CURRENTLY one of the three youngest sires in the top 100 on this season’s leading National Hunt sires list, Dylan Thomas already has 11 individual winners over jumps in 2014-5, including such bright young rising stars as Vercingetorix, Shield, Daneking and Lucky Bridle. This is his second season at Castle Hyde, where he was in great demand last year, covering 150 mares.

Dylan Thomas has also made an excellent start with his runners on the flat, which in their first four seasons have already won over 335 races worldwide and more than €7,500,000 in prize money. In 2014 he had seven individual group winners, including both the champion colt and the champion filly in Italy, with Dylan Mouth scoring in the Italian Derby and the Group 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club, while Final Score took the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio and the Italian Oaks. He has also sired Group 1 winners in three other countries, notably Tannery in the E P Taylor Stakes at Woodbine in Canada and Nymphea in Germany.

EUROPEAN CHAMPION

Dylan Thomas had already been the European champion three-year-old over 10 furlongs in 2006 when this son of Danehill was also named the champion older horse over a mile and a half in the 2007 World Rankings, with a rating of 129.

Undoubtedly the climax of his six Group 1 victories was his success in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but earlier that season Dylan Thomas had easily taken the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes and he had already scored in the Irish Derby as a three-year-old.

Described by Kieren Fallon as the best horse that he has ever ridden, Dylan Thomas was quickly off the mark as a two-year-old, winning his first two starts at Tipperary and Leopardstown. The highlight of Dylan Thomas’s second season was his three and a half lengths triumph in the Budweiser Irish Derby, which he followed up with a courageous victory over Ouija Board in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes.

Earlier he had won the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial and was only a short-head and a head behind Sir Percy when third in the Epsom Derby. Timeform rated him on 129 at the end of the 2006 season.

LONGCHAMP

As a four-year-old Dylan Thomas had an easy win in a listed race at the Curragh before going to Longchamp to score by two lengths in the Group 1 Prix Ganay, then he just failed by a head to catch Notnowcato in the Tattersalls Gold Cup. In the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot he was a close second to champion Manduro, but took his revenge on Notnowcato and Sir Percy, before returning to Ascot in July for a four lengths success over Youmzain in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Though beaten a length by the Epsom Derby hero Authorized in the Juddmonte International at York in August, Dylan Thomas then scored a repeat victory in the Irish Champion Stakes. Going on to Longchamp for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, he showed tremendous courage to just hold on by a head from Youmzain in fast time, with Derby winners Soldier of Fortune and Authorized well behind them.

Dylan Thomas is a half-brother to two brilliant fillies – Queen’s Logic who was officially the best two-year-old filly in Europe in 2001, when she won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and Group 2 Lowther Stakes, retiring still unbeaten to become the dam of dual Group 2 heroine Lady Of The Desert.

Then in 2012 their half-sister Homecoming Queen, a daughter of Danehill’s son Holy Roman Emperor, carried off the Group 1 Newmarket 1000 Guineas by a massive nine lengths. Their dam Lagrion, a daughter of champion Diesis, is a sister to the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes runner-up Pure Genius and the next dam is half-sister to the Oaks Trial heroine Gift Wrapped, the grandam of champion filly Papering. That side of the pedigree of Dylan Thomas is very much an outcross to his sire Danehill.

DYLAN THOMAS (IRE)

Race record: World champion older horse over 12 furlongs in 2007. Winner of 10 races and £3,316,132 from 2 to 4 years, in Ireland, England and France, 7-12 furlongs, inc Budweiser Irish Derby, Curragh, Gr.1, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Longchamp, Gr.1, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Irish Champion Stakes, Leopardstown, Gr.1 (twice), Prix Ganay, Longchamp, Gr.1, and Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial Stakes, Leopardstown, Gr.2; 2nd in Juddmonte International Stakes, York, Gr.1, Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.1, and Tattersalls Gold Cup, Curragh, Gr.1; 3rd in Derby Stakes, Epsom, Gr.1.

Stud record: Retired to stud in 2008. Sire of the winners of more than 335 flat races and over €7,500,000 from his first 4 crops, inc Dylan Mouth (Gran Premio del Jockey Club, Milan, Gr.1, Derby Italiano, Rome, Gr.2), Final Score (Premio Lydia Tesio, Rome, Gr.1, Italian Oaks, Milan, Gr.2), Nymphea (Grosser Preis von Berlin, Hoppegarten, Gr.1), Tannery (EP Taylor Stakes, Woodbine, Gr.1), Blazing Speed (Champions & Chater Cup, Sha Tin, Gr.1), etc.

Stands at: Castle Hyde Stud, Fermoy, Co Cork. Enquiries to Tom Gaffney or Joe Hernon at 025 31966, or visit www.coolmore.com.

Fee: €5,000