By My Standards Pulls Louisiana Derby Shocker
Image:
Description:
Photo: Hodges Photography / Lou Hodges, Jr
By My Standards is led to the winner's circle after the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds
Coming off a 4 1/4-length victory in a maiden race at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Allied Racing Stable's By My Standards seemed ambitiously placed in the $1 million Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2), but trainer Bret Calhoun was willing to gamble.
"The light went on," Calhoun said about the 3-year-old son of Goldencents .
And now that light will shine on the path to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1).
Rallying along the inside in the stretch March 23, By My Standards motored past the Todd Pletcher-trained Spinoff at 22-1 odds and earned a spot in the May 4 Run for the Roses by collecting 100 points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby points series. By anyone's standards, it was an impressive performance.
"We're going to the Derby, how about that!" shouted a gleeful Chester Thomas after By My Standards accounted for his stable's 100th victory.
Calhoun was less vocal but equally delighted with the prospect of training the horse that is currently atop the Kentucky Derby leaderboard and is bound for Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.
"It takes a long time to sink in," Calhoun said of the victory, which followed the colt's maiden win Feb. 16 at Fair Grounds. "He did what he was supposed to do (in the maiden race), and in the mornings he was phenomenal. … He was a different horse in the morning from that point on. I mean, his breezes were unbelievable. There were some fast works in there, and none of them were intentional. He just turned into a different horse.
"That gave us a lot of confidence coming in here. I know a lot of people didn't have confidence in him, but we did. We're excited about the opportunity to run (in the Kentucky Derby)."
As surprising as By My Standards' victory may have been, equally baffling was the lackluster effort by 4-5 favorite War of Will. Winner of the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2) and Lecomte Stakes (G3) earlier in the meet, War of Will lost his footing shortly after the break and never entered contention. He finished ninth of 11—his first loss in four starts on dirt.
"(Jockey Tyler Gaffalione) said he broke on top and went about three jumps and then he lost his rear end," trainer Mark Casse said. "I don't know. But he seems fine. He broke like a shot, but you watch the replay and you'll see it. I really don't know. I think it got him a little bit out of his element when that happened.
"We think what happened was about four jumps out of the gate, he actually broke in front and … if you watch, he buckles on his right hind. And we believe maybe it was a stumble of some sort. But when he did, we think he strained maybe a muscle or whatever. But he was significantly off after the race. He's significantly off. I've just been on the phone with Dr. Robert McMartin, he's my main guy. And he thinks he maybe caught his stifle or something. We feel like he'll probably be a little better tomorrow, and we're going to do further evaluation on him."
Barring a physical setback, the loss will not prevent War of Will from running in the Kentucky Derby. He has 60 points, placing him second behind By My Standards.
"I mean, it is (too soon)," Casse said. "I would not absolutely rule him out because this is something that he can get over very quickly. We'll see. The good news is he hasn't broken anything. It's a muscle strain of some sort. We're confident of that."
Spinoff picked up 40 points and ranks eighth in the points standings, which should be good enough to punch Pletcher's 16th straight ticket to the Kentucky Derby. Third-place finisher Sueno received 20 points and ranks 12th with 28, and Country House, who was fourth, gained 10 points and ranks 11th with 30 overall.
While 64-1 shot Lemniscate set the early pace of :23.63 and :47.68 for the half-mile in the 1 1/8-mile Louisiana Derby, Sueno, Spinoff, and By My Standards were directly behind him and wound up dominating the race.
Spinoff made a four-wide move for the lead and seemed ready to cruise to victory as he opened a length lead at the eighth pole until By My Standards and jockey Gabriel Saez began gobbling up ground inside him. In a two-horse battle to the wire, the 22-1 maiden winner then surged past Spinoff in the final yards and covered the nine furlongs in 1:49.53.
"It was a perfect trip," Saez said. "I saved as much horse as I could, and he got the job done when I asked him to do it."
Spinoff, making just his fourth start and second since a third-place finish in the Aug. 12 Saratoga Special Stakes Presented by Miller Lite (G2), was five lengths clear of Sueno. Country House, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, was another three-quarters of a length behind after rallying six wide from ninth to take fourth by 1 1/2 lengths over Mr. Money, who is also owned by Thomas.
The only horses to win both the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky Derby are Grindstone (1996) and Black Gold (1924). Funny Cide, who finished second in the 2003 Louisiana Derby, is the only other winner of the Run for the Roses to have contested the race.
By My Standards was bred in Kentucky by Don Ladd out of the graded stakes-placed Muqtarib mare A Jealous Woman, who was bred to Runhappy for 2019. The mare has not produced a reported foal since 2017, when she dropped her third foal, a Tapizar colt named Gentle Soul. 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 now has two wins from five starts and $653,710 in earnings.
"How do you put this in perspective? It hasn't sunk in yet," Thomas said. "Life is good right now. It doesn't get any better than this."
Who knows? Depending on what happens May 4 at Churchill Downs, it just might.