Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots races Dec. 20, with Christmas approaching, but for participating connections, their hopes are not for presents under the tree but for success from their horses in Kentucky months later on the first Friday and Saturday in May.
Two of the four $100,000 stakes the New Orleans track stages on Saturday—the Untapable Stakes and Gun Runner Stakes—serve as respective points races for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) and the May 2 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, awarding points on a 10-5-3-2-1 basis to their top five finishers.
Although ungraded and modest in purse, this year's Gun Runner shapes up as a legitimate Derby prep for December 2-year-olds. It lured eight entrants, four of whom achieved maiden-breaking victories in routes in their last starts at Churchill Downs.
That quartet includes Brookdale Racing and Fern Creek Stables' Liberty National, who wheels back on three weeks of rest after a head-turning second-out victory in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at the Louisville, Ky., track Nov. 29 for trainer Kenny McPeek.
Brian Hernandez Jr., who teamed with McPeek to win the 2024 Derby with Mystik Dan , returns in the irons aboard the son of Maxfield .
READ: Liberty National Has Bright Future
Colby Hernandez, Brian's younger brother, picks up the ride on McPeek's other starter, Dream Big Racing's Very Connected, who ran third in the Oct. 26 Street Sense Stakes (G3) and fourth in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) in two starts since breaking his maiden at Churchill.
The field also includes Paradise Farms, David Staudacher, Hooties Racing's Crown the Buckeye, a dominant winner of two Ohio-bred stakes races for trainer Mike Maker.
They will likely have to run down the Steve Asmussen-trained Chip Honcho, who adds blinkers and looms the controlling speed in the 1 1/16-mile dirt race from post 2 under Paco Lopez.
Juvenile Fillies Vie in Untapable, Older Horses in Two Stakes
The eight-filly Untapable Stakes, run over a shorter two-turn distance at a mile and 70 yards, is led by Have Faith and Hit Parade, both last-out allowance winners at Churchill Downs during its fall meet. Dallas Stewart trains Holy Cow Stable's Have Faith, while Brad Cox conditions Gary and Mary West's Hit Parade. Both are former maiden claimers.
Two stakes for older horses precede the juvenile stakes.
Just a Touch—twice grade 1-placed, including when second in the 2024 Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland—will be heavily favored to score his first black-type victory in the Tenacious Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Cox has been working the Justify colt at Payson Park in South Florida in preparation for his return from a runner-up finish at 1-20 odds in the July 19 Monmouth Cup (G3) in New Jersey, where he ran for co-owners Qatar Racing, Resolute Racing, and Marc Detampel.
Contention runs deeper in the Buddy Diliberto Memorial Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf. There, Flying P Stable's Kupuna seeks to follow up a high-level allowance optional claiming win last month at Churchill Downs with another win on the grass for trainer Norm Casse.
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 20, 2025, Race 8Entries: Tenacious S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Komorebino Omoide (JPN) Paco Lopez 124 Robertino Diodoro 4/1 2 2Just a Touch (KY) Luis Saez 118 Brad H. Cox 7/5 3 3Will Take It (KY) Axel Concepcion 124 Dallas Stewart 20/1 4 4Stowaway (KY) Jareth Loveberry 118 D. Whitworth Beckman 12/1 5 5San Siro (KY) Ben Curtis 118 Brendan P. Walsh 20/1 6 6Sir Greylind (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 120 Kenneth G. McPeek 6/1 7 7Not This Boy (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 118 William D. Cowans 2/1 8 8Number One Dude (OK) Colby J. Hernandez 118 Dallas Stewart 30/1
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 20, 2025, Race 9Entries: Buddy Diliberto Memorial S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Point Proven (KY) Timothy Thornton 124 David Terre 12/1 2 2Kupuna (KY) Ben Curtis 122 Norm W. Casse 7/2 3 3Secret Chat (FL) C.J. McMahon 118 Bobby C. Barnett 20/1 4 4Sand Pipes (KY) Paco Lopez 118 Lindsay Schultz 6/1 5 5Emmanuel (KY) Jareth Loveberry 124 Michael J. Maker 4/1 6 6Legalize (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 118 Cherie DeVaux 8/1 7 7Theismann (KY) Luis Saez 120 Peter Eurton 6/1 8 8Idratherbeblessed (KY) Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. 124 Chris A. Hartman 12/1 9 9Gigante (VA) Jose L. Ortiz 124 Steven M. Asmussen 3/1
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 20, 2025, Race 10Entries: Untapable S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Luv Your Neighbor (ON) Axel Concepcion 122 Michael Stidham 6/1 2 2Have Faith (KY) Paco Lopez 122 Dallas Stewart 9/2 3 3Hit Parade (KY) Luis Saez 122 Brad H. Cox 5/2 4 4Hurricane Kate (KY) Isaac Castillo 122 Jonathan Wong 20/1 5 5Funny Bunny (KY) Jareth Loveberry 122 D. Whitworth Beckman 12/1 6 6Miss Call (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek 3/1 7 7Pashmina (KY) Ben Curtis 122 Rob Atras 5/1 8 8Actis (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 122 Thomas M. Amoss 6/1
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, December 20, 2025, Race 11Entries: Gun Runner S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Mesquite (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 122 Cherie DeVaux 9/2 2 2Chip Honcho (KY) Paco Lopez 122 Steven M. Asmussen 9/2 3 3Liberty National (KY) Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. 122 Kenneth G. McPeek 7/2 4 4Quality Mischief (KY) Marcelino Pedroza, Jr. 122 Brad H. Cox 10/1 5 5Crown the Buckeye (OH) Jareth Loveberry 122 Michael J. Maker 5/1 6 6Arabia Wild (KY) Axel Concepcion 122 Brad H. Cox 8/1 7 7Very Connected (KY) Colby J. Hernandez 122 Kenneth G. McPeek 9/2 8 8Mister Punch (KY) Luis Saez 122 Brad H. Cox 6/1
