Track Phantom holds off Nash in Lecomte Stakes

Track Phantom was better than 1-2 favorite Nash in the Gun Runner Stakes a month ago and was better than 11-10 favorite Nash again Saturday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Nash had raced from mid-division behind front-running Track Phantom ($4.80) last month, and on Saturday Florent Geroux on Nash, breaking from the inside post, made a brief stab at leading into the Lecomte’s first turn. But Joel Rosario quickly guided Track Phantom past Nash, over to the fence, and on to a front-running 2 3/4-length victory.

Track Phantom ran well losing one-turn races in the first two starts of his career and now has three wins from his trio of two-turn starts.

“He’s got a beautiful way of going,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “I think he’s going to keep getting better. He continues to get stronger.”

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Second-place Nash finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Lat Long, third at odds of 27-1 and 8 1/2 lengths better than Ethan Energy, the 7-2 third choice who beat 61-1 Tizzy Indy by only a neck. Can Group was last, while Next Level and Awesome Road were early scratches.

The Lecomte is part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby, and Track Phantom got 20 Derby qualifying points added to the 10 he had earned in the Gun Runner. Points went to the second- through fifth-place finishers 10, 6, 4, and 2.

Rosario made good use of his outside draw in the short field, gauging how intent Geroux was on making the lead with Nash. Finding little resistance, Track Phantom eased to the front early on the first turn and was allowed to dictate a comfortable pace, 24.01 and 48.36. Passing the three-furlong pole midway around the far turn, Track Phantom still was going easily as Geroux began asking Nash to get closer to the pacesetter. Six furlongs went in 1:13.15, Track Phantom turned into the long homestretch still gliding, and while Nash tried hard, he was down three lengths at the furlong grounds and gained just a quarter-length to the wire, even as Rosario peeked under his right shoulder, saw he was going to win, and asked little of his mount the final half-furlong.

Track Phantom ran 1 1/16 miles over a fast main track in 1:44.73, a solid but far from spectacular clocking. The race before the Lecomte, the fast 4-year-old Saudi Crown went the distance in 1:43.20. Four hours earlier, Track Phantom’s stablemate, a second-time starter named Hall of Fame, won a 3-year-old maiden race in 1:44.27. Track Phantom had clocked 1:44.42 in the Gun Runner but there ran his first half-mile 1.43 seconds faster.

Times aside, Track Phantom raced professionally, won easily, and did not have an especially hard race in his first start of 2024.

Track Phantom is by Quality Road out of Miss Sunset, by Into Mischief, and races for L and N Racing, Clark Brewster, Jerry Caroom, and Breeze Easy. The colt, a scopey bay with prominent white socks, was purchased for $500,000 at Keeneland’s September yearling sale of 2022.

Two seasons ago, Asmussen won the Gun Runner, the Risen Star, and the Louisiana Derby with Epicenter, who was upset in the Lecomte. Track Phantom is likely to try and keep his two-turn stakes-winning streak alive next month in the Risen Star. Nash, it seems, is unlikely to foil him.

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