Bret Calhoun

All that glisters is not gold. Certainly we shouldn't get too carried away: Goldencents has been launched by mares in such volume that there would be something badly amiss if he didn't come up with the occasional smart racehorse. In fact, a suitably brisk start made by his first juveniles in 2018 saw him entertain a staggering 239 mares last spring. That put him in the company of seven other stallions in the 200 club (five at Ashford, the other two alongside Goldencents at Spendthrift) and onto an aggregate 929...

A positive test for the Class B substance cannabidiol (CBD) in a filly who broke her maiden last summer at Ellis Park has resulted in a 30-day suspension and $500 fine for trainer W. Bret Calhoun. Citing mitigating circumstances ("number of violations in relation to overall record"), the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) wrote in an Apr. 14 ruling that Calhoun would only have to serve ten days of his penalty between Apr. 14 and 23. The remainder of his suspension will be stayed "on the condition that no Class...

Owner and breeder John Kerber estimates that he purchased his first broodmare in 1960, three years into his tenure as a junior high school science teacher. Some six decades later, undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Ain't No Elmers (Goldencents) is the filly the affable octogenarian calls "the one I've been waiting for my whole life." "At my age, how many more like this can I expect?" wondered Kerber, 83, who resides in the small town of Emmetsburg, Iowa, in the northwest quadrant of the state. Kerber acquired the filly's dam, Voussoir...

Mr. Big News (Giant's Causeway) certainly lived up to his name Saturday, upsetting the Oaklawn S. at a whopping 46-1. The bay raced well back off the pace early with just two rivals behind him as Gold Street (Street Boss) zipped through a :22.07 first quarter and a :45.47 half-mile. Given plenty of encouragement by pilot Gabriel Saez on the backstretch, the $95,000 FTKOCT buy made steady progress down the three-path to be within striking distance approaching the bend. Five wide on the far turn, Mr. Big News took control...

Sent out at 70 cents on the dollars to follow up on a 6 1/2-length success over track and distance Feb. 15, Ain't No Elmers (Goldencents) decimated a field of first-level allowance company by nine lengths Wednesday to become the newest 'TDN Rising Star' at the Fair Grounds. Content to drop back off a fast early quarter mile after taking them wire-to-wire first time out, Ain't No Elmers was trapped out four wide, but traveled into it nicely with cover as they approached the top of the lane. Switched out...

Silver Dust (Tapit), who scored in Saturday's GIII Mineshaft S. at Fair Grounds, has been disqualified and placed last for his previous victory, in the GIII Louisiana S. Jan. 18, due to a failed drug test, according to a report in the Daily Racing Form. The Bret Calhoun-trained gray tested positive for levamisole, the same drug that got eight Joe Sharp trainees disqualified from wins at the meet earlier this month. Calhoun is married to Sharp's mother, Sara Escudero, and the two trainers' barns at Fair Grounds are next to...

7th-Fair Grounds, $47,000, Alw (NW2X)/Opt. Clm ($40,000), 2-9, 4yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:43.75, ft. BY MY STANDARDS (c, 4, Goldencents--A Jealous Woman {MSW & GSP, $469,956}, by Muqtarib), a maiden winner over this track and trip last February, earned a ticket to the GI Kentucky Derby with a next-out victory in the Mar. 23 GII Louisiana Derby, but had been missing since a troubled 12th-place effort in the big dance last May. Sent off the 1-2 favorite, the bay colt shadowed pacesetting Two Emmys (English Channel) through fractions of :24.64, :49.29,...

The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Four-time Grade I-winning 4-year-old McKinzie (Street Sense) has always been saddled with high expectations, while 3-year-old Mr. Money (Goldencents) has now achieved millionaire status by grinding out four consecutive Grade III victories. Convincing wins on Saturday gave each horse a divisional foothold, with McKinzie establishing himself as the top two-turn older dirt horse who might finally be getting comfortable with kingpin status, and Mr. Money carving out a niche as the late-blooming sophomore who appears primed to punch above his weight thanks to...