No Nay Never

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...

Aesop's Fables (Ire) (No Nay Never) will stand at Starfield Stud next season, Compass Stallions announced on Monday. The G2 Futurity Stakes winner will command a fee of €6,500, with limited breeding rights available. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, Aesop's Fables retires as the winner of three of his 17 career starts. He also won this year's Listed Sole Power Sprint Stakes at Naas in May, having produced two of his best efforts at the end of last season when finishing third in both the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp...

Wootton Bassett (GB) has had his fee increased to €300,000 as he prepares to embark on his fifth season at Coolmore Stud in 2025, while European champion two-year-old and Derby winner City Of Troy has been introduced at €75,000. This year Wootton Bassett's first crop of Irish-bred two-year-olds have swept all before them, featuring four individual top-level winners in Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Camille Pissarro (Ire), Criterium de Saint-Cloud scorer Tennessee Stud (Ire), Criterium International hero Twain (Ire) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Henry Matisse (Ire). This season Wootton...

Ballydoyle's Bounty (Ire) (No Nay Never--Rosdhu Queen {Ire}, by Invincible Spirit {Ire}) had little to beat in the six-furlong maiden at Naas on Sunday and made no mistake to open his account in style. Runner-up on debut in a Curragh maiden last month, the son of the 2012 G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine was contained on the front end throughout the early stages by Wayne Lordan and went through the race untroubled en route to a bloodless 4 1/2-length success from Iceford (Ire) (Beckford {GB}) as the 2-9 favourite. The...

Proving yet again that Aidan O'Brien's second string is never to be discounted in pattern races, the 25-1 shot Merrily (No Nay Never--Caponata, by Selkirk) swooped to conquer in Friday's G3 Godolphin Lifetime Care Oh So Sharp Stakes at Newmarket. Anchored in rear early by Wayne Lordan, the relative of Sunday's Arc heroine Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) was a touch free early in response the switch in tactics from her latest fifth in the G3 Weld Park Stakes. Saving her energy for the finale this time, the $325,000 Keeneland September...

Godolphin made their first purchase at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale on Tuesday when Anthony Stroud struck the winning bid of 2,200,000gns on their behalf for a colt by No Nay Never offered by Ballylinch Stud. Lot 92 is out of the Listed winner Bella Estrella (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and a half-brother to last year's G2 Champagne Stakes scorer Iberian (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). Bella Estrella is in turn a full-sister to the G3 St. Simon Stakes winner and G1 Oaks third High Heeled (Ire)....

   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 victory of Queen Olly in Florida. Queen Olly Reigns At Gulfstream Amo Racing USA's Queen Olly (Ire) (No Nay Never) won her second straight start in the U.S. and first at Gulfstream Park on Sept. 27 (video). When in training in Great Britain with David Loughnane and then George Boughey, the 'TDN Rising Star' was placed in both the G2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes and...

Abundant rain turned Newmarket's ground to heavy before Friday's action and while it sunk the much-vaunted Formal (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G2 Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Rockfel Stakes, it proved no hindrance to fellow TDN Rising Star Bubbling (Ire) (No Nay Never--Lumiere Noire {Fr}, by Dashing Blade {GB}) as she became the latest Ballydoyle juvenile filly to register a black-type win in 2024. Partnered by Ryan Moore after the stable's Ecstatic (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) was taken out due to the going, the impressive Galway maiden winner and Listed...

   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 victory of Special Wan at Kentucky Downs on Saturday.   Team Valor Filly Strikes In Kentucky Team Valor International and Steven Rocco's Special Wan (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) was first past the post in a Kentucky Downs contest in her U.S. debut on Sept. 7 (video) for trainer Patrick Foley. Bred by Kilnamoragh Stud, the G3 Ballycorus Stakes second and G3 Brownstown Stakes third was a...

DEAUVILLE, France -- While nothing will ever top Derby day as the day in the racing calendar not to be missed, a close second is Prix Morny day in Deauville. Or in fact any racing day in Deauville.  Those mizzly days of autumn with almost nobody there are special in their own aloof way, but Morny day - or Sumbe Prix Morny day to give it its full title - is one that offers something for everyone, whether purist or holidaymaker, in sharp suits or shorts. Probably no course in...

He's been a bit hit-and-miss so far in his brief career, but Ballydoyle's Whistlejacket (Ire) (No Nay Never--Adventure Seeker {Fr}, by Bering {GB}) was in front where it mattered to master his peers in Sunday's stallion-making G1 Sumbe Prix Morny at Deauville. Breaking fast to get the stands' rail, the 27-10 favourite was able to force the pace without the kind of pressure he had endured during last Sunday's G1 Phoenix Stakes. The G2 July Stakes winner kept finding for Ryan Moore to get to the line 3/4 of a...

Baron Edouard de Rothschild's four-time Group 1 winner Mqse De Sevigne (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), who successfully defended her G1 Prix Rothschild title at Deauville last month, will return to the Normandy venue in an attempt to register back-to-back victories in Sunday's G1 Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet. She will encounter four rivals after all five overnight contenders stood their ground for the €250,000 10-furlong contest. Opposition includes 'TDN Rising Star' Left Sea (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who was supplemented at a cost of €18,000, and the enigmatic Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill...