Kentucky Derby trail: Track Phantom, Nash meet again in Lecomte

After stepping up from his maiden victory to score in December’s Gun Runner, Track Phantom looks to hold form in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes and reassert his dominance over Nash.

Run over 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds, the Lecomte signals the next stage of prep races on the road to the $5 million Kentucky Derby to be run at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 4.

The Lecomte attracted a field of eight 3-year-olds. Post time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EST. Forty-two points will be awarded to the top five finishers on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis. The 9-5 morning-line favorite Track Phantom enters with 10 points. Nash has earned 3 points and stablemate Awesome Road has 1.

Though the public made Nash the overwhelming Gun Runner favorite at 1-2, Track Phantom proved best by three lengths and earned the title of 9-5 morning-line favorite in their rematch. After pressuring Next Level into submission through opening fractions of 23.61 and 46.93 seconds, the Quality Road colt trained by Steve Asmussen took command of the Gun Runner field and held sway over both Nash and Snead through the stretch.

“It was great to see him win the race against a talented field, but especially with going as fast as they did early and showing enough quality to still respond,” Asmussen said.