Multiple stakes winner Street Life has been retired with a career-ending soft tissue injury to his left front pastern, Dan Hall of Hidden Brook Farm confirmed Aug. 30.
The 3-year-old son of Street Sense sustained the injury in the Aug. 25 Travers Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course. He finished last of 11 and was vanned off after completing the 1 1/4-mile distance.
Street Life, trained by Chad Brown, came into the Travers off a powerful July 27 victory at the Spa in the 1 1/8-mile Curlin Stakes, in which he was floated six wide around the far turn but nevertheless edged off to a 1 3/4-length score on a sloppy track. Prior to that, he finished fourth in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I).
The bay runner raced for Hidden Brook and Magnolia Racing Stable, the racing operation of Robert McNair, owner of the NFL's Houston Texans. McNair and his wife Janice bought in on Street Life after he broke his maiden in his second start last February.
"We're obviously very disappointed and thought there were a lot better things to come; he was an improving horse," Hall remarked. "It was very sad for all of us, but right now our main focus is just getting him comfortable and getting him over the injury."
Street Life remains at Saratoga and is not currently scheduled to ship, although Hall said the colt will eventually return to Hidden Brook in Paris, Ky. Stud plans have not been finalized.
Street Life, bred in Kentucky by Mueller Thoroughbred Stable, is out of the Grindstone mare Stone Hope and was a $130,000 purchase at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale. He retires with three wins and a third from eight starts, with earnings of $237,735. He was third in the May 12 Peter Pan Stakes (gr. II) at Belmont Park and won the Broad Brush Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack in March.
The colt's sire won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), the Jim Dandy (gr. II), and the Travers, as well as the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. III) in 2007, and the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) in 2006 for Jim Tafel and Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger.
"He'd shown brilliance in his come-from behind style," Hall said of Street Life. "Those kinds of horses need things to set up the right way in front of them, but in his last few races he had been placing himself a little closer than he had previously, and I think that was going to allow him to start doing big things. We went into the Travers with high hopes of running well there."
