Darley sires excel at Arqana

Europe's first major yearling sale has been selling for two days and it has been very good for progeny of Darley stallions.

Pride of place at the top goes to Dubawi (pictured), who not only had the sales topper, but the leading colt in the sale as well.

Bought by James Harron Bloodstock, and in his words "the pick of the sale", the hammer came down at €1.5M for a Coulonces consigned filly who is a half-sister to Group winners Royal Bench and Memphis Tennessee. This was the first ever sales topper for her fairly new consignors.

The leading colt of the sale so far was sold on the first day when a half-brother to Falmouth Stakes winner Nahoodh was knocked down to Peter & Ross Doyle for €1M. Consigned by Ballylinch Stud, his new purchasers were glowing in praise for him, "He is a lovely individual and is by a very good sire in Dubawi. He has a real stallion's pedigree"

It has been a remarkable sale so far for Dubawi with seven of his yearlings selling for over €300,000. Not only did he have the highest aggregate, he also had the highest average of €579,000, €69,000 clear of his closest pursuer.

The sale though was not all about Dubawi, with several other Darley stallions achieving notable results.

Teofilo has an average of €263,000 (the third best stallion with at least three to sell behind Dubawi and Galileo) after enjoying a very profitable second day. First through the ring was a Ecurie des Monceaux consigned colt out of Alsace, who was sold to Pascal Bary for €400,000, shortly followed by a filly out of Euroceleb who was knocked down for €310,000. Like the sales topper, she was consigned by Coulonces and was bought by Kern Lillingston. Teofilo's average equated to a nearly 18 times improvement on their conception fee.

Iffraaj's yearlings this season are from his very best crop, and early indications are that the market has taken a very favorable view of them, with five selling for an average of €216,000 (over 14 times their fee).

His top lot of the sale was a colt bought by Pascal Bary for €340,000 on Saturday. From Haras de la Louviere, he was out of the G3w Sandbar, who was also 3rd in the Prix de Diane. Sunday also saw some big price sales as John Ferguson went to €300,000 for a half-sister to G2w Fight Club (from Ballylinch), whilst David Redvers paid €220,000 for a La Motteraye consigned filly out of Banyu Dewi.

Other stallions to make headlines included Raven's Pass, who had a daughter of Tres Rapide sell for €300,000, the same price as a New Approach filly out of Tierra Luna.

With Shamardal, Cape Cross, King's Best and Authorized all having yearlings that topped €100,000, it was a very profitable two days all round for progeny of Darley stallions.