Photo: NYRA
Magnolia Racing Stable and Hidden Brook Farm’s Street Life, who pulled up after the wire
and was vanned off after finishing last in the Grade 1 Travers, has been
retired, trainer Chad Brown said Thursday morning.
The 3-year-old Street Sense colt was diagnosed as having suffered a
ruptured ligament in his left front pastern, said Brown, and was resting
comfortably in his stall, where he will remain indefinitely.
“The horse seems happy, stable,” said Brown of Street Life,
who was the 6-1 fourth choice in the Travers after he prepped for the race with
a 1 ¾-length victory in the July 27 Curlin. “[The injury] is not
unprecedented, but it’s new to me; I’ve never had that happen
before.”
Winner of the Broad Brush Stakes in his third start at Aqueduct
Racetrack, Street Life next finished sixth in the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino
New York City Wood Memorial, third in the Grade 2 Peter Pan and fourth in the
Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. After the Curlin, Brown believed the colt was poised to
take the next step forward in his career.
“It’s very disheartening that we’re losing the horse
for his career,” Brown said. “I mean, this horse, it was one thing
to take a loss in the Travers, a race we thought we had a real shot to win.
That’s hard enough to take; you don’t get too many cracks at the
race when you really think you’re live going in the gate. Then, to not
only lose the race but lose the horse for his career, a horse that I felt had
an enormous amount of potential and could have gone on to accomplish great
things, is harder to take.”
Street Life ran eight times in his career, won three, and earned
$237,735.
“The ownership group, both the McNairs and Hidden Brook Farm, is
very fond of this horse and this is a horse that will have a great, pampered
life somewhere,” Brown said.
With a pair of victories on Wednesday, Brown, a native of nearby
Mechanicville, N.Y., headed into today’s card trailing Todd Pletcher by
six in the race for the H. Allen Jerkens training title. Watsdachances gave Brown his 23rd
victory in the P.G. Johnson in her American debut, while the claimer Gimme Credit scored another for Brown one
race later.
The trainer said Irish-bred Watsdachances will likely make her next
start on October 7 at Belmont Park in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo, a race Brown won
in 2008 with Maram, who went on to take the inaugural Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Fillies Turf.