Asmussen wins 9,446th race to become all-time winningest trainer
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Steve Asmussen’s vision of becoming Thoroughbred racing’s all-time winningest trainer in North America became reality Saturday afternoon when Stellar Tap, a debuting 2-year-old colt by Tapit, cruised to a 5 1/4-length victory in Saratoga’s fifth race.
The win was the 9,446th of Asmussen’s career, moving him ahead of Dale Baird whose record of 9,445 has been the standard since 2007 when Baird died in a car crash.
“I don’t know if it’s healthy to want something that much, I just want it,” Asmussen said in the Saratoga winner’s circle. “I love to have this to share with my parents, what it means to them in conversations we’ve had; just to be blessed to have your family this involved and care this much about what you do. How do you put that into words?”
The win came with Asmussen’s family – wife, Julie, and sons Darren, Eric, and Keith – in attendance. Darren drove Friday night from Missouri to Dallas where he caught a flight to Albany on Saturday morning.
After the victory, Asmussen was linked up by FOX Sports via satellite with his parents, father Keith and mother Marilyn, who were in Laredo, Texas, and who attempted to send their congratulations. Unfortunately, the hook-up was somewhat garbled.
NYRA also showed a video on the infield board and presented Asmussen with a lawn jockey holding a sign that read “North America’s Winningest Trainer.”
Stellar Tap is owned by Ron Winchell and L and N Racing. The Winchell family has been a longtime client of Asmussen. Together they campaigned champions Gun Runner and Untapable.
Most of the horses that Asmussen trains are broken on the family’s farm in Laredo.
“How fitting with a 2-year-old of Winchells that came through mom and dad’s program in Laredo on Whitney Day,” Asmussen said. “God has definitely blessed us and continues to do so.”
Asmussen built the record with victories throughout the country, with divisions in Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Jersey, and New York. Saturday was emblematic of his far-flung stable as he ran 13 horses in 12 races at four tracks. It ranged from a $5,000 claimer at Louisiana Downs to Silver State in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga.
With an acknowledgment of beginning his career with cheap horses and working his way to having Grade 1 stock, Asmussen said he’s “very proud of where I came from and I don’t ever want to forget. I think it makes you who you are.”
Asmussen, 55, began training horses in 1986 after he became too heavy to continue a riding career. He won his first graded stakes in 1996 with Valid Expectations. He won his 275th graded stakes last Sunday when Jackie’s Warrior took the Grade 2 Amsterdam. He is second all-time in purse money won with $361.3 million and has had almost 46,000 starters.
Asmussen is a two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
It was fitting that the record-breaking win came at Saratoga, where Asmussen had some of his biggest victories including Rachel Alexandra beating the boys in the 2009 Woodward in a Horse of the Year campaign. That came a year after Curlin won that same race en route to his second straight Horse of the Year title.
While becoming the winningest trainer was a longtime goal, Asmussen said there is more to accomplish.
“I’m still 0 for 23 in the [Kentucky] Derby and don’t plan on leaving it at that,” Asmussen said. “So, we got plenty out there to do, there’s no doubt about that.”