Charles Darwin Back With A Win In The Committed
Updated: April 25, 2026 at 1:04 pm
By Tom Frary
Off the track since taking the Norfolk at Royal Ascot, Ballydoyle's Charles Darwin (No Nay Never) returned to continue the winning sequence in Saturday's Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Committed Stakes at Navan.
Asked to head the field by Ryan Moore under a five-pound penalty, the 4-11 favourite was a sitting duck throughout the near-six-furlong contest but answered every call to register a 1 1/4-length verdict over the Curragh maiden winner Silk Braid (Invincible Army) from the Ger Lyons stable.
“It was good to get him started. He's a bull of a horse, he's been off the track since Ascot,” Ballydoyle representative Chris Armstrong said. “He was under the penalty here and he will strip a lot fitter for the next day. He will go from here, all being well, to the [G3] Lacken at Naas and then the Commonwealth Cup.”
“He's a horse everyone has been looking forward to for a while now and I think when he puts everything together now, he will be a very good sprinter. He has done unbelievably well physically.”
Charles Darwin is back! @NavanRacecourse pic.twitter.com/A2MxQ1RssG
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) April 25, 2026
Muirin, who has been covered solely by No Nay Never so far, is responsible for three Stakes performers from her first four foals including the Middle Park and Prix Morny hero Blackbeard, whose first runners are appearing at the moment, and the Listed-placed Run Away.
Out of the G3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes winner Girouette, she is linked to the multiple Group-winning Max Vega (Lope De Vega) and the Prix de Diane heroine Mrs. Penny (Great Nephew) and the 1,000 Guineas heroine Hatoof (Irish River). Unsurprisingly, Muirin's two-year-old filly was snapped up by M V Magnier for €1.9million when topping Goffs Orby Book 1, while there is certain to be maximum excitement when her yearling full-brother to Charles Darwin and Blackbeard goes to the sales later this year.