SANDRA Fox is a stalwart of the breeding and racing industry in Ireland – one of those unsung heroines who are immersed in the business and yet do not often get the recognition they deserve. She continues to serve both the ITBA and the Racehorse Owners’ Association well and I was thrilled to see her enjoy a listed success at Navan on Sunday.

Lily’s Rainbow is a well exposed filly trained by Denise ‘Sneezy’ Foster and many would have felt that they were tilting at windmills when lining up for the Listed Heritage Stakes. However, it was smiles all around as the four-year-old daughter of Intikhab, bred at the owner’s Ardrums House Stud, ran out a clear winner to boost her potential stud value significantly.

Lily’s Rainbow is the first foal and winner for her dam Fly By Magic and she too was bred and raced by Sandra and her husband Ian. She won a couple of races and was placed numerous times and was a daughter of the Indian Ridge horse Indian Rocket. Her dam Travel Tricks is the dam of three winners, the most recent of which was Chicago Fall, a daughter of Dark Angel who won for Joe and Jane Foley as a two-year-old at the end of last year.

Fly By Magic has produced three foals since Lily’s Rainbow. They are a three-year-old colt O’Connor, by Roderic O’Connor, a two-year-old son of Elzaam named Elzaam Bymagic, and a yearling filly by Dandy Man. None of these have raced to date, but O’Connor is in training with Brian Millman in England.

Travel Tricks is a half-sister to three winners and also to the unraced Umlani. The latter is a daughter of Great Commotion and she has made a significant contribution to the family as she is the dam of one of the leading runners in Hong Kong, the Group 1 winning Peniaphobia who landed last December’s Hong Kong Sprint.

It is great for Sandra Fox to have a stakes-winning daughter of the recently retired Intikhab. He has established himself as a fine sire of top-class racemares and now as a broodmare sire. Intikhab won eight of his 14 starts, finished second five times and was rated the champion older horse in Europe as a four-year-old. Ironically he did not win a Group 1 race, though the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot now carries that rating.

He has sired more than 50 individual stakes winners, led by the dual classic winning champion Snow Fairy, the dual Group 1 winner Red Evie, and the Group 1 winning two-year-old Paita. This trio are all fillies too.

He is also emerging as a potent broodmare sire, being represented by the Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf and Prix Marcel Boussac winner Found, the multiple Group 1 winning sprinter Gordon Lord Byron and the multiple Group 1 winner in South Africa Igugu.

On the same day that Lily’s Rainbow was winning her listed race, a colt from the same crop by Intikhab was winning a Group 3 in Italy. This was Circus Couture and he won the Premio Ambrosiano by five lengths. He has previously been Group 1 placed on a couple of occasions.