NEW ORLEANS - Last of 11 for the first seven furlongs of the Louisiana Derby, Catching Freedom was first at the finish as trainer Brad Cox won the last two races on the Saturday card at Fair Grounds, the local derby and the Fair Grounds Oaks.  Catching Freedom stormed home on the far outside under Flavien Prat and ran himself straight into the Kentucky Derby, earning 100 Derby qualifying points for the victory. Fourth in a first-level allowance race in November after winning his debut, Catching Freedom sat several pegs down the 3-year-old pecking order in the mighty Cox stable. Cox was asked if on Dec. 1 he could’ve seen this colt winning the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.  “It would’ve been a hard thing to believe at that point, but that’s okay. He’s getting better,” Cox said.  In Saturday’s 1 3/16-mile contest, Catching Freedom was one length better than runner-up Honor Marie, who improved markedly from his fifth-place finish last month in the Risen Star Stakes, Honor Marie’s first race since winning the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25. The top two rallied together wide and from the back of the field, Catching Freedom outside Honor Marie and going slightly better the last furlong.   Tuscan Gold ran a sneakily strong race to finish third, three-quarters of a length behind Honor Marie and three-quarters ahead of fourth-place Track Phantom, the 2-1 favorite Saturday. Track Phantom won the Lecomte in January and the Gun Runner in December, but after setting a slow pace in the 1 1/8-mile Risen Star, he was tagged by late-running Sierra Leone. The wind-influenced fractions he laid down Saturday were moderate, 23.49, 48.33, and 1:12.47, but Track Phantom was running on fumes at the sixteenth pole. He earned 15 more Derby qualifying points and is in the Derby field – if he wants to run 1 1/4 miles.  “Today he didn’t,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.   Common Defense tracked the leader and like him faltered late, finishing third and rounding out the Derby point scoring. He got 10, while Honor Marie earned 50 and will clearly make the Derby field. Tuscan Gold’s 25, the first points he’s earned, could place him on the bubble, provided the connections of more than 20 horses want to run in the Derby, which is the case annually in this era.  Catching Freedom, owned by the Allbaugh Family Stable, is an especially workmanlike horse to rise to this level. He captured the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn in January and was a decent third in the Risen Star, where he lugged in through the homestretch. By Constitution out of Catch My Drift, by Pioneerof the Nile, Catching Freedom is a colt of modest stature, a plain-looking bay with an everyday way of going. Cox has readily conceded that he’s an average workhorse, though the trainer said his two most recent breezes were easily the best of his career.  That, clearly, was a tipoff, as Catching Freedom ran the race of his life.   Trouble began before the Louisiana Derby did, with Antiquarian breaking through the starting gate, trying to begin racing and dislodging John Velazquez from the saddle, briefly dragging him. Antiquarian didn’t get away and Velazquez hobbled back to remount, the incident also impacting the horse just inside him, Hall of Fame. Track Phantom broke running from post 11, crossed and cleared, and there was Catching Freedom dropping back to last.  “The plan was to break and be involved, get a nice tracking trip,” Cox said.  “Obviously it wasn’t to be. The pace was slow. I didn’t really like the position we were in.”  Prat niggled his mount along past the half-mile pole, coming outside and passing Agate Road to get out of last at the seven-sixteenths marker. Honor Marie already had started an outside run and Prat got onto his tail, tipping some eight paths off the rail at the quarter pole. Catching Freedom, who was slow to change leads, is far from a pretty mover but he chugged along relentlessly and onto victory.  Honor Marie did everything his connections hoped besides win, and will head to Kentucky, where he already has a graded-stakes win over the Churchill surface, on Tuesday, trainer Whit Beckman said. Honor Marie was piloted for the first time by Ben Curtis, an English jockey who came to America just last fall to ride the Fair Grounds meet.  “He got a great trip and I thought he ran a great race considering they didn’t go overwhelmingly fast,” Beckman said.  Tuscan Gold also showed his mettle while jumping from a maiden win into a million-dollar race. Hung four paths wide in no-man's land around the first turn, jockey Tyler Gaffalione had little choice but to press forward with his mount, racing from third down the backstretch. Third-time starting Tuscan Gold tried to suck back and out of contention around the turn, but Gaffalione rode him very hard to hold position, and the colt responded, staying on bravely between horses and beating all but the two closers while switching to his wrong lead the final half-furlong.  “Obviously, we always love to win but he’s going to get so much out of that,” said Gaffalione, who rode Tuscan Gold for trainer Chad Brown. “He’s going to move forward from that and I think he’s got a bright future.”  Antiquarian finished sixth, followed by late-running Agate Road, Next Level, Awesome Ruta, Hall of Fame, and Real Men Violin.  The winner, heavily bet late, paid $8.60 as the second choice. He was timed in 1:56.16 over a fast track and earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure.  “He’s a horse bred to get better as he gets a little older,” Cox said.  If Catching Freedom gets much better by the first Saturday in May, he’ll have a chance to win the Kentucky Derby.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.