'Winning with her gave me the same kick as a Group 1' - all aboard for season two of the Arqana Series
There are few racing destinations in the world that can match Deauville in August for the combination of cool summer vibes and high-end competition.
And so when sales house Arqana decided to extend the concept of its Haras de Bouquetot-sponsored Criterium d’Automne into a fully fledged Arqana Series, there was never much doubt it would stay very close to home, and the first three races were staged at the track the day before the start of last year’s August Yearling Sale.
Entries for season two are now open, while there is a novel addition in the shape of a race for three-year-olds during the 2024 meeting, one which coincides with the prestigious Group 2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano, which last August provided the springboard to Arc success for Ace Impact.
The pair of races over a straight seven furlongs for unraced colts and fillies are each staged for a minimum of €160,000, while the Criterium d'Ete is a conditions race over six furlongs with a prize fund of at least €260,000 and paying down to seventh place. The Arqana Series three-year-old conditions race is over a mile and a quarter and is worth at least €320,000.
The stories surrounding last season's winners, as well as the recent history of the €260,000 Criterium d'Automne on the Saturday of Arc weekend, showcase a diverse range of horses and connections – whose sole point in common was that they had been purchased at one of the Arqana yearling sales or the May breeze-up, and had been entered before the June 1 deadline – while in more than one case, victory in the Arqana Series was far from the limit of their achievements.
The range of connections celebrating on a warm Deauville night was also refreshingly broad, starting with China Horse Club's Rose Bloom, who burst through the pack late to land the Arqana Series Pouliches under a cool Stephane Pasquier.
China Horse Club had parted with €320,000 for John O'Connor's daughter of Lope De Vega the previous August, a half-sister to three black-type performers including See The Rose.
Club principal Teo Ah Khing was on hand to lead in Rose Bloom, who would go on to finish second to Opera Singer in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac and is on track to run in this Sunday's first French fillies' Classic, the Emirates Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.
The memory of that debut success still brings a smile to the face of veteran trainer Nicolas Clement.
"It was a superb occasion with all the international buyers there for the sale," says Clement. "I was fortunate to have the filly bought for me by China Horse Club, by Michael Smith and Matt Houldsworth, and she did it really well. Winning with her gave me the same kick as winning a Group 1."
Asked about the decision to wait for the Arqana Series newcomers' race, Clement added: "I knew the owners would be in town and it’s very attractive prize-money. It’s just the right time to run a race like that in Deauville, and Arqana have done a great job on the marketing front.
"Rose Bloom was head and shoulders above her rivals that day and went on to win again before finishing second in the Prix Marcel Boussac.
"When I started training there was a sales race in association with Piaget and I’d been saying to [then Arqana chief executive] Eric Hoyeau for a number of years that such an event produces a great atmosphere and that it ends up ensuring the money is recycled into the sale. If you win one of these races, you will reinvest over the course of the weekend."
In the case of Rose Bloom, her sister was knocked down to Alex Elliott on behalf of MV Magnier the following night for €460,000.
The other two winners on that sultry Deauville evening were not nearly such expensive purchases, proving that plenty of people who trade at the middle and lower tiers of the market have the chance of landing big money.
Sam Sangster picked out the colts' winner Mirador for just €32,000 at the 2022 Arqana October Yearling Sale. The son of Almanzor, who was consigned by Haras de l'Hotellerie, had certainly been taught his job well by Brian Meehan given he streaked clear under Mickael Barzalona in the colours of Martin Hughes that were also successful in last summer's Commonwealth Cup and July Cup courtesy of Shaquille.
Sangster recalled on Wednesday: "Freddy Powell [Arqana executive director] took the time in the summer to sit down with Brian and I and to talk us through plans for the sales races.
"For us, October has been a good hunting ground and so we upped our game; whereas we’d bought a couple of horses the year before, we ended up getting six or seven, very much with the Arqana Series in mind.
"It turned out to be a fantastic haul of horses, with Mirador winning the sales race, Jayarebe won the Listed Feilden Stakes at Newmarket and heads to the Dee Stakes at Chester tomorrow.
"We had a good filly called Extraordinaire, who we would have taken to the fillies’ race but she was ready to run earlier. She was fourth in a Group 3 at Deauville and ran a very nice race in the Boussac, so there were some very nice horses that came out of that sale and you not only have the premiums when they go back to run in France, there’s the Arqana Series races as a target."
Sangster continued: "Mirador was the one that everything fell in place at the right time to take him there. His win actually spurred us on in the August Yearling Sale and we bought a very nice colt for the Manton Partnership called Rashabar, who runs at Chester this week and if he goes close we’ll probably be plotting a plan to go to Ascot and then on to the Arqana three-year-old conditions race with him.
"He’s a really nice horse and for the partnership, we spend an average of 50 grand a colt, and we gave €120,000, as we had the wind in our sails, especially with the sale races in mind.
