thoroughbreddailynews
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Transcript
00:00:00They say, the harder the work, the greater the reward.
00:00:18This is our life's work.
00:00:21Good morning, it is 9.04, Wednesday, July 6th.
00:00:27This is the TDN Writer's Room, presented by Keeneland.
00:00:29My name is Joe Bianca, I'm the Associate Editor of the Thoroughbred Daily News.
00:00:33And guys, I can't believe it, but we're only eight days away from the start of the Saratoga
00:00:37meet.
00:00:38You need like a 12 Days of Christmas song for Saratoga.
00:00:40Like eight terrible tips that you got from some guy who knew the clock or his brother.
00:00:45That's the only one I've thought of so far.
00:00:48Good morning, I'm Bill Finley, a correspondent for the Thoroughbred Daily News.
00:00:50If I appear to be a little off my game today, it's because I'm not focused.
00:00:54I'm just so worried about my exactus and trifectas this afternoon.
00:00:58Degenerate.
00:01:01Jonathan Green, General Manager of DJ Stable.
00:01:04And I got a feeling today's podcast is going to be full of cross checks, elbowing, and
00:01:10maybe a little bit of slashing.
00:01:11I'm just hoping that we don't get put in the penalty box.
00:01:13It could be five for fighting, Jon.
00:01:14Keep interrupting me.
00:01:15Five for fighting?
00:01:16Could be five for fighting?
00:01:17Actually, I don't know if you guys realize, but obviously, you know our guest is Eric
00:01:21Johnson this week.
00:01:22You know that.
00:01:23You guys realize that I actually held the Stanley Cup before Eric Johnson did back in
00:01:271995 when the Devils won their inaugural Stanley Cup.
00:01:32I actually, Jon's dad was training for us, and I think his cousin Jim was playing for
00:01:37the Devils.
00:01:38And Jim brought the Stanley Cup to Monmouth Park, and I actually got to hold the son of
00:01:42a gun.
00:01:43And it was electric.
00:01:44It was like unbelievable how, you know, how that felt.
00:01:48And you know, it was just an amazing, amazing feeling.
00:01:50I mean, the trophy is huge.
00:01:52And you can see when these guys are like hoisting it up, how heavy it is.
00:01:56It's really an amazing thing.
00:01:57And Jim was telling us some of the stories of what they did with the Stanley Cup.
00:02:01You don't want to drink out of that son of a gun.
00:02:03The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:02:06Make plans to attend the Keeneland September Yearling Sale beginning Monday, September
00:02:1012th.
00:02:11You can learn more at theworldyearlingsale.com.
00:02:13All right, so all you people who say we complain too much and we bitch about the ills of racing
00:02:19all day long, you're going to love this.
00:02:20We're going to start this show for a while, I think, talking about some of the great racing
00:02:25performances from the past weekend.
00:02:26We had a lot of big efforts from horses that are either at the top of their division or
00:02:30we expect to be big factors in their division the rest of the year.
00:02:33It was a tremendous July 4th holiday weekend of racing.
00:02:37And you know, there's a lot to talk about.
00:02:39We might split this up into two segments because there were so many great races and great efforts.
00:02:44But I'll start with the older horses that are going to be on a clash course now for
00:02:48the Whitney at Saratoga.
00:02:50Life is Good and Olympiad, they both were terrific over the weekend.
00:02:54Life is Good was a little more visually dazzling because he really put away Speaker's Corner
00:02:58and the John Nehru kicked away to an easy, easy five length win.
00:03:02First race off the plane from Dubai after that fourth place finish in the Dubai World
00:03:07Cup.
00:03:08Got a 112 buyer, you know, it's tied for the second highest of anybody this year in racing.
00:03:14And you know, not to be outdone, Olympiad, I thought that was a real breakout performance
00:03:19for him and the Stephen Foster.
00:03:20And I've been a big Olympiad fan this whole time.
00:03:22And I've thought that I've always thought that he's better than his figures might indicate.
00:03:26He was getting like one of the three buyers for his races because I felt like he was in
00:03:29these kind of slow paced races and you can only finish so fast on dirt and stop the clock
00:03:33in a certain amount of time.
00:03:35This time he was up on a pretty quick pace in the Foster, had to do a lot of dirty work.
00:03:40It looked like American Revolution was going to get the jump on him, the perfect trip,
00:03:44you know, like inside, outside trip, but Olympiad turned him back one by two and a quarter lengths
00:03:49and he got an easily career best 111 buyer.
00:03:53You know, those two, I think, are going to be so interesting in the Whitney.
00:03:56You know, life is good.
00:03:57Maybe he'll get out and just get loose and, you know, dust Olympiad and the rest of those
00:04:01horses or maybe Olympiad will prove to be better at nine furlongs going two turns at
00:04:06Saratoga.
00:04:07There's a lot more to get to, but those two excited me in particular.
00:04:10What do you guys think?
00:04:12Yeah, Joe, they were exciting performances and a couple kind of other notes.
00:04:18Olympiad has still never won a grade one race, has not even contested a grade one, though
00:04:22that in the Stephen Foster, that was a grade one field.
00:04:23I mean, I've been complaining about how races should be downgraded.
00:04:27This is a race that should be upgraded.
00:04:28I mean, you had Mandaloon in there, you had the Kentucky, you know, in the Kentucky Derby
00:04:31winner, you had American Revolution, the Cigar winner, you know, Proxy's a good horse.
00:04:36So is Cato River and all that.
00:04:38But first of all, back to life is good.
00:04:40And, you know, remember prior to the Dubai World Cup, you know, we were saying or we
00:04:45in general, but not just on the three of us, but people in racing in general were saying
00:04:49some of the things that we've come to say about flight line now, about this is a absolute
00:04:53superstar.
00:04:54You know, how good is this horse?
00:04:55You know, Todd Pletcher, who is never one to really get involved in hyperbole, said
00:05:00he wouldn't say it's the best horse he ever trained, but he says, I don't know if I've
00:05:04ever had one better.
00:05:05That was after the Pegasus World Cup when he just demolished Nick's Go, the horse of
00:05:10the year and ended up himself one really, really good horse.
00:05:14So, you know, he runs in Dubai.
00:05:15He doesn't run well.
00:05:16Pletcher said it was the track that was just so deep and everything he didn't really take
00:05:20to it.
00:05:21But, you know, he was kind of I wouldn't say forgotten, but he kind of took a backseat
00:05:25as flight line mania took hold with all that he's been doing.
00:05:29And you know, he reminded us on Saturday why we thought this horse was so good and was
00:05:34so special.
00:05:35And now a couple of things.
00:05:37First of all, gee, a four horse field in a stakes race.
00:05:40How about that?
00:05:41And the Johnny neighborhood.
00:05:42But nonetheless, it didn't matter that it was for horses in so much as there was a worthy
00:05:47challenger in there, in Speaker's Corner.
00:05:50So there was a horse in there that, you know, if he's going to beat this horse, it's going
00:05:53to mean something.
00:05:54How about poor Speaker's Corner?
00:05:56And you got to give Bill Mott some credit.
00:05:57He's the third horse of the wolves got done with running against flight line.
00:06:01Now let's run against life is good.
00:06:03So, you know, of the two, I would say right now I would prefer life is good.
00:06:08He'll be the favorite over Olympiad in the Whitney.
00:06:11It should be a great race, wouldn't it?
00:06:13Could you imagine what it would be like if they actually can run flight line in there
00:06:16as well?
00:06:17But at one point we thought he might run in the Whitney, but, you know, two A plus performances
00:06:21from two A plus horses.
00:06:23But, you know, now I can't wait to see what life is good does in the Whitney and wherever
00:06:28they go after that.
00:06:30It's really setting up, you know, an interesting couple of races in November at the Breeders'
00:06:35Cup.
00:06:36You know, we have this pool of wonderful horses, whether it's Olympiad, life is good, flight
00:06:40line, which you've all mentioned, you know, Moe Donegal, who won the Belmont, Jack Christopher,
00:06:44who just continues to have eye popping after eye popping, you know, one turn races.
00:06:48But still, you know, it's just at the top of his game right now.
00:06:51And guys, we didn't even talk about Chargett, who won by 23 lengths in the Dwyer.
00:06:57I mean, that was just an incredible effort by him just in cruise control almost for the
00:07:02entire second half of the race.
00:07:04And granted, it wasn't a stellar field in there.
00:07:07But to win any race by 23 lengths and to run a 111 buyer, which is comparable to what Olympiad
00:07:14ran and just one tick away from what life is good has ran.
00:07:19So, you know, almost almost all three of them ran convincing wins and eye popping numbers.
00:07:25You know, it is starting to take shape where this summer and this fall is going to be must
00:07:30see TV when it comes to all of these great ones and great twos coming up.
00:07:35I hope the stars align and that they start going head to head sooner rather than later.
00:07:39But man, depending on what decisions some of these owners and trainers make on their
00:07:44horses, if they're going to go to the to the mile or they're going to go to the classic
00:07:48at the at the end of the year, the Breeders Cup, it is going to be, you know, just an
00:07:52excellent, excellent race car, you know, come the first weekend of November.
00:07:56Yeah, no, I mean, that was my takeaway to more than just any of these.
00:07:59The individual performances and, yeah, charge it, try it was incredible to watch, you know,
00:08:03just to widen consistently through the stretch like that.
00:08:06I don't remember the last graded stake.
00:08:07I saw one by twenty three lengths.
00:08:09You got a one hundred eleven buyer, which is the fastest, clearly by a three year old
00:08:13so far this year.
00:08:14And, you know, just just to put into context where we're at with these top class horses,
00:08:19especially going one turn, Speaker's Corner has the highest buyer speed figure in America
00:08:23this year.
00:08:24You got a one fourteen when he won the Carter and then all he did was get his doors blown
00:08:28off when he met flight line and life is good.
00:08:31Now, any other year, I feel like Speaker's Corner would be the top sprinter miler in
00:08:35the country.
00:08:36And now this time this year, he can't even make a dent with two other horses in back
00:08:41to back races.
00:08:42And like you said, good on Bill Mott for not being scared to run him and actually take
00:08:46a shot.
00:08:47Life is good.
00:08:48It didn't work, obviously, but he's going to he's going to have some more big races
00:08:50and some some more big wins in his future, I'm sure, as well.
00:08:53And, yeah, like my takeaway more than any individual performance is just how we have
00:08:57like a remarkable amount of exciting horses that we've seen produce dazzling performances
00:09:03so far this year.
