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Fourth winner for former shuttler Night Of Thunder.
Former Darley shuttler Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) sired his fourth Australian-bred winner on Wednesday when Kukeracha (2 c ex Portrait Of A Lady by A P Indy) scored a debut victory in a Geelong maiden over 1200 metres.
The Chris Waller-trained and Craig Williams-ridden colt beat Milliondollarbill (Epaulette) by a half length, with another length and a half back to Fixated (Hinchinbrook) in third.
"He's certainly impressed us to date," said Waller's stable representative Jo Taylor to racing.com.
"He has a lot of upside to him so to see him come here today and do it over a trip we feel is short of his best is definitely encouraging."
Kukeracha was bred by Waikato Stud's vet Chris Phillips, who bought the colt in utero when he purchased Portrait Of A Lady (A P Indy) for $40,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. The colt was then sold for NZ$130,000 at Karaka Book 1, as part of the Waikato Stud draft, to Mulcaster Bloodstock and he becomes the fifth winner for his dam, a winning daughter of A P Indy (Seattle Slew), who has also produced the 2013 Keith Nolan Classic (Gr 3, 1600m) winner Cameo (Shamardal).
Kukeracha's second dam is Laiyl (Nureyev), the dam of four winners headed by dual Group 3 winner Layman (Sunday Silence), while further back this is the family of champion sire Cape Cross (Green Desert) as well as successful sires Iffraaj (Zafonic) and Diktat (Warning).
Portrait Of A Lady was covered last year by Ocean Park (Thorn Park) having produced a colt by Sacred Falls (O'Reilly). McKeever Bloodstock and Alexander Racing bought Portrait Of A Lady's Sacred Falls filly for NZ$85,000 at this year's Karaka Book 1.
Night Of Thunder's other winners in Australia include Group 3 winner A Beautiful Night and Listed winner River Night. His first northern hemisphere crop includes Group 2 winner Night Colours and Group 3 winning pair Under The Stars and Pocket Square.
He is currently standing for a fee of €25,000 at Darley's Kildangan Stud in Ireland.
