'It’s a magnificent family' - €200,000 Le Kerry tops opening day at Arqana's February Sale

We are used to sire power being the engine which drives the highest-priced lots at the sales, but a purple pedigree can still bring interested and determined parties to the ring and Arqana's witnessed a spirited three-way fight for Le Kerry (lot 60), a three-year-old entire from one of the most exciting families in jump racing. 

Not that the identity of the stallion in question was not also a key part of the colt's appeal, given the late Gemix was also responsible for Le Kerry's most celebrated relative, the Prix Maurice Gillois winner Le Berry, whose half-sister Snow Berry produced the top lot. 

By Dream Well, Snow Berry is therefore also a full-sister to the talented Dream Berry, and has herself already produced a Listed winner by Bathyrhon in Funny Berry.

Snow Berry's daughter of Great Pretender, Great Snow, changed hands for £100,000 at Goffs UK last spring having won in the colours of Dai Walters when trained by Neil Mulholland.

Brought to market by Karwin Farm, Le Kerry drew rapid exchanges between one bidding team seated in the restaurant and an unidentified phone bidder, before a third candidate hidden in the passage next to the rostrum jumped in at €135,000.

Having briefly been sidelined, the phone bidder returned to the fray at €175,000, but at €200,000 it was the restaurant which held sway, with the winning party soon revealed to be Jerome Glandis on behalf of major investor Sofiane Benaroussi. 

As Glandis explained, this is not the first time he and his client have been attracted by this particular bloodline, having struck at €120,000 for Le Kerry's now two-year-old half-sister Cherry Berry.

"We bought his sister by Doctor Dino here at the November Sale and it’s a magnificent family," said Glandis who, allied to Benaroussi, has become a major factor at the top end of the market in France over the last two years. 

"He’s three and has done a lot of the groundwork, albeit he needs a bit more. He's an entire and of course if he turns out to be a good horse, there's the thought of his stallion potential."

Glandis added: "We haven’t yet decided on a trainer but he’ll stay in France. We’ll get on with those decisions pretty quickly because he needs to get to work. When you see a page like that, you don’t want to let the chance slip."

Peake continues French adventure

British owner Andy Peake's red and grey hooped colours have become a regular sight on French racecourses and, having enjoyed success in partnership with the Bryant family recently in the Grade 3 Grand Prix de Pau, the combination struck early in the session for Rue Barbizon (lot 13), a four-year-old daughter of Morandi.

Trainer Regis Schmidlin has already sent out Rue Barbizon to land a pair of Fontainebleau chases and claim fourth in a Listed hurdle at Auteuil. 

Rue Barbizon: daughter of Morandi sold to Highflyer Bloodstock for €80,000 at the Arqana February SaleCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Highflyer Bloodstock's Benoit Gicquel struck the winning bid at €80,000 and is hopeful she can continue in the same vein at four.

Gicquel said: "She’ll stay with Regis Schmidlin and has been bought for a partnership between Andrew Peake and the Bryant family, which has already been successful with In Love. We think she has the scope to progress further this year; she has the physique to do so and is a tough mare who loves her work."

Rue Barbizon is out of the unraced Bahri mare Rue Ravignan, whose dam Poker Chip was placed in the Cheveley Park Stakes but still managed to produce Leapaway, a prolific winner over hurdles for Philip Hobbs. 

Joseph O'Brien to train exciting daughter of Dariyan

Also hitting the €80,000 mark among the first dozen lots to go through the ring was Princess Child (lot 6), a daughter of Dariyan who racked up a sequence of good performances at two in Spain for trainer Laura Lemiere before translating that to a fine second place behind the Ralph Beckett-trained Zoum Zoum in the Listed Prix Herod over seven furlongs at Saint-Cloud.

She is out of the unraced Dawn Approach mare Princesse Li, herself a half-sister to the talented Chilean, who won the Group 3 Prix la Force at Longchamp for Martyn Meade.

Granddam Childa is no stranger to sales-ring success, her last two yearlings offered at Arqana being the Sea The Stars colt Cool Legend, and a son by Ghaiyyath sold to Godolphin in August, both making north of €400,000.   

Princess Child: stakes-placed daughter of Dariyan went the way of Blandford Bloodstock for €80,000 at ArqanaCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

Another sibling of Princesse Li, Rock Of Gibraltar's Llanita, was stakes-placed in France and the United States and is the dam of Lindy, who was runner-up last season in both the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Keeneland's Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

Bidding over the phone, it was Blandford Bloodstock's Stuart Boman who secured Princess Child, who will be trained by Joseph O'Brien.

"I bought her for an Irish client who is mainly a breeder but wanted a racing prospect to run and then breed from," said Boman. "She’s stakes-placed, finishing behind what looks to be a promising horse on her last run."

Boman added: "It’s an active family, and the yearling out of the second dam, who was an attractive horse, made €425,000 here last year. She’s lightly raced and it’s hard to buy two-year-olds with stakes performances in this price bracket. 

"Joseph O’Brien will train her: he’s done extremely well with horses from French sales before, and we hope he can work his magic with her too.”

David Skelly falls for prolific son of Zarak 

Ciaran Murphy has made a decent impression both on the Flat and over jumps since taking over the licence at Charlestown from his former boss, Dot Love, and will take delivery of Titanium (lot 85), a six-time winner for Chantilly-based Alessandro Botti.

The son of Zarak is rated 95 and is out of the Listed-placed Verglas mare Kyurem, while he is closely related to Willie Mullins' talented dual-purpose performer Simenon, beaten just a neck by the Queen's Estimate in the 2013 Gold Cup at Ascot.

Titanium: multiple winner by Zarak sold to David Skelly and Charlestown Racing for €80,000 on the first day of Arqana's February SaleCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

After giving €80,000 for Titanium, agent David Skelly said: "He’s been bought to go to Ciaran Murphy, with the first aim being to target some of the premier handicaps in Ireland during the summer. 

"He could go hurdling later, as we all know Zarak can get good jumpers."

'I fell in love with the mare when she walked out the box'

Day two is entirely devoted to breeding stock but there were also lots in that category sold on Tuesday, including Holy Ruler (lot 169), a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor in foal to the exciting Karaktar, sire of Il Est Francais. 

Pierre Boulard went to €55,000 for the young producer, who hails from the family of Dunkerque and Prix de la Foret winner Dedication and who was sold by Trois Rivieres Elevage. 

"I fell in love with the mare when she walked out of the box, she's magnificent," said Boulard. "She's from an excellent family which goes back to Haras du Quesnay breeding and which has been developed more recently by Jean-Claude Seroul, while she showed some quality both on the Flat and over jumps with Marcel Rolland.

Trade began at Arqana on Tuesday Credit: Zuzanna Lupa

"She's carrying to Karaktar, who improves his stock, and she's been bought for Donald Galt, who breeds in France."

The opening day's trade saw 111 out of 148 lots selling for €1,685,000 at a healthy-enough clearance rate of 75 per cent, though down slightly when compared to 78 per cent for the same session 12 months ago

The average price of €15,149 showed a marginal drop on last year's €15,296, while the median ticked down from €8,000 to €7,000. The second and final day kicks off at 11am local time (10am GMT). 

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