Dante winner Thunderous continues inexorable rise of Night Of Thunder

The Night Of Thunder bandwagon shows no sign of slowing.

Darley's virtuoso second-season sire supplied the seventh Pattern winner from his debut northern hemisphere crop on Thursday when son Thunderous edged out the exciting Highest Ground to win the delayed Dante Stakes at York.

Thunderous becomes Night Of Thunder's third Group 2 winner following Auyantepui, who became the sire's first Classic scorer when successful in the Italian Oaks on Sunday, and Night Colours, who struck in the Premio Dormello last year.

View the Dante Stakes result and watch race replay

The Kildangan Stud-based son of Dubawi also has four Group 3 winners in Europe, namely Molatham, No Limit Credit, Pocket Square and Under The Stars, as well as a further five Listed scorers – Cacciante, Dubai Love, Keep Busy, Lady Penelope and Bredenbury.

Night of Thunder also shuttled to Darley's Northwood Park in Victoria, Australia, for one season and the resultant crop of just 58 southern hemisphere-bred two-year-olds has been excelling down under.

It includes Group 3 winner A Beautiful Night and Listed scorers Cherry Tortoni and River Night, along with five other runners to have graced a winner's enclosure.

Darley recently announced that Night Of Thunder would be made available to cover mares to southern-hemisphere time in Ireland this year.

The nine-year-old chestnut, who beat Kingman and Australia in a vintage 2,000 Guineas, was advertised as standing at Kildangan Stud at a fee of €25,000 this northern hemisphere season and was reported to be heavily oversubscribed.

His latest star Thunderous, trained by Mark Johnston for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, was already a Listed winner, having taken the Denford Stakes last summer. He had run an encouraging second to Volkan Star in the Fairway Stakes on his three-year-old bow.

He was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock and is the third foal but first winner out of the Italian Listed scorer Souviens Toi, a daughter of Arc hero Dalakhani who put up her best effort on Racing Post Ratings by running second to Brown Panther in the Listed Pontefract Castle Stakes over 12 furlongs.

The dam, a half-sister to Italian Oaks third Whippy Cream, is likely to have conferred the stamina that Thunderous demonstrated so well by staying the ten and a half furlongs of the Dante.

Souviens Toi has a two-year-old son by Exceed And Excel, sold to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock for 150,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and given the name Unforgotten. He has already been gelded.

The mare produced no offspring in 2019, having slipped to Churchill, but she has a filly foal by Frankel.

Thunderous entered the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing ranks when bought by John and Jake Warren for 70,000gns as a yearling at Book 2.

The Musidora Stakes on the same York card also gave a feather in the cap to an up and coming second-season sire from the Dubawi sire-line, with Make Believe's daughter Rose Of Kildare successful in the Group 3 contest for fillies.

The Ballylinch Stud-based stallion hit the headlines on Sunday when he delivered a first-crop Classic winner in the shape of Prix du Jockey Club hero Mishriff.

Rose Of Kildare and Make Believe are among four first-crop stakes winners for Make Believe, a son of Makfi who won the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix de la Foret in his racecourse pomp.

Rose Of Kildare was bred by Wansdyke Farms out of Cruck Realta, a Listed-winning daughter of Sixties Icon, and was sold to trainer Mark Johnston for the bargain basement sum of €3,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.

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