JOE OFFOLTER WINS LIP CHIP TRAINER AWARD FOR SECOND WEEK IN ROW, ERIK ASMUSSEN EARNS JOCKEY HONOR

If there were any doubts about Joe Offolter’s credentials as an Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Famer, they should have been put to rest after the past two weeks. He has been named Lip Chip Trainer of the Week for the second week in a row at Remington Park as the hottest conditioner on the grounds.

Erik Asmussen was named Lip Chip Jockey of the Week and has won the award in two of the past three weeks.

In actuality, there were no doubts about Offolter, who has been at Remington Park since Day One when the track opened in 1988. In the past two weeks, Offolter has won seven races, three of those stakes events on Oklahoma Classics night, Oct. 17 with Take Me Serious (Distaff Handicap), Breakable Code (Sprint) and Mister Omaha (Cup). This week, Offolter won four more times with only 10 starters. All four of those ran in claiming events. If Offolter is nothing else, he is a trainer of equal opportunity. He has stakes winners in his barn and he has claiming race winners.

The four Offolter winners this past week were Night Passage, Our Moon Pie and Elusive Power on Friday and then he racked up another with Light the Code on Saturday. He doesn’t play favorites with the jockeys’ colony here, either. Richard Eramia was in the saddle on two of those winners and Offolter gave a leg up to Jose Alvarez and Walter De La Cruz on the other two.

Offolter, who grew up in Dibble, Okla., won his first Remington Park stakes race in the 1996 Prevue Stakes with Demand Deposit. Others who have scored black-type wins for Offolter that led to his Hall of Fame induction in 2017 were Miss Natalie (Oklahoma Classics Distaff Sprint. 2012), Capture the Flag (Oklahoma Classics Turf, 2011), Rosemaui (Oklahoma Classics Distaff Turf, 2007-08) and Strawbailey in the Ricks Memorial (2002-03). He has been leading trainer at Remington Park twice (2001 and 2003) and is one of only three conditioners to win 500 or more races in Oklahoma City. The other two are Steve Asmussen and Donnie Von Hemel.

Offolter’s all-time record, going into this week, is 9,685 starts; 1,277 wins; 1,324 seconds and 1,240 thirds for horses’ earnings of $21,098,778, according to Equibase.

Erik Asmussen rode four winners from 12 mounts and moved into sole possession of fifth place in the Remington Park jockey standings with 21 wins. This has happened in lightning fast fashion as Asmussen only began riding here the final week of September, seven weeks after the season started.

Asmussen’s four winners this week came aboard two allowance horses for his dad, Steve, Ryvit and Not a Lady, on Saturday and one claimer, Love Pack on Thursday. His fourth trip to the winner’s circle came for trainer Kari Craddock with a precocious first-time starter, Easter Gift. Craddock is well-known for her ability to get first-time runners to the winner’s circle and it didn’t hurt that Asmussen was in the irons for her.

Erik’s first Lip Chip Jockeys’ award was earned in the second week of October, when he propelled his father to his 11,000th training victory as the two combined for three wins together on Oct. 16 at Remington Park.

Remington Park has provided more than $390 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park presents year-round simulcast racing and casino gaming. The 2025 Springboard Mile, a 2026 Kentucky Derby qualifying points race, takes place Saturday, Dec. 20, the final night of the Thoroughbred Season. Guests must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or to enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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