Lecomte: Promising cast dives into much deeper waters

It’s mid-January, and while the Lecomte Stakes marks the first 42-point Derby qualifying race on Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby, it comes too early to be termed a significant Derby prep, right?

Wrong. While the last two Lecomtes produced just one Derby horse, the 2023 renewal yielded two Derby runners, including Two Phils, a fine Derby second. Two Derby horses also came out of the 2022 Lecomte, including Epicenter, a brutal Derby second. In 2021, Midnight Bourbon won the Lecomte and ran fifth in the Derby, while Lecomte third Mandaloun won the Derby via disqualification.

Derby credentials don’t burst forth from the past performances of the 11 entrants, but that might not be the case after the Grade 3, $250,000 Lecomte is contested Saturday evening at Fair Grounds. The 1 1/16-mile contest has a post time of 6 p.m. Central, is the last of 13 races, and the cashing leg of an all-stakes pick five.

The field includes three of the first four finishers from the Dec. 20 Gun Runner: Chip Honcho, who won; Crown the Buckeye, who set the pace and tired badly to third; and fourth-place Quality Mischief, who made a 23-point Beyer Speed Figure leap, from a 57 to an 80. Perhaps the race wasn’t quite as fast as its final-time figure, as even victorious Chip Honcho required a glacial 33.70 seconds to cover the last 2 1/2 furlongs.

Chip Honcho made his two-turn debut in the Gun Runner, where he raced too keenly down the backstretch and looked beaten at the furlong grounds before no one else could finish the job.

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“I thought there were positives in the fact it didn’t go as smooth as it could and he still won – other than the way they came home,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, a four-time Lecomte winner. “He didn’t get away smooth and wasn’t relaxed enough, but I believe he’ll improve.”

Chip Honcho and jockey Paco Lopez drew post 11 but will move in at least one spot since Ocelli will be scratched. Trainer Brad Cox entered three and will run all of them, including cross-entered Thunder Buck. Cox also sends out Quality Mischief, the least likely winner among his trio, and White Tiger.

Going seven furlongs in his first start, White Tiger finished a distant second behind brilliant debut winner Englishman (who has not raced since), then cleared the maiden ranks with a workmanlike route score Oct. 26 at Keeneland. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides White Tiger, who ships from Payson Park in Florida and has shown in breezes there the same thing as in his maiden win – endless stamina. White Tiger galloped out some 20 lengths in front after winning by a half-length.

“He’s a steady horse and he really, really stays on,” said Cox, who guesses White Tiger might race from the second flight. “That’s where he needs to be – stalking.”

Though the morning line lists White Tiger at 8-1 and Thunder Buck at 6-1, Thunder Buck figures the longer price – and perhaps the better value – with a race pattern just like White Tiger’s, a decent sprint debut followed by a route win. Thunder Buck’s victory came Dec. 20, just after the Gun Runner, and he ran .07 of a second slower than Chip Honcho.

“Good effort. We always figured he’d been a two-turn horse,” Cox said. “He can improve again.”

Trainers Cherie DeVaux (Mesquite and Golden Tempo) and Brendan Walsh (Carson Street and Stop the Car) are double-handed in the Lecomte. Mesquite performed professionally and finished sixth going six furlongs at Keeneland, then raced greenly and still won a maiden route at Churchill.

“He missed the break, and I don’t think he knew what to make of it. He showed his true immaturity,” DeVaux said. “I hope he’s closer this time, but even in his works he doesn’t show a lot of speed.”

Entered in the Gun Runner, Mesquite was scratched after contracting a most minor illness. Flavien Prat takes the mount as Jose Ortiz, DeVaux’s first-call rider, rides Golden Tempo.

“Jose worked both of them, and it was splitting hairs which horse he was going to ride,” DeVaux said.

Golden Tempo’s lone start, also on Dec. 20, produced an eye-catching last-to-first victory in a six-furlong race supposedly too short for a natural route horse.

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“He looks like a two-turn horse, and he was most impressive and professional when he ran,” DeVaux said. “He had been very soft but has really tightened up since the race.”

Carson Street, third behind Mesquite at Churchill, cruised to an easy maiden route win at Fair Grounds in a race rained off turf. He’s an inside-drawn pace factor, while Stop the Car, 2 for 2 after a pair of one-turn wins in Kentucky, gets his first chance over a route of ground.

“I can’t wait to go two turns with the horse,” Walsh said. “He’s the stout kind of horse you could think about getting to the Derby with.”

The top five home in the Lecomte earn, respectively, 20, 10, 6, 4, and 2 qualifying points. Recent history suggests at least one of them makes the big race.

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