Trainer Steve Asmussen said Laughing Fox has put himself in the running for the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel on March 16 at Oaklawn on the strength of the race he ran at the Hot Springs, Ark., track Monday.

Laughing Fox won a first-level allowance on the undercard of the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes. He rallied from next to last for a length and a quarter win under Ricardo Santana, Jr. The race came at a mile and a sixteenth – the same distance of the Southwest – and Laughing Fox covered it in 1:44.08. Asmussen made a point to note the final time of the race and how it compared favorably to the Southwest's final time, which went four races later in 1:44.05.

“Laughing Fox ran three one-hundredths of a second slower than the Southwest – a very positive race from him,” Asmussen said Tuesday. “I would expect him to run back in the Rebel.”

Laughing Fox and Super Steed – who won the Southwest – both earned Beyer Speed Figures of 87. 

Laughing Fox is a son of Union Rags who races for Alex and JoAnn Lieblong. He was winning his second straight race at the meet Monday, after taking a maiden special weight at a mile and a sixteenth Jan. 25.

The Rebel is a mile and a sixteenth race and the final local prep for the Arkansas Derby.