Weeping Woman
Lonhro (Octagonal) over Street Cry (Machiavellian) and a tripling of the great Mr. Prospector (Raise A Native) are among the forces behind Weeping Woman, who claimed her second successive black type victory and fourth straight win in Saturday’s Triscay Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Randwick on Saturday.
The Joe Pride–trained five-year-old is the latest star performer to trickle down from second dam She’s Purring (Flying Spur), the fountainhead of much success for Ian Cornell, a Sydney–based hobby breeder, retired retail executive, and former Inglis board member.
In 1999, Cornell bought She’s Purring via his long-term bloodstock advisor Neil Jenkinson at Inglis Easter, and he’s been enjoying the fruits of that purchase for 27 years now.
A daughter of Ringside Lady (Clay Hero) – who won Moonee Valley’s Crockett Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and was a sibling to the dams of three black type winners – She’s Purring would prove her $80,000 purchase price a huge bargain.
Trained by Ron Quinton, she became a city winner at Randwick at her third start, then ventured north to add two-year-old black type at her next outing, winning Eagle Farm’s Sir Douglas Wadley Handicap (Listed, 1200m), now the Bill Carter Stakes.
She’s Purring returned at three to claim Randwick’s PJ Bell Handicap (Listed, 1200m) and retired the following year with two stakes wins and a black type placing to her name.
Still more success followed for Cornell in the breeding barn. She’s Purring’s first foal was Global Warming (Agnes World), who won the 2008 Canterbury Classic (Listed, 1100m).
For She’s Purring’s third foal, Cornell made an early booking with Lonhro in his first season at stud of 2004, and from that mating his mare produced Ro’s Purring (Lonhro). She was restricted to just four starts but won the first three, two in Brisbane and one at the Gold Coast.
Keen for another Lonhro filly, Cornell sent She’s Purring to the Darley stallion in each of the next two years, but no foal ensued.
Instead, she went to General Nediym (Nediym) and for her fourth foal she produced Pure Purrfection, who took Brisbane’s Bribie Handicap (Listed, 1110m) in 2014.
Pure Purrfection has gone on to star in the breeding barn, with Queensland’s Eureka Stud breeding from her the four-time Brisbane Listed winner Outback Barbie (Spirit Of Boom) and her fellow Listed winning sister Barbie’s Sister. Outback Barbie in turn has thrown another Brisbane Listed victor, Hi Barbie (I Am Invincible).
In 2017, as her second-last foal, She’s Purring had Zorocat (Toronado), who became a stakes-placed city winner.
All up, She’s Purring had ten named foals for nine runners, nine winners, and two stakes victors. The one throw who didn’t race has transpired to be the dam of the now dual stakes winner Weeping Woman, in Cries And Whiskers (Street Cry).
Cornell sent She’s Purring to Darley’s shuttler Street Cry in 2012 but the filly foal died after birth. He tried again weeks after that, and the result was Cries And Whiskers. She was retained by her breeder, but she didn’t make it to the track.
“We did put her into training [with Ron Quinton] and she showed some ability, but she had one knee that was not perfect,” Cornell tells It’s In The Blood of Cries And Whiskers, who had two unplaced barrier trials.
“So rather than race her with a knee that wasn’t great, we decided to retire her.”
Whether that decision helped nurture a good broodmare or not, Cries And Whiskers is making a very strong fist of it.
Cornell first put her to Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and bred Magnatear, who sold to the late Sam Kavanagh for $200,000 at Magic Millions Gold Coast. Now trained by Richard and Will Freedman, the six-year-old has won six races – five in city class – for just over $600,000 in prize-money, and has a chance to give Cries And Whispers two Sydney winners on successive weekends at Rosehill this Saturday.
For the mare’s second mating, Cornell reverted to his long held desire to have a daughter of Lonhro to breed from. Fifteen years after he first patronised the stallion, he went back again in 2019. The result – from what was Lonhro’s third-last full crop – was Weeping Woman.
“I wanted to have a Lonhro mare for a long time,” Cornell says. “Most breeders have a good opinion of Lonhro. He was a great racehorse, terrific at stud and a beautiful animal, and he’s thoroughly proven himself as a broodmare sire.
“He was getting near the end, so it was one of the last chances for me to get a Lonhro mare.”
Lonhro has been in the top ten on the Australian broodmare sires’ table for the past eight seasons including this one. He’s currently seventh, one spot below his personal best finish from 2022-23, when his star grandchild was Godolphin’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) hero Golden Mile (Astern).
As a broodmare sire, Lonhro now has 63 Australian stakes winners from 1,360 runners at 4.63 per cent, and 117 stakes horses at 8.60 per cent.
Retained and raced by Cornell, his wife Judi and friends, Weeping Woman took her time to mature but in her third preparation, at start number three, Pride took her to Canberra where she won a maiden on the synthetic track by 7.88 lengths, at $1.45.
She defied the “start after your maiden win” hoodoo by backing up to score at Hawkesbury, and in her subsequent campaign, at start number eight, she became a city winner, at Canterbury.
The mare has worked her way up through the grades and this preparation – interspersed with a six-week freshen-up over Christmas – she has blossomed with four successive metro class victories, the last two in stakes grade, to the delight of punters since she was favourite in all four.
She scored wins in Benchmark 78 grade at Rosehill and Kembla Grange before she stepped up to black type for the first time and took Randwick’s Razor Sharp (Listed, 1200m) by 0.54 lengths, then held off Group 1 winner Manaal (Tassort) to take the Triscay by 1.19 lengths, earning a well deserved spell before next spring.
“Being by Lonhro, a lot of his progeny are late developers,” Cornell says. “They mature later, and you can race them on. She’s lightly raced, with only 17 starts, so I hope she can race on as a six-year-old and then we can breed from her.”
While his main goal was to have a broodmare by Lonhro – who died in 2024 – Cornell also tapped into one of the stallion’s most successful nicks in sending his daughter of Street Cry, Cries And Whispers, to him.
Lonhro over Street Cry runs at a 13 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio. That ranks him sixth among the stallion’s nicks – of more than ten foals – but importantly, from the nick’s three black type winners, two have scored at the elite level.
One is Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) queen Lyre, and the other was born six years later in Attica, last year’s Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) hero in his first campaign – and a stablemate of Weeping Woman.
“Joe Pride brought that up to me the other day, that Attica and Weeping Woman were from the same nick,” Cornell says. “The nick goes well.
“When I did the mating, Street Cry was having good success as a sire and starting to get some success as a broodmare sire, but in the last few years he’s really kicked on as a broodmare sire. So I was fortunate I made a choice pretty early in his broodmare sire career.”
In Australia, Street Cry as a broodmare sire has had 49 stakes winners at a 5.99 per cent stakes winners to runners ratio, and 83 stakes horses at 10.16 per cent. He’s currently sixth on the country’s broodmare sire charts, after a personal best among top ten finishes in the past three seasons of third in 2023-24, thanks mainly to Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) hero Romantic Warrior (Acclamation).
Weeping Woman’s pedigree is highlighted by Mr. Prospector, with a 4m x 4m, 5f blend through three different offspring. He’s in handy places, as the grandsire of Lonhro’s dam Shadea (Straight Strike), as Cries And Whiskers’ third sire (Mr. Prospector-Machievellian-Street Cry), and as the damsire of her damsire, Flying Spur (Danehill).
Mr. P was similarly in effect in another stakes winner on Saturday in Paradise City (Deep Field), who took Flemington’s Frances Tressady Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m). She has him at 5m, 5m x 4m, again through three different offspring, with that mare being out of the daughter of another son of Machievellian in British stallion Kahal.
Further back, Weeping Woman has US stallions Sir Ivor (Sir Gaylord) at 5m x 6f and Never Bend (Nasrullah) at 5f x 6m.
Slightly unusually, there’s only three spots for Northern Dancer (Nearctic) – and just five for his dam Natalma (Native Dancer) – but the great stallion is in influential places, including being doubled-up in She’s Purring’s father Flying Spur.
The breed-shaping Nearco (Pharos) is the dominant stallion by far in the pedigree, with 20 mentions in the first nine generations.
And thus Nearco’s dam Nogara (Havresac) is the most dominant mare, with 14 appearances in those nine columns, ahead of the ten of Mumtaz Begum (Blenheim).
Cornell continues to enjoy success as a hobby breeder with four mares. Another Lonhro mare – three-time winner Chazelles – brought him a strong result at Inglis Easter last year when her colt by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) sold from Widden Stud’s draft to trainer Dom Sutton and associates for $700,000.
He’s repeated the trick with that mare, who’s now in-foal to Too Darn Hot’s star son Broadsiding after his first season at stud, at Darley.
Cries And Whiskers has gone on to throw Miss Capitale (Capitalist), a $55,000 Inglis Classic buy who’s won two of three for Matthew Smith, and another filly in Hot Whiskers (Too Darn Hot), who’s won one of five for Cornell and Phillip Stokes.
Cornell will now offer Cries And Whiskers’ latest filly, by Pinatubo (Shamardal), at next month’s Inglis Premier Yearling Sale. The filly also brings Mr. Prospector in triplicate, with a 4f x 3m of Machiavellian.
Cries And Whiskers is now in-foal to new Arrowfield Stud shuttler Vandeek (Havana Grey).