By My Standards Continues Fair Grounds Superiority
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Photo: Hodges Photography/Amanda Hodges Weir
By My Standards wins the New Orleans Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds
Whether competing in its signature race for 3-year-olds or its richest race for older dirt horses, By My Standards has been in a stakes class of his own at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in 2019-20.
A year after winning the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) at the New Orleans track, the 4-year-old Goldencents colt won the $400,000 New Orleans Classic Stakes (G2) there March 21, romping by three lengths over longshot Captivating Moon. He became the first horse since Mission Impazible in 2010-11 to pull off this lucrative Fair Grounds stakes double.
For a tall order, he made it look easy. Breaking sharply, he briefly passed the stands in front before allowing stablemate Silver Dust to set the pace with fractions of :25.43, :50.09, and 1:14.36. After that stage, he began to reel in the leader from his pace-pressing position in second, and once it the stretch the race was essentially over. He opened up a 2 1/2-length advantage in midstretch and after kept to right-handed reminders from Gabe Saez crossed the wire well in front.
Saez said in a post-race interview that he thought he might be on the lead but elected to rate his mount when he saw Silver Dust eager to take command. He thanked the winning connections of trainer Bret Calhoun and owner Chester Thomas, who races as Allied Racing Stable.
"What can I say? How pleased can I be?" he said.
By My Standards raced 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:50.27, paying $6.60 for a $2 win wager.
2019 Louisiana Derby champion BY MY STANDARDS gets the job done in the GII New Orleans Classic trainer Bret Calhoun with @Gabesaezjockey in the saddle. pic.twitter.com/jHMSqWB8iI
— Fair Grounds (@fairgroundsnola) March 21, 2020
While never a threat to the winner, Captivating Moon rallied for second, edging Chess Chief for the place. The latter crossed the wire in third but after a jockey's objection from Florent Geroux on favored Fearless, Chess Chief was disqualified and placed sixth for interference in the stretch, elevating Tenfold to the show position.
Silver Dust rose to fourth under the altered order of finish, and the impeded Fearless was granted fifth-place by track stewards.
The winner, bred in Kentucky By Don Ladd, is out of the stakes-winning Muqtarib mare A Jealous Woman. He is her second foal to race, the other being Holy Ghost (by Ghostzapper ), a winner of two of 15 starts and $78,282. By My Standards was purchased for $150,000 by J. Stevens Bloodstock, agent, from the consignment of Scanlon Training and Sales to the 2018 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He has now won four of eight races and $921,910.
"This horse has really developed over his time off," after an 11th-place finish in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), Calhoun said. "We thought he could be one of the top older horses in the country this year. He's trained like it."
Calhoun acknowledged that with an uncertain racing schedule due to COVID-19, that racing plans are up in the air for By My Standards and his other runner, Silver Dust, who seemed to become keen early after a slow break.
The trainer later mentioned that the Oaklawn Handicap (G2), scheduled May 2 with a $600,000 purse at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, could be an option for By My Standards.