Seems like the Brad Cox barn does nothing but win these days at Fair Grounds. Since Dec. 26, Cox-trained horses have won the Pago Hop, Sugar Bowl, Letellier, and Gun Runner Stakes. Since Dec. 17, all Cox starters at Fair Grounds have gone 12-3-2 from 19 races. You read that right. Cox has yet to win the Lecomte Stakes, but he’ll have the favorite, Instant Coffee, to win that, too. Instant Coffee was one of eight 3-year-olds entered in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte, the last of 14 races Saturday in New Orleans. Cox has a second Lecomte entrant, Tapit’s Conquest, who could instead start in a first-level Saturday allowance race. Itzos, one of two entered for Larry Best’s OXO Equine and trainer Pablo Lobo, will be scratched in favor of the Leonatus Stakes at Turfway, so the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte could go with just six runners. Five are going to score Kentucky Derby qualifying points, distributed 20-8-6-4-2 to the top finishers. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. By the time the Lecomte rolls around at 6:30 p.m. Central, Cox could have done plenty more winning: His stable has at least one runner in eight races, with likely favorites in the Louisiana (Zozos) and Silverbulletday (Chop Chop). Weather could be a factor, with the National Weather Service as of Wednesday forecasting a 90 percent chance of at least showers Saturday afternoon. Three races, all stakes, are carded for the damaged Fair Grounds grass course, which can only support racing in outside lanes, limiting field size to eight. Instant Coffee has won 2 of 3 starts, capturing a maiden sprint at Saratoga and on Nov. 26 the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill. Between them came a distant fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, where Instant Coffee finished seven lengths behind Forte, who went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and his Cox-trained stablemate Loggins, who still awaits a veterinary green light to return to training for the first time since October. Those two, Forte and Loggins, were top-class 2-year-olds; Instant Coffee looks useful more than elite. “He ran okay at Keeneland, young horse, first time two turns, second race of his life – that’s a lot to ask,” Cox said. “He got a lot out of it, and I think he moved forward into the KJC. He’s not a big horse. He’s good-going and a good mover. He’s a good, steady work horse – doesn’t blow your doors off. Working against good horses, he’s held his own.” :: DRF Bets players have exclusive access to FREE DRF Past Performances - Classic or Formulator! Join today.  In the KJC, Instant Coffee was caught wide but had cover around the second turn, making steady progress from seventh in a nine-horse field to post a 1 1/4-length win. Hayes Strike, who was second in the KJC, and Denington, who was fifth and starts in the Lecomte, didn’t do a lot to flatter the race in their subsequent starts, though KJC seventh-place finisher Cyclone Mischief returned with a sharp Gulfstream Park allowance win. Here’s an oddity: 90 minutes before Instant Coffee closed into splits of 24.76 seconds and 50 to post a 1 1/16-mile time of 1:45.25, Confidence Game went 23.57 and 47.21 on the way to going the same distance in 1:43.67 winning a first-level allowance race. Is it possible Confidence Man, making his fifth start, turned in the stronger performance? “He finally ran to the level we always thought he could,” said trainer Keith Desormeaux, who upset Epicenter with Call Me Midnight in the 2022 Lecomte. Desormeaux said his attention turned to the Lecomte with Confidence Game, a son of Candy Ride and Eblouissante, sister to the great Zenyatta, immediately after the November win. “He put on weight, he’s grown, seems real good mentally. He seems to really like the Fair Grounds. We’re all very excited. It’s hard to temper your enthusiasm,” Desormeaux said. Desormaux wondered if Confidence Game benefited from a change to front-running tactics last out, but that forward style might not play well in the Lecomte. Echo Again, who breaks from the rail and comes out of a third-place finish in the Dec. 17 Springboard Mile, has shown speed in his three starts. Two Phil’s, open-lengths winner of the Oct. 30 Street Sense over a sloppy Churchill track, should leave the gate running from his outside stall. Bromley stretches out from two sprint wins, the last over Turfway Park Tapeta, and might wind up midpack Saturday. Bromley’s intended second start, in a Turfway mile, was canceled because of weather; Lobo opted for a Dec. 28 sprint, where Bromley overcame a spot of trouble on the backstretch to win comfortably despite shying at the wire from the photo-finish light. “More distance would be better for him,” Lobo said. “I’m not concerned about the two turns because he was ready to go a mile in December. He’s a very kind colt.” Bromley and the others, though, run into a capable Brad Cox-trained favorite; those haven’t been missing the mark at Fair Grounds. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.