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Australian buyers played a prominent role on the opening day of the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale in Deauville on Saturday.

Agent Dean Hawthorne made the leader board when he purchased the wining Galileo mare Tiberias for €450,000 offered by the Wertheimer brothers.

Tiberias is a three-year-old half-sister to dual G1 winner Silasol. Her second dam Stormina is out of a half-sister to G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Solemia.

Hawthorne also purchased another Galileo mare Embroidered Silk in foal to Caravaggio for €110,000.

Other active Australian buyers included Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman and regular Arqana supporter John Foote.

Bolman purchased the stakes placed Invincible Spirit mare Clearly, a half sister to G1 Sydney Cup winner Polarisation, for €310,000 for Speriamo Bloodstock.

Foote went to €220,000 for Sawakiyna, an unraced Sea The Stars filly for New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud.

Sawakiyna is out of the G1-winning Shamardal mare Sagawara from the family of G1 winners Sagamix, Sagacity and Secret Gesture.

Foote also paid €60,000 for Briseida, a daughter of So You Think, and €55,000 for the Dalakhani mare Bubble Rani.

Prix Marcel Boussac winner Lily's Candle returned to the Arqana ring to fetch the top price of €1.1 million to the bid of Narvick International's Emmanuel de Seroux acting for Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm in Japan.

Yoshida had previously purchased Liliside, a half-sister to Lily's Candle's dam Golden Lily, as a breeding prospect.

Lily's Candle (Style Vendome x Golden Lily by Dolphin Street) first appeared in the Deauville ring last year when she was bought by Bertrand Bourez for €15,000 at the Arqana October Yearling Sale.

She subsequently won two of her first four starts this year before she was re-offered at the Arqana Arc Sale, where she was sold to owner Martin Schwartz through Oceanic Bloodstock for €390,000.

Less than 24 hours later she won the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp..

Saturday’s aggregate was up by five per cent to €22,743,000 while the average rose by 22 per cent to €150,615 for 151 lots sold.

The median dropped slightly to €70,000 from €75,000 12 months ago.

Two other lots fetched seven figures during the opening session.

A Dubawi filly foal out of the dual G1 winner Just The Judge was secured by Anthony Stroud for €1 million on behalf of Godolphin. She is younger sister to the Dubawi colt who topped Arqana's flagship August Yearling Sale for €1.4 million.

Also returning to the Arqana sale ring for a second time was the once-raced Solage, a Galileo 2YO filly who was knocked down to Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International for €1 million on behalf of a partnership that includes Ballylinch Stud.

She raced once this year for a second at Longchamp for troubled South African business magnate Markus Jooste, who paid €700,000 for the filly at the 2017 August Yearling Sale.

Solage is from the Cape Cross mare Secrete, a half-sister to G1 winner Plumania.