Street Sense, Hard Spun to Meet in Kentucky Cup Classic

Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and Derby runner-up Hard Spun will meet for the third time in next Saturday’s $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park.

Both 3-year-olds will use the 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack as a prep for the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park Oct. 27. The two multiple graded stakes winners lead the list of 27 nominees for the Kentucky Cup Classic.

Street Sense will be looking for his third consecutive victory after losing by a nose to Curlin in the Preakness Stakes May 19. Street Sense has never won on a synthetic surface. He finished third on the Keeneland Polytrack as a 2-year-old, then missed by a nose again at Keeneland in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes May 14.

Street Sense, who worked five furlongs Sept. 19 at Churchill Downs in 1:00.60, has won six graded stakes and earned more than $4 million in his career.

Hard Spun has raced once over Polytrack, a 3 1/4-length victory in the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes at Turfway March 24. After racing in all three legs of the Triple Crown, the son of Danzig-Turkish Tryst placed second in the $1-million Haskell Invitational Handicap, and most recently won the seven-furlong Kings Bishop Stakes at Saratoga by a length-and-a-half.

Hard Spun worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 at Delaware Park Sept. 17 for trainer Larry Jones. He has earned almost $1.4 million in 11 starts.

The Kentucky Cup Classic will be one of five stakes on Turfway’s Kentucky Cup Day of Champions card.

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