsumi Yoshida after Narvick International bid €1.2m at last year’s breeding stock sale.

Read this next:

‘Whatever life throws at me, I’ll always be at the sales’ – meet the force of nature nurturing the next generation of human and equine talent