Leopardstown's public relations boss had a problem: How to find a racing personality to promote the Irish Champion Stakes, the Irish leg of racing's new world championship, in Dublin yesterday.

"I need someone who can talk," she said plaintively.

Cue Cash Asmussen. Within 30 seconds, racing's self-confessed "big mouth" had the room eating out of his hand.

"It's a great honour to be keeping the company I'm keeping today," Cash said after following the chief executive of the big race sponsors, Esat Digifone, to the podium.

Cue one happy sponsor and a PR person smiling the smile of the vindicated. Asmussen, the man from Laredo, the "Mr Smooth" of the international jockeys' room, had talked the talk yet again.

Of course, there are still those who claim that walking the walk is a different matter. Despite the irrefutable evidence of almost 3,000 winners worldwide, more than 90 Group 1 winners and five French championships, Asmussen still has his detractors.

"You press boys just like him because he talks to you," one Irish racing professional sniffed recently. The one year Asmussen spent with Vincent O'Brien is still remembered it seems.

And it's true that Asmussen is a great interviewee but it's never along the lines of the great American trainer Buddy Delp who once confessed: "If bullshit was electricity, I'd be a power station!"

Sharp as a tack, Asmussen not only has a gift for the soundbite but for making a whole lot of sense along with it. It's a characteristic shared by the recently departed Gary Stevens and formerly Steve Cauthen. The common denominator is obvious.

"I'm generalising, but in the US, it's not a case of `I'm a jockey, you're a trainer and somebody else is an owner.' It doesn't matter what your last name is or who your father is or where you were born. It's just you.

"No one is automatically a notch higher or a couple of notches lower because he is a jockey or whatever. You conduct yourself as you would wish to be treated. I think that brings a certain confidence," he says quietly before delivering a touch of classic Cash.

"In Europe, it's lovely to have an American passport. It may hold you up in customs but it sure helps getting through that social class system! Not so much with trainers maybe, but with those who enforce the rules of racing!" Cue big grin.

However, accessibility to the media only comes into play if the subject performs on the circuit. The sparkling 20-year Asmussen CV allows him a rational perspective on his year in Ireland which featured short-sighted catcallers who mistook subtlety for inactivity.

"I came with a big reputation and a mouth almost as big, but the stable just didn't have stars that year and it was the same after I left," he says.

As for his quiet riding style, Asmussen declares: "I was never into hoopla and big gestures in the saddle and I think that way is becoming more and more common in Europe. Hell, the only time Frankie Dettori's ass is more than two inches off the saddle is when he's jumping off."

Currently recovering from a shoulder injury sustained on July 27th, Asmussen hopes to return to race riding on September 8th, days before a likely team up with Dream Well in the Champion Stakes. At 5ft 7in, the American's frame has meant a lifetime struggling with weight, but he is not preparing to end the struggle yet.

"My motivation now is the next big race and riding a Dream Well or a Montjeu. I also enjoy inputting into a horse's preparation as part of a team. I've always enjoyed that. "I think people get the wrong idea about me. I don't self-promote as much as my image might suggest. You know, there's a big difference between confidence and conceit," he concludes.

A confident line from a man as polished off the saddle as on. For a sport desperate to promote itself, it's an enviable combination.