IT is amazing to think that Pivotal’s current two-year-olds, which number about 30 or so, is his 23rd crop of racing age.

His last offspring are yearlings, about 14 of them, and the great Cheveley Park sire died last year at the age of 28.

This year’s juvenile crop by Pivotal (Polar Falcon) now contains three winners from just five starters, and no surprise there as he is a sire who, throughout his long and distinguished career, delivered at every turn. Whether as a top-class stallion, a champion broodmare sire, or as a sire of sires, he has never let breeders and owners down.

Some facts. Pivotal is sire of 32 Group/Grade 1 winners, his daughters have bred at least 27 Group or Grade 1 winners, while seven of his sons have sired Group 1 winners, notably Siyouni and Farhh.

As a racehorse Pivotal won two of his three juvenile starts when in the care of Sir Mark Prescott, a maiden over six furlongs and a conditions race over five, and he repeated the success ratio at three, but this time his victories over the minimum trip were in the then Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York. He was champion sprinter of his year.

At the time of his death, Cheveley Park’s managing director, Chris Richardson, said: “The story associated with the ‘mighty’ Pivotal is truly extraordinary, considering he was the result of the very first covering his sire, Polar Falcon, was given.

On the map

“Thankfully, as a yearling, it was decided to retain him to race, rather than offer him for sale, as we did with the other yearling colts by Polar Falcon that year. Pivotal truly put Cheveley Park Stud on the map, giving owners David and Patricia Thompson their first Group 1 winner in the stud’s famous red, white and blue colours. Having covered a relatively small book of mares in his first year [at a fee of £6,000], his resulting progeny excelled and inspired at all levels, which they have continued to do throughout his career, both domestically and internationally.”

One of this year’s two-year-old winners by Pivotal is Zhang Yuesheng’s Pivotal Trigger. He won the seven-furlong maiden at Galway on Monday.

Trained by Jessica Harrington and purchased as a yearling by Michael Donohoe for 62,000gns, this Cheveley Park-bred colt has shown improved form with each of his three outings, and his pedigree suggests that is something which will continue.

Pivotal Trigger is the sixth winner from the Group 2 winner Allegretto (Galileo), the best of the others being his five-year-old half-sister Cabaletta (Mastercraftsman). She was a dual listed winner at Newbury, and twice a group runner-up at Goodwood, in the Group 2 Lillie Langtry Stakes and the Group 3 March Stakes, both at three. Her dam Allegretto was the product of another of Newmarket’s famous stud farms, Lanwades, and she was purchased as a yearling by Cheveley Park for 415,000gns.

Top-level win

Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, Allegretto gained four of her five wins in Britain in Group 2 races, though today her success in the Goodwood Cup would entitle her to Group 1 status. Thankfully she achieved that feat in France as a four-year-old, landing the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak, a race in which she was also runner-up on another occasion.

Allegretto was the best of eight winners from the Group 3 Doncaster Cup heroine Alleluia (Caerleon). She was also one of eight winners from Alruccaba (Crystal Palace), and this is a family that crops up every few weeks in this column with another big race winner.