Tag: People

The ride is becoming smoother for jockey Keith Asmussen, who resumed his career last fall after earning a master's degree in professional accounting earlier in 2022 from the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business.

After a slow start at the 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting that began Dec. 9, Asmussen has climbed the standings in recent weeks and enters Friday tied for ninth with 14 victories. Back strongly by his father, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, Keith Asmussen has eight victories over the last 15 racing days, highlighted by his first career riding triple March 19.

“Feels like I'm getting exponentially better,” Asmussen, 24, said moments after winning the March 25 nightcap aboard Ryvit for Steve Asmussen. “It's trying not to change too many things at once. But just like small, incremental changes that I feel are benefiting me and I think they're adding up. It does seem to be making a difference.”

Keith Asmussen notched his first career Oaklawn victory, and eighth overall, Jan. 14 aboard Papa Rocket ($12.40) for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Asmussen reunited with Papa Rocket ($7) for another victory, March 17. Two days later, Asmussen recorded a triple, winning the first race aboard Mendelssohn Joy ($11.40) for Nevada Litfin – the jockey's first for a non-Hall of Fame trainer – fourth race aboard Tribal Spirit ($6.40) and the sixth race aboard Allege ($9.80). Asmussen's final two victories were for his father.

“He's riding very good races,” said Steve Asmussen, a former jockey who has collected a record 12 Oaklawn training titles. “I love to see that. You want to do well and he's your kid and all that, but I'm impressed with the trips he's giving them.”

Father and son teamed again to win last Sunday's sixth race with Lamutanaatty ($12.80). It was marked Keith Asmussen's 21st career victory and the 857^th overall at Oaklawn for his famous father.

Steve Asmussen became the first trainer to reach 10,000 career North American victories when Bet He's Ready captured the fifth race Feb. 20 at Oaklawn under Ricardo Santana Jr. Keith Asmussen was aboard Carpe Horseshoe ($6.60) for No. 10,003 Feb. 24 at Oaklawn. With 14 days remaining in the 2022-2023 meeting, Steve Asmussen is poised to surpass the late Bob Holthus (867) as Oaklawn's all-time winningest trainer.

“Sure hope so,” Keith Asmussen said, when asked about making history with his father. “I was definitely praying for that 10K.”

Asmussen, who doesn't compete with an apprentice weight allowance because of his 5-10 frame, said he will ride at Lone Star Park, minutes from his suburban Dallas home, after the Oaklawn meeting ends May 6. He could head to Texas as a Top 10 rider at Oaklawn.

“When I first started, I was just so grateful for it,” said Asmussen, who surpassed $1 million in career purse earnings last Sunday. “I feel like I wake up having an attitude check. It was trying not to take any of these days for granted because I do feel incredibly blessed to be able to do this.”

Asmussen made his riding debut June 15, 2020, at Lone Star Park and recorded his first career victory there July 26, 2020, aboard the Steve Asmussen-trained Inis Gluaire. It was the jockey's 19th career mount. After graduating from Texas, Asmussen began galloping horses at Lone Star Park and followed his father to Saratoga, then Kentucky, before he resumed riding Oct. 27 at Keeneland. Asmussen had 14 mounts last year, highlighted by a neck victory aboard Tonal Impact for his father Nov. 23 at Churchill Downs. The jockey's first six victories, all for his father, came in 2020 (five at Lone Star Park and one at Remington Park).

The post Jockey Keith Asmussen Hitting His Stride appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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After winning his first career riding title in December at Remington Park, Cristian Torres has ridden that momentum to a memorable 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting, leading all jockeys, through Friday, in victories (79), purse earnings ($4,882,926) and stakes victories (six).

That success has led Torres, 25, to take a different path this spring and summer. Torres said Friday morning that he will be based at Churchill Downs after the Oaklawn meeting ends May 6.

Torres was originally scheduled to return this summer to Lone Star Park, but said in early March that he was considering a circuit change after his meteoric career rise the last 8½ months, triggered by the hiring of retired trainer Cody Autrey as his agent and, subsequently, riding first call for Robertino Diodoro and Karl Broberg, two of the winningest trainers in North American history.

“Everything is going so good right now,” Torres said. “Cody and I were talking and we've got to take advantage of the momentum. I think it's the right time to make a move. Hopefully, it works out.”

Churchill Downs' spring meeting begins April 29 and Torres said he plans to ride there May 2 and May 3 before returning to Oaklawn for its final three days (May 4-6).

“We don't anticipate missing any days here,” Torres said. “We don't want to miss any days here.”

