Horse Racing

The history of Lukas and Asmussen goes back generations


Last weekend’s race results in Oaklawn were a reminder that D. Wayne Lukas has been creating Kodak moments for a long, long time. The latest historic snapshot represents three generations, over five decades, and once again links two of the most prominent names in American horse racing history.

The early career of equestrian Keith James Asmussen Oaklawn Park The victory went to a Hall of Fame coach, but it wasn’t his father, Steve Asmussen. It’s for Lukas, 87, a member of the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame and America’s Precious Horse Hall of Fame. He was also a longtime friend of the Asmussen family.

In his first career riding for Lukas, 24-year-old Keith James Asmussen guided father rocket ($12.40) to win the third race on January 14, a sprint for those claiming $30,000. It was the eighth win of Asmussen’s career. The first seven were for Steve Asmussen, who won 63 races as a jockey in the early 1980s before moving into training.

Asmussen, 57, is now North America’s all-time winning coach. He never rode for Lukas, but his father, also named Keith, did. Lukas (the trainer) and Keith Asmussen (the jockey) traveled the country during the 1960s when they both entered the quarterfinals and competed at races like Park Jefferson in South Dakota, Centennial in Colorado and Columbus Racecourse in Texas.

Saturday’s script, Keith James Asmussen said on January 15, has a picture-perfect ending.

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“There’s nothing more emotional than that,” Asmussen said. “Funny, after the race, we passed a bunch of pictures of Dad as he rode.”

One last photo to appear was the black-and-white winning photo from the March 15, 1969 race Thursday in Columbus. There was a dark-haired Lukas—not wearing his familiar cowboy hat—holding Ever Magic, with Keith Asmussen on board, in the winner’s ring after the 350-yard race. Nearly 54 years later, Lukas appeared in another winning picture, this color photo, with Keith Asmussen’s grandson. Obviously, some things never change.

Keith Asmussen, 81, said on January 18: “That’s a bit unusual. I’ve won a few races for Wayne, riding a lot of horses for him like in ’69, I think. Then there’s Cash, my oldest son, who rode for him when Wayne switched from pony to Thoroughbred. Now, my nephew jumped up and won a race for Wayne. I spoke to Wayne right after that race. We have revisited some old things. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since he and I were together.”

Lukas said on Sunday morning that he was impressed with the way Keith James Asmussen handled Papa Rocket, especially in the late stages of the six-distance race. Asmussen rides a 4-year-old boy into naughty gelding for famous Arkansas businessman Frank Fletcher.

Jockey Keith Asmussen's first career win at Oaklawn with Papa Rocket for coach D. Wayne Lukas on January 14, 2023
Photo: Coady Photography

Keith James Asmussen

Lukas said of the 5’10 tall Asmussen: “Because he’s that tall, he has to get down really tight and he obviously has some riding skills,” Lukas said of the 5’10 tall “Asmussen”. “I mean, he couldn’t resist. He made some pretty solid decisions yesterday. He got in there very tight half a mile from the post and he could have panicked. And get out of there. It was really tight. He stayed there and then he jumped off the post and said, ‘I have enough horses to get there.’ ”

Asmussen made his first race on June 15, 2020, at Lonely Star Park and earned his first career win there on July 26, 2020. He resumed riding last fall after receiving a master’s degree in professional accounting in early 2022 from the School of Business. McCombs business of the University of Texas.

Asmussen was 0 to 20 at the Oaklawn 2022-2023 meeting against Papa Rocket, but the driver has had four runners-up. One is losing the nose on the train means Jakey in a sprint for $30,000 for his father on January 7.

Keith James Asmussen says, “Try not to be too fickle, meek, or overconfident. “I definitely try to approach every race equally, with a positive attitude, because I believe the horses will absorb it. Try not to come out on top. Obviously, I’m super excited when win one for Wayne.”

Lukas said he met Asmussen’s grandfather in the early 1960s, about 15 years ago when they followed different paths to huge success in the Thoroughbred industry. Lukas recounts the potentially life-changing events of the late 1960s when he, Asmussen, and jockey’s wife, trainer Marilyn “Sis” Asmussen, were in Claremore, Okla., and decided to run fled to the border because of the bone-chilling cold.

