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Pedigree assessment: Laura Joy on the exciting Piz Badile
Ulysees has an exciting prospect on his hands in the shape of Piz Badile. Laura Joy takes a look at the Ballysax winner.
By Derby winner Galileo and out of Oaks heroine Light Shift, young sire Ulysses was forgiven for entering his second season of runners without a Stakes winner on the board.
Stallion masters Cheveley Park Stud will have been amongst the most delighted to see the Niarchos Family homebred Piz Badile taking the first opportunity in Ireland to get Ulysses off the mark in the Group 3 Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown last Saturday.
Battling up the Leopardstown straight in determined fashion, Piz Badile stuck his nose out when it mattered to overcome Buckaroo’s late challenge. It was a finish reminiscent of Piz Badile’s grandsire Galileo’s titanic effort against Fantastic Light up the Leopardstown straight, and a nostalgic reminder of the tenacious grit we have become so accustomed to from descendants of the late great perennial Champion Galileo.
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Piz Badile was one of Ulysses’ more precocious juveniles, winning an 8f maiden at Killarney in July of his juvenile season. Not seen again until October, he did well to overcome interference in the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes and finish half a length second to Duke de Sessa. Comfortably accounting for that rival in Saturday’s win, he appears to have trained on from two to three years, something supporters of Ulysses will be hoping to see across the board.
With 17 individual two year old winners from just 40 runners in his two year old crop of 87 foals, there is potentially a lot more to come. Fellow juvenile black type earner Gwan So was shrewdly bred on the ever-fruitful Galileo – Pivotal cross with granddam Regal Rose by Danehill for good measure. He has since changed hands and is now racing for Australian connections there. As the only black type placed son of Ulysses remaining in GB or Ireland, the baton was passed to Piz Badile to step up in class and he duly obliged. However, with many of Ulysses’ winners scoring in maiden company and given the winter to strengthen up, there is ample scope for one if not many to join him.
One such colt could be John Gosden’s Mighty Ulysses who runs in the colours of Saeed Suhail. A winner at Yarmouth on his only start at two, this colt holds an entry in the Group 2 Dante Stakes and is priced at around 40/1 for the Derby. Whispers from Clarehaven are strong on his talent, and that’s a stable who know a thing or two about good horses. We would be here all day if we looked at all his winner’s profiles, but the suspicion is Piz Badile has started Ulysses season in the style in which he intends to carry on.
The bottom half of Piz Badile’s pedigree features inbreeding to esteemed broodmare Lingerie (Shirley Heights). Lingerie is a daughter of Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Northern Trick and Derby winner Shirley Heights, and although she failed to match her parent’s achievements on the racecourse, she is passing on their genes in no small measures. Piz Badile’s granddam Shiva accounted for seven time Group 1 winner Daylami when winning Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup.
Her progeny haven’t matched her ability on the track, the best being Ulysses’ Listed winning dam That Which Is Not. However they have more than made up for it in the breeding shed, not forgetting unplaced daughter Flare Of Firelight who is the dam of precocious Group 2 Gimcrack and Champagne Stakes winner Threat. Lingerie also features in Ulysses pedigree as the dam of Oaks winner Light Shift who produced Ulysses when sent to Galileo. That makes Piz Badile inbred 3 x 3 to a very distinguished mare indeed, a luxury exploited when possible by those lucky few who possess descendants of such illustrious matriarchs.
Crossing Mr. Prospector blood with Northern Dancer is almost impossible to avoid given their prevalence in the breed today, in fact Ulysses himself is bred on the same cross. To add further intrigue to Piz Badile’s pedigree, he is a grandson of Galileo out of an Elusive Quality mare. Elusive Quality is by Gone West, great grandsire of Wootton Bassett. The calibre of Galileo mares who we expect to be bred to Wootton Bassett should mean this is a cross we will be seeing a lot of in due course.
The future looks bright for Piz Badile and so far, the same can be said for his sire. It’s worth noting Ulysses’ first crop are most likely his best bred – he stood for a career high of £30,000 which dropped to £17,500 in his second year. If he can maintain momentum, his current fee of £10,000 will soon be a thing of the past.