Reigning champion sire Night of Thunder all set to keep his title in 2026

Horse Racing

Sun October 25, 2026 · 2h ago

John Ingles looks at how events at Ascot on Qatar Racing British Champions Day likely ensured Night of Thunder retains his title as champion sire in Britain and Ireland.

Extra interest from the events at Ascot on Champions Day was generated by the battle between Aidan O’Brien and Andrew Balding for the trainers’ championship. With both trainers having winners at the meeting, the trainers’ title, not officially decided until the end of the year, remained hanging in the balance, for another week at least.

But another championship was being fought out at Ascot last weekend in a struggle which got next to no coverage on the day but not only proved more dramatic but also more decisive too. Going into Champions Day, reigning champion sire Night of Thunder held a lead of less than £125,000 over the 2021 and 2023 champion Frankel. But with millions of pounds of prize money up for grabs on British racing’s richest day, there was clearly plenty of scope for that situation to change.

‘Dramatic’ because the lead actually changed hands twice during the afternoon. If, unlike me, you weren’t watching the action at Ascot with pen, paper and calculator to hand, this is how events unfolded.

The result of the Long Distance Cup didn’t have a material effect on the standings, though the £13,450 that Opportunity picked up for finishing fifth was all to the good as far as his sire Frankel was concerned. But it was a different story just over an hour later in the Fillies & Mares Stakes. This was Frankel’s chance to make some serious inroads into Night of Thunder’s lead. Ironically for the Juddmonte stallion’s cause, that would ideally mean the failure of Juddmonte’s own representative Kalpana, even-money favourite to win the race for the third year running, a return to form for Minnie Hauk, who had finished further down the field behind Kalpana in the Arc last time, and an improved effort from Frankel’s other filly in the field, the Cork Group 3 winner Believed.

A win for Frankel's daughter Minnie Hauk in the Fillies & Mares

But the dream scenario for Frankel’s title hopes is exactly what happened. With Kalpana disappointing on her final career start, Frankel’s Irish-trained fillies Minnie Hauk and Believed took the first two places for combined prize money of more than £390,000, wiping out Night of Thunder’s lead and now putting Frankel more than £280,000 clear.

That was the good news for Frankel. The bad news was that he had very little ammo left for the rest of the meeting, with his only subsequent runner on the afternoon being Gavriel in the Balmoral Handicap and he was to fade out of the money in that contest.

Worse still for Frankel, his chief rival had no fewer than four representatives in the next race, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Two of Night of Thunder’s quartet picked up some prize money here, with Ten Bob Tony running another gallant race in defeat in second. That alone wasn’t enough to restore Night of Thunder’s lead, but with 150/1 pacemaker Needle Match clinging on for fourth place, that was sufficient to tip the balance marginally back in Night of Thunder’s favour.

But next was the Champion Stakes and Night of Thunder’s trump card. With only six runners, Ombudsman could have picked up some prize money just for trailing home last but, bouncing back from his odds-on defeat on softer ground in the Juddmonte International, Ombudsman instead quickened away with the first prize of £737,230, effectively clinching a second championship for his sire in the little over two minutes it took for the Champion Stakes to be run.

William Buick enjoys Champion Stakes glory on Ombudsman

Night of Thunder's son Ombudsman wins the Champion Stakes

It was the second year running that Ombudsman had been decisive in Night of Thunder’s title bid, though there had been no such late drama in 2025 when Night of Thunder could be called the winner much further from home. Ombudsman’s win in last year’s Juddmonte International coupled with some other good results at the Ebor meeting meant that Night of Thunder had opened up a lead of almost a million pounds after York last August.

It takes more than one good horse to make a champion sire though. Despite winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes for a second time, as well as the Brigadier Gerard Stakes prior to that, in addition to the Champion Stakes, Ombudsman was not the biggest contributor to Night of Thunder’s British and Irish prize money total for the year. Even though he wasn’t around after July, Bow Echo’s wins in the 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace Stakes and Sussex Stakes ensured that Night of Thunder had a major earner from his classic crop to go with older horse Ombudsman.

Billy Loughnane celebrates Bow Echo's 2000 Guineas win

Bow Echo emulates his sire in the 2000 Guineas

Bow Echo’s emergence as Night of Thunder’s top three-year-old in the spring came after the Dewhurst winner Gewan had gone into winter quarters looking his number one 2000 Guineas contender. As it turned out, that colt’s sadly fatal accident in a Kempton gallop in April might have had more implications for his trainer Andrew Balding’s title hopes than for Night of Thunder’s.

I covered Night of Thunder’s racing career and his rise through the sire ranks here last year, though suffice to say his stock as a stallion has risen sharply, from standing for just £15,000 in his two seasons in Newmarket in 2018 and 2019, to a covering fee of €200,000 at Kildangan this spring. He looks a worthy heir to his own sire Dubawi who will turn 25 next year.

Night of Thunder’s success on the track is having record-breaking results in the sale ring. At Deauville last August, his half-sister to Diamond Necklace made €3 million, a sale record, when selling to Amo Racing. Named Marylebone, she made a successful debut at Yarmouth last week.

Another record fell at Tattersalls earlier this month when a son of Night of Thunder out of the Pretty Polly Stakes runner-up My Astra (Timeform rating 117) sold for 4.6 million guineas, the most ever paid for a yearling colt at auction in Europe. This was a rare Night of Thunder yearling that Coolmore were keen to get their hands on, but it was Godolphin’s Anthony Stroud who made the winning bid. He was just one of five yearlings by Night of Thunder to sell for a seven-figure sum at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale, three of those going to Godolphin and the other two to Gewan’s owners Ace Stud.

Night of Thunder looks set to become the first champion sire to retain his title since the days of Galileo and further championships may well come his way in the years ahead.

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.

Like what you've read?