James Tafel’s champion colt Street Sense turned in his final serious Kentucky Derby workout Tuesday, April 24, going five furlongs in an impressive :59 over a fast track at Churchill Downs.
Street Sense, the Eclipse Award winning 2-year-old male of 2006, was timed in :12 2/5 for the first eighth of a mile, :24 2/5 for the quarter, :36 2/5 for three-eighths, and :47 4/5 for the half mile. With regular rider Calvin Borel aboard, the Street Cry colt galloped six furlongs in 1:11 2/5 as he completed the workout.
“We’re done; all we need now is to stay sound,” trainer Carl Nafzger said. “If you’re not ready now, don’t enter. I told Calvin ‘he’s fit, all we want to do is make him happy. Don’t ask him to do what he doesn’t want to do.’ It was a perfect work. This horse loves to run. He does everything right. There’s not much more you can say other than that.”
Nafzger said he had not decided when Street Sense would have a shorter maintenance work during the week leading up to the May 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I).
Street Sense began his 2007 campaign with an impressive victory in the Tampa Bay Derby (gr. II) and then finished a close second to Dominican as the favorite in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I).