Untapable a go for Shuvee

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After going back and forth between running and passing, trainer Steve Asmussen ultimately decided to run the champion Untapable in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap at Saratoga.

The Shuvee will mark the first start at Saratoga for Untapable – last year’s champion 3-year-old filly – and marks the first meeting between her and fellow Eclipse Award finalist Stopchargingmaria, the winner of last year’s Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.

Noting that Untapable has become a less-aggressive filly than she was at 2 and 3, Asmussen thinks she will benefit from a race before the Grade 1 Personal Ensign here Aug. 29.

“I think the main thing is she is a more-relaxed, easier-on-herself mare now, and we’re going to use it as preparation for the Personal Ensign,” Asmussen said.

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Untapable won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom this year but is coming off a second-place finish to Wedding Toast in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on Belmont Stakes Day.

“She’s been a little slower away from the gates, and it’s put her in a different position,” Asmussen said. “I think she was beaten in the Phipps by a good mare who ran a good race and had things go her way.”

Untapable will carry 123 pounds under John Velazquez. She is spotting the rest of the field three to nine pounds.

“It isn’t ideal in the fact we gave her a little bit of a break, backed off of her, and we’re giving away quite a bit of weight,” Asmussen said. “We saw how well that worked out for Judy the Beauty.”

Judy the Beauty, the 124-pound highweight, finished third behind La Verdad in Wednesday’s Grade 2 Honorable Miss.