Interview with the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice, the latest member of a famous racing dynasty to create a major impression
Dynasties are integral to horse racing, most fundamentally in the bloodstock division, where great patriarchs such as Northern Dancer continue a line that stretches far back into the darkness and, through their sons and daughters, forward into the sunlit uplands of the future, vitai lampada and all that jazz.
But this goes also for two legs as well as four, families whose impact on the sport is felt across the generations. The most recent emergence of a comparable heir of the ages was spotlit at the Eclipse Awards ceremony last month, when Erik Asmussen collected the prize for outstanding apprentice jockey of 2024.
That’s worthy of note on its own, a fine achievement, a rite of passage for any youngster ambitious of climbing the ladder, but then there’s the rest of the story. For this particular 22-year-old, there will always be the rest of the story.
“This game means everything to me,” Asmussen said in his acceptance speech, his voice cracking with emotion. “Thank you to my family, I’ve got the best group around me.”
A convenient round of applause helped him bridge the gap to the remainder of his address, and at its end there was a surprise message for the winner via videolink. It came from Cash Asmussen, who 45 years earlier had won the very same Eclipse Award.
“I’m the proud uncle of Erik Asmussen,” he said, with a smile. “Congratulations, young man. Great job.”
Latest chapter
Erik is the latest chapter of the unputdownable Asmussen story; if he was ever up for sale his page would have black-type from top to bottom. His grandfather Keith snr was a successful Quarterhorse jockey; his father Steve rode Thoroughbreds before becoming the winningmost trainer in North American history, closing in on 11,000 victories; his uncle Cash was one of the best jockeys of his generation, a five-time champion in France with G1 wins all over the world; his elder brother Keith jnr is a jockey too. In the Asmussen family, nothing succeeds like succession.
“The Eclipse Award was a dream come true,” says Asmussen, his voice much steadier now. “Knowing that my uncle won it, knowing what it would mean to my family if I won it, it definitely was my goal.
“It’s a true honour. It means everything. Riding for a living, what could be better?”
The chances of Erik Asmussen making a living away from horses were vanishingly small – “There’s a photo of me one Halloween dressed as a jockey,” he admits – and although he wouldn’t have been the scariest kid on the block, the trick has been to stay away from the treats.
Asmussen is 5ft 10in, very tall for a jockey, and weight problems were the bane of the game for both his father and his uncle; talent is not the only generational factor that has been passed down. It was his brother’s progress that gave him hope that he too might be able to conquer the scales.
A new Asmussen rides into town: aspiring jockey Keith is the latest in a famous racing dynasty
“Four years ago I weighed 155lb [11st],” he says. “But when my brother Keith, who is also tall, started riding I saw that he could do it, and that helped me believe in myself.
Extreme discipline
“So I knew it was possible, but it took extreme discipline, it was very hard. I lost 35lb, and maintaining this level is an everyday, never-ending issue. But if that’s what’s required to do my job, I won’t think twice about it.”
Jockeys are a habitually hungry breed, but the craving for success and solidarity with his family compels Asmussen far more than the daily alerts sent by his stomach. The fraternal, typically intense competition with Keith lends an extra edge to the situation, and when the inevitable lows of the sport sap his spirits there are lifetimes of family experience for him to fall back on.
“Of course it’s special to have all my family in the game. It makes the highs higher, and I can lean on them when I’m down,” he says.
“To do what you love, with people you love, gives it all another dimension. Keith and I root for each other but we also love to kick each other’s butt on the track. He’s ahead of me [Keith leads the intramural contest by around 25] and I really, really want to catch him.
“And I love working with my dad. He’s a fantastic horseman and I think we have a healthy working relationship – neither of us is afraid to say when he thinks the other is wrong, because we just want the best for the individual horses and will do whatever it takes to achieve that. We don’t get offended.”
Asmussen gained his first important experience with horses when breaking-in youngsters at his grandfather’s ranch in south Texas, just another young cowboy on the streets of Laredo, learning all the time, developing the bond with his mounts that he says inspires him more than other riderly concepts like the thrill of speed or the dopamine hit of a winner.
