Asmussen’s Hopeful Stakes Top 3 going separate ways

After Basin, Shoplifted and Gozilla crossed the wire 1-2-3 in Saratoga’s Hopeful Stakes (G1), trainer Steve Asmussen said he’d split the trio up for their next races.

Those targets have each been established before two key weekends of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile preps, each of which also offer qualifying points to the 2020 Kentucky Derby on a 10-4-2-1 basis to the Top 4 finishers.

Shoplifted, the Hopeful runner-up, will be the first to return in Friday’s Grade 1, $300,000 American Pharoah as he ships west to separate from his stablemates.

Jim Kasparoff, stakes coordinator at Santa Anita Park, lists the son of Into Mischief as probable along with the likes of Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner Nucky and Eight Rings, a highly regarded Bob Baffert trainee who lost his rider early in the Futurity.

Joel Rosario is expected to ride Shoplifted in his two-turn debut. The colt’s Hopeful second followed a 4 1/2-length debut win going 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga.

2019 American Pharoah Stakes (G1)

Asmussen’s other juveniles will both run Oct. 5 after a Sunday work in company over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.

Basin, a Liam’s Map colt who won the Hopeful by a widening 6 1/2 lengths, is bound for Keeneland’s Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity for his two-turn debut. He’ll go up against, among others, another 2-year-old who impressed on closing day at Saratoga, Gouverneur Morris, a Todd Pletcher debut winner.

Jackpot Farm’s Basin is now 2-for-3 having broken his maiden second out on July 21 at Saratoga. Both that first win (86) and the Hopeful (85) earned Beyer Speed Figures that rank among the fastest performances so far by this crop.

2019 Breeders' Futurity (G1)

That leaves Belmont Park’s Grade 1, $$500,000 Champagne Stakes — a one-turn mile event — for Gozilla, who ran third in the Hopeful but appears to have a high ceiling.

Asmussen saw the Flatter colt go from setting the fractions over a sloppy track to wearing out late, but he attributed that partially to a debut race that was almost too easy. Gozilla didn’t get much out of an easy 4 1/2-length victory Aug. 10 at Saratoga going six furlongs.

The Champagne means a meeting with Green Light Go, the 2-for-2 winner of the Saratoga Special (G2) who passed on the Hopeful when the track came up wet.

2019 Champagne (G1)