Sigh
They say you should never say never. But for one sire they said “never no more”.
No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) came to Coolmore’s Australian base for four successive springs. He covered just over 100 mares at $11,000 (inc GST) in his first two seasons, then just short of three figures in 2018 at $19,250 (inc GST), and – in a stab for better quality mares at $44,000 (inc GST) – served 83 in 2019. Then he wasn’t asked back.
The winner of a Group 1 sprint in Deauville’s Prix Morny (Gr 1, 1200m), No Nay Never brought a couple of issues with him that probably determined the relative brevity of his shuttling career.
The great breeder Tesio, in his Italian way, had a theory that mares should be “in love” with their stallion when the candles were lit and the action started, in order to produce a good horse. We’re not sure if he considered it a two-way street, but in any case the story goes that No Nay Never was extremely fussy with the style of dame he fell for.
Perhaps not coincidentally, his fertility wasn’t tremendous – averaging 65.7 per cent through his first three seasons and then, with the supposedly finer cut of mares in his fourth, it dropped to 58.4 per cent.
Now 12, No Nay Never has had considerable success in the northern hemisphere, with six Group 1 winners, four of whom have earned various “Champion” titles. One is the outstanding four-time Group 1-winning mare – and the $10 million recent addition to the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable for team Yulong – Alcohol Free.
Yet on the whole, this somewhat complicated stallion hadn’t become one of the most looked-forward-to of southern shuttlers, and hence he stopped coming.
And ain’t it just the way. Now that he’s Ireland-only, he’s had three stakes winners in Australia this season. Madame Pommery, a product of that third $19,250 crop, hooked him a big one in Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) last spring. Lady Of Honour took the Eye Liner Stakes (Listed, 1200m) at Ipswich, enhancing her status as the sire’s only Australian stakes winner before the current term, which had been earned through another Listed win in 2021.
And, a couple of weeks after the Eye Liner, No Nay Never has a very classy looking third one, in second-cropper Sigh, the Peter Moody-trained four-year-old mare who claimed Saturday’s John Monash Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m), also at Caulfield.
There are those who feel No Nay Never is somewhat unfairly maligned, given his crop sizes here, with 203 live foals from 393 mares covered. His three stakes winners in Australia give him a 2.47 per cent stakes-winners-to-runners ratio. This compares to 6.17 per cent in France, 7.08 per cent in Britain, 10.6 per cent in Ireland, and a whopping 13.23 per cent in the US, through nine stakes winners from 68 runners.
“He’s a hugely influential stallion worldwide and from limited opportunities in Australia, he’s left some very high class horses,” says Coolmore’s Colm Santry, highlighting also his two New Zealand stakes winners from 19 runners (10.5 per cent stakes-winners-to-runners).
“He’s had his fertility and libido issues, but he’s done a very good job in Australia when you consider he was doing it off a very low base at low service fees. He’s underrated out here.”
Santry, as it happens, was involved in the creation of Sigh. He bought her granddam Danesty (Danehill) – a dual Sydney city winner and full-sister to 2004 Brisbane Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Danestorm – for Matrix Bloodstock’s Michael Crismale. Matrix put Danesty to Authorized (Montjeu) and produced Fantasize, a city winner of three races.
Fantasize went to No Nay Never for her first mating and produced Sigh – who was sold as a weanling for $85,000 to her current owners Yulong – before Matrix sold Fantasize to New Zealand’s Mapperley Stud in 2019.
With Danehill (Danzig) her damsire, Fantasize going to the Danehill-free No Nay Never will have held some attraction. But something else immediately grabs the eye upon looking at the pedigree of Sigh, who’s now won six out of nine.
She has eight appearances from Northern Dancer (Nearctic) in her first seven generations, four times in each half. That’s hefty, though perhaps not extraordinary. What is remarkable is the great sire’s influence is sprinkled through eight different offspring.
He comes through No Nay Never’s top line via Storm Bird through to Scat Daddy, and through Scat Daddy’s dam’s side via Nijinsky.
He’s in No Nay Never’s dam Cat’s Eye Witness’ pedigree twice – in her sire’s female side with Hero’s Honour, and with a strong, clear passage as the sire of her second dam (No Nay Never’s third dam), Six Months Long. It’s not often you see Northern Dancer in an Australian pedigree if not through one of his famous sons.
In Sigh’s bottom half, Northern Dancer comes on both sides of Authorized, via sons Sadler’s Wells and Lyphard, and on both sides of Danesty, with Danzig and Nureyev.
A 7m, 6m, 6m, 5f x 5m, 6m, 5m, 5m octupling of Northern Dancer won’t explain all of Sigh’s zip. But in brewing up a pedigree it’s some spice that can’t hurt, particularly with a daughter who runs straight to the sire through his female line.
There’s another strand to the pedigree of Sigh, who’s rather well named, by the way – in that you can Fantasize all you want but you can No Nay Never…
Her fourth dam is the 1978 drop Copperama (Comeram). Bred by Robert Sangster and trained by Tommy Smith, Copperama was one of Australia’s outstanding females of the early 1980s.
She won the Group 1 the aforementioned Madame Pommery won – the VATC Thousand Guineas, in 1981, a few months after taking the two-year-old feature of the Malboro Stakes at Eagle Farm, also over 1600 metres, long before it became the JJ Atkins.
Copperama also won a 1200-metre Listed race up the straight at Flemington as an autumn three-year-old. She also ran third in the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m), second in the VRC Ascot Vale Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) (now the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes), and third in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 3, 2000m) (now Group 1). If the winner of those three races – the superb Rose Of Kingston (Claude) – hadn’t been around, Copperama might have achieved far loftier status.
After retiring, Copperama became an early Australian broodmare export to the US. Sent to some of the world’s most in-demand stallions, she would have some strong success, bearing 13 foals – including nine fillies – with eight winners from nine runners, and Group 1-winning descendants.
Put to Storm Bird, Copperama threw a first foal in Stormy Exchange, who transferred to her mum’s homeland to bear Danendri (Danehill), a dual Group 1 winner including of the 1997 AJC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m).
Copperama was covered three times by Nureyev, the second producing the 1991 drop Shalbourne. A winner at two over 1500 metres, Shalbourne also crossed the Pacific to bear the aforementioned Brisbane Cup winner Danestorm, a year before his full-sister Danesty, Sigh’s granddam.
Aside from Fantasize, the now-retired 24-year-old Danesty has left Mr Sneaky (High Chaparral), a city-winner of five races who was second in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), and Mr So And So (So You Think), who was twice placed at Group 2 level at Caulfield.
From a family full of black type, Sigh could be well on the way to becoming the latest top-tier winning descendant of Copperama.
She might also continue to keep her sire’s name in the headlines out here, even if he’ll come a’roving No Nay Never no more.