Pedigree researcher Sally Wright takes a look at the race and stallion record of an up-and-coming elite stallion.
The recent victory of Bow Echo in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket again brings into sharp focus how his sire, Night of Thunder, has already proven himself as a tour de force amongst new stallions.
Night of Thunder, an Irish-bred Richard Hannon-trained chestnut (by Dubawi out of Forest Storm, a daughter of Galileo) was foaled in 2011. At the races, he won both his starts at two years – a 6f Goodwood maiden and the listed Doncaster Stakes over the same distance, readily beating his rivals by six and three lengths, respectively.
At three years, he won the 2000 Guineas, a field described by Timeform as ‘the best assembled for the race since 1971’ when the unbeaten Brigadier Gerard bested Mill Reef by three lengths. Night of Thunder beat future Horse of the Year Kingman by half a length, with Derby winner Australia a close third, despite the winner drifting across the course in the closing stages.
In the same year, Night of Thunder was also placed in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Prix du Moulin and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, proving his consistency over a mile. Raced only three times at four, by which time he was racing in the Godolphin colours, he remained at the Hannon yard but with mixed results, winning the Lockinge Stakes on his reappearance by a neck from the fast-finishing Toormore, in what was to be the high point of an otherwise subdued 2015.
He nevertheless finished his racing career with total earnings of £872,361 and achieved a Timeform master rating of 127.
Noted for having a ‘marvellous attitude,’ combining the world-class genetics of Dubawi and Galileo, and with classic winners on both sides of his pedigree, Night of Thunder entered Kildangan Stud in County Kildare for the 2016 breeding season at the reasonable fee of €30,000. He was switched to Darley's Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket for the 2018/19 seasons only, and under no small burden of expectation he has duly delivered superior results.
Night of Thunder opened his account as a sire with a bang, becoming champion first-season sire in 2019.
Also from his first crop came high-class sprinter Highfield Princess who at four won the Prix Maurice de Gheest, Nunthorpe and Flying Five Stakes in around a month and finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. She later added the King George Stakes and Prix de l'Abbaye to her haul before tragically succumbing to an accident in her stable in March of 2024.
Thundering Nights won the Pretty Polly Stakes and came third in the Prix Jean Romanet, and in Australia Kukeracha took the Queensland Derby. From the same crop, Night of Thunder also got five Group 2 winners and eight Group 3 winners, including Dubai City of Gold Stakes winner Global Storm who stayed a mile-and-three-quarters in Britain and the UAE, and Cherry Tortoni, who won the mile-and-a-quarter Moonee Valley Vase in Australia.
The best horses from Night of Thunder’s second crop were the Group 2 winners Sopran Basilea and Suesa, the former winning the Premio Lydia Tesio and a US Grade 3 eleven furlong event, while the latter, a pure sprinter, netted the King George Stakes and two French Group 3 races.
His foal crop of 2019 was less successful, though it did throw up a couple of Listed winners in Tacarib Bay and Mystery Night. Choisya led Night of Thunder’s fourth crop with her versatility across three continents, winning the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes, and the Cape Verdi and Balanchine at Meydan, all between a mile and nine furlongs.
But it was with his fifth crop that the young stallion unleashed a trio of big hitters; Dynamic Pricing, Economics and Ombudsman. Dynamic Pricing was campaigned on turf in the US, winning the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes, and in Europe Economics won the Dante and the Irish Champion Stakes, proving himself up to a mile and a quarter.
The top-class Ombudsman proved the pick of the trio. Unraced at two, he was unbeaten in four races at three between a mile and a mile-and-a-quarter, the last of them the Group 3 Prix du Prince d'Orange at Longchamp.
The following year he won the Prince of Wales's Stakes (by two lengths from Anmaat) at Royal Ascot and the Juddmonte International Stakes (by three-and-a-half lengths from Delacroix) at York. Rated 130 by Timeform, Ombudsman didn’t need to be at his best to win the Group 1 nine-furlong Dubai Turf at Meydan on his reappearance by one-and-three-quarter lengths from Quddwah.
Described by his trainer, John Gosden, as having an “extraordinary turn of foot” his regular jockey, William Buick, noted that he was able to shift from "second gear to fifth gear in the blink of an eye,” and believed he would stay a mile and a half.
Night of Thunder became the British and Irish Champion Sire of 2025, with almost £7 million of total prize money for the year, some £800,000 more than the runner-up. Desert Flower was the only Group 1 winner from Night of Thunder’s sixth crop, but she won the Fillies’ Mile in 2024 and the following season's 1000 Guineas before finishing third behind Minnie Hauk in the Oaks.
Night of Thunder’s seventh crop produced the ill-fated Gewan, who won three of his four races at two for Andrew Balding. Raced solely at seven furlongs, he took the Acomb Stakes at York and the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket (by three-quarters of a length from Gstaad) to be named the champion 2-y-o colt of 2025, enhancing his sire’s reputation for precocious youngsters as well as more mature improvers.
It is often said that ‘things come in threes,’ and in May of 2026, Evolutionist and Distant Storm placed in the 1000 Guineas and Bow Echo’s 2000 Guineas respectively, just as the last named emerged as another flagship runner for their sire. A ‘compact, well-made colt,’ he has already shown himself to be top-class in four unbeaten outings to date, winning a listed event at Haydock in late-2024 before his impressive classic victory at Newmarket by two-and-three-quarter lengths from Gstaad.
Out of a daughter of Invincible Spirit and hailing from the successful nicking pattern of his sire with mares from the Danzig line, Bow Echo looks sure to further cement his sire’s growing profile as the new Dubawi. In 2026, Night of Thunder’s stud fee now stands at €200,000 live foal.
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