I was given a tip by someone (who is now one of my big bosses) that Steve Asmussen had a horse he was aiming for the Derby and that I should write a story about the horse on Bleacher Report. I can't remember the horse's name and when I looked him up, he sucked but a horse from the same connections named Z Dager caught my eye so I switched over to a story about him.
Asmussen isn’t the easiest guy to interview but I wasn’t aware of that going into my phone call, which was my first one-on-one interview ever with a racehorse trainer. Asmussen wasn’t all that eager to talk and didn’t really seem all that hopeful about the horse’s chances as a Derby winner. But even with the not-so-great interview, I was hooked on making horses my career.
Z Dager ran in three prep races on the 2012 Derby trail but even though he placed in two of them, he really wasn’t all that good and dropped down to the allowance levels. I followed his career closely and he was claimed in a start at Saratoga by David Jacobson in 2013. After that, he disappeared and even after making some inquiries, I couldn’t find him. It always haunted me that he just disappeared because he meant quite a bit to me due to his part in my professional career.
So imagine my surprise over a year later when I went to Old Friend’s site for something completely different and saw his name on their roster. During a trip there today to talk to Michael for a few stories, I told him about what Z Dager had done for me and asked if he was at the Kentucky or New York branch. Michael not only said he was at the Kentucky branch but at the end of the interview took me over to see him and said I could stop by any time.
I can’t express how thankful (because my 400+ word post doesn't do it justice) I am that Old Friends not only took the horse in but that Michael drove me over to visit a horse who isn't exactly well known or in an easy paddock to get to.
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