Street Story regains the plot in Winning Colors

Street Story enjoyed clear sailing on the outside (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Whispering Oaks Farm’s Street Story (Street Cry), winless since her signature score in last summer’s Victory Ride (G3), regained the winning thread in Monday’s $100,000 Winning Colors (G3) at Churchill Downs. With Florent Geroux aboard, the Steve Asmussen filly sprang a 7-1 upset in the Memorial Day feature and rewarded her loyalists with a $17.60 payout. Defending champion Southern Honey (Colonel John) zipped to the lead through an opening quarter in :21 4/5 on the sloppy, sealed track, but 3-2 favorite Spring Included (Include) was in hot pursuit. Street Story, who broke from the far outside in post 10, was well placed in a stalking third. When Spring Included took over from the weakening Southern Honey at the half-mile mark in :45 1/5, Street Story moved in tandem with her, and the two settled down to battle. Street Story began to assert in midstretch, getting the five-furlong split in :57 1/5, and stayed on relentlessly to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths. The dark bay splashed six furlongs in 1:10 1/5. “We had a great trip on the outside,” Geroux recapped. “When I rode her at Fair Grounds (in the February 17 Mardi Gras) she was stuck on the inside and she almost jumped the fence. She was really claustrophobic on the inside.

“I was pretty much sure I could win this stakes. I had to keep her on the
clear as much as possible and it went great. I had a good enough post to do so
and I took advantage of it. I had the 8-5 favorite next to me when I squeezed
mine just before the quarter-pole. I pretty much knew I had it.”

Heykittykitty (Tactical Cat), a ground-saving fourth early, closed down the
stretch to finish a clear second. Spring Included crossed the wire a further 1
3/4 lengths adrift in third, and Milam (Street Sense) worked her way into
fourth. Southern Honey beat just one home, in a photo.

“It’s a long time off,” said Southern Honey’s trainer, Rusty Arnold, who
alluded to her vacation since her sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint
(G1).

“The race didn’t go exactly like I thought it would. I don’t know about the
surface, I’m not using it as an excuse I just don’t know. She’s out of a Carson
City mare so she should like it, but doesn’t mean they’ll like it. It was
probably a little fast but you know how this track gets, they’ll do that. I
think they did that in an earlier race that might not have been a top race.

“I’m disappointed right now, but if she comes back good and my objectives are
a little bit further a long, so it’s not the end of the world.”

Street Story was returning to Churchill for the first time since her maiden
victory as a juvenile. She raced only once more in 2013, finishing a distant
second in the Letellier Memorial at Fair Grounds. Street Story went on to take a
pair of stakes at Oaklawn in 2014, the Dixie Belle and Instant Racing, before
plundering Belmont Park in the Victory Ride.

Sidelined following a 10th in the Test S. (G1), Street Story wintered with
Steve Flint at Fair Grounds. She checked in a troubled third when resurfacing in
the Mardi Gras and didn’t enjoy the surface switch when fifth in a grassy
optional claimer on March 15. Street Story was reunited with Asmussen at Oaklawn,
where she played second fiddle to Spring Included in the April 8 Carousel. She
gained revenge in the Winning Colors and thereby advanced her line to 13-5-2-1,
$339,430.

“She’s been training very well here at Churchill; she had some good works,”
assistant trainer Darren Fleming said. “She was annihilated (by a troubled start
in the Carousel), she had no shot. The start cost her that race.

“When you bring her over here she tries hard every time. I didn’t think (the
off track) hurt her; she had run on it before. She won on it at Oaklawn once
before.”

Bred by John C. Oxley in Kentucky, Street Story was sold for $155,000 as a
yearling at Keeneland September. The four-year-old is a half-sister to Grade
1-placed Paige (Sky Mesa) and to multiple Grade 2-placed Medjool (Monarchos).
They were produced by Perfect Story (Tale of the Cat), a winning half-sister to
Hall of Famer Point Given (Thunder Gulch).

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