Jas turned a promising turf résumé into an early Kentucky Derby credential Sunday, holding off Staunch by a neck in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs. Making his first start on dirt, the Red Lane Thoroughbreds colt completed 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.99 over a fast track and earned 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs' official race report listed the victory as the featured event on opening day of the fall meet.
Keith Asmussen kept Jas within striking distance of 9-5 favorite Card Man through fractions of :24.20, :48.03 and 1:12.19. Staunch, a four-length maiden winner over the same track four weeks earlier, swept four wide into contention and appeared ready to take over in upper stretch. Jas had a stronger answer, putting away Card Man and refusing to surrender as Staunch pressed him through the final furlong. Mystik Bayou finished five lengths behind in third, while Card Man faded to fifth. The BloodHorse account reported a $20.12 win payoff for Jas, who was the 9-1 fifth choice.
The performance was a significant surface test for a colt whose first three starts came on turf. Jas opened his career with a fifth at Ellis Park before winning a one-mile maiden race at Kentucky Downs by four lengths Aug. 29. Eleven days later, he finished second to How's Al Today in the $750,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile. That foundation gave Steve Asmussen a horse with meaningful earnings and experience before the dirt experiment, rather than an untested prospect making his first start around two turns.
“He's a very talented horse and ran great races on turf but trained well on dirt,” Steve Asmussen said in the official Churchill Downs report. “It's always nice to have a quarter of a million dollars in earnings before making your first start on dirt. That's the opportunity Kentucky Downs gave him.” The Hall of Fame trainer added that the connections were confident Jas could handle two turns, a judgment validated when the colt battled through the stretch instead of merely benefiting from a soft trip.
The family connection added another layer to the result. Keith Asmussen, riding for his father, had been aboard Jas in the mornings and said he initially believed the colt might be better suited to dirt. Jas is a Kentucky-bred son of Justify out of Flag Day and a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Hall of Fame. “Once he figured it out, he really fought to the wire,” Keith Asmussen said after the race, according to the Daily Racing Form report.
Jas now owns a record of 4-2-1-0 with $368,139 in earnings, and the Street Sense supplied the first graded and black-type victory of his career. The race awarded points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale to the top five finishers, placing Jas on the long road toward the 153rd Kentucky Derby next May. One dirt victory in October does not establish a Derby favorite, but a colt who can switch surfaces, press a legitimate pace and win a stretch fight has earned the right to be followed when the winter prep races begin.
