Racehorse sales beat recession
Deauville bloodstock auction sees yearling sales up 17%, with trade of €34m and a top price of €1.5m
RACEHORSE sales at Deauville have bounced back from the financial crisis and sales of yearlings have risen 17% against last year’s figures.
Sales reached more than €34million and Alexandra Saint-Martin of sales agency Arqana said that was despite there being 106 fewer colts than previously.
The turnover is still less than 2009’s record of €41m but the average price paid in the auction was €134,622 – a rise of 37%.
Top price of €1.5m was for a chestnut filly by Dubawi, out of Hit the Sky, a half-sister to stakes winners Royal Bench and Memphis Tennessee.
Sold from Anna and Etienne Drion's Coulonces Consignment she was bought by Irish bloodstock agent James Harron for a client in Australia. The sale came after a bidding battle between Harron and Sheikh Joaan Al Thani’s agent Nicolas de Watrigant.
The €1.5m price was higher than last year’s top price of €1.2m, but less than the 2011 “topper” of €1.7m.
Anna Drion told Racing Post: "If she had made €600,000 I would have been pleased, so this is amazing. We're quite a new consignor and it's our first sales-topper."
Deauville’s bloodstock sale, one of Europe’s busiest, dates back to 1887.
Photo: Arqana
