Texas Thoroughbred Association to honor Asmussen with lifetime achievement award

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen’s week got off to a strong start Monday, when he saddled Neom Beach to a 6 1/2-length win in the $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff at his home track of Lone Star Park.

This weekend, he will have more to celebrate.

The Texas Thoroughbred Association is awarding Asmussen the T.I. “Pops” Harkins Award for lifetime achievement. It will be given out during the organization’s annual awards luncheon on Saturday at Lone Star.

The Harkins Award recognizes contributions to the industry in Texas. Asmussen’s parents, Keith and Marilyn, are past recipients.

Steve Asmussen, 59, ranks as the all-time winningest trainer in North America and has conditioned three horses of the year in Curlin, Rachel Alexandra, and Gun Runner. He was born in South Dakota and moved to Laredo, Texas in 1967 with his family, which includes his brother Cash, who won the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice jockey in 1979.

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“I’ve been so unbelievably blessed,” Steve Asmussen said. “To think that for me it all started at a training center in South Texas, before any accolades, It’s always been about the horse and it will always continue to be about the horse for us.”

Asmussen’s star began to rise in earnest in 1994.

“The opening of Sam Houston Race Park put me in contact with Bob and Lee Ackerley, who took Dad and Cash to the OBS February in-training sale and they bought Valid Expectations,” Steve Asmussen recalled. “And he was my first graded stakes winner ever. He was my first stakes winner at Churchill Downs, at Fair Grounds, and in New York and Arkansas.”

Asmussen and his wife, Julie, eventually settled near Lone Star. He has been an active participant in the state’s racing scene for decades, and is the all-time winningest trainer at Sam Houston and Lone Star. Asmussen’s stable includes a number of owners from Texas, including Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt.

“When they put [me] in the Hall of Fame and you’re looking up statistics and what everybody had done for you and thinking about just how you’re so appreciative, at that point, in 2016, I had won over 1,000 races with the Heiligbrodts alone. That was just so amazing to me. And I believe we’ve had over 100 stakes wins with the Heiligbrodts.”

Many of those wins came with 2-year-olds. Asmussen’s operation in Texas long has been known for its success in juvenile races and stakes, a large number of them within the breeding program of Texas.

“And many of those were by Valid Expectations, the gift that kept on giving,” said Asmussen.

Along the way, Asmussen has been an ambassador for the Texas industry, from annually supporting each track with a division of horses and bringing high profile runners in for some of the state’s biggest stakes.

He said the honor from the TTA is very meaningful to him because of all that Texas breeding and racing means to all of the Asmussens.

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