Speaker’s Corner made a successful 2022 debut with a front-running, wire-to-wire victory in the G3 Fred W. Hooper Stakes at Gulfstream Park 29 January.
The victory was the first Graded Stakes win for the four-year-old Street Sense colt, which had closed out his sophomore season with a promising runner-up finish in the Listed Discovery Stakes at Aqueduct in November. With the win in the Hooper, Speaker’s Corner improved his record to 4-1-1 in seven career starts.
A homebred for Godolphin, Speaker’s Corner broke alertly and went up to contest the early pace before taking control after the first quarter-mile. The Bill Mott trainee continued hold a half-length lead while battling both Officiating and Girolamo’s Attack down the backstretch. Speaker’s Corner shook free of that pair on the far turn and was able to hold off a late challenge from favored Fearless in the stretch to win by just over a length.
Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Speaker’s Corner is out of the unraced Bernardini mare, Tyburn Brook. His second dam is Multiple Graded Stakes winner Round Pond (Awesome Again), winner of the both the G1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and G1 Acorn Stakes. Round Pond has also produced Long River (A.P. Indy), winner of the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 and G3-placed Lake Lucerne (Dubawi).
Street Sense had yet another superb year in 2021, which was led by G1 Clark Stakes winner and new Darley stallion, Maxfield. In addition to Maxfield, Street Sense was also represented by Graded Stakes winners Zaajel (G2 Mother Goose), Concert Tour (G2 Rebel) and Minister (G1 Kranji Mile in Singapore).
Street Sense will stand the 2022 breeding season at Jonabell Farm for $75,000, stands and nurses.
