Street Band Resumes Breezing Ahead of Apple Blossom
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Street Band with Larry Jones at Santa Anita Park ahead of the Breeders' Cup Distaff
Grade 1 winner Street Band returned to the work tab April 6 at Oaklawn Park for trainer Larry Jones. The breeze was the first for the daughter of Istan since running fourth in the March 14 Azeri Stakes (G2), and the first ahead of her expected next start in the April 18 Apple Blossom (G1) at the Arkansas track.
Working five-furlongs on the Oaklawn main track, Street Band was clocked in :59 4/5, the third-fastest of 22 at the distance Monday.
Ranked among the country's leading 3-year-old fillies last year, Street Band turned in several impressive performances for her connections, winning the Twinspires.com Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and the Indiana Oaks (G3) before finally earning top-level honors in the Cotillion (G1). In between her victories the filly turned in a sixth-place performance in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) and finished third in the Alabama Stakes (G1).
Street Band closed out her sophomore season with an off-the-board effort in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). She opened 2020 with a third-place run in the Jan. 26 Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) at Sam Houston Race Park before trying her luck next out in the Azeri where she was thwarted by a muddy track and finished 8 1/2 lengths behind winner Serengeti Empress.
"She does not prefer the mud track," said Jones, who alluded to the fact that his filly has a record of performing well only every other race.
"That was her time to throw a bad race, " said Jones. "So, if that was her bad race, it will be very similar to the Alabama, when she came out of it and won the Cotillion. We're right on Street Band's schedule. It may not be Larry's schedule, but, apparently, it's Street Band's schedule."
Regular rider Sophie Doyle, who has been aboard for almost all the of filly's 15 career starts, is scheduled to have the mount again in the 1 1/16-mile Apple Blossom.
Street Band is campaigned in partnership by Ray Francis, Cindy Jones, Larry Jones, Medallion Racing, and MyRaceHorse Stable. She was bred in Kentucky by Larry and Cindy Jones and Ray Francis out of the Street Cry mare Street Minstrel.