Whatever he may say to the contrary, Steve Asmussen wants to win the race that every horseman dreams about.
Come May 1 at Churchill Downs, the 55-year-old Texan would like to fill that glaring hole on his record.
Super Stock, a meek fourth in the Rebel Stakes, won the fifth Arkansas Derby for Asmussen and the second for jockey Ricardo Santana Jr.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Concert Tour, son of Kentucky Derby-winning Street Sense, pressed Caddo River down the backstretch and turned for home with a clear lead.
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.
Basin’s victory came after the drug-related disqualification of Charlatan, which trainer Baffert is appealing.
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