00:09:04You guys mentioned Flightline, Jack Christopher.
00:09:06Life is good.
00:09:07Olympiad now charge it like if this is any harbinger of what's to come for the rest of
00:09:12the summer and fall, we're in for a really, really special year of racing.
00:09:16And just the amount of raw talent out there right now is a blessing, I think, and to be
00:09:21appreciated as a racing fan, especially guys like us who complain all day on the show.
00:09:26That's what we get paid to do.
00:09:27But once in a while, we got to we got to appreciate all the talent and the terrific performances
00:09:32we've seen out there.
00:09:33And we just you got to hope all these horses stay healthy.
00:09:35You got to hope they actually meet before the Breeders' Cup.
00:09:38But there's there's a lot of horses coming up this summer and fall that what I would
00:09:43say are appointment viewing.
00:09:44You do not want to miss these horses running like I just named five of them.
00:09:47You can probably name a couple more.
00:09:49You want to name a couple of the top three year olds.
00:09:51But yeah, that's that that is to be excited about and to be looked forward to this summer
00:09:56and fall.
00:09:57And I think Bill's selling Olympiad a little short.
00:10:01I think life is good.
00:10:02It depends on how much other speed is in the race.
00:10:04But that's a race that we're going to look forward to.
00:10:06We're a month away right now exactly from the Whitney.
00:10:08And that's one that I think we're going to have on our calendar for a while.
00:10:11So I'm still Team Olympiad.
00:10:12Someone send me an Olympiad hat or shirt.
00:10:15Would you like J.B.
00:10:16Ross?
00:10:17Somebody.
00:10:18All I've done is extol the virtues of Olympiad for months on this show, and I still have
00:10:22no swag.
00:10:23But yeah, so that that was incredible to watch in the neighborhood and just the Dwyer.
00:10:29And it was great.
00:10:30It was just one after another.
00:10:31And not to be not to be left out.
00:10:33How about the two year olds in John John Green and Len Green and DJ Stable had a big time
00:10:38winner with Wonder Wheel and the debutant on Monday at Churchill Downs.
00:10:42So congratulations to the DJ Stable team.
00:10:45And John, you know, she was a horse that I think you guys had a lot of high hopes for.
00:10:49And she's she's lived up to them so far.
00:10:52And then how about Gulfport in the bashful manner, as John would say.
00:10:56Talk about a monster.
00:10:57I mean, just the horse that popped out to the front and just galloped the entire way
00:11:01around.
00:11:02He looked great in his debut, more than validated that in the bash.
00:11:07Now I can't say bashful manner, bashful manner is stuck in my head.
00:11:12But he actually he stopped the clock in one on nine and one.
00:11:14It was the second fastest time in the history of the bashful manner.
00:11:17They've been running the race for 120 some odd years.
00:11:20The only other horse that was faster than him, another Steve Asmussen trainee, Kodiak
00:11:24Cowboy, was the only horse that ran faster than Gulfport.
00:11:28But yeah, any any any comments from you guys on the two year olds?
00:11:31Well, can I get back to charge it first, because I didn't know we were going to.
00:11:36John sort of jumped the line a little bit here.
00:11:38I remember after this horse ran second in the Florida Derby, I was like, wow, was he
00:11:43second or was he third?
00:11:44I think he was second.
00:11:46OK, that this horse was so green, so inexperienced that when he put it all together, watch out.
00:11:53Now, he ran up the track in the Derby, had displaced a pallet, one of those breathing
00:11:58problems that Pudger had to get fixed.
00:12:00And now it looks like he is going to fulfill his potential.
00:12:04And, you know, honestly, the horses that I mean, he did run in the Derby, but you don't
00:12:08think of him so much as one of those horses from the Triple Crown because he ran lousy
00:12:12in the Derby, didn't run in the Preakness or Belmont.
00:12:15But, you know, the the real stars of this division now look to be the two horses, Jack
00:12:19Christopher and him, that were either didn't run in the Triple Crown races or in the charges
00:12:23case was an afterthought.
00:12:25I would say that he didn't really beat a very good field.
00:12:28But nonetheless, you don't win a race by 23 lengths unless you're doing something really,
00:12:34really special.
00:12:35So, you know, again, you know, unfortunately, it's racing.
00:12:38So half these horses will get hurt and Uriah St. Louis will round out the, you know, the
00:12:43Breeders' Cup Classic with a field of seven type of thing.
00:12:47But you're right, Joe.
00:12:48I mean, you take this.
00:12:49There's about half a dozen horses out there and now Chargett belongs on this list that,
00:12:53you know, you just like are wow factor horses.
00:12:56And he definitely belongs in that occasion of equation.
00:12:59Also, you know, the timing of this was it was a good news, bad news week for Pletcher.
00:13:04Remember, Moe Donegal was hurt now and he's out for the rest of the year.
00:13:08So without Moe Donegal, it looked like Pletcher didn't really have a 3-0 for the Traverse,
00:13:12etc.
00:13:13Now, this horse jumps up and it's like, holy moly, you know, he's got I imagine that he
00:13:18said maybe Jim Danny, maybe not.
00:13:20But if he were to go right from here to the Traverse, I'll ask you, I'll throw this out
00:13:23there.
00:13:24Would he be favored over Zanden in an early vote?
00:13:26I think he would, wouldn't he?
00:13:28I would have to think so.
00:13:30But I jumped on the Chargett bandwagon way earlier.
00:13:33If you remember, I picked the first overall in our contest because of the way he won,
00:13:38you know, so impressively early on in his career.
00:13:41And now he is finally fulfilling his potential.
00:13:43But, you know, anytime you get a horse royally bred like Chargett, tap it out of an Indian
00:13:49Charlie mare, and you think those horses can just run all day long.
00:13:53He is still green, even after winning by 23 lengths.
00:13:56If you watch the race, his ears are still kind of pricked as he's running and kind of
00:14:00cocks his head a little bit to see, you know, what's going on.
00:14:02So, you know, he is still kind of fulfilling his destiny and getting better and getting
00:14:09more focused.
00:14:10And it's going to be exciting to see just how Fletcher navigates this horse's career
00:14:14through the end of the year.
00:14:17And the only other horse that recently that I can say that I was equally as impressed
00:14:21as when Chargett won, you know, broke his maiden is Gulfport in the stake race at Churchill.
00:14:26I mean, again, it was a glorified A of the Venn, which all of these baby races are at
00:14:30this stage of the game.
00:14:32But that being said, you know, Gulfport broke from the one hole like he was shot out of
00:14:36a cannon and never looked back.
00:14:39And I know that's the way that Steve asked me since babies run.
00:14:42And he's famous for having them ready to go first time out, second time out.
00:14:46And then as the distances get longer and the competition gets a little stiffer, sometimes
00:14:50the sources can't come up to that level.
00:14:52But man, as far as this point in time, at this stage of Gulfport's career, he is just
00:14:59an awesome, awesome horse.
00:15:01And again, very well bred Uncle Mo out of a song mare.
00:15:05You would think he could go all day.
00:15:06He's not.
00:15:07He's not a big, robust Uncle Mo unbridled song.
00:15:09Like when you say those two stallions, you think the source is going to be big 17 hand,
00:15:13you know, kind of thick horse.
00:15:14And he's not.
00:15:15He's more.
00:15:16He more looks like a first fall, even though he's not a first vote, but he almost looks
00:15:19like a little bit more refined and a little bit on the smaller side than most of the Uncle
00:15:24Mo's and unbridled song.
00:15:25Lenny Lenny's horses are.
00:15:27But man, he was explosive, just explosive in that race.
00:15:31And don't forget, guys, it was like 100 degree heat index.
00:15:34And for him to put in that kind of a run on that kind of a day was just extraordinary.
00:15:38And, Joe, I appreciate you mentioning Wonder Wheel.
00:15:40You know, we're very excited about her.
00:15:42She's now undefeated in two races and we'll see how she does as she continues to develop.
00:15:48Plans are to run her in the spin away at the at the end of Saratoga, give her a little
00:15:52time and bring her over to Saratoga.
00:15:55And I was really glad to see that superfan Skip Anderson actually came out and he was
00:15:59chronicling his his travels, you know, from North Dakota, although he drove from North
00:16:03Carolina to Louisville and then spent the afternoon there watching the races and got
00:16:07to go in the winner's circle with with Wonder Wheel and then drove to see some relatives
00:16:11in Wisconsin.
00:16:12So tip of the cap to to our man Skip Anderson, who because he also put in a yeoman's, you
00:16:18know, type of travel, you know, getting to Churchill Downs and getting his picture taken.
00:16:23Well, like you said last week, thank God Wonder Wheel won because then he would never be allowed
00:16:28back to stay on our good side.
00:16:30And listen, nobody was going to beat Gulfport on that day.
00:16:34To me, staying on our good side looks more like a turf synthetic horse.
00:16:37That's just my my layman's opinion.
00:16:40Watching him and watching his stride and he's kind of a high strider.
00:16:43So that that would be my opinion on what his future is.
00:16:46But yeah, so Skip was at least a good luck charm for Wonder Wheel.
00:16:51And yeah, that was like a great capper, I think, for the weekend was those two year
00:16:54old races.
00:16:56Gulfport got a 91 buyer.
00:16:58Wonder Wheel got a 76.
00:16:59You would expect both of them to be major contenders this summer and fall.
00:17:03So, yeah, lots to be excited about and lots to portend for the future for Saratoga and
00:17:09this fall.
00:17:10You know, it was a five dollar word for you, John.
00:17:16You was throwing out.
00:17:17You must have read your thesaurus.
00:17:18Yeah.
00:17:19I mean, you throw out a couple of great vocab words.
00:17:23I was very, very you might want to retake the SATs.
00:17:27Let's quit while we're ahead.
00:17:28Except I have one more point.
00:17:29How about the influence of Take Charge Lady?
00:17:33We're talking about charge it because Take Charge Lady obviously was it as was a great
00:17:36race mare, but it's also been a great broodmare as time goes by.
00:17:40Take charge.
00:17:41Indy will take charge.
00:17:42But now she's the second dam.
00:17:43Now she's old enough that she has the influence in the second dam in a horse like charge at
00:17:48her daughter.
00:17:49I'll take charge.
00:17:50Produce Charlotte.
00:17:51I'm going to charge it by Indy and Charlie, like John said earlier.
00:17:54So, yeah, she's she's been a great influence and it's definitely a blue hen broodmare.
