THE excellent season for the South African-based stallion Duke Of Marmalade (by Danehill) continued at Glorious Goodwood with Group 2 Qatar Goodwood Cup success for Big Orange (reviewed here on 18th July) just over half an hour before Simple Verse won the Group 3 Markel Insurance Fillies’ Stakes (registered as the Lillie Langtry Stakes).

Victory in that 14-furlong contest was a third from six starts for the Ralph Beckett-trained three-year-old and it raised the possibility that she might be supplemented for next month’s Group 1 Ladbrokes St Leger.

The Group 2 Park Hill Stakes, over the same course and distance, may be a likelier target, but wherever she goes she will do so as an improving filly with a lot of potential.

A €240,000 Goffs Orby Sale graduate, Simple Verse was bred by Barronstown Stud, she is a half-sister to the Group 2 Superlative Stakes third Maxentius (by Holy Roman Emperor), and her dam Guantanamera (by Sadler’s Wells) is an unraced daughter of the stakes-placed Bluffing (by Darshaan).

The best of that mare’s six winning siblings is Feminine Wiles (by Ahonoora), who won the Listed Ballymacoll Stud Stakes at Newbury, was runner-up in the Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes and also in the Group 3 May Hill Stakes.

Their half-sister Sharnazad (by Track Barron), who won in Italy, was a prolific broodmare whose 10 winners, several of whom won between seven and 16 times, included the listed scorer Splendida Idea (by Kenmare).

Only two of Sharnazad’s 14 foals did not race and one of those was Siraka (by Grand Lodge), dam of the Grade 3 Hawthorne Derby scorer Strait Of Mewsina (by Spartacus) who is now a stallion in Indiana.

The fourth dam of Simple Verse is Bold Bikini (by Boldnesian) so her winning third dam Instinctive Move (by Nijinsky) was a half-sister to the 1985 Group 1 Irish Derby winner Law Society (by Alleged).

His three-parts brother Strike Your Colors (by Hoist The Flag) was a Grade 1-placed juvenile Grade 2 scorer in the USA, half-brother Legal Bid (by Spectacular Bid) won the Group 3 Derby Trial Stakes at Lingfield, and Alfarazdq (by Exclusive Native) was a Group 2-placed stakes winner in Australia.

Their twice-placed half-sister Tie A Bow (by Dance Spell) also did her bit for the family by becoming the grandam of the 1997 Group 1 Oaks d’Italia and Group 2 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1000 Guineas) heroine Nicole Pharly (by Pharly).

Some of these horses are quite distantly related to Simple Verse, but their presence shows that this is a family that has been producing notable racehorses for a long time.