Gotta Go wins Street Sense; Monomoy Girl wins Rags to Riches

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A year after winning the Street Sense Stakes with McCraken, trainer Ian Wilkes took another renewal of the stakes at Churchill Downs on Sunday with Gotta Go, who gamely turned back Lone Sailor to win by a head.

Gotta Go ($18.60) is similarly being aimed for the race McCraken won to conclude his 2-year-old season: the Grade 2, $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club, to be contested Nov. 25 at Churchill.

Whether Gotta Go can match the accomplishments of McCraken, a multiple graded stakes winner, is a question mark, but he showed the tenacity of a classy horse in edging Lone Sailor, who darted inside of him after securing room. “The last 40 yards, he saw that horse up along the inside, and he put his head down pretty good,” winning jockey Chris Landeros said.

What the winner didn’t do was run particularly fast. A 2-year-old son of Shanghai Bobby owned by Lothenback Stables, he raced a mile on a fast track in 1:37.48, more than a second slower than the winning time of Monomoy Girl in the Rags to Riches for 2-year-old fillies earlier on the card.

Still, his connections are excited for what lies ahead. “He’s learning slowly, but he’s coming quickly,” Wilkes said.

Lone Sailor, stuck in traffic until early stretch, performed well to just miss. He ended up 3 1/4 lengths in front of third-place Bravazo.

Both Lone Sailor and Bravazo exited the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity, with the former running third and the latter second behind Free Drop Billy, a leading contender for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Gotta Go picked up $48,950 in winning the $83,001 Street Sense, notching his second consecutive victory in this three-race career. His prior win had come in a six-furlong maiden race at Churchill Downs on Sept. 17.

• Having made her prior starts on turf, both of which resulted in victories, Monomoy Girl was an unknown moving to the Churchill Downs main track to race in the $82,670 Rags to Riches.

Now something is known: she is an even faster filly on dirt than on turf. She dominated the Rags to Riches from start to finish, pulling away from a talented but inexperienced cast of 2-year-old fillies to win by 6 1/2 lengths, completing a mile on a fast track in a quick 1:36.29.

The victory stamped her as one of the likely favorites for the Grade 2, $200,000 Golden Rod on Nov. 25, a race trainer Brad Cox said would be a target provided she exits Sunday’s race in good condition.

A daughter of Tapizar owned by Monomoy Stables and Michael Dubb, Monomoy Girl ($8.80) set a much faster pace than she had in winning an allowance on turf at Churchill Downs on Sept. 28, carving out splits of 22.73 seconds, 45.86, and 1:10.67 – and like a talented filly, she never appeared fatigued from it. After two left-landed cracks of the whip from jockey Florent Geroux, she was hand ridden over the final furlong.

Queen Mum rallied to be second, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Foxtrot Sally, who settled for the show.