Asmussen's Faith in Midnight Bourbon Unshaken

Sometimes trainers love their horses to win—take it to the windows.

Others downplay their chances, or keep confidence to themselves. This is racing, after all, and the best place to call your horse a sure thing is in the winner's circle.

When Steve Asmussen talks about Midnight Bourbon  on these late spring mornings before the May 15 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course, he is not necessarily touting his horse to the world, although those who read between the lines might certainly choose to take it that way. But he does convey a certain respect for the colt, and an expectation of things to come, that bears more weight than Midnight Bourbon's own past performances to date. 

To hear Asmussen tell it, the colt's breakthrough moment could be right around the corner.

"If you've ever seen him, you realize the potential that's there," the trainer said May 13, just two days before the second jewel of the Triple Crown. "We're very optimistic as horsemen. … Less than two weeks after the disappointment we had in the (Kentucky) Derby, here we are, crazy enough to think we could (win the Preakness)."

Eventual Horse of the Year Curlin   gave Asmussen his first Preakness score in 2007, and the trainer returned to put on a show in 2009 with another future Horse of the Year in Rachel Alexandra . Those are big hoofprints for Midnight Bourbon to fill, but Asmussen holds a high opinion of the strapping son of Tiznow . 

"He's a fun horse to train," he said. "(He's) obviously very strong-minded and willful, but he's exciting to be around. He's extremely physical. He's just a gorgeous horse to watch." 

After breaking his maiden for Winchell Thoroughbreds at second asking at Ellis Park in August of 2020, Midnight Bourbon capped his 2-year-old season with a runner-up finish in the Iroquois Stakes Presented by Ford (G3) and a third in the Champagne Stakes (G1). He won the Jan. 16 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, ran third to Mandaloun  in the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lamarque Ford (G2), and was second to Hot Rod Charlie  in the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2). Mandaloun went on to miss the Run for the Roses by just half a length to Medina Spirit , with Hot Rod Charlie another half-length back in third.

Midnight Bourbon stamped himself as a bit of a renegade in the weeks leading up to the May 1 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) when he reared up and slipped loose of his handler outside Asmussen's barn. His brief escapades through the surrounding area were captured on camera by media members who then marveled when a diminutive groom managed to catch him single-handed while holding the horse she was responsible for with the other hand.

Midnight Bourbon was also high-strung during paddock schooling before the race at Churchill Downs, and Asmussen put a hand on the shank to personally supervise his pupil through multiple schooling sessions. He handled the colt on the walkover en route to a sixth-place finish in the Run for the Roses, and will do so again Saturday.

"I'm probably the biggest person the barn," he said. "He got loose earlier in the week; everybody knows it. You want to be responsible for it, and if that happens, you don't want to have anybody to blame but yourself."

Midnight Bourbon was a picture of deportment in the pre-race hubbub beneath the Twin Spires, but got off a step slow from post 10, then bumped at the break with Dynamic One . The start took him off his usual forwardly placed game, and he ran as far back as 14th in the 19-horse field before he rallied six wide and improved his position through the stretch. 

"I thought he was in great physical shape going into the Derby," Asmussen said. "I liked where he was. Walking over and everything, I thought everything went extremely well, but missing the break did not put him in the position that I think would have been necessary to have success. From where he was, he ran reasonably well, but not good enough. But here we are with a lot of horse going into the Preakness, and expecting a better outcome."

Midnight Bourbon will break from post 5 of 10 in the Preakness, with favored Medina Spirit to his inside in post 3 and second choice Concert Tour  to the far outside, both trained by Bob Baffert. The Asmussen trainee is the 5-1 third choice on the morning line and will have Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons for the first time.

"I thought with Midnight Bourbon, being a large horse, he had a great draw in the Derby, didn't get away from the gates as well as we would have liked, and didn't have the outcome we liked," Asmussen said. "If you were choosing posts (for the Preakness) regardless of where anybody else was, I thought (post 5) gives him a very good chance."

Asmussen used words like "giddy" and "jazzed up" to describe how he was feeling after sending Midnight Bourbon through a single pre-Preakness work May 10 at Churchill, where the colt went four furlongs in an easy :50 1/5. The trainer's enthusiasm has not diminished since Midnight Bourbon arrived Tuesday at Pimlico and put in a pair of powerful gallops over the surface Wednesday and Thursday.  

"He's full of himself; he's got a great confidence level," he said. "He's very alert. He looked very light on his feet over the racetrack for as big as he is. … We're expecting a very good run from him."

The ties that bind run deep with this one, a product of Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings. It was for Banke and her late husband Jess Jackson that Asmussen campaigned Curlin and Rachel Alexandra to both of their Horse of the Year titles. And after Stonestreet produced Midnight Bourbon out of the Malibu Moon   mare Catch the Moon … whose four foals to race are all graded stakes winners, including 2017 betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) winner Girvin  —he was purchased by Winchell Thoroughbreds for $525,000 from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

"My father and Ron's father did business and had a lot of success before they let me or Ron make any decisions, so it's extremely exciting for us," said Asmussen, whose father Keith Asmussen's Asmussen Horse Center in Laredo, Texas, is still responsible for early training of the young Winchell Thoroughbreds.

Ron Winchell has built upon the high-quality breeding and racing operation that his late father Verne started in the 1950s, taking over Winchell Thoroughbreds in partnership with his mother, Joan, upon Verne's death in 2002. Their top horse so far has been 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner  , also trained by Asmussen, who gave the Winchells their closest finish in an American classic when he ran third in the 2016 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands.

Winchell very much covets a Preakness score, along with its iconic Woodlawn Vase, of which the winning owner gets a replica.

"It is one of those great races you grow up hearing about," he said. "I'd love to win. I'd love to get it behind me, honestly, because we've performed well in all sorts of races. There's probably not a lot that we haven't won over the course of my involvement in racing and my dad's. These are ones that have eluded us. It's a super cool race to win. The trophy is one of the best. I've love to have a spot for it on the mantle somewhere."

Horse racing is a small, small world. Asmussen's son Eric rode Midnight Bourbon in his early days at Asmussen Horse Center, and now the trainer's first Preakness winner is also in the family. Stonestreet bred Midnight Bourbon's dam to Curlin for a resulting colt two years ago, and she dropped another Curlin colt Feb. 6. She also has a yearling colt by Quality Road  .

Shadwell Estate Co. snapped up the 2-year-old, now named Cawkab, for $500,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale last season. But if future youngsters shape up anything like Midnight Bourbon, it's safe to say Asmussen and Winchell will be gunning for them down the line, as the trainer is unabashed in his admiration of the colt from a physical standpoint.

"I don't like to compare horses to each other—they compete against each other on the track and that's how they prove themselves—but to me he's flawless, physically," he said. "He was a beautiful foal, weanling, yearling. I've seen many a picture of him (at every stage), and never one that looked bad."

And despite decades of conditioning to the sport's highs and lows, Asmussen can't help but dream of the future with Midnight Bourbon. 

"I thought he had a solid foundation (as a) 2-year-old, and he's a good horse now, but he's still going to be better in the future," he said. "With maturity, he'll handle himself better physically, handle himself better mentally.

"He's going to get great things done."