Diodoro races at Churchill Downs and Torres has been cultivating new Kentucky-based clients the last few weeks at Oaklawn, namely trainers Kenny McPeek and Cherie DeVaux. Torres rode three horses Friday for McPeek and was aboard DeVaux's first career Oaklawn winner, Shotgun Hottie, in a $105,000 allowance race March 12. Torres also rode the DeVaux-trained Cagliostro in the Louisiana Derby (G2) March 25 at Fair Grounds.

“We're working our way in with Kenny McPeek,” Torres said. “He's going to help us out over there. We know he's got his rider over there (Brian Hernandez Jr.), but he actually talked to Cody and said he would help us out over there. I think we're going to have a chance to ride for Cherie DeVaux, too. We're building a good relationship with her and her husband (noted bloodstock agent/owner David Ingordo), too. So hopefully, when we get to Kentucky, we can have a chance to keep riding for her.”

Torres began riding at Oaklawn in 2021, brought to the Midwest by his then-agent Ruben Munoz, after beginning his career in the spring of 2019 at Gulfstream Park. Torres rode 22 winners at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting and 19 during an injury-shortened 2021-2022 meeting. Torres entered Saturday with 120 career victories at Oaklawn and 498 overall, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.

A native of Puerto Rico, Torres rode his first career winner April 21, 2019, at Gulfstream Park and recorded his biggest career victory to date aboard Last Samurai in the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) Feb. 18 at Oaklawn. Last Samurai, who is trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, is pointing for the $1 million Oaklawn Handicap (G2) April 22.

“Actually, yesterday was my anniversary to begin riding,” Torres said. “This is my fourth year. I rode my first race April 6, 2019. It's been a great four years. I've been blessed the last four years and hope to keep the momentum going and hope for a good meeting in Kentucky.”

The post ‘We’ve Got To Take Advantage Of The Momentum’: Top Jock Torres To Head For Churchill Downs At Conclusion Of Oaklawn Meet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Trainer Bentley Combs may be saving the best for last. Again.

Combs' small claiming operation has produced the winner of the Trail's End, traditionally the final race of the Oaklawn meeting, the last two years and he may have the 2023 favorite in Hellorhighwater, who held off Tiger Moon by 1 ¾ lengths to win a 1 3/16-mile starter-allowance prep March 31.

Hellorhighwater and Tiger Moon are both owned by Ten Strike Racing (founding partners Marshall Gramm and Arkansas native Clay Sanders), which also campaigned 2021 and 2022 Trail's End winner Original Intent with Combs.

“Lindsay's horse was the one that gave me the scare,” Combs said, referring to Tiger Moon's trainer, Lindsay Schultz. “Turning for home, I thought he moved a little early and then we kept the margin about the same. I said, 'We're OK.' Lindsay's horse is the one that scared me, so it's kind of interesting that Marshall's got two horses that are (pointing for the Trail's End). We'll see.”

A victory in the Trail's End would make Combs, 35, just the second trainer to win three consecutive runnings of the 1 ¾-mile starter-allowance marathon. David Vance won the first three editions (1972, 1973 and 1974) and has a record seven Trail's End victories overall.

Maybe no trainer at the 2022-2023 Oaklawn meeting has done more with less than Combs, who has an eye-catching 39 percent strike rate (7 of 18) despite having only seven stalls. Hellorhighwater, a 7-year-old Ghostzapper gelding Combs claimed for $10,000 Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs, is among five three-time winners at the meeting. All three victories have been around two turns in starter-allowance company. Combs, with 13 fewer starts, has already more than doubled his victory total from the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting, his first season in Hot Springs.

“Right now, we have four horses,” Combs said Tuesday morning. “We have seven stalls for the meet and consistently had about five horses. Kind of a revolving door. That's what you need for this. You look down the shedrow and see four horses and go, 'Oh, My God, we're about ready to go out of business.' Frankly, that is the feeling we get every two months with our size of stable. But here you have to have those owners and last year we didn't come in with as many owners like that. But this year we've come in with owners that as soon as they get one claimed, it's, 'Let's go find another one and put it in the right spot.' That's what you need for this.”

A former assistant under trainer Dallas Stewart, Combs recorded his first career victory in the fall of 2017. Combs was raised in the heart of Thoroughbred country, Lexington, Ky., but he took a circuitous route to the winner's circle.

After graduating high school in 2006, Combs enrolled in the University of Louisville's Equine Industry Program. Combs' classmates at Louisville included Schultz, another future trainer, Jason Barkley; Liz Crow, now a noted bloodstock agent and Ten Strike's racing manager; and Gary Palmisano Jr., who was named Churchill Downs Incorporated's executive director of racing last fall. Combs graduated from Louisville in 2010 and took a job with locally based health insurance giant Humana.

