Incredibolt closes from last, wins Street Sense at Churchill
Last in the field of seven racing up the backstretch, Incredibolt started picking off rivals in the second turn and stormed to the lead in deep stretch Sunday to win the Grade 3, $200,000 Street Sense Stakes for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs.
Owned by Pin Oak Stud and trained by Riley Mott, son of Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Bolt d’Oro colt led the top five finishers who earned 10-5-3-2-1 points toward qualifying for the Kentucky Derby 2026 over the same track May 2.
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“He’s really, really talented,” winning jockey Jaime Torres said. “Earlier before his first start, I told my agent he could be the next Sovereignty. Even though he didn’t win his first start, he’s shown a lot of talent since.”
It is a familiar path. Sovereignty broke his maiden in last year’s Street Sense on his way to winning Kentucky Derby 2025 for Bill Mott.
Torres let the horses ahead of him race through a middling pace set by front-running Ganaas (7-2) and stalking favorite Universe (7-5) through early fractions of 24.29 and 48.83 seconds for the first quarter- and half-mile
Incredibolt (4-1) moved into fourth in the second turn, but he still had 3 3/4 lengths worth of work to catch up with Ganaas, Universe and hard-charging I Did I Did (6-1). The leaders were three abreast through three-quarters of a mile in 1:13.40.
Ganaas, with Édgar Morales ride to the inside, and Universe, with José Ortiz up, drew away and brushed one another in mid-stretch. I Did I Did under Irad Ortiz Jr. lugged out as Incredibolt blew past him.
At the sixteenth pole Incredibolt passed Ganaas and got the mile in 1:38.32 on the way to his 1 3/4-length win at a time of 1:44.67 on the fast main track.
Incredibolt returned $10.18, $4.54 and $3.34; second-place Universe $2.96 and $2.76; and third-place Very Connected (13-1) with Emmanuel Ésquivel $4.92. I Did I Did wound up fourth. Ganaas faded to fifth. Bricklin (54-1) finished sixth. Vost (9-2) was pulled up by Luis Sáez in mid-stretch and walked off without finishing.
Bred in Kentucky by Deann and Dr. Greg Baer, Incredibolt was bought for $75,000 at the September 2024 Keeneland yearling sale. He finished fourth in his six-furlong debut Aug. 22 at Ellis Park and broke his maiden going a one-turn mile Sept. 28 at Churchill Downs.
“It’s his second time winning here at Churchill, and we’re just delighted to have 10 points for the Kentucky Derby,” said Michael Hardy, director of farm operations for Pin Oak Stud. “Hopefully he can follow the path Sovereignty did.”