Pointed Path: The Family of Street Cry
Thoroughbred Times
By Frank Mitchell
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The result of the June 1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) points out the effects that well-planned and insightful matings can have on stud programs, especially when combined with highly pedigreed stock from deep families.
The winner of the Japanese Derby was the Sunday Silence colt Neo Universe, who is out of the Kris mare Pointed Path. The latter has turned out to be an exceptional producer, even though this family had gone through a cold period when it was producing fewer high-class individuals than it once had done.
In fact, Pointed Path herself – a no winner from only two starts in France – had sold for a pittance in foal to a top stallion before she revealed herself as an outstanding broodmare.
When she went through the sales ring in 1992, Renato Gameiro was the buyer. He said, “I bought her for $12,000 in foal to Irish River, and she produced an Irish River filly the next year. I was thinking he was also a good sire with speed, and that was what this family really needed.”
Pointed Path, a half-sister to two stakes-placed horses, is out of the Shantung mare Silken Way, and her second dam is the Pall Mall mare Boulevard. Descending from the great 19th century taproot mare Paraffin, this is a very significant family, as suggested by the sires of the next four dams: Worden, Nearco, Persian Gulf, and Solario.
Pointed Path’s fourth dam, the Nearco mare Sunny Cove, was a very high-class racer and ranked as the leading staying filly of her year in 1960, according to Timeform. Second in the Irish Oaks, Sunny Cove showed her best in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster at nearly 15 furlongs and in the 14-furlong Newmarket Oaks.
Boulevard herself was a stakes winner and a half-sister to the high-class racer Sun Prince, but Boulevard produced only one stakes winner, the very good racemare Waterway, by the great sire Riverman. Boulevard’s second-best offspring was the stakes-placed Silken Way, but she produced only two stakes-placed runners.
In terms of the commercial market, the family appeared to be going flat. Gameiro did not see it that way. Instead, he thought Pointed Path was a great opportunity and recalled that Pointed Path “was a beautiful chestnut mare out of a great old English classic family, which could easily go a mile and a half, but all the horses in her family also had pace, natural speed. They were not gallopers; they had pace, as well as a good burst of speed at the end.”
When Pointed Path went through the Keeneland ring, Gameiro was in the minority looking at the positives in the mare’s pedigree, and he acquired her for less than the stud fee for Irish River. Gameiro, however, thought that the previous owners had bred the mare properly, and that a stallion such as Irish River was just what she needed.
He said, “Sometimes a stamina family loses its speed, and when you find the speed coming back, that is the time to buy back into the family.” Kris, the sire of Pointed Path, was a very high-class miler in England, and his influence, combined with another top miler in Irish River, helped to produce a group winner from Pointed Path.
The year before Gameiro’s purchase of Pointed Path, “I had seen her foal at the sales and really liked her but could not buy her. She was very nice.”
The result from the first mating with Irish River encouraged Gameiro to find another high-class miler for the mare after she produced an Irish River filly for him. He said, “I tried to cross Pointed Path to Rahy but was not accepted to him. So, I sent her to another horse, and she did not get in foal. The next year, I put her in foal to Personal Hope.”
Then Gameiro had lightning in a bottle because the mare’s 2-year-old that he had liked became a Group 3 winner in France. Named Fairy Path, she won the Prix du Calvados, “and then came the thought to put Pointed Path in the sale,” Gameiro said. “I sold her for $375,000 to Mr. Yoshida.”
Pointed Path has proven to be one of the Yoshidas’ best buys. The Personal Hope colt she was carrying at the time of sale earned more than a half-million. Since then the mare has been married to Sunday Silence, and Pointed Path produced four foals (through foals of 2000) by the best sire of classic-quality speed in Japan.
The first was Chokai Ryoga, who won nearly $1 million in Japan. The second was a filly of little account, the third was a useful colt who has won more than $300,000, and the fourth is Neo Universe.
And as simply as that, this branch of a top older family has been regenerated to classic caliber. Nor has the other progressive branch of the Boulevard family (through Waterway) lagged far behind.
Waterway, by Never Bend’s great son Riverman, was a better mare than her dam Boulevard. Like her close relation Fairy Path, Waterway won the Group 3 Prix du Calvados and the next year ran third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.
Good as she was, Waterway produced an even better filly in classic winner Helen Street, by the Derby winner Troy. Helen Street followed the family tradition and won the Prix du Calvados at 2, when she was weighted second among juvenile fillies in France and England. At that age, Helen Street also ran second in the Group 1 Fillies Mile to Oh So Sharp, and the following year, Helen Street improved to win the Irish Oaks at the Curragh.
Good as she was on the racetracks of Europe, Helen Street is making a case for herself as an even more important broodmare. Her best racer to date is the near-champion Street Cry. The son of Mr. Prospector stallion Machiavellian showed impressive form at 2, placing in the Del Mar Futurity, Norfolk Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The following season, he was a serious threat in the Kentucky Derby but injury laid him off till near his 4-year-old season, when he came back to win the Grade 1 Stephen Foster after a successful trip to Dubai for a victory in the Dubai World Cup.
In all, Helen Street has produced two stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses to date, all by top-tier milers. This was the pattern of matings that brought out the best in Pointed Path, and it appears that this family is one of those, which responds well to continuous reintroductions of high-class speed.
Furthermore, Helen Street’s daughter Grecian Slipper has produced two winners at the Group 3 level, including Graikos, who earned a chance in this year’s Derby at Epsom.
Gameiro commented on the pattern of mating these mares to similar types of high-class sires with speed, saying that after the successes of Fairy Path and others, “then comes Street Cry by a very powerful North American-bred sire, and now this family is coming right again. It can improve with the right matings, especially if they add more speed.” “The old families never die; sometimes they are only sleeping.” Gameiro was right.
