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00:00:00For the love of the horse. For generations to come.
00:00:28Good afternoon, it is December 7th, a Wednesday afternoon at 1.04pm and this is another edition
00:00:34of the TDN Writer's Room podcast brought to you each week by Keeneland. I'm your host
00:00:38today Bill Finlay.
00:00:39Bill, great to be here. Zoe Cavan with First Racing and XBTV and Randy's deserted us for
00:00:45the podcast. Looks like Doodle behind me has deserted us. So it's just going to be the
00:00:50two of us, a nice cozy couple for the next podcast.
00:00:54Randy needed the week off. Who are we going to miss more, Randy or Lucy? What do you think?
00:00:57Lucy. Lucy doing dead dog riding, most definitely. Sorry Randy, I love you very much, but definitely
00:01:03Lucy is the star of the show.
00:01:04I think Randy would actually probably agree with that. Hey, so let's get right into it.
00:01:09The big last weekend of racing in New York for the year, topped by the Cigar Mile, the
00:01:14Remsen, the Demoiselle. Lots of talk about there. Zoe, I got to tell you, you know, you
00:01:19look at the horse that wins the Cigar, Mind Control. Is he a superstar? Is he a flight
00:01:25No. But is he an admirable horse, the type of horse that just puts a smile on your face?
00:01:31He is something else. Is there a gamer horse out there in racing? When he wins, he never
00:01:37wins by four or five lengths. Matter of fact, usually he gets in a dogfight, looks like
00:01:41he's going to lose, as it did this time out with Get Her Number past him at the eighth
00:01:45ball, comes back to win again to win probably the biggest race of his career at age six.
00:01:51Not only that, as a two-year-old, he won a grade one stake, the Hopeful. As a three-year-old,
00:01:56he won a grade one stake, the Alan Jerkins. How many horses do you see in this day and
00:01:59age, particularly one who's not a gelding, win a grade one at two and another grade one
00:02:05at age six? I mean, there's a lot to like about this horse. What a neat horse.
00:02:09I mean, he's basically a throwback horse. If you think of his career now, he started
00:02:14off with Greg Sarko. Todd Pletcher took him off, took him on later in life. But the fact,
00:02:20it almost reminds me of Behold It, the fact he won a grade one as a two-year-old,
00:02:24taking down the grade one Hopeful, and then a grade one as a six-year-old going out
00:02:29in his swan song to win like he does. His last four wins where he's crossed the wire in front
00:02:35have been by a head. I mean, he's about as game a horse as you're ever going to get.
00:02:40Todd Pletcher's quote, if you like racing, you have to love this horse. And that purely
00:02:46is mind control. He's a horse that we've seen time and time again. You kind of wish that he'd
00:02:51been on our lips maybe three years ago. He's just the horse that's just kept going and been
00:02:57consistent over his course of his career. And what an effort. And just to think you got three
00:03:04to one on mind control, if you love it. It's like his parting gift was a gift of money going off at
00:03:10three to one. Zandon's over bet every single time and rarely produces. He's just a horse
00:03:16people love to bet on, but mind control at three to one, I mean, come on.
00:03:21Well, again, that was because as you mentioned, the money came in on Zandon,
00:03:24who was a disappointment in this race. Again, her number was second. Why did Berio ran much
00:03:29better than he has recently to finish third in there? But kudos to mind control. He's going to
00:03:34go off to stand at studs somewhere. We don't know where yet. I mean, again, it's the same sort of
00:03:38thing. He's not going to stand for 200,000 like flight line, but I'm sure he's going to make a
00:03:44good sire for somebody out there. I'm pretty sure he's going to New York, which is going to be
00:03:49excellent because most of his big races have been in New York. He compiled a 12 for 29 record over
00:03:56the course of five season. And it's a rare you have a jockey, Johnny V, who basically said,
00:04:01I've ridden this horse for five years. When do you ever hear that? Yeah. I mean,
00:04:04I thought it was terrific. And the fact he went out a winner, the top platter also trains his
00:04:10sister, Queen Goddess. It looks like we're going to see her carry on next year as well. It's just
00:04:15terrific. I really feel good race was the grade one cigar mile, at least in my opinion.
00:04:20It sure was. So the other stakes races on the card, let's start with the Remsen. And
00:04:25last year, what a good rendition of the Remsen it was. It was one of my note,
00:04:28Moe Donegal, who obviously went on to win the Belmont and Zanden was second. He went on to
00:04:32win the Bluegrass. You mentioned him earlier. So you had two horses come out of there to win
00:04:36major grade one races. So I think it's pretty safe to say we're not going to get that this year.
00:04:41On paper, it really wasn't a very strong race. The winner is W and I don't even know how to
00:04:48pronounce this WNL coming off a maiden. Yeah. Coming off a maiden win for Danny Gargan. Again,
00:04:53take nothing away from him to win in a mile and eight this time of year for a two year old is
00:04:58notable. It shows that they can go the distance. But again, that race kind of on paper lack star
00:05:03power. I think it was as it was run, it sort of lacks star power as well.
00:05:08So yeah, WNL, it's D-U-B-Y something. I've got no idea. I did ask Danny Gargan. I'm like,
00:05:13how is this WNL? I don't know. It just is. But he's a pretty solid performer. And I think we'll
00:05:20see him along the line. Looks like he's going to go down to Florida and then perhaps come up for
00:05:26the withers. Was the Remsen the best Remsen edition we've seen? No. Is any Remsen the best
00:05:32Remsen that we've ever seen? Probably not. I mean, over the years, it's probably not been the
00:05:37best prep for the Kentucky Derby, but the horse did get a chance to go two turns and I thought
00:05:43run with run very nicely with his ears pricked at the wire. So we'll find out more about him,
00:05:48perhaps in the withers. The other big race at Aqueduct was the Demoiselle. And here's a horse
00:05:54that people will get a little bit excited about, maybe a lot excited about. But Julia Shining's
00:05:59an interesting case here. She wins the race. Now, from the pedigree standpoint, you got a lover
00:06:04going in. She's a full sister to Malathot, who won the Demoiselle in 2020. Malathot was going
00:06:10to be a champion when the championships come out later on early in 2023. She's got this great
00:06:17pedigree. She was impressive in her first win. She comes out and wins the Demoiselle. But,
00:06:23you know, frankly, Zoe, I wasn't really impressed. I mean, first of all, the buyer number came back
00:06:27terrible, a 70. And, you know, she was kind of a little bit like her older sister, she was just
00:06:32grinding away the whole time. And, you know, didn't really never looked like she was, you know,
00:06:37going to dominate the fields kind of hard pressed to win. I mean, with that pedigree trained by Todd
00:06:42Pletcher, etc. I'm not going to give up on this horse by no stretch of the imagination. By the
00:06:47way, Pletcher won this race for the eighth time Demoiselle amazing. So but you know, from right
00:06:53now, if we're talking about like Hoosier Philly, and Wonder Wheel and Justique that, you know,
00:06:58the real stars of this division, I'm not quite ready to put her in there.
