Instant Coffee Too Strong for Lecomte Rivals

Owner Al Gold, racing as Gold Square, went down the Kentucky Derby (G1) trail last year with Brad Cox-trained Cyberknife  , who secured the points necessary to compete in the Run For the Roses with a victory in the April 2 Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park. The colt would finish 18th in the Derby at Churchill Downs, only to rebound as the year progressed by winning the Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park and placing in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) at Keeneland.

This year, Gold might not have to wait until a month before the Derby to know if his latest Derby hopeful in the Cox barn has the necessary qualifications to make the classic. Gold's top prospect, Instant Coffee , already has 32 qualifying points toward the Derby, having advanced his total from 12 with a last-to-first, 2 1/2-length win over Two Phil's  in the $194,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Jan. 21.

The Lecomte provided qualifying points toward the May 6 Kentucky Derby on a 20-8-4-2-1 scale to its top-five finishers. Churchill Downs uses qualifying points as a preference system when the Derby draws beyond its 20-horse maximum field size.

Instant Coffee's 32 points trail only Forte  with 40. Forte was last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) winner and is the near certainty to be crowned champion 2-year-old male of last year at an upcoming Eclipse Award ceremony Jan. 26.

Saturday's victory was the second consecutive graded stakes win for Instant Coffee, who capped his 2-year-old campaign by taking the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) Nov. 26 at Churchill Downs, a win that netted him 10 Derby points. He is now 3-for-4 overall, with his lone defeat being a fourth-place finish behind Forte in the Oct. 8 Breeder's Futurity (G1) at Keeneland, where he earned his first two points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. A debut score at Saratoga Race Course in a maiden race Sept. 8 was his initial start.

Class told the story in the Lecomte, with the race's two graded stakes winners asserting their superiority over the four other participants in the scratch-reduced, 1 1/16 mile race. Only Two Phil's, winner of the Oct. 30 Street Sense Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs, was able to stay close to Instant Coffee late, though even he was comfortably outkicked.

Though Instant Coffee was well in front at the finish, he lagged behind early, settling in last under jockey Luis Saez as Echo Again , the Springboard Mile third-place finisher and second betting choice in the race, went to the lead under pressure with splits of :24.20, :47.19, and 1:12.02.

Rounding the second turn, Two Phil's, who had stalked the pace in fifth early down the backstretch, began to pick off rivals and threatened with a three-wide move to pull into third. But just as Two Phil's was picking up his pace, so too was favored Instant Coffee. The 6-5 public choice collared Two Phil's just before the eighth pole and drew clear over the final furlong.

"We knew they were going to have a little speed, and this (long) stretch is good for him," winning rider Luis Saez said. "When he came into the stretch, he just wanted to pass everybody and get there first. Pretty honest horse."

His winning time was not flashy—1 1/16 miles in 1:45.12, with a final sixteenth in a :6.79—but his clocking was a bit quicker than the winning time from a slow-paced Louisiana Stakes (G3) a race earlier on the card and some maiden races and first-level allowance optional claimer for 3-year-old males on the program at the distance. The track surface at Fair Grounds Saturday was slower than usual.

"I think (on the turn) he really started picking it up, stayed on real well down the lane," Cox said. "It looked like there was pace to run at, and oftentimes in these 3-year-old races (around) two turns, you do have pace to run at. Luis did a good job, got him to the outside and he stayed on down the middle of the track.

"He likes Churchill and he likes a long stretch. Nice colt."

Pace-pressing Confidence Game  settled for third, 5 1/4 lengths behind Two Phil's, and was followed by Denington  and Bromley  across the wire. Winchell Thoroughbreds' Echo Again was pulled up in the stretch by jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who appeared to sense something amiss with his mount. Echo Again walked off the track, according to the Equibase chart.

After the race, Winchell Thoroughbreds racing manager David Fiske tweeted, "Tyler said he thought he felt something off in his right hind. Walking 100%." Accompanying the tweet was a video of Echo Again walking without apparent discomfort inside his barn.

Bred in Kentucky by Sagamore Farm, Instant Coffee ($4.60) is a dark bay or brown son of Bolt d'Oro  , the leading first-crop sire of 2022 who stands for $35,000 at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. Instant Coffee is the first of two foals out of the stakes-placed Uncle Mo   mare Follow No One . The other is a yearling filly by Frosted  .

Joe Hardoon, racing manager for Gold, purchased Instant Coffee for $200,000 from the Upson Downs Farm consignment at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The colt has now earned $442,815 with $120,000 of that earned Saturday.

The Lecomte is the first of three graded stakes races on dirt for 3-year-olds at Fair Grounds on the Kentucky Derby trail. The series continues next with the $400,000 Risen Star Stakes (G2) at 1 1/8 miles Feb. 18, followed by the Louisiana Derby (G2) at the Preakness Stakes (G1) distance of 1 3/16 miles March 25.

Last year, Call Me Midnight  upset Epicenter   in the Lecomte before the latter captured the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby. Epicenter was later second in both the Derby and Preakness before taking the Travers Stakes (G1) in his season highlight over the summer.

A year earlier, the Cox-trained Mandaloun   took the Fair Grounds stakes road to eventual Kentucky Derby success when he was elevated from second to first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby upon the disqualification of the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit  for a medication violation.

Cox calls Instant Coffee "a really sound horse" with a "good mind." The trainer could keep Instant Coffee on the Louisiana path or, with a deep bench of about a dozen Derby prospects, eye other options. 

"I wouldn't be afraid to put him on a van, ship him somewhere if need be, but right now, pretty content with keeping him right here," Cox said.

Video: Lecomte S. (G3)