IN the same week that he won the coveted Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat Breeder of the Year Award, James Hanly enjoyed yet another Group 1 success as a breeder, though in this case he did so with two long-time partners, Trevor Stewart and Anthony Stroud.

The success came courtesy of the five-year-old Estrange, her first at the highest level, but this was no fluke, rather a thoroughly deserved victory. The daughter of 2025 champion sire Night Of Thunder (Dubawi), on course currently to retain that crown, was originally trained by John and Thady Gosden – not a lot of people know that – and moved to David O’Meara while still unraced. She won on her debut as a three-year-old at Goodwood, was mid-division next time out in listed company, but won at that level as the flat season came to an end.

Last year, she faced the starter four times, winning Group 2 and 3 races at Haydock before tackling two of the season’s best Group 1 contests for fillies. She lost nothing in defeat, other than the opportunity to call herself a top-level winner, when failing to cope with Minnie Hauk in the Yorkshire Oaks and Kalpana in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes. It would have been understandable had her owners Cheveley Park Stud sent Estrange to be covered this spring, given that mares have limited opportunities to reproduce.

Nice cheque

Thankfully the call was made to race on with her. Estrange built on her Group 3 victory at Carlisle in May, transferred from Haydock, and snapped up a nice cheque for €235,000 by winning the Paddy Power Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh on Saturday. Her value for breeding purposes was added to, though she is unlikely to ever be sold by Cheveley Park.

How pleased must the partners in the unraced Alienate (Oasis Dream) be after this win, given that in the spring they welcomed into the world a full-sister to Estrange, and how relieved they must feel on a regular basis that, having paid 100,000gns at Tattersalls for Alienate as an unraced three-year-old from Juddmonte, they chose not to sell her the following year. At the time they considered selling, she was in foal to Siyouni (Pivotal), but there was a setback when the colt she had was never named.

Next up was Lmay (Frankel), and she redressed any bad luck suffered with Alienate’s first foal when she sold to Thady Gosden as a yearling for 650,000gns. She won once for The Thoroughbred Racing Corporation, and got some valuable blacktype when third in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes. She had her first foal this year, a colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi).

Another filly

A year after Lmay was born, Alienate had another filly, Estrange, and she cost Cheveley Park Stud 450,000gns as a yearling. This was on the back of Night Of Thunder standing his third season – after two at Dalham Hall – for a fee of just €25,000. The following season he had jumped to €75,000, this year catapulted to €200,000, and it will no shock if that figure is left well behind for 2027.

Pinatubo (Shamardal) stood his first season as a Darley sire in 2021, and Hanly, Stroud and Stewart sent Alienate to Dalham Hall for mating, resulting in a colt who sold for 140,000gns as a yearling. He proved to be disappointing as a breezer, selling in Arqana for €60,000. Named Basalt, he won at two, was a well-beaten third in a listed race at Pontefract, and the following July he sold for 220,000gns, a fine price at the time. Sent to Qatar, he has won five races, placed in the Listed Qatar Derby, and paid for the investment with winnings of £370,000.

Sadly, Alienate’s next offspring, a colt by Lope De Vega (Shamardal) was not named, and this year’s yearling out of her is a filly by Blue Point (Shamardal).

THIS column could almost allot a space each week for news of Darley’s Night Of Thunder (Dubawi). Estrange is his thirteenth son or daughter to win at racing’s top table, and continues a fine year for the Kildangan Stud resident. I have written often about how he has done it ‘the hard way’, so to speak.

Two seasons – his third and fourth – at Dalham Hall saw him stand at an advertised fee of £15,000, and in his first few seasons he was covering books of around 100 mares. His sensational start, and move back to Ireland, had breeders sitting up and taking notice, and now he is among the world’s elite cohort of sires.

His sire championship year in 2025 saw him get 32 stakes winners. including the European champion juvenile and Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes hero Gewan. That colt’s sad demise looked as though it would leave a huge gap to be filled. Instead Night Of Thunder has simply carried on, and so far has 14 blacktype winners, and a staggering five of them at Group/Grade 1 level in 2026l. This more than any sire globally.

Female side

What of the female side of Estrange’s pedigree. As good as Night of Thunder is, and the enormous influence he is having, Alienate’s dam is from an outstanding distaff line, and it is no surprise that she should have a Group 1 winner. This is a long-serving family at Juddmonte. Estrange’s homebred fourth dam, Didina (Nashwan) was Grade 1-placed in the mid-nineties, and her five victories were headlined by a win in the Grade 2 Diana Handicap at Hollywood Park.

With seven winners, Didina did well, though none approached her own ability. Two were stakes winners, one in Chile, but through two daughters she has left a mark. The 2023 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Unquestionable (Wootton Bassett) traced back to one of Didina’s daughters, Auction Room (Chester House). However, for this review, I will focus on her stakes-winning filly Tantina (Distant View).

Trained by Barry Hills for Khalid Adbullah, Tantina raced only at three. She won her first four starts, improving each time, and was successful in listed company at Goodwood and Doncaster. On her fifth and final outing she was third in the Group 3 Supreme Stakes back at Goodwood, after which she was found to be lame. Her racing trajectory indicated that she was likely to keep getting better, but an earlier than anticipated retirement to stud proved to be a blessing.

Bated Breath

Two of Tantina’s four winners were the UAE Group 1 winner Cityscape (Selkirk), a multiple Group 1 sire, and Banstead Manor Stud’s Bated Breath (Dansili), also a Grade 1 sire. She had a third blacktype runner, Scuffle (Daylami). Not as talented as her siblings, she won three times and was stakes-placed, but showed her true ability as a broodmare, half of her eight winners winning stakes races, and two daughters breeding top-level winning mares.

The best winner from Suffice is Logician (Frankel), the Group 1 St Leger winner seven years ago. He is doing well in the sale ring with his National Hunt progeny, and has sired a listed hurdle winner at Auteuil. Meanwhile, Alienate’s winning full-sister Sleep Walk (Oasis Dream) is dam of the dual Grade 1 Diana Stakes winner Whitebeam (Caravaggio).