NO Nay Never sired a pair of stakes winner at Royal Ascot, Little Big Bear on the opening day and Group 3 Albany Stakes winner Meditate on Friday.

The latter is now unbeaten in three starts, including the Group 3 EBF Naas Juvenile Sprint Stakes, a race won in recent years by Sky Lantern and Alpha Centauri. Meditate was bred by Lynch-Bages and Rhinestone Bloodstock, and sold to Jamie McCalmont, on behalf of MV Magnier, for €360,000 at Arqana last year. She is one of three stakes-winning juveniles in 2022 for her Coolmore sire, along with Group 3 winner Blackbeard.

Meditate is the second winner out of Pembina (Dalakhani), a €400,000 purchase by BBA Ireland as a four-year-old at Goffs and one of eight successful offspring from the listed winner Mahalia (Danehill). The eight are led by Group 3 winner and Group 1 runner-up Johnny Barnes (Acclamation), now at stud in France. Her other stakes winner was the Group 3 heroine Albisola (Montjeu), and she is grandam of this year’s Group 2 winner Purplepay (Zarak) who sold for €2 million last year.

However, the most successful of Mahalia’s progeny was the unplaced Tonnara (Linamix), thanks to the fact that at stud she bred a pair of Group 1 winners, Ectot (Hurricane Run) and the St James’ Palace Stakes winner Most Improved (Lawman). In fact, six daughters of Mahalia are producers of stakes winners, and half of them have bred more than one.