Caldera Follow Up

 

The Lukas barn reports that Caldera appears thus far to have exited yesterday’s race in pretty good order. He did grab a quarter (when a horse’s back foot clips the heel area of their front foot)—most likely coming out of the gate—but scoped clean and jogged sound. He is on his way back to Oaklawn now.

Consensus among both Team Lukas and our racing team is that Caldera is still a somewhat immature horse mentally and the rough start was just more than he could overcome. He also didn’t seem to handle the track particularly well.

We’ll let him get back to Arkansas and see how he returns to training. We wouldn’t necessarily be in a rush to bring him back in another Derby prep, but will let The Coach make that determination after observing him for a bit.

Caldera Workout Report

Caldera breezed five furlongs in 1:01.40 on Sunday morning over a muddy track. Your son of Liam’s Map always traveled comfortably on the outside of fellow maiden Big Walk and appeared to have plenty of horse under him if he was ever called upon. Given that there was plenty of moisture in the track, the barn wasn’t looking for anything special in addition to there being no immediate race targets. The next available maiden special weight option falls on January 25th going one mile and one-sixteenth but there will likely be the option of considering an extra before that as well.

Caldera Update

Owners of Caldera had the opportunity to see the Oak Ridge facilities, watch their colt train, and meet farm trainer Dave Scanlon and Caldera up close and personal once his training was completed.

Dave has been pleased with the progress of your colt and physically he looks great. Caldera will remain at Oak Ridge with Dave until he gets some speed work under him and expect to see him transition to the barn of D. Wayne Lukas sometime in August.