00:07:03I'm going to disagree with you on this one, Bill, because I think that it's just going to take her
00:07:09a while to figure things out. To me, the one thing that is glaringly obvious is that she doesn't want
00:07:14to get that beautiful, pretty face of hers dirty. She cannot handle the kickback and it was sloppy
00:07:20kickback. She was actually just in touch with the field enough to get plenty of kickback. She
00:07:26was almost covered when she turned for home. But after watching a train all summer at Saratoga,
00:07:31she started off the initial meet at Saratoga. I'm like, wow, she's gonna be a freak. And then she
00:07:37tailed off a little bit throughout the summer. And then she came back with that fantastic win
00:07:41at Keeneland. How she won nobody really knows. And then she comes back with a similar effort
00:07:46over a track that she obviously hated. I've got to give Louie Sires basically an Eclipse Award for
00:07:53peddling the whole distance of the Demoiselles. I mean, he truly won the race for trainer,
00:07:58Todd Fletcher in Stone Street Stables because he rode her every single step of the way.
00:08:04Once she gets clear, she just grinds for home. I think she has a lot more to give that we're just
00:08:10not seeing. And she's going to learn in her starts as she goes along. Now, perhaps the biggest
00:08:16thing that went on this weekend was Stone Street and the fantastic weekend that they had. Not only
00:08:22did they breed the winner, they own the winner. They also bred the winner we just talked about
00:08:28in W.Y. Nell, who's by Good Magic, who is, of course, by Curlin. So basically, what we should be
00:08:33talking about is Stone Street and what a fantastic breeding operation they have. Obviously, this
00:08:41is by Curlin. W.Y. Nell is by Good Magic, who's by Curlin. It all goes back to Curlin. So
00:08:48I'm not going to give up on her. It looks like she'll go to Palm. Where is he? Palm Beach.
00:08:53Palm Beach Downs.
00:08:54Palm Beach Downs.
00:08:55He's Palm Beach Downs, yep.
00:08:56Palm Beach Downs. I always get them muddled up. And then she'll probably follow what Ness did.
00:09:02A story came out today that she's probably going to run in the Suncoast States, which is February
00:09:06the 11th. So she'll get a little bit of a wee break. She's likely to fill out a bit more and
00:09:11get bigger. She's a big, framey filly. That along with the fact that she just doesn't get going in
00:09:17her races begs me to believe that the older she gets, the better she's going to get. And the fact
00:09:22that she's actually won two races, I don't care what kind of numbers she got. Who cares?
00:09:27Right.
00:09:27Just visually watching her. It's fun to watch, isn't it?
00:09:31Sure. Zoe, would you put her in the same sentence as Hoosier filly,
00:09:35who on this podcast, you know, the three of us who ran involved were raving about.
00:09:40That's the type of thing. Maybe I'm being a little bit, raising the bar a little bit too high,
00:09:44but I wouldn't put her in that class. Now, can she get there? Sure. But right now I don't think
00:09:48she could, you know, come close to a horse like that.
00:09:51Not now. Not now. But I mean, wait until next year. She's a filly. I mean, we're all forgetting
00:09:56that she's going to get better with distance. I mean, distance is going to be basically the ace
00:10:02in her pocket and the Kentucky Oaks has run over a mile and eighth and it's a mile and eighth,
00:10:07right? Not mile and three sixteenths. And that's going to be her distance. I'll have no question
00:10:15going up against Hoosier filly the first Friday in May. Should they both get there?
00:10:20She's going to be a grinder. She's going to be just like a sister. Why wouldn't she be?
00:10:24Sort of looks like it, doesn't it? But anyways, we'll find out more about her next year. She's
00:10:28obviously done for this year and then we'll see what she does. But a loaded two-year-old filly
00:10:33class, soon to be three-year-old filly, a lot of really good horses in there as well. So we'll find
00:10:37out about that. Now, Zoe, let's go out to Delmar. I think you, Randy, and I made a mistake a couple
00:10:42of weeks ago on the show. We went over our eclipse awards and we were warlike goddess,
00:10:47warlike goddess, warlike goddess. She's going to be the one for the filly in May or turf.
00:10:51Nevermind. Can I totally take that back? We forgot about Regal Glory and I think we also forgot that
00:10:58there was still one other very big race out there for the older fillies and mayors on the grass.
00:11:04So let's look at Regal Glory after she wins the matriarch by five and a quarter lengths.
00:11:08She's four for seven on the year with four stakes wins. To me as a voter in the eclipse awards,
00:11:15the most important number is she's won three grade one races. A love warlike goddess. She's
00:11:20awful good, but she's three for five on the year with one grade one victory to her credit. I'll be
00:11:26at a big one because she beat the boys in the Joe Hirsch. But I have totally changed my mind.
00:11:31Regal Glory, Chad Brown, this assembly line of talent he has when it comes to fillies and mayors
00:11:36on the grass. And he loves to go out to these races in the West Coast at the end of the year
00:11:41and just picks the pockets clean of the West Coast guys. Wins with Regal Glory. She was
00:11:46dominant. She won by five and a quarter lengths. And with apologies to warlike goddess, she's no
00:11:51longer my eclipse award choice. No, she's not going to be. She's four for seven on the year.
00:11:57Like you mentioned, three grade one wins. It's generally a case of what have you done for me
00:12:02lately? Yes, warlike goddess was third in the Breeders' Cup. This filly was 10th. This mayor,
00:12:10Regal Glory was 10th. But then she comes right back and wins a grade one. And that was a sublime
00:12:16performance. I mean, I think she clocked 11 and won that final eighth of a mile and just absolutely
00:12:23finished like a freight train down there under Flavian Pratt, who's picking up, I think, his
00:12:28fifth win of the day. And then he came back and won six of eight a little bit later on. So Regal
00:12:33Glory obviously sold in the January sale for 925,000 to Peter Brandt, his white birch farm.
00:12:40Just fantastic. I could watch that race over and over again and watch her finish. And to think
00:12:46she's six years old and a lot of times you may think that, you know, mayors are at their prime
00:12:52at five. And why did they bring her back into training at six? I mean, good for them. I mean,
00:12:58she's been terrific all year long. Yeah, well, we can find out what the reason they brought her
00:13:02back. They knew that what they had there. And it looks like they will get an Eclipse Award on that.
00:13:06And a similar situation the voters might have to face coming up. You know, we also said that
00:13:12Epicenter is a three-year-old male champion. What if Teba wins the Malibu? That would give him three
00:13:18grade one races, three grade one victories on the year. Whereas again, Epicenter kind of unlucky to
00:13:24only win one grade one. But in fact, he did win only one grade one. So, you know, what do you do
00:13:29about that? I'm going to keep an open mind on that as well. I think you have to. And I think one of
00:13:34the problems that the Eclipse Awards have is that the Malibu is in the holiday season and a lot of
00:13:41people put it, I don't, I mean, I'm the last minute person to do anything. A lot of people already
00:13:47have in their minds, even if they haven't done it yet, will have put in their votes for Eclipse
00:13:53Award and will have forgotten that Teba is going to run in the grade one Malibu on December 26th.
00:13:58I was talking to Gary Young about this the other day, the guy that bought Teba, and he said, well,
00:14:04what if he wins the Malibu? I'm like, it might not matter because a lot of people put their votes in.
00:14:09They shouldn't be allowed to put their votes in until December 31st, as far as I'm concerned.
00:14:14You shouldn't be allowed to make up your minds until the last grade one races have been run.
