For several seconds, the interviewee was the light-hearted interviewer.

Mott knows the drill. He has been training horses since he was a teenager in Mobridge, South Dakota, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame at the age of 45–the youngest flat trainer in history–in 1998 and in the 25 years since has further burnished his reputation as one of the Thoroughbred racing's all-time greats. Equibase stats show him ranked fourth in career purse earnings with $330,933,373 and eighth in victories with 5,323. The great Cigar delivered 19 of those wins–16 in a row–and $9,999,815 in earnings to those totals in the mid-1990s.

With a crew of accomplished stakes runners, Mott will once again be a major player during the 155th summer of racing in Saratoga that starts Thursday. While Cody's Wish (Curlin), who is being considered for the GI Whitney S. on Aug. 5, may have the highest profile at the moment, he is not the only star in Mott's barn located next to the Oklahoma training track. Also in residence along the shedrow are champion sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) and multiple graded stakes winners Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), Frank's Rockette (Into Mischief), War Like Goddess (English Channel), Art Collector (Bernardini), and Caramel Swirl (Union Rags). Graded stakes winners Poppy Flower (Lea) and Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}) are still at Belmont Park. Art Collector is the only one not being pointed to a Saratoga start.

After stepping back into his familiar role of talking about his horses and upcoming races, Mott acknowledged that he was upbeat and ready for the upcoming season.

“I am, all the time. I don't panic as much as I used to. I don't get the anxiety that I used to have,” he said. “I'm excited and I'm looking forward to it. There was a point when I thought I had to be leading trainer here. It's like, 'Oh, I was leading trainer last year. I've got to do it again.' I don't feel that. I just hope each individual horse does well.”

Mott saddled his first horse at Saratoga in 1984, has been at the meet every year since 1987 and won or shared the training title nine times between 1992 and 2007. These days he often finishes third behind the dominant duo of Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown.

“Naturally, I don't have quite as many as some of them,” Mott said. “I have a large stable. I have the same large stable, like I used to have, but some of these guys have got huge stables.”

Last year, he was fifth in wins with 16 from 114 starters. Brown snagged the title with 42 wins from 197 starts and Pletcher was next with 38 wins from 159 starters. With Olympiad (Speightstown)'s victory in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, Mott finished third in purse earnings with his personal best of $3,262,117.

With Eddie Davis up, Cody's Wish gallops Wednesday morning | Sarah Andrew

Godolphin homebred Cody's Wish could give Mott his first victory in the $1-million Whitney. The 4-year-old colt has won six in a row and nine of 10 starts since breaking his maiden in October 2021. In his most recent start, Cody's Wish won the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Mile H. at Belmont Park. He has proved effective at two turns, winning the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in November. Mott said the challenge will be the distance, to see if he can stretch out a bit more and continue his dominant run at 1 1/8 miles.

“He has not won at nine furlongs,” Mott said. “We know what he can do at a mile. Now older and more experienced, seasoned, maybe the mile and an eighth is more within his reach.”

Mott is leaning toward the Whitney because he doesn't have any other options on the Saratoga schedule. He is not interested in running Cody's Wish in the six-furlong GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 29–his 70th birthday–as it is Elite Power's preferred distance. The more suitable seven-furlong GI Forego S., which Cody's Wish won last year, is on Aug. 26

“That's a long way, a long time to wait,” Mott said. “You kind of get forced into thinking about other things. If they had a flat mile race here that was a million dollars, we'd be looking at that but they don't have it. The Whitney is one of the two more prestigious races they run up here and he is a possible to run in it.”

Mott has won 464 races in 2,646 starts and earned $41,065,994 in purses at Saratoga. According to Equibase, he has 91 stakes victories at the Spa. Since he notched his first graded stakes win at Saratoga in 1990 with Chief Honcho in the GII Jim Dandy, his horses have prevailed in 29 different graded stakes with a total of 65 winners. Twenty-five have been in GI races.

Despite all that success in Saratoga, Mott has yet to win either the Whitney or the GI Travers S. He is 0-for-11 in the Whitney with three seconds. In the Travers, he has two seconds in 10 starts.

