Pedigree pointers | No Nay Never juveniles proving rapid in 2022

We’ve seen it all before. Precocious sprinting colt retires and covers low grade mares at a low fee. The early crops are electric and precocious and the fee sky rockets.

With a rise in fee comes a rise in quality of mares. If you’re going to spend €100,000 on a stud fee, you can be certain breeders will ensure the mare is worth the money. More often than not, this poses a problem for sprint sires. The majority of higher quality mares race at a mile or further. Due to the nature of the programme book, opportunities for fillies over sprint trips are limited. When sprint sire’s books become middle-distance heavy, life can become a little bit trickier.

With the increase in quality and stud fee comes a drastic change in expectations. The goal posts move, and in 2022 they moved for No Nay Never who leapt from €25,000 in 2018 to a whopping €100,000 in 2019. Prior to this season, No Nay Never was responsible for just one TDN rising star – so far this season he’s had four. From just 20 juvenile runners so far this year, eight have won, six have placed.

Two stakes winners currently return a 12% stakes winners to runners. Both Group 3 winners Meditate and Blackbeard are unbeaten. To add to the excitement, a decent proportion these precocious and classy juveniles are out of middle distance bred mares. Aforementioned Meditate is out of a mare by Prix de l’Arc winner Dalakhani whilst Blackbeard is out of a mare by Irish Derby runner-up Born To Sea, another sire son of Urban Sea.

At York’s Dante Festival meeting, Queen Olly led home a No Nay Never 1-2 in devastating fashion, three and a half lengths clear of Catch The Paddy who was five lengths clear of his nearest rival. Both given p’s by Timeform and rated 91p and 85p respectively, and both out of Galileo mares. Queen Olly is out of Surprisingly who is a daughter of Lessons In Humility. That makes her a full sister to 12f Group 3 winner and Melbourne Cup runner-up Tiger Moth.

Railway Stakes entrant Little Big Bear is out of the Bering mare Adventure Seeker. Realising €320,000 as a yearling at the Arqana Deauville yearling sale, he represented a smart return on the €100,000 stud fee investment back in 2019. An impressive winner on his second start, he currently tops the Timeform two year old ratings on 106p. Adventure Seeker was best at a mile and a quarter and boasts a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winning third dam in the shape of All Along.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Wesley Ward is readying Keeneland debutant victor No Nay Hudson for his annual Royal Ascot raid. His dam Raw Silk’s finest hour came in a mile and one furlong Grade 2 and she is a daughter of the late Malibu Moon who’s progeny were as effective over two turns as they were over sprinting distances.

Before you turn the horsebox with your sprinting mare around, rest assured No Nay Never has a proven affinity with speed too. Deneuve was unbeaten until finishing last behind the brilliant Blackbeard (now 4/1 favourite for the Coventry Stakes) in Saturday’s Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes on the Irish 2,000 Guineas undercard. A Naas maiden winner on her only previous start, Deneuve had the measure of La Dolce Vita who was just four lengths behind Meditate in the Group 3 Fillies Sprint Stakes.

What’s more, Deneuve is bred to be rapid. Her dam Actress was all speed winning the Ballyogan Stakes over 6f, not unlike her own dam who struck over 6.5f in a Grade 2 on dirt. Similarly, TF rated 91p Aesop’s Fables is out of How’s She Cuttin who has already produced Windsor Castle winner and Group 1 placed sprinter Washington DC. Listed placed sprinter How’s She Cuttin is by the Japanese Sprinter Shinko Forest. No Nay Never is a rare gem, showing with indisputable evidence that he clicks with a variety of mares.

With exciting first crop sire Sioux Nation only adding to the strength of Scat Daddy’s legacy, this is a sire line that just keeps getting hotter. We await Triple Crown winner Justify’s progeny, and Mendelssohn’s first two year olds have been tearing up the breeze-up circuit over in America.

In 2019, No Nay Never’s fee and thus quality jumped to the upper echelon of the European stallion market. He has survived the typically quieter third and fourth crops with Alcohol Free, Zain Claudette and Armor maintaining momentum.

His biggest and best crop of racing age to date have hit the ground with gusto and that looks set to continue. With a plethora of quality sprinters as well as miler and middle-distance mares at his disposal, if he passes the test in 2022 there’s no telling the heights he might scale.

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