Wertheimer brothers snap up classy filly Haggle for €1.3m

Haggle, who became a Group 3 winner after publiction of the catalogue, led the way on the first day of the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale in Deauville on Saturday when selling for €1.3 million to Pierre-Yves Bureau, racing manager to the Wertheimer brothers.

Trained by the up and coming Chantilly-based trainer Henri-Francois Devin, the four-year-old daughter of Pivotal was consigned on behalf of owners Stephen and Becky Hillen.

Haggle represented a fine piece of business for the Hillens, as they bought her at the Tattersalls December Sale last year for 125,000gns from her breeder and previous owner and trainer Luca Cumani.

Since making the switch to France she has improved through the year, winning a Listed contest in May, before competitive performances in Group company culminating in a win in the Group 3 Prix de la Fille d’Air at Toulouse last month.

Bureau commented: “She’s a recent Group 3 winner from a lovely family. She’s by Pivotal, who we love and is a great broodmare sire, and is still improving.”

Haggle is the only stakes performer for her dam, the Daylami mare Barter, however the rest of her page is full of live black type, as her second dam Souk is the source of numerous top-notchers, including Classic heroines Alexandrova and Chiquita and last month's Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling.

Old rivals team up

Former adversaries Lester Piggott and Willie Carson traded many blows on the racecourse, famously when Lester got up at the last moment on The Minstrel to deny Willie Carson a Derby win on Hot Grove.

Clearly there are no hard feelings between the two racing greats, as it was Lester’s son, Jamie, who conducted the bidding on behalf of Carson’s Minster Stud to secure the Group 2-placed Galileo mare Phiz for €600,000.

Phiz: well-related daughter of Galileo is headed to Minster StudCredit: Zuzanna Lupa/Arqana

Jamie Piggott works as an assistant at the sales both in the US and in Europe for agent James Delahooke. After signing for Phiz, who is in foal to Le Havre, he said: “I thought she was the nicest mare in the sale, and I didn’t think we’d be able to buy her.

“We're delighted to have got her, she's from a lovely family and by Galileo. She’s going to a commercial breeder, and they will decide on her mating when she’s back in England.”

Seven-year-old Phiz was a 600,000gns Book 1 yearling purchase by Badgers Bloodstock and went on to finish second in the Park Hill Stakes for John Gosden.

She was consigned by Ecurie de Monceaux, who also sold her Kingman yearling at the Arqana August Yearling Sale for €340,000 earlier this year.

Phiz is the dam of Cardew, a Declaration Of War two-year-old colt in training in France, and she has a colt foal by Siyouni. Out of the Listed-placed Peace Time, she is a half-sister to three stakes winners, including this year’s Group 3 Prix de Cleopatre third Penny Lane.

Lots of lolly for Molly

Peter Molony signed the docket on behalf of Qatar Racing for the Prix Cadran winner Molly Malone, in foal to Golden Horn. It took €600,000 to secure the daughter of Lomitas who hails from the family of the great German sire Monsun and Brametot, a dual Classic winner in France this year.

Molony said: “We bought a relation of hers, Wekeela, last week at Tattersalls. She was a real beauty and this filly isn’t far behind her. We're delighted to get her and she'll come back to Britain before we make a mating plan for her.”

Molly Malone has four foals on the ground, including a filly foal by Golden Horn. Her Shamardal filly, Morgan Le Fay, who has been Listed-placed since the catalogue was printed, sold for €350,000 here as a yearling, and her Exceed and Excel colt made €160,000 a year later.

Cheveley Park shopping

Cheveley Park Stud were the purchasers of a pair of mares through Tim Richardson, one of whom, Troarn, is the sister to last year's European champion Almanzor.

The hammer fell in Richardson’s favour at €600,000 for the daughter of Wootton Bassett, after which he said: “Cheveley Park are continuing to buy high-class mares to join their broodmare band. This one is a beautiful filly and looks just like Almanzor. She will be covered by Ulysses; she has a perfect page for him.”

Consigned by her trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, and owned in partnership by Gerald Augustin Normand and Antonio Caro, as was her famous brother, she won two races and finished second in the Listed Derby du Midi at Bordeaux.

Another half-sister to a champion in Zarkava entered the ring a short time later.

Zakia - the New Approach sister to the unforgettable Zarkava, now a dam of a Group 1 winner in Zarak - made €450,000 when selling to Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida and will head to Japan.

She hailed from the ever-popular draft of her breeder the Aga Khan.

