Street Cry was not the only Darley sire to shine in both hemispheres this weekend, because Quest For Fame also figured among the Breeders’ Cup results as well as those in Australia.
At Moonee Valley, Quest For Fame joined Street Cry in helping the Maldivian team of Mark Kavanagh and Michael Rodd to a truly memorable day. With Whobegotyou’s victory in the G2 AAMI Vase having preceded Maldivian’s Cox Plate triumph, the pair then made it a sparkling big-race treble when Quest For Fame’s ultra-tough son Sea Battle landed a decisive length and a quarter victory in the G2 Jayco Crystal Mile. Sea Battle has enjoyed an excellent year, his five successes of 2008 taking his lifetime tally of wins to eight. This was his second Stakes win of the year, following his victory in the Winter Championship at Flemington, and his minor placings include an excellent fourth in the G1 Toorak Handicap at Caulfield two weeks ago.
A few hours earlier in California, Quest For Fame’s grand-daughter Maram had landed a thrilling success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies' Turf by gaining a nose victory for first-season trainer Chad Brown over the Aidan O’Brien-trained Heart Shaped. Maram, a daughter of Sahm from the Quest For Fame mare American Dreamer, is now unbeaten after three starts, having previously posted wins at Saratoga and Belmont Park, where she landed a Grade Three on 1 October.
Maram was not the only big winner this weekend produced by a daughter of Quest For Fame, because the Thorn Park colt Hollows, who put himself in the forefront of the two-year-old ranks in New Zealand by taking the Wellesley Stakes at Trentham on Saturday for New Plymouth trainer John Wheeler, is a son of the Quest For Fame mare Visique.
Quest For Fame’s fellow Cootamundra resident Lonhro also enjoyed a worthwhile day on Saturday as the former Horse Of The Year came up with yet another Stakes performer from his first crop when his Lee Freedman-trained daughter Fly Higher finished third in the Alexandra Stakes at Moonee Valley.
In Germnay, Sommertag added a Group Three victory to his Listed success and Group places as a three-year-old when running out the game three-quarter length winner of the Heel Trophy at Baden-Baden on Saturday. Owned and bred by Gestut Schlenderhan, the five year-old Tiger Hill entire is out of the Monsun mare Sommernacht and has a winning full-brother named Sommersturm. Sommernacht has a yearling colt from the first crop of Shamardal, who has already been named Sommerabend, and has since produced another full-brother to Sommertag, called Sinnerman.
