Rustlewood Farm's Pappacap, the current points leader on the Road to the Kentucky Derby with 12, headlines a field of nine 3-year-olds for the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3), one of 14 races to be run on Saturday's “Road to the Derby” Day at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. Run over 1 1/16 miles, the Lecomte offers ten Kentucky Derby points to the winner, with the rest of the top four earning 4-2-1.
Six stakes have been carded by racing secretary Scott Jones and his crew for Saturday, including the Lecomte's sister race, the $150,000 Silverbulletday. The top four in that 3-year-old filly event will earn Kentucky Oaks qualifying points (10-4-2-1).
A sprint winner on debut on May 14 at Gulfstream, the Florida-bred Pappacap has raced in four graded stakes in California since, winning the Best Pal (G2) at Del Mar and most recently finishing as the runner-up behind Corniche in both the American Pharoah (G2) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
“I never questioned where I wanted to go after the Breeders' Cup,” trainer Mark Casse said of his upcoming run in the Lecomte. “I feel really comfortable at Fair Grounds. We had a lot of success over that track with (Lecomte and Risen Star winner) War of Will and (Kentucky Oaks runner-up) Wonder Gadot. I think it's a great atmosphere and I have a lot of confidence in David Carroll (assistant on the grounds). I think the track there suits him. He's a horse that wants to settle a little bit and not have to hustle a whole lot. He gets over the ground really well there.”
Joe Bravo, who has ridden the son of Gun Runner in all four of his graded stakes starts, will be back aboard on Saturday. Pappacap will leave from post three as Mike Diliberto's 8-5 morning line favorite.
“I'm a loyal kind of guy,” Casse said. “I think Joe has ridden him well and he knows the horse. He helped us out a lot early in the horse's development. In a conversation with the Russells (owners) after the Breeders' Cup we decided that we were going to stick with Joe moving forward.”
Casse has won two of the last three editions of the Lecomte – with War of Will in 2019 and Enforceable in 2020. Like both of those runners, the plan is to run Pappacap through the Fair Grounds' series of upcoming Kentucky Derby points races.
“He's doing well,” Casse said. “I'd rather run him and get him into a race pattern. If you do have a setback this time of year and you miss a little time, you're not behind the eight-ball. As long as he's happy and healthy, our plan is to have him run through the series of 3-year-old races at Fair Grounds and get him as much experience as we can. I think that's a plus.”
The close second choice at 9-5, Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter eyes his third consecutive win for trainer Steve Asmussen. After breaking his maiden on the lead, the son of Not This Time dominated the Gun Runner last time out, sitting just off the pace before taking over off the turn and drawing away by 6 ½ lengths.
“He's exciting,” Asmussen said. “The (one-turn) mile from the outside draw when he broke his maiden (at Churchill Downs), the racetrack played for how he ran that day. The Gun Runner and two turns, restrained a little bit early, the way he ran through the wire and galloped out was everything we were hoping for.”
With Joel Rosario aboard, Epicenter will break from post five. Asmussen has won the Lecomte three times, including last year's edition with Midnight Bourbon, who will run in the Louisiana Stakes (G3) earlier in the card.
Columbine Stable's Trafalgar enters the Lecomte off a narrow Fair Grounds allowance victory in his two-turn debut on Dec. 2. After building a comfortable margin in the deep stretch, the son of Lord Nelson had to dig deep to score his second consecutive win for trainer Al Stall, Jr.
“He clearly waited on horses from the 3/16ths to the 1/6ths,” Stall said. “Here comes a Brad Cox horse (Naval Aviator) with a full head of steam, and I'm thinking, well there's goes a 3-5 shot down the drain, but he just reengaged when he saw him and had to run hard the last part. I like the fact that he went from lollygagging around straight to fighting.”
Trafalgar's sire is a multiple graded stakes winning sprinter, so despite the allowance win, the distance question has yet to be emphatically answered.
“He's by Lord Nelson, but if you come to the barn and look at him, you wouldn't think that he's going to be a sprinter,” Stall said. “He looks like A. P. Indy and Pulpit. That's the main reason I bought him in Florida ($310,000 April Ocala 2-year-old in training). He looks like that family. We always felt that he would be a horse that could stretch.”
With Fair Grounds' leading rider Colby Hernandez back aboard, Trafalgar will break from post four at 5-1 in the morning line. Stall has been very happy with the colt's progression so far.
“In the first race at Saratoga, he was drawn on the inside, missed the break and hooked a bear (Classic Causeway),” Stall said. “Second time out (at Churchill), he was in the middle of the racetrack the whole time. He didn't learn a whole lot, it set up for him and he rolled on home. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if he tucked in and kind of let the race unfold in front of him on Saturday. It will be better for him if he has a target. He had a really good five-eighths work with some dirt in his face and a target and a three-quarters in 12 and change gallop out (on Jan. 9), and he came out of this weekend's work great.”
Disqualified after crossing the line first in his career debut at Churchill, the greenness of Gold Square's Cyberknife got him beat in Louisville six weeks later, this time on the square. Stretched out around two turns for the first time on Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds, he took a clear advantage in the stretch, but nearly coughed it up late.
“He's obviously raced erratically in all three starts down the lane,” trainer Brad Cox said. “I thought he was very impressive here last time up until the last little bit. It's all mental with him. It's nothing we can really fix with him in the mornings. He's a colt that has always been a little tough to handle. He's not straightforward. He's the kind of horse who requires a good hand. He's very immature. I think the talent is there, but he's got to take a step forward mentally, and I think he will. He just needs to race and get some miles underneath him in the afternoons. I think he's going to be a player in the 3-year-old division.”
With blinkers back on for the first time since the debut, the son of Gun Runner will be reunited with jockey Florent Geroux. He breaks from post six at 6-1 in the morning line.
Undefeated from three starts, including consecutive restricted stakes wins, Valene Farms' Unified Report will face his toughest task to date on Saturday. He will break from post two with Corey Lanerie aboard (15-1 ML).
“He has trained very well and he deserves the opportunity,” trainer Dallas Stewart said. “Obviously he's been running against Louisiana-breds, but I think he's a nice horse and we are going to find out how nice he is.”
The remainder of the field with post position, jockey/trainer and morning line odds is as follows: Mark and Nancy Stanley's Surfer Dude (post one, Reylu Gutierrez/Dallas Stewart, 15-1 ML), third last out in the Gun Runner; Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Blue Kentucky (post seven, Jareth Loveberry/Wayne Catalano, 20-1 ML), who will test two turns for the first time in career start number seven off a runner-up effort in the Sugar Bowl at Fair Grounds; Peter Cantrell's Call Me Midnight (post eight, James Graham/Keith Desormeaux, 20-1 ML), seventh last out in the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) at Churchill Downs; and Courtlandt Farms' Presidential (post nine, Brian Hernandez, Jr./Steve Asmussen, 20-1 ML), the runaway winner of a maiden special weight route in his second career start last out at Indiana Grand.
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