OMBUDSMAN is one of four Group 1 winners for Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) in 2025, his clearcut win in the £1.3 million Juddmonte International on Wednesday’s opening day of York doubling his own tally at this level after victory in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

On the same card, the Darley stallion, who stood for €150,000 this season at Kildangan Stud, was responsible for the unbeaten Gewan. That two-year-old colt gave Andrew Balding a second success in recent years in the Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes, after the Group 1 Dewhurst and Group 1 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean.

This is a continuation of a great run of success for Night Of Thunder, and takes his haul of pattern race winners in a week to four, following More Thunder in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes and that of Zahrann in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes. Night Of Thunder leads the sires’ championship, and his 2025 top-flight winners include the Group 1 1000 Guineas heroine Desert Flower, and the US Grade 1 winners Choisya and Dynamic Pricing. The quartet is half of his total of eight Group/Grade 1 winners.

After standing for his first two seasons in Kildare, Night Of Thunder moved to Dalham Hall for two more, standing at £15,000 – his lowest fee. Ombudsman is from his fifth crop, conceived when he returned to Kildangan at a cost of €25,000. Buoyed by continued success, his fee rocketed to €75,000 for two years, climbed to €100,000 for two more, and hit a high in 2025. Is this the end of the price rises? Not if the current success rate continues.

There was a mighty return for breeder James Hanly when he sold Ombudsman for 340,000gns as a yearling, given that he acquired his dam Syndicate (Dansili) for 25,000gns as a winning two-year-old from Juddmonte. The Tipperary man did not head to stud at four with his new purchase, running her instead in his wife Charlotte’s silks. Syndicate won again, at Ffos Las. She had a filly for her first foal, American Belle (Starspangledbanner), who sold for 38,000gns and won twice for James Fanshaw.

Impressive winner

Next was Ombudsman who, prior to his York triumph, was an impressive winner of his Royal Ascot Group 1, and runner-up in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes. Unraced at two, he was unbeaten at three when winning a Group 3 and listed race in France. Now he has amassed €1.9 million, and is set to overtake Highfield Princess and become the biggest earner for his sire. He is about €250,000 behind.

When Ombudsman’s yearling full-sister went for sale last year she sold to SackvilleDonald for 900,000gns and is named Synchronicity (Night Of Thunder). Hanly has a yearling half-sister by Ten Sovereigns (No Nay Never) which would appear to be retained, holding no sale entry.

Syndicate has two stakes-winning full-brothers. Runnymede (Dansili) won 11 races, including an Italian Group 3 and a listed race in Germany, while Stipulate (Dansili) won two listed races, in England and Australia.

Ombudsman’s third dam, Insinuate (Mr Prospector), gained her only win in a listed race at Ascot. She bred seven winners including a Group 3 winner by Danehill (Danzig), and one by Dansili (Danehill). Insinuate is a daughter of Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp winner All At Sea (Riverman), and is her best performer.

High regard

The Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes winner Gewan (Night Of Thunder) is a hugely exciting prospect, and was sold as a breezer by Mick and Sarah O’Connell’s Longways Stables. They regarded him highly, but he was overlooked at the Arqana Sale, eventually being a lossmaker when the couple agreed a private sale to Billy Jackson-Stops for €80,000. The colt had cost 100,000gns at Newmarket.

Bred in partnership by Overbury Stud (Simon Sweeting) and Dukes Stud (Charlie Wyatt), Gewan is the second foal out of Grey Mystere (Lethal Force), a stakes-placed two-year-old winner in France who sold, in foal for the first time to Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), for €120,000. The resulting filly, Darn Hot Mystery, proved to be a sale disappointment, selling for 34,000gns, and after two placed efforts on her first two starts has failed to feature in four subsequent runs. A win now would be a big bonus.

Grey Mystere and this year’s stakes-placed three-year-old Ginalyah (Chachnak) are among five winners out of Creamcake (Mr Greeley), a half-sister to Coquerelle (Zamindar), the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner and placed at the same level.

Derby selection finally comes up trumps

BACK in June I was asked to go through the Derby contenders on pedigree, and attempt to name the winner and placed horses. I suggested Pride Of Arras (New Bay) would beat Delacroix.

The former did not run any sort of race, finishing second last, while Delacroix’s hampering was offered as an excuse for finishing 16 lengths behind stablemate Lambourn in ninth position.

Delacroix left that run well behind him when beating Ombudsman in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, and on Wednesday was firmly beaten in the Group 1 Juddmonte International, second to the Sandown runner-up. Pride Of Arras did nothing to enhance his reputation when finishing last in the Irish Derby, and a week later he was gelded.

Though he went to Epsom with two wins under his belt, including York’s Group 2 Dante Stakes, Pride Of Arras’s two Derby disappointments seemed to expose his limitations, and trainer Ralph Beckett says that the decision to deny him a stud future was easily made. However, Vimy and David Aykroyd’s homebred was back at York on Wednesday, and back in the number one spot after the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes.

Pride Of Arras was one of two runners in the Derby for Ballylinch Stud’s New Bay – New Ground was fourth and then ran third in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris. A son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), New Bay won five times from a mile to 12 furlongs, landed the 10 and a half-furlong Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and ran third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe to the Derby winner Golden Horn.

Successes

On the dam side of the family, Pride Of Arras is out of another Ackroyd homebred, Parnell’s Dream (Oasis Dream), and she gained both her racecourse successes over a mile and a half. Interestingly, all three of Pride Of Arras’s winning siblings, who each stayed 10 furlongs and more, went on to win twice over hurdles.

For fans of Irish history, the well-named Parnell’s Dream is a daughter of Kitty O’Shea (Sadler’s Wells), an unbeaten, listed-winning full-sister to the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy and St Leger winner Brian Boru. Kitty O’Shea’s best winner, the Saratoga stakes winner Kissable (Danehill Dancer), bred three Group or Grade 1 performers. They are Prix Royallieu and Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Loving Dream (Gleneagles), Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 Saratoga Derby second Legend Of Time (Sea The Stars), and the US stakes winner and Grade 1 American Oaks-placed Amandine (Shamardal).

Group 2 Park Hill Stakes winner Eva Luna (Alleged) is the third dam of Pride Of Arras, and she bred another family member who won the Group 2 Great Voltigeur at York, Sea Moon (Beat Hollow). He now stands at Burgage Stud.

Under Eva Luna you will also find the Group 1 Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce (King’s Best), champion Australian stayer and three-time Group 1 winner Best Solution (Kodiac) and his Group 1 two-year-old winning full-brother El Bodegon (Kodiac), and the Cheltenham Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Cinders And Ashes (Beat Hollow).