00:14:18Yeah. I mean, nobody should vote until after this and maybe Epicenter will win no matter what.
00:14:23Like I said, I'm, whereas with Regal Glory, we already know that she won. She gets my vote.
00:14:27Teba, of course, has to win this race first. But if he does, that's going to set up a really
00:14:31interesting question there, because as good a year as Epicenter had, he did win only one grade
00:14:37one race. That's normally the main criteria I use when evaluating who I'm going to vote for,
00:14:41for champions. What about Speaking Scout? How good was he for Grand Motion? Terrific.
00:14:47Taking down the Hollywood Derby at odds of 10 to 1. I mean, you want to talk about a terrific
00:14:53little horse. He was a $3,000 yearling. I think he was purchased off his second career start
00:14:59by Eclipse Thoroughbreds, and then he takes down the Hollywood Derby.
00:15:02A terrific job by Graham and his assistant, Alice Clapham.
00:15:06Yeah, well done indeed.
00:15:08The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Keeneland. Just remember, the Keeneland
00:15:12catalog is now online for the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages sale. The Keeneland has
00:15:18cataloged over 1,500 horses, including broodmares, broodmare prospects, short yearlings and horses
00:15:25of racing age, plus stallion prospects and stallions. The auction will cover four sessions
00:15:31from January the 9th through January the 12th. The most recent graduate we just talked about,
00:15:37her name was Regal Glory, three grade ones this year. She was purchased for $925,000
00:15:44at last year's January sale. You better be at Keeneland January,
00:15:48you want a grade one winner like Regal Glory. We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:15:58If this place could talk,
00:16:02it would roar. It would say, this is racing, this beating heart in the heart of horse country,
00:16:12steady and strong beneath the roar, reminding us why, for the love of the horse,
00:16:21for generations to come.
00:16:25He was just put together like a machine and he had a great mind. Everything about him was what
00:16:29you'd want. Tis the law, pops the cork and the champagne. Tis the law, is gonna win the first
00:16:35leg of the triple crown. I've never seen him get tired. Respect the law, tis the law,
00:16:41his structure is just perfect, his bone is perfect. He's left the others behind,
00:16:47he's gonna win the Run Happy Traverse. He's everything you would look for in a horse.
00:16:55The TDM Writers Room is brought to you by Coolmore. It was just announced that grade
00:16:59one Traverse winner Epicenter will be new to Coolmore America in 2023. The son of Not This
00:17:06Time will stand for 45,000 in his debut season. So let's get this right, Randy. Coolmore has five
00:17:12new stallions in 2023. Corniche, Early Voting, Epicenter, Golden Pal and Jack Christopher.
00:17:21Who's your pick going to be? I know who mine is, but who do you like? If you had a mare to breed,
00:17:26who are you going to? I'm going to Jack Christopher. I've been a big fan from day one of him.
00:17:31Really? Yes. Very fast, very talented horse. Why not? All right, I might be a bit biased. I'm going
00:17:38to Corniche. Proven around two turns, a really good two-year-old. Yeah, everyone says who did
00:17:44he beat? Who did he beat? But I'm not sure we ever got to see how good he really could have been
00:17:49as a three-year-old. So some really, really exciting prospects coming forward for Coolmore
00:17:55America. Well, when we were doing our weekend in review, we were concentrating on the big races in
00:18:00New York and California. But Zoe, there was a race at Laurel that really caught my attention for a
00:18:06number of reasons. First of all, it was the Maryland Juvenile for Maryland breds. You don't
00:18:10think anything special is going to come out of that. The winner is a horse by the name of Postime
00:18:16and he has been ultra, ultra impressive in his three lifetime wins, including this race. This
00:18:21was his first ever stakes appearance. He just galloped. He made a move on the turn. He looked
00:18:25like a Rossi almost. Who did he beat? Of course, that's a big question. I don't know who he beat,
00:18:30but I wouldn't come to the conclusion. I wouldn't rule this horse out as maybe a type of horse you
00:18:37might see in a race like the Wood Memorial or something down the line. But you know, I really
00:18:41got a kick out of the jockey on the horse is someone by the name of Eric Camacho. Who is he?
00:18:47Have you ever heard of him? Well, I don't remember him. In 2016, he retired and went to work as an
00:18:53exercise rider. All these years later, he's galloping this horse for trader Brittany Russell,
00:18:59and the thing is a handful. He's just a rogue. He's all over the place in his first two races.
00:19:04He was weaving in and out of the stretch. And Brittany Russell and Eric Camacho got together
00:19:10and said, you know what? You can handle Eric. You can handle this horse. We don't know about
00:19:14other people. You're familiar with him. The horse is being ridden by his exercise rider.
00:19:19He is three for three on the year. Eric Camacho was undefeated as a jockey.
00:19:25What a neat story. This guy takes this horse all the way to the Kentucky Derby or something like
00:19:29that. I know he's got a million miles to go. Zoe, should this inspire you? You should come out of
00:19:34retirement. That is not happening, happening anytime soon, but a very cool story. I actually
00:19:40had to preview that race for XBTV and First Racing, and I'm looking at it, and basically
00:19:46between the top two finishers in that race was who the betting public zoned in on. The horse who
00:19:52was second actually went off the favorite, but post time was absolutely terrific. I'm not sure
00:19:58if you look at the Equibase chart, do you really get the full feel for the race? Because I watched
00:20:03the race back. I didn't manage to watch it live because I was in New Orleans, but Eric was just
00:20:09a passenger on him, and he just turned for home, looked behind him, looked this way,
00:20:14and just cruised on. It was a remarkable performance by the son of Frosted, who is now
00:20:20a perfect three for three. Camacho gets on this horse in the morning, and apparently Brittany
00:20:25Russell was saying to him, well, he's kind of a handful, and Camacho said to her, well, if you
00:20:30want someone to ride him in the afternoon, they sure as hell better get on him in the morning
00:20:34because he likes to rear up a lot. She was like, well, why don't I just put you on him? Camacho,
00:20:40I have his past performances down here. He's actually won 788 races as a jockey from over 4,700
00:20:49starts. His best season was in 2005, had a good season in 2010 making over a million dollars in
00:20:56purses. He's a jockey who can ride. He's obviously very good in the mornings, and kudos to Brittany
00:21:02for leaving him on. She did say that he's liable to stay with Maryland Breads and perhaps point
00:21:07towards the Tessio, which has actually been a good stepping stone over the years for perhaps
00:21:12the road to the Kentucky Derby, or who knows? We may see him wind up in New York, but a really
00:21:17cool story for post time with a terrific name and a terrific story. If you're not rooting for him,
00:21:24you'd better be because horse racing at the end of the day is all about the stories, and this is a
00:21:30good story that people can get behind. Yeah, it really is a neat story. She told me there's
00:21:35pretty much two options. The owner is very Maryland centric. They have all those races like
00:21:40the Tessio, a bunch of them beforehand. That perhaps could lead to a start in the pregnancy.
