Breeding Plans: Cheveley Park Stud

Their horses criss-cross the turf like the stripes of the Union Jack so proudly evoked by the red, white and blue of their riders' silks. Nearly 400 of them, in all, with one roster of Cheveley Park Stud working diagonally over the next: seven stallions, 130 broodmares, each and every healthy young colt offered for sale, and over 100 horses in training between 14 different yards. In an era dominated by overseas superpowers, David and Patricia Thompson continue to fly the flag for Britain on every front.

The selection of suitable partners for their mares, then, requires a judicious balance. A colt foal, after all, would need to take a degree of commercial appeal into the sales ring; a filly, equally, should have the right genetic mix to excel both on the track and, eventually, when her own turn comes to extend the family tree. Historically, those priorities have been united by a recurring emphasis on speed in Cheveley Park's own sires, tracing all the way back to Music Boy, the first stallion installed after the stud's rescue by the Thompsons some 40 years ago.

In sharing with TDN some of the key matings scheduled for 2016, Cheveley Park's long-serving Managing Director Chris Richardson reckons on a balance of around 60:40 between resident and outside sires.

“Obviously the number of stallions we have means that it tends not to be too difficult to find a good match here,” Richardson said. “Though the fact that Pivotal (GB) (Polar Falcon) is doing so well as a broodmare sire can sometimes be an issue, I suppose, and, to be fair, having Intello (Ger) (Galileo {Ire}) here the last couple of years did bring us up a level, in terms of Classic-distance horses.”

Intello, winner of the G1 Prix du Jockey Club in 2013, has now gone to the Head family's Haras Du Quesnay for two seasons in line with a tripartite arrangement with his breeders, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer. Intello's maternal pedigree traces to the blue hen Fall Aspen (Pretense) via a dual Group 1 runner-up out of a dual Group 1 winner. Unsurprising, then, that some of Cheveley Park's most precious mares are carrying his foals for the second year running, not least 2-year-old champion Hooray (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Group 2 winner Spacious (GB) (Nayef). The latter will next visit another son of Galileo, Gleneagles (Ire).

Another of the stud's top mares in foal to Intello is Heaven Sent (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), twice a Group 1 runner-up, though she returns to Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) after realizing 620,000gns with one of his colts at Tattersalls in October. Having missed out this time around, when rested, the Group 1 scorer Red Bloom (GB) (Selkirk) will meanwhile be following Intello to Normandy.

The latest Group 1 winner to have returned to her native stud is Integral (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}). Kept in training at five, she unfortunately spread a plate before her reappearance in the G1 Lockinge S.–a mishap that did not prevent her running very well on the day, but evidently contributed to her subsequent, odds-on debacle at Royal Ascot. Given a break, she bounced back to be beaten just a half-length in her bid for a second success in the G1 Sun Chariot S. Her first partner is to be Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}).

Integral is a great-granddaughter of Exclusive Order (Exclusive Native), one of the most fertile imports made in the days when Cheveley Park prized American blood. Perhaps the most conspicuous trend in the stud's plans for 2016 is the serial exposure of this family to Dutch Art (GB) (Medicean {GB}). His scheduled partners include Echelon (GB) (Danehill), who is carrying a sibling to her daughter Integral; and two of Echelon's

half-sisters, Expressive (GB) (Falbrav {Ire}) and Executrix (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). The former, barren this year, duly returns to the sire of her unbeaten Ayr Gold Cup winner Don't Touch (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}); the latter, for her part, must first deliver a first foal by Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Integral's half-sister Elysian (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) is meanwhile carrying a sibling to the Dutch Art colt who raised 170,000gns at Tattersalls in October, albeit she will next visit Al Kazeem (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). Elysian's full sister, Provenance (GB), has now been retired from racing in order to have a tryst of her own with Dutch Art.

Now 11 years old and commanding a fee of £40,000, Dutch Art very nearly ranks alongside the stalwart Pivotal (£45,000) as cornerstone of the stud. One son, Garswood (GB), will have his first foals in the new year and another, Dutch Connection (GB), is also destined to join his sire here one day after Cheveley Park bought a majority interest in the G3 Jersey S. winner.

“Dutch Art is a very exciting outcross to so much Northern Dancer blood,” Richardson explained. “He's a dual Group 1-winning 2-year-old who has proved himself at every level. While we were fortunate enough, with Pivotal and Polar Falcon, to end up with mares like Peeress (GB) and Exclusive (GB), we're now in a position to put a bit more speed and precocity into those families.”

Sure enough, Pivotal's daughter Cantal (GB) is carrying a sibling to the Dutch Art colt who fetched 350,000gns at Tattersalls in October, while a Dutch Art colt out of Soar (GB) (Danzero {Aus}), another steeped in Cheveley Park blood, changed hands for 325,000gns at the same sale.

“It has taken a number of years but I think people now understand our policy that all the colts be offered, unless there is some veterinary issue that means they shouldn't go to market,” Richardson said. “It's established that we raise our colts and fillies exactly the same way, but that offering the colts for sale enables us to invest in horses in training as potential stallions.”

In the case of Garswood, that strategy even prompted Cheveley Park to buy their way back into a horse sold for just 19,000gns as a foal. Twilight Son (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}), who stays in training after losing his unbeaten record only to the brilliant Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), is another whose breeder has been rewarded for investing in Cheveley Park's own stallions.

“Garswood covered over 100 mares in his first season and we're hoping that he will do very well at his level,” Richardson said. “It's a very competitive level, and he probably didn't get the credit he deserved for winning the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest from that draw. But we're very fortunate to have a very loyal client base, who know what we're about and know that they can expect the whole package. That was why it was so nice to have Intello here: hopefully his owners recognized not only that we can support a young stallion with our own mares, but also that we can promote him at the sales and with numbers in training.”

Not that the venerable Pivotal seems anywhere near ready to be pensioned off. Still resident in the box that once housed the great Isinglass, winner of the Triple Crown in 1893, the prolific stallion turned 23 with the turn of the calendar year, “but he's 23 years young,” Richardson said. “His fertility was over 90% last year, his stock were in demand at the sales, and he looks in great form. He'll probably end up with something in the region of 65 to 70 mares.”

The old boy's stature as a broodmare sire lends particular interest to Cheveley Park's one booking to Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}). Infallible (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), beaten barely a length in the G1 1000 Guineas of 2008, visits the retiring Derby winner after delivering her foal by another son of Cape Cross, Sea The Stars (Ire).

Among Pivotal's own mates, meanwhile, will be Russian Heroine (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). “A maiden for the elder statesman,” Richardson observed, “her mother was Russian Rhythm (Kingmambo), a phenomenal racemare but sadly no longer with us. She has left us five daughters, though, and having these families coming on is what it's all about.”