Night of Thunder

KILDARE, Ireland--"A good, good day," said Goffs group managing director Henry Beeby as he cogitated the results from another solid session of the Goffs February Sale. The all-weanling cast put on a show which resulted in €2,161,800 being added to turnover which has now surpassed that reaped by the previous two-day sale of 2020, while the median remained at a respectable €10,000 and the average was €15,665 for 138 horses sold (76%). In that transitional stage from being overgrown foals to becoming the nascent racehorses that many will appear to...

Strip away the brass name plates, parade the Darley stallions in front of seasoned horsemen and ask them to pick the horse who last year sired three Breeders' Cup victors among 38 stakes winners and was the broodmare sire of the Derby winner. Of those who haven't seen him before, it is unlikely that many would choose Dubawi (Ire). Unlike his sire, the brilliant but ill-fated Dubai Millennium (GB), he is not a horse who 'fills the eye' with those long classic lines and fluent stride. On the short side...

NEWMARKET, UK-the middle market has flourished at the yearling sales transatlantically thus far in 2021, and that trend proved out again on Monday during the first of three sessions of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, where figures were not only well up on the remarkably strong 2020 renewal staged in the midst of the pre-vaccine pandemic, but at this stage also trending ahead of 2019's record edition. The first day of Book 2 saw records for turnover, average and median for a session at Book 2. Of...

A 2-year-old colt by American-based sire Creative Cause is bound for the stable of trainer Simone Brogi after Nicolas de Watrigant of Mandore International Agency went to €100,000 to secure the colt on behalf of Middleham Park Racing and partners during the opening session of the Arqana Summer Sale on Wednesday. Lot 8, out of the winning Proud Citizen mare Fight With Pride, represented a good pinhook for Willie Browne of Mocklershill, having cost $12,000 at Keeneland September last year. The colt was bred by Brereton Jones and his son...

Coming into 2021, there was little Frankel (GB) hadn't yet accomplished in his rise to the top of the stud ranks. In four crops of racing age he could already claim a world's highest-rated horse, a champion middle-distance horse and champion 2-year-old, Group 1-winning milers and stayers, and an Oaks winner. This weekend, the Juddmonte sire exceeded even his own lofty standards by siring Godolphin's Irish Derby winner Hurricane Lane (Ire), and thus giving him victory in both the English and Irish Derbys following on the heels of Adayar (Ire)...

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

NEWMARKET, UK--So here we are, at the furlong pole, and somehow still hard on the bridle. With just Book 4 to go, the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale continues to confound the gloom generated this year as the bloodstock industry--along with the wider economy--reeled under the nightmarish burden of a pandemic. On Friday, even the weaker second session of Book 3 sailed serenely clear of the riptide. Turnover of 2,274,500gns soared past the equivalent day last year, up a giddy 27% from 1,796,400gns. That yielded an average of 10,245gns, up from...

There was just one offering by Night Of Thunder (Ire) in this year's Goffs Sportsman's Sale, and the Castlebridge-consigned filly duly topped the two-day auction with bid of £72,000 from Peter and Ross Doyle. Lot 730 is the fourth foal out of the placed Manduro (Ger) mare Muzhil (Ire), whose 3-year-old Monzoon (Ire) (Bated Breath {GB}) has become the mare's first winner since the catalogue was published. Muzhil is a half-sister to Godolphin's triple group winner Beautiful Romance (GB) (New Approach {Ire}). The filly proved a profitable pinhook, having cost...

Fledgling consignor Clare Manning of Boherguy Stud stole all the headlines during the opening session of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale on Monday when selling her grandfather Jim Bolger's Teofilo colt (lot 165) for a sale record price of £325,000, and it was more of the same on Tuesday when Manning sold Bolger's New Approach (Ire) colt out of the dual Group 3 winner Maoineach (Congaree) (lot 260) for a session-topping £190,000 to Robson Aguiar acting on behalf of Amo Racing and trainer Roger Varian. Like the Teofilo colt...

The Thoroughbred Breeders' Association gave out 10 awards during a virtual edition of its Flat Breeders' Awards Evening on Thursday. Godolphin won four: the Queen's Silver Cup for leading British-based breeder by prize money; the BBA Silver Cigar Box for leading British-based stallion by prize money (Dubawi {Ire}); the Barleythrope Stud Silver Cup for leading British-based stallion by individual winners (Dubawi); and the inaugural British European Breeders' Fund Stallion Special Merit Award for Night Of Thunder (Ire). European Breeders' Fund Marketing Communications Manager Rachael Gowland said, "Night Of Thunder stood...

Last month's G2 Dante S. winner Thunderous (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) will sit out the rest of his 3-year-old campaign after picking up an injury while training. Trained by Mark Johnston for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, Thunderous has won four of his five starts and bettered the highly regarded Highest Ground (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) by a neck in the Dante. Thunderous was preparing for a run in the Sept. 13 G1 Grand Prix de Paris. "Sadly Thunderous has met with an injury in training and it is something we are...

Dubawi (Ire) being a good stallion is not exactly a newsflash. The increasingly interesting element of his success, however, is his growing number of sons and grandsons making a mark at stud. Dubawi's own season has been headlined by the Group 1 winners Ghaiyyath (Ire), Lord North (Ire) and Space Blues (Ire), while G2 Superlative S. winner Master Of The Seas (Ire) looks to be one of the more exciting juveniles seen out in Europe so far. In this year's freshman sires' championship, Ballylinch Stud's son of Dubawi, New Bay...