Magnitude out of quarantine; Asmussen eyeing July return

David Fiske, racing manager for Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, sent a video a couple days after Magnitude returned to Kentucky after what ought to have been an arduous journey to the Middle East. In it, Magnitude has a joyful roll around his stall in the international quarantine barn at Churchill Downs. He leaps athletically to his feet, shakes straw off his coat, and jaunts to the stall door, craning his head alertly, full of life.

It has been more of the same since Magnitude got out of quarantine and rejoined trainer Steve Asmussen’s string at Churchill. Magnitude on March 28 won the $12 million Dubai World Cup by one length over Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Forever Young. He shipped back to America the Tuesday after the race. Already, Magnitude has returned to morning jogs.

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“We like how he’s traveling,” Asmussen said Wednesday.

Traveling around the track at a jog is one thing. The way Magnitude took his travel to Dubai and back seems fairly remarkable. From the very start, Asmussen got glowing reports of how Magnitude had handled the journey. That showed in his race, where Magnitude broke like a shot, leading from start to finish. The race’s aftermath, the flight back went equally well.

“He has taken it all unbelievably from an energy and weight standout,” Asmussen said. “We’re still going to take it easy with him for a while.”

After finishing third, beaten more than 20 lengths by Sovereignty in the Travers last summer, Magnitude finished second in the Pennsylvania Derby and since has won three straight, the World Cup following the Razorback at Oaklawn and the Clark at Churchill. The 4-year-old has evolved into a top-class animal and proved in Dubai he can stay 1 1/4 miles.

“The Breeders’ Cup Classic is our second major target of the year, and we’ll work back from that,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen said that if all went well, he expected Magnitude to return to racing sometime in July, which would leave only a couple obvious spots: The Suburban on July 4 at Saratoga, or the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker a week later. Magnitude returned from an injury layoff last summer winning the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows.

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