Sweet smell of success for classic contender Ylang Ylang
What do the following fillies have in common?
Qualify, Alice Springs, Rhododendron, Happily, Hermosa, Love, Snowfall and Tuesday.
One answer is that they’re all Group 1 winners for Aidan O’Brien, and either won, or were placed in, at least one classic. Qualify, Love, Snowfall and Tuesday all won the Oaks, while Love also won the 1000 Guineas, along with Hermosa, also winner of the Irish 1000 Guineas. Alice Springs, who was third in the 1000 Guineas, went on to win the Falmouth, Matron and Sun Chariot Stakes, while Happily, who won both the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two, also finished third in the 1000 Guineas. Rhododendron, now the dam of Auguste Rodin, won the Fillies’ Mile and finished runner-up in the 1000 Guineas and Oaks.
But, remarkably, all those fillies also share another common factor; in the last ten years they’ve all contested the same two-year-old maiden at the Curragh, as did two other Ballydoyle fillies; Ennistymon, who was runner-up in Love’s Oaks, and Never Ending Story, second in last month’s Prix de Diane.
It’s hard to believe, therefore, that there’s a more informative two-year-old maiden run in Britain or Ireland all year than this seven-furlong contest. The latest renewal was run on Friday evening as the Kildare House Hotel Irish EBF Fillies Maiden and won in impressive fashion by the Ballydoyle filly Ylang Ylang from 11 other newcomers. Of the other fillies named above, only Alice Springs, Happily and Never Ending Story won the race, with Alice Springs the other to win it on her debut. Rhododendron, Love and Tuesday all finished runner-up, Rhododendron and Tuesday doing so first time out.
O’Brien also ran Opera Singer, but the odds-on Ylang Ylang was clearly the better-fancied of the Ballydoyle pair and impressed with how thoroughly she saw the race out from the front under Ryan Moore. Shaken up two furlongs out, Ylang Ylang kept going well to win by two and three-quarter lengths from Joseph O’Brien’s Dollerina, in the process earning the Timeform ‘large P’ symbol denoting that she’s open to above-average improvement.
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There’s plenty to like about Ylang Ylang physically too, as you’d expect for a filly who cost 1.5m guineas as a yearling. She’s by Frankel who, for all his success, hasn’t been a sire the Coolmore team have invested in that heavily so far and who is yet to provide them with a Group 1 winner.
Ylang Ylang is the first foal out of her dam Shambolic, a useful daughter of Shamardal trained by John Gosden with a Timeform rating of 99. After winning her first two starts at two, her trainer thought enough of her to try her twice at Group 1 level in the Fillies’ Mile (finishing fourth) and Criterium de Saint-Cloud. While Shambolic failed to win at three, she trained on over middle distances and found her level in listed races, finishing placed three times at up to a mile and a half, including when runner-up in the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.
The pick of Shambolic’s numerous winning siblings were a pair who did well after being sold to race abroad. The mare Laughing won a couple of Grade 1 contests in the States, the Diana Stakes and Flower Bowl Invitational, while the gelding Comic Strip, a listed-winning two-year-old for Sir Mark Prescott, became a high-class performer at up to a mile and a half and Horse of the Year in Hong Kong where he was known as Viva Pataca.
In the short term, the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown later this month looks an obvious stepping stone for Ylang Ylang on the way to bigger prizes such as the Moyglare Stud Stakes and Fillies’ Mile in the autumn.
Looking further ahead, it would be no surprise to see Ylang Ylang figure in at least one of the classics next year in keeping with the other Ballydoyle fillies from this maiden, with the Oaks trip looking within her reach on pedigree.
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