THE family of Lake Victoria has been lifted out of the ordinary, and mating the great Frankel (Galileo) with the dual Group 1-winning sprinter Quiet Reflection (Showcasing) has given us the leading juvenile filly of 2024 in Europe.

Let me take you back seven years to an incredible day of selling at Newmarket. It was the second day of their annual mare sale and I filed my report on trade from a ring that was simply buzzing.

I wrote: “Tuesday will long remain in the memory for anyone lucky enough to be present for the annual Tattersalls December Sale. When the gavel fell on the last lot of the day, an incredible 45,665,0000gns had changed hands, a whopping 79% increase on last year, and the most money ever spent on a single day at a European auction.

“There was everything on the day. The exceptional racemare Marsha brought a new European record price for a horse at public auction when she sold for 6,000,000gns, a million more than the previous best, while the curtain came down on the Ballymacoll Stud dispersal. A total of 10 lots realised a million guineas or more, making the two to do so in 2016 pale by contrast.

“Coolmore went head-to-head with Godolphin for Marsha, and the result of the battle was a six million guineas victory for M.V. Magnier over John Gosden. A four-year-old daughter of Acclamation, this dual Group 1 winner of the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp was bred and raced by Elite Racing Club, and exceeded her trainer Sir Mark Prescott’s expectation, though he revealed he did dream of her selling for four million!

“The previous best price for a filly in or out of training in the Tattersalls ring was 4,500,000gns for classic winner Just The Judge, while the best price in Europe in the same category was the €6 million paid for Chiquita at the Paulyn dispersal in Goffs. The best price paid for a broodmare at Tattersalls was 4,700,000gns for Immortal Verse in 2013, while Lodge Park Stud sold a yearling daughter of Galileo for 5,000,000gns four years ago.

“Marsha was not the only dual Group 1 winning sprinter making waves, and once again it was M.V. Magnier who was to the fore, securing the Jamie Railton consigned Quiet Reflection at 2,100,000gns, in association with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff who signed the docket.

“A daughter of Showcasing, Quiet Refection won the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup. ‘She was a brilliant racehorse and wonderful three-year-old; she was very speedy and is very special,’ said Goff. ‘She was very well selected and trained by Karl Burke. It is my assumption that she will not continue racing and is ready to become a mum.’”

Sadly, Marsha had just three foals before she died last year, one being the current yearling, and the first two have each started once, with no success. However. Quiet Reflection’s story is very different.

Cornwallis Stakes

Sold twice at Doncaster, for £32,000 as a yearling and £44,000 as a breezer, Quiet Reflection was a group winner every year she raced. She won three of her four starts at two, ending her first season with an easy win under Graham Lee in the Group 3 Dubai Cornwallis Stakes at Newmarket. At four she won four of her six starts, including both Group 1s, and placed in the Group 1 July Cup.

A disappointing reappearance at four was followed by a long time off the track, but that December Quiet Reflection travelled to Naas for the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes, and the manner of her victory that day gave reason to believe that she was on her way back to her best. However, one more start at Ascot saw her well-beaten, and next stop was the sales.

Quiet Reflection, to nobody’s surprise, was immediately sent to mate with Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), and three visits with him resulted in three foals. First up was Bluegrass (Galileo), and he won a Curragh maiden at the second time of asking. He put up a career best performance when finishing third, beaten nearly six lengths, to Desert Crown in the Group 2 Dante Stakes, and the ill-fated winner that day won the Group 1 Derby at Epsom on his next start.

At the end of 2022, Bluegrass was sold at bloodstock agent J.D. Moore for 50,000gns at Tattersalls, gelded, and sent into training with Stuart Edmonds. He finally came good for his new connections with a maiden hurdle win at Fakenham in March, following a number of placed efforts. Fourth in a handicap on the last of four runs was the best Bluegrass’s full-sister Red Carpet (Galileo) could muster, and Quiet Reflection’s third produce by Galileo is The Equator.

Once-raced at two, The Equator won on his season bow this year and has run some sound races since, most recently gaining a career-high mark after finishing second in the Melrose Handicap at York. He will surely attempt to get some blacktype for the family, and especially now that Lake Victoria has appeared.

After three years of foals by Galileo, it has been a case of three by his best son Frankel. Lake Victoria has run at two courses, the Curragh and Newmarket, and is unbeaten in her four starts. She won her maiden by a head, travelled to Newmarket to land the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes, and won the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh as the stable’s second choice. Her three-length win in the Group 1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes confirms her position as the best of her sex at present.

While celebrating such a great return on their substantial investment in Quiet Reflection, Coolmore and partners will be delighted to know that the yearling and foal out of Quiet Reflection, both colts, on the ground are full-brothers to Lake Victoria, now the favourite for next year’s 1000 Guineas.

Another level

The emergence of Quiet Reflection, and now Lake Victoria, takes this female line to another level. On the face of it, the pedigree appears to be ordinary enough, and when Bluegrass was sold at Tattersalls two years ago, it was necessary to put the fifth dam on the page to fill it up. In the five generations until then there were four stakes winners, three at listed level. In defence, Quiet Refection was one of two foals, both winners, from My Delirium (Haafhd), and she was also one of two winners from two foals from her dam, Clare Hills (Orpen). Opportunities were scarce.

Clare Hill won her first couple of starts at two in 2005, but failed to place on any of her subsequent eight outings. On the face of it, nothing special, even if her second victory came in the Listed Hilary Needler Trophy at Beverley. However, the filly she beat that day was Donna Blini, who later won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes and is the dam of the champion Gentildonna.

For now, there is not a lot to say about Frankel that hasn’t been said a thousand times. An outstanding racehorse and sire, it was appropriate that he should sire the winner of a race sponsored by Juddmonte. Nine crops of racing age in Europe, and a number of mares covered to southern hemisphere time also, have so far given up 35 Group and Grade 1 winners. They are among 100 pattern winners, 150 stakes winners and 232 stakes performers for the Banstead House Stud resident. He is, quite simply, a phenomenon.