2025.10.14 Oaklawn Racing Updates

Racing Updates
Compiled by Robert Yates

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025

Another day, another milestone for all-time Oaklawn leading trainer Steve Asmussen.

Asmussen scored a triple Saturday night at Remington Park to become the first trainer to reach 11,000 career North American victories, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization.

Asmussen hit the milestone when Beau Soleil ($19.40) won the eighth race, an entry-level allowance sprint, under the trainer’s youngest son, Erik Asmussen. They had teamed earlier on the card to win the second race with favored Vestes ($3.80) and the third race with favored Amadora’s Empire ($3.20). Steve Asmussen, 59, entered Saturday with 10,997 career North American victories. Asmussen trains Beau Soleil for longtime client Clark Brewster, a Tulsa, Okla., attorney.

Asmussen saddled his first horse and winner in 1986 and became the first trainer to reach 10,000 career North American victories when Bet He’s Ready won the fifth race Feb. 20, 2023, at Oaklawn. Asmussen had surpassed the late Dale Baird (9,445) as North America’s winningest trainer Aug. 7, 2021, at Saratoga. Baird is now a distant second.

Asmussen has collected a record 14 Oaklawn training titles – 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2021-2022, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

A 2016 inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Asmussen owns every major Oaklawn career record for trainers, including victories (993), stakes victories (123) and purse earnings ($63.9 million). He set a single-season Oaklawn record for stakes victories (11) in 2023-2024. Asmussen also set a single-season Oaklawn record for purse earnings in 2023-2024 ($6,685,459) and equaled the late Cole Norman’s single-season record for victories (71).

Asmussen ranks second in North American history in purse earnings, with nearly $481 million. He is a two-time Eclipse Award winner (2008 and 2009) as North America’s outstanding trainer.

Three other Oaklawn training champions are among the 10 winningest trainers in North American history, according to Equibase. The late Jack Van Berg (6,523) is fourth, Bill Mott (5,555 through Monday) is eighth and the late D. Wayne Lukas (4,953) is ninth.

Van Berg was Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 1983 and 1984. Mott topped the Oaklawn standings in 1986. Lukas was Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 1987 and 2011.

Van Berg, Mott and Lukas are also Hall of Fame members.

Finish Lines

Oaklawn’s stable area opens Oct. 23, with the track opening for training Oct. 28 in advance of its 2025-2026 meeting. The 64-day split season is scheduled to run Dec. 12-May 2. … Oaklawn allowance winner Free Like a Girl finished second in the seven-furlong $100,000 Magnolia Stakes for accredited Louisiana-bred fillies and mares Saturday at Delta Downs. … Trainer Lindsay Schultz, an Oaklawn regular, recorded her first career Keeneland double Thursday. Schultz won the fifth race with first-time starter Woodruff ($25.46) and the eighth race with Reagan’s Flame ($16.72). Woodruff, a 2-year-old Arkansas-bred daughter of Tekton, races for her breeder, Arkansas lumberman John Ed Anthony’s Shortleaf Stable. Anthony is the winningest owner in Oaklawn history. Reagan’s Flame was ridden by two-time Oaklawn riding champion Francisco Arrieta. Schultz, a former assistant under Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, saddled her first career winner Jan. 8, 2022, at Oaklawn and has 32 victories overall in Hot Springs.