In 2024, the Street Sense Stakes served as the unveiling of a future superstar: Sovereignty, winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets.

Road to the 2026 Kentucky Derby Leaderboard

When the Churchill Downs starting gate opened Oct. 26 for this year’s Street Sense, Pin Oak Stud’s Incredibolt took a few cues from Sovereignty’s playbook and placed himself as a contender on the 2026 Kentucky Derby trail.

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“A horse like him, you’re looking down the road to the First Saturday in May,” said Michael Hardy, Pin Oak’s director of operations. “To get that stakes win today, to do it here at Churchill, hopefully we can follow the path of Sovereignty into next year.”

With his head turned as the starting gate opened, Incredibolt broke slowly and found himself last, like Sovereignty did, in the early stages of the 1 1/16-mile race. The pace was slower ahead of him than last year’s race — Ganaas setting quarter-mile fractions of :24.29, :48.83, 1:13.40 —but that didn’t hinder Incredibolt’s impressive turn of foot down the stretch. Taking the lead at the sixteenth-pole, Incredibolt pulled away to win by 1 3/4 lengths in 1:44.67; paying $10.18 to win.

The Kenny McPeek-trained duo of Universe and Very Connected completed the trifecta.

“It takes a little bit — his stride — to get going,” winning jockey Jaime Torres said. “On the backside, I had a lot of confidence on him. He was traveling beautifully. I kind of asked him a couple times just to see how much horse I had to know where I had to move. Every time I tried to feel how much horse I had, he was there all the time. I kind of took it easy with him and tried to make a run from the three-eighths [pole].”

Torres has had complete confidence in the Bolt d’Oro colt since he first got on his back in the mornings ahead of his debut, ironically giving him the nickname “Little Sovereignty.”

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“The first time I ever got on him in the morning, I told my agent [Liz Morris], ‘I think that’s the next Sovereignty there,’ ” Torres said. “We kept working him in the morning. Every time, he was feeling better and better and better.

The colt debuted with a fourth at Ellis Park in August over six furlongs before stretching out to a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs Sept. 28 for a two-length win. Torres said longer will be better for a colt trained by Riley Mott, son of Sovereignty’s Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

With his victory, Incredibolt is one step closer to emulating Sovereignty. He earned 10 qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, which awarded the top five finishers points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale.

Bred in Kentucky by Deann and Greg Baer, Incredibolt was a $75,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September yearling sale.

“He always looked like a racehorse,” Hardy said. “Just a sleek, two-turn, good-looking horse that day. That was what got us attracted to him. We like the sire, we think he’s a sire that’s on the way up. We hope that Incredibolt can carry that flag along.”

Bolt d’Oro will stand the 2026 season at Spendthrift Farm for a $25,000 fee. Incredibolt is out of the winning Awesome Again mare Sapphire Spitfire.