It's not too early to check long-range weather forecasts on the first Saturday in May in Louisville, Ky.
Because if the Kentucky Derby comes up wet again, which it has all too often in recent years, and Gold Street is involved, trainer Steve Asmussen might have an inside track to his first winner's blanket of roses at Churchill Downs.
Morning Line review Friday
First race: Top pick Arrival wins pays $31.60.
Second race: Top pick Country Dream second. Winner Willow Moon third pick.
Third race: Top pick Miracle March pays $5.60.
Fourth race: Top pick Kentucky Summer third. Winner Villainous third pick.
Fifth race: Top pick Dapper Jack second. Winner Lewys Vaporizer second pick.
Sixth race: Top pick Descent sixth.
Seventh race: Top pick Awesome Anywhere sixth.
Eighth race: Top pick Lynn’s Map fifth. Winner Gold Street second pick.
Ninth race: Top pick Moorac 10th.
Top picks: 2 wins, 1 second, 1 third. (six winners in top three picks).
Oaklawn leaders
Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr. 2. Seven tied with one win.
Trainer Ingrid Mason 2. Seven tied with one win.
Gold Street showed his hole card for the third consecutive race Friday at Oaklawn Park. Leading all the way over a muddy track, the Street Boss colt scored a surprise victory of 2 3/4 lengths in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes, launching the track's 57-day live racing season.
Martin Garcia, new both to the horse and Oaklawn, carved out moderate to slow fractions on the winner, hurting the chances of some rivals while helping his own. Garcia's instructions from Asmussen, he said, were simple: "Don't fall."
As for running on the lead, Asmussen said, "With a horse that's won two in a row over wet tracks, you're not going to tell the jockey to take him back."
Owned by Mike McCarty, Gold Street has been second or better in his last four starts and positively golden when the track is moist. The total winning margin of his last three races, Fair Grounds' Sugar Bowl Stakes included, is 13 1/4 lengths.
A speed-favoring track also worked in his advantage on a day, Asmussen said, that "80 percent of the winners led from gate to wire."
Race favorite Three Technique furthered his education with a second-place finish under newly crowned Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. Making his stakes debut off two seven-furlong wins in New York, Three Technique was closest to the winner at the head of the stretch and widened his place margin to almost three lengths.
"I was happy with that," said trainer Jeremiah Englehart, an Oaklawn rookie. "You always want to win. But for me, jumping up into stakes-caliber horses, I was actually really happy with what he showed. Being on the outside, it was a little bit of a disadvantage for us. Irad said he might not have handled the track all that great, not like he did last time (over a good-rated Aqueduct surface Nov. 20). I think it was a step in the right direction for the bigger prize down the road."
He alluded to other Oaklawn targets including the Grade 3 $750,000 Southwest Stakes Feb. 17. Then comes the Grade 2 $1 million Rebel Stakes March 14 before the Grade 1 $1 million Arkansas Derby April 11.
One of four Asmussen trainees in the nine-horse field, Gold Street rewarded his backers at the betting windows with $22.80 to win, $9 to place and $6 to show. He earned 10 points toward a possible Kentucky Derby start May 4 while improving his lot in Asmussen's band of 3-year-olds (Grade 1 winner Basin reportedly is pointing to the Rebel for his 3-year-old debut).
Gold Street went relatively overlooked in a field including Grade 1 winner Nucky (ninth) and Asmussen-trained Grade 2 winner Silver Prospector (fourth as 2-1 second choice).
Checking on his other horses, Asmussen said he learned from Tyler Gaffalione that Springboard Mile winner Shoplifted (third) got pinned inside and from Ricardo Santana Jr. that slow fractions did in Silver Prospector, both in their 3-year-old debuts. From post six, Garcia and Gold Street crawled a half-mile in 48.96 seconds and three quarters in 1:13.72, finishing in 1:39.63.
Asmussen-trained Jungle Runner, fourth in the Springboard Mile, finished eighth under Ramon Vazquez as the longest price on the board (54-1). Lynn's Map, in his stakes debut, faded to fifth after pressing the pace. The Brad Cox-trained maiden Shared Sense placed sixth and Lykan seventh for Oaklawn-based conditioner Ingrid Mason, who won both ends of the early daily double.
Also on the card, Asmussen-trained Kentucky Summer ran third from the rail in a two-turn maiden race won by the Englehart-trained Villainous ($15.60). Kiss the Girl, a 3-year-old Into Mischief filly trained by Asmussen, finished midpack in an allowance/optional claimer at six furlongs, her first start since winning Saratoga's Grade 3 Schuylerville in July.
Asmussen looked ahead while accepting congratulations also for two Eclipse Award triumphs Thursday, sprinter Mitole and older female Midnight Bisou winning Oaklawn stakes last year.
"With these fast-developing 3-year-olds," he said, "the last race you ran is never good enough to win the next one."
But if he's at Churchill Downs on May 2 and the track is wet, Gold Street (whose maternal sire, Fusaichi Pegasus, won the 2000 Derby) is a name to remember.
Sports on 01/25/2020