Night of Thunder

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-bred horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday's Observations features the return a 'TDN Rising Star'. 6.30 Kempton, Novice, 2yo, 8f (AWT) NATION'S HOPE (IRE) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) was an instant hit here last month, earning TDN Rising Star status with a dazzling debut display and Charlie Appleby has opted to return for further education at the...

Margie's Music (Hurricane Run) (lot 211), the dam of two stakes horses including 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard and Group winner Mr Hollywood (Iquitos), sold for €1 million to Ecurie Des Monceaux's Henri Bozo and the Broadhurst Agency at Arqana's Vente d'Elevage. The 11-year-old mare was offered in foal to Night of Thunder. "She really seems to produce well at the top level," said Bozo of the Haras de la Cour Blanche offering. "I loved her physically. She has the class of Montjeu and Hurricane Run. She's in foal...

As updates go, being a half-sister to the Cartier Horse of the Year is not a bad one, especially when the mare in question is carrying to Calandagan's sire, Gleneagles. Caliyza has plenty more in her favour to boot. She's a dual winner by the late Le Havre and, only five, she is in foal for the first time. Offered as lot 1452 by Overbury Stud on Monday during the first of two Sceptre Sessions, the Aga Khan Studs-bred mare is returning to Tattersalls just 12 months after being bought...

Twenty-five years into this new millennium, the season's 86 Group 1 races in Europe have all been run and, with the year ebbing away, Night Of Thunder stands on the cusp of becoming the champion sire of Britain and Ireland for the first time. The odds for a grandson of Dubai Millennium collecting this honour would not have been short in the aftermath of that stallion's death at the age of just five. A quarter of a century ago the aptly named Dubai Millennium appeared to have the world at...

Dubawi will remain at a fee of £350,000 for the 2026 breeding season while his son Night Of Thunder, the champion sire-elect in Britain and Ireland, has had his fee raised to €200,000. The fees released for Darley's 23 stallions in Europe include four newcomers. The treble Group 1 winner Rosallion is introduced at £40,000 at Dalham Hall Stud, where he will stand alongside his relative and fellow Group 1 winner Inisherin, whose fee is £12,500. Also new to the roster is Shadow Of Light, winner of both the G1...

In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the Breeders' Cup meeting. Ethical Diamond Hands Mullins The Turf Training maestro Willie Mullins landed the biggest Flat victory of his career with Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday (video). A winner of a brace of valuable handicaps across the pond, the five-year-old gelding has also run seven of his lifetime starts over hurdles. Bred by W. Kennedy, Ethical Diamond is owned...

The bulk of the 271 horses offered on day one of the Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale at Tattersalls were sold to continue their careers abroad, including the 375,000gns August George (Night Of Thunder), who was snapped up by Qatari-based trainer Gassim Ghazali.  Runner-up to subsequent Group 3 scorer Dorset (Wootton Bassett) in the Goffs Million, the Ivan Furtado-trained juvenile boasted one of the most attractive profiles on Monday and the market responded suitably with Ghazali - a regular visitor to Park Paddocks - outlasting a number of leading buyers on the...

For the third time in four years, Sioux Nation was the busiest Flat stallion at stud in Britain and Ireland in 2025, according to the Return of Mares, which has been published by Weatherbys. The son of Scat Daddy, who stands at Coolmore's Castlehyde Stud in County Cork, was usurped last year by his ill-fated stud-mate, Calyx, but he returned to the top of the charts during the latest breeding season, having covered 282 mares. The busiest stallion of any description was Whytemount Stud's Affinisea on 314, ahead of Boardsmill...

DEAUVILLE, France -- Trade may have slightly shifted down a gear, as is to be expected of a graded sale, but right from the word go on Wednesday there was a noted surge in demand, along with a new wave of faces on the ground for this second session, which saw a rise in the clearance rate to 82.5 per cent, up by five per cent on the equivalent day last year. That in turn led to an increase in both average and median as well as the session's aggregate,...

Group 1 winner Economics has been retired from racing. Stud plans for the son of Night Of Thunder are pending. A winner of the G1 Irish Champion Stakes in 2024, the Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa runner dominated the G2 Dante Stakes for William Haggas earlier that year. The G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano was added to the colt's win column next before his hard-fought tally in the Irish Champion. "He had everything you look for in a top-class racehorse — athleticism, temperament, and an extraordinary will to win," said...

Cheveley Park Stud's Estrange will remain in training and on the hunt for a Group 1 victory, according to managing director Chris Richardson. The consistent grey daughter of Night Of Thunder finished second to Kalpana (Study Of Man) in Saturday's G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes. Prior to that effort, she won the G3 Lester Piggott Stakes and then the G2 Lancashire Oaks this year. She ran second to Minnie Hauk (Frankel) in the G1 Yorkshire Oaks in August and Ascot was her first run back for trainer...

We should have seen it coming really. Night Of Thunder burst onto the scene in 2019 to be champion first-season sire with seven stakes winners to his name. Not all leading freshmen go on to put themselves into contention for champion sire honours, of course, but six years later this is exactly what the prolific Night Of Thunder has done, and he looks almost certain now to follow the achievement of his own sire Dubawi, who was champion in 2022. Dubawi, who turns 24 in January, took longer to get...