War Like Goddess trains Wednesday at the Spa | Sarah Andrew

Through the years he has won the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame S. and the GII Glens Falls S. seven times each, the GI Fourstardave H. and the GII Bernard Baruch H. five times each and the GI Diana S. and the Jim Dandy four times. Since being hired as Bert and Diana Firestone's trainer in 1987, he has had at least one graded stakes win in 34 of 36 seasons at Saratoga.

Casa Creed will be Mott's first stakes runner of the meet in Saturday's GIII Kelso S., formerly run as the Forbidden Apple. He picked up his third Saratoga win last year in the Fourstardave. Mott said that Poppy Flower and Wakanaka could run in the GIII Caress S. on July 22. Frank's Rockette is preparing for the GII Honorable Miss H. on July 26. War Like Goddess is headed to the Glens Falls on Aug. 3, a race she has won the last two summers. Caramel Swirl may make her next start in the GI Ballerina on Aug. 26.

In the early 1980s, Mott was based at Churchill Downs and had emerged as a top, young trainer. He recalls that it took some courage to make his first venture to Saratoga in 1984.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was to see the people that were here and who you're running against and everything. Yeah, it was a big deal to me. It was a big deal.”

That summer he picked up three seconds in seven starts. The next year, he brought four horses and each of them ended up second. He skipped 1986 and in 1987 made his first trip to the winner's circle.

For many years, Mott has been based in Saratoga from April to November when the training track is open. His main barn was once used by Hall of Famer MacKenzie Miller.

“This is actually home, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way,” he said. “At this moment. I think I've got the best of both worlds right now. I have no complaints.”

The post “Best of Both Worlds”: Mott at Home at Saratoga appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The hearing Oct. 8 concerned two writs of mandate that Hollendorfer filed against the CHRB constituting an oftentimes complicated and convoluted legal knot essentially surrounding which entity–the tracks or the state agency–have the ultimate jurisdiction to bar the trainer from participating in California horse racing.

TSG barred Hollendorfer from its facilities after six of the trainer's horses were catastrophically injured between December 2018 and June 2019 at Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita, a time when the latter track experienced a well-publicized spike in equine fatalities during an unusually wet spell.

This past July, Hollendorfer reached a settlement with TSG-controlled subsidiary owners of Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed.

Hollendorfer has not raced or trained at TSG-owned facilities since that June 2019 exclusion.

The CHRB's responses to the writs of mandate–entwined as they are in the language of race-meet agreements [RMA] and stall applications–also provide an interesting backdrop to the years-long dispute over contractual legalese in the race-meet agreement between the tracks and the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT), primarily surrounding matters of fair procedure.

Without accord, the same contract has been automatically adopted at the start of each meet in California for some three years. The CHRB has given the relevant stakeholders until this Thursday's CHRB meeting to reach a compromise.

At the heart of the two writs of mandate are the events surrounding Hollendorfer's attempts to enter horses at Del Mar and Santa Anita in the summer and fall of 2019.

After TSG initially banned Hollendorfer from its grounds, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DMTC) took the same course of action for its subsequent summer meet.

In response, Hollendorfer, through the CTT, asked the CHRB to intervene on his behalf, but because Del Mar's action was subsequently overturned in court, the CHRB dropped the matter before a formal hearing could take place, according to court documents.

After Hollendorfer's failed attempts to enter horses at the start of Santa Anita's following fall meet, the trainer once again petitioned the CHRB to intervene. “The CHRB investigated and determined in its discretion that no rules were violated” because of language in the RMA and stall applications, according to CHRB'S court filings.

Also key to the arguments is CHRB rule 1989, which relates to a track's ability to remove or deny access to a licensee. The CHRB argues in court filings that “There has never been any assertion by the CHRB or the racing associations that Petitioner was removed or denied access under Rule 1989.”

Hollendorfer disagrees and writes in court filings that the CHRB's own counsel, Robert Brodnik, “independently invoked Rule 1989 as the basis for asserting that the associations had 'denied access' to Petitioner rather than 'exclude or ban' him.”

Hollendorfer also argues that rule 1989 is inconsistent with other statutes-an inconsistency that gives the CHRB, through its board of stewards, the ultimate right to refuse a trainer's entries, and not the individual racing association.