Dream come true
He hasn’t found himself a headline horse yet but there have been several glory-day afternoons. “I grew up near Dallas, Lone Star Park was my local track, and I was leading rider there at the summer meet last year, 48 wins, four stakes races,” he says.
“That was very special, to be top rider at my home track, all my friends around me, like a dream come true.”
The world is bigger than Lone Star Park, though, and Asmussen has his eye on the next step up. He’ll ride at his current base of Oaklawn Park until April but will then be faced with two paths to choose from, south-west to Lone Star, north-east to Churchill Downs. It feels like something Robert Frost might write about, and his decision may make all the difference.
“Lone Star was great last summer, but I was also leading apprentice at the Churchill Downs fall meet, so it might feel hard not to go back there,” he says.
“I want to compete against the best, I want to be the best, I want to ride in big races at big tracks, where the spotlight is.
“There’ll be pressure, but it’s the sort of pressure every jockey wants to experience. I want to be in that situation too. I’m trying to take each day as it comes but right now it’s looking like Kentucky.”
Into the intricacies of his itinerary he drops the teaser that he entertains a “sort of fantasy” about riding in Europe, to follow the example of uncle Cash, for whom the ancillary benefit of being able to ride at a heavier weight than in the US was parlayed into the most glittering career.
Special place
In France, for a time, Cash Asmussen was the best thing since sliced baguette, with those five titles and a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory aboard the electrifying Suave Dancer in 1991 foremost among a vast treasury of G1 success. His nephew recognises, shrewdly, that a point will probably come when he too struggles overmuch with his weight, and Europe might be an answer.
“Europe holds a special place in my heart,” he says, and before you write that off as a melodramatic way of trying to say the right thing in every circumstance, as aspiring young sportsmen and sportswomen are mandated to do, Asmussen has the experience to justify it.
Not only that, but the experience spoke to that which means most to him, the double helix of horses and family, the twin poles of his life and his career that he appreciated afresh during a three-month sojourn with Joseph O’Brien in Ireland in the autumn of 2022.
When it comes to dynasties, the O’Briens have their own seat at the table, and Asmussen got more out of the trip than just a change of air.
“It was absolutely fascinating, seeing the difference in how people do essentially the same job in another part of the world,” he says. “There’s no right or wrong, just different methods, but there was much more to it than that.
Family thing
“They have the family thing going like we do [Aidan the all-conquering trainer father, sons Joseph and Donnacha former G1-winning jockeys, now successful trainers] and I related to that so much. Anne-Marie [wife and mother] was always telling me stories about Joseph and Donnacha, and I realised that this was what I wanted to do with my family, and it helped show me the way to pursue that.”
Asmussen is not so forthcoming about whether he developed a taste for Guinness during his stay in Kilkenny, but he certainly visited the local pubs and found an appreciative audience for racing that left an impression on him.
A visit to the Newmarket sales with Aidan O’Brien was another landmark, as was a day or two at the master trainer’s celebrated Ballydoyle yard.
“I actually spent the night in Joseph’s old room,” he says excitedly, sounding a quarter of his age. “I woke up in the night and was wandering around the house looking at all the trophies and Anne-Marie found me, made me a cup of tea, and we sat at the table talking about racing.
“The O’Brien family loves the game as much as my family does, and I couldn’t speak highly enough of them. Then, in the morning, I watched their Breeders’ Cup horses having their final prep before flying out to Keeneland.
“I travelled back after that, went to the Cup with Dad, and I was rooting for them so hard.”
O’Brien had three winners: Meditate, Victoria Road and Tuesday. “I was Team Ballydoyle as much as I was Team Asmussen,” admits this Asmussen.
The thing about dynasties, whether it be Northern Dancer, O’Brien or Asmussen, is that they have three parts – a past, a present and a future – all working in synchronicity, as this particular Asmussen has discovered. The past is a permanent presence, a rock on which to rely, a resource to fall back on. The future is a far horizon that draws him forward, not binding him with the pressure to match others’ achievements but liberating him through the possibilities of his own success.
And the present? It couldn’t be better. “I’m living the dream,” says the youngest Asmussen, playing and winning the age-old game of happy families.
• Visit the NTRA Ecllipse Awards website
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