So many horses were entered in a third-level turf allowance carded for 1 1/16 miles on Thursday that the Keeneland racing office split it into two 10-runner fields in races 5 and 9, each with a $140,000 purse. The first thing you might notice in the first division is the presence of Kentucky Derby runner and graded stakes regular Just a Touch. Just a Touch drops from the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and runs on turf for the first time. The surface switch comes not so much because connections long have harbored a desire to try grass, but because trainer Brad Cox concedes he’s casting about for answers. “Without a doubt, his career hasn’t gone the way we expected,” Cox said. :: Keeneland Spring Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, picks, news, and more. Just a Touch debuted in January 2024 with a sharp Fair Grounds sprint win that earned him a start in the Gotham Stakes, where he ran second to Deterministic, a two-time Grade 1 winner on turf last summer. Making his two-turn debut and third start in the Grade 1 Blue Grass, Just a Touch seized the lead in midstretch and held off everyone save for Sierra Leone, who wound up champion 3-year-old in 2024. That turned out less a stepping-stone to bigger and better things than one of the bigger things Just a Touch has accomplished. He checked in last in the Derby, was beaten at 7-10 odds a couple months later in Iowa, and after bossing allowance rivals in two Fair Grounds routes early in 2025, hit his career peak finishing a well-beaten third in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap last June. Since that start: a second at 1-10 in the Monmouth Cup, a second at 7-10 in the Louisiana Stakes, and a well-beaten fourth as the odds-on Santa Anita Handicap favorite. Cox worked Just a Touch on turf April 4 at Payson Park and saw enough to at least attempt this surface switch. “It was encouraging to see him breeze well on grass, but he’s a good work horse on dirt as well,” Cox said. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on Past Performances, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Just a Touch feels like a horse to avoid at anything close to his 8-5 morning-line price Thursday. A better bet is Maycocks Bay, who never rose as high as Just a Touch on dirt but already demonstrated earlier this year that he could carry his form to turf. Racing for the first time in about 11 months, Maycocks Bay battled on a solid pace in a Feb. 21 Fair Grounds race at this class level and got nipped at the wire. Trainer Michael Stidham has aimed the Godolphin homebred toward this spot since the Keeneland condition book came out, though there might be too much pace for Maycocks Bay to go to the lead from his rail draw and still get home. There’s also a Derby horse in the Thursday feature’s second division. Tiztastic won the Louisiana Derby last year, then finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby before trainer Steve Asmussen switched him to grass racing. As a 2-year-old, Tiztastic went 2 for 2 on grass, winning twice at Kentucky Downs over the course of just 10 days, but that grass form vanished last summer. Tiztastic races for the first time since Aug. 30 while also racing for the first time on the anti-bleeding medication Lasix. Tiztastic has earned nearly $1.6 million, one of two millionaires in the race along with Anglophile. Anglophile fits the spot on speed figures, as does Common Defense, but both horses need a longer distance to hit top form. The bookend horses, rail-drawn Event Detail and Sand Pipes in post 10, better suit the trip, but this race, even more so than the feature’s first division, is tough to figure. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.