Speriamo Bloodstock purchase Arqana top lot La Filomena
Larry Young’s Speriamo Bloodstock purchased the top lot from Arqana’s Summer Sale, which concluded on Thursday. Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman signed for the three-year-old filly La Filomena (Lope De Vega), who finished a last-start third in the Prix Melisande (Listed, 2000m) at Parislongchamp, going to €395,000 (approx. AU$647,525) to secure the daughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal).
Australia-based Young has been a significant buyer of European breeding stock since 2018, and Boman was delighted to secure the dual winner La Filomena, despite paying more than he had anticipated for the Jean-Claude Rouget-offered filly, having engaged aggressive bidding tactics with an opening €300,000 bid.
La Filomena is out of the stakes-placed three-time winner Sagaciously (Lawman), making her a sister to Listed winner Epic Poet, while she is from the family of three-time Group 1 winner Perfect Power (Ardad).
“She’s a lovely filly. It’s very, very rare to get a filly that’s untapped; she’s lightly raced and is last-time-out Listed-placed,” Boman said. “She has a lovely pedigree and a great physique. She was a 310,000gns yearling … It’s a funny market we work in when you pay more for something you don’t know can run. We know this filly has ability, she’s very good looking and by a great stallion.
“The family is on the upgrade every week and it’s one that Blandford is quite closely associated with through Perfect Power and also his half brother Golden Mind, who was an unlucky third in the Chesham [Stakes].
“[Larry Young] has had a bit of a hiatus on the buying front for the last couple of years but is back on the market. We’ll look to race her. At this value we need to race her and hopefully make her a Group winner.
“I stretched – I’ll probably get in trouble – and we were aggressive in our bidding at the start. We knew what the reserve was … and I was hoping that it might disrupt the process and we might get her for a little bit less. She could stay in France or she might go to Ireland.”
During Arqana’s Thursday’s session of horses-in-training and breeding stock, 64 of 189 lots to pass through the ring changed hands at an 86 per cent clearance rate, against last year’s remarkable 90 per cent.
Turnover across the two days was €11,833,750 (approx. AU$19.42 million), a nine per cent fall year-on-year, which almost exactly mirrored the 36 fewer horses who were sold.