By Alan Carasso
Let go at 28-1 and apparently overmatched on paper, the well-tried Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) stormed down the center of the long Fair Grounds stretch to just nose out narrow second choice Epicenter (Not This Time) in Saturday's GIII Lecomte S., the first of three local preps on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
A maiden winner at fifth asking going Churchill's one-turn mile last Nov. 13, the $80,000 OBS March grad raced well back in the field as Surfer Dude (Curlin) and last-out Gun Runner S. hero Epicenter ding-donged it up front through taxing opening fractions of :23.40 and :47.01. Favored Pappacap (Gun Runner), a latest runner-up to 'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, sat a good inside trip and was there at the fence to challenge Epicenter in the stretch as Surfer Dude decided to call it a day and hang ten elsewhere. Trafalgar (Lord Nelson) loomed a brief threat inside, but Call Me Midnight, third last to make the straight, motored down the crown of the track and dropped his nose down on the line in the nick of time.
Trainer Keith Desormeaux was the architect of one of the bigger upsets on the NOLA road to Louisville, as he sent out Ive Struck a Nerve (Yankee Gentleman) to a 135-1 upset of the 2013 GII Risen Star S., the horse having finished a distant fourth in the Lecomte one start prior.
Well-beaten in his first two trips to the post over abbreviated trips, Call Me Midnight was an improved fourth, a nose behind future GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile placegetter Giant Game (Giant's Causeway) in a seven-furlong maiden in Louisville Sept. 18. Three lengths behind that rival when runner-up in a two-turn test at Keeneland Oct. 9, he was impressive in graduating over the mile Nov. 13, but could not overcome the widest gate in a field of 11 and checked in seventh in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. a couple of weeks later.
Pedigree Notes:
Call Me Midnight is the 37th stakes winner and 14th graded winner and also hails from a Juddmonte female family. The St. Patrick's Day foal's unraced dam is a daughter of SW & G1SP Jibe, whose daughter Silk Route (Empire Maker) is the dak of the aforementioned late MSW 'TDN Rising Star' Taraz (Into Mischief). His third dam is Slightly Dangerous, a Group 3 winner and second home in the 1982 G1 Epsom Oaks before embarking on a prolific career as a broodmare. Her notable produce include multiple champion and MG1SW Warning (GB) (Known Fact); MGSW & MG1SP Dushyantor (Sadler's Wells), third in the 1998 GI Breeders' Cup Turf; Yashmak (Danzig), winner at home of the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot and Group 1 placed at two and three and victorious in the GI Flower Bowl Invitational H. in this country. The latter's five winners include G1 Grand Criterium S. scorer Full Mast (Mizzen Mast).
Overseen missed to Honor Code for 2021 and was most recently covered by Frosted.
Saturday, Fair Grounds
LECOMTE S.-GIII, $200,000, Fair Grounds, 1-22, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:44.36, ft.
1–CALL ME MIDNIGHT, 122, c, 3, by Midnight Lute
1st Dam: Overseen, by First Defence
2nd Dam: Jibe, by Danzig
3rd Dam: Slightly Dangerous, by Roberto
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($25,000
Wlg '19 KEENOV; $37,000 RNA Ylg '20 KEESEP; $17,000 Ylg
'20 OBSOCT; $80,000 2yo '21 OBSMAR). O-Peter L. Cantrell;
B-Hartwell Farm, Inc (KY); T-J. Keith Desormeaux; J-James
Graham. $120,000. Lifetime Record: 7-2-1-0, $221,806.
Werk Nick Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report &
5-cross pedigree.
2–Epicenter, 122, c, 3, Not This Time–Silent Candy, by Candy
Ride (Arg). 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($260,000 Ylg '20
KEESEP). O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Westwind Farms
(KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $40,000.
3–Pappacap, 122, c, 3, Gun Runner–Pappascat, by Scat
Daddy. O/B-Rustlewood Farm, Inc. (FL); T-Mark E. Casse.
$20,000.
Margins: HD, 3/4, 3HF. Odds: 28.50, 1.60, 1.50.
Also Ran: Trafalgar, Presidential, Cyberknife, Blue Kentucky, Unified Report, Surfer Dude.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
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