00:21:45I feel like maybe we're getting a little carried away. People might say,
00:21:48come on, what are you talking about, the pregnancy? Someone's won a Maryland Bread race,
00:21:51but Zoe, you captured it. It was electrifying. What did he beat? I have no idea, but it was
00:21:58really, really good. The other possibility is maybe showing up in a race in New York,
00:22:02like the Gotham or something like that. If you pass that test, that could lead to almost anywhere,
00:22:07but I've never heard of a horse, especially a stakes horse, where they've entrusted the job
00:22:13of riding to the exercise rider. Remember, since 2017, he's had three mounts, all of them on this
00:22:21horse, but he looks, I mean, critique him, he looks fine on the horse. You would never look at
00:22:27him and say, oh, what's that guy doing? Hey, it's like riding a bike at the end
00:22:31of the day. I mean, he keeps fit in the morning. There is nothing like riding races. I will say
00:22:35that much. You could be the best exerciser in the world and work 10 horses a day, and you're
00:22:40not going to be race fit. If he ever has to get down and ride this horse, which doesn't look like
00:22:46he's had to in all three starts, he's just had to hang on, then you might see a bit of a problem,
00:22:51but for now, Eric Camacho and post-time, a match made in heaven, and long may it continue because
00:22:57it's a fun story to get behind, but he is a guy with a lot of race riding experience,
00:23:034700 races, 788 wins. Yeah, who cares if he's ring rusty?
00:23:09Right, right. Now we all love these underdog stories, and there's another one opening day
00:23:13at Oaklawn Park on Friday. Tyler's tribe is coming back in the Advent stakes after that debacle
00:23:18in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf where he bled and was manned off the track.
00:23:22I talked to trainer Tim Martin, says the horse is doing great. He's not real. He can go back
00:23:26on LASIKs for this race. It is at five and a half furlongs, and he looks dominant on paper.
00:23:32If he runs back to his best races coming out of Prairie Meadows, he should win this race,
00:23:38and then the questions will begin again. Is he just a sprinter, or might you try him
00:23:42in some of those Oaklawn races on the route to the Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby?
00:23:47I have no idea if he's going to go long or not. The trainer seems to think he will,
00:23:50but again, you talk about cool horses and cool stories. The little horse out of Iowa
00:23:55is coming in and now taking on the big league horses at Oaklawn Park,
00:23:59though this race didn't come up very strong. He should win.
00:24:02Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at the PPs right now. It's a field of nine, and he draws post position
00:24:08number five. He's three to five with Kylie Jordan back aboard him. To quote the trainer,
00:24:15Tim Martin, he's an archipred. Basically, he broke him in Arkansas at his training center.
00:24:21He just never got a chance to run there. They took him to Prairie Meadows and ran him at Prairie
00:24:24Meadows in his juvenile year. He's been there before, and he's going to get a chance to show us
00:24:30what he's made of. He did have a bleeding episode in the Breeders' Cup. Hopefully, he's had enough
00:24:35time to regroup from that. He will be back on LASIK. He is a high weight in here at 124 pounds.
00:24:41Some of these get in light with 117 pounds, a horse drawn right on the outside of the field.
00:24:47Happy is a choice. It's a pretty nice colt by Run Happy. He gets in light there with first time
00:24:52LASIKs. We'll see what Tyler's tribe can do. I know you'll be rooting for him because you
00:24:56are his number one fan. I'm his biographer. I love this horse. It's too early to answer
00:25:02the question, but do you see anything in this horse that suggests he can't go a distance
00:25:09or that he can go a distance? He might be able to go a distance at Oak Lawn on a sloppy track.
00:25:14He's by sharp as tech out of a Mission Impossible mare. I don't see why not. I do feel he'll be a
00:25:21better one-turn horse, but the first time is the best time to try it. I've ridden so many horses
00:25:27that can't get two turns, but the very first time they do it, they get around the first turn,
00:25:33and then they get to the second turn, and they're like, oh, okay, well, we'll go around this one too,
00:25:37and then they win. Then the next time you try and do it, it's not quite the same. He'll try it.
00:25:43Why wouldn't you? As long as he runs well enough on Friday to try it. We'll find out. I'll certainly
00:25:49be rooting for him. Three to five in the morning line, not a great betting proposition, but rooting
00:25:53for a good story. It's a quiet weekend of racing coming up, but there is the Grade One Starlet
00:25:59out at Los Alamitos, otherwise known as the Bob Baffert Invitational. He's won it five straight
00:26:03times. TDN Rising Star Faiza is in there, will be the heavy favorite for Baffert to make it six
00:26:09in a row. What do you think of this one, Joy? Yeah, I'm not really sure who else is going to
00:26:13run against Faiza. I do know she was a late supplement. She didn't break her maiden until
00:26:18Delmar Meach broke a maiden in the middle of November and was fantastic doing it. She won
00:26:23by three and a half lengths, but that was under wraps. They did supplement her for $10,000 to the
00:26:28$300,000 Starlet, but the Starlet's still a Grade One, so why wouldn't you? I'm actually really
00:26:33surprised that she wasn't already supplemented. It may have been. Sometimes these things get
00:26:39forgotten about. She forgot to be nominated. I don't know, but she most definitely will be the
00:26:44one to beat in the Starlet. Yeah, $10,000 doesn't sound like a lot of money to pay for a horse that's
00:26:49going to be the big favorite in a $300,000 race, so we will take a look at that, and then the
00:26:53following week, we'll have the Los Alamitos Futurity. I always root for Los Alamitos meat.
00:26:57I think it's kind of forgotten about for good reason with Delmar and Sandinita, but those
00:27:03people have tried really hard, and to have come up with the thoroughbred meat has really been a big
00:27:07feather in the cap and really helped California racing, so horsemen support Los Alamitos. You
00:27:12don't do enough of that. These guys deserve to have some good races out there, so good luck to
00:27:17them with the Starlet. It looks like we'll see another new jockey arriving in Southern California.
00:27:21Luis Contreras has arrived in Southern California, and he's a very, very good rider. He's going to
00:27:28join the ranks. He's actually going to ride the Los Alamitos, try and get his foot in the door with
00:27:33jocks agent Mike Siani. We'll see what he can do, but it looks like the Jockey Colony, they might
00:27:38have to build a bigger jocks room. I mean, it's going to be a terrific Jockey Colony here this
00:27:43winter at Sandinita. You know, and it's a good point too because it's gone from being arguably
00:27:49a real wheat colony. I mean, you know, when you had a lot of people leave, and you had Juan Hernandez,
00:27:58and then Mike Smith doesn't ride that much, and really who else? Now you bring Pratt in, you bring
00:28:04Frankie DeTorre in, you bring John Velasquez, you bring Luis Contreras in. It's gone from a weakness
00:28:10to a major strength overnight. It'll be very interesting to see what DeTorre can do. I just
00:28:15wonder if he's going to get any mounts from Bob Baffert, and there's so many people that,
00:28:21you know, Baffert is giving mounts to already. I don't know how he's going to fit DeTorre in,
00:28:24and if he doesn't, I think DeTorre's not going to be able to find that three-year-old he's looking
00:28:28for, but we'll see. He's got plenty of horses. I think his main goal right now is to get back on
00:28:33country grammar and take Mount Saudi. I mean, that could pay for your whole winter there,
00:28:37winning the Saudi Cup. Yeah, of course, yes. So it'll be good. We also have the leading rider
00:28:43coming down from Woodbine as well. Oh yeah, Kimura, very good rider as well.
00:28:49I think you'll see him on a lot of horses trained by one Phil DeMarta.
