First Crop 2YO Winner for No Nay Never
Exciting young sire No Nay Never got off the mark with his first crop when his Irish-bred daughter Mae Never No (2f No Nay Never x Sweet Shirley Mae, by Broken Vow) made an impressive winning debut over five furlongs at Belmont Park on Thursday.
Trained by Wesley Ward, who also trained his sires, Mae Never No races for the Ice Wine Stable, who raced No Nay Never in partnership with Coolmore.
Settled in third early, Mae Never No attacked the line with more vigour than the favourite, outsprinting her inside the final half-furlong to win, going away, by a length and a quarter.
Ward has enjoyed great success in recent years targeting the feature two-year-old races at Royal Ascot and the suggestion post-race was that this filly could be targeted towards that meeting.
No Nay Never won Royal Ascot’s Group II Norfolk Stakes over 5f as a two-year-old for Ward having broken his maiden over 4½ furlong at Keeneland in late April.
No Nay Never, who rounded out an unbeaten two-year-old season with a win in the Group I Prix Morny over 1200m in France, has made an eye-catching start at stud with his first yearlings selling for up to 850,000gns (A$1,600,000 approx) in 2017, prompting his fee in the Northern Hemisphere to jump to €25,000 (A$40,000 approx) for the 2018 season.
No Nay Never currently sits amongst the favourites to be champion first season sire of Britain and Ireland by winners.
The first Australian bred progeny of No Nay Never, now weanlings, include half-brothers to the likes of Unforgotten, Mighty Boss and Trusting, as well as the progeny of quality racemares like Aqua d’Amore and Zagalia.
No Nay Never is rostered to stand the 2018 southern hemisphere season in Australia at a fee of $19,250 (incl. GST).
The first winner for No Nay Never could be a pre-cursor for what may be another incredible weekend for his ill-fated sire Scat Daddy. His sons Justify and Mendelssohn are first and second favourite respectively for one of the world’s most prestigious races, the Group I Kentucky Derby, on Saturday. Scat Daddy, who is responsible for 96 stakes winners to date (almost 12% SWs/Runners) will be further represented in Australia for the 2018 season by another exceptional sprinting son, Caravaggio, who will stand in Australia at a fee of $33,000 (incl. GST).