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Amoss looking forward to Lecomte with Shared Property Native New Orleanian Tom Amoss has saddled three horses to capture past renewals of Saturday's Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds, but to date he's never won his hometown oval's signature event -- the $1 million Louisiana Derby, which will be contested this year on April 1. Nevertheless, that dream remains active, and Amoss has been aiming high with Shared Property since last season, when he brought the altered son of Scat Daddy to Chicago to win the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity. "I've always liked (Shared Property)," Amoss said, even before the colt won Chicago's classic for two-year-olds last fall. "I had enough confidence in him last summer that I told (jockey) Leandro Goncalves to take him back at the start even before he broke his maiden at Ellis Park, and I never give instructions like that to a jockey. "However, he's training really well now," Amoss updated at his barn Sunday following Shared Property's six-furlong Saturday move in 1:15 4/5. "He still has not won going two turns and that's one of the things we're anxiously looking for at this time. The Lecomte should be a good starting point for us, but the screws may not be completely tight just yet on this horse. I expect him to run very well, but we're also thinking about the rest of the year." The $175,000 Lecomte Stakes, first leg of a three-race series for three-year-olds of Triple Crown potential, is the headline event of six stakes worth a total of $650,000 to be run on Saturday's Road to the Derby Kickoff Day. The Lecomte leads to the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes on February 25 and the sophomore series concludes with the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, run on closing day of Fair Grounds' 2011-2012 meeting. While Amoss has one shell loaded with Shared Property and the Lecomte as the target, he's aiming his second barrel at Saturday's $125,000 Silverbulletday Stakes for three-year-old fillies, and he's lined up Always Here Too for a shot in that race for members of the distaff set. Saturday's Silverbulletday Stakes is the initial event of Fair Grounds' feminine sophomore series, continued by the Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra Stakes on February 25 and concludes with the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks on March 31, penultimate day of the local Thoroughbred season. "Always Here Too ran a great prep race for the Silverbulletday a couple of weeks ago," said Amoss, speaking of the daughter of Include's one-length win in an optional claiming event on December 28. "This is a filly we threw too much at too soon last year, so we gave her some time and now she's giving us every indication she's looking forward to trying it all again." Always Here Too finished fifth in last year's Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Lassie as the post time favorite, and was then third in the $75,000 Blue Hen at Delaware Park before being given a brief vacation. Since her winning effort locally last month, the Kentucky homebred breezed 1:01 4/5 Friday morning at Fair Grounds. While Amoss holds a nice hand in taking down the three-year-old stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday, he'll have to overcome an historic connection to get the job done. Alexander the Great succeeded his father Philip II as a Greek king of Macedon, but the son went on to conquer the entire Persian Empire. Lecomte candidate Alexander Thegreat is a three-year-old colt owned by Robert Cartwright, who named him in honor of his own son Alexander. The sophomore homebred son of Cat Thief is trained by Bobby Barnett, leading conditioner at Oaklawn for a number of seasons when he trained horses for the late legendary Louisiana owner and breeder John Franks. The colt broke his maiden by 1 3/4 lengths going a mile and 70 yards at Fair Grounds on December 26, and now he going to be asked to expand his own horizons in the Lecomte as an initial stepping stone on the road to the Louisiana Derby. "We're going to go in there," Barnett said during training hours Sunday morning when asked if this weekend's Lecomte was in the game plan for Alexander Thegreat. "We may be biting off more than we can chew, but I discussed this with the owner and we're going to take a shot in that race. We'll blow him out tomorrow (Monday), but the colt is doing really well right now, so the plan is to lead him over there on Saturday to try and win this thing." A trio of Lecomte probables took to the track at Fair Grounds on Sunday to ready for the race, headed by the undefeated Capetown Devil, who clocked five furlongs on the fast main track in 1:02 4/5. The David Carroll-trained son of Cape Town broke his maiden at Keeneland in October, added an allowance win to his resume under the Twin Spires and was most recently seen taking an optional claimer on December 31 at Fair Grounds. Also going five-eighths was Hammers Terror, a dark bay colt by Artie Schiller who was caught in 1:01 2/5. The Michael Stidham charge is also exiting a win at Fair Grounds against optional claiming rivals. Z Dager, a bay son of Mizzen Mast, went a half-mile on Sunday in :50 4/5 for conditioner Steve Asmussen and will enter the Lecomte off a maiden score at Fair Grounds on December 15.
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