Canttouchthese maintained her winning ways in the $30,556 Fillies and Mares Open Handicap Pace at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, surging late to repeat in the feature on Saturday, June 6.
Electing to take back in the early stages from post seven, Canttouchthese found herself in eighth on the first turn while Goo Goo Won (Kyle Wilfong) blitzed to the lead from the far outside to bring the field of 10 to the opening quarter in :26. A parked-out Fox Valley Lava (Brandon Bates) then drove on to grab the lead down the backstretch. Fox Valley Lava kept the throttle down to the half, reaching that point in a hot :53.3 while Canttouchthese and John De Long began to fish for cover from the backfield. The outer flow quickly developed on the far turn, with Lyin Eyes (Atlee Bender) tipping from third to advance on Fox Valley Lava at three-quarters in 1:22.2 while Canttouchthese moved into contention third-over, 4-1/2 lengths back.
Fox Valley Lava turned away Lyin Eyes before the backfield, headed by Canttouchthese in the middle of the track, came to life along the outside. Gobbling up racetrack with every stride, Canttouchthese uncorked a :26.1 final quarter to surge clear and win by 2-1/4 lengths, shaving 1-1/5 seconds off her career best with a 1:49.2 clocking. Racin Hungry (Kevin Lambright) followed the move of the eventual winner to be second at 20-1, with Rollin Rosie (Trace Tetrick) rallying from last to be third.
The winning four-year-old homebred daughter of Jk Endofanera-Cant Touch This is owned by William De Long, Patrick De Long and Douglas Riccolo. Canttouchthese, trained by Roger Welch, has won two of four starts at age four. She is 19-for-33 lifetime and has banked $798,689 for her career. The win price was $4.60.
Racing resumes at Hoosier Park on Wednesday, June 10, with a 14-race program slated to begin at 5:30 p.m. The Wednesday card features round two of Indiana Sire Stakes action for sophomore trotting fillies, with a pair of $49,000 USD splits carded as Races 4 and 8 on the evening.
(Hoosier Park)