00:28:54The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Lane's End. The Lane's End Stallion of the
00:28:59week is West Coast. The champion three-year-old had his first two-year-olds this year,
00:29:03including Sally Sassy, who won the Golden Gate debutante on November the 25th,
00:29:09and Mars Express, who won the Eleanor Casey Memorial on the very same day. West Coast will
00:29:14stand for $10,000 in 2023. We'll be right back after this message from Lane's End.
00:29:21Tonalist, a four-time grade one winner with 11 triple-digit buyers, including the Belmont Stakes
00:29:28and the Cigar Mile. He's already living up to his potential as a sire with multiple graded stakes
00:29:35winners, including grade one winner Country Grammar and grade two winner Tonalist Shape,
00:29:41plus multiple six-figure yearling and two-year-old sales. Proven on the track,
00:29:46proven in the sales ring. Tonalist, standing at Lane's End.
00:29:52The Green Group Guest of the Week is sponsored by The Green Group,
00:29:56an accounting and tax consulting advisory firm specializing in the thoroughbred industry.
00:30:01With over 500 clients in the horse business, they have proven strategies to save you taxes.
00:30:07Learn more about how they can help you at www.greenco.com.
00:30:13And we welcome in now our Green Group Guest of the Week, Norman Lynn Cash,
00:30:16a guy in a very short period of time as an owner of trainers making a lot of headlines.
00:30:21He's of course is the trainer of Beverly Park, that magnificent horse who's raced 28 times this
00:30:26year with 13 wins. Lynn, welcome. It's great to have you. I want to talk to you for a while
00:30:30because you're doing things so differently than most trainers do, running these horses,
00:30:35you know, seven weeks, excuse me, seven days apart, two weeks apart, etc. But first of all,
00:30:40you kind of really did come out of the middle of nowhere. You've only been in the game for a while.
00:30:44What's your background and how did all this get started?
00:30:47Well, I was a roofing contractor for a lot of my life. And we would go to where hailstorms
00:30:55happen and we would set up an office there and bring our group there and do roofing. And
00:31:01we were in, I think it was 2011, we were in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I was so surprised
00:31:09like, wow, I could drive to the Kentucky Derby. I'd always wanted to go. I'd never been able to go.
00:31:13I'd always been a huge fan. And so we drove to the Derby. We actually caught the Derby,
00:31:19the Preakness and the Belmont that year. I think it was 11, it might have been 12.
00:31:25But it was the year that I'll have another one, the Derby. And it came out that I'll have another
00:31:29was bought at auction just as a two-year-old the year before by, I think Doug O'Neill was a trainer.
00:31:38And I told my wife, I said, wow, we could own a thoroughbred. We could own a racehorse.
00:31:44How fun would that be? And so we kind of jumped in. We bought three that year.
00:31:49Had a little bit of success, but not necessarily. And then for about six or seven years,
00:31:55we were an owner of two or three on good years would buy a couple at auction. And on tougher
00:32:05years, we didn't have any extra money to do that. And so after about six or seven years,
00:32:11I finally told my wife, I said, you know what? I think if we make a couple of small changes,
00:32:16I can make a living doing this. And so I kind of handed the reins of my roofing company
00:32:22to my children. And we started claiming racehorses. And so far, we've knocked on wood.
00:32:31So far, we've done well. Now, it's very hard for an owner. If they don't get really lucky
00:32:37or catch lightning in a bottle to make money year after year in this business,
00:32:42were you aware of that? I mean, did anybody tell you, Lynn, stay with your roofing business.
00:32:48That's guaranteed money. Training and owning horses is hard.
00:32:51Well, I got a very expensive education over those six or seven years. And with just a few racers,
00:33:06the bills come in. And yeah, we experienced firsthand how difficult it is to make a living
00:33:16doing that. But as I evaluated things, I thought claiming would be better,
00:33:25because then you've got less time before races. You've got the horses already fit.
00:33:30You have some other things that can go wrong. And believe me, there's a lot of things that
00:33:34can go wrong and have gone wrong. But it seems like there's more things that can go right,
00:33:41or it seems to work for us. And we started running the horses probably a little more often
00:33:48than a lot of the status quo or the industry standards. I personally think 11 or 12 days
00:33:58is absolutely perfect and works for me. But a lot of times, you can't find that race
00:34:05at 11 or 12 days. You either have to go in at nine days or 19 or 20 days. And so, if I have
00:34:13that option, I go nine days as long as the horse is fit and in good shape and no issues. I go nine
00:34:21days every time instead of the 19 days for it. And again, I think at 10 or 11 days, you can get
00:34:3098% out of what the horse has to give you back. I think he's recuperated. He's ready to go. And
00:34:38because at nine or 10 days, usually you're working the horse anyway after a race. You're giving him
00:34:47an almost race-like work. And I thought, well, maybe we should just race him into fitness instead
00:34:54of work him into fitness. Now, you said you told your wife you think you can make a living
00:35:00doing this. Is it working? You don't have to tell me exactly how much you're making. But
00:35:05is this now something where it's more than just a hobby or a fun thing to do on the side?
00:35:11Is this how the cash family now is putting food on the table?
00:35:14Yeah. We still have the roofing company that goes that my kids run and that provides for a lot of
00:35:22the cash family. But yeah, we are profitable. We're turning a profit, I think, all but one
00:35:28month in 18 months. We've turned a profit, which means we made more money than it cost us
00:35:36for the bills and so forth. And so we had one month where we didn't get a lot of races in,
00:35:41and that was the month. But other than that, we're a pretty sound and pretty profitable
00:35:48business, Built Right Stables is. Now, did this change come about so far as
00:35:53profitability when you kind of saw the light and said, I can run these horses every nine days?
00:36:00Is that what happened? Is that what changed your fortunes?
00:36:03Well, I've had some really good claims. You talked about Beverly Park. I mean, that horse is,
00:36:09I think he's probably the epitome of the short race, of the short rest for the race. But if you
00:36:17look at the rest of them, they do from time to time run on the shorter rest. But the days have
00:36:22actually spread out a little bit. There was a time about a year ago, I was trying to get things,
00:36:29trying to get landed on my feet last winter and ran some things and it didn't work. And so we
00:36:38stepped back and evaluated. And if you take Beverly Park out of contention, you'd probably
00:36:46find that it's not, I'm not running, I'm not waiting three weeks, but I'm not running the
00:36:52seven, eight days a lot, even though it doesn't bother me to, you know, I had a horse double
00:36:56crown that won the Kelso, which was a grade two. He was on seven days rest. You know, we felt like
00:37:03he didn't get completely used up because he had a bad trip seven days earlier in the Maryland
00:37:09Millions classic race. He ran fourth that day and really could never get free. And so we put him
00:37:17back in the Kelso, which was at Aqueduct and we're 42 to one shot. But again, there was only six
00:37:26horses in the field and sometimes races set up and things happen that the unexpected comes in.