"Another incentive put on by Arqana which I think is incredible, is that the three-year-olds get a bite at the cherry as well and we run Far L’Amore this afternoon at Chester. He’s a Territories we gave €55,000 for and he’s on course for the mile and a quarter for three-year-olds.
"The owners of Mirador also reinvested and they have a very nice Zarak colt they picked up for similar money and he looks like the type who could make that sales race again."
Arguably the most emotional scenes at Deauville surrounded the victory of the once-raced Jasna's Secret in the Criterium d'Ete, and not just because nearly every member of the Lerner and Soumillon families appeared to crowd into the intimate winner's enclosure.
Jasna's Secret, a daughter of Galiway bought from Haras du Quesnay by the father-and-son training partnership of Carlos and Yann Lerner for €42,000, carried the black and gold silks of Frederic Hinderze and Joachim Wilde, neither of whom were in a mood to hide their joy.
"Carlos and Yann buy a lot on spec; basically they go with the horses they like," says Hinderze. "I worked my way through the 20 or so yearlings they had bought at the sales and had been broken in. I made a list of the ones I’d have liked to buy outright and which I’d have liked a part in, and Monsieur Wilde and I put in a bid for the same filly at the same time. We thought it would be fun to share her 50-50."
Fun is exactly what Hinderze and Wilde were buying into, while Jasna's Secret's subsequent sale to Wathnan Racing meant the exercise was lucrative as well as enjoyable.
"The Lerners and I have been friends for a long time because we live opposite one another in Maisons-Laffitte," says Hinderze. "I think they are excellent trainers who do a great job, while it’s great for me to be able to see the horses a lot.
"They targeted the Arqana Series race as they felt it would be over the right trip and that it would fall at a good time in the season, since Jasna’s Secret wasn’t going to be ready to run very early. They then highlighted a race with a good reputation at the beginning of July, the Prix de Lisieux, which she duly won."
Hinderze adds: "The prize-money is an incentive but it wasn’t the principal reason for the choice. Both Joachim and I knew we'd be in Deauville for the summer, both for the sales and then for our holidays, so it made sense to have some runners at the meeting. It was the right timing for the filly and the Lerners had laid out the plan in the spring."
Christophe Soumillon's connection to the Lerner stable goes all the way back to winning the 2001 Prix du Jockey Club with Anabaa Blue on the eve of his 20th birthday, and it was clear he got just as much pleasure as the trainers and owners from guiding Jasna's Secret home.
"It was one of my greatest moments because everyone was there," recalls Hinderze. "My family and all my friends were together. Christophe Soumillon is also a friend and he'd been riding her at home for several months and always believed she had a lot of quality, and that she stood out among the fillies.
"All the stars just aligned for the owners, the trainers, for our friends and for Arqana."
Hinderze is another to highlight the virtuous circle of staging such a race on the eve of the sales, or as he puts it, "sending the lift back to the top."
"Having won, we then looked at buying horses at the sales with the thought they might run in the Arqana Series this year," he says.
"Even among last year’s two-year-olds who weren’t as precocious, there's the chance to run in the three-year-old race this year. We have one in mind, though I can’t tell you the name!
"It’s the right time of year for these races to take place; it’s when the horses begin to flourish, when everyone is in Deauville, the racecourse is full and when the sun is shining. It was an incredible moment."
The Criterium d'Automne was initially conceived to give a target over Arc weekend for horses bought at the Arqana October Yearling Sale, and the strength of that offering is richly illustrated by the 2023 winner, Islandsinthestream, who was subsequently sold to race for Tony Cruz in Hong Kong under the new name of Stunning Peach.
By the time Joseph O'Brien sent the €135,000 son of Wootton Bassett to Longchamp, he had already finished runner-up in both the Group 2 Futurity Stakes and Group 1 Vincent O'Brien National Stakes.
And O'Brien says that even when he and Blandford Bloodstock purchased the colt from breeders Haras d'Etreham and Katelanis Bloodstock, the Criterium was already a possibility in his mind.
"First of all when we bought him the thought was that hopefully he could end up in the race," says O'Brien. "It’s fantastic prize-money and a great initiative, so we were keen to be represented there if we could be.
"The colt had a pretty good summer, finishing second in a Group 1 and a Group 2. He had very high-class form and it was the logical target once we knew he was at the level required to compete."
And if the eve of the August Yearling Sale in Deauville needs little selling to an owner, O'Brien feels that goes double for the Criterium d'Automne.
"To have a runner on Arc weekend is special and we were keen to target the race as soon as we knew we had the horse to be competitive," he says. "You need to go there with a smart horse and it was very competitive."
Islandsinthestream showed just how competitive he was when following up his Longchamp victory with a close second to Los Angeles in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud 15 days later, while Criterium d'Automne runner-up Minoushka is set to face Rose Bloom in this Sunday's Pouliches.
The final histories of last season's Arqana Series graduates are far from fully written.
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