PRINCE Of Lir was sold at the end of last year to continue his stud career in India. How breeders with a limited budget must be regretting that he is no longer available to them now, given that his second-crop son Live In The Dream has become a successful Group 1 sprinter.

If Joe Foley in Ballyhane Stud has any regrets about selling Prince Of Lir (Kodiac), he can gain some consolation that he had the good sense to purchase the dam of Live In The Dream, the unraced Approaching Autumn (New Approach), last December for 35,000gns, and she has since produced a filly by James Garfield (Exceed And Excel).

What an update this Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes win has provided for Lot 1474 in Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. The yearling in question is an Elzaam (Redoute’s Choice) half-sister to Live In The Dream, and she was purchased by Sam Hoskins last year at Goffs for €23,000.

The yearling is the sixth offspring of her dam, four of which have run, all have been successful more than once, and Live In The Dream is joined by Live In The Moment (Zebedee) as a blacktype performer.

A bargain

Live In The Dream was sold twice as a yearling. Bred by Lorna Doyle, she realised just €4,000 at the Goffs February Sale in 2020, and £24,000 later in the year at the same company’s Sportsman’s Sale. She was bought and sold by Sandy and Liz Persse’s Clonfert Stud, and on the latter occasion she was purchased on behalf of Steve De’Lemos by Philippa Mains. What a bargain Live In The Dream has proven to be, and he now has earnings of €500,000.

Live In The Dream is a grandson of the stakes winner Autumn Wealth (Cadeaux Genereux), and she is a granddaughter of the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes winner Braiswick (King of Spain). That mare also won the Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes, and was a stakes producer. Braiswick’s half-sister Percy’s Lass (Blakeney) won a Group 3 but she was a better broodmare, producing the Group 1 Derby and Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner, and Group 1 sire, Sir Percy (Mark Of Esteem).

Seven years ago Prince Of Lir lined up for Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Norfolk Stakes after one previous start. That was a five-furlong Beverley maiden less than three weeks before, and he had won it in good style on fast ground. He also won at Ascot, with the ground riding soft, beating a colt who would go on to win one of the autumn’s top juvenile sprints.

That was The Last Lion, winner of the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes, and this was the second time Prince Of Lir had beaten him.

Impressive debut

Four years later, The Lir Jet went to Royal Ascot off the back of an impressive debut success over five furlongs on fast ground at Yarmouth. After that, Sheikh Fahad swooped for The Lir Jet who went on to win the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes, this time from a future Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner. The winning distance was a neck, and the ground was good to soft. Like father, like son.

The Lir Jet was in the first-crop by Prince Of Lir, and while Royal Ascot was the career highlight on the track for his sire who only raced at two, the son would go on to be a short-head runner-up in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly and chase home Lucky Vega in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh. Transferred to the USA, The Lir Jet also won at Grade 2 level there.

Last year, Prince Of Pillo became a second stakes-winning juvenile for Prince Of Lir, and he landed three of his five starts, notably the Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes at Ayr. He was third in the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes and fourth in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes. Prince Of Lir’s runners also include the stakes-placed pair of juveniles, Queen Of Rio and Puerto Princesa, and the former was second in the Listed Roses Stakes at York, beaten by a nose.

Limited numbers

A feature of Prince Of Lir’s performance as a sire is that he has done all of this with limited crop numbers. His fourth crop are two-year-olds, nearly half of all his runners have won, and this year’s juveniles already include four winners.

He has only had about 100 starters to date, and his 2023 juveniles include a half-brother to Oscula who cost Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock €300,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale.

Live In the Dream is the latest Group 1 winner out of a mare by New Approach (Galileo). Modern Games and Earthlight are other sons who have been successful at the highest level, the former winning twice at the Breeders’ Cup, as well as capturing the Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas, the Woodbine Mile and this year’s Lockinge Stakes, while Earthlight won the Group 1 Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes.

What a year 2023 is for offspring of mares by the Derby winner New Approach. Joining Modern Games and Live In The Dream as Group 1 winners is Mawj, and she was victorious in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.