NEW ORLEANS – Guest Suite did not appear to maximally extend himself winning the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, and his trainer, Neil Howard, saw nothing to contradict that impression Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Guest Suite had cleaned his feed tub and was acting like his typically energetic self on Sunday. Nearly all horses that race don’t train the following day, and Guest Suite was no exception Sunday, but Howard doesn’t plan to give Guest Suite many more days off.

NEW ORLEANS – In the 2015 Lecomte Stakes, trainer Neil Howard and owner Will Farish ran the promising 3-year-old Eagle as the favorite. Eagle, making his seasonal debut, never got into the race and finished seventh. Two years later, Howard and Farish again had the Lecomte favorite, this time in Guest Suite, a promising 3-year-old making his seasonal debut, and things turned out much better Saturday at Fair Grounds.

I admire perfection whether in horse racing or any other sport. I just don’t want to wager on perfection, knowing that people overbet the likelihood of its continuation.

So, when Running Mate raced in the Sugar Bowl Stakes on Dec. 17 at Fair Grounds after winning his first two starts, I went looking for alternatives to the 2-5 favorite and thankfully settled on the right horse in Proforma.

Saturday’s card at Fair Grounds is that track’s biggest of the year so far, with six stakes up for grabs, led by the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, a Kentucky Derby qualifying race. Elsewhere, Santa Anita has the highest-graded event of the day in the Grade 2, $200,000 Santa Monica, and it’s Sunshine Millions Day at Gulfstream Park, with five stakes for Florida-breds.

Louisiana Stakes

NEW ORLEANS – You can still find 57-year-old David Carroll out on the Fair Grounds oval most every morning doing what he has done since he was a 6-year-old in Ireland – riding horses.

Carroll has wintered at Fair Grounds for the better part of two decades. Things right now are both better and worse than they were a year ago.

Worse because Carroll, his stable down to a handful of modest runners, finally gave up being a head trainer at the end of the 2015-16 Fair Grounds meet, but better because he has settled comfortably into his job as an assistant to trainer Mark Casse.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Uncontested emerged from his Monday romp in the $150,000 Smarty Jones in good order, and on Tuesday trainer Wayne Catalano said the horse is being pointed for the second race in Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds, the Southwest.

The Southwest, a Grade 3 race worth $500,000, will be run Feb. 20.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Uncontested was left alone on the lead in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes on Monday at Oaklawn Park and put on a show in the slop, winning off by 5 1/4 lengths while picking up 10 eligibility points for the Kentucky Derby.

Petrov, who made a run at the leader into the final turn, finished second, and it was another 4 1/2 lengths back to Rowdy the Warrior in third. Those horses, plus fourth-place finisher Warrior’s Club, also earned points on a sliding scale of 4-2-1.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Gormley is likely to have a nine-week gap between races after winning his 3-year-old debut by a head in a thrilling running of the $100,690 Sham Stakes at a mile on Saturday at Santa Anita.

Trainer John Shirreffs said on Sunday that he is leaning toward the $200,000 San Felipe Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on March 11 for Gormley’s next start. The Grade 2 San Felipe is a key prep for the $1 million Santa Anita Derby at 1 1/8 miles on April 8.

“I would like to give him time,” Shirreffs said. “The San Felipe is a logical spot.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Gormley is named for a famed British sculptor, but it is trainer John Shirreffs who is molding Antony Gormley’s namesake into one of the top prospects for the Kentucky Derby. Gormley disappointed in his final start at age 2, but he rebounded on Saturday with a big effort, out-dueling the well-regarded American Anthem in a thrilling edition of the Grade 3, $100,690 Sham Stakes for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A maiden winning a stakes race is no longer considered a rare phenomenon, but few have done so as impressively as Hemsworth did when cruising to a 9 1/2-length victory to close out his 2-year-old campaign in the Grade 2 Nashua at Aqueduct.

Trainer Tom Albertrani is hoping his homebred can build on that performance when he kicks off his 2017 season in the $100,000 Mucho Macho Man, the last of four stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday’s 11-race program at Gulfstream Park.