By John Boyce
The July festival at Newmarket threw up two fine examples of how Galileo (Ire) and Pivotal (GB) combine in pedigrees. The Falmouth S. winner Veracious (GB) was a perfect example of the continuation of the affinity between the pair, this time expressed through Galileo's son Frankel (GB). Veracious is, of course, the second Group 1 winner by Frankel out of a Pivotal mare, the other being the brilliant Cracksman (GB), who also looked imperious during his July week outing at the Darley stallion parade.
In all, combining mares from the Pivotal line with Galileo-line stallions has produced 128 runners and 15 stakes winners for a strike rate of 11.7%. Whilst this is a good return, it doesn't come close to the 11 stakes winners from 26 runners (42.3%) produced directly by Galileo from mares by Pivotal.
Remarkably two mares–Group 1 winner Halfway To Heaven (Ire) and Group 2 scorer Beauty Is Truth (Ire)–are responsible for six of these stakes winners. Magical (Ire), Rhododendron (Ire) and Flying The Flag (Ire) are out of Halfway To Heaven, while Beauty is Truth has supplied The United States (Ire), Hydrangea (Ire) and Hermosa (Ire).
Yet another daughter of Pivotal could join these two outstanding mares on three stakes winners in the very near future. She is Pikaboo (GB), whose daughter Peach Tree (Ire) became her dam's second group winner by Galileo recently at Leopardstown, the same afternoon that another of her daughters, the progressive 2-year-old Love (Ire), broke her maiden.
The reverse cross of Pivotal sire sons and Galileo mares has also been making the news recently. Sottsass (Fr), by Pivotal's son Siyouni (Fr) and out of a Galileo mare, became the first Group 1 winner bred on this cross when he took the Prix du Jockey Club last month, while Maqsad (Fr) had also won at listed level in the spring. Pivotal's other stallion son, Farhh (GB)–who is having an outstanding year, also got in on the act with Wells Farhh Go (Ire), who returned to action in the Listed Fred Archer S. at the end of June.
Most promising of all though could be debutant Al Madhar (Fr), a son of Siyouni from a Galileo mare, who made a big impression winning a hot 14-runner maiden at the July Festival for which he earned a Timeform mark of 95p. For the record, the Pivotal/Galileo line combination has a strike rate of 11.1% stakes winners to runners, not all that far behind the more illustrious reverse cross.
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