Go Ahead...Try To Beat Him (Again) (914 Views)
Posted by:
Uncle Buck (IP Logged)
Date: May 15, 2007 02:36PM
I hope you guys don't spend too much this Saturday trying to beat Street Sense...Here's this morning's report from the Louisville Courier Journal:
[b]Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense had the Churchill Downs backside buzzing again this morning after working five-eighths of a mile in a minute flat, his final major preparation for Saturday’s 132nd Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.
Trainer Carl Nafzger had planned on the Street Cry colt going in 1:01 or 1:02, but he was unconcerned with the faster time because he said Street Sense did it without any urging from jockey Calvin Borel.
The work was somewhat similar to Street Sense’s final work before his Kentucky Derby victory over Preakness rivals Hard Spun and Curlin. Street Sense worked in 1:01 May 1 for the May 5 Derby.
“The horse did it without any effort,” Nafzger said of today’s work. “He wasn’t charging the bit. He wasn’t trying to work. That’s his gait. He (also) was faster than I wanted before the Derby, and he’s a fitter horse now. He was a very happy horse when he walked off the track this morning. I don’t think he was even taking a deep breath. His eyes were just normal.”
As is the structure of Nafzger’s works, Street Sense started off fairly slow, going the first quarter-mile in 25 seconds and the first three-eighths in 37. Then he picked up steam, going 48 3/5 for the half-mile and finishing his final eighth-mile in a sterling 11 2/5 seconds. The Churchill clockers caught him galloping out six furlongs in 1:12 3/5.
“He worked super good,” Borel said. “The horse is going forward every trip. Work-wise, he’s still going forward, not backward.”
Jennie Rees[/b]