Street Sense – Grade III [KYD]
1 1/16 miles Dirt Stake Purse $200.000 Two-Year-Olds At AQU
I’m not going to go on too much about the history of the development of Street Sense. It reads almost identical to Rags to Riches. If you care, go read that. I do want to say one thing about my handicap. It’s not a fluff piece for my horse; it’s an honest handicap that came out that way. There’s some serious competition there, and I’m scared as hell. I’m especially scared because everything looks so good: post position, field, even got my selected jockey, so y’all know what happens at HRP when everything looks rosy. Anyway, I think Olden Times will be the favourite, although that honor could go to one of the Mb Stable horses. Interesting, I don’t see a lot of speed in this race. Maybe one of these horses without any route experience will go out fast and try to steal it, but I think that would be suicide with all these stalkers and closers. By the way, Fractious won this race last year and he’s back with a fresh new monster that may just upset the apple cart. Here’s the field:
Horse Owner Odds SRF
Olden Times Paradise Stable *3-1 95
Self Love Mb Stables 7-2 94
Political Star Big Guns Stables 4-1 93
Minnesota Heat The Sidley Stud 5-1 94
Open Invitation Mb Stables 9-2 95
Fear Of Walking Dead Big Guns Stables 6-1 92
Bramble Sioux Greyfriars Stable 8-1 90
Ikko Ikki Jerry Garcia Racing 10-1 88
Perfect Heist Big Guns Stables 10-1 82
Comanche Bay Crocker Ggs 20-1 90
Starbright Fractious 20-1 89
Risky Assets Risky Assets 20 1 89
1 Olden Times Paradise Stable 95
Olden Times rallied too late in the grade one Champagne at AQU and wound up fifth beaten a length, but the effort spoke of a desire to go longer. Still, in defeat he earned the highest last race SRF here, and it was an impressive race coming out of a maiden win. He should improve off that effort and be a strong chance for the win here.
2 Political Star Big Guns Stables 93
Political Star broke his maiden at DMR and jumped right into the frying pan with run in the grade one Breeders Futurity at KEE where he finished fourth, but it was fast enough to earn him a 93 SRF. That race should have given him the experience he needs to challenge the speed here.
3 Minnesota Heat The Sidley Stud 94
Minnesota Heat won at first asking and followed that with a victory in the venerable $225.000 Bashford Manor at CD. Then things got tougher, races got longer, but he was usually fairly close. He ran seventh in the grade one Champagne, but that was fast enough to earn him a 94 SRF.
4 Risky Assets Red Fox Farms 89
Risky Assets placed second in his debut at LA but failed on the turf next at SAR. So, his trainer dropped him to a lower track to get the win. It was, however, at 1 1/16 miles, so there is hope in that.
5 Self Love Mb Stables 94
Self Love has the best individual performance in this race, a third in the grade one Pharoah Stakes at SA, which is something to say for a horse that came up through claiming ranks. He’s never been out of the money and flashes a high SRF. Will be stalking the speed right into the stretch.
6 Comanche Bay Crocker Ggs 90
Claimed as a maiden from LionKing Stables, Comanche Bay immediately rewarded his new stable with a victory at SA and here we are: stepping up to the bigs. All his races are sprints and there are no public route works, so mystery.
7 Fear Of Walking Dead Big Guns Stables 92
After winning his first two, Fear Of Walking Dead was installed as the favourite in the grade one Pharoah Stakes where tired coming home and ran seventh. His works for this are not as fast as some, so he may fade out again unless jockey instructions keep him out of the speed duel.
8 Open Invitation Mb Stables 95
The most raced horse in the race,
Open Invitation has been devoted to turf for most of his career. He earned his co-high 95 SRF by finishing third in turf sprint $300.000 Indian Summer at KEE. He has gone a mile, but on the grass, and his dirt route works are sharp.
9 Ikko Ikki Jerry Garcia Racing 88
Now here’s one I just don’t know about. Brought to us by the venerable Jerry Garcia Racing, Ikko Ikki has had a tough time in stakes races, and yet, he did a nice job closing for fourth in an overnighter that made his connections decide to test him here.
10 Bramble Sioux Greyfriars Stable 90
It took three races for Bramble Sioux to break his maiden and then a jump right into the grade one Breeders Futurity didn’t go well as he ran out of gas coming home. He has no public route works, so I don’t know, pretty far back.
11 Perfect Heist Big Guns Stables 96
After purchasing Perfect Heist from Wood Duck Stables for $27.000, his trainer immediately got a win from him at WO. However, the jump into stakes races has not gone well. All of his races have been sprints and his only mile work was unimpressive.
12 Starbright Fractious 89 Starbright, a brand-new star born in March, placed third at SAR, then won at SA, so pretty nice. But both sprints and no route works to look at, six-furlong works are sharp. He looks to be developing fast, and he comes from a stable not to be trifled with.
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES