The grounds of historic Churchill Downs options statues of figures important to the monitor and its signature race, the Kentucky Derby: Aristides, the primary victor; Barbaro, the fan favourite; and two males seated on benches, one speaking and the opposite listening, beckoning guests to snoop on their dialog. Captured in bronze are two names synonymous with the run for the roses: Col. Matt Winn, the person who made the Derby greater than Kentucky, and John Asher, the person whose love of each echoed Winn’s and touched the individuals round him.
Greater than 5 years after his sudden passing, John Asher lives on within the sport he cherished, his love of household, associates, and the Kentucky Derby and its dwelling his lasting legacy.
Bluegrass, By and By
Born in Leitchfield, Ky., about 75 miles south of Churchill Downs, Asher grew up on his household’s farm the place the closest he received to racing was watching it on tv. The primary Derby that caught his consideration was Proud Clarion’s 1967 come-from-behind victory. From there, Asher adopted the game extra intently, listening to race calls on the radio and relishing the Every day Racing Types that his aunt and uncle gave him. At age 13, he begged his mother and father for permission to go to the monitor for a day and rode a Greyhound bus to go to the historic house, an expertise that sealed his ardour for racing.
Asher introduced that zeal into his broadcasting profession. After graduating with a journalism diploma from Western Kentucky College, he went to work for radio stations in Bowling Inexperienced after which Louisville, his data of the Derby making him a pure match for overlaying the race annually. When a place within the Churchill Downs communications division opened up, Asher went from radio to company communications to trace publicist and have become the face and the voice of the Kentucky Derby, sharing his pleasure in America’s greatest race.
His surprising loss of life in August 2018 left the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs and not using a beloved Derby ambassador and lots of who knew him bereft of a pal.
A Good friend to All
Those that knew him finest, like Darren Rogers, senior director of communications at Churchill Downs, and Travis Stone, monitor announcer, bear in mind Asher for his booming voice and ebullient character. “I feel a terrific phrase to explain John is infectious. He all the time had a smile on his face,” Rogers shared. “When John walked right into a room, he simply commanded a presence. And also you could not assist however be drawn to him.”
Stone remembers the previous broadcaster having “a really distinctive voice. He actually had a voice for radio. Only a huge booming voice but it surely was additionally comforting. He had a method of sounding extraordinarily clever notably about Churchill and the Derby. It simply felt pure such as you’d been speaking to him for years.”
As a spokesman for the historic racetrack, Asher not solely labored with the media, but in addition with the individuals behind the scenes. His relationship with these closest to the horses garnered him respect.
Corridor of Fame journalist Steve Haskin remembers that “they [trainers] would not pull any punches, they would not mislead him or preserve the reality in a roundabout way from him. And he simply laid out every part proper there.”
“It was all out of respect,” Haskin continued. “They knew John, they knew his place, and so they knew him personally over time and he all the time gave each coach each break. By no means something controversial with John as a result of they all the time leveled with him.”
Asher additionally was beneficiant to these round him, serving to wherever he might. “I had an internship at Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup 1994. I had a job alternative for a broadcast outcomes coordinator [in Los Angeles],” Rogers remembered. “John was working at WHAS radio on the time, and John invited me to the radio station into one of many studios to chop a demo tape [for the job]. He helped me make that audition tape and I received the job.”
For 20 years, Asher gave of his time and his vitality to these he knew and made the nation’s best race his life’s work.
A Devotion to Derby
His love of Churchill’s signature race infused Asher’s method to his work. “[John] all the time had such nice respect for the race and for the historical past of the race and for what it means to racing, what it means to Louisville. And it simply got here out of his pores. You sensed it about him,” sportswriter and pal Tom Regulation remembered.
Not solely did he love the race, however he additionally appreciated the Thoroughbreds on the heart of it. “He liked all of the tales. He liked the again tales, he liked the horse. Before everything, he all the time preached, ‘let’s do what’s proper and shield the horse,’ ” Rogers shared about his beloved co-worker.
His devotion introduced Asher comparisons with Col. Matt Winn, the legendary promoter who helped mould the Derby into what it’s immediately. Asher embraced the parallels. “Col. Matt Winn was his idol. And what a terrific promoter he was,” Rogers stated of his pal. “He seen himself as an extension of that, usually asking himself, what would Col. Matt Winn do? I feel Col. Winn could be very pleased with what this Derby seems to be like.”
It’s within the spirit of that devotion that Churchill Downs commissioned the bronzes of those two titanic figures within the run for the roses’ historical past. At any time when somebody walks by, “you see [John] and Matt Winn having a dialog. So properly completed. As a result of like all artwork, it makes you suppose and ponder, proper?” Stone noticed. “And also you’re considering, ‘I ponder what they’re speaking about.’ ”
Most likely swapping tales and sharing their Derby favorites, watching over their beloved race and place eternally.
In honor of the one hundred and fiftieth working of the Kentucky Derby Might 4 at Churchill Downs, America’s Finest Racing can be having a look at a number of the individuals who helped make the primary jewel of U.S. Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown one of the vital essential horse races on this planet.
