Calhoun collects 2,500th career win at Lone Star Park
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Bret Calhoun won the 2,500th race of his training career Saturday night at Lone Star Park, when Ship Rock closed with determination to win the second race. It was a maiden special weight for 2-year-olds bred in Texas, and Ship Rock also became the first winner for the young stallion Indygo Mountain, according to statistics from Daily Racing Form.
Calhoun picked up career win No. 2,501 one race later, when Cattle Company took the third race. With the win, the horse gave Calhoun, as well as owner Doug Scharbauer and jockey Cliff Berry, a sweep of the night’s races for 2-year-olds at Lone Star.
Calhoun won the first race of his career on April 22, 1994, at the now-shuttered Trinity Meadows outside of Fort Worth, Texas. Calhoun is a 51-year-old native of Grand Prairie, Texas. He reached a career pinnacle in 2010, when he won a pair of Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs, the Grade 1 Filly and Mare Sprint with Dubai Majesty and the Grade 2 Turf Sprint with Chamberlain Bridge.
“When you start this, 2,500 seems a long, long ways away,” Calhoun said. “It seems like an unachievable amount of wins. It’s a great team effort, all of my owners, all of my staff, to get this far.”
Calhoun has had 11,365 career starts for stable earnings of more than $61 million, according to Daily Racing Form statistics. Of his 2,501 wins, 226 have come in stakes. One of Calhoun’s latest stakes winners is Promise Me Silver, who remained undefeated in eight starts earlier this month with her win in the Grade 3 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs. Calhoun said she will ship Wednesday to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Acorn.
As for Ship Rock, Calhoun said he could start next in the Grade 3, $100,000 Bashford Manor at six furlongs June 27 at Churchill Downs.
Lone Star recognized Calhoun’s milestone win with a sign in a winner’s circle presentation Saturday. Calhoun has divisions of his stable at Churchill, Evangeline Downs, and Lone Star.