WHISTLEJACKET may have failed to emulate his full-brother Little Big Bear (No Nay Never) and add the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes to his tally of wins, but eight days after that defeat at the Curragh he went to France and emulated his sire, No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), and won the Group 1 Sumbe Prix Morny at Deauville.

The latest version of Whistlejacket pays homage to an oil painting from about 1762 by the British artist George Stubbs, showing the Marquess of Rockingham’s racehorse of the same name, approximately at life-size. It is on view at the National Gallery in London, and they purchased it in 1997 for £11 million. What value would be put on the current Whistlejacket?

Trained by Wesley Ward, No Nay Never won a four-and-a-half-furlong Keeneland maiden before defeating 13 opponents to take the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, two months before he added Deauville’s Prix Morny. He was runner-up in a seven-furlong Grade 2 contest on dirt at Gulfstream Park the following March and had another long gap before his second start at three, but he proved himself to be among the leading sprinters of that campaign.

Although off the track for seven months, No Nay Never landed a Grade 3 contest over five and a half furlongs on turf at Keeneland one month before he beat all but Bobby’s Kitten in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint over a furlong farther at Santa Anita. Connections of Whistlejacket will be hoping that he goes on and wins again at the highest level, but the fact that No Nay Never failed to do so has not been any impediment to his stallion career.

Two years ago, 2022, was a seminal one in the career of No Nay Never. He was represented by Group 1 winners Little Big Bear (European champion juvenile and now Coolmore stallion), Blackbeard (French champion two-year-old who also won the Prix Morny, and he too is a Coolmore sire), and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf winner, Meditate. This cemented his reputation as one of the very best stallions in Europe, and especially of two-year-olds.

No Nay Never joined the Coolmore roster in 2015, and at an opportune time. His sire’s star was in the ascendant, and that year he covered his first mares just under two months before the most celebrated son of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), the US Triple Crown winner Justify, was born.

Premature death

The first offspring by No Nay Never to go through the sale ring did so months after Scat Daddy’s premature death, and when that first crop featured the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Ten Sovereigns, No Nay Never’s fee soared from €25,000 to €100,000. It rose again since, to a high of €175,000, but settled this year at €150,000.

Ten Sovereigns went on to add the Group 1 July Cup and retire to Coolmore, and his first crop runners last year included 11 stakes horses. Brooke proved No Nay Never’s progeny can stay middle distances when winning the Grade 1 Premio Las Oaks in Chile, while Alcohol Free added the Group 1 July Cup, Group 1 Sussex Stakes and Group 1 Coronation Stakes to her Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes success, and sold in 2022 for 5,400,000gns.

In Australia, Madame Pommery won the Group 1 Thousand Guineas over a mile at Caulfield, and now Whistlejacket has credited No Nay Never with his eighth Group 1 winner. They are among 67 stakes winners in total that he has sired, the majority of which were from crops conceived for €25,000 or less.

This past weekend saw No Nay Never clock up a double-digit number of stakes winners in 2024, thanks to Treasure Isle, one of half a dozen juveniles in that tally of 10. This juvenile crop also includes Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes winner Truly Enchanting.

Public auction

Bred by Camas Park, Lynch Bages and Summerhill, Whistlejacket and Little Big Bear are the best of six winners out of stakes winner Adventure Seeker (Bering), and both were bought at public auction. Whistlejacket was the more expensive of the pair, costing 500,000gns.

Whistlejacket won the first two-year-old blacktype race of 2024 here in Ireland, the Listed Gain First Flier Stakes, and later added the Group 2 July Stakes at Newmarket. He is being aimed by Aidan O’Brien at an ambitious Group/Grade 1 treble, to add the Middle Park Stakes to his tally before heading to the Breeders’ Cup.

In time, Whistlejacket will surely join Little Big Bear at stud. That 2022 European champion two-year-old has just completed his first season at Coolmore. Their dam Adventure Seeker, a homebred by the Wildenstein’s Dayton Investments, was sold at a dispersal in 2016 at Goffs for €125,000 to Brendan Bashford on behalf of the Hyde family and partners.

Adventure Seeker is a granddaughter of All Along (Targowice), rated the champion older horse in Europe and champion turf filly in the USA in 1983. Her nine wins included two Group 1s in France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Prix Vermeille, two Grade 1s in the USA, the Washington DC International and the Turf Classic, and the Grade 1 Rothman’s International in Canada.

Best sons

Newstead Breeding, responsible for one of the best sons of No Nay Never, the champion Blackbeard, are also the breeders of his latest new stakes-winning juvenile, Treasure Isle. On Saturday at the Curragh, and on his sixth start this year, he added the Listed Qarar Racing and Equestrian Club Irish EBF Juvenile Sprint Stakes to his first win, back in May at Naas.

Treasure Isle is the first stakes winner among four winning offspring of the Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Newton’s Light. Sold for €440,000 as a five-year-old carrying the winner Liberty Tree (Lope De Vega), who paid for the transaction when realising €475,000 as a yearling, Newton’s Light was sold four years later for €90,000. Newton’s Light is a full-sister to the Irish listed and US Grade 3 winner Dress Rehearsal (Galileo), now dam of a pair of stakes winners herself.

Their stakes-winning half-sister Fairy Of The Night (Danehill) has done even better, both of her stakes winners being successful at group level. Muthmir (Invincible Spirit) won the Group 2 King George Stakes and two running’s of the Group 2 Prix du Gros-Chene, and he was Group 1-placed. His half-sister My Titania (Sea The Stars) was a pattern winner at two in Ireland, and her three stakes winners, My Oberon (Dubawi), My Prospero (Iffraaj) and My Astra (Lope De Vega), have all been placed in Group 1 races.

Interesting siblings

Dress Rehearsal, Fairy Of The Night and Newton’s Light are all daughters of the four-year-old winner Sassenach (Night Shift), and she has some interesting siblings.

Her half-brother Far Cry (Pharly) was a smart stayer, winning the Group 3 Doncaster Cup and being denied victory in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup by a head, going down to Kayf Tara.

Fourteen years after the birth of Far Cry, his unraced dam Darabaka (Doyoun) produced Shaneshill (King’s Theatre), and he enjoyed a distinguished career that saw him win a Grade 1 bumper at Punchestown. However, he always managed to find one too good for him in some of the best races at the Cheltenham Festival.

He made four visits to the Festival, was runner-up to Silver Concorde in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, finished behind Douvan in the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, was second to Blaklion in the Grade 1 RSA Chase, and pulled-up in the Stayers’ Hurdle.