Touching Rainbows gets another shot at big time in Bing Crosby

DEL MAR, Calif. – A month ago, Touching Rainbows finished a distant seventh in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at seven furlongs at Santa Anita, denting his reputation in California’s sprint division.

The setback came with an excuse.

“He grabbed a quarter at the start and that was it for him,” trainer Phil D’Amato said Wednesday.

The minor injury quickly healed, allowing D’Amato to target Saturday’s Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar for Touching Rainbows. The $300,000 Bing Crosby at six furlongs will be the most difficult race of Touching Rainbows’s career. The competition is led by Roy H, the champion sprinter of 2017, and Ransom the Moon, who won the 2017 Bing Crosby Stakes for D’Amato.

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The winner of the Bing Crosby receives a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.

Owned by KM Racing and Madaket Stables, Touching Rainbows has won six races and earned $230,905. He was claimed for $25,000 in September 2016 and was trained by Ricky Agarie through that year.

Touching Rainbows joined D’Amato’s stable in 2017 and won four consecutive optional claimers from last August until June of this year, including two races at Del Mar last summer.

It is those wins that give D’Amato hope Touching Rainbows can be a factor in his Grade 1 debut on Saturday.