Calhoun mulls next stakes for Fiftyshadesofgold, Marchman

Trainer Bret Calhoun enjoyed a memorable Derby Weekend by winning the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Friday with Marchman and the Grade 3 Eight Belles on Saturday with Fiftyshadesofgold.

The move to the Eight Belles was particularly sagacious, considering that Calhoun had pointed Fiftyshadesofgold to the Oaks for weeks before diverting her to a better fit.

“We’ll think about the Acorn for her,” he said.

Marchman, a two-time stakes winner this year in the turf-sprint niche, could run May 31 in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup at Penn National, he added.

Trio of longshot runners-up

Trainer Eddie Kenneally hit a rare trifecta of sorts on Derby Weekend by having the second-place finishers in three graded races for female horses – and all outran their odds in a big way.

On Friday, Dame Marie was second at 36-1 in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile, and Milam was the 9-1 runner-up in the Eight Belles. On Saturday, Street Girl rallied to be second at 21-1 in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff.

“You always want to win, but we were proud of the way the fillies ran,” Kenneally said.

Downes will sub for Collmus

Larry Collmus will call every race here this week but will be absent all of next week (May 15-18) when in his home state of Maryland to work for NBC Sports at the Preakness. Bill Downes, the Indiana Grand caller who filled in on occasion last week while Collmus was otherwise occupied, will call in his place.

Collmus, who was hired in February as the seventh caller in Churchill history, said he was satisfied with his call of the Derby on Saturday for the vast television and ontrack audiences, although “there’s never a perfect call,” he said. “There were a few moments that I would’ve liked to have done better, but overall, I thought I got through it okay. We’re our own worst critics, you know.”

This was the fourth year Collmus called the Derby for NBC and his first for the ontrack crowd.

Maiden juveniles run Friday

In a long-ago era, three stakes for 2-year-olds already would have been run in Kentucky by this early-May date – the Lafayette at Keeneland and the WHAS-TV and Debutante at Churchill.

But this being 2014, there were only four maiden races for babies run at Keeneland last month – and the first of the Churchill meet won’t be held until Friday. Eight 2-year-olds are entered in the sixth race (post 5:22 p.m. Eastern), with the Al Stall Jr.-trained Stonebriar likely to be favored off his win at the Aiken Trials on March 16.