Fish Trappe Road will race again next season

Fish Trappe Road, the winner of the Grade 3 Dwyer in July at Belmont Park, wrapped up his season last Sunday with a third-place finish in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby.

“We’re going to rest him now,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains the horse for Martin Racing Stable.

Calhoun said Fish Trappe Road, who will get some farm time in Texas, will be brought back into training after the first of the year. He will join the trainer’s division at Fair Grounds.

Calhoun was pleased with the Oklahoma Derby effort from Fish Trappe Road, who was making just his second start at two turns. He was the favorite in the 1 1/8-mile race and was always prominent, finishing 3 1/2 lengths behind winner Texas Chrome.

“It was the first time he’d been that far,” Calhoun said. “He’d only been two turns once in his life, back in January in the first prep in the Louisiana Derby series. We always thought he was a two-turn horse, and he got started off on the wrong foot that day.”

So, his connections turned the horse back in distance, and he ran second in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens on June 11 at Belmont and then captured the Dwyer on July 9. Fish Trappe Road then finished a troubled sixth in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga in his start preceding the Oklahoma Derby, and Calhoun said he felt the one-turn races were not the ideal manner to come into Sunday’s distance test at Remington.

“He ran very good races at one turn, there were very good races available, and with that being said, he didn’t have a great prep coming into the Oklahoma Derby,” Calhoun said. “For him to do what he did going that far the way he was prepared, we learned he can go a mile and an eighth. With better preparation, he can be very good at a mile and an eighth.”