Tough Piz Badile is the first Group winner for Ulysses

Dual Group 1 winner Ulysses looks to have a live Derby contender in his first crop as Piz Badile demonstrated bravery and battling qualities to win the Group 3 P.W. McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes at Leopardstown.

The Niarchos family homebred was the first winner for his sire when striking on debut in a Killarney maiden last July and he has duly become the first Group winner for the son of Galileo who stands at Cheveley Park Stud.

Trained by Donnacha O'Brien, Piz Badile was unlucky not to make the breakthrough at stakes level when finishing second in the Group 3 Eyrefield Stakes at Leopardstown at the end of last season.

View result and watch the replay here

His trainer indicated afterwards that Piz Badile, named after a mountain on the Swiss-Italian border, could follow a tried and tested route to Epsom with the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial a possibility for his next run.

Piz Badile has a fascinating pedigree that is coloured in the Niarchos navy and sky blue as the first foal out of That Which Is Not (by Elusive City). She won the Listed Prix Zarkava and was second in the Group 2 Prix Corrida for Francis-Henri Graffard and the Niarchos family.

That Which Is Not is a half-sister to Flare Of Firelight, the dam of the Champagne and Gimcrack Stakes winner Threat.

They are out of the Group 1 winner Shiva, a Hector Protector half-sister to Sir Henry Cecil's final Oaks winner Light Shift, who is the dam of Ulysses, making Piz Badile inbred 3x3 to Lingerie.

It is a top-class middle-distance family and Shiva is a full sister to Prix Foy and Prix Jean de Chaudenay winner Limnos and a half-sister to Listed winner Burning Sunset, who is the second dam of Main Sequence. He was runner-up to Camelot in the Derby ten years ago and went on to win three times at the highest level on turf in North America.

Another of Shiva's half-sisters, Strawberry Fledge, is the dam of Prix Ganay winner Cloth Of Stars. That stallion has his first runners this season.

Ulysses developed into a leading middle-distance horse at four when he won the Juddmonte International and Eclipse Stakes and was second to Enable in the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

He made a very promising start to his stud career with two stakes-placed juveniles and 17 winners from just 42 runners and his second crop numbers 63 juveniles. His fee for 2022 is £10,000.

Read more

'It broke my heart - but you have to pay the bills and sacrifice the good ones' (£)

Newsells Park Stud announces launch of Ossie Ardiles Syndicate

Thinking caps on! Competition to name Qatar Racing homebred by Roaring Lion