Red Route One Reels In Touchuponastar For New Orleans Classic Win

Eighth of nine in the early going of the $500,000 New Orleans Classic (G2), Winchell Thoroughbreds' homebred Red Route One scraped the paint on the backstretch, picked off horses one by one, switched off the heels of the pacesetter Touchuponastar in the stretch, then rattled home to win by two lengths.

Red Route One covered the 1 1/8 miles in a final time of 1:49.14 on a fast track.

Pressed hard by 2-1 lukewarm favorite Best Actor throughout, Louisiana-bred Touchuponastar, campaigned by Set Hut Stables of former NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme and brother and trainer Jeff, set fast early fractions of :23.16 and :46.87 through the first half mile. 

The duo took their battle into the far turn as Louisiana Stakes winner Money Supply and Red Route One inched closer, stride by stride. Touchuponastar, slight 2-1 second choice, eventually disposed of Best Actor, but he could not fend off the late charge of Red Route One, who rallied off the leader’s heels midstretch before kicking away to victory. It was another 1½ lengths back to Money Supply in third.

“That was very good,” winning jockey Joel Rosario. “I tried to save ground and he did it very well. Down the stretch I had to come out a little bit, but he did everything wonderfully.”

The win was the first in six starts since last year’s West Virginia Derby (G3) in August at Mountaineer and only the second graded stakes score in the career of Red Route One. Well-managed from the start, the well-traveled 4-year-old colt boasts a career record of 18-4-4-2 with earnings of $1,507,425. He among the leading earners for Three Chimneys Farm stallion and stud sensation Gun Runner, with four of those trained by Asmussen -- Echo Zulu, Gunite, and Society being the others.

“He’s another incredible homebred of Winchell Thoroughbreds,” Asmussen said of Red Route One, who was produced by the Tapit mare Red House. “He’s campaigned a lot, traveled a lot. When given the opportunity he will show up. Joel (Rosario) gave him the right trip for the horse. He got a nice set up today but he was good enough to take advantage of it.”

As the 4-1 third choice in the field of nine, Red Route One returned $11.80 for the win.