It’s generally recognized that the fastest horses in the United States are the fastest horses anywhere in the world, and it’s debatable whether there is a faster horse in America just now than Street Boss, the brilliant winner of two Grade One sprints in California this summer. He’s the latest star from our boom stallion Street Cry, and it is with great excitement that we anticipate his arrival at Darley America to stand alongside both his sire and his paternal half-brother Street Sense.
Street Sense announced Street Cry’s arrival in the stallion world’s major league in the best possible way by providing him with a stunning first-crop victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and then breaking the mould of history by adding to this the following spring by taking the Kentucky Derby. Since then, Street Cry’s sons and daughters have been winning big races regularly, and nowhere has this been more obvious than in California, where Zenyatta and Street Boss have been advertising their father’s influence in magnificent style.
Street Boss now heads towards the Breeders’ Cup Sprint as the likely favorite, following victories in the Triple Ben Invitational Handicap at Hollywood Park and the Bing Crosby Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Del Mar. He carried joint-top weight in both races, and in the latter ran the slick time of 1:08.67 seconds for the six furlongs; this time isn’t actually his best for the year, because when he posted his inaugural Graded Stakes success in the Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park in May he broke the track record by running 1:07.55.
Street Boss is one of many reasons to be excited about the stock of Street Cry, but in fairness one should add that part of his ability comes from the distaff side of his pedigree. He comes from a wonderful family, and is one of the many good horses descending from his French-bred third dam Fruhlingstag, one of the best fillies of her generation and runner-up in the G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in 1978. Best of Fruhlingstag’s offspring was the well-travelled campaigner Running Stag, a Group Three winner in France and triple Grade Two winner in the States. He also ran third to Skip Away and Gentlemen in the G1 Woodward Stakes. Running Stag was merely one of seven winners bred by Fruhlingstag, the others including the French Group One-placed Listed winner Blackwater, the Swedish Listed winner Bergenia, the Listed-placed winner Fruhlingschochzeit and the minor winner Fraulein Tobin. The last-named of these has proved to be an excellent broodmare, her descendants including the Irish Group Two winner Four Sins, the English Group Three winner Germane and the German Listed winner Fabriano, but it is Fruhlingschochzeit who is now the best conduit of the family’s class.
Fruhlingschochzeit’s eight winning offspring include the fillies Blushing Ogyian, Tiny Decision and Fruhlingsterwachen. All three have bred Stakes performers, with Fruhlingsterwachen being the dam of the German Group Two winner Fruhlingssturm. However, it is now Blushing Ogyian who is shaping up as the real star. A Stakes place-getter herself, she had already bred the good filly Habiboo – placed in both the G2 Monmouth Breeders’ Cup Oaks and the G3 Chaposa Springs Handicap – before her son Street Boss burst onto the scene.
Street Boss is thus a very fast horse who is the product of a great stallion and a superbly-credentialled mare. From the Mr Prospector sire-line, he represents a mix of several of the great lines of modern times but is completely free of Northern Dancer blood, the four sires in his third generation being Mr Prospector himself, the great English Derby winner Troy, Damascus and Blushing Groom. With this background, it is no wonder that we feel that he will be a most welcome recruit to the Darley stallion roster.
