STREET CRY
©Trevor Jones
2002 - STREET CRY
Godolphin's brilliant 2001 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sakhee was a hot fancy for the 2002 Dubai World Cup but another champion in the royal blue silks was crowned at Nad Al Sheba on the day.
Street Cry had originally been trained in the United States by Godolphin's Eoin Harty and won the previous year's UAE 2,000 Guineas. He beat stablemate State Shinto on his outing prior to the 2002 Dubai World Cup in the Group Two Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Challenge at Nad Al Sheba, and with Jerry Bailey aboard he had the right man in the saddle on the big day.
Taking it up 2 furlongs from home, Street Cry was in no danger thereafter and triumphed by 4¼ lengths from the Saudi runner Sei Mei, who finished just ahead of Sakhee. Bailey, gaining his fourth success in the seven runnings, said: "The Dubai World Cup is competing at the highest level against the best horses and the best riders. I thank God that I've been able to do as well as I have as many times as I have."
After the race, Sheikh Mohammed - who bred Street Cry - said: "Dubai racing is the best in the world. You cannot be the best in the world unless you win here."
Godolphin's racing manager Simon Crisford said: "Street Cry had been showing so well in his work, it didn't come as a complete surprise. We are elated with him because we always believed he had so much potential.
"He was the one coming in who we thought would run a huge race but he hadn't fulfilled his potential at that time. He'd won nice races and had never been out of the frame, but he hadn't got the big one on his CV. He had to prove it and today he proved it emphatically.''
Street Cry went on to win the Grade One Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs in June and then had to be retired because of injury. He is standing at Jonabell Farm in Kentucky for the 2003 breeding season.
"Star Is Born Under His Master's Eagle-Eyed Gaze," was the headline above Paul Haigh's piece in the Racing Post.
Bill Barber wrote in the same paper: "Street Cry will try to go one better than Sakhee in the Breeders' Cup Classic after trouncing his stablemate and nine other rivals for an emphatic but surprise victory under American Jerry Bailey in the $6m Dubai World Cup at Nad Al Sheba on Saturday.
"Godolphin always believed that the colt, their main hope for the Kentucky Derby last year until injury intervened, was a star in the making. Both racing manager Simon Crisford and trainer Saeed bin Suroor had said before the race that they felt the son of Machiavellian, an impressive winner of his prep race, had the ability to go close."
Craig Harzmann wrote in The Blood-Horse: "There was no bigger presence at World Cup VII than the home team and by the time the desert dust had settled on March 23, the powerful Godolphin alliance stood high above the rest - albeit with a distinct Californian air.
"The brightest star of the Dubai night was none other than Street Cry, who stole the show from Sakhee with a tour de force in the $6 million World Cup.
"For Street Cry devotees - a brotherhood heretofore depleted - it was the ultimate emergence of a professional, battle-tested racehorse. It just took a while for his stock to rise."