“To be honest, when we came here, we thought he would be one of the better ones,” said consignor Al Pike. “You never know if you're going to top the sale or not, but we thought he would be one of the better horses because he's shown that he was a pretty special horse at the farm.”

Of the colt's final price, Pike admitted, “I wasn't expecting that kind of price. At any market, when you bring a horse who looks like he's the real deal, they usually bring some money. So I was very pleased that he showed up and did his job. And there were some very good judges of horseflesh here and they appreciated what we brought.”

The dark bay colt was purchased for $72,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

“[Trainer] Scottie Gelner picked him out as a yearling and he did a great job of picking him out,” Pike said.

Pike Racing, which was bringing its first group of horses to sale from its new base at Highlander Training Center, sent eight horses through the ring Wednesday. The consignment was represented by four of the six horses to work the bullet furlong Monday.

“This is our first year partnering with Highlander Training Center,” Pike said. “The facility has been good to us and, by the breeze show, you can tell they came from a good place. We broke all of these horses there and they came in here and did a good job. I'm very proud of our team at Highlander and all of the people involved there.”

Pike continued, “I am from Texas and we try to bring a nice group here every year because this is home. We try to bring horses who fit this market and we think we did a pretty good job. These are all client horses, but luckily they sent us some nice horses and they performed well. And for the most part, they sold pretty well.”

Hip 28 was one of three at the one-session auction to bring six figures Wednesday. Whispering Oaks Farm, Coteau Grove Farms, Jackpot Farm and Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt teamed up to purchase a filly by Vino Rosso (hip 26) for $170,000 from AsmussenEquine.com and the same partnership returned later in the session to acquire a filly by Cinco Charlie (hip 49) for $100,000 from Asmussen Horse Center.

From a catalogue of 130 horses, 64 horses sold for a total of $2,199,500. The average was $34,367 and the median was $24,500. With 49 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 43.4%.

At last year's Texas sale, 107 head sold for $3,470,500. The average was $32,435 and the median was $17,500. The buy-back rate was 35.9%.

“It's like everything else, it is kind of hit or miss,” Pike said of the market at Lone Star Park Wednesday. “There were some new people here–there was some money for good horses. We were fielding calls from as far away as Kentucky and California on horses and they were watching their breezes. When you've got a good horse, it's hard to keep it a secret.”

The post Street Boss Colt Tops Texas Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

#2 BOOTH ($3.20) blows by the field to win race 3 at Oaklawn Park in impressive fashion.

This is the second win in three career starts for the Steve Asmussen trainee, who was piloted by @keithasm7. pic.twitter.com/mfIhA4KnFD

— TVG (@TVG) February 11, 2024

The post Mitole’s ‘TDN Rising Star’ Booth Makes a Splash On Seasonal Debut appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt have been in the racing game some 30 years and have enjoyed top-level success with Yaupon (Uncle Mo), winner of the 2021 GI Forego S., as well as Eclipse champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya). Both Grade I winners were purchased at the 2-year-olds in training sales, a venue which Bill Heiligbrodt said allows him to add another layer of information to the standard vet report.

“When you buy 2-year-olds in training, you have some indication of their ability,” Heiligbrodt said. “I'm not saying it's perfect by any means, but you get a pretty good indication and you eliminate some horses that may not ever run or might run limited in terms of their ability. When we talk about vetting, I think vetting is probably the most important tool that you have out there to use, after you pass conformation on the horse, especially on the weanlings and the yearlings. But on 2-year-olds, I am a little more lenient on the vetting and then I look more at price. I have tended, over the years, to take chances on really fast horses in the 2-year-old sales.”

Heiligbrodt points to both Mitole and Yaupon to prove his point. Mitole was purchased for $140,000 at the 2017 OBS Spring sale and was a four-time Grade I winner who earned over $3 million on the track. Yaupon was purchased for $255,000 at the 2019 OBS June sale and was a three-time graded winner who earned over $700,000.

