Persian King

The G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) has been retired to Haras d'Etreham, where he will be introduced at a fee of €12,500. From the Juddmonte family which includes Hasili (GB) and her stallion sons Dansili (GB), Cacique (GB) and Champs Elysees (GB), Onesto was named a TDN Rising Star at two and was also placed in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Irish Champion S. He is in the process of being syndicated. Next season, the Etreham sires Persian King (Ire) and Hello Youmzain...

DEAUVILLE, France--The return to the V2 Sale at Arqana worked wonders for the middle market trade on Tuesday with eight six-figure lots going through the ring on a day where over €5.5m was spent on 141 yearlings.  The V2 Sale was replaced by the September Sale 12 months ago due to an oversupply of yearlings but an average price of less than €20,000 on 202 horses sold brought an abrupt end to the new concept. With the Tuesday average over double that of last year's September Yearling Sale, reverting to...

DEAUVILLE, France--In a departure from the normal schedule, Arqana's August extravaganza kicks off a day early this year, on Friday. With a handful of shows having taken place on Tuesday, viewing began in earnest on Wednesday morning, with Joseph O'Brien first out of the blocks and on parade at the Haras des Capucines draft while most people were still having breakfast. While many of the families of the horses catalogued will be familiar to potential purchasers, each new season brings with it a wave of new stallion names to grapple...

Is it just me or should France be known as the bloodstock land of opportunity? This is the country that saw Wootton Bassett (GB) and Walk In The Park (Ire) pull themselves up by the bootstraps after entering the stud book at relatively modest sums. There are few serious racing nations that provide as much of a chance for a stallion to flourish than France does. Take Kauto Star (Fr), the greatest staying chaser of the modern era, as an example. He hailed from the largely unheralded Village Star (Fr)...

The Group 3-placed Epic Poet (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (lot 18) and a share in Classic winner Persian King (Ire) (lot 11) are two of the highlights of the Arqana December Online Sale at 3-5 p.m. on Dec. 15. The Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Epic Poet won the Listed Prix Pelleas at Compiegne in July. Third in the G3 Prix du Prince d'Orange on Sept. 4, he was most recently second in a pair of listed races at Marseille Borely. Persian King, who won the G1 French 2000 Guineas among his...

On a day where BBA Ireland tightened its grip on yet another sale by signing for the top lot for €175,000, Haras d'Etreham boss Nicolas de Chambure was breathing a sigh of relief as the progeny of two of the stud's newbies Persian King (Ire) and Hello Youmzain (Fr) took flight. Persian King enjoyed a particularly strong session. The G1 French 2000 Guineas winner, who stood for €30,000 in his debut season at stud, saw seven foals sell for €516,000, headed by a colt (lot 306) knocked down to Alex...

Almanzor (Fr), who was recently represented by his first Group 1 winner in Australia, will stand at the reduced fee of €25,000 for 2023. Among his potential top-class 3-year-olds for next season are the Aga Khan's unbeaten Rajapour (Fr), winner of the Listed Prix Isonomy at Deauville last month, and Ecurie Billon's Around Midnight (Fr), who was beaten a short-head for second in the G3 Prix des Reservoirs. Also commanding a fee of €25,000 for next season is the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Persian King (Ire), who has...

In the summer of 2020, Haras d'Etreham sold its flagship stallion, Wootton Bassett (GB), to Coolmore Stud. The son of Iffraaj (GB) is the kind of fairytale stallion story that any breeder dreams of; having stood for as low as €4,000 at Etreham in his third and fourth seasons, he stands for a career high €150,000 this year. Since Wootton Bassett's sale, Etreham has reinvested in young sires Persian King (GB) and Hello Youmzain (Fr), both multiple Group 1 winners, and they stand on a young roster alongside Wootton Bassett's...

We continue our Value Sires Series with a look at stallions with their first foals arriving in 2022, and what looks a very intriguing bunch. Not only do we have Pinatubo (Ire) (Shamardal), the outstanding 2-year-old who was rated higher than Frankel as a juvenile, but also Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Dubawi's best son yet to retire to stud; the Classic-winning Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), who trained on to add the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at four; and the three-time Group 1 and Classic winner Persian King (Ire),...

Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), the sire of a pair of stakes horses from his eight winners to date, will stand the 2022 breeding season for a fee of €30,000, officials at Haras d'Etreham announced Saturday. The best son of the in-demand Wootton Bassett, Almanzor is already the sire of winners in Ireland, England, the USA and France, where his three first-crop winners include the filly Queen Trezy (Fr), a three-length maiden winner at Lyon-Parilly Sept. 8 and a latest runner-up in the G3 Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville who...

SF Bloodstock is one of the largest and most successful investors in stallions in the Thoroughbred business worldwide. So when SF throws it support behind a young sire, it's worth taking notice. SF owns stallions in the U.S., Australia and Europe, and this year the group will find out if its backing of the 2016 champion 3-year-old Almanzor (Fr) will bear fruit, with that three-time Group 1 winner soon set to be represented by his first runners. Meanwhile, SF has continued its patronage of the French breeding business, and in...

Godolphin's Ghaiyyath (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was officially named Longines World's Best Racehorse on Tuesday having been assessed to have posted the top two performances of 2020. His high mark of 130 was gained in the G1 Juddmonte International S. at York, which was also named Longines World's Best Horserace for the first time. The former Charlie Appleby trainee also recorded a mark of 127 in the G1 Hurworth Bloodstock Coronation Cup which, in a pandemic-disrupted season, was moved from Epsom to Newmarket. Bred by the Weld family's Springbank Way Stud...