Keeneland hosted a 2-year-old turf route stakes, the Bourbon, on Oct. 5. Final Score won it, Turf Star finished second, and Gordon Pass closed for third. The connections of all three colts hope to move on to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on Oct. 31 at Del Mar.
Snugged away in his Keeneland stall while they raced was a 2-year-old grass horse who might prove as good as any of the Bourbon starters. Street Beast finished a debut second when turf-sprinting on Aug. 1 at Ellis Park. Four weeks later, he won a $250,000 Kentucky Downs allowance race restricted to graduates of the Keeneland September yearling sale. And just 10 days after that, stretching out from 6 1/2 furlongs to one mile, Street Beast captured the $1 million Juvenile Mile at Kentucky Downs by seven lengths.
The colt’s connections, trainer Ben Colebrook and Davant Latham’s Midway Racing, wanted no part of running back in the Bourbon one month later. Street Beast had his first post-Kentucky Downs timed workout 20 days after the Juvenile Mile, going a half-mile on Keeneland’s grass course Sept. 27. He didn’t breeze again until Oct. 14, another half-mile turf drill, and that, Colebrook said, will do it as far as works before the Juvenile Turf.
“It rained, so we missed the first work he was going to have because of weather, and the next time, I was looking at it and decided I wanted to give him two works before the race,” Colebrook said. “I think it’s freshness more than fitness with him. He ran so close together at Kentucky Downs.”
Street Beast, by Street Sense, has enough speed that he kept up with the pace in his sprints. He rated well enough and had no trouble seeing out a mile with an uphill finish in his first route try.
“In order to beat the Europeans, I think he’s going to have to be a little handier next time. The main thing is just to have him fresh and happy,” said Colebrook, who also has a live chance in the Juvenile Fillies with Percy’s Bar.
Street Beast’s 81 Beyer Speed Figure – whatever that means at quirky Kentucky Downs – fits competitively with the leading North American candidates for the Juvenile Turf, and while Street Beast bossed overmatched rivals in the Juvenile Mile, he outfought Intricate Spirit in his Aug. 28 allowance race. Intricate Spirit returned to win the Futurity at Aqueduct and stamp himself as a player in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Miguel Clement, son of the late Christophe Clement, trains Intricate Spirit. Colebrook credits much of what he knows about training to time spent as a Christophe Clement assistant.
“We don’t know what we have with this horse yet. He’s exceeded expectations every time,” Colebrook said of Street Beast. “Like my mentor used to say, the dream’s alive.”
◗ Puerto Rico? Gstaad? A horse to be named later? The questions, at least publicly, remain unanswered, but whichever leading Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf contender trainer Aidan O’Brien sends from Ireland will wind up the race favorite.
It probably will be Puerto Rico, front-running victor of the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere earlier this month. Gstaad, who has hit a higher mark than Puerto Rico, finished second in the Oct. 11 Dewhurst Stakes, after which O’Brien hinted the colt had raced for the last time this season.
O’Brien often runs two in the Juvenile Turf. No one outside the operation, if within it, seems to have a great idea who that second horse might be.
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◗ Wild Desert, a tough-luck second behind Argos in the Summer Stakes at Woodbine, remains an expected Del Mar runner for Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby.
The England-based Oceans Four has fallen off Breeders’ Cup’s list of Europeans who could come for the Juvenile Turf. Andab, who won over the Dundalk synthetic surface Oct. 10, is a probable runner, as is Cape Orator. Humidity, second in the Royal Lodge on Sept. 27, also is probable, with North Coast and Morris Dancer – the latter a stronger contender than the former – still on the Breeders’ Cup list.
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