My Friend Amy, Erik Asmussen team again in sprint

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The older mare My Friend Amy will have the younger generation in her corner Friday when trainer Jayde Gelner legs up apprentice Erik Asmussen in the featured ninth race at Oaklawn Park.

The second-level allowance for fillies and mares will be run over six furlongs and carries an optional claiming price of $62,500. Dealing Justice finished in front of most of the runners in the field of 10 last month, when she was second by a neck at a similar level at Oaklawn.

My Friend Amy was fifth in that race, beaten 2 1/4 lengths while closing from 10th. She was cutting back from a win around two turns, in a seven-furlong allowance at Delta Downs.

“She’s a super, super classy mare,” Asmussen said of the eight-time-winning 6-year-old, who has earned nearly $400,000. “I’m blessed by the opportunity the Gelners have given me to ride her back. I feel like I learned a lot about her” last time.

Asmussen is considered a leading candidate for the Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice of 2024. Gelner – who also goes by J.J. – has won 26 stakes since his first victory as a trainer on Feb. 25, 2022, at Delta Downs. He is a son of veteran trainer Scott Gelner.

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“J.J.’s a great, great up-and-coming trainer,” Asmussen said. “He’s very young like myself, and we’re both very, very passionate about the game. The second horse I ever rode for the Gelners, I actually won a stakes for them.”

Asmussen, a 22-year-old native of Arlington, Texas, won his first race as an apprentice jockey on Jan. 5, 2024, at Sam Houston. He closed the year leading all North American apprentice jockeys in both wins – with 127 from 793 starts – and mount earnings, $5,078,150.

“Something I’m extremely proud about is winning six stakes,” Asmussen said. “You don’t get your bug for the stakes races. I also was the leading rider at Lone Star Park, which is the track I grew up at, so to be leading rider there really was a dream come true.”

Asmussen is the son of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. He’s also the nephew of Cash Asmussen, a five-time champion jockey in France who was North America’s outstanding apprentice in 1979.

“My uncle won the Eclipse about 45 years ago, so it means a whole lot to my family and I that I am in the talks for this award,” Erik Asmussen said. “It would mean a lot to my family if I were able to win it because my uncle did win it. And, I’ve always had – been blessed with – antastic teachers around me, including my uncle, my dad, and my grandpa, who have taught me everything I know.”

My Friend Amy will start from post 3 on Friday.

Others making up the field include Always Angels, a stakes-placed runner who has registered three of her four career wins at Oaklawn. Ramon Vazquez has the mount from the rail for trainer Johnny Ortiz.

Dealing Justice starts from post 10. Harry Hernandez has the mount for trainer Tim Martin.

◗ American Promise put up one of the highest Beyer Speed Figures for a 2-year-old of 2024 on Dec. 29 at Oaklawn, when he won a maiden special weight route with a 95. He is by Justify and is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Hoosier Philly. D. Wayne Lukas trains American Promise for BC Stables.

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