It’s not like Brad Cox has abandoned Fair Grounds. He has a full barn of horses stabled in New Orleans, and entering this week’s racing was 10 for 32 at the meet, his win total second among trainers behind Steve Asmussen’s 12. Yet more and more of Cox’s top horses have been showing up on the work tab not at Fair Grounds but at the Payson Park training center in Florida, where Cox, for the first time, has bedded down a winter string. For instance, the 3-year-old colt Gunmetal. Cox prepped him for his debut at Payson, and sent Gunmetal to Fair Grounds, where he won at first asking Dec. 26, capturing a maiden sprint with a flashy 96 Beyer Speed Figure. And then, he was right back to Payson, where he joined most of Cox’s other leading 3-year-olds – the colt Patch Adams and the fillies Immersive, Good Cheer, and Muhimma. Gunmetal, by Gun Runner, came out of his race in good order, Cox said, and will next start Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park in either the Swale Stakes over seven furlongs or the Holy Bull Stakes over 1 1/16 miles. Cox does have a New Orleans-based 3-year-old to enter Saturday for the Jan. 18 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds. Disco Time, while not looking quite like a powerhouse such as Patch Adams, has started his career with two victories. A Juddmonte homebred by Not This Time, Disco Time won a seven-furlong maiden Nov. 1 at Churchill Downs and captured a one-turn mile first-level allowance there Nov. 30. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “His work this past week was really good. It’ll be his first time around two turns. I certainly think he looks like a two-turn horse,” Cox said. While Cox hasn’t revealed his plan for the Florida-based 3-year-old stakes fillies, he has two at Fair Grounds, California Sunset and Chasten, as possible runners in the Jan. 18 Silverbulletday Stakes. Chasten, another Juddmonte homebred, is the more promising of the pair. Five-year-old Saudi Crown, based at Fair Grounds, exited a bounce-back win Dec. 21 in the Tenacious Stakes in good condition, said Cox, who worked Saudi Crown back on Jan. 3. Saudi Crown has an invitation to the Pegasus World Cup and, perhaps more pertinently, will be considered for a return trip to the $20 million Saudi Cup, in which he finished a close third last year. Also training at Fair Grounds is First Mission, who got a top-class 106 Beyer winning the Alysheba Stakes in May, then finished fourth as the odds-on favorite in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes, flopped in the Aug. 3 Whitney at Saratoga, and hasn’t started since. Cox said First Mission should return to the races next month, either in the Mineshaft at Fair Grounds or the Razorback at Oaklawn Park. Another 5-year-old, Hit Show, is training at Payson but could ship to fair Grounds for the Jan. 18 Louisiana Stakes. And finally, 5-year-old Highland Falls, ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic after a four-length win in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, remains on winter holiday but should soon return to training. Likely as not, that could be at Payson, rather than Fair Grounds. Rain likely Friday Fair Grounds carded two turf allowance races on Friday’s card – just in time for what’s expected to be a day of rain. Even two days out, the National Weather Service forecast a 100 percent chance of showers Friday, suggesting some could be heavy. And if that forecast holds, there’s a 100 percent chance grass racing Friday will be abandoned. No Fair Grounds trainer has more expertise in New Orleans forecast interpretation than New Orleans native Al Stall Jr. And even though entries for the Friday card were taken Jan. 3, Stall entered Banned for Life main track only in the featured seventh race, carded for 5 1/2 furlongs on turf and open to second-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  If the feature comes off turf, Banned for Life should come up a winner. Belatedly clearing the maiden ranks by four lengths over the summer at Saratoga, Banned for Life had the misfortune at Keeneland in October of encountering the extremely talented colt Montalcino in a first-level allowance. Second by six lengths there, Banned for Life knocked out his first allowance condition Nov. 23 at Churchill, and probably holds a slight edge on leading rival Think Big in Thursday’s contest. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.