I Scream and Cheam are trained by John Hawkes for Woodlands Stud proprietors Jack and Bob Ingham who stand Quest for Fame at their Hunter Valley property. Woodlands have supported the son of Rainbow Quest since his arrival in Australia in 1993 and have enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the breed ever since. Of the thirteen stakes winners sired by Quest for Fame in the southern hemisphere an amazing eleven have been bred by Woodlands Stud and raced out of their Crown Lodge Stables.

Melbourne foreman for Hawkes, son Wayne, is impressed with the quality and versatility of Quest for Fame’s stock,

"He's had horses like Unworldly and Viscount in the past year or so," said Hawkes "and then there's ones like Tributes who won the Oaks or a horse like this one (I Scream) who won over the short trip on debut."

Viscount (AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes-G1, Champagne Stakes-G1) and Unworldly (AJC Flight Stakes-G1, STC Tea Rose Stakes-G2, Tatt’s NSW Furious S-G3) teetered on the brink of superstardom before injury and accident ended their respective careers.

Dracula (AJC Champagne Stakes-G1, AJC George Main Stakes-G1, QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes-G1) and Tributes (VRC Oaks-G1), join Viscount and Unworldly at racing’s elite level and Lease (STC Tulloch Stakes-G2; 2^nd AJC Doncaster H-G1, QTC Classic-G1; 3^rd VRC Australian Guineas-G1), Hockney (AJC Expressway S-G2, STC Star Kingdom S-G3) Pursuits (Gosford Guineas-LR; 3^rd VRC Emirates S-G1, STC Rosehill Guineas-G1) Salty (AJC Fernhill Hcp-G3; 2^nd AJC Champagne S-G1), Noise (AJC Carbine Club-Listed; 2^nd AJC Breeders Plate-Listed; 3^rd AJC All Aged S-G1, STC Phar Lap S-G2), Undertone (SAJC Walter Brown S-Listed), and Le Mans (VATC Debutante S-Listed; 3^rd AJC Roman Consul-G3) round out Woodlands stakes successes with Quest for Fame’s progeny.

Quest for Fame is a grandson of Blushing Groom who has already known great success in this region through the deeds of Nassipour, sire of Melbourne Cup heroine and Australian Horse of the Year Let’s Elope, multiple millionaire Tie the Knot, Derby winners Redding and Shiva’s Revenge to name but a few.

A dual group one winner on two continents, Quest for Fame numbers the prestigious Epsom Derby amongst his five victories. Richard Ulbrich’s weighty volume Peerage describes him as "a rangy eye-catching individual, almost black in colour…thoroughly game and absolutely genuine".

His sire Rainbow Quest, Champion Older Horse in Europe, won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (albeit on protest) and has sired some sixty-six stakes winners at stud including the champions Saumarez, Raintrap, Sunshack, and Group One winners Knight’s Baroness, Croco Rouge, Spectrum, Armiger, Rainbow Dancer, Right Generation, Nedwai, Edabiya and Japanese Horse of the Year Sakura Laurel.

Quest for Fame’s dam, Aryenne, was the original flag bearer for Nijinksy’s son Green Dancer. An unbeaten two-year-old, Aryenne helped her father secure champion first season sire honours in France and went on to win five races from ten starts including the French One Thousand Guineas. Once again Ulbrich’s Peerage tells us Aryenne "usually raced from the rear, winning her races with a long last to first run. She loved to swoop down on her rivals and accelerate past them with arrogant nonchalance".

There is little doubt her grand children share her ability, if not her attitude.

At the major sales this year, just seventeen Quest for Fame yearlings went under the auctioneer’s hammer, a mere handful compared to his Woodlands counterparts Octagonal (fifty three offered), Strategic (twenty eight), Grand Lodge (sixty), Canny Lad (twenty nine) and Desert Prince (forty six). The adage quality not quantity applied, with ten yearlings selling for an average price of $101,000, the top lot (at Easter) knocked down to Tim Martin for $175,000 was a colt from the Bletchingly mare Regina Madre.

This small number of commercial yearlings is no reflection of the esteem in which Quest for Fame is held, however, with a further fifty-nine living foals in the corresponding crop. Woodlands have been responsible for the returns of at least thirty-nine of those foals, now rising two-year-olds, and all but six of those have already been named. Amongst those that will find their way into the Crown Lodge racing machine is a sister to Dracula named "Insouciance".

Quest for Fame will stand his tenth season at Woodlands this year for a fee of $33,000. Alongside him will be his sons Viscount, at the introductory fee of $27,500, and Dracula ($8,250) who was represented by his first crop of yearlings this year.

The trio are descendants of the direct male line of Nasrullah through his son Red God, sire of Blushing Groom. They offer breeders a high-class alternative to the Danzig line horses prevalent today.

Owner-breeders who would like to utilise this sire line but are perhaps on a tighter budget might consider using the Emirates Park horse Urgent Request (by Rainbow Quest) who stands at a fee of $5,500. An extremely fast horse from a mile to a mile and a quarter Urgent Request’s biggest racetrack success came in the Group One Santa Anita Handicap (2000m). A striking, grey individual Urgent Request takes his coat colour from his dam Oscura by Caro from the Olden Times mare Dusk. Dusk is the dam of Group One Washington International Stakes winner Johnny D and has been represented at Group One level in Australia through the deeds of her great grandson Sober Suit (Group One VATC Toorak Handicap), a half-brother to the exciting two-year-old Titanic Jack.

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