Four stars from the Irish Stallion Trail – Sportinglife.com

No Nay Never stars on memorable morning at Coolmore

Coolmore Stud wasn’t the first stop for me on this year’s Irish Stallion Trail, but I make no apology for starting this review with my experience there on Saturday morning having tried to articulate earlier this week just how much I was looking forward to going back.

An opportunity to see arguably the greatest collection of stallions anywhere in the world, it certainly didn’t disappoint, although the weather briefly threatened to derail all my best-laid plans.

Shortly after completing the drive into the main car park – along a road lined with the statues of legendary Coolmore stallions from years gone by and akin to what Magnolia Lane must be like for a golfer – the heavens then opened and provided the first of what would prove to be several heavy showers throughout the day.

There was nothing for it but to take shelter in one of the covering sheds before the tour could begin and it was there that I was greeted by a rather familiar sight. Up there on the wall was a cropped list of Timeform’s top 100 two-year-olds in 2022, the sort that arrives in my email inbox every Monday during the summer, except this one served to highlight just how many of them were by Coolmore sires – six of the top 10 colts and seven of the top 16 fillies.

Eight different stallions helped to give Coolmore such strong representation on that list, though it’s worth pointing out that much of the work was done by one horse. Indeed, while the other seven all produced one two-year-old of notable talent in 2022, NO NAY NEVER alone produced no fewer than six, featuring two of the top four colts, the Group One winners Little Big Bear and Blackbeard, plus four highly-rated fillies, headed by the Royal Ascot and Breeders’ Cup winner Meditate.

The only new recruit to Coolmore Stud for 2023, Blackbeard himself was among those paraded once the rain had abated sufficiently to allow us to break from our cover on Saturday. Even then, it was still raining enough that many onlookers sought shelter under umbrellas, causing a brief moment of concern for our tour guide who wasn’t sure what the curious Blackbeard would make of such a scene.

Mercifully, Blackbeard was the consummate professional, much like his sire No Nay Never, who was the next to appear from his box. A stocky horse, No Nay Never has impressed in his appearance ever since he first introduced himself on European soil as a two-year-old, dwarfing his rivals in the parade ring before he won the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2013.

Just as impressive was the raw speed No Nay Never demonstrated to win that day, breaking Ascot’s two-year-old track record at the time, and it was that combination which shone through again in his juveniles in 2022, particularly in the case of Little Big Bear, a physically-imposing sort who showed rare brilliance when running away with the Phoenix Stakes.

“What Little Big Bear did that day at the Curragh was up there with the highest-rated Timeform performances by a two-year-old in a long time,” summed up Coolmore’s Mark Byrne when we sat down after the stallion parade to discuss the brilliant year No Nay Never enjoyed in 2022.

“You’ve also got Blackbeard and Meditate. Blackbeard was the only two-year-old to win two Group Ones last year and we saw what Meditate did in America.

“No Nay Never really launched himself last year. He’s got top-class two-year-olds, he can get Group One milers and they’re showing great longevity in their careers as well, the likes of Alcohol Free. We saw what she went on to do as an older horse and, of course, what she made [5.4 million guineas) at the sales at Tattersalls in December.”

Siring a classic winner is the next big bucket list item for No Nay Never and that could happen as soon as May when Little Big Bear and Meditate are likely to feature among the leading contenders for the 2000 Guineas and 1000 Guineas, respectively. It promises to be another big year indeed and Byrne is confident that the best is very much still to come from the son of Scat Daddy.

Byrne added: “The two-year-olds of 2022 would have been No Nay Never’s first crop covered at a six-figure nomination fee. It’s only gone up since then and his book of mares has kept getting stronger each year. He has great numbers and great quality in his book, so it’s going to be a really sustainable platform.

“This year we’re also going to have the first-season runners for the likes of Ten Sovereigns, who is a son of No Nay Never. We’re already on to the next generation of them and it’s hugely exciting with Blackbeard obviously retired here as well now. For a young stallion, he’s left quite a legacy already and it’s probably only going to get stronger.”

Night of Thunder ready to cause a storm in 2023

Speaking of legacies, it was the end of an era at Kildangan Stud in April 2020 when Shamardal was euthanised due to health issues. The sire of 25 individual Group/Grade One winners at the time of his death, Shamardal was the mainstay of Darley’s Irish stallion roster for many years and had just enjoyed perhaps his best season yet in 2019 when the unbeaten two-year-old colts Earthlight, Pinatubo and Victor Ludorum all struck at the top level.