00:17:59And yeah, I remember Bill talking about how great charge it was in the Florida Derby at
00:18:03the time.
00:18:04I was like, like, he looked pretty good, but Bill was obsessed with charges performance
00:18:08in that race.
00:18:09It turned out he was right.
00:18:10That horse has a ton of talent and has really vaulted now just off that one performance
00:18:14into the upper echelon of the three year old races.
00:18:17And it depends on what happens in the Jim Dandy and the Haskell.
00:18:20You know, we've got to see what happens first, but yeah, charge it even if he trains up to
00:18:24the Travers from here.
00:18:25Got to be one of the first two or three choices, I would think.
00:18:29The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:18:31Graded stakes winning Keeneland sales grads from this past week include grade two Highlander
00:18:35winner Bound for Nowhere, grade two Stephen Foster winner Olympiad, grade two Florida
00:18:39Lee winner She Dares the Devil and grade two John Nehru winner Life is Good.
00:18:44So obviously a great performance from the Keeneland sales grads over the weekend.
00:18:47In the most recent edition of our terrific Keeneland Breeders Spotlight series, Chris
00:18:51McGrath talks to Tommy Wente, who bred three winners and one runner up of Breeders' Cup
00:18:56Winning Your In races last year.
00:18:58Tommy bought the dams of those four horses for an impressive total of just $32,400.
00:19:04We always love those bargain bid, those bargain bid buys at auctions that turn into big windfalls
00:19:11for these trainers and owners and breeders.
00:19:13Tommy's program focuses on purchasing mares with limited pedigrees and then giving them
00:19:17time for their families to accomplish something big, which they're obviously doing now.
00:19:20One of his most recent successes is the dam of grade three Ohio Derby winner Tawny Port.
00:19:26We purchased for $30,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November sale.
00:19:30You can find the story at the TDN.
00:19:31It's called Tawny Port, another strike for Wente.
00:19:34Love that feature.
00:19:35Love that series from Chris.
00:19:37Obviously a great writer and he does a great job at unearthing these stories because there's
00:19:42a ton of them in the racing business and that's why we love it.
00:19:45That's why we keep coming back.
00:19:46So we'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:20:00Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Keeneland September Yearly Sale.
00:20:04A terrific maternal pedigree, grade one winners and champions across the day.
00:20:08Echoes of Ornish.
00:20:11Life is good.
00:20:12Let's go, superstar.
00:20:15Go to the back.
00:20:16Good luck.
00:20:20He was just put together like a machine and he had a great mind.
00:20:23Everything about him was what you'd want.
00:20:25Tis the law.
00:20:26Pops the cork and the champagne.
00:20:28Tis the law.
00:20:29Is gonna win the first leg of the Triple Crown.
00:20:32I've never seen him get tired.
00:20:34Respect the law.
00:20:35Tis the law.
00:20:36His structure is just perfect.
00:20:38His bone is perfect.
00:20:40He's left the others behind.
00:20:42He's gonna win the Run Happy Travers.
00:20:44He's everything you would look for in a horse.
00:20:50The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by Coolmore.
00:20:52Another big weekend for Ashford Sire, Super Sire, Uncle Mo on Saturday.
00:20:57He had his 80th stakes winner.
00:20:5980 stakes winners.
00:21:00Went super hoity-toity.
00:21:01Great name.
00:21:02Took the grade three saline at Woodbine.
00:21:04And then on Monday, Golfport, who we obviously just mentioned,
00:21:07is gonna be at the top of everybody's minds in terms of the two-year-olds.
00:21:10Won by over 12 lengths.
00:21:1112 and a quarter.
00:21:13And became the seventh stakes winner of the year for Uncle Mo.
00:21:16And Practical Joke, who somehow I feel like Practical Joke is a little bit
00:21:20under the radar still in that crop.
00:21:22But he has been a terrific early sire.
00:21:25Yet another juvenile winner on Friday with Fancy Joke, who rocked to a six
00:21:29and a quarter length victory at Monmouth in her debut.
00:21:32Third impressive debut winner for Practical Joke in less than a week
00:21:35after song parody.
00:21:36And a credo both won at Belmont over the last week or week and a half.
00:21:41A credo I thought looked really, really good.
00:21:43He was a three-year-old.
00:21:44A little bit of a later starter for Chad Brown.
00:21:47Looks like a total monster for Claravich.
00:21:49He got bent down in that race.
00:21:51Went like four or five wide.
00:21:52Still ran away in the stretch.
00:21:53Got a 91 buyer, I believe.
00:21:55That was a really impressive performance of Practical Joke.
00:21:58Runners are all over the place.
00:22:00Definitely get down there to Ashford and get involved with him.
00:22:04All right, so in this week's edition of Hate Mail Letters to Bill Finley,
00:22:09we had a special letter to the editor last week in the TDN.
00:22:13Unfortunately, it got published, I think, a little bit after our show.
00:22:16Otherwise, we could have talked about it last week.
00:22:18And it was Terence Collier, who was a longtime Fasig-Tipton announcer.
00:22:23And he's been an industry insider for a while now.
00:22:26Going after Bill for his article that we all agreed with last week,
00:22:30that there are too many stakes races and too many graded stakes races.
00:22:34Bill, I'll let you take it away.
00:22:35Well, I'm more interested to see what you guys have to say.
00:22:38Because I don't want to get in a pissing match with a guy.
00:22:41And honestly, I look at things like this, and I either laugh or cry,
00:22:47and maybe a little bit of both here.
00:22:50But I guess what my first opinion would be is that he doesn't speak for anybody
00:22:56but himself.
00:22:57I understand that.
00:22:58He doesn't work for Fasig-Tipton anymore.
00:22:59He's not part of the racing industry anymore.
00:23:02But the attitude was something that we've been railing about,
00:23:06everybody's been railing about.
00:23:08It was just of somebody whose mindset is not
00:23:11about what's good for the sport, what's good for the game,
00:23:14what's good for the bettors.
00:23:16He is only caring about what was his own fiefdom.
00:23:20And that would be the sales ring.
00:23:22If horses had a lot of black type, they're going to sell for more.
00:23:25And it was just tone death.
00:23:28And it's sad, because you like to think that that kind of mentality
00:23:33has gone away.
00:23:34The old boy network has slowly been eroded and chipped away at.
00:23:38And again, like I said, he doesn't speak for anybody but himself.
00:23:42And I made the joke in the beginning about the exactus and trifectas.
00:23:45He said, well, obviously, all Bill cares about is his exactus and trifectas.
00:23:48Well, number one, that's not all I care about, obviously not.
00:23:52But even if I did, why is that a problem?
00:23:56And what he should have written instead of all Bill cares about is exactus and
00:23:59trifectas is, horseplayers don't matter.
00:24:02Isn't that really the exact same thing as saying, and you read something like this.
00:24:08And I don't think I'm going off the rails here or
00:24:12putting words in his mouth that he didn't really say himself.
00:24:17But it's like, who cares about short fields?
00:24:19Because I wrote something about, we're all sick of 320 winners and 620 exactus.
00:24:25All Bill cares about is exactus and trifectas.
00:24:27Well, you know what?
00:24:28The horse racing industry better care a little bit more about exactus and
00:24:32trifectas because it's still the horse players are the backbone of this game.
00:24:35And they're the ones that put money in John Green's pocket when he runs in these
00:24:38big purses, etc.
00:24:39And it really is, I mean, again, I'm sort of flabbergasted here.
00:24:46Because it was just so wrong, I mean, my goodness.
00:24:51Yeah, and nothing would make me happier than to be able to agree with somebody
00:24:55who's anti-Bill, really, honestly.
00:24:57I mean, that would make me go for the day.
00:25:01And I know Terrence, and I've known Terrence for a number of years.
00:25:04And when he was the auctioneer and the announcer at the sales of Fasig-Tipton,
00:25:10it was his voice that was literally carrying you through the entire auction.
00:25:15And he was able to craft his wares to be able to get people to bid one more time
00:25:21and take that extra bid.
00:25:22And he was really, he was the pinnacle of that industry.
00:25:28And I have a lot of respect for him about that.
00:25:30But I don't remember ever seeing Terrence own a horse.
00:25:34I don't remember ever seeing Terrence breed a horse where he would have skin in
00:25:38the game to have this much negativity towards what Bill wrote.
00:25:43And Terrence brought up a couple of arguments that I just don't agree with.
00:25:49Number one, he said that Bill was basically taking the easy way out and saying,
00:25:56well, of course, it's easy to shit can some of these stake races.
00:26:00And that would be the answer for everything.
00:26:02Well, if you look at it from a statistical standpoint, with the fall crop decreasing
00:26:06every year and the number of stake raises increasing every year, it's no wonder that
00:26:12we get these horse fields and these stake races.
00:26:14And we've talked about that for a long time, so we don't need to do it.
00:26:17But it used to be, guys, where black type had meaning.
00:26:21Black type had value.
00:26:23And when you saw a family that had a number of black type performers, it really meant
00:26:28something.
00:26:28And we've turned into as an industry that if some is good, more is better.
00:26:32And we just keep adding stake races and adding stake races.
00:26:35And it's just not, I mean, it's great when you're a breeder because you can point to
00:26:39it and say, well, now I have black type.
00:26:40And for most of the people in the industry, they don't differentiate finishing third in
00:26:46a stake race at Zia Park versus finishing third at a stake race at Belmont, for example.
00:26:53They just see, oh, there's black type in the family.
00:26:55So therefore, they must be at a higher level.
00:26:57But we've lost that panache and value of black type races because they're so watered
00:27:03down right now.
00:27:04But I think we really as an industry need to look at it as let's make black type worth
00:27:08something again.
00:27:09So that way, if you do have a chance to breed a horse that wins or places in the stake race,
00:27:14it's got much more value to it rather than every other horse that's in a sale now is
00:27:18a half to or a daughter of a black type winner.
00:27:22And I'm a breeder.
00:27:23And I'm saying that.
00:27:24So it does show you just the lack of value or the watered down value in that industry.
00:27:33The other thing is, you know, Bill did not go after popular or only popular belief.
00:27:40Bill did not go after the American Greatest Stakes Committee.
00:27:43He did not say they do a crappy job.
00:27:45He did not even indicate that they weren't worth their value.
00:27:49I think we all agree that they have a very difficult job to do.
00:27:52What we're saying is that maybe the criteria needs to be changed with regard to some of
00:27:59these stake races because it just doesn't have the same kind of value, again, that we
00:28:03talked about before.
