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00:00:00For the love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:00:28Good morning, it is January 18th at 1109 a.m. and welcome to another edition of the TDN
00:00:33Writer's Room podcast.
00:00:34I'm your host Bill Finley, I'm a correspondent for the TDN and I co-host a radio show on
00:00:39Sirius XM every Saturday with Dave Johnson.
00:00:41Please tune in.
00:00:42Hey guys, happy January 18th, I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports with Lucy Standing Guard in
00:00:48the background.
00:00:49Zoe Cabman here with First Racing and Santa Anita and XBTV, Doodle's right behind me.
00:00:55It's January the 18th and I am flying through dry January guys, I just wanted to throw that
00:01:01out there.
00:01:02Wait a minute, dry January, I don't follow, fill me in.
00:01:05It's raining a lot out there, what do you mean?
00:01:08Oh, I see, okay, okay, duh, sorry about that.
00:01:12Yes, Santa Anita of course had to cancel on Saturday and on Monday over the weekend.
00:01:18Speaking of Santa Anita, I wanted to kick off the story, you know, look, as writers
00:01:23we spend a lot of time talking about the bad news in horse racing because frankly there
00:01:27is a lot of bad news.
00:01:28It's nice to talk about the good news and going back to 2019 was one of the darkest
00:01:33periods in racing history.
00:01:35Lucy just moved by the way, I mean about an eighth of an inch.
00:01:38It's shocking, I know.
00:01:40Yeah, shocking.
00:01:41Okay, 2019, one of the worst chapters in horse racing history when there was all those breakdowns
00:01:47at Santa Anita.
00:01:48It was front page news in the LA Times and on the six o'clock news every night.
00:01:53I mean a really awful period and some people were really thinking that the sport was going
00:01:57to perhaps be outlawed in California.
00:01:59Zoe's employer, the Stornet Group First Racing, they got together and said we've got to fix
00:02:04this darn thing.
00:02:05Fast forward about three and a half years later, boy have they fixed it and they provided
00:02:09us with some statistics this week.
00:02:11In 2022, there was not a single breakdown in a dirt race at Santa Anita during the entire
00:02:19year.
00:02:21There were 12 fatalities, we want the number to be zero, but they were along the lines
00:02:25of other things, some sudden deaths, there were horses in training.
00:02:28In the afternoon, racing on the dirt, no fatalities and that comes on the heels of a Del Mar year
00:02:34where at both meets, zero fatalities during racing as well.
00:02:39Randy, certainly welcome good news and you've got to give the Stornet Group tremendous amount
00:02:45of credit.
00:02:46It looks like they've gone from one extreme to the other.
00:02:48Well, they deserve a tremendous amount of credit and I don't think, given the stature
00:02:54of the animal rights lobby nowadays in the 21st century, I don't think it's a sensationalistic
00:03:02take to say that the very existence of Santa Anita might have been in question unless they
00:03:07turned things around and it took a group effort.
00:03:10It took the racetrack, it took the veterinarians, it took the horsemen to all collaborate and
00:03:16try to get this thing turned around.
00:03:19Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to get nearly as much news coverage on the
00:03:26TV and in the newspapers about what Santa Anita has done positively since then as you've
00:03:32got in terms of negative coverage back in 2019, but that's just the nature of the news
00:03:36cycles and the nature of the beast.
00:03:39But yes, I agree that they deserve a tremendous amount of credit for getting a handle on this.
00:03:44Zoe, you're right there, your boots on the ground.
00:03:48What is going right?
00:03:49I mean, everything is going right.
00:03:51Kudos to the Stronach Group, First Racing and the horsemen because there are a lot of
00:03:57old school horsemen out here that didn't take lightly to the veterinary checks that went
00:04:02on.
00:04:03But at the end of the day, you have to acquiesce for horse racing to move forward in California.
00:04:08There's a vegan restaurant on every corner.
00:04:11This is a different country we're living in, in Southern California.
00:04:15California on a whole is completely different.
00:04:18I always feel like we're on an island out here.
00:04:21And as far as horse racing, we are.
00:04:24And the fact that we had to acquiesce just a little bit to Peter, a lot of people were
00:04:28saying, well, why are you bending over to placate those guys?
00:04:33Well, this is the world that we live in.
00:04:35And we were in very, very much danger of shutting down.
00:04:41So I think there were, let me see, I wrote it down, 5,381 veterinary exams performed
00:04:48on 4,673 horses last year in California.
00:04:55And it just goes to show the scrutiny these horses are under.
00:04:59And some of them pass and some of them don't.
00:05:01And it's down to the horsemen and the vets on a whole.
00:05:05And of course, we have the best track maintenance here in Southern California as well to just
00:05:09get this thing going.
00:05:10And it's going in the right direction.
00:05:12It's not perfect.
00:05:14I'm not sure it could ever be perfect when you're dealing with four-legged animals.
00:05:19But it's certainly on the right track.
00:05:21Yeah.
00:05:22And one of the things I learned from writing this story was how successful these veterinary
00:05:27checks have been.
00:05:28And, you know, basically to put it into, you know, layman's language, they basically put
00:05:34all these horses under a microscope and they're not going to let anything slip through the
00:05:38cracks. But it makes me wonder about racing as a whole.
00:05:42And, you know, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but when the Jockey Club puts
00:05:46out its numbers at the end of the year, end of the fiscal year, you know, the amount of
00:05:49breakdowns is going down, but it's not going down as dramatically as it has or anywhere
00:05:54near as dramatically as it has at Santa Anita, which leads me to say, why isn't everybody
00:06:01doing what they're doing at Santa Anita?
00:06:03And I know it's, you know, it may not be that practical for other tracks.
00:06:06I'm sure it's very costly.
00:06:08It's very time consuming.
00:06:10And you know, maybe a lesser track just doesn't have the manpower to do something like this.
00:06:15But my goodness, if this is working as well as it is at Santa Anita to have these veterinary
00:06:19checks, it should be done everywhere.
00:06:21You know, we shouldn't just be talking about Santa Anita having no breakdowns.
00:06:25We should be talking about horse racing having as close to no breakdowns as we can possibly
00:06:29get.
00:06:31Yeah, well, unfortunately, it's not just the case in horse racing.
00:06:33It's the case with every other sport in life in general.
00:06:36A lot of times these draconian measures aren't taken unless something's put under a microscope
00:06:42and a racetrack is getting, you know, tremendous negative publicity.
00:06:45Arlington Park had a similar situation way back when, and it led to them switching from
00:06:49a dirt surface to a synthetic surface.
00:06:52It's been a whole sea change out in Southern California.
00:06:55When you think back to what happened in 2019, it wasn't just the lack of veterinary oversight.
00:07:01It wasn't just trainers perhaps pushing the envelope a little too much.
00:07:06If you remember, there was a pretty strong weather component to that in 2019.
00:07:11A very rainy season.
00:07:13The track had to be compacted to get the water off of it over and over and over.
00:07:18And now look what happened this past weekend.
00:07:20Very rainy weekend and Santa Anita just said, we're going to cancel Saturday's racing card.
00:07:26You would never have seen that, I don't think, back in 2019.
00:07:29So a lot of things have changed.
00:07:31And there's a statute that's been put forward that if the track is sealed, they have to
00:07:36have a meeting with the Jockeys Guild.
00:07:38There are like four or five different entities that have to meet together and decide whether
00:07:43racing is safe to go ahead.
00:07:45And I think they're just basically going on the side of caution, which is a very good
00:07:50thing.
00:07:51And to echo your point about Arlington, is it me?
00:07:53I was at Arlington during that terrible rash of breakdowns.
00:07:57I was here.
00:07:58I've seen firsthand, Peter camped out at Arlington Park.
00:08:02Peter camped out at Santa Anita.
00:08:05Greyhound racing is gone in Florida.
00:08:09So I mean, these are real things that go on unless you've seen it firsthand.
00:08:13I mean, there were some days it was hard to even drive in the gates at Santa Anita because
00:08:17they were picketing outside.
00:08:18This is real, absolutely real, the things that are going on.
00:08:23And, you know, yes, it's not sounded out in the news right now.
00:08:27But as far as I'm concerned, no news is good news.
00:08:30Right.
00:08:31And, you know, everybody in horse racing loves to hate PETA.
00:08:33And that's, you know, fine.
00:08:35They give you a lot of reasons to dislike them.
00:08:38And people, I'm sure, were very unhappy with the news coverage.
00:08:41Zoe, you were there.
00:08:42You lived on, you know, from a distance.
00:08:44I wouldn't get the same feel that you did.
00:08:47Aiden Butler, the CEO of First Racing, told me about, you know, the helicopter, you know,
00:08:51the buzz of the helicopters overhead.
