Blues Street paves the way in River City

Blues Street easily captured the River City at Churchill (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Anstu Stables Inc.’s Blues Street made just his second start for trainer Eddie Kenneally in Saturday’s Grade 3, $111,000 River City Handicap at Churchill Downs, and the seven-year-old easily pulled away to score by 4 1/2 lengths on the line. With Robby Albarado aboard, the dark bay gelding finished 1 1/8 miles on the firm turf in 1:51 3/5 as the 5-2 second choice. Zimmer tried to lead all the way home under Calvin Borel, posting splits of :24 2/5, :49 1/5 and 1:14 1/5 while Blues Street was keeping 9-5 favorite Tajaaweed company in the rear of the field. Blues Street came out four wide on the turn and kicked on for home in the stretch while his rival found himself trapped between horses in the lane. The gelding paid $7.40, $5 and $3.60 for this one. “He handled the turf course good,” Kenneally said. “He had run one time over this turf course and he didn’t run bad, and it was a Grade 1 race here on Derby Day a couple of years ago (a fifth-place finish in last year’s 2009 running of the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic). He handled the turf. There was a little give in the ground, even though it was listed as firm. He relaxed nicely behind the pace and he’s go a lot of class, he’s got a lot of back class, this horse. He’s good right now and it worked out well.”

Allie’s Event came from last and circled the turn five wide to take second by
1 1/4 lengths over Gleam of Hope, who held third by a half-length over
Tajaaweed. Bergerac followed the top four under the wire, with Cherokee Lord,
Zimmer and Plutonium completed the order of finish.

“(Tajaaweed) had a rough trip,” trainer Dan Peitz said of charge. “He was
covered up and every time it looked like he had a spot to run someone would run
up on the outside of him. We were probably running for second money, though. The
winner was pretty impressive. I think with a better trip we could have been
second.”

“You either get racing luck or you don’t,” Jesus Castanon said. “I had him
(Tajaaweed) covered up and thought I had a good shot at the five-sixteenths
pole. He gave me a little kick, but he needed to give me more.”

Blues Street began his racing career with trainer Todd Pletcher, racking up
wins in a pair of Grade 3s last year, the Fair Grounds Handicap and Mervin Muniz
Jr. Memorial Handicap, as well as the 2009 Memorial Day Handicap. The dark bay
runner has placed in a trio of black-type events, including a nose second to
open this season in the Grade 3 Fort Lauderdale Stakes, but was switched to
Kenneally following a last-of-11 placing in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap
in late August at Saratoga.

Blues Street was given a brief freshening following that race and returned to
be second by a neck against allowance rivals at Keeneland on October 7. The son
of Street Cry earned his first win for his new trainer in this spot and now
sports a 30-10-7-3 mark to go along with $647,383 in lifetime earnings.

“He’s a seven-year-old, he’s going to be eight. So he doesn’t need to race
very often,” Kenneally responded when asked about the breaks between starts.
“When we ran him opening day at Keeneland, the plan was to give him six weeks
and run him back in this race. The timing is ideal — I think six weeks is
perfect for a horse like him. He gives everything when he runs, so there’s no
real need to run him so often. But he doesn’t really have any issues. He’s just
an older horse that needs time, and to run his best race he needs to be fresh.”

Bred in Kentucky by Harriet Finkelstein, Blues Street passed through the
auction ring twice, bringing $85,000 as a Keeneland September yearling and
RNAing for $77,000 at the Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale. He is out of
the Capote mare Capote Blues, making him a full brother to Grade 3-placed Beale
Street and a half-sibling to a Zenzational weanling colt.

Blues Street’s second dam is Grade 1 heroine Stormy Blues, a daughter of Cure
the Blues who produced a three-quarters brother to the River City winner in
Storm Street, a multiple champion in Trinidad.