“With the 2-year-olds, the vetting is just as important, but in the last five years, the two main horses that I have had, Mitole and Yaupon, both had vetting issues and they were mostly known to the public,” he said. “I looked at them and thought, how can I get a horse that fast–what they worked in and what they could do–so I overlooked things. I was willing to take a chance on issues that could possibly not affect the horse in the long run. Maybe it was a longshot, but with management and time and direct attention to those kind of things, you are sometimes able to overcome it. I wouldn't want to tell people to take too many chances. But you are looking at what kind of talent you are dealing with versus price, versus vetting, that comes into play especially on the 2-year-olds. It's a risk assessment according to what you have to pay versus what the vetting actually is versus their talent.”

He continued, “There is no question that a horse like Mitole didn't vet in most people's minds. But in my mind, it was things that were worth the risk and that you can handle. Had Mitole been a $500,000 horse or a $750,000 horse? Then maybe I take it differently, but for a value, to get a horse that can do what he did that fast, I overlooked some of the issues and thought maybe that we could work through them. When you do that, though, you always risk that staying with the horse.”

While he hit it out of the park with Mitole, there have surely been some strike outs along the way?

“That's correct,” Heiligbrodt said. “I have missed, but I haven't missed a lot on that. I tell you, the 2-year-olds are just a different thing to me because I have some assessment of the talent and of the possibility. The vetting is still just as important.”

Heiligbrodt has built up a relationship with his vets, who over the years, have become aware of what issues the owner is comfortable with and what he is not.

“I use two vets,” he explained. “One in Kentucky helps me with weanlings and yearlings and he knows what I look for and what's important. The other one is in Florida where the 2-year-old sales are and it's almost the same. He knows what I've allowed in the past, so we have a good relationship. In terms of vetting, I take it in the whole grain of the complete horse. You have to be cognizant of things like, for me, OCDs in certain places, mainly stifles, anywhere in the knees or front joints, I am very careful of. Cysts are very hard to overcome anywhere. If I had a horse that had problems with knees, for example, that is never going to go away. You have to be more careful with that, if that's what you're dealing with, but if it's other things involved in the horse, sometimes it's worth it.”

In addition to his success buying at auction, Heiligbrodt has also enjoyed success as a breeder, particularly in the regional markets.

“The issues are the same,” he said when asked to compare buying versus breeding runners. “I vet them all before either we sell them or start breaking them, to make sure what I am dealing with. I approach the issues that they have the same way I approach a decision I made on buying a horse.”

Over the years, Heiligbrodt has learned that a vet issue today may not be a vet issue tomorrow and everything needs to be considered within the context of the complete horse.

“I have a horse today for example, I know he failed the scope test as a weanling,” he said. “I talked to my vet in Kentucky and we went over it because it was a Mitole baby that I liked that somebody else owned and that horse was very young–maybe four or five months old–and by the time the horse was seven months old, the horse had a Grade I throat. So babies tend to change a little bit on things like throats and stuff like that, or at least they have for me.”

Still, the Texan acknowledged how valuable the information available on the vet report can be.

“I think vetting is the most important thing you can do,” he said. “I think you have to do it. I really recognize the vets. I do think there are a lot of issues on vet reports that I won't even look at, but anything involving chips, fractures, OCDs or cysts or scope, I take into measure.”

He concluded, “If you are trying to find athletes in today's racing industry, you are coming up against more competition in these races. If you are up in Saratoga, you are up against the better horses in the market. And the market for the really top horses is a lot. So it's a situation where you have to balance all of those balls at one time; vetting, talent and price.”

Check out previous installments of The X-Ray Files: with Tom McCrocklin, David Ingordo, Liz Crow, and Ciaran Dunne.

The post The X-Ray Files: Bill Heiligbrodt appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“I thought there was fair trade and there was lots of activity, certainly on the short yearlings,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “There was lots of vetting and activity on those that were perceived to be of higher quality. The mares in foal and the broodmare prospects that you would turn down the page when you went through the catalogue sold well.”

Still there remained a fall-off for offerings that did not meet the criteria of the buyers.

“There are some horses that the marketplace is extremely critical of,” Browning said. “It is not as robust as some people would like, but that's a sign and a trend that we've seen for many, many years. I think we've seen a continuation of the marketplace that we saw for much of 2022. It's healthy, it's not exuberant, it's rational, but you better also have an understanding of what you're offering and how the market is going to receive your horse.”

