Once again, Calhoun armed with two talented 3-year-olds

NEW ORLEANS – Last January at Fair Grounds, trainer Bret Calhoun had two colts he hoped could turn out to be serious players in the 2019 3-year-old dirt-route division. By My Standards was one of them, and he wound up winning the Louisiana Derby. Mr. Money was the other, and he won four straight Grade 3 races before finishing second in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.

A year later, and the situation looks strikingly similar in the Calhoun barn. Mailman Money followed up on a debut sprint win at Churchill Downs last fall by winning a first-level allowance race Sunday at Fair Grounds by 5 3/4 lengths. He earned an 85 Beyer Speed Figure and is bound for the Risen Star Stakes here Feb. 15.

Saturday, it’s Digital’s turn. In a battle of barnmates, Mailman Money beat Digital in their common Churchill debut, and after winning a maiden race here in December, he runs back in a first-level allowance on the Saturday card.

Digital is by Into Mischief, and Mailman Money, like both By My Standards and Mr. Money, is by Goldencents.

Calhoun said Monday that Mailman Money had come out of his Sunday win in a race rained from turf to dirt in good condition. Rating just behind the leaders, he seized command in upper stretch and easily turned back a mild bid from favored Winning Impression, who had notched a solid maiden route win here Dec. 21.

“I thought he ran really well, but there’s still room for him to get better,” Calhoun said. “He was running against horses yesterday who had more experience.”

Digital was favored at 6-5 in his debut, but after a slow break and a wide trip he proved unable to run down the 24-1 Mailman Money. Racing on a wet track for the second time, Digital was comfortably best in a Dec. 28 maiden sprint here, and he’ll get his first chance around two turns in Saturday’s fourth race. As well as Mailman Money ran Sunday, Digital, one gets the sense, is at least his equal on talent.

As for By My Standards and Mr. Money, By My Standards has gotten well into a breeze pattern training for his first start since a subpar performance in the Kentucky Derby, and Calhoun hopes to launch his 2020 campaign sometime in February. Mr. Money got 60 days off following a seventhplace finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile but has resumed farm training and should rejoin Calhoun’s barn in February.

Serengeti Empress ready

Serengeti Empress is built something along the lines of a gazelle. She’s fleet, works hard during morning exercise, and does not take a lot of training to get ready to race.

Case in point: Following Serengeti Empress’s second workout here Jan. 12 after a post-Breeders’ Cup break, trainer Tom Amoss proclaimed the filly “fit and ready.” She is so ready that Amoss said Serengeti Empress will make her 4-year-old debut in the $300,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 26 at Sam

Houston.

“The way she worked, the way she came out of the work, the way she’s eating and how she looks – everything points in the right direction,” Amoss said Monday morning.

Serengeti Empress got an official clocking Sunday of 48 seconds for a half-mile, but Amoss said her gallop-out following the four furlongs ended at the wire and was as important as the officially timed portion of the work itself. Serengeti Empress worked a half in 49 seconds here Jan. 5, her first workout since finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Earlier in 2019, she finished second in the Grade 1 Test, second in the Grade 1 Acorn, and won the Kentucky Oaks.

The day before Serengeti Empress’s weekend breeze, the Amoss-trained 3-year-old No Parole scored his second blowout Fair Grounds sprint win this meet, breezing to a 13 1/4-length geared-down victory over first-level Louisiana-bred allowance sprinters. He ran six furlongs over a dull surface in 1:10.24 and earned an 87 Beyer. His debut win, which yielded the same raw time, came back a 90 Beyer.

No Parole goes very fast, very easily. He’s a son of Violence and out of Plus One, a mare by Bluegrass Cat who sprinted during her racing career. No Parole might or might not turn out to be a route horse, but Amoss said he’ll get the chance to try two turns against open stakes competition in his next start, though Amoss and owner Maggi Moss have yet to determine where.

Beautiful Trauma has surgery

Three-year-old filly Beautiful Trauma, who got a 92 Beyer

Speed Figure for a 16-length victory in a mile and 70-yard first-level allowance race Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, has undergone surgery to remove a bone chip in her knee, trainer Tom Amoss said. Beautiful Trauma, if all goes well, will be aimed toward a late spring and summer campaign.

Making her first start around two turns here last month, Beautiful Trauma went to the front and drew steadily clear to post one of the two most impressive performance this meet from a horse in her class.

Equally sharp winning the Letellier Stake on the same Dec. 21 card was Taraz, who worked a bullet half-mile in company Sunday at Fair Grounds in 46.80 seconds as she prepares for her route debut in the Martha Washington Stakes on Feb. 1 at Oaklawn Park.

◗ The cancellation of training here Saturday because of a storm led to very heavy work tabs on Sunday and Monday. Among the workers of note Sunday were Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner British Idiom, who went a halfmile in 48.60 preparing for her 3-year-old debut Feb. 15 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes, and Scabbard, who worked five furlongs in 1:01.60. Scabbard will be no worse than second choice here Saturday in the Lecomte Stakes after shipping from Florida for trainer Eddie Kenneally.

Monday’s workers included Grade 3-winning turf filly Alms, a half-mile in 49.20; Cotillion winner Street Band, a half in 48.80; and Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club winner Silver Prospector, five furlongs in 1:00. Silver Prospector is being pointed to the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn.