Asmussen can end season strong, starting with Jockey Club Gold Cup

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Asmussen has had a memorable Saratoga meet already with a chance to punctuate it even further with horses to run in three of the final four Grade 1 races of the meet.

At Saratoga this summer, Asmussen became the all-time leading trainer in wins (9,467 through Tuesday), and last weekend won the Grade 1 Forego and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens about 40 minutes apart.

For Asmussen, the final weekend begins in Saturday’s $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup where he will send out Max Player in a field of six that were entered Wednesday. The Jockey Club Gold Cup will be run in Saratoga for the first time after being run at Belmont for decades.

Max Player enters the Jockey Club Gold Cup, still run at 1 1/4 miles, off a neck victory over Mystic Guide in the Grade 2 Suburban on July 3 at Belmont Park. That race, also run at 1 1/4 miles, ended a six-race losing streak for Max Player, who finished third in the Travers here last summer when trained by Linda Rice.

In the Suburban, Asmussen had jockey Ricardo Santana Jr, make a concerted effort to get the horse involved early in the race. He sat second for most of the trip before outfinishing Mystic Guide, the $12 million Dubai World Cup winner.

“We were trying to get him into the races earlier and I thought Ricardo did a wonderful job of giving the horse a chance,” Asmussen said Wednesday. “He had run solid races and good numbers before, but he was just giving himself way too much to do against top-class horses.”

Max Player, a son of Honor Code, has had three works at Saratoga, including one in which he went in company with Midnight Bourbon, narrow loser to Essential Quality in last week’s Grade 1 Travers.

“That looks better now,” Asmussen said. “I love how he’s training.”

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, a Win and You’re In race for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 at Del Mar, drew last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, Happy Saver, who was third to Max Player in the Suburban.

Forza Di Oro, a sharp allowance winner here July 21 in his first start of the year, drew the rail. Outside of him, in post order, are Max Player, Chess Chief, Happy Saver, Night Ops, and Forewarned.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup will go as the final race on a 12-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m.

Asmussen also will be represented in the weekend’s Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds. On Sunday, he will send out impressive debut winner Echo Zulu in the Grade 1 Spinaway for 2-year-old fillies. On Monday, he plans to run Gunite, runner-up in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, in the Grade 1 Hopeful.