Eagle drills bullet for Lecomte

William S. Farish's Eagle stretched his legs and impressed onlookers at Fair

Grounds Monday morning as he worked a bullet five furlongs in :59 4/5 over a

good surface under regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. for trainer Neil Howard.

The son of Candy Ride showed why he is on many Kentucky Derby "watch lists" with

a superb move that was 1.2 seconds faster than any of the remaining 62 workers

at the distance.

"He did it really well," Howard reported. "We didn't talk about going in :59,

but the track was sealed. So many works were a little snappier than they would

have been. Brian also had a busy day, so we went first thing in the morning.

Right now the Lecomte (on January 17) is our plan and hopefully it works out."

Monday's work followed two easier moves on December 20 (five furlongs in 1:01

3/5) and December 12 (four furlongs in :49 2/5) since arriving from Kentucky. 

In his last start, the Farish homebred finished a flying third in the

Kentucky Jockey Club at odds of nearly 9-1. One race prior to that, the short

and muscular chestnut impressively won a two-turn  allowance at Keeneland

over Casner Racing's highly regarded My Johnny Be Good, who in turn demolished a

Tampa Bay Downs allowance field on Sunday by 14 1/2 lengths in his first race

since.

Three of Steve Asmussen's top locally based three-year-olds-to-be were busy

on Monday morning. The promising Tiznow R J worked a solid five panels in 1:01

2/5 for owner Mike McCarty, while Clark Brewster's Bayerd and William and

Corinne Heiligbrodt's Cinco Charlie also turned in moves over the New Orleans

oval.