We bought this striking son of Lucky Vega for 60,000 guineas late on the opening evening of the Tattersalls Book 3 Sale. As a Book 3 graduate, he was eligible for the £200,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes over six furlongs and the £200,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes over seven furlongs, two of the most valuable sales races in the calendar.

Lucky Vega was a top-class racehorse himself, winning the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes as a two-year-old before going on to finish runner-up in the Middle Park Stakes that same season. As a three-year-old, he was third in the 2,000 Guineas and runner-up in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. His first European crop have made an excellent start to their careers and Night In Vegas has quickly established himself as one of his flagbearers, producing a string of high-class performances during his juvenile campaign.

The dam, Strait Power, is a half-sister to Champion Sprinter Slade Power, winner of both the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the July Cup amongst many other top sprint races. Strait Power has now produced five winners from her first five runners, including the Listed-placed Shepherd’s Way, the progressive sprinter Brummell and Strait And Narrow. Her own dam also produced six winners from six runners and this consistently high strike-rate of winners to runners is always something we like to see in a pedigree.

Luke Lillingston commented: “As we entered Book 3 at Tattersalls and focused on buying a suitable horse for Eve Johnson Houghton, Sam and I reminded ourselves of what a special group of yearlings we believed we had already assembled. Discipline in upholding our standards and beliefs, together with a good measure of patience, was rewarded when we secured this cracker of a colt. Four of his five siblings won at two. Julie Camacho, who trained the two best, described them as having excellent temperaments and improving with age. It took Sam about 30 seconds to achieve perfect photos of him in the dark, and when I fed him later that evening he was so chilled. He just seemed a really cool dude.”

Everything about him suggested he would be an early two-year-old and we were delighted to see that prediction come to fruition. After winning both of his first two starts, he ran a tremendous race to finish fifth in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot, proving he belonged at the highest level. He has continued to improve with racing and produced a career-best effort when finishing an excellent third in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. There is every reason to believe there are more big days ahead for this exciting colt.