Week In Review: Louisiana Lightning Touchuponastar Shows He’s Among the Best Older Horse in the Country

[Wandering Eyes]

For much of his career, Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) was regarded as a good Louisiana-bred. Nothing more. Coming into Saturday's GII New Orleans Classic, he had won 14 races from 20 starts, but 13 of those wins had come in Louisiana-bred company. He beat open company in the 2023 Delta Mile S., but had never won a graded stakes race.

Nothing figured to change in the Classic as Touchuponastar, a $15,000 yearling purchase, was set to face Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), last year's 3-year-old male champion who cost $2.3-million at the sales.

Owner Jake Delhomme, the former NFL quarterback, respected Sierra Leone but did not fear him. He had the choice of instead running Touchuponastar in a state-bred stakes on Sunday. But his confidence level in his horse was so high that he decided to accept the challenge the New Orleans Classic presented.

“We all have dreams,” Delhomme said. “We think he's a quality horse. When Sierra Leone's connections said he was coming that put a pause on our plans. But he was doing so well that we thought we would enter both the Classic and the Louisiana-bred race and then take a look at both. I was hearing rumors that a couple would be scratching from the Fair Grounds race and I knew that three were cross entered in the Essex at Oaklawn. (Five horses scratched, leaving a field of five). We thought was doing great, the race is in our backyard, so why not give it a shot? We felt he was doing as well as he's ever done. That was the main reason we ran. I respect the hell out of Sierra Leone but he was coming off a layoff. For us, it was worth taking a shot.”

A shot that paid off. Touchuponastar won by 2 1/2 lengths over Hall of Fame (Gun Runner). It was another two lengths back to Sierra Leone in third.

“What he's done is not only for me, it's for our community in Louisiana,” Delhomme said. “In Louisiana, we are prideful, passionate people and we love our race horses. Over the years we've had a lot of good ones who have competed in open competition and done very well.”

Touchuponastar got a 109 Beyer. That ties him for first place in the category of main track races run at a mile or longer. The other two with 109s are Locked (Gun Runner) and White Abarrio (Race Day).

Delhomme and his brother Jeff, who trains Touchuponastar, found the horse at the 2020 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling and HORA sale. He's still not sure why he had to spend so little.

“I got lucky buying him for $15,000,” he said. “His mother was a quality race mare and I had more money to spend. That was in August after Covid had started in February and I think everything was a little down at that time. I think I just got lucky.”

Though Touchuponastar might have the quality needed to win a Grade I race, Delhomme also knows that his horse is all but unbeatable in Louisiana-bred races and he'll have to figure out if they should grab the low hanging fruit or face tougher competition in open stakes.

“I think I'll go back and forth (between state-bred and open company),” he said. “We don't travel with tracks. We stay at the training center year-round. The last couple of years we've tried the Grade III Sexton Mile and ran second both times. That race is still on our radar. I'm also looking at the Ben Ali at Keeneland. But, to be honest, I'm not sure yet.”

Touchuponastar is a 6-year-old gelding and is in by far the best form of his life. For those reasons, Delhomme hopes that the run he is on won't end any time soon.

“He's a gelding and he's ours,” he said. “He's very sound. We'd love to be able to run him for a couple more years. We're going to sit back and let him tell us what's net. We'll pick out a spot, try to give our best effort and enjoy what we've got.”

No Stakes at Aqueduct

It used to be unheard for their to be no stakes races on Saturday afternoon at Aqueduct. Yet, there wasn't one Saturday and there won't be another one this coming Saturday. While that may hurt the NYRA brand, it's the right thing to do. There are far too many stakes races in New York and throughout the winter we were treated to one stakes after another that had five horses or fewer. Yes, NYRA surely could have come up with a stakes race to card Saturday, but it no doubt would have meant a small field and a bad betting race. No one needs that.

Rice Dominates Big A

We're used to seeing Linda Rice doing well during the winter at Aqueduct, but what she has done at the current meet, which ends March 30, almost defies belief. She had 47 winners, 31 more than the runner-up in the standings, Rick Dutrow. Take the total combined wins of the trainers who are in second, third and fourth place in the standing and they have just 41 wins to their credit.

For whatever reason, those numbers have not been enough for owners to give her a chance with a good horse. At least this year, she has a Derby contender. Sand Devil (Violence) won his first three starts, all of them coming in New York-bred races before finishing second in the GIII Gotham S. He's scheduled to run next in the GII Wood Memorial.

Rice has never started a horse in the Derby.

Final Gambit | Coady Media

Rapidly Improving Final Gambit a Maybe For Derby

Final Gambit (Not This Time) was an impressive winner of the Jeff Ruby Steaks Saturday and earned more than enough points to qualify for the Derby field. But trainer Brad Cox said Sunday he'd not certain where the Juddmonte-owned colt will run next. The problem is that he has never run on the dirt, only on the grass and on synthetic surfaces.

“The Derby is not 100%,” Cox said. “I spoke with Garrett (Juddmonte General Manager, USA) O'Rourke a little bit about it last night. “Ultimately it will come down to Prince Khalid's family and whether they want to take a swing.  We'll see. He was training at Turfway last fall. I happened to be there one morning and he breezed well. From there I took him to Churchill, trained him on the dirt. I thought those works were ok, but it also led me to start him off on the turf, if that says anything.”

According to the Beyer numbers, Final Gambit was easily the slowest horse in the race. His career best number coming in was a 66. The competition included two horses who ran in the 90s and several that had figures in the 80s. In the Jeff Ruby, Final Gambit got a 90, a 36-point improvement from his last start, a maiden win at Turfway.

Cox said he doesn't think the improvement was as dramatic as the Beyer numbers suggest.

“I don't know if he improved that much,” Cox said. “If you go back and look at the race where he broke his maiden, I thought it was a very impressive run. I pulled up the number and I thought, 'wow they gave him no credit for what I thought was moving forward.' Did he improve yesterday? Yes. He ran straighter down the lane and finished up well against better horses. Did he improve that much? I don't think so because I don't think they gave him enough credit for when he broke his maiden.”

The post Week In Review: Louisiana Lightning Touchuponastar Shows He’s Among the Best Older Horse in the Country appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article