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Hot Trainer Steve Asmussen Joins TDN Writer’s Room

On his drive from Saratoga to Kentucky Downs Tuesday, Steve Asmussen stopped in every state he drove through and bought lottery tickets. Shocking that he didn't win.

Coming off one of the greatest week-and-a-half stretches in racing history, during which he won five Grade I races in Saratoga over nine days, Asmussen was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writer's Room, presented by Keeneland. If that wasn't enough, two of his wins, Gunite in the GI Hopeful S. and Echo Zulu in the GI Spinaway S., came from the first crop of Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}). Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year who was trained by Asmussen, is off to a sensational start at stud.

“Five Grade Is in nine calendar days, unbelievable,” said a jubilant Asmussen “We're blessed with the best horses in the world, but they just showed up when it mattered most. I was driving out of Saratoga yesterday, headed to Kentucky Downs for the races, and I could have got out and run around the car a couple of times. I was so excited. ”

While the horses have made Asmussen, sometimes Asmussen makes the horses. There's no better example of that than Max Player (Honor Code). An also-ran in May in the GIII Pimlico Special, he has since come back to win the GII Suburban S. and Saturday's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. He is an example of a case when Asmussen went back to the drawing board, and it worked. He said there were two keys to the process, not letting Max Player fall behind early in his races and not shipping him to a track on top of a race.

“We felt he eliminated himself by not giving himself a chance getting away from the gate,” he said. “We took him back to the gate and pretty much started over.”

On the success of the Gun Runners, Asmussen said his offspring have the same mental attributes that the sire has, which goes a long way toward accounting for their success.

“It's the state of their minds, the acceptance of what their job is,” Asmussen said. “Gunite is the greatest example of what we want in a racehorse. Good level of talent, learns from his lessons and improves. [Assistant trainer] Scott [Blasi] and I were talking about him Tuesday morning. He ate up, and just stood there like he was saying 'when are we putting on the tack? When do we go to the track?' Unbelievable.”

When asked who he believed were his best prospects for next year's GI Kentucky Derby, Asmussen mentioned two horses, Saratoga maiden winner Stellar Tap (Tapit) and Gun Town (Gun Runner). Both are being pointed for the GIII Iroquois S. Sept. 18 at Churchill Downs. Stellar Tap is the horse who gave Asmussen his 9,446h career win, which pushed him past Dale Baird for No. 1 of all-time.

“Long term, we're very excited about both,” he said.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Thoroughbreds, Spendthrift Farm and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reviewed the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup day card at Saratoga and the sensational performances from a pair of allowance horses who both earned 114 Beyer numbers over the weekend, Flightline (Tapit) and this year's greatest rags-to-riches story, Baby Yoda (Prospective).

The latest on the Jorge Navarro-Jason Servis case was a hot topic among the writers. The government released more wiretaps this week that caught the two miscreants discussing performance-enhancing drugs, oftentimes drugs they didn't know the name of and didn't know what they were for, yet still gave them indiscriminately to their horses.

Click here for the audio and here for the video link.

The post Hot Trainer Steve Asmussen Joins TDN Writer’s Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Bloodlines: Gun Runner Sets A Blistering Pace In Freshman Sire Race

After his offspring won both of the Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds on the Labor Day weekend at Saratoga, freshman sire Gun Runner (by Candy Ride) has rebroken on his competition, and the Three Chimneys Farm stallion has a margin of more than $400,000 in progeny earnings over second-place Practical Joke (Into Mischief), who stands at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

The third- and fourth-place positions on the freshman sire rankings are taken by fellow Ashford stallions Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile) and Caravaggio (Scat Daddy). Then, well-separated from the leading quartet, are a six-pack of young sires who have progeny earnings within $100,000 of each other. These are Connect (Curlin) at Lane's End, Klimt (Quality Road) at Darby Dan, Unified (Candy Ride) at Lane's End, Mohaymen (Tapit) at Shadwell, Gormley (Malibu Moon) at Spendthrift, and Stanford (Malibu Moon) at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in California.

The weekend results added emphasis to the unexpectedly precocious showing of the first-crop racers by Gun Runner, who was a good racer at two but improved greatly at three and thereafter. Now the sire of four stakes winners from his first crop, all graded winners, Gun Runner has had three of those stakes winners at Saratoga, the fourth at Del Mar.

A tidy four-length victory in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga made Echo Zulu the first Grade 1 winner for her sire, and then Gunite powered through the stretch to win the Hopeful by 5 3/4 lengths on Labor Day to become a second Grade 1 winner for Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year and champion older horse for Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC and Three Chimneys Farm.

Having Gunite as a homebred, Winchell Thoroughbreds bought Echo Zulu for $300,000 at the 2020 Keeneland September yearling sale. Echo Zulu was one of two Gun Runner yearlings that Winchell Thoroughbreds bought last year. After racing Gun Runner with partner Three Chimneys, Winchell Thoroughbreds already had several young prospects coming along last year.