That polarization was also evident to Matt Bowling, who was active both as a buyer and as a seller through his Vinery Sales.

“We are getting a ton of views,” Bowling said. “The people are here. I think if you are bringing the right stuff over, they are paying you a fair value for it. But if you've got some dings or you don't have the pedigree, or a bad produce record, it's definitely a lonely place. But the right horses are bringing the right money.”

A total of 13 horses sold for six figures Monday, compared to 15 hitting that mark during the opening session in 2022. Leading the way was Munny Spunt, who was purchased by Nebraska native Judy Pryor from the Hunter Valley Farm consignment.

Browning expects activity to pick up during Tuesday's second session of the auction, which will feature an offering of supplemental entries with plenty of current form.

“The quality and composition of the catalogue in a sale like this changes from year to year,” he said. “And I think we've got a little stronger catalogue tomorrow as opposed to today just the way it flows with the supplemental entries in the addendum.”

Bidding for Tuesday's second and final session of the sale begins at 10 a.m.

Pryor Strikes Late for Munny Spunt

Following the legalization of casino gaming at racetracks in Nebraska in 2020, Nebraska native Judy Pryor is determined to build up the breeding and racing program in the Cornhusker State. She started by acquiring stallions Court Vision and Giant Expectations ahead of the 2021 breeding season and has now turned her focus to acquiring broodmares. She made her biggest splash in the Thoroughbred auction scene Monday at Fasig-Tipton when going to a session-topping $340,000 for Munny Spunt (Munnings) (hip 293). The 9-year-old mare, in foal to Triple Crown winner Justify, was consigned by Hunter Valley Farm on behalf of David Fennelly's Mountmellick Farm.

“I purchased Court Vision and Giant Expectations a couple of years ago,” Pryor said after signing the ticket alongside Martha Jane Mullholand and Lexis Hennings. “We want to help Nebraska grow in racing to get back to the Ak-Sar-Ben days. I am brand new in racing. I don't know what I am doing. But I love a good horse.”

Pryor does have plenty of experience in the Quarter Horse show world and maintains the 400-acre Pryor Ranch.

“In the Quarter Horse world, we have raised many, many world champions,” Pryor said. “This is a brand new thing for me and I am kind of doing it because my aunt and uncle were race trainers and they have always wanted me to do racehorses. But I thought it was for the Sport of Kings, not for peanut butter lovers. So I ate enought peanut butters to do this today.”

Munny Spunt won the GIII Torrey Pines S. during her racing career. Her filly by Mendelssohn sold for $425,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. She also has a yearling colt by Authentic.

“She's a little taller than most Munnings,” Pryor said of the mare's appeal. “She is perfectly smooth and correct for breeding purposes. She has a nice walk and she's in foal to Justify. And I wanted to go home with a famous horse.”

Asked if she thought the in utero foal might become the Triple Crown winner's first Nebraska-bred, Pryor said, “I hope to hell it is.”

With Munny Spunt's expected foaling date fast approaching, the Nebraska-bred designation might have to wait. Pryor purchased Ardita (Bernardini) for $92,000 at the Keeneland January sale. That mare recently foaled at Mulholland Springs.

“Nobody thought I should haul her home because she was due to foal,” Pryor said of Ardita.

Of Monday's session-topping bid, Pryor said, “I have no idea what I was thinking. I was just going to buy that damn horse.”

Of her client, Mulholland said, “Judy has been playing at hte top of the Quarter Horse show industry for decades. We are lucky to have her join us here in the Thoroughbred industry. We are going to have fun. We either going to sell them well or we're going to run them. But we're going to have fun.”

Hunter Valley Farm's Fergus Galvin admitted Munny Spunt's session-topping price exceeded the team's expectations.

“We knew she was probably one of the highlights of the day,” Galvin said. “She's graded stakes winner by Munnings and in foal to the right stallion. And her produce, we're still waiting for that runner, but she's got a good sales history. I think they got a good buy. She's a really good mare.”

Mountmellick Farm purchased Munny Spunt for $325,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale.

“David Fennelly is just downsizing a little bit,” Galvin said of the decision to sell the mare this year. “He's not getting out of the business, he's just cutting down his numbers. Justify is looking like he's the real deal. So he thought this was just a good opportunity to sell.”

