Hashtag Bourbon impresses in Mountaineer Juvenile

The 2-year-old Hashtag Bourbon came into Saturday’s $100,000 Mountaineer Juvenile a maiden and left town a stakes winner.

In one of the better performances of West Virginia Derby Day, Hashtag Bourbon stormed from off the pace to win the six-furlong Juvenile by an expanding 4 1/2 lengths. He was timed in 1:11.45 (the fillies division went in 1:11.79) and received a Beyer Speed Figure of 78.

The Juvenile was Hashtag Bourbon’s second start. In his debut at Churchill Downs on June 28, he broke slowly, dropped far back, and then closed well to finish third.

“He just spotted them too many lengths at Churchill,” trainer Kellyn Gorder said Monday. “He was just slow out of there. He got a little distracted.”

The style in which Hashtag Bourbon won the Juvenile suggests he will have little trouble handling longer distances in the future.

“I’ve always thought he was a two-turn horse,” Gorder said. “I was looking for a mile maiden race for him.”

Hashtag Bourbon has returned to Gorder’s Churchill Downs base. With the 2-year-old stakes season hitting its stride, there are plenty of options for Gorder and Hashtag Bourbon’s owner, Bourbon Lane Stable.

When asked if the Grade 1, seven-furlong Hopeful at Saratoga on Sept. 1 might be a possibility, Gorder wouldn’t say yes, but he didn’t say no.

“I’d like to take him east but of course he’d be meeting a little different group of horses there,” Gorder said. “I’ll be speaking with the owners in the next few days, and we’ll decide what our options are.”

Hashtag Bourbon is a son of 2010 Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, whose first crop are 2-year-olds this year. He was purchased for $130,000 out of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training. According to Gorder, Mike McMahon and Jamie Hill, the managing partners of Bourbon Lane Stable, picked him out of the sale.