Lecomte card entries have Cox written all over them
Brad Cox is starting to seem like the Bob Baffert of the Midwest. Baffert for years, and in 2022-23 especially, has a barn brimming with young stakes-class dirt horses, and right now, Cox’s strings also are bulging with 3-year-old prospects.
Over the last couple months, Cox has sent out at least seven different 2-year-olds of 2022 and 3-year-olds of 2023 who either won or placed in a stakes race or are headed for one. Victory Formation and Angel of Empire ran one-two in the Smarty Jones on Jan. 1 at Oaklawn. On Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, Cox won the Sugar Bowl, a sprint, with route-bound Corona Bolt and the two-turn Gun Runner with Jace’s Road. Hit Show became a two-time winner with a route allowance victory Dec. 17 at Oaklawn, and Verifying got a 97 Beyer, same as Corona Bolt, wining a two-turn Jan. 14 allowance at Oaklawn. Giant Mischief finished a hard-luck second Dec. 17 in the Springboard Mile but hasn’t yet worked back.
Even with his best 2-year-old from last year, Loggins, still out of action, Cox heads into the heart of the Derby prep season looking for spots to start all these horses, and he has two, including likely favorite Instant Coffee, for the Grade 3, $250,000 Lecomte on Saturday at Fair Grounds. Instant Coffee on Nov. 26 won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and is one of eight, along with the Cox-trained Fair Grounds maiden winner Tapit’s Conquest, entered in the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte.
The Lecomte is the first of three two-turn dirt stakes at Fair Grounds over the next two-plus months, followed by the Risen Star at 1 1/8 miles in February and the $1 million Louisiana Derby over 1 3/16 miles in March, and is the first race other than the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby awarding more than 20 qualifying points. The first five Lecomte finishers get 20-8-6-4-2 points, respectively, through the system used to determine the Derby field.
The Lecomte closes a marathon 14-race card with first post scheduled for noon Central, the Lecomte for 6:30. Preceding it are the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes, a Kentucky Oaks qualifier for 3-year-old fillies in which Cox has two of the seven entrants, Chop Chop and The Alys Look; the Grade 3, $150,000 Louisiana Stakes, where Zozos, still another from the Cox barn, is the likely favorite over seven older dirt-route horses; the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley at 1 1/16 miles on grass, the first start since June for Two Emmys, who won the $300,000 Muniz Memorial over this course last March; and two more grass races, the Duncan Kenner, an older-horse sprint, and the Marie Krantz, a route for older fillies and mares.
On Beyer Speed Figures, the fastest 3-year-old entered to race Saturday isn’t even in a stakes. Banishing, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brendan Walsh, ran faster Dec. 26 winning a 1 1/16-mile maiden than Jace’s Road did in the Gun Runner, his performance yielding a 90 Beyer. Banishing, by Ghostzapper, is one of six entered in race 9, a dirt-route open to non-winners of two races or $80,000 claimers. Cox has Tapit Shoes cross-entered here as well as Tapit’s Conquest, while Determinedly runs back after finishing a well-beaten third as the odds-on Gun Runner favorite.
The Lecomte field, from the rail out, includes Echo Again (Tyler Gaffalione named to ride), a fading third in the Springboard Mile; Denington (Corey Lanerie), a tepid third in the Smarty Jones; Bromley (Javier Castellano), winner of two Kentucky sprints to start his career; Confidence Game (James Graham), who captured a first-level dirt allowance in late November; Tapit’s Conquest (Florent Geroux); Itzos, like Bromley trained by Paulo Lobo; Instant Coffee (Luis Saez); and Two Phils (Jareth Loveberry), easy winner of the Sept. 25 Street Sense in his most recent out.
Instant Coffee, by Bolt d’Oro, captured his career debut at Saratoga before finishing a well-beaten fourth in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, won narrowly by subsequent BC Juvenile hero Forte over Loggins. At this stage, with a career-best Beyer of 85 and a score over iffy competition in the KJC, he might not be Cox’s best Triple Crown hope – but he’s one among many of them.
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