Street Sounds returns for Hendrie

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Michael Matz-trained Street Sounds, no stranger to Woodbine, has shipped north of the border for Sunday's $150,000 Hendrie Stakes. The Grade 3 sprint for fillies and mares will be run at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Street Sounds competed in all three legs of the 2007 Canadian triple tiara, a lucrative series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies. She was a distant third in the Woodbine Oaks, behind eventual Canadian Horse of the Year Sealy Hill.

Street Sounds finished second in the second leg of the series, the Bison City Stakes, but was placed first by the stewards because victorious Sealy Hill was deemed to have interfered with the third-place finisher. That decision was subsequently overturned on appeal.

Street Sounds wound up third in the series' final race, the Wonder Where Stakes on turf. She tailed off in the fall, and got most of the winter off.

Street Sounds returned to action April 9 at Keeneland, in the Grade 2 Madison Stakes, in which she finished second with a 94 Beyer Figure. That strong showing will likely make her the favorite in the Hendrie.

"I thought she ran a nice race at Keeneland," said Matz. "This race might be a little short for her, but there was nothing else around, so we're going to try it. She's a very good shipper."

My List fired big following a five-month absence here April 20, when she took the Grade 3 Whimsical Stakes with a strong wide rally in her 4-year-old debut.

Trainer Nick Gonzalez said the abundance of speed in the six-furlong Whimsical benefited My List, who capped her 2007 campaign with a victory in the Bessarabian Stakes.

"That was probably our salvation," Gonzalez said. "I watched the races closely all day, and speed had been holding. I started doubting her, but I really shouldn't have, because she had been training great. As it turned out, she was the best that day. I was proud of her. When we had her as a 2-year-old, she was always acting like she was going to be a better horse when she got older."

Dhanyata, based at Keeneland with trainer Eddie Kenneally, won her only Polytrack start in a Group 3 stakes in England in 2006. When returning from a long layoff in her North American debut in March at Gulfstream, she finished a distant fourth in an optional claimer on the dirt.