Gunite, Wit highlight six in Champagne

Sep 29, 2021 James Scully/TwinSpires.com

The top two finishers from the Sept. 6 Hopeful S. (G1) at
Saratoga, Gunite and Wit, head six runners in Saturday’s $500,000 Champagne S. (G1). One of four stakes at Belmont Park, the mile race
is the first Road to the Kentucky Derby series qualifier in New York, awarding
points on a 10-4-2-1 scale to the top four finishers.

Sea Hero (1993) is the last Champagne winner to capture the
Kentucky Derby.

The Champagne also guarantees a berth to the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar as a “Win & You’re In” event.

A Churchill Downs maiden scorer, Gunite finished second in
the Saratoga Special (G2) before rolling to a frontrunning, 5 3/4-length
decision in the seven-furlong Hopeful. Steve Asmussen trains the son of top
freshman sire Gun Runner, and Ricardo Santana Jr. retains the mount on the dark
bay colt.

Wit will try to rebound after a troubled second as the 3-5
favorite in the Hopeful, stumbling badly out of the starting gate. An
impressive debut winner for two-time Kentucky Derby winner Todd Pletcher, the
Practical Joke colt romped by eight lengths in the Sanford S. (G3) the second
time out. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides.

Pletcher has three in the field. My Prankster stamped himself as one to watch winning his career
debut by 10 lengths at Saratoga on Aug. 21, and Luis Saez will ride the
promising Into Mischief colt. Commandperformance
jumps to stakes competition following a runner-up finish versus maiden special
weight foes in his first outing.

Jack Christopher
will make his first stakes attempt for Chad Brown after drawing away to an 8
3/4-length victory in his initial appearance on the Aug. 28 Travers undercard. Jose
Ortiz will be back up on the son of Munnings. Kavod, unplaced versus stakes foes in his last two, completes the
field.