Ky. Derby prep: Liberal Arts enjoys slop, wins Street Sense
Louisville, Ky.
The sloppy, main track at Churchill Downs did not worry trainer Robbie Medina. Neither did the added distance of the Grade 3, $200,000 Street Sense Stakes. He thought Liberal Arts was made for a wet, gray day like Sunday.
“I was teasing Evan Ferraro, the owner, that I was at the Breeders’ Cup when his grandsire Unbridled’s Song won the (1995 Juvenile at Belmont Park) in the slop. I said the track is not going to be an excuse. I never thought that he would mind it. I always thought he’d like a sloppy track.”
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The more of that slop the better for Liberal Arts (6-1). The 2-year-old Arrogate colt bided his time in the back of the five-horse field, responded favorably to left-handed urging from jockey Cristian Torres and methodically picked off all his 2-year-old rivals down the stretch for a 2 3/4-length win in the Street Sense, a 10-5-3-2-1 points prep for Kentucky Derby 2024.
“This horse really has improved as the distances got longer,” Torres said. “Turning for home today, I just had a ton of horse beneath me, and I think he really appreciated going two turns. I got him to relax on the backside, and he won like a professional today.”
Not only did Medina welcome the 1 1/16-mile distance that brought with it the new wrinkle of a second turn, but the length of the 411-yard stretch did not hurt either. Third last out going a dry, one-turn mile on the same track last month in the Iroquois (G3), Liberal Arts found his way to the lead just past the eighth pole Sunday. It was no contest after that.
“He was a little unlucky,” Medina said of the Iroquois, where Torres had to alter his path in the stretch. “He probably should have been second. He’s been crying for distance.”
Apparently, he also has been crying for activity. Medina did not count on starting Liberal Arts as soon as he did, but the colt was precocious. A distant third on debut going five furlongs at Churchill Downs came in late May followed by a second-place finish covering six furlongs in July at Ellis Park.
Liberal Arts’s maiden-breaking win came narrowly when he went seven furlongs in August at Ellis Park. He was a one-length victor over Otto the Conqueror, a next-out winner who also finished first Sunday in the allowance race right before the Street Sense.
“I just didn’t want to start running him in long races until the fall,” Medina said. “I think he was getting a little ahead of me. For the size of the horse, when I first looked at him, I thought he was just a fall horse to make his debut. I never thought he’d be running here in May at five-eighths of a mile. He’s progressed as the distance got better. Coming into this race he’s really trained. His last two works were the way good horses work.”
A 47.2-second half-mile on Oct. 13 preceded a 48.4-second bullet covering the same half-mile Monday at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky., where Medina is based.
All that work translated into a 1:46.50 time over the sealed slop, good enough for Liberal Arts to leave post-time favorite Moonlight (6-5), another closer who had broken his maiden by eight lengths last month at Aqueduct, in his wake in second.
“It was a busy ride all the way,” said Moonlight’s jockey Luis Sáez, who got a leg up from trainer Steve Asmussen. “He was not in love with the track. I had to keep at him there and keep him going, because he was not really liking it.”
From mid-pack, Moonlight’s stablemate Informed Patriot (5-1) found the lead at the top of the stretch only to fade to third, 3 3/4 lengths behind the winner.
“We’re kind of in between right now,” said Tyler Gaffalione, who rode Informed Patriot to a seven-furlong, maiden-breaking win last month at Churchill Downs. “We don’t know if it was the surface, the distance, but he traveled really well for me until the eighth pole. It seemed like he struggled a little bit down the lane, but it could be a combination of things.”
Early pacesetter Gettysburg Address (3-1) faded to finish fourth, and Northern Flame (3-1) all but walked across in last place.
Fractions ahead of the finish were 23.73, 47.93, 1:13.05 and 1:39.44. Liberal Arts paid $14.18, $4.08 and $2.68; Moonlight $2.88 and $2.26; and Informed Patriot $3.06.
Medina said Liberal Arts probably would get the rest of the year off with an eye toward Oaklawn for winter preps like the Rebel (G2).
Then again, the Stephen and Evan Ferraro homebred has shown himself to be an eager racer.
“He’s got five runs,” Medina said. “If he were to come back and just be tearing the barn down, maybe we run him at the end of the meet here.”
So the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) on Nov. 25 is for now a remote possibility. The very idea had Medina saying, “I might have to have someone lock me up where I couldn’t pick up a phone and enter him.”