Kentucky Derby 2020 Radar: Lecomte Stakes shapes up
Fair Grounds’ racing office expects a large, if not full field when the 2020 Kentucky Derby trail makes its first stop Jan. 18 in New Orleans.
The Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes lacks a superstar entering the race but should show considerable depth when entries are taken Saturday, consisting of graded stakes-placed Scabbard, Finnick the Fierce and Enforceable.
Fair Grounds officials have newly lengthened the Lecomte from 1 mile and 70 yards to 1 1/16 miles this season. The race will continue to pay out Derby qualifying points on a 10-4-2-1 scale to its Top 4 finishers and precedes the local Feb. 15 Risen Star (G2) and March 21 Louisiana Derby (G2).
Most recently fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Eddie Kenneally-trained Scabbard is a Churchill Downs maiden winner who also ran second to Green Light Go in the Saratoga Special (G2) and to Dennis’ Moment in the Iroquois (G3). He’s a potential favorite here.
Finnick the Fierce will be out to prove his 87.9-1 runner-up in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) was no fluke. Rey Hernandez trains the son of Dialed In, who debuted a winner last June at Indiana Grand, then put in his big effort second off a layoff.
Enforceable, who needed four starts to break his maiden, did so going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga. He then showed up when a non-threatening third in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at Keeneland and more recently finished a closer fourth in the slop in the Kentucky Jockey Club.
That trio will be joined by the 1-2 finishers of a key local allowance race. Lynn’s Map who, as with Enforceable hails from the Mark Casse barn, just managed to chase down Mr. Monomoy in a 1-mile, 70-yard flight.
That allowance event figured to produce at least two runners for the Derby trail. Trainer Steve Asmussen also confirmed with the Daily Racing Form that Excession, third by 2 3/4 lengths, will take on stakes company for the first time in the Lecomte.
Asmussen’s other runners, however, figure to be the shorter prices from his barn. Ontario-bred Halo Again is a 2-for-2 winner of Woodbine’s Coronation Futurity on synthetic, while Silver State is a lightly raced maiden winner exiting the Churchill circuit. Both colts are owned in partnership with Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing.
The Lecomte will headline a card including five other stakes, with the $150,000 Silverbulletday the companion event for 3-year-old fillies. Notably, trainer Brad Cox informed the racing office he expects to enter Portrait there rather than his stakes winners from the division, British Idiom and Taraz.
Other expected highlights on the program are the return of Grade 1 winner Hog Creek Hustle in the $100,000 Duncan F. Kenner; multiple graded winner Silver Dust in the $100,000 Louisiana (G3); and Mr. Misunderstood’s appearance in the $125,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley.