Isaac Shelby a First for Night Of Thunder and Wathnan Racing

[Wandering Eyes]

Isaac Shelby, who became the first Governor of Kentucky in 1791, is believed to have inspired the Kentucky state motto: 'United we stand, divided we fall'. He sounds like he would have been a good man to run British racing, but the best we can hope for now is that his equine namesake makes as much of a success of his stallion career as the real Shelby did in his career in the military and politics. 

It quickly became clear that Night Of Thunder (Ire) was a pretty special stallion when he ran away with the first-season sires' championship of 2019. Members of that first crop helped to sustain that impression, like Highfield Princess (Fr), who really came into her own as a five-year-old, and is one of three Group 1 winners from that first batch of Night Of Thunder's stock.

The group winners have kept coming, and Isaac Shelby (GB), from his sire's fourth crop, now holds the distinction of being the first son of Night Of Thunder to retire to stud. He is noteworthy for other reasons, too, as Isaac Shelby was among the earliest private purchases for Wathnan Racing back in 2023 and he also becomes the first of that operation's burgeoning band of runners to take up stallion duties. Others will surely follow. 

Now five, this week marks the official start of Isaac Shelby's covering duties at Newsells Park Stud. He enjoyed an away day to Tattersalls during the February Sale when he joined the stallion parade, and where he appeared not to turn a hair at the prospect of being back out in public with plenty of other horses around. 

“I've dealt with a few Night Of Thunders and that Dubawi sire-line a fair bit, and I've known that their temperament is generally very good, but this horse seems to have an exceptional nature,” says Julian Dollar, general manager of Newsells Park Stud. 

“He'd had a year off from when he sustained an injury, so he hadn't been out, but he came into the yard and settled into cage turnout then paddock turnout very easily. He's a very kind horse, and he's just a lovely character.”

 

 

Bred by Elaine Chivers from the unraced Heliostatic (Ire) mare Kentucky Belle (Ire), Isaac Shelby's dam may have been bred in Ireland but her name, like that of her son, points to her American heritage.  The mare's stakes-placed dam Mine Inning (Mining) was a juvenile winner who went on to produce nine winners from her 11 runners, including the GII scorer Ramazutti (Honor Grades). In fact, Mine Inning's first two dams also produced a heap of winners: 19 between them from 22 runners, with a liberal sprinkling of black type across the page. 

A shade over 16hh, Isaac Shelby should suit most mares physically. He is inbred 3×3 to Galileo (Ire), the sire of Heliostatic and of Night Of Thunder's dam Forest Storm (Ire). 

“We think the 3×3 inbreeding to Galileo is a positive,” Dollar says. “I think you can breed him to Sadler's Wells-line mares, which has obviously worked very well with Dubawi and Night Of Thunder, but if we treat him like a Night Of Thunder, we know that they work very well with with Nureyev and Pivotal. You've got Economics, who is out of a Peintre Celebre mare.”

He continues, “We know that Night Thunder works particularly well with Danzig, and you've got [G1 Fillies' Mile winner] Desert Flower, who is out of a Danzig-line mare and is by Night Of Thunder. We know that Night Of Thunder works very well with Danehill, and of course with his Galileo in the pedigree,  you'd imagine that would be a very good combination for Isaac Shelby.  

“Dubawi has worked with Monsun, Sharpen Up. I mean, the great thing about that sire-line is it works with pretty much any dam-line.”

A £92,000 purchase at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale by Sam Sangster, Isaac Shelby was out early at two for trainer Brian Meehan, winning easily on debut at Newbury in May before going on to land the G2 Superlative Stakes in the year between Native Trail (GB) and City Of Troy winning the same race. His grandsire Dubawi also won the Superlative back in 2004. 

Well beaten in the G1 Dewhurst Stakes, he bounced back on his three-year-old debut to take the G3 Greenham Stakes from Charyn (Ire) during a memorable race in which the favourite – and subsequent 2,000 Guineas winner – Chaldean (GB) parted company with Frankie Dettori on exiting the stalls. From there, Isaac Shelby travelled to Longchamp for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

Dollar adds, “When he came out as a three-year-old, he won brilliantly on his debut in the Greenham Stakes, [which is] obviously a major Classic trial. He won that by three lengths from multiple Group 1-winning miler Charyn, with the rest of the field miles behind. So his obvious next step was to go for a Guineas, and he came within a short-head of winning a Guineas. He was in front, but he just got done on the line. He's a proper seven-to-eight-furlong horse. He's got that speed, he's got that precocity, so he's got an awful lot to offer.”

With Wathnan Racing already boarding a number of mares at Newsells Park Stud, the arrival of Isaac Shelby to stand alongside Nathaniel (Ire), Without Parole (GB) and A'Ali (Ire) opens up a new avenue for the Qatari enterprise which has the Group 1-winning sprinter Kind Of Blue (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) among its burgeoning string of horses in training. 

“We're excited to be standing the only son of Night of Thunder, but the fact that he's owned by and we're doing it in partnership with Wathnan Racing is very important,” Dollar says. “These guys, I hope, are here to stay and they could have a major positive influence on the UK breeding and racing industry. They already have, and they have a lot to offer.

“To work with two guys like Ollie Tait and Richard Brown is an absolute dream. They're so easy and they know the industry inside and out. They trust us to do a decent job. It's all done on yes and no on a phone call.”

He adds, “They're going to support the horse, more so probably in the ring in the early days, as they're building up their broodmare band, so they're just starting in that regard. He means a lot to them. He was one of the first horses they bought – I think he probably was the first one they bought to to race on with. So I think he's important for them and they will support him accordingly.”

 

The post Isaac Shelby a First for Night Of Thunder and Wathnan Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article