22 April 2020

Cream of the crop

Night Of Thunder stands out among the very best in Britain and Ireland

Dubawi’s Classic-winning son Night Of Thunder enjoyed a record-breaking 2019 with his first crop of juveniles. Despite the 2020 season being on a temporary hiatus for many racing jurisdictions, Night Of Thunder’s first three-year-old’s have continued to display top-class ability on the track.

Night Of Thunder equalled the first-season record of seven individual Stakes winners in 2019 and has already added one to that tally this year through Dubai Love. Trained by Saeed bin Suroor, she was a winner on debut last season at Nottingham on heavy turf and became her sire's first Stakes winner on dirt when taking the Listed UAE 1,000 Guineas at Meydan.

Looking at the 2017 crop of all British and Irish stallions, Night Of Thunder is unmatched by his ratio of Stakes winners to runners, with one in seven taking a Listed or higher contest. He leads Shamardal, who himself broke records with three unbeaten G1-winning colts in 2019, with No Nay Never, who is standing this season at a fee of €175,000, in third. Filling the next three places are New Approach, his sire Galileo, and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass.

In addition to Dubai Love, Night Of Thunder has added another Stakes performer this season – the Swedish-trained Silent Night, who was only beaten a neck in the Listed Meydan Classic on her last start. With 13 Stakes performers from his first crop, which is nearly one in four runners, Night Of Thunder again beats the best stallions in Britain and Ireland.

One of the main tropes from his first crop of runners is that Night Of Thunder is a prodigious winner-getter. He stands head and shoulders above the next best stallion with 20 plus runners, with nearly 62% of his runners visiting the winner's enclosure.

Already this season he has had winners in seven individual countries from his European-bred runners, including the promising Media Storm, bred by Wellsummers Farm, a debutant winner for James Tate at Wolverhampton in February. In France, the G1 Prix du Jockey Club-entered Loquito broke his maiden by two lengths, while just last weekend, the Derek Iceton-bred Tell Me Thunder won on his first start at Jägersro in Sweden.