Shamardal is survived by two of his sons on the Kildangan roster, namely Blue Point and Earthlight, and only time will tell whether they can emulate the success of Lope de Vega – more on whom shortly – and further enhance Shamardal’s reputation as a sire of sires.

In the meantime, top billing at Kildangan now belongs to the hugely exciting young stallion NIGHT OF THUNDER, who gave an early indication that he might be destined for the top when his first two-year-olds hit the track in 2019. The Shamardal juveniles may have run riot that year, but Night of Thunder did remarkably well for one just starting out with multiple pattern-race winners, including the likes of Molatham (Autumn Stakes), Pocket Square (Prix des Reservoirs) and Under The Stars (Queen Margaret Stakes).

That crop also included Highfield Princess, who has since achieved the highest Timeform rating of any of Night of Thunder’s progeny when reeling off a hat-trick of Group One wins last season. She is reportedly staying in training as a six-year-old which will give her connections plenty to look forward to in 2023.

However, for the team at Kildangan, it’s this year’s crop of two-year-olds for Night of Thunder – the first conceived after his early runners made such a big impression in 2019 – which seemingly has them most excited as he tries to follow the example of No Nay Never by taking things to another level altogether in the months ahead.

“The quality of mares Night of Thunder covered in that 2020 book was just incredible,” Kildangan’s Nominations Manager Eamon Moloney told me when I spoke to him after Night of Thunder and co had taken a turn for the large crowds gathered at the stud on Friday.

“It rivalled what his sire Dubawi was covering that year, even at a €25,000 fee, which was amazing. It’s incredibly exciting and those foals went on to sell exceptionally well. As yearlings they averaged well over €200,000 and it’s just moving from there.

“It’s such an exciting story because his stats are through the roof. You can never take the stats away from him and he had 22% Stakes winners/runners in that first crop which is still impressing people now.”

There’s been less to be impressed about from Night of Thunder’s third and fourth crops so far, but it’s nothing new for a stallion to go through a lull at that stage of their career before bouncing back having received better mares in the aftermath of their early success. It can happen to even the very best, as Moloney and the Darley team know from their own experience.

Moloney explained: “For us going back, we found that even Dubawi and Shamardal dipped. It’s not uncommon to have a dip like that, but it’s those elite stallions who come back strong and hopefully Night of Thunder can continue that trend with his two-year-olds.

“They’ve gone to every big trainer and every big owner tried to invest in him. We have quite a few to go into training ourselves with Charlie [Appleby] and all the different entities. He sits just outside the top 10 in the sires’ table because he’s on those slightly lesser crops, but people view him as a kind of top five stallion and this year is going to be a huge year for him.”

The future looks very bright for New Bay

Ballylinch Stud resident NEW BAY is two years behind No Nay Never and one year behind Night of Thunder in his career development as a stallion, so the fact he managed to finish sixth among the leading sires in Britain and Ireland in 2022 was a real feather in his cap.

For context, not only did No Nay Never (tenth) and Night of Thunder (thirteenth) finish behind New Bay in those rankings, but so too did his studmate Lope de Vega (ninth), who is comfortably the most expensive of the five stallions standing at Ballylinch at a fee of €125,000.

Lope de Vega was still the headline act when I visited the stud on Friday, a proven top-class sire having produced 17 individual Group/Grade One winners over many years, but he could soon face competition for top billing if New Bay continues in the same vein, with three top-level winners already on the board despite having only had his first runners in 2020.

It was last year that things really stepped up a gear and New Bay has had his fee for 2023 increased to €75,000 (from €37,500) after the exploits of the four-year-olds Bay Bridge and Saffron Beach and the three-year-old Bayside Boy – a new addition to the stallion roster at Ballylinch for 2023 – all of them Group One winners during the latest season.

Saffron Beach, who had previously given New Bay the breakthrough at the top level when winning the Sun Chariot Stakes in 2021, doubled her tally against the best around when also winning the Prix Rothschild, while the sire’s other two Group One wins came in the space of around 45 minutes on a memorable afternoon at Ascot, with Bayside Boy winning the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes before Bay Bridge followed him in with victory in the Champion Stakes.

That would have been remarkable feat for any sire and it’s not just what New Bay has done and how quickly he’s done it which marks him out as something potentially out of the ordinary. It’s also the fact that he wasn’t even that well supported when he first started his stud career, a trend which has quickly been turned on its head.

