Pedigree Insights: Pivotal's Big Weekend

Pivotal, the grand old man of British breeding at the age of 25, has been surprising me–and many others–virtually from the moment this top-class five-furlong performer began his stallion career at Cheveley Park Stud back in 1997. Although Pivotal spent his third, fourth and fifth seasons at a fee of only £5,000, we have since seen his fee escalate as high as £85,000 and he was still priced at £40,000 when he completed his 22nd season earlier this year.

The first weekend in October provided us with further reminders of his many and varied talents. Two of his broodmare daughters enjoyed Group 1 success on the Arc programme, a day after Pivotal's up-and-coming son Siyouni has enjoyed another Group 1 success via his extraordinary daughter Laurens in the Sun Chariot S. Pivotal was also directly responsible for three sons–Avilius, Alignement and Nikkei–who registered group race successes over distances well beyond Pivotal's own capacity.

The ex-French Avilius was recording his third successive Group 3 victory for Godolphin when he took The Bart Cummings at Flemington over an extended mile and a half. Then Alignement, another gelding, sprang a 22-1 surprise in taking the G2 Prix Dollar over a mile and a quarter. Finally the 3-year-old Nikkei ran on strongly to take the G3 Silbernes Pferd over 1 7/8 miles.

For the record, Alignement, Avilius and Nikkei were respectively conceived when Pivotal was 19, 20 and 21 and it will be fascinating to see whether his next few crops can continue to confound the widespread belief that veteran stallions lose some of their effectiveness. I feel slightly treacherous in pointing out that Pivotal's youngest Group 1 winner was born in 2013, this being Blair House, winner of the Jebel Hatta as a 5-year-old.

There will no doubt be a few more emerging from his 2014, '15 and '16 crops, as his progeny sometimes take a while to reach their peak. Of his other recent Group 1 winners, Lightning Spear was seven when he defeated his juniors in this year's G1 Sussex S., Brando was five when he landed the 2017 Prix Maurice de Gheest and Talco was four when he took the 2015 Shoemaker Mile. We've even seen the 7-year-old African Story gain his first Group 1 success in the 2014 Dubai World Cup.

Indeed, durability has long been appreciated as one of the main virtues of Pivotal's progeny, with Peeress, Maarek, Farhh and Regal Parade being others which enjoyed Group 1 success at the age of five or older.

For all his outstanding success as a sire, which–it must be remembered–has been gained mainly with crops containing fewer than 120 foals, there is a strong chance that Pivotal will ultimately be remembered primarily as a wonderful sire of broodmares.

Having defeated Sadler's Wells and Galileo to take the 2017 broodmare sires' championship in Britain and Ireland, Pivotal is again heading this year's table, with a lead of around £300,000 over Galileo. With several highly valuable races yet to be contested, there is no guarantee that Pivotal will hold onto his lead, but there is no escaping the fact that he has outshone the opposition in this department.

Although Galileo's daughters have 16 Northern Hemisphere group winners, compared to Pivotal's 15, their total of Group 1 winners stands no higher than four. Pivotal's daughters, on the other hand, have notched up the magnificent total of nine individual Group 1 winners in Britain, Ireland, France, the U.S. and Japan.

These nine make an impressive collection, made up of various ages and some very different distance aptitudes. The 2-year-olds are Advertise (Phoenix S.) and Fairyland (Cheveley Park S.), and the 3-year-olds are represented by Olmedo (Poule d'Essai des Poulains). Their Group 1 double on the Arc card came via the 4-year-old fillies One Master (Prix de la Foret) and Mabs Cross (Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp), and the list includes another 4-year-old filly in Rhododendron (Lockinge S.). The 4-year-old division also features the top-class Cracksman, who may yet add to this year's Group 1 successes in the Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup.

Completing Pivotal's nifty nine are the well-travelled Glorious Empire and the Japanese 5-year-old Mikki Rocket. Glorious Empire's revival in the U.S. was highlighted by the 7-year-old's victory in the Sword Dancer H. over a mile and a half, while Mikki Rocket took the Takarazuka Kinen over a furlong less.

It is well worth adding that each of these nine Group 1 winners has a different sire, though three are by sons of Danehill–Kodiac (Fairyland), Fastnet Rock (One Master) and Holy Roman Emperor (Glorious Empire).The father-and-son team of Galileo and Frankel are also involved, via Rhododendron and Cracksman, and between them this pair have six group winners of 2018 out of Pivotal mares. Galileo's all-female quartet of Rhododendron, Flattering, Hermosa and Magical have helped boost Galileo's statistics with Pivotal's daughters to 10 black-type winners, which represents an off-the-scale 32% of the nick's 31 foals of racing age.

The overall figure for Pivotal's broodmare daughters is 4.4%. Quite a few stallions have far exceeded this 4.4% with Pivotal's daughters, excellent examples being Dansili (23%), Frankel (22%), Oasis Dream (17%), Dalakhani (15%) and Kodiac (15%),

The most popular choice for Pivotal's daughters over the years has been the Prix Morny and Middle Park S. winner Dutch Art, partly because he is another member of the Cheveley Park Stud team. Mabs Cross is one of 88 foals bred this way and she is one of the nick's five black-type winners, alongside the smart Group 3 winner Zonderland, the consistent seven-furlong filly Eternally (who has visited Kingman and Ulysses in her first two years), the very useful Zarwaan and the quick-maturing Miss Work of Art. The very useful geldings Baccarat and Robert Le Diable are other examples.

Some of these good winners by Dutch Art have managed to stay a mile, but Mabs Cross has raced exclusively over the minimum trip since being beaten over six furlongs on her first two appearances. She has now finished third, second and first in three of the year's most important five-furlong contests and there is likely to be further success next year for this progressive 4-year-old.

Her dam Miss Meggy was a quick-maturing listed winner over five furlongs as a juvenile and has also done well with her Kheleyf filly Charlie Em, winner of the GIII Senorita S. over a mile at Hollywood Park after two juvenile successes in Britain.

One Master, Sunday's other Group 1 winner out of a Pivotal mare, is also bred for speed. Not only does she have the champion Australian sprinter Fastnet Rock as her sire but she also has very fast mares as her first two dams. Her second dam, Superstar Leo, did so well as a 2-year-old, notably winning the G3 Norfolk S. and G2 Flying Childers S., that she took her chance against the older sprinters in the Prix de l'Abbaye. She managed to beat all of them except the 4-year-old Namid.

Mated to Pivotal, Superstar Leo produced Enticing, who appreciated Goodwood's fast five furlongs so much that she landed the G3 Molecomb S. at two and the G3 King George S. at four. However, when Superstar Leo's half-sister by Galileo was mated to One Master's sire Fastnet Rock, she produced the G1 Racing Post Trophy winner Rivet and a Group 3 winner over a mile in Hong Kong.