GREAT Wish, a five-year-old son of Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) trained in Denmark by Bent Olsen, struck for the first time in pattern race company on Sunday when he recorded the ninth win of his career, capturing the Group 3 Prix de Meautry.
The six-furlong contest at Deauville was run on heavy ground, but Great Wish handled it with aplomb, winning by four-and-a-half lengths, with a daughter of Night Of Thunder back in third. Still an entire, Great Wish has won in Denmark, Sweden, the UAE and France, and is having a bumper year.
It started when he gained his first blacktype win, in the Listed Dubai Sprint at Meydan. He was unplaced, but just two lengths behind the winner, when tackling the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint, and was the same distance behind Almeraq in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot when sixth. His preparatory race for Deauville saw him post a win in a Listed race in Copenhagen.
Bent Olson bought Great Wish for £130,000 as a breezer in Doncaster, though he had been listed as a sale at 200,000gns to Joseph O’Brien in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale. He was the second stakes winner of the weekend bred by Noel O’Callaghan’s Mountarmstrong Stud. Rob Tierney and his team there will offer a Mehmas (Acclamation) half-sister in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale. By then, they will be hoping that the two-year-old half-sister, Chanter Le Blues (Blue Point), might visit the winners’ circle, as she placed on her only start to date.
Should this happen, their dam, the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes heroine and Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes runner-up Anthem Alexander (Starspangledbanner), would have a full house of winners with her first seven foals. No doubt the Mehmas will not be sold cheaply, as she is just the second filly among the eight progeny of the Royal Ascot winner. Anthem Alexander, who only found Tiggy Wiggy too good for her in the Cheveley Park, is a half-sister to top sprinter and sire Dandy Man (Mozart). The O’Callaghan clan has a long association with this family. Noel’s brother Gay bred Great Wish’s third dam Sandhurst Goddess (Sandhurst Prince). She won four races trained by Noel, including a listed race at the Phoenix Park, and was group-placed.
She was sound, facing the starter 37 times. The best of her three winners was Lady Alexander (Night Shift), the grandam of Great Wish.
Lady Alexander
A fast and precocious juvenile trained by Con Collins, Lady Alexander beat King Of Kings in the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh, and followed up with victory in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood. At stud she had eight winners, Dandy Man and Anthem Alexander being the stars, and her grandsons included listed winner Alkassar (Shamardal), in addition to Group 3 Abernant Stakes winner and Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp third Hamza, a son of Amadeus Wolf (Mozart). The Group 3 winning sprinter Dandy Man, third in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, was a star for Joe Foley’s Ballyhane Stud, and gave great days in the sale ring and on the racecourse for hundreds of breeders. He sired three Group/Grade 1 winners, and is the broodmare sire of Noel O’Callaghan’s Group 1 Matron Stakes winner No Speak Alexander (Shalaa).
This neatly dovetails into another Mountarmstrong Stud-bred stakes winner at the weekend, Silent Beauty (Night Of Thunder). On her third outing she won for the second time, significantly in the Listed Champion 2YO Trophy at Ripon. This is a timely update for her Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) half-sister heading to the Tattersalls Book 1 sale in a few weeks’ time. Given her preferred conditions, Amo Racing’s filly can go on to take higher order.
€1 million
Silent Beauty is the second foal and first runner for No Speak Alexander, and she sold at Goffs last year for €1 million. I recall speaking with both Alex Elliott for Amo, and Noel O’Callaghan, in the aftermath of the sale. One was more talkative than the other. The vendor was more interested in selling another lot, but ventured: “We are not surprised. She was good from day one. Let’s hope she is a good racemare.”
Elliott offered a little more. “We don’t need to say too much about Night Of Thunder at this stage. She’s out of a Group 1 winner and it’s Noel’s family top to bottom. She’s a very sweet, good-bodied filly. She’s going to have to be early. She’s a January foal, bred to be fast and she looks fast. I’d say we’re going to know our fate early as you’d like to think she’s in that Royal Ascot two-year-old type of mould. The price was at the top end of our range.”
The filly ran down the field at the royal meeting. No Speak Alexander produced a career best run to win the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in a tight finish, having to survive a lengthy stewards inquiry. She won the Group 3 Athasi Stakes and placed in the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas. O’Callaghan also raced her dam Rapacity Alexander (Dandy Man), a listed winner at two in France.
Hong Kong star
Rapacity Alexander was foaled three years after her full-brother Peniaphobia (Dandy Man), and that gelding developed into a star in Hong Kong, after winning three of his four starts at two for Richard Fahey.
He moved to Tony Cruz and won more than £3.6 million, winning another nine races headed by the Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint. He was one of the three top-level winners by Dandy Man.
Night Of Thunder, the champion sire of 2025, is having another spectacular season and Great Wish took his season’s tally of group/graded winners to 18, more than any other stallion in the world. They are led by Group 1 winners Ombudsman and Bow Echo, the top two horses trained in Europe, Ten Bob Tony, Estrange and Portfolio Duration.
Sadly, both Bow Echo and Estrange have been retired.
Having completed the covering season in Kildangan at a new high fee of €200,000, Night Of Thunder is fast approaching a notable milestone. He has now sired 95 individual blacktype winners, 13 at the highest level. The majority of his stakes winners have achieved their best result in group pr graded stakes, while his total of horses to earn any blacktype is 150. He has been at Kildangan for all but two of his 11 seasons at stud, and for the two years he was at Dalham Hall he stood at just £15,000.
Jimmy Hyland
Recently, Jimmy Hyland told me: “Night Of Thunder’s stud career is something like that of his sire [who stood for £15,000 in 2009 and has cost £350,000 for the last four years]. Dubawi has passed on to Night Of Thunder his ability, and both have done it the hard way, coming through the ranks. Night Of Thunder is doing so well, and was damsire of the Oaks winner this year.
“Both sires throw very similar types, with lots of substance, but their temperament is extraordinary, and that is one of the key attributes of their stock. They can adapt to change, are easy to work with, are honest every day. They are sound and have this will to win; they put their head down close to the line and give you everything. We are very fortunate to have this line going back to Dubai Millennium (Seeking The Gold).”
Along with Great Wish and Silent Beauty, Night Of Thunder sired Curragh Group 3 winner Miss Scott. Bred by Ballylinch Stud, this 650,000gns yearling is a third stakes winner out of Queen Guenevere (Camelot). The others, Group 1-placed Grand Stars (Sea The Stars) and Group 2-placed Catalina Delcarpio (Lope De Vega), sold for €800,000 and 800,000gns respectively in the last two years.