Lecomte Stakes Handicapping Picks
Horse racing gamblers are you looking for 2026 Lecomte Stakes Free Pick & Handicapping Odds…plus some predictions? Need some advice on who to take? The 2026 (G3) Lecomte is set for January 17 at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, LA. Here’s a preview of our top contenders.
Lecomte Stakes Preview
- Race: Lecomte Stakes
- Purse: $250,000
- Distance: 1 1/16 miles
- Track: Fair Grounds
- Date: January 18, 2026
- Post Time: 7:00 PM (ET)
- Live: lecomte Stakes Odds: Click Here
Past Lecomte Stakes Winners
- 2025 – Disco Time
- 2024 – Track Phantom
- 2023 – Instant Coffee
- 2022 – Call Me Midnight
- 2021 – Midnight Bourbon
- 2020 – Enforceable
- 2019 – War Of Will
- 2018 – Instilled Regard
- 2017 – Guest Suite
- 2016 – Mo Tom
Before we can give you our expert 2025 Lecomte Stakes free pick, we have to break down the entries! In fact, we’d love to hear from you after you’ve given this post a read to see if you see an angle that we don’t!
2025 Lecomte Stakes Handicapping
The real race for a spot in the 2026 Kentucky Derby starting gate gets underway this weekend with the running of the (G3) Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds.
The Lecomte is the first in a string of Derby qualifying races that offer qualifying points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale. With the cutoff for making the Derby typically around 40 points, a win in the Lecomte can go a long way to any horse getting into the big race in May.
Recent Lecomte winners include Midnight Bourbon, who went on to run second in the 2021 Preakness Stakes, and War Of Will, winner of the 2019 Preakness.
The Lecomte is open to horses age 3, and is run at 1 1/16 miles on the Fair Grounds dirt track. The 2026 event has drawn an expected field of 11, and is shaping up to be a wide-open race with no horse listed as better than 4-1 in the morning line odds.
Odds listed here are provided by the Fair Grounds track oddsmaker.
2026 Lecomte Stakes Free Pick & Handicapping: Crown The Buckeye Race Odds: 4-1
The speedy Ohio-bred (!) Crown The Buckeye got the lead from the gate last out in the Gun Runner Stakes on this track and at this distance a month ago and almost took the field wire-to-wire. He was passed very late by two others and finished third, just 3/4 of a length behind the winner.
That effort – combined with a pair of stakes wins against other Ohio-breds last fall – is enough to earn him slight favouritism in the morning line odds here. There is other early speed signed on in this race, so this time things could heat up for him on the front end.
2026 Lecomte Stakes Free Pick & Handicapping: Chip Honcho Odds: 9-2
The winner of the aforementioned Gun Runner Stakes, Chip Honcho sat a great trip in that race, breaking from the inside post and running just off the pace. He was able to dig in and make up ground late and just got up in time to steal the win.
That was his second win to go with a second-place finish in his three lifetime starts. In all three previous races he’s drawn an inside post. Now he’ll have to workout a trip breaking from the very outside of the field.
White Tiger Race Odds: 8-1
White Tiger was outrun in his debut at Churchill Downs in September, where he finished second but was beaten by more than seven lengths.
That race was at seven furlongs, and he showed a different dimension last out while stretching out to this 1 1/16 miles distance. Despite an early stumble he went right to the lead and gutted out the win by a half-length.
Stop The Car Race Odds: 8-1
Unbeaten in two lifetime starts, Stop The Car was able to come from off the pace and close into fairly slow fractions to win his six-fulrong debut by 1 3/4 lengths at Keeneland in October.
He stretched out to a mile in his last start and raced closer to the leaders before taking over at the top of the stretch and cruising to a 3 3/4 length win at Churchill in late November.
Here’s My 2026 Lecomte Stakes Free Pick
Three of the top four finishers in the Gun Runner Stakes will meet here again, with the ML odds indicating that Crown The Buckeye and Chip Honcho will battle for the win for the second straight race.
Personally I don’t think the Gun Runner was a very good race. And I’ll need some extra convincing that an Ohio-bred colt whose biggest wins came at Thistledown and Mahoning Valley race tracks is a serious Derby horse. In addition the late pace figures in the Gun Runner came back very slow.
At the other end of the spectrum, both of Stop The Car’s wins featured very good late pace numbers. I think he’s only going to benefit by going another 1/16th of a mile here. He’s been overlooked in both of his wins, and I’m hoping he provides real value if he sticks around his ML odds.
I’ll take Stop The Car for the win, and use White Tiger in the exacta.
Full Field: 2026 Lecomte Stakes Odds
By post position
- #1 – Quality Mischief 10-1
- #2 – Carson Street 8-1
- #3 – Crown The Buckeye 4-1
- #4 – Exosome 20-1
- #5 – Golden Tempo 8-1
- #6 – Thunder Buck 6-1
- #7 – Mesquite 8-1
- #8 – White Tiger 8-1
- #9 – Ocelli 12-1
- #10 – Stop The Car 8-1
- #11 – Chip Honcho 9-2
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