Storm Boy’s international odyssey is officially over, with the Justify colt retired after another below-par northern hemisphere performance at Royal Ascot.
Coolmore, which paid more than $20 million for Storm Boy after his commanding Magic Millions 2YO Classic victory in January 2024, made the decision to end his international campaign and retire the colt to join its Australian stallion roster this spring.
Storm Boy, who ran third in last year’s Golden Slipper as favourite for trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, will stand for an introductory service fee of $16,500 (inc GST).
After a four-start spring campaign, which netted a first-up Group 3 San Domenico Stakes win, Storm Boy’s owners sent the sprinter to Aidan O’Brien in Ireland to be trained in the hope of replicating the 2018 Royal Ascot deeds of Merchant Navy.
But the three-year-old, who is out of Fastnet Rock mare Pelican and a grandson of champion New Zealand mare Seachange, failed to fire in his two European outings, finishing last in the Group 2 Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh and 10th in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee at Royal Ascot on Saturday.
The Group 1 Jubilee was won by Lazzat, the France-trained sprinter-miler who was runner-up in the Golden Eagle last November.
Australian sprinter Merchant Navy won the Greenlands and Jubilee races in 2018 for O’Brien.
"We took Storm Boy to Europe with the plan of winning the QE II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, but unfortunately we haven't been able to give him the ideal prep,” Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier said.
“We felt we were getting back to where we needed to be with him, but he was found to be quite lame since returning to Ballydoyle on Saturday."
A $460,000 purchase by Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade from the 2023 Magic Millions sale, Storm Boy will join another son of Justify on the Coolmore Australia roster in 2025, the O’Brien-trained European champion two-and three-year-old City Of Troy.
Storm Boy burst onto the scene as an early two-year-old, defeating Darley’s recently retired first-season sire Traffic Warden at Rosehill in early December before winning the Group 3 BJ McLachlan at Eagle Farm at his second start.
He then dominated the field in the $3 million Magic Millions, producing a high-rating effort at the Gold Coast before being set on a Golden Slipper campaign by Waterhouse and Bott.
Storm Boy won the Group 2 Skyline, defeating Aquis Farm’s new sire Prost, then ran third in the Slipper and fourth in the Group 1 Sires’ Produce Stakes on a heavy track to round out his six-start juvenile preparation.
He was beaten just three quarters of a length in the Golden Rose, which was won by Broadsiding, and less than two lengths in The Everest behind Bella Nipotina.
As well as having City Of Troy and Storm Boy as new additions to the Coolmore roster, Group 1-winning sprinter Switzerland and Caulfield Guineas winner Private Life have also been retired to the Hunter Valley farm this year.
Justify, Australia’s champion first-season sire in 2022/23, shuttled to Coolmore Australia four times in five years but he did not board the plane last year.
He stood the 2025 northern hemisphere breeding season at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in America at a fee of US$250,000 (A$384,621).
