In 2021, trainer Brad Cox campaigned a talented 3-year-old at Fair Grounds Race Couse & Slots after the colt won his first two starts as a juvenile in Kentucky. That sophomore, the Juddmonte-owned and -bred Mandaloun , would later be declared the winner of the Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs upon the disqualification of Medina Sprit for a medication violation.
Four years later, Cox, Juddmonte, and Mandaloun's regular jockey—Florent Geroux—find themselves on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in Louisiana again with another Juddmonte homebred colt named Disco Time. On Jan. 18 at Fair Grounds, Disco Time did something Mandaloun could not—win the $250,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3). Mandaloun ran third in the 2021 race.
Outsprinted early and fanned exceptionally wide Saturday entering the long Fair Grounds stretch, Disco Time found his groove and rallied from 10th in a field of 13 to outkick Gun Runner Stakes winner Built by a neck.
Disco Time finished 1 1/16 miles on a sealed, sloppy track in a 1:47.07, more than two seconds slower than Hit Show's time of 1:44.91 a half hour earlier in the Louisiana Stakes (G3) for older horses. Pacesetting Innovator established fractions of :23.68, :47.91, and 1:13.38 in the Lecomte.
Saturday's victory kept Disco Time perfect in three starts after two earlier wins in Kentucky in one-turn races where he had been much closer to the early pace.
Geroux said the colt's trip was not how he envisioned but remarked that he was "very pleased with the horse. I felt like I lost a little bit of ground with the runner-up. I felt like he had a little bit of a better trip than mine, but my horse was always was able to overcome it and proved he was the best horse today."
In the late going, Built inched past Innovator, who showed. Golden Afternoon was fourth, and Maximum Promise ran fifth.
The top five finishers received qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale. Disco Time and Built each now have 20 points, with the latter having earned 10 points earlier in the Gun Runner. Disco Time and Built are respectively third and fourth on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, trailing Citizen Bull (40 points) and Coal Battle, who also has 20 points but holds second place due to higher nonrestricted stakes earnings. Disco Time has greater nonrestricted earnings than Built.
Speaking of Disco Time and Saturday's race, Cox said, "Look, I love speed, and obviously if they're fast enough to get there and then keep going, they can separate themselves. But you know, for this horse at this point in his career, I thought it was a great steppingstone forward."
The Lecomte typically serves as a steppingstone to the 1 1/8-mile Risen Star Stakes (G2), a $500,000 race at Fair Grounds Feb. 15. Cox has won the Risen Star three times, including with Mandaloun in 2021. The trainer is now a two-time winner of the Lecomte.
Bred in Kentucky by Juddmonte out of the multiple stakes-winning Jump Start mare Disco Chick, Disco Time is a son of Not This Time . Sire of graded stakes winners Next and Cogburn , among other talented runners, Not This Time finished 2024 as the 13th-ranked stallion of the year. He stands this year for $175,000 at Taylor Made Stallions in Central Kentucky.
