Asmussen finishing Churchill meet with a flourish

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The curtain comes down on the Churchill Downs fall meet Sunday, but not without Steve Asmussen making sure everybody knows who’s No. 1.

Three-plus months after becoming the all-time winningest trainer in North American racing history with his 9,446th career winner, Asmussen set what is believed to be a record for a single card at Churchill by sending out five winners from just seven starters here Thursday. Those horses were Generator ($5.60), Front Street ($2.80), Regal Retort ($6.60), Treaty of Paris ($21), and All In Sync ($5.80).

Asmussen was home in suburban Dallas enjoying Thanksgiving with his family as his longtime assistant, Scott Blasi, deputized at Churchill.

“We watched from the dinner table at our house,” Asmussen said early Friday before boarding a flight back to Louisville. “I’m awfully proud of what the barn was able to get done, especially with the purses as high as they are and as competitive a meet it’s become.”

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Churchill officials said certain records were not maintained before 1991, including the one for most wins on a card, but it’s highly unlikely that a trainer won as many as five in a day prior to that year. Back then, Churchill rarely carded more than nine races a day, as opposed to more modern times, when as many as 14 are slated and the chances of winning five races are substantially increased.

In any event, the five-win afternoon serves as another highlight in what has been another incredible year for Asmussen, 56. Besides setting the all-time mark on Aug. 7 at Saratoga and other notable accomplishments, he also will extend his own record for most meet titles, 25, by a trainer when the 21-day stand ends Sunday at Churchill, where he also is the all-time leading trainer. Through Thursday, his imposing lifetime win total stood at 9,557 for his career, 819 of them coming at Churchill.

Four wins on a Churchill card had been done numerous times before Thursday, including by Asmussen on four occasions. Asmussen’s own record for most wins in a day at a single track during his Hall of Fame career is seven, set on July 14, 2002, at Lone Star Park. Corey Lanerie rode all seven of those.

Meanwhile, three full cards remained at the fall meet as this went to print, including Asmussen saddling Midnight Bourbon for the Grade 1 Clark on Friday and seven starters on a 12-race Sunday finale, when mandatory payouts of all wagering pools will be in effect. Asmussen has entries in two of the three co-featured allowances (races 10-12) that conclude the closing-day card, those being Irish Unity in race 10 and Americanus in race 11.

Big fields are the norm Sunday, with 140 horses entered, including 11 also-eligibles. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern. This is the last dirt-only card, assuming the renovated turf course is ready as expected when racing returns here April 30, 2022.

After Sunday, live action on the Kentucky circuit moves to Turfway Park, where four months of winter racing begins Thursday evening.