00:37:34When you see other trainers run horses five times a year, two months off in between races,
00:37:39I'm not saying that, you know, you know better than, or you're a better trainer than them,
00:37:44but it's so contrary to what you do. Do you scratch your head? You wonder why there's not
00:37:48more people doing it the way you're doing it. Well, one that there's, you know, there's a lot of
00:37:55logistics involved and we've got about 50 horses and we ship, you know, we don't,
00:38:02we're not at a track where we just run at that track. And so there's a lot of shipping and a lot
00:38:06of logistics and a lot of work, but I don't know what they, I've found what works for us
00:38:15is doing this because, you know, I don't have any owners. And so at the end of the month,
00:38:23if I don't earn enough purse money, I have to pull that out of my bank account instead
00:38:28of the company bank account. And so we try to clear every month and it just seems like,
00:38:35just seems like we're getting good results. You know, we've, I don't know, we're winning about
00:38:4115% on the year. I think the last six months were closer to 20 because we had a really
00:38:47poor start at the beginning of the year, last year, trying to get my feet under me and so forth
00:38:52and get things figured out, but it seems to be working for us. And so it, you know, we,
00:38:59we reevaluate all the time. Sometimes it's like, wow, why did we do that? What were we thinking?
00:39:03And then other times like, man, we, that really worked out well.
00:39:08Now, most of the horses you have are horses you claimed. You made some very good claims,
00:39:13none better than Beverly Park, but is there anything in particular, what do you look for
00:39:17when you claim a horse? One, I like to, you mentioned earlier, I like to see the lightly
00:39:23raced horses. You know, some of these horses that have only run five or six times in a year, that
00:39:29is really, is really nice because again, they, you know, we've, we've kind of got more of a blue
00:39:35collar barn they're going to run unless there's issues in our barn. And I, I typically look for
00:39:43back class. I like a horse that has ran really tough at some point in its life, and maybe it's
00:39:51not running well now, or maybe it had a layoff and so forth, or maybe, maybe the owners get
00:39:58frustrated and say, oh, let's just put it in and get a win because they're frustrated because maybe
00:40:03they're trying to get their bills paid. Right. And so we, you know, I really like the two other than
00:40:09a back for the tag level, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the two X, I call them. I,
00:40:16I really liked that race that came out of, we've had, we've probably got half a dozen that are just
00:40:21really monsters that have come out of that particular race and not for that, for that much
00:40:26money. But my best claims, I believe have been right. You know, 40, 40 and under, even though
00:40:33I had Sir Alfred James, which was, he's probably he's earned the most for us. He's, he's my top
00:40:38horse, but he was a 60 to five claim, but we've had, you know, double crown was a $40,000 claim.
00:40:45Eastern Bay was, he's won four race for, he was a $35,000 claim. We've just got,
00:40:53been very lucky and very successful with, with the claims.
00:41:00And Lynn, right now, Beverly Park's becoming a fan favorite. I mean, this iron horse that is
00:41:04out there. Now you run most of your horses a lot, but nothing like Beverly Park. If you do the math,
00:41:11he averages a start every 12 days during the year. Is there anything in particular about this horse,
00:41:18his constitution, his makeup that he is, you know, the proverbial iron horse?
00:41:23Well, he's, he's the most sound and healthy horse that I've been around. You know, we've
00:41:31a lot of, as a matter of fact, he's, he's in it Mahoning on Monday for his 29th start, but
00:41:41he just, he is very sound and the type of race that he's running in.
00:41:48There are some really tough horses in there, but for the most part, a lot of the, there's only,
00:41:54for the most part, it's not a complete full field of really, really
00:41:58tough horses. He's running in a starter five, which he runs at the same and against the same
00:42:03race level. And he's not in for the claiming price, but he just runs over and over that in
00:42:08that starter five level. And, you know, he's, as we, as we come towards the end of the year here,
00:42:15I lose that starter five eligibility with him in a lot of the tracks around the country, you know,
00:42:21in 30 days here, there'll be a few that I can still run for the whole two years. But, but for
00:42:27the most part, it's, you know, as soon as, as soon as we get to the, to, to where he's, he has
00:42:31no more tracks, we'll give him, we'll give him a little freshening and, and, and then go see if he
00:42:37can, he can win at the two other than level and, and, you know, see what he can do after that.
00:42:44Does he ever show any fatigue, any signs of wear and tear? Does he ever tell you,
00:42:47hey boss, I need this week off?
00:42:49You know, there, there, there, there, there have been some that,
00:42:55there, there have been some races that, that after the race, I said, wow, he was, again,
00:43:01the reason that we run second or the reason we run second or third was because he was
00:43:06maybe only at 96% instead of a little more rest. But for the most part, when, when he,
00:43:12you know, two, three days after, after he runs, he's back, you know, jumping,
00:43:16he's at the front of the stall. He's, you know, just, just out there and ready to go.
00:43:22He's ready to go the track. If we, if we hold him and make him gallop slow or jog,
00:43:28he actually gets mad. You can just see him as he throws his head around and he's,
00:43:33he just, he just, he just wants to go. He's just such a competitor, you know, he's, and,
00:43:38and, and the, and the iron horse, it absolutely fits him. You know, we've, we, we've not had to
00:43:45do any work on him. We've, I mean, he's just there. He's, he's just, you know, he's had,
00:43:51we never have any, any pressure in any of his joints. I mean, he's just a,
00:43:57he's an incredibly sound horse. You know, he's just the epitome of, of a workhorse.
00:44:03You know, he just goes out and even, you know, sometimes, sometimes he gets a, a, not the trip
00:44:09we want, or sometimes racing happens and this happens and we didn't get a good hole or whatever,
00:44:15but every time he gives everything that he has, you know, sometimes he, you know,
00:44:20sometimes he, he, he goes too soon because he pushes out there and then we get caught at the
00:44:25wire and stuff. But he gives everything he has every time. He's just such a, such a sweet and
00:44:30amazing horse. Right. Lynn, he's, for all practical purposes, he's wrapped up the title of,
00:44:36he will be the winningest horse in 2022. You know, you know, whether you get 14 wins, 15 wins or not,
00:44:42there's no one that's even close to him. For someone who's relatively new to the game,
00:44:46what does it mean to you to have said, you know, I campaigned the horse that won the most races
00:44:50of any horse in an entire year? I can tell you that it's about 98% horse and 2% trainer. I just
00:44:59happened to grab his, his coattails. He was, and he's drug me, drug me along with him, but, but
00:45:06yeah, we're a good fit too, because I think in a lot of barns, he wouldn't have had the opportunity
00:45:12for this because he wouldn't have had as many races. His win percentage probably would have
00:45:17been higher because on three or three and a half weeks rest, he probably wins 85 or 90% of his
00:45:24races this year. And, and, but, but again, it just, you know, in stables, we, we just have to
00:45:33weigh, you know, time versus time versus races versus time off and versus purse money. You know,
00:45:42again, where I tell people that this is a business and I'm trying and I'm running a business that
00:45:50happens to be horses, you know, I have to do what's good for the horses, but I have to make
00:45:56business decisions too, so that the business turns a profit so that, so that we can keep doing this.
