Steve Asmussen

A filly by Bolt d'Oro (hip 401) brought a final bid of $1.25 million from trainer Steve Asmussen, acting on behalf of Ron Winchell, midway through the second session of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Tuesday in Timonium. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, the filly worked a furlong during last week's under-tack preview in :10 flat. Ciaran Dunne purchased the filly on behalf of a pinhooking partnership for $335,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. She is out of Werewolf (Arch) and is a half-sister to graded-placed Howling...

Trainer Cherie DeVaux, who won three stakes races on Black-Eyed Susan day Friday, took home the top prize of $50,000 in the Maryland Jockey Club's $100,000 trainer bonus competition held over the weekend at Pimlico. The first female trainer to earn the top honor, DeVaux took wins in the GIII Pimlico Special S, the Hilltop S. and the Allaire du Pont Distaff on Friday and finished with 34 total points over the two days of stakes racing, four more than runner up Steve Asmussen. Mike Trombetta finished third with 28...

4th-Churchill Downs, $123,820, Alw (NW2$X)/Opt. Clm ($80,000), 5-18, 3yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:45.88, ft, 1 1/2 lengths. DISARM (c, 4, Gun Runner--Easy Tap, by Tapit), a 'TDN Rising Star', was a major player on last year's Triple Crown trail, hitting the board in both the GII Louisiana Derby and the GIII Lexington S. before running fourth behind Mage (Good Magic) in the GI Kentucky Derby. Fourth again in the GII Jim Dandy S., he chased home champion 3-year-old male Arcangelo (Arrogate) to be second in the GI Travers S. in his...

8th-SA, $54K, Msw, 3-5yo, 1m, 8:09 p.m. ET. MAGNIFY (Justify), a 3-year-old colt, makes his debut for the Bob Baffert barn on Saturday. Out of champion 3-year-old filly and MGISW Stellar Wind (Curlin), the Magnier homebred is her second to make the races, but she has since produced a filly named In the Stars (Into Mischief), who was a $300,000 buy for G. Watts Humphrey Jr. at last year's Keeneland September Sale. The 2017 Keeneland November sales topper when she was taken home by M.V. Magnier for the lofty sum...

2nd-Lone Star, $33,000, Msw, 5-12, 2yo, 4 1/2f, :52.58, sy, 5 1/2 lengths. GLEE (f, 2, Honor A. P.--Red Tabby, by Bluegrass Cat), sent off at 9-2 for this soggy unveiling, pressed 2-1choice Big Rasee (Clearly Now) through a :22.36 opening quarter. Edging ahead of that rival after a :46.20 half, the Texas-bred filly gave the boys an education in humility as she rolled home a 5 1/2-length winner over the favorite. Firster Game Runner (Game Winner) was third. With the victory, Glee becomes the second winner for her freshman...

With the leading GI Kentucky Derby runners looking likely to skip the May 18 GI Preakness S., a wave of non-Derby starters are lining up for the second leg of the Triple Crown. Trainer Bob Baffert, whose horses were banned from the Derby, confirmed GI Arkansas Derby winner Muth (Good Magic) and stablemate Imagination (Into Mischief), who won the GII San Felipe S. before finishing a narrow runner-up behind Stronghold (Ghostzapper) in the GI Santa Anita Derby last time out, are both expected for the Preakness. The duo breezed in...

Three Chimneys Farm homebred Gun Pilot (Gun Runner) punched through from in between horses in the final furlong after sitting a midfield trip and skipped clear at odds of 5-1 to give his sire a sweep of the afternoon's seven-furlong Grade I contests in the Churchill Downs S. Here Mi Song (Cross Traffic) dueled heads apart for the early lead with 'TDN Rising Star' Zozos (Munnings) and battled back inside of that one to complete the exacta. Briefly on the Triple Crown trail in 2023 and fifth in the GII...

  LOUISVILLE, KY-Sharp as a razor exiting the far gate, Clark Brewster and William and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Cogburn (Not This Time) wasted not time dusting off the cobwebs, coming home a 2 1/4-length winner in the GII Twin Spires Turf Sprint early on Saturday's Derby Day card. Given an 8-1 chance will making his 2024 debut, the 5-year-old broke in front but allowed Coppola (Into Mischief) and Mo Stash (Mo Town) to show the way through a :22.61 opening quarter over a course labeled 'good'. Taking a slight edge from...

For an eighth straight year, the Maryland Jockey Club is offering bonus money totaling $100,000 to trainers who run a minimum of five horses in the 15 Thoroughbred stakes races during Preakness weekend, May 17 and 18, at Pimlico Race Course. The blockbuster weekend includes a total of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $4.4 million in purses. The trainer with the most points will receive $50,000, second is worth $25,000, third $12,000, fourth $7,000, fifth $4,000 and sixth $2,000. Points are accumulated for finishing first (10 points), second (seven), third...

LOUISVILLE, KY--Kicking off a steamy day in Louisville, Thursday's morning session began to distill several things that I had seen over the course of the past week at Churchill Downs. Each morning, I would line up trackside to watch the Kentucky Derby/Oaks work session, also giving me the opportunity to survey the overall landscape at Churchill Downs. The years of progress and development at the facility is staggering. As I pan across the property, the mass of seating, both existing and new, that will accommodate the throngs of people over...

MGSP Tapit Jenallie (Tapit) was scratched Thursday morning from Friday's GI Longines Kentucky Oaks by trainer Eddie Milligan, Jr. according to Churchill Downs media. With the scratch, GII Fair Grounds Oaks runner up Our Pretty Woman (Medaglia d'Oro) now draws into the race. Our Pretty Woman, racing for Courtlandt Farms from the Steve Asmussen barn, will break from the outside post and gets Joel Rosario in the irons.   Trainer Eddie Milligan Jr. has confirmed that Tapit Jenallie will not run in the Kentucky Oaks. Also eligible Our Pretty Woman...

Five contenders took advantage of a mild, dry Sunday morning in Louisville to put in final works at Churchill Downs ahead of next weekend's GI Kentucky Derby. First of the group to work was BC Stable's Just Steel (Justify), who went out just as the track opened at 5:15 a.m. Sunday. The bay colt worked four furlongs in :50.40 (52/60), registering splits of :13.40 and :25.20 before being eased up on the gallop out. "Just a slow maintenance work. We're close to the race, we didn't want to do much,"...