Touchuponastar Three-Peats in LA Champions Day Classic
Image:
Description:
Photo: Hodges Photography / Lou Hodges, Jr.
Touchuponastar wins the Louisiana Champions Day Classic Stakes for the third year in a row at Fair Grounds
Like father, like son.
Set-Hut's Touchuponastar became a millionaire and consecutive three-time Louisiana Champions Day Classic winner with an effortless, front-running victory in the $150,000 state-bred race Dec. 14 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. His sire, Star Guitar , also was a Classic three-peater from 2009-11, in addition to winning two other Louisiana Champions Day stakes earlier in his career.
Progeny of Star Guitar, who will stand for $7,500 in 2025 at Clear Creek Stud in Louisiana, won the first three races on the Saturday program.
Never off the board in 19 starts, Touchuponastar made short work of four foes in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic, the first of seven stakes on a card highlighting Louisiana-bed runners. Recovering from a slight bobble at the break, he cruised to the lead in the 1 1/8-mile dirt race and after setting leisurely fractions of :25.02, :49.48 and 1:13.99, and with only minimal encouragement from regular jockey Timothy Thornton, had plenty left to kick away from Benoit , who chased throughout and finished 5 1/4 lengths back. Touchuponastar, who previously won the Classic in 2022 and 2023, was timed in 1:50.93 for the distance and returned $2.40 for a $2 wager.
Cosmic Train , who, like the winner, is trained by Jeff Delhomme, ran third.
Thornton described riding Touchuponastar as "Pure joy. I mean, he is such a class horse."
Touchuponastar is 12-for-14 in state-bred races, with nine at the state-bred stakes level. The 5-year-old gelding also took the 2023 Delta Mile Stakes in open company and has three seconds in three graded races in as many attempts.
Bred by Coteau Grove Farms out of the stakes-winning Lion Heart mare Touch Magic , Touchuponastar was a $15,000 purchase by the Delhomme family's Set-Hut operation from the 2020 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling and Horses of Racing Age Sale. Retired National Football League quarterback Jake Delhomme is among the partners in Set-Hut along with his brother Jeff and father Jerry.
Noting Touchuponastar's bargain purchase price and that of Free Like a Girl , a $2 million-earning Louisiana-bred for different connections who is stabled alongside his horse at Fair Grounds, Jake Delhomme called horse racing "the greatest game in the world." He also praised the Louisiana-bred program and awards available to breeders by running first, second, or third in any race, which he described as "the best program in the United States."
In Other Champions Day Stakes Action
- KING: Smoken Wicked First Stakes Winner for Stallion Bobby's Wicked One
- Juvenile fillies by Aurelius Maximus ran 1-2 in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Lassie Stakes with Stonestreet Stables and Peter Leidel's Blue Fire grittily turning back the previously unbeaten Secret Faith .
- Thornton picked up a second stakes victory Saturday aboard Richard Painter and Dewberry Farm's Woods N Water in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Turf Stakes.
- World War IV Racing and Rebel Tide Racing's Six String added to sire Star Guitar's Louisiana Champions Day success by besting a stubborn Luyv in the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Sprint Stakes.
- Highly Wicked , owned by Earl and Keith Hernandez and John Duvieilh, wore down longshot Tommie G to capture the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Ladies Turf Stakes by a head.
- Single Malt Stable's Geaux Sugar wrapped up the card by capturing the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint Stakes.