Fair Grounds: Injured Touch Magic still eyeing Kentucky Oaks

Trainer Pat Devereux said he is hopeful he can still make the Kentucky Oaks with his stable star, Touch Magic, who has not breezed since Feb. 16. The daughter of Lion Heart incurred a setback with what Devereux describes as an inflamed hock.

“The Oaks is still in our plans if we can get her back to more steady work,” Devereux said. “We’re just proceeding with great caution.”

Touch Magic, owned by Coteau Grove Farms, has never been worse than second in five career starts. She won the Silverbulletday Stakes here Jan. 19 and had three subsequent works at her home base at the Evangeline Downs training center in Carencro, La. The hock ailment precluded her from running in the next race in the local series for 3-year-old fillies, the Feb. 23 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, and it also will keep her out of the Fair Grounds Oaks on March 30. Touch Magic closed at 89-1 last weekend in the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager.