Asmussen barn filled with talented 3-year-olds
With four racing weeks remaining in the 2016-17 Fair Grounds meet, the race for leading trainer is up for grabs. Through Sunday, six trainers each had 22 to 31 winners at the meet, all of them one hot streak away from a title.
Brad Cox has been atop the leaderboard much of the winter and still has a meet-best 31 winners, but no Fair Grounds barn has been rolling like Steve Asmussen’s.
After starting the meet with 13 winners from 81 starts from Nov. 19 to Jan. 31, the Asmussen stable has gone 12 for 35. Asmussen has won with seven of his last 20 Fair Grounds runners and, in the even shorter term, four of his last seven. And no Fair Grounds trainer has a deeper roster of 3-year-old colts than Asmussen.
While Untrapped has shipped to Oaklawn (where Asmussen also has the capable 3-year-old Lookin At Lee) for the Rebel Stakes, Asmussen still has Local Hero for the Louisiana Derby. Local Hero set the pace and finished third in the Risen Star Stakes.
Asmussen also has won the last two first-level, two-turn dirt allowance races for 3-year-olds at Fair Grounds, with Total Tap, who looked decent Feb. 18, and with Resiliency, who looked even better in winning last Sunday.
Resiliency, by Malibu Moon, won his career debut last November at Churchill Downs by nearly five lengths, was off form in a first-level allowance race later that month, then finished an even fourth Jan. 27 at Fair Grounds while going two turns for the first time and making his 3-year-old debut.
He was much better Sunday, racing last around the first turn, making a middle move into contention before the half-mile pole, then finishing off his race with a sustained bid to tally by 1 1/4 lengths. A raw time of 1:42.70 for one mile and 70 yards produced an 86 Beyer Speed Figure, the fifth-highest dirt-route figure recorded by a 2- or 3-year-old this winter at Fair Grounds.
Asmussen called Resiliency a “talented horse” but said via text message this week that there were no set plans for the colt.
Local Hero, meanwhile, had his first work since the Risen Star on Monday, going a half-mile in 50.80 seconds.