00:28:03So, you know, the main arguments that Terrence brought up against Bill, I would not say hold
00:28:09water.
00:28:10I could think of a couple other ones that I could attack Bill on, you know, that Terrence
00:28:14didn't.
00:28:15But that'd be for another segment.
00:28:16That'll be for my op-ed piece, you know, down the road.
00:28:18I can't wait for John's op-ed.
00:28:22Yeah, I mean, it's just like, like you said, like Bill was saying, it's just this kind
00:28:28of dismissive attitude towards horse players that I think really sticks in people's craw.
00:28:32And I think rightfully so, because, you know, we always talk about it and a lot of people
00:28:36talk about it, about how the two main drivers of growth and of economic prosperity in the
00:28:41industry are owners and horse players.
00:28:44And I think that, unfortunately, their, you know, their interest should be aligned, but
00:28:49a lot of times they're not aligned because for the owners, it's better to find a five
00:28:54horse field that, you know, in the past would have been 10, 11, 12 horses.
00:28:57You got a better chance of hitting the board, at least, and getting some black type.
00:29:01Whereas I'm not interested as a better betting on that five horse field.
00:29:05But, you know, if you have enough horses and you have enough quality horses and just a
00:29:10little bit less racing, I think there will still be plenty of opportunities.
00:29:14Like, I think we just have this glut of stakes races and graded stakes races.
00:29:19And it's like you guys are saying, it's good for everybody except the horse player.
00:29:23It's good for the trainers.
00:29:24It's good for the breeders.
00:29:25It's good for the owners, unless their horses are shelved for no reason.
00:29:29And I just think, this is the quote that really annoyed me, I think, because I've
00:29:34heard it from a bunch of people.
00:29:36It says, quote, his solution all too glibly proffered by one with a little skin in the
00:29:41breeding and owning game is to throw out iconic races like the Mother Goose, the Hollywood
00:29:45Gold Cup, and to take the knife to the Naira Stakes schedule.
00:29:48Simple answer, problem solved.
00:29:50I just hate that attitude.
00:29:51I hate that.
00:29:51If I don't own a horse, if I'm not a millionaire, if I don't own a horse, never mind that I've
00:29:56been betting the horses for 20 years now almost in my life, I've put hundreds of thousands
00:30:01of dollars through the window in terms of handle, that my opinion doesn't matter.
00:30:05And that if I have a complaint or if I have an issue with all the five and six horse fields
00:30:10all across America and how depressing it is as a horse player and even a little bit as
00:30:14a fan, that shouldn't matter because the people with more money and more power and more clout
00:30:19than me, the system is good for them.
00:30:21So that, I think, was the problem that I had with it.
00:30:25Terrence is obviously a smart guy.
00:30:27He's obviously had a bunch of experience in the game.
00:30:30But he has, like Bill said, that kind of old boys club attitude where the horse players
00:30:34are the little dirty people that are just a necessary evil so all of you can keep making
00:30:40your millions of dollars and keep pumping it through the breeding and the owning game.
00:30:46I don't agree with that.
00:30:47And I think it's kind of indicative of why racing is in the not great shape that it is
00:30:53because I think there are too many myopic people who are just looking at what's good
00:30:58for them and their friends and their crew and their upper echelon of the game.
00:31:03And they're not worried about the actual drivers of the game who are us little people,
00:31:08us horse players at the bottom.
00:31:10And I just think it's like we saw yesterday, the economic indicators came out for June
00:31:19and the first half and the second quarter of 2022.
00:31:22And I'm looking at it right now, 6.93 was the average field size in June of 2022.
00:31:28That's even down from last year, 6.99.
00:31:31For the second quarter, 7.02, down from 7.16.
00:31:36For the year, it's 7.25, down from 7.43.
00:31:40We're going to get to a point where the average field size is approaching six horses.
00:31:43And in a lot of those races, you can't even have a super.
00:31:46There are some tracks in some jurisdictions where you can't have a super effect on a six
00:31:50horse field.
00:31:50Is that where you want to be, Terrence?
00:31:52Do you think that's a good future for the game?
00:31:54There are clearly, clearly too many races in America, too many graded stakes races.
00:31:59And the way it gets noticed most is on these graded stakes cards, because those are the
00:32:04ones that everybody tunes into.
00:32:06Those are the ones that everybody circles on their calendar.
00:32:08They want to see these horses.
00:32:09They want to see these big name races.
00:32:11And you open the PPs and you see a bunch of five and six horse fields.
00:32:14And it cannot be anything but a bummer if, you know, unless you don't have skin in the
00:32:21game, as Terrence would say, unless you're not a horse player, unless you don't bet,
00:32:25unless, you know, that's the only reason you can be okay with these paltry fields and these
00:32:30graded stakes fields.
00:32:31If you don't have skin in the game from a horse player's perspective, then maybe you
00:32:35should.
00:32:36Yeah.
00:32:36And Joe, just to jump on what you were saying about the small fields and how they're so,
00:32:40you know, bettors just don't look at it.
00:32:43Let me give you an example of four graded stake races over the weekend.
00:32:47You know, She Dares the Devil won at $1.40.
00:32:50Her Xacta paid $14.
00:32:53Cece won the Princess Rooney.
00:32:56She paid $2.80 to win.
00:32:57The Xacta was $7.
00:32:59Charge It, you know, won at even money, paid $3 to win.
00:33:05The Xacta in that race was $10.
00:33:08And then Life is Good in the Four Horse Field neighborhood, who won and paid a whopping $2.40
00:33:15to win.
00:33:15And the Xacta paid $1.60.
00:33:18So, like, you know, who's betting on these races?
00:33:22As opposed to, you know, you look at the handle in Woodbine for their big weekend that they
00:33:27had.
00:33:28And they actually brought in, they didn't even race on Monday, on July 4th day.
00:33:33And they brought in $17.5 million in wagering because a lot of their fields were 6, 7, 10
00:33:40horse fields.
00:33:41I mean, it's, you know, if you want to look at anything just from a gambler standpoint
00:33:45or from a life expectancy standpoint of this industry, you want to look at what racetracks
00:33:50are thriving and which ones aren't and which stake races are thriving and which ones aren't.
00:33:54Look at the pools.
00:33:55Look at who's betting and how much they're betting and tell me what's better.
00:33:58Look at Kentucky Downs.
00:34:00Look at Kentucky Downs.
00:34:02That was an irrelevant racetrack.
00:34:04Even as little as, you know, 10, 15 years ago, it was mostly irrelevant.
00:34:08They had one or two stakes races.
00:34:10They have put a ton into that program.
00:34:12They've increased purses and they've increased field size.
00:34:15And now it's one of the best betting opportunities of the year.
00:34:17And handle goes up every single year.
00:34:19They run six days a year and handle skyrockets every single year because they actually care
00:34:24about putting on a bettable product for the horse players.
00:34:27Sorry, Bill.
00:34:28Yeah, a couple more points.
00:34:29First of all, Joe, thanks so much for bringing up that point about that.
00:34:32And it's not just Terrence Collier.
00:34:33We've heard that all along.
00:34:34You don't have skin in the game.
00:34:36What a bunch of garbage that is.
00:34:38If you bet this game, you've got a ton of skin in the game.
00:34:41And you're right.
00:34:42It's like these unwashed masses to, you know, again, at least to Terrence Collier.
00:34:46And I understand he's only speaking for himself, but apparently don't matter to this individual.
00:34:52And I think that there's other people out there.
00:34:55But let's, John was talking about all the races last week.
00:34:58First of all, I didn't even know there was a Quinella anymore in New York.
00:35:02But the Quinella on the John A. Nehru paid 220, 220 for the Quinella.
00:35:07But here we go again.
00:35:08On Saturday, you have a race with a great history, the Suburban.
00:35:13It's being run on Saturday.
00:35:14It's a $400,000 purse.
00:35:16It's got five horses.
00:35:18The ubiquitous has to be, of course, a Uriah St. Louis.
00:35:21And there there is.
00:35:22He makes five.
00:35:24And it's really, look, I don't want to beat up on Naira because I think they've been running
00:35:28some great races.
00:35:29But here's another example of a race that it's really not a good race by no stretch of the
00:35:36imagination.
00:35:38Good old Max Player is in there.
00:35:39I remember when I was being accused of being the biggest Max Player fan out there.
00:35:45But look, I mean, it sounds blasphemous.
00:35:47But do you really need this race?
00:35:51At some point in time, you just have to say you got the Met, you got the Whitney, you got
00:35:57the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Stephen Foster.
00:36:00Stephen Foster was last week.
00:36:01I was just talking about the Naira races.
00:36:04So it's going to be a dull, dead race with no sizzle, a short field.
00:36:13Could we just say, look, we don't need this anymore.
00:36:16And I think you have to make some hard decisions like that.
00:36:19And Naira has been innovative in the sense that on the same card, you have the Belmont
00:36:24Oaks that a couple of years ago didn't even wasn't even a real race, let alone.
00:36:29It was just an idea.
00:36:30And they came up with a great idea to come up with the Tierra Turf Triple.
00:36:34And not only do you have horses from here, the states that are running, but the O'Briens
00:36:40are bringing horses in.
00:36:42Aiden's bringing a horse in.
00:36:43Joseph, his son, is bringing a horse in.
00:36:45And it's a 10-horse field and looks like it's going to be a great race.
00:36:48And now it's a grade one and legitimately so.
00:36:50So I think, Bill, like you were saying, we can't just have these races in there on the
00:36:54card because tradition says we have to.
00:36:57And it's like nobody cares about other than other than our sponsor, West Point Thoroughbred,
00:37:04that does have a horse in the race.
00:37:05Nobody really cares about what's going on with the Suburban this year.
00:37:09No, it sucks because the Suburban is a very historic race.
00:37:13The Hall of Fame is lined with winners of the Suburban.
00:37:16But it's just it doesn't make sense on the calendar anymore.
00:37:19That's just a fact.
00:37:20Stephen Foster was last week.
00:37:22The Met Mile was a couple of weeks before that.
00:37:24People are already prepping for the Whitney at Saratoga.
00:37:27Like, you know, I'm just going to quote Terrence again one more time in the story.
00:37:31It says, you know, it's OK.
00:37:34Bill's quoting the statistics of racehorses now running less than six times per year.
00:37:39Half of what it was 20 years ago is not caused by an excess of stakes races.
