The first moments seemed like a rematch of the Kentucky Derby, when Hard Spun captured the early lead right out the gate with Street Sense behind him. But this time it was the $350,000 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park, with just a four-horse field, and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense could not get past Hard Spun, who held for a wire-to-wire, 1 1/4-length win on Saturday, September 29.

Breaking from the rail, Hard Spun went to the lead along the inside under Mario Pino, and was stalked the entire 1 1/8-mile distance by Street Sense, just to his outside, under Calvin Borel.

In a virtual match race that lacked other early speed, Pino slowed the fractions to :24.45 for the quarter and :48.18 for the half. Although Street Sense never let Hard Spun get more than a length in front, and in mid-stretch closed to within a half-length under strong urging from Borel, that was as close as he would get. Hard Spun increased his margin to the wire, saving his largest lead of the race for the finish line. The final time was 1:48.48.

“I think our horse contained himself as long as he could,” said trainer Larry Jones, who conditions Hard Spun for Richard Porter’s Fox Hill Farms. “He was ready to go. We knew that with the pace scenario, we wanted to make Street Sense chase us.”

Hard Spun and Street Sense will meet next in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on October 27, at Monmouth Park.

“You can’t go that slow and catch a horse like that,” said Borel of Saturday’s race. “Don’t worry, my horse will show up in four weeks. He always struggles a bit on Polytrack (like Turfway’s surface), but that sets him up perfectly. I ain’t worried about it. In four weeks, he’ll be a different horse.”

Street Sense’s trainer Carl Nafzger took the loss in stride. “We ran a good race and we’re ready to go on,” he said. “It was up to him at the head of the lane to get by Hard Spun. I thought he could do it, but it was hard to get by anyone all day. He just ran a better race than we did. There’s a lot of excuses when you lose, but let’s put it this way – when you get beat you get beat.”

Hard Spun, who earned $280,000 in the Kentucky Cup Classic ($130,000 in purse money plus a $150,000 bonus), has won seven of 12 lifetime starts and $1,673,470 in purse money.