Expert Pick of the Week: 2022 Lecomte Stakes

Jan 20, 2022 John Mucciolo/TwinSpires.com

An excellent field of nine three-year-olds will travel 1 1/16 miles on the Fair Grounds dirt in Saturday’s $200,000 Lecomte S. (G3). The 2022 Road to the Kentucky Derby challenge series event will give qualifying points towards the Run for the Roses on a 10-4-2-1 basis to the top-four finishers.

The Steve Asmussen-trained Epicenter comes in with a pair of dominant wins in succession, led by a powerful 6 1/2-length score in the recent Gun Runner S. at Fair Grounds. He is the Expert Pick of the Week.

Epicenter led to the turn for home before tiring late when sixth on debut in a maiden special weight sprint at Churchill Downs. Stretched out to a mile for his second endeavor at the same venue, the son of Not This Time showed vast improvement when driving home a convincing 3 1/2-length victor. The Gun Runner marked his stakes bow.

The bay possesses good gate speed and gives the impression of a colt who will not have distance limitations going forward. Epicenter is bred to be a natural route performer, and on Saturday he will be forcing the pace from the break while off the rail and in the clear. Joel Rosario will be in the silks on the prime prospect.

I will include a trio of runners for the exotics underneath my selection. Grade 2 victor Pappacap will make his seasonal debut for conditioner Mark Casse. The son of Gun Runner closed his fine two-year-old season with runner-up finishes in the American Pharoah S. (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), and he appears to be training well in advance of his initial sophomore outing. Regular pilot Joe Bravo has the call.

Trafalgar toppled allowance foes in his first run at Fair Grounds and fits in this spot as a top-three presence. Trained by Al Stall, Jr, the $310,000 son of Lord Nelson owns a nice turn of foot and will be doing his best work late beneath Colby Hernandez.

Keith Desormeaux’s Call Me Midnight was outrun in the Kentucky Jockey Club S. (G2) in his juvenile finale, but the son of Midnight Lute flashed a lot of potential in the two races preceding his stakes debut. The dark bay colt has shown marked improvement since stretching out, and I expect him to make noise late at a nice price.

Expert Pick

A trifecta with #5 Epicenter on top of #3 Pappacap, #4 Trafalgar, and #8 Call Me Midnight in the Lecomte Stakes is the Best Bet of the Week.