Fair Grounds, race 3: Following a couple of defeats against open company, Touchuponastar got back to his winning ways while facing fellow Louisiana-breds in the Louisiana Champions Day Classic. Favored at 1-5 to win the 1 1/8-mile race for the third year in a row, Touchuponastar carved out slow fractions of 25.02, 49.48 and 1:13.99 before accelerating his final three furlongs in 36.94 seconds to win easily by 5 1/4 lengths in 1:50.93.

Los Alamitos, race 8: What went wrong with Gaming in the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2)? It’s hard to say. He stayed within a length of reasonable 23.93, 47.75 and 1:11.87 pace fractions set by stablemate Getaway Car, but came up empty at the top of the stretch, weakening to finish third by 6 1/2 lengths as the 1-2 favorite.

This marked a regression from Gaming’s runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile over the same 1 1/16-mile distance. Is 1 1/16 miles simply too far for Gaming, who scored his signature win in the seven-furlong Del Mar Futurity (G1)? Or can we attribute his faltering Los Alamitos Futurity performance to an off day? We’ll need to see more from Gaming to know for certain, so I’ll keep him on my watch list for the time being.

I’ll also add to my watch list the impressive Los Alamitos Futurity winner Journalism. Coming off a maiden victory racing two turns at Del Mar, Journalism took another step forward in his stakes debut, tracking the pace on the outside before pulling clear of Getaway Car to prevail by 3 1/2 lengths in the good time of 1:43.04. As a son of Curlin out of the Uncle Mo mare Mopotism, Journalism has the pedigree to shine in the spring classics, so I’m optimistic he’s a serious Kentucky Derby contender for trainer Michael McCarthy.