Ulysses off to a winning start as Niarchos homebred Piz Badile strikes

Cheveley Park Stud's first-season sire Ulysses became the latest stallion to be represented by his first winner when the appropriately Niarchos family-owned and -bred Piz Badile struck at Killarney for Donnacha O'Brien.

The two-year-old is the first foal out of the Listed-winning Elusive Quality mare That Which Is Not, another Flaxman Stables homebred, and from the family of the Oaks heroine Light Shift, Tattersalls Gold Cup scorer Shiva and the Niarchos' wonderful Lingerie.

Ulysses, a son of Galileo and Light Shift, proved a hugely talented performer on the track for Sir Michael Stoute, with his career highlights coming in the Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International as a four-year-old.

A winner on his third start having run once at two, Ulysses ran in the Derby, finishing 12th behind Harzand, but flourished later on in the year with a win in the Gordon Stakes and a fourth in the Breeders' Cup Turf behind Highland Reel.

At four, he stormed home to deny Barney Roy in a pulsating finish at Sandown, having earlier struck in the Gordon Richards Stakes at the same track, before his York triumph over the same rival and dual Guineas hero Churchill. He also finished second and third to Enable in the King George and Arc the same season.

The eight-year-old stands at Cheveley Park Stud in a partnership between the Niarchos family and the Newmarket operation.

Having stood the 2021 breeding season for a fee of £10,000, he has 87 first-crop juveniles to represent him this year.

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