After five race victories as a runner at Oaklawn Park, champion Mitole was represented by his fourth and most exciting to date as a sire when heavily favored Booth delivered emphatically in his 3-year-old debut Feb. 11.
Bottled up on the inside turning for home, Booth angled out and split rivals in the upper stretch, then coasted home by 4 1/4 wrapped-up lengths in the $140,000 allowance sprint for 3-year-olds.
Keith Asmussen rode Booth ($3.20) for his father, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, and an ownership group that includes Texans William and Corinne Heiligbrodt. It was a bounce-back performance for Booth, who sizzled in his debut—a front-running 5 1/4-length victory Oct. 7 at Keeneland—but fizzled in his only other start at age 2, finishing fifth as the heavy favorite in the $222,505 Ed Brown Stakes Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs.
"Lovely horse, man," Steve Asmussen said. "He is just very talented. So good to see him win the way that he did today—get back on track with him. Needless to say, we were not expecting him to get beat the second time we ran him, but it is horse racing."
Booth's victory came less than 24 hours after Asmussen saddled Valentine Candy to win Oaklawn's inaugural $150,000 Ozark Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters. The Heiligbrodts also co-own Valentine Candy, already a three-time stakes winner at the 2023-24 Oaklawn meeting that began Dec. 8.
Asmussen said a late spring target for Valentine Candy is the $200,000 Bachelor Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters at six furlongs April 27 at Oaklawn.
Asmussen said next-race plans are pending for Booth, who covered six furlongs over a sloppy, sealed surface in 1:10.81. Like Valentine Candy, Booth has never raced around two turns.
#2 BOOTH ($3.20) blows by the field to win race 3 at Oaklawn Park in impressive fashion.
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) February 11, 2024
This is the second win in three career starts for the Steve Asmussen trainee, who was piloted by @keithasm7. pic.twitter.com/mfIhA4KnFD
"He's going the right way," Asmussen said. "Just a very talented horse that we expect to have a very good future with. Obviously, with the same ownership group as Valentine Candy, we will keep them separated. He ran today like he might stretch out a little bit. We'll see."
The Heiligbrodts and Jackpot Farm purchased Booth for $225,000 at the 2023 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. Jackpot Farm also co-owns Valentine Candy, a son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify .
Mitole won the 2019 Eclipse Award as the country's champion male sprinter. Trained by Asmussen and owned by the Heiligbrodts, Mitole won 10 of 14 starts, including the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) in 2019. He earned $3,104,910.
Mitole won three races in 2018 at Oaklawn. He broke his maiden by 10 lengths, won an entry-level allowance by seven lengths and the $150,000 Bachelor Stakes by nine lengths. Mitole opened 2019 by winning an allowance race at Oaklawn and its Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3). All five of Mitole's Oaklawn victories were at six furlongs.
Mitole, who stands at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky for $15,000, was North America's leading first-crop sire by progeny earnings in 2023, punctuating his year with consecutive winners Dec. 31 at Oaklawn. Carbone won an entry-level allowance for Asmussen and Ice Cold captured the $200,000 Year's End Stakes for trainer Kenny McPeek. Both races were one mile. Mitole's third winner of the 2023-24 Oaklawn meeting was Mr Fillip, who broke his maiden at six furlongs Feb. 3 for two-time Oaklawn training champion Robertino Diodoro.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