“Very boring cubicle work,” Combs said. “I wasn't very happy with it, so I said I was going to shoot for my MBA. Wound up going go to Ole Miss. Kind of wanted to get out of Louisville for a little bit and I had a buddy, Jim Hanauer, who was an assistant athletic director down there and he was like, 'Why don't you come live with me and do the MBA thing down there?' Gave it a shot and it was a lot of fun.”

Combs received his Master of Business Administration degree in 2012 and then returned to Lexington to work as a BETologist at Keeneland, helping fans handicap races, understand betting, read Daily Racing Form, etc. He also had a similar role at Churchill Downs.

“I'll be completely honest,” Combs said. “I was looking for a resume booster, as far as getting a frontside job. So, I talked to Palmisano. He said, 'Why don't you go hot walk for Dallas Stewart?' I wound up hot walking for Dallas in the mornings and then going over and working on the front side. I guess that was 2013. It was kind of an interesting deal because Dallas didn't have many horses at the time because I got the opportunity to climb the ranks real fast, from hot walker to, 'We need a groom. Get in there.' After grooming for probably a year, kind of needed like a foreman kind of gig. Then, I gradually moved up to an assistant and off we go.”

Combs, as a traveling assistant for Stewart, recorded his first victory Nov. 2, 2017, at Churchill Downs, but considers early 2018 the actual start of his training career. Combs, then based at Fair Grounds, was 2 for 2 at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting and wintered in Hot Springs for the first time in 2021-2022, winning three races. Combs said Gramm, fond of giving Louisville EIP graduates a career push, steered him to Oaklawn.

“That was Marshall kind of wanting to make a change,” Combs said. “Plus, Marshall made the comment: 'You can meet more people and pick up owners and stuff like that coming to Oaklawn,' which is true because, honestly, I've picked up more owners coming to Oaklawn than I ever did at the Fair Grounds. I don't know what it is. That's just the way Oaklawn is. It seems to be that way so far for us.”

In addition to Hellorhighwater, Combs has had two other first-off-the-claim winners this season at Oaklawn – Dr. Forman (won for a $10,000 tag) Dec. 10 and Wobberjod ($8,000) March 4. Other clients for Combs include Clyde Mann and Quien Sabe Racing Stable of former trainer Ellis Naifeh.

“We've gotten very lucky this year,” Combs said. “Again, it goes back to the owners. Last year, I want to say we were kind of fighting city hall a little bit, in the sense of new place, new condition book, what's going to go, what's not going to go, that kind of thing. This year, we've got a better handle on that and we've got owners that aren't afraid to put one in and aren't afraid to get another one.”

Combs, who has 51 career victories, will be based in Kentucky later this spring and summer. Combs said he would eventually like to have a stable of 40 or 50 horses.

The post Small Stable, Big Moves: Trainer Bentley Combs Enjoying Banner Meet At Oaklawn appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Rodney Lundock's Maryquitecontrary is scheduled to make her first start for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey in Saturday's Madison (G1) at Keeneland while seeking her seventh victory in eight career starts. The homebred daughter off First Dude won't have a rider change, however, for the seven-furlong sprint for older fillies and mares.

Luca Panici and Maryquitecontrary have teamed for six wins in six races, including eye-catching off-the-pace victories in the seven-furlong Inside Information (G2) last time out and one-turn mile Rampart during Gulfstream's Championship Meet.

Why change a winning combination?

“Thanks to the owner and trainer. I'm excited. It's a short field but I think we have a good shot,” said Panici between races on Thursday's opening day card of the Royal Palm Meet.

Formerly trained by Joe Catanese III, Maryquitecontrary graduated in her first start June 11 under Panici before finishing second behind multiple-stakes winner Last Leaf in the Azalea Stakes with Hall of Famer Edgar Prado aboard. Reunited with Panici, the homebred filly has won five straight races, including four stakes, with her off-the-pace and going-away running style.

“She's a good horse. Like with every good horse, you enjoy it. She's a horse when she has a target, she wants to catch it,” said the Milan, Italy native who has been a mainstay in the South Florida jockey colony for more than a decade. “It's a joy to ride this kind of horse.”

Maryquitecontrary drew Post 5 in a field of five and is rated third at 6-1 on the morning line behind 2-5 favorite Goodnight Olive, who's slated to make her first start since capturing the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, and Society, a Grade 1 winner who finished seventh in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) last time out.

The post Luca Panici Follows Streaking Maryquitecontrary To Keeneland For Saturday’s Madison appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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