Pryor credits her aunt and uncle, Merle and Marilyn Heldt, who were trainers on the midwest circuit, for her interest in Thoroughbred racing. And she has a goal for the couple's son, Derron Heldt.

“[The Heldts are a huge reason I am doing this,” Pryor said. “They have been doing this their entire lives. Their son, Derron Heldt, is the head racing director at Prairie Meadows. And I want that kid to give me a trophy.”

Watch Hip 293 MUNNY SPUNT i/f Justify sell for $340,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @HunterValleyKY @coolmoreamerica pic.twitter.com/w0TbLaqFFA

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

Heiligbrodts Go Back-to-Back

Susan Montanye, bidding on behalf of Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, went to $250,000 to acquire the broodmare Bubala (Candy Ride {Arg}) (hip 61) and wheeled right back to take the mare's short yearling colt by Audible (hip 62) for $200,000 for the same clients Monday in Lexington.

The 7-year-old Bubala, who sold in foal to Not This Time, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Island Reward (Street Boss) and Harmonic (Congrats).

The Colorado-based Scott Issel, vice president of Cherry Creek Mortgage Company, purchased Bubala for $50,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton February sale and Issel's Arapahoe Thoroughbreds bred the yearling. Both were consigned by Tom Evans's Trackside Farm Monday.

“The mare was big and pretty and looked like she had all the parts,” said Montanye. “And of course, she's in foal to Not This Time, who is doing outstanding. She joins Heiligbrodt Racing and will go to Taylor Made and hopefull being successful in the breeding process.”

Watch Hip 61 BUBALA i/f Not This Time sell for $250,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @TMStallions pic.twitter.com/xV413rLQ7e

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

Montanye said the team's initial interest was in the yearling.

“We looked a the yearling first,” Montanye said. “And credit to Bill, I didn't even pick out that the mare was in the sale. He had me go back and look at the mare. That's what started the whole process.”

On plans for the yearling, Montanye said, “We'll see. There is no rush. We will see what he wants to do with him. They will be both go on to Taylor Made for now. We will take it over from there.”

The Heiligbrodts added another mare to their band a little later in Monday's session, going to $130,000 to acquire Fly on Angel (Palace Malice) (hip 159). The 6-year-old mare, consigned by Bluewater Sales, sold in foal to Yaupon, who won the 2021 GI Forego S. in the couple's colors.

Hits Pricey Legacy to Clearsky Farm

Graded-stakes winner Hits Pricey Legacy (Den's Legacy) (hip 202) will be joining the broodmare band at the Cleary family's Clearsky Farm after selling for $230,000 to the bid of Vinery Sale's Matt Bowling. The 4-year-old, who sold as a racing or broodmare prospect, was consigned by Zach Madden's Buckland Sales on behalf of her owner/breeder and trainer C.R. Trout.

“We bought her for Clearsky Farm, so she'll join their broodmare band,” said Bowling. “We haven't made any mating plans yet, we're just glad to have her. She's a pretty, big-walking filly and a very good racehorse. She's the kind of filly they like to add to the broodmare band there.”

Hits Pricey Legacy is a four-time stakes winner who captured the GIII Remington Park Oaks last September. She hit the board in all but one of her 10 starts and won five times. She retires with earnings of $339,935.

“Any time you get a graded stakes winner on the market, they are hard to find, so we tend to find over them,” Bowling said of the mare's final price tag.

Hits Pricey Legacy is out of High Price Hit (Concord Point), who is a half-sister to multiple stakes winners Imahit (Whywhywhy) and Hallelujah Hit (Mr. Nightlinger), all of whom were also bred, raced and trained by Trout.

“I am just trying to cut back on the amount of broodmares I have,” Trout said. “I breed primarily in Oklahoma and I just thought this was a good time to sell this filly while she was still in good, peak form. She is fit and sound as a dollar.”

Asked if it was an emotional decision to sell the graded stakes winner, Trout said, “It is. But I just turned 78 and it's time to start doing some estate planning.”

This isn't the first time Clearsky has added a member of the family to its broodmare band.

