GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Touchuponastar will meet defending winner Heroic Move and the talented Komorebino Omoide at Lone Star Park on Monday, when he seeks to take down the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile after running second in Texas’s richest Thoroughbred race the last two years.
The Sexton anchors a 12-race Lone Star Million Day card that includes six stakes. They are worth a total of $1.2 million.
“This is our number one day of the year,” said Lone Star director of racing Bart Lang. “We were happy each of the stakes drew at least 10 horses.”
Touchuponastar is seeking to win his fifth consecutive race in the 11-horse Sexton. The probable favorite enters off the same pattern of races as last season, when he was edged by a neck.
“He’s run great the last two years and it’s kind of on the calendar for us and for him,” said Jake Delhomme, the retired NFL quarterback who owns Touchuponastar. “He’s doing extremely well. It looks like he’s still in top form, and we’re going to give it a try. There’s a bunch of quality horses in the race.”
Touchuponastar became a Grade 2 winner in March when he captured the New Orleans Classic over, among others, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 109 after he led throughout the race. Delhomme looks for Touchuponastar to again be prominent Monday when he starts from post 9, a few gates in from sprint-to-route prospect Run Classic.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt he likes to be forwardly placed,” Delhomme said. “That’s just the way it is with him. I like drawing the nine. It’s not the extreme outside, like we had two years ago. Some of the horses are inside of us, speed types. I’m not saying Run Classic running in those six-furlong races won’t be forwardly placed, but I like where we’re at. I just feel good about it. I truly don’t think we need to be on the lead, if that’s how it shakes out.”
Timothy Thornton has the mount for trainer Jeff Delhomme, Jake’s brother.
Trainer Robertino Diodoro, who has won the last two runnings of the Sexton, will saddle Heroic Move and Komorebino Omoide. Heroic Move will start from post 2 under Harry Hernandez. He enters off an eight-length win in the $200,000 Sunland Park.
“I know Heroic Move was on the front end the last time, but he’s probably going to go back to his normal running style, being off the pace,” Diodoro said. “It was kind of a weird race because they hit the first turn and all of a sudden he was in front. At the same time, we weren’t really concerned because you could see Harry never asked him to go to the lead. It was just kind of on his own.”
Komorebino Omoide will break from post 3 under Ramon Vazquez. He was an 11 3/4-length winner of last month’s Bosselman over the five-furlong track at Fonner Park.
“He’ll be very close to Touchuponastar, if not right on him,” Diodoro said. “It seems like [a smaller oval] puts a little speed in them, running on a bull ring and then coming back to a mile track. I think he’ll definitely show speed leaving the gate.”
Komorebino Omoide had a confidence-building race in the Bosselman.
“He needed that win,” Diodoro said. “I always say it doesn’t matter how much talent a horse has got, they’ve got to have some heart and get some heart into them and that’s what he needed, to get a win. He had some very tough beats in New Orleans this past winter. A horse like him, they know when they win, so definitely the win in the Bosselman has done him some good.”
The Wine Steward, third in the Grade 3 Oaklawn Mile, will get support when he starts from post 8 under Luis Saez.
Texas Derby
Diodoro will attempt to upset another favorite in the $300,000 Texas Derby, a 1 1/16-mile race in which Instant Replay should start as the chalk off a win in the Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oaklawn. Saez has the mount from the rail for trainer Brad Cox.
Diodoro will counter with Take Charge Tom, winner of the Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland, and Itsmybirthday, who romped by seven lengths in an allowance prep at Lone Star.
“Both horses worked extremely well [last week],” Diodoro said. “I was very impressed. So to separate them, I really don’t know what to tell you.”
Take Charge Tom will start from post 3 under Orlando Mojica. Ramon Vazquez has the mount on Itsmybirthday, who will be looking for his first stakes win when he starts from post 4.
“I think both of them will be very, very close to the lead,” said Diodoro. “Itsmybirthday is getting better, even with his last couple of works. Ramon has worked him and he said the other day this horse is getting stronger and stronger. I always thought he would take a little more time and develop into a pretty nice horse, and I think he’s doing that right now.”
Take Charge Tom was a 2 3/4-length winner of the Mine That Bird Derby.
“The race didn’t come up overly tough, but he did it the right way, galloped out strong,” Diodoro said. “I was very, very happy with him.”
Memorial Day Sprint
The millionaire Mystic Lake leads a cast of 11 fillies and mares for the $100,000 Memorial Day Sprint at six furlongs.
The multiple Grade 2 winner enters off an uncharacteristic ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs.
“Obviously, it was a quality field, but I still don’t think she appreciated the slop,” said trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “It was her first time on it. We’re just kind of trying to regroup. Last year, we won this race with Spirit Wind and she went on to win the Honorable Miss at Saratoga, so we’d like to kind of follow a similar path line if she can win this one.”
Saez has the mount from post 9.
◗ Steve Asmussen trainee Ryvit, who ran second to Skelly and Booth in separate stakes at Oaklawn, meets defending winner Minnesota Ready and Gulfstream stakes winner Comedy Town in the $100,000 Speightstown Sprint. Agent Peter Graves defends his title in the $100,000 Chamberlain Bridge at five furlongs on turf, while the Grade 2-placed Buttercream Babe leads the $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff, a one-mile turf race for fillies and mares. Saez has the mount for trainer Mike Maker.
◗ Lone Star’s signal remains limited to Texas tracks and international sites due to an ongoing impasse between the Texas Racing Commission and the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority.
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