Storm Cat colt brings €900,000
at Deauville
Arqana’s August Yearling Sale kicked off in sensational style Friday when the
highlight of a strong opening trade
was the selling of a Storm Cat half-brother to Electrocutionist (Red Ransom) for
€900,000. At roughly halfway
through the session, the only offering by the giant of recent times stepped into
the ring, and immediately had the
attention of the majority of the visitors to the Normandy venue. Eventual
leading consignors Haras d’Etreham
presented the January-foaled chestnut as Hip No. 61, and it was inevitable that John
Ferguson would be at the forefront of
the bidding.
Electrocutionist, who was one of Godolphin’s most successful
acquisitions of recent times, holds a special
place in the hearts of those engaged with the operation. Having battled to
success against the odds in the Dubai
World Cup (UAE-G1) three years ago, he met an untimely death from a heart attack after
second placings in the Prince of Wales’s S. (Eng-G1) and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond S.
(Eng-G1).
“Of
course, we have been
successful with this family, and he was a very athletic individual,” Ferguson
said of the colt, who was led out unsold
at $700,000 as a weanling at Keeneland last November. “We live in the last of the Storm Cat days
and we have followed this horse ever
since he was a baby. He has been progressing all the time, and Sheikh Mohammed
flew into Deauville this morning to
look at him and loved him.”
Ferguson, at his selective best Friday, closed out the day as leading buyer
with five lots totaling €2.77 million.
Among that quintet was the top-priced filly of the session, Newsells Park Stud’s
Hip 77, a daughter of Kingmambo.
Her listed-placed dam Helena Molony (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) is a sister to High
Chaparral (Ire) and Black Bear Island
(Ire). The latter, who took the Dante S. (Eng-G1) at York in May, was just beaten in
last Saturday’s Secretariat S. (G1), and that
update helped her reach a bid of €600,000.
During the early exchanges, Ferguson
paid €500,000 for Hip 4, a son of
Smart Strike who is out of the listed-placed Rose Melody (Ire) (Galileo [Ire]).
From the draft of Ecurie des
Monceaux, the March-foaled bay is from the family of multiple Grade 2 victor Gold and Steel (Fr)
(Shining Steel [GB]).
Four lots later, he paid €570,000
for Haras de la Perelle’s full brother to Gentlewave (Monsun), the 2006 Derby Italiano
(Ity-G1) winner and
Irish Derby (Ire-G1) runner-up .
“We love what we bought,” Ferguson continued. “The Monsun
full brother to Gentlewave is a
very athletic horse by a proven international sire. We have two Monsun sires at
home in Shirocco (Ger) and Manduro, and
he could be of the same caliber. The Kingmambo filly could be anything.
Obviously, she has an outstanding pedigree,
and such opportunities to buy such a well-bred filly are rare. We might go for
some more, you never know.”
Two lots before the Storm Cat, a son of Montjeu (Ire) with two high-class
siblings commanded €750,000 from Demi
O’Byrne, who bought a total of five during the afternoon. Haras de la
Reboursiere’s January-foaled colt, consigned as Hip 59, is a full brother to the 2006 Prix Ganay
(Fr-G1) winner, Corre Caminos,
and a half to the 2007 Prix du
Muguet (Fr-G2) scorer, Racinger (Spectrum).
Aliette Forien, who owns
Reboursiere et de Montaigu, said, “That is a
great sale. We had this yearling in a foal sharing with Coolmore and they loved
him, and so bought him. He had it all,
the pedigree and a look that matched, and he was an outstanding individual. You
can’t ask for much more in a horse. I
am pleasantly surprised at the excellent atmosphere at the sale and the good
business. I have to say that I was quite
worried beforehand.”
O’Byrne added, “He’s a very good-looking colt and his dam
already has two good horses. He was
a good walker and we paid about as much as we had anticipated.”
Earlier, another son of the former Arc hero had caused a stir with John Warren
prevailing on behalf of Sir Robert
Ogden for Haras du Mezaray’s Hip 38. Out of a sister to the 2000 Prix Marcel Boussac
(Fr-G1) heroine, Amonita (GB)
(Anabaa), the February-foaled bay from the family of the 2005 One Thousand
Guineas third Vista Bella (Diktat)
cost the knighted Brit €600,000. Two lots earlier, Warren had also paid
€500,000
for Ogden to secure Hip 36, a son of
Giant’s Causeway out of Amonita herself from the same draft.
“We are trying to
put together a nice band of racehorses
for Sir Robert to be trained by Jeremy Noseda,” Warren said. “The sale is strong
and there were some very nice
individuals. Both colts I bought are from the same family and are by two proven
top sires. Their looks matched their
lovely pedigrees and, therefore, you have to pay some money.”
Ogden added, “I am
better known for my jump horses,
but I used to work with Francois Mathet and now live in the South of France, so
it is easier for me to come here. I like
coming here, I like the atmosphere. I have bought jumpers, stores and foals and
some very good jumpers in France. It
is the first time I have bought flat yearlings, though, and I am trying to keep
some ammunition for the other sales, but
we might be tempted later in the afternoon.”
Haras d’Etreham’s day started on a down note, with their full-sister to
Schiaparelli, Samum and Salve
Regina, all by Monsun, failing to sell at €520,000, but things turned
around for the auction’s perennial
leading light. They were responsible for the highest-priced yearling from a
first crop when a son of Coolmore’s
Hurricane Run (Ire) sold for €520,000. Hip 63 is a half to
Group/Grade 1-placed
Sardaukar (GB) (Royal Academy) and
a trio of group-placed performers, including the smart Kindjhal (Ashkalani). He was sold to Prince Mitab
bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz’s SKAS, which sprang to prominence here 12 months
ago.
Also buying at the high end
of the market, Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock went to
€500,000 to get Coulonces Consignment’s Hip 100, a
Peintre Celebre half-sister to this year’s Prix du Jockey-Club (Fr-G1) winner Le
Havre (Noverre). Now retired, the
Chantilly classic victor was trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, and that is where
this filly is destined, according to the
agent.
“I bought the filly for Martin Schwartz,” Zerolo said. “He loved winning
the Prix de Diane (Fr-G1) this year with
Stacelita (Monsun), and we will try to repeat it in 2011 with this
one. She was a gorgeous filly and, for
me, was the best filly in the sale. She is a half-sister to a classic winner by
a top-class sire and we had to fight a bit to
get her. We now have to be hopeful.”
Arqana’s management was left reflecting on a tumultuous trade Friday evening,
which resulted in a set of
statistics that not even the greatest optimist could have predicted beforehand.
The gross of €19,870,000 eclipsed last
year’s total by 12 percent, while the average of €241,709 and median of
€180,000
represented improvements of 11 percent and 6 percent, respectively, on 2008.
With 24 lots selling for €300,000
or more, against 19 the previous year,
and nine making or surpassing the €500,000 mark opposed to just six a year ago,
the company’s President Eric Hoyeau
was in ebullient mood.
“Our aims were to keep upgrading the quality of the
catalog, as well as further broadening
our client base, and today’s results are a major step in this direction,” Hoyeau
said. “We are particularly pleased with
the diversity of buyers at €300,000 and above, which reflects a very solid
market.”