00:08:54But had that not happened, I don't think we'd be where we are today.
00:08:58And look, you don't like it.
00:09:00You don't want to ever come.
00:09:02And you know, PETA is public enemy number one for a lot of people in horse racing.
00:09:06But you know, if this might have happened in 1963, it wouldn't have been a big deal.
00:09:11Nobody would have paid any attention to it and nothing would have been fixed.
00:09:15I'm not saying Santa Anita wouldn't have done the right thing anyways,
00:09:18but the fact that their backs were pushed against the wall by PETA and by the news media
00:09:24obviously made it, you know, forced the issue quite some bit.
00:09:28So from an ugly situation and what a lot of people, I'm sure, consider very unfair treatment,
00:09:34some good definitely came from that.
00:09:36And I think a big round of applause needs to go out to Delmar as well,
00:09:41who has followed suit with all the protocols in place at Santa Anita.
00:09:45Obviously, Santa Anita runs for seven months of the year, just about,
00:09:49and Delmar runs for almost three.
00:09:52So there's a little bit of difference there,
00:09:54but the whole of California has really banded together.
00:09:59Very good.
00:10:01The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:10:04The Keeneland January sale concluded last week with solid trade across the board,
00:10:08a total of 962 horses sold for an average price of $47,202,
00:10:16up 3.18% from last year.
00:10:19There was a very deep buying bench.
00:10:22The 15 highest priced horses sold to 14 different entities.
00:10:27We look forward to racing at Keeneland in the spring.
00:10:29The Keeneland Spring Meet begins Friday, April the 7th and runs through April the 28th.
00:10:34We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:10:38If this place could talk,
00:10:46it would roar.
00:10:48It would say,
00:10:50this is racing.
00:10:52This beating heart in the heart of horse country.
00:10:56Steady and strong beneath the roar.
00:11:00Reminding us why.
00:11:02For the love of the horse.
00:11:05For generations to come.
00:11:09He was just put together like a machine and he had a great mind.
00:11:12Everything about him was what you'd want.
00:11:14Tis the law, pops the cork and the champagne.
00:11:17Tis the law is gonna win the first leg of the Triple Crown.
00:11:21I've never seen him get tired.
00:11:23Respect the law.
00:11:24Tis the law.
00:11:25His structure is just perfect.
00:11:27His bone is perfect.
00:11:29He's left the others behind.
00:11:31He's gonna win the Run Happy Travers.
00:11:33He's everything you would look for in a horse.
00:11:39The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Coolmore.
00:11:43Mendelsohn, he's on fire in 2023.
00:11:46He's already had five winners so far this year,
00:11:49which is more than any other second crop sire.
00:11:52His most recent winners include Opus 42,
00:11:55who won the Gasparilla stakes on Saturday at Tampa.
00:11:58Mendelsohn stands for a bargain 25,000 this year at Ashford.
00:12:03Justify his son, Verifying,
00:12:06a half-brother to champ Midnight B. Sue,
00:12:08made his three-year-old debut at Oak Lawn over the weekend.
00:12:11He earned a 97 by a speed figure for trainer Brad Cox,
00:12:15and we'll talk about him
00:12:17just a little bit later on in the show, guys.
00:12:20On Monday, there was a milestone
00:12:22that pretty much went unnoticed in horse racing.
00:12:24On January 16, 2013,
00:12:26trainer Rick Dutrow ran a horse at Aqueduct.
00:12:29From that day on until January 16, 2023,
00:12:34he was essentially, for all practical purposes,
00:12:36suspended for another number of offenses,
00:12:39but he wasn't technically suspended or figuratively
00:12:42or literally suspended.
00:12:43His license was revoked for 10 years.
00:12:46Dutrow is a very controversial figure in New York racing.
00:12:51To put it mildly, he's no choir boy.
00:12:53Think what you want of him,
00:12:55and some people think that he was railroaded,
00:12:58this was the worst thing that ever happened.
00:13:00I'm not so sure about that.
00:13:02He was into a lot of things
00:13:04and did a lot of things that would lead you to believe
00:13:06that maybe there were some problems here,
00:13:09but now the situation is gonna become very tricky here.
00:13:12With his license having been revoked,
00:13:14he's gotta reapply for a license.
00:13:17They're in the process of doing that,
00:13:19and then once the license application is in,
00:13:22will the New York Gaming Commission accept it?
00:13:24So the bottom line question is,
00:13:26have we seen the last of Rick Dutrow
00:13:28or are we getting ready for another chapter of Rick Dutrow?
00:13:32And this would be my opinion on it.
00:13:34Like I said again,
00:13:36I think anybody who says this guy is
00:13:40greatest trainer in the world,
00:13:40greatest horse in the world,
00:13:41didn't deserve any penalty,
00:13:43they're burying their head in the sand.
00:13:45But if you revoke somebody for their license for 10 years,
00:13:49you tell them you're gone for 10 years.
00:13:51When the 10 years are up,
00:13:53you can't say, you know what?
00:13:54We're gonna make that 12 years
00:13:55or we're gonna make that 15 years
00:13:56or we're gonna make that the rest of your career.
00:13:58Imagine if you were sent to prison for 10 years
00:14:01and on the last day of your sentence,
00:14:03the warden comes in and says,
00:14:04you know what?
00:14:04We changed our mind.
00:14:05Now it's gonna be 15 years.
00:14:07You can't do that.
00:14:08So as logical as it seems that they will bring them back,
00:14:12hold on here.
00:14:13We're talking about the New York Gaming Commission,
00:14:14which is just,
00:14:17they make so many bizarre rulings.
00:14:19They make so many rulings that I find just wrong
00:14:23and they're very heavy handed.
00:14:26They are not...
00:14:28We go back to the poor clocker they suspended
00:14:30who did absolutely nothing wrong
00:14:31and they suspended the guy for a month and find him.
00:14:33That's who we're dealing with.
00:14:35So Randy, I don't know if Ducro's coming back or not.
00:14:38I do believe he should be let back,
00:14:40but this will be an interesting situation
00:14:41that everybody needs to keep an eye on.
00:14:43Yeah, a great article you wrote on TDN, by the way,
00:14:46detailing all of this stuff.
00:14:48You would like to think that the board
00:14:50would do the right thing
00:14:51for the reasons that you just articulated.
00:14:53But given like, for example, what you pointed out,
00:14:56the bizarre treatment of the clocker,
00:14:58which just makes no sense whatsoever,
00:15:01then it calls into question the ability of the board
00:15:05to do the right thing in the Ducro situation.
00:15:07I've been saying since day one,
00:15:09I understand that Rick is no choir boy
00:15:13and he had transgressions, especially the last one.
00:15:17I could totally go along with what I would have considered
00:15:21to be a harsh suspension,
00:15:23which would have been a year or two.
00:15:25But I thought a 10-year ban was totally over the top.
00:15:31And I still think it had something to do
00:15:36with the industry's anger at Ducro
00:15:40for the whole big brown steroid episode.
00:15:45With Ducro admitting after the Kentucky Derby,
00:15:48or maybe it was after the Preakness,
00:15:50that big brown was being treated with anabolic steroids.
00:15:54By the way, just like almost every other major trainer
00:15:58in America treating some of their horses with.
00:16:02Because they were not illegal.
00:16:03Exactly. It was not illegal at the time.
00:16:07And so I think Ducro was viewed very harshly
00:16:11by many in the industry for outing thoroughbred racing
00:16:16and its use of anabolic steroids at the time.
00:16:18And I thought that played in,
00:16:20resentment played into that 10-year suspension.
00:16:23I think he deserves to be brought back
00:16:25and I hope the board does the right thing.
00:16:29Yeah, he's behaved perfectly in his 10-year suspension.
00:16:33He hasn't bitched, he hasn't moaned.
00:16:35And I cannot imagine a scenario
00:16:38where he will not get licensed.
00:16:40I just can't imagine it.
00:16:42And if there is one, it's bullshit.
00:16:44I'm not sure if I can say that, but I'm going to say it.
00:16:47He's served his penance
00:16:49and he deserves the right to come back.
00:16:51Whether you love him or hate him, it doesn't matter.
00:16:54They wanted to give him 15 years, give him 15 years.
00:16:56They gave him 10.
00:16:57There shouldn't be a day more.
00:17:00And he'll probably do very well when he comes back.
00:17:02I mean, I keep thinking back.
00:17:04I mean, I know there were a lot of suspicions
00:17:06about Ducro at the time.
00:17:08You know, that might've played in this as well.
00:17:11A lot of public sentiment among horse players and such
00:17:15because he was so successful.