David Fiske, the racing manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC, said that “we had taken the position that you don't go out on a limb with a young stallion” prior to Gun Runner. But he thought “if we were ever going to breed a bunch of mares to a single stallion, this was the one. I managed to convince Ron of this, and to his credit, Ron loves to gamble, and we ended up with 17 foals from the first crop.

“The good news was they all looked alike. None of them were bad; all looked like they'd be trainable, and of the 15 that survived to go into training, I told a fellow last year that I thought we could win with every one of them. They grew up well, kept good proportions, stayed sound, and appeared to have good minds.

“Off the results of that group, we bred another 17 mares to him the second year, didn't sell any mares in foal, have hung onto the ones we've had, and we're getting rewarded for doing that.

“Because Gun Runner is having a fairytale beginning to his stud career,” Fiske concluded.

The fairytale has only begun, but it is getting seriously exciting for all involved.

Although he improved markedly at three and four, Gun Runner was unbeaten at two in his first two starts, winning a maiden special at Churchill Downs on Sept. 11, then an allowance at Keeneland on Oct. 17. The effect of those two performances was enough for bettors to make the chestnut colt the third favorite at 4.9-to-1 in the G3 Iroquois for his third start. After laying up with the pace, Gun Runner had a narrow lead at the stretch call, then was ambushed by winner Airoforce (Colonel John), Mor Spirit (Eskendereya), and Mo Tom (Uncle Mo) to finish fourth, beaten 3 1/4 lengths by the winner.

None of those made progress comparable to Gun Runner over the coming months, who won both the G2 Risen Star Stakes and Louisiana Derby, and the son of Candy Ride finished third in the Kentucky Derby behind juvenile champion Nyquist (Uncle Mo) and subsequent Preakness winner Exaggerator (Curlin).

Subsequently third in the G1 Travers and second in the G1 Breeders' Cup Mile, Gun Runner won the G1 Clark at the end of his second season, and of the final eight races in his career, Gun Runner lost only one, when second in the G1 Dubai World Cup to Arrogate, who performed miracles after a dodgy start to get up and win the race by 2 1/4 lengths.

After winning the Breeders' Cup Classic and the Horse of the Year award, Gun Runner signed off on his racing career at five with a victory in the second running of the Pegasus Stakes at Gulfstream, retiring to stud at Three Chimneys. For his fourth season at stud in 2021, Gun Runner stood for $50,000 live foal. That is virtually certain to increase for 2022.

The post Bloodlines: Gun Runner Sets A Blistering Pace In Freshman Sire Race appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Gunite’s Hopeful Triumph Completes Grade 1 Saratoga Weekend Double For Gun Runner

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Gunite provided Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen his third consecutive score in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful, a seven-furlong sprint for juveniles, on Closing Day Monday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Asmussen, who won the Hopeful with Basin [2019] and Jackie's Warrior [2020], was joined by Gunite jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. in securing their respective fifth Grade 1 win of the 40-day Spa summer meet.

Wit, the 3-5 mutuel favorite out of a convincing score in the Grade 3 Sanford here July 17, stumbled at the break and dropped back to ninth in the 11-horse field as Headline Report led through an opening quarter-mile in 22.23 seconds on the good and harrowed main track.

Gunite, runner-up to Hopeful-rival High Oak last out in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, was jostled at the start exiting post 3 but quickly rushed into contention by Santana, Jr. to mark the half-mile in 44.49.

Wit, with Irad Ortiz,Jr. up, advanced into fourth position through the turn as Gunite put away pace-pressers Headline Report and Defend, opening up a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call with High Oak launching his bid from fifth and Kevin's Folly, hugging the rail under Jose Lezcano, advancing with menace.

Gunite continued to find more down the lane under Santana, Jr.'s right-handed encouragement and drew off impressively to win by 5 3/4-lengths in a final time of 1:23.08. Wit stayed on strong to complete the exacta by three-lengths over Kevin's Folly.

“I loved how he went through the wire. He didn't get away great today. Ricardo said there was just a little bit of bumping,” Asmussen said. “Going 22 and 1 to 44 and 2, and to look how he did it to the wire, it's going to be exciting going forward. I was concerned we weren't where we expected to be in the first hundred yards. But I watched the race from up the stretch and Ricardo, coming into the stretch, moved his hands a bit but had him plenty gathered up. I felt really good then.

“It's state of mind,” added Asmussen regarding Gunite's development. “We've been aggressive with him and he's put on weight and gotten stronger the whole time. We've been through the roof with how well he's doing.”

The Asmussen-trained and Santana, Jr. piloted Echo Zulu provided Gun Runner – the 2017 Horse of the Year under Asmussen's care – with his first Grade 1-winner as a sire by capturing Sunday's Grade 1 Spinaway at the Spa and Gunite doubled that number with a dominant Hopeful score.

Asmussen said Gunite, who graduated at third asking sprinting six furlongs at Churchill Downs on June 26, improved with added ground.

