Photo:

Del Mar / Benoit Photo

In this biweekly series, racing analyst J. Keeler Johnson shares promising horses from his handicapping watch list, reviewing runners who have recently caught his eye and previewing horses scheduled to run back in the near future.

Results

Wednesday

Mahoning Valley, race 3: Perfect Shances suffered her second straight defeat when ending a long layoff with a fifth-place finish in a Mahoning Valley allowance. I’ll drop her from my watch list.

Entries

Friday

Oaklawn, race 7: Is Calling Card a Road to the Kentucky Derby contender in the making? We’ll get a better idea when he starts as the probable favorite in a $125,000 allowance optional claimer racing one mile at Oaklawn.

Calling Card showed some potential in his first two starts on turf, but exploded when switched to dirt in a one-mile maiden special weight for New York-breds at Aqueduct, crushing his rivals by 17 1/4 lengths with strong speed figures. If he can run similarly fast against a tougher non-state-restricted field at Oaklawn, then a Road to the Kentucky Derby foray is surely next on the agenda.

Saturday

Tampa Bay Downs, race 6: Nic’s Style has won four of her five starts, with her lone defeat being a respectable runner-up finish in the Gallant Bloom (G2) against Grade 1 winner Ways and Means. All of Nic’s Style’s victories have come by at least 3 1/4 lengths, the margin by which she took Aqueduct’s seven-furlong Pumpkin Pie last month.

Now Nic’s Style is the 4-5 morning-line favorite to take down fellow Florida-breds in the seven-furlong FTBOA City of Ocala Florida Sire at Tampa Bay Downs. She may face a stiff challenge from Beth’s Dream, who was last seen finishing second in the Princess Rooney (G3) to future Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Soul of an Angel. But after taking on tough competition in New York, Nic’s Style may appreciate heading back to Florida, where she won the first two starts of her career by daylight margins.

Fair Grounds, race 3: Louisiana-bred standout Touchuponastar has won 12 of his 18 career starts. Three of his defeats have been runner-up finishes in graded stakes, and you have to go back 2 1/2 years to find the last time Touchuponastar lost a race against Louisiana-breds.

These stats suggest Touchuponastar will be tough to beat while returning to the Louisiana-bred ranks in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic, a race he won in 2022 and 2023. True, he ran a bit below his best when third in the Delta Mile last time out, but he was returning from a layoff and facing non-state-restricted competition. With that comeback run under his belt, Touchuponastar is well-positioned to secure his third straight Louisiana Champions Day Classic title.

Los Alamitos, race 8: Gaming is hands-down the horse to beat in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. He’s the most accomplished horse to enter the race in a number of years, having won the Del Mar Futurity (G1) prior to finishing second by 1 1/2 lengths in a strong renewal of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Gaming has already beaten two of his four Los Alamitos Futurity rivals, and strong workouts since the Breeders’ Cup indicate he’s ready to fire a peak performance for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Los Alamitos Futurity a record 14 times.