Street Sense breezes for Blue Grass
STREET SENSE (Street Cry [Ire]) breezed five furlongs in 1:04 on a fast track at Churchill Downs on Tuesday in his final workout prior to Saturday's $750,000 Blue Grass S. (G1) at Keeneland. Calvin Borel, who has ridden Street Sense in all six of his career starts, including a record 10-length victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), was aboard for the move. "He started out slow, then picked it up about the three-eighths pole," trainer Carl Nafzger said. "He got the last quarter in :23 1/5 and galloped out strong. He's ready to go."
Street Sense cruised through dawdling early fractions of :14 2/5, :27 3/5 and :40 1/5. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:15 3/5.
"When (Borel) picked him up at the eighth pole, he just went :11 and change (for the final eighth) and had an :11-and-two (fifths) gallop-out," Nafzer noted. "He was there, so I think we got what we wanted."
"He finished up like a champ," Borel added. "It was just a little maintenance work and this was just what he needed. He was perfect." Street Sense, last year's champion two-year-old, recorded his second work at Churchill after spending the winter at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida. He defeated Any Given Saturday (Distorted Humor) by a nose in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) in his seasonal debut on March 17 at Tampa Bay Downs. The dark bay colt tops the graded earnings list for the May 5 Kentucky Derby (G1) with $1,332,000. Hollywood Prevue S. (G3) winner BELGRAVIA (Mr. Greeley), who has not started since finishing a close fourth in the December 16 Hollywood Futurity (G1), breezed five furlongs in 1:02 1/5 on Keeneland's Polytrack on Tuesday. "I am very pleased with his work," trainer Patrick Biancone said. Biancone had been considering running Belgravia in the Blue Grass but is now pointing him toward the $325,000 Lexington S. (G2) on April 21 at Keeneland. "He was blowing a little bit," the conditioner said. "He's not completely fit yet, so we want to wait a week."
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Five horses are considered "definite" for the Blue Grass: Street Sense, GREAT
HUNTER (Aptitude), DOMINICAN (El Corredor), ZANJERO (Cherokee Run) and
TEUFLESBERG (Johannesburg). Post positions for the nine-furlong event will be
drawn Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. (EDT).
In other Kentucky Derby news, Louisiana Derby (G2) runner-up KETCHIKAN (Mr.
Greeley) has been sidelined due to a bone bruise that will take him out of
training for an unspecified period. Trainer Al Stall said the colt was suffering
from a bruise at the end of his cannon bone in his left front leg. The injury
isn't regarded as career threatening, but Stall doesn't know when the promising
colt will return to training.
"Thirty days, 60 days -- we just don't know," Stall said. "It'll be just
whatever the horse tells us."
Trainer Larry Jones said Lane's End S. (G2) hero HARD SPUN (Danzig) will
likely work at Churchill Downs on Thursday. Currently based at Keeneland, the
once-beaten colt's workout plans hinge on the weather. Jones is considering
training Hard Spun straight into the Derby, but he'll call an alternate and take
the Lexington S. (G2)-Preakness (G1) route if he feels the colt doesn't like the
track in Louisville, Kentucky.
"We'll be able to tell what we need to out of that (Thursday's work),
hopefully," Jones said Tuesday. "I don't know if I'm going to bring him over
tomorrow evening. It kinds of depends how much rain we get tonight and
tomorrow."
Santa Anita Derby (G1) third placer SAM P. (Cat Thief) arrived at Churchill
Downs on Tuesday. Trainer Todd Pletcher also has Circular Quay (Thunder Gulch),
Cowtown Cat (Distorted Humor), Deadly Dealer (Concerto) and Any Given Saturday
as possible starters in the Derby.
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