NAYEF (by Gulch), the top-class half-brother to Nashwan (by Blushing Groom) and Unfuwain (by Northern Dancer), is well-established as a source of stakes and pattern winners and he has made a promising start with his stallion sons too.
Group 1-winning miler Tamayuz is also a Group 1 sire whose precocious son Sir Prancealot got his first winner in England on Monday.
Other Nayef stallions include Valirann, who has foals on the ground, classic-placed Royal Ascot winner Mustajeeb, who is a popular new addition to the team at Overbury Stud, and Snow Sky, the Timeform 124-rated horse who was third in the Group 1 St Leger before taking both the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup and Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes.
That Juddmonte-bred bay is covering his first mares at Ballycurragh Stud, which is also home to Alkaadhem (by Green Desert), the stallion whose handful of runners include this season’s National Hunt blacktype scorers The Organist and Moylisha Tim.
Snow Sky is out of the stakes-placed mare Winter Silence (by Dansili) and the string of Group 1 winners in the family include two of her half-brothers.
Polish Summer (by Polish Precedent) won the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic and Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville, and Meteor Storm (by Bigstone) won the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park in addition to a trio of Grade 2 events. Polish Summer is the sire of the multiple graded winning chasers Pistolet Rouge and Toner D’Oudairies.
Their half-brothers Host Nation (by Grand Lodge) and Morning Eclipse (by Zafonic) are also blacktype scorers and their pattern-placed half-sister Winter Solstice (by Unfuwain) is both the dam of Group 2 Prix Greffulhe scorer Ice Blue (by Dansili) and grandam of Group 1 Nassau Stakes heroine Winsili (by Dansili).
Their dam Hunt The Sun (by Rainbow Quest) was placed in France and it is no surprise that she succeeded at stud as two of her full-brothers were multiple Group 1 stars. Raintrap won the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak, the Grade 1 Rothmann’s International and the Grade 1 San Juan Capistrano Handicap, and he sired winners under both codes from small numbers of runners, including flat listed scorer Harbore and blacktype-placed jumper Il Manifico.
Sunshack won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud as a two-year-old, beat Monsun in the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris at three, and took the Group 1 Coronation Cup, Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak and Group 2 Prix Jean de Chaudennay at the age of four.
Their pattern-paced full-sister Summer Breeze did her bit for the family by becoming the dam of the Group 2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes winner and triple Group 3 scorer Doctor Fremantle (by Sadler’s Wells), and she is the grandam of Group 3 Prix du Prince d’Orange winner Starboard (by Zamindar).
With his combination of racing record and pedigree profile, Snow Sky looks sure to be popular in his new role.
Won five races, £490,061, from 1 mile to 1 mile 6 furlongs, at 2 to 4 years including, Betway Yorkshire Cup, York, Gr.2, Hardwicke Stakes, Ascot, Gr.2, Neptune Investment Gordon Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.3, betfred.com Derby Trial Stakes, Lingfield Park, L, also placed second in Neptune Great Voltigeur Stakes, York, Gr.2, and third in Ladbrokes St Leger Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.1. Retires to stud in 2016.
Stands at: Ballycurragh Stud, Rathoe, Co Carlow, Ireland
Contact: Willie Murphy or Jim Murphy
Telephone +353 (0)59 9148621 or +353(0)87 2216994 (Willie) or +353 (0)87 7707305 (Jim)
Email: ballycurragh@gmail.com
Fee: on application