Calhoun’s filly faces big field

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – You’d be misguided to typecast Bret Calhoun as a specialist with filly-and-mare sprinters. But there’s no denying that they’ve helped the 53-year-old Texan become known as a trainer capable of handling a top horse, regardless of niche.

Having already trained such divisional stars as Dubai Majesty, Fifty shades of gold, and Promise Me Silver, Calhoun now has Finley’ s lucky charm charging toward the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar. The 4-year-old filly arrives at the next checkpoint toward that Nov. 4 race as part of a surprisingly large field Saturday in the 28th running of the Chicago Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Finley’ s lucky charm, a winner in 7 of 9 career starts, will carry the high weight of 124 pounds as a solid favorite in a field of 13 fillies and mares in the Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago, the 10th of 11 races on the final Saturday of the spring meet.

“We’ve got the Breeders’ Cup on our mind,” said Calhoun, who won the 2010 Filly and Mare Sprint with Dubai Majesty. “We’re hopeful we end up there, and we’re kind of campaigning her in that direction. We’re still at our home base, and hopefully we can save a little bit for the fall.”

Calhoun has mentioned the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 26 at Saratoga as the primary interim race, but first things first. Finley’ s lucky charm, owned by Carl Moore, will be going for a clean sweep at the spring meet after capturing the Roxelana Stakes on opening night and the Grade 3 Winning Colors on May 27. The daughter of Twirling Candy will be ridden again by Brian Hernan- dez Jr. and breaks from post 8 in the seven-furlong Chicago.

“She does everything so well and has such good natural speed that I just have to stay out of her way,” said Hernandez.

Typically, a standout such as Finley’ s lucky charms cares off the opposition, but with so few graded races available in this region in the filly-and-mare sprint division, horsemen were willing to take a shot at the Chicago.

Among the opposition to Finley’ s lucky charm are Athena (post 2, Joe Rocco Jr.) and Kathballu (post 3, Florent Geroux), the second and third finishers in the Roxelana; She Mabee Wild (post 10, Jon Court), Mines and Magic (post 4, Robby Albarado), and Stageplay (post 13, Corey Lanerie), the first through third finishers in a tough May 27 allowance; and her own Moore-Calhoun stablemate, Mayla (post 7, Gabriel Saez), the runner-up in the Winning Colors.

The rest of the field is Pleasant Tales, Ivy Bell, Improv, Sweetgrass, Covey Trace, and Put Da Blame On Me.

The Chicago is being run somewhere other than its original home, Arlington Park, for the first time. Owned by Churchill Downs Inc., Arlington has undergone a severe purse crunch amid declining business, which prompted the switch. One other Arlington fixture, the Grade 3 Matron, was run earlier at this meet.

Early winners of the Chicago stamped it as an important race in the division, including Lazer Show (1986-87), Safely Kept (1991), and Meafara (1993). The 2016 winner over Polytrack was Sarah Sis, trained by Ingrid Mason.

First post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the Chicago set for 5:21.