Just as the broodmare owner wonders if every foal is going to be that horse, the special one everyone hopes for - stud owners dream of finding the next big thing amongst the stallion ranks, the horse to set tongues wagging, to get the phone ringing.
A great stallion can come from anywhere, sometimes from flashy promotion and big books... but that is no guarantee. For every now and then a stallion capable of upgrading, of hitting the ground running, emerges from limited opportunities and a bargain fee.
Does Larneuk Stud have that horse?
Neville Murdoch certainly hopes so, the Euroa stud's owner justifiably excited by the outstanding start made by his very handsome and very well bred Wolf Cry.
Already optimistic before any of the breed made it to the track, Murdoch was hearing good things from breakers and trainers... these Wolf Cry horses were very nice indeed!
"They looked good as foals and you start to hope but in this game you never get too confident too early," Murdoch said, "but we are getting pretty excited now!"
On December 30 General Wolffe made his debut at Doomben. One of just 29 members of his sire's debut crop, he ran a pleasing third. Ten days later off a wide run in the rich Magic Millions Maiden - a race which Wolf Cry dominated five years ago - he was not far away, another encouraging performance.
A few weeks later Greg Eurell produced his first Wolf Cry, Wolves thrown into the deep end at debut - catching the eye with a fast finishing fifth, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths in the Gr.3 Blue Diamond Preview at Caulfield.
Eleven days later she was again in the thick of things, a gutsy on pace third in the Gr.2 Blue Diamond Prelude.
Meanwhile in Queensland General Wolffe was going from strength to strength and at Doomben on Thursday he exploded away to break his maiden by a stunning 5 1/2 lengths.
"That was a really, really good win," enthused jockey Adin Thompson. "He gave me a great feel and he has a nice, big stride and a great turn of foot. He is still green, there is a lot of improvement in him."
Greg Eurell has several promising Wolf Crys in the stable and speaks highly of them... "usually with two-year-olds you have to press pause and rewind a few times as they pick things up, but Wolf Cry's sons and daughters make our job easy - they cope with everything we present them with, the take it all in so quickly and easily."
"They are enormous eaters, great types and very genuine and sensible. Very appealling horses!"
Wolf Cry's pedigree credentials are many. Firstly he is a son of the Dubai World Cup hero Street Cry who proved himself one of the all time great shuttlers with his 130 stakes winners and 24 Gr.1 winners including, of course, the mighty Winx.
Boasting impressive statistics with a southern hemisphere 79.6% winners-to-runners strike rate and 8.9% stakes winners, Street Cry has already well and truly proven his worth as a sire of sires with already 18 of his sons siring stakes winners, eight represented by Gr.1 winners.
Wolf Cry is bred on the same Street Cry/Danehill cross as the Gr.1 gallopers Shocking, Pride Of Dubai, Hallowed Crown, Elite Street and Politeness and the same Street Cry/Redoute's Choice cross as the big race winners Trekking, Bonham and Stay With Me. The combination of these two great stallions has a 8.9% stakes winning hit rate and whilst Wolf Cry is not one of those stakes winners, he did have an abundance of natural talent.
A horse who caught the eye from day one - fetching $320,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions, Wolf Cry was a highly competitive two-year-old, a close up third in Vancouver's Listed Breeders Plate at debut, beaten less than a length when third in the Listed Lonhro Stakes second up and again placed behind Exosphere in the Gr.2 Skyline Stakes at start number three.
First up in the Magic Millions Maiden he proved a class above his rivals with a three length victory... and the form stood up with both placegetters - Havasay and Catch A Fire - going onto black-type success.
An eye-catching dark horse with a definite look of his illustrious sire, Wolf Cry hails from one of Australia's classiest and most prolific families, his stakes placed dam Starfish being a daughter of the Gr.1 winning sprinter Stella Cadente, also ancestress of the stakes winners Brilliant Bisc, Dashing Fellow, Aeronautical, Deep Image and last start Listed Just Now Quality winner Alison Of Tuffy.
Stella Cadente's dam is the stakes placed Bletchingly mare Temple Fire whose Gr.3 winning dam Eau d'Etoile by the legendary Sir Tristram (there are no weak links in this pedigree!) produced three individual Gr.1 winners... the Golden Slipper heroine Bint Marscay, the Epsom Handicap star Filante and the Australian Guineas winner Kenny's Best Pal.
What a dynasty Eau d'Etoile established, her other descendants including the feature race winners Bollinger, Friesan Fire, Villermont, Sheraton, Mannington, Benicio, Romneya, Roheryn, Always Allison, Rose Imperial, Rosental, Eau d'Scay and the recent runaway Magic Millions Guineas winner Aim.
A proven high class family still in great form. And Wolf Cry looks set to continue on the good work... he certainly has the pedigree for it!
For further details on Wolf Cry - and getting your mare to him in 2021 - contact Neville Murdoch on 0418 105 706 or visit www.larneuk.com and www.facebook.com/pages/Larneuk-Stud/455896497806590
