Night of Thunder

Night Of Thunder currently sits at the top of the sire rankings for Britain and Ireland and, in a year in which he has already been represented by a first Classic winner in Desert Flower, his position could well be strengthened after Saturday with two other star performers lining up at Sandown and Haydock. Coral's sponsorship of the Eclipse Stakes reaches its 50th anniversary this year and the Group 1 contest, which has a roll of honour including such great names as Mill Reef, Sadler's Wells, Giant's Causeway and Enable,...

On the day that Kevin Prendergast was remembered at the Curragh in the naming of the International Stakes, and a day after Peter Easterby was laid to rest, another great of the training ranks was lost with the passing of Barry Hills. Then came the news from America that D Wayne Lukas had too departed. To read the tributes paid to these men, who did so much to enrich the colour of this storied sport, is something of a treat in itself - their parting gift, if you like -...

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. Saturday's Observations features a son of Newspaperofrecord. 1.15 Curragh, Mdn, €20,000, 2yo, c/g, 7fT BENVENUTO CELLINI (IRE) (Frankel {GB}) is the second foal out of the accomplished Newspaperofrecord (Lope De Vega) after the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Giselle also by Frankel. Not Ryan Moore's choice in this Barronstown...

It has been a strangely discombobulating week in some respects. It started in Westminster last Monday with the All-Party Parliamentary Group issuing its stark warning of the triple threat to the industry posed by potential betting duty harmonisation, affordability checks and an overdue Levy reform. This came on the back of an industry update in Newmarket the previous week at which the TBA chairman Philip Newton warned of a potential catastrophic collapse in the supply chain of young Thoroughbreds in Britain. Then, stepping through the golden gates of Royal Ascot,...

ASCOT, UK -- From a maiden on May 9 to a Group 2 winner at Royal Ascot less than 40 days later is some going but, as ever with bloodstock, the story reaches back much further than these few glorious weeks.  In the case of the Queen's Vase winner Carmers (Wootton Bassett), his owner-breeder Fiona Carmichael bought his dam Signe (Sea The Stars) as a yearling more than a decade ago and, as a half-sister to Group 1 winner Lord Shanakill, she carried the pretty hefty price tag of €1.1...

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. Friday's Observations features a full-sister to a Breeders' Cup winner. 3.35 York, Novice, 2yo, f, 5fT STARGAZED (GB) (Zoustar {Aus}) is a full-sister to last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint hero Starlust who debuts for Clipper Logistics and the Karl Burke stable. Out of the G3 Prix de...

   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 victories of Sapphire Beach and Hey Nay Nay. No Nay Never Sires Pair Of Juvenile Debut Winners Sapphire Beach, flying the flag for Three Diamonds Farm, won a five-furlong sprint over a sloppy Churchill main track on May 30 (video). Trained by George "Rusty" Arnold, the Charlie Brooks-bred re-rallied to finish second after being cut off by the winner, and the placings were reversed in...

"The Derby is the only thing that matters." It's a pretty definitive opening gambit, even from a man whose words generally don't spend much time in the mincer.  Later, Jeremy Brummitt will temper this statement but first let's deal with the Derby, a race which, for this week at least, really is the only thing that matters. "I honestly think the people who come into racing and breeding with a passion are all led by the north star of the Derby," he says. "And the people who think there are...

Nine years after Almanzor dropped a massive hint that Wootton Bassett might just be a decent sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club comes the next wave for the stallion whose fee has gone from as low as €4,000 to this year's high of €300,000.  As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett's current crop of three-year-olds are the result of his first season standing at Coolmore in Ireland after one of the biggest transfer deals of recent years saw him leave Haras d'Etreham, where he had made his name...

By Brian Sheerin and Emma Berry Cormac Farrell was left flabbergasted after bringing the Arqana Breeze-up Sale-topping figure of €1.9 million for a Night Of Thunder colt who went the way of Godolphin and summed up the outstanding piece of business as "the stuff of dreams". Out of Date With Destiny, the only foal that the chronically subfertile George Washington sired, the Night Of Thunder colt was picked up by Farrell for 90,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.  Speaking of the monumental profit, he said, "It's...

Isaac Shelby, who became the first Governor of Kentucky in 1791, is believed to have inspired the Kentucky state motto: 'United we stand, divided we fall'. He sounds like he would have been a good man to run British racing, but the best we can hope for now is that his equine namesake makes as much of a success of his stallion career as the real Shelby did in his career in the military and politics.  It quickly became clear that Night Of Thunder (Ire) was a pretty special stallion...

It's time to revisit our annual series to assess the sires of 2025 with the aim of working out where the value lies. We'll reissue the usual caveat that value means different things to different people. For the benefit of this series, we are using the euro as our currency for bracketing, and will deal with stallions in the following four tiers: €50,000 and up €20,000 to €49,999 €10,000 to €19,999 Under €10,000. Only one of the new additions to the European stallion ranks for 2025 makes it into the...