Coolmore's investment in sons of Scat Daddy beginning to pay off

Sadler’s Wells and his son Galileo have been responsible for much of Coolmore’s success in Europe this century. But with Galileo now dead and his best stallion son, Frankel, in other hands, Coolmore – and that means Aidan O’Brien too, - might have to rely increasingly on a completely different sire line for big-race success from now on. Recent results point to sons of Florida Derby winner Scat Daddy as being just such an alternative.

It’s certainly been a fine few weeks for one of Scat Daddy’s sons No Nay Never. First there was the July Cup victory of his four-year-old daughter Alcohol Free, while last weekend his two-year-old sons Little Big Bear and Blackbeard won the Anglesey Stakes and Prix Robert Papin at the Curragh and Chantilly respectively.

The July Cup was a fourth Group 1 win for the versatile Alcohol Free who made a successful return to sprinting at Newmarket having won the Cheveley Park Stakes there at two. Last season, her biggest wins came over a mile in the Coronation Stakes and Sussex Stakes, with a defence of her title in the latter contest in the offing at Goodwood next week.

Alcohol Free’s July Cup victory was a career-best effort on Timeform ratings (123), putting her not far behind her sire’s best European performers Ten Sovereigns (126) and Wichita (124). Ten Sovereigns also won the July Cup, three years before Alcohol Free, he too having been a Group 1 winner over six furlongs at two (Middle Park Stakes), though was a beaten favourite in the 2000 Guineas when tried at a mile.

Ten Sovereigns’ ill-fated Ballydoyle stablemate Wichita went much closer to 2000 Guineas success a year later, beaten only a neck by Kameko, and he ran another good race at a mile behind Palace Pier and Pinatubo in the St James’s Palace Stakes before ending his career with a Group 2 win over seven furlongs in the Park Stakes at Doncaster.

Alcohol Free is a good-topped filly, typical of the physical types No Nay Never tends to produce. He was a stocky, sprinting type on looks himself who never ran at beyond seven furlongs in a six-race career for Wesley Ward. There had been plans to run No Nay Never in the St James’s Palace (the Commonwealth Cup wasn’t introduced at Royal Ascot until a year later) but they never came to fruition and he ran his best race at three on his final start when runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. He was unlucky too, faring best of those who raced up with an overly-strong pace but pounced on late by Bobby’s Kitten to be beaten half a length in a blanket finish.

A Breeders’ Cup victory would have added to No Nay Never’s cv but he’d already booked his stallion career as an unbeaten Royal Ascot- and Group 1-winning two-year-old. After beating the Ballydoyle favourite Coach House in the Norfolk Stakes in the colours of his American owners, No Nay Never was carrying Sue Magnier’s silks by the time he followed up in the Prix Morny at Deauville.

Coolmore’s purchase of a major share in No Nay Never took on added significance when his sire Scat Daddy died suddenly late in 2015 at their Ashford Stud in Kentucky. Aged only 11, his fee had been due to hit a new high of $100,000 and there’s little doubt that it would have risen again given his even better results to come.

That success was particularly striking at Royal Ascot in 2017 where Scat Daddy had four winners, headed by Caravaggio winning the Commonwealth Cup a year after he’d won the Coventry Stakes at the same meeting. Also winning at the royal meeting for the second year was the brilliantly fast Lady Aurelia, the highest-rated performer by Scat Daddy of either sex with a Timeform rating of 133. Also trained by Ward, she put up a top-class effort to win the King’s Stand by three lengths twelve months after winning the Queen Mary by seven. Her stablemate Con Te Partiro won the Sandringham Handicap, while Sioux Nation, who followed up in the Phoenix Stakes, became another winner for Scat Daddy in the Norfolk.

Caravaggio, Sioux Nation and Ten Sovereigns have all now joined No Nay Never on Coolmore’s stallion roster. No Nay Never was leading first-season sire in 2018, as a result of which his fee increased fourfold to €100,000 and then to €175,000 in 2020 - ten times what it had been just three years earlier! While No Nay Never has stood for €125,000 in the last couple of seasons, another increase next year wouldn’t come as a surprise.

Caravaggio emulated No Nay Never by becoming leading first-season sire in 2021 when Cheveley Park Stakes winner Tenebrism was his leading performer. That filly notched her second Group 1 success earlier this month when winning the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville. However, she has been overtaken as Caravaggio’s best performer by Maljoom (124p), winner of the German 2000 Guineas and unlucky not to follow up when a fast-finishing fourth in the St James’s Palace Stakes. Caravaggio was switched from Ireland to Ashford Stud for this year’s covering season.

Sioux Nation has work to do to match the exploits of No Nay Never and Caravaggio with their first crops as he’s in second place behind clear leader Havana Grey in the current first-season sire standings but has had 13 individual winners in Britain and Ireland to date.

Two more Coolmore-owned sons of Scat Daddy with their first two-year-olds this year, and who have had notable winners in recent weeks, are the Ashford-based pair Mendelssohn and Justify. Mendelssohn had his first US winner last weekend when Fadethenoise won at Ellis Park in Kentucky. Bought for a sale-topping $3m as a yearling at Keeneland, Mendelssohn was another demonstration of Coolmore’s faith in Scat Daddy as a sire of sires. A half-brother to Grade 1 winners Beholder and Into Mischief – the latter has been leading sire in North America for the last three years – Mendelssohn ended his two-year-old season by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and then ran away with the following season’s UAE Derby.

Mendelssohn finished last in the Kentucky Derby which the unbeaten Justify won before taking the other two legs of the Triple Crown. With a Timeform rating of 129, Justify was Scat Daddy’s highest-rated colt and it was almost inevitable that Coolmore would snap him up too for stallion duties, though they had to go to a reported $75m to do so after he’d clinched the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes.

Justify had his first US stakes winner earlier this month when Just Cindy won the Grade 3 Schulyerville Stakes at Saratoga. But he’s already made his mark on turf on this side of the Atlantic too with Statuette (105p), a close relative to Tenebrism, who took her record to two out of two when winning the Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes at the Curragh.

With Coolmore investing so heavily in Scat Daddy’s sons, it’s hardly surprising that plenty of the foals from this particular sire line have ended up in training with Aidan O’Brien. It’s worth remembering, therefore, that Scat Daddy’s own sire Johannesburg was a Ballydoyle resident himself 20 years ago. His three-year-old season in 2002 fizzled out with disappointing performances in the Kentucky Derby and, put back to sprinting, in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

But at two, Johannesburg (rated 127) enjoyed a superb unbeaten seven-race campaign culminating in a successful switch to dirt and step up in trip in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Earlier in Europe he’d won the Norfolk Stakes, the Anglesey, the Phoenix, the Prix Morny and the Middle Park, all races won at least once, as we’ve seen, by his grandsons or great grandsons. Little Big Bear or Blackbeard, maybe even both, may well be emulating their great grandsire in the Phoenix and/or Morny in the weeks ahead.

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