00:17:17But anytime Bobby Frankel would bring a horse to New York
00:17:21or someplace where he didn't have a stable presence
00:17:26and Ducro was there,
00:17:28Bobby would always put his horses with Ducro.
00:17:31And I remember Frankel telling me one time,
00:17:33that's because he felt that Ducro was one
00:17:36of the best horsemen,
00:17:37one of the best caretakers of horses out there.
00:17:41And for Frankel to say that about Ducro
00:17:43really opened my eyes.
00:17:44So I think he will be successful if and when he returns.
00:17:49Zoe, I agree with what you said,
00:17:51but I want to make one more point.
00:17:53Never underestimate the stupidity
00:17:55of the New York Gaming Commission.
00:17:56So, you know, let's leave it.
00:17:58I'll leave that to you.
00:18:00I might need to get licensed.
00:18:02Okay.
00:18:03All right.
00:18:04Hey, coming up in a little bit,
00:18:05Will Walden, a trainer who's making a lot of news
00:18:08and is a really interesting story,
00:18:10will be our green group guest of the week.
00:18:13But to just get you ready
00:18:15and whet your appetite a little bit about that,
00:18:17Katie Petruniak, our associate producer here
00:18:19with the TDN Writer's Room podcast,
00:18:22made a trip out to Turfway Park the other day
00:18:24and she did a really, really good video
00:18:27with not only Will, but with his team.
00:18:30And I don't need to tell you too much
00:18:32because it's all explained in the video,
00:18:33but this is a group of guys battling back
00:18:35from substance abuse and it really appeared
00:18:38to have gotten their lives on track.
00:18:39It's a real good story.
00:18:41Listen in.
00:18:44Will Walden's racing stable got off
00:18:46to a fast start in 2022,
00:18:48and they wrapped up the year
00:18:49with their very first stakes winner.
00:18:51We stopped by their barn at Turfway Park
00:18:53and spoke with a few members of the team,
00:18:55which is made up of a group of six men,
00:18:57all working together
00:18:58as they recover from substance abuse.
00:19:01I've worked in a lot of racing barns
00:19:03and this one's kind of unique in and of itself
00:19:06just because this is all recovery-based
00:19:10and oriented.
00:19:11These guys were homeless.
00:19:12They were in jail cells.
00:19:15You know, I went through it myself.
00:19:1812 years of addiction and alcoholism
00:19:20and really what it is,
00:19:22is just giving guys a second chance.
00:19:25Horses are therapeutic.
00:19:26You know what I mean?
00:19:27Most of these guys have never touched a horse.
00:19:29Because of where they came from,
00:19:31their hunger for a purpose
00:19:32and a drive in life,
00:19:34these horses give that to them.
00:19:36I've been sober a little over two years
00:19:38and I'd say 90% of me being sober
00:19:41was around horses.
00:19:43So on the days that it was hard for me to find God,
00:19:47the horses were there.
00:19:48Never in a million years did I think
00:19:50that I'd actually be riding horses for a living.
00:19:53So I started out hot walking,
00:19:55just like anybody does.
00:19:57When we got here, I started tacking
00:19:59and then actually about two or three weeks ago,
00:20:01Will asked me if I wanted to run the shed row.
00:20:06I've got maybe, what,
00:20:08five months of experience with horses right now.
00:20:10So still brand new, still learning a lot.
00:20:13The year's going, I mean, better than expected.
00:20:17We were 21% on the year as a stable,
00:20:2050% in the top three.
00:20:22And we were fortunate enough last month
00:20:25to get our first stakes victory with Kate's Kingdom.
00:20:27The credit goes to this team.
00:20:29They show up every single day.
00:20:30They show up multiple times a day
00:20:32and they break their back for these horses
00:20:34and in turn these horses go out
00:20:35and break their back for them.
00:20:37We're just, we're super grateful
00:20:38with the 15 we have now
00:20:40and we're going to do everything we can
00:20:42to get them in the winner's circle
00:20:44to make them successful.
00:20:45It's just the connection
00:20:47that you can have with the horses.
00:20:49Because like, if you really don't feel
00:20:50like dealing with human beings that day,
00:20:51you go in grooming a horse,
00:20:53you know what I mean?
00:20:53Like, and I know they're listening.
00:20:55I can feel it.
00:20:56I can see it in their eyes.
00:20:57I feel like with this,
00:20:59like I can finally feel
00:21:00like I can be in the moment
00:21:02and that's precious to me.
00:21:05The group dynamic,
00:21:06I'd love to tell you,
00:21:07it's super professional.
00:21:08It's not.
00:21:09I mean, it is.
00:21:10These guys are very serious
00:21:11about what they do
00:21:12and they're very serious about their jobs.
00:21:15I'd be lying if I didn't tell you
00:21:17I about bent to my knees
00:21:19laughing once a day in the shed row.
00:21:22That energy and just love
00:21:24that we have for these horses,
00:21:25you know, I don't know,
00:21:28it's contagious.
00:21:29Me personally,
00:21:30I would do this for free.
00:21:32You just fed me
00:21:33and gave me a few horses to ride.
00:21:36You ain't got to pay me.
00:21:37Don't tell me all that.
00:21:39We enjoy life today.
00:21:41We enjoy each other's company.
00:21:42We enjoy each other's mentorship.
00:21:44And I swear these horses
00:21:46just kind of respond to it.
00:21:48You know, I know these horses,
00:21:50they rely on us,
00:21:51you know what I mean?
00:21:52Because there is no shed row
00:21:54unless, you know,
00:21:55if this group of guys
00:21:57makes the decision to go
00:21:58do what they used to do these,
00:21:59you know, I mean,
00:22:00there is no Will Walden racing.
00:22:02Sobriety is our number one thing.
00:22:03And then the care of these horses
00:22:05is number two.
00:22:07Our addiction and alcoholism
00:22:09is no longer this eyesore on our life.
00:22:11It's something it's now
00:22:13where it was,
00:22:14you know, the sword that pierced us.
00:22:15It's now the sword we fight with.
00:22:17And as long as people understand
00:22:19that that's the background
00:22:20we come from, we can help people.
00:22:22That's why I do this today
00:22:24with Will,
00:22:25because we get all these
00:22:27new guys coming in
00:22:28and that's what it's all about.
00:22:29It's not about me anymore.
00:22:30It's about these guys
00:22:32that are coming in.
00:22:33At the end of the day,
00:22:33when I lay my head down,
00:22:35I know that I have tried
00:22:36and done my best
00:22:38to help and benefit these guys
00:22:39in their careers.
00:22:40So never in a million years
00:22:41would I think that I'd be
00:22:43where I'm at today,
00:22:43being trusted with,
00:22:45you know, with these guys
00:22:47and these horses.
00:22:48And so it's just,
00:22:49it's been a heck of a journey.
00:22:51It really has.
00:22:52Really fantastic piece
00:22:54by Katie Petruniak
00:22:56and really looking forward
00:22:57to speaking to Will Walden
00:22:59just a little bit later on.
00:23:00But right now, guys,
00:23:01let's get to what happened
00:23:03in England yesterday.
00:23:05It was the world's best racehorse,
00:23:07the Longines Best Racehorse Award,
00:23:09and it went to an American.
00:23:11Hurrah!
00:23:12It went to Flightline rated 140.
00:23:15Let's just put this in some context.
00:23:17He was equal with Frankel.
00:23:20I know that's a bit of an exaggeration,
00:23:22but I know the handicappers
00:23:23had a lot of difficulty.
00:23:24Do we go above Frankel?
00:23:26Do we equal it?
00:23:27There's a lot of debate over in Europe
00:23:28whether he should have been 139,
00:23:31like he got for winning
00:23:32the Pacific Classic or 140
00:23:34that he got for winning
00:23:35the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:23:37So he's basically rated
00:23:38with the world's best racehorse
00:23:40that was Frankel back in the day.
00:23:42Now, 135 was Baid,
00:23:45126 was Equinox,
00:23:47Nature Strip was 126 as well.
00:23:49Epicenter, for you Eclipse Award voters,
00:23:53was 125, so he was fifth.
00:23:55You can go all the way down
00:23:57to number 16 on the list.
00:23:58Now, take this as you will.
00:24:00Tabor voted 123.
00:24:03To add a little bit more context in here,
00:24:06American Pharoah won it in 2015
00:24:10with 134.
00:24:13In 2018, Winx won it with Craxman
00:24:16with 130.
00:24:17Accelerate was 126.
00:24:20It's a really good rating system.
00:24:22John Sadler, Jane Lyon, Stephanie Heronis,
00:24:25they were all on hand to accept
00:24:28the world's best racehorse award.