“Keith will be riding, Sis is working in the barn, Steve isn’t even there,” Lukas said. “We went to Jefferson Park together, and we decided that we would combine our stables and move to Oklahoma, where horse racing is precious. We were sitting around the Will Rogers Hotel – they had it. there’s a big oven in the hotel in the middle of that hallway – and waiting for the tracks to thaw every day I said to Keith, ‘We sit here for two or three hours every day, taking the horses out.’ Keith said, ‘They opened a new training center in Laredo, Texas.’ So I said, ‘Really?’ He said, ‘Let’s go there.’ We had no reason to stay in Oklahoma, so we loaded all our stuff up and down Laredo to go.”

However, Lukas said he was not interested in living in a warmer climate and left Laredo, in the shadow of Mexico, maybe two years later.

“So far I still don’t speak Spanish and I don’t like Mexican food,” says Lukas. “I was completely out of my league. Keith and Sis Asmussen loved it. So they stayed and I took off.”

Lukas began training Thoroughbreds full time in the late 1970s, roughly the same time the Asmussen family began developing their famous El Primero Training Center, the Laredo facility where many of Steve’s finest horses were located. Asmussen was broken.

After turning to Thoroughbreds, Lukas occasionally rode Cash, brother of Steve Asmussen, who received the Eclipse Award as the country’s outstanding apprentice jockey in 1979 before becoming a racer. Champion in France. Lukas said Cash Asmussen was the best man at his son Jeff’s wedding.

Coach Steve Asmussen on his leading horse left a chat with coach D. Wayne Lukas during training at Churchill Downs Raceway Wednesday, May 4, 2022 in Louisville, KY.
Photo: Skip Dickstein

Coaches Steve Asmussen and D. Wayne Lukas chat with Churchill Downs

“I was always close to that family,” Lukas said. “Jeff and Cash were running through the hills of Ruidoso as 9- and 10-year-olds betting. They would sneak down races and both are very good handicap players.”

Retired Lukas and Cash Asmussen have long been together 0-14 (last start was 1987), but the coach has excellently finished by teaming up to win with Keith Asmussen and now it’s his grandson. Just another Kodak moment for a living racing legend.

Lukas said: “I sat down and talked to (Keith James Asmussen) a few times because he was such a refreshing young man. “He really has a refreshing personality. I visited him for a bit and we talked about sales and stuff and build and I really liked him. Then I looked up. and saw him trying to ride. I told Keith I was going to put him on a show, but I was going to put him on the show live. I didn’t want him to just ride for me. I just called him one or two more times. I’ll invite him in more. He’s got some talent.”

Asmussen is scheduled to ride a horse for Lukas this weekend in Oaklawn—no sin in the third race on January 22, a $90,000 first special weight class event. Asmussen, who is represented by agent Cody Caudill, has eight wins from 99 lifetime mounts and a purse income of $431,100, according to Equibase.

The biggest win of Asmussen’s career so far has been on the train super stocks in the $113,647 Texas Purebred Futurity Stakes for 2-year-old sprinters in August 2020 at Lone Star Park. Super Stock has won the $1 million Arkansas Derby (G1) in 2021 in Oaklawn for Steve Asmussen and co-owner Keith Asmussen.

Papa Rocket represents the 4,890th North American Thoroughbred victory of Lukas’ career — the ninth of all time — according to Equibase. Lukas was Oaklawn’s top coach in 1987 and 2011. Steve Asmussen entered Wednesday with 9,974 career wins in North America. Asmussen has 824 career wins at Oaklawn, where he has led the charts 12 times. Asmussen, the second winning coach in Oaklawn history, has four wins at the 2022-2023 meeting.

A four-time Eclipse Award winner as the country’s outstanding coach, Lukas was inducted into the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in 1999. Asmussen, a two-time Eclipse Award winner , introduced in 2016.

This press release has been edited by BloodHorse Staff for content and style.

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