THE birth of a colt foal by Frankel (Galileo) at Whatton Manor Stud recently will have brought smiles of joy to the faces of Nick and Alice Nugent. The couple own the dam, Noyelles, and what a find she was by the couple when they purchased her at the 2007 Arqana December Sale in Deauville for €22,000. The mare is based at Alice’s family’s farm, run today by her brother Ed Player.

Not only has Noyelles gone on to become a successful broodmare with two stakes winners, but her siblings and their offspring have contributed a further 16 stakes winners to the immediate family in the intervening years, five of them Group 1 winners. The success has been nothing short of exceptional, and credit to Nick and Alice for their foresight to be there from the start. There can be few families in the stud book that have had so much success in the past decade.