Fun With Flags, who still has an entry in this weekend's Prix de Diane (French Oaks, G1), was purchased for €630,000 (US$677,816) by Nicolas de Watrigant's Mandore International Agency at a pop-up sale through Arqana's online portal June 10.
For trainer Jerome Reynier and owner Erika Gilliar, the Airlie Stud-bred Zoffany filly won the listed Prix Rose de Mai at Saint-Cloud in March and was second in the Prix Cleopatre (G3) at the same track in April. A graduate of the Goffs Orby and Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale, being picked up by Gilliar for €62,000 from the latter, she is out of the Galileo mare Marie Celeste, a full sister to listed winner and black-type producer Gemstone.
Marie Celeste is also a half sister to Jebel Hatta Stakes third-place finisher Ursa Minor and hails from the family of Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Bachelor Duke and Irish St Leger (G1) scorer Sonnyboyliston.
She was the only horse offered in the brief online auction, which was open for just over an hour for bidding.
The Irish-bred filly is the winner of three of her four career starts. Fun With Flags made a victorious debut in the Prix De Miramas in October 2023 by 1 1/2 lengths in a field of three. She resumed her career three months later as a 3-year-old and again proved triumphant.
