Tuesday 6 June 2023
The Aga Khan Studs will be consigning another draft of racing and breeding prospects at the upcoming Arqana Summer Sale from 4th to 6th July.
Last year, this sale was headed by Afadil. Purchased by Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls, the gelding has since won three races over hurdles, including the Listed Scottish Triumph Hurdle, and ran very creditably in the Boodles Handicap Hurdle at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival.
Several of the fillies and mares sold at the 2022 Summer Sale meanwhile have since received significant pedigree updates - including a half-sister to now Group placed and Irish 1000 Guineas fourth Tarawa and a half-sister to the dam of Big Rock.
In 2023 alone, there have been eight individual Stakes winners out of mares bred and sold by the Aga Khan Studs. Names on the graduates list include Classic Trial winners Arrest and Big Rock, Gr.3 Craven Stakes winner Indestructible, Graded Stakes winner Shantisara in the USA and Group winner Protagonist in Australia on the flat, as well as Grade 2 winner Caribean Boy, Grade 3 winner Jigme and Scottish Grand National winner Kitty’s Light over jumps. 2023 Group winners sold as horses in training have included Diamil, Kalapour and Zeyrek, all of whom have found success in Australia.
Horses in training set for this year’s Summer Sale include HAMSIYANN, a three-year-old dual winner by Lope De Vega who has also placed three times in his six starts to date, who hails from the aforementioned ‘Big Rock’ family that includes Harzand, Hurricane Lane and Emily Upjohn; and DJERBANNI, who has also won since the catalogue was printed, and also placed four times in his five starts to date.
The fillies and mares set to sell include relations to Rajapour and Vadeni, as well as to blue hen mare Shastye and such legendary Aga Khan Studs names as Dalakhani and Darjina. Two of them are daughters of SIYOUNI, who has made impressive early inroads to his career as a broodmare sire via the likes of Stakes winners and Group 1 performers Dr Zempf, Erevann and Times Square.
Click here to see the full draft, or visit us at Arqana during the sale in Cour P.
