Eagle gets nod as Lecomte Stakes favorite

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New Orleans, LA (SportsNetwork.com) – Eagle, owned by William S. Farish, has drawn the far outside post in an 11-horse field for Saturday’s 71st running of the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds as the track commences its road to the Kentucky Derby

Trained by Neil Howard, Eagle is the 3-1 morning line favorite for the mile, 70 yard stakes and will be ridden by his regular jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.

Eagle, a half-brother to Shared Belief, has two wins, a second and a third from four starts. In his first stakes action he was third in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes behind El Kabeir at Churchill Downs on Nov. 29. The colt has banked $81,602.

Leaving from post 4 will the 9-2 second choice War Story with James Graham in the saddle. The chestnut gelding is perfect in his first two career starts, most recently winning a two-turn mile allowance, with Graham riding, at Fair Grounds on Dec. 28. He won his debut race at Churchill Downs on Nov. 1 with Corey Lanerie having the mount. War Story is trained by Tom Amoss for Loooch Racing Stable and Chris Dunn.

The 5-1 third pick for the Lecomte is Mike McCarty’s Tiznow R J trained by Steve Asmussen. The colt will have Robby Albarado riding and break from post 2.

Tiznow R J, third in his first two starts at Churchill, led the entire way to break his maiden by 13 lengths at Fair Grounds on Dec. 11 at the Lecomte distance.

Here is the field for the Lecomte in post position order: International Star, Miguel Mena, 8-1; Tiznow R J, Robby Albarado, 5-1; Four Leaf Chief, Florent Geroux, 10-1; War Story, James Graham, 9-2; Hero of Humor, Alexander Reznikov, 50-1; Savoy Stomp, Mike Smith, 8-1; Runhappy, Shaun Bridgmohan, 8-1, Killingit, Jamie Theriot, 15-1; Dekabrist, Sal Gonzalez Jr., 30-1; Another Lemon Drop, Calvin Borel, 6-1 and Eagle, Brian Hernandez Jr., 3-1.

The Lecomte has an approximate post time of 6:24 p.m. ET.

The Lecomte is the first of three major 3-year-old stakes at Fair Grounds leading to the $750,000 Louisiana Derby on Mar. 28.

Categorized in: Horses

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