00:24:29And one thing that really got to me,
00:24:33John got up and talked
00:24:35and basically praised the Breeders' Cup
00:24:38and the Jockey Club for this horse
00:24:40winning all these races medication-free.
00:24:43And he got a rousing round of applause
00:24:46from everybody that was there
00:24:49in the banquet room in London
00:24:51for winning these races medication-free.
00:24:53He's from a family of turf runners.
00:24:55If you watch him train in the morning,
00:24:57he looks like a turf horse.
00:24:58So the fact that he won medication-free
00:25:02in all of these races means
00:25:04that I think we're going to get
00:25:05a lot of European influx in
00:25:08to breed to Flightline as well.
00:25:10So kudos to the whole team.
00:25:11I thought it was phenomenal.
00:25:13And it also shows that John's smart enough
00:25:15to play to his audience in England.
00:25:17Absolutely, you're right.
00:25:18He's talking about being medication-free.
00:25:21But the only two logical choices
00:25:23were Flightline and Bayid.
00:25:25And Bayid lost in the final start
00:25:27of his career in England.
00:25:28And we saw what Flightline did
00:25:29in the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:25:30So I thought it was an outstanding choice.
00:25:32And oh, by the way, this will shock no one.
00:25:35Guess who the lanes-in stallion of the week is?
00:25:38Of course, it's Flightline.
00:25:40The breeding shed doors are opening soon in Kentucky.
00:25:43We've reported on this before,
00:25:44but a reminder, Flightline will be standing
00:25:47his first season at lanes-in
00:25:49for a fee of $200,000.
00:25:52The same as American Pharaohs
00:25:53started with way back in 2016.
00:25:55We'll be right back after this message from lanes-in.
00:25:59Flightline is in full flight.
00:26:02Flightline turns it on at the top of the stretch.
00:26:05And he's in cruise control.
00:26:08And Flightline takes off!
00:26:11Take a good look at this
00:26:12because you're not going to see this too often.
00:26:14Maybe never again.
00:26:16Flightline, 20 lanes clear.
00:26:19World-class racehorse,
00:26:20world-class performance
00:26:22at a world championship event.
00:26:30And now it's time for the Green Group
00:26:31Guest of the Week.
00:26:32Sponsored by the Green Group,
00:26:34an accounting and tax consulting advisory firm
00:26:36specializing in the thoroughbred industry
00:26:38with over 500 clients in the horse business.
00:26:41The Green Group has proven strategies
00:26:43to save you taxes.
00:26:45You can learn more at www.greenco.com.
00:26:49And we're now joined by this week's
00:26:51Green Group Guest of the Week, Will Walden.
00:26:53We just saw that wonderful video
00:26:55done by Katie Petruniak with Will and his team.
00:26:58I believe that was at Turfway Park that came out.
00:27:01And Will, we were so interested in your story,
00:27:04wanted to bring you on to expand on it.
00:27:06And the first thing I noticed from there,
00:27:08it wasn't a surprise,
00:27:09but you and your team talked about
00:27:12how much there is the love for the horses
00:27:14and the feel for the horses.
00:27:16And we've heard before from a lot of people
00:27:18what horses can do for mankind.
00:27:20And they've been doing great things
00:27:22with the soldiers coming back from Iraq
00:27:24and Afghanistan with PTSD.
00:27:28Do the fact that you're working with horses,
00:27:30does that make it easier on you and your team
00:27:33as so far as maybe you started a business
00:27:35and working six guys in an office building somewhere?
00:27:39Yeah, well, Zoe just mentioned I need a therapy dog
00:27:43and I got 50 of them at the barn.
00:27:47I think Winston Churchill said it best, right?
00:27:50The inside of a horse does something
00:27:51for the outside of a man.
00:27:53And our whole program's kind of cultivated around it.
00:27:58These guys, I mean, as you mentioned there,
00:28:01that War Horse Project,
00:28:04I can't tell you how many treatment centers
00:28:06that I've been to personally or been around
00:28:08or have reached out to me that have talked
00:28:10about implementing an equine therapy parts
00:28:13of their program and their kind of curriculum.
00:28:16And I don't know, it's just, it's kind of difficult
00:28:19to put into words what these horses do for the inside.
00:28:23It's just, I don't know, I'll put it to you this way.
00:28:29When these guys started working with the horses,
00:28:33I told them each, I said,
00:28:35you're not gonna be able to know the day or the time.
00:28:37It may happen in two weeks, it may happen in a day,
00:28:39it may happen in four months,
00:28:41but that horse is gonna look you in the eye
00:28:44and you're gonna get this feeling inside
00:28:46that that animal accepts you for exactly who you are
00:28:49and exactly where you're at
00:28:50and doesn't care about your past,
00:28:52doesn't care about your future,
00:28:53but accepts you just for who you are.
00:28:55And that's something that in addiction and alcoholism
00:28:58is a feeling that is long and lost.
00:29:02It's very far, far away from your present.
00:29:05And I think there's just something about it
00:29:08and something about these animals
00:29:09that just do something for these guys and myself included.
00:29:13So, Will, maybe pride is not the best word,
00:29:16but there has to be a sense of satisfaction
00:29:20that you feel for getting to where you are right now
00:29:23compared to where you were not that long ago.
00:29:27And I would think it would be human nature
00:29:31not really to want to talk about the depths
00:29:35that you were in before you pulled yourself out,
00:29:37to sort of forget about that
00:29:39and hope other people forget about it and move on.
00:29:42But yet, you've given so many interviews,
00:29:44you've talked in depth about where you were,
00:29:48including this one.
00:29:49Why?
00:29:50Why do you seem to be so willing to discuss something
00:29:57that other people might want to completely
00:29:59pass off and forget about?
00:30:02Well, look, I mean, the simple answer is,
00:30:05I don't necessarily want to, right?
00:30:08But there were guys when I was,
00:30:11I went through, I was 12 years of drug addiction and alcoholism.
00:30:15I mean, it was bad.
00:30:16And I wasn't willing to get help or listen to anybody
00:30:21or kind of figure out what this recovery process looked like
00:30:25until they qualified themselves,
00:30:27until they told me exactly where they were,
00:30:30that they ate out of dumpsters, that they were homeless,
00:30:32that they went to jail, that they looked at prison time,
00:30:34that they had felonies, that they had this or they had that.
00:30:37I wasn't going to listen to them, right?
00:30:41They got vulnerable with me,
00:30:43in which case I was able to get vulnerable.
00:30:45When they got vulnerable, my guard went down.
00:30:49So to answer your question,
00:30:50I don't really like drudging up the past all the time
00:30:53and talking about it.
00:30:54But if there's a chance
00:30:56that there's somebody out there listening
00:30:58that's going through it
00:30:59and doesn't think that anybody can relate,
00:31:01doesn't think that anybody else has been there,
00:31:03doesn't think that anybody else is eating out of dumpsters
00:31:05or went to prison too,
00:31:08they can hear it from me
00:31:09or they can hear it from one of my guys
00:31:11that, hey, we were in the same spot.
00:31:13You wouldn't think it
00:31:14because of how our life looks like now,
00:31:16what life looks like now
00:31:17and what we get to do on a daily basis.
00:31:19But I can promise you we were there.
00:31:22And there was a million hands reached out
00:31:26and grabbed me when I was in the depths of it.
00:31:29And I can only keep this thing by giving it away.
00:31:33And I want to give it back and help as many people
00:31:35because there were so many people
00:31:36that took time out of their day,
00:31:38time away from their family,
00:31:40away from their kids,
00:31:41away from their jobs, lifestyles, what have you,
00:31:44to help rescue me.
00:31:46And if I can do that for just one person, it's worth it.
00:31:49Will, personally for you, what was the tipping point?
00:31:53You mentioned you went through this substance abuse
00:31:56for 12 years.
00:31:58What was it that finally made you sit up
00:32:00and say enough is enough?
00:32:03Well, to get into detail,
00:32:07I was living in a motel room
00:32:11just outside of Lexington,
00:32:12or I guess in Lexington.
00:32:15And I'd been trying to get sober
00:32:19for probably the past four or five years
00:32:22pretty aggressively.
00:32:23Like really wanting, I was miserable
00:32:25and wanted to get clean and sober.
00:32:29And I didn't.
00:32:31I had gotten kicked out of a house a few weeks prior
00:32:35and I had basically resigned to the fact
00:32:37that I was gonna die a heroin junkie.
00:32:40And it's a pretty sad state to be in.
00:32:43But my point being is I'd quit lying to people.
00:32:47People would call me up and ask me what I was doing
00:32:49and I'd tell them exactly what I was doing.
00:32:53And there came a point a few weeks after
00:32:57where the phone had completely quit ringing.
