Trainer Brad Cox saved the best for last. On what turned out to be the final day of the Fair Grounds meet, Cox holed out the card by sweeping the final three Grade 2 stakes, including the $1 million Louisiana Derby with Wells Bayou, whose front-running victory gave Cox four victories out of the day’s 12 races. Three of the stakes wins were in concert with jockey Florent Geroux, who took advantage of a sharp start from Wells Bayou and the colt’s natural speed to take the early lead and never look back in the 1 3/16-mile race. Wells Bayou prevailed by 1 1/2 lengths over Ny Traffic, who pursued Wells Bayou from second throughout and drifted out through the lane while giving game but futile chase. Modernist, who was drawn widest of all in the 14-horse field, never could get over. He was four paths wide on the first turn and couldn’t drop in on the final turn, yet persevered to finish third, 2 3/4 lengths behind Ny Traffic. Major Fed, last early, made a belated run to finish fourth, then came, in order, Enforceable, Shake Some Action, Silver State, Chestertown, Royal Act, Social Afleet, Mailman Money, Sharecropper, Lynn’s Map, and Portos. Wells Bayou earned a first prize of $600,000, plus 100 points on the system used by Churchill Downs to determine the field for the Kentucky Derby. The Louisiana Derby was the first of the originally scheduled Derby preps that offered 170 points overall, and 100 to the winner. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2020: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more The Derby has been rescheduled by Churchill Downs from May 2 until Sept. 5, but changes in racing have come at a dizzying pace over the past fortnight, all owing to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Fair Grounds was originally scheduled to race through March 29. But horsemen received a text on Saturday informing them Saturday would be the final day of the meet – an official release was put out by the track at day’s end – yet another reminder of how quickly things can change in these unprecedented times. Wells Bayou ($8.40) was the lukewarm favorite in his first local start. He most recently had finished second in his stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn, where he had been based with Cox’s string there until arriving at Fair Grounds in time to get one work in over the track. In the Southwest, Wells Bayou set a fast pace and yielded only to two-time graded stakes winner Silver Prospector while finishing well in front of the rest of the field. Cox said he chose this race over last week’s Rebel at Oaklawn in order to give Wells Bayou an extra week between starts. On Saturday, Wells Bayou set far more comfortable fractions than in the Southwest, enabling him to successfully go an extra furlong to 1 3/16 miles. He clicked off splits of 23.56 seconds, 48, 1:12.42, and 1:37.61 en route to a final time of 1:56.47 on the fast main track. “That was the plan,” Cox told Joe Kristufek, the simulcast host at Fair Grounds, in a post-race interview on the track’s Twitter feed. “We thought he could establish the lead here. We did some homework on the race trying to figure out who was going to be in here, and you try and execute and put together a game plan and sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn’t. In horse racing, most of the time it doesn’t. This time it did.” Cox also won the Fair Grounds Oaks one race earlier with Bonny South. Now he has to figure out how to get her to the first Friday in September for the Kentucky Oaks and Wells Bayou to the first Saturday in September. “It’s uncharted territory, but we’ll adjust and do the best we can,” Cox said. Wells Bayou, by Lookin At Lucky, has now won three times in five starts. His previous victories came against maidens in his debut sprinting at Keeneland last fall, and in a first-level allowance at Oaklawn in January. Both those races were on off tracks. Wells Bayou is owned by a partnership of Clint and Lance Gasaway, Madaket Stables LLC, and Wonder Stables.