“2022 was a great year for New Bay and only a handful of stallions in Europe managed to get three Group One winners,” summarised Ballylinch’s Eoin Fives. “He’s done it off a low fee and he’s only had two crops get to that age where they can win Group Ones at three and four.

“It was an incredible achievement and that’s reflected in his price and his popularity this year. We were overrun with applications, even at the new fee of €75,000, and he’s been booked out since before Christmas.

“The most exciting thing about it for me is that he’s never had those big books of mares. His crop numbers have been in the 60s and 70s in his first four, so his yearlings selling this year will be by far his biggest crop.

“They were covered on the back of his promising two-year-olds in 2020 which included the Group Two winner New Mandate and the Group Three winner Saffron Beach. He covered 180 mares at €20,000 and it’s definitely his best bunch physically. We’d have high hopes for what’s going to happen with them.”

In the meantime, New Bay still has another group of two-year-olds to hit the track, his fourth crop which will have to buck the negative trend we’ve seen with so many other stallions over the years. Again, New Bay won’t have many to run for him, but Fives is optimistic that the bunch he does have will still be capable of making some sort of impact.

Fives continued: “He doesn’t have a big number in his fourth crop which will be his two-year-olds this year, but the promising thing about them is that they sold incredibly well as yearlings.

“They averaged nearly €100,000 and they were covered off a fraction of that fee at €15,000 that year. They were just a really nice bunch overall and I’d very hopeful that they’ll be able to do something this year and keep his name in lights.”

First-season sire Phoenix Of Spain could surprise

From three stallions who have already had their names in lights in recent years, we now move on to the stallions for whom the 2023 Flat season will be the first big test of whether they’ve got what it takes to make a success of their stud career.

There are a few obvious contenders in the battle to be crowned leading first-season sire in Britain and Ireland this year. Inns of Court would be one through sheer weight of numbers alone – no other first-season sire can match his bumper crop of 169 two-year-olds – and he could hardly be in better hands at Tally Ho Stud, previously home to the leading first-season sire in successive years when Mehmas took the title in 2020 before Cotai Glory followed suit in 2021.

Blue Point, a son of Shamardal based at Kildangan, and Ten Sovereigns, a son of No Nay Never based at Coolmore, are a couple of others expected to make a significant impact with their first runners in 2023, but they haven’t been missed by anyone having covered big books of mares at the not insignificant fees of €45,000 and €25,000, respectively.

PHOENIX OF SPAIN, on the other hand, is arguably going a bit more under the radar, perhaps because he ended his career with a bit of a whimper having followed his victory in the 2019 Irish 2000 Guineas with four straight defeats. Or perhaps it’s because he doesn’t have a three-figure crop of two-year-olds to go to war with like so many of his contemporaries.

Either way, it’s worth pointing out that similar limitations didn’t stop Phoenix Of Spain’s sire, the aforementioned Lope de Vega, from making headlines when his first runners hit the track in 2014, ending that year as Europe’s leading first-season sire by prize money won.

For good measure, Phoenix Of Spain’s grandsire, Shamardal, also claimed that crown back in 2009, so you can see why Cathal Beale, CEO of the Irish National Stud, is optimistic that the family might strike it rich for a third time in 2023.

Beale explained: “Phoenix Of Spain is going to have 95 two-year-olds on the ground which is roughly the same as Lope de Vega and Shamardal before him. They had 16 Stakes winners and 17 Stakes winners, respectively, in their first crops, so if we get halfway there we’ll be very happy!

“He’s done everything very similarly to what Lope de Vega has done before him. He’s his highest-rated son at stud and his only classic winner at stud, so we hope he’s going to follow in Lope de Vega’s footsteps.”

Prior to winning the Irish 2000 Guineas, Phoenix Of Spain had been precocious enough as a two-year-old to win in Group Three company before later suffering a narrow defeat in the Futurity Trophy. True, he didn’t make his debut until the July of his juvenile campaign, but it’s not out of the question that we could see his first offspring some time before then according to Beale.

He added: “They look like horses that are going to be backend two-year-olds, but the word from the trainers so far is that they’ve been surprised by how forward they are. They might surprise a few people and be out a little bit earlier than might have been expected.

“A lot of them look like Phoenix himself. They’re big and strong, they’ve got great bone and they cover a huge amount of ground. Mentally, they seem to be very, very steady. The trainers and the pre-trainers are telling us that they’re eating up, they’re doing their work. They can lead the string or they can go to the back of the string.

“It all bodes well for what he’s going to do and it’s an exciting time. The next six months will tell us a lot, but we’re excited about what he can do.”