Midnight Bisou, Road to Victory may head Mother Goose field

The Mother Goose Stakes has lost some luster in recent years, but it's likely to feature a marquee matchup Saturday at Belmont Park.

Trainer Steve Asmussen on Sunday confirmed that Midnight Bisou, pending a Monday workout at Churchill Downs, will run in the Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose. So, too, will Road to Victory, the only horse to have defeated Monomoy Girl, the easy leader of the 3-year-old filly division after wins in the Ashland, the Kentucky Oaks, and the Acorn - all Grade 1s.

Also expected to be entered in the 1 1/16-mile Mother Goose, according to New York Racing Association stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes, are Coach Rocks, Indy Union, and My Miss Lily.

Gio Game had been considered a likely runner in the race, and she worked in company Friday at Belmont with stablemate Road to Victory (half-mile over the main track in 48.02), but trainer Mark Casse said he was leaning toward running Gio Game on July 7 in the Delaware Oaks and putting Road to Victory in the Mother Goose.

“I’ve been kind of flopping back and forth on it, but right now the plan is to run [Road to Victory],” Casse said. “They worked together the other day, and both went very well.”

Unbeaten Road to Victory won both her starts at age 2, including a narrow win over Monomoy Girl in the Golden Rod Stakes last November at Churchill Downs, but she was slow to return to the races this year as a 3-year-old. Casse said about 2 1/2 months ago he mapped out a plan for Road to Victory to make her seasonal bow in the Alywow Stakes, a seven-furlong turf race at Woodbine, before going on to the Mother Goose, and so far, that plan has worked.

“The Alywow seemed like a good place to get her back since she had no conditions, we didn’t want to run against older horses, and she already had been successful on the Woodbine turf course” winning a maiden race last fall, Casse said.

Midnight Bisou, meanwhile, will race for the first time since finishing third as the 2.3-1 favorite behind Monomoy Girl and the Casse-trained Wonder Gadot in the Kentucky Oaks. Owned by Allen Racing LLC and Bloom Racing Stable, Midnight Bisou makes her first start since being moved from California-based trainer Bill Spawr into Asmussen’s barn, a trainer change, Midnight Bisou’s connections said, based entirely on the greater availability of important 3-year-old filly stakes races on the East Coast and the paucity of such opportunities in California.

Midnight Bisou has worked four times since the May 4 Oaks, including a major six-furlong in-company drill in 1:12 on June 18.

“She worked awesome,” Asmussen said.

Midnight Bisou, who won the Santa Anita Oaks in April, was to ship to Belmont on Tuesday following her Monday work. Mike Smith will retain the mount in the Mother Goose.