By My Standards steps up in Fair Grounds’ New Orleans Classic
A year ago, By My Standards upset the Louisiana Derby (G2) when off as a 22-1 longshot in Fair Grounds’ signature race for 3-year-olds. The Goldencents colt will return to stakes company Saturday as a better-known commodity in the Grade 2, $400,000 New Orleans Classic.
While a foot issue kept By My Standards from racing again last season after an 11th in the Kentucky Derby, the Bret Calhoun trainee returned looking like his old self when annexing a Feb. 9 allowance optional claiming event off the layoff.
Next, it’s a step up the class ladder with Allied Racing’s By My Standards looking to establish himself as a top handicapper pending his New Orleans Classic run. Gabriel Saez will ride from post 8.
This 1 1/8-mile New Orleans Classic isn’t an easy spot, however, and that’s mainly because of his Calhoun stablemate in the field of nine.
Silver Dust opened his season by winning the Louisiana Stakes (G3) and Mineshaft Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds, though the former victory has since been disallowed due to a positive drug test. This 6-year-old Tapit gelding proved difficult to handle earlier in his career but has come into his own, now looking to do one better than last year when he was second in a race formerly known as the New Orleans Handicap.
“I’d like to separate them,” Calhoun recently said of By My Standards and Silver Dust, “but both owners deserve to be in there and want to be in there. The timing is perfect for both of them so we’re going to wait and see but it looks like I’ll have both in there.”
Other familiar names in the field of nine begin at the rail with Lone Sailor exiting a rare victory to open his 5-year-old season at Oaklawn Park. Running for G M B Racing and trainer Tom Amoss, Lone Sailor also ran second in the 2018 Louisiana Derby (G2) over this trip.
Fearless, from post 3, is a 4-year-old gelding late on the scene for Todd Pletcher. He debuted Dec. 22 and returned to clear an allowance condition Feb. 1 with both wins at Gulfstream Park. The former $750,000 yearling runs for China Horse Club and WinStar Farm.
Gun It, who once sold at auction for a sales-topping $2.6 million, has knocked on the door of a stakes victory in recent months. Third across the wire in the Louisiana Stakes, he narrowed the gap to Silver Dust to 3/4 of a length in the Mineshaft.
Carded as Race 9, the New Orleans Classic goes at 4:10 p.m. ET.