Whatever he may say to the contrary, Steve Asmussen wants to win the race that every horseman dreams about. In horse racing, it's the Kentucky Derby that matters most with everything else in a dead-heat for second.
Come May 1 at Churchill Downs, the 55-year-old Texan would like to fill that glaring hole on his record. With more than 9,000 victories in a Hall of Fame career, Asmussen could gain a signature triumph after 21 Derby losses.
That it might come for his family would make the moment complete.
The Asmussen imprimatur was all over the 85th Arkansas Derby. Steve Asmussen trained the winner, a horse in which his father owns interest and which his son rode to its only victory before Saturday at Oaklawn. Who's writing this script anyway?
Super Stock, a meek fourth in the Rebel Stakes, won the fifth Arkansas Derby for Asmussen and the second for jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. with a show of force. Switching outside in midstretch, the bay Dialed In colt drew away by 2 1/2 lengths at 12-1 odds.
The 100 qualifying points for the victory puts Super Stock in the starting gate for Kentucky Derby 147.
Oaklawn stakes winners Caddo River and Concert Tour took the next two spots after a virtual match race into the stretch that Super Stock upstaged. Those two contributed to Saturday's race drawing only six horses, Concert Tour running away with the Rebel for Bob Baffert and Caddo River hoping to repeat his Jan. 22 success in the Smarty Jones for Brad Cox.
Concert Tour, headed at the wire for second after putting away pacesetter Caddo River, is Baffert's main hope for a record seventh Kentucky Derby victory. Cox has two in the race including unbeaten champion Essential Quality, whose 3-year-old debut came in Oaklawn's Southwest. Caddo River, with 40 points for second, could join the Cox brigade in Louisville.
All Super Stock does is put a fresh spin on the race for Asmussen, whose Midnight Bourbon qualified in Louisiana preps. His dad, Keith Asmussen, and mom Marilyn have run a horse farm in Laredo, Texas, for 60 years. Keith Asmussen and Erv Woolsey, a Nashville, Tennessee, music man, paid a mere $70,000 for Super Stock at the ritzy Keeneland sale in September 2019.
A colt whose sire, Dialed In, also did his best running late, Super Stock had only one victory from seven previous starts, that at Lone Star Park last August. That race was notable more because of the jockey, 22-year-old Keith Asmussen, Steve's son, who about two weeks before had ridden his first winner.
Super Stock went on to three stakes placings with a second in the Street Sense at Churchill Downs. Beaten 6 1/2 lengths when fourth in the Rebel, Super Stock moved up in the trainer's pecking order after an injury to Big Lake knocked the Rebel show horse off the Derby trail. Mainly because of Asmussen's skill with young horses, he was given at least a puncher's chance Saturday, more likely to complete the trifecta than win.
Asmussen told TVG and others that his horse was improving and capable of better. He looked like a prophet in the last 70 yards Saturday.
Caddo River, getting the lead for a third-straight Oaklawn race, took them through six furlongs in 1:11.25, Florent Geroux up. He never looked back in the Smarty Jones but was knocked for letting Concert Tour take over past the grandstand for the first time in the Rebel, finishing fifth after a stretch fade. This time, he had intentions of lasting the whole nine furlongs.
Concert Tour, son of Kentucky Derby-winning Street Sense, pressed Caddo River down the backstretch and turned for home with a clear lead. Super Stock stood third, about 3 1/2 lengths back, and within striking distance if the leader faltered.
The race complexion changed in a twinkling when Super Stock moved outside and quickly collared Concert Tour. Caddo River, showing some late spunk even if distance limitations remained, took second while Concert Tour shockingly wilted in the final yards. Get Her Number, trainer Peter Miller searching for his third win on the card, was fourth, followed by Last Samurai and the Baffert-trained Rebel runner-up Hozier.
Super Stock, clocked in 1:50.92, paid $26.40, $6.80 and $2.80. His 8-2-2-2 record now shows earnings of $804,762 after this $600,000 payday. He joins Private Emblem (2002), Curlin (2007), Creator (2016) and Basin (2020) as Arkansas Derby winners for Asmussen. Basin's victory came after the drug-related disqualification of Charlatan, which trainer Baffert is appealing.
No asterisk need go by this one.