00:37:43The blame for that, if blame is the right word, is squarely on the shoulders of trainers
00:37:47with divisions of high class horses will feel that their window when to run or percentage
00:37:51is inviolable.
00:37:52We have quality racing year round in the US.
00:37:54We should incentivize trainers to run more frequently and penalize those whose runners
00:37:59fill a stall year round and only show up at the racetrack every other month at most.
00:38:03That sounds like a good idea, but it's very vague.
00:38:06How are you going to penalize them?
00:38:07How are you going to incentivize them?
00:38:08You know how you incentivize them?
00:38:10You get rid of a lot of the stakes races so they have fewer options.
00:38:13That is the most sensible, most basic and direct way to incentivize guys to run their
00:38:19horses more often is to give them fewer options.
00:38:22Because as long as you give them this many options, they're going to pick the easiest
00:38:25spot.
00:38:26That's just how it is.
00:38:27And like John was saying, and we're going to talk about in a little bit, you know, the
00:38:31Belmont Oaks and Belmont Derby both have double digits in there.
00:38:34And that, you know, like you're saying, that became a grade one naturally, organically,
00:38:39because it attracted better and better fields every year.
00:38:42It's in a great spot on the calendar.
00:38:45Belmont kind of created this division in a way.
00:38:47The three-year-old turf and Philly division, you know, male and Philly division.
00:38:51That wasn't something that really existed that much that long ago, but Belmont created
00:38:56it with this festival.
00:38:57They were innovative.
00:38:58They did something to bring in new horse stock and to, you know, entice bettors and good
00:39:03for them.
00:39:03And, you know, those races this weekend are really interesting to me as a horse player.
00:39:07And I'm going to dive in and try to find some value in there because it's worthwhile for
00:39:12me.
00:39:12So just saying like this horse, this race is historic, so it needs to continue to be
00:39:17kept running.
00:39:18That to me, like you said, is the old boys club speaking.
00:39:21That to me is the guy who's just, you know, obsessed with the prestige of the breeding
00:39:26and owning side of racing and does not care whether or not these fields are actually worthwhile
00:39:31anymore.
00:39:32And they're not.
00:39:33I'm sorry.
00:39:33The Suburban is not a worthwhile field anymore.
00:39:36The Mother Goose is not a worthwhile field anymore.
00:39:38It just doesn't make sense in terms of, you know, merit in terms of merit does not make
00:39:44sense to have these races continue to be run on the calendar when they're just overlapping
00:39:48with each other.
00:39:49It's the easiest solution is to get rid of some of these redundant graded stakes races.
00:39:53And I'm sorry.
00:39:54I'm sorry if it's going to make breeding slightly, slightly less profitable for you because
00:40:00there are going to be fewer, you know, some fewer graded stakes races and stakes races
00:40:04to have black type on those pedigree pages.
00:40:07That's just the way of the direction of racing.
00:40:10That racing is going.
00:40:11We just don't have as many horses.
00:40:13We just don't have as many horses running this frequently.
00:40:15It's just the way the momentum is going.
00:40:18And if you ignore it, if you try to stop it, you're only going to get five and six horse
00:40:22fields all across the country.
00:40:24And you know what?
00:40:25In the Johnny, I wasn't the least bit concerned about my trifectas because there was no trifecta.
00:40:33Exactly.
00:40:34I went to go bet that race.
00:40:36I bet the one three ambulance.
00:40:39That was good value.
00:40:40Cool.
00:40:40You got 160 on life is good over speakers quarter.
00:40:43Come on.
00:40:44Three to ten and a four horse field.
00:40:46Who doesn't get excited about that?
00:40:49The TDN writers room is brought to you by Lane's end.
00:40:51This week's lane's end stallion of the week is union rags.
00:40:54We all remember him winning the Belmont.
00:40:56The son of Dixie Union has five grade one winners to his credit, including his leading
00:41:00leading earner express trade who won the grade one big cap at Santa Anita earlier this year
00:41:05on Monday.
00:41:05Union rags was represented at Belmont by demands of respect.
00:41:08A three year old Chad Brown trainee who broke his maiden by eight lengths.
00:41:12Union rags tags to stands at Lane's end for $30,000.
00:41:16Definitely go see him and the rest of that star studded lane's end roster all up and
00:41:20down.
00:41:21They got forces and stallions that will produce runners and produce winners for you.
00:41:25So definitely go check out union rags and lanes and we'll be right back after this
00:41:28message from Lane's end.
00:41:30Union rags proving Lane's ends tried and true stallion making formula, a formula that
00:41:36leads to success for our partners and our stallions.
00:41:39He's a leader in his sire crop by graded stakes winners and grade one winners.
00:41:44He's a commercial standout with multiple million dollar sales and a six figure yearling
00:41:48average.
00:41:49And with four full books spread at 50 and 60,000, he has even more exciting progeny
00:41:55in the pipeline.
00:41:56Union rags, a stallion that stands above the rest.
00:42:01With some of the fullest fields in the country and quality racing year round, there's
00:42:06never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and racing in Kentucky.
00:42:12Purse money in Kentucky is at an all time high as his average purse per race outpacing
00:42:18California, Florida, and New York.
00:42:21Kentucky breads, breed them, raise them, race them.
00:42:26We all win.
00:42:31The TD Unready's room is brought to you by the Kentucky thoroughbred owners and breeders
00:42:34that KTA and the KTOB promote legislation with such industry partners as the American
00:42:39Horse Council and the NTRA.
00:42:41They play an active role in legislative matters on statewide and national levels.
00:42:45In conjunction with the Kentucky thoroughbred farm managers club, they increase the economic
00:42:50benefits to Kentucky breeders through the Breeders' Incentive Program.
00:42:53Obviously, there were a lot of incentives as well for racing at Churchill Downs.
00:42:57Over this past meet, a ton of money being given away.
00:42:59We're looking forward to the rest of the year in Kentucky.
00:43:02Ellis Park meet has gotten better every year, I think in part because they've moved to a
00:43:05lot more turf racing, which is a little bit of the future.
00:43:08And then in the fall, we got the Churchill fall meet, and then we got Keeneland back
00:43:12to Churchill.
00:43:12So many opportunities for Kentucky breads to make a ton of money.
00:43:16So we're looking forward to the rest of the year in Kentucky.
00:43:18We're also looking forward to this interview for a little while.
00:43:22Eric Johnson, who is the new Stanley Cup champion of the Colorado Avalanche.
00:43:26He's been on the show before.
00:43:27He's a great guy.
00:43:28We're all super happy to see him win the Stanley Cup after a long time in the NHL.
00:43:33I believe he's been in the NHL for 14, 15 years.
00:43:36Big racing supporter, big owner, especially in California.
00:43:39He's now an owner and seller and breeder too.
00:43:41It's only expanding his footprint in the game.
00:43:43And it's just great.
00:43:44It's, you know, as a sports fan in general, it's great to see someone work that hard for
00:43:48that long and finally make it to the top of the mountain.
00:43:50So we talked to Eric about the Cup win, about what he's going to do with the Cup, about
00:43:54whether the Cup is going to survive all of his Colorado Avalanche buddies.
00:43:58So check out our interview with Eric Johnson.
00:44:01The Green Group guest of the week is sponsored by the Green Group, an accounting, tax, consulting,
00:44:04and advisory firm specializing in the thoroughbred industry.
00:44:07With over 500 clients in the horse business, they have proven strategies to save you taxes.
00:44:12Learn more about how they can help you at www.greenco.com.
00:44:16So we're thrilled to welcome back to the show.
00:44:17Last time I introduced him as a former number one pick in the NHL.
00:44:21This time I can introduce him as a Stanley Cup champion.
00:44:25Eric Johnson, welcome back to the show.
00:44:28I appreciate it.
00:44:29Thanks for having me on.
00:44:30I really like you guys, your show and what you guys do for the industry.
00:44:34It's a lot of fun to be on here.
00:44:36We really appreciate you saying that.
00:44:37We were so happy for you to see you win the Cup.
00:44:39So let's just give us our audience an idea of what the last nine or 10 days have been
00:44:45like for you.
00:44:48Well, I think I'm going to need a liver detox very shortly.
00:44:53We've been consuming quite a few Bud Lights, champagne, high noons, what have you.
00:45:00It's been a lot of fun.
00:45:01I mean, the party has been about a week straight, and now I'm finally getting a little R&R.
00:45:07But as a kid, that's what I always dreamed to do is win the Cup.
00:45:11And then you don't really know what's going to come after it, right?
00:45:14But the last seven days after we won, it's just been a hell of a ride.
00:45:20Well, and also, it looks like you're on vacation now, right?
00:45:24That's not a fake Zoom background.
00:45:25That's a real vacation background.
00:45:28Yes, I'm down at my house in Laguna Beach right now and heading down to Del Mar here
00:45:33pretty quick in a couple of weeks.
00:45:35So time for some R&R for sure.
00:45:39Nice.
00:45:40Eric, when I was first thinking about this, I thought, wow, winning the Stanley Cup,
00:45:43that must be like winning the Kentucky Derby.
00:45:46The more I came to think about it is maybe it's more like winning the Breeders' Cup Classic
00:45:50because that's the championship event.
00:45:51It's at the end of the season.
00:45:53If you win that, you very well may be Horse of the Year, et cetera.
00:45:56Or maybe am I wrong?
00:45:58What can you compare this to in horse racing?
00:46:02Hey, Bill.
00:46:03Yeah, I appreciate the question.
00:46:04I actually did think about that.
00:46:06Someone asked me that question, and I gave it a little bit of thought.
00:46:11What I came up with was it is like I've never won the Derby, but I can imagine that it would
00:46:20feel a thousand times better than that because when you're an owner in the Derby, you are
00:46:29a spectator and you have no impact on what happens.
00:46:33When you are a part of a team that wins the Stanley Cup, not only is it you and your teammates,
00:46:45but you're actually out there doing it with them, and it's something that you have put
00:46:50your whole life into since you were a kid.
00:46:57You can't top this feeling.
00:46:59It's just amazing.
00:47:01I'm lucky because not a lot of people get to experience this.
00:47:06I've played with a lot of great players that never won.
00:47:11To answer your question, it would be like you'd win the Breeders' Cup, the Derby,
00:47:18the Traverse, the Preakness all in the same summer or something like that.
00:47:25It's a very, very tough feeling to top.
00:47:28Eric, we were so excited when the clock struck zero and we knew that you were going to be
00:47:33hoisting the Stanley Cup.
