Jim Tafel’s Street Sense completed his final preparations for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) when he worked five furlongs in 1:01 at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, May 1.
The Street Cry colt, who is likely to share the Derby favoritism with impressive Arkansas Derby (gr. I) winner Curlin, posted fractional splits of :13 3/4;, :26, :38, and :49 4/5 for the first half mile. He galloped out six furlongs (three quarters of a mile) in 1:13.
“He did it easily,” a relaxed Nafzger told the media horde gathered at the trainer’s barn. “I loved the way he galloped out. He’s happy. It’s up to him now. It’s been up to him all the time. Come Saturday and show me some daylight at the head of the lane (stretch) and I rest my case.”
Street Sense has earned $1,508,200 while winning three of seven career starts, with four additional placings. The champion 2-year-old colt of 2006, Street Sense won the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I) to complete his 2-year-old season. This year, he won the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. II) by a nose over Derby contender Any Given Saturday and finished second by a nose to another Derby horse, Dominican, in a close Toyota Blue Grass Stakes.
“We laid out a schedule for this horse and…he’s done everything we wanted him to do,” said Nafzger, who won the 1990 Derby with Unbridled. “He’s passed all the tests. He has taken us everywhere.”