Godolphin’s Street Boss (USA) colt Hanseatic accelerated impressively from midfield to make a winning career debut in Saturday’s Listed Merson Cooper Stakes (1000m) at Sandown-Hillside.
One of three two-year-olds trained by Anthony Freedman for Godolphin, Hanseatic still had plenty to do three hundred metres out but when asked the question by Luke Currie he lengthened out to win running away by one and three-quarter lengths over the filly Dubai Star, who credited the exciting Pride Of Dubai with his second stakes horse from three runners in Australia.
Another first starter, River Night, was a half-head back in third to give Darley’s one season shuttler Night of Thunder (Dubawi) his first stakes horse from just two runners to date.
“He’s a nice horse. Sam (Freedman) said to me he has never been let off the bit so he was still a bit of an unknown when I let him go but he gave me a great feel at the trials the other day and franked that today,” Currie said.
“You can do all the homework and they can not quite put that on the track so it’s always nice when they can do it at the races,” Sam Freedman said.
“It was good to see him relax and quicken. We’ve got high hopes that this horse to measure up to better races over 1200 metres. Big thanks to Godolphin who have given us three horses this time in and we are big fans of the stallion
“They (Street Boss) have good minds, they are very switched on from day one and this is a horse that knew what his job was from day one.
“He was always going to the paddock after today and we will give him a short let-up and hopefully go back to back in the Blue Diamond.”
Hanseatic is the third foal and second winner out of the winning Exceed And Excel mare Itameri who was purchased by Darley for $300,000 as a yearling in 2012.
A three-quarter sister to Group II MRC Schillaci Stakes winner, Wilander, Itameri is out of the Fusaichi Pegasus (USA) mare Baltics who is a half-sister to Magnus, Scandiva and Arctic Flight as well as Hellsinge the dam of Black Caviar and All Too Hard.
Itameri has a yearling filly by Frosted (USA) but missed to her cover by Exosphere last spring.
Hanseatic becomes the 38th stakes-winner for Darley Stud’s Street Boss (USA) who has a strong and loyal following, particularly from Victoria breeders.
The son of Street Cry (IRE) is currently covering his tenth book of mares at Darley’s Northwood Park, Victoria at a fee of $27,500.
