Group double for Gilltown sire. The first Classic weekend of the season was marked by a pair of stylish victories for Aga Khan Studs sire Dalakhani.

Second Step at Newmarket, and Alex My Boy at Longchamp, picked up Group 2 and Group 3 successes respectively with performances which bode well for the future.

40 minutes before Saturday’s 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, Second Step ran out the sensational winner of the Jockey Club Stakes Gr.2, dominating the talented Telescope. Luca Cumani’s charge was winning his first Group contest, after picking up a Listed success at the Curragh last October. Second Step is reaching maturity now and looks to have a bright future ahead of him. His next target is likely to be the Gr.2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.

A day later, at Longchamp, the scene of Dalakhani’s extraordinary success in the 2003 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, his son Alex My Boy lifted the Prix de Barbeville Gr.3. In this staying contest, Alex My Boy beat Fly With Me by three lengths, with Group 1 scorer High Jinx a further five lengths away. A handicap winner in England when trained by Mark Johnston, who had bought the colt for 75,000 Euros at Deauville in 2012, Alex My Boy was racing for the second time for German handler Andreas Wöhler who has entered his charge in the Gold Cup of Royal Ascot. The colt is the fruit of a blue-blooded union as Dalakhani was chosen in 2010 as the partner of triple Group 1 victrix Alexandrova. Alex My Boy is the first Group winner to date of his dam.

Updated on 04/05/2015.