Calhoun being sensible with Goldencents gang of four

Doug O’Neill trained Goldencents during his racing days, but it is trainer Bret Calhoun playing a big part in making a name for Goldencents as a stallion.

Calhoun has no direct connections to Goldencents, a 10-year-old son of Into Mischief who went to stud at Spendthrift Farms in 2015, yet a pipeline sending offspring of Goldecents into his stable started flowing a couple years ago.

Calhoun trains easily the two highest-earning Goldencents’ progeny – Mr. Money, who has earned nearly $1.3 million, and By My Standards, who has earned almost $700,000. Mr. Money, winner of multiple regional derbies in 2019, is working steadily toward his 4-year-old debut, which could come, Calhoun said, in the Commonwealth Stakes on April 4 at Keeneland.

By My Standards, winner of the 2019 Louisiana Derby, already won his 2020 debut, sharply capturing a Fair Grounds allowance race, and is one of two major players, along with Silver Dust, Calhoun will start Saturday in the $400,000 New Orleans Classic (formerly known as the New Orleans Handicap).

And that’s not all. Mailman Money, yet another son of Goldencents, starts Saturday for Calhoun in the $1 million Louisiana Derby after finishing a close fourth in his stakes debut, the second division of the Feb. 15 Risen Star. In Wednesday’s seventh race, Calhoun sends out the sharp debut-winning 3-year-old filly Ain’t No Elmers, a daughter of – yep – Goldencents.

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“I’ve got no connections whatsoever to Goldencents,” Calhoun said. “This is just the way it worked out.”

Chester Thomas’s Allied Racing bought Mr. Money as a yearling, liked what the horse looked like as an early 2-year-old, and subsequently bought By My Standards at a 2-year-old auction.

“The next sale they came around and they found Mailman Money, not necessarily because they were especially looking for [horses by Goldencents], but they were definitely paying attention,” said Calhoun.

Ain’t No Elmers was bred and is part-owned by John Kerber, and her connections had taken note of the Goldencents-Calhoun synergy. “The reason I got her to train was I was successful with the horses,” Calhoun said. “It is kind of weird how it’s worked out like this.”

Ain’t No Elmers set a fast pace and won a Feb. 15 maiden sprint by more than six lengths. Calhoun believes she’ll race at least as effectively over a route of ground and said he was tempted to try her in the Fair Grounds Oaks, but eventually the decision was made to go slower with a filly Calhoun thinks could have a successful summer – and is sitting on another big race this week.

“She seems like she’s thriving, like she’s more aware of what her job is,” Calhoun said. “It looks like she’s moved forward since her last race.”

Mailman Money won his first two starts, a Churchill maiden sprint and a Fair Grounds route allowance rained from turf to dirt. His Risen Star performance, where he finished evenly and was beaten only 2 1/2 lengths by winner Modernist, is a little difficult to read. It looked like the nine-furlong distance or the step up in competition might have found Mailman Money wanting, but the colt broke from an outside post and was caught five or six paths wide around the first turn while stalking a slow pace.

“I see a steady progression from him physically. It’s coming slowly. He’s got a huge stride and a good mind, and I think he ran well enough last time to give him a shot,” said Calhoun.

Calhoun isn’t thrilled about running both Goldencents 4-year-olds By My Standards and the streaking Silver Dust in the New Orleans Classic, but starting the pair feels like a better plan than shipping one of them. This was always going to be the spot for Silver Dust, who tested positive for levamisole and was disqualified from his win in the Louisiana Stakes the day before he won the Mineshaft Stakes on Feb. 15. Sending By My Standards out on the road for his second start since the 2019 Kentucky Derby struck Calhoun as imprudent.

“We’re trying to look long term, and that’s one of the reasons we’re not shipping,” said Calhoun. “It’s funny, I kind of think Silver Dust might have the upper hand right now, with two races coming in to just one for the other horse, who might not be quite as tight. But then you watch By My Standards work and you say, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ They are both very impressive in the morning.”

One final piece of Calhoun-stable accounting: Digital, fifth last out in the first division of the Risen Star, will be cut back to one turn and aimed toward the Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs. Digital is not by Goldencents, but he’s by Goldencents’ father, Into Mischief.

◗ Wednesday’s featured race 8 (which, like the rest of the races this meet will be run without an ontrack crowd) is like a consolation prize for turf horses not quite good enough to start Saturday in the Muniz Memorial Stakes. Eight were entered in the field’s main body with Sonneteer set to start only if the race is moved to dirt.

Maybe he’s not good enough, but Clint Maroon, listed at 8-1 on the track’s morning line, should go to the lead and control a slow pace in the 1 1/16-mile contest. Parlor and Another Mystery rate strong chances in a well-matched group.