Over the weekend I slipped outta town; took in some toe-tappin’ music at Texas’ oldest dance hall and screamed like a girl o’er the rapids of Texas’ shortest and coldest (70 degrees my ass) river. (FYI, if you’re headed to New Braunfels for Memorial Day, the river is running at 600 milli-whatevers a second, which to you and me means, “Holy shiiiiit!” A year ago it was plodding along at 100. Drought much?) So whadda I miss?
A home boy making us all proud, turns out. Arlington’s Steve Asmussen, the winningest trainer in the history of Lone Star Park, had his horse, Curlin, win The Preakness on Saturday in Baltimore. It was a nice emotional Band-Aid for Steve, who earlier last week lost his 83-year-old grandmother, Helen, to kidney failure.
“It's brought to light what’s truly important and what my family means to me and how special it was for my mom, dad, [wife] Julie and the boys to be able to be with me here today,” Asmussen said.
Not a bad financial boost, either. With its share of the $600,000 purse, Curlin’s earnings over five starts is $1.6 million. Asmussen, whose horses have won 665 races at Lone Star Park, will be at the local track on Memorial Day for a special autograph party. That afternoon Lone Star will hold its ninth annual Lone Star Million with six races totaling $1 million in purses. Wanna tip? Pick a horse trained by Asmussen. --Richie Whitt
