FILLIES with classic aspirations were making their mark in Ireland and France at the weekend, and both are bred in the purple.

On the home front it was the Moyglare Stud-bred and owned Homeless Songs who was making her case by winning the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud-sponsored 1000 Guineas Trial Stakes at Leopardstown by a length from last year’s Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up Agartha. Homeless Songs is a daughter of the champion sire Frankel (Galileo) and the second stakes winner in as many foals for the Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) mare Joailliere.

The latter mare was trained, like her daughter is now, by Dermot Weld and he sent her to Germany as a four-year-old to gain what would prove to be invaluable blacktype. Joailliere raced twice at three, winning her maiden on her debut, and she faced the starter five times at four when her placed efforts included running second to Jet Setting (sold for £1.3 million) in the Group 3 Concorde Stakes.

Joailliere’s first foal is the four-year-old Reve De Vol (Siyouni), and he is now with Annabel Neasham in Australia. When he was trained by Ger Lyons he beat Patrick Sarsfield in the Listed Orby Stakes at the Curragh at two, and last year chased home Earlswood in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes. He was Group 2-placed as a juvenile also.

Late developer

This is a Moyglare Stud family going back generations now. Joailliere and her half-sister Carla Bianca (Dansili) are two of the seven winning offspring from the unraced Majestic Silver (Linamix). Carla Bianca was also a late developer and her five wins at three and four included a pair of Group 3s and a pair of listed races.

There are few opportunities to get into this family, but Cathy Grassick struck when Joailliere’s half-sister Mia Maria (Dansili) was sold in 2020, carrying to Lope De Vega (Shamardal). The three-year-old winner cost the agent 450,000gns, acting for Carisbrooke Stud, and a filly was the outcome. Last year the mare was covered by Dubawi.

Favourite with bookmakers to be champion sire in 2022, Dubawi features as the sire of the Group 3 Prix Penelope winner Agave. This Juddmonte homebred is now unbeaten in three starts, landing a maiden last September and opening her sophomore season with a listed win at Saint-Cloud. She is trained by André Fabre.

Nurtured

Once again, we are talking about a family that has been nurtured over generations by one farm. Agave is the second foal and first winner for her dam Contribution, and she is a daughter of the Juddmonte-bred Champs Elysees (Danehill) mare Contribution. Twice successful in France, she was placed a couple of times at up to Group 2 level.

Contribution is one of seven runners and winners for Concentric (Sadler’s Wells), four of which earned some blacktype. Just one of these won at stakes level, but she was out of the ordinary. Enable (Nathaniel) was the champion of her sex three times in Europe and her 15 career victories included three Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, two each of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Yorkshire Oaks, and Group/Grade 1 wins in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Oaks, Irish Oaks and Eclipse Stakes.