The race for the Trainer’s Title at Churchill Downs’ most recent Fall Meet was not even, well, not even a horse race.
Steve Asmussen, who has come to set up shop at Churchill Downs nearly year-round and houses many, if not most, of his top horses in Louisville around the calendar these days, made easy work of the November meet that just finished up business.
When the meet came to an end on Sunday, Asmussen had racked up an impressive 23 wins, 14 seconds and 9 thirds during a meet where the barn trotted out and saddled a whopping 106 horses.
The number of starters for the barn operation was nearly the total for both the second place leading trainer — Brad Cox — and the third leading conditioner — Ian Wilkes — combined. Those two trainers had a total of 117 starters — together.
Cox ended up with a record of 14-10-10 in 61 starts, while Wilkes totaled a 11-6-7 mark with only 56.
No other trainer managed to crack double digits with wins for the meet, although Ken McPeek had a record of 4-16-13 in 67 mounts. He out-numbered Asmussen in both the place and show categories.
For the meet, both Asmussen and Cox managed to top the $1 million mark in purses, too. Asmussen’s horses combined to win over $1.576 million, while Cox’s horses ran up a total of over $1.334 million.
Here’s a look at the Top 20 trainers this meet:
| 1 | Steven M. Asmussen | 106 | — | 23 | 14 | 9 | $1,576,987 | 22% | 43% | — |
| 2 | Brad H. Cox | 61 | — | 14 | 10 | 10 | $1,334,232 | 23% | 56% | — |
| 3 | Ian R. Wilkes | 56 | — | 11 | 6 | 7 | $748,934 | 20% | 43% | — |
| 4 | Kenneth G. McPeek | 67 | — | 4 | 16 | 13 | $594,058 | 6% | 49% | — |
| 5 | Albert M. Stall, Jr. | 17 | — | 3 | 3 | 0 | $572,313 | 18% | 35% | — |
| 6 | Michael J. Maker | 50 | — | 7 | 4 | 9 | $522,373 | 14% | 40% | — |
| 7 | Ben Colebrook | 28 | — | 7 | 2 | 3 | $422,724 | 25% | 43% | — |
| 8 | Dale L. Romans | 43 | — | 4 | 2 | 4 | $395,470 | 9% | 23% | — |
| 9 | Peter Miller | 21 | — | 8 | 2 | 4 | $382,515 | 38% | 67% | — |
| 10 | Brian A. Lynch | 22 | — | 5 | 3 | 2 | $368,686 | 23% | 45% | — |
| 11 | Dallas Stewart | 52 | — | 4 | 5 | 8 | $330,298 | 8% | 33% | — |
| 12 | Brendan P. Walsh | 27 | — | 3 | 5 | 3 | $326,168 | 11% | 41% | — |
| 13 | Joe Sharp | 30 | — | 5 | 6 | 1 | $324,215 | 17% | 40% | — |
| 14 | Thomas M. Amoss | 34 | — | 6 | 5 | 4 | $312,622 | 18% | 44% | — |
| 15 | William I. Mott | 26 | — | 3 | 4 | 4 | $286,487 | 12% | 42% | — |
| 16 | Stanley M. Hough | 11 | — | 4 | 3 | 0 | $284,353 | 36% | 64% | — |
| 17 | Victoria H. Oliver | 28 | — | 3 | 2 | 3 | $248,159 | 11% | 29% | — |
| 18 | Cherie DeVaux | 12 | — | 4 | 2 | 0 | $237,729 | 33% | 50% | — |
| 19 | David R. Vance | 22 | — | 5 | 2 | 3 | $235,687 | 23% | 45% | — |
| 20 | W. Bret Calhoun | 22 | — | 5 | 3 | 5 | $231,569 | 23% | 59% | — |
