Silver Dust, Digital help Calhoun bring the heat

The New Orleans weather has been unseasonably warm during January, and trainer Bret Calhoun has been unusually hot. Since the calendar flipped to 2020, Calhoun’s Fair Grounds string has gone 18-9-1-1.

Last Saturday, Calhoun won the Grade 3, $125,000 Louisiana Stakes with the 6-year-old warrior Silver Dust, and while Digital took a loss in a first-level allowance race, he ran fast and validated Calhoun’s belief he can be a stakes horse this winter and spring.

Silver Dust made his first start since late September in the Louisiana Stakes. He tracked Gun It’s ridiculously slow pace, bossed that rival in upper stretch, and easily won the Louisiana. His modest Beyer Speed Figure of 92 resulted in great part from the pedestrian pace, and Silver Dust looked like a horse who can reprise a productive 2019 campaign, when he knocked two wins and four seconds from seven starts and earned nearly $400,000, all for owner Tom Durant.

The road to that sort of success hasn’t been easy. Silver Dust, even after he was gelded, rarely missed a chance to behave badly, whether in the starting gate, the paddock, or even during the basics of daily training. Calhoun and his staff worked diligently to settle Silver Dust, and on Saturday, to Calhoun’s surprise, he acted professionally from the moment he left his barn. Calhoun said Tuesday that Silver Dust is scheduled to start next in the Mineshaft Stakes on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds.

Digital, an Into Mischief colt owned by Durant, is highly regarded by his connections. He finished a tough-trip second to stablemate Mailman Money in his debut last fall, won a maiden sprint in December at Fair Grounds, and appeared to be on the way to victory at the furlong pole last Saturday, having bested pacesetting Blackberry Wine. Blackberry Wine came back on Digital and beat him by one length, but the race came up fast, 1:43.22 for 1 1/16 miles, a half-second faster than the Grade 3 Lecomte later on the card. Blackberry Wine got a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, Digital a career-best 92.

Calhoun said jockey Brian Hernandez told him Digital simply came up short in the final furlong, presumably because he lacked full route fitness and not because he can’t stay two turns. Still, Calhoun has Mailman Money aimed at the Feb. 15 Risen Star and seemed inclined to wait a little longer to run Digital back.

“I may have to space his races a little; he’s not a big, robust horse,” Calhoun said.

The trainer, though, is having a big, robust January in New Orleans.