On a day when a Derby winner provided the outstanding victrix of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, it was announced by Lanwades Stud that another former Epsom hero, North Light, would be returning to the town where he was trained to continue his stud career.
Already sire of the St Leger winner Arctic Cosmos, North Light retired first to Kentucky and then continued under the Adena Springs banner in Canada, where he has spent the last three seasons and was named champion turf sire in 2012.
By Danehill out of the Group 1-winning Rainbow Quest mare Sought Out, he was bred in Ireland by Ballymacoll Stud. Like so many of the stud’s top-class horses, North Light was trained by Sir Michael Stoute and was the champion three-year-old of 2004 following wins in the Derby and Dante Stakes, plus a runner-up finish in the Irish Derby.
Kirsten Rausing, owner of Lanwades Stud, said on Sunday: “We welcome the addition of Derby winner North Light to our stallion roster. A proven stallion, having already produced Group and Graded Stakes winners on three continents, including St Leger winner and champion three-year-old stayer Arctic Cosmos, he should greatly appeal to European breeders.”
North Light is not the only Derby winner on the Lanwades roster. He will stand alongside Sir Percy, who enjoyed a good weekend with two new stakes winners in two hemispheres. His New Zealand-bred son Sir Andrew won the Group 2 Hawke’s Bay Guineas, while in Newmarket the consistent stakes performer Sound Hearts won the Listed Pride Stakes.
Only last week, Lanwades also announced that Animal Kingdom’s sire Leroidesanimaux will be moving from America to Newmarket in the coming weeks, bringing the Lanwades roster of stallions to five, with Aussie Rules and promising young freshman sire Archipenko completing the line-up.
North Light will stand in 2014 for a fee of £6,000. The fee for Leroidesanimaux is yet to be announced.
