Silver Dust finally scores stakes victory

NEW ORLEANS – Back in early 2017 at Oaklawn Park, Silver Dust briefly threatened to break into Triple Crown candidacy. Two years, a trainer change, gelding, and a whole lot of schooling later, Silver Dust broke through with his first stakes win, capturing the Grade 3 Mineshaft Handicap on Saturday.

Five-year-old Silver Dust, owned by Tom Durant, has the pedigree of a stallion, but as trainer Bret Calhoun said, he’d never even have gotten to this point had he not been gelded last summer.

“Just so much work has gone into this horse,” Calhoun said. “Just to have gotten it done makes me happy.”

Silver Dust, by Tapit, has a mind of his own and has struggled with the paddock, starting gate, and keeping his mind on racing. On Saturday he acted up in the gate again and failed to keep a straight course in the homestretch, still proving considerably best while giving jockey Jack Gilligan his first graded stakes win. All being well, Calhoun said, Silver Dust starts next in the March 23 New Orleans Handicap.

Calhoun said he plans to press on to the Louisiana Derby with Mr. Money, who loomed a contender at the head of the homestretch in the Risen Star Stakes before fading to seventh. Mr. Money was making his first start since a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and had to be scratched from the Jan. 19 Lecomte after getting sick. He has license to improve with his comeback run behind him.