Anna Sundstrom

Arqana's August Sale bursts from the stalls next Friday which means it will be Christmas before we know it. It also means that over the three days which follow the spotlight will be shone on some of the finest yearlings from France and beyond as the European yearling season gets underway in its customary fashion of part-holiday/part-serious business in Deauville. In the days building up to the sale, we will be profiling some of the largest drafts at Arqana, beginning with Anna Sundstrom's Coulonces, which has 20 set to go...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin DEAUVILLE, France--As the co-breeder of the outstanding matriarch Urban Sea, Maurice Lagasse will forever be famed in the racing world but it is another family that has put his Gestut Zur Kuste in the spotlight of late, and on Saturday night his Dubawi (Ire) half-sister to two Group 1 winners topped the August Sale at €2.4 million. Oliver St Lawrence is no stranger to plucking expensive yearlings from Arqana's flagship sale and it was his name on the docket for lot 214 after he...

DEAUVILLE, France--In weather that wouldn't have felt out of place for Arqana's August Sale, the sales ground in Deauville was bathed in warm sunshine on Tuesday while trade in the ring continued to be similarly encouraging. There was a time when Elusive City, at €15,000, was the most expensive stallion at stud in France. Much has changed in the intervening decade and the former Haras d'Etreham stallion was lost to the local breeding industry when suffering a heart attack in 2019 after standing ten seasons in France. But he was...

When the owners of Fancy Green (Fr) (Muhtathir {GB}-Fancy Stone {Ire}, by Rainbow Quest) decided to enter her and seven others into Keeneland's December Digital Sale, they did so with years of personal experience with the technology and methods that made digital buying and selling possible. "We are international owners," said Majdolin Shatrit, the Executive Director of Marbat LLC, based in Saudi Arabia. "We don't live in America or Europe, and so we've used this method for a long time." Indeed, the offering of Fancy Green (Fr), who sells as...

DONCASTER, UK--Having put on a brave enough face on the opening day, the first auction of an improvised European yearling sales calendar hastened to its conclusion on Wednesday as though downing a necessary but deeply unpleasant medicine. Horses were ushered through the ring at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale with a briskness that spoke of a pragmatic willingness, among vendors, to clarify the extent of the damage. The clearance rate for the session was duly maintained at 84% across the two days. Albeit trading a marginally smaller catalogue, it...