Valuable earnings and qualifying points are up for grabs in the Jan. 17 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, with the winner making $150,000 and vaulting into second place on the Kentucky Derby (G1) leaderboard.
Saturday's 1 1/16-mile dirt race, the initial graded stakes route for 3-year-olds of 2026, is the first prep race for 3-year-olds to offer 42 qualifying points toward the May 2 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, distributed on a 20-10-6-4-2 basis to its top five finishers. The 20-point top prize on that scale is enough for any competitor to surpass Litmus Test, currently ranked second with 19 points, though not enough to pass early Kentucky Derby favorite Ted Noffey with 40.
Previous domestic races in the series, which began in September, awarded 21 qualifying points, except for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), which was worth 63 points. Churchill Downs officials use qualifying points to publicize the 1 1/4-mile Derby and as a preference system when the race lures more than its capacity field size of 20 starters.
Points increase further for Derby preps later this winter and spring.
Leland Ackerley Racing's Gun Runner Stakes winner Chip Honcho, with 10 existing qualifying points, could see his overall tally climb to 30. But he is not even favored on the morning line for four-time Lecomte-winning trainer Steve Asmussen, with the outside-drawn colt pegged as the 9-2 second choice behind 4-1 Crown the Buckeye in a competitive field of 11. Crown the Buckeye, an Ohio-bred stakes winner for trainer Mike Maker and owners Paradise Farms, David Staudacher, and Hooties Racing, faded to third in the Gun Runner after setting the pace.
They are two of three returnees from the Dec. 20 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds, the other being West Paces Racing and Donegal Racing's Quality Mischief, one of a trio of entrants for trainer Brad Cox, who is in pursuit of a third Lecomte victory after success with Instant Coffee in 2023 and Disco Time last year.
Speaking of Quality Mischief, who ran eighth on debut in a turf race at Horseshoe Indianapolis before a narrow maiden win there last fall that preceded his Gun Runner Stakes start, Cox noted, "I think he's starting to move forward and improve. He stepped forward big time (in the Gun Runner) and actually his last two works have been decent. He deserves a chance (in the Lecomte) with what he's shown us recently."
Quality Mischief, a $300,000 yearling purchase and a son of seven-time leading sire Into Mischief , is 10-1 on the morning line and breaks from the rail under jockey Marcelino Pedroza Jr.
Cox's two other starters are projected to start at lower odds: Calumet Farm's Thunder Buck is 6-1 on the morning line under Luis Saez, and Twin Creeks Racing Stables' White Tiger is 8-1 with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard.
Thunder Buck is cross-entered in the third race on the Saturday program at Fair Grounds, a first-level allowance optional claimer, and could instead race there. He also competed Dec. 20 at Fair Grounds, rallying to win a maiden race going away in his second start. His last race followed a fourth-place finish in a productive maiden race at Keeneland in October.
"Based off pedigree and what he's shown us so far, the farther the better for him," Cox said.
Both Thunder Buck and White Tiger are homebreds produced from graded stakes-winning dams.
Thunder Buck, a son of standout Three Chimneys Farm stallion Gun Runner , is out of 2018 Tempted Stakes (G3) victress Oxy Lady, daughter of Oxbow . Calumet campaigned both Oxy Lady and Oxbow before standing the latter at stud.
White Tiger—a gray and/or roan colt by WinStar Farm stud Constitution , who ranked fifth among North American sires by progeny earnings in 2024 and 2025—is out of 2017 Adirondack Stakes (G2) winner Pure Silver, a daughter of Mission Impazible. Twin Creeks raced Constitution in partnership with WinStar Farm and solely campaigned Pure Silver and Mission Impazible.
White Tiger ran second on debut to the talented Englishman at Churchill Downs in September before scoring a determined half-length front-running victory when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Oct. 26. He returns following a layoff of more than 2 1/2 months.
"He passed his first mile-and-a-sixteenth test, I felt like, in good order," Cox said. "He stumbled at the start, then (went to the lead) which we didn't expect him to be. He's still learning. We took our time with him by design, spaced his races, and we'll take a couple big swings with him, hoping he picks up some points over these next few starts and takes us where we want to go."
Trainers Brendan Walsh and Cherie DeVaux also run multiple 3-year-olds in the Lecomte. Walsh runs Carson Street and Stop the Car, and DeVaux starts last-out maiden graduates Golden Tempo and Mesquite.
Trade Winds Farm's Stop the Car, a son of Maximum Security —who was disqualified from victory in the 2019 Kentucky Derby due to interference—brings a 2-for-2 record into Saturday's race. After a debut sprint victory at Keeneland, he won a first-level allowance optional claimer when stretched out to a one-turn mile Nov. 29 during one of two Stars of Tomorrow programs at Churchill Downs during its fall meet.
The Stars of Tomorrow program, inaugurated in 2005 by then Churchill Downs racing secretary Doug Bredar, has produced more than 50 grade 1 winners since its inception, including Kentucky Derby winners Sovereignty (2025), Mystik Dan (2024), Mandaloun (2021), and Super Saver (2010).
Stop the Car is bred for two turns and for racing an extra sixteenth of a mile. His dam, the Tiznow mare Pussyfoot, has produced numerous routers, including minor stakes winner and $304,041 earner Rightandjust (Awesome Again).
"I love the way he ran that day at Churchill," Walsh said. "To me, he's screaming out to go two turns. He's your ideal type of two-turn horse, there's no frills. He just goes out and he does it. He should have no trouble at the distance."
Two Kentucky Derby winners have exited the Lecomte through the years, though neither was victorious in the Lecomte. 2002 Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem ran fifth in the Lecomte earlier that year, and the Cox-trained Mandaloun, elevated from second to first in the 2021 Derby upon the disqualification of Medina Spirit for a medication violation, ran third in the Lecomte.
