Pivotal

One day after the Aga Khan-bred and -consigned Shahnameh (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) topped the proceedings at the Arqana Vente d'Elevage, another of the operation's 3-year-old filly was the star turn in Deauville, as the unraced Vazzana (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}) was knocked down for €120,000 to lead the way during the penultimate session of the auction. Catalogued at lot 716, the bay filly is a daughter of Vazira (Fr) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), winner of three of her six career starts, including the 2014 G1 Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp one start...

Jean-Claude Rouget is not prone to hyperbole so, when the decorated French handler compared the unexposed Al Hakeem (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) to his only G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) earlier this week, some people did a double take. Not Benoit Jeffroy, who manages Haras de Bouquetot on behalf of the Al Shaqab operation. Jeffroy has long been aware of the standing in which the multiple Classic-winning trainer has held Al Hakeem and, when the colt won the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly on...

Four-time Group 1 winner Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) has been given a clean bill of health and is on course for a return to racecourse action following a health scare late last year. Sheikh Ahmed's 8-year-old gelding experienced a blood clot in a hock that became infected. "We had a real scare, we thought we were going to lose him in November but he's fine now," said trainer William Haggas. "Hopefully we'll have him ready to return in the summer. He's marvellous, he's in good shape." Addeybb traveled to Sydney...

Sumbe-under its previous guises as Haras de la Cauviniere and Haras de Montfort et Preaux and still today under the guidance of new owner Nurlan Bizakov-has made a concerted effort to upgrade the level of stallions standing of France. It has done so with success, too; as part of its fruitful relationship with Gerard Augustin-Normand, the Cauviniere principals retained the 2009 G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre (Ire) to stand in France, and the son of Noverre rose through the ranks to become one of the most successful...

Pivotal (GB) (Polar Falcon-Fearless Revival {GB}, by Cozzene), Cheveley Park Stud's homebred champion sprinter who went on to have a huge impact as a sire and broodmare sire, died age 28 peacefully in his paddock at Cheveley Park Stud on Friday morning. Pivotal had been pensioned at Cheveley Park since covering a very select book of mares earlier this year. Chris Richardson, managing director of Cheveley Park Stud, said, "The story associated with the 'Mighty' Pivotal is truly extraordinary, considering he was the result of the very first covering his...

Fujaira Prince (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}), the winner of last year's Ebor H. and Copper Horse H. and prominent in the betting for Saturday's G2 Qipco British Champions Long Distance Cup, was euthanized on Wednesday morning after suffering an injury on the gallops. The 7-year-old Fujaira Prince, campaigned by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid with trainer Roger Varian, was third in last year's Long Distance Cup and was set to have his third run of the season on Saturday. "It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of stable...

Pivotal (GB) (Polar Falcon-Fearless Revival {GB}, by Cozzene), the Group 1-winning sprinter who has excelled as both a sire and broodmare sire, has been pensioned from stud duty at Cheveley Park Stud at the age of 28. The chestnut had remained in service at his birthplace up until last year, covering reduced numbers of mares in recent years, and will live out his remaining life at the Newmarket nursery. Bred by David and Patricia Thompson's Cheveley Park Stud, Pivotal was a member of the first crop of the G1 Sprint...

David Thompson CBE, the owner with his wife Patricia of Cheveley Park Stud in Newmarket, died on Dec. 29 from renal failure at the age of 84. A proudly patriotic man whose numerous successful racehorses sported the stud's red, white and blue colours, Thompson's significant involvement in British racing and breeding began in 1975 with his purchase of Newmarket's oldest stud farm, which was then in receivership. That same year Music Boy (GB), trained initially in Yorkshire by 'Snowy' Wainwright, became the Thompsons' first Group winner, in partnership with Ken...

In a temporarily upside-down world, a comforting air of normality can be found in a perusal of the end-of-year stallion tables. To Benjamin Franklin's certainties of death and taxes, in this smaller world we can add just about the only sure thing in racing and bloodstock: Galileo (Ire) is champion sire. Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to the King of Tipperary is the fact that, even at his home at Coolmore, the operation which naturally has free-flowing access to the supersire via some of the best mares...

This year will go down as one of the strangest in living memory. If in January you'd announced to owners and trainers that there would be no racing for two and a half months, it would have been met with widespread incredulity. But that was the situation in which British racing found itself in mid-March and, though the timing was a little off, it wasn't too dissimilar to how things used to be for the predominantly Flat racing heartland of Newmarket before the advent of all-weather racing through the winter...

Cheveley Park Stud's seemingly ageless Pivotal (GB) added Group 1 winner number 31 to his haul in Australia on Saturday when the William Haggas-trained, Tom Marquand-ridden Addeybb (Ire) took the 2000 metre G1 Ranvet S. at Rosehill by a half-length. Back in third was another son of Pivotal, Godolphin's Avilius (GB). Avilius is a triple Group 1 winner himself and took this race last year. Pivotal, at age 27, is still covering a select book of around 30 mares at Cheveley Park for a private fee. Cheveley Park Managing Director...

As the field takes shape for the world's richest 2-year-old race, the A$3.5-million G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, a few predictable names will be prominent among the pedigrees of the key contenders: I Am Invincible (Aus) and his late studmate Hinchinbrook (Aus); Danehill and his sons Redoute's Choice (Aus), Fastnet Rock (Aus) and Snitzel (Aus), and Vinery's evergreen shuttler More Than Ready. A somewhat surprising inclusion among these is Pivotal (GB). The Slipper features a pair of runners conceived in Europe-just the second time this...