'She's a beautiful mare' - lumpy opening bid a sign of intent as La Boetie tops trade at €255,000

While there has been serious business conducted all week in Deauville, it has been easy to work out who has been enjoying themselves, judging by the smiles on faces of those buyers grouped around agent Frederic Sauque.

On Thursday 'Team Jigme' – Sauque, Mark Bridoux and the father and son Haras de l'Hotellerie team of Jean-Pierre and Jerome Garcon – returned to the scene of their session-topping exploits from 24 hours earlier, right down to the same bidding spot hidden away in the passage to the left of the rostrum.

It is easy to see what attracted plenty of leading breeders to the ring as the Saint Des Saints filly La Boetie (lot 930), in foal to Doctor Dino, was led into the ring and auctioneer Pierrick Moreau clearly knew what he was dealing with as he opened at €200,000. There followed a series of short and brutal exchanges before Sauque was left to claim the spoils at €255,000.

"We bought her for the same team as yesterday's top lot," said Sauque. "It's much easier when you have five or six partners. She is a beautiful mare and we'll hope for the best."

Frederic Sauque signs for Grade 3 winner La Boetie, who is in foal to Doctor DinoCredit: ©MelissaDelalande

Asked whether he had offered the audacious opening bid Sauque merely added: "The market is going crazy but we love the game."

Despite hailing from a family whose major performers have excelled on the Flat – third dam Lost Prairie won the Prix de Lieurey over a mile, while fifth dam Lianga scored in the Prix Robert Papin at two – La Boetie was a brilliant filly around Auteuil at three and four, counting the Grade 3 Prix Sagan as the best of her five victories.

Jerome Garcon said: "It's not decided yet where she'll go, we'll look at several possibilities. There's obviously Jigme but she could easily go back to Doctor Dino. We are more or less the group that were involved with Jigme."

Benaroussi acquires another key breeding prospect as dam of Gala Marceau is snapped up for €220,000

Anyone following the action in Deauville this week will have been impressed with the commitment to sourcing quality fillies and mares shown by Swiss-based Sofiane Benaroussi across all sections of the catalogue.

Following his activity in the horses-in-training and jumps-bred youngstock sections, Benaroussi struck the decisive bid on a fourth and final day dedicated to breeding stock and foals at €220,000 for Alma Marceau (lot 839), the dam of Kenny Alexander's Grade 1-winning four-year-old Gala Marceau.

The dam of Grade 1 winner Gala Marceau sells for €220,000 at ArqanaCredit: ©MelissaDelalande

The decision to sell Alma Marceau had clearly not been an easy one and Olivia Saelens of Haras des Etincelles shed tears of happiness that her star broodmare would be travelling only 30km across Normandy, rather than getting on a boat to Ireland or Britain.

A daughter of Kendargent, Alma Marceau was a Grade 3 winner over hurdles at Auteuil and produced Gala Marceau as just her third foal. Parting with her must have been eased by the fact Etincelles has two more full-sisters by Galiway at home, while the icing on the cake for prospective buyers came as she is carrying to Saint Des Saints.

"The idea all through the week has been to invest in these kinds of fillies and mares," said Jerome Glandais, who once again signed the docket for Benaroussi.

"She’s produced a Grade 1 winner and it was obvious we’d take a look at her and see what happened. The filly with Willie Mullins is obviously very good and is due to carry on racing next year, while we are looking forward to next spring when her foal is on the ground."

Doctor Dino colt leads the way among foals

There might have been concern for the foal section of the catalogue following some worrying signs in Ireland at recent sales. But there were still plenty of buyers in Deauville, more than one remarking that it had been hard going to get what they were after among the jumps-bred yearlings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Another hangover from the trade earlier in the week was that the top lot was a son of Doctor Dino (lot 838), whose stores and yearlings defied gravity over the previous two sessions.

Lot 838, a son of Doctor Dino, topped the charts among the jumps-bred foals at ArqanaCredit: ©MelissaDelalande

With British interests snapping at their heels, it was the combined might of Chauvigny Global Equine's Sebastien Desmontils and Antoine Gronfier who pulled clear with a final minimum raise to land the prize at €91,000.

The colt is out of the No Risk At All mare Aterisk, a Listed winner at three over hurdles at Auteuil, while the granddam Aspolina counts black-type jumping performers Astonville and Astronaut as siblings, as well as Abajo, a winner of the Prix Vulcain at Longchamp for trainer Alex Pantall.

Prepped and sold by Haras des Granges, the foal's yearling sister by Beaumec De Houelle, the intriguingly-named Beryl MacNab (lot 602), was sold to Valentin Adam on behalf of clients of Louisa Carberry on Tuesday at a price of €38,000.

Average rises as market becomes more selective

There will be general satisfaction at a turnover of €3,415,000, a rise of 5.73 per cent on a near-identical number of horses. 138 of 211 lots changed hands at a clearance rate of 64.45 per cent, down from 72.9 per cent 12 months ago.

The result was a rise in the average of €25,510, up 21 per cent, while a more reliable indicator is the four per cent gain in a median price of €13,000.

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