A friend in the media with even more years in racing left a voice-mail message with Jason Milligan at Oaklawn offering congratulations on a star-kissed Saturday in progress.
"Days like this are why we love this sport and do this kind of work," the caller said.
One had only to look on the track to find Milligan shaking hands with one Hall of Fame trainer or another, Oaklawn honoring several members of the Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based shrine. Bill Mott had a winner on the card -- Rocket Dan, a 2023 Kentucky Derby starter, for Arkansas owner and friend of the track Frank Fletcher. Steve Asmussen, North America's career-leading trainer with more than 10,000 victories, scored his seventh stakes victory and 48th overall of the meeting, 23 less than the track record held by the late Cole Norman.
Providing further scope of the Texan's career, Asmussen captured the Grade 3 Whitmore after taking the previous incarnation, the Hot Springs Stakes, with Mitole, a rare horse to beat the race honoree locally.
Would the 12-time Oaklawn champion trade relatively minor triumphs for a blanket of roses in the 150th Kentucky Derby? Asmussen doesn't give much away to the press but a key to his success once was voiced by Ron Moquett, trainer and co-owner of retired champion sprinter Whitmore: "He just wants to win them all. He might claim a horse out of some $8,000 race at Aqueduct on a Thursday for a spot somewhere else."
Moquett entered Osbourne in the Whitmore and saw him finish last of five older sprinters. Osbourne is becoming noted for a 2023 Oaklawn victory over Skelly, yet another Asmussen trainee and loser of one other race in 14 months.
Jaxon Traveler, inching closer to $1 million in earnings, has won two Oaklawn stakes (including the 2021 Bachelor at 3) even if overshadowed by stablemates. Terry Finley's West Point Thoroughbreds own the Munnings 6-year-old, the Saratoga Springs horseman formerly racing undefeated 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline -- $4.5 million winner from six starts for the Tapit colt trained by California-based John Sadler, another friend of Oaklawn.
Asmussen entered two horses in the Whitmore, and if the local race fan has learned anything it's that the trainer occasionally wins with the "other" horse. Ryvit, 2023 Bachelor winner, held his form off a recent meet victory. Houston patrons Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt (owners of Mitole and three-time meet winner Valentine Candy) have won many big races with Asmussen, he of Laredo, but watched Ryvit serve as a "rabbit." Steve's son, Keith, rode for the Heiligbrodts, University of Texas graduates and former campus sweethearts, whose silks contain a lone orange star in back.
Ryvit handed the baton, so to speak, to visiting Flavien Prat on Jaxon Traveler, though the race was by no means over with the Alaska vote still to be counted. Sprint stakes at Oaklawn often boil down to whether Tejano Twist runs them down in the stretch. He did in the Whitmore last year; on this day, he did not, nosed out in 1:10.51. Someone watching back home expressed surprise that Chris Hartman, Tejano Twist's trainer, did not enter his own speed horse to ensure the honest pace that a closer needs.
It will be interesting how many Count Fleet starters Hartman and Asmussen enter in the Grade 3 race April 13 at Oaklawn, won last year by Skelly with Tejano Twist third. Racing secretary and handicapper Pat Pope's weight assignments may provide clues. Tejano Twist carried 124 in the Whitmore, and one cannot see him or Skelly carrying less in the race that Whitmore won a record three times. Moreover, which other horsemen will be willing to take on those two?
Asmussen won three of the 11 races Saturday and Randy Morse won a pair, recording an exacta finish in the $200,000 Purple Martin with 3-year-old fillies Asternia and Blue Squall.
Earlier, Morse watched Grade 2 winner Taxed take her 4-year-old debut in one of the meet's classier performances but not unexpected from a filly of her quality. Horsemen delight to see a horse do something beyond its comfort zone -- in this case, winning at six furlongs after almost five months off. Whether that tightens Taxed enough for an April return in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap remains to be seen. But the estimated 37,500 witnesses and bettors elsewhere recognized greatness on public display.
This sport has more rough edges than it needs but at its best, as on Saturday in Hot Springs, racing can be a many-splendored thing.