One major owner/breeder's dispersal has already grabbed the headlines during this year's European breeding stock sales, and another is set to play a significant part in proceedings at Arqana Breeding Stock Sale Dec. 9.
The headline session of what the locals call the Vente d'Elevage will see Gestut Ammerland offer 12 mares and one foal as Dietrich and Annabel von Boetticher sell off the remainder of their breeding stock.
Ammerland has been producing high-quality racehorses for 35 years. In that time the operation has bred 17 top-level winners, including Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) heroes Hurricane Run and Waldgeist, as well as classic scorer Lope de Vega , who has subsequently bred 19 group/grade 1-winning offspring from his berth at Ballylinch Stud.
"Winding down a breeding operation that has been so successful, and one I've been involved with personally for 25 years, is not very easy," said Ammerland's long-serving adviser Crispin de Moubray. "We've been whittling it down over the years so it's become small and got a bit more commercial by selling yearlings."
The standouts among the draft include Lady Frankel (Lot 172), a group 3-winning and group 1-placed Frankel half sister to Lope de Vega carrying to New Bay. She has bred colts by Shamardal and Camelot that fetched €1.6 million and €850,000, respectively, from Godolphin at the last two August Yearling Sales.
Lady Frankel is preceded into the ring by Sea The Sky (171), a listed-winning and group 3-placed sister to Sea The Moon who cost €820,000 as a yearling at BBAG in 2020. The draft is rounded off by Wildfeder, a winning Galileo sister to Arc hero Waldgeist in foal to Siyouni (209).
"We just hope these families, families we've developed over the last 35 years, will go to owner/breeders and people who'll be racing the stock," said De Moubray. "It's a chance to get into families that don't come on the market very often. You have mares like Lady Frankel, who's 9 years old and has enormous things going for her.
"Mares of that quality aren't generally sold at this stage because it's too early to know whether she's going to be a great mare or not. Ammerland has always been about breeding to race and attention to detail, so hopefully people will take these families and, to use a cliché, take the ball and run with it."
By being prepared to think outside of the box, Ammerland has been at the forefront of German racing and breeding taking a more international approach, be that through the stallions they breed to or how their top runners are campaigned. German bloodlines are now afforded a deep respect the world over.
"The fact that virtually every single German Oaks winner is bought by the Japanese is, I think, a testament to the desirability of these lines," added De Moubray.
With that comment in mind, it was interesting to note a strong representation from Japan on the grounds at Arqana on Friday. This included the buying team from Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm, who were active at the top of the market at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale. They were joined by plenty of the other protagonists from Newmarket, including key figures from operations like Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte, Shadwell, and Yulong Investments.
And the Gestut Ammerland dispersal is far from the only attraction in the Arqana catalog, with breeding prospects including Prix de l'Opera (G1) winner Place Du Carrousel (184 from Haras de Bouquetot); the listed-winning Pennine Hills, offered by La Motteraye Consignment carrying her first foal by Justify (202); the blue-blooded Prix du Muguet (G2) winner Sibila Spain (204), who is offered by Haras de l'Hotellerie in foal for the first time having been covered by Dubawi; and the Prix de Diane (G1) heroine Channel, presented by La Motteraye in foal to Wootton Bassett (215).
Demand for mares in foal to Frankel was sky-high at Tattersalls, and the wildcard entries include Haras de Saint Pair's Matron Stakes (G1) winner Pearls Galore (210), who was covered for the first time by the champion sire on April 17.
Frankel is also responsible for one of the headline offerings from the foal section of the catalog, with another leading German farm in Gestut Etzean consigning the colt out of the group 1-winning Palmas (182).
Buyers who have made the journey to Arqana are faced with no shortage of opportunities in a catalog brimming with elite-level quality. Saturday's session in particular is set to provide plenty of big-money action.
