Storm Boy (Aus), a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed when trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, is set to join Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle ahead of a European campaign in 2025, Coolmore Australia announced on Tuesday.
The son of Justify is the winner of five of his 10 career starts and was bought by Coolmore and a group of their friends and clients for an undisclosed sum after he made it three from three with his victory in the Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic back in January. On his next start he won the G2 Skyline Stakes, before finishing third, beaten just a length and a quarter, in the G1 Golden Slipper, the world's richest race for juveniles.
The first foal out of the winning Fastnet Rock (Aus) mare Pelican (NZ), Storm Boy also won the G3 San Domenico Stakes on his return to action as a three-year-old, before posting creditable efforts in defeat when finishing third in the G2 Run To The Rose and fourth in the G1 Golden Rose. He was beaten around two lengths when last seen finishing eighth in The Everest.
Storm Boy, who was initially bought by Waterhouse, Bott and Bruce Slade's Kestrel Thoroughbreds for A$460,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, will follow in the footsteps of So You Think (NZ) and Starspangledbanner (Aus) as elite performers in the Southern Hemisphere to have joined O'Brien at Ballydoyle.
In a statement on X, Coolmore Australia said, “Talented three-year-old Storm Boy will travel to Ireland to be trained by Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle, with a view to contesting top sprint races in Europe next season.”
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