BRED in the purple, Northern Trick was a daughter of Northern Dancer out of Trick Chick (Prince John), and thus a half-sister to the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner On The Sly (Roi Dagobert), and to the French and American stakes winners Trick Question (Lyphard) and Sweet Slew (Seattle Slew). She was the third of 17 foals born to her dam who was a daughter of the noteworthy broodmare Fast Line, by Mr Busher.

Northern Trick was bred at Hermitage Farm by Warner L Jones and was acquired by Stavros Niarchos and placed in training with Francois Boutin. She never ran at two and made just six starts in her only season to race at three. At the end of that year, 1984, she was officially rated the best three-year-old filly in Europe, winning four of her starts and finishing second on the remaining occasions.

A maiden winner on her belated debut, Northern Trick was immediately sent to tackle Group 1 company and was beaten half a length by Grise Mine in the Prix Saint-Alary. She gained her revenge in the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) and ran out an impressive five-length winner. Next stop was the Group 3 Prix de la Nonette which was a stepping stone to the Group 1 Prix Vermeille where she beat, among others, that year’s Epsom Oaks winner Circus Plume.

Her swansong came in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and here she found just Sagace too good for her, having All Along six lengths in arrears and such luminaries as Sadler’s Wells, Strawberry Road, Sun Princess and Time Charter among the vanquished.

On the face of it Northern Trick may have been considered to have underachieved as a producer. Seven of her dozen offspring won and only two of them earned any blacktype. The sole stakes winner was Onda Nova, a daughter of Keos (Riverman), who won a listed race among her three victories from four starts and she was foaled when her dam was 20!

Two non-winning daughters of Northern Trick however have ensured that she will have a place in the footnotes of racing and breeding. The Machiavellian (Mr Prospector) mare Creature Du Ciel was placed in France and America but then made her way to Brazil where she is dam of the multiple champion and Group 1 winner Jeune-Turc (Know Heights) and the Group 1 winning two-year-old Nono Luigi (Dubai Dust).

The Shirley Heights (Mill Reef) mare Lingerie also failed to win but she was placed at two and three and, thankfully, given her chance at stud. In that sphere she has been an outstanding success. From 13 foals she had a dozen runners, 10 winners, four stakes winners and two of them won at Group 1 level. One of the latter pair was the Kingmambo (Mr Prospector) mare Light Shift and she was trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil.

On the track Light Shift won four of her nine starts and notable among these triumphs was her victory in the 2007 Epsom Oaks where she beat four Irish-trained runners in Peeping Fawn, All My Loving, Four Sins and Cherry Hinton. Meeting again at the Curragh in the Irish equivalent Light Shift has to settle for second best to Peeping Fawn, with All My Loving again occupying third spot.

Now Light Shift has added a further successful chapter to the family’s story as her third foal and second winner is now a Group 1 hero. Ulysses, a son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), won a thrilling Eclipse Stakes at Sandown to add to a prior success in the Group 3 Gordon Stakes and Gordon Richards Stakes. He is just the latest Group 1 winner to emanate from the descendants of Lingerie.

Light Shift’s own-sister Strawberry Fledge made a single start at two and was placed. However she joins her sibling in producing a 2017 Group 1 winner as her Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) son Cloth Of Stars won the Prix Ganay on his most recent outing, his seventh success in 11 starts.

Light Shift’s Group 1 winning sibling is Shiva and Irish racegoers will remember her best racing performance, landing the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh. She was also placed in the Champion Stakes and the Coral Eclipse Stakes. She is a daughter of Hector Protector (Woodman). Shiva’s full-brother Limnos was, like his sister, born in Japan and he was a dual Group 2 winner.

The fourth stakes winner from Lingerie is the Caerleon (Nijinsky) mare Burning Sunset and she has also made her mark at stud, breeding a pair of stakes winners including Smoking Sun (Smart Strike) who won the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt and was runner-up in the Group 1 International Cup in Singapore. More significantly, through her stakes-placed daughter Ikat (Pivotal), Burning Sunset is the grandam of the multiple champion Main Sequence who carried the Niarchos colours to victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, United Nationals Stakes and the Sword Dancer Invitational Stakes. He is a son of Albebaran (Mr Prospector).

Ulysses joins Capri, Winter, Highland Reel, Decorated Knight and Churchill as 2017 Group 1 winners for Galileo and further propels him ahead in the leading sires table this year. A phenomenon as a sire, it is clear he is on his way to rewriting all the records for stallions – and in an era when there is no shortage of top-class competition.