“Clearsky Farm had bought a mare from me before from the same family,” Trout said. “They had called and wanted to buy her privately, but I already had her in the sale.”

High Price Hit, who is one of 12 mares currently in Trout's broodmare band, has produced fillies that last two years, a daughter of Flat Out in 2021 and a daughter of Cloud Computing this year. The 13-year-old mare is in foal to Volatile.

“We will make up our mind whether we will breed [High Price Hit] back in Oklahoma and sell her baby,” Trout said. “We are kind of up in the air right now.”

Of what Monday's results for Oklahoma's breeding industry, Trout said, “It means so much for Oklahoma. We don't have a big breeding program, but it's building.”

Watch Hip 202 HITS PRICEY LEGACY sell for $230,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @BucklandSales @ClearskyFarm pic.twitter.com/NPNJIby9Ks

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

The post Munny Spunt Brings $340K To Top Solid Fasig February Opener appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

With Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) savaging favored Yaupon (c, 4, Uncle Mo–Modification, by Vindication) repeatedly down the stretch in Saturday's GI Forego S. at Saratoga, the 2-1 pacesetter battled on gamely along the rail to secure a dramatic head victory. Chance It (Currency Swap) was third.

“I will watch that replay many times in my future,” winning trainer Steve Asmussen said. “For that to happen in a Grade I at Saratoga with two horses on the lead, that will be memorable. I was worried he was going to bite Ricardo [Santana, Jr.].”

He continued, “Everybody's always known what a brilliant horse he is, the talent that he's shown and for him to show up today on a stage and beat five Grade I winners was amazing.”

Santana added, “That was kind of scary. That never happened to me before and the only thing I can think is don't stop riding.”

Yaupon led narrowly through fractions of :23.09 and :45.70 with Firenze Fire in hot pursuit, and the stage was set as they turned for home. The two raced shoulder to shoulder in the stretch with Firenze Fire savaging his rival inside the final sixteenth of a mile, biting at his halter. Yaupon never blinked, however, and kept on battling to secure the narrow victory. Three years ago, ironically, it was Firenze Fire who was savaged late by Whereshetoldmetogo (El Padrino) in a winning effort in the GIII Gallant Bob S. at Parx.

Yaupon, a sharp winner of last summer's GII Amsterdam S. at Saratoga, entered off a win over three rivals with a co-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure in Pimlico's Lite the Fuse S. July 4. A perfect four-for-four to start his career, headed by Pimlico's GIII Chick Lang S. Oct. 1, Yaupon concluded his sophomore season with a disappointing eighth as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland Nov. 7. He was eighth once again in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan in his first start this term Mar. 27.

Champion sprinter, 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint winner and 8-year-old fan favorite Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) was pulled up and vanned off with an apparent left front leg injury after finishing fifth and has been retired. He walked onto the van under his own power. “Whitmore is okay and is resting comfortably at the barn,” a Tweet from Moquett Racing read. “Although his injury is small in nature, when he walks out of Stall 19 and gets on the van to go home, it will be as a retired champion.”

Pedigree Notes:

Yaupon, a $255,000 OBS June acquisition (:10), is one of 40 graded winners for leading sire Uncle Mo, a smashing debut winner and 'TDN Rising Star' on the Travers undercard himself back in 2010. Yaupon is the second graded runner out of Modification, whose Sawyer's Hill (Spring At Last) was second in both the 2014 GII Del Mar Derby and GII Twilight Derby.

Her unraced 2-year-old filly Royal Flower (American Pharoah) brought $1.2 million from Mike G. Rutherford at last year's Keeneland September sale. Modification, who is a half-sister to GSW Sky Alliance (Sky Classic), delivered a colt by Good Magic in 2020. The 2009 GI Humana Distaff S. third-place finisher was bred to Curlin for 2022. She brought $195,000 from Betz Thoroughbreds at the 2010 KEENOV Sale.

