Asmussen becomes first trainer to hit 10,000 wins
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Steve Asmussen became the first trainer with 10,000 victories in North America on Monday, when Bet He’s Ready wired the field in the fifth race at Oaklawn Park.
Asmussen, 57, already ranks as the all-time winningest trainer in North America. He set the record on Aug. 7, 2021 at Saratoga, when he saddled No. 9,446 to overtake Dale Baird.
On a worldwide scale, Asmussen is the second-leading trainer in history behind Juan Suarez, 80. The Peru-based horseman had saddled 10,336 winners through Wednesday, according to statistics provided to Daily Racing Form by Nestor Obregon Rossi, editor of the weekly Thoroughbred publication El Crack Peru.
“We are unbelievably fortunate to be involved in horse racing,” Asmussen said. “There’s nothing that comes close to it.”
Bet He’s Ready, owned by Mike McCarty and ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., was the favorite in the $40,000 maiden-claiming race and paid $4 to win.
In the winner’s circle after the race, Asmussen was flanked by family members and greeted with a sign marking the occasion by Oaklawn. The track announced after the milestone was hit that Oaklawn would be donating $10,000 to charity in Asmussen’s name, with $5,000 to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund and $5,000 to the Arkansas Thoroughbred Retirement and Rehabilitation Fund.
Asmussen said that in the days leading up to the milestone he had been reflecting on the people who have been part of the road to 10,000.
“I was thinking about the amazing relationships with the owners I’ve been fortunate to work for, like the Winchells, the Heiligbrodts” he said. “That is essential.
“And the work of longtime employees. It’s really amazing to me what Scott Blasi and Darren Fleming and Pablo Ocampo and everyone, what they’ve taken on within the [stable]. They’ve done the work.”
But Asmussen’s journey to 10,000 also is a story of his own perseverance. He did not find instant success.
Asmussen’s first win as a Thoroughbred trainer came July 19, 1986, at Ruidoso Downs. And then there was a long drought. His second winner came on March 31, 1987, at Birmingham Race Course.
“If you’re winning a race every [eight months], it’s pretty surprising to get to 10,000,” he said.
Some would have thrown in the towel, but not Asmussen.
“I think probably from growing up in a racing family, you’re just understanding of the highs and lows of it,” Asmussen said. “The perseverance comes from my parents and their approach to horses and horse racing.”
Asmussen’s mother, Marilyn, is a retired trainer, and his father, Keith, is a retired jockey. Asmussen’s brother Cash was the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey in 1979 who went on to win five titles as champion rider in France.
Steve Asmussen ended up winning 30 races in 1987. From there he was, well, off to the races.
Asmussen began racking up training titles at multiple tracks. Then in 2004 he won 555 races, breaking Jack Van Berg’s record of 496, set in 1976.
Asmussen, who has since broken his own record twice, has led North America in trainer wins in a year 12 times. He’s been North America’s leading trainer in earnings three times and won the Eclipse Award for outstanding trainer in both 2008 and 2009.
Asmussen has trained a number of champions. Curlin is one of three Horses of the Year for the barn, having earned that title twice, in 2007 and 2008. Rachel Alexandra was the 2009 Horse of the Year, and she entered the Hall of Fame with Asmussen in 2016. Gun Runner was the 2017 Horse of the Year.
Asmussen is a native of South Dakota who grew up working alongside his parents on the track and their training center in Laredo, Texas. He first competed in racing as a jockey, winning 63 races from 721 starts for mount earnings of $687,224l.
Asmussen stands over six feet tall, and his riding career was short-lived.
“I think it’s fairly obvious my size and weight limited that, to say the least,” Asmussen said. “It’s pretty surprising I got to ride at all. I very much enjoyed it.”
Asmussen turned to training, and his first official winner was with a Quarter Horse named Ours Alone in 1985 at Manor Downs in Texas. He set up a Thoroughbred racing operation in earnest after that, when owners Ron and Joyce Lance sent him horses for the opening of Birmingham.
Asmussen has had more than 49,200 starters in North America, and the horses have earned more than $405,800,000. Asmussen has had two wins outside of North America, both in 2008 at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai, where Curlin captured the $6 million Dubai World Cup and its local prep, the Jaguar Trophy.
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