As the light on last year’s flat season faded, Dublin trainer Ado McGuinness and Kildare jockey Ronan Whelan enjoyed their finest moments, when they combined to win the prestigious Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye at ParisLongchamp.

And as the light on this year’s flight season brightens, the pair have already topped that success by securing a second top level victory in the €1.3m Al Quoz Sprint in Meydan, Dubai, last Saturday. Both victories were met with mass celebration and delirious excitement.

They come as A Case Of You looks set to take the pair, and his owner Gary Devlin to all the top tables in the sprinting division this year, with a return to America for the Breeders’ Cup front and centre among long-term plans.

Connections of A Case Of You after he won the Al Quoz Sprint on the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan. \ Healy Racing

For now though, McGuinness, who trains in Lusk, north Co Dublin, can bask in the glory of a second Group 1 success, achieved on an international stage against some of the best sprinters around.

Drawn on the near side rail, Ronan Whelan always looked to be travelling strongly on A Case Of You. He committed him early and the horse stayed on strongly to see off the favourite Man Of Promise and fast finishing Happy Romance for a famous win.

“The draw was a big help and Ronan was super cool on him,” McGuinness said after the race. “My wife Hazel is here and my daughter Lauren, she’s a bit emotional but on days like this you have to get like this. We like to celebrate and we like to enjoy our horses like this.

“It was soft ground when he won in Paris and quickish here, but good horses go on any ground. He will be OK over a fast five furlongs at Ascot (King’s Stand), but the big ones are the Abbaye and then the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland where the five and a half furlongs with a bit of juice in the ground would be ideal.”

McGuinness has made huge strides in recent seasons, prospering in premier handicaps on these shores with horses sourced from Britain, in which his cousin and assistant trainer Stephen Thorne plays a vital role.

The fruits of that strategy were seen again as the Irish flat turf season opened through Laugh A Minute and Spanish Tenor, who scored at the Curragh and at Naas respectively.

McGuinness had seven runners in the feature event of the weekend, the Irish Lincoln at the Curragh, but could only manage third, as Johnny Murtagh’s Raadobarg won impressively.