Basin

Basin, a son of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam’s Map owned by Jackpot Farm and trained by Steve Asmussen, finished second by a nose in his career debut to eventual Sanford Stakes winner By Your Side during the summer 2019 meet at Churchill Downs. The colt returned at Saratoga on July 21 and impressed with a 1 1/4-length score in a six-furlong maiden.

Asmussen pointed Basin to the Grade 1 Runhappy Hopeful Stakes on Saratoga’s closing Labor Day card for his stakes debut along with two other promising juveniles from his barn. With Saratoga meet-leading jockey Jose Ortiz in the irons, Basin stalked the pace and drew clear in midstretch to win going away by 6 1/2 lengths on a sloppy track, defeating Shoplifted and Gozilla in an all-Asmussen trifecta.

The Hopeful marked an early end to Basin's juvenile season. He made his first start in over six months in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 14 and ran on late to finish third, 7 ¾ lengths behind favored Nadal. Basin earned 10 qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve with the effort. After an unplaced finish in the Oaklawn Stakes April 11, Basin showed improvement when running second to Charlatan in the first division of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby May 2 at Oaklawn behind Charlatan. He was then awarded first place and 100 Derby qualifiying points on July 15 when Charlatan was disqualified for a prohibited substance. By that point, Basin had been taken off the Kentucky Derby trail after running tenth in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes.