The way the New Orleans road to the Kentucky Derby is starting, Fair Grounds needs to widen the path.

Fifteen were entered Friday for the 74th running of the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, the featured event among six stakes on the Jan. 13 Road to the Derby Kickoff card.

There are nearly as many entrants as there are Kentucky Derby qualifying points on offer. As part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby program, the Lecomte awards a total of 17 points distributed 10-4-2-1 to the first four finishers.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Yesterday’s News was second in the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Los Alamitos on Dec. 9 in her final start of 2017, a fine conclusion to a season for a filly purchased for $30,000 in May.

For her first start of 2018, Yesterday’s News will run in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes at seven furlongs on Sunday at Santa Anita. She is sprinting for the first time since July, and trainer Simon Callaghan said she’ll be better going two turns.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Ax Man, the dazzling winner of a maiden race for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita last Monday, is likely to have his stakes debut in the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes at seven furlongs on Feb. 10.

Trained by Bob Baffert for owners and breeders Hal and Patti Earnhardt, Ax Man led throughout a six-furlong maiden race in his first start and won by 9 1/2 lengths in 1:09.43. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96.

“He ran like he was supposed to run,” Baffert said earlier last week.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Greyvitos, the winner of stakes at Del Mar and Remington Park in the fall, recently underwent surgery to have a bone chip removed from a knee, trainer Adam Kitchingman said on Friday.

Kitchingman said Greyvitos has been given a positive prognosis. The trainer said he is hopeful Greyvitos can return to racing as early as April and run in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 5.

“We took a little chip out,” Kitchingman said. “It was pretty minor, but it had to be taken out.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A 5 1/2-length romp in a first-level allowance here Thursday likely will catapult Fly So High into the ranks of graded stakes company.

Trainer Shug McGaughey said he will consider the Grade 2 Davona Dale, a one-mile race on March 3, as a next start for Fly So High, a 3-year-old Malibu Moon filly purchased for $675,000 as a yearling by the Phipps Stable.

Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Fly So High cruised past My Favorite Gift to win the one-mile race without much urging, earning an 86 Beyer Speed Figure for the second straight start.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Ian Wilkes said he is expecting McCraken to arrive this week at Palm Meadows to begin preparing for a 4-year-old campaign that will focus primarily “on races of about a mile.”

McCraken has been on hiatus at Lambholm South near Ocala, Fla., since shortly after Wilkes decided not to run him in the Nov. 24 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs. His final start at 3 resulted in a distant third-place finish in the Oct. 28 Fayette at Keeneland.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mark Casse said Leavem in Malibu was scheduled to breeze this weekend at Palm Meadows to determine whether he will be among 12 starters in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup here Jan. 27.

“There’s a good possibility that we’ll have him in the Pegasus,” Casse said. “We’re looking to close a deal.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – First a short trip, followed by a much longer one.

World Approval will trek across the Florida peninsula to Tampa Bay Downs to run in the Grade 3 Tampa Stakes on Feb. 10 ahead of an overseas trip to Dubai, trainer Mark Casse confirmed. World Approval, a 2017 Eclipse Award finalist for Horse of the Year and older turf male, will run in the $6 million Dubai Turf on March 31 at Meydan.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Partly by design, Ian Wilkes seldom wins with first-time starters – but when he does, look out.

Cicatrix is the most recent Wilkes horse to win at first asking, having done so in November at Churchill Downs. Since he branched out on his own in 2006 after a lengthy stint under Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger, Wilkes has compiled a record of 16 for 473 (3.4 percent) with first-timers.

The Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct, originally carded for Jan. 1, has been rescheduled for Jan. 13 as the New York Racing Association on Thursday finalized new dates for six stakes races impacted by weather-related cancellations.

Due to harsh winter weather conditions, racing at Aqueduct is canceled through the weekend with the next scheduled racing date Jan. 11.