Millennium Flame Burns on Through Night Of Thunder

[Wandering Eyes]

Twenty-five years into this new millennium, the season's 86 Group 1 races in Europe have all been run and, with the year ebbing away, Night Of Thunder stands on the cusp of becoming the champion sire of Britain and Ireland for the first time.

The odds for a grandson of Dubai Millennium collecting this honour would not have been short in the aftermath of that stallion's death at the age of just five. A quarter of a century ago the aptly named Dubai Millennium appeared to have the world at his feet when he topped the rankings for 2000 on a mark of 134 – ahead of that year's Derby, Irish Derby and Arc winner Sinndar on 132 and King George winner Montjeu on 130. A glittering stud career at his owner-breeder Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall Stud surely awaited, had fate not had other ideas. 

As is now well documented, Dubai Millennium succumbed to Grass Sickness on April 29, 2001, less than three months into his initial covering season. Early the following year, the results of those matings started to appear and by the end of the foaling season 56 sons and daughters of Dubai Millennium were on the ground – 27 colts and 29 fillies. Seventeen of those were the offspring of Group 1-winning mares; 11 were half-siblings to Group 1 winners.

In a commemorative book produced by Darley later that year, each foal was catalogued alphabetically by dam, with photograph and pedigree displayed. Last on the list, out of the G1 Oaks d'Italia winner Zomaradah (Deploy), is the colt who would rise up to offer long-term consolation for his sire's untimely demise. In bloodstock circles he is now a household name: Dubawi.

Winner of the G1 National Stakes at two, then a Classic winner in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, and third in the Derby, he also landed one of Europe's most prestigious weight-for-age mile contests, the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. Dubawi had everything on his side to make it as a commercial stallion but early reactions to his offspring were varied and, after standing his first two seasons at £25,000, with one year at Kildangan Stud in Ireland on €40,000, Dubawi's fee was dropped to £15,000 in his fourth year at stud in 2009. 

A lot of horses have galloped across finishing lines in the intervening years and, in the case of Dubawi's offspring, 63 of them have been Group 1 winners. By 2022, he had succeeded Frankel as champion sire, and since 2023 he has been the most expensive stallion in the world, sharing that distinction with Frankel since 2024. Both stallions remain at a fee of £350,000 for the coming season. 

Roaring up behind them now at €200,000 is Night Of Thunder, whose stud career trajectory has echoes of his own sire in that he too spent some time at £15,000 – in 2018 and 2019 – but has been in six-figure territory since 2023. He will doubtless remain there now.

 

Night Of Thunder | Marc Ruhl

 

Like fellow Dubawi stallions Ghaiyyath and Henry Longfellow, the 2,000 Guineas and Lockinge winner Night Of Thunder is out of a mare by Galileo. Further Group 1 winners Modern Games, the late Coroebus, Lead Artist, and Ezeliya are from mares by Galileo's sons New Approach, Teofilo and Frankel. Going back up that line, so to speak, Sadler's Wells's sons Montjeu and Barathea are the damsires of Journey, Hunter's Light, Arabian Queen and Monterosso, while his grandson Singspiel features as the broodmare sire of Dubawi's Group 1 winners Too Darn Hot, Old Persian, Wuheida and Left Hand.

Dubawi has no shortage of sons at stud and, as we have seen, it can sometimes take just one to continue the dominance of a sire-line. Night Of Thunder could be that one, though there are some established names and young pretenders following in his wake, some with their first runners to come. At Darley they include Too Darn Hot, Ghaiyyath and Space Blues – all of whom are now Group 1 sires – as well as Modern Games and Naval Crown. Coolmore has the new recruit Delacroix to add to Henry Longfellow, and the net casts much wider of course, to New Bay at Ballylinch Stud, Zarak and Erevann at Haras de Bonneval, and Makfi and Benbatl in Japan, among others. Dubawi's first of four 2,000 Guineas winners, Makfi, has perhaps done the most to extend the line to date. His son Make Believe is another Classic winner and Ballylinch sire, who in turn has produced the young Sumbe stallion and fellow Classic winner Mishriff. Make Believe's Group 1-winning son Sajir will also surely secure a stud berth in time.

John Sparkman, in his essay in Darley's book on the Dubai Millennium foals, completed his overview of the stallion's family in optimistic fashion.

“The leading sires Iroquois, Sir Dixon, Whisk Broom II, Cozzene and Fort Word are all in Dubai Millennium's family, adding substance to the hope that he might have sired high-class horses in this one precious crop. A great son or daughter; a lasting influence on the breed – there are still dreams for Dubai Millennium,” Sparkman wrote in 2002. He was to be proved right.

Five stakes winners emanated from those 56 chances, including six-time Group winner and short-lived sire Echo Of Light, and the G3 Sovereign Stakes winner Belenus. The Sandown maiden winner Kydd Gloves would go on to produce the GI Ogden Phipps and GI La Troienne Stakes winner Shes A Julie (Elusive Quality), while in Japan daughter Mizna foaled the G2 American Jockey Club Cup winner Decipher (Deep Impact).

The best of course was Dubawi: a Group winner in three countries and now a force to be reckoned with across the breeding world. As he turns 24 in January, Dubawi will be emulated by Night Of Thunder as the presiding champion sire. This follows a year in which Night Of Thunder's leading runners have included Britain's top-rated horse Ombudsman, 1,000 Guineas victrix Desert Flower, and the Dewhurst winner Gewan. 

And so the torch, which might so easily have been vanquished, is passed.

 

The post Millennium Flame Burns on Through Night Of Thunder appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article