SPRINTERS, as a group, are often not as consistent as horses in other divisions, which can lead to some odd results, and if anyone managed to predict the outcome of the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Ascot on Tuesday then they deserved the £1767.90 exacta.

Goldream, who was rated 95 this time last summer, showed improved form first time out this year when taking the Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, but was then unplaced behind Pearl Secret in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock.

Having reached a peak figure of only 113 it was understandable that he was sent off at 20/1 on Tuesday and a shock that he pipped 50/1 Medicean Man to land the spoils.

He is a six-year-old who was winning for only the sixth time in 31 starts and the runner-up a nine-year-old who had not finished closer than fifth in any race since taking fourth in the same event last year at 33/1.

Goldream is trained by Robert Cowell, he was bred by Tsega Breeding Ltd, and had you reviewed his pedigree before he ever raced then you may have been of the opinion that it gave him Group 1 potential, probably at around a mile.

His sire Oasis Dream (by Green Desert) was a sprint champion and has sired some very quick horses, but he is also well-established as a source of classic and middle-distance stars, often helped by the distance preferences associated with the distaff side of his offspring’s families.

Goldream’s dam Clizia did not race, but as a daughter of Machiavellian (by Mr Prospector) and Cuixmala (by Highest Honor) one would have expected her to stay a mile, especially as her half-brother Mont Rocher (by Caerleon) was a middle-distance stakes winner.

Further evidence of the horse’s potential to stay a mile, or further, would have been presented in commentary on his grandam’s three blacktype siblings, and as one of those is the mighty Montjeu (by Sadler’s Wells), classic and eventual stud potential might have been considered.

Floripedes (by Top Ville), the dam of Montjeu, is also responsible for the Grade 1-placed stakes winner Le Paillard (by Sanglamore), for the pattern-placed Le Fou (by Polish Precedent) and for Cumbres (by Kahyasi), an unraced filly who gave us the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Again (by Danehill Dancer).

Despite what could have been easily argued as being the credentials of a mile to 10 furlong horse, Goldream has just won one of Europe’s most prestigious events over five furlongs.

How could such talent have emerged from these bloodlines?

It is not quite the surprise that it may seem at first when you consider the pedigrees, aptitudes and records of his sire and maternal grandsire, Oasis Dream and Machiavellian.

While true that both can and have got major winners over a wide variety of distances, both are proven sources of speed. Both were themselves fast horses who showed more of the sprinting pace of their pedigrees than the stamina, and so each has always had obvious prospects of producing five and six furlong stars.

If that is the aptitude they pass on to a son or daughter, and the mare supplies stamina, then we might expect a seven to eight furlong horse, but if both parents have transmitted their potential for such speed then the logical result is a sprinter.

If he was an entire then, as a Group 1-winning Oasis Dream horse from the family of Montjeu, Goldream would have obvious stallion appeal but, of course, he is a gelding.

Tuesday’s victory may have been a fluke, or maybe it was a sign that he has indeed improved considerably in 2015, and if the latter is the case then Goldream cannot be ignored in any of the other major sprints of the year.