THERE appears to be no end to the success story that is Cheveley Park’s veteran, twenty- year old sire Pivotal (Polar Falcon), who happens to be the sire of Heversham Park Farm’s resident stallion Wings Of Desire (GB).
Sarah Whitelaw writes that the last significant heir to the Nureyev male line has had another superb year as a sire, sire of sires and broodmare sire, with Pivotal descendants making their mark in no uncertain terms at Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday.
His outstanding daughter, and triple G1 winner, Halfway To Heaven (dam of triple Gr1 winner Rhododendron and KZN sire Flying The Flag) is the dam of the remarkably filly Magical, who claimed the fourth Gr1 win of her career when landing Saturday’s Gr1 Qipco Champion Stakes – beating Pivotal gelding Addeybb into second place in the process.
Wings Of Desire, set to become a pivotal stallion in South Africa.
One of the best fillies of her generation, Magical took her earnings to over 3.3 million pounds with her courageous win on Saturday. Pivotal daughters have dominated the Champion Stakes in recent years, with Pivotal’s maternal grandson Cracksman (Frankel) winning the race in 2017 and 2018.
Pivotal is also broodmare sire of One Master (Fastnet Rock), who was beaten a length into second place in Saturday’s Gr1 Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes – Pivotal’s G1 winning son Brando was fourth – while his underrated sire son Farhh produced Saturday’s Gr1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner King Of Change. One Master’s Gr3 Molecomb Stakes winning dam Enticing is also granddam of Saturday’s G3 Killavullan Stakes winner Stela Star (Epaulette).
King Of Change, who accounted for former Met runner up Last Winter (Western Winter) when victorious in the Listed Chasemore Farm Fortune Stakes, had finished second earlier in the year in the Gr1 Qipco 2000 Guineas.
Pivotal’s name appears in the pedigrees of three of the first four home in Saturday’s Gr1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. His Gr1 St James’s Palace Stakes winning son Excellent Art is broodmare sire of QE II Stakes runner up The Revenant, while Pivotal is damsire of fourth place finisher Veracious (Frankel).
King Of Change’s Gr1 Lockinge Stakes/Champion Stakes winning sire Farhh has had a good year, with his stakes winners this year including group winners King Of Change, Move Swiftly, and Dee Ex Bee. Farrh has a total of eight stakes winners, from just 33 runners, with his other notable performers including Nocturnal Fox and Wells Farhh Go.
Another Pivotal son to shine this year is Siyouni, with the former Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner responsible for six group winners in 2019, including Gr1 Prix du Jockey Club hero Sottsass. One of the best sires currently standing in France, Siyouni has a number of high-class 2yos this season including group winners Al Raya and Devil, as well as Gr1 Natalma Stakes runner-up Walk In Marrakesh.
Pivotal has had another solid year, with the former Nunthorpe Stakes winner having supplied six stakes winners, including Australian based multiple Gr1 winner Avilius and Gr1 Prix Saint Alary winner Siyarafina.
To date, the son of Polar Falcon – he is head and shoulders his sire’s best sire son – has been responsible for a total of 150 stakes winners, with his offspring headed by 30 individual Gr1 winners.
As brilliant a sire as Pivotal has been, he is showing signs of becoming, if anything, an even better broodmare sire. In 2019 alone, Pivotal mares have been responsible for eight Gr1 winners, namely Hermosa, Magical, One Master, Fairyland, Love, Advertise, Veracious and Defoe.
Pivotal mares have, thus, been responsible for the winners of all of the 1000 Guineas, Irish 1000 Guineas, Champion Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes, Prix de la Foret, Flying Five Stakes, Moyglare Stud Stakes, Tattersalls Gold Cup, Prix Maurice de Gheest, Commonwealth Cup, Falmouth Stakes and Coronation Cup this year alone.
Pivotal’s French 2000 Guineas winning son Falco also made news over the past weekend, with his daughter Xenobia landing the Gr3 Athenia Stakes at Belmont Park.
Remarkably, Pivotal enjoyed even greater success in 2018, when his broodmare daughters supplied 10 individual Gr1 winners.
His daughters have fared particularly well when mated to both Galileo and his unbeaten son Frankel, with Galileo the sire of all of Magical, Rhododendron,The United States and Hermosa, and Frankel sire of G1 winners Cracksman and Veracious out of Pivotal daughters.
Heversham Park’s Kat Riley comments:
Wings of Desire is proving to be really popular in only his second season at stud due primarily to South African breeders becoming cognisant of the hugely influential ongoing success of the “Pivotal effect”, so wonderfully described in this article. Rather interesting is that unlike most of Pivotals progeny, “Wings” hated soft ground and relished fast firm ground. There is a very enlightening interview with his trainer John Gosden made pre the Investec Epsom Derby available on Youtube and on our website. Watch it here.
-FROM SPORTING POST.