The late Street Cry was the toast of the international racing scene this weekend.
2002 Dubai World Cup – Street Cry (photo: Dubai Racing Club)
His remarkable daughter, Winx notched up her 21st consecutive win, when triumphant in the Seppelt Turnbull Stakes, and Street Cry is also broodmare sire of Saturday’s Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, Diversify (Bellamy Road).
Diversify is one of three Gr1 winners produced by Street Cry mares to date.
His champion son, Street Sense, probably Street Cry’s greatest son, also got in on the action, with his Dixie Blossoms lifting the Gr3 Mostyn Cooper Group Angst Stakes on the Turnbull Stakes undercard.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest racemares in Australian history, Winx, who has 14 Gr1 wins to her credit, is officially – somewhat controversially – rated as the world’s second top-rated racehorse by Longines. Her 6.5 length romp in Saturday’s Turnbull over male Gr1 winners, Ventura Storm and Humidor, pushed Winx’s earnings to over AUS$13.77 million and it may well be telling that Ventura Storm, who ran second to Winx on Saturday, was beaten under a length in the classic St Leger of 2016.
Winx apart, Street Cry’s greatest achievement came in his first Northern Hemisphere crop of foals, which were born in 2004. This crop included four major Gr1 winners, headed by champions, Street Sense, the first to win both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Derby, and Horse Of The Year, Zenyatta. Between them, Street Sense and Zenyatta won a trio of Breeders’ Cup races.
Street Cry
While Street Sense has enjoyed plenty of top level success at stud in Australia, where his offspring have won the Melbourne Cup, Blue Diamond Stakes and two Cox Plates, the majority of his Gr1 success came in the Northern Hemisphere. Eleven of his 19 Gr1 winners won in the North, although, ironically enough, Street Cry’s only general sires title came in Australia. He is currently second on the Aus sires list this season, behind the rampant Snitzel.
The sire of 114 stakes winners, Street Cry did not sport a particularly high stakes percentage, siring 6% stakes winners to foals. This places him, statistics wise, below Galileo, Dubawi, and War Front, although his siring of 19 Gr1 winners, headed by Zenyatta and Winx confirms that Street Cry was without doubt an elite sire of his time.
Street Cry’s sire, Machiavellian, is from the same family as Danehill, and has enjoyed notable success when mated to mares from the Danzig line. Remarkably, only two of his Gr1 winners, Pride Of Dubai and Shocking, share the same broodmare sire and that is Danehill.
Danehill is also broodmare sire of Street Cry’s Gr2 winning and millionaire daughter, Solicit. Danehill’s son, Redoute’s Choice, is broodmare sire of the sire’s classic winning daughter, Stay With Me, while other Gr1 winners sired by Street Cry out of Danzig line mares include Here Comes Ben (Forego Stakes) and Lyric Of Light (Fillies Mile). Another Northern Dancer line sire, Dixieland Band, features in the pedigrees of Street Sense and Gr1 Apple Blossom Handicap winner, Seventh Street, while Dixieland Band’s son, Dixie Union, is damsire of Street Cry’s Breeders Cup winner, New Year’s Day.
Winx – unstoppable
While his sons, Street Sense, Shocking, Street Boss, Street Hero and Per Incanto have all been represented by Gr1 winners, Street Cry is yet to be represented by a son sire equal to his own merit. Pick of his sons to date is undoubtedly champion Street Sense, whose eight Gr1 winners include Australian based sire, Hallowed Crown. He is just shy of having 50 stakes winners to his credit, while paternal half-brother, Street Boss’s top flight Gr1 winners include 2016 Gr1 Kentucky Oaks winner, Cathryn Sophia. Another son, former Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, New Year’s Day, is currently North America’s 12th leading first crop sire by earnings.
Street Cry’s close relative, Shamardal also got into the news this weekend, with his son, Blue Point, lifting the Gr3 John Guest Bengough Stakes at Ascot. Shamardal has been represented by seven stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere this year, headed by group winners Aljazzi, Blue Point and Graphite. Shamardal has produced 111 black type winners to date. Interestingly, he is siring 9% stakes winners to foals, considerably more than his more heralded relative, Street Cry.
Mating Street Cry mares to Shamardal, and thus producing a foal inbred to Irish Oaks winner, Helen Street, and Machiavellian, has already yielded Gr2 Rockfel Stakes winner and 1000 Guineas second, Lucida. Diversify and Lucida apart, Street Cry’s most notable performers as a broodmare sire include Paid Up Subscriber, a daughter of Candy Ride who won the 2017 G3 Shuvee Handicap by over 30 lengths, and Canadian champion and millionaire, Are You Kidding Me (Run Away And Hide), while sadly Zenyatta is yet to be represented by a winner.
