Louisville’s Hoskins to begin jockey career Friday at Oaklawn
| Thursday, April 23, 2026 |
| Today’s Oaklawn Park update by track publicist Robert Yates (photo above of Luke Hoskins galloping horses this morning by Yates) HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — H. Luke Hoskins grew up approximately 15 minutes from Churchill Downs, so in a perfect world his riding debut would come beneath the historic Twin Spires. Instead, Hoskins is scheduled to launch his career in Friday’s second race at Oaklawn, a $30,000 maiden-claiming sprint for 3-year-olds, aboard Onyx Outlaw for co-owner/trainer John Ortiz. “Long time coming,” Hoskins, 24, said before training hours Thursday morning. “Happy to be here.” Hoskins didn’t take a traditional route to becoming a jockey. He said he took one riding lesson at the age of 10, but most of his experience with horses growing up was attending Churchill Downs with his father, Henry, a Louisville, Ky., construction company owner. Hoskins said his father owned some racehorses, but “pulled out” after the 2008 stock market crash. “I always had some excellent experiences at the track and I’ve always been a competitor,” Hoskins said. “I always wanted to be a jockey, but I thought I might be a little too big for it.” Hoskins said he was attending fashion school at the University of Cincinnati when the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 led him to a career U-turn. “I love to express myself through art and different things like that,” Hoskins said. “I did some major soul-searching and was going through a rough phase in life. Didn’t have a ton of people there for me, other than my family. I kind of felt isolated, and I spent some time out in Utah by myself and had some experiences with some horses. Just opened my heart up to them.” Itching to ride, Hoskins said he enrolled in 2021 in the equine studies program at Bluegrass Community & Technical College in Lexington, Ky. That led to an internship at nearby WinStar Farm, where he broke babies for two seasons before he began working as an exercise rider for Ortiz in the summer of 2024 at Keeneland. Hoskins said he was Ortiz’s barn foreman that summer at Ellis Park and also continued to gallop horses for the trainer. After a stint under trainer Ron Moquett of Hot Springs, Hoskins reunited with Ortiz last spring and spent much of the remainder of 2025 and early 2026 in New York. Hoskins said he’s been in Hot Springs since mid-February. “The plan was riding races up there,” Hoskins said, referring to New York. “It’s usually a little easier on the bugs (apprentice riders) in the winter. All the guys are down in Florida. But everything happens for a reason. I’m ready to get started now.” Among the best horses Hoskins said he’s gotten on for Ortiz in the morning are multiple graded stakes winner Quietside and New York-bred star Doc Sullivan. Hoskins said he regularly gallops Onyx Outlaw, who will be making his sixth career start. “Johnny’s been my biggest supporter,” Hoskins said. “He’s got nothing but faith in me. The opportunities that he’s willing to give people are incredible.” Hoskins said he plans to return to Kentucky after the Oaklawn meeting ends May 2 and continue to gallop horses for Ortiz while trying to secure an agent with an eye toward riding at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Hoskins has a 10-pound apprentice weight allowance. Onyx Outlaw is 12-1 on the morning line. Probable post time for the second race is 1:19 p.m. (Central). Asmussen Rolls To More Titles Not even a quirky post-position stat could stop Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen this season at Oaklawn. Asmussen enters the final seven days of the 2025-2026 Oaklawn meeting with 59 victories – 36 more than runner-up Mark Casse – in securing his record-extending 15th Oaklawn training title. In a season punctuated by consistency, Asmussen’s has at least one victory in 41 of 55 racing days and never gone more than two racing days without a winner. Asmussen has had 16 multi-win days, including April 3 when Na Pali Joe became the first winner to break from post 10 in a route race this season. That spot (0 for 55) had been the only winless post at the meeting. With 22 victories, Asmussen is also cruising to his second