Asmussen within sight of Baird's win record

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Churchill Downs backstretch visitor caught sight of Steve Asmussen early Saturday and asked him to raise nine fingers. Asmussen grinned and complied – without even trying.

“How’s this?” said Asmussen, quickly referring to what little remains of his left thumb.

Asmussen had achieved the incredible feat of 9,000 career victories the previous night when Troy Ounce won the second race at Remington Park in Oklahoma, so the nine digits are symbolic. Asmussen, now 54, was 10 years old when he lost most of his thumb.

“I was holding a horse [Something Lika Jet] of my mother’s that had just won a race in the test barn at La Bahia Downs in 1976,” he recalled.

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Losing most of the thumb to a nasty bite hasn’t kept Asmussen from accomplishing what very few others ever have or will in Thoroughbred racing. Through Sunday, he had won 9,004 races while clearly on the fast track to becoming the all-time wins leader at a relatively young age. Only the late Dale Baird, with 9,445, has won more.

Asmussen has trained the Horse of the Year four times – Curlin in 2007-08, Rachel Alexandra in 2009, and Gun Runner in 2017 – and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2016. He’s serious and highly ambitious, yes – but he also can self-deprecate, at least when it comes to having been mangled, ironically, by a horse.

“The all-time win record is 9,445, and I have about 9.5 digits,” he said. “Looks like just enough.”

◗ Miguel Mena is hoping to return sooner than expected from an injury suffered last week in a Churchill spill. His agent, Joe Santos, said the 33-year-old jockey has been experiencing minimal pain in his ribs, which initially were believed to be cracked or badly bruised, and that a return by opening day at Keeneland is realistic.

◗ Trainer Neil Pessin has confirmed that Bell’s the One, winner of the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby card, will bypass the Oct. 3 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland to train straight into the Nov. 7 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, also at Keeneland.