By Frank Mitchell
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The result of the June 1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) points out the effects that well-planned and insightful matings can have on stud programs, especially when combined with highly pedigreed stock from deep families.
The winner of the Japanese Derby was the Sunday Silence colt Neo Universe, who is out of the Kris mare Pointed Path. The latter has turned out to be an exceptional producer, even though this family had gone through a cold period when it was producing fewer high-class individuals than it once had done.
In fact, Pointed Path herself – a no winner from only two starts in France – had sold for a pittance in foal to a top stallion before she revealed herself as an outstanding broodmare.
When she went through the sales ring in 1992, Renato Gameiro was the buyer. He said, “I bought her for $12,000 in foal to Irish River, and she produced an Irish River filly the next year. I was thinking he was also a good sire with speed, and that was what this family really needed.”
Pointed Path, a half-sister to two stakes-placed horses, is out of the Shantung mare Silken Way, and her second dam is the Pall Mall mare Boulevard. Descending from the great 19th century taproot mare Paraffin, this is a very significant family, as suggested by the sires of the next four dams: Worden, Nearco, Persian Gulf, and Solario.
Pointed Path’s fourth dam, the Nearco mare Sunny Cove, was a very high-class racer and ranked as the leading staying filly of her year in 1960, according to Timeform. Second in the Irish Oaks, Sunny Cove showed her best in the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster at nearly 15 furlongs and in the 14-furlong Newmarket Oaks.
Boulevard herself was a stakes winner and a half-sister to the high-class racer Sun Prince, but Boulevard produced only one stakes winner, the very good racemare Waterway, by the great sire Riverman. Boulevard’s second-best offspring was the stakes-placed Silken Way, but she produced only two stakes-placed runners.
In terms of the commercial market, the family appeared to be going flat. Gameiro did not see it that way. Instead, he thought Pointed Path was a great opportunity and recalled that Pointed Path “was a beautiful chestnut mare out of a great old English classic family, which could easily go a mile and a half, but all the horses in her family also had pace, natural speed. They were not gallopers; they had pace, as well as a good burst of speed at the end.”
When Pointed Path went through the Keeneland ring, Gameiro was in the minority looking at the positives in the mare’s pedigree, and he acquired her for less than the stud fee for Irish River. Gameiro, however, thought that the previous owners had bred the mare properly, and that a stallion such as Irish River was just what she needed.
He said, “Sometimes a stamina family loses its speed, and when you find the speed coming back, that is the time to buy back into the family.” Kris, the sire of Pointed Path, was a very high-class miler in England, and his influence, combined with another top miler in Irish River, helped to produce a group winner from Pointed Path.
The year before Gameiro’s purchase of Pointed Path, “I had seen her foal at the sales and really liked her but could not buy her. She was very nice.”
The result from the first mating with Irish River encouraged Gameiro to find another high-class miler for the mare after she produced an Irish River filly for him. He said, “I tried to cross Pointed Path to Rahy but was not accepted to him. So, I sent her to another horse, and she did not get in foal. The next year, I put her in foal to Personal Hope.”
Then Gameiro had lightning in a bottle because the mare’s 2-year-old that he had liked became a Group 3 winner in France. Named Fairy Path, she won the Prix du Calvados, “and then came the thought to put Pointed Path in the sale,” Gameiro said. “I sold her for $375,000 to Mr. Yoshida.”
Pointed Path has proven to be one of the Yoshidas’ best buys. The Personal Hope colt she was carrying at the time of sale earned more than a half-million. Since then the mare has been married to Sunday Silence, and Pointed Path produced four foals (through foals of 2000) by the best sire of classic-quality speed in Japan.
The first was Chokai Ryoga, who won nearly $1 million in Japan. The second was a filly of little account, the third was a useful colt who has won more than $300,000, and the fourth is Neo Universe.
And as simply as that, this branch of a top older family has been regenerated to classic caliber. Nor has the other progressive branch of the Boulevard family (through Waterway) lagged far behind.
Waterway, by Never Bend’s great son Riverman, was a better mare than her dam Boulevard. Like her close relation Fairy Path, Waterway won the Group 3 Prix du Calvados and the next year ran third in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.
Good as she was, Waterway produced an even better filly in classic winner Helen Street, by the Derby winner Troy. Helen Street followed the family tradition and won the Prix du Calvados at 2, when she was weighted second among juvenile fillies in France and England. At that age, Helen Street also ran second in the Group 1 Fillies Mile to Oh So Sharp, and the following year, Helen Street improved to win the Irish Oaks at the Curragh.
Good as she was on the racetracks of Europe, Helen Street is making a case for herself as an even more important broodmare. Her best racer to date is the near-champion Street Cry. The son of Mr. Prospector stallion Machiavellian showed impressive form at 2, placing in the Del Mar Futurity, Norfolk Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. The following season, he was a serious threat in the Kentucky Derby but injury laid him off till near his 4-year-old season, when he came back to win the Grade 1 Stephen Foster after a successful trip to Dubai for a victory in the Dubai World Cup.
In all, Helen Street has produced two stakes winners and two stakes-placed horses to date, all by top-tier milers. This was the pattern of matings that brought out the best in Pointed Path, and it appears that this family is one of those, which responds well to continuous reintroductions of high-class speed.
Furthermore, Helen Street’s daughter Grecian Slipper has produced two winners at the Group 3 level, including Graikos, who earned a chance in this year’s Derby at Epsom.
Gameiro commented on the pattern of mating these mares to similar types of high-class sires with speed, saying that after the successes of Fairy Path and others, “then comes Street Cry by a very powerful North American-bred sire, and now this family is coming right again. It can improve with the right matings, especially if they add more speed.” “The old families never die; sometimes they are only sleeping.” Gameiro was right.
