THE 2016 turf flat season got under way at the Curragh on Sunday and with it the first pattern event of the new campaign, the Group 3 Lodge Park Stud European Breeders Fund Park Express Stakes over a mile.

Two three-year-olds took on eight four-year-olds and a single five-year-old, and one of the younger pair was Glamorous Approach (by New Approach), who looked promising when taking a 10-furlong listed contest on her final juvenile start.

She finished fourth this time, should benefit both from the outing and from stepping back up in distance, and her entries include the Group 1 Darley Irish Oaks, a race whose entrants also include Queen Blossom.

Queen Blossom made a winning debut over a mile at Cork in September, finished fourth behind Moonlight Magic in the Listed Eyrefield Stakes over a furlong farther at Leopardstown a month later, and despite carrying a pound overweight she beat the classic-placed stakes winner Devonshire by a length on Sunday.

The pair finished three lengths clear of Joailliere, who was running for the first time since finishing unplaced behind Pleascach in last year’s Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas, and the first five pulled some way clear of the rest.

IRISH NATIONAL STUD

Queen Blossom is a €15,000 graduate of the Goffs Sportsman Sale and she was bred by the Irish National Stud, the farm at which her sire Jeremy (by Danehill Dancer) spent his first five seasons.

He moved to Garryrichard Stud in 2013 and was in his second year there when dying at the age of just 11. His latest pattern scorer comes from his final Tully-conceived crop.

The regally-related stallion does not yet have a Group 1 winner to his name on the flat, although the ill-fated Our Conor won at the highest level over hurdles, and his growing list of stakes winners includes notably talented individuals such as Kool Kompany, Baino Hope, Yellow Rosebud and Success Days.

Queen Blossom is the third foal and second winner out of Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes third Mark Of An Angel (by Mark Of Esteem) and her pattern success enhances the value of her now yearling half-sister, a chesnut daughter of Motivator (by Montjeu).

The mare has three winning siblings and her dam Dream Time (by Rainbow Quest) was placed once as a three-year-old.

The only other blacktype horse within the first four generations of the family is Grey Angel (by Kenmare) who won a pair of Grade 3 events and a trio of listed races in South Africa, was Grade 1-placed in that country, and is the third dam of Queen Blossom.

The season’s first Irish pattern winner has already achieved more than would have been expected of a €15,000 filly whose catalogue display is light on blacktype, but the way in which she won on Sunday was promising, and it should be noted that there is more to her pedigree than what appeared on that auction page.

Her third dam was effective at around a mile and so were some of their more distant relations, some of whom stayed further and one of whom even won the Derby.

The filly’s fourth dam, Seattle Sway (by Seattle Slew), is a winning half-sister to the pattern-placed stakes winner Finance Charge (by Pretense), who is the dam of the Grade 1-placed Listed California Oaks scorer General Charge (by General Assembly).

The next dam, an unraced mare called In My Way (by Majestic Prince), was a half-sister not only to a couple of stakes winners but also to Savage Bunny (by Never Bend) and Paris Breeze (by Majestic Prince).

The former was a stakes-placed four-times winner on the track, and it is her grandson Benny The Dip (by Silver Hawk) who won the Derby in 1997, while Paris Breeze, who also won four times, is the dam of the juvenile Grade 1 winner Well Decorated (by Raja Baba) and juvenile Grade 2 scorer Victorious (by Explodent).

The relationship of Benny The Dip and Well Decorated to Queen Blossom is remote, but should she make the necessary improvement to perform with credit at the highest level then she would be merely the latest in her extended family tree to do so.