Street Babe became a graded stakes winner and stamped himself as a top handicap horse when he ground out a win in the Grade 3 $125,000 Mineshaft Handicap on February 22 at Fair Grounds Race Course.

An easy winner of his career debut on November 20 last year at Aqueduct, the Michael Dilger trainee was sent off as a 21-1 longshot, but ran down Argentine-bred Mystery Train to get the win by three-quarters of a length.

The gelding was sold by Bluewater as part/ of the Heiligbrodt dispersal at the Fasig-Titpon July Sale at his mother, Richbabe’s, side when she sold for $240,000. Now owned by Anstu Stables, Inc., he has earned $118,700 in three starts.

“You’re going to see a lot more of this horse – he was just playing around,” said jockey Kerwin Clark to the press after the race. “When the horse came up on the outside, I thought we were beat, but he cut away. When he got to the front, he was playing around again or he would have won easily.”