LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The numbers are staggering.

Horses trained by Steve Asmussen made 2,427 starts during 2021. Asmussen, as of Monday, had won 9,727 races during his career. He has won eight Breeders’ Cup races, won the Preakness twice, and won the Belmont once. He has trained the American Horse of the Year four times, including three years in a row, with Curlin in 2007 and 2008 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

Last summer, the number in Asmussen’s head was 9,446, the victory that would make him the sport’s winning-most North American trainer.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Long-time Woodbine Entertainment television host Jason Portuondo is leaving the company on June 26 to become a racing official with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The traditional bounty of wagering options Friday and Saturday on Churchill racing includes a couple of new Derby Day bets.

The new Saturday wagers are a 50-cent pick five comprising main-track stakes, starting with the Knicks Go (race 6), and a $3-minimum all-3-year-old pick three (Pat Day Mile, American Turf, Derby).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Horseplayers who backed the filly Nest in the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager, offered March 11-13 by Churchill Downs, will be getting the best tote value when the 148th Oaks is run Friday.

Nest closed at 14-1 in the Oaks futures but is the 5-2 program favorite for the Oaks following her decisive victory in the April 8 Ashland at Keeneland. The Oaks futures were held concurrent with the fourth of five pools in the 2022 Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brad Cox keeps getting asked what it feels like to win the Kentucky Derby the way he did.

“More than 100 times,” said Cox. “Maybe not 200, but yeah, a lot.”

When Patrick Kearney decided at age 83 to buy his first horse, he was just looking for a little excitement. Mission accomplished.

Just over a year after buying a 2-year-old filly by Upstart at auction, Kearney has one of the top choices for Friday’s $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks in Kathleen O., an undefeated two-time graded stakes winner.

“I’m living a dream,” Kearney, now 84 said, recently. “This is beyond incredible.”

Al Gold was on a family vacation in the Catskills in the summer of 1972 when he visited Monticello Raceway, a Standardbred track in that part of the upstate New York region.

“The place was packed – completely different from the way it is today – and it was enjoyable,” Gold said.

The following day, Gold was in the gym of the hotel his family was staying at when he overheard a conversation between two men discussing how a particular race was going to play out that night at Monticello.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Epicenter, no worse than second choice for the Kentucky Derby, galloped one mile just after the Churchill Downs track opened for training on a rainy Tuesday morning. The Louisiana Derby winner came out of a five-furlong workout Sunday in good shape and after tack-walking on Monday quickly returned to galloping, a good sign for his Derby chances.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The stakes riches on a marathon Kentucky Derby Day Saturday at Churchill Downs kick off with the Grade 2, $500,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile.

The race has been slotted as the fifth of 14 on a card that kicks off at 10:30 a.m. It is the first of seven undercard stakes that precede the Kentucky Derby, which will go off shortly before 7 p.m.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Golden Pal, winner of Breeders' Cup races in 2020 and 2021, is the undisputed leader of the North American turf sprint ranks. Five horses who chased him home last time out are part of a field of 13 entered for the Grade 2, $500,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Friday at Churchill Downs.

The Twin Spires is slotted as the race immediately preceding the Kentucky Oaks, as race 10 of 13.