Saturday, Saratoga
FOREGO S.-GI, $600,000, Saratoga, 8-28, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:21.74, ft.
1–YAUPON, 118, c, 4, by Uncle Mo
1st Dam: Modification (GISP, $166,116), by Vindication
2nd Dam: Swift Alliance, by Afleet
3rd Dam: Stately Bride, by Tom Rolfe
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($350,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $485,000 RNA
2yo '19 FTFMAR; $255,000 2yo '19 OBSOPN). O-L. William and
Corinne Heiligbrodt; B-Betz, Lamantia, CoCo Equine, Magers,
Burns (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen; J-Ricardo Santana, Jr.
$320,000. Lifetime Record: 8-6-0-0, $703,264. *1/2 to
Sawyer's Hill (Spring At Last), MGSP, $366,705. Click for the
 eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: A+++
 *Triple Plus*.
2–Firenze Fire, 122, h, 6, Poseidon's Warrior–My Every Wish, by
Langfuhr. O-Mr. Amore Stable; B-Mr Amore Stables (FL);
T-Kelly J. Breen. $112,000.
3–Chance It, 118, c, 4, Currency Swap–Vagabon Diva, by
Pleasantly Perfect. O-Shooting Star Thoroughbreds, LLC;
B-Bett Usher (FL); T-Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.. $60,000.
Margins: HD, 2HF, NO. Odds: 2.00, 8.70, 19.20.
Also Ran: Mind Control, Whitmore, Mischevious Alex, Doubly Blessed, Lexitonian.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

The post Savage! Yaupon Survives in Wild Stretch Battle in Forego appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“I feel that my training career is an extension of my parents and their horsemanship and work ethic,” Asmussen said. “It was the perfect storm to be the youngest son of Keith and Marilyn Asmussen. With the way they implemented their tools, they were an inspiration to me. To be able to do it is one thing. To be willing to work so hard for it is another. From an unbelievably young age for both me and my brother Cash, they taught us to respect the horse and the opportunity each one gave you. With them, that never wavered.”

He learned well.

As of July 18, Asmussen, 55, had 9,431 career wins, putting him just 14 behind the all-time leader, Waterford/Mountaineer Park kingpin Dale Baird. The record should fall some time later this month or in early August. He has trained champions, won Eclipse Awards, won Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup races and has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, but there is something incomparable about winning more races than anyone else in history. It takes more than skill or horsemanship. You cannot just be better than your competition, you must be more motivated and have an insatiable thirst for success.

“It's a big deal to me,” Asmussen said of his impending record. “It's huge. It really is.”

He wasn't thinking that way in the beginning. Having left the Asmussen nest in Texas and just 20 at the time, he won his first race in 1986 at Ruidoso Downs. His main goal then was to simply win another race. He went 1-for-15 that year with earnings of $2,324. He did not win another race until the following year.

“I was struggling,” he said.

A year later, he got his first break. Owner Ron Lance was a Birmingham, Alabama, native and a close friend of the Asmussen family and wanted to begin a stable at the newly opened Birmingham Turf Club. Knowing that Keith and Marilyn Asmussen had too much on their plate to set up a division at Birmingham, Lance decided to hire their son. Asmussen won 30 races that year, including a pair of $15,000 stakes at Birmingham and a $25,000 stakes at Charles Town.

“When Birmingham Race Course was opening up, (Lance) wanted horses there and he got dad to send me there with his horses,” Asmussen said. “The Ruidoso Steve Asmussen was someone who was galloping horses on a free-lance basis, had a couple of horses on the side and was enjoying being 20. The real start to this was when Ron Lance talked dad into sending me to Birmingham for the opening of that race meet. It was a completely different responsibility compared to what I had been doing. A sense of commitment had come over me.”

Between 1987 and 1993, not much changed. He never had a year where he won more than 48 races, most of them at second-tier tracks. He showed little sign of being a future Hall of Famer. But he remained confident. He was inspired by Richard Hazelton, a top trainer on the Illinois circuit who, between 1980 and 1985, cranked out 846 winners.

“He was King Richard,” Asmussen said. “I loved his personality and his horsemanship. He was on his way to winning 4,000 races. I just thought 4,000 races, that's 100 races a year for 40 years. I just thought wow. He was revered. Being around him made me want to do what he did. I thought, I can do this too.”

But he had problems breaking through. What he needed was a good horse.

At the 1995 OBS February sale, Keith and Cash Asmussen were hunting for horses for owners Bob and Lee Ackerley, who ran under the name of Ackerley Brothers Farm. It was there that they found Valid Expectations, a $225,000 purchase who was turned over to Steve.

