Dominguez dedicated his Hall of Fame honor to his agent, Steve R

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Steve Asmussen often exhibits a hardened exterior, never truly revealing what hes thinking, to the point where sometimes its not easy to tell if he won or lost a race.On Friday, however, Asmussen showed an emotional side rarely seen publicly as he was formally inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.Asmussen got choked up sitting in the front row as Julie, his wife of 19 years, introduced him. Later, when talking about his parents, Keith and Marilyn, Steve Asmussen had to stop.My dad and my mom. Mom, thank you for the faith you have given us, Asmussen said before choking up and getting some water while the audience applauded. I havent even been able to say this driving down the road with my windows up.Asmussen talked about the example his father set for him and his brother Cash, a former jockey.Everybody in this room is here for the love of horse racing, and growing up in this family allowed an opportunity to experience these things together, Asmussen said.Asmussen, 50, was part of an A-list class of Hall of Fame inductees that included jockey Ramon Dominguez and the brilliant racemares Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. The Thoroughbred Tom Ochiltree and jockey Wayne D. Wright were voted in by the Hall of Fame Historic Committee, while Arthur B. Bull Hancock Jr. and William Woodward Sr. were inducted in the Pillars of the Turf category.It was the emotion that Julie and Steve Asmussen displayed that highlighted the two-hour ceremony. Last September, Julie Asmussen was found to have neck and throat cancer. In March, she was declared cancer-free.The way his wife came through that battle made it a no-brainer to have her introduce him, Asmussen said after the ceremony. The couple has three sons, who also came up on stage to present the Hall of Fame plaque.The most powerful lesson you have shared with the boys, and me as well, is you never give up, no matter what the battle may be, Julie Asmussen said, perhaps a veiled reference to the accusations of horse abuse made by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2014. You wake up every morning and give it your best. Effort is everything.Asmussen credited many of his owners for his success -- which includes 7,379 wins and $244.9 million in purse money won. He said if it wasnt for Ron Lance encouraging him to take a string of horses to Birmingham Race Course in 1987, Id still be galloping for Dad.Among the other owners he thanked were Barbara Banke and her late husband, Jess Jackson, who privately purchased both Curlin and Rachel Alexandra. Curlin was the 2007-08 Horse of the Year and a 2014 Hall of Fame inductee. Rachel Alexandra was the 2009 Horse of the Year and among this years celebrants. Asmussen trained both of them.Jess was such an amazing man, and I stand here regretting that I didnt take more of an advantage of the opportunity that I had with him, Asmussen said.Rachel Alexandras 3-year-old season in 2009 was one for the ages. After dominating fillies for her previous connections -- breeder and part-owner Dolphus Morrison and trainer Hal Wiggins -- a majority interest in Rachel Alexandra was sold to Jess Jacksons Stonestreet Stables and a partner, Harold McCormick. She was transferred to Asmussen, who placed her against males for three of her final four starts that year. She won the Preakness and Haskell against 3-year-olds, then defeated older males in the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga.I think courage is the main thing that strikes me about her, Banke said. Records broken, incredible margins of victory, terrific battles such as the Woodward that she prevailed in.It was somewhat appropriate that Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were inducted together. Though they never met on the track, they had their race in the battle of public opinion.Zenyatta, two years older than Rachel Alexandra, won her first 19 starts before losing a heartbreaking head decision to Blame in the 2010 Breeders Cup Classic, which was her final race.Its amazing to have the girls [enshrined] in the same year, said Ann Moss, part-owner of Zenyatta, pointing to Banke. Moss owned Zenyatta with her husband, Jerry, the founder of A&M Records.Zenyatta was named for an album by The Police that was produced on Jerry Mosss record label.Sting has said that Zenyatta doesnt mean anything in particular, but I think it describes her perfectly, Ann Moss said. She has that Zen -- inner peace with knowing exactly who she is -- and she flows love to all that she meets. And the Yatta, I understand that means celebration, and shes a lot to celebrate. It was a joy and a privilege to be associated with Zenyatta.Tom Durkin, the master of ceremonies and retired race-caller, said his one regret was not having called a race in which Zenyatta ran.The ceremony ended with the grace and class of Dominguez, whose career came to a premature end due to a head injury suffered in a spill at Aqueduct in 2013.Dominguez, a three-time Eclipse Award winner who had 4,985 victories, came to the podium without a prepared speech.Every time that I decided to do it, I would reflect back on my career, and I would start to cry, Dominguez said. These are tears of joy, nothing bad.Dominguez dedicated his Hall of Fame honor to his agent, Steve Rushing, saying, Not only is he a master at what he does, but more important, hes an outstanding human being.During his introduction of Dominguez, Rushing said, When you look up the definition of Hall of Fame, you will see Ramon Dominguez. 