Larry Rivelli, a standout trainer in the Chicago area, has also won major races well outside the city, recording seven of his 10 graded stakes victories away from Hawthorne Park and now-shuttered Arlington International Racecourse. He has also started five horses in various Breeders' Cup races across the country, though not yet with success.
What he has not yet done, he said, is send a top-class 3-year-old down the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail. That changes Jan. 21 when he runs Patricia's Hope and Phillip Sagan's Two Phil's against Instant Coffee and six others in the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
The 1 1/16-mile Lecomte offers qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby on a 20-8-6-4-2 scale to the race's top-five finishers. It is the first of three graded stakes for 3-year-old males at the New Orleans oval, followed by the Feb. 18 Risen Star Stakes (G2) and March 25 Louisiana Derby (G2).
"I usually try to steer clear of the Derby. But this horse—I think he's the type of horse that warrants a chance, anyways, to get there," Rivelli said.
The Hard Spun colt has the 2-year-old form to suggest he is a player Saturday, if not beyond the Lecomte when the waters get deeper with each successive prep leading up to the Derby. Last year as a juvenile, Two Phil's won three of five starts, including a pair of stakes, topped by a 5 1/4-length score in the Street Sense Stakes (G3) over a sloppy track at Churchill Downs Oct. 30.
Video: Street Sense S. (G3)
Rather than bring him back in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) a month later at Churchill Downs—a race Instant Coffee won—Rivelli chose to sit that race out with the Sagan-bred colt and have him fresh to begin his 3-year-old season.
The signals seen from Two Phil's have encouraged Rivelli, who breezed the colt at Hawthorne through the end of 2022 before sending him south to the Fair Grounds. Rivelli said Steve Leving—agent for Two Phil's regular jockey, Jareth Loveberry—advised him to bring the colt to Fair Grounds. Rivelli respects Leving's insights, having seen how he managed owner Frank Calabrese's stable and top horses during the owner's peak years.
"This was the plan—to strategically find the plan to get us there," Rivelli said. "I thought this race might be suitable for him. Seven or eight horses race here—I like our chances as far as competing."
With rain in the long-term forecast for New Orleans on Saturday, Rivelli has even more optimism, knowing his colt can handle a sloppy track as well as a fast surface.
Gold Square's Instant Coffee, part of a deep group of 3-year-old talent in the barn of trainer Brad Cox, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite, having won two of three starts. Besides the Kentucky Jockey Club, he won a maiden race on debut at Saratoga Race Course over the summer.
"Going wide in the (Kentucky Jockey Club) I thought he ran a lot more impressively than it looks on paper," Cox said.
After losing ground, Instant Coffee edged an accomplished field, including traffic-impeded runner-up Curly Jack.
"He had a good breeze here (Jan.15)," Cox said of Instant Coffee "He's already proven he'll get the distance. He's definitely one that keeps coming. We'll let him break and find his stride, Luis (Saez) knows him well, so we'll see where he takes us."
The Bolt d'Oro colt's lone defeat came between those two races when fourth in the Oct. 8 Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland when he was beaten seven lengths by eventual Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Forte . Two Phil's, who ran seventh with a wide trip, finished 3 3/4 lengths behind Instant Coffee.
Other horses with established stakes credentials in the field are Echo Again and Denington, both of whom were third in fast stakes races in their last starts. The former showed in the Springboard Mile Stakes last out at Remington Park Dec. 17, the latter in the Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 1 at Oaklawn Park.
Another Cox trainee, Tapit's Conquest, is cross-entered in the Lecomte and the ninth race, a $65,000 allowance optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles.
"We'll make a decision later on in the week about whether (Tapit's Conquest) will go in the stake or the allowance," Cox said. "I was really happy with his breeze the other day (Jan. 15). We'll get with the ownership group and come up with a game plan."
The ninth race is headed by Banishing, an eye-catching second-out maiden winner for Godolphin and trainer Brendan Walsh.
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, January 21, 2023, Race 14Entries: Lecomte S. (G3)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Echo Again (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 122 Steven M. Asmussen 6/1 2 2Denington (KY) Corey J. Lanerie 122 Kenneth G. McPeek 8/1 3 3Bromley (KY) Javier Castellano 122 Paulo H. Lobo 5/1 4 4Confidence Game (KY) James Graham 122 J. Keith Desormeaux 8/1 5 5Tapit's Conquest (KY) Florent Geroux 122 Brad H. Cox 9/2 6 6Itzos (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Paulo H. Lobo 10/1 7 7Instant Coffee (KY) Luis Saez 122 Brad H. Cox 5/2 8 8Two Phil's (KY) Jareth Loveberry 122 Larry Rivelli 4/1
