Street Sense, Rags to Riches Top Oct. 27 Churchill Card
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Photo: Keeneland/Coady Photography
South Bend wins an allowance at Keeneland
Following the end of the fall meet at Keeneland Oct. 26, Kentucky racing shifts to Churchill Downs for a meet that begins Oct. 27 with an 11-race program focused on youth. Opening day is one of its "Stars of Tomorrow" cards, all 2-year-old programs that, according to the track, have featured more than 50 future grade 1 winners since 2005.
Two races top the Sunday card: the $120,000 Rags to Riches Stakes for females and the $120,000 Street Sense Stakes for males, both one-turn mile tests on the main track. The Rags to Riches, with seven entered, goes as the ninth race, followed by the Street Sense with its deeper group of 11 spotted as the 10th.
Leading contenders in the Street Sense include Keeneland maiden winners Sprawl and Silver Prospector; graded class droppers Tap It to Win, American Butterfly, and Fighting Seabee; and South Bend and Wheat King, the 1-2 finishers in a first-level allowance Oct. 5 at Keeneland.
South Bend is likely to be well fancied by the betting public after winning both of his starts for trainer Stan Hough and owner Sagamore Farm. A son of Algorithms pegged at 3-1 on the morning line, he unleashed a furious rally to win his Sept. 14 debut at Churchill Downs by a nose and rallied again to win by a neck over Wheat King.
Video: Race 5 (AOC) at KEE on 10/5/19
Julien Leparoux will ride South Bend from post 4, one spot outside Wheat King, who will carry Miguel Mena.
Whoever wins the Street Sense has big shoes to fill. Last year's winner, Improbable, won the Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity (G1) one start after the Street Sense, which in 2018 was an undercard race when the Breeders' Cup was held at Churchill Downs.
The 2018 Rags to Riches winner, Mother Mother, also proceeded into graded company, where she was third, beaten a neck, in the Dec. 8 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course. Yet it was in 2017 that the Rags to Riches really stood out. Monomoy Girl won that edition and went on to a championship 3-year-old season in 2018.
John Oxley's Specially, a 5 1/4-length maiden winner Oct. 5 at Keeneland for trainer Mark Casse, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in Sunday's Rags to Riches, which does not have the apparent top-to-bottom competitiveness of the Street Sense. Her chief foes appear to be speedy maiden winner Finite and Lucky Jingle, who transitioned from turf to dirt to win an Oct. 4 allowance at Keeneland.
Video: Race 1 (MSW) at KEE on 10/5/19
Both the Street Sense and Rags to Riches serve as preps for graded stakes late in Churchill's 26-day meet, which runs until Dec. 1. Top colts from the Street Sense often continue into the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2), and fillies from the Rags to Riches regularly land in the Golden Rod Stakes (G2). Both races are Nov. 30 this year.
Bolstered by subsidies from the slot-like historical horse racing terminals at the Churchill-owned Derby City Gaming off-track facility in Louisville, purses of more than $20.1 million will be offered during the fall meet. Maiden races for Kentucky-bred horses go as high as $95,000, and some allowances exceed $100,000.
Churchill Downs, Sunday, October 27, 2019, Race 9 Churchill Downs, Sunday, October 27, 2019, Race 10Entries: Rags to Riches S.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Lady Glamour (KY)
Julie Burke
120
Larry W. Demeritte
10/1
2
2Curlinesque (KY)
Tyler Gaffalione
118
Cherie DeVaux
8/1
3
3Gone Glimmering (KY)
James Graham
120
Thomas M. Amoss
8/1
4
4Specially (KY)
Miguel Mena
118
Mark E. Casse
8/5
5
5Finite (KY)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
118
Steven M. Asmussen
3/1
6
6Spotted Ghost (KY)
Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.
118
W. Bret Calhoun
20/1
7
7Lucky Jingle (KY)
Julien R. Leparoux
120
H. Graham Motion
3/1
Entries: Street Sense S.
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Sprawl (KY)
Corey J. Lanerie
118
William I. Mott
9/2
2
2Tap It to Win (FL)
Tyler Gaffalione
118
Mark E. Casse
4/1
3
3Wheat King (KY)
Miguel Mena
118
Mark E. Casse
6/1
4
4South Bend (KY)
Julien R. Leparoux
120
Stanley M. Hough
3/1
5
5Mr. Tip (KY)
Sophie Doyle
118
Jack Sisterson
30/1
6
6Silver Prospector (KY)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
118
Steven M. Asmussen
4/1
7
7Fighting Seabee (KY)
Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.
122
Kenneth G. McPeek
10/1
8
8American Butterfly (KY)
Luis Saez
118
D. Wayne Lukas
15/1
9
9Axiomo (KY)
Gabriel Saez
120
Mikhail Yanakov
20/1
10
10Shotski (KY)
Sheldon Russell
118
Jeremiah O'Dwyer
20/1
11
11Carpe Victoriam (KY)
James Graham
120
Thomas M. Amoss
15/1
