Deauville yearling sale shows mixed results on opening night
Arqana’s prestigious Deauville yearling sale opened Saturday night in Deauville, France, with mixed results as average climbed 9 percent but median dropped by 21 percent.
The auction’s opening session-topper, and the day’s only seven-figure yearling, was by hot sire Galileo. Ecurie Monceaux sold the bay filly to Agence FIPS for 1.1 million euros, or $1,353,000. She is out of Prudenzia, a Dansili stakes winner from the family of Alexandrova and Magical Romance. One of five Galileo yearlings offered Saturday, the Prudenzia daughter helped boosther sire’s session average to $523,242.
The Deauville sale also featured the much-anticipated first yearlings by Sea the Stars, but their prices did not come close to the stallion’s 2011 weanling average of $534,879. Of five yearlings offered Monday at Deauville, the leader was his half-sister to Canford Cliffs, who brought 360,000 euros from Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International agency. The price was equivalent to about $442,800, and Ballylinch Stud was the consignor. The Sea the Stars group averaged $243,540.
Overall, the opening session sold 63 yearlings (up slightly from 66 at last season’s equivalent session) for about $11,216,370, a 4 percent gain when compared year-to-year in the local auction currency of euros. Average price ended the night at about $178,038 for a 9 percent increase, but median’s steep loss stopped at about $116,850. Buybacks also worsened, rising from 11 percent at last year’s equivalent night to 26 percent. Immediately after the auction, two private sales accounted for another 160,000 euros, or about $196,800.
Last year’s sale-topper, sold on the auction’s second night, was the 1.7 million-euro Galileo-Sanjida filly that Paul Fudge’s Waratah Thoroughbreds bought from Haras de la Perelle. Overall, last year’s four-day auction ended with a 2 percent increase in average and a 7 -percent loss in median.
The auction continues with a second night session, starting at 5 p.m. local time, followed by Monday and Tuesday daytime sessions starting at 2 p.m.