First night jitters at Deauville as stallions prepare for yearling premiere

Deauville's glamorous promenade and glitzy casino are the perfect setting for an international film festival but before next month's golden anniversary affords directors the opportunity to debut their flicks for discerning audiences, at Arqana's sales complex this week managers of stallion farms will understand a little of what the auteurs undergo next month when the first yearlings by their sires come under the hammer.

For Darley, initial audience reviews for Victor Ludorum have been positive, with nine of the ten yearlings offered in the preceding August Sale changing hands at an average of €137,778, with the median at €95,000, and the Coulonces-consigned colt out of Lilienbloom bought by Oliver St Lawrence for €420,000 the highlight.

Shamardal's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner, who is inbred to Shamardal's granddam Helen Street, retired to stud for a fee of €15,000, so those figures are encouraging.

There are seven yearlings scheduled to come under the hammer during the V2 Sale, with the Channel Consignment offering a filly (354) who is closely related to the Group 3 Prix du Bois third Princesse De Saba, by Dariyan, and from the family of Arc hero Sakhee.

Haras de la Haie Neuve's colt Devil'story (385) doubles up on Victor Ludorum's dam Historian, featuring the Listed Prix Rose de Mai winner twice in his third generation, giving three lines of Helsinki in the pedigree.

La Motteraye offered the only yearling from the first crop of Tally-Ho Stud's July Cup winner Starman in the August Sale and the colt was bought back at €50,000. The Channel Consignment are the vendors of the sole Starman yearling in V2, Nolita Star (448), who is the first foal out of Neska Polita, a daughter of Showcasing and the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes winner and Phoenix Stakes third Walk On Bye. 

Al Shaqab stand the Molecomb winner and Middle Park third Armor and the son of No Nay Never is, along with Victor Ludorum, the strongest of the cohort numerically with seven yearlings in the catalogue.

Normandie Breeding have two of the septet, a half-sister to the Listed Prix de Pont Neuf winner Toimy Son (443), and the first son of the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin runner-up My Love's Passion (446).

British and Irish stallion owners will not be immune to a case of opening night jitters either. A'Ali who stands at Newsells Park, Yeomanstown Stud's Group 1 winner Supremacy, and the National Stud's Lope Y Fernandez, who made €900,000 in this ring as a yearling, each have a single lot in the catalogue.

Read more from Arqana:

‘This will change my children's lives’ - Coulonces in clover as €12,000 investment returns a €420,000 sales star 

'We knew she was special' - St Mark's Basilica filly tops Arqana as Coolmore strike winning bid at €1.7 million 

Bubbling under: dreams aplenty - including for Carlo Ancelotti - with three well-bred fillies who made serious money at Arqana