NOW 27 years young, and thankfully still active, Pivotal is the epitome of everything that there is to like about Cheveley Park Stud. Bred and raced by the Thompson’s Newmarket farm, he was a member of the first crop of their resident stallion Polar Falcon (Nureyev), winner of the then Group 2 Lockinge Stakes and rated the best older sprinter in Europe at four when he won the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup.

Pivotal didn’t have far to travel to go into training, joining the Heath House Stables of Sir Mark Prescott. He only raced six times, in a time span of 10 months, but during that time he established himself as one of the leading sprinters in Europe. He was ridden in all but the first of his races by George Duffield.

Ninth of 20 runners in a six-furlong maiden at Newbury in mid-October of his juvenile season, it was only 11 days later that Pivotal recorded his first win over six furlongs in a maiden at Newcastle. The following month he dropped back in trip to five furlongs at Folkestone, accelerating clear of the field to win by four lengths and catch many people’s eye.

Pivotal did not reappear as a three-year-old until June when, in spite of having no blacktype to his name, he was sent to Royal Ascot to contest the all-aged Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes over five furlongs. He started at odds of 13/2 in a 17-runner field which included Royal Applause and Hever Golf Rose. Duffield produced a strong late run to take the lead in the last strides and win by half a length from Mind Games and Almaty.

Next time out Pivotal started favourite for the July Cup over six furlongs at Newmarket where he finished sixth behind Anabaa. At York in August, Pivotal was brought back to five furlongs for what was to be his final start in the Nunthorpe Stakes. He again finished strongly to catch the front-running Eveningperformance in the last stride and won by a short head, with Hever Gold Rose back in third.

Retired the following season to join his sire at Cheveley Park Stud, Pivotal has carved out a great career as a stallion, both with his winners on the racecourse and the Group 1 winners being produced with great regularity by his daughters. At the weekend, William Haggas plundered Australia with a pair of challengers, both successful at group level. Best of these was Pivotal’s son Addeybb, whose victory in the Group 1 Ranvet Rawson Stakes at Rosehill provided his sire with his 31st winner at the highest level in racing.

The leading British-based stallion on a number of occasions, and a champion broodmare sire in Europe, Pivotal’s daughters have been responsible for multiple Group 1 winners such as Magical (Galileo), Hermosa (Galileo), Advertise (Showcasing), Cracksman (Frankel), Fairyland (Kodiac), One Master (Fastnet Rock), Hydrangea (Galileo) and Rhododendron (Galileo).

Bred in Ireland by Rabbah Bloodstock, Addeybb was sold as a yearling to Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Estate Company for 200,000gns through the Swinburn’s Genesis Green Stud in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. He never raced for Sheikh Hamdan, was gelded and made his racecourse debut at the age of three in the silks of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum.

Addeybb has grown in stature as he has matured and now, just turned six, he seems to be at the peak of his powers. A Group 2 winner at four of the bet365 Mile at Sandown, it was last year that he showed some of his best form, notably running less than a length behind Magical when runner-up in the Group 1 QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot. His win down under was his first start since and he has now won half of his 16 starts and earned just shy of £800,000.

Paul Nataf bought Bush Cat, a two-year-old winning daughter of Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) and the dam of Addeybb, for just €31,000 at the Goffs February Sale in 2015, carrying a colt by Dawn Approach (New Approach) who went on to win in France and Qatar. He was the sixth winner for Bush Cat who has since produced the now three-year-old filly Wild Spirit (Lawman), a €60,000 yearling, the two-year-old colt Woody Cat (Literato) and a yearling filly by Dream Ahead (Diktat).

Bush Cat is one of nine winners from the German listed winner Arbusha (Danzig) and she was trained in the early 1990s by Jim Bolger for Henryk De Kwiatkowski. Her trainer placed her well to get that blacktype in Germany, at a time when such forays were rare, and on her final start in Ireland she chased home Rayseka and Royal Ballerina in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes.

Her first foal was a colt in the USA named Drive Time (King Cugat) and he was sold as a just-turned yearling at Keeneland to John O’Connor of Ballykelly Stud for $4,000. Offered for sale later that year at Tattersalls Ireland’s September Sale, he was sold for a nice profit to Jim Bolger, costing him €31,000.

It was not until the age of four that he saw a racecourse, beating the subsequent multiple Grade 1 winner Blackstairmountain over 14 furlongs at Leopardstown, and following up in a three-runner race at the same trip a month later in Killarney. With that Graham Wylie came calling and the gelding moved firstly to Howard Johnson, and then to Willie Mullins, for whom he won a Grade 2 hurdle at Punchestown.

Drive Time was one of three blacktype winners from Arbusha, the others being a pair of minor stakes winners in the USA by Mercer Mill (Forty Niner). Arbusha and the German Group 2 winner Nicholas (Danzig) were the best of 13 winning offspring from their dam, while their full-sister Danlu (Danzig) bred the champion stayer Strategic Choice (Alleged), a group winner in Ireland, England, France and Italy, and a big-race winner in Turkey. His successes included the Group 1 Irish St Leger and the Group 1 Gran Premio di Milano. He also travelled further afield and ran third in the Group 1 Japan Cup.

One more generation back and up pops another top-class winner, by now a distant relation, bred and trained by Jim Bolger. That is Pleascach (Teofilo), an Irish word meaning explosive, and she won both the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas and Darley Yorkshire Oaks.