Night of Thunder

As the start of the flat season dawns, all eyes will be on Night Of Thunder (Ire). Can the champion first season sire maintain the dizzying momentum with which he rolled through 2019? Will the Guineas winner's first-crop train on as 3-year-olds, and will his second crop pick up the baton? Reflecting back on Night Of Thunder's performance last year-which placed him among the best first-season sires in recent memory-a glaring trend is apparent among his progeny: all four of his pattern-race winners, and six of his nine stakes winners,...

In this TDN series we ask a group of experts for their predictions for the 2020 flat season in Europe. Today we hear from Whatton Manor's Ed Player. TDN: Who do you think will be the leading first-season sire this year? EP: I'm a big fan of Shalaa (Ire). He has it all; good looks, racing ability and he bred a fantastic first crop of mares. TDN: Have you raised/bred many by Shalaa? Does he typically stamp his stock? EP: We sold an outstanding yearling colt by him, out of...

When all was said and done in the first-season sires' race in Europe in 2019, it was undoubtedly the year of Night of Thunder (Ire). Darley's G1 2000 Guineas and G1 Lockinge S. winner was out in front on his own not only in terms of quantity-he sired the winners of the most races (44), stakes winners (seven), stakes horses (11) and group winners (three) and had the highest earnings (£879,457/€1,034,567) of any sire in his intake-but also quality. As detailed by John Boyce at the tail-end of the season,...

Dubai Love (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) had already proved she stayed a mile as a juvenile and back up to that distance in the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas she was able to turn the tables with the favoured Final Song (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), to whom she had finished fourth in the trial three weeks earlier. In this instance Final Song had to settle for third behind her stablemate, continuing a good start to Thursday's Meydan meeting for trainer Saeed Bin Suroor and Godolphin, who also won the opening...

It is hard to believe this is the fifth year in a row I have traversed rural Ireland on the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Irish Stallion Trail, and while it represents a unique chance for the general public who are interested in the bloodstock industry to get a glimpse of some household stallion names, for me personally it provides a lovely opportunity to see the new kids on the block who will be covering mares for the first time this spring. The majority of these are not long out of competition...

We are all familiar with the flash-in-the-pan stallions who blaze a trail with their first crop of runners only to sink with relatively little trace in ensuing seasons--a situation doubtless exacerbated by fleeting whims of a commercial market. For the sires whose debutants took to the track in 2019, the results achieved were important in regard to continuing or boosting their appeal to breeders booking mares for the 2020 season, but of even more importance is what happens now that their first crops are of the Classic age. When Dubawi...