Asmussen Armada Lands At Ellis Park With 45 horses, More To Come

HENDERSON, Ky. (Friday, June 29, 2018) — However many races Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen wins in pursuit of a third straight Ellis Park training title, he’s unlikely to be beaten in one category: number of horses going to the post during the Ellis meet that runs Sunday through Labor Day.

The Asmussen armada began shipping in from Churchill Downs, its satellite Trackside training center and Keeneland on Friday.

“We’ll have shipped in 45 horses in a matter of 24 hours,” said assistant trainer Mitch Dennison, a 30-year-old Louisville product who will oversee Asmussen’s Ellis Park operation for the first time. “It was trailer, trailer, trailer. There will be 18 more tomorrow. We have 84 stalls here, and they’ll be full by Monday or Tuesday. Steve does it so organized. He selected the horses he wanted to move to Ellis. We pulled in some Keeneland 2-year-olds and a mix of horses for the condition book (racing program).”

Asmussen on Kentucky Derby Day became only the second thoroughbred trainer to win 8,000 races as Lookin At Lee, the 2016 Ellis Park Juvenile winner and 2017 Kentucky Derby runner-up, prevailed in an allowance race. Less than two months later, Asmussen already is up to 8,074 through Thursday as he chases the late Dale Baird’s mark of 9,445 victories.

Asmussen had a staggering 109 starters during last year’s Ellis meet, winning 19 races. That was up from 73 horses (and 16 victories) in 2016, his first time racing a significant number of horses at Ellis in several years. For a career that started in 1986, when he won a single race out of 15 starters, Asmussen has run a total of 38,885 horses in races heading into Friday, when he had 14 horses entered between Churchill Downs and Belmont Park.

He’ll break from the gate quickly at Ellis, running five horses on Sunday’s opening card.

“Everybody wants to always do more, right?” Dennison said. “So we want to try surpass last year’s wins. Obviously we have the numbers to do it. The main thing for us to do is to focus on winning. This is a great place for the 2-year-olds come out of.”

Dennison is used to high volume, having overseen the training and care of as many as 120 Asmussen horses at Keeneland and Louisiana’s Evangeline training center, where he will return this fall for the winter. He expects a turnover of horses at Ellis, with new horses coming in from Churchill and Trackside in advance of races and some others shipping out after running.

“We keep one of our private trailers here and switch around horses all summer long,” he said. “Obviously the 2-year-olds that show more and end up pretty nice breaking their maidens, those horses will end up going to Saratoga.”

Dennison’s stepdad is Steve Peterman, who became Gulfstream Park’s year-round starter in April in a long career that saw him start the races at Ellis Park and Turfway Park before taking the job at Indiana Grand. Dennison started on the racetrack as soon as he graduated from Louisville’s Butler High School.

He was away from the racetrack for a couple of years, working in city job while getting a degree in business management from Phoenix University. Dennison rejoined Asmussen in late March, overseeing the horses stabled at Churchill Downs’ Trackside satellite training facility.

“I’ve been with Steve off and on for years,” Dennison said. “I think I’ve worked for Steve all together 10 years. He asked me to come back. He said, ‘Ellis Park is a great place to go. I think it would be great for us to be there again, and you to be there.’ I’ve not been stabled at Ellis (in a training situation), myself, but we ran and shipped from Churchill Downs.

“When I first got my Kentucky license, I actually went down to Ellis Park in 2006 and ponied horses.… .Evansville and Henderson, it’s a family feel at the track. I think it’s probably the closest thing you can get to Oaklawn Park as far as all the locals coming out.”

Asmussen operation came into Friday’s Churchill Downs card with a 26-21 win margin over Brad Cox in the chase for the trainer’s title. Asmussen had 22 horses entered over Churchill’s last two race cards to six for Cox. The two men have combined for the last three Ellis Park training crowns, Cox earning his first title anywhere in 2015 and Asmussen prevailing the last two years.

But Ellis’ enhanced purses and the track surface’s reputation as being kind to horses for racing and training spurred Asmussen to relocate his division that had been in Indiana to Ellis Park in 2016. He took the title 19-17 over Cox last year and 16-11 over Ian Wilkes the prior meet.

“In the 10 years I’ve worked for him, I think he’s got a really, really nice crop of babies,” Dennison said. “Four years ago we had a really good group of 2-year-olds, just left and right. I think this is a really good group. Steve likes Ellis, he likes the surface and he likes that he can stable that many horses on the backside.”

Brad Cox also back in force

Trainer Brad Cox, the 2015 Ellis Park leading trainer and second last year to Steve Asmussen, also will have a large division at Ellis, and as with Asmussen will keep a lot of horses in Louisville. Both men also have sizable operations in New York, with Cox also at Indiana Grand and Asmussen in Texas and Louisiana to account for two of the biggest stables in America.

The 236 horses the past 20 years that went on to win graded stakes after running at Ellis Park include the Cox-trained Mr. Misunderstood, a five-time stakes winner who most recently captured Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Firecracker. Mr. Misunderstood finished fourth in his racing debut at Ellis in 2016. The winner that day? The Asmussen-trained 2017 Kentucky Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee.

Cox said Mr. Misunderstood could run at Ellis Park for the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile on Aug. 5, a prelude to the $750,000 Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs.

Though narrowly beaten for the 2017 Ellis training title, Cox had a huge meet, winning three stakes, including the Grade 3 Groupie Doll with Tiger Moth. Cox also won the 2015 Groupie Doll with Call Pat, and hopes to run Pinch Hit, fourth in last year’s race as a 3-year-old, in this year’s running Aug. 12.

“She just had a great race at Churchill, finishing second in a (third-level) allowance race,” he said. “All spring I thought she was our Groupie Doll horse.”

Cox’s most famous horse to come out of Ellis Park, Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl, spent last summer at the track but didn’t run until after the meet.

“It’s a good place to stable,” he said of Ellis. “It’s a great track to train on. Last year was our first time to stable there, and we really liked it. It’s quiet and horses relax and do well there.”

Cox said the Ellis Park purse enhancements in recent years, funded by a transfer of money from Kentucky Downs in an agreement with horsemen, is “huge” for the Kentucky circuit, keeping horses in the state.

“Not everybody has horses that can go to Saratoga,” he said. “I like to think of Kentucky as the heart and soul of the thoroughbred industry. With the breeding, racing and sales, so much of that going on here, we need a year-round thing, for sure. These purses for the Kentucky-breds in maiden and allowance races, they’re very, very competitive. Churchill’s purses are obviously really nice, but Ellis is creeping up. It gives us an opportunity to stay closer to home. And it’s good racing. You can get a good line on a horse down there.

“We had a great meet last year. We really like racing there. Horses do well over there, so we’re excited about the summer. We’re looking to really bring babies, young horses along. Some of these maiden races, if they split (into two races used on a card), we’re hoping to have a horse for each division and hopefully have new, fresh babies running each week, every couple of weeks. Dirt, turf. It’s an opportunity to run 2-year-olds two turns.”

Trainer Brad Cox hopes Pinch Hit, shown winning an allowance race last year at Ellis Park, can become his third winner in the track’s signature race, the Grade 3 Groupie Doll. Pinch Hit was fourth in last year’s Groupie Doll won by stablemate Tiger Moth. Cox, who now has one of the largest stables in the country, earned his first training title anywhere in 2015 at Ellis Park and finishing second in the 2017 standings behind Steve Asmussen.

Coady Photography