Asmussen excited about 2-year-old debut winner Extra Anejo
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Steve Asmussen doesn’t rebuild, he reloads.
Asmussen will say goodbye to such stable stars as Jackie’s Warrior and Clairiere following their career finales at the upcoming Breeders’ Cup, so it’s young prospects such as Extra Anejo coming thorugh the pipeline that keep the Hall of Fame trainer encouraged about the future.
“Extremely,” Asmussen said early Friday in regard to how excited he is about Extra Anejo, a 2-year-old Into Mischief colt who wowed the Keeneland crowd on Thursday afternoon with a 9 1/2-length debut romp that graded out to a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
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Extra Anejo, a $1.35 million purchase at the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale for the Winchell Thoroughbreds of Ron Winchell, was ridden by Tyler Gaffalione in winning in 1:27.17 going the Beard Course distance of seven furlongs and 184 feet. The colt was heavily backed through much of the wagering before settling in as a 7-5 favorite in a field of 10.
“Obviously, the horse has been extremely well thought of the whole time,” Asmussen said. “He went to Laredo,” the Texas training center where his parents oversee the care of many of his young horses, “and he always appeared to be the head of the class. It’s nice to get him over to the races and have it written down in black and white.”
As for a next start, he added: “We’ll monitor how he comes out of the race. He’s a very big horse, and I think he will benefit from racing. The right thing to do is take some time. We’re not going to jump off in the deep end. There’ll be plenty of time for him to show who we think he is.”
Asmussen said an allowance on the second Stars of Tomorrow program at the Churchill fall meet on Nov. 26 “would be a possibility, but overall, we have nice tools to train him with and measure where he’s at.”
Thursday “wasn’t a surprise to anybody who’s been around him, so we’ll want to be that confident again when we run him back,” he said.
Besides Jackie’s Warrior for the Sprint and Clairiere for the Distaff, Asmussen also has Epicenter for the Classic, along with a number of other hopefuls for the Nov. 4-5 Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland. On Friday he confirmed Grand Love, the beaten favorite in the Pocahontas last month at Churchill Downs, as a starter for the Juvenile Fillies.
Extra Anejo represented career win No. 9,921 for Asmussen, whose inexorable march to the unprecedented 10,000-win milestone is on pace to be reached sometime in late 2022 or early 2023.
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