Say good-bye to Street Cry
ELMONT, N.Y. - Street Cry, who won the Dubai World Cup in March and was the early favorite to win the Breeders' Cup Classic, has been retired, according to Godolphin Racing assistant trainer Tom Albertrani.
Street Cry will stand the 2003 breeding season at Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky. A stud fee was not announced. Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, who owns Godolphin Racing, purchased Jonabell last year and operates a division of his Darley Stud there.
Albertrani said Tuesday at Belmont Park, where Street Cry has trained since finishing second in the Whitney on Aug. 3, that Street Cry came out of a recent work with inflammation in his right front ankle. Last year, inflammation in the same ankle kept Street Cry sidelined for much of the season and prevented the colt from running in the Kentucky Derby.
"We kept him together as long as we could," Albertrani said. "We ran out of time with him. The ankle didn't look 100 percent and showed some filling. There were no fractures involved. He would have needed time like he did last year in Kentucky, and with the amount of time needed the best thing was to retire him. He would have been retired at the end of the year."
Street Cry, a 4-year-old son of Machiavellian, was to run next in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 28 at Belmont, with the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 26 at Arlington to be his final start before retirement.
In the just-completed round of Breeders' Cup future wagering on the Classic, Street Cry closed as the 6-1 favorite. He was the 4-1 favorite in the first round of future wagering.
Trained by Saeed bin Suroor, Street Cry retires with $5,150,858 in earnings and a record of 5-6-1 from 12 starts. Besides the Dubai World Cup, which he won by 4 1/4 lengths, Street Cry turned in a dominating performance in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill on June 15.
Jimmy Bell, who manages the stallions at Jonabell and whose family owned the farm before selling it to Sheikh Mohammed, believes Street Cry will appeal to American breeders.
"He's shown an affinity for dirt, and Machiavellian is one of Mr. Prospector's most proficient sires of stakes winners," Bell said. "Street Cry also is a very attractive horse. He makes for a very interesting horse for this market, having raced in America, shown good international form, and then came back here as an older horse and replicated his form here."
- additional reporting by Glenye Cain