Confessional brought up another milestone for Darley freshman Dubawi at Catterick on Tuesday. The colt took his sire to 30 individual winners in UK-Ireland this year when successful over 1200m in the Sponsor A Race at Catterick Stakes.
Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) will probably run out of time to beat Invincible Spirit who sired a record 35 winners in 2006. His best this year have been the Godolphin pair of Poet’s Voice (Champagne Stakes) and Sand Vixen (Flying Childers).
In Australia, Dubawi was quoted at $11 in the first-season winners category by sportingbet.com.au at the start of the season. Three of his initial southern crop have raced including Wilful Default who is a half-brother to Takeover Target and Predatory Pricer.
Wilful Default looked in need of the outing on debut at Rosehill last Saturday. He finished down the track in the race won by Intertidal but stewards noted he was hampered twice in transit.
Dubawi will carry the baton for Darley in 2009-10. Shamardal did wonderfully well for Darley last year and he will continue to improve as a second-season sire with Shamoline Warrior hopefully coming back to play catch-up at the autumn carnival.
The Darley brand also holds a strong hand in the third-season list with Exceed And Excel and Lonhro. They both broke through at Group 1 level this year with Reward For Effort and Denman respectively.
A year before that duo, Darley introduced Street Cry to Australian breeders. Street Cry was one of Darley foundation sires down here in 2003 and there have been 30 winners from that crop but not one of them has graduated to a black-type win.
Street Cry’s second crop was something else, altogether. There have been six stakes winners already and they don’t come much better than Whobegotyou, Predatory Pricer and Melbourne Cup winner Shocking.
Whobegotyou and Shocking are trained by Mark Kavanagh for owner Laurence Eales who paid $64,000 for the latter at the 2007 Magic Millions HIT Sale. Shocking had originally gone through the ring when a $45,000 buy for Washpool Lodge at the 2007 Gold Coast Magic Milions.
Ilala Stud’s George Fraser was the vendor at the yearling sale. He had purchased Shocking’s dam Maria Di Castiglia (GB) at the 2004 Inglis Christmas Sale. The mare was carrying the Cup winner in utero when catalogued by Bill Benson’s Emerald Thoroughbreds.
Street Cry (Machiavellian) stands for a $110,000 fee this year. He has another big weekend coming up at Santa Anita when his champion mare Zenyatta puts her unbeaten record on the line in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The Street Cry is also taking shape in Australia with his G1 winners Street Sense (NSW) and Street Boss (Vic) also on the Darley roster. Street Hero is standing his first season at Tony Santic’s Makybe.