Louisiana Downs: Can’touchthisgal improving on turf

Can’touchthisgal has stepped up her game since she began racing on turf back in May, and on Monday at Louisiana Downs she could get her first win on the surface. Can’touchthisgal will start as a top choice in the seventh race, a first-level optional $12,000 claimer for Louisiana-bred fillies and mares. To be run at about 1 1/16 miles, it is one of four turf races on a special holiday program Monday.

Can’touchthisgal was a $7,500 claim at Delta Downs back in December. She made her turf debut when the Louisiana Downs meet opened in May, and for finishing second by three-quarters of a length in a $12,500 claiming race earned a career-high Beyer Figure of 71. She has since run twice more on the grass, in optional claiming races, and finished third by three-quarters of a length June 5, and second by a head in her last start July 14.

“The filly looks like she likes the grass real well, and she looks like she’s in a spot she ought to be real competitive in,” said Bob Schultz, who trains Can’touchthisgal. “The biggest thing we see against her is the fact that we hadn’t been able to run her steady. We hadn’t been able to set up a program of races for her.”

Schultz said the optional claiming races he had targeted for Can’touchthisgal since her last start have not filled, some of them drawing just three or four horses. But he said he is pleased a race came together for Monday, when Can’touchthisgal will face six others from post 7. She is to be ridden by Don Simington.