Entering the new year at Fair Grounds, Bret Calhoun holds a 19-12 lead over four-time track titleholder Brad Cox in the trainer standings at the New Orleans oval.
A native of Dallas, Texas, Calhoun has landed in the top 10 of the Fair Grounds standings 16 consecutive years and he finished as the runner-up three times (most recently in 2014-15), but with nearly three months left at the current meet, does his barn have the ammo to hold the advantage?
“Coming into this meet we had a bunch of Louisiana-breds at the Copper Crowne training center (in Opelousas, Louisiana) waiting to run,” Calhoun said. “They were ready to run and had conditions. The horses from Kentucky, some of them weren't quite ready when we ran them back, and some of them weren't quite good enough in the spots we were running them in there. We had a tough summer, but saved conditions and came down here and things are going well.”
Led by Jack Hammer and Free Drop Maddy with two wins apiece, Calhoun has won ten of his 19 races with Louisiana-breds, and he's already broken eight maidens at the meet.
Calhoun's first Fair Grounds win came in 1996, and 559 of his 3,469 career victories have come in New Orleans.
“Bret is off to an awfully good start at the meet,” said Chester Thomas of Allied Racing Stables, one of Calhoun's top clients. “We've got a couple seconds that we are hopeful can turn to wins. Bret and Reylu (leading jockey Gutierrez) are on fire, we are just happy to be a part of it.”
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