The Fair Grounds starting gate can accommodate 14 runners, and 14 3-year-olds are entered in Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Lecomte Stakes, the first race in the second tier of qualifying races that comprise Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby. There’s not always strength in numbers, however, and Built, the 3-1 Lecomte morning-line favorite, stands a strong chance of tacking 20 more Kentucky Derby qualifying points onto the 10 he earned winning the Gun Runner last month. Saturday’s Lecomte and the other races in this tier offer 42 qualifying points (distributed 20-10-6-4-2) before 105-point races come in February and 200-point qualifiers are run in March and April. Built drew post 13 but moves in at least one stall with Lecomte entrant Admiral Dennis instead racing Monday in an allowance. The connections of Seattle Road also are mulling a scratch after their horse drew post 14. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2025: Point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Among the Lecomte hopefuls, only Built, trained by Wayne Catalano for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, has won a stakes race over a route of ground. Tough Catch, winner of the six-furlong Sugar Bowl at Fair Grounds, and Jolly Samurai, winner of the Kip Deville and Clever Trevor at Remington Park, are the only other stakes winners of any sort. Innovator, Maximum Promise, Mobetterthangood, and Seattle Road exit maiden wins. Disco Time figures to go off at a lower price than his 9-2 morning line and could challenge Built for favoritism. The Juddmonte homebred by Not This Time won a seven-furlong Churchill Downs maiden race debuting Nov. 1, and he returned Nov. 30 with a 3 1/2-length first-level allowance victory over a one-turn mile. Trainer Brad Cox is confident Disco Time will prove at least as capable racing around two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte. Video of Disco Time’s five-furlong breeze Sunday supports that notion. Easily outworking Admiral Dennis over a slow surface, Disco Time cruised around the clubhouse turn with good energy and galloped out strongly down the backstretch past the six-furlong marker. “He was one of the few I had that worked well over that track,” Cox said. “I think he’s grown since the fall. His weight looks great. To me, with some sprinters stretching out, I expect an honest pace. I don’t expect him to be on the lead.” Built led the Gun Runner from start to finish, acing his route debut after a second-start Keeneland maiden win over seven furlongs. But the Gun Runner unfolded at a crawling pace, and Built figures to settle into a stalking trip Saturday. Rail-drawn Innovator set a strong pace winning an Oaklawn maiden sprint, while Tough Catch pressed a sprint pace last out, as did his Dallas Stewart-trained stablemate Dapper Moon. Nine entrants have a TimeformUS early pace rating of greater than 100. While Built benefited from his easy Gun Runner lead, he finished unusually fast for a 2-year-old in a dirt route. He covered his final 2 1/2 furlongs in a strong 29.76 seconds, with jockey Jareth Loveberry easing up through the final half-furlong after Built turned in a 23.50 fourth quarter. Built appears to relax like a composed older horse, and while Catalano gave him two works between starts, the first was little more than a two-minute lick. Built coasted before being asked to accelerate at the eighth pole, which he did willingly and instantly. “We got a little speed. We can do what we want with it, break and play it from there,” Catalano said. “I’ve been getting a little air in him, keeping him fit. We got a good race under him last time.” Magnitude tracked the Gun Runner pace and appeared to have run at the three-eighths pole, but Built’s acceleration left him reeling. While second, Magnitude lost by 6 3/4 lengths. A two-time winner from five starts, he has yet to translate innate ability into race performance, trainer Steve Asmussen said. “The horse has tremendous potential, but he is still in the growing stages of his career,” Asmussen said. Trainer Kenny McPeek enters two maiden winners, with Maximum Promise’s blowout Ellis Park score in August superior to Mobetterthangood’s New York-bred triumph in September. Maximum Promise, who set the pace in a short field and won by more than 14 lengths, had a hairline fracture in his cannon bone that kept him out of autumn action. “First race off the shelf for both horses is going to be more a test drive and see where they fit in,” McPeek said. “My expectations are modest Saturday.” The expectations for Built are higher, with the Lecomte an opportunity to validate his Gun Runner score. Catalano, a New Orleans native, has run one horse, Crypto Star, in the Kentucky Derby, and that came 28 years ago. This colt is building a case. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.