WITH the exception of the weather, the weekend racing at the Curragh was both a delight and of the highest order, and the three Group 1 races on Saturday and Sunday were out of the top drawer. The Tattersalls Gold Cup will surely go down as one of the highest-rated contests of the season, and this is a race that was threatened with being down-graded on a number of occasions due to its failure to attract enough quality runners.

Four of the five Group 1 winners among the nine starters passed the post with less than two lengths covering them. Were the quartet to meet again, you could imagine a different result.

There is lots to look forward to for connections of Anmaat, Kalpana and White Birch, but plaudits on this occasion go to the four-year-old Los Angeles (Camelot). This was a third Group 1 win in three seasons racing for the son of the unraced Frequential, and she is a daughter of Juddmonte’s wonderful Dansili (Danehill).

Bred in partnership by Paul Shanahan’s Lynch Bages and Longfield Stud, Los Angeles won the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud at two in France, where he would run third in last year’s Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and at the Curragh in June 2024 he made up for his third-place finish in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom by taking the honours in the Irish equivalent. Seven victories and two Group 1 placings in 11 starts show how tough and consistent Los Angeles is, and Royal Ascot is next on the agenda, while ParisLongchamp in October will surely be his long-term target.

Coolmore DNA

Los Angeles has Coolmore in his DNA. He is from one of their best sire lines – Camelot, Montjeu and Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) – while the female line goes back to his fourth dam, Allegretta (Lombard), the dam of none other than Urban Sea (Miswaki). She won the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1993, is the dam of four Group 1 winners, most notably Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), and is a mare from whom a feast of world-class runners has descended.

Along with Luxembourg and Bluestocking, Los Angeles can be considered one of the best of the 65 blacktype winners sired by Camelot. He is from an unraced mare who was sold by Godolphin as a three-year-old at the Tattersalls February Sale to BBA Ireland for 48,000gns. Frequential is the first foal of a four-year-old winner in France, Violante, by Kingmambo (Mr Prospector). A full-sister to the English stakes winner and pattern-placed Reunite (Kingmambo), Violante is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby winner Anabaa Blue (Anabaa), and to the dam of the dual Group 1 winner Tamayuz (Nayef).

Frequential produced three foals by Camelot. The first pair are both group-placed winners, and the third is Los Angeles. Hector De Maris (Camelot) placed in Leopardstown’s Group 3 Ballyroan Stakes before making a trip to Australia where he is a dual winner. His full-sister Be Happy (Camelot) sold for 340,000gns and was a juvenile winner who placed in the Group 3 Prix Penelope at Saint-Cloud.

Major updates

The Group 1 successes for Los Angeles are not the only major updates in the family since Frequential was purchased. Her dam Violante was sold in 2022 by Godolphin, again to BBA Ireland, and she cost 330,000gns as her son Impulsif (New Approach) was a Group 3 winner, winning seven times in all. When Los Angeles’ dam was sold there were half a dozen stakes winners under her grandam Allez Les Trois (Riverman); now there are an incredible 22, including the Group 1 Irish Derby winner Santiago (Authorized), and Facteur Cheval (Ribchester) who triumphed in the Group 1 Dubai Turf at Meydan.

Los Angeles is from the seventh crop by Camelot, and one of his dozen Group 1 winners. He crosses with Danzig-line mares incredibly well, and the Arc winner Bluestocking is also out of a Dansili mare.

The European champion three-year-old Camelot is standing for a career-high fee of €75,000 (he also stood for that in 2022), and his son Dancing Gemini failed by just a neck to give him another Group 1 winner this year when runner-up in the Lockinge Stakes. Yet another son was second on Sunday in the Group 1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier.

Is this the champion three-year-old filly?

HOW good is Lake Victoria? Well, she is very good indeed, she was the European champion juvenile filly after all, and yet one senses that we have not seen the best of her. Her victory in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas was comfortable, and connections clearly love this daughter of Frankel (Galileo).

With an unbeaten two-year-old career that saw her win Group/Grade 1 races over three distances, six furlongs, seven furlongs and a mile, the only blot on her race record is her sixth-place finish, beaten two and a half lengths by the winner, in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket. Lake Victoria was not at her peak for that race, still ran a corker, and the world is now her oyster.

Already a champion, Lake Victoria is by a multiple champion in Frankel, and out of the European champion sprinter Quiet Reflection, a daughter of Showcasing (Oasis Dream). There is no end of Juddmonte influences in this pedigree when it comes to sires. While Lake Victoria was the highlight of the weekend racing for some, she has been well reviewed on a number of occasions on these pages. Apologies in advance, therefore, for the brevity of this piece.

M.V. Magnier secured Quiet Reflection, a £32,000 yearling and £44,000 breezer at Doncaster, for 2,100,000gns in 2017, the filly having won the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup at three. She was a pattern winner every year she raced, and won three of her four starts at two, ending her first season with an easy win in the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket. At four she travelled over to Naas for the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes, and emerged victorious.

Fourth produce

Mated with Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Quiet Reflection had three foals, and two winners, Bluegrass who finished third to the Derby winner Desert Crown in the Group 2 Dante Stakes and is now a four-time hurdle winner, and last year’s winner, The Equator. Lake Victoria is Quiet Reflection’s fourth produce, and she has a two-year-old colt named Druids Glen (Frankel), and a yearling full-brother to Sunday’s classic winner.

Another level

The emergence of Quiet Reflection, and now Lake Victoria, takes this female line to another level. On the face of it, the pedigree appears to be ordinary enough, but opportunities were scarce at times, and the tail-line is good. Quiet Refection was one of just two foals, both winners, from My Delirium (Haafhd), and she was one of a pair of winners from the two foals produced by Clare Hills (Orpen).

Clare Hills won her first couple of starts at two exactly 20 years ago, but failed to place on any of her subsequent eight outings. On the face of it, she might appear to have been nothing special, even if her second victory came in the Listed Hilary Needler Trophy at Beverley. However, the filly she beat that day was Donna Blini, who later won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and is the dam of the champion Gentildonna.