00:33:00And the realization kind of set in that
00:33:03everybody knew what I was doing.
00:33:04They knew what I was out there doing to my body
00:33:08and doing in my life.
00:33:10And the phone wasn't ringing.
00:33:12Nobody was even willing to call to check on me.
00:33:16And the depth of that kind of,
00:33:21that loneliness is indescribable.
00:33:25It's something that I had been close.
00:33:28I had probably been in worse places physically.
00:33:31But as far as like internally, mentally and emotionally,
00:33:35you know, it just, it tipped it over for me.
00:33:38I was like, you know what?
00:33:40To hell with the career.
00:33:43To hell with the cars, the fame, the fortune,
00:33:46whatever these unrealistic fantasies that I had
00:33:51about what my life was gonna look like
00:33:54without getting sober, those were kind of put to the side.
00:33:58And I sat down and on a piece of it,
00:34:01like looked at it in this hotel room,
00:34:03looked at it and just said,
00:34:05what are three things that I want?
00:34:08And instead of those, it was,
00:34:14I wanted to be accountable.
00:34:15I wanted my word to mean something.
00:34:18I wanted a family.
00:34:20I wanted to find a wife to spend the rest of my life with
00:34:24and have maybe have a few kids, have a family.
00:34:27And most importantly, be a son to my parents,
00:34:32be a brother to my brothers and sisters,
00:34:37to be a friend to those who wanted friendship,
00:34:41all those things.
00:34:43And look, I had to look long and hard at it.
00:34:45And then I had to make that phone call, right?
00:34:47I had to make that phone call
00:34:50to a guy that's probably one of the closest people
00:34:53in my life right now called him
00:34:54and he took me to treatment.
00:34:56And that was the last time I ever ingested
00:34:59any kind of substance.
00:35:00That was November 23rd of 2020.
00:35:06Wow.
00:35:07You don't do things in half
00:35:09and you are true to your word, Will.
00:35:12In the last year you started training,
00:35:15you got married and you have a child on the way.
00:35:18Is this almost to be true?
00:35:22It's, life has happened really fast.
00:35:26And I resigned, when I got clean,
00:35:29I resigned to the fact that I was going to have
00:35:31any kind of say in this timeline
00:35:33of how life was going to go for me, right?
00:35:35I had literally given all the liberty
00:35:38in decision-making over to people in my life
00:35:40who were sober.
00:35:43So I went to work for,
00:35:45I still have the Wendy's uniform.
00:35:46Like that was literally, that was it.
00:35:49That's what was in front of me.
00:35:50And that was fine.
00:35:51I was able to show up.
00:35:53I was able to clean the parking lot.
00:35:55I was able to flip fries, flip burgers, make orders.
00:35:58I was able to be an accountable employee
00:36:00and I was cool with that.
00:36:01I had resigned.
00:36:02In fact, there was like, I wasn't,
00:36:05there was no horse racing in it for me
00:36:07for the foreseeable future
00:36:09because I had tried to go back to that fast before.
00:36:13I tried to go back and fulfill the external wants
00:36:17and needs before fixing the internal problems that I had.
00:36:22And lo and behold, this, yeah, life happens fast.
00:36:26And we started training this whole thing with Frank
00:36:30and ready-made kind of jumped off.
00:36:33And then, you know, at Keeneland in the spring,
00:36:36I met Tessa, who's my wife now.
00:36:38And, you know, like we sat down and we discussed it.
00:36:43Prior to we said, look, you know,
00:36:45we explain what we both want.
00:36:46And that was, you know, a family, a future of a marriage.
00:36:51We weren't kind of playing any games.
00:36:53And I said to her, I said,
00:36:55look, we'll give it six months and six months.
00:36:59At the end of six months,
00:37:00I'll either leave you or I'll marry you.
00:37:02And, you know, what happened?
00:37:05That's how we got married.
00:37:06The ultimatum.
00:37:08Yeah.
00:37:08Well, look, I mean, it probably wasn't as blunt.
00:37:12Is that, I mean, I don't know.
00:37:13It might've been, might've been.
00:37:14I'm looking at it right now.
00:37:15She said, yeah, it was that blunt.
00:37:17So, but yeah, no, it's been such a cool journey.
00:37:23And, you know, I don't know what the future holds right now.
00:37:27We're just trying to stay in today.
00:37:29We're so fortunate and so blessed to have
00:37:31this little racing stable that's
00:37:34had some success over the past year.
00:37:36And we've got some horses that
00:37:39we're actually really excited about.
00:37:41And, you know, we're just,
00:37:42we just can't wait to see what the future holds.
00:37:44Well, you just described it as a little racing stable.
00:37:48I imagine it's going to grow.
00:37:49People see the success that you have had,
00:37:52the numbers you have had.
00:37:53And your pedigree too, you're, you know,
00:37:55let's bring up the fact that it's very pertinent
00:37:57to your Elliott Walden son.
00:37:58So, you know, obviously you come from
00:38:00one of the great racing families
00:38:02in Thoroughbred Horse Racing.
00:38:04As you continue to grow,
00:38:06will you continue to hire employees
00:38:08who have had substance abuse problems?
00:38:10Or is it just going to be kind of
00:38:11the tight-knit group of six
00:38:13and then you'll hire the same sort of people
00:38:15that any other barn would hire?
00:38:16Yeah, so I guess the short answer is,
00:38:20I don't know.
00:38:21We're not, we're affiliated,
00:38:23not affiliated on paper,
00:38:24but we have the guy who actually,
00:38:28the program that I went through was a guy with,
00:38:33the guy who ran it was a guy named Christian Counselor.
00:38:35And he has since started his own program
00:38:37and it's affiliated with TaylorMade
00:38:39called Stable Recovery.
00:38:42And part of his program is it's a 90 day,
00:38:45it's, I think it's a three month
00:38:47to six month program.
00:38:48And at the end of it,
00:38:50they have the option to come work for us.
00:38:53And it's kind of this,
00:38:54and during the meantime, they get to,
00:38:56I mean, we're just here at Turfway.
00:38:57They're in Lexington.
00:38:58They come, they came to,
00:39:00I mean, there was six or seven of them
00:39:02at the race on Saturday.
00:39:04They come up all the time
00:39:05and it's kind of,
00:39:06they get to see their brothers
00:39:07and their peers kind of go on
00:39:09and come up and do this thing
00:39:11and talk about it.
00:39:11And some of them love the farm life.
00:39:14There's nothing wrong,
00:39:16some of them love kind of that slower pace.
00:39:18Some of them have a little bit more hunger
00:39:20for that action
00:39:21and that competition
00:39:24that a racing stable provides, right?
00:39:28And so anyways, like I said,
00:39:30we have a little pool of people
00:39:33that we can choose from
00:39:34and plug from as we need employees.
00:39:36It really, I guess, to answer your question,
00:39:38it depends how big the stable gets.
00:39:41But we're open to anybody coming.
00:39:46We're not going to say no to anybody.
00:39:49If somebody wants to come work for us
00:39:50that isn't in recovery
00:39:52or isn't, you know,
00:39:55hasn't been through,
00:39:55we're not going to turn them down.
00:39:58Not at all.
00:40:00So, Will, you had a stakes winner,
00:40:01Kate's Kingdom at Turfway Park
00:40:03on December the 11th.
00:40:04You've got another filly named T-Max,
00:40:07a three-year-old filly
00:40:08who was second in the stakes at Churchill.
00:40:11Tell us a little bit more
00:40:12about the stable you've got right now
00:40:15and also you said you're sort of
00:40:19tempering your goals right now,
00:40:21but future goals that you'd like
00:40:23to try to attain.
00:40:26Yeah, so Kate's Kingdom,
00:40:29she was a filly that Frank Taylor
00:40:31bought out of the Fasig-Tipton digital sale
00:40:34at the beginning of November
00:40:37and we were able,
00:40:39she won a stake for us on December 11th.
00:40:41She actually ran back last weekend,
00:40:43didn't run any good
00:40:44ended up, I went back to feed that night.
00:40:47She had a temp of 102
00:40:49and a 101 the next day.
00:40:55Can't really put a finger on it.
00:40:56We pulled blood and whatnot
00:40:58and we just think she was kind of
00:40:59knocked off kilter for that day.
00:41:01Just kind of tossed that one
00:41:03and move on to the ensuing schedule.
00:41:05They have at Turfway for these older fillies.
00:41:07She's a really nice filly.
00:41:10Extremely grateful to have her.
00:41:11She's cool.
00:41:12She's, she stands about 16, 16, 1
00:41:15and she's built like, you know,
00:41:17Vaughn Bell, the Denver Broncos.
