Arc and Prix du Jockey Club hero Sottsass sold to stand at Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Jockey Club hero Sottsass, a first-season sire at Coolmore, has been sold to Japan and will stand at the Japan Blood Horse Breeders Association's Shizunai Stallion Station.

The Ecurie des Monceaux-bred son of Siyouni had sold to Oceanic Bloodstock for €340,000 at Arqana's August Yearling Sale in 2017. Sporting the colours of Peter Brant's White Birch Farm, he was a three-length winner on his second start at two before supplementing a Listed Prix de Suresnes route the following May with a two-length defeat of French 2,000 Guineas hero Persian King in the Prix du Jockey Club. 

Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, he went on to land the Group 2 Prix Niel that autumn and place third to Waldgeist and Enable in the Arc. 

The following year at four, the colt won the Group 1 Prix Ganay on his second start and landed the Arc on his final racecourse start, defeating the likes of In Swoop, Persian King, Enable and Stradivarius in testing conditions. 

The brother to this year's Japanese Derby and Irish Champion Stakes third Shin Emperor then retired to Coolmore for an opening fee of €30,000 in 2021. 

Sottsass after winning the Arc in 2020Credit: Edward Whitaker

Having stood the last three seasons for €25,000, the eight-year-old has so far produced eight individual winners from 30 runners including White Birch Farm homebred Ultrafragola. The filly had made an impressive debut for Rouget and Brant when winning a Deauville maiden by five and a half lengths in July. 

His first crop numbers 98 juveniles while he has 81 yearlings and 55 foals registered. He covered 103 mares at Coolmore's Fethard headquarters back in the spring, including six Group winners.

At this season's yearling sales, ten of his progeny have recorded six-figure sales including at Tattersalls Book 1 and 2, Goffs Orby Book 1 and the recent Hokkaido Yearling Sale in Japan.

His highest-priced yearling of 2024 is Rose Eternelle, a half-sister to Group winners Arabian Crown and The Juliet Rose from the family of Sea La Rosa. She was sold, appropriately, by Ecurie des Monceaux for €460,000 to Oceanic Bloodstock at Arqana's August Yearling Sale.

Sottsass is out of the brilliant, late producer Starlet's Sister, a Galileo mare who has also produced American champion Sistercharlie, by Myboycharlie, and multiple Group/Graded scorer and top-level-placed My Sister Nat, by Acclamation, among seven individual winners. Starlet's Sister sadly died aged 14 last November due to a bout of colic. 

Sottsass is one of ten individual top-level winners by brilliant Haras de Bonneval resident Siyouni, whose remaining sons at Coolmore are St Mark's Basilica and Paddington. The former, a Dewhurst winner at two and world champion at three, saw his first yearlings sell for up to €1.7 million, while four-time Group 1 hero Paddington covered his first book this term. 

Read more

'I knew we had to have him' - July Cup winner Mill Stream joins Yeomanstown Stud for 2025 

'Darley is pleased to continue our relationship with Sunnyhill Stud' - Derby hero Masar on the move to Ireland 

'A horse with such pure speed and consistent class' - Big Evs to stand at Tally-Ho Stud after Breeders' Cup farewell