Monday 21 August 2023
SIYOUNI filly Mqse De Sévigné became the first horse ever to win the Prix Rothschild and Prix Jean Romanet in the same season on Sunday, as she ran on to steal the latter by a nose for owner/breeder Baron Edouard de Rothschild.
The four-year-old half-sister to Meandre is the third Group 1 winner for SIYOUNI in 2023, and Sunday’s victory marked her sire’s eighth top-level victory of the year so far. Trainer André Fabre suggested after the race that the filly would head to Ascot for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
The day before, SIYOUNI also scored a new Group 2 winner when Witch Hunter landed the Hungerford Stakes at Newbury. It was the 12th run of the year for the tough four-year-old, who also won the Buckingham Palace handicap at Royal Ascot in June.
SIYOUNI’s 2023 run of success continued at the Arqana August Yearling Sale, where he was responsible for the top-priced colt for the third consecutive year.
Bred by China Horse Club and consigned by Ecurie des Monceaux, lot 244 sold to Coolmore and White Birch Farm for €2.2 million on Sunday evening – the same connections behind multiple Group 1 winner Paddington. The colt is bred on the successful SIYOUNI x Galileo cross, with the dam in this instance being a half-sister to the great Shamardal.
The same consignors later offered lot 279, a SIYOUNI filly who sold for €700,000 to US-based agent Ramiro Restrepo’s Marquee Bloodstock on behalf of JR Ranch.
“We’ve been waiting three days for this filly,” said Restrepo. “She’ll hopefully be a cornerstone, a foundation mare for further down the line. This filly has it all: temperament, class, physical. She has a beautiful head and a beautiful pedigree. We all know who SIYOUNI is, while she is out of a Frankel mare who was a half to Charm Spirit, a major Group 1 winner.
“Dream And Do is in the family - another SIYOUNI - and she’s just class from top to bottom and we’re thrilled to have her. She’s staying here. She’s going to be our first horse here in France and she’ll be trained in Chantilly by Tim Donworth.”
SIYOUNI finished the sale with 15 lots sold for an average of €463,333.
SEA THE STARS meanwhile had five yearlings sell for an average of €302,000, with a top price of €410,000 given from David Redvers for a half-sister to German Group winners Amorella and Accon.
ZARAK had four of his fourth crop yearlings sell for an average of over 10 times their conception fee of €12,000. They included a colt from Haras de Colleville, from the great family of Cassandra Go, who sold to Mandore International Agency and John Hammond for €210,000, and a colt out of Stakes winner Just Sherry from Haras du Cadran who was picked up by Godolphin for €175,000.
