Wooded

DEAUVILLE, France--First went the Irish, then the French. For some, it was a woeful weekend in the sporting world outside horseracing as the Rugby World Cup quarter finals left only England standing among the European nations to go forward to the next round at the Stade de France.  Plenty of sales folk huddled around the screen at Deauville racecourse on Sunday evening to see the home team's dreams shattered, but by Monday morning the focus was fully back on the horses and the next week of yearling action ahead.  Before...

It has been a year to remember for Robson Aguiar, largely down to the exploits of Amo Racing's breakthrough Group 1 winner Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who he sourced for Kia Joorabchian's ownership vehicle.  The ultra-shrewd Brazilian native snapped up a colt by Wooded (Ire), who is a brother to Amo's Phoenix S. hero, for €88,000 on day two of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale and revealed afterwards that the plan was to go breezing for his new recruit.  "I bought him for myself and he will...

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...

The catalogue has been released for Arqana's August Yearling Sale with 314 yearlings set to sell during the three-day sale, scheduled for Aug. 18-20. Beginning the day after the first running of the Arqana Series and during Deauville's La Touques August race meet, the sale includes 18 siblings to Group 1 winner, including Pearls Galore (lot 11, by Kingman), Wooded (lot 214, by Dubawi) and Native Trail (lot 308, by Cracksman). The three sessions are scheduled to take place: Friday, Aug. 18 - 3pm - Lot 1 -134 Saturday, Aug....

It never ceases to amaze how much debate the two-year-old races at Royal Ascot generate each year. A quick scan on racing Twitter over the past few days confirmed as much.  For all the fascinating puzzles that the royal meeting will serve up this week, including whether Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) can cope with Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the St James's Palace, what will reign supreme in the Prince Of Wales's or if any of the Australian sprinters can land a blow in the King's Stand S., it's the...

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 mighty Sea The Stars (Ire) seems to have had more sons retired to the National Hunt stallion division than to the Flat, and he is of course represented by some notable new recruits to the stallion ranks this year in Britain in two of his most celebrated sons, Baaeed (GB) and Stradivarius (GB). Another son, Crystal Ocean (GB), topped the charts for the number of mares covered in Britain and Ireland in 2022, though of those 338 he of course covered predominantly jump mares at the Beeches Stud in...

Benoit Jeffroy's Haras de Castillon, a burgeoning force on the French racing and bloodstock scenes, burst into international prominence in December when it consigned the Group 1-winning Grand Glory (Ire) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) at the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, where she sold for €2.5-million. The quickly growing Castillon has only been in existence under its current guise since 2015, but the Jeffroy family has a history of breeding quality racehorses from their SCEA des Prairies, with just one recent example being Zelda (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), a listed winner last...

Haras de Bouquetot has released its stud fees for 2022, and announced that Shalaa (Ire), who got his first Group 1 winner this autumn when No Speak Alexander (Ire) won the G1 Matron S., will remain at Arrowfield Stud in Australia. The Bouquetot roster is headed by Zelzal (Fr) and Wooded (Ire), who will each stand for €15,000. The G1 Prix Jean Prat winner Zelzal has been represented by 10 first crop winners thus far, headed by the Listed Prix Saraca scorer Zelda (Fr). The G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner...

Group 1 winners Wooded (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) have each had 10 mares scanned in foal shortly after beginning their first covering seasons at Haras de Bouquetot. G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded's in-foal mares include the multiple group-placed juvenile Al Johrah (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}); group-winning 2-year-old and Classic-placed Salona (Ger) (Lord Of England {Ger}); and black-type mares Edya (GB) (Makfi {GB}) and Tosen Shauna (Ire) (Alhebayeb {Ire}). The G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois scorer Romanised, meanwhile,...

Since Al Shaqab Racing's first foray into racehorse ownership, the organization has grown exponentially with strong investment in bloodstock globally. The company has built an impressive stud farm at Haras de Bouquetot, which houses its nine-strong stallion roster as well as playing host to a broodmare band that includes dual G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}) and multiple Group 1 winner Qemah (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) to name a few. However, it may be Al Shaqab's investment in personnel that sees the company thrive and...