A WEEKEND of star performances included two Group 1 triumphs for daughters of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), Coolmore’s unbeaten Group 1 juvenile and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint runner-up. Amusingly provided him with his twelfth Group/Grade 1 winner, while True Love posted her third win at this level.

This year has seen three of No Nay Never’s offspring win at the top table. Mission Central bagged the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes over five furlongs at Royal Ascot, and he was back to something like his best in Paris, just half a length off Miss Yechance when third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp. What a finish that was, with a length and a half covering the first eight home.

Such was the early success which No Nay Never enjoyed at stud that his fee jumped from €25,000 in 2018 to €100,000 the next season. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster since, hitting €175,000 in 2020 and 2023, while it fell back to €100,000 this year.

He is on course to have one of his best years on the racecourse this year, and with 13 blacktype winners is just two off the highest he recorded until now. In addition to those I will mention later, he has a pair of Group 2-winning juvenile colts in 2026, Great Barrier Reef (Coventry Stakes) and Man’s Best Friend (Richmond Stakes).

No Nay Never has been having a great run in 2026 with the progeny of Oasis Dream (Green Forest) mares. One of his older runners, the five-year-old Never So Brave and winner last year of the Group 1 City Of York Stakes, has been a tad disappointing, but redeemed himself with a Group 2 success at Newmarket yesterday. The two-year-old Libertango gained her biggest win also at York, in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes, and was second in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes on her latest run.

Meanwhile, the sire’s daughter Amusingly took on the colts and beat them in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, again showing the strength of the Graffard stable, and the trainer’s ability to place his runners to best advantage. The Juddmonte homebred was having just her third start, winning on her debut and runner-up to Rogue Passion in a Group 2 at ParisLongchamp a month ago. The winner is a leading fancy for the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile this weekend.

Juddmonte homebred

Given that she was conceived in one of the two seasons when No Nay Never’s fee was €175,000, and that she is a Juddmonte homebred, you can be sure that Amusingly has an outstanding female line. A full-sister to another smart juvenile in Array (No Nay Never), winner of the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes, Amusingly is one of eight winners out of the dual stakes winner Joyeuse (Oasis Dream), and they are the mare’s first eight foals. The ninth is a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj). Four of these offspring are fillies owned by Juddmonte.

While Amusingly and Array are the only stakes winners for Joyeuse, who was group-placed, six of her eight winners earned some blacktype. Her daughter Jubiloso (Shamardal) was placed in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, while the other filly who has raced, Jovial (Dubawi), was placed in listed races. Hugely important though is that Jovial has made an outstanding start to her stud career. Her first foal, Jonquil (Lope De Vega), is a Group 2 winner and second in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, and her next is this year’s juvenile, Jolivette (Wootton Bassett), runner-up in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes, beaten a short head.

True Love

If all of that were not enough, Amusingly’s dam Joyeuse is a half-sister to the full-brothers Frankel (Galileo) and Noble Mission. They won 13 Group 1 races between them, and both have been a success at stud – albeit at different scales of measurement.

Another homebred, True Love added the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye over seven furlongs to her classic win in the 1000 Guineas and her juvenile success in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. She was the joint champion filly in Europe last year. True Love is a full-sister to Group 2 winner Truly Enchanting (No Nay Never), and one of three pattern winners for her dam. The third is another Group 2 winner, Lily Pond (Galileo). True Love’s achievements enhance one of the best families in the stud book. Her dam Alluringly (Fastnet Rock) is a stakes winner, and was third to enable in the Group 1 Oaks.

True Love’s third dam is All Too Beautiful (Sadler’s Well), the Group 1 Oaks second and Group 3 winner whose siblings include her full-brothers Galileo and Black Sam Bellemy, half-brother Sea The Stars (Cape Cross), and half-sister My Typhoon (Giant’s Causeway), all Group/Grade 1 winners. Their dam Urban Sea (Miswaki) won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

DIGGING into the family of Daryz, under his fourth dam Darazina (Labus), and you will find strands that have been successful for breeders other than the Aga Khan Studs. The dual Group 1 Prix du Cadran winner, Caballo De Mar (Phoenix Of Spain), is one such example, and he downed the odds-on Scandinavia to take his tally of wins to 11 and his Group 1 haul to three last Saturday..

This €21,000 Goffs foal and €33,000 Tattersalls Ireland yearling has now won more than €1.1 million and is just a fraction behind Haatem in the list of leading earners for their Irish National Stud sire Phoenix Of Spain (Lope De Vega). Six of the sire’s seven stakes winners have won pattern races, and he has been so close to having three Group 1 winners. Haatem was beaten a head in the Irish 2000 Guineas, while Soul Of Spain was a neck second in the Sydney Cup this year.

Barbara Facchino’s Barouche Stud, breeders of Caballo De Mar, purchased his listed-placed grandam Daraliya (Kahyasi) for 57,000gns as a four-year-old from the Aga Khan Studs, and she did well at stud, giving up eight winners. While none of Daraliya’s winners were stars, they included a German stakes winner and two stakes-placed winners. Circassian (Groom Dancer) was the listed winner, and his six career victories included one each over hurdles and fences.

Daraliya’s daughter and Caballo De Mer’s dam Oberyn (Holy Roman Emperor) won twice for Barbara Facchino at three and only had two foals, both winners. She actually sold in the year of Caballo De Mar’s birth for the minimum bid at Goffs in 2021. Daraliya is among seven winners out of the Group 3 Prix Minerve heroine Daralinsha (Empery), and all of the seven got blacktype. While none of the names are instantly recognisable, daughters of Daralinsha have done well; two in particular.

The group-placed Darashandeh (Darshaan) bred the 2006 Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner Darsi (Polish Precedent), but it is her group-placed half-sister Daralbayda who had had the most influence. She is grandam of the brilliant Darjina (Zamindar), and third dam of the European champion Almanzor (Wootton Bassett). Daryz (Sea The Stars), the horse of the moment, appears under Caballo De Mer’s fourth dam.