Three Glitter Men a star in making

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Trainer Bret Calhoun, whose Cowboy Dan at 2 came within a neck of upsetting eventual Horse of the Year Favorite Trick in the 1997 WHAS-TV Stakes, appears to have another talented 2-year-old in Three Glitter Men.

Three Glitter Men will make his career debut Thursday night in the fifth race at Lone Star Park, one of three five-furlong trial races for the colts and geldings division of the $150,000-estimated Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity. The finale is set for June 30.

Cowboy Dan, who won his debut for Calhoun, was sold after the WHAS and went on to win the Grade 2 Arlington-Washington Futurity, the $200,000 Cradle Stakes, and the $200,000 Mid-South Futurity. Of his six career wins, five came at 2.

Calhoun said that like Cowboy Dan, Three Glitter Men possesses good speed and a mental maturity that transcends his age. He also said that from what he has seen in morning workouts, Three Glitter Men may be more talented than Cowboy Dan. "I think this colt is a better horse than Cowboy Dan, but that's saying it in the morning," Calhoun said. "He's going to have to go out and do it in the afternoon like Cowboy Dan."

Three Glitter Men has been impressive in his workouts. He blazed a quarter-mile in a bullet 20.80 seconds during the Fasig-Tipton Texas under-tack show in March, and has been burning up the track ever since. In one of his final preps for Thursday night, he worked five furlongs in 59.80 seconds May 24, the second-fastest work at the distance, behind the work of multiple stakes winning sprinter Boots on Sunday.

Calhoun said the manner in which Three Glitter Men worked for the March sale led him to recommend the colt to the partnership of Robert Beck, Carl Moore, and Wesley Cooper, who owned 1996 TTA Sales Futurity winner Cooper's Top Angel. "He was a great mover," Calhoun said of Three Glitter Men, whom the partnership purchased for $120,000. "When he worked in [20.80] it didn't look like he went anywhere close to that. He went extremely easy.

"Some of his works have scared me they've been so fast. I think this horse should have at least one more gear - I'm hoping for two more. We've never set him down and asked him to run yet."

Casey Lambert, who won last year's TTA Sales Futurity with Wild Hits, has the mount on Three Glitter Men.

Three Glitter Men faces 10 others, among them Driving Hennesy, a local sales topper as a yearling who looks to rebound from a distant fourth-place finish in his last start, and Faxamillion, an impressive debut winner for leading trainer Steve Asmussen.