Pappacap to begin campaign in Lecomte Stakes

David Carroll, the assistant who runs the day-to-day operations of trainer Mark Casse’s Fair Grounds barn, does not need to confer with the exercise rider to determine how Pappacap has been doing since arriving in New Orleans from Florida in the second half of December.

“I gallop him myself every day,” Carroll said. “He’s a pleasure to be around, really. He does everything very nice and easily. He can get a little bit warm, but that’s just him. If you see him getting warm in the post parade, I wouldn’t look at it negatively.”

Pappacap ended his 2-year-old campaign Nov. 5 with a solid second behind Corniche in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and is set to race for the first time at age 3 in the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 22 at Fair Grounds. Pappacap, by Gun Runner out of Pappascat, by Scat Daddy, had an active 2020 season, racing five times, including a win in the Grade 2 Best Pal and a second, behind Corniche again, in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes.

“He’s an unassuming horse, kind of laid back. He’s not going to wow you galloping, but when he works, that’s when you can really see the talent. He works very well, gallops out strong,” Carroll said.

Casse put Pappacap back to work Dec. 5 at his farm in Florida. Pappacap has breezed three times, twice in company, since arriving at Fair Grounds. He was to have one final maintenance drill Jan. 15 and then gallop into the Lecomte – the assistant trainer on his back.

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The Lecomte, one of six stakes races on the day, was expected to have a short field when the Jan. 22 card was drawn Saturday. Epicenter, winner of the Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, is expected to run, as are Trafalgar and Cyberknife.

Inajiffy fits course profile

The temporary turf rail remains set at 27 feet for Sunday racing at Fair Grounds, and with the rail out, off-the-pace horses continued having the best of things Thursday on the local sod. That’s good news for Inajiffy, who can rally and win the featured eighth race on Sunday’s program.

Inajiffy is one of eight fillies and mares entered in a second-level turf-sprint allowance race with a $40,000 claiming option, and 5-2 morning-line favorite Lady of Luxury races with the kind of forward turf style that has proved especially ineffective in recent weeks. Not Inajiffy, who has no pace at all and came from a seemingly impossible position, racing last of 12, to rally up the fence and capture her career debut last Jan. 18 in a Fair Grounds maiden turf sprint.

Inajiffy won her second start, a first-level allowance, but since has been eighth, sixth, and ninth while tackling stakes competition. Connections get her back into allowance company Sunday and Inajiffy, hopeful to rally outside on the best part of the course, should be flying late in this 5 1/2-furlong dash.