Risen Star runner-up Enforceable will work twice prior to the Louisiana Derby

His connections see no reason to force the pace of Enforceable’s training, and so the most accomplished 3-year-old dirt-route horse stabled at Fair Grounds will have only two works between the Feb. 15 Risen Star and the March 21 Louisiana Derby.

Enforceable won the Lecomte Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths on Jan. 18 and rallied from last of 11 into a relatively pokey pace to finish a second behind Mr. Monomoy in the first and stronger of two Risen Star divisions. Mr. Monomoy has since been taken out of training with an ankle injury, leaving Enforceable and Silver State, who was second in the Lecomte and third behind Enforceable in the Risen Star, as the top two 3-year-olds in New Orleans.

The two Fair Grounds stakes this year marked starts number 7 and 8 for Enforceable, who had a busy six-race 2-year-old season, and his connections believe there’s no point bearing down hard in morning training at this juncture.

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“He’s obviously fit enough. We thought we can give him an extra week before working him, so why not do that?” said David Carroll, Fair Grounds assistant to trainer Mark Casse. “He’s not the most robust physical horse and this gives us a chance to get a little more weight back on him.”

Enforceable is one of two Casse-trained horses pointing for the $1 million Louisiana Derby, which will be contested this year at 1 3/16 miles, a rarely run distance at Fair Grounds. The other is Lynn’s Map, who rallied from last of 11 in the second division of the Risen Star to finish a better-than-it-looked sixth.

Lynn’s Map beat Mr. Monomoy in a Dec. 21 Fair Grounds allowance race before failing to fire in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn, where he faded to fifth after chasing front-running winner Gold Street. Lynn’s Map has a touch of quality to him and might turn out to be better suited racing from off the pace.