By Alan Carasso
Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) could have won the Sunday stakes named for his sire practically by just showing up, but instead, connections took the path of greater resistance and allowed him to take his chance against the likes of Eclipse Award and GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in Saturday's GII New Orleans Classic Stakes.
Owned by former NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme's Set-Hut LLC, the Louisiana-bred played catch me if you can in front of a partisan crowd in the Big Easy and catch him they could not. Sent immediately into the lead by Tim Thornton, Touchuponastar galloped them along in advance of fellow 'Rising Star' and GIII Mineshaft Stakes hero Hall of Fame (Gun Runner) through fractions of :24 flat and :47.40 as Sierra Leone caboosed the field while never too far away.
Continuing to travel strongly through three-quarters in 1:10.78, the hickory-tough gelding, twice second in the GIII Steve Sexton Mile, but minus an elusive graded victory to date, kept on keeping on and crossed the wire comfortably best. Hall of Fame was second ahead of Sierra Leone, who surely needed the run and was doing his best work through the line, but would have been done no favors with five early scratches from an original field of 10.
Touchuponastar is the first Louisiana-bred winner of the New Orleans Classic since Scott's Scoundrel back in 1996.
“It was a tough decision,” said Delhomme about electing the much more difficult task. “You don't want to make a decision for your ego, you want to do it for the horse. He was doing so well. We're from Louisiana, we love our home-grown things and he's a fan-favorite. We're just blessed to have him.”
Of the beaten favorite, jockey Flavien Prat said: “He never got into a rhythm. He was struggling to keep up the pace. He made a run late but those horses were all running away.”
Never out of the top three to date, Touchuponastar had won no fewer than 11 stakes including his lone previous open-company black-type success in the Delta Mile Stakes at the back end of 2023. Runner-up in this event to Red Route One (Gun Runner) last spring, the bay filled the runner-up spot in the GIII Steve Sexton Mile for the second year in a row last May before getting a holiday.
Third to Komorebino Omoide (Jpn) (California Chrome) in defense of the Delta Mile Nov. 8, he won the Louisiana Champions Day Classic for the third straight season Dec. 14 and completed a three-peat in the LA-Bred Premier Night Championship in at Delta when last seen Feb. 1.
Pedigree Notes:
One of 18 black-type winners for Star Guitar, Touchuponastar is the 20-year-old stallion's fourth winner at the group/graded level (Minit to Stardom and the half-sisters Ova Charged and 'TDN Rising Star' Manama Gold).
The winner's dam, second in the GIII Delta Princess Stakes at two in 2012, made this track's Silverbulletday Stakes the most important victory of her career early the following season. From the female family of Bernstein, Caress and her stallion son Sky Mesa, Touchuponastar is a half-sister to the three-time stakes-placed Voila Magic (Volatile), to a 2-year-old full-brother and to a yearling filly by Maxfield. Touch Magic is due to Flightline for 2025.
Saturday, Fair Grounds
NEW ORLEANS CLASSIC S. PRESENTED BY RELYNE GI BY HAGYARD-GII, $480,000, Fair Grounds, 3-22, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:48.10, ft.
1–TOUCHUPONASTAR, 122, g, 6, by Star Guitar
1st Dam: Touch Magic (SW & GSP, $243,871),
by Lion Heart
2nd Dam: Unifier, by Deputy Minister
3rd Dam: Unify, by Farma Way
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($15,000 Ylg '20 TTAYHR). O-Set-Hut LLC; B-Coteau Grove Farms, LLC (LA); T-Jeff Delhomme; J-Timothy Thornton. $300,000. Lifetime Record: 21-15-4-2, $1,412,900. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Hall of Fame, 122, c, 4, Gun Runner–Flag Day, by Giant's Causeway. ($1,400,000 Ylg '22 FTSAUG). 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, Gandharvi LLC and Brook T. Smith; B-Earle I. Mack LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $100,000.
3–Sierra Leone, 122, c, 4, Gun Runner–Heavenly Love, by Malibu Moon. ($2,300,000 Ylg '22 FTSAUG). 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Peter M. Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg and Brook T. Smith; B-Debby M. Oxley (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $50,000.
Margins: 2HF, 2, 8HF. Odds: 6.50, 3.20, 0.30.
Also Ran: San Siro, Komorebino Omoide (Jpn). Scratched: Bishops Bay, Kinetic, Maycocks Bay, Tarantino, Uno Mas Bourbon.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
🏈 Louisiana-Bred #5 TOUCHUPONASTAR dominates in the $500,000 New Orleans Classic (G2) over Hall Of Fame (2nd) and Sierra Leone (3rd) at @fairgroundsnola with Timothy Thornton in the irons for trainer Jeff Delhomme and owner Set-Hut (Jake Delhomme). pic.twitter.com/RTd4uuYgEB
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) March 22, 2025
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