HOT SPRINGS -- Trainer Steve Asmussen expresses a philosophy toward his racehorses that sounds common to that of parents toward their children.
Asmussen does not predict success for his horses, including Gun Runner, the 4-5 morning-line favorite for today's Grade III Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn.
Asmussen, like most horsemen, is keenly aware of the infinite variables that transcend a trainer's influence and assist or retard performance. He asks for the best, particularly in terms of his and his assistants' effort. After that, he said all he can do is accept and assess what is before him and use it to prescribe the next step.
"He is a talented horse," Asmussen said of Gun Runner, a winner in 6 of his career 12 starts with more than $2 million in earnings. "We will see how he runs and then move forward."
Post time for the $500,000 event, race 7 on Oaklawn's 10-race holiday card, is scheduled for 4:09 p.m.
Asmussen said he might have entered Gun Runner in the $12 million Pegasus Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28, won by world No. 1 Arrogate, but a Christmastime diagnosis of the contagion equine herpesvirus type 1 at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans led to a quarantine that would not allow racehorses to ship in or out of tracks in Louisiana.
It eliminated horses, including Gun Runner, quartered in Louisiana, from any out-of-state races.
The quarantine has since been lifted, and Gun Runner is now stabled in Asmussen's barn at Oaklawn Park.
Eight horses were entered for the Razorback on Friday, but at least one entrant, Dazzling Gem, is now being pointed to a stakes race next week at Fair Grounds and is expected to be scratched by trainer Brad Cox.
Cox said his intent to shift gears with Dazzling Gem, a 4-year-old owned by Little Rock car salesman Steve Landers, was simple despite the colt's talent, good enough for a fourth-place finish in last season's Arkansas Derby.
"We wanted to go in a race where we have a chance to win," Cox said. "Gun Runner has just become very, very good."
Not everybody is headed out of town.
Blue Tone, an 8-year-old Birdstone gelding who is trained by Robert Hess, Jr., won the Grade III San Gabriel Stakes at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., last month, has shipped in to Oaklawn and is second on the morning line at 9-2.
Sports on 02/20/2017