MY ITM Stallion Trail itinerary on Saturday included a visit to Kildangan Stud, home to a fantastic roster of nine sires. There was naturally a great interest among breeders in the newcomer to the stud for this season, Shadow Of Light (Lope De Vega). The European champion juvenile after victories in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes goes into battle at a tasty fee of €17,500, and is being well received.

Though I had seen him on many occasions, the appearance of Night Of Thunder this time took on an added significance, given that he has been crowned the champion sire of 2025. He stands for a high of €200,000, having jumped by €50,000 now for each of the past two seasons, and it seems hardly believable that for his third and fourth season at stud, when he relocated to Dalham Hall Stud to make him more available to British breeders, he stood for just £15,000.

There have been so many notable achievements for Night Of Thunder, and an interesting one is that he was the only stallion with seven-figure sales yearlings in Britain, Ireland and France in 2025. Best of these was a half-sister to Group 1 winners Chicquita, Diamond Necklace and Magic Wand who sold to Amo Racing for €3 million at Arqana, while five lots made 1,000,000gns or more at Tattersalls October Book 1 and he had a €1 million yearling filly at Goffs Orby.

All of this came on the back of a year when he sired five individual Group or Grade 1 winners, headed by the brilliant Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Juddmonte International winner Ombudsman. In Europe he also got the Group 1 1000 Guineas heroine Desert Flower, and the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes hero Gewan. The latter will not be his only classic hope for 2026, and watch out too for Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Bow Echo, Group 3 winner and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes third Distant Storm, and the Group 3 Autumn Stakes victor Hankelow.

Ensuring that his reputation internationally is also appreciated, Choisya won the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes in the USA, and giving him a top-flight double stateside was the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes winner Dynamic Pricing. Completing his 2025 roll of honour of pattern heroes and heroines were such as Group 2 winners Estrange, Charlotte’s Web, More Thunder and Zeus Olympios, while successful at Group 3 level were Ten Bob Tony, Sunly and Zahraan.

Turned 15

What he achieved in 2025, with more than 30 stakes winners, can be added to prior success with such stars as Economics, the exceptional sprinter Highfield Princess, Pretty Polly Stakes winner Thundering Nights, and the Queensland Derby winner Kukeracha. The demand for his progeny now reflects the belief that many have that he can be a strong challenger for champion sire status for some years to come, and this year he has just turned 15. His own sire Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) is still going strong at 24.

While there are others bred on similar lines, just three Group 1-winning sons of Dubawi are out of mares by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Darley stands another in Ghaiyyath, also based at Kildangan and available for one-tenth of Night Of Thunder’s fee. He is off the mark as a Group 1 sire, his son Observer winning the Victoria Derby. Meanwhile, entering his second season at Coolmore Stud is Henry Longfellow, and he proved a big hit with breeders last year, covering more than 170 mares.

Night Of Thunder, aside from an Indian classic winner, is the only other stakes winner in his family’s first three generations. However, the combination of Dubawi with the Listed Flame Of Tara Stakes runner-up Forest Storm (Galileo) clicked, and he became the best racehorse in this branch since his fourth dam, Forest Flower (Green Forest).

Forest Flower

Trained by Ian Balding, Forest Flower won the Group 3 Queen Mary Stakes, Group 3 Cherry Hinton Stakes and the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes at two and was runner-up in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. Despite concerns some had about her short stature, she trained on to become the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine. She was 1986’s juvenile filly champion in Europe.

Night Of Thunder made a wonderful start to his stud career, and ended 2019 as the champion first-season sire in Europe by earnings and by races won, with 28 winners of 45 races and over €1,000,000 from 48 runners. He sired three pattern winners in that year in three countries, with Night Colours in the Group 2 Premio Dormello in Milan, Pocket Square in the Group 3 Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville and Under The Stars in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot.

Unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile in 2013, including the Listed Doncaster Stakes, Night Of Thunder put up a spectacular performance to win the Group 1 Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket the next spring. He produced a remarkable burst of speed to score by half a length from Kingman, subsequent Epsom Derby hero Australia, Charm Spirit and Toormore. That was the only defeat ever sustained by Kingman, who took his revenge in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Best milers

Night Of Thunder later ran two more fine races to be second to Charm Spirit in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and a close third in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin. In the World Rankings, Night Of Thunder was rated one of the best three-year-old milers in Europe in 2014, together with Kingman and Charm Spirit. Purchased by Godolphin that winter, Night Of Thunder remained with trainer Richard Hannon and won the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes over a mile at Newbury, holding off Toormore by a neck, with the brilliant filly Integral in fourth place.

When you look through the list of breeders who used Night Of Thunder in 2025, sending him some 169 mares, it is truly the crème de la crème of the international world. This, combined with the quality of mares he is now attracting, will play a huge part in the future when it comes to keeping him at the top of the sires tables. He will, in time, no doubt also play a significant role as a sire of sires, and as a broodmare sire.

He may be called Night Of Thunder, but the future is sunny for this particular Irish-based stallion.