THE regally bred dam of untapped colt Dreamscape now resides in the Philippines, but Ashikaga's mother Tropical Dancer is roaming around Mudgee.
The tale of Gooree Stud's two producers gives an insight into the challenges facing those in the breeding game.
Dreamscape may be a rarity.
Gai Waterhouse tossed the colt into last Saturday's Up And Coming Stakes and the three-year-old emerged a stakes winner on debut.
Ashikaga may be a late bloomer. The five-year-old is out to make it four wins from as many starts in Saturday's Fenech Boxing Handicap at Rosehill.
"When you see him kicking off as a five-year-old you automatically think he has had tendon problems," Gooree's manager Andrew Baddock told The Form on Thursday.
"But it is not as bad as you think, he did have a few little issues along the way, he has a high joint problem which has held him back.
"It wasn't a major deal, he was ready to roll as an early four-year-old, equine influenza hit and that really wiped us out."
Baddock described Ashikaga as "a lovely big horse with a great action" . "He is on the Epsom path, we are going to give him his chance, he has come a long way quickly," Baddock said.
"He is untapped. He is a promising horse, has loads of ability, and Gai has always had a high opinion of him."
The type of opinion that led to the Gooree team, which is the Australian base of Filipino billionaire Eduardo Cojuangco, sending Ashikaga's dam Tropical Affair back to the Japanese shuttle stallion Fusaichi Pegasus.
"She is due to foal next month a full relation to Ashikaga," Baddock said.
"We had this mail 12 months ago that he was very smart so we thought we'll go back to Fu Peg [Fusaichi Pegasus], which was lucky because he is not back this year.
"She has an Encosta De Lago two-year-old with Gai who can already gallop.
"She might be one of those good mares that everything she throws can run."
Not so Dreamscape's dam, Faith In Dreams.
"We brought Dreamscape's mother as a yearling in the States [US]," Baddock revealed.
"We won a couple of races with it in the States, it is bred in the purple, the mother. A beautiful American family with Saddler's Wells, Nureyev, what not, but she proved pretty disappointing at stud.
"She couldn't throw much, Dreamscape was the last foal."
Faith In Dreams was put through a mixed sale and a Philippines-based friend of Cojuangco's paid $6000 for the mare.
"You see plenty of this, she was a cull," Baddock explained.
"A mare that had a big page but poor record, hadn't thrown winners. On top of that she was getting difficult to breed. As any big farm does, you've got to cull every year.
"I don't think any farm in the country would have thought any different, she had to go."
Baddock recalls Dreamscape was "a cracker of a colt" when foaled and there were thoughts of hanging onto Faith In Dreams.
"We thought that we could hang around for him [to make it to the races], but if you did that with every mare you'd end up with 300 of them," Baddock said.
Gooree's thoroughbred juggernaut Desert War, a winner of $3 million in prizemoney, was retired earlier this year and is "fat and hairy" and enjoying retirement at Mudgee.
"It is nice we've got a new wave of horses that are exciting," Baddock said.
"A changing of the guard really, lose Desert War and a few good stakes-winning mares, but you've got to keep reinventing yourself."
Gooree have not been buying horses lately, preferring to breed from a band of 80-odd mares.
Another home-bred galloper going round at Rosehill is last start winner Raqas [Dry-It Handicap].
And Strategic Maneuver, which is one from one for Waterhouse, trials at Warwick Farm on Friday.
"We are very mindful winning the right race with Dreamscape's pedigree and he is worth plenty as a stallion prospect," Baddock said.
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