WHAT a sire Pivotal (Polar Falcon) has been at Cheveley Park Stud. Winner as a three-year-old of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes and the Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes, he has been an outstanding sire of winners and is now among the elite of broodmare sires too.

He is the leading broodmare sire this year thanks, among many, to the exploits of such as Cracksman (Frankel) and Rhododendron (Galileo). His own stock in 2018 include a pair of new Group 1 winners; Blair House who won the Jebel Hatta, and this week’s Sussex Stakes hero Lightning Spear, one of the first new stallions announced for 2019 when he retires to Tweenhills Stud.

There was universal delight following the success of Lightning Spear in the Goodwood feature, and it was at the same course that he recorded his best previous successes, namely winning the Group 2 Celebration Mile twice. At the highest level his performances include being runner-up twice in the Lockinge Stakes, third twice in the Queen Anne Stakes, and being placed in the Sussex Stakes last year.

Pivotal is now responsible for 28 Group or Grade 1 winners, 16 of them colts and geldings and an even dozen fillies. He is a sire of sires, including such as Siyouni, Farhh and Kyllachy, while his daughters include Izzi Top, Immortal Verse, Sariska, Halfway To Heaven, Peeress, Megahertz and Golden Apples. One thing all of those fillies have in common is that they won more than once at the top-level.

Lightning Spear is one of six winners from his dam Atlantic Destiny, a daughter of Royal Academy (Nijinsky). She won a listed race at two in England, having been bought as a yearling for 26,000gns by Mark Johnston, and afterwards she went to America and three of her five wins there were gained in stakes company.

One thing that is striking about the progeny of Atlantic Destiny is that they were generally good lookers. Lightning Spear made 260,000gns as a yearling, while his stakes winning half-brother Ocean War (Dalakhani) sold at the same age for 320,000gns. The stakes-placed Seaway (Dr Fong) realised 160,000gns at Doncaster as a yearling, while some others also made six-figure sums.

Lightning Spear is the third Group 1 winner of 2018 bred at Newsells Park Stud, he was sold to David Redvers in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and he comes from a family that is mostly known for its association with Moyglare Stud. Atlantic Destiny was actually sold in utero at the December Sale in 1995 for 17,500gns, her dam Respectfully (The Minstrel) having already produced offspring by some of the most desirable sires in the world at the time.

The year that Respectfully was sold she had foaled a colt by Darshaan (Shirley Heights) and he turned out to be her best runner. Make No Mistake sold as a yearling to the bloodstock agent Jack Doyle, father of Peter and grandfather of Ross, and he won the Group 2 Royal Whip Stakes and Group 3 Meld Stakes at the Curragh, and ran third in the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. In the USA he added the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap to his tally.

Respectfully’s grandam What A Treat (Tudor Minstrel) was one of the great foundation mares at Moyglare in the reign of Walter Haefner and that champion three-year-old in the USA bred the excellent miler and champion sire Be My Guest (Northern Dancer).