Omaha Beach colt kicks off 2026 campaign with Louisiana S. (G3) victory

Spendthrift Farm LLC and Repole Stable’s Accelerize began his year Saturday at Fair Grounds with a front-running score in the $175,000 Louisiana S. (G3).

The 4-year-old son of Omaha Beach, who was also bred by Spendthrift, was making his stakes debut in what was just his fourth lifetime start.

Accelerize showed his customary early speed once again on Saturday, but was under pressure from Tarantino from the outset, and those two were side-by-side for the first five furlongs. Tarantino began to fade on the turn, but Just a Touch took up the chase almost immediately and was within a half-length of Accelerize turning for home.

Just a Touch got a head in front inside the final furlong before Accelerize gamely battled back to carry Spendthift’s silks across the wire a neck ahead of Just a Touch.

The final time for the 1 1/16-miles was 1:43.43, earning the winner a Beyer Speed Figure of 97.

“On paper it looked like there was a lot of speed, but my horse came from a shorter distance and showed some speed as well,” jockey Flavian Prat told FanDuel TV. “He showed he has some fight in him and [the future] is pretty bright for him.”

Accelerize, trained by Todd Pletcher, has won three of four starts and earned $154,480. The dark bay colt was the first foal out of the stakes winner Motion Emotion, who has a 2023 filly by Yaupon, a 2024 colt by Cyberknife and a yearling filly by Into Mischief.

Pedigree Notes from the TDN

The 2025 leading third-crop sire, Spendthrift Farm’s Omaha Beach adds his 27th black-type winner and ninth graded winner with Accelerize’s Louisiana win. The colt is inbred 3×3 to Take Charge Lady as the blue hen is both the granddam of Omaha Beach and the dam of Take Charge Indy, Accelerize’s broodmare sire.