The $100,000 Tenacious Stakes feels like a stepping-stone for Just a Touch. Connections long have harbored Grade 1 ambitions for the 4-year-old colt. The Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup awaits next month, the Grade 1, $20 million Saudi Cup in February. Brad Cox, Just a Touch’s trainer, pumps the brakes on post-Tenacious considerations. “He needs to step up and win a stakes race to start,” Cox said. “Then we can kind of see where we are.” Unbeaten and untested in a maiden and two allowances, Just a Touch has gone winless in six stakes. Exiting a third-place finish that came with a demanding trip over a sloppy track in the Grade 1 Metropolitan at Saratoga, Just a Touch was supposed to plug that hole on his record July 16 in the Monmouth Cup. He went off at odds of 1-10, finished second, and hasn’t raced since. “He just didn’t seem quite as good as he was, seemed a little flat out of the Monmouth race. No surgery or anything. He went to the farm and got freshened, and he’s rolling right along,” Cox said. :: Big Action in the Big Easy at Fair Grounds! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Just a Touch’s debut victory came in a Fair Grounds sprint, and in March he returned from an eight-month layoff at Fair Grounds to win a first-level route allowance by a pole. Cox has prepped the colt for this comeback in Florida at Payson Park, where Just a Touch has posted just five timed workouts. “We feel confident he’s as good as he needs to be,” Cox said. “His works are really good – he always works good.” Luis Saez picks up the mount on Just a Touch, a very forward horse, and his task from post 2 could turn tricky. Not This Boy (who will be scratched from a race in Maryland) breaks from post 7 and brings high-quality speed to the Tenacious. Komorebino Omoide exits a sprint, drew the rail, and should also add pace, especially given his post. “He’s a fairly big horse, and I think we’re going to be forced to let him run away from there a little bit,” trainer Robertino Diodoro said. A hickory 5-year-old, Komorebino Omoide has failed to win in five Fair Grounds starts but has run to his best form over the surface, particularly in the Louisiana Stakes this past January. That start, like Saturday’s, came after Komorebino Omoide contested the six-furlong Thanksgiving Classic at Fair Grounds. Paco Lopez rode the horse for the first time in the Thanksgiving and has a return call. San Siro merits a second look at a long price. His career-best came in February, when he ran at Fair Grounds following a two-month layoff. The same circumstances hold in the Tenacious, and San Siro, a closer, could find favorable race flow. Diliberto Memorial Victory in his last start makes Gigante a vulnerable favorite in the $100,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial. Counterintuitive? Perhaps. But the fact Gigante looked all-out at odds of 3-10 winning a Remington Park allowance race by a head on Nov. 6 should have bettors thinking twice about taking a short price in the Diliberto, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for older horses. Gigante won the 2024 Diliberto at odds of 4-5 and won’t go off that short Saturday. He won the $100,000 Remington Green on Sept. 28 at Remington with speed to spare, and, in fairness, the last-start allowance over 7 1/2 furlongs probably was too short for him. Still, Gigante, who nearly won the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial in March at Fair Grounds, has not looked in his last six outings quite like the horse he was last winter and spring. Owing to the presence of Legalize, Idratherbeblessed, and Theismann (who races at Fair Grounds and will be scratched from a Turfway stakes), Gigante and the other off-pace runners will have ample speed at which to run. And while Gigante’s top races slip farther into the past, Kupuna ran as well as he ever has in his most recent start. That came Nov. 7 at Churchill in a stakes-level turf allowance – emphasis on “turf.” The Flying P Stable and trainer Norm Casse claimed Kupuna the race before for $100,000. Only one of Kupuna’s 26 starts – a solid showing in April 2023 – had come on grass, and Kupuna, getting his last quarter-mile in a robust 22.86, looked very much like a turf horse last month. He breaks from post 2 under Ben Curtis and could give Gigante a run for favoritism. Point Proven won’t be close to favored, but don’t sleep on him. He’s been freshened up for this start since mid-summer, and two seasons ago at Fair Grounds showed talent sufficient to contend in a race like the Diliberto. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.