00:47:35When during the season did you think, hey, we have a good enough team.
00:47:40We're going to win the Stanley Cup.
00:47:41Was it in preseason?
00:47:42Was it when you beat the Rangers?
00:47:44Was it midway through the playoffs?
00:47:47Or was it like the last 30 seconds of game six?
00:47:52Hey, John.
00:47:52Hey, John.
00:47:56Last year, we had a really, really good team and we lost a bunch of guys at free agency.
00:48:02Our GM said in the media, I don't think we will ever be as deep as we are this past year.
00:48:07Then we started the season, we had about eight new players, lots of free agents.
00:48:13We started the season about 500.
00:48:15I think we were like five and five.
00:48:17And I think people were probably questioning what we had, but it took a little bit of time
00:48:25for the chemistry and the relationships to mash and the friendships to create it.
00:48:30We took off from there and I kind of compare it to a horse.
00:48:36Sometimes they don't take that step as a two-year-old to a three-year-old.
00:48:40And we had all these guys on our team take those big steps that you don't really know
00:48:47if they could take as players.
00:48:48So we had like Makar, Natushka, and all these guys take these big, big steps from the previous
00:48:55year that you think they can do it, but you're not really sure.
00:48:58So we had all these guys take these big steps and then we had contributions all throughout
00:49:02our lineup depth.
00:49:03All that really went into it.
00:49:05And things just, the stars aligned, you had to stay healthy.
00:49:11We had a ton of injuries and COVID throughout the start of the year.
00:49:14And then we were mostly healthy throughout the playoffs.
00:49:17And I think when we got to about the Christmas point, January-ish, and the all-star break,
00:49:24that's when we were like, holy crap, we have a chance to do this.
00:49:29And then our GM stepped up at the deadline and brought in such key additions for us.
00:49:36And the rest is history.
00:49:39Don't worry.
00:49:40You can say, holy shit, when you're talking about it.
00:49:43All right.
00:49:45Just no F-bombs, right?
00:49:48One of the things I noticed is I've seen you boys be very rough with the cup.
00:49:51I felt like it took you all about 20 minutes or so to dent that thing.
00:49:55I saw you go tip over in the club the other day.
00:49:57What's your plan with the cup?
00:49:59What are you going to do with it?
00:50:01Yeah, that poor thing.
00:50:03It's taking a beating, Joe, that's for sure.
00:50:05But thankfully, we've got it fixed.
00:50:08And we've had our time with it and had a lot of fun.
00:50:12And we had the parade.
00:50:15And then we took the cup out to Whiskey Row Country Bar in Denver.
00:50:22And Dierks Bentley showed up and played on stage with us and with the cup.
00:50:25And so that was pretty sweet.
00:50:27So my cup day, and I texted John about this, I think it's going to be Labor Day weekend
00:50:34and Labor Day Saturday, Pacific Classic Day.
00:50:37I'm going to start in Denver.
00:50:38And I think I'm going to bring it to Del Mar.
00:50:41So that's the plan, to bring it to Del Mar.
00:50:43And the cup is such an amazing thing.
00:50:47Because whether you know anything about hockey or not, everyone knows what the Stanley Cup is.
00:50:52Except I actually did get congratulated on winning the Heisman Trophy the other day from
00:50:56somebody.
00:50:59And I said, what?
00:51:01And they're like, oh, you won the championship.
00:51:03Like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, we won the Stanley Cup.
00:51:05And the lady was so embarrassed.
00:51:06But anyway, yeah, so the plan is right now, I'm going to do a visit right now in Denver
00:51:12in the morning when I have it, do a Children's Hospital visit.
00:51:15Let some Colorado Avalanche fans see the cup.
00:51:17And then get out to Denver and have a huge party.
00:51:19It should be quite the banger.
00:51:23Hey, Eric, you're 34 years old now.
00:51:25So you probably have three, four, five more really good years in the NHL.
00:51:29Have you thought about your, OK, maybe not, OK, maybe less.
00:51:33We'll see.
00:51:33But I mean, at your age, you're obviously still at the top of your game.
00:51:36Will you become more involved in racing after your playing career is over?
00:51:39And if so, how might that be?
00:51:43Yeah, another good question.
00:51:44I was thinking about that the other day.
00:51:46Some people were texting me like, oh, I didn't have any two-year-olds this year.
00:51:50You're only about a couple of two-year-olds.
00:51:51And I was just like, I'm so focused on what I had to do with the Cup and our playoff run that,
00:52:01you know, I didn't have the time to focus on any of that.
00:52:05But to answer your question more, Bill, I think I really haven't thought about it.
00:52:10I think I've always wanted to have a farm, a small little farm.
00:52:14And I love Lexington.
00:52:15So I could see something where, you know, I have, you know, eight to ten mares and I have
00:52:20maybe a little breeding operation out in Lexington.
00:52:24I just love it out there.
00:52:25But I haven't really thought about that.
00:52:28I'm a real in-the-moment guy.
00:52:30And I really haven't thought that far ahead, to be honest with you.
00:52:34But racing is obviously a sport I really care about.
00:52:39You know, that's going to be at the forefront when I bring the Cup to Del Mar.
00:52:47And Eric, 2022 has been a phenomenal year.
00:52:49Not only did you win the Stanley Cup, but also you had the sales topper.
00:52:53You sold the sales topper at the Fasig-Tifton February sale.
00:52:57Tell us what it was like when Brilliant Cup was going into the ring.
00:53:00And did you expect to get three quarters of a million dollars for it?
00:53:03What was that ride like?
00:53:06Yeah, it's been good.
00:53:07We had McKinnon run third in the Breeders' Cup.
00:53:09And then we had Brilliant Cup, the $50,000 claim that we were lucky enough.
00:53:14Doug's team got her to get graded stakes placed.
00:53:16And then we cashed in and sold it for $750,000, like you mentioned.
00:53:22So we had a couple offers after she ran second in the La Brea at Santa Anita.
00:53:29And I think we had like $500,000 offers or something like that.
00:53:33We just decided to roll the dice.
00:53:35You guys all know how tough it is to turn a profit in this game.
00:53:39So when you can take the chance to cash in and turn $50,000 into $750,000,
00:53:44that doesn't happen too often.
00:53:46So Fasig-Tifton did a great job.
00:53:48And Highgate Sales, Jacob West and Joe Gordon, who consigned, did a great job for us.
00:53:55Yeah, it's special.
00:53:57You never know.
00:53:58You don't expect that to happen when you claim a horse for $50,000.
00:54:01You maybe hope that it can win a starter or something.
00:54:04And you can move it along and break even.
00:54:07But yeah, luckily, she hit the board and a couple stakes.
00:54:12And then Life Is Good popped up in her pedigree in second dam.
00:54:14And that helped for sure.
00:54:17I just want to ask a quick follow-up on something Bill asked.
00:54:19And then I guess I'll ask you a racing question.
00:54:21I'm the only hockey guy on the panel.
00:54:23Please do.
00:54:24I don't mind just talking hockey for 20 minutes.
00:54:26It's just a quick follow-up on what Bill asked.
00:54:28He asked if you had a couple, three, four or five good years left.
00:54:31Is there any thought at all of going out on top since you've been around for a while?
00:54:35No, I'm going to come back and play, Joe.
00:54:37I have one year left on my deal.
00:54:41I don't know a lot of people in their right mind that would walk away from a couple million bucks
00:54:44to play hockey.
00:54:45You know what I mean?
00:54:46So I'm healthy, thankfully.
00:54:49Stayed healthy this year.
00:54:50I feel good.
00:54:51And I had so much fun this year.
00:54:54You know, even, you know, we landed two in the morning in Edmonton in the middle of November,
00:54:59December, you know, it would be zero degrees and you're on the bus.
00:55:02And I was just, I remember just thinking like, this is, this is so much fun.
00:55:06Like, I don't, I don't, it's tough.
00:55:07That's the stuff you miss.
00:55:08The flights, having beers on the plane after the, after the games, playing cards,
00:55:13going to all the dinners with the guys.
00:55:16So, you know, thankfully my body held up this year and I'd love to keep playing a little bit more.
00:55:20So we'll see.
00:55:21Just take it year by year from here.
00:55:24And yeah, a lot of people have asked me, are you going to retire?
00:55:27Are you going to retire?
00:55:28No, I'm not going to retire.
00:55:30Oh, listen, I'm not pushing out the door.
00:55:31You still clearly.
00:55:32No, no, you're fine.
00:55:33You're fine.
00:55:34I appreciate the question though.
00:55:36It was great to see, like, you still acted like a kid out there when you won the cup.
00:55:40So clearly young at heart is still as well.
00:55:42Just a quick racing question.
00:55:44You know, the big story, I think in California, I'm mainly a California racing guy, at least for
00:55:48now, the big story, the last two years or so, I think has been the improved safety record,
00:55:53especially at Santa Anita from the, from the catastrophe that we saw in 2019.
00:55:58We had you on the show last time because you were going to save basically an $8,000
00:56:02claimer named Princess Dorian.
00:56:03So you're clearly a guy who cares a lot about horse safety.
00:56:06What's your reaction to how Santa Anita and California racing have just turned this around
00:56:10completely safety wise?
00:56:13I think they've done a great job.
00:56:14I think, you know, no matter what, you're not going to escape the negativity.
00:56:18I think that's always going to be there.
00:56:21You know, it's, it's, there's always going to be someone that's upset, but I think just
00:56:25to see the statistics that have come out recently, I think there probably was a little
00:56:30need for some reform.
00:56:31And I think the leadership has done a really good job throughout the state.
00:56:38You know, I think what really helped is those pre-race checks.
00:56:43You know, every horse gets checked out and I'm sure it makes some owners upset because
00:56:46some of their horses won't run.
00:56:48And, you know, you, you spend 30, 60 days on bills and you get your horse ready to run
00:56:53and then they pull it out.
00:56:54But for the, for the betterment of the game and the longevity of the game, I think those
00:56:59are things that probably needed to happen and steps needed to be taken.
00:57:02So overall, I think they should be commended.
00:57:06They did just awesome.
00:57:07And the game is at a much better place than it was in a couple of years ago.
00:57:12And HISA and all these groups that, you know, have stepped up and a lot of people stepped
00:57:20up for the game.
00:57:21And I think it was needed and it's helped throughout the, you know, the country for
00:57:25sure.
00:57:26Eric, one last question for me.
00:57:27You mentioned McKinnon.
