To racing fans itching to know if Kentucky Derby champ Street Sense and Preakness Stakes winner Curlin

will face off at the June 9 Belmont Stakes: Chill out! Carl Nafzger, who trains Street Sense, has told New York Racing Association stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes he’ll notify NYRA as soon as a decision is made whether to run in the mile-and-a-half “Test of the Champion” after Nafzger meets this weekend with the horse’s owner, James

Tafel.

With an eye toward the big races later this year, like the Travers and Breeders’ Cup Classic,Nafzger still seems

to be leaning against a Belmont run; but if he has made up his mind already, he hasn’t told anyone, not even his

jockey, Calvin Borel. Yesterday, Borel’s agent, Jerry Hissam, said from Churchill Downs he has not heard yet

whether or not Street Sense will run in the Belmont.

In the Preakness, Street Sense blew past Curlin at the top of the stretch, caught Hard Spun and opened daylight

with a furlong to run, only to be nailed by a resurgent Curlin in the final stride. Ever since an NBC commentator

asked Borel immediately after the race if he “moved too soon,” Borel’s ride has come under fire, especially on

internet message boards, from posters who claim that, when he looked back at the onrushing Curlin in deep

stretch, it cost Street Sense momentum, and the race – even though Borel kept busy with his left-hand stick, whipping him more than a dozen times down the lane to the wire.

“When a horse loses, everybody looks for excuse,” Hissam said. “But it was hell of a horse race, and he just flat got

outrun that given day. That’s the bottom line.”

In other Belmont news, Imawildandcrazyguy, who rallied for fourth in the Derby, beaten a half-length by Curlin for third, worked a mile at Calder yesterday in 1:47.3 for trainer Bill Kaplan. Juan Leyva was aboard for the breeze, but Mark Guidry will ride him in the Belmont.

Trainer Michael Matz indicated yesterday that Chelokee, runaway winner of the Barbaro Stakes on the Preakness

undercard, is unlikely to start.

Hard Spun, second in the Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness after leading into the stretch in both races,

has been galloping at Delaware Park and appears on target for the Belmont.