Serengeti Empress, Street Band renew rivalry in Houston Ladies Classic

The rematch goes on, and on, and on…

Serengeti Empress, winner of the Kentucky Oaks, and Street Band, who captured the Cotillion, will clash for the sixth time Sunday, when they launch their 4-year-old seasons together in the Grade 3, $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park.

“Heaven forbid, I wouldn’t want to be in a race without her,” joked Larry Jones, who trains Street Band.

The Houston Ladies is for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles and it anchors a card of six stakes that includes the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup and the new $200,000 Texas Turf Mile. Temperatures nearing 70 degrees are forecast, as is a chance of showers. First post is 1:20 p.m. Central.

The Houston Ladies drew a third Grade 1 winner in Out for a Spin, who won last year’s Ashland. The field of six also includes Mylady Curlin, who comes off a win in the Grade 2 Falls City at Churchill Downs; Lady Apple, a three-time Grade 3 winner who was third in the Kentucky Oaks; and Saracosa, winner of the Bob Fortus Memorial at Fair Grounds.

Serengeti Empress and Street Band each earned more than $1 million in 2019. Serengeti Empress won the Oaks and the Rachel Alexandra against Street Band and finished in front of her last out when third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita. Street Band won the Cotillion and Fair Grounds Oaks against Serengeti Empress. The fillies now bring their rivalry – and contrasting running styles – into the Houston Ladies.

“We’re going to the front,” said Tom Amoss, who trains Serengeti Empress. “There’s no question she’s happiest on the front end. She likes to run them off their feet. She has a high cruising speed and if you have a high cruising speed and can carry that a route of ground, it’s very dangerous.”

Jones and his off-the-pace runner Street Band know it firsthand.

“That’s one thing you’re always sure about with Serengeti Empress, you’re going to have pace,” Jones said. “But that horse has a real bad habit of not stopping. She ain’t coming back to you. You got to go get her, and she’s hard to go get.”

Street Band wrapped up her season with a troubled eighth in the BC Distaff. She came into that race off her win in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx, for which she earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 99. It’s the best number in the Houston Ladies, a race won twice by Jones.

“I know she’s working well,” he said, “and that family usually is a little better at 4 than 3. We’re hoping she does just like her family.”

Amoss said there were a couple of reasons to target the Houston Ladies for the Fair Grounds-based Serengeti Empress.

“It’s attractive from a purse standpoint,” he said, “and it’s a regional race. I hate to have to send her far first start of the year. We plan on having a full campaign with her.”

In her final drill for her return, Serengeti Empress worked five-eighths in 1:01 on Jan. 18.

“She’s shown in practice she’s ready to go,” said Amoss.

Serengeti Empress met older rivals for the first time in the BC Distaff. She set the pace to the later stages, when “two very good horses got by her,” Amoss said of winner Blue Prize and runner-up Midnight Bisou.

“I was so proud of her,” Amoss said. “I thought her race was special.”

Flavien Prat has the mount from the rail on Serengeti Empress, while Sophie Doyle will be aboard Street Band from post 6.

Lady Apple is making her first start since a Sept. 29 win in the Grade 3 Remington Park Oaks, although she had been on deck for a late November start in the $250,000 Zia Park Oaks. She was unable to run in the race – for which she was the 3-5 morning line favorite – because of shipping restrictions on horses from Oklahoma due to cases of equine herpesvirus at Remington.

“She was very unfortunate to miss running in the Zia Oaks,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “It’s a lot longer of a layoff than would be ideal, but she’s proven to be a quality filly.”

Asmussen won last year’s Houston Ladies with Midnight Bisou, who on Thursday won the Eclipse Award as champion older female of 2019.