UNDECIDED about whether to cover your mare this week? Well, consider the perfect case for doing so.

Bred by Coolmore, Tuesday (Galileo) was a battling winner of the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom on June 3rd, three years to the day after she was foaled. She made it to the races once as a juvenile, not at the backend of the season as her birthdate might suggest, but in late June at the Curragh when she was beaten a short-head by a filly who was having her second outing.

The winner that day was none other than Discoveries, later to win the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, and so Aidan O’Brien and the filly’s owners must have harboured great hopes for Tuesday as she went into winter quarters. She duly rewarded the patience shown when she comfortably won her maiden at Naas on her seasonal reappearance.

After that Tuesday was two lengths behind Cachet in the Group 1 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, chased home Homeless Songs, favourite for this week’s Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas, and now is a classic winner. She has a profile similar to her own-sister Empress Josephine (Galileo) who won a classic for her second success, in the Group 1 Tattersalls Irish 1000 Guineas, and they are two of the three Group 1 winners for their dam.

Lillie Langtry, a 70,000gns foal and 230,000gns yearling, is the dam of Tuesday and Empress Josephine, and she herself was a very smart racemare who won many times her purchase price during a fine racing career. A daughter of Danehill Dancer (Danehill), Lillie Langtry captured the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot a dozen years ago, and later in the season added the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown. She is the dam of three Group 1 winners among her five successful offspring.

The trio is headed, for now at least, by Minding (Galileo), a European champion in each of the three seasons she raced. Seven of her nine victories, from 13 starts, were at Group 1 level, and comprised the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Dubai Fillies’ Mile at two, and at three she added the 1000 Guineas, Oaks, Pretty Polly Stakes, Nassau Stakes and, finally, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. She never finished out of the first three.

Can Lillie Langtry go on and breed another Group 1 winner? The onus, for now, rests on the back of a two-year-old in Ballydoyle called Delightful, a daughter of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Another of Lillie Langtry’s daughters, Kissed By Angels (Galileo), was a Group 3 winner from just four starts, and she had just two offspring who did not win. Both of these were sold by Coolmore.

How (Galileo) was placed nine times in Ireland and the USA and sold for 680,000gns in 2019 in foal to Lope De Vega (Shamardal).

All of the progeny of Lillie Langtry have been fillies, and the other worth mentioning is Conquest (Galileo). In spite of the efforts of Aidan O’Brien she never troubled the judge in nine starts, she was covered by Justify (Scat Daddy) and sold in November 2019 for $1.25 million.

Last weekend this column celebrated Galileo’s induction into the QIPCO Hall of Fame, and Tuesday is yet another reminder of his prowess as a sire. She became his 93rd Group 1 winner, and this was the late Coolmore’s sire’s 194th win at Group or Grade 1 level. Outstanding.

Kevin Lynch

Lillie Langtry was bred by Kevin Lynch, father of the bloodstock agent Barry, from the unraced Hoity Toity (Darshaan), a 15,000gns purchase as a two-year-old through Corrin Stud. Hoity Toity passed into the ownership of Bjorn Nielsen, breeder of Stradivarius, after she foaled a colt, Count Of Limonade (Duke Of Marmalade), in 2010. He was a listed winner at the Curragh on Irish Derby weekend, and later won in Australia.

Hoity Toity’s third stakes winner, Danilovna (Dansili) was successful in the USA, while her once-raced daughter Lady Hawkfield (Hawk Wing) bred the Group 3 Sandown classic trial winner Master Apprentice (Mastercraftsman) before she was sold to Japan.