Top Touch logical favorite in Michigan Oaks

Top Touch, who ran away from the Ann Arbor Stakes field on Aug. 7, will wear the favorite’s mantle in the $50,000 Michigan Oaks at Pinnacle Race Course. The 37th running of the 1 1/16-mile Oaks drew a field of eight statebred 3-year-old fillies and is carded as the eighth race, with a post of 4:46 p.m. Eastern.
First post has been moved up to 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays for the remainder of the meeting, with the first race 2 p.m. on Sundays.
Top Touch humbled six of her Oaks rivals in the Ann Arbor when she bid on the far turn and drew off to win by 5 1/4 lengths. A winner of 3 of 7 starts, Top Touch will be looking for her third stakes win. Regular rider Alexis Ortiz will handle the reins on Top Touch for owner/breeder Charlie Williams and trainer Sandy Adkins.
Star Sheba, the only Oaks entrant who did not run in the Ann Arbor, has been made the second choice in the morning line. She was second in her last start, an allowance at Mountaineer, where she earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure, the best of any filly in the Oaks field. She was disqualified from her only stakes win, the July 10 Regret at Pinnacle, when it was ruled that she was ineligible at the time due to a lack of statebred certification. James Jackson trains Star Sheba. She gets a change of rider to Tommy Molina, who leads the local standings.
Hustle Now, third in the Ann Arbor, has yet to display this year the spark that made her almost unbeatable in her championship juvenile year. She is listed as third choice with new rider Octavio Bernal.