VICTORIOUS by name and by nature. The two-year-old daughter of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) remains unbeaten after she won the Coolmore Stud-sponsored Group 3 Irish EBF Fillies Sprint Stakes at Naas, getting home cosily to add to an earlier success at the track in April.

Now it is all eye on the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, and who knows where after that. This Naas race has an enviable record for producing Group 1 fillies; in the past decade stars such as Alpha Centauri, Meditate, Porta Fortuna and Fairy Godmother have been in the winners’ circle. In the filly’s favour too is that she possesses an outstanding pedigree. She is now one of 57 group winners for her much-lamented sire, and joins Whirl, Al Riffa, Maranoa Charlie and more as progeny of his out of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mares.

Victorious is the seventh group winner to emerge in the immediate family, all descending from Lillie Langtry (Danehill Dancer) who was born in 2007. A 70,000gns foal and 230,000gns yearling, she was a very smart racemare. She won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, later adding the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. All of her six winners to date are by Galileo. Bred by Kevin Lynch, father of bloodstock agent Barry, Lillie Langtry is the best of seven winners from the unraced Hoity Toity (Darshaan), a 15,000gns purchase as a two-year-old.

Lillie Langtry has the distinction of having six winning fillies, and half of them are Group 1 winners. Tuesday crowned her classic season with victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. She won the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom and was placed in the English and Irish 1000 Guineas, as well as being runner-up in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks.

Highest level

Tuesday was preceded by her full-sisters Minding and Empress Josephine. The former won seven times at the highest level and is dam of Henry Longfellow (Dubawi), the Group 1 National Stakes winner and Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes runner-up. Empress Josephine won the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas, while another of Lillie Langtry’s daughters, Kissed by Angels, was a Group 3 winner.

Minding was a European champion in each of the three seasons she raced. Her Group 1 haul was made up of the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Fillies’ Mile at two, while at three she added the 1000 Guineas, Oaks, Pretty Polly, Nassau and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. She never finished out of the first three. The two non-stakes winners out of Lillie Langtry include Heaven On Earth.

Though she did not possess the talent of her three Group 1-winning full-sisters, Heaven On Earth was saddled by Aidan O’Brien to win a Limerick maiden on her third start, but was not seen after finishing down the field in a Curragh Group 2 next time out. If she was lacking in this department, Heaven On Earth made up for it in the breeding shed. Her first four foals are fillies and all winners. Interestingly, Lillie Langtry’s first nine foals are fillies, and only her most recent is a colt.

Rising star

Group 3 runner-up Mother Nature (Justify) was first for Heaven On Earth, followed by Stellenbosch (Wootton Bassett), the only one not trained by Aidan O’Brien. She won twice in England for Richard Hannon. The three-year-old Sugar Island (Dubawi) rounded out her juvenile season last year with a win in the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes, and was fourth behind her stablemate Amelia Earhart in the Listed Weatherbys Cheshire Oaks recently Now we have a rising star in Victorious.

Hoity Toity was sold to Bjorn Nielsen, breeder of Stradivarius, after she foaled Count Of Limonade (Duke Of Marmalade), a listed winner at the Curragh for Kevin Lynch. Hoity Toity’s third stakes winner Danilovna (Dansili) was successful in the USA, while her once-raced daughter Lady Hawkfield (Hawk Wing) bred the Group 3 Sandown classic trial winner Master Apprentice (Mastercraftsman).

Two of Hoity Toity’s siblings are noteworthy, Sweet Emotion (Bering), and the unraced Elisium (Proclamation). The latter went to South Africa where her winners include Russian Rock (Pomodoro), successful in the Group 1 Cape Guineas. Sweet Emotion won and was stakes-placed from four starts, bred the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy runner-up Winged Cupid (In The Wings), and is the third dam of Group 1 Prix de l’Opera heroine Place Du Carrousel (Lope De Vega).

AMO RACING’s Kia Joorabchian has been in the news this past week or so, not always about moving horses from a trainer.

Two decades after a filly with the same name was born (she was third once in 11 runs), a filly by Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) out of the Group 1 Matron Stakes winner No Speak Alexander (Shalaa) was foaled, bred by Noel O’Callaghan at his Mountarmstrong Stud. She would go on to realise €1 million in Book 1 of last year’s Goffs Orby Sale, purchased by Amo Racing.

This foal was born three years after No Speak Alexander enjoyed her finest hour, and the filly was named Silent Beauty. She is the second offspring of her dam, following the unraced Thucydides Trap (Frankel) who, like his dam before him, is in training with Jessica Harrington.

Silent Beauty is with Kevin Philippart De Foy, and she made a most promising debut at Yarmouth over six furlongs, justifying favouritism with a four-length win. Born in early January, the filly could have a real advantage when it comes to taking on better company, perhaps at Royal Ascot. A blacktype win would add to the value of her younger siblings, a yearling filly by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) and a filly foal by Blue Point (Shamardal).

I love to be reminded what purchasers said at the time of sale, and at Goffs it was left to bloodstock agent Alex Elliott to comment on Silent Beauty. “She’s out of a Group 1 winner and it’s Noel’s family from top to bottom. She’s a very sweet, good-bodied filly. She’s going to have to be early. She’s a January foal, she’s bred to be fast and she looks fast. I’d say we’re going to know our fate early as you’d like to think she’s in that Royal Ascot two-year-old type of mould.”

Not surprised

Noel O’Callaghan added: “We are not surprised. Let’s hope she is a good racemare.” O’Callaghan bought No Speak Alexander’s dam Rapacity Alexander (Dandy Man) for 90,000gns as a yearling and she was trained by David Evans. After her first win at Lingfield, she was sent to Chantilly and won a five-furlong listed race. Later that year she was moved to Tommy Stack but did not race again.

No Speak Alexander is one of two winners out of Rapacity Alexander, the other being the €525,000 yearling and subsequent juvenile winner Heavenly Being (Night Of Thunder). Incredibly, an unraced three-year-old half-sister to this pair, Boutique Alexander (Magna Grecia), was sold at the Goffs February Sale last year for €3,500 to Bábolna National Stud, and presumably is now in Hungary.

When Noel O’Callaghan came into possession of Rapacity Alexander, her full-brother Peniaphobia (Dandy Man) was a listed winner in Hong Kong and runner-up twice at Group 1 level. Later that year he went one better and took the honours in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint, and when he retired from racing he had amassed a dozen victories and £3,375,000.