Arqana sale at Deauville ends with $1.4 million Sea the Stars colt as topper

Arqana’s four-day Deauville yearling sale in France ended Tuesday with a $1.4 million sale-topper and what appears to be a similar market to last year.

Led by Mandore International Agency’s 1.2 million-euro bid for a first-crop son of Sea the Stars, the auction saw gross fall by 10 percent for its 290 sales, but average ticked upward by 2 percent and the median was level with last year, when the figures are compared year-to-year in the local euros. The sessions combined to sell 290 yearlings for about $34,979,970, for an average price of about $120,621 and a median of about $79,950.

Mandore bought the sale-topping colt – the first foal for Group 1 winner Alpine Rose, by Linamix – for Sheikh Joaan al-Thani. Ecurie des Monceaux consigned the sale-topper and also co-bred him with Chryss O’Reilly’s Skymarc Farm.

The final session’s top price was 200,000 euros, or about $246,000, for a Dubawi filly whose dam, the Vindication mare Symba’s Dream, is a stakes-placed half-sister to American Grade 1 winner Heritage of Gold. Shadwell bought the gray filly from Haras du Quesnay.