TRINITY College (Dubawi) followed up his Royal Ascot Group 3 win with a short head defeat at the hands of Leffard in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris on Sunday. The three-year-old is the second produce of the dual classic winner Hermosa (Galileo).

What a result it would have been for Hermosa to add another Group 1 layer to a family already rich in such winners. It also reminded me of a recent posting by Timeform ahead of a fillies maiden at the Curragh on Irish Derby weekend.

That organisation’s experts had done come digging ahead of the O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey Irish EBF Fillies Maiden, focusing on the Aidan O’Brien pair of Composing (Wootton Bassett), the winner and outsider of the Ballydoyle duo, and Minerva (Frankel), who was almost seven lengths back in ninth.

The reason for their pre-race in-depth analysis was O’Brien’s incredible record in the race. In the 10 previous stagings of the maiden, the trainer saddled 10 fillies who later went on to win a Group 1 race.

Think about that for a minute. He missed out one year, 2022, although he did send out the winner, Never Ending Story (Dubawi), who won two Group 3s and was runner-up in a Group 1. The following year, two of O’Brien’s representatives later won at the highest level.

Glittering career

Alice Springs (Galileo) triumphed in 2015 and went on to a glittering career that saw her win three times in Group 1 company; the Falmouth Stakes, Matron Stakes and the Sun Chariot Stakes. She is the dam now of a couple of winners, her daughter Prettiest (Dubawi) being stakes-placed.

The following year, Rhododendron (Galileo) found the subsequent Group 3 winner Rehana too good, but she eclipsed her conqueror’s career by going on to emulate Alice Springs, winning three Group 1 contests. At two she landed the Fillies’ Mile, before adding the Prix de l’Opera and the Lockinge Stakes to her impressive curriculum vitae. She has added further glory by becoming the dam of Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact), and he did even better than his dam by doubling her Group 1 score and winning six at the top table.

Ballydoyle was back in the winning groove in 2017 with Happily (Galileo). This impeccably-bred daughter of the Blue Hen mare You’resothrilling (Storm Cat), would go on at two to win both the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, and failed by a head to add another the following season. She is off the mark as a winner-producer.

Fine start

Hermosa has already been mentioned, and in addition to her two Group 1 wins, she was runner-up four times in similar contests. Her first two foals are winners, and she has made a fine start at stud.

Love (Galileo) found Jessica Harrington’s Windracer too good in 2019, and the winner won again in the USA the following year. Love, on the other hand, won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at two, was unbeaten in three Group 1s at three, doing the classic double in the 1000 Guineas and Oaks, and took her fifth Group 1 in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. She has yet to have a runner.

The ill-fated Snowfall (Deep Impact) lined up as the odds-on favourite with two other O’Brien runners in 2020, met with huge interference, and was eased down when her chance was gone. She was a revelation at three, winning the Group 1 Oaks by a staggering 16 lengths, and adding the Irish and Yorkshire Oaks to her race record. She suffered a pelvic injury in her stables at Ballydoyle after turning four, and had to be euthanised.

Four years ago, Tuesday was beaten a short head in the race on what was her sole juvenile outing. When the filly who beat her, Discoveries, went on to win the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, O’Brien and his team could look forward to Tuesday’s second season with some anticipation. Her three wins that year were in a Naas maiden, the Group 1 Oaks, and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Her first produce is a yearling filly by Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday).

Opera Singer

Skip forward two years, to 2023, and Ballydoyle’s Ylang Ylang (Frankel) won and their Opera Singer (Justify) was eighth. The latter was bred by John Magnier’s mother, Evie Stockwell, and went on to win the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at two, and the following year’s Nassau Stakes. Ylang Ylang rounded out her juvenile season with victory in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile.

After capturing the 2024 running of this Curragh maiden, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Lake Victoria (Frankel) has won five of her six subsequent starts, and what a pity it was that she missed her engagement at Royal Ascot. She has nothing to prove, being the outstanding juvenile filly of 2024, winning the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, Cheveley Park Stakes and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. After defeat at Newmarket, she rebounded in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas.

Can either Composing or Minerva become another Ballydoyle Group 1 star? A daughter of ‘sire of the moment’ Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), Composing cost M.V. Magnier €300,000 at Goffs last year, and is the first foal out of the Group 2 winner Epona Plays (Australia), Minerva cost quite a lot more, 1,500,000gns to be exact. She is out of Prize Exhibit (Showcasing), a Grade 2 winner and full-sister to Group 1 Sussex Stakes winner Mohaather. Prize Exhibit is also dam of Group 3 winner History (Galileo), and she sold for 2,800,000gns as a yearling.