00:46:01And, you know, we're growing, I don't know, you know, we're, we're growing, it seems like, you
00:46:06know, two or three horses a month, we're growing. I don't know, you know, where it, I don't know,
00:46:11I don't know when it stops growing, but, but yeah, I'm having the time of my life here. It's, it's,
00:46:16you know, they say, oh, I've changed careers, but, but I don't know that I have, because
00:46:21I don't know, I can't call this work, you know, it just, it's, it's, you know, this horse racing
00:46:26is addictive. You said that back in time, you did go to the sales and buy a few horses. Now,
00:46:32you know, you have one, a graded stakes race in the Kelso, but do you ever see yourself,
00:46:37you know, trying to win at the stakes level and, and enable, well, obviously if you claim a horse
00:46:43and he jumps up in class, it's good enough to win a race like the Kelso, that's one thing,
00:46:47but would you ever go to the sales, maybe not spend a million dollars on a horse, but spend
00:46:51150, 200,000 on the horse? Would you ever like to take this way of doing things and transfer it from
00:46:57the claiming ranks into graded stakes ranks? Oh, I would, I would, I would love the opportunity to,
00:47:05to have two year olds come into the barn, you know, I mean, what a dream to have, you know,
00:47:11half a dozen, $50,000 two year olds come into the barn that have the potential that,
00:47:17that maybe they could work into something. You know, it seems, seems like I'm, seems like here
00:47:22at our barn, if I look at most of the horses, probably 85 or 90% of the horses that we claim,
00:47:31they do move up. They move up as far as the, the, the speed ratings that they do,
00:47:37the level that they're running, et cetera. You know, but there's still that 10 or 15%
00:47:43that either don't move up or, or stay where they're at. And, and, and, but the nice thing is,
00:47:49is it with, with the claiming, it seems like even if they don't move up, you don't get hit really
00:47:55hard. You know, sometimes when you, you know, the, the most expensive horse that I bought at auction
00:48:01was, was 155. And I still have him in the barn and, and, and I've gotten out on him. He, he won
00:48:07a main special at Churchill Hippodrome is his name. But before that I had spent a hundred thousand on,
00:48:12on one horse. And I mean, this, this turned into, to a two or $250,000 loss, that one horse,
00:48:23because, you know, two and a half years later we gave the horse away to get him off the books,
00:48:29to stop paying, you know, to stop paying the bills on him and, you know, to keep a horse for,
00:48:34for two years. And he was, you know, he's a hundred thousand dollar gelding running in a
00:48:38maiden five. And, and it just, you know, just it, it seemed to me, it seems like when you,
00:48:44for me, when we get into those types of things, it seems like you're risking a lot of,
00:48:49of, of, you're risking a lot where it seems, you know, this is proven and working.
00:48:54And, and, but, but, but so we do venture out a little bit here and there, but, but again,
00:48:58you gotta, you know, I, you know, I limit myself to two maidens a year. You know, I kind of think
00:49:04that maidens are sometimes maidens are, are, are bought on hopes and dreams. And so the price for
00:49:11hopes and dreams is a lot sometimes. And so I, I try to claim just two, two maidens, two maidens a
00:49:17year so that I can have that dream of one of them coming up and, and, and, you know, maybe running
00:49:23in the Derby someday, but, but for the most part, just, you know, we just, we do what works. If it
00:49:29ain't broke, we don't fix it. And that'll probably always be the 80 or 90% of, of our, of our stable
00:49:36there is, is the, the basis, you know, the basic, you know, claiming and trying to claim good
00:49:41horses. And surprisingly, we run in six or seven or eight stakes a month with the claimers. You
00:49:48know, we, we don't, you know, we've got, but, but again, it, we, we don't, you know, we were probably
00:49:54in over our heads in the cigar. We ran in the cigar mile last Sunday. We ran over the heads,
00:50:00the horse that, that won the grade two, didn't like the track. And so, but, but again, it was,
00:50:04it was still fun. It's still fun to say, wow, to throw your hat in the ring and say, wow, we're,
00:50:09we're kind of there, you know, we're having, we're having fun along the way.
00:50:13Terrific. Well, then thanks so much for your time and congratulations with all your success.
00:50:17Will Beverly Park get two more starts before the end of the year? Do you have anything after
00:50:21the Mahoning race? Probably one more after that race. Yeah, absolutely. That would make 30 starts
00:50:25for him in the year. Just remarkable what you've accomplished. So, well, Lynn, thank you so much
00:50:29for being our guest this week on the TDN Writers Room Podcast. Okay. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
00:50:35Thanks so much to Norman Lynn Cash for joining us or perhaps just joining Bill. I was in New
00:50:40Orleans and completely forgot about the time. You know how it is. Happy times in New Orleans,
00:50:45but the Green Group Guest of the Week is sponsored by the Green Group,
00:50:49an accounting and tax consulting advisory firm specializing in the thoroughbred industry. As
00:50:54this week's Guest of the Week, Norman Lynn Cash, you will receive a free one-hour tax consultation.
00:51:01Learn more at www.greenco.com. We'll be right back after this message from the Green Group.
00:51:09Why do the most successful owners, breeders, and horsemen select the Green Group as their
00:51:13tax advisor? We simply save them money and know how to make them more successful. Over the past
00:51:1740 years, founder Leonard Green has owned and bred some of the best racehorses in the history
00:51:22of the sport. His in-depth, hands-on industry knowledge combined with cutting-edge tax-saving
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00:51:42proven strategies to save you taxes. With some of the fullest fields in the country
00:51:48and quality racing year-round, there's never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and
00:51:54racing in Kentucky. Purse money in Kentucky is at an all-time high, as is average purse per race,
00:52:01outpacing California, Florida, and New York. Kentucky Breds. Breed them. Raise them. Race them.
00:52:11We all win.
00:52:15The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by the KTOB. Kentucky Breds swept all four Grade 1 races
00:52:22over the last two weeks. Proxy in the Grade 1 Clark, Mind Control in the Cigar Mile,
00:52:28Speaking Scout in the Hollywood Derby, and Regal Glory in the Matriarch.
00:52:59Until this news came out, he was going to take this to trial,
00:53:02where he had zero chance of winning. Not 1%, zero chance of winning. That brings up a lot of
00:53:09factors. Number one, what are his legal bills? How much has he been paying out of his pocket
00:53:13to be represented all this time by a very high-profile lawyer who I'm sure charges an
00:53:18awful lot of money? The other question, if you take it to trial and you lose, you're going to
00:53:24get a maximum sentence. You've lost any bargaining chip that you had. Most of these guys in the
00:53:31scandal have been going away for three years, something like that. Service is facing a lot more
00:53:36time than that. He's up for three counts of this misbranding thing, whatever they call it,
00:53:43drug adulteration thing. The key to this, there was a superseding indictment that came out after
00:53:50this happened. They put in a mail and wire fraud charge, conspiracy charge as well on that.
00:53:55That's 20 years in jail. Jason Service, if he's not careful here, could be facing literally the
00:54:01rest of his life in prison. If so, good riddance, that's where he belongs. I've never understood the
00:54:09strategy here. Was he deluding himself into thinking he was going to go to trial and be
00:54:14acquitted? It just wasn't going to happen. Maybe in the next week or so, we'll find out that he
00:54:19pleads guilty. Then we'll get a sentence somewhere down the line after that. Then this will really
00:54:25finally be over. He's the last one out there. Everyone else has been dealt with at this point.
00:54:30I guess that raises the question if there'll be another set of indictments coming out after this.
00:54:35I don't think there will be. I think this is it. They dotted all the I's, crossed all the T's.
