2 horses are Asmussen’s chance to end Kentucky Derby drought

New Orleans

Steve Asmussen knows when that question is coming. Whether it is the page on the calendar, the direction of an interview or even his own process of thought.

“Cumulatively, yes, you’re sick of it,” he said Friday, “but you know, every chance is a new chance.”

From Fifty Stars in 2001 to Disarm last year, Asmussen has saddled 25 horses for 17 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. That is the most of any trainer who has not won the race.

Like Dan Marino and the Super Bowl or Mike Trout and the World Series or Rickie Fowler and major golf tournaments, Asmussen is the best who never has won his sport’s biggest prize. Unlike Marino and Trout and Fowler, Asmussen is both a card-carrying Hall of Famer and someone who gets to keep trying.

Track Phantom looks like Asmussen’s best chance to end the drought that has bedeviled him. Already a winner in two points prep and a close second in the slop last month in another, the $500,000 son of Quality Road is the 3-1 morning-line favorite to finish first Saturday in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.

Asmussen also entered maiden winner Hall of Fame, a lightly raced $1.4 million Gun Runner colt who needs a top-two finish Saturday in order to run for the roses May 4.

It is Track Phantom, best-priced at 10-1 in Las Vegas futures, who looks like Asmussen’s top candidate to end his Derby drought.

“I think Track Phantom is very easy to compare to Epicenter. Very easy,” Asmussen said, recalling his eventual Eclipse Award winner who looked like he was going to win the 2022 Derby before Rich Strike’s final 12 strides rewrote history with an 80-1 flourish.

Both Epicenter and Track Phantom built their résumés through Fair Grounds winter preps. Each won the Gun Runner Stakes. Epicenter was second in the Lecomte (G3) and first in the Risen Star (G2). It was the other way around for Track Phantom, who will try this weekend replicate Epicenter’s triumph two years ago in the Louisiana Derby.

“The series. The recency,” Asmussen said, doubling down on the Track Phantom comparison with Epicenter. “He’s got that great attitude, a beautiful way of going, and Joel is riding him. He’s in a very similar rhythm to Epicenter.”

Joel Rosario has ridden for Asmussen in the last two runnings of the Kentucky Derby, which he has not won since he got Orb to the winner’s circle for Shug McGaughey in 2013.

Six weeks before he tries again at Churchill Downs, Rosario will be tasked with hustling Track Phantom from the outside post against 10 rivals and getting an early lead in hopes of a gate-to-wire victory in the 1 3/16-mile Louisiana Derby.

Talk about retracing steps. Track Phantom was in post 11 last month and was leading the whole way in the slop before Sierra Leone came from 6 1/2 lengths behind to snatch a half-length victory in the Risen Star.

“Drawn the outside again. He’s obviously going to be very familiar with that,” Asmussen said with a chuckle. “But plenty of run to the first turn, and hopefully he just hits the ground running. I would expect him to be as comfortable as he can be, and hopefully we go far enough.”

Asmussen was less worried about the weather being dry for Track Phantom, even though the colt owned by L and N Racing, Clark Brewster, Jerry Caroom and Breeze Easy is 3-for-3 going two turns on fast tracks. He said the forecast of a sunny, 72-degree Saturday was more important for Hall of Fame, the maiden winner who looked out of sorts finishing seventh in the Risen Star.

“I need a fast track for him,” he said only hours after heavy rain hit New Orleans. “I’m obviously excited about the sun coming out. I was obviously very nervous about how much it rained this morning, but the forecast looks good. We want to see the good Hall of Fame. I think it will take a fast track for him to be that horse.”

Where Track Phantom is expected to set the pace Saturday, Hall of Fame figures to be somewhere between stalking and mid-pack after breaking from post 2 with jockey Ricardo Santana Jr.

“I just need him comfortable,” Asmussen said. “He was anything but comfortable last time. I think he has trained really nicely. I think he’s a horse with a lot of ability, and we just need the right circumstances to show it.”

With his seven-figure sale price, Hall of Fame comes with high expectations. Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith own him with Westerberg, Gandharvi and Brook Smith. Those first three names make up the Coolmore clique from Ireland. They, too, are big names experiencing a Derby drought. Between them they are 1-for-20, winning only on their first try with Thunder Gulch in 1995.

They just need more of Saturday’s weather come May 4 in Louisville, not the dreary rain that hit New Orleans five weeks ago. Saturday’s fourth afternoon assignment for Hall of Fame won’t hurt, either.

“He’s a great big horse that I don’t think appreciated the off track,” Asmussen said. “He did not run his best through it, and I feel that that is a valid excuse for him.

“As far as Track Phantom handling it, I thought he was extremely comfortable. I think what we saw there also is their experience. Track Phantom, being a very seasoned horse, he handled the circumstances whereas I don’t feel that Hall of Fame handled it because of his inexperience. That had a lot to do with it as well.”

Track Phantom then is the quintessence of the colt who carries his race with him. And at this stage of his career, Hall of Fame is literally a fair-weather horse. For the winningest trainer in North America’s Thoroughbred racing history, Asmussen knows there are nuances in preparing both of them for their two minutes on the biggest stage in racing.

“I don’t think you want everything, when you feel like you have a talented enough horse, to be down to one race like we are with Hall of Fame,” he said. “You would rather avoid that scenario. We’re not in charge of the weather or anything else. That being the case you find yourself in this position. But the opportunity is here. The sun’s out. No excuses necessary.”

And when it comes to being reminded annually he is 0-for-the Kentucky Derby, Asmussen said it does not change the fact that he would be trying to win the next one regardless of whether it will be his first one.

“If you’re in horse racing, lost races and won races are both over,” he said. “It’s all about the next one anyway. That’s what I’ve always loved about horse racing. You get paid for what you do on the day. You’re not paid for what you did before. There’s no residuals. The opportunity is here for us.”