Street Sense taking Historic Path

Can Street Sense beat the Juvenile champion jinx by winning the 2007 Kentucky Derby? First comes a rematch with Any Given Saturday in the April 14 Blue Grass Stakes.

Street Sense's star continues to rise. He tops the graded stakes earnings list at $1,332,000 as of the third week in March. And the James B. Tafel owned colt is kicking dirt in the face of the notorious Juvenile champion jinx in winning his first start as a three-year-old.

Trainer Carl Nafzger decided to run the colt in just two races before the 2007 Kentucky Derby following Street Sense's 10 length victory in the 2006 Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup last November at Churchill Downs. Right now, Nafzger's strategy looks golden. Street Sense will see Churchill Downs again in May for the Kentucky Derby.

The colt beat off Any Given Saturday by a nose in his 2007 debut in the March 17 Tampa Bay Derby. And he did that in track record time.

The champ looks to be up to the rough going ahead. No juvenile victorious in the Breeders' Cup has been able to follow up in the Kentucky Derby. Unbelievably, just three Juvenile winners in the last ten years have gone to their three-year-old seasons to capture at least one stakes victory. Street Sense is one of them. Favorite Trick and Macho Uno are the other two.

What remains to be accomplished is a Juvenile champion wearing a wreath of roses in May. Street Sense is No. 1 on everyone's list to buck the odds. His Tampa Bay victory marked the first time since 1998 that a Juvenile champion started his three-year-old campaign with a win. Juvenile champ Favorite Trick won the Swale Stakes (gr. ll) in his first post in '98.

Street Sense is facing a rematch with Any Given Saturday on April 14 in the Blue Grass Stakes (gr. l). Historically, the Blue Grass has produced surprises. In 2006, the race's favorite, Bluegrass Cat, could only get to a fourth place finish. But he rallied for second place in the Derby and in the Belmont Stakes.

Nafzger has said when you choose to schedule the Kentucky Derby with just two previous starts in a colt's three-year-old season, you have to get everything right.

Street Sense hasn't missed a hoofbeat. Have you picked a Derby winner?