in Triple Crown Betting Trends

With superstar Curlin closing in on Cigar’s all-time money earning record, now is as good a time as any to devour information about his trainer Steve Asmussen. Relatively young at 43, horse betting fans can be assured that there is racing through and through his blood.

Both of his parents were trainers. His brother Cash earned an Eclipse Award as top bug in 1979 and like legends D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, Steve started in quarter horses.

This is no overnight sports betting sensation obviously but it is kind of amazing that Asmussen’s first Grade 1 win didn’t come until 1999.

Last year, Asmussen won at a 21% clip and 488 of his 2273 runners greeted the cameraman to lead the nation in wins and he was not just winning cheap races either.

He was ahead of all the other trainers in the country except Todd Pletcher in money earned too.

Besides being the all-time leading trainer at Lone Star, Asmussen has won training titles at Retama Park.

Some of the fixtures his runners have won include the Mother Goose, the Saratoga Special, the Kentucky Oaks and the Arkansas Derby.

With the good, horse race betting fanatics should also know the bad. He has had a ton of horses test positive for drugs in his career. In his defense, on a number of occasions, Asmussen contended that others gave the horse medications as a way to sabotage him.

To be fair and honest, he is not the first high-profile guy to have positives as it has been highly publicized about Richard Dutrow Jr. and Todd Pletcher has even had his problems.

This is an issue that the industry is set to tackle like Lawrence Taylor and the sooner the better.

So, what can astute horseplayers look to in Asmussen’s runners to point them to winning bets?

When Asmussen dips in and claims a runner, horse bettors had better stand up and smell the coffee. He is nearly 30% with his newly claimed runners and even better in the second start off the claim.

He can get horses to win first crack but he is again even more productive with second shooters. When he drops a horse from maiden special weight land to maiden claiming, horseplayers must get down as he pops with about 31% of those performers.

His runners don’t always shine on turf as his first-time turfers are only about 11% and his dirt to turf runners pop at just over 15% but when he goes the other way, from turf to dirt, his runners suddenly wake up to the tune of 28% in the win slot.

He is equally adept with blinkers on and blinkers off moves and the same goes for his route to sprint and sprint to route runners.

One situation where bettors should stay away from is his debuters when they are sent long; over a mile they are less than 7% successful.

The 2 major areas where horse bettors have a nice shot at turning a flat-bet profit with Asmussen stock is when he brings a horse back from a 2-month to 6-month vacation and when he saddles debuting maiden claimers going short.

To make money with a high-octane trainer like this, bettors have to put past trends into play and try to get prices.

Good luck.

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