Return visit for O'Connor

John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud is a regular visitor to Deauville and he teamed up with Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International to buy the Listed Prix Finlande winner and dual Group-placed filly Monroe Bay, who was consigned by her trainer Pascal Bary for €420,000.

Bozo said: “She's for a partnership between Ballylinch Stud and Ecurie des Charmes. She has a lot of quality, and is a good race filly from a family that produces well.”

The elegant three-year-old filly is by Makfi out of the High Chaparral mare Lune Rose and her second dam is Lunassa, who has produced three stakes-winning daughters.

The same duo of O’Connor and Bozo had to settle as underbidders a few lots later when bowing out to Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock for the Wertheimer brothers' filly Guerriere. She will continue her racing career across the Atlantic after selling for €420,000.

“She is beautiful and very well bred,” said Zerolo. “We'll take her to the US and try to win some better races. She will go to Chad Brown in Florida.”

The Invincible Spirit filly was bought on behalf of Peter Brant's White Birch Farm, continuing where they left off at this week's Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

She is a half-sister to Soustraction, winner of this year’s Group 3 Prix d’Aumale, and is from the family of Arc heroine Solemia.

Wildcards hit the mark

Four of the wildcards in this sale were consigned from Haras de Bouquetot, Al Shaqab’s French base. The first through the ring, the unraced Oasis Dream filly Selyl, was sold for €350,000 to Nicolas de Watrigant of Mandore International Agency, who had to see off Bertrand Le Metayer to secure the smartly bred three-year-old.

“I have bought her for Madame [Ling] Tsui and she will visit Sea The Stars,” explained the agent, “She sadly can no longer race but she showed potential in training, and she is a sister to a champion.”

Offered in foal for the first time to Le Havre, Selyl is out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Twyla Tharp, making her a half-sister to champion racemare The Fugue.

The Raven’s Pass mare Interesting, part of the Godolphin draft, was knocked down to Nicolas de Chambure of Haras d’Etreham for €300,000. A dual winner and Group 3-placed on the track, she is the dam of a New Approach colt foal and was offered in foal to Iffraaj.

She is out of Group 3 winner With Fascination, who also finished second in the Prix de la Salamandre and the Prix Morny, and the dam is a half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner With Anticipation.

Her mating plans for next year are already set, as De Chambure explained.

“She has been bought for a partnership between Haras d’Etreham and the shareholders of Almanzor,” he said. “We are buying some good mares for him to give him the best possible chance at stud. It’s our second buy today.”

De Chambure had earlier signed for the Exceed and Excel filly Vadsariya at €140,000 from the Aga Khan draft.

Haras d’Etreham will stand the champion Almanzor at a fee of €35,000 next year, alongside his sire Wootton Bassett.

Almanzor was affected by the virus in Jean-Claude Rouget’s yard earlier in the spring, curtailing what was an extraordinary career.

Dabirsim delight for Stroud

The first day of the sale saw consistently strong trade for foals, and a colt by France's leading first-season sire, Dabirsim, sold for €260,000 to Godolphin, making him the highest-priced foal by the sire to sell at public auction.

Anthony Stroud and David Loder conducted the bidding, and Stroud said: “He will remain in France. We have tried to buy one or two Dabirsims over the course of the year, and we were always beaten on them so we're delighted to get this colt, who comes from a very good family.”

The colt was offered by Haras du Petit Tellier, who also sold his dam, Sailor Moon, here in July for €280,000. He is a half-brother to the Listed winners Stone Roses and Straight Right and to a yearling sister who has been retained by owner Eric Schmid, who has just gone into training with Henri-Alex Pantall.

Dabirsim will stand at €30,000 for 2018 at Haras de Grandcamp, after a stellar debut with his first crop of runners this year. His daughter Different League has made headlines throughout the season, on the racetrack when winning the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot and finishing second in the Cheveley Park Stakes, and in the racetrack when selling last week at Tattersalls for 1,500,000gns.

Figures up

Following a record-breaking sale at Tattersalls last week, the seemingly insatiable demand for quality bloodstock continued in Deauville.

The first session at Arqana - taking place over a marathon 11 hours of selling - resulted in a 46 per cent year-on-year leap in the aggregate to around €21.5m, with 41 more horses passing through the ring.

The clearance rate remained at a very satisfactory 80 per cent, while the average recorded a 13 per cent rise to €124,237 and the median rose to €75,000 from €70,000 in 2016.

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