Deauville: Sea the Stars colt sells for $1.4 million at yearling auction

A colt from European champion Sea the Stars’s first crop got top billing Sunday when he sold for 1.2 million euros as the Deauville select yearling sale’s most expensive lot. The sale, conducted by Arqana, took place Saturday and Sunday nights in Deauville, France.

The Deauville auction’s two-night Part 1 ended with big gains in average and median, despite an opening night Saturday that saw median plummet by 21 percent.

Sunday’s final session sold 62 yearlings for about $12,975,270 for an average price of about $209,279 and a $172,200 median. Gross was down 18 percent, but average and median performed well compared with last year’s second session, advancing by 10 percent and 27 percent, respectively.

Mandore Agency purchased the gray sale-topper for the equivalent of about $1,476,000, but Racing Post reported that the agency acted on behalf of Sheikh Joaan al-Thani. Consignor Ecurie des Monceaux also bred the colt in partnership with Chryss O’Reilly’s Skymarc Farm. The colt is the first foal out of the Group 1-winning Linamix mare Alpine Rose. She is a full sister to Group 1 winner Fragrant Mix and three other stakes winners and a half-sister to Group 1-placed Fraloga.

Coolmore Stud’s agent, Demi O’Byrne, was a dominant upper-level buyer Sunday night after purchasing three of the night’s five most expensive yearlings. They included a pair of colts by the late Coolmore sire Montjeu. One, the night’s second highest-priced lot, was the 650,000-euro first foal of the Aldebaran mare Birmanie, a half-sister to 2007 champion turf male English Channel. The other was a 520,000-euro colt out of unraced Dibenoise, by Kendor; he is a full brother to Group 1 winners Corre Caminos and Recital. The Montjeu colts’ prices in U.S. dollars were about $799,500 and $639,600, respectively.

O’Byrne bought five yearlings Sunday night, spending about $2,030,000 in total.

The sale-topping Sea the Stars colt was the second yearling to bring 1 million euros or more at the select sale. The Saturday night opener featured a 1.1 million-euro filly by Sea the Stars’s half-brother, Galileo, out of the Dansili stakes winner Prudenzia. She, too, was from the Ecurie des Monceaux consignment, and Agence FIPS bought her for an unidentified client.

Part 2 of the Arqana’s Deauville yearling auction will take place Monday and Tuesday starting at 2 p.m. local time.