Top three finishers in Lecomte could meet again in Risen Star
NEW ORLEANS – Less than one length separated the top three finishers in Saturday’s Lecomte Stakes, and the trio could meet again Feb. 22 at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2, $400,000 Risen Star Stakes.
Call Me Midnight capitalized on a strong early and middle pace, closing from eighth in a nine-horse field and beating Epicenter by a head in the 1 1/16-mile Lecomte. Pappacap, making his first start since a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, got an inside run throughout the Lecomte and turned in a solid performance to get third, three-quarters of a length behind the top two.
Call Me Midnight’s winning time of 1:44.36 over a fast track yielded an 88 Beyer Speed Figure. Midnight Bourbon won the 2021 Lecomte with a 93 Beyer and went on to race competitively at the top of the 3-year-old class.
Call Me Midnight jumped up to a new level in the Lecomte, his first start since he was seventh, beaten 10 lengths, in the Nov. 27 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Call Me Midnight’s KJC came only two weeks after a sharp Churchill maiden win and trainer Keith Desormeaux’s supposition that he’d merely run the horse back too quickly, leading to a dull stretch run, was borne out.
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Call Me Midnight, by Midnight Lute out of Overseen, by First Defence, raced six times at age 2, showing little in a pair of early sprints before improving steadily through the fall. This was Call Me Midnight’s best Beyer by 14 points and Desormeaux on Sunday said Call Me Midnight had come out of his breakthrough in good shape. “This horse is just doing so well right now,” he said.
Desormeaux wasted no time after the Lecomte acknowledging that a taxing pace had created an ideal race flow for his charge. Jockey James Graham barely had moved on Call Me Midnight in upper stretch as he cruised into contention, and with Epicenter and even Pappacap enervated by easily the day’s fastest dirt-route pace, Call Me Midnight swooped and scored.
“I don’t back off from that statement, but I’m a little more optimistic today,” Desormeaux said.
Call Me Midnight was to spend two mornings walking in the barn before going back to the track for training Tuesday. The Risen Star seems the likely spot for Call Me Midnight, but Desormeaux is weighing his options, accounting for the spacing of starts and the need to accumulate sufficient Kentucky Derby points to make the Derby field should Call Me Midnight prove capable. The Lecomte win was worth 10 points.
“This is fun,” Desormeaux said. “I’m enjoying this.”
All credit to Call Me Midnight, but Epicenter turned in the Lecomte’s top performance. After tracking rail-drawn speed horse Surfer Dude into the first turn, Epicenter and jockey Joel Rosario bounded to a clear lead onto the backstretch, going their second quarter-mile in 23.61 after an opening one in 23.40. That added up to a demanding 47.01 half-mile split, with Pappacap moving forward into a more contending position approaching the far turn. In upper stretch, Pappacap took a run at Epicenter, who turned him away and nearly held off Call Me Midnight.
“I liked everything about his race but losing,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He was extremely game.”
Asmussen termed the Risen Star the most likely next stop for Epicenter, who won a maiden mile and the inaugural Gun Runner Stakes on Dec. 26 in his last two starts. “He came out of yesterday’s race in good shape,” Asmussen said Sunday. “There’s plenty there; he’s a good-sized horse.”
Pappacap's third-place finish in the Lecomte follows runner-up showings behind Corniche in the American Pharoah and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. David Carroll, assistant to trainer Mark Casse said Sunday morning that Pappacap had come out of the race well and, on Saturday, Casse termed Pappacap a likely Risen Star runner.
The $150,000 Silverbulletday looked on paper like a somewhat soft race and probably was. Victorious La Crete ran one mile 70 yards in 1:43.53, which translated to a 74 Beyer Speed Figure, and probably runs back in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes here Feb. 19, but Fannie and Freddie, who finished second, is unlikely to return for that race.
“Happy with how she came out of the race. We’ll discuss but the Rachel is a good possibility,” Asmussen said of La Crete.
Forty Under won the $100,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley, getting a favorable head bob over the Asmussen-trained Halo Again, who validated his Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes win in his turf debut with another solid grass effort. Halo Again is a likely starter Feb. 19 in the Fair Grounds Stakes.