There are two thoroughly deserving cases striving for a maiden Group 1 success in Saturday’s Group 1 Doomben 10,000, Osborne Bulls and Champagne Cuddles, and while the mighty little mare has earned well-deserved plaudits for toughness and consistency poor old Osborne Bulls has been questioned whether he is up for a fight.
Remarkably, this has been based on four consecutive seconds in some of our great sprints, the Lightning Stakes and Newmarket Handicap at Flemington and the All Aged Stakes and TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick.
This is a horse that has won 50 percent of his 18 starts and has been off the board just once in a career that has netted Godolphin $2.7 million.
The 5yo gelding is another ace for the remarkable Street Cry (IRE) who arrived in Australia in 2003 sporting a service fee of $38,500, which was quickly more than halved to $16,500 for the next three seasons.
After a relatively slow start and with his daughter Zenyatta and son Street Sense cutting a swathe through the best in North America, Street Cry (IRE) stayed home in Kentucky for the next two seasons before the emergence of Melbourne Cup winner Shocking, and dual Group 1 winner Whobegotyou, which saw Street Cry (IRE) return triumphant in 2009 with a fee to match of $110,000.
From that
crop came Caulfield Guineas winner Long John and the multiple Group II winner
and Group 1-placed Solicit and in 2010 Street Cry’s fee was bumped up to
$137,500 and from that crop came Street Cry’s masterpiece Winx and the Group 1
Coolmore Classic winner Heaven’s Above.
In his final three seasons before his untimely death, Street Cry (IRE) covered at $110,000.
Coolmore Stud’s ATC Sires' Produce Stakes and MRC Blue Diamond Stakes winner Pride Of Dubai and the MRC One Thousand Guineas winner Stay With Me took pride of place in the crop born in 2012.
It looks likely that it has been left to Osborne Bulls to give Street Cry (IRE) his first Group 1 winner from his penultimate crop.
Street Cry (IRE) died on the 17th September 2014 a fortnight before the birth of his remarkable daughter Oh Susanna who has won four at the highest level in South Africa.
Osborne Bulls descends from a family nurtured by the late Ross Cribb.
The former Chairman Of The TAB bred and raced the Luskin Star filly La Caissiere whose wins included the AJC Flight Stakes, Surround Stakes and VRC Wakeful Stakes.
She is the dam of the dual Group 1 winner Dashing Eagle (Danehill).
Another daughter of La Caissiere, Cashing In (Salieri), wasn’t as successful on the track as her dam or half-sister but she did leave the stakes-placed Portview and the 10-time winner Tranquil Love who is the dam of the Group III MRC Blue Diamond Prelude winner Brief Embrace (Irgun) who was runner-up in the Group 1 Blue Diamond.
Portview (Handy Proverb) left six winners, the best of which was the dual Listed winner and Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes runner-up Barawin (Barathea) and her stakes-placed sister Saddler’s Silk who placed in the Group 1 QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
Saddler’s Silk is the dam of Darley Stud’s talented homebred Jerezana. A daughter of former Horse Of The Year and champion stallion Lonhro, Jerezana had stakes-placings at Flemington and Doomben before rocketing home from last to win the 2011 Listed Ramornie Handicap at Grafton.
She then placed behind Red Tracer and Secret Admirer in the Listed Toy Show Quality at Warwick Farm.
Jerezana has made an exemplary start to her broodmare career.
Her first foal is the stakes-placed Commands gelding Badajoz who has banked over $550,000 for Godolphin with seven wins and 12 placings in his 31-start career to date.
Next came Osborne Bulls, followed by the Rosehill winner Sedition (Exceed And Excel) and the highly regarded 2yo Brazen Beau colt Mercury who pulled up lame when favoured to make a winning debut in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes at Flemington back in October last year.
Jerezana has a weanling Brazen Beau filly and was covered by Street Cry’s dual Grade 1 winning son Street Boss (USA) last spring.
