Sunday Night Notes - May 6

- Now that Street Sense has gotten past the Derby with only two preps, you'd think that he is uniquely prepared to handle the second and third legs of the series. Whereas the two weeks between the races is considered far too little these days, Nafzger said, “The two weeks should be perfect for him.” [NY Times]

As of now, it looks like just the first three from the Derby will run back at Pimlico. Hard Spun's trainer Larry Jones said: "You'd think I could have gotten a little help from those 15 jockeys between me and Street Sense and close that rail down." [Brisnet] Borel had one crucial moment, when Street Sense ran up behind Sedgefield. But at that point, with horses tiring outside of him, he was able to just seamlessly float out one path and go around him. Don't you think that one of these days, that spot won't be there, and he'll be boxed in on the rail? It just seems that everything has gone Street Sense's way in his two biggest wins. Give the horse credit of course; the way he accelerates, perhaps he's going too fast for the other riders to react. But there's no question he's been fortunate.

I think that the fact that Hard Spun actually would have won the race had Street Sense run into an impossible spot shows just how weak this edition was overall. I'm not denigrating the winner, or the second and third horses....ok, maybe the second horse a little....but most of the horses in the field just didn't do much running, at least after the quarter pole. Given the way Hard Spun steadily slowed down over the running of the race, I think that Street Sense saved a little face for the rest of the crop.

The Derby winner will remain at Churchill, and ship to Pimlico three days before the race.

Calvin Borel will attend a state dinner at the White House in honor of the Queen. If he makes his usual move over to the left, he'll probably be escorted out by the Secret Service.

- "Molengao -- WOW!" exclaimed Vic Stauffer at the finish of the Mervin LeRoy at Hollywood and man, did you see the way he rocketed away from that field? Victor Espinoza was just cruising along as he circled the field five wide, and once he asked him to go, he was gone! This six year old Brazilian-bred son of Royal Academy was overmatched at this level last year, but this year he has two graded stakes wins, and a close second to Lava Man in the G1 Santa Anita Handicap. And here he successfully translated his form to the Cushion Track, on which he's thrived. He's being pointed to the Hollywood Gold Cup, and a possible date with Lava Man should that one be recovered from his ill-conceived trip to Dubai.

- Not a good weekend for Richard Dutrow at Belmont. He had two big favorites - even money Privy Seal and 7-10 Frost Giant - that went down on Derby Day. And on Sunday, his Holly Time got beat at 8-5, and man, this colt has burned a ton of money in his last three starts.

Trainer Tom Bush won two consecutive grass maiden races on Sunday, one with first-timer Tears I Cry; 5-1 morning, she was slammed down to 2-1 and held off another debut runner in Clifton Bay; hello. This trainer's well-meant first-timers are not very well kept secrets. Tears I Cry is by the dead stallion Chester House, out of a Danzig mare who is a half sister to the dam of European champion Shamardal, and to none other than Street Cry, the sire of Street Sense. Her second dam is Helen Street, winner of the Grade 1 Irish Oaks.