Eleven-time Fair Grounds trainer champion
Steve Asmussen moved up
to third on the list of Thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading trainers
when Zayat Stable’s Skinny won the seventh race Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds
Race Course & Slots to move the ubiquitous conditioner past the
Maryland-based K. T. (King) Leatherbury.
What looms now for
Asmussen is the chance to pass Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg (and
10-time Fair Grounds leading trainer) as the nation’s second-leading
all-time conditioner.
Through Tuesday, Van Berg, had 6,417
lifetime wins as a trainer while Asmussen had amassed 6,384 career
victories as a conditioner. However, Asmussen was credited with 57 wins
in 2013 through Tuesday while Van Berg, whose career has slowed down in
recent years, had saddled one winner so far this year.
Given the
torrid pace of Asmussen’s career over the last few years, his 33-win
deficit behind Van Berg could be erased before the 2013 Fair Grounds
season comes to a close.
Of Asmussen’s 6,384 wins, 848 of them (14%) have come at Fair Grounds.
Dale Baird is North America’s all-time leading trainer with 9,445 wins.
Asmussen was inducted into the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame in 2011, while Van Berg achieved that honor two decades prior, in 1991.
Through
Sunday, Asmussen, in pursuit of his 12th training title at Fair
Grounds, was credited with 26 wins and was tied for second with
conditioner Bret Calhoun in the 2012-2013 Fair Grounds trainer
standings. Both were four wins in arrears of nine-time Fair Grounds
trainer champion Tom Amoss, who had saddled 30 winners through that
date.
Racing resumes Thursday at Fair Grounds with a nine-race program beginning at 1 p.m.