Article images courtesy of Zuzanna Lupa photography
By Bren O'Brien/TDN Europe
Two €1 million-plus mares (AU$1.62 million) highlighted the opening session of the four-day Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, where New Zealand bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne made a splash on behalf of GSA, spending €615,000 (AU$996,000) on two mares.
High-class Frankel Light (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) (Lot 153) was added to Too Darn Hot's (GB) book after she was bought by his breeder, Watership Down Stud, for €1.3 million (AU$2.1 million) at Arqana carrying her first foal by Dark Angel (Ire). Charlie Gordon-Watson conducted the bidding standing alongside Watership Down manager Simon Marsh, after which Marsh revealed that Andrew and Madeleine Lloyd-Webber’s nursery will send about a dozen mares to its triple Group 1 winner.
“She’s a great addition to our broodmare band and we’re delighted to have her,” Marsh said of the mare consigned by Haras du Mezeray. “She was our pick of the sale.”
A winner of the Listed Prix la Sorellina over a mile for trainer Francis Graffard, Frankel Light is out of the GermanLlisted winner Mambo Light (USA) (Kingmambo {USA}) and is a half-sister to Le Juge (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), winner of the G3 Chairman’s H. in Australia. The third dam, Aviance (USA), is responsible for the G1 Coronation S. winner and multiple Group 1 producer Chimes of Freedom (USA).
Frankel Light’s 13-year-old dam Mambo Light (Lot 212), in foal to Sea The Stars (Ire), was initially a €840,000 (AU$1.36 million) buyback late in the session, but was later sold privately to BBA Ireland for €725,000 (AU$1.17 million). acting on behalf of Australian breeder Bob Scarborough, who had been underbidder on Frankel Light,
The highlight of the opening session, Frankel Light (Ire)
The Day 1 average dipped 6.3 per cent to €141,086 (AU$228,559), the median and clearance rate were both up, to €75,000 (AU$121,500) (+3.4 per cent) and 82.3 per cent, respectively. The clearance rate for this session last year was 78 per cent. A total of 163 horses were traded for €22,997,000 (AU$37.255 million), down slightly from last year’s Saturday session, when 152 horses were sold.
The other seven-figure lot on the day was Haras d’Etreham’s Unaided (GB) (Dansili {GB}) (Lot 161). The 10-year-old’s first foal, Uni (GB) (More Than Ready {USA}), had won the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile just days before the catalogue was released, and prospective buyers wouldn’t have failed to notice, either, that the bay is in foal to No Nay Never (USA).
Unaided could join her illustrious daughter in the US after being bought by Michel Zerolo’s Oceanic Bloodstock on behalf of Peter Brant for €1.25-million (AU$2.025 million), but Zerolo stressed that this is a mare that could fit many jurisdictions.
“She could go back to More Than Ready; nothing is decided,” he said. “There are a number of options. She’ll go to Haras des Capucines for the moment, then we’ll decide where she goes.”
Unaided is out of the Generous (Ire) mare Wosaita (GB) and is free of Sadler’s Wells (USA).
“She has a rare pedigree; she could go to a number of stallions,” Zerolo said. “She’s the dam of a champion in the US who is trained by Chad Brown, so Peter sees [Uni] every day; he’s at the barn every day.”
Hawthorne, GSA double-up
Hawthorne travelled from New Zealand to the UK and Europe with the specific goal of accumulating daughters of Galileo (Ire), and he accomplished that goal on Saturday evening when prevailing for Fairway Consignment’s Fleeting Fancy (Ire) (Lot 139) at €480,000 (AU$777,000).
The 4-year-old is out of the Group 3-winning and multiple Classic-placed Just Pretending (USA) (Giant’s Causeway {USA}) and is a full sister to two stakes-placed winners. She herself was placed twice at three and was sold in foal on a February 18 cover to No Nay Never (USA).
“We love Galileo mares; we’ve been accumulating them for a while,” Hawthorne, acting on behalf of GSA Bloodstock, said.
“I bought a couple here last year as well. She had a lovely covering–a nice early colt by No Nay Never. It’s a beautiful and very current family with a lot going on. She’s a beautiful mare; I thought she was the pick of the Galileos on the sales ground, with a lovely shoulder and length which we like Down Under. She’ll eventually head down there; she’ll be down there by September.”
“We love Galileo mares; we’ve been accumulating them for a while." - Dean Hawthorne
Hawthorne added, “We’ve accumulated 10 to 12 Northern Hemisphere-bred mares, mainly Galileos and they’ve all been covered by top sires Down Under. Galileo, like everywhere else in the world, has been a top broodmare sire down there. You can put anything to him and win big carnival races. We love him down there.”
Hawthorne also paid €135,000 (AU$218,700) for the filly Rosa Vernans (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), who has just one start and is a half-sister to Group 2 winner The Juliet Rose (Fr) (Monsun {Ger}) out of Listed winner Dubai Rose (GB) (Dubai Destination {USA}). Another half-sister, the stakes-placed Pocketfullofdreams (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) fetched 1 million gns (AU$1.99 million) at last year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
GSA's Dean Hawthorne (right) at Arqana
Aussie buyers busy
Mathew Becker of Group 1 Bloodstock secured Lot 113, the stakes-placed Clear For Take Off (GB) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) for €130,000 (AU$210,600) on behalf of Two Bays Farm in Victoria. She is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Calyxa (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) out of the Listed winner Chantra (Ger).
Sheamus Mills picked up Lot 220, the unraced filly Realms Of Light (Ger) (Maxios {GB}), for €115,000 (AU$186,300), in foal to Ulysses (Ire). She is a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Saddex (GB) (Sadler's Wells {USA}) as well as the dam of multiple New Zealand Group 1 winner Lizzie L'Amour (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}).
Damon Gabbedy of Belmont Bloodstock paid €50,000 (AU$81,000) for Lot 48, Dragoness (GB) (Frankel {GB}). The half-sister to Group 2 winner Al Thakhira (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) will head to Burnewang North in Victoria.
