The Fair Grounds morning line lists Touchuponastar as the 2-5 favorite for the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic on Saturday. As if. In two starts following his annual summer break, Touchuponastar has won the Gold Cup at Delta Downs as the 1-10 favorite and the Delta Mile at 1-20. A year ago, he won his third straight Champions Day Classic at 1-5, same price as in 2023. It’s not that you should relent and take the miniscule win price on Touchuponastar. But do take a moment to appreciate just how good this horse is. A Louisiana-bred has not come anywhere near besting Touchuponastar since June 2022, when he made the third of his 24 starts. Touchuponastar has won 18 of those races, and only once – in the sloppy-track Steve Sexton Mile last May – finished worse than third. And Touchuponastar has not merely feasted on plump statebred-restricted opposition: He finished second in the 2024 New Orleans Classic, a Grade 2 worth $300,000, and this past March won that race by 2 1/2 lengths. Sierra Leone, racing for the first time since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, checked in third. While Touchuponastar turns 7 on Jan. 1, one would miss the mark suggesting age has gained ground on the gelding. He won the Delta Mile, an open race, by 10 1/2 lengths, jockey Tim Thornton never even considering lifting the crop. Touchuponastar, who looks perhaps even bigger and stronger than a year ago, got a 104 Beyer Speed Figure in his comeback run, a 109, same as in his New Orleans Classic victory, last out. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “He’s a good-looking, fleshy horse who really enjoys what he’s doing,” Jake Delhomme, who campaigns Touchuponastar under his Set-Hut banner, said Wednesday afternoon. “If you’d seen him gallop this morning, you’d see how much he loves this.” It’s those rests during the sapping Louisiana summer that have helped preserve Touchuponastar, Delhomme believes. Touchuponastar never leaves the Copper Crown training center, but come June he trades in training for early morning walks and an hour or three in a paddock or a round pen. Come the first couple weeks of August, Touchuponastar starts jogging again, ramping up to his autumnal return. Regardless of the height at which his horse towers over the Champions Day competition, Delhomme takes nothing for granted. There are no cinches in racing. But would Delhomme and his brother, trainer Jeff Delhomme, consider a different, more ambitious path this winter? “I know it’s boring, but we play it by ear and see what happens. One race at a time. We’re not ruling anything out,” Delhomme said. Five foes have been mustered for the 1 1/8-mile Classic, including the improving 4-year-old Letmikefigureitout, who has risen from the mid-level Louisiana-bred claiming ranks to land the $100,000 Jake Morreale Memorial on Nov. 22 at Fair Grounds. Letmikefigureitout has the pace to lead over front-running Touchuponastar, but the favorite never turned a hair sitting a couple lengths off the leader in his last start. Improving 3-year-olds Sippin On Gin and He’s Late Again can run the race of their life and not come close to winning. Benoit makes his first start since May, when he hit a career peak in the Evangeline Mile. Touchuponastar beat him four lengths. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.