Hopeful winner Basin done for the year with ‘minor setback’

The Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner Basin, a Steve Asmussen trainee who was working toward a two-turn debut in Keeneland’s Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity on Oct. 5, exited his most-recent breeze off on his right-hind leg.

Ryne Poncik, son-in-law of Terry Green, who campaigns horses under the Jackpot Farm banner, said Friday that Basin will miss the rest of the season. But the Liam's Map colt won’t require surgery due to a “minor setback” discovered by the renowned Dr. Larry Bramlage, with irritation found above the Basin's pastern.

“He just needs a little time,” said Poncik, adding that Basin will now target Oaklawn Park’s series of 3-year-old races that begin with the Jan. 24 Smarty Jones Stakes. “Obviously he’s a May foal. We were thinking about even if he went in the Futurity not going to the Breeders’ Cup because everybody’s wearing their horses down trying to get there.

“It’s a lot easier said now, but he’ll be a fresh horse. We hope it’s a blessing in disguise that it happened now.”

Basin, by Liam’s Map, finished second by a nose on debut to the eventual graded stakes winner By Your Side. He broke his maiden going six furlongs July 21 at Saratoga, then led an Asmussen-trained trifecta when skipping over the slop in the seven-furlong Hopeful on Labor Day.

Connections purchased Basin for $150,000 as a yearling. And that could prove a bargain if he succeeds at Oaklawn, where after the $150,000 Smarty Jones purses ramp up. The Southwest Stakes (G3) is a $750,000 race before both the Rebel Stakes (G2) and Arkansas Derby (G1) go as million-dollar features.

The Asmussen barn will still be represented in the other two upcoming Breeders’ Cup Juvenile preps with Shoplifted, second in the Hopeful, running Friday afternoon in Santa Anita’s American Pharoah Stakes (G1) and Gozilla, third, targeting Belmont Park’s Oct. 5 Champagne Stakes (G1).