Through the writ of mandate, Hollendorfer seeks to “compel” the CHRB “to perform its mandatory ministerial” duties in deciding whether the trainer should be able to race at Santa Anita and Golden Gate.

“Petitioner's regulatory complaints against DMTC and [Los Angeles Turf Club] LATC were substantively similar. Both stemmed from actions by those associations in refusing to accept race entries submitted by Petitioner. CHRB's Rules only authorize racing personnel to establish individual race conditions and the procedures for the submission of entries, with control over and the power to refuse entries delegated exclusively to the CHRB's Board of Stewards,” Hollendorfer writes.

“In investigating Petitioner's complaint against LATC, Respondent's Chief of Investigations confirmed that LATC had independently refused Petitioner's valid race entry without involving the Stewards. Respondent's investigation further confirmed that LATC did so based on a purported 'contractual rights' secured via RMAs and Stall Applications, which conflicted with CHRB Rules. As a consequence, Respondent was fully aware that the actions of both racing associations were inconsistent with controlling statutes and regulations,” according to court filings.

In failing to conduct “any hearings on Petitioner's complaints,” the CHRB “permitted the illegal acts of licensed racing associations in dereliction of its duties under the law, all to the harm and damage of Petitioner,” Hollendorfer's court filings state.

“The general rule as stated by the Supreme Court is that 'statutes do not supplant the common law unless it appears that the Legislature intended to cover the entire subject or, in other words, to 'occupy the field.' '[G]eneral and comprehensive legislation, where course of conduct, parties, things affected, limitations and exceptions are minutely described, indicates a legislative intent that the statute should totally supersede and replace the common law dealing with the subject matter,” the filings add.

Hollendorfer also questions the impartiality of the CHRB in adjudicating his case, citing email communications and deposition testimony from former board members.

“The day the ban of Petitioner was announced, [former board member Madeline] Auerbach shared with senior CHRB staff her, and that of CHRB Chair Charles Winner, approval of the media's change in focus from the recurring number of fatalities to the exclusion. Her email stated: 'It appears to me that most of the coverage that I have read seems more concentrated on Santa Anita's action to remove Hollendorfer than on the latest fatality. That is probably a good way of getting a positive spin on a negative story.' Chair Winner replied, 'Well put,'” Hollendorfer's court filings state.

In response to Hollendorfer claims, The CHRB claims that the 2018-2019 race RMA in place between Santa Anita and the CTT contains language providing the track authority to “deny stable space and refuse entries” so long as the decision is not arbitrary or capricious.

“Petitioner insists that the CHRB had a mandatory duty to give him a hearing regardless of the actual reasons behind the racing associations' decisions to not allow him to enter or race in 2019. However, possession of a valid trainer's license does not 'confer any right upon the holder thereof to employment at or participation in a race meeting,'” the CHRB's court filings state.

“[The CHRB's] Chief Loehr completed his investigation and report on October 1, 2019, five days after Petitioner submitted his Complaint. He found no violation of the Horse Racing Law. He found that Petitioner was banned from all Stronach Group tracks on June 22, 2019, and the ban remained in place as of the time of his investigation,” states CHRB court filings.

“[Loehr] determined that both the Stall Application and the RMA gave the LATC the authority to deny stalls and refuse race entries as long as the decision is not arbitrary or capricious, and that 'The LATC decision to deny Mr. Hollendorfer's entry is based upon his June 22, 2019 ban from all Stronach Group tracks,'” according to the CHRB's court filings.

In response to Hollendorfer's questions over the board's impartiality, the CHRB distances itself from TSG's actions.

“Petitioner claims that former CHRB Chair Charles Winner and Vice-Chair Madeline Auerbach harbored pecuniary or other bias that somehow infected the CHRB's response to his complaints. His allegations are baseless and irrelevant. Neither Winner nor Auerbach were involved in any CHRB decisions concerning Petitioner. Both were off the Board by February 2020, and did not vote to approve the Hearing Officer's proposed decision that the CTT/LATC dispute was moot,”

In a separate writ of mandate, Hollendorfer claims the CHRB “abused its discretion” by voting to deem the RMA in place between the CTT and the relevant tracks when the trainer was initially barred from Santa Anita “expired” and “incapable of repetition” when it came to Hollendorfer's later actions through the CTT.

