Push a 3-year-old too early in the year, and you won’t have a horse left for the Kentucky Derby. Don’t push enough, and your horse might not have sufficient qualifying points to make the 20-horse Derby field. Instant Coffee already has accumulated 32 Derby points, adding 20 to his total with a decisive Saturday win in the Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds. Rich Strike was the final horse into the 2022 Derby field with 21 points, while in 2021, Brooklyn Strong slipped into the field with 10. So, Instant Coffee has the points, and now trainer Brad Cox can mainly tinker with the colt’s schedule, trying to get him to the Derby in the best shape possible. “He looks really, really good today,” Cox said Sunday morning, reached by phone. Cox didn’t rule out a start Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds in the Risen Star, but also said there was a chance Instant Coffee could skip February racing and aim for the Louisiana Derby on March 25. “We’ll get him back to the track and see where we’re at.” Instant Coffee clocked 1:45.12 for 1 1/16 miles in the Lecomte, the fastest among six races at the distance Saturday. The performance produced a 92 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest of Instant Coffee’s career. :: DRF Bets players have exclusive access to FREE DRF Past Performances - Classic or Formulator! Join today.  Cox, like many, wondered at the comparative fractional times in the Lecomte, where the half-mile split went in 47.19 seconds, and the Louisiana Stakes one race before, where the leader passed the half-mile pole in 49.75. If the Lecomte fraction is accurate, and it appears to be, Instant Coffee got a dream setup closing from last in a six-horse field, though when he won the Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 26 at Churchill, he rallied wide and into a slow pace. “That’s a trip where you don’t normally get to the winner’s circle,” said Cox, who trains Instant Coffee, a son of Bolt d’Oro, for Al Gold’s Gold Square. Instant Coffee and jockey Luis Saez began moving in earnest at about the three-furlong marker Saturday, and the pair won by 2 1/2 lengths, going away. “He stayed on and kept coming. He’s a true two-turn horse and the farther the better, I believe,” Cox said. The Risen Star is run at 1 1/8 miles, the Louisiana Derby over 1 3/16 miles. Cox has enough stakes-class 3-year-olds that he’ll be forced to run against himself in some spots, and if Instant Coffee shows up for the Risen Star, he’ll likely be facing the Cox-trained Tapit’s Conquest. Tapit’s Conquest was scratched from the Lecomte in favor of a first-level allowance, race 9 on Saturday, where he took the worst of the trips, eventually rallying along the rail to just miss catching Determinedly, who’d set a slow pace. “It really kind of took him a while to get going. He’s still green, not polished, but there’s a lot of upside from this horse,” said Cox, who called the Risen Star a “strong consideration.” Earlier Saturday, Cox ran one-two in the Silverbulletday Stakes, a Kentucky Oaks qualifier, with The Alys Look turning back a strong bid from favored Chop Chop to prevail by one length. More than 13 lengths separated Chop Chop, who was making her first start since a dud in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4, and third-place Hayunevano. Winning time for the mile and 70 yards was 1:43.55, good for an 89 Beyer, 14 points higher than The Alys Look’s figure from the Untapable Stakes on Dec. 26. “Chop Chop, she should have gotten something out of it. The other filly had a couple runs already down here. Chop Chop would probably be the one to come back in four weeks,” Cox said, referring to the Rachel Alexandra Stakes on Feb. 18. The Alys Look, Cox said, could await the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 25. Saturday morning at Fair Grounds, Cox worked several stakes-bound horses, including Cyberknife, who had the final breeze of his career going five furlongs in an official 1:01 while working in company with Roman Centurion. Cox was exceedingly pleased with the drill and is bullish on Cyberknife’s chances Jan. 28 in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational, his last start before going to stud. Cyberknife was to leave New Orleans on Monday for Florida. Cox’s two 3-year-olds bound for the Southwest Stakes on Jan. 28 at Oaklawn Park, Corona Bolt and Jace’s Road, worked five furlongs in company, Corona Bolt getting a time of 1:00.20, the day’s fastest five-furlong work, and Jace’s Road 1:00.40, though Cox said they hit the wire nearly on even turns. Corona Bolt makes his two-turn debut in the Southwest after winning the six-furlong Sugar Bowl on Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds. Jace’s Road won the 1 1/16-mile Gun Runner later on the same card. Older dirt-route horses West Will Power and Tawny Port also breezed, both headed toward stakes races in Louisiana or Arkansas next month. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.