Aztec Sense Extends Win Streak Pa Derby Champion
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Photo: Joe Labozzetta/EQUI-PHOTO
Aztec Sense wins the Pa Derby Champion Stakes
Joseph Besecker's Aztec Sense extended his win streak to seven with a frontrunning score in the $150,000 Pa Derby Champion Stakes Sept. 22, but it was the competition he faced at Parx Racing that made the four-length victory particularly notable.
The 5-year-old Street Sense gelding, who has won eight of his nine starts since trainer Jorge Navarro claimed him for $12,500 out of Parx race in August of 2017, faced speedy grade 1 winner Collected in the 1 1/16-mile test.
The Bob Baffert-trained son of City Zip, off at 2-5 in the scratch-shortened field of five under jockey Mike Smith, raced wide as Aztec Sense set fractions of :24.40, :48.66, and 1:13.33 through six furlongs, but never kicked into gear from the far turn to the wire and finished fourth, 6 3/4 lengths behind the winner. It was Collected's first start since a seventh-place finish in the Jan. 27 Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).
"I had no horse, man," Smith said. "I don't know if he was ready to run that hard. No excuse. "
Aztec Sense finished off the distance in 1:45.97 under jockey Emisael Jaramillo, well ahead of second-place finisher Zanotti. Name Changer completed the trifecta, a half-length behind Zanotti.
"This is what I have been looking for," Navarro said. "I never have gotten to the bottom of this horse, I said to the owner. He wanted to scratch him. And I believe myself we never got to the bottom of this horse and today we did. He is a nice horse."
Aztec Sense's seven-race win streak has included the Feb. 17 Rough and Ready Stakes at Gulfstream Park, as well as the June 23 Turning for Home Handicap and Salvatore M. Debunda PTHA President's Cup Stakes Aug. 25 at Parx. His last four victories have come at the Bensalem, Pa., racetrack and he is undefeated in six starts at the track.
Bred in Kentucky by Chuck Fipke, out of the A.P. Indy mare Aztec Pearl, Aztec Sense now has an 11-5-1 record from 35 starts and $436,807. He has won all seven of his starts in 2018 for $298,540 in earnings.
A race before the Pa Derby Champion, Kendall Hansen's Fast and Accurate finished a length ahead of Bern' James Bern in the $100,000 Alphabet Soup Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. It was the 4-year-old Hansen colt's first stakes win since the Nov. 4 Showing Up Stakes at Gulfstream Park West, but he placed in four stakes during a six-race stretch between.
Video: Pa Derby Champion S. (BT)