“Conversely, Respondent has maintained that the same RMAs were extended [by the CHRB], effective December 26, 2019, and deemed operative and binding on those same signatory parties for the purposes of re-licensing the racing associations to conduct subsequent race meets, and the resolution of trainer expulsion disputes,” according to Hollendorfer's court filings.

“Respondent's inconsistent actions constituted, at a very minimum, an abuse of discretion that unlawfully deprived Petitioner of due process and equal protection under the law, as to vested fundamental rights recognized and protected by the constitution and judicial precedent established by the Supreme Courts of the United States and California,” Hollendorfer adds.

In response, the CHRB argues that the writ should be denied because Hollendorfer “was not a party to either of the two administrative proceedings conducted by the CHRB, and has no standing to challenge the results of those proceedings.”

Even if Hollendorfer did have standing, the CHRB continues, “the petition should still be denied. As to the LATC administrative process, the CHRB correctly decided that the matter was moot. Subsequent actions by the CHRB to impose the terms of the RMA on later race meets because parties could not agree on the terms of a RMA was unforeseeable, and is irrelevant to whether the CHRB's mootness decision was correct at the time based on the administrative record before the CHRB.”

The CHRB adds: “As to the DMTC proceeding, there was no hearing, and the CHRB never issued an administrative decision that would be subject to judicial review under C.C.P section 1094.5. The CHRB accepted the parties' representation of settlement and never rendered a decision. Thus, that aspect of Petitioner's cause of action is not ripe for adjudication now. Petitioner has no standing to challenge the outcome of either administrative proceeding conducted by the CHRB, and his petition under C.C.P. section 1094.5 should be denied.”

The judge in the case took both writs under submission and a ruling is pending.

Hollendorfer's court briefs can be read here, here, here and here. The CHRB's oppositions briefs can be read here and here.

The post Hollendorfer, CHRB Hearing Played Out, Ruling Pending appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The Hall of Fame trainer, who turned 87 Friday, will saddle Holy Cow Stable's Naughty Gal (Into Mischief) Sunday in the GI Spinaway S. The next afternoon, Lukas will send out BC Stable's Bourbon Bash (City of Light) and Western Ghent (American Pharoah) in the GI Hopeful, the final stake of the 154th season of Saratoga racing.

Lukas skipped the last two years because of a combination of Covid-19 and a downturn in the quality of his stable, but came back to Saratoga this summer with 16 horses for what has been a productive meet. Through Friday, the Lukas stable had a record of 4-6-2 from 23 starts with earnings of $607,889. During the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, he signed the tickets for five yearlings for $2.725 million.

Three of Lukas' Saratoga wins came from his stakes starters. Bourbon Bash handled a maiden special weight field by eight lengths Aug. 13. Western Ghent, co-owned by Lukas and his wife Laurie, won a $75,000 maiden claimer Aug. 25. Naughty Gal, the GIII Adirondack winner Aug. 7, prevailed by 2 1/4 lengths despite running greenly and drifting out in the stretch under Luis Saez.

“She's corrected that, for sure, and I feel comfortable,” Lukas said, “And, of course, Luis is going to be a lot more familiar with who she is. The power steering kicked in and she overreacted to what he was trying to do. We wanted to be in the four or five-hole and we didn't want to be an eight or nine He ended up there so quick it surprised him.”

Lukas and his former assistant and fellow Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher top the Spinaway trainers's standings with six victories each. In 23 starts, Lukas has a 6-5-3 record in the seven-furlong race. He won with Tiltalating (Tilt Up) in 1984, the first year he ran at the track. His most recent winner was Golden Attraction in 1995.

Figuring out who belongs in a graded stake, Lukas said, comes down to experience.

