ADDEYBB bowed out of competitive racing at the weekend when the eight-year-old son of Pivotal (Polar Falcon) won the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris.

This was his 13th career success, and while it was not his most important, it will rank among the best, and most emotional, for his connections. It was his first win since April 2021 when his victory, for the second time, in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick gave the gelding his fourth success at the highest tier.

Addeybb’s win in the Group 1 Ranvet Rawson Stakes at Rosehill 13 months earlier provided his former Cheveley Park Stud sire with his 31st winner at the highest level in racing. Glen Shiel, born in the same year as Addeybb, took that tally to its present number of 32.

The leading British-based stallion on a number of occasions, and a champion, and hugely influential, broodmare sire in Europe, Pivotal’s daughters have been responsible for Group 1 winners such as Magical (Galileo), Hermosa (Galileo), Advertise (Showcasing), Cracksman (Frankel), Fairyland (Kodiac), One Master (Fastnet Rock), Hydrangea (Galileo), Tenebrism (Caravaggio), Love (Galileo), Hungry Heart (Frankel), Main Sequence (Aldebaran), and Rhododendron (Galileo).

Pivotal died in November 2021.

Yearling sale

Bred in Ireland by Rabbah Bloodstock, Addeybb was sold as a yearling to Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Estate Company for 200,000gns through the Swinburn’s Genesis Green Stud in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. He never raced for Sheikh Hamdan, was gelded, and finally made his racecourse debut at the age of three in the silks of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum.

Addeybb grew in stature as he matured and retires with winnings of £3.6 million. In addition to capturing three Group 1 races in Australia, beating Verry Elleegant into second place each time, he defeated a world-class field in the 2020 Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, a race in which he was beaten less than a length previously by Magical. In 28 starts he was out of the first four on just four occasions, a measure of his consistency.

Paul Nataf bought Bush Cat, a two-year-old winning daughter of Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) and the dam of Addeybb, for just €31,000 at the Goffs February Sale in 2015, carrying a colt by Dawn Approach (New Approach) who went on to win in France and Qatar. He was the sixth winner for Bush Cat, and since then she has produced two more successful offspring. Bush Cat was bred at Calumet Farm and sold as a yearling for $100,000.

Well-placed

Bush Cat is one of nine winners from the German listed winner Arbusha (Danzig). That mare was trained in the early 1990s by Jim Bolger for Henryk De Kwiatkowski. Her trainer placed her well to get blacktype in Germany, at a time when such forays were rare, and on her final start in Ireland she chased home Rayseka and Royal Ballerina in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes. Arbusha later won again in the USA.

Arbusha’s first foal was a colt in America named Drive Time (King Cugat), and he was sold as a just-turned yearling at Keeneland to John O’Connor of Ballykelly Stud for $4,000. Offered for sale later that year at Tattersalls Ireland’s September Sale, he was sold for a nice profit to Jim Bolger, costing the trainer €31,000.

It was not until the age of four that Drive Time saw a racecourse, beating the subsequent multiple Grade 1 winner Blackstairmountain over 14 furlongs at Leopardstown, and following up in a three-runner race at the same trip a month later in Killarney. Graham and Andrea Wylie came calling and the gelding moved to Howard Johnson, and then to Willie Mullins for whom he won a Grade 2 hurdle race at the Punchestown Festival a decade ago.

Ohio champion

Drive Time was one of three blacktype winners from Arbusha, the others being a pair of minor stakes winners in the USA by the little-known Mercer Mill (Forty Niner), a champion sire in the state of Ohio.

Arbusha and the German Group 2 winner Nicholas (Danzig) were the best of 13 winning offspring from their dam Lulu Mon Amour (Tom Rolfe), while their full-sister Danlu (Danzig) bred the champion older stayer in Europe, Strategic Choice (Alleged), a group winner in Ireland, England, France and Italy, and a big-race winner in Turkey. His successes included the Group 1 Irish St Leger and the Group 1 Gran Premio di Milano. He also travelled further afield and ran third in the Group 1 Japan Cup.

One more generation back and up pops another top-class winner, by now a distant relation to Addeybb, bred and trained by Jim Bolger. That is Pleascach (Teofilo), an Irish word meaning explosive, and she won both the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks. Another high-class runner in this remove is Spain (Thunder Gulch), winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and once sold for $5.3 million.