I'd love to see Street Sense win this race but I think Hard Spun is going to win. This is not Nafzger's target so SS doesn't need to be all out to win. I think the order will be:

Hard Spun by a rapidly closing length
Street Sense
Stream Cat
Muqbil
Cat Shaker

Looking forward to this weekend's races!

Stream Cat/Hard Spun/Street Sense

The complete opposite of what I would expect were it on dirt.

i think you may have the order nailed. welcome to an $8 trifecta.

yeah, but I'll also put a ticket together with Muqbil in 3rd position and hope he gets there, that should pay more.

Here is the deal on added money:
The base purse for the KC Classic is $350,000, with $150,000 of that for horses eligible to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. Of the five starters, only Hard Spun, a Pennsylvania-bred, is ineligible to the KTDF. However, another $150,000 is being offered to the winner if he is a Grade 1 winner in 2006-07. Only Street Sense and Hard Spun are eligible for the bonus.

Damn, heard this morning that they are not offering a show bet on the race. Thought the bridge jumpers could have a hayday on this one...

Actually, according to the Turfway website, they are going to offer a Super on the Classic? On a 5-horse field???

Link

Muqbil was scratched...now down to 4

on the bright side, they're still offering trifecta wagering.:D

BORING!!!!! Congrats to Hard Spun!

Any race recap for those of us stuck at work?

Hard Spun and Street Sense ran one two all the way around on a slow pace.

Hard Spun takes the lead early, holds off a far-turn move from Street Sense, digs in again in the stretch and wins by a length.

They shouldn't even allow races like this....

Well there goes any value on Hard Spun in the Classic and any chance he'll be allowed a real easy unpressured lead in the Classic.

Back to the drawing board for that race.

Horse Racing. It's Fan-F>>>>>g-tastic.

Being a European, i didn't mind watching that tactical battle..... most people saw that it was going to happen like that, but why didn't Borel really take Hard Spun on early? Force him a bit, ya know?

As soon as it was turned into a 'sprint' there was only going to be one winner.

Over here, Borel would have been blamed for giving Hard Spun such an easy lead.

His ride on Blackberry Road in the Juvenile was nothing short of embarrassing.

I think what Street Sense did was the intent of Nafzger and Co. They wanted SS to put in a sustained run, challenge and finish strong. He's said such a result would "get him towards where he needs to be for Monmouth" (or something like that).

Now, I suppose SS did get out of this race what they wanted. However, I would have preferred to see him battle harder down to the wire versus spit it a bit in the final 100 yards. SS has shown us he hangs a bit (Preakness, Travers) and now he didn't give that extra punch late in this spot.

I'm not sold on him for the BC.