“We won the Sugar Bowl H. on Dec. 31 at the Fair Grounds and it was my first stakes win at the Fair Grounds,” Asmussen recalled. “That was the first year when our barn went over $1 million in earnings. Next year he won the Derby Trial, which was our first graded stakes win ever and our first stakes win at Churchill Downs. He gave me my first stakes win in New York as well [in the 1996 GIII Sport Page H.]. Valid Expectations was the horse that propelled us.”

He had proven that he could win at the top levels, which opened doors. In 1995, he broke the 100-win barrier for the first time, winning 130 races. With momentum now in his favor, he proved unstoppable. In 2000, he won 233 races. In 2001, he won 294, including 31 stakes. For most everyone else, that would have been good enough, but not for Asmussen. His brand now well established, he kept getting bigger and better. In 2004, he set a single season record with 555 winners and topped it in 2008 with 621 winners. In 2013, he won his 6,418th race to pass Jack Van Berg to become the second leading trainer of all time.

His barn had as many top horses as anyone else's and he was winning the biggest races out there with horses like Curlin, Rachel Alexandra, Untapable, Summerly, Tapizar and, more recently Gun Runner.

Yet, he never forgot his roots and those early days around his parents. While Asmussen's parents were breaking yearlings for such high-profile owners as the Winchell Family, they were also kicking around tracks in Texas and New Mexico with their stable of quarter horses. Today, Steve Asmussen can just as easily be found in the entries for a beaten $10,000 claimer at Remington Park as he can for a Grade I race at Saratoga. There is no other trainer like him when it comes to the diversity of his stable. That he still races at places like Remington, Lone Star, Delta Downs and Sam Houston is a major reason he has been able to compile the numbers he has.

“Why have those races always been important to me?” he asked. “When you think of my mom and dad's stable, you think of them running in south Texas with Quarter horses and at the mixed meet at Ruidoso in the summer. During that time, my parents were still starting young horses off for the Winchells. When I was in junior high, with them, I was around Tight Spot, Silver Ending, Olympio, Sea Cadet. So I was so blessed to be around champions and Grade I-caliber horses while we were making a living with lower-level horses. It goes back to my mom and dad showing me that every horse in front of you is important. To them, every single one of them was important, every horse just as important as the next one.”

To make it work, to have so many horses at so many tracks, Asmussen has to have a deep and talented team working behind him. He is always quick to praise assistants like Scott Blasi, Mitch Dennison, Toby Sheets and Pablo O'Campo. He also credits his family, his wife Julie and his three sons. Not only are they understanding of his hectic schedule, but they stay involved and pitch in any way they can. Asmussen was understandably overjoyed last year when his son, Keith, spent his summer vacation from college riding horses and winning races as an apprentice jockey for his father.

“We have all done this together,” he said of his team.

After passing Baird, Asmussen will have to set his sights on new goals. He admits that he very much wants to win his first GI Kentucky Derby. There's also a trainer in Peru named Juan Suarez, who has more winners than Asmussen has. He wants to pass him. Beyond that, he simply wants to keep winning. There will be no slowing down.

“This has never been better,” he said.  “It is so fun to train for the Winchells, the Heiligbrodts, the Ackerleys, because you ran their mothers and now we ran their sires. You had their half-sisters. When they come, in I like to notice the similarities and the differences. That is the fabulous part of it right now. We'll have Gun Runner babies this summer. We've had the Curlin babies. You look at the pedigrees of some of these horses and I broke their third dam when I was in high school working for my dad.

“Then there is my wife and my kids. It consumes all of us and it is so much fun that they are a part of it. It's been really fun to pursue this with my family, just realizing how much joy horse racing has brought to us as a family.”

In his mid-fifties, Asmussen has many good years left. If he keeps up his current pace, and there's no reason to suggest that he won't, he could have as many as 15,000 wins by his 70th birthday. With fewer and fewer races being run each year, he is sure to set records that will never be broken.

In some ways he can't help himself. Winning is in his blood.

The post A Long Time In the Making, Asmussen Poised To Become Winningest Trainer appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post