Darley Expands Its Street Monopoly

Darley's got the Street to itself.

In addition to standing Street Cry (IRE) (SRO) at its Kentucky and Australia divisions since 2003, Darley America added that sire's son Street Sense (SRO) to its stallion offerings for 2008.  Now another son, Street Boss (pedigree), will join the same roster. (Story on BloodHorse.com.)  All Streets lead to Darley, it seems.

And it's quite a coup.  Street Cry is one of the world's hottest young sires.  Currently in the top 10 on the leading sires list by 2008 progeny stakes wins -- and number two by current year grade I stakes winners, trailing only Kingmambo (SRO) -- Street Cry is one of America's few representatives of the Machiavellian branch of the Mr. Prospector sire line. He's proven again and again that he can get a big horse.

My TrueNicks colleagues have sounded off recently regarding Street Boss.  Alan Porter gave a nice review of the colt in a recent pedigree analysis: Street Boss is Rumbling.  Byron Rogers looks at Darley's strategy in building the Street Cry "brand" in a TrueNicks blog post published Friday:  Owning the Franchise.

By the way... I like to note the accomplishments of "older mares".  Today I'll offer another shout out to the small breeders of the world who hope to strike gold with broodmares considered past their youthful "peak."  Helen Street (GB), dam of Street Cry, had had nine foals before producing the grade I-winning son of Machiavellian in 1998. Until Street Cry, none of her offspring had won a stakes race; then, at 16, she produced the UAE Horse of the Year, and followed up at 17 with another stakes winner.  It might be a good "rule" that a mare's first three foals tend to be her best -- but exceptions like Helen Street give hope to breeders who don't have first crack at young broodmares. (In this case, though, kudos go to Sheikh Mohammed, who apparently knew the mare was special and retained her despite her early failure to produce black type progeny.)