SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - From becoming Thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading trainer by wins, to capturing four Grade 1 stakes and winning a personal-best 18 races at Saratoga, this will go down as one of the more memorable summers for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. One day after winning Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup with Max Player, Asmussen sent out Echo Zulu to win the $300,000 Spinaway by four lengths. It was Asmussen’s fourth Grade 1 triumph of the meet - a personal best here - and it gave him the distinction of saddling the first Grade 1 stakes winner for the sire Gun Runner, whom Asmussen trained to Horse of the Year honors in 2017. “I can’t measure how much I wanted that; just to have Gun Runner’s first Grade 1 winner - everything he did for the barn,” Asmussen said Sunday. “He’s obviously a tremendous sire. Somebody had to be first and I’m glad it was us.” Though he had a chance to win a fifth Grade 1 at the meet with Gunite in Monday’s Hopeful - equaling the five Grade 1 wins here by Todd Pletcher in 2010 - Asmussen already called this “a dream meet” for him. On Aug. 7, he sent out the first-time starter Stellar Tap to win a maiden race, which gave him career victory 9,446, making him the sport’s all-time leading trainer in wins. “Setting the record here on Whitney Day, that’s pretty good timing from 31 years back,” Asmussen, 55, said. On Aug. 28, Asmussen won Grade 1 stakes in back-to-back races with Jackie’s Warrior (H. Allen Jerkens) and Yaupon (Forego), and both are now considered top contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 6 at Del Mar. On Saturday, Max Player dominated the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, securing his position in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. In 2017, the last time the Breeders’ Cup was held at Del Mar, Asmussen won the Classic with Gun Runner. Gun Runner won the Classic coming off a 10 1/2-length victory in the Woodward, held the first Saturday in September at Saratoga. The Woodward and Gold Cup have switched positions on the New York Racing Association calendar. Asmussen sent Gun Runner to Southern California well in advance of the Cup to get acclimated to the West Coast. Gun Runner had four workouts at Santa Anita and then one at Del Mar when that track opened its backside. Asmussen plans to send Max Player and his other Breeders’ Cup runners to Southern California well in advance of this year’s Cup, even if it means spending several weeks at Santa Anita before Del Mar opens its backside 10 to 12 days out from the event. “I think the acclimation is what I look for more than anything,” Asmussen said. “They run their race that way. Then again it was Gun Runner; let me have him again.” It’s not demeaning to say Max Player isn’t Gun Runner, a six-time Grade 1 winner who earned just under $16 million. Max Player is improving, however, with a new forwardly placed running style being the key to victories in the Jockey Club and the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park in July. In the Gold Cup, jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. had Max Player within a half-length of the pacesetting Forza Di Oro for a mile or so before taking over from that one in midstretch. He then spurted clear the last 100 yards while Happy Saver caught Forza Di Oro for second. “Ricardo asked him to get in position, but he was in position and comfortable easily by the time they got to the wire,” Asmussen said. “When they went under the wire, you couldn’t have been any more pleased than I was with where he was and how he was there. “Ricardo said he won easy,” Asmussen added. “He had a lot left. It was good.” Asmussen said Max Player, who earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure, looked good Sunday morning. He will remain in Saratoga before shipping to California by the end of September/early October. The exact timing depends on how some of Asmussen’s other Breeders’ Cup prospects run or train in the coming weeks. Jackie’s Warrior and Yaupon both could make starts before the Breeders’ Cup. Either horse could be pointed to the Grade 2, $250,000 Vosburgh at Belmont on Oct. 9. Silver State, the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner, is scheduled to run in the Grade 2, $250,000 Kelso Handicap at Belmont on Sept. 25 as he prepares for the BC Dirt Mile. That same day, Midnight Bourbon, the Grade 1 Travers runner-up, could run in the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. Midnight Bourbon could also be a candidate for the Oct. 2 Woodward, Asmussen said. :: DRF’s Labor Day Sale: Save big on DRF Formulator Past Performances, Picks, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and DRF+ Pro. Limited time only. Echo Zulu is a likely candidate for the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park on Oct. 3, a winning effort there could send her to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 5. Asmussen, who had American Xperiment entered in Monday’s Del Mar Futurity and Gunite in the Hopeful at Saratoga, also has maiden winners Guntown and Stellar Tap aimed at the Iroquois at Churchill Downs on Sept. 18. Regardless of how Gunite performed in the Hopeful and how Pine Valley did in a maiden race earlier in the card - his final two runners at the meet - Saratoga 2021 will not soon be forgotten by Asmussen. "It’s been a dream meet, it really has,” Asmussen said. “Very special with the fans back and the excitement adding to it. And, to be so fortunate to have such nice horses to train.”