Nine target Belmont Stakes

Bob Baffert isn’t the only Hall of Fame trainer who raced at Oaklawn Park this year with eyes on the Triple Crown.

Targeting the same races, Steve Asmussen on Saturday goes for his second victory in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes with Oaklawn winner Pneumatic and locally-raced Jungle Runner. Another Oaklawn-raced Asmussen trainee, Grade 1 winner Basin, will be saved for the July 11 Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland, the trainer said.

Pneumatic comes off a third-place finish to since-sidelined Maxfield in the Grade 3 Matt Winn May 23 at Churchill Downs. An Uncle Mo colt bred produced by a Tapit mare, Pneumatic launched his career at Oaklawn with maiden and allowance victories for owner-breeder Winchell Thoroughbreds.

Close to the lead last time, Pneumatic took “a big step up in company” in the Matt Winn, the colt’s stakes debut, Asmussen told Daily

Racing Form. “This will obviously be another step up for him, but he’s going to deliver all he has on the 20th.”

Jungle Runner is winless in three starts since the Clever Trevor at Remington Park last November, finishing eighth in the Arkansas Derby last time out.

Basin, six lengths back of Charlatan when second in the Arkansas Derby, placed in two early-season Oaklawn stakes but is winless since keying a top-three sweep for Team Asmussen in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga in September.

“We decided to give Basin (by first-year sire Liam’s Map) more time, and I think it’s very important to keep him at two turns with our eyes still on the (Kentucky) Derby,” Asmussen told Daily Racing Form.

Farmington Road, fourth in the Arkansas Derby for trainer Todd Pletcher, also is listed probable for the Belmont.

Nine 3-year-olds are projected for what is normally a spring classic but this year falls on the first day of summer. Originally scheduled June 6 at a mile and a half, the Belmont was

pushed back on the calendar because of the coronavirus epidemic and shortened to nine furlongs. The Kentucky Derby (Sept. 5 at 10 furlongs) and the Preakness (Oct. 3 at 1 3/16 miles) also have new dates but their regular distances.

Tiz the Law looms as a short-priced Belmont favorite over the track that he won the Grade 1 Champagne last fall. He has been rested since winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby March 28. Tiz the Law has the same trainer, Barclay Tagg, and owners (Sackatoga Stables) as Funny Cide, who lost to Empire Maker in the 2003 Belmont after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Other Belmont probables are Sole Volante (an allowance winner last week at Florida’s Gulfstream Park), Dr Post, Max Player, Modernist and Tap It to Win, the latter with a June 4 Belmont allowance victory for Mark Casse, trainer of 2019 Belmont Stakes victor Sir Winston.

After his colts captured several Triple Crown preps, circumstances have left Baffert without a probable Belmont starter. Arkansas Derby division winners Charlatan and Nadal are out because of injuries (Nadal since being retired) and stakes winner Authentic is passing the Belmont after his Grade

1 second in the Santa Anita Derby June 6.

This is the 100th anniversary of Man o’War’s Belmont victory, which came by 20 lengths and followed a Preakness triumph. Man o’War did not enter the

1920 Kentucky Derby because his owner, Samuel Riddle, objected at running the colt 10 furlongs so early in his career. A neck loser at Saratoga to the fittingly named Upset, Man o’War won 20 of 21 career starts. He was honored with Babe Ruth as the outstanding athlete of

1920 by the New York Times and was inducted to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1957. Man o’War, living to age

30, died in 1947.