Arlington, Texas resident Steve Asmussen was Thoroughbred racing's national leader in races-won for the third time in four years when he finished 2005 with 474 trips to the winner's circle at racetracks throughout North America.

Asmussen, who is Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie's career leader in wins with 596 victories since 1997 and Sam Houston Race Park's career leader with 375 wins, won his first national training title in 2002 with 407 victories. Last year, he became the only trainer in Thoroughbred racing history to win 500 races in a single year when he crushed Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg's 28-year-old record of 496 wins in 1976 with an astonishing 555 victories.

In 2005, Asmussen won 57 more races than his nearest rival, Eastern-based Scott Lake, the man who denied Asmussen the 2003 title (455 wins to 452). Asmussen's 2,227 starters in 2005 earned $13,302,283 - third nationally only behind Dallas native Todd Pletcher's $20.8 million and Bobby Frankel's $14.1 million - and won 21.3% of the time. In July, he won his seventh Lone Star Park training title with 63 victories during the racetrack's annual Spring Thoroughbred Season.

To no surprise, Asmussen also topped all Southwest horsemen with 310 victories at racetracks in the region: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Asmussen led all trainers with 139 races won in his native Texas. The 40-year-old also had 118 victories in Louisiana, 26 in New Mexico, 23 in Arkansas and four in Oklahoma.