“Well, if you've been doing it for 60 years, you get a pretty good cross section of what works and what won't,” he said.  “I've been guilty my whole career of entering in stakes that I have no idea what the competition's ability is. That goes for everyday races. I'll enter in non-winners of two and somebody will say this or that about the race and I have no idea. But I know what wins non-winners of two. I've seen it enough that I know that I'm competitive in a non-winners of two unless Secretariat shows up or Ruffian.”

Before the 40-day meet July 14, Lukas expected BC Stable's Summer Promise (Uncle Mo) to be his Spinaway horse. However, she finished second in the GIII Schuylerville on opening day and Naughty Gal moved up in the pecking order in the stable with her Adirondack triumph.

“She's going into it and the other one's not,” Lukas said. “I'm running the best one I've got at this point.”

Lukas said Naughty Gal is an obvious standout.

“Awful strong. Big, powerful filly,” he said. “One of the best horsemen I know called me the other day and said 'Boy, that's a good-looking (SOB) you ran in the Adirondack. He was watching on television. She's a picture of conformation. For her age, her development, strength, size is incredible. She's really a study. You want to study one how they're supposed to look, she's it in every way. That's why I say the seven furlongs should just be right in her wheelhouse.”

Never shy about promoting his horses, Lukas said Naughty Gal is a filly with a future.

“Big time. And I'm anxious to run her two turns,” he said. “That's where I really want to see her run.”

If things go well in the Spinaway, Lukas said Naughty Gal is on the road to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in November at Keeneland.

“No bones about it,” he said. “I'm pointing her right there.”

Lukas is the career leader in Hopeful wins with eight from 32 starts. Pletcher and Steve Asmussen are next with three each.

Bourbon Bash was a well-beaten second to the Chad Brown-trained Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) in his first try July 24, but earned his trip to the Hopeful with the romp in his second start.

“He's a real immature colt, but I think he'll also relish the seven-eighths,” Lukas said. “He was getting in cruise control the other day. The only thing that is a little bit disturbing is the race was slow. Of course, it wasn't slow for him. When they say the race was slow, I always say, 'Well, he beat everybody that showed up.' I wondered about the time a little bit. I'm talking to Chad Brown and he said, 'You know, my colt is the one that beat yours' when I first started him. I said, 'well, it will be interesting the next time.'”

The post Lukas ‘Hopeful’ On Final Weekend At The Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“Adding a world-class name such as D. Wayne Lukas to MyRacehorse is an honor,” MyRacehorse CEO Michael Behrens said. “Teaming up to provide our owners with the opportunity to say their horse is trained by the 'Coach', and an Arrogate no less, is very exciting and what we strive to provide as we celebrate racehorse ownership with our growing owner base.”

Lukas also trains Arrogate's 2022 GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Secret Oath.

“D. Wayne Lukas is still the King at the age of 86 as evidenced by his success in this year's Kentucky Oaks with Secret Oath,” said Roderick Wachman, MyRacehorse's Global Head of Bloodstock and Racing. “A supreme master of his trade and one who has mentored some of the best trainers in the business, Wayne's horsemanship skills to this day are to be revered.”

More on the offering is available here.

The post Lukas to Train for MyRacehorse appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Summer Promise (Uncle Mo), runner-up in the GIII Schuylerville S. on opening day was being pointed to the $300,000 seven-furlong Spinaway Sept. 4, but Lukas said Wednesday that he was reconsidering that approach.

“I've kind of changed gears after I watched Naughty Gal run the other day and win,” he said. “I might run Naughty Gal back in the Spinaway and I'm thinking maybe of shipping Summer Promise over to Monmouth and go in the Sorority.”

The $200,000 one-mile Sorority will be run Aug. 21.

Despite a wide trip through the stretch, Holy Cow Stable's Naughty Gal prevailed by 2 1/2 lengths in the 6 1/2-furlong Adirondack, giving Lukas his first Saratoga graded stakes win since 2017 and 61st over all.

“I think that Naughty Gal is going to have a better chance to win the Spinaway, better chance physically to go that extra distance. They're adding half a furlong,” Lukas said. “I think it's a better fit. I always treat them all like I own them and I've got to convince the owners that it's the best thing to do. I'm leaning that way.”

