Looking Ahead: Highlighting Lecomte S. duo Built and McPeek, 2024 Derby winning trainer

Jan 15, 2025 Sara Dacus/TwinSpires.com

The Kentucky Derby spotlight turns to Fair Grounds on Saturday as the track hosts the Lecomte S. (G3), its second of four prep races. The Lecomte is the first 2025 contest to offer 20-10-6-4-2 qualifying points, and it has drawn a strong field of 14.

Five entrants have already earned Derby points: Built, Magnitude, Admiral Dennis, Dapper Moon, and Jolly Samurai.

Built is the slight 3-1 morning line favorite. The bay colt was the 6 3/4-length runaway victor of the Gun Runner S., the Louisiana track’s first Kentucky Derby prep. He only faced five rivals, but they included several impressive maiden special weight winners who return in the Lecomte for a rematch. Built won in gate-to-wire fashion. In his previous start, he broke his maiden in a 7-furlong race at Keeneland.

#1 Built romps and earns 10 @KentuckyDerby points winning the 4th running of the Gun Runner Stakes @fairgroundsnola for trainer @CATRacingStable and ridden to victory by @jareth16. pic.twitter.com/V7OukZ6EDx

— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) December 21, 2024

New Orleans native Wayne Catalano trains Built for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. The 68-year-old began his career as a jockey—and earned over 1,500 wins—and then transitioned to conditioning in the 1980’s. This summer, he collected his 3,000th win in this role. Catalano topped the trainer standings eleven times at Arlington Park and has saddled four Breeders’ Cup winners. His lone Kentucky Derby starter was 1997 fifth-place finisher Crypto Star.

RELATED: Kentucky Derby jockey profile: Jareth Loveberry

Jockey Jareth Loveberry picked up the mount on Built the morning of the Gun Runner S. after Corey Lanerie missed a flight into New Orleans. Loveberry retains the mount for the Lecomte. In his only start in the Kentucky Derby, he piloted Two Phil’s to a second-place finish in the 2023 edition behind Mage.

Trainer Kenny McPeek, who swept last year’s Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby with Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan, enters a pair of lightly raced longer shots. Mobetterthangood (20-1) won his only career start, a 7-furlong race at Saratoga. He hasn’t raced in more than four months and he hasn’t gone the distance, but his recent workouts are promising. His grandsire is record-setting stallion Uncle Mo.

Maximum Promise (10-1) is a son of Maximum Security, the horse who crossed the 2019 Kentucky Derby finish line first but was disqualified for interference in the stretch. Maximum Promise won his last start, a one-mile race at Ellis Park, by a decisive 14 1/2 lengths. He returns after a 5 1/2-month layoff, but he also has a recent sharp workout.

The card is called The Road to the Derby Day, and the six stakes also includes the Silverbulletday S., a points race for the Kentucky Oaks. Two Kentucky Derby alumni face off in the Louisiana S.: Hit Show and Track Phantom, who won the Lecomte last year.