Kentucky Derby 2025: Asmussen sends Tiztastic, Publisher with hopes to finally end drought

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – He used to be anxious about it. Then he got defensive. Now, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen seems somewhat philosophical about the fact he has yet to win the Kentucky Derby.

Asmussen, North America’s winningest trainer with 10,861 career victories, has started 26 horses in 18 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. He has three seconds and two thirds.

“With more white hair you realize how blessed we are to ever have had the opportunity and to think we get to do it again is unbelievable,” said Asmussen, 59. “I don’t think anyone is ever deserving of winning the Derby, but the circumstances surrounding it, it’ll come when it should. Something this special shouldn’t come easy. How I feel about it? It should be this hard.”

But this hard?

Some of the best horses Asmussen has ever trained got beat in the Kentucky Derby. Curlin, unbeaten in three starts entering the 2007 Derby, finished third. Curlin would win the Preakness, beat older horses in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and win the Breeders’ Cup Classic to win the first of what became two consecutive Horse of the Year titles.

In 2016, Gun Runner finished third in the Kentucky Derby. In 2017, Gun Runner won four Grade 1 stakes and was named Horse of the Year.

In 2022, Asmussen watched Epicenter – the only favorite he’s run in the race – get passed in deep stretch by 80-1 shot Rich Strike, that horse only getting into the Derby the day before the race due to a scratch. Epicenter won the Jim Dandy and Travers, got hurt in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but still was voted 3-year-old champion.

In addition to Epicenter, Asmussen had two other horses finish second in the Derby – Nehro in 2011 and Lookin At Lee in 2017. Lookin At Lee, a 33-1 shot, rallied from 17th in a 20-horse field to get second.

Asmussen’s two starters this year, Tiztastic and Publisher, are likely to be far back early in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, a race seemingly loaded with speed.

Tiztastic, a son of 2020 Kentucky Derby runner-up Tiz the Law, rallied from ninth to win the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. His previous two wins came in turf races run at Kentucky Downs. The inflated purses at Kentucky Downs explain why, with $1.549 million, Tiztastic has earned the most money of any of the 21 horses entered in Derby 151.

“We’re very excited about the possibility of it being an extremely fast-paced race and feeling like we have a horse that will appreciate every inch of a mile and a quarter,” Asmussen said. “People say he had a breakout race in the Louisiana Derby, but if the Louisiana Derby would have been a mile and a sixteenth, he probably would have been fourth or fifth. Distance is what put him in the position he is in coming into the Derby.”

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Publisher, a son of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, is still a maiden coming into the Derby. A maiden hasn’t won the Derby since Brokers Tip in 1933, though only 12 have tried since.

Publisher, winless in seven starts, earned his way into the Derby with a second-place finish in the Arkansas Derby, his first race equipped with blinkers.

“They made him faster,” Asmussen said. “They write down what you do, if it’s in black and white it’s true. His fastest race to date is with blinkers on.”

Publisher, a $600,000 yearling purchase in 2023, was identified as a Derby prospect when he came into the barn, Asmussen said. It just took him some time to develop.

“He is a laid-back horse that always wanted him to weigh a little more, be a little bigger,” Asmussen said. “We didn’t overdo it early with him.”

Had things gone according to plan, Asmussen would also have had Magnitude to run in the Kentucky Derby. After losses in the Gun Runner and Lecomte, Magnitude sprung a 43-1 upset in the Risen Star Stakes, a race he won by 9 3/4 lengths, earning a 108 Beyer Speed Figure. He came out of the race with an injury, needing time.

Magnitude recently returned to Asmussen’s Churchill Downs barn, and the hope is to get one race into him before the Travers in late August at Saratoga.

Another Asmussen-trained 3-year-old, Clever Again, winner of the Hot Springs Stakes, is already being pointed to the Preakness.

So, it will be up to Tiztastic or Publisher to try and end Asmussen’s inexplicable Derby drought.

If not, expect Asmussen to be right back here next year, sounding grateful for another attempt at trying to win his first Kentucky Derby.

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