Bee Jersey sets precedent for Asmussen barn with Met Mile win
"I Love New York" may be the tried and true definitive marketing tag line, and it certainly applied to the sentiment expressed around Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's barn on the morning after Bee Jersey's smashing victory in the 125th running of the Grade 1, $1.2 million Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap in gate-to-wire fashion.
Within the last 12 months, Asmussen won six Grade 1s with Gun Runner, including the Whitney at the Breeders' Cup Classic, and Saturday added the Met Mile with Charles Fipke's Bee Jersey, a 4-year-old colt by Jersey Town.
Asmussen may have trained three different Horses of the Year - Curlin (2007-08), Rachel Alexandra (2009), and Gun Runner (2017) - but the multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer has plenty of accolades for Bee Jersey, now the victor in four consecutive races and a first-time Grade 1 winner.
"I'm very proud of him. He ran an amazing race," he said. "I'm very proud to win the Met Mile. It's a very significant race and this is the first time that we've won it. It's definitely a very important race on the American calendar, and it's awfully nice to win it with a homebred for Mr. Fipke by a Grade 1 winner and sire of his. This is definitely a sire-making race. You look at the previous winners of the Met Mile and it's nice company to be in."
Not only did Bee Jersey add to the Grade 1 trophies in the Hall of Fame trainer's overflowing case, he traveled the one-turn mile in the eye-popping time of 1:33.13. Consider that the stakes record is 1:32.73 and the track record is 1:32.24.
"Without being positive, I don't believe I've ever had a horse run a mile any faster than he did. I've been trying to think if I had, and I don't think so. It's not like we did any research on it. We just went by memory and I think I would remember if one of my horses had," said Asmussen.
The Met Mile is a "Win and You're In" event for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs in early November, and that remains the long-range goal for Bee Jersey, said Asmussen. But how he will bring the horse from this race to the Dirt Mile is still a game plan yet to be devised.
"I think that the race being run at Churchill this year and being a one-tun mile, that's a completely different dynamic than in years past," he said. "Obviously, he went from three races in a row that were two-turn races to this one-turn mile. Whether it was the pace or other scenarios that worked out perfectly yesterday, does that happen in the future?"
Asmussen, who shipped the horse back to his Churchill Downs base Sundaymorning, said he'll look at the seven-furlong Grade 1, $600,000 Forego on August 25 at Saratoga, among others. He noted that Bee Jersey's energy level and how he trains going forward will be among the deciding factors.
The Asmussen-trained and Winchell Thoroughbreds-owned Tenfold, who finished fifth in the Belmont Stakes Saturday, also was in great physical shape on Sunday morning and is still held in high regard.
"He is a lovely horse and a beautiful physical specimen. He was beaten in a great race by a great horse and we'll regroup," said Asmussen, who won his 8,000th career race in May. "There are a lot of races left for him."