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“The distance; it was a little too short,” Asmussen said of Gunite's first two starts. “But we were anxious to get the Gun Runners running. He's from a solid sprint family of the Winchells with Gun Runner giving him some endurance. But he's very durable, mentally and physically. As much pressure as we put on him, he accepted it.”

Ortiz, Jr. tipped his cap to the winner after a troubled trip aboard the previously undefeated Wit.

“He got beat by a nice horse. He stumbled a little bit at the beginning and he tried hard to overcome that,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “I had to hustle him and ask him to get position to get there on time, but it was too much. It looks like he can [stretch out].”

Pletcher said Wit performed well under difficult circumstances.

“He probably compromised himself,” Pletcher said. “I thought he put in a good, sustained run. It was a tough spot to come from.

“He took a decent chunk out of both quarters,” added Pletcher. “I'm not saying he felt it during the race. It was the result of stumbling away from there.”

Asmussen became North American racing's all-time winningest conditioner in August when Stellar Tap won on Whitney Day to provide the Hall of Famer his 9,446th win, eclipsing the mark of 9,445 victories held by the late Dale Baird.

The 55-year-old Asmussen, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, enjoyed a stellar Spa summer meet, additionally winning Grade 1s with Jackie's Warrior [H. Allen Jerkens Memorial], Yaupon [Forego] and Max Player [Jockey Club Gold Cup].

Santana, Jr, who was aboard for the Grade 1 wins with Yaupon and Max Player, also engineered a top-flight victory with Maracuja in the Coaching Club American Oaks.

The 28-year-old Santana, Jr. said he was in awe of his accomplishments at Saratoga this summer.

“It's special. Saratoga is one of the best tracks in North America. I'm really blessed. Five Grade 1 wins in one meet is unreal,” Santana, Jr. said.

High Oak, Power Agenda, Big Scully, Volcanic, Headline Report, Kitodan, Defend and Street Fight rounded out the order of finish.

Out of the stakes winning Cowboy Cal mare Simple Surprise, Gunite, a Kentucky homebred, banked $165,000 in victory while improving his record to 5-2-2-1. He returned $25.20 for a $2 win ticket.

Asmussen said Gunite will now target the one-mile Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne on October 2 at Belmont Park, which offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile in November at Del Mar.

“I love him for more 2-year-old races this year. We know what we want his next two races to be and we feel really good about them,” Asmussen said. “The Champagne and the Breeders' Cup are what we're hoping his next two races are. I love his style for the Juvenile. He's going to travel and we'll try to take it. We're very proud of him.”

Live racing returns Thursday, September 16 for Opening Day of the 28-day fall meet at Belmont Park, featuring the Grade 1, $150,000 Lonesome Glory, a 2 1/2-mile steeplechase handicap for 4-year-olds and up.

The Belmont Park fall meet, which will run from Thursday, September 16 through Sunday, October 31, will include five Grade 1 races and five “Win and You're In” qualifiers to the Breeders' Cup in November at Del Mar.

The post Gunite’s Hopeful Triumph Completes Grade 1 Saratoga Weekend Double For Gun Runner appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Echo Zulu Dominant In Spinaway At Saratoga

In only her second start, Echo Zulu added Grade 1 winner to her resume with a dominant win in the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She battled with Benbang early, took over the lead on the far turn, and then dashed away to a four-length victory over a field of eight others to become 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner's first Grade 1 winner.

Echo Zulu and Benbang were away fastest, trading front runner status down the backstretch as they ran the first quarter in :22.07 and the half-mile in :44.73. Entering the final turn, Echo Zulu passed Benbang for the last time, with Tarabi taking over second as they entered the stretch.

In the Saratoga straight, Echo Zulu skipped away from the field with ease, powered down by jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr. in the final sixteenth as Tarabi and then Saucy Lady T came home in second and third. The final time for the seven-furlong Spinaway was 1:22.51. Find this race's chart here.

Echo Zulu paid $3.30, $2.90, and $2.50. Tarabi paid $9.10 and $6.30. Saucy Lady T. paid $6.30.

“It was a huge jump. We prepared her like a first-time starter at Saratoga to run. She responded and ran well and that was a long time ago going five and a half against different horses. To jump from maidens to a Grade 1 off one run in a race with everything going your way is not easy. It takes a special horse to do it and maybe that's what she is,” trainer Steve Asmussen said after the race.

“She's nice. First time she won was impressive and she was training really well. We were happy with her,” Santana told the NYRA Press Office after the Spinaway. “I had so much confidence that I only wore two goggles for seven furlongs. She was working real nice and today she improved a lot.”

By Gun Runner out of the Grade 2 winning mare Letgomyecho (Menifee), the 2-year-old filly was bred in Kentucky by Betz, J. Betz, Burns, CHNNHK, Magers, and CoCo. She is owned by L and N Racing and Winchell Thoroughbreds, who purchased the filly for $300,000 from Betz Thoroughbreds at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Her win in the Spinaway brings her to a perfect 2 for 2 with career earnings of $220,000.

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