00:57:29He was one of the better horses that you had at one point in time, a possible Derby horse.
00:57:33Haven't seen him since February.
00:57:34Where is he and what's next for him?
00:57:37Yeah, so he's going to make his comeback in the Oceanside opening day at Del Mar.
00:57:41He's, I think he's had six or seven works.
00:57:44He's really, really doing well.
00:57:45We gave him about 60 days off after the, I think it was the Sham and the El Camino.
00:57:52And he ran good in those races.
00:57:54We just decided that, you know, he wasn't going to be a Derby horse.
00:57:57We think he's best on grass.
00:57:58So I think we're going to run in the Oceanside and then we'll go.
00:58:02I think there's a Saratoga Derby at the end of the meet or something like that.
00:58:05And then there's a big race at Kentucky Downs that we'll look to after that.
00:58:10So he's doing really, really good.
00:58:12And then we have Macar in the pipeline who runs Friday at Belmont for Brad Cox,
00:58:19named after K.L. Macar, our stud defenseman.
00:58:21So he runs, I think, in the first race.
00:58:24So they keep the hockey names going.
00:58:28And that was going to be my last question, is I know that we've spoken about the young
00:58:33sire Nyquist and what a great young sire he is.
00:58:36And I know you really like naming horses after your hockey brethren.
00:58:40Is there another name that you're hoping to save for your next good colt?
00:58:44Yeah, I have Macar.
00:58:47That's named after K.L., of course.
00:58:49K.L. Macar, our stud defenseman.
00:58:50So he's running with Brad Cox his first race.
00:58:53So that'll be exciting to have Macar run.
00:58:55And obviously with McKinnon and I had Landis Gogg, who was a good sprinter for us.
00:59:00And yeah, it's fun.
00:59:02The boys like the hockey names and some of the fans like to interact with it, too.
00:59:07So we'll see what Macar can do on turf on Friday.
00:59:10Yeah, you may want to just as a helpful hint, you may want to name one Sackett,
00:59:13since, you know, he's your GM and he may be signing your next contract.
00:59:17Just a helpful hint.
00:59:19The time I thought about that, it's available, too.
00:59:21So I might have to reserve it.
00:59:24Don's always got the angle.
00:59:25Always got the angle.
00:59:26Yeah, he's a Green Group client.
00:59:28I got to try to make and save him as much money as possible.
00:59:31That's right.
00:59:32And you have.
00:59:34All right.
00:59:35Well, Eric, thank you so much for the time.
00:59:37We were so, so happy to see you win the Cup, not just because you're a big racing supporter,
00:59:41because you're a good guy as well.
00:59:42And you definitely put in the work.
00:59:44Thanks for joining us, man.
00:59:45Thank you, Eric.
00:59:46Thank you, guys.
00:59:47Thanks for having me on.
00:59:47Appreciate it.
00:59:48Appreciate your job.
00:59:50The Green Group Guest of the Week is sponsored by The Green Group, an accounting, tax,
00:59:54consulting and advisory firm specializing in the thoroughbred industry.
00:59:57As this week's Green Group Guest of the Week, Eric Johnson, will receive a free one-hour
01:00:01tax consultation.
01:00:02Learn more at GreenCo.com.
01:00:04We'll be right back after this message from The Green Group.
01:00:08Why do the most successful owners, breeders and horsemen select The Green Group as their
01:00:12tax advisor?
01:00:12We simply save them money and know how to make them more successful.
01:00:15Over the past 40 years, founder Leonard Green has owned and bred some of the best racehorses
01:00:20in the history of the sport.
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01:00:25has produced positive results for his clientele and has made The Green Group the top-rated
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01:00:31For a confidential and complimentary consultation, contact us at 732-634-5100 or visit our website
01:00:38at www.greenco.com.
01:00:40The Green Group, proving strategies to save you taxes.
01:01:01The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by XBTV.
01:01:16This week's XBTV Workout of the Week features There Goes Harvard, who worked four furlongs
01:01:21at Santa Anita on Saturday, and 47-3 is the third fastest of 86 works at the distance.
01:01:26You can see that work on the screen right now.
01:01:28If you're watching the video portion of this show, the Michael McCarthy trainee won the
01:01:32Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, and his last start was the first Grade 1 winner for Will Take
01:01:37Charge, obviously probably pointing towards the Pacific Classic.
01:01:40And like I say every week, but now it really, really matters.
01:01:42We're only a week away from Saratoga, eight days.
01:01:45There's a lot of action going on the Oklahoma track, especially the turf course, especially
01:01:50and also on the main track as well.
01:01:52So, the place to be, the place to check out all the fursters, all the horses that, you
01:01:58know, you look in the PPs and you say, well, that looks like a fast work, but I haven't
01:02:01seen it.
01:02:01If you want to see it, go to XBTV.com, search the horse.
01:02:05They're most likely going to have it.
01:02:06They got a lot of great camera people and a lot of great organization at these tracks
01:02:11that can show you all the stuff that would normally be blind to you in the PPs.
01:02:16I know that's going to be important to all the little people, all the handicappers coming
01:02:21up at this Saratoga meet.
01:02:22So, we're looking forward to that.
01:02:23Go to XBTV.com for all of your workout needs.
01:02:27All right.
01:02:28So, we kind of led into this from the last segment.
01:02:30John brought up the Belmont Turf Festival, which is this Saturday.
01:02:34Great, great races.
01:02:36Five Euros, five Euro shippers in each race in the Belmont Oaks and the Belmont Derby.
01:02:40We have 13 horses in the Belmont Derby, 10 horses in the Belmont Oaks, also the Suburban
01:02:45and the Victory Rider on that card.
01:02:48At Delaware, we have a couple of stakes races.
01:02:50We got the Delaware Handicap, which is a great too.
01:02:52That used to be a big deal.
01:02:53Honestly, that used to be a race that a lot of top fillies and mares pointed to.
01:02:57I honestly have not heard of any of the horses.
01:03:00And this year's Del Cap, unfortunately.
01:03:01But the Robert Dick Memorial Stakes is a great three over there.
01:03:04Again, turf gets a big field.
01:03:06You know, that's the future.
01:03:08Like, these big turf races, those are the most bettable races more and more these days.
01:03:12We also have cards, big cards at Indiana and Iowa.
01:03:16I'm sorry, guys.
01:03:17Like, I support the smaller tracks having these big days.
01:03:20Why are these races on the same day?
01:03:23Why is the Indiana Derby and the Indiana Oaks on the same day as the Iowa Oaks and the Iowa
01:03:28Derby?
01:03:29Like, it just makes absolutely no sense to me.
01:03:32But, you know, we are happy for those cards to get their moment in the sun, you know,
01:03:36Saturday night and get those big races at their track.
01:03:40Because I think, you know, especially Indiana, I think does a really good job for the horse
01:03:44players.
01:03:45So we're looking forward to that.
01:03:46Also, the Cornhusker this weekend at Prairie Meadows.
01:03:48They should just rename that race the Knicks Go Stakes after what he did last year in that
01:03:53field.
01:03:53It's never going to be topped.
01:03:55Although, I guess there is a Knicks Go Stakes.
01:03:56We already made a Knicks Go Stakes at Churchill Towns because God knows we need more stakes
01:04:02races.
01:04:03Can we make it the Terrence Collier Invitational?
01:04:08Exactly.
01:04:09And then, you know, it really is the Belmont turf races.
01:04:12I think that's the most exciting thing.
01:04:14Over this weekend, you know, you actually had an Annapolis who came back and won the
01:04:18Manila over the weekend.
01:04:19We didn't talk about him in the weekend review, but he's a really nice horse, really nice
01:04:23turf horse for Todd Pletcher.
01:04:24He was thinking about going in the Belmont Derby this weekend, but I think he's going
01:04:28to wait to put him in the Saratoga Derby instead.
01:04:31Yeah, I mean, you know, no household names yet, but it's hard, you know, this early in
01:04:35the year with three-year-old turf horses to have household names.
01:04:38Point is, big fields, shippers, big time trainers, and actually a bettable product
01:04:44on Saturday.
01:04:45What do you guys think?
01:04:47Yeah, I mean, these Belmont turf races are very interesting.
01:04:50And I think a couple storylines here.
01:04:51First of all, you know, I look at the Charlie Appleby horses and, you know, they don't get
01:04:56me that excited when I just look at them on paper.
01:04:58But, you know, is this going to be an encore of what he did last year?
01:05:01That just unbelievable year he had where he ran 18 horses, won nine.
01:05:07I believe I should look this up.
01:05:08I believe all nine were graded grade one stakes races.
01:05:11Maybe, Joe, you even mentioned one point that maybe he would deserve a little a few votes
01:05:15for trainer of the year in the Eclipse Awards after what he did last year.
01:05:20And the Euros bring their jockeys with them.
01:05:22You got you got Ryan Moore coming in.
01:05:24You got Frankie DeTore coming in.
01:05:27Pasquier, what's his first name?
01:05:28The French jockey.
01:05:29Anybody know he's coming in?
01:05:31Don't know.
01:05:32Yeah, that guy from France is coming in as well.
01:05:35The Belmont Derby.
01:05:36It's very interesting what, you know, Kenny McPeak is up to here.
01:05:39Two horses.
01:05:40First of all, classic causeway comes back in two weeks after the Ohio Derby, which you
01:05:44never see anyone do outside of a guy like McPeak.
01:05:49He showed a little bit of promise in the Ohio Derby after running so poorly in the Kentucky
01:05:54Derby and the Florida Derby.
01:05:55McPeak is hoping that the move to grass, you know, vaults him up to the next level.
01:05:59You know, one point in time, he looked like a really interesting horse with a bright future.
01:06:03And then Tiz the Bomb is back.
01:06:05He goes back.
01:06:06We think of him as a turf horse.
01:06:08But the thing is, he hasn't run on the grass since last year when he was second in the
01:06:12Breeders' Cup juvenile turf.
01:06:14McPeak, he had some success on synthetic.
01:06:16He tried the Derby.
01:06:17It didn't work out.
01:06:18You know, how will he fare?
01:06:20I would think he I don't know if he'd be the favorite or not.
01:06:22Maybe they'll go for one of the Euros.
01:06:23But I would think he'd be the horse to beat in there.
01:06:25And then, of course, you know, the big story in the suburban is, well, Uriah St. Louis
01:06:30once again pick up that fifth place check.
01:06:33We got to have Uriah on the show.
