AFTER five seasons at Ballylinch Stud the European champion sprinter Dream Ahead moved to France this year and covered at Haras de Grandchamp at a fee of €12,000. This was a reduction on his Irish fees which ranged in value from €15,000 to €17,500.

Last weekend he reached a landmark in his stallion career when his son Al Wukair, bred at Ballylinch, landed the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard Jacques Le Marois over a mile, and thus became his sire’s first winner at Group 1 level. The colt had previously landed the Group 3 Prix Djebel and was third, for owners Al Shaqab Racing and trainer Andre Fabre, in the Group 1 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Dream Ahead’s first northern hemisphere crop included the Group 2 winning juvenile and Group 1 runner-up Donjuan Triumphant and the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes winner Final Frontier. His first Australian crop includes Group 3 winner Dreams Aplenty among their number. That colt is out of a Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare.

Also at the weekend Dream Ahead’s juvenile daughter Pursuing The Dream became the first member of his crop of 2015 to win a stakes race when she won the Listed Prix de la Vallee d’Auge for trainer Jamie Osborne.

Dream Ahead famously gave Hayley Turner her first Group 1 winner as a jockey and the son of Diktat (Warning) won six of his nine starts at two and three years. Two of his three juvenile victories came at Group 1 level, beating The Tin Horse to win the Prix Morny and also capturing the Middle Park Stakes. He was rated the joint best two-year-old in Europe as a consequence.

He was outright holder of the champion three-year-old European sprinter title the following year when he twice beat Bated Breath to land the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup and Group 1 July Cup, and he completed a Group 1 hat-trick when defeating Goldikova in the Prix de la Foret. The latter race saw him extend to seven furlong to win, all his other victories coming at six.

Al Wukair’s win in France will have done no harm to the sale prospects of his yearling half-sister by Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit) who is catalogued as Lot 602 in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. She is the seventh produce of her dam Macheera who was trained in France by Robert Collet and won as a two-year-old. Three of her offspring have run and all have won. Al Wukair is easily the best, though the Eddie Lynam-trained Witches Brew (Duke Of Marmalade) was listed-placed, while Ballyorban (Cape Cross) won for Ken Condon in Ireland and later in Bahrain.

The other unraced produce of Macheera are Malladore (Lawman) whose first foal is a placed son of Dream Ahead, Seascapes (Fastnet Rock) whose first foal is a son of Dream Ahead born this year, while Mark Johnston trains a two-year-old full-brother to Al Wukair named Dream Today and he is entered to run next week.

Macheera is a daughter of Machiavellian (Mr Prospector) and the Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) winner Caerlina (Caerleon). The latter had 13 foals, the last of which was Lina De Vega (Lope De Vega) and she was a winner and Group 3 placed from just three starts. She was the ninth of Caerlina’s offspring to win, three of which were stakes placed. Incredibly none won a blacktype race, though La Nuit Rose (Rainbow Quest) was third in both the Irish and French 1000 Guineas.

At stud La Nuit Rose bred the Grade 2 winner Tam Lin (Selkirk) and the French stakes winner Blue Rambler (Monsun). Her stakes-placed half-sister Luminous Beauty (A P Indy) bred the American stakes winner Souper Colossal (War Front), while another sibling Star Mie (also by A P Indy) is the dam of group winners Curren Mirotic (Heart’s Cry) and Hikaru Amaranthus (Agnes Tachyon), both of which placed in Group 1 races.

Al Wukair’s Group 1 win was the highlight for Ballylinch Stud on a memorable weekend that also saw Frankuus, bred at the Co Kilkenny nursery, win for the second time at Group 3 level. He did so for the first time last year as a juvenile in France. Frankuus is one of many group winners for his sire Frankel (Galileo) who had a sensational few days with Eminent and Lady Frankel also winning at group level.

Frankuus and US Law (Lawman) are two of the four winning offspring of Dookus, a daughter of Linamix (Mendez). US Law was also a group-winning juvenile in France where he was Group 1 placed and then he went on to race successfully in Hong Kong.

Dookus has a yearling filly by Dream Ahead who is sure to be one of the stars of the 2017 Goffs Sportsmans Sale where she is catalogued as Lot 713.

Dookus is a daughter of Pharaoh’s Delight (Fairy King), winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes and the filly who put her sire on the map as a stallion. She was also runner-up in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and third in a trio of Group 1s, the Nunthorpe Stakes, Haydock Sprint Cup and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

Only one of Pharaoh’s Delight’s seven winning offspring did so at stakes level, Pharmacist (Machiavellian) winning the Listed Rochestown Stakes for her only success. She, however, went on to do very well at stud, breeding the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Red Rocks (Galileo), Dookus’ close relation Medicinal (Linamix), listed winner Galvaun (Galileo), and the Italian stakes winner and multiple Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic and Slovakian champion Blue Coral (Grand Lodge).