BILLED as a showstopper in advance, the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes lived up to that promotion, despite the non-appearance of the French 2000 Guineas winner. The English and Irish winners were there, and again provided a pulsating finish, with the George Boughey-trained Bow Echo (Night Of Thunder) prevailing by a short head. Nearly three lengths separated them at Newmarket.

This was an emotional win in the colours of the late Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, and rather aptly the racecard on Tuesday featured a tribute to the deceased owner-breeder. Forever recalled as the man who bred Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), his Bow Echo is inbred 3x3 to the Group 1 Oaks d’Italia winner Zomaradah (Deploy).

She won that Italian classic in 1998, just before Sheikh Mohammed Obaid won the Group 1 Derby with High-Rise (High Estate), both horses sharing the same female line. Approaching the 140-mark for blacktype wins, the yellow with three black spots of the Sheikh’s silks have been seen to effect at Royal Ascot too. Bow Echo was the eleventh winner to sport the colours there, and the fourth at Group 1 level since Triple Time in 2023.

A year later, he enjoyed a top-level double, Rosallion taking the St James’s Palace Stakes and Inisherin capturing the Commonwealth Cup. This year’s Group 1 Neom Cup winner Royal Champion (related to Bow Echo) was Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s second winner of the Wolferton Stakes after Juan Elcano, while his other Royal Ascot winners are Afsare, his first, Cape Byron, Ostilio, Defoe and Fujaira Prince.

Ten Bob Tony

On a memorable day for Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), three of his sons contested the opening race of Royal Ascot 2026, and took home the lion’s share of the prize fund of £800,000. The four-year-old Zeus Olympios finished fourth, but it was two members of his 2021 crop who fought out the finish, victory going to the gelded Ten Bob Tony over the full horse, More Thunder.

While the Timeform tipster suggested in the racecard that this Group 3 winner at Epsom just 10 days earlier was likely to be outclassed back up in trip and grade, Ten Bob Tony instead produced a career best performance to win the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes. It was a clean sweep for Darley stallions, as Night Of Thunder’s fellow Kildangan Stud sire Ghaiyyath, another son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), was responsible for the third-placed Opera Ballo.

Champion sire for the first time in 2025, Nights Of Thunder is showing no signs of resting on his laurels, and Ten Bob Tony is his fourth winner at the highest level this year. Classic and Royal Ascot winner Bow Echo, the stunning Wednesday feature winner Ombudsman who won the Group 1 Dubai Turf in March, and the recent US Grade 1 winner winner Portfolio Duration are the others.

Broodmare sire

With a dozen winners at the highest level, and three on the first two days of Royal Ascot, Night Of Thunder has soared to the top of the sires’ listing for 2026, and with the rate of success he is having at present, he is currently favourite to retain his champion sire title. His fine run this season has also seen him record afirst Group 1 success as a broodmare sire, thanks to Thundering On in the Oaks.

Twice successful at Group 3 level, both times in the John of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock, Ten Bob Tony was sent off at 50/1 for the Queen Anne Stakes, but he proved too good for them all. He was bred at the Co Limerick Knocktoran Stud when it was in the ownership of Brendan and Anne-Marie Hayes. They sold the farm in late 2023 to the O’Mahony family.

Ten Bob Tony is the latest Group 1 star in a family that Brendan Hayes has curated for many decades. The gelding’s winning dam is a half-sister to the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas winner Tie Black (Machiavellian), while third dam Mill Princess (Mill Reef) had 11 winners, with Royal Ascot’s Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Last Tycoon (Try My Best) being the highlight among them. The galaxy of stars descending from Mill Princess would take up all four pages of Breeding Insights to do them justice.

A double-up for No Nay Never

NIGHT Of Thunder was not the only sire to record a double on day one of this week’s Royal Ascot meeting, and the first four races were won by progeny of either the Kildangan Stud stallion and Coolmore’s No Nay Never (Scat Daddy). Night Of Thunder’s 2026 fee was €200,000, while No Nay Never stood for half that amount.

Both sires were born on the same year, and both have been very successful at stud. The Coolmore stallion went to stud a year before Night Of Thunder, and has 11 Group or Grade 1 winners among a total of 79 blacktype winners. The Kildangan sire has 88 blacktype winners, and one more top-flight scorer. This would suggest No Nay Never’s fee this year was very good value.

Mission Central’s win in the competitive Group 1 King Charles III Stakes was a triumph for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud where he was bred. O’Leary’s brother Eddie and Mags O’Toole bought the three-year-old gelding’s dam Thar She Blows (Zoffany) carrying the Group 1 winner for 400,000gns, and immediately cashed in when getting 625,000gns for Mission Central as a yearling.

Jamie Osborne spent 48,000gns on Thar She Blows as a yearling, but she never ran. She did however benefit from the fact that her year-younger full-sister Prosperous Voyage (Zoffany) emerged as a Group 1 winner of the Falmouth Stakes, having run second in both the Fillies’ Mile and 1000 Guineas. Thar She Blows has a yearling colt by Kingman (Invincible Spirit), and a filly foal, a full-sister to Mission Central.

Back in foal to the sire again, Eddie O’Leary says that That She Blows “will be married to No Nay Never for as long as he is around”!

The Barronstown Stud-bred Great Barrier Reef (No Nay Never) remains unbeaten in three starts, adding the Group 2 Coventry Stakes to his victory in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes. He is now the best of five winning sons and daughters produced from mating Gems (Haafhd) with No Nay Never. The others include the Group 2 Superlative Stakes winner Mystery Power, and David and Diane Nagle have a yearling full-sister at home.

Ballylinch sires to the fore

THE final three contests on day one kicked off with the first of a number of winners at the meeting sired by a Ballylinch Stud stallion. The four-year-old gelding Kizlyar (Make Believe) held on by a head to beat his stablemate Defiantly in the two and a half mile Ascot Stakes.

Bred by the Aga Khan Studs, and a winner over 14 furlongs in France at three, he sold at last year’s Arqana Summer Sale for €110,000, and has now won twice for the H O S Syndicate. Kizlyar is the first winner for Kisanga (Redoute’s Choice), a half-sister to the Group 3-winning filly Kastasa (Rock Of Gibraltar). Their dam, in turn, is a half-sister to the Group 1 The Irish Field Irish St Leger winner Kastoria (Selkirk).

Francis Graffard saddled Map Of Stars (Sea The Stars) to land the Listed Wolferton Stakes, and here was another with an Aga Khan Studs connection, as the five-year-old gelding’s sire stands at Gilltown.

The winner was a class act running at listed level, having previously won the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt and finished runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Ganay.

Map Of Stars is the second blacktype winner out of Group 1 Prix Vermeille heroine Bateel (Dubawi), after his half-sister Tajlina (Kingman) who won last year’s Group 3 Prix Penelope. Bateel’s first foal was placed, Map Of Stars and Tajlina are next, and she had a third winner when her three-year-old sonThe Odyssey (Frankel) won this year. Map Of Stars was bred by Al Asayl in France.

Racing on Tuesday concluded with the Copper Horse Stakes, won in a driving finish again by the four-year-old Daiquiri Bay. That son of Ballylinch’s New Bay (Dubawi) held off a son of Lope De Vega by a head. Foaled at Tweenhills Farm, and bred by The Strawberry Martini Partnership, this 100,000gns foal buy by Yeomanstown Stud was later sold as a breezer for 62,000gns to Highflyer Bloodstock and his trainer Alan King.

Daiquiri Bay is the only winner to date for Strawberry Martini (Mount Nelson), a listed winner in Italy.