On August 22, the first of the major European yearling sales gets underway in Deauville, and Arqana’s August catalogue contains five first-crop daughters of 2009 Breeders’ Cup hero Raven's Pass and another five colts and fillies by Derby winner New Approach.
As one would expect when a horse of Raven’s Pass’s calibre retires to stud, his yearlings are being offered by some of the best names on the French circuit: Haras d’Etreham, Haras du Mézeray, Ecurie des Monceaux, Haras du Quesnay and the Coulonces Consignment.
First through the ring will be lot 30, Haras d’Etreham’s home-bred filly out of En Public, who hails from one of the studs long-standing families. En Public has already bred six black-type horses, with the latest to achieve that accolade being this year’s G3 Prix de Lys winner Kreem.
She will be followed three lots later by Haras de Mézeray’s bay filly (lot 35) out of the Argentinean-bred First One, a Grade One-winning daughter of Southern Halo. In fact, this filly’s first three dams are all Grade One winners.
Ecurie des Monceaux has been quick to establish itself as one of the leading consignors at Arqana in the last few years and this years draft includes a British-bred Raven’s Pass filly (lot 60) who is eligible for the lucrative French owners’ premiums. Out of the dual Group Three winner Khumba Mela, the bay filly is a half-sister to two Listed winners.
Lot 65, from Haras du Quesnay, is out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Lady Elgar and is a half-sister to the multiple Grade One winner Grand Couturier, who was also Group-placed in France before continuing his racing career in America.
Her other half-siblings are the Listed winners Yaqeen and Alainmaar, and her third dam, Ivory Wand, is also the grand-dam of Raven’s Pass’s sire Elusive Quality, which offers some interesting inbreeding.
The last of the Arqana Raven’s Pass quintet to be offered for sale is lot 159, from the Coulonces Consignment and out of Soul Mountain (Rock Of Gibraltar). This is the second foal of the dual winner, who is a half-sister to Elusive Quality’s G2 El Encino Stakes winner Girl Warrior.
Further afield, Raven’s Pass has two yearlings catalogued for Fasig-Tipton’s sale at Saratoga on August 8 and 9, both of whom are out of Giant’s Causeway mares.
Hip 101 is the first foal, a filly, from Contentious, consigned by Denali Stud, while hip 118 is out of another young mare, Fairy Princess, and is her second foal.
New Approach has a similarly elite selection of offspring to be sold in Deauville. Appropriately, the first to be offered hails from the draft of his own breeder, Seamus Burns’s Lodge Park Stud, which consigns a colt (lot 53) out of the Darshaan mare Intrum Morshaan. He is a half-brother to two Listed winners and from the family of Darley stallion Halling.
The second foal of German Oaks winner Mystic Lips, is a French premiums-qualified daughter of New Approach (lot 104) from the Haras de la Reboursière et de Montaigu consignment. Her black-type laden family also features King's Best’s Japanese Derby winner Eishin Flash.
Lot 177 is another filly, this time out of the G3 Prix Minerve winner Tigertail (Priolo), while another Group Three winner Zelding, is the dam of lot 193, a colt from Ireland’s Knocktoran Stud. Zelding is the dam of Group Two winner Beauty Is Truth and a half-sister to Zipping and Nipping, from the exceptional Mill Princess family.
The last of the select bunch to pass through the ring in France is the Haras d’Etreham-consigned filly out of Bal De La Rose (lot 211), a half-sister to Shamardal's dual Classic winner Lope De Vega.
New Approach also has two yearlings consigned to Germany’s premier yearling sale at BBAG on 2 September.
Lot 62, named American Peony, is a filly out of Allure, the dam of Alianthus, the Champion older miler in Germany in 2010, while lot 172, a colt named Messi, is a close relation to Group Two winner McCartney (by In The Wings), out of the Dashing Blade mare Messina.
