Godolphin’s Street Boss (USA) colt Valaquenta burst into Blue Diamond reckoning when making a winning debut at Moonee Valley on Friday but that proved little more than the entre for the Street Boss colt Hanseatic who recorded an emphatic win in Saturday’s Listed Neds Blue Diamond Preview (c&g) at Caulfield.
Settled back near the rear of the field from an outside barrier by Luke Currie, Hanseatic exploded down the straight to win running away by two and a half lengths from the Fastnet Rock colt Glenfiddich with the Hinchinbrook colt Fixated a further one and a half lengths back in third.
The Anthony Freedman-trained chestnut opened his winning account in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes at Sandown on November 16 and has obviously progressed well since.
“He’s pretty smart. We didn’t have the best of runs after drawing wide,” Currie said.
“I dragged him back to find cover and he never really found it. I left him alone where he was but I was a bit worried when coming wide around the corner that he might not quicken off the bend. It took him a bit of time to wind up at Sandown and again in a jump out the other day.
“But I picked the bridle up in his mouth and he put them away in a bout five strides.”
Anthony Freedman said the son of Street Boss is likely to line up in the Blue Diamond Prelude before tacking on the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes.
"That's what you want to see," Freedman said.
"Going forward to bigger races you want to see them put up a performance like that and put themselves ahead of them in an emphatic way.
"He'll improve off today. He was a bit fresh and I'll probably run him in two weeks (in the Prelude) because of that."
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 is one of 39 stakes-winners for Darley Stud’s Street Boss (USA) who has three lots headed to the Inglis Classic, 13 catalogued for the Inglis Premier and six entered for the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale,
