Trainer Bret Calhoun has never had a better year at the races with 30 stakes wins so far, and now, the most important races for the barn are on the immediate horizon. Dubai Majesty and Chamberlain Bridge were pre-entered in separate Breeders’ Cup races on Monday, while 2-year-olds Gran Lioness and Su Casa G Casa are candidates for upcoming graded stakes at Churchill and Delta Downs.
“It’s been a really strong year,” Calhoun, 46, said. “We’ve won a lot of stakes this year. I think overall, we have a good stable. We don’t have the caliber of horses that the top stables have, but we’ve placed our horses in the right spots. And, we’ve got two to run in the Breeders’ Cup.
“I think we’ve kind of learned where to place our horses in the right spots in these stakes, and we got a lot done.”
Calhoun’s stakes starters have earned $2,558,308, which is almost half of the $5,683,249 in earnings his 110-horse stable has churned out to date in 2010. The total earnings are a career-high for Calhoun, who ranks eighth in trainer earnings in North America. His barn is sixth in wins, with 194.
Dubai Majesty recently won the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland and is now headed for the $1 million BC Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill on Nov. 5. She worked for the race Tuesday, going a half-mile in 49.60 seconds on turf, around the dogs at Churchill.
“She thrives on it,” Calhoun said of the reason for the turf work.
Dubai Majesty has also thrived on Churchill’s main track, among her wins the Grade 3 Winning Colors in May with a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 100. Chamberlain Bridge, meanwhile, has won four stakes this year and is on deck for the $1 million BC Turf Sprint on Nov. 6. Calhoun said he is to work for the race on Saturday. A day later, Gran Lioness will run in the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill.
In addition to a Churchill division, Calhoun has horses at Delaware Park and Remington. And this winter, he’ll have divisions at Fair Grounds, Oaklawn and Sam Houston. Calhoun is a Dallas native who began training in 1994. He won the Lone Star title in July with 62 wins, 14 clear of runner-up Danny Pish. Calhoun grew up in Grand Prairie, the location of Lone Star.
“It was special,” he said of the title. “It was in my hometown, and it’s my only Lone Star title.”
Calhoun also led all trainers in stakes wins at the meet with six. His latest regional stakes winners include Su Casa G Casa, who accounted for the $50,000 Kip Deville at Remington on Oct. 8. The horse earned a Beyer of 93, and could start next in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot on Nov. 20. Calhoun said the other option is the $250,000 Legacy for Louisiana-breds on the Jackpot undercard at Delta.
Miss Deville, who last Friday night won the $80,000 Oklahoma Classics Lassie at Remington, is now a candidate for the fillies division of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes on Nov. 13.
Gold Coyote out of retirement
Gold Coyote, meanwhile, has come out of retirement with an eye to the Texas Champions Day program at Sam Houston in January, said Calhoun. The horse had his first breeze since December 2009 on Tuesday at Lone Star. A multiple stakes-winning sprinter, he is a full brother to Coyote Legend, a five-time stakes winner in 2010 who is due back to Calhoun’s barn in the next few weeks after being freshened. Other stakes winners for Calhoun this year include Taptam, who is to be auctioned at Fasig-Tipton on Nov. 7.
“If she makes the price that the owners want, she’ll be sold,” Calhoun said. “If not, she’ll campaign at Oaklawn.”
Earlier this year, Taptam ran second to Zenyatta in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn.
Jody Slew, winner of the Grade 3 Silverbulletday this spring at Fair Grounds, is back in light training and is to head to the New Orleans track in the next few weeks, said Calhoun.
Euroears to Baffert
Euroears, a multiple stakes winner of $400,000 who has not raced since July, is back in training at Lone Star and will be sent to trainer Bob Baffert in Southern California in mid-November, said his owner, Jim Helzer. Helzer said Euroears is to base at Santa Anita.
“We’re going to get to keep him on the same racetrack for 120 days, and, Santa Anita is putting dirt on,” said Helzer, referring to the main track that had been a synthetic surface.
Euroears is a multiple stakes winner on dirt, among his wins last year’s Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds. He had been trained by the Midwest-based Calhoun.
Fields set for $2 million NM Cup
Enchanted Outlaw is back to defend his title against 11 others in the $180,000 Rocky Gulch New Mexico Cup Classic at Zia Park on Sunday. The race is one of 11 stakes for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that will make up the $2 million New Mexico Cup.
The card is the richest of the meet and all of the races are restricted to horses bred in New Mexico. The fields were drawn Tuesday.
