Baker and Clarke launch ambitious trans-hemisphere project
There was a distinctly international feel to the opening exchanges with interests from Japan and Australia both making six-figure signings. Japan’s JS Company went to €200,000 (approx. AU$359,920) for the Space Blues (Dubawi) filly out of the Listed-placed Africa (Dabirism) offered by Haras des Capucines, five lots before the New Bay (Dubawi) colt out of Alzubra (Dansili) brought the same price.
The Ecurie des Monceaux-consigned youngster was secured by a group consisting of Bjorn Baker Racing, Clarke Bloodstock and Lynch Bloodstock. The colt hails from a pedigree that has already worked particularly well in Australia, being a sibling to dual Group 1 winner Arapaho (Lope De Vega) and two-time Group 3 scorer Athabascan (Almanzor).
However, Jim Clarke explained the youngster would be left in Europe, at least initially, while he underwent the early stages of his racing education.
“We’ve bought a few in the past but this is probably a slightly different tactic,” said Clarke. “In the past we’ve sent them straight down to Australia but we thought this time we might try leaving them up here, getting them educated, potentially sending them to the races a few times and seeing what sort of level of ability the horse has got before bringing it down to Australia.
“You can potentially lose part of the advantage by taking them straight to Australia. Educating them here and putting them into a system where they’re doing longer, slower work compared to what we’re used to in Australia is certainly advantageous for a horse like this, who’s going to be a mile and a quarter horse or further in time.”
He added: “We’ll probably send the horse to Jack Davison in Ireland. He’s a good pal of mine, we were on the Flying Start together, and he’s doing a great job. He trains a small team but does a very good job. He’ll look after the horse for us for the next year or 18 months and take him through the system. Hopefully he’s good enough to emulate his half-brothers down the track.”
Clarke expanded on the colt’s appeal, saying: “I’d be lying to say it wasn’t his pedigree. I bought Arapaho a few years ago with Mark McStay and obviously he’s won two Group 1s in Australia trained by Bjorn. This guy made plenty of appeal on pedigree. Another sibling, Athabascan, has been a good horse in Australia too so the mother has done a fantastic job. There are some pretty striking similarities physically between this guy and Arapaho. We’ve had success with the mare before, New Bay is a very good stallion and this is a nice horse. He stood out for us.”
Blue-blooded Baaeed filly shares top-billing in Deauville at €800,000
Trade might not have fully erupted during the opening session of the Arqana August Sale, with a clearance rate in the low 70s telling its own story, but there was still a string of hot prices at the head of the market on Saturday evening.
A brace of €800,000 (approx. AU$1.43 million) buys shared top billing in Deauville, with the first to hit that mark being the filly out of Dubai Rose (Dubai Destination) from Ecurie des Monceaux. The youngster, who hails from the debut crop of champion racehorse Baaeed (Sea The Stars), was knocked down to Kieran Lalor, manager of Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s Al Shira’aa Racing.
“She warranted that price,” Lalor said after an enthusiastic embrace with Monceaux’s Henri Bozo. “She comes from one of the best farms in France and the boss loved her, she’s a gorgeous filly who’s very athletic and comes from a great family. Obviously we’ve had a lot of success with Henri and long may it continue. Hopefully this filly sees us in something like the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in a couple of years’ time. We had to reach but I’m delighted to get her and the boss loved her.”
The dam won a pair of Listed races during her time in training and has proved a prolific producer at paddocks, breeding seven winners including three with bold black type. The trio are the dual Group 2 scorer The Juliet Rose (Monsun), Godolphin’s two-time Group 3 winner Arabian Crown (Dubawi) and the German Listed victress Everest Rose (Dubawi). The Juliet Rose is also enhancing the page in her second career, as her daughter Mosaique (Dubawi) landed last year’s Prix Minerve (Gr 3, 2500m), which was run in honour of the late Lady O’Reilly.
While the filly’s pedigree was a major draw, Lalor explained the individual more than matched the page.
“The boss loves the physical more than anything,” he said. “In general she prefers proven sires but she really loved this filly physically; she has a gorgeous walk about her. Baaeed, with the race record he has, was an incredible horse and comes from a great female family. Fingers crossed we’re talking about the Classics in a couple of years because those are the races we want to be winning.”
Lalor added: “There’s probably going to be fireworks on Monday because of the families on offer, but this was the filly the boss loved the most today.”
The filly was bred at a fee of £80,000.
Monceaux was the session’s highest-grossing vendor, with ten sold lots generating receipts worth €3,665,000 (approx. AU$6.59 million). The draft also included the Lope De Vega (Shamardal) colt out of the Listed winner Eliade (Teofilo) who was knocked down to Godolphin’s Anthony Stroud at €800,000 just a few lots later.
“He’s been bought for Godolphin and he’ll be trained by Charlie Appleby,” said the agent. “He’s by Lope De Vega, who’s done incredibly well, he’s a very nice individual who stacked up for us. He was a very good mover and comes from Monceaux, who have bred so many good horses. He was one that we hoped to acquire.”
On the subject of the colt’s price tag, Stroud added: “When you really want a horse they always seem to make more than you expect, but our expectations were in and around that figure.”
There seemed a distinct disconnect between vendors’ market expectations and buyers’ valuations during the first half of the session, although by the close of play the clearance rate improved to 72 per cent as 51 yearlings sold from 71 offered.
Other market indices stand up to limited year-on-year scrutiny given the opening session in 2024 ran over a full day and saw almost double the number of lots offered. This short, sharp post-racing session saw turnover of €11,750,000 (approx. AU$21.14 million) and an average price of €230,392 (approx. AU$414,610), which was up just a fraction on day one 12 months ago.
Twomey up to his old tricks
Everest Rose, the aforementioned German Listed winner out of Dubai Rose, is also the dam of a Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) filly knocked down to Paddy Twomey at €675,000 (approx. AU$1.21 million) later in the session.
“She’s been bought for a new partnership but the main owner will be Robert Moran, who had Elana Osario win impressively in the Give Thanks Stakes the other night, and obviously Catalina Delcarpio who ran well in the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot,” said the trainer.
“We’ve got some nice fillies bought for him with good pedigrees, that’s part of a plan going forward. She’ll be for Robert and some friends. He likes these Classic-type fillies that you know can run at a mile and a quarter or a mile and a half plus. He’s willing to give them the time and be patient.”
The trainer, who cut his teeth pinhooking and preparing breeze-up horses, sealed the deal with a cheeky €5,000 (approx. AU$9,000) increase. Asked about his bidding tactics, Twomey said: “I was a horse trader before I was a horse trainer, so I’ve had a bit of practice!”
Magnier on the mark
After a couple of hours of trade the market was led by a St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni) half-brother to the high-class Rashabar (Holy Roman Emperor), who went the way of Coolmore’s MV Magnier at €520,000 (approx. AU$935,790). The colt was consigned by breeder Haras de Beaufay.
Coolmore’s first-crop sire has picked up real momentum in recent weeks, with a flurry of eye-catching winners including his maiden black-type scorer in Thesecretadversary, who struck in Listed company at Tipperary.
The stallion was also represented by narrow Sweet Solera Stakes (Gr 3, 7f) runner-up Princess Petrol, while his European tally has been taken to eight winners after Monastry scored at Newmarket on Friday and Venetian Prince struck at Newbury on Saturday.
Coolmore have already tasted success with a member of St Mark’s Basilica’s first crop after Diamond Necklace, who topped last year’s August Sale at €1,700,000, made a winning debut at the Curragh.
“He’s a nice horse and Sam Sangster and Brian Meehan bought his half-brother here a couple of years ago and he was a good horse, as we all know,” said Magnier. “St Mark’s has had an incredible last couple of weeks. He’s going really well and had another winner there a few minutes ago in England. We’re fully behind the horse. Aidan is racing a lot of them but there’s still a lot to come. The filly we bought here looks like she could be pretty good.”
The colt is Amazonka’s (Camelot) third consecutive six-figure August Sale yearling after Coventry Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) winner Rashabar fetched €120,000 in 2023 and his Acclamation (Royal Applause) half-sister brought €600,000 from Oliver St Lawrence 12 months ago.
There was a pedigree update just a couple of hours before the sale as Rashabar rallied into second in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (Gr 2, 2000m), won in impressive fashion by Japanese raider Alohi Alii (Duramente). The mare was bought by Tomas Janda for €70,000 at this sale in 2019, and the agent reported Amazonka was back in foal to City Of Troy (Justify).
Desmontils digs deep for Mount Kilimanjaro sibling
Chauvigny Global Equine agent Sebastien Desmontils secured the fifth highest-priced yearling of the day when bidding €370,000 (approx. AU$665,850) for the Zarak (Dubawi) half-brother to this year’s Dee Stakes (Listed, 1m 2.5f) scorer Mount Kilimanjaro (Siyouni). The colt was offered by Haras d’Etreham on behalf of breeder Craig Bernick’s Glen Hill Farm.
“I loved the colt and he’s well bred, from a dam who has already produced a good horse,” said Desmontils. “Zarak is a super stallion with fantastic statistics who really improves his stock, while his best generations are just coming through now.
“My client and I bought a very good-looking Zarak here last year [Noble Memory for €230,000] from Etreham who will go racing this year. He’s been bought for Monsieur [Hisaaki] Saito who has invested assiduously in the French market and is the type of owner we need to encourage because there are fewer and fewer.
“He’s a great owner to work with and is very strategic with his investments. We haven’t selected a trainer yet but Christopher Head has performed very well with our horses and we will certainly continue to work with him.”
Clement takes his chance with Frankel filly
That transaction was followed a little later on by the Frankel (Galileo) filly out of Castellar (American Post) offered by Haras de Saint Isidro. Nicolas Clement, who now trains in partnership with Flo Hermans, brought the gavel down at €350,000 (approx. AU$629,860).
Not only did the dam win the Prix de la Nonette (Gr 2, 2000m) during her racing days, but this filly’s sister Latakia added further lustre to the page by winning a Listed contest at Clairefontaine earlier in the month.
“She’s the only Frankel filly in the sale and sometimes you have to take a chance,” said Clement. “I liked the way she moves and I have her sister [Ecija] in training, who I like a lot and should be out quite soon. She has a great update in that her full-sister won a Listed at Clairefontaine at the start of the month.”