Gun It has solid credentials

NEW ORLEANS – Call it the Lecomte light.

The featured fifth race Thursday at Fair Grounds is for 3-year-old first-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers going a mile and 70 yards on dirt. That’s the same division as the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes here Saturday. Or maybe don’t call it that. There’s a chance the best horses among the six entered in the Thursday allowance stack up with the top Lecomte talents.

Start with Gun It, who at $2.6 million was the second-most expensive North American yearling of 2017. By Tapit, Gun It is the first foal to race out of Ms. Besilu, a solid racehorse herself and a sister to five stakes winners, including 2005 Horse of the Years Saint Liam.

His trainer, Steve Asmussen, entered Tight Ten and Wicked Indeed in the Lecomte, but Gun It could turn out at least the equal of that pair.

“He’s a very impressive physical horse that is a little young mentally and has a lot of talent,” Asmussen said.

Gun It debuted in a twoturn Churchill maiden race and broke from post 11, and not only did he pull a wide trip, eventually finishing a decent fourth, but because he raced outside all the way, Gun It gained little in the way of seasoning, Asmussen said. On Dec. 22 at Fair Grounds, Gun It won a 1 1/16-mile maiden race by more than four lengths, despite racing very greenly through the homestretch.

“It’s very exciting to think about how much better he can be and how far he’s going to want to run,” Asmussen said.

Of the five others, Brad Cox’s pair of Owendale and Cornacchia easily are the most interesting. Owendale has started five times and on Dec. 22 here in a race at this class level and distance he came within a neck of taking down Tackett, a sharp two-turn maiden winner in his previous start and a now a prominent Lecomte entrant.

While Owendale has started in a one-turn mile and two true routes, Cornacchia has only a maiden sprint race on Dec. 22 under his girth, though in it he was an eye-catching winner. Favored at even money, Cornacchia got into considerable trouble and overcame it to win by a neck. By Tapit out of the good racemare Great Hot, Cornacchia has come back with two more works and continues to impress his trainer.

“One thing is he’s just such a smart colt,” Cox said.

And even if none among this sextet was quite ready for the Lecomte, a convincing win by any of them will likely lead to a start in the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 16.