Wins by a pair of promising two-year-olds on Sunday’s “Stars of Tomorrow
I” fall meet opener have trainer Bret Calhoun both atop the Churchill Downs
trainer standings heading into Thursday’s racing and looking down the road with
new optimism.
The victories by Sierra Terra and Salvatore Simone’s Son of a
Preacher and Royal Colors Racing LLC and Carl Moore Management LLC’s Springboard were
at least somewhat surprising to Calhoun. And, while both wins indicated the
possibility of good things in the future for both colts, the trainer’s
enthusiasm was tempered a bit on Monday when Calhoun discovered that Springboard
came out of the race with a shin issue.
“He’ll be on the shelf for a little
while,” Calhoun said. “It was the highs and lows — the highs of him running
great, and the next morning he had a shin problem. It’s not anything major, but
he is going to be out for a while.”
Springboard might have been the more
impressive of Calhoun’s winners as he romped to a 5 1/2-length victory over
favorite Spirit of Freedom in his debut on dirt. The son of Spring at Last had
failed to win in previous runs on grass at Kentucky Downs and Polytrack at Keeneland.
“The funny thing about him is that I
had lost some confidence in him coming into this race,” Calhoun said. “I was
disappointed that a horse that was as prepared as I thought I had him in his
first two outs did not run any better in those races.
“I was disappointed and I
had actually discussed moving him south to New Orleans and not running him at
Churchill. But the owners really wanted to try him on the dirt there and run him
out of his own stall, and he looked like the horse we had been waiting to see.
We did add the blinkers to him and I think that was a huge factor also — maybe
the biggest factor of all.”
Calhoun said Springboard was impressive enough that he would have been
considered for the Kentucky Jockey Club on the November 20 “Stars of Tomorrow II” program. Calhoun admits that
the win by Son of a Preacher, who took his six-furlong debut by 2 1/4 lengths, was
a surprise — but a very nice one.
“We liked the horse, but I didn’t’
think I had him completely ready,” Calhoun said. “I was looking at that more as
a race to prepare him for the future, so we were pleasantly surprised. He was
very professional, got himself in good position early, split horses and did
things like a seasoned veteran.”
Calhoun said the son of Pulpit would
likely run next in an allowance race on the closing day “Stars of Tomorrow”
card.
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