Just A Touch, Courtesy Fair Grounds Race Course
Fair Grounds Press
NEW ORLEANS — Tabbed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the $100,000 Tenacious Stakes, Just a Touch leads a field of eight older males entered on Road to the Derby Kickoff Day at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
One of four stakes scheduled for Road to the Derby Kickoff Day, along with the $100,000 Gun Runner, $100,000 Untapable and $100,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial, the Tenacious is slated as Race 8. With 12 races carded, first post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. CT.
Though Qatar Racing and Marc Detampel’s Just a Touch has placed in four graded stakes, the lightly raced 4-year-old has yet to earn a stakes victory. That could change as the Brad Cox trainee returns to Fair Grounds, where two of his three career wins have come. In town for Road to the Derby Kickoff Day, Luis Saez takes the call and will guide Just a Touch from post 2.
Zimmer Ridge Ranch’s Not This Boy has never finished out of the money for trainer Doug Cowans, including runner-up finishes in his two stakes attempts – a head shy of Hit Show in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes and a nose behind Most Wanted in the 2024 Ellis Park Derby. The Not This Time 4-year-old attracted the services of Jose Ortiz and was tabbed at 2-1 on the morning line.
Logical contenders include Willis Horton Racing and Whisper Hill Farm’s Hanshin Stakes winner Will Take It, who competed in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), and Perry Martin’s Komorebino Omoide, runner-up in both the Louisiana Stakes (G3) and Mineshaft Stakes (G3) last year, who most recently exits a game second in the Thanksgiving Classic.
Here is the complete field for the Tenacious, from the rail out, with jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:
Komorebino Omoide (JPN) (Paco Lopez, Robertino Diodoro, 4-1)
Just a Touch (Saez, Cox, 7-5)
Will Take It (Axel Concepcion, Dallas Stewart, 20-1)
Stowaway (Jareth Loveberry, Whit Beckman, 12-1)
San Siro (Ben Curtis, Brendan Walsh, 20-1)
Sir Greylind (Brian Hernandez Jr., Kenny McPeek, 6-1)
Not This Boy (Ortiz, Cowans, 2-1)
Number One Dude (Colby Hernandez, Dallas Stewart, 30-1)
Defending Champion Gigante Headlines $100,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial
Last year’s winner Gigante returns in pursuit of a repeat victory in the $100,000 Buddy Diliberto Memorial at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots on Road to the Derby Kickoff Day.
One of four stakes scheduled for Road to the Derby Kickoff Day, along with the $100,000 Gun Runner, $100,000 Untapable and $100,000 Tenacious, the Diliberto is slated as Race 9. With 12 races carded, first post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. CT.
With more than $1.3 million in lifetime earnings, L and N Racing and Clark Brewster’s Gigante enters the Diliberto in strong form after winning his last two starts at Remington Park. Last meet, the Steve Asmussen trainee captured both the Buddy Diliberto Memorial and the Col. E.R. Bradley Stakes, while also finishing a game second in the Muniz Memorial. Jose Ortiz takes the call aboard the 3-1 morning-line favorite, who drew post 9.
Chief among his challengers is Flying P Stable’s Kupuna. Claimed for $100,000 by Norm Casse in September and switched to turf, Kupuna defeated a salty allowance field, including Northern Invader and Epic Ride. Ben Curtis has the mount.
Logical contenders also include last year’s longshot Muniz Memorial winner Idratherbeblessed and CRK Stable’s Theismann, who has rattled off three consecutive allowance victories for trainer Peter Eurton.
Here is the complete field for the Buddy Diliberto Memorial, from the rail out, with jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:
Point Proven (Tim Thornton, David Terre, 12-1)
Kupuna (Curtis, Casse, 7-2)
Secret Chat (C.J. McMahon, Bobby Barnett, 20-1)
Sand Pipes (Paco Lopez, Lindsey Schultz, 6-1)
Emmanuel (Jareth Loveberry, Mike Maker, 4-1)
Legalize (Brian Hernandez Jr., Cherie DeVaux, 8-1)
Theismann (Saez, Eurton, 6-1)
Idratherbeblessed (Marcelino Pedroza Jr., Chris Hartman, 12-1)
Gigante (Ortiz, Asmussen, 3-1)
