Street Sense, Rags to Riches kick-off stakes action for Churchill's fall meet

Street Sense, Rags to Riches kick-off stakes action for

Churchill's fall meet

Almost Famous, a dazzling winner in his racing

debut in September at Churchill Downs, looms as the likely favorite in Sunday's

$60,000

Street Sense, one of two overnight stakes races that highlight an

11-race program that raises the curtain on the 25-day fall meet at the historic

home of the Kentucky Derby.

The Street Sense is the first of 13 stakes races

cumulatively worth $1,815,000 that will be held during the fall meet. The most

lucrative race is the 139th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap. That 1 1/8-mile test, which annually lures some of the top

three-year-olds and up in America, is scheduled for "Black Friday" on November 29.

The Street Sense, a one-mile race for two-year-olds, is

co-featured with the $60,000

Rags to Riches, a one-mile race for

two-year-old fillies, on the first of two "Stars of Tomorrow" programs scheduled

for the meet.

The "Stars of Tomorrow" programs are devoted exclusively to racing

among two-year-old Thoroughbreds. "Stars of Tomorrow II," which will feature the

Grade 2, $175,000 Kentucky Jockey Club for open company and Grade 2, $175,000

Golden Rod for fillies, is set for November 28, the

final day of the Louisville track's five-week racing meet.

Post time for Sunday's first race is 12:40 p.m. (EDT) and admission gates open at 11:30 a.m. The Street Sense is the day's

5TH race with a scheduled post time of 2:35 p.m. The Rags to Riches is

scheduled as the 9TH of the day's 11 races with a post time of 4:34 p.m.

The "Stars of Tomorrow I" races share the fall meet's

opening day spotlight with the giveaway of a 2014 Churchill Downs Calendar. The first 5,000 fans through the admission gates will

receive a voucher that can be exchanged for the calendar filled with captivating

images of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs.

Sunday's opener also features the first of the fall meet's

weekly Family Fun Days. Family activities are featured each

Sunday on the Plaza Balcony, and this week children 12-and-under are encouraged

to wear Halloween costumes and follow Churchill Charlie on a Trick-or-Treat

Parade through the track at 2:30 p.m. Family Fun Days activities are scheduled

from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Street Sense -- named in honor of James Tafel's son

of Street Cry who is the only horse to win both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile

(2006) and Kentucky Derby (2007) -- has attracted a talented field of seven

two-year-olds, but the pre-race spotlight will shine most brightly on Almost

Famous.

Owned by Chuck and Maribeth Sandford and trained by Pat

Byrne, the son of Unbridled's Song notched an impressive 2 1/4-length victory

under three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel in his debut in a

six-furlong maiden race on September 13. The colt was purchased by the Sandfords for

$500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida two-year-old sale in March.

Almost Famous will break from post three under jockey Joe

Rocco Jr., who was named to ride the colt after Borel was injured in a Wednesday

riding mishap at Keeneland. Borel suffered a fractured tibia in the accident and

is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks.

The strong impression left by Almost Famous in his

September bow was strengthened when runner-up Coastline, who finished 13 lengths

clear of the third-place finisher in that race, returned on October 5 to score a 3

1/2-length victory at seven furlongs in his next start over Keeneland's synthetic

Polytrack surface.

The gray son of Speightstown, who is owned by John C. Oxley

and trained by Mark Casse, returns for a rematch with Almost Famous in

Sunday's race. He will break from post two in the Street Sense under jockey

Shaun Bridgmohan. He is coupled in the Street Sense wagering with Oxley's

Phenomenalmoon, a winner of one-of-four starts for Casse. Bridgmohan is

also named to ride Phenomenalmoon, who drew post two.

The major threat to Almost Famous in the Street Sense could

be Dan Dougherty's Ride On Curlin, a colt who attracted reported seven-figure

purchase offers after he set a track record in a July 13 maiden victory going 5

1/2

furlongs at Ellis Park.

Ride On Curlin then finished fourth to Breeders' Cup Juvenile contender

Cleburne in the September 7 Iroquois at Churchill Downs

before heading to New York's Belmont Park, where he was a late-running third

behind Havana, who also is bound for the Juvenile at Santa Anita, and favored

runner-up Honor Code in the Champagne. The colt finished

just 1 3/4 lengths behind the Champagne winner and was 6 3/4 lengths

clear of the fourth-place finisher. Among those who finished behind Ride On Curlin that day were Hopeful winner Strong Mandate and Debt Ceiling, the

winner of Churchill's Bashford Manor in late June.

