WHERE have the years gone? In 2009 I travelled with a team put together by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing to India. My fellow visitors were Michael O’Hagan, Maurice Moloney, Joey Cullen, Hugo Merry and Rolline Kavanagh, now O’Callaghan. I have many happy memories of that time, meeting so many interesting people.

One person we did not meet was Shapoor Mistry, though we did visit his farm, one of the oldest and most storied in India. Manjri Stud Farm is in Pune and predates the involvement of Mistry, who was given it as a birthday present. I reported at the time that this was in 1980, which would have been for his 16th birthday. Perhaps the manager gave us the wrong year, and it is more likely to have been for his 21st in 1985. Other reports I have read say the Mistry family acquired it in the mid-eighties.

Manjri Stud Farm was set up by Sir Sultan Chinoy and his partners, and then passed on to Madhavrao Scindia before it was purchased by the present owner. It is renowned for the quality of the horses it breeds, including a number of Indian Derby winners. According to the Indian Stud Book, the farm is home to four sires, two of which are 22.

Arabian Gulf (Sadler’s Wells) and Phoenix Tower (Chester House) are the two old-timers, followed by the 17-year-old Japanese-bred Fiero (Deep Impact), while the youngest of the quartet is the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Order Of Australia (Australia).

Anthony Stroud

For a long time Mistry has been a friend of Anthony Stroud, and nine years ago the agent spent just 32,000gns at the Tattersalls February Sale for Cape Castle (Cape Cross), carrying a foal who would be a member of the first crop by Night Of Thunder (Dubawi). Cape Castle raced for Saeed Manana and was trained by Clive Brittain. She posted a most interesting race record, and it would be lovely to be able to ask the trainer why he persevered with her.

Cape Castle raced once at two and was beaten 27 lengths, just one runner behind her in a maiden at Newmarket. The following season she also made a single start, in a Kempton maiden over a mile, and again she had just one behind her when she crossed the line 36 lengths off the winner. With such efforts under her belt, a quick cull would have been understandable, but instead she raced on at four.

On her seasonal debut, Cape Castle showed a first sign of ability on the track, tried over a longer trip – almost 14 furlongs – and was second. Back to 10 furlongs she was well beaten, but then ran up a sequence of three wins over 12 and 14 furlongs, before adding a fourth. She was no world beater for sure, but improved her rating to somewhere in the early 80s.

Shapoor Mistry owns and bred the Oaks winner \ Healy Racing

Shapoor Mistry

After her purchase by Shapoor Mistry, Cape Castle had her first foal in Ireland, a filly, and then was brought to India where her second, another filly Alba (Dawn Approach), was born. She seems to have had a couple more fillies there, by Phoenix Tower, but they do not seem to have added anything to the pedigree by way of performance. How different the story is with her first foal. She was offered for sale twice, as a foal at Goffs and a yearling at Tattersalls Ireland, and was unsold on both occasions. From the results, it would appear that €20,000 would have bought her each time.

Named Thundering Nights, she was sent by Mistry to Joseph O’Brien, who coaxed a win out of her in a Galway maiden on her third juvenile run. At three, she didn’t appear until mid-July when she was beaten by subsequent Group 1 winner Sonnyboyliston in a Curragh handicap, going down by a short head. Within six weeks, she was beating the Group 1 two-year-old winner Albigna in the Group 3 Snow Fairy Stakes.

O’Brien obviously felt there was more in Thundering Nights, and she had an ambitious four-year-old programme that saw her travel to France and the USA, but it was on Irish soil that she would post her best win when she battled to victory in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes. She was a nose off landing a Grade 2 in the USA, and just over a length behind the winner in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet. Now, the unwanted sale filly was a hugely valuable broodmare prospect, and Mistry chose to retain her.

Not surprisingly, Thundering Night’s first port of call would be with one of the best stallions in the world, and she went to visit Frankel (Galileo) at Banstead Manor Stud. She went in foal immediately, and on January 17th, 2023 foaled a filly who would prove to be her sole progeny. Mistry kept the filly, named her Thundering On, and sent her to Joseph O’Brien. She failed to win either of her two starts last year, and was beaten first time out at three.

Night Of Thunder

Deep end

O’Brien knew the ability she had, and pitched her in at the deep end while still in search of a first win. The word was out and Thundering On was sent off favourite for, and won, the Group 3 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Salsabil Stakes at Navan. Epsom was to be her next port of call. The authority with which she put daylight between herself and the rest to run away with the Group 1 classic hints that she is a filly on a major upward trajectory, and we could have a very special filly to watch for this season, and maybe next.

Thundering On is from a superb family, and one in which fillies shine brightly. She is the first Group 1 winner for Frankel from a Night Of Thunder mare, but he has had plenty out of Dubawi’s daughters. She also becomes her sire’s 38th Group or Grade 1 winner.

Dubawi daughters

At Epsom, Thundering On was followed home by two daughters of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), Legacy Link and Sugar Island. Emphasising the quality of two-year-old maidens in Ireland, the latter beat the Oaks winner at two by almost three lengths at the Curragh.

Legacy Link went to Epsom with the Group 3 Musidora Stakes under her belt, and she is the first foal out of a winning own-sister to none other than Frankel, and to triple Group 1 winner Noble Mission (Galileo). This is an outstanding Juddmonte family, much of whose success descends from the listed winner Kind (Danehill).

The family of the Oaks third, Sugar Island, has been dealt with in detail in this column. Winner of the Group 3 Silken Glider Stakes last year, she is half-sister to the unbeaten Victorious (Wootton Bassett), who recently won the Group 3 Juvenile Sprint Stakes at Naas. Their dam is a Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) winning full-sister to three Group 1 classic winners in Minding, Tuesday and Empress Josephine, and they are all daughters of Lillie Langtry (Danehill Dancer). She won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot 16 years ago.