Street Sense Team Is Even-Keeled

Trainer, Jockey Are Composed After Heartbreaking Loss

BALTIMORE, May 19 -- Thirty minutes after his Triple Crown bid ended by a few excruciating inches, Street Sense trainer Carl Nafzger needed a ride.

"How can we get a driver to take us to the test barn?" Nafzger drawled, standing near the Pimlico stakes barn, surrounded by a gaggle of well-wishers. "I don't even know how to get there. I like to see him in the test barn. I like to look at my horse there."

While a driver was called, Nafzger looked back on a defeat that came via one final head bob from winner Curlin.

Earlier, he had called it "heartbreaking; that's what it was, heartbreaking." But here was the veteran trainer, calmly asking to see his horse, settling into routine. He wanted to look at his horse in the test barn, and eventually he would be back home doing "the same thing I do every morning: get up, go to the barn, look at about 30 head of these [horses] and get ready for something down the road."

"I sleep okay every night, win or lose," he said. "You've got to. If my horse would have stopped and waddled around and finished seventh, I wouldn't have slept good, because I'd have thought, 'What did I do wrong?' or 'What's wrong?' But, hey, my horse ran a great race today. He just got beat."

In truth, it would seem a bit more agonizing than that. Nafzger and his jockey, Calvin Borel, had glowed with confidence for days. Their horse opened as a heavy favorite and maintained that status until post time. And for much of the race, the confidence and the odds seemed justified; the Kentucky Derby winner lurked comfortably behind the early pace setters, passed leader Hard Spun while turning for home and then raced ahead in the stretch, opening a lead of 1 1/2 lengths. The crowd came to life as the announcer called out Street Sense's name.

"I was ready to say, 'Yup, we got it,' " Nafzger recalled.

"I thought it was all over," agreed Borel, whose Derby win had landed him a moment of stardom and a trip to a White House state dinner.

But as Borel said, "things happen." Curlin charged from the outside, Borel said his horse began "gawking," and the lead disappeared during a stirring finish. Some fans headed straight to television monitors for a replay, but Nafzger said he knew immediately.

"You know, I was watching that wire, and they got there a nose too late," he said. "I said, 'We didn't get there.' And then we watched the rerun, and I said, 'No, we didn't get there.' I said it right away."

Still, Nafzger said his jockey had run the race "beautifully," and both men congratulated their victorious rivals. Borel said if he had to lose to anyone he was glad it was Curlin's Robby Albarado, and Nafzger talked about his fondness for Curlin trainer Steve Asmussen.

"Steve is a friend of mine and his horse ran a hell of a race," Nafzger said. "Steve didn't go cry in a car when I kicked his rear in the Derby."

Like his trainer, Borel was philosophical about the future; "it's far from over," he said. As for the immediate future, Nafzger was non-committal on entering the Belmont Stakes; first, he wanted to examine his horse. But either way, he urged his interrogators to savor the race they had just watched.

"There's more to horse racing than winning, guys," he said. "You know, you've got to appreciate a great horse. When you see a good horse, you better appreciate it. I just think [Street Sense is] as good a horse as he ever was."