00:54:40The federal government is going to move on. It looks like Jason Service is going to spend some
00:54:44time in prison, right where he belongs. Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you
00:54:49more. I think perhaps the more discerning factor of him maybe going to plead guilty is that his
00:54:55vet changed his plea to guilty as well, which is going to hammer the nail in his coffin, so to speak.
00:55:03I don't know. Maybe he was getting bad advice. I've got no idea why it took so long. When you've
00:55:08got guys like Navarro pleading guilty and getting five years, in my opinion, he should have got a
00:55:13whole lot more than that. Why wouldn't you follow suit? I think he's going to get more than five
00:55:19years because of this extra charge. They didn't go after Navarro on that kind of charge. They
00:55:25stuck to the drug adulteration and misbranding charges with Navarro. He's going to spend a lot
00:55:30of time in jail. Then maybe racing can move on from this very sorry, sordid chapter.
00:55:37Hopefully, we won't ever see anything like this again. I don't want to go into this because we
00:55:42could spend another 45 minutes talking about Haiza and what's going on there. Hopefully,
00:55:47the sport is ready to turn a corner and have a new era of more integrity whatsoever.
00:55:52There was another kind of controversial case. I think we need to see more stuff like this.
00:55:58That's basically what Haiza was trying to bring in with five stones. The reason they got caught
00:56:04is not because of the testing. It was because they were investigated. They were wiretapped.
00:56:09Racing needs more of this. We don't need more bad press and saying,
00:56:13this guy's cheating and this guy's cheating. This is how these guys were caught.
00:56:17Exactly. That's one of the things that we've been bringing up. Before Haiza, the system of
00:56:22just doing drug testing doesn't work. None of these horses for Navarro and service ever fail
00:56:27the drug test. I have mixed feelings about that. I want to see the bad guys get caught, obviously.
00:56:32I just hope there's not that many more bad guys out there. Whatever, we'll find out. This was an
00:56:38ugly chapter in horse racing. I'm sure everyone would like to put it behind him. Anyways, let's
00:56:43move on to another case similar of alleged drug offenses. Richard Balthus was announced this week.
00:56:49Boy, they hammered him. CHRB gave him a one-year suspension. He allegedly was
00:56:57injecting horses on race day. The drugs were something, let's see.
00:57:02Dosing, not injecting. Dosing.
00:57:04What's that?
00:57:05Not injecting. Dosing, an oral syringe.
00:57:08Oh, okay. Thanks for pointing that out. It's something called Palinol. I don't know what
00:57:13they are whatsoever. This thing is messy, Zoe. First of all, this happened months ago. I have
00:57:20no idea why the CHRB waited all this time to announce the suspension. In the interim, he was
00:57:26banned by Santa Anita, the other tracks. He's countersuing for $12 million. The one thing that I
00:57:33would say though, again, I don't know Balthus that well. He deserves his day in court. Let's see what
00:57:39happens. He's apparently going to get his day in court because he's really fighting this.
00:57:42The one thing I would say is those of us who sit on the sidelines and say,
00:57:47we're tired of the slaps on the wrist. This guy got caught, he gets 14 days, etc. Tired of the
00:57:53slaps on the wrist. Well, if you're tired of slaps on the wrist, you got to applaud the CHRB for
00:57:57giving this guy a one-year suspension. There is a suspension with a lot of teeth in that.
00:58:03The only thing I'd say is it looks like on the surface, this case is not as simple as cut and
00:58:07dried. He got caught, bingo, goodbye. We'll see how it winds its way through the courts, etc.
00:58:14Another thing too is you talk about how they caught service in Navarro with drug testing.
00:58:19They caught Balthus with surveillance cameras. I've long wondered, and we've talked about this
00:58:24on the show, why isn't there a surveillance camera in every barn, in every racetrack in
00:58:29the country? This is how they went about this here. Santa Anita has been great about this.
00:58:35They've been really trying very hard to run a clean show, and they're the ones responsible
00:58:40for putting the cameras in the barn. One-year suspension, good for having the cameras in the
00:58:46barn. We'll see what happens with this. Yeah, the cameras are everywhere. I think
00:58:52basically the assistant thought the camera wasn't working. I don't really want to get into it, but
00:58:59none of the horses tested positive for anything illegal so far to speak. He got his 12 months,
00:59:05which is great, but essentially he's going to get 19 months because he hasn't been allowed to work
00:59:10or enter any horses since last May. It's taken a long time to come around. I think the one thing
00:59:17we're going to see moving forward is the CHRB first racing Santa Anita really coming down
00:59:25on people. That's what they've done with trainer Richard Balthus. He's going to fight it.
00:59:29He's going to appeal, and this is probably going to be drug out for some time. As of now,
00:59:34he's not even allowed to run any horses here. Yeah. I mean, even if he appeals,
00:59:39he's not going to be able to race because that's not a CHRB thing. It's the tracks in California
00:59:45getting together and not allowing him to run. No matter what happens, it's going to be a long time
00:59:49before he gets back in action. As they say, stay tuned for that. Absolutely. Oh, and you've probably
00:59:57never seen the cameras at Santa Anita. It is amazing. You could go into the room. There is
01:00:02literally a camera in every stall everywhere. Gone are the days when someone used to run in
01:00:09to go to the bathroom and relieve themselves in the back of the stall, because if you do,
01:00:13you're going to be on camera. You are definitely going to be on camera. You can applaud Santa Anita
01:00:19for that too, because there is nothing that goes by without being seen on camera here.
01:00:26The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by XBTV. You can go in every day for free and take a look
01:00:31at works like this. XBTV's Work of the Week is Queen Goddess. Seen working here in 102 and 1
01:00:38on December the 4th, she ran second to Neige Blanche in the Grade 3 Santa Barbara in her last start,
01:00:44and she is a Grade 1 winner. XBTV.com for all your racing needs. We'll be right back.
01:01:01So
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01:01:52The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds. Joining West Point
01:01:57Thoroughbreds can have you standing in the winner's circle for just a fraction of the price.
01:02:02To find out more, go to westpointtb.com. And it's not all about Flightline. West Point
01:02:09Thoroughbreds is closing in on the end of the year. They already have $8.5 million in earnings.
01:02:16They have 47 wins on the year. So we'll be watching to see if they can get to 50 by the
01:02:22close of December. Bill, that's pretty good. 50 wins, and it's not all about Flightline.
01:02:29Well, three of them were for Flightline, so that would be 47 if they get to 50 for other horses.
01:02:35So congratulations to West Point. Another terrific year for them. Yeah, absolutely. westpointtb.com.
01:02:42This week's Remy Block cartoon is in, and it's a takeoff on the referees at the World Cup. But
01:02:48this time the referee is adjudicating all that's going on with hiss and horse racing. He's throwing
01:02:52yellow cards out all over the place, looks confused. So racing meets the World Cup in our
01:02:58convoluted, weird way that we are battling the courts for everything that's going on with the
01:03:03Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act. So anyways, that wraps up another edition of the TDN Writers
01:03:08Room. I want to thank Zoe Cadman. Randy Moss will be back next week. I also want to thank our
01:03:13producer Patty Wolf, our associate producer Katie Petrudiak, and also our editors Aaliyah
01:03:18LaRocca and Anthony LaRocca. We'll be back next week. Thanks for joining us.