Siyouni

When you spend €1,400,000 on a yearling at Arqana Deauville's August Yearling Sale, there are expectations. Safe to say, Earhart (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) met those and then some to become a new 'TDN Rising Star' in her Saturday unveiling over the synthetic surface at Woodbine for LNJ Foxwoods and trainer Josie Carroll. The grey daughter of leading French stallion Siyouni, slammed into the 6-5 favorite's roll in what seemed even on paper to be an overmatched group, never let this field have a shot. Breaking from the middle of the...

With the stallion fee announcements coming in thick and fast this week, it is worth reflecting on the busiest stallions in France for the 2024 covering season, following our recent round-up of the figures for Britain and Ireland. Firstly, our thanks must go to our esteemed colleague Adrien Cugnasse of Jour de Galop for sharing the figures he painstakingly put together this summer. They show that Haras de Colleville's Galiway (GB) was the busiest boy in the country by some margin with a book of 248 mares - the largest...

Weatherbys has published its Bloodstock Sales Review Part 1 for 2024 which shows that dual champion sire Frankel (GB) has achieved the highest average price of any stallion at the yearling sales in Europe so far this year. With 31 yearlings sold, his average price was 711,398gns (€859,013) from a 2022 covering fee of £200,000. Frankel is now the joint-most expensive stallion in the world, with Dubawi (Ire), at £350,000. His most expensive yearling was the filly out of the Group 2 winner Aljazzi (GB) (Shamardal), sold by Newsells Park...

Sea The Stars (Ire) will stand at his highest-ever fee of €250,000 at Gilltown Stud in 2025 after a season in which his 28 stakes winners included the G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Sosie (Ire) and promising juvenile The Lion In Winter (Ire), who is currently favourite for next year's 2,000 Guineas. His fellow Aga Khan Studs stallion Siyouni (Fr) headlines the roster at Haras de Bonneval in Normandy where his stud fee for next year will remain unchanged at €200,000.  Zarak (Fr), currently the second-leading sire in Europe...

At €65,000, St Mark's Basilica (Fr) was the most expensive horse to retire to stud in 2022, with a racetrack performance and pedigree that justified the fee. After all, he was the world-champion three-year-old, European champion two-year-old and Cartier Horse of the Year, with a race record that included five straight Group 1 wins, from the Dewhurst at two straight through to the Irish Champion Stakes the following autumn. By Siyouni (Fr) out of the Galileo (Ire) Group-winning mare Cabaret (Ire), he is a half-brother to the Classic winner Magna...

So what became of the likely lads and lassies? Since 2011, there has been a seven-figure top lot each year at the Arqana August Sale.  We are talking about some of the best-bred horses in Europe here. Yearlings that have been given the best possible chance of being good from the day that they were born. But did time prove them worthy of their top lot status? We all know that, in this business, money doesn't guarantee anything. If that was the case, what a boring sport this would be....

What better accompaniment to a global fashion business, Parisian hotel and fabulous art collection than a Thoroughbred stud farm? Nothing, right? This was apparently the conclusion reached by Thierry Gillier, the founder of the uber-cool Zadig & Voltaire label, whose appropriation of the nom de plume of the celebrated French writer for his fashion brand has now been extended to his own nom de course at Haras Voltaire.  Just last week, Gun Of Brixton (Fr) (Frankel {GB}) became the latest graduate of the Normandy farm to advertise this burgeoning breeding...

Leading European sire Siyouni (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}--Sichilla {Ire}, by Danehill) will again be available to cover a limited number of mares to Southern Hemisphere time in 2024 from his base at Haras de Bonneval in France. Siyouni, who has sired eight Classic races from eight to 10 furlongs, finished the 2023 season as the leading sire of milers, headed by Tahiyra (Ire), Paddington (GB) and Mqse De Sevigne (Ire), who collectively won nine Group 1 races. Mqse De Sevigne also annexed the G1 Prix d'Ispahan earlier this year. In Australia,...

Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) will shuttle to New Zealand to stand at Windsor Park Stud, which was also the former southern hemisphere home of his broodmare sire Montjeu (Ire). Currently covering his first book of mares at Coolmore Stud in Ireland, the four-time Group 1 winner will become the first son of the Aga Khan Studs' Siyouni to join the stallion ranks in New Zealand. Siyouni's champion son St Mark's Basilica (Fr) shuttles to Coolmore's base in the Hunter Valley. Though Siyouni has remained in France throughout his stud career,...

MGSW & MGISP Sacred Life (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}--Knyazhna {Ire}, by Montjeu {Ire}) has sired his first reported foal. Bred by Blazing Forest Stable, a colt out of Fire Assay (Medaglia d'Oro) was born Feb. 21 at Millford Farm. The foal is a half-brother to last year's GIII Holy Bull S. runner-up Shadow Dragon (Army Mule). Sacred Life commands a $2,000 stud fee at War Horse Place in Lexington.

Kirsten Rausing's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) has produced her first foal, a filly by Dubawi (Ire). A fourth-generation Lanwades homebred, Alpinista, who is out of the Listed-winning Hernando (Fr) mare Alwilda (GB), herself a daughter of the treble Group 1 winner Albanova (GB) (Alzao), won six Group 1 races during her four seasons in training with Sir Mark Prescott in Newmarket.  Rausing said, "Following family tradition, the daughter of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner is a grey - all females in her...

Coolmore Stud's Mark Byrne has acknowledged that many breeders will be in two minds about covering their mares after what he described as one of the most "unusual" years of trade in 2023 but but encouraged supporters of the stud to retain the faith by saying "it's not always dark at five o'clock." Byrne was speaking during the Irish Stallion Trail where visitors to Coolmore got a chance to see newbies Paddington (GB), Little Big Bear (Ire) and The Antarctic (Ire). Parallels were drawn between the quandary facing breeders in...