The Cry Heard ‘Round the World!

By Jack Werk

If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend that you read the eMatings “Stallion of the Week” column each week at eMatings.com. It’s usually out each Monday night from now to the end of the Northern Hemisphere breeding season. Click here to read this week’s, which is on Darley’s sensational Street Cry, who stands for $150,000 and is well worth it!

Street Cry’s Australian-bred colt Shocking (Click here to view pedigree) won the most famous race in Australia Tuesday – the G1 Melbourne Cup! It’s the race that brings the nation to a standstill, and it’s run at 3200 meters – that’s 2 miles in the metric system. This is what eMatings had to say about Shocking’s win for Street Cry, and it put Street Cry’s achievements in context for me:

“Darley’s Irish-bred Street Cry is the stallion of the week, for the week that ended Tuesday, Nov. 2. The reason: Tuesday’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup hero Shocking, the stallion’s 10th individual Group/Grade 1 winner through only four crops. With Shocking’s win in the 3200-meter race, Street Cry has now book-ended the distance spectrum at the highest level, with Grade 1 winner Street Boss his sprint representative.” The article goes on to say: “To date, Street Cry remains the only stallion to sire two Breeders’ Cup winners from his first crop.”

These are amazing facts! There are not that many stallions around that can sire a quality Grade 1-winning dirt sprinter like Street Boss and also sire a 3200-meter Melbourne Cup winner on turf! And there hasn’t been another stallion that’s had two BC winners from his first crop!

Now, we have the news that Street Cry’s unbeaten amazon Zenyatta is going to run in the BC Classic – the 2nd most important race in the U.S. behind the Kentucky Derby. What an incredible feat for her and Street Cry if she were to win it! Don’t forget, Street Cry already has sired a winner of the Kentucky Derby in Street Sense, who is also a BC Juvenile winner! That means that he’s the ONLY horse to date that’s won both races – yet another feather in the cap of his sire!

There’s a lot in Street Cry’s background that makes him an “atypical” type of sire for North America, which makes his success here all the more remarkable. But this background also explains why he’s been so successful everywhere, from Australia to Europe to the US, on grass, dirt and synthetics.

Street Cry’s sire, Machiavellian (Click here to view pedigree), is not exactly a household name here, but Machaivellian’s sire was Mr. Prospector, and his dam, Coup de Folie, descends from the family of Northern Dancer himself! ND’s dam, Natalma, is Coup de Folie’s 3rd dam.

Machiavellian was raced in Europe, where he won two G1s in France at 2. At 3, the colt was 2nd in the 2000 Guineas. As a son of Mr. Prospector, he ran as expected – being a high-class sprinter/miler and early developer.

Street Cry’s dam is Helen Street, a daughter of Epsom Derby and Irish Derby winner Troy. Helen Street was a G3 winner at 2, and she won the G1 Irish Oaks at 3.

Street Cry probably should have been campaigned in Europe as a son of two successful European-raced horses, but he actually began his career in the US, on the dirt! Unlike his sire and dam, he didn’t win stakes at 2, but he ran pretty well, you could say! He was 2nd in the G2 Del Mar Futurity and Norfolk Stakes, and 3rd in the BC Juvenile.

At 3, Street Cry was 2nd by a nose in the G3 UAE Derby, but he wasn’t a SW at 3, either!

At 4, Street Cry came into his own, when he won the G1 Dubai World Cup and G1 Stephen Foster.

He never actually won a race on turf, but his pedigree suggests his sons and daughters should do quite well on the grass, as well as dirt and synthetics. In fact, of Street Cry’s 26 unrestricted SWs to date, 15 have won on the turf and 7 on the synthetics. In a lot of ways, he really is the horse for all courses. One thing is for sure, we’ll be hearing a lot more from him in the future.