Every
year we see a selection of superbly performed shuttle sires arrive on our
shores billed as the 'perfect outcross', yet very few achieve meaningful
success.
Trevor Lobb rolled the dice for Emirates Park back in 2012 securing five time
Group I winner and Champion European Sprinter Dream Ahead (USA), who was in the
news over the weekend for siring Dreams Aplenty to win the Group III BRC
Gunsynd Classic at Eagle Farm. (Read about him here)
That was his fourth Australian stakes-winner this season which gives Dream
Ahead one more than the division leaders Foxwedge and So You Think, who have
three apiece.
Despite having the familiar names of Sadler's Wells and Green Desert in his
pedigree, Dream Ahead is seen very much as an outcross type sire given he is a
grand-son of Warning from a daughter of Cadeaux Genereux, a brilliant Group I
winning sprinter, although best known in this country as the sire of much loved
stayer Red Cadeaux.
With his oldest progeny just three year-olds, Dream Ahead is posting more than
respectable overall statistics on his Southern Hemisphere bred runners.
He has close to 50% winners to runners and 6% stakes-winners to runners, which is similar to his results in the Northern Hemisphere where he has also
sired four stakes-winners.
These statistics compare very favourably with his peers at the top of the
Australian Second Season Sires List.
Of his four Australian stakes-winners, three of them are from daughters of
Redoute's Choice, which is an interesting fact that offers real food for thought.
There have been just four named foals bred this way and all are winners, so
from a very small sample it's 100% success.
Given the volume of mares out there carrying Redoute's Choice blood, Dream
Ahead has probably done enough to spark the interest of their owners,
particularly those on a budget looking for a smart play rather than a gamble on
the unknown.
Dream Ahead has had a fee reduction this year dropping to $19,800 from $27,000
and stands for Aquis Farm at Emirates Park.