consecutive Oaklawn owner’s title. The 22 victories is a single-season Oaklawn best for Asmussen and moved him into the top 10 of its all-time winningest owners with 174. “We need to finish it out well,” Asmussen said earlier this month. “I mean, I’m obviously pleased with the wins that we’ve had; disappointed with the losses we’ve had. We’ve got (two weeks) left, which is a lot of racing. So, we’ve got to keep it up.” Asmussen, 60, is chasing the single-season Oaklawn record for victories. Asmussen won 71 races in 2023-2024 to equal the late Cole Norman, who was Oaklawn’s leading trainer in 2001-2006. Asmussen has a staggering 37 horses entered this week at Oaklawn, which races Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Asmussen owns every major Oaklawn training record, including career victories (1,052), career purse earnings ($68.8 million), career stakes victories (129), single-season purse earnings ($6,685,459 in 2023-2024) and single-season stakes victories (11 in 2023-2024). In addition to 2023-2024, Asmussen was Oaklawn’s leading trainer in every season since 2007 with the exceptions of 2009, 2011 and 2015. Asmussen became the first trainer in Oaklawn history to reach 1,000 career victories when he saddled Duke of Duval to win the fourth race Dec. 28. Asmussen had already reached 1,000 career victories at four other tracks – Lone Star Park, Remington Park, Fair Grounds and Sam Houston Race Park. Asmussen has 992 career victories at Churchill Downs, which launches its spring/summer meeting Saturday. Asmussen has a record 11,209 career North American victories and became the first trainer to reach 10,000 career North American victories when he saddled Bet He’s Ready to win the fifth race Feb. 20, 2023, at Oaklawn. His first career Oaklawn victory was Feb. 9, 1996. No Hurry With Crupper No decision is imminent regarding Crupper’s status for the Preakness May 16 at Laurel, trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel said Monday morning. Crupper earned automatic entry into the second leg of the Triple Crown with a half-length victory in the $200,000 Bathhouse Row Stakes Saturday at Oaklawn under Junior Alvarado. Von Hemel said Crupper, a homebred for Tulsa, Okla., optometrist Robert H. Zoellner, departed Monday morning for Churchill Downs’ Trackside Training Center to prepare for his next start. “They all want you to make a commitment,” Von Hemel said. “But we need to see, not only how my horse is doing, but what happens in the (Kentucky) Derby. Are there four of them that look unbeatable that run in the Derby that are all going to run in the Preakness?” Von Hemel said there are many attractive options this summer for Crupper if he doesn’t run in the Preakness, mentioning the Indiana Derby, Ohio Derby and Iowa Derby. Crupper received a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 80, a career high, for his victory in the 1 1/8-mile Bathhouse Row. It was the 26th career Oaklawn stakes victory for Von Hemel, but the first for Zoellner, a longtime client. “When he said that (after the race), it was like, ‘That can’t be,’” Von Hemel said. “But it was.” Zoellner ran second in three Oaklawn stakes races, including the 2012 Azeri (G2), with millionaire She’s All In, the dam of Crupper. She’s All Wolfe, a daughter of She’s All In, finished second in Oaklawn’s Bayakoa Stakes (G3) in 2022. Von Hemel also trained She’s All In and She’s All Wolfe, a multiple stakes winner of $755,260, for Zoellner. Bolzy, another son of She’s All In, ran second in the Fayette Stakes (G2) in 2024 at Keeneland for Von Hemel and Zoellner. She’s All In died foaling last year, Zoellner said. “She has thrown some runners,” Von Hemel said of She’s All In. “Now, her daughter is going to have a chance to throw some runners, too.” Von Hemel said the first foal out of She’s All Wolfe, Stewardess Joey, is scheduled to join the trainer’s barn in Kentucky. Zoellner bred and owns the unraced 2-year-old filly, who is from the first crop of unbeaten 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline. Von Hemel said Stewardess Joey was broken at El Primero Training Center in Laredo, Texas. The famed facility is owned by Keith and Marilyn Asmussen, parents of Steve Asmussen, North America’s all-time winningest trainer. |