Lukas, 86, is tied with Todd Pletcher for the most wins in the Spinaway with six. His most recent victory was in 1995 with Golden Attraction (Mr. Prospector). In 1984, his first season at Saratoga, Lukas won the Spinaway with Tiltalating (Tilt Up).

“I had the Spinaway plugged in for Summer Promise and the other filly I thought I could go in any direction,” Lukas said. “But after I trained and watched the two of them this last week, I think I'm going to end up with Naughty Gal in the Spinaway. I wouldn't run them against each other.”

The post Lukas Changes Spinaway Plans appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

The post Havre de Grace’s Saint Tapit Goes Two-for-Two at the Spa appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ellis Park runs Thursday through Sunday, then takes next week off in order to let Keeneland Race Course make up five days and many of the Lexington track's biggest stakes races from its canceled April meet. Ellis then resumes July 17 with its Friday through Sunday format, closing a week earlier than normal in order to let Churchill Downs conduct a delayed Kentucky Derby Week.

Asmussen comes into Ellis Park off a record-setting Churchill Downs session. While collecting a record 23rd training title at Churchill Downs, Asmussen also replaced Dale Romans as the all-time win leader under the Twin Spires, now by a 747-744 margin.

Asmussen hadn't raced regularly at Ellis Park in years when he created a large division at Kentucky's second-oldest racetrack in 2016, lured by increasing purses and a good racing surface. He promptly won the Ellis training title in that year, followed by 2017 and 2019, with Brad Cox winning in 2018. When Asmussen regained the crown last year by a 24-18 victory margin over Cox, he also came away with the distinction of being the meet's leading owner with five wins.

“Purses have taken a hit everywhere, pretty much, very few exceptions to that. We are running the same horse for a little less money, but the pandemic caused that financial situation in a lot of things. We should be represented in most categories there. It is a bit different with Keeneland running five days in there, (with) their traditional stakes. We run a couple of days at Ellis, then five days at Keeneland then we resume. I think once we get through the Keeneland meet and you get horses moved back around, we'll have the right horses to run there.”

Each win at Ellis this summer will bring Asmussen a step closer to a goal he has long coveted: being the winningest thoroughbred trainer in history. He currently has 8,889 wins in a career dating to 1986, trailing only the late Dale Baird by 556, which puts Asmussen on pace to take over the lead next year.

Asked about not being shy in wanting to be No. 1 all-time, Asmussen laughed and said, “As opposed to not be? You do. We're blessed with opportunity. I feel we should win a lot more than we do already, and hopefully we'll correct that soon.”

Asmussen can get off to a fast start this meet in his defense of both his trainer and owner's titles, with a horse in three of the first four races Thursday, two of whom he owns. In the fourth race, Asmussen will send out Three Chimneys' first-time starter Fuego Caliente, the 7-5 favorite in the field of eight 2-year-olds. Fuego Caliente is a son of champion Will Take Charge, who stands in stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Woodford County. His mom is the Hook and Ladder mare Noble Fire, whose four winners from her first four foals to race include female sprint champion and $1.5 million-earner La Verdad and Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks winner Hot City Girl.

Asmussen has high praise for Ellis' track surface, which always has been known as a very good, safe surface, with former Keeneland track superintendent Javier Barajas taking over its care this year.

“We've been stabled at Ellis Park for a couple of weeks now, and I'm extremely pleased with the surface,” Asmussen said. “I think it's better than it's ever been.”

The trainer said he expects to be in the Aug. 9 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby, whose purse was doubled to $200,000 and distance extended to 1 1/8 miles. The winner will receive 50 points toward qualifying for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, almost assuredly guaranteeing a spot in the 20-horse starting gate for America's most famous race.

“I have horses I do plan running there,” Asmussen said. “I'm not positive who I plan on running, but we will run at least one. I think unprecedented is the situation we're in right now: Who you will run that may need points to secure your spot (in the Derby), or the fact that it is simply a good financial spot for who you have has yet to be determined. With having already run the Belmont Stakes, it's just a very different time for horse racing.”

Asmussen's Ellis Park operation is overseen by assistant trainer Mitch Dennison.

The post ‘Nothing Has Been Typical This Year,’ But Asmussen Ready To Chase Training Title At Ellis Park appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post