CHEVELEY Park Stud managing director Chris Richardson and his team hosted a couple of hundred people at the farm on Tuesday evening, capitalising on the large overseas attendance in town for the sales and racing. It was an opportunity to thank supporters of the stud’s stallions, and to showcase a number of first crop foals by Ulysses (Galileo).

The timing of the parade was perfect also from the point of view that a number of the stud’s stallions obliged with winners earlier in the day. One winner in particular took precedence and Chris was able to talk about the victory with the successful trainer who was present, Richard Fahey.

The winner in question carried the distinctive silks of David and Patricia Thompson’s Cheveley Park Stud and she was Exhort, a four-year-old daughter of Dutch Art (Medicean) out of Entreat, a daughter of the hale and hearty Pivotal (Polar Falcon). This is very much a home-bred success story.

Beaten a neck by Laurens on her debut at Doncaster at two, Exhort won twice and then finished sixth in a nursery. Ten starts at three last year yielded a pair of successes and a number of placings, but she was not tried in stakes company. Her trainer sought the support of the filly’s owners to remain in training and on her second start this term she was runner-up in a listed race at Ayr, finished fourth in a similar race at Nottingham, and now has gained that all-important blacktype win with her victory in the Listed Weatherbys TBA Pipalong Stakes. For good measure, she claimed the scalp of the Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Billesdon Brook in the process.

Exhort is one of 35 stakes winners, 11 of them at group level, for Dutch Art, the best of which included Slade Power, Mabs Cross and fellow Cheveley Park Stud stallion Garswood. All three won at Group 1 level.

On the dam side of the pedigree, Exhort is a daughter of Entreat who was also bred and raced by Cheveley Park. She was trained by Sir Michael Stoute and gained her sole success in a nine and a half furlong Folkestone maiden at three. As a 10-year-old she was sold for just 14,000gns to BBA Ireland at the 2016 Tattersalls July Sale, carrying to Lethal Force (Dark Angel). Her first two foals had been placed at the time of her sale, though she was an attractive prospect still as her half-sister Producer, by Exhort’s sire Dutch Art, was a Group 2 winner in Turkey and a multiple stakes winner at up to Group 3 level in England.

Entreat’s second dam Imagining (Northfields) bred the champion and multiple Grade 1 winner Serena’s Song (Rahy) and this is a family choc a bloc with Group 1 and Grade 1 winners.

The 14,000gns investment has certainly paid rich dividends. The Lethal Force she was carrying sold as a yearling last year for £65,000 at Goffs UK and is a winner on his second start this year for trainer Clive Cox, before running a fine fifth, beaten just two lengths, by Arizona in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot. In fact, four of the mare’s first five foals are now winners, and Cheveley Park had the good sense to repurchase Exhort’s winning full-sister Plead (Dutch Art) for 22,000gns last year.

Cheveley Park Stud houses a great range of stallions, with speed a feature of many. The stallion parade on Tuesday evening kicked off with Mayson (Invincible Spirit) and the five-length Group 1 July Cup winner had earlier in the day welcomed another debut two-year-old winner in Come On My Son at Wolverhampton. An hour later at the same venue, Cheveley Park’s homebred three-year-old Incredulous (Intello), trained by William Haggas, won and she is the latest successful offspring of the listed winner Fantasize (Groom Dancer).

The aforementioned Garswood, dual Group 1 winning sprinter Twilight Son (Kyllachy), dual Group 1 winner Ulysses and the second-fastest winner of the Group 1 Prix Morny, Unfortunately (Society Rock) were also on show for the assembled guests.

In 1975 Patricia and David Thompson purchased Cheveley Park Stud. It was then in receivership and stood on just 270 acres. Today Newmarket’s oldest stud is a flourishing farm that embraces every element of the wonderful sport of racing and encompasses 1,000 acres. It stands nine stallions, owns 150 broodmares of which some 60 are stakes winners and/or stakes producers, and has one of the biggest strings in training in Britain and Ireland with more than 140 horses with 24 trainers.

The history of the place is a rich and varied one. Several monarchs have owned Cheveley Park, including King Athelstan, King Canute, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Edward I and Edward II. Cheveley Park became the centre of a great landed estate as a result of the Duke of Somerset’s purchases in the early part of the 18th century. .

The fifth Duke of Rutland established Cheveley Park as a thoroughbred centre of note, breeding four classic winners. He planted the tree lined avenue, today known as Duchess Drive, in memory of his wife. Harry McCalmont purchased the estate in 1892 and at the time it covered some 7,800 acres. He built a large mansion which was completed in 1898 and many of the stud buildings built by him are still in use today, the most important being Isinglass’s box which is now occupied by Pivotal.

Two years after their purchase of Cheveley Park, David and Patricia Thompson stood their Gimcrack Stakes winner Music Boy (Jukebox) at the stud against industry advice. However from just 17 foals he was the leading first season sire and his progeny earned over £2.5 million. A life-size bronze of him stands outside the stud office.

Today Cheveley Park Stud’s colours are also carried by a number of National Hunt horses, but this is not a new departure for the Thompsons. Party Politics (Politico) raced for Patricia and won the Grand National in 1992. He spent his retirement at Cheveley Park Stud.

Entrepreneur (Sadler’s Wells) and stakes-winner Happy Valentine (Rainbow Quest) were bred and sold by Cheveley Park Stud and were the top lots at the Tattersalls Houghton Sale in 1995, selling for 600,000gns each. Entrepreneur went on to win the Group 1 2000 Guineas.

Still holding pride of place today is Pivotal, born and bred on the stud in 1993. He was the first foal by his sire Polar Falcon (Nureyev). Trained by Sir Mark Prescott who was present on Tuesday, Pivotal won the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, as did his son Kyllachy and his grandson Sole Power, the latter twice. At the end of the 2018 season Pivotal was the champion European broodmare sire, with 10 individual Group/Grade 1 winners. He has sired over 150 individual stakes winners, including 29 Group 1 winners.