Liberal Arts gets up late in Street Sense triumph

Liberal Arts, last in a field of five approaching the head of the stretch, cleared the field in the final stages for a 2 3/4-length win over favored Moonlight in the Grade 3, $200,000 Street Sense Stakes on Sunday, opening day of the fall meet at Churchill Downs which features all 2-year-old racing.

With the win, Liberal Arts ($14.18), from the final crop of the late Arrogate, earned 10 points toward next May's Kentucky Derby on the system Churchill Downs uses to determine preference for the 20-horse-maximum starting field. With the Street Sense scratched down to five, the other finishers in this field all received points, on a 5-3-2-1 scale, respectively.

Liberal Arts, who is trained by Robbie Medina for breeders Stephen and Evan Ferraro, has never missed the board in five career outings, and was coming in to the Street Sense off a third in the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes going a one-turn mile on Sept. 16 at Churchill Downs - rallying from sixth in the stretch to pick up three Derby points in that race.

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“We knew we wouldn’t be able to get longer distances until the fall, so we made sure this horse had some experience under his belt but knew he’d appreciate the stretch out,” said Medina, who was a longtime assistant to Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, and who has now tallied his first graded win after opening his public stable earlier this year.

In the Street Sense, Liberal Arts and Cristian Torres definitely used the bit of extra ground. The duo was last of five at the five-sixteenths pole, four lengths behind Gettysburg Address as the unpressured early leader hit six furlongs in 1:13.05 on the sloppy, sealed track. But Informed Patriot, who had been tracking in third, moved to head that one at the top of the stretch, and took over as Gettysburg Address started to fade.

Torres brought Liberal Arts three wide, and the colt came bounding along to quickly improve his position to second, with dead aim on Informed Patriot. He put that one away in the final yards and scooted away to his final margin.

“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.”

Moonlight, favored off a solid maiden win in New York for Todd Pletcher, had been ahead of the eventual winner in fourth at the five-sixteenths pole. Although Liberal Arts got first run, Moonlight, who was still fourth in midstretch, kicked in in the final yards and was a clear second by a length over Informed Patriot. Gettysburg Address and Northern Flame rounded out the order of finish.

The time for the 1 1/16 miles was 1:46.50.

Although the Street Sense is designed to lead in to the Grade 2, $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club in late November at Churchill, Medina said his stable star is likely done for this season.

“He’s made five starts this year and talking with the ownership group the plan is now to lay him up until next year and point to some of the big 3-year-old races,” he said.

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