LAST year, brothers Tony and Noel O’Callaghan headlined the Goffs UK Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale, thanks to Darley’s Night Of Thunder.

On the first day, Noel’s Mountarmstrong Stud in Tipperary sold a colt from the breeder’s well-known ‘Alexander’ family to Avenue Bloodstock’s Mark McStay for a session-topping £230,000, but this was bettered, narrowly, the following day with the purchase of Tally-Ho Stud’s daughter of the Kildangan Stud sire by Blandford Bloodstock for £240,000. The yearlings were the only representatives of their sire at the sale.

The Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) colt is a grandson of Noel O’Callaghan’s dual Group 3 winner Lady Alexander (Night Shift), and she in turn is the dam of two Group 1 performers in Dandy Man (Mozart) and Anthem Alexander (Starspangledbanner).

This is also the family of the 2021 classic winner Mother Earth (Zoffany).

Eye-catching

Now named Noche Magica, and trained by Paddy Twomey for Mohammed Ahmed Ali Al Subousi, the colt made an eye-catching debut at Cork, running out a near four-length winner from, amongst others, Aidan O’Brien’s first juvenile runner of the year. The immediate reaction after the win was to suggest that we saw a Royal Ascot candidate. Time will tell.

Noche Magica is the third offspring and second winner of his Acclamation (Royal Applause) dam, Pious Alexander, successful in a six-furlong maiden at Tipperary in the hands of Pat Smullen.

Her first foal was Impeachd Alexander (Starspangledbanner), a juvenile winner in 2021 for O’Callaghan and his sons Charles and Paul, while Pious Alexander’s three-year-old Kodiac (Danehill) gelding Tarlo, who sold for 230,00gns as a yearling, was placed second twice last year.

Waiting in the wings for Pious Alexander is a yearling son of Starspangledbanner (Choisir), while last year she was among the nearly 200 mares covered by New Bay (Dubawi).

Long association

The O’Callaghan family has a long association with this family. Noel’s brother Gay bred Noche Magica’s third dam Sandhurst Goddess (Sandhurst Prince).

She won four races, trained by Noel, and she won a listed race at the now defunct Phoenix Park, and was group-placed. She was incredibly sound, running on 37 occasions. The best of her three winners was Lady Alexander.

A very fast and precocious juvenile, trained by Con Collins, Lady Alexander beat King Of Kings and Princely Heir in the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh, and followed up with victory in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood. At stud she had eight winners, and her grandsons included the Listed Tetrarch Stakes winner Alkassar (Shamardal) and the Group 3 Abernant Stakes winner, and Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp third Hamza (Amadeus Wolf).

Lady Alexander’s daughter Anthem Alexander won the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and was beaten less than a length when runner-up to Tiggy Wiggy in the Group 1 Connolly’s Red Mills Cheveley Park Stakes. Her son, the Group 3 winning sprinter Dandy Man, is the flagbearer for Joe Foley’s Ballyhane and has sired three Group/Grade 1 winners.