YLANG-YLANG is an aromatic Asian tree, with fragrant greenish-yellow flowers (pictured right) that yield a volatile oil, and this oil is used in perfumery. It is also the name of the winner of this year’s Group 1 bet365 Fillies’ Mile winner, another star from Ballydoyle.

Bred in partnership by Merry Fox Stud and Newsells Park Stud, Ylang Ylang is a daughter of Frankel (Galileo) and the first foal and winner for her dam, the stakes-placed Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mare Shambolic. Trained by John Gosden for her breeders, the Dukes of Devonshire and Roxburghe, Shambolic won her first two starts before running fourth in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile five years ago.

She failed to win again, but did gain valuable blacktype on three occasions, and they included finishing second in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket. She was then sent to the sales, where Gary Hadden paid 800,000gns to secure her for her present owners. Having covered her with Frankel, and taking their investment to more than £1 million, it will have come as a great relief when the resulting filly sold to M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch for 1,500,000gns.

For that they own a Group 1 winner who was also successful in the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown, and on her start prior to last weekend, and a previous visit to Newmarket, she was placed in the Group 1 Rockfel Stakes. A few days before Ylang Ylang won the Fillies’ Mile, Newsells Park sold her yearling half-brother by Kingman (Invincible Spirit) to Qatar Racing and the China Horse Club for 425,000gns. Meanwhile, they have a filly foal by Siyouni (Pivotal) waiting in the wings.

Laughing

Shambolic is one of nine winners, from a dozen progeny who raced, out of Comic (Be My Chief). That mare won two of her six starts for then then Lord Hartington and the Duke of Roxburghe, and she was also trained by Gosden. Shambolic was one of three offspring who earned blacktype, but the other pair were significant winners, successful at the highest level.

Comic Strip (Marju) was first. Purchased as a yearling by Sir Mark Prescott for 26,000gns, he won five of his six juvenile starts, starting with a victory on the fibre sand at Southwell and ending with a win in the Listed Silver Tankard Stakes at Pontefract. After a single unsuccessful start in England at three, he transferred to Hong Kong, joining John Moore.

Renamed Viva Pataca, he was a dual champion in Hong Kong and was voted Horse of the Year in 2009. His 13 successes there, which brought his career earnings to £10,053 short of £6 million, included the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup twice, as well as the Hong Kong Gold Cup twice, the Hong Kong Derby, and the Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup on three occasions. Placed many times also at Group 1 level, he travelled outside Hong Kong and ran second in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, with Doctor Dino and Youmzain in arrears.

His half-sister Laughing (Dansili) was a stakes winner in Ireland before heading stateside to land the Grade 1 Diana Stakes and the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Stakes. She had been purchased as a yearling by Charles O’Brien for 275,000gns, and carried the colours of his sister Sue Magnier to success in the Listed Nijinsky Stakes over 11 furlongs at Leopardstown. After that she sold to Richard Santulli and five of her six victories stateside were at graded level.

Outstanding female

A finalist for the 2013 Eclipse Award as outstanding female turf performer in the USA, Laughing died from colic in the first week of January 2014. Trained by Alan Goldberg, the six-year-old mare was going to be campaigned for another year. She died on the operating table. Laughing won half of her 16 starts, was placed four times, and earned $1,178,855.

Comic was one of five winners from the unraced Shirley Heights (Mill Reef) mare Circus Act. The best of these was another trained initially by Sir Mark Prescott. He was Brave Act (Persian Bold), bought for 31,000gns as a yearling and winner of three of his four juvenile starts in England, notably the Group 3 Solario Stakes at Sandown. In the USA, Brave Act joined trainer Ron McAnally and was successful 10 times.

He won just a whisker short of $1.5 million in the USA for owner Sidney Craig, and after his racing career ended he sold to stand the 2001 breeding season at Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland. After a couple of years there he was sold on to Kunigal Stud Farm, the oldest stud farm in India, and there he was a successful Group 1 sire.

When Craig bought Brave Act, his intention was to point him towards the 1997 Triple Crown. In his first start in America, Brave Act finished eighth in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby, a few weeks before the Kentucky Derby, after which it was decided to try him on the turf. He won the Grade 3 Will Rogers Handicap next time out, and was never raced on dirt again. He ended up winning nine additional stakes, seven of which were graded. Four victories at Grade 2 level included the San Gabriel Handicap at Santa Anita twice.

David Nicholson

Brave Act was born two years after Jellaby Askhir (Salse) and a year after Circus Star (Soviet Star). The first-named won the Listed March Stakes at Goodwood before running down the field in the Group 1 St Leger won by Classic Cliche.

Circus Star proved to be best when faced with an obstacle, and David Nicholson saddled him to won a Grade 2 hurdle race at Cheltenham and finish second to Commanche Court in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the same venue.

Circus Act, a full-sister to the stakes winner and Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks fourth Lady Shipley (Shirley Heights), was a daughter of the champion juvenile filly Circus Ring (High Top). She won all of her three juvenile starts in 1981, and was champion thanks to successes in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York and the Listed Princess Margaret Stakes at Ascot.

Trained by Michael Stoute for the Snailwell Stud, Circus Ring’s first season inspired the renowned Peter Willett to pen the following. He wrote: “I doubt whether those flying fillies of the past, Pretty Polly, Mumtaz Mahal and Myrobella, more profoundly impressed onlookers by their performances as two-year-olds than Circus Ring has done by her victories.” Sadly Circus Ring made just one more racecourse appearance.

Champions

In addition to the champion Viva Pataca, and a potential champion in Ylang Ylang, others to emerge from branches of the family established by Circus Ring include champion Australian filly Serenade Rose (Stravinsky), dual Australian Group 1 winner Trekking (Street Cry), leading Italian stayer and two-time Group 1 winner Voila Ici (Daylami), and Jim Bolger’s leading juvenile Leitir Mor (Holy Roman Emperor), runner-up in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes and Phoenix Stakes.

Ylang Ylang provided Banstead Manor Stud’s Frankel with his third winner of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile in the last five years, the others being Quadrilateral and Inspiral.

She became the stallion’s eleventh winner at the highest level in 2023, and what a list that looks like. The others are Westover, Inspiral, Mostahdaf, Nashwa, Triple Time, Soul Sister, Courage Mon Ami, Chaldean, Kelina and Jannah Rose. His total tally of Group/Grade 1 winners now stands at 33.