Divine Knight

Purchased from the Arqana Breeze Up Sale in Deauville - the premier breeze up sale for buyers world wide. Previous stars include the Roger Varian-trained ELDAR ELDAROV and SAKHEER.

 

When you purchase from the Arqana Breeze Up Sale, you can expect the highest quality horses, and this colt was a stand-out here for us. He made the top of our list after just one inspection, and we were determined to secure him, bidding to our highest purchase price of the sales at €270,000. For a strong, well-built type, he is remarkably athletic with an outstanding action, and one just has to watch his breeze to see how much power he has. Looking very much a three-year-old type, he will likely take a bit of time, but will be well worth the wait. 

He is a big, strong brute of a horse. A particularly masculine colt for a two-year-old, even for mid May. He is three parts brother in blood to a Dante Stakes winner who stayed very well, even further than the 10f at three. It suggests he is a big, strong three-year-old type that will get minimum of the same trip. He breezed well, in quite a mature manner, and we will likely see him at his peak as a three-year-old next Spring.

Pedigree

He is by NIGHT OF THUNDER, winner of the 2000 Guineas and a leading stallion by DUBAWI. The sire of HIGHFIELD PRINCESS, who took a Group 1 treble last year - “Timeform rates her not just the best sprinter in Europe but the finest filly or mare in the world.”

NIGHT OF THUNDER has already eclipsed his sire’s percentage of first-crop Stakes Winners to runners:

NIGHT OF THUNDER - 22%

DUBAWI - 15%

 

His dam is the half-sister to THUNDEROUS (NIGHT OF THUNDER), rated 107 and winner of the Dante Stakes, who also came second by a length to STRADIVARIUS last year in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup Stakes. The pair are siblings to the Gosden-trained UNFORGOTTEN, who landed in the winners’ enclosure on six of his seven runs with three wins and three places. The excellent bloodline has clearly carried through from the grandam, who was a Listed-winning mare herself in the hands of Marco Botti.