Tackett targets Lecomte; Synchrony to Fair Grounds Handicap

Trainer Mike Stidham on Wednesday confirmed Tackett as an intended runner in the Jan. 19 Lecomte Stakes. Third sprinting at Laurel in his career debut, Tackett won a two-turn maiden race at Fair Grounds and captured a first-level route allowance Dec. 22 by a neck over Owendale.

“It wasn’t anything jaw dropping, but he put in a good, workmanlike effort and came out of it in good shape,” Stidham said.

Meanwhile, the 6-year-old grass horse Synchrony will have a chance to win the Fair Grounds Handicap for the second year in a row. Synchrony, a troubled third Nov. 24 in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit at Del Mar, was given an easy December but will ramp back up again for the $150,000 Fair Grounds Handicap on Feb. 16, Stidham said. Synchrony easily won that race in 2018 before taking the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Handicap five weeks later.

◗ A pair of high-level Louisiana-bred allowance races headline the Friday card at Fair Grounds. Race 8, carded for 7 1/2 furlongs on turf, is the deeper of the two races and will have Extra Credit, Ninety One Assault, and Grande Basin as the favorites if it remains on turf. On dirt, Grande Basin remains a contender but will have to cope with main-track-only entrant Underpressure, who beat him last month in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic.

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