DID Eoghan O’Neill pick up the bargain of the sales season at Goffs last month? He paid €22,000 for a daughter of Cape Cross out of the Tagula mare Mathuna who at the time the catalogue went to press was a half-sister to two winners, the better of the pair being the listed juvenile winner Caledonian Spring, a son of Amadeus Wolf.

There is hardly a need surely to remind you what a great year Cape Cross is having. Golden Horn joins Sea The Stars and Ouija Board, the dam of Australia, as another exceptional performer on the track for the Darley veteran. He will have more chances of adding to his already stellar record for years to come.

Since the Orby Sale the pedigree of the O’Neill purchase has again taken a giant leap forward. The dam’s three-year-old Media Day was runner-up on her debut and she will hopefully go one better in time. Even more significantly, the two-year-old Donjuan Triumphant, who won a nursery before the filly was sold, has now added a listed success and a Group 2 win to his tally. His latest win in the six-furlong Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte, by an extended five lengths, makes him one of the most exciting sprint prospects for next year.

Unbroken line

Bred by Patrick Cosgrove from Kilcarn Park and the Dream Ahead Syndicate, Donjuan Triumphant is the second stakes winner for his dam and this is a family with an unbroken line of dams going back at least four generations which are noted for producing multiple stakes winners.

Mathuna was a two-year-old winner but her half-sisters Wilside (Group 3) and Round Heels (listed) were blacktype winners.

They were just three of the six winners from the unraced Priolo mare Sigonella and her siblings included the French stakes winner Sestino and the Grade 2 jumps winner Starzaan. In turn they were produced by a juvenile winning daughter of Caerleon named Stellina and her full-sister Mackla won the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale and is grandam of the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Marotta.

While the success of Donjuan Triumphant was welcome news at Kilcarn Park where his Raven’s Pass half-brother was foaled this year, it was also well received in Ballylinch Stud where the colt’s sire stands. With his first runners this year Dream Ahead has made a dream start and this is his second group-winning offspring, following Final Frontier. He is also sire of the Group 2 placed juveniles Basileus and Raucous.

It is hardly surprising that Dream Ahead has made such an exceptional start at stud with his runners. The joint top rated colt in Europe at two – with a certain Frankel – he won both the Prix Morny and the Middle Park Stakes. His three victories at three, which earned him the accolade of best sprinter of his age in Europe, were all in Group 1 races, namely the Betfred Sprint Cup, the Darley July Stakes and the Prix de la Foret.