Plus Que Parfait, Manny Wah get wide draws for Lecomte Stakes
NEW ORLEANS – This is the start of Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, and at the city’s historic racing venue, Fair Grounds, it’s the season of hope. The Kentucky Derby is four months away, and – who knows? – any newly turned 3-year-old in the barn who has flashed talent just might be the one.
Plenty of hopers and dreamers were poised at the entry box here Saturday, when 15 horses went into the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, which will be run Saturday. The Lecomte leads to the Risen Star Stakes here next month, the latter a prep for the $1 million Louisiana Derby in March, though the Fair Grounds road to the Kentucky Derby has in recent seasons been a fallow one.
Fourteen can start in the one-mile-70-yard Lecomte, and West Texas, a runaway $30,000 maiden-claiming winner in his lone race, is the horse on the also-eligible list for now. Admire, a Dale Romans-trained maiden winner based in Florida, drew very poorly in post 14.
Also drawn wide is possible race favorite Plus Que Parfait, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes runner-up posted in 12, with Julien Leparoux coming from his winter base at Gulfstream to ride. Just outside Plus Que Parfait is Manny Wah, who got a field-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure in finishing second in the six-furlong Sugar Bowl Stakes here last month. Drawn on the rail is Wicked Indeed, third here last out in a first-level allowance race behind Tackett, who breaks from post 3 on Saturday. Between those two is stretch-out sprinter Malpais, while Breeders’ Cup Juvenile fourth-place finisher Mr. Money is well drawn in post 4.
In post 5 is the California-based maiden Night Ops, trained by Louisiana native Keith Desormeaux, and drawn next to him is first-time router Hog Creek Hustle, a rallying third in the Sugar Bowl. Roiland, fifth in the KJC last out, has post 7, while the Mark Casse-trained War of Will, who will be among the top betting choices, drew post 8. Next up is Mo Speed, another Casse-trained colt, with last-out local maiden winner Chase the Ghost in post 10 for trainer Dallas Stewart and the talented Steve Asmussen-trained Tight Ten in post 11.
Every Lecomte entrant save Wicked Indeed, Mo Speed, and Tight Ten had their final Lecomte work Saturday.
The Lecomte is carded as race 12 of 14 and is one of six stakes on the card. Race 11 is the Silverbulletday for 3-year-old fillies, which in stark contrast to the Lecomte attracted only seven entrants. Still, the Silverbulletday bears close watching since Fair Grounds-based 3-year-old fillies, unlike their male counterparts for the Kentucky Derby, have time and again proven live horses on the Kentucky Oaks trail. Four of the last seven Oaks winners, including Monomoy Girl in 2018, started earlier in the year at Fair Grounds.
Saturday’s ungraded, $150,000 race drew, in post-position order, Fun Finder, Grandaria, Eres Tu, Liora, Needs Supervision, Cowgirls Like Us, and Mandy Blue. Liora, who won the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs in her most recent start, will vie for favoritism with Maryland shipper Needs Supervision, a sharp Churchill allowance-race winner on Nov. 24.
Saturday’s stakes action starts in race 8 with the $75,000 Marie Krantz for older female turf-route horses. Then comes the $75,000 Louisiana Stakes, an older-male dirt route that looks like a wide-open race; the $125,000 Col. E.R. Bradley, an older-male turf route that will have Great Wide Open at the head of the betting; the Silverbulletday; the Lecomte; and, finally, the $75,000 Duncan Kenner, which went with a short field topped by Wynn Time.
