Steve Asmussen will send Magnitude to Saratoga in the coming days after the Winchell Thoroughbreds runner came out of his Stephen Foster Stakes victory in good order.
The multiple Group/Grade 1 winner landed Saturday’s $2 million Churchill Downs feature and now has a live summer route towards the top of the older-horse division.
Asmussen has pointed to the same broad path taken by Gun Runner in 2017, when the trainer’s future Horse of the Year used the Whitney Stakes as a key mid-season platform.
Magnitude’s Foster win also carried Breeders’ Cup significance, with the race offering an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland later this year.
The result put him back ahead of high-class rivals Sovereignty and Baeza, while adding a major domestic success after his earlier Dubai World Cup defeat of Forever Young.
Churchill Downs Posts Foster-Day Record
The update carried a commercial marker for Churchill Downs too. Saturday’s 12-race Stephen Foster programme generated $22.3 million in total handle, a record for the event and up from $20.7 million in 2025.
Asmussen said Magnitude is now a better horse than at any previous point, according to Thoroughbred Daily News, leaving Saratoga as the next major test of whether that Foster surge can become a championship campaign.
