Enforceable goes from boy to man in Lecomte Stakes

Some racing fans and bettors bemoan the modern practice of limiting Thoroughbreds’ starts, training and training with one race in mind and restricting a horse to a minimal number of races per year.

These folks have no beef with Mark Casse.

Casse believes in running his horses, not sitting on them, and the six starts Enforceable made as a 2-year-old laid the foundation for his 3-year-old debut Saturday at Fair Grounds, where he won the Lecomte Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths to push onto the Triple Crown trail.

Enforceable comfortably held clear runner-up Silver State and third-place Mr. Monomoy, and the trio could meet again Feb. 15 in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. Enforceable ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.72 and got a career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure. He also did everything jockey Julien Leparoux asked of him while showing a better turn of foot than he’d previously revealed in his races, reaching contention between the three-furlong and two-furlong markers.

“He’s a big teenage kid who’s turning into a racehorse,” Casse said Sunday. “I saw out of him something I’d never seen before – that quicker turn of foot. That made me feel really good. After the race, I was kind of, ‘Okay, this horse is serious.’ ”

Casse and his Fair Grounds-based assistant, David Carroll, said Enforceable had come out of the Lecomte in good shape. He was tired to the extent one would expect the day after a strong performance, but has four weeks to prepare for the Risen Star. That race has been changed from 1 1/16 miles in the past to 1 1/8 miles this year, and added ground will only benefit Enforceable, Casse, Carroll, and Leparoux all believe.

Casse started Enforceable, a son of Tapit and the superstar broodmare Justwhistledixie, in two short sprint races last summer at Churchill Downs. Enforceable had trained well and was ready to run, and even if he was going to need longer distances to show his best, there were lessons to be learned in losses. Enforceable went on to win a 1 1/8-mile maiden race at Saratoga and finish third in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and fourth in the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill. Enforceable put that knowledge and experience to good use Saturday, and even sterner tests await.