Improving three-year-olds enable Nathaniel to grow in stature

Julian Dollar, who stands Nathaniel at Newsells Park Stud, is finding understandable enjoyment in watching the second-season sire prove his doubters wrong with a growing collection of later-maturing stars including the outstanding Enable. But he admits the jury is still out on his commercial appeal at the sales, where precocity is a precious commodity.

Nathaniel ran Frankel to half a length when the pair finished second and first on their debuts in a Newmarket maiden at two, but he reached his peak later than the subsequent joint-champion two-year-old and 2,000 Guineas winner.

By Galileo and from a family full of middle-distance talent, Nathaniel won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at three and the Eclipse at four.

Unsurprisingly, his progeny have also taken time to come to hand, with no stakes winners among his first juveniles, although he did have two Group performers.

However, his roll of honour is now headed by Enable, who has won both the Epsom and Irish Oaks by a wide margin for John Gosden; German Derby runner-up Enjoy Vijay; Italian Derby second Back On Board; and Newbury Listed scorer Natavia.

The latest top-notcher for Nathaniel emerged on Saturday when God Given, a half-sister to Postponed, took the Listed Aphrodite Stakes at Newmarket. On the same day his progressive son Intellect won a Newbury handicap by nine lengths.

"His three-year-olds are improving every day, and he's getting more and more winners," said Dollar. "I'm really pleased with what he's doing. I've always believed in the horse, although I was perhaps getting nervous in the spring, but Enable looks very special and is a fine ambassador for him."

Julian Dollar: always a big believer in Nathaniel - as his cap demonstratesCredit: Tattersalls

Dollar believes there might also be better to come from Nathaniel.

He said: "I know Roger Charlton still thinks Natavia is a very good filly – she just had a little setback in the Oaks – and Luca Cumani feels God Given is improving all the time, and we know what he can do with improving fillies.

"John Gosden was here to see the stallions a few weeks ago and he also said he had at least one other Nathaniel who he thinks is a Group winner in waiting."

Overall, for a sire whose stock will only improve with age, it is still too early to say whether he will be judged as a premier-league sire; and whether he will continue to have the support of a commercial market so devoted to sires whose progeny blossom earlier in their careers.

"You know you've got a pretty good stallion if you get two or three Group 1 winners in his first crop," Dollar said. "But we won't know that about Nathaniel until he's had a full crop of four-year-olds or even beyond that, so that means next year at least.

"When we marketed Nathaniel's first yearlings we made it clear that he and his family all improved by between 30 and 50 pounds between being two-year-olds and the midsummer of their three-year-old seasons. His sister Great Heavens improved by 50 pounds when she won the Irish Oaks. It's a late maturing family.

Nathaniel: the son of Galileo in his racecourse pompCredit: Mark Cranham

"A lot of people won't have the patience to wait for that. But the irony is that if you asked most owners and trainers what race they would most like to win, it is the Derby - and yet those later developing types aren't always the most commercial at the sales.

"If you look at his results, he's doing a lot better than many of his peers. But because his first crop of two-year-olds weren't especially precocious, and they look like they're better beyond a mile, that will probably stand against him at the sales.

"So while he's having a good run, and there's general momentum behind him as his three-year-olds are getting better and better, I don't really know what other people think about him. We'll know more after the yearling sales this autumn."

Nathaniel was syndicated as a stallion, with many of Europe's leading breeders taking shares – including Enable's owner Khalid Abdullah – and he still has many well-bred juveniles and three-year-olds to represent him.

The number of his classy runners on the track will likely accumulate in future, as he gains concurrent crops aged three and older.

Nathaniel also has decent-sized crops to follow, with 136 mares covered in 2015, when this year's yearlings were conceived; and 135 in the following year.

Read Nancy Sexton on how Enable shows inbreeding to Sadler's Wells can work

Read Chris McGrath on Nathaniel's strong Classic hand this year