Lecomte likely next target for Herp

Herp, who rallied to win a first-level allowance sprint at Fair Grounds on Sunday, is being pointed for the Grade 3, $100,000 Lecomte on Jan. 22, said trainer Bret Calhoun. The race, to be run at about a mile, is the first stakes on the road to the Louisiana Derby.

It will also be the first two-turn start for Herp. Calhoun has wanted to run the horse around two turns, but said the routes he entered Herp in failed to fill so he ended up racing over six furlongs on Sunday.

“It’s not the ideal way to bring him into a two-turn stakes, it’s just kind of the way it falls,” Calhoun said. “He’s got pedigree to stretch out being by Arch, and he’s looked very good training around two turns in the morning.

“I thought he ran really impressive the other day. Knowing that we were trying to stretch him out, we wanted [jockey] Corey [Lanerie] to sit off the pace with him and we got exactly what we wanted.”

Herp earned a career-high Beyer of 77 on Sunday.