Race 11 at Monmouth | Saturday, July 18 | Post Time 5:09 PM Eastern

United Nations Stakes – Grade 2 | Purse $500,000 | One Mile and Three-Eighths on Turf | Three-Year-Olds and Upward

Top Win Contender(s): Just a Touch (7), Program Trading (4)

In second in exactas: Echo Lane (3)

Just a Touch (7) raced in his first 11 dirt races, winning three, finishing second five times, and third once, including six stakes. If you exclude his one and a quarter mile races (the Kentucky Derby and the Santa Anita Handicap), he finished first or second in eight of nine races. Off a layoff from July last year to January, Just a Touch battled head-and-head to miss by a neck.

Just a Touch has two races since on turf, and he won both. Both wins came with Irad Ortiz, Jr aboard, who rides again. The first of his two recent wins was on April 16 when he rallied to win from eighth and last, then on June 13, Just a Touch led from the start in a field of nine, and no one could touch him. That was also the first time he had raced in a marathon (a mile and three-eighths or more). With his ability to close or to lead from the start, Just a Touch is the horse to beat.

Program Trading (4) has won six of 14 races, finished second three times, and third once. However, he has only once run more than a mile and an eighth. In his only longer race, he finished fifth in the mile and three-sixteenths Manhattan Stakes two years ago, after which he went off for 15 months. Since then, he ran in six races, finishing second twice, before he finally won the Monmouth Stakes easily in a field of six. Trainer Chad Brown won the 2025 United Nations while Redistricting won the Monmouth previously. Program Trading can win, but he will be the favorite. Given his last two races and with more than two years between them, I will just use him in exactas.

Echo Lane (3) gets jockey Luis Saez, who had ridden him for three wins through November. Two races after that win last fall, Echo Lane ran this distance and finished second in the similar Mac Diarmida Stakes in February this year, where he was just beaten a half-length in a good field. He finished third in the Pan American Stakes in March, another marathon. In his two latest races, he finished third in the Louisville Stakes a neck from the runner-up, and then finished fourth in the Chorleywood Stakes on June 14. The winner in both of those races was Burnham Street, who has won three straight stakes. Echo Lane, with Saez riding and with this horse’s in-the-money finishes in three of his four marathons, has a good shot to finish as part of the exacta.

Win bets: Just a Touch (7) at odds of 8 to 5 or higher.

Exactas: Just a Touch (7), Program Trading (4) over Just a Touch (7), Program Trading (4), Echo Lane (3).

Doubles:

Race 11: Just a Touch (7)

Race 12: Further Ado (2)

Race 12 at Monmouth | Saturday, July 18 | Post Time 5:45 PM Eastern

Haskell Stakes – Grade 1 | Purse $1 Million | One Mile and One-Eighth | Three-Years-Old

Top Win Contender(s): Further Ado (2)

Further Ado (2) is the horse to beat in this year’s Haskell. He has won four and finished second once in six races. His only poor effort came when, as the favorite, he finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby. He rebounded off the Derby to win the Matt Winn Stakes. Before the Derby, and the only other time he had previously run this distance, Further Ado won the Blue Grass by 11 lengths.

Further Ado earned a 107 Equibase Speed Figure, which, to date, is one of the best two-turn stakes figures of three-year-old horses in 2026. Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. has been aboard for all of his wins, and it should be their fifth win when he wins this year’s Haskell.

Napoleon Solo (6) ran the Preakness by stalking at a fast pace, taking over and winning. He earned a 97 Equibase Speed Figure and could improve. However, if Further Ado runs the same effort he did in the Blue Grass, there is no way Napoleon Solo can beat him. The Puma (4) is a good horse, but he was off for four and a half months. He was just beaten by a nose in the Florida Derby, earning a 97 figure, and even if he runs his best race, he is unlikely to beat Further Ado. Star Sweeper (1) ran his best race one back, when he was beaten by a head in the Long Branch Stakes (91), and he finished fifth in the Pegasus. Iron Honor (5) ran second in his last eight, and his best figure is 95. Ocelli (7) is a deep closer who is compromised by the current fast pace, and even if not, he only finished fourth in the Preakness. He earned his career-best figure of 99 when he finished third in the Kentucky Derby. Baby Vino (3) won his maiden, and then he won the Pegasus Stakes by 11 lengths. His two wins earned 99 and 94 figures.

Win bets: Further Ado (2) at odds of 1 to 1 (even money) or higher.