Deauville is once again the centre of the European thoroughbred world this week. From Saturday evening and for three days Arqana sells 325 of the finest yearlings in France — and Arqana’s Scandinavian representative Morten Buskop is already on the ground in Normandy.
The August Yearling Sale is the most prestigious yearling auction of the year in France and, for many, the true opening of the European yearling season.
This year the sale is staged on Saturday 15, Sunday 16 and Monday 17 August. The first two sessions both begin at 17.30 with 80 lots apiece — lots 1-80 on the Saturday and lots 81-160 on the Sunday — while the big closing session on the Monday gets under way as early as 11.00 with lots 161-325.
On Wednesday 19 August at 11.00 the V.2 Yearling Sale follows, with a further 166 yearlings (lots 326-491) going through the ring.
A catalogue with 18 siblings to Group 1 winners
This year’s catalogue holds 18 full or half-siblings to Group 1 winners. Lot 128 is a Siyouni half-brother to Diamond Necklace, who won the Prix Marcel Boussac (Gr.1) as a two-year-old and took the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Gr.1) in May — the same St Mark’s Basilica filly who herself topped the August Sale in 2024 at €1,700,000.
Among the other eye-catchers are lot 287, a Kodiac half-sister to this year’s Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse Stakes winner Constitution River, lot 94, a full brother to Native Trail, and lot 189, a Wootton Bassett full brother to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Unquestionable.
The sires’ list features the likes of Frankel, Justify, Kingman, Sea The Stars, Siyouni and Camelot, and for those looking for the next big name there are yearlings from the first crops of Chaldean, Erevann, Little Big Bear, Mishriff, Modern Games, Paddington and Vadeni.
From Urban Sea to Sottsass
The sale’s history speaks for itself. Among the horses to have gone through the ring at Deauville in August is Urban Sea — an Arc winner and later the dam of both Galileo and Sea The Stars — as well as the Arc winners Hélissio and Subotica.
In more recent times the list has been carried on by Sottsass (Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and Prix du Jockey Club), the four-time Group 1 winner Paddington and, most recently, Diamond Necklace and Constitution River.
In terms of prices the sale set a new record last year, when Amo Racing gave €3,000,000 for a filly by Night Of Thunder — as it happens a half-sister to Diamond Necklace out of the broodmare Prudenzia.
That beat the previous record of €2,600,000 for Parabellum. In all the sale turned over €57,847,000 at an average of €266,576, both figures the highest on record.
To mark Arqana’s 20th anniversary there is also something new on the Saturday evening: ten lots in the opening session are drawn in advance, under the supervision of a notary, as “Golden Ticket” lots. The buyer of such a lot receives a €30,000 credit to be used towards a second purchase at the same sale. Which lots are involved is revealed only when the horse walks into the ring.
The sale falls in the middle of Deauville’s big racing week, with the Prix Jacques Le Marois (Gr.1) and its purse of one million euros run on Sunday 16 August — the same day as the sale’s second session.
Buskop on the ground in Deauville
Morten Buskop, Arqana’s Scandinavian representative, is already in Deauville and has been through the horses ahead of the sale.
As always he is available to Scandinavian buyers — both before and during the sale — whether the interest is in a racing prospect for Scandinavia or in a partnership on a more expensive horse.
Over the years Buskop has been behind numerous deals at Deauville for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian clients, and it was at Arqana too that he bought the broodmare Amorine for €21,000 at the Vente de l’Elevage in 2022 — she is the dam of Cosmopolitan, who recently won the Bucherer Danish Derby.
Morten Buskop can be reached on +45 26 95 01 34 and mbuskop@live.com.