01:06:34I feel like we bring him on more every single week.
01:06:36So we got to get him on.
01:06:38Yeah, he's quickly becoming a fan favorite.
01:06:40He actually, in my mind, is replacing Kameen as the go-to comparison to talk about.
01:06:46I want to bring up, you know, Joe, you mentioned some of these smaller racetracks and they
01:06:50really should be highlighted.
01:06:51You know, Delaware has a really nice weekend card.
01:06:53You mentioned Indiana Downs or now it's called Horseshoe, Indianapolis, Prairie Meadows.
01:07:00They all have really big cards coming on.
01:07:03But we're going to be talking about the theme of the day is graded races.
01:07:08I'm going to already put in an advance request that the American Academy of Stake Races,
01:07:14or whatever they're called, looks at the Schaefer Memorial this year.
01:07:17The Schaefer Memorial at Horseshoe, Indianapolis, where we're running helium.
01:07:21It's an eight-horse field.
01:07:22Do you know that five of the horses in the race either won or placed a graded stake race,
01:07:27including Mr. Wireless, who won not one but two grade threes, Running Ray, who ran third
01:07:32in a grade three, South Bend, who finished second in a grade three.
01:07:36Then, of course, you have the famous Thomas Shelby, who ran second by a neck in a grade
01:07:40three, and Helium, our horse Helium, who won the Tampa Bay Derby as a grade two.
01:07:45I think we need to have this race be graded next year to, again, continue to pump up some
01:07:50of these smaller racetracks.
01:07:51So just if you're listening to the show, and I know you are, and you're on the panel,
01:07:57to go over graded stake races, give this one a look.
01:08:00Will you?
01:08:01You hear that?
01:08:01You hear that?
01:08:02We want fewer stakes races and graded stakes races, unless Don Green has a horse.
01:08:06Unless I have a horse, then that's great.
01:08:09So what good will it do him if he wins this race from a sire's standpoint?
01:08:13It's from a sire's standpoint.
01:08:14You're exactly correct, Bill Finley.
01:08:17But people in the know, like Terrence Collier, know that we actually have two fillies from
01:08:22that family.
01:08:23So obviously, if we get graded in place again, then it only begets good for me.
01:08:31And as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters.
01:08:34Exactly.
01:08:35So the quiet part loud, finally.
01:08:38But yeah, just to go back to what I was saying, the reason that the Iowa Derby and the Indiana
01:08:44Derby are on the same day is because where else are they going to run?
01:08:48What other three-year-old race could they possibly compete with in this chock full of
01:08:53three-year-old race calendar?
01:08:54It's just not realistic for them to run anywhere else.
01:08:57But yeah, I just feel bad that those races are cannibalized, especially because, like
01:09:00I said, those small tracks definitely deserve their day in the sun.
01:09:03And just to mention the Belmont stuff one more time, so we have 10 total Euros.
01:09:07But I love seven different trainers.
01:09:09So it's not just Aiden O'Brien and Charlie Applebee sending the cavalry in for these
01:09:13races.
01:09:14Seven different European trainers found these races interesting and potentially lucrative
01:09:19enough to send their horses across the pond to there.
01:09:22So that's, you know, like I said, that's that's a series that's growing organically
01:09:26because it provides both the betters and the owners what they want.
01:09:30It's not impossible, guys.
01:09:32We can all be on the same team.
01:09:34And one lesson, kudos with all sincerity to Andrew Burns, who's the stakes coordinator
01:09:38for Naira, and he's been there forever and he's a really good guy.
01:09:41But man, he hustles.
01:09:42He is there literally at Saratoga.
01:09:44He's there every day on the phone, calling up, trying to convince people to bring their
01:09:48horses to Saratoga, which you would think would be an easy job because it's Saratoga.
01:09:52But it's not, as you can see by some of these fields.
01:09:55And Naira really has embraced this idea of having young turf horses come here and compete
01:10:00for a lot of money.
01:10:01And they do a great job in timing the races and the distances and getting horses to come
01:10:06over here because it's just a natural progression.
01:10:08They come here for those races, the three race series, Belmont, Saratoga, Belmont.
01:10:14They stay maybe for Kentucky Downs, Keeneland, and then they go right to the Breeders' Cup.
01:10:18I mean, it's a natural progression for these horses to come over from Europe to run in
01:10:22these races.
01:10:22So again, tip of the hat to Andrew Burns for all that he does with the stakes coordination
01:10:27at Naira.
01:10:29Yeah, well, and I'm glad you mentioned that because when we bitch about the short fields
01:10:33and the stakes and gray stakes races, it's not because of that stakes coordinators or
01:10:39racing office people aren't working hard.
01:10:40I think they're doing everything they possibly can.
01:10:43So if we have any racing officials that watch our show and get a little defensive about
01:10:47us constantly complaining about these stakes races, I don't think it's your guys' fault
01:10:51at all.
01:10:51I think it's basically everybody but y'all.
01:10:53Y'all are doing your jobs.
01:10:55It's just the owners and the people who organize the calendar puts you basically in an impossible
01:11:00position.
01:11:00And I know you guys are doing your best.
01:11:01So, yeah, we're looking forward to that card a ton on Saturday, a couple of big grade one
01:11:07races.
01:11:07And like I said, organically, organically, this series grew.
01:11:11It's not on the card because a great horse won it 40, 50 years ago, and we need to keep
01:11:17it for the history's sake.
01:11:20We need more races like this and like Kentucky Downs that naturally attract betting handle
01:11:26and attract top class horses.
01:11:28So, yeah, we'll definitely keep an eye on those Belmont stakes races this weekend and
01:11:31look to everybody at Indiana and Prairie Meadows and putting on those cards also.
01:11:37The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds.
01:11:39Joining a West Point Thoroughbreds partnership can vault you into the world of instant camaraderie
01:11:43among people surrounding high class horses and stakes action for a fraction of the cost
01:11:47of trying to do it on your own.
01:11:49You can learn more at westpointtb.com.
01:11:51Looking forward to the grade two suburban this weekend for West Point, for West Point's
01:11:56purposes.
01:11:57West Point's first captain is in a field of five.
01:11:59Shug McGehee, trainee, won the grade three Pimlico Special on Preakness weekend in his
01:12:03last start.
01:12:03I thought that was a really good effort.
01:12:05You know, the Todd Patcher horse kind of got the jump on him, looked like he was spinning
01:12:08his wheels a little bit on the turn, really came alive on the stretch.
01:12:11I think he's definitely one of those horses.
01:12:12There aren't that many anymore that really relish a mile and a quarter.
01:12:16I think a mile and an eighth even is probably a little bit too short for him.
01:12:19So he gets the mile and a quarter Saturday in the suburban.
01:12:21So best of luck to West Point, all the partners.
01:12:23And also this weekend, West Point has grade three winner Cavalry Charge running in the
01:12:27Jonathan Schuster stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
01:12:30I always want to say Indiana, Horseshoe Indianapolis on Saturday.
01:12:33So best of luck to everybody at West Point.
01:12:35We can't wait to see y'all at Saratoga and at Del Mar this summer, especially with all
01:12:40those babies.
01:12:40And of course, the big horse, Flightline, will be right back after this message from
01:12:44West Point Thoroughbreds.
01:12:46All the thrills.
01:12:52Fraction of the bills.
01:12:56Experience the power of the partnership.
01:13:02Change your life, make new friends, and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing.
01:13:09West Point Thoroughbreds, the gold standard in racing partnerships.
01:13:13Visit westpointtb.com.
01:13:16Being a small family business, I guess we're part of a dying breed.
01:13:20We're really grateful for the people that entrust us.
01:13:22We know it's a huge responsibility.
01:13:24We're always with your horse every step of the way.
01:13:28When it comes to being at the sales ground, showing your horses, we are with your horse.
01:13:32Just driving up and down the road every day.
01:13:34There's not a time that I don't look out and feel a responsibility to the sport, the
01:13:38animal, the people that come to invest in the game.
01:13:40I want to see as many people enjoy this sport as they possibly can, because we do have the
01:13:44most beautiful sport in the world.
01:13:46The TDN Riders Room is brought to you by Legacy Bloodstock.
01:13:50If you think that 50 years combined experience in the horse business can benefit your program,
01:13:55give Tommy or Wendy a call.
01:13:56They personally advise on each horse as if they were their own.
01:13:59On Saturday, Roll Again Dancer broke his maiden at Monmouth Park.
01:14:02He's a graduate of Legacy's 2021 Kingman September consignment.
01:14:06He's the son of Gervin, who was also a Legacy graduate back in 2015.
01:14:10So a nice full circle win there for the Legacy grad.
01:14:13At next week's Fasig July sale, watch out for HIP 276 from the Legacy Bloodstock consignment.
01:14:19The yearling is a son of Practical Joke and is from the family of multiple stakes winner
01:14:23OK2Dance and multiple grade one winner DevilIsDue.
01:14:26Obviously an influential name there as well.
01:14:28So yearling sale season finally getting ramped up.
01:14:31Best of luck to Tommy and Wendy and all the team at Legacy this summer and fall.
01:14:36This week's Remy cartoon is a guy who's on a little bit of a life raft, makeshift life
01:14:41raft. You'd assume in the ocean, not the Saratoga lakes.
01:14:45He says, yes, yes, thank you for saving me.
01:14:47But more importantly, when's opening day at Saratoga as someone is lowering a life
01:14:50preserver to him.
01:14:51That's kind of I feel like how we feel in the winter.
01:14:54You know, an aqueduct is just this desperate wasteland waiting for someone to come along
01:14:59and throw down the lifeline of Saratoga for us as horse players and as racing fans.
01:15:04So like I said, we're only eight days away now.
01:15:07Can't wait for that.
01:15:08I'm sure Remy's got a couple other good ones up his sleeve for Saratoga and all the big
01:15:12winners we're going to see this summer.
01:15:15All right.
01:15:15So that's going to do it for this week's edition of the TDN Writer's Room presented by Keeneland.
01:15:19Don't forget the Keeneland September yearling sale begins Monday, September 12th.
01:15:23You can learn more at theworldyearlingsale.com.
01:15:26I want to thank Bill Finley, John Green, our Green Group guest of the week, Eric Johnson,
01:15:30our producer, Patty Wolf, our associate producer, Katie Petruniak, and our editors,
01:15:34Anthony LaRocca, Aliyah LaRocca, Nathan Wilkinson.
01:15:37Thank you so much for watching.

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