Asmussens teaming up in seven races

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It’s father-son day at the races Friday for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and jockey Keith James Asmussen, who will team with seven starters on the 10-race Oaklawn Park program.

They will be represented in both of the afternoon’s six-furlong allowance races. Risk It is a chief contender in the third race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-olds, while Echo Again is capable in the ninth, a second-level allowance.

The Asmussens also will team in the second, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth races. During the current meet, the father-son team has won 35 races together from 200 starts, according to Daily Racing Form records.

Steve Asmussen leads the trainer standings, and Keith is second in the rider standings with 43 wins. Keith also has locked up mounts in the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks for trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

“Obviously, I’m extremely proud of the jockey he’s become and I expect nothing but more success from him,” Asmussen said. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. He’s definitely put in the time, done all the work, but what’s so impressive to me is he knows what to do with a horse’s ability.”

Risk It, who was second in last year’s Grade 3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs, is part of a six-horse field that includes This Is Uscar, who popped a Beyer Speed Figure of 82 winning his debut last month at Oaklawn, and Excitable Boy, another last-race maiden special weight winner with a Beyer of 80. Risk It was third at this level last time and could get a nice tracking trip off This Is Uscar.

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Echo Again is part of a nine-horse field that includes probable favorite Easy Action and Nodouble Stakes winner Bohemian Bo.

Following the Oaklawn races, Steve Asmussen will turn his attention to Sam Houston where another son, jockey Erik Asmussen, 21, will be riding five horses for his father Friday night. Erik ranks eighth in the standings heading into the final week of the meet, where he won his first race Jan. 5 and his first stakes March 23.

“Erik’s off and flying, [24] wins already and looking to do better every day,” Steve Asmussen said.

Asmussen has enjoyed watching his sons develop.

“It’s really fun to see,” he said, “knowing that they have such a similar history, learning to ride at [my] mom and dad’s place, on the babies that are down there, and how that horsemanship is translated to the afternoon in racing.”

At one point, Asmussen, who ranks as the all-time leading trainer in wins in North America, was not sure race riding was in the cards for either Keith or Erik.

“I thought they had grown by it, were too big to do it, but they’re showing unbelievable discipline to ride,” he said.

“We’re aware of what we have accomplished and the accolades that we’ve received and for them to be willing to put themselves out there and be judged speaks volumes for them. They could have sat in the Turf Club and been experts the rest of their lives. But they’re out there doing it.”

And doing it well.

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