Fish Trappe Road works bullet half-mile for King’s Bishop

Edited Press Release

Dwyer Stakes (G3) winner Fish Trappe Road, who is being pointed to the $500,000 King's Bishop Stakes (G1) on August 27 at Saratoga, worked a bullet half-mile in :48.73 over the Spa’s fast Oklahoma training track Thursday morning. It was the three-year-old's first work since capturing the Dwyer at Belmont Park on July 9.

"I told the rider to go :49 or :50, and he went a very easy :48 and three, and finished out well," trainer Bret Calhoun said. "It was a great work and just what we wanted. We'll get a little more serious in his next breeze, which probably will be next Friday. He is the type of horse who benefits from repetition in his surroundings, so maybe when he works next we will go to the main track to get him familiarized with it."

While Calhoun hopes to stretch out Fish Trappe Road in the future, for now he's content to keep the New York-bred son of Trappe Shot on target for the seven-furlong King's Bishop.

"I think he will go on to run at two turns, but with a really good cut-back race in the King's Bishop being out there, and with him being very proven at those distances, we've got a good race for him right now," Calhoun explained. "At some point, we will stretch him out."

Joining Fish Trappe Road in the Calhoun barn this summer at Saratoga is stakes heroine Mayla, most recently fourth in the Bed o' Roses Handicap (G3) at Belmont Park. Mayla will get a surface switch for her next start, the $100,000 De La Rose Stakes on August 6.

"We're going to try her on turf this time," Calhoun stated. "She's in pretty good form and doing well. She's a Sharp Humor, so we're talking a shot with the turf – those Sharp Humor's really seem to improve on the turf."

Mayla is scheduled to breeze Friday morning on the turf at Oklahoma.

Jazz Lady, a two-year-old filly, is being pointed to the $100,000 Bolton Landing Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong grass race on August 17.

"She's a Mizzen Mast, out of a Storm Cat mare. We think the grass will help her," Calhoun remarked. "She broke her maiden first time out at Churchill in a maiden special (on the dirt) and looked pretty good, but we always thought she might be grass. We ran in a stakes after that (D. S. Shine Young Futurity at Evangeline Downs) and she caught an off-track and didn't care for that."

The Calhoun-trained Promise Me Silver, who finished 10th in the 2015 Prioress Stakes (G2) at Saratoga and is undefeated in two starts this year, is back again for another summer at the Spa. The winner of the 2015 Eight Belles Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs is being pointed to the $100,000 Shine Again Stakes on August 3.

"We've got some nice horses up here, but you come up here and you need great horses," Calhoun said with a laugh. "But I do think we're going to be competitive."

Fish Trappe Road photo courtesy of NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography