Just a Touch will test Program Trading in United Nations
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Chad Brown trained his record-tying sixth United Nations Stakes winner last summer, and what worked in 2025 with Redistricting, Brown is nearly duplicating Saturday at Monmouth Park with Program Trading.
Redistricting finished sixth two Marches ago in the Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, sixth in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill, got class relief and comfortably won the Monmouth Cup, and then made a winning three-turn debut in the United Nations.
Program Trading finished third in the Muniz, fourth in the Turf Classic, comfortably won the Monmouth Cup, and makes his three-turn debut facing no more than six foes in the Grade 2, $500,000 United Nations at 1 3/8 miles on turf.
Year-over-year differences do exist. Redistricting went to Saratoga to train after his Monmouth Cup win, while Program Trading remained with Brown’s string at Monmouth. And Redistricting, using Beyer Speed Figures as a guide, was a faster horse last summer than Program Trading has been this year.
Program Trading can beat two of these horses – deserving 100-1 chances Eldest Son and Post Command – in his sleep, while trainer Vicki Oliver said Thursday that she’ll scratch Telescopic from the U.N. in favor of an Ellis Park allowance race Friday.
That leaves, in ascending order of competitiveness, Uncle’s Gold, Echo Lane, Thundering, and Just a Touch as Program Trading’s true opponents.
Uncle’s Gold has won three in a row and four of five, an improving 4-year-old taking a massive step up in class following a second-level turf allowance win at Colonial Downs. He looks considerably less likely than Thundering or Echo Lane.
Thirty starts into his career and 5-year-old Echo Lane has yet to win a stakes race, but he came closest in one of his two starts over this 1 3/8-mile trip, finishing second by a half-length Feb. 28 in the Mac Diarmida behind Grand Sonata, who’s been second in the last two renewals of the United Nations. In three-turn Churchill turf stakes in May and June, Echo Lane ran into the budding grass star Burnham Square and was hurt both times by a lack of pace.
There’s little pace signed on Saturday, and Thundering could make a clear lead with an aggressive ride from new jockey Tyler Gaffalione.
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Racing without blinkers for just the second time in 16 starts, 4-year-old Thundering for the first time in his career made an early lead June 27 at Laurel in the 1 1/8-mile Japan Racing Association Stakes. It was not an easy lead, either: Thundering laid down quarter-mile times of 24.61, 23.64, 23.61, and 23.62 seconds before skipping his last furlong in 11.73 and scoring by 1 1/2 lengths over multiple Grade 2 winner Truly Quality.
Derek Ryan, who has trained Thundering for just his last six starts, said the thing trainers with a recent front-end winner always say: “He doesn’t need the lead.” But Thundering will make the front if he runs like he did last time.
“We were planning on waiting for a race in mid-August, but he’s been doing so good, we’re taking a shot,” Ryan said.
Just a Touch, on the other hand, has been pointed toward this race since shortly after he won the 1 1/2-mile Cape Henlopen on June 13 at Delaware. That made Just a Touch 2 for 2 since trainer Brad Cox gave up on connections’ dirt dreams and moved the horse to turf. Just a Touch has always breezed like a top-class horse and for two years looked poised to become one, but after a bad fourth as the odds-on favorite in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 7, Cox had seen enough.
“He just trains so well, but the Santa Anita race left us scratching our heads,” Cox said.
In April, Just a Touch won a 1 1/16-mile Keeneland allowance race in his turf debut, and the stretch to a longer distance last out clearly suited the horse.
“I love him around three turns. He has that big stride and keeps rolling,” Cox said.
The surface switch set Just a Touch down a new path and led him to the United Nations, where his chief rival, Program Trading, follows a familiar trail.
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