Thatcher Street charged through a narrow opening along the hedge and held off the late challenge of Pleuven to take the Opening Verse Stakes at Churchill Downs May 21.
It was the first Stakes victory for the five-year-old gelding by Street Sense, who now has three wins and two second-place finishes in five starts at Churchill Downs.
Bred in Kentucky by Randy Bloch et al, Thatcher Street is out of Lenawee, a winning daughter of Albert the Great. Lenawee is a half-sister to Kettle Hill, winner of the Prairie Bayou Stakes, and to Graded Stakes-placed Plainview.
Street Sense is the sire of 44 Stakes winners, including such top performers as Callback, winner of the G1 Las Virgenes; Wedding Toast, winner of the G1 Ogden Phipps and G1 Beldame; and Street Fancy, winner of the G1 Starlet Stakes. In 2016 Street Sense has sired Street Strategy, winner of the Fifth Season Stakes and Street of Gold, winner of the Marie G. Krantz Memorial Stakes.
Street Sense is standing the 2016 season at Jonabell Farm for a fee of $45,000, stands and nurses.
