Ulysses acquisition hints at a bolder policy for Cheveley Park Stud

The acquisition of Ulysses by Cheveley Park Stud is further proof of the stalwart Newmarket operation's renewed swagger over the last year.

It has already made a series of rare purchases at the breeze-up sales, signed for its first horses at Keeneland in 12 years and recruited Prix Morny hero Unfortunately to carry the famous red and white silks – and, eventually, attempt to transmit his speed and precocity as a stallion.

Stud owners David and Patricia Thompson even, don't forget, bought no fewer than three contenders for the Grand National at the 11th hour in an attempt to win the Aintree showpiece for the second time, 25 years after Party Politics did the business for them.

Ulysses: will stand alongside another brilliant son of Galileo, Intello, at Cheveley Park StudCredit: Alan Crowhurst

After completing some of those more eyebrow-raising deals, the stud's venerable managing director Chris Richardson has suggested that there has been no marked shift in policy; that, instead, they indicate the Thompsons' continued enthusiasm for the sport.

Read about the farm's latest coup:

Cheveley Park Stud wins the race for Ulysses

But there have been other signs of a deliberate reinvigoration in the wake of the retirement of two old stagers from the stallion roster, in Kyllachy and Medicean: a late, but very welcome, entry to Twitter in recent months; as well as a brighter, bolder website.

Those developments will help the stud to sing out loud the praises of Ulysses as well as, of course, those of up-and-coming talents Garswood, Intello, Lethal Force, Mayson and Twilight Son; the dependable Dutch Art; and the phenomenal Pivotal.

Cheveley Park Stud has always been proudly run along traditional lines and had not hitherto trumpeted its own achievements.

But it is justified in doing so, as its consistent success with its own stallions and stock has attracted another of the world's leading breeders, the Niarchos family, to entrust Ulysses to the Thompsons and their staff, only a few years after the Wertheimer brothers placed the in-form Intello with them.

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