Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman possible for Acorn Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman is a candidate for the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10, trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday.

Abel Tasman resumed racetrack training at Santa Anita over the weekend following her upset win in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 5. Baffert said a decision on whether Abel Tasman is sent to New York will be made closer to the race.

In the $1 million Kentucky Oaks at 1 1/8 miles, 9-1 Abel Tasman closed from last in a field of 14 to finish 1 1/2 lengths in front of 12-1 Daddys Lil Darling. The $700,000 Acorn Stakes is run at a mile.

Baffert won Saturday’s Grade 3 Lazaro Barrera Stakes at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds with American Anthem, who ended a streak of three losses in stakes. American Anthem was 12th in the Santa Anita Derby on April 8, a defeat that ended any hope of a start in a Triple Crown race.

Baffert said Sunday that he does not have any race plans for American Anthem, who races for the partnership of WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, and SF Racing. One option could be the Grade 3 Affirmed Stakes, a $100,000 race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on June 24.

There are no short-term race plans for the veteran older horse Hoppertunity, who has been taken out of training, Baffert said.

A winner of 7 of 26 starts who has earned $4,266,425, Hoppertunity, 6, won the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes here in February and was sixth in the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 25.

Baffert said Hoppertunity “needed a break.”

“I didn’t like the way he was training, so I stopped on him for a few weeks,” Baffert said.

Hoppertunity has had one workout in the last month – a half-mile in 49.60 seconds at Santa Anita on April 27.