‘We are seeing all the right signs’ – superpowers set to clash as breeze-up season reaches crescendo at Arqana

A host of major players spent Friday afternoon plotting their next move ahead of Saturday’s Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. 

Godolphin’s buying team were out in force, with Anthony Stroud and David Loder joined by Charlie Appleby, while a sizeable delegation from Coolmore included MV Magnier and Paul Shanahan. 

Amo Racing principal Kia Joorabchian made his way around the sun-baked Deauville sales ground with agent Alex Elliott. And, at the same time, Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown, chief talent spotter for Wathnan Racing, was busy conducting his own due diligence. 

These aren’t the sort of buyers that turn up just to enjoy the weather, however. This has been borne out already this breeze-up season, most notably when trade reached unprecedented levels at the Tattersalls Craven Sale and in Doncaster. 

The Newmarket event saw two seven-figure lots, with Amo Racing bidding 1,750,000gns for the Havana Grey colt who led the market. Subsequently named Celestial King, he is due to debut at Ascot on Saturday.

Godolphin snapped up the other millionaire offering, giving 1,400,000gns for the Acclamation colt now named Silent Applause. Sheikh Mohammed’s operation also signed for the £1,000,000 Mehmas colt who capped a historic sale at Goffs, when Brown and Elliott filled the roles of underbidder. 

Before a bid had been struck in anger during this year’s breeze-up season, most industry participants would have expected Arqana to prove the headline event. While the bar has been set high elsewhere, that may well still prove to be the case. 

The consensus among those on the ground was that vendors have brought a high calibre group of horses to Deauville, with the cream of the crop virtually as good as you would find at any sale. 

And recent events have shown that when good horses are offered in Deauville, they not only tend to be very good, but that they tend to make very good money too. 

It is no surprise to see the likes of Amo, Godolphin and Wathnan among the prospective purchasers here, as they have already struck gold at this sale before. 

There is no better, or more recent, example of this than Ruling Court. Almost 12 months ago to the day, the son of Justify set a new European breeze-up record when knocked down to Godolphin at €2,300,000. A 2,000 Guineas victory has gone a long way to making that look like money well spent. 

Wathnan Racing enjoyed a sensational four-timer at Royal Ascot last year, and the outfit’s Norfolk Stakes winner Shareholder was bought for €460,000 at this sale. 

As well as the Craven Sale top lot, Amo’s runners on Saturday include Cathedral, who is the early favourite for the Group 3 Chartwell Stakes at Lingfield. The Group 3-placed daughter of Too Darn Hot was added to the fold at the Arqana sale 12 months ago at a cost of €800,000. 

This year’s catalogue contains all sorts of goodies, including two lots by Dubawi, seven by Justify, one by Gun Runner, three by Kingman, four by Night Of Thunder and six by Wootton Bassett. 

Among the blue-chip pedigrees on show are the Dubawi colt out of Queen Mary Stakes scorer Anthem Alexander (Lot 8); the Siyouni half-brother to Group 1 winner Aspetar (19); the Kingman half-brother to Group 3-winning and Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Stone Age (21); and the half-sister to Norfolk winner Valiant Force by Mitole (185). 

Last week's 2000 Guineas winner Ruling Court (farside) was bought at the Arqana sale last year for a record sum of €2.3mCredit: John Grossick

Of course, these sales are as much about performance as they are pedigree. The juvenile who clocked the fastest splits, according to times seen by the Racing Post, was Lot 51, a daughter of New Bay from the family of Ervedya and Erevann being offered by Johnny Collins’ Brown Island Stables. 

Reflecting on the New Bay filly’s breeze during Thursday’s workout, Collins said: “The filly couldn’t have performed any better. She was the fastest in the breeze, which takes a bit of doing, especially for a filly. She pulled out of it well, she’s good and sound this morning and she has plenty of action. I just hope she makes the cut when we go into the ring. 

“The filly obviously has a massive engine. She’s taking on horses in the breeze that are bred to be at their best over five furlongs, while she’s bred to be a filly for seven furlongs or a mile, and that’s probably what she’s going to be. She has so much natural ability, that’s how she could do her job so well.” 

Collins said pinhooking the filly has already been tinged with poignancy, as she was picked up from the Hillwood Stud draft at £50,000 during last year’s Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale. Hillwood’s Tracy Vigors passed away later that week. 

“I bought her as a yearling from the Vigors family,” Collins said. “She came from a top farm, a lovely family, and was excellently prepped. I was delighted to buy a nice filly from them because they’ve always been a pleasure to deal with. I’ll be thinking of them when the filly goes through the ring tomorrow [Saturday].” 

Buyers were on the grounds in Deauville searching for the next star graduateCredit: ZUZANNA LUPA

Collins said he has seen both sides of the sales coin this breeze-up season. 

At the Craven he sold a Too Darn Hot colt to Yulong Investments, who signed as Dullingham, for 550,000gns. Then, at last week’s Guineas Sale, his Calyx colt practically went viral after video footage of his breeze was posted on social media. The youngster effectively declined to gallop and instead made his way up the two furlong gallop in his own sweet time. The colt was sold to Igor Endaltsev for 1,000gns. 

“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’m well able for the downs and I’m well able for the ups!” Collins said philosophically. “I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low.”

The Brown Island Stables man also shared his reading of the vibes from the Deauville sales ground.

“It seems busy enough but it’s probably going to be a bit of a top-heavy market, I’d imagine,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll be a bit better than that, but it looks like they’re all honing in on the better, faster breezers. I’d say that’s where the money will be. If you can hit that you’ll be in good shape, but it’s not always easy to do.”

Vendors' nerves over the depth to the middle market were, at least in part, allayed by Arqana making their usual effort to entice potential purchasers to the sale, including flying a plane load of Newmarket trainers in on Friday afternoon. 

Freddy Powell: 'We knew during inspections that we had some really nice horses'Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

Chief executive Freddy Powell pointed to Shes Perfect, a €50,000 acquisition last year who is now a single-figure price for the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches on Sunday, as an example of the value to be found, should buyers know where to look. 

“It’s about getting as many people as we can here and making sure people understand that you can find horses at every level,” said Powell. “The top three prices don’t make the sale.

“People have to remember that Shes Perfect is running in the French Guineas on Sunday. She didn’t cost six figures, a lot of people could have afforded her and her connections are living a great story with her now. Horses at this sale are available to more people than some think. 

“There are plenty of different criteria to judge horses at the breeze-ups. Obviously there’s the pedigree and what they look like. A lot of people work with the timings now, but there are plenty of ways of looking at those. Hopefully with the type of horses we have, which are more milers, even though we sold a Norfolk Stakes winner last year, I don’t think people are just looking at the ten fastest breezes.” 

With a high-end catalogue assembled and a cross-section of major buyers in town, Powell said it appeared the pieces were falling into place for a productive sale. 

“We knew during inspections that we had some really nice horses and vendors that were very confident in the quality they were bringing to Deauville,” he said. “The breeze went very well: conditions were good and the turn out of clients was good. 

“It’s difficult to say exactly what is going to happen but we are seeing all the right signs. In the past, when expectations get a little too high you can be disappointed, so we’re going into the sale quietly hopeful. At this stage people seem to like the horses, and that’s the main thing.”

Arqana Breeze-Up Sale factfile

Where Arqana sales complex, Deauville

When Selling begins on Saturday at 11am local time (10am BST)

Last year’s stats From 174 lot offered, 129 (74 per cent clearance rate) sold for turnover of €21,514,000 (up two per cent year on year), an average of €166,775 (up ten per cent) and a median of €100,000 (down nine per cent)

Notable graduates Cathedral (sold by Powerstown Stud, bought by Robson Aguiar for €800,000); Lezoo (sold by Tally-Ho Stud, bought by Atlas Bloodstock for €110,000); Ruling Court (sold by Oak Tree Farm, bought by Godolphin for €2,300,000); Shareholder (sold by Gaybrook Lodge Stud, bought by Blandford Bloodstock for €460,000)

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