A four-star review as No Nay Never shows his worth at Royal Ascot

When you get the big bucks, you have to deliver.

Time is money in the rarified air of racehorse breeding. In 2023 No Nay Never was assigned his largest fee so far, of €175,000, on the back of a sensational season in which the likes of Alcohol Free won a July Cup, Blackbeard the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes, Little Big Bear the Phoenix and Meditate the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Breeders continued to pile in – he covered 197 mares – but his standards were hard to follow and most of those names above failed to particularly embellish their legacies. While Lake Forest won the 2024 Golden Eagle and Little Big Bear's brother Whistlejacket made a good impression, it was not enough to maintain No Nay Never's figure quite as sky high.

No Nay Never, pictured at Coolmore in 2023, excels with his two-year-oldsCredit: Zuzanna LUPA

Even back to €125,000 for 2025 there are still certain expectations, particularly with a sire who specialises in speed valued at around the bracket of those more likely to find you a Classic winner.

Hat-tricks are required with regularity, especially when even your children start becoming the competition. Justify and Wootton Bassett, other superheroes in the Coolmore universe, seemed to be getting more attention.

No Nay Never's results at this year's Royal Ascot, as easily the meeting's leading sire with four winners, were the perfect riposte. Particularly as they included two of the prestige juvenile races.

Two-year-olds have been No Nay Never's specialty, ever since he rocketed into six figures on the back of becoming champion first-season sire in 2018 and his unbeaten son Ten Sovereigns winning the Middle Park. With five juvenile stakes winners coming at the royal meeting, he ties with his own sire Scat Daddy as the most successful sire in that category over the last two decades.

Charles Darwin, at this stage, looks as if he's going to be even better than his brother Blackbeard, having recorded a higher Racing Post Rating (109 to 105) by June when he won the Norfolk Stakes with panache.

It is rare to see a horse of such relative youth being so professional; he was so quick out of the stalls and ended up lengthening away, emulating his sire a dozen years earlier.

During a week of competitive racing, encouraging crowd figures and some heart-warming results for smaller breeders, it was certainly one of the stand-out moments.

Not many two-year-olds are aimed for the Nunthorpe these days but Charles Darwin would surely not be overawed by the occasion with four runs in the bank before the longest day and is already physically imposing. Nearly a man, as it were, against men, and the sort of challenge that would reinvigorate the division.

True Love and Ryan Moore win the Queen Mary Stakes at Royal AscotCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Charles Darwin achieved his first big milestone 24 hours before his Aidan O'Brien stablemate True Love, No Nay Never's daughter who was always in control in the Queen Mary. A sizeable filly who had finished close behind Tuesday's Coventry winner, Gstaad, she looks to also have a Group 1 within her reach unless her peers catch up very quickly.

For both individuals, the focus will be on this season rather than next for the time being but this is not an accusation that should always be bandied about too liberally with progeny of his sire. Fast ground seems to bring out the best in the No Nay Nevers and his other two winners, Never Let Go in the Sandringham and Never So Brave in the Buckingham Palace, are three and four-year-olds respectively who are still progressing in their careers

It remains to be seen whether Charles Darwin shares any of the oddities of Blackbeard, who would demonstrate a fair degree of eccentricity by dancing around and making a bit of a show of himself at the start. 

Charles Darwin did at least prise an indulgent smile out of Ryan Moore when he leaned in for a cuddle as they posed for winning photos. As anyone would tell you, a personality is also part of the package of a sporting superstar.

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