00:41:19I mean, she's a linebacker,
00:41:21built bigger than some of the colts we have
00:41:24and just a really easy going,
00:41:26good tempered filly.
00:41:28T-Max, she is,
00:41:30she's actually going to have
00:41:31her second work back tomorrow
00:41:33in preparation for a stake
00:41:35they have here at Turfway
00:41:36going six and a half on February 11th.
00:41:40She's doing really well.
00:41:41We have high hopes for her.
00:41:44Unfortunately at Churchill,
00:41:46she got hooked in with,
00:41:48I mean, in this outlook,
00:41:49I'll go on camera and say it.
00:41:51I don't think the best three,
00:41:52the best now three-year-old filly,
00:41:54I think might be the best three-year-old
00:41:56in Hoosier filly
00:41:59and had to hook into her
00:42:01and God almighty, what a filly.
00:42:04But anyways,
00:42:05no shame in running second tour.
00:42:07We're excited about T-Max
00:42:08and what she's going to do moving forward.
00:42:09We just kind of gave her some time
00:42:11after that race,
00:42:11just a little freshening,
00:42:13put some weight back on.
00:42:14She had had a good two-year-old campaign.
00:42:16She kind of laid it all out there for us.
00:42:20And we've got some other
00:42:21with Frank Taylor,
00:42:22went and bought this gelding
00:42:25last week at the January sale.
00:42:28Cold name Wintru that won a grade three
00:42:31up at Woodbine last out.
00:42:34We've got a really nice cold
00:42:36that we like quite a bit
00:42:37named Clear the Air.
00:42:39Broke his maiden on January 6th.
00:42:41He's Mike Moreno in Cypress Creeks.
00:42:46Stable and look,
00:42:48I mean, it's, you know,
00:42:49often made when it's, you know,
00:42:51you don't want to go count your chickens
00:42:52before they hatch,
00:42:53but we like this cold quite a bit.
00:42:56And we're, you know,
00:42:58we're going to point
00:43:00to an allowance race next.
00:43:01And depending on how that goes,
00:43:02kind of point our sights towards,
00:43:04you know, what everybody hopes
00:43:06they can do with three-year-old cold.
00:43:08And February.
00:43:11You mentioned Frank Taylor a lot.
00:43:13What has he meant to you
00:43:14in your fledgling training career?
00:43:17Because he's just one of the greatest,
00:43:20one of the greatest guys
00:43:21that I've ever met.
00:43:21And it just exudes out of him.
00:43:24He's a big personality.
00:43:26Frank is definitely a big personality.
00:43:31It's it's kind of hard to quantify
00:43:33and put into words
00:43:34exactly what Frank means to me.
00:43:36Like I said,
00:43:38he plugged me out of a
00:43:41Wendy's locker room.
00:43:42You know, I burned a lot of bridges.
00:43:49Broken a lot of trust.
00:43:52Worked for a lot of really big names
00:43:56in this game.
00:43:57Todd Pletcher, Wesley Ward, Bill Mott,
00:44:00Jonathan Shepard, Dale Romans
00:44:02when he won the Eclipse Award.
00:44:04Been really fortunate to be
00:44:05a lot of big barns.
00:44:07Really nice horses on big days.
00:44:11And, you know, there was a lot of times
00:44:13where I showed up and I was not on my game.
00:44:16Let's put it that way.
00:44:19So I say all that to say
00:44:21there wasn't a whole lot of faith
00:44:23in my sobriety continuing
00:44:27at the stage it was at
00:44:28when Frank decided to start this thing.
00:44:30It was still pretty early on.
00:44:32I think I was only
00:44:33seven or eight months sober at the time.
00:44:38And, you know, he just took a leap of faith.
00:44:41That's really all it was.
00:44:43He talked to some people,
00:44:44the supporting cast kind of in my life
00:44:47and kind of who had their
00:44:49finger on the pulse
00:44:51in what was going on in my day to day.
00:44:53And all it took was one of them,
00:44:55I think, to say he's ready.
00:44:57And Frank kind of went ahead with this plan.
00:45:00And and we've just tried to
00:45:02tried to honor him with it.
00:45:04Really, he's been such a blessing.
00:45:06And he's got such a I mean,
00:45:09philanthropic doesn't even
00:45:10really do it justice.
00:45:11I mean, the guy's just got
00:45:13an absolute heart of gold.
00:45:15And he just he just wants to give back.
00:45:18He just wants to see people succeed.
00:45:20He just wants to take the broken
00:45:21and make them whole again.
00:45:23And that's what he did with this stable.
00:45:25And that's what he continues to do.
00:45:27I got one more question.
00:45:29Keith Whiteley.
00:45:31Who's Keith?
00:45:32Is Keith the pony?
00:45:36Whiteley.
00:45:37Yes, yes.
00:45:39So I got hustled into
00:45:42I shouldn't say hustled.
00:45:44I got lassoed and roped
00:45:45and thrown in the back of a car
00:45:47and taken to a pony auction
00:45:51about a month ago.
00:45:53And here I am at this pony auction,
00:45:57wondering what consignment
00:45:58I should go to.
00:46:00Do I need to fill out a card?
00:46:02No.
00:46:02These things are just hog tied
00:46:04to the back of the sales grounds
00:46:06to a fence post.
00:46:07And I walk up and there's
00:46:08this tiny little yearling.
00:46:10I mean, looks white, pink eyes,
00:46:12pink nose, little pony.
00:46:15And this was actually
00:46:16I can tell you the date.
00:46:17It was December 10.
00:46:18And I went to buy him.
00:46:19Didn't then I couldn't pull
00:46:21the trigger on $700
00:46:23for this little thing.
00:46:23I didn't even we came in a truck
00:46:25and he knew where to take him,
00:46:26how to get him home.
00:46:27So anyways, the day goes by.
00:46:29I'm running Kate's Kingdom in a stake.
00:46:31The first time we're going to be
00:46:33favorite in a stake,
00:46:34this stable's career.
00:46:36And all I can think about
00:46:38is that damn pony
00:46:40and that he's probably resenting me,
00:46:42you know, that I let him down,
00:46:44basically, that I let him down.
00:46:45I'm here trying to get this
00:46:46Philly prep for a stake.
00:46:47And I'm feeling like,
00:46:49anyways, Tessa went behind my back.
00:46:51She bought the pony
00:46:53and they actually used it
00:46:54as a gender reveal
00:46:56for my son.
00:46:58They put a bunch of
00:46:58they put a blanket on
00:46:59and put a little bunch
00:47:00of blue handprints on him.
00:47:02And we unveiled the blanket.
00:47:05My dad was a big part of it.
00:47:06It was really funny to watch
00:47:08this horse walk around his ankles
00:47:10like a Jack Russell.
00:47:12You know, it was hysterical.
00:47:16Well, now I know.
00:47:17And congratulations.
00:47:19That's all.
00:47:20And we look, the reason his name's Keith
00:47:21is we thought of the most generic
00:47:23white name we could come up with.
00:47:25I bet on camera.
00:47:31Bill would be another
00:47:31pretty good one.
00:47:32But, you know, that one hit
00:47:34a little too close to home, Randy.
00:47:39Well, well, we thank you
00:47:40so much for your time.
00:47:41Congratulations on all your success
00:47:43and congratulations
00:47:44on the good work you're doing,
00:47:45not only for yourself,
00:47:46but your whole team.
00:47:47And it's really a heartwarming story.
00:47:49Easy to root for.
00:47:50And we wish you success
00:47:52in all assets of your life.
00:47:54Thanks so much for joining us
00:47:55on the TDN Writer's Room.
00:47:56Appreciate it, Bill.
00:47:58That was the Green Group
00:47:59Guest of the Week,
00:47:59sponsored by the Green Group,
00:48:00an accounting and tax
00:48:01consulting advisory firm
00:48:02specializing in the thoroughbred industry.
00:48:04And as this week's
00:48:05Guest of the Week, Will Walden,
00:48:07will get a free one hour
00:48:09tax consultation.
00:48:10Learn more at www.greenco.com
00:48:13and we'll be right back
00:48:14after this message
00:48:15from the Green Group.
00:48:17Why do the most successful owners,
00:48:18breeders and horsemen
00:48:19select the Green Group
00:48:20as their tax advisor?
00:48:21We simply save them money
00:48:22and know how to make them
00:48:23more successful.
00:48:24Over the past 40 years,
00:48:25founder Leonard Green
00:48:26has owned and bred
00:48:27some of the best racehorses
00:48:29in the history of the sport.
00:48:30His in-depth,
00:48:30hands-on industry knowledge,
00:48:32combined with cutting-edge
00:48:33tax saving strategies,
00:48:34has produced positive results
00:48:35for his clientele
00:48:36and has made the Green Group
00:48:37the top rated accounting
00:48:39and tax firm in the business.
