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‘Nothing Has Been Typical This Year,’ But Asmussen Ready To Chase Training Title At Ellis Park

Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen shoots for his fourth training title in five years at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park, which opens Thursday and concludes Aug. 30.

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.

“Everything is different this year,” Asmussen said last week, referencing life in the COVID-19 era while adjusting the protective mask on his face as he stood outside of Churchill Downs. “It's going to take us a while to get the right horses there to run. I'm anxious to see what races go, who you'll be able to run. Nothing has been typical this year with anywhere we are running now.

“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.

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Monmouth: Trainers’ Race Appears Wide Open Ahead Of Shortened 2020 Meet

Kelly Breen would normally embrace the role as the early favorite for what appears to be a wide-open trainers' race when Monmouth Park launches its 75th season of live racing on Friday, July 3.

But this year has been anything but normal.

Breen, who owns Monmouth Park training titles from 2005 and 2006, is the leading returning trainer from a year ago in terms of wins with 36. But the Covid-19 virus has changed everything about the sport, forcing Monmouth Park into a condensed 37-day meet.

“I don't have the number of runners right know to think about being leading trainer,” Breen said. “When you have 40 horses and quite a few are 2-year-olds they're going to make minimal starts, especially over a shorter meet. Until I start claiming some horses I can't think about a title. We'll see how that goes.”

Breen is one of six trainers stabled on the grounds who have a Monmouth Park training title to their credit, a list that includes Jane Cibelli, Tim Hills, Bruce Alexander, Dan Lopez and Ben Perkins, Jr.

If there's strength in numbers, veteran Michael Stidham should be a factor with 71 stalls, the most of any trainer.

Yet for all of his career success, Stidham has won just one training title – in 2016 at Fair Grounds.

“Generally we don't run the type of operation that goes for a training title because we don't do a lot of claiming,” Stidham said. “We tend to get well-bred young horses that we're trying to develop. That's usually not the formula for a leading trainer.

“Having said that, we did win the title in 2016 at the Fair Grounds. You have to see how things develop and whether the barn gets rolling quickly in a shorter meet. It just kind of happened at the Fair Grounds that year as a byproduct of winning.”

With 25 winners a year ago – from just 81 starts – Jose Delgado is the second-leading returning trainer from Monmouth Park's 2019 meet. With a claiming stable and a high percentage of success he looms as a factor as well.

“I don't know. So much depends on luck,” said Delgado. “I think I've got the right horses to make a run for the title. The thing about being leading trainer is you have to have the right horses for that meet and you have to have a lot of horses. I only have 25.

“But it is a shorter meet and if they're ready to go from the beginning you have a chance. I'm definitely going to give it a shot.”

Delgado, 41, said it would especially significant for him personally to win his first training title at Monmouth Park.

“It would mean a lot to me because I couldn't do it as a jockey,” he said. “I would have loved to have won a riding title as a jockey. Now I have another chance to do it as a trainer.”

Pat McBurney, coming off a successful 2019, should be in contention as well, along with Cibelli, Gregg Sacco, Kent Sweezey and Mike Dini, all of whom are well-represented in the Monmouth Park backside.

With 35 horses stabled at Monmouth, after winning 10 races from just 19 starts a year ago, Jonathan Thomas said “numerically, this is the biggest stable we've ever had in any one place.”

But he doesn't expect to be in contention for leading trainer because of the makeup of his stable, with up to 25 of his 2-year-olds calling Monmouth Park home this summer.

“We're top heavy with 2-year-olds, the majority of which we'd like to get started here,” he said. “We've found it to be a great place for young horses. Maybe if the meet were longer would could be a factor. At this juncture we're more focused on individually starting a campaign for a horse and seeing where that takes us.”

Monmouth Park's semi-sesquicentennial season will feature live racing from Friday, July 3, through Sunday, Sept. 27. Post time on Fridays will be 5 p.m. (except for Sept. 4, which will have a 12:50 post), while Saturdays and Sundays will start at 12:50 p.m. The exception to that will be a noon first post on Saturday, July 18, when the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes headlines a stakes-filled program.

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Gerald Bennett Wraps Up Both Trainer, Owner Titles At Tampa Bay Downs

If it's June, Gerald Bennett must be at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale (moved from April this year due to COVID-19), looking to strengthen his Winning Stables, Inc., roster with future Thoroughbred standouts.

Or he could be driving back from Delaware Park with wife Mary after delivering a shipment of 13 runners from Tampa Bay Downs for the Wilmington, Del., meeting that began Wednesday.

With a few days remaining in the Oldsmar oval's 2019-2020 season, Bennett still can be found at his barn overseeing a few dozen horses, many of which have helped him capture a fifth consecutive Tampa Bay Downs training championship with 60 victories (the current season concludes with racing Wednesday and June 30, with the 2020-2021 meeting beginning July 1).

The 76-year-old conditioner shared his first Oldsmar training title in 2010-2011 with Jamie Ness, the track's all-time record-holder with nine titles, won consecutively from 2006-2015.

What's different this season: Bennett has also wrapped up his first Tampa Bay Downs owners title with 23 victories. Bennett, who sent out 15 winners under his Winning Stables, Inc., banner and eight in various partnerships, is four ahead of both Godolphin, LLC (19 victories) and owner-trainer Juan Arriagada, who won 11 races individually and eight in various partnerships.

“It's great to be able to keep going strong year after year,” said the Springhill, Nova Scotia native, who ranks 14th all-time in North America with 3,903 victories. “You need that fire and desire to do it right because it's a lot of work to stay successful, and right now I still have it.”

Bennett, the father of trainer Dale Bennett, has recruited new owners to the sport virtually from the start of his career, when he competed in Canada. “It's important for the sport to bring in new owners,” he said. “You get those friendships established and win some races, and they bring more of their friends into it. I'm fortunate to have owners who like to run their horses where they can win, and hopefully you can buy more young stock that you can turn into stakes horses.”

Owners who partnered with Winning Stables on victories this season included James Georgeades and Ron Pugliese, Jr., of JPG2 and Mr. Pug, LLC; Harold L. Queen; Arnoriver Racing (Mike Arnone); Martin Goodell; and Mary Thomas and Michael Vitello.

While Bennett maintains an excellent rapport with his owners, it is in the barn area where he seems most at home. His reputation for turning claiming horses into allowance winners and allowance horses into stakes performers has been honed through years of study, dedication to his profession and subscribing to the belief that no detail is too small.

Among his best horses are millionaire Beau Genius, who won the Grade I Philip H. Iselin Handicap and the Grade II Michigan Mile and One-Eighth in 1990; Secret Romeo, a multiple-stakes winner who earned $865,790; Bucky's Prayer, a mare who won the 2007 Lightning City Stakes; Fast Flying Rumor, who set a Tampa Bay Downs Beyer Speed Figure record of 108 (since bettered) while winning the 2016 Turf Dash; and R Angel Katelyn, who won three stakes races during the 2016-2017 meeting.

Bennett's lone stakes victory this season came with 6-year-old Florida-bred mare Lady's Island, who won the Minaret Stakes for owners Matties Racing Stable and Averill Racing on Feb. 15.

Win or lose, Bennett is back at the barn by 5 a.m. the next day to oversee each horse's regimen. “I'll be walking in the shed row when a horse stops in front of me, and the hot walker is amazed because the horse knows me,” he said. “Mary says it's because I feed them peppermints, but they get to know your voice and have confidence in what you're doing.”

In that regard, Bennett's Thoroughbred athletes aren't much different than the owners he trains for and the bettors who support his horses.

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