Touch Gold

Touch Gold
Touch Gold
	Haskell Invitational Handicap (1997) Triple Crown race wins:; Belmont Stakes (1997)
	Last updated on June 17, 2007

Touch Gold (foaled May 26, 1994 in

Classic Belmont Stakes, in which he ended Silver Charm's bid for the U.S. Triple Crown. Upon the death of 1996 Belmont Stakes winner Editor's Note, Touch Gold became the oldest living winner of the Belmont Stakes

.

Racing career

1996: two-year-old season

After Touch Gold won a 6-

Grey Stakes and a second in the Swynford Stakes

.

1997: three-year-old season

Early season

Sent to race in the United States under new trainer

Lexington Stakes, in which he defeated top three-year-old Smoke Glacken

by 8½ lengths.

Not entered in the Kentucky Derby, Touch Gold competed in the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, the Preakness Stakes. At the start of the race, the colt stumbled but rallied to challenge the leaders until he tired in the homestretch to finish fourth behind Silver Charm. He came out of the Preakness with a sore left front hoof but recovered enough to enter the Belmont Stakes three weeks later.

1997 Belmont Stakes

Going into the 1997 Belmont Stakes, Silver Charm was favored to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. His main opposition was expected to come from the entry of Touch Gold and Wild Rush, stretch-running Crypto Star, and Free House who had finished third in the Derby and second in the Preakness. In the Belmont, Touch Gold held a slim lead early but relinquished it at the halfway mark. Coming into the top of the stretch, he was fourth, blocked behind a wall of horses running three-wide. Jockey Chris McCarron swung Touch Gold to the far outside, where he rallied to win over Silver Charm by three-quarters of a length.

After Belmont

After his

Monmouth Park but in the fall's Breeders' Cup Classic, he finished ninth and last. At age four in 1998, he raced four times, only going back to the track at the end of June when he won a one-mile allowance race at Churchill Downs in a time of 1:34, one fifth of a second off the track record. His next best result came in October when he finished second in the Fayette Stakes

. In the Breeders' Cup Classic, he finished eighth in a ten-horse field.

Stud career

Owned by a syndicate that includes Frank Stronach, Touch Gold stands at

Stephen Foster Handicap

.

Touch Gold was pensioned from stud duty in 2015, and was sent to Old Friends Equine Thoroughbred Retirement Farm. He resides there along with his son, Seek Gold.

With the death of the 1996 winner Editor’s Note on December 12, 2022, Touch Gold became the oldest living winner of the Belmont Stakes.