00:48:40For a confidential
00:48:41and complimentary consultation,
00:48:42contact us at 732-634-5100
00:48:46or visit our website
00:48:47at www.greenco.com.
00:48:49The Green Group,
00:48:50proven strategies to save you taxes.
00:48:52Here in Pennsylvania,
00:48:53we're proud of our breeding program,
00:48:55the best in North America,
00:48:57but we're also proud
00:48:58to be leaders in this industry.
00:48:59The PA Horse Breeders Association
00:49:02is funding cutting-edge research
00:49:03at Penn Vet
00:49:04to detect gene doping
00:49:05in thoroughbreds
00:49:06and we endorsed the SAFE Act
00:49:08to help protect
00:49:09the most vulnerable horses.
00:49:11Plus, we're pleased to support
00:49:12the aftercare programs
00:49:14set up by our horsemen's groups.
00:49:15Just a few of the reasons why
00:49:17you should join us in Pennsylvania,
00:49:19the premier place
00:49:20to breed and race.
00:49:23Well, we've been talking
00:49:23about it for a few weeks
00:49:24and it's underway right now.
00:49:26The PHBA's Stallion Season Auction.
00:49:30It runs through this Sunday, the 22nd.
00:49:32You can visit ThoroughlyBred.com
00:49:34to view the available seasons,
00:49:37which include some Kentucky-based stallions
00:49:40such as Catalina Cruiser, Game Winner,
00:49:42Mastery, Tacitus, Yaupon, etc.
00:49:45And also some Pennsylvania stallions
00:49:47like Brody's Cause, Capo King,
00:49:50Smarty Jones, and Uptown Charlie Brown.
00:49:53Pennsylvania-bred,
00:49:55Pennsylvania-sired horses
00:49:57will be eligible, of course,
00:49:58for that upcoming
00:49:59PHBA Stallion Series this summer.
00:50:03Well, it's that time of the year now
00:50:04where we're finally getting
00:50:05into the three-year-old season,
00:50:07getting a couple of horses
00:50:08that are re-emerging,
00:50:10a couple of snakes races coming up.
00:50:11We have a little comp this Saturday
00:50:13at Santa Anita.
00:50:14But let's take a look back.
00:50:15There were a couple of interesting
00:50:16developments last weekend,
00:50:18even though there were
00:50:19no snakes races for three-year-olds.
00:50:21Let's start with Hijazi.
00:50:23I mean, he's forever going to be known
00:50:24as the $3.55 million purchase
00:50:28from Mir Zaydan and Bob Baffert.
00:50:30And he didn't run poorly
00:50:32in his first three races,
00:50:33but he was still a maiden afterwards.
00:50:36Matter of fact,
00:50:36and Randy can talk about it,
00:50:37he got some very good buyer figures,
00:50:39some of the best in the business.
00:50:41But he did win on Saturday
00:50:43at Santa Anita,
00:50:44won a six-and-a-half-foot-long race
00:50:46by a length and a quarter.
00:50:48You know, is he going to live up
00:50:50to that price tag?
00:50:51Maybe, maybe not.
00:50:52Probably more likely, no.
00:50:54But Randy, I wouldn't give up
00:50:55on this horse.
00:50:56I mean, he's in such good hands.
00:50:58They did pay all this money for him.
00:50:59He's run some fast numbers.
00:51:01And, you know, look, Bob Baffert,
00:51:03if there's a way to get this horse
00:51:05into the Kentucky Derby
00:51:07and as a contender,
00:51:08who better to figure it out
00:51:09than Bob Baffert?
00:51:10Yeah, I'd kind of like to know
00:51:11the last time we had a maiden race
00:51:14with a horse that had previous
00:51:15buyer speed figures of 191.
00:51:18It's probably happened at some point
00:51:20in the past.
00:51:21I think it's been a long time.
00:51:22He's obviously a very,
00:51:23very talented horse.
00:51:25Bob, after the race,
00:51:26after his maiden win,
00:51:28was quoted as basically indicating
00:51:30that he thought maybe
00:51:31it was a little too much too soon
00:51:33for Hijazi.
00:51:34Some of the races he was,
00:51:35you know, competition
00:51:36he was asked to run again
00:51:38against last fall.
00:51:39I still have a question
00:51:41as to how far he wants to run,
00:51:44even though he's bred
00:51:45to get a distance of ground,
00:51:47just the way he looks
00:51:48and the way he runs
00:51:50kind of says a little more
00:51:51one turn type horse to me,
00:51:54but he'll certainly get a chance
00:51:56to prove me wrong there.
00:51:58Yeah, he actually looks like
00:52:00a big scopy horse.
00:52:01I like the way he looks
00:52:02and also looks like
00:52:03they paid 3.5 million.
00:52:05He got a 97 buyer speed figure.
00:52:07He's one of three wins on the card
00:52:09for the 57 year old Mike Smith.
00:52:12So Mike Smith
00:52:13having a banner day last Saturday.
00:52:16And, you know, I'm a sedan.
00:52:18He's been loyal to Mike Smith
00:52:19and it looks like that
00:52:21Mike Smith again at 57
00:52:23has another horse
00:52:24on the Kentucky Derby trail.
00:52:25I mean, hopefully we still don't know
00:52:27what Bob's Bob Baffert status
00:52:29is going to be moving forward,
00:52:31but Hijazi will be on the trail
00:52:33with or without Bob Baffert.
00:52:35And there at this point
00:52:36looms some possibility
00:52:37that there will be
00:52:38only two trainers represented
00:52:40in the Kentucky Derby.
00:52:41Brad Cox, neither Bob Baffert
00:52:43or perhaps Tim Yaktin.
00:52:45See how that comes out.
00:52:46So Baffert is winning everything
00:52:48on the West Coast as he often does.
00:52:51But how about this?
00:52:51And the Derby future wager
00:52:54for pool three,
00:52:55which they're going to bet on
00:52:56this weekend came out.
00:52:58Brad Cox has 11,
00:52:5911 horses on this list.
00:53:02It's unbelievable.
00:53:03Now, one of them made some noise
00:53:06last Saturday at Oakland Park,
00:53:07a horse by the name of Verify
00:53:09ran second last year in the Champaign,
00:53:11then ran so-so
00:53:14in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
00:53:15But this breeding,
00:53:16Justify out of the mare, Diva Delight.
00:53:19Can you get better than that
00:53:20by Justify, a half brother
00:53:22to Midnight Bisou,
00:53:24you know, certainly didn't
00:53:26tear the track apart as a two year old,
00:53:28but showed a lot of promise.
00:53:29Cox brought him back
00:53:30for this allowance race.
00:53:31And I thought guys, Randy,
00:53:33he looked, I mean, again,
00:53:34obviously there's some,
00:53:35he didn't face the,
00:53:37you know, the big boys
00:53:38in that one looked really good
00:53:40winning by five and a quarter lengths.
00:53:41You know, obviously he'll move on now
00:53:43to a race like the Rebel
00:53:45or the one of the races
00:53:46at perhaps fairgrounds,
00:53:49like the Rhythm Star
00:53:50leading in the Kentucky Derby.
00:53:52But yeah, I think
00:53:53he's very much in the mix.
00:53:55Yeah, the Rebel makes
00:53:56the most sense to me.
00:53:57Cox is training
00:53:59all of his top three year olds
00:54:00down at the fairgrounds,
00:54:01even though he runs
00:54:02some of them at Oakland,
00:54:03because the weather
00:54:04is much more predictable
00:54:05in New Orleans than it is
00:54:07at Oakland Park in January,
00:54:08which is a common sense
00:54:09kind of thing.
00:54:10But yeah, I mean,
00:54:11when you look at his pedigree,
00:54:12when you look at the 97
00:54:14buyer speed figure,
00:54:15obviously this horse
00:54:16has all the potential
00:54:17in the world.
00:54:17And Cox right now is just,
00:54:19I mean, to say that
00:54:21he has a deeper roster
00:54:24of legitimate Kentucky
00:54:25Derby horses right now
00:54:27than Bob Baffert does
00:54:28out in California
00:54:30is really saying something.
00:54:31But right now, Brad
00:54:32is just absolutely loaded.
00:54:34Now you read a lot
00:54:36about this horse
00:54:37in the Breeders' Cup
00:54:38Juvenile, right?
00:54:39Finished sixth to beat
00:54:4012 links in the Juvenile.
00:54:42And I keep seeing things
00:54:43like a troubled trip and all.
00:54:45And I think the
00:54:47as I'm looking at
00:54:48the past performances,
00:54:48the running line says
00:54:50bumped, bothered, start.
