Touchuponastar appears best in Champions Day Classic repeat try

Leading Louisiana-bred Touchuponastar faces rising 3-year-old Tumbarumba in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic, the first of seven six-figure stakes on Louisiana Champions Day.

The Classic, the richest race of the day, is carded as race 5, moved forward on the card because of a short field and a heavy favorite. Touchuponastar is 3-5 on the track’s morning line and the 4-year-old gelding has been an odds-on favorite his last four starts facing Louisiana-bred competition. He won all those races, is 9-1-2 from 12 outings, and ran out an impressive 4 3/4-length winner of the 2022 Champions Day Classic, his lone start at Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile distance.

Just six went into the Classic, including Mangum, Touchuponastar’s Jeff Delhomme-trained stablemate who is cross-entered later Saturday in the Champions Day Sprint.

Purchased for just $15,000 at auction, Touchuponastar has earned more than a half-million. After winning once in his first three starts, the gelding might be coming into Saturday’s contest on a 10-race winning streak but for a poor outside post this past May in the Steve Sexton Mile. Second in the Sexton, he has won his other nine starts dating to July 27, 2022, dominating all save his most recent, a three-quarter-length victory facing open company in the $100,000 Delta Mile.

That performance was no weaker than the easy wins. Touchuponastarwas contested fractions of 22.88, 46.33, and 1:11.17, a breakneck pace by Delta Downs standards. Having put away his speed rival in upper stretch, Touchuponastar turned back a run from Grade 1-placed Miles D before galloping out well clear, his ears pricked.

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“He was doing extremely well going into the race, and he came out of the race great, which is just as exciting,” said Jake Delhomme, principal of Touchuponastar’s owner, Set-Hut LLC.

Touchuponastar has raced at seven furlongs and a mile his last two starts, and at 1 1/8 miles, he’s likely to establish a clear lead under Tim Thornton. The connections of Tumbarumba don’t want to see that happen.

“You certainly can’t let him get too far out of sight,” said Tumbarumba’s trainer, Brian Lynch.

Tumbarumba ran second last year in the Champions Day Juvenile and since has improved considerably. He most recently finished third, beaten two noses, in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby, at 1 1/8 miles in his first true dirt route start. Tumbarumba raced along the rail throughout that race, and Lynch thinks the colt prefers an outside trip, which he’ll get Saturday.

“This horse has a lot of fight to him,” Lynch said.

He’ll need it to catch a Star.

Unified Report returns in Sprint

Through winter, spring, and summer of 2023, trainer Dallas Stewart was scraping for wins, but Stewart is coming home strong. His stable has won as many races with about 50 runners since late September as it did with about 150 the rest of the year, and among Stewart’s three victories from his last four starters was Hoist the Gold’s tour de force in the Grade 2 Cigar Mile.

Unified Report hasn’t raced in a year, but, like his trainer this year, he’ll be finishing fast Saturday in the $100,000 Champions Day Sprint.

Unified Report hasn’t raced since an eighth-place finish in the 2022 Sprint, but was gelded in August, enters this six-furlong dash on a very encouraging workout pattern, and has the back class to factor at a long price. He’s 20-1 on the track’s morning line and can get a favorable mid-pack trip under Brian Hernandez Jr.

Also back from a long break with flashy workouts is Brandon’s Iron Mike, who won the Monte Man over this distance 13 months ago at Fair Grounds before regressing to a fourth-place finish in the Sprint. He’ll have plenty of pace at which to run in his first appearance since April.

Bron and Brow is as fast as anyone in the Sprint but will be a relatively short price and breaks from post 14.

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‘Money’ goes for three-peat

Who Took the Money won the 2021 Champions Day Turf by almost six lengths and won the race last year by more than two, but it’s fair to wonder, as he goes for a three-peat as the favorite, if Who Took the Money is quite the same horse.

Beyond hints he has lost a step, Who Took the Money faces a challenging race flow in a short field devoid of real pace, which makes Woods N Water an appealing play.

Woods N Water has raced 20 times but only became a turf horse this past summer. He’s won three of four on grass, the lone defeat a second-place finish facing open stakes company. He could lead Saturday, back up the pace, and get a serious jump on the closers behind him.

Undercover Girl looks best

Undercover Girl is listed at 4-1 for the $100,000 Champions Day Lassie. If only.

The filly overcame a seriously troubled start to win her debut by almost three lengths Nov. 18 at Fair Grounds as the 11-10 favorite. She has more speed than she showed that day and is the most likely Lassie winner.

“It’s a quick turnaround, but she’s doing good,” said trainer Brad Cox.

Guitar Solo comes back even quicker following a sharp debut win Nov. 30 at Delta Downs, where she skipped over a sloppy track to win by more than 14 lengths. Guitar Solo, a robust specimen, never was asked for any run, and came back to the winner’s circle looking fresh. Her 9-2 morning line price also is too high.

Strong Promise, meanwhile, wanted nothing to do with the Delta slop finishing a distant seventh Nov. 10 in the Jean Lafitte Stakes. Cutting back from a pair of two-turn, seven-furlong races at Delta to six furlongs at Fair Grounds, he’s the solid selection to beat El Dinero in the $100,000 Juvenile.

◗ A G’s Charlotte stands an excellent chance of repeating in the $100,000 Ladies, while Free Like a Girl can turn the tables on Ova Charged, who beat her a year ago in the $100,000 Ladies Sprint.

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