Cheveley Park Stud's fingerprints all over day one at Royal Ascot

The familiar red, white and blue silks of Cheveley Park Stud may not have been carried to victory on day one of Royal Ascot, but the fingerprints of the Thompson family's operation were all over two of the meeting's most significant winners.

The popular five-year-old Oxted, a son of Cheveley Park Stud's Mayson, bounced back to his very best to land his second Group 1 in the King's Stand Stakes for trainer Roger Teal and breeder Homecroft Wealth Racing.

Oxted is the first foal out of Charlotte Rosina, a daughter of Choisir who was sold by Homecroft Wealth Racing to Tom Malone for £45,000 at the Tattersalls Ascot November Sale in 2019.

Unfortunately the mare has not produced a foal since delivering Oxted's brother Chipstead in 2018, although she visited another King's Stand winner in Blue Point earlier this year.

Oxted: the son of Mayson lands the King's Stand StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Oxted is the most accomplished of Mayson's 24 stakes performers, having given his sire a first Group 1 winner in last year's July Cup. The son of Invincible Spirit's progeny have been in fine form this season, with the rapidly improving Rohaan winning the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes and Laugh A Minute scoring in the Listed Cork Stakes.

Mayson, who retired to Cheveley Park Stud in 2013 after winning the previous year's July Cup, spent the 2021 breeding season priced at just £4,000.

Cheveley Park Stud were also responsible for breeding the hugely promising two-year-old Berkshire Shadow, who kept on strongly to maintain his unbeaten record by a length and a quarter in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes.

Sons of the two leading first-season sires completed the places, with Cotai Glory supplying runner-up Eldrickjones and Ardad's Vintage Clarets a further neck away in third.

A son of Dark Angel, Berkshire Shadow became his sire's 38th Group race scorer, and 133rd stakes performer overall. Dark Angel, a 16-year-old son of Acclamation, stood his 14th year on covering duty at Yeomanstown Stud at a fee of €60,000.

Berkshire Shadow surges to glory in the Group 2 Coventry StakesCredit: Alan Crowhurst

The winner, a 40,000gns purchase by trainer Andrew Balding, certainly appears to have inherited plenty of his sire's precocity, as Dark Angel, who raced only at two, capped his nine-race career with victory in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

Berkshire Shadow's early success comes as something of a surprise in the context of his female line, as he hails from a family steeped in Classic ability.

He was bred by Cheveley Park Stud after the Newmarket-based operation purchased his dam Angel Vision from the dispersal of another famed owner-breeder in Ballymacoll Stud.

While Balding looks to have landed himself a bargain with Berkshire Shadow, Angel Vision drew a rather more significant investment having fetched 600,000gns when carrying to Invincible Spirit at the 2017 Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

A dual winning daughter of Oasis Dream, Angel Vision is out of one of Ballymacoll's most iconic performers in the globetrotting Islington, who won four top-flight contests, namely back-to-back runnings of the Yorkshire Oaks, the Nassau Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Islington after her Breeders' Cup triumphCredit: Edward Whitaker

Angel Vision is the sixth foal out of Islington, who bred a remarkable 11 fillies in a row before producing Victoria Line, a son of Kingman, in 2018. In turn, Islington is one of six stakes performers out of the influential Hellenic.

The daughter of Darshaan bred two other Group 1 winners besides Islington in Greek Dance and Mountain High, successful in the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud respectively.

Berkshire Shadow's success was also another feather in the cap of Oasis Dream, whose reputation as a broodmare sire continues to go from strength to strength. The son of Green Desert is now the damsire of 37 Group/Grade winners and 64 stakes scorers in total, headed by the elite-level winners Sioux Nation, Siskin, Sir Dragonet, Tawkeel and Twilight Payment.

GBRI congratulate connections of Oxted: bred, sold and trained in BritainCredit: Gbri

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