Street Sense rematches pair

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If the co-featured Street Sense on the Sunday opening-day card is any indication, the Churchill Downs fall meet should be outstanding.

Eleven 2-year-olds will go a one-turn mile in the $120,000 Street Sense, and more than half the field has a legitimate shot at victory. South Bend might come favored after winning his first two starts, but it’d be no surprise if any of a number of challengers pulled an upset.

After winning at first asking here in September, South Bend, trained by Stan Hough for Sagamore Farm, outgamed Wheat King in a Beard Course allowance on opening weekend of the Keeneland fall meet. They’ll start alongside each other in their Sunday rematch in posts 4 and 3, respectively.

Wheat King “took pressure and acted like he was finished, but he just kept coming,” trainer Mark Casse said this week by phone from his Ocala, Fla., farm. “I was really impressed with him.”

Another contender from the Keeneland meet is Silver Prospector, who broke through by earning a 90 Beyer Speed Figure – highest in this field – in an Oct. 13 maiden score for trainer Steve Asmussen. Other possibilities include Sprawl, a last-out maiden winner at

Keeneland for Bill Mott; Fighting Seabee, the wild card of the group after racing exclusively on grass for Kenny McPeek; and a second Casse starter, Tap It to Win, who threw in a real clunker in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland off a sharp Saratoga maiden win.

Tap It to Win “has tremendous ability but can be a little spotty,” Casse said.

After breaking from post 1 in the Breeders’ Futurity, “he forgot to take a left, and that was pretty much it,” Casse said.

The Street Sense, named for the 2007 Kentucky Derby winner, goes at 5:36 p.m. Eastern as the 10th of 11 races.

Specially jumps into stakes

It only took one race for a Casse-trained filly named Specially to earn the top Beyer among the seven starters in the $120,000 Rags to Riches (race 9, 5:06), the co-featured 2-year-old filly counterpart to the Street Sense on Sunday at Churchill Downs. The daughter of Tapiture got an 81 in her debut on the first Saturday of the Keeneland meet.

“She trained extremely well down here before we sent her north for her first start,” trainer Mark Casse said. “She acts like she’ll go farther. This is a good next spot. Hopefully, it’s a start to bigger and better things.”

Specially, with Miguel Mena replacing the injured Florent

Geroux in the irons, will concede experience to most of the opposition when she breaks from post 4 in the one-mile Rags to Riches. None of the others is a stakes winner, although three – Lady Glamour, Gone Glimmering, and Lucky Jingle – have made it through their first allowance condition.

Curlinesque, like Specially, was an eye-catching winner of her lone start. Trained by Cherie DeVaux, the Curlin filly debuted here at 6 1/2 furlongs during the final week of the September meet.

Serengeti Empress works

With trainer Tom Amoss on hand to watch, Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress was sent through her final pre-race breeze toward the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, going a half-mile early Friday in 47.60 seconds at Churchill.

Amoss was released Wednesday from a Louisville hospital following a five-day stay while suffering from complications of appendicitis.

“I came out to the track this morning, but otherwise I’m totally taking it easy,” he said. “It’s been a pretty tough ordeal.”

Amoss said he intends to make the trip to California, but if he isn’t up to it, “I don’t want people thinking I’m on my deathbed.”

Serengeti Empress is booked on a Tuesday charter to California. Amoss said Flavien Prat has the ride for the Distaff.

Beschizza plans return

Jockey Adam Beschizza intends to return to action Nov. 6 at Churchill, exactly four weeks after suffering a broken collarbone in an Oct. 9 spill on the Keeneland turf, according to agent Liz Morris.

Beschizza will ride at Churchill before returning to Fair Grounds for the bulk of the 2019-20 meet, which runs through March 29. Beschizza was the leading rider at the New Orleans track last year with 82 wins.

◗ John McKee, the leading rider at the Belterra Park meet that ended Sept. 29, had the highest return on investment ($4.46) this fall among jockeys at Keeneland with at least 20 mounts. McKee rode four winners, none of them favored, and produced win mutuels that included $41, $25.80, and $19.

◗ The Grade 1 Matriarch on Dec. 1 at Del Mar is next for Daddy Is a Legend after she returned from a 4 1/2-month layoff with an emphatic 2 3/4-length victory Thursday in a Keeneland turf allowance. Trained by George Weaver, the 4-year-old Scat Daddy filly earned a 92 Beyer.