NEWS
Street Sense Experimental Free Handicap highweight
Posted: Friday, January 26, 2007 5:41 PM
STREET SENSE
Patricia McQueen photo
by Frank Angst
Champion juvenile male Street Sense added to his accolades on Thursday when he received highweight honors on the 2006 Experimental Free Handicap released by the Jockey Club.
Street Sense scored a ten-length victory in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) on November 4 at Churchill Downs. With no other juvenile male scoring more than one Grade 1 victory in 2006, that effort helped the Street Cry (Ire) colt secure a high weight assignment of 127 pounds.
The Experimental Free Handicap, published annually by The Jockey Club since 1935, is a weight-based assessment of the previous year’s leading two-year-olds, with weights compiled for a hypothetical race at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.
This year’s weighting committee of racing secretaries included Ben Huffman of Churchill Downs, P.J. Campo of the New York Racing Association and Thomas Robbins of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
Scat Daddy, winner of the Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park, was assigned 123 pounds while Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner Circular Quay, Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity (G1) winner Great Hunter, and Remsen Stakes (G2) winner Nobiz Like Shobiz tied for the third spot of males at 122 pounds. Scat Daddy finished fourth in the Juvenile, Circular Quay second, and Great Hunter third.
Undefeated champion Juvenile Filly Dreaming of Anna was assigned 123 pounds, topping the list of fillies and tying for second overall.
The committee weighted 92 males and 85 fillies. Eligible for weighting were all two-year-olds of 2006 that finished among the top four in graded or other unrestricted races with an added value of at least $75,000, run in the continental United States.
James Tafel’s homebred Street Sense won two of five starts last year and earned $1,178,200. In addition to his romp in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he placed third in both the Lane's End Breeders’ Futurity and the Arlington-Washington Breeders’ Cup Futurity (G3).
The 127 pounds assigned to Street Sense is one pound more than the assignment on last year’s highweight, Stevie Wonderboy, and is the highest assignment for a colt since Favorite Trick received 128 pounds on the 1997 Experimental Free Handicap.
Among sires of Experimental horses, Johannesburg and Tale of the Cat top the colts and geldings' list with four representatives each. Include, Lemon Drop Kid, More Than Ready, Smart Strike, Successful Appeal, and Yes It’s True head the fillies’ list with three representatives each. Combining the two lists, Johannesburg, Smart Strike, Tale of the Cat, and Yes It’s True are the leading sires with five representatives each.
Of the 177 juveniles weighted, 104 were bred in Kentucky, 33 in Florida and nine in California.
Frank Angst is senior writer of Thoroughbred Times
