RACING FESTIVAL OF THE SOUTH

Legends of Oaklawn

Hall of Fame trainers give track presence

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette legends of Oaklawn illustration.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette legends of Oaklawn illustration.

HOT SPRINGS -- In late February, trainer Ron Moquett marveled at the personnel in a race at Oaklawn Park in which one of his trainees was entered

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Jack VanBerg

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Trainer Steve Asmussen, seen with jockey John Velazquez after winning the 2015 Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, overcame one major career blemish to be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame last August.

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The Sentinel-Record file photo

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas poses in the winner's circle after his Absinthe Minded won Bayakoa Stakes Saturday, February 19, 2011, at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs Ark.

"We were in there against three Hall of Fame trainers," he said. "They were all in that one race, and I thought, 'This is one of the things that makes Oaklawn such a great place to be.' ''

Moquett spoke of a challenge that has become common after his entrant raced those trained by Jack Van Berg, inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1985; D. Wayne Lukas, a 1999 inductee; and Steve Asmussen, who accepted membership last summer.

They have combined for 18,866 victories and more than $615 million in earnings in their careers entering Wednesday.

The three trainers have at times swamped their competition. Van Berg's reign came first, highlighted by his trainee Alysheba's victory in the 1987 Kentucky Derby. Next up was Lukas, who has trained winners of a record 14 Triple Crown races and 20 Breeders' Cup races. He trained four Kentucky Derby winners from 1988-1999.

Now it's Asmussen's time. With three racing days left, he's a virtual lock to win his eighth Oaklawn training title.

Asmussen trained a record 555 winners nationwide in 2004 to break Van Berg's record of 496 from 1976. Asmussen, 51, twice broke his own record, with 621 victories in 2008 and 650 in 2009. He won the Eclipse Award as America's top trainer after each season.

He has trained three Triple Crown winners, including Arkansas Derby champion Creator to victory in the Belmont Stakes last year. His trainee Curlin was named American Horse of the Year in 2007 and 2008. Rachel Alexandra, under Asmussen's direction, won the 2009 Preakness Stakes, the first filly to do so since 1924. She was also named American Horse of the Year.

Asmussen has overcome his career's one significant blemish to the point it is now little more than an afterthought. Complaints filed against him by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to gaming and racing commissions in New York and Kentucky in 2014 led the Hall of Fame to table his first nomination for membership.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission cleared Asmussen of all the allegations. The New York Gaming Commission found merit in four minor infractions of the 14 complaints introduced by PETA, and it imposed a $10,000 fine. Asmussen was otherwise cleared.

The door to the Hall of Fame was reopened, and he entered on Aug. 12, 2016.

Asmussen sat in his stable office at Oaklawn on a cold Saturday morning midway through the current meet and talked about his Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He handed his wife, Julie Asmussen, full credit for every detail of the experience that day in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and he sounded philosophical as he spoke of the delay caused by the PETA intrusion.

"Everything happens for a reason," he said.

Asmussen said he attempted to script his induction speech before the ceremony, but he realized it was futile. His 10-minute impromptu delivery was full of praise for Julie, big brother Cash Asmussen, and his parents, Keith and Sis Asmussen.

Asmussen was raised in a racing family, primarily in Laredo, Texas. His parents both trained horses. Cash Asmussen was an Eclipse Award winner as a jockey. The conclusion to his spontaneous address summed up his appreciation.

"Putting me in the Hall of Fame, in this class, is putting my parents in the Hall of Fame," Asmussen said. "Everything that my father did was never about, 'Look at me.' There's not an award for it, but it's the definition of a true man."

As Asmussen stood near the Oaklawn paddock moments after his trainee Terra Promessa won the Bayakoa Stakes on Feb. 18, he spoke about his wife

"Julie organizes everything for me," he said. "She does it all. I'm here because of her."

Shortly after Wednesday's Arkansas Derby post-position draw, Asmussen talked again about Julie.

"She is a well beyond depths as far as what I rely on her for," Asmussen said.

Van Berg, 80, has trained horses since the late 1950s. He said the most significant changes in his 60-plus-year career include the intrusion of social media, but he said he believes the most negative influence has come from an increased use of medication for racehorses.

"These guys today medicate their horses so much that it's a joke," Van Berg said. "That's why they can't run them back as quick. They've used so much junk that they can't. I don't go for that. I go for the old school, when we didn't use all that stuff, and I'm talking the legal stuff. Some of these guys, it cost them 500 or 600 bucks in that junk just to run a race."

Lukas, 81, shared the same concern.

"I hope we'll get to where we'll be able to get on a level playing field, and where they're used in the best interest of the horse on every level," he said. "It's been a slow process, but there aren't a lot of easy answers to that."

Asmussen said he has admired his two Oaklawn compatriots and Hall of Fame predecessors through the bulk of his life.

"Jack is a legend to me more than just a person," Asmussen said. "But with Wayne, he is amazingly unique in our game in how positive he is to everybody and how encouraging he is to everybody."

Trainer royalty

Three Oaklawn Park-based trainers — Steve Asmussen, D. Wayne Lukas and Jack Van Berg — have proven they can get a route of ground, which in horse racing parlance means they have had the stamina and endurance to withstand the peaks and valleys of a business that provides roller-coaster rides for even the most successful horsemen. Totals were prior to Wednesday’s races.

TRAINER;STARTS;WINS;EARNINGS;TRIPLE CROWN

Steven Asmussen;36,494;7,589;$254.148 million;3: Preakness (2); Belmont (1)

Jack Van Berg;40,996;6,499;$85.331 million;3: Derby (1); Preakness (2)

D. Wayne Lukas;28,500;4,778;$276.01 million;14: Derby (4); Preakness (6); Belmont (4)

By the numbers

5 Kentucky Derby victories, 4 by Lukas

5 Belmont Stakes victories, 4 by Lukas

10 Preakness Stakes victories, 6 by Lukas

11 Oaklawn Park training titles, 7 by Asmussen

26 Breeders’ Cup races won, 20 by Lukas

18,886 Races won, 7,589 by Asmussen

105,990 Horses started, 40,996 by Van Berg

$615,485 Millions earned in purse money

Lukas has won 301 races at Oaklawn, including 47 stakes

Asmussen has won 534 races at Oaklawn, including 69 stakes

Van Berg has won 275 races at Oaklawn, including 12 stakes

Steve Asmussen, 51,

Gettysburg, S.D.

Asmussen, who is on target to win his eighth Oaklawn Park training title, was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2016, has 5 Breeders’ Cup victories and has won two Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top trainer.

Jack Van Berg, 80,

Columbus, Neb.

Van Berg won Oaklawn Park training titles in 1983 and 1984, and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1985 and has been trending upward since returning to the Midwest from Southern California five years ago. His most famous horse, Alysheba, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1987 and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1988.

D. Wayne Lukas, 81,

Antigo, Wis.

Lukas won Oaklawn Park training titles in 1987 and 2011, and he has won 301 races at the track. Nationally, he has won 20 Breeders’ Cup races, has 5 Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top trainer and was a 1999 inductee into racing’s Hall of Fame.

Sports on 04/13/2017

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