Trained by William Gowan, the son of two-time Horse of the

Year Curlin will be ridden in the Street Sense by Corey Lanerie and is set to

start from post position five.

The only stakes winner in the field is Richard P. Hessee's

Chippewawhitechief, who took the Mark McDermott for Pennsylvania-breds

for trainer Greg Compton at Presque Isle Downs on September 8.

Completing the field are Ichiban Warrior, a winner last

out at Keeneland for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Todd Pletcher,

and McKee Stable's Cee 'N O, who won his debut at Ellis Park for trainer Dale

Romans before finishing third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity over

Arlington's Polytrack.

Kentucky's legendary Claiborne Farm will attempt to claim a

new spot in the record book at Churchill when the two-year-old

filly Vexed takes on seven rivals in Sunday's first running of the Rags to Riches. The

race is named in honor of Derrick Smith

and Michael Tabor's winner of the 2007 Kentucky Oaks who was named

that year's champion three-year-old filly. Following her victory in

the Oaks, the A.P. Indy filly defeated eventual

two-time Horse of the Year Curlin to win the Belmont Stakes, becoming the

first filly to win the third jewel of the Triple Crown in 102 years and just the

third of her gender to win that race.

A victory by Vexed in the Rags to Riches would be the 32nd

in a stakes race at Churchill and would lift the Paris, Kentucky, breeding and

racing facility into a tie with Calumet Farm for all-time stakes victories at

Churchill Downs by an owner. Claiborne and longtime partner Adele Dilschneider

earned a pair of stakes victories in the 2012 fall meet with Sign, who won the

Pocahontas, and Lea, winner of the Commonwealth Turf.

Owned and bred by Claiborne Farm and Dilschneider, Vexed looms as a major

contender in the one-mile race for juvenile fillies. The daughter of Arch scored an emphatic 2

3/4-length victory in a

seven-furlong maiden race at Churchill in her most recent start on September

14 and is one of six fillies in the Rags to Riches who are coming into the race

off a win. The Al Stall Jr.-trained filly finished third in her career debut at

the same distance over the synthetic Polytrack surface at Arlington Park on July

19.

Bridgmohan was in the saddle for her September victory and will return to

ride Vexed in her stakes debut.

Vexed's bid to secure the a share of the record for

Claiborne could run into roadblocks provided by Grosse Point Farm's Ocean

Boulevard and Danny White's Dream S'more, the only fillies in the race with

experience in stakes races.

The Ian Wilkes-trained Ocean Boulevard finished fifth in the Matron at Belmont Park in her most recent

outing on September 29. She launched her career with a late-running third-place

finish at odds of 31-1 in a June 27 maiden race at Churchill and finished

fourth in a Saratoga maiden event before collecting her first career victory at

that New York track on August 26.

Brian Hernandez Jr. will ride the daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus in the Rags to

Riches.

Dream S'more has won two-of-five races for trainer Eric

Reed, including a 5 1/2-length romp in a Penn National allowance race in her most

recent outing on September 28. She competed in back-to-back stakes races prior to

that victory, finishing third in the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies at Mountaineer

Park and sixth in the Tippett on Colonial Downs' turf.

Rocco, who rode Dream S'more to a third-place finish in her April

debut at Keeneland, will be reunited with the Mineshaft filly in Sunday's race.

Four more fillies entered in the Rags to Riches are coming

off victories in maiden races as they make their debut against stakes company.

Green Lantern Stables LLC's Clever Beauty was elevated to a victory for trainer

Rusty Arnold via disqualification in a 1 1/16-mile race

on September 20 under the Twin Spires while Twin Creeks Racing Stable LLC's Prepared won a 1

1/16-mile maiden race over Keeneland's Polytrack on October 5. Robert Masterson's Tepin won at seven furlongs for Casse on October 6 at Keeneland

while Carson Springs Farm and J K R Investments' Loya scored in a six-furlong maiden race

at Hawthorne.

The Rags to Riches field is completed by Brittany Stover's Hot and Dangerous,

a Charles Town maiden winner on August 31 who is exiting a fifth-placing at

Laurel Park on September 27 against optional claiming company.

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