By the time you read this, Asmussen may have reached 11K wins!

Slightly edited Oaklawn Park press release by Robert Yates (Coady Media/Kurtis Coady photo of Asmussen, left, after Spice Runner’s victory in Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Iroquois)

All-time Churchill Downs leading trainer Steve Asmussen is approaching yet another career milestone.

Asmussen enters Thursday with a North American-record 10,995 career victories, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Through entries for Sunday, Asmussen has 30 horses entered at tracks across the country.

Asmussen saddled his first horse 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 surpassed the late Dale Baird (9,445) as North America’s winningest trainer in 2021. Baird still ranks second. 

Asmussen also is Oaklawn Park’s career leader with 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, in 2023-2024, also set a single-season Oaklawn record for purse earnings ($6,685,459) and equaled the late Cole Norman’s single-season record for victories (71). 

Asmussen is a two-time Eclipse Award winner as the country’s outstanding trainer (2008 and 2009).