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On Sunday mornings in November, before he heads to Dallas for the weekly College Football Playoff selection committee meetings, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez crunches numbers in his office at Kellner Hall. Alvarez sits at his desk using the iPad the CFP gave him, and compiles a draft of his top 30 teams.Along with the help of basketball sports information director Patrick Herb, who for a third straight year will assist Alvarez with CFP statistics, Alvarez has prioritized six categories he feels best indicate a championship-caliber team.His most dependable metrics are shared only within the closed-door meeting room, but one of them is strength of schedule.Its so important, because not all stats are created equal when you compare bodies of work, Herb said. That has to be a part of your evaluation and a big part of your evaluation.Its one of the most frequently mentioned metrics used to explain the Tuesday night rankings, which begin Nov. 1, but its also one of the most subjective and debatable. There are fans who crave more, wanting the committees strength of schedule formula spelled out in detail, but its impossible because the interpretation of it is left to each individual committee member -- and each typically uses about four to five variations of it.Were all aware of how each of them are calculated and what the differences are within those, said committee chair Kirby Hocutt. We have all the metrics in front of us, and how we choose to interpret that particular one is up to each persons own discretion.The most elementary, public interpretation is given on Tuesday nights when the committee rewards teams that have earned the most wins against opponents ranked in the committees top 25, and wins against teams with records above .500, but the debates in the room span almost two days and go deeper. With three new committee members in the room this year -- former Central Michigan coach Herb Deromedi, former Southern Miss coach Jeff Bower, and Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens -- the committees collective view on strength of schedule will have different opinions this fall.Still, theyre all given the same information.No one relies exclusively on any kind of a metric, said CFP executive director Bill Hancock. The metrics for anyone who crunches the numbers in that way is a starting point, but thats all it is. Filling in the details to create the story of each team is what the committee does. Those details that the committee discusses could never be captured in a single number.Strength of schedule is alsoo one of the tiebreakers the committee must consider when ranking comparable teams, along with championships won, head-to-head results, and outcomes against common opponents (without promoting margin of victory).dddddddddddd The committee members are free to use statistics outside of those provided by SportSource Analytics (the data company the CFP has a contract with) -- as long as they understand where they come from and how theyre compiled.Alvarez uses a formula developed by Michigan State director of basketball operations Kevin Pauga, who developed KPIsports.net as an undergrad in 2003. His data is used by the basketball selection committee as a complement to RPI. His strength of schedule formula tries to account for everything you can quantify in terms of what makes one game more difficult than another while eliminating human bias.Playing a good team on the road versus playing them at home, its two different things, so just going straight by opponent winning percentages is limited, Pauga said. Beyond opponent winning percentage, if youre factoring in the location of the game, the strength of your opponents record, I think we can all agree not all 8-4s have the same meaning to them. Its digging deeper than win-loss records.The committee is given 128 team sheets in their playoff binder, filled with data from SportSource Analytics on offense, defense, special teams and schedule strength. The latter is broken down into 10 different opponent categories, such as opponents opponents records, including opponents losses to FCS teams. They can also quickly learn from the sheet the number of wins against Current CFP Top 25 teams, and a teams record against Power 5 opponents and also Group of 5 opponents.Hancock said none of the committee members rely solely on the data provided by SportSource Analytics. The committee analyzes teams against each other in groups of six or eight, so a strength of schedule ranking from 1-128 is irrelevant to them unless there is a huge discrepancy.Its much easier to evaluate and compare and dig deeply into the details when youre only evaluating six or eight teams against each other, Hancock said. ... They can look at it and say, You know, they played the team that is second in the division and has played well all season and they played them on the road at night and won. No metric can evaluate strength of schedule to that level of detail like the committee can. ' ' '