There are no prizes for saying Night Of Thunder is making a name for himself at stud.
From two crops of racing age the Darley stallion currently has 20 stakes performers from 103 runners, a benchmark setting strike-rate of 19.4 percent and he added his eighth Group winner on Thursday when his son Thunderous took the Dante Stakes at York.
And the signs have been there from the start – his first 12 stakes winners were achieved in a shorter time than any other stallion since Pattern racing began.
The trend shows no sign of slowing either. In the last week Night Of Thunder has had the Oaks d’Italia winner Auyantepui, Thunderous and Australian Listed winner Cherry Tortoni.
Dante Stakes winner Thunderous races for Highclere Racing and is out of Italian Listed winner Souviens Toi, a daughter of Dalakhani (Darshaan) and Dubawi has Gr1 winners Al Kazeem, Sobetsu and Coronet out of mares by Darshaan (Shirley Heights).
Dalakhani is out of a mare by Miswaki (Mr Prospector), also found in Thunderous through Night Of Thunder’s broodmare sire Galileo and Dubawi also has Gr1 winner Ghaiyyath bred on the same Galileo cross.
Winner of the 2000 Guineas and Lockinge Stakes, Night Of Thunder’s sire Dubawi is the only commercial son available by Dubai Millennium (Seeking the Gold), one of the few horses rated as high as 140 by Timeform.
Unfortunately for breeders, Dubai Millennium died young and he left only 56 foals, of which 35 raced. These 35 runners included five stakes winners including the quirky Gr2 winner Echo of Light, who also died young, his Gr1 Sydney Cup winner Polarisation his only stakes winner from 165 runners but his daughter Salacia the dam Gr1 winner King Of Change, by Farhh (Pivotal).
Dubawi sired 2000 Guineas winner Makfi in his first crop and this now emerging broodmare sire is out of a mare by Green Desert (Danzig), as is the Hong Kong Gr1 winner Lucky Nine.
Night Of Thunder is showing an affinity with mares carrying Danzig and his son Danehill and he already has two stakes winners inbred to Green Desert (Danzig) as well as two stakes performers.
Night of Thunder’s pedigree also includes a duplication of Mill Reef and Dubawi has enjoyed great success with mares carrying Mill Reef in their first five generations or to two lines to Mill Reef’s son Shirley Heights.
Examples of this include Gr1 winners Benbatl, Al Kazeem and Too Darn Hot, the last named shuttling to Darley’s New South Wales base in Australia in 2020.
Night of Thunder’s dam Forest Storm is by Galileo out of a Desert Prince (Green Desert) mare and Galileo sired Oaks winner Was out of a mare by Green Desert and his dual Derby winner Australia is out of a mare by Cape Cross (Green Desert).
Night Of Thunder shuttled to Darley’s Victorian base in Australia for one season in 2016 at a fee of $16,500. From his 58 live foals he has Gr3 winner A Beautiful Night and Listed winners Cherry Tortoni and River Night.
And while he is now a permanent resident at Kildangan Stud, Darley has recently announced that Night Of Thunder will be available for breeding to southern hemisphere time.