LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen checked off a couple more boxes last year when he won the Belmont Stakes with Creator and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.
They were the latest among the major feats and honors accumulated by Asmussen in 30-plus years as a Thoroughbred trainer. Now 51, he has pretty much done it all – except for one little something.
“Oh, I’m well aware of what’s missing,” Asmussen said with a big laugh in a recent interview. “I’ve got one major vacancy on my résumé.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer John Shirreffs arrived at Churchill Downs on Monday knowing he had one horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby and hoping he’d end up with two. The window was closing but not quite shut just yet.
Shirreffs trains Gormley, the Santa Anita Derby winner, and Royal Mo, who finished third in the race. Gormley is safely in the field for the 143rd Derby on Saturday, but the number of points earned by Royal Mo has him sitting 21st in a race that has a maximum of 20 runners.
He is the four-time reigning champion jockey, is closing in on 100 Grade 1 stakes victories, and just two weeks ago was elected into Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame.
When it comes to the sport’s Triple Crown races, however, Javier Castellano has not been nearly as successful. Castellano has just one win from 25 mounts in the Triple Crown series comprised of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. The win came in the 2006 Preakness on Bernardini, a victory largely overshadowed by the breakdown of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro early in the race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas announced Sunday at the popular Fan Fest Day event at the Kentucky Derby Museum that he is donating his vast collection of racing memorabilia to the museum.
The collection includes trophies from his four wins in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks; his Eclipse Awards as top trainer; artwork and photos; and many more items from his fabulous career.
Lukas, 81, said the museum “is an ideal fit to protect and showcase my legacy for many years to come.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whitmore would have seemed like a prime candidate for the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Derby card after emerging as one of the top sprinters in North America over the winter at Oaklawn Park. But trainer Ron Moquett said Monday he was very unlikely to enter him in the seven-furlong race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Salomon Del Valle was just 20 years old when he came to America for the first time. He joined thousands of his Venezuelan countrymen in attending the 1971 Belmont Stakes in New York, where a previously unheralded colt from Venezuela, Canonero II, was trying to complete a sweep of the Triple Crown.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With two defections one week before the Kentucky Derby changing the makeup of the field, Sonneteer will seek to become the first maiden to win the Run for the Roses since Brokers Tip in 1933.
After finishing second in the Rebel Stakes and fourth in the Arkansas Derby, Sonneteer sat 22nd on the Derby points list, behind Lookin At Lee on the bubble of the 20-horse field. Trainer Todd Pletcher declared Malagacy and Battalion Runner out of the race last Saturday, letting Sonneteer and Lookin At Lee into the main body of the field.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the land of the Derby, might the one-eyed horse be king on Saturday?
That is what those associated with Patch are hoping, as Patch, who had his left eye removed before he ever raced, attempts to become the first horse with just one eye to win the Kentucky Derby.
A mother’s influence on development in the early months can often go overlooked in the success of a racehorse, but it’s hard to look at the produce record of Rebridled Dreams and not have it in mind.
If Farrell’s Kentucky Oaks bid is successful, she would become the third Grade 1 winner out of the Unbridled’s Song mare, who is the cornerstone of Bob Cummings and Annette Bacola’s Coffee Pot Stable breeding program.
LOUISVILLE. Ky. - Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg had hoped for a joyous celebration of the 30-year anniversary of his 1987 Kentucky Derby victory with Alysheba by having a starter in the Derby this year.
Instead, Van Berg is back at Churchill Downs with a heavy heart – and not because none of his 3-year-olds panned out. His oldest son and former longtime assistant, Tim Van Berg, died suddenly April 19 at his California home at age 59.
