Fish Trappe Road leads Calhoun contenders in Saturday stakes

None of the five horses whom trainer Bret Calhoun plans to start in four stakes races Saturday at Fair Grounds will be close to favored, but that doesn’t mean they can be counted out. Calhoun has struck before with price horses in Fair Grounds stakes, as recently as last month, when Ibaka won the Buddy Diliberto Memorial at odds of more than 6-1, and as far back as 2010, when Jody Slew, a 23-1 shot, upset the Tiffany Lass Stakes.

The Tiffany Lass now is called the Silverbulletday, and Calhoun has two entrants, Jet Black Magic and More Than Most. He runs Haunted Heroine in the Marie Krantz, the first of the five Saturday stakes, and he has Ibaka for the Grade 3 Col. E.R. Bradley and Fish Trappe Road making his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte.

Fish Trappe Road holds some appeal. Four of his five starts at 2 came against New York-breds, but there were plenty of talented New York-bred juveniles in 2015, and Fish Trappe Road faced most of them. His only poor race came when Calhoun experimented with blinkers. Fish Trappe Road improved steadily through his campaign, and in his last start before Calhoun gave him a break, he set the pace and held second in the $250,000 Sleepy Hollow behind Get Jets, a colt with real ability.

“He was a physically and mentally immature horse last year,” Calhoun said. “It was amazing he got done what he got done as a 2-year-old, and that’s what has us excited about him. With his body style, he’s never going to be a big, strong horse, and mentally, he was like a baby, with the attention span of about one second. He still is somewhat, but he’s way better, and physically, the last 30 days, you can see him maturing.”

Fish Trappe Road, a son of second-crop stallion Trappe Shot, hasn’t raced in the better part of three months, but he has logged plenty of Fair Grounds furlongs working for the Lecomte. After a slow half-mile Nov. 28, Calhoun worked him five furlongs three times and six furlongs twice, and on Sunday, Fish Trappe Road had one final half-mile work, though clockers caught him going five furlongs.

“We’ve had this planned for a long time,” Calhoun said. “We’ve been cranking on him pretty good.”

Jet Black Magic, by Hold Me Back, won the Grade 3 Delta Princess last out over the bullring at Delta Downs, but Calhoun describes her as a tall, lanky type who should prefer a full-sized oval. She’s done little wrong in a four-start career and figures to fly under the betting radar Saturday. More Than Most won the Senorita Stakes routing on turf Oct. 3 at Retama Park in her most recent start and will be a longer price than Jet Black Magic.

As for Ibaka, the Oklahoma-bred has turned his career around since Calhoun switched him to turf two starts ago, and he won the Diliberto despite a rough trip and a training schedule interrupted by a foot abscess.

“Jose Valdivia’s going to ride him,” Calhoun said. “He breezed him the other day, and he really liked him. He should be sitting on an even better race this time.”