Touchuponastar

It's a busy time for NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney as there are some important issues facing horse racing that are being addressed in the nation's capital. Most notably, is the provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that allows gamblers to deduct only 90 percent of their losses from their winnings. If nothing is done to change that, it will likely have a serious impact on the sport and drive many big bettors out of the game. Bills have been introduced that would allow gamblers to again write...

I daresay that plenty of people who invest in bloodstock also like to play "emerging" markets. Both, after all, are notoriously volatile environments, where assets seem to spend at least as much time "submerging." As such we must applaud Klaravich Stables for the naming of the GII Louisiana Derby winner. Strictly they have taken an opportunity overlooked in Wild Empress, the dam of Emerging Market (Candy Ride {Arg}): she was by Empire Maker out of a Seeking the Gold mare named Trappings. And, being at one remove, I guess their...

For the second time the accomplished Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) was named by the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association as the LA-bred Horse of the Year, the organization said in a letter that was sent to its members on Friday. The gelding, who secured the same honor in 2023, turned in a stellar 2025 which included a handful of wins against black-type state bred company and also a victory in the GII New Orleans Classic at Fair Grounds. Bred by Coteau Grove Farms, Touchuponastar is owned by former NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme's...

5. SISTER TROIENNE, GP, 1/31-11th, 1 1 16 miles (turf) (Video) Beyer Speed Figure-84 (f, 3, by Munnings-Dyna Passer, by Lemon Drop Kid) O/B-Woodslane Racing (Ky). T-Brian Lynch. J-Mario Gutierrez. Horses aren't machines, but don't tell Sister Troienne. The Sweetest Chant was her fifth straight victory, each looking exactly like the one before. She's the first foal to race from Dyna Passer, a decent sort and third in the Jockey Club Oaks. More significantly, Dyna Passer is a half-sister to multiple graded winners Wolfie's Dynaghost (Ghostzapper)--a $1.3-million earner--and Sadler's Joy...

You probably won't find the name Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) on anyone's 2025 Eclipse Award ballot. Fanfare just doesn't come easily for a Louisiana-bred who has spent most of his career competing against fellow state breds. But the 7-year-old gelding is unquestionably one of the fastest horses in the sport. Is he fast enough to win the Jan. 24 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park? It appears he may just be given that chance. When the names of horses invited to the $3 million race were released, Touchuponastar...

In terms of upcoming centenaries, the good news is that we should be favored with plenty of Marilyn Monroe movies. True, her most enduring contribution to equine sport was to exclaim, in Some Like It Hot: "Water polo! Isn't that terribly dangerous?" "I'll say," replies Tony Curtis as the fake millionaire. "I had two ponies drowned under me." In the Thoroughbred world, therefore, we will instead be honoring another immortal female born in 1926. Through the next year, in fact, it might be fun to make a specific note of...

If you are looking to back a runner who can confidently operate under center, shoot the A-gap and get to the next level, streak like a gazelle along the sidelines and tip-toe ever so elegantly for the score, then look no further than Louisiana-bred Touchuponastar (Star Guitar), who took home his fourth Champions Day Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday--the mark surpassed his stellar sire and moved him closer to $2-million in career earnings. The 6-year-old's ride for brothers Jake and Jeff Delhomme took them to new heights earlier...

While several tracks have experimented with lowering the takeout, none has gone as far as what Delta Downs has planned for two daytime cards, Nov. 25-26. On those days, the takeout will be 10% on all wagers, in all pools. Some tracks have slashed the takeout on certain wagers and Hawthorne offered an industry low takeout at its 2025 meet of 12% on all win wagers. But never before has a track lowered takeout on all pools or to anything near 10%. "Our Director of Racing Ops John Simon came...

Damon Thayer has retired from his job as the Senate Majority Floor Leader in the state of Kentucky, where he was one of horse racing's staunchest and most important allies. Thayer may no longer be walking the halls of the Capitol in Frankfort, but he is still working hard to help the sport he loves. He is now a senior advisor with Thoroughbred Racing Initiative (TRI), a group devoted to stopping decoupling efforts at Gulfstream Park and to see to it that racing in South Florida remains a vital part...

State-bred and -sired programs in Louisiana, West Virginia and Maryland were in the spotlight over the weekend, and the while main events at Delta Downs, Charles Town Races and Laurel Park each featured heavily backed odds-on favorites, the results produced varying outcomes: A new track record, a double-digit-lengths blowout, and an upset of a Breeders' Cup-placed horse who had seemed like a cinch dropping down into restricted company. On Saturday at Delta Downs, Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) returned from a 4 1/2-month layoff in the co-featured $100,000 Gold Cup Stakes for...

4th-CD, $120k, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 2:13p.m. ET Leaving the four hole on this unveiling as the most expensive auction buy in the race, CANNONEER (Into Mischief) will be carrying the colors of the partnership of St Elias and Stonestreet Stables. A $1.75-million purchase last year at KEESEP, the son of top sire Into Mischief claims a fleet of accomplished half-siblings, most notable being the late GSW & MGISP Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) and sire GISW Girvin (Tale of Ekati). Also in dam Catch the Moon (Malibu Moon)'s family portrait is...

After striking gold beyond the boundaries of the Golden State with Journalism (Curlin) in the GI Preakness Stakes a little more than a week ago, jockey Umberto Rispoli and trainer Michael McCarthy are liable to find themselves front and center on the special Memorial Day program at Santa Anita with Formidable Man (City of Light) in the GI Shoemaker Mile Stakes. And if statistics are anything to go by, they should prove tough to handle, as the duo has combined to win at something around 27% at the Great Race...