00:54:52Unfortunately, you can't
00:54:53get a head on replay
00:54:55of any of the Breeders' Cup races,
00:54:56which is incredible
00:54:58on any of the replay
00:55:00purveyors out there.
00:55:01So you can't really get
00:55:02an idea of exactly
00:55:03how bad his trip was.
00:55:05Looking at the pan shot
00:55:06doesn't look that bad to me,
00:55:08so I'm not really
00:55:09going to call his race
00:55:10in the Breeders' Cup
00:55:11Juvenile a really troubled trip.
00:55:14Cox points out that
00:55:15he thinks the horse
00:55:16has been a little
00:55:16mentally immature,
00:55:18and maybe he's
00:55:19turned that corner now.
00:55:20But, Zoe, yet another
00:55:22three-year-old to watch
00:55:23in that barn. It's amazing.
00:55:24He's terrific.
00:55:25In fact, I am.
00:55:26I remember watching him
00:55:27at Saratoga this summer
00:55:28before he ever ran,
00:55:29because we're up
00:55:30there on the roof.
00:55:31And when Brad Cox
00:55:32brings them out,
00:55:33you get the camera ready
00:55:34and you video them.
00:55:36And I can remember looking up.
00:55:37I'm like, what's this verifying?
00:55:40He wasn't even named there.
00:55:41It was like Diva Delight.
00:55:43That sounds really familiar.
00:55:44Diva Delight.
00:55:45Oh, my God.
00:55:46It's a half to midnight
00:55:47Bisou by Justify.
00:55:48So he showed talent
00:55:50from the get go.
00:55:51It's just taken him a while
00:55:52to get it all together.
00:55:54And I think we saw,
00:55:56I mean, yes,
00:55:57he won by five and a half,
00:55:58but it was almost
00:55:59like a grinding five
00:56:00and a half with Martin Garcia,
00:56:02who's like popped
00:56:03out of the clouds
00:56:05to ride for Brad Cox.
00:56:06So maybe he's picked up
00:56:08a horse, a three year old
00:56:09on the trail,
00:56:11but verifying definitely
00:56:12a very good horse going forward.
00:56:14And Cox, ah, loaded.
00:56:16He's loaded at Oaklawn
00:56:18and he's loaded at the fairgrounds,
00:56:19got Hit Show, Corona Bolt,
00:56:21Jace's Road, Angel Empire,
00:56:24you name it, he's got it.
00:56:25He's winning at 45%
00:56:27at the fairgrounds.
00:56:28Forty five percent.
00:56:31That is huge.
00:56:32Yeah, what he's doing is amazing.
00:56:34So on Saturday at Gulfstream,
00:56:36and you get this this time of year,
00:56:37you get these maiden races
00:56:38where, and primarily it's
00:56:41Todd Pletcher time.
00:56:42You're going to see him unveil
00:56:43some of these beautifully bred colts
00:56:45that weren't quite ready
00:56:47for the two year old races.
00:56:48And he ran a trio of horses
00:56:50on Saturday at Gulfstream
00:56:51in the fifth race.
00:56:52McCarty had a first time
00:56:53starter by the name of Cuvier
00:56:55and a first time starter
00:56:56by the name of Sergeant Pepper.
00:56:58The news there was from
00:56:59both the way they bet the race
00:57:02and from the prices
00:57:03paid for these horses.
00:57:05Cuvier cost $140,000
00:57:07and went up at nine to one.
00:57:09Sergeant Pepper cost $1.6 million
00:57:12and it went off at six to five.
00:57:14So what happened?
00:57:14Of course, Cuvier at nine to one,
00:57:16won in there.
00:57:17Doesn't that always seem to be the case?
00:57:19Then he came back in the eighth race.
00:57:20By the way, the fifth
00:57:21was a six for long race.
00:57:22The eighth was a mile.
00:57:24He ran a first time starter
00:57:25by the name of King's Board,
00:57:27who was an $800,000
00:57:29purchase by Uncle Mo,
00:57:31won by one and three quarter lengths
00:57:32at three to one.
00:57:33So he got the job done in both races.
00:57:37But I think the conventional wisdom,
00:57:39most people weren't
00:57:41phenomenally impressed
00:57:43with these horses.
00:57:43Can they go on and be nice horses?
00:57:45Of course.
00:57:45But are they going to jump on
00:57:47to everybody's top five list
00:57:48for the Kentucky Derby?
00:57:50By no means at this point.
00:57:52Also, it's so odd that
00:57:53the Sergeant Pepper horse,
00:57:54which was getting all the hype,
00:57:56was the finished sixth
00:57:58and the horse that they,
00:57:59at least the betters,
00:58:00gave very little chance
00:58:02to Cuvier to win the race.
00:58:03But Todd's very good at this.
00:58:07I'm sure we'll see these horses
00:58:08down the road
00:58:09in some of the Derby preps.
00:58:10But again, I think right now
00:58:12they're kind of the B-level horses.
00:58:14Yeah, of the two or three
00:58:16that you mentioned,
00:58:17I think King's Barnes
00:58:18has the best chance
00:58:19to go on and do something.
00:58:20I mean, when you look at that maiden race
00:58:22that he won,
00:58:24a telltale sign
00:58:25that it wasn't a particularly fast race.
00:58:27He wins by a length in three quarters.
00:58:28Then it was a neck
00:58:30between second and third,
00:58:31three quarters between third and fourth,
00:58:33three quarters between fourth and fifth.
00:58:35When you get horses bunched like that,
00:58:37especially in a maiden race,
00:58:38it's a sign that it's not really
00:58:40that fast of a race.
00:58:42He got a buyer speed figure of 74.
00:58:44But looking at his pedigree,
00:58:46I think the running time
00:58:47was maybe a little bit better
00:58:48than you would think,
00:58:49given the surface
00:58:51at Gulfstream that day
00:58:53for a 74 buyer.
00:58:54So I think he'll turn out to be OK,
00:58:56but no,
00:58:57he's definitely got
00:58:58a lot of improving to do
00:58:59if you're going to think of him
00:58:59as a top rated three year old.
00:59:01Yeah, King's Barnes,
00:59:02the final time there,
00:59:03139.18 for him.
00:59:06He's out of a half sister
00:59:07to Gossip Girl,
00:59:08out of Lady Tappet.
00:59:09So he's well bred
00:59:11on just about any surface.
00:59:12As far as Cuvier,
00:59:14I think he got some
00:59:15of his father's gutsiness.
00:59:17He's buy collected.
00:59:18He was headed every step of the way,
00:59:20going three quarters.
00:59:21Now, I'm sure he's going to stretch out.
00:59:24Is he fabulous?
00:59:25I don't know,
00:59:26but he certainly was determined
00:59:28winning that maiden race
00:59:29going six far long.
00:59:31Sergeant Pepper, just a toss.
00:59:32I would simply just
00:59:34draw a line through that
00:59:35and take another look at him
00:59:36next time he's entered.
00:59:39So speaking of Brad Cox,
00:59:40there is a three year old
00:59:41prep race this weekend
00:59:42at the Fairgrounds Little Comp.
00:59:44And lo and behold,
00:59:44of course, he has the favorite
00:59:46in here, an instant coffee.
00:59:48This is a horse who in the breeders,
00:59:50this goes back to show you
00:59:51what a strong race
00:59:52the Breeders Futurity,
00:59:53which is won by Forte,
00:59:54who came back to win
00:59:55the Breeders Cup Juvenile,
00:59:56was instant coffee,
00:59:57finished fourth,
00:59:58beaten seven lengths,
00:59:59comes back in the Kentucky Jockey Club
01:00:01and wins that for Louie Saez
01:00:03and Brad Cox.
01:00:04He'll be the favorite in there.
01:00:06Cox also has a horse
01:00:07by the name of Tapits Conquest.
01:00:09Looks OK, but maybe not
01:00:11as strong as the other one.
01:00:13Randy, get a chance to take
01:00:14a look at this race.
01:00:15It looks like perhaps Brad Cox
01:00:16is going to keep marching
01:00:18through the three year old preps,
01:00:20especially at Fairgrounds in Oklahoma.
01:00:21You know, I mean,
01:00:22I think instant coffee deserves
01:00:23to be the favorite.
01:00:25The win in the Kentucky Jockey Club
01:00:27only got an 82 buyer speed figure,
01:00:28but he also rallied from four lengths
01:00:31off of a very slow pace
01:00:33and he was three wide
01:00:33around the first turn
01:00:34and four wide around the second turn.
01:00:36So his race was better
01:00:37than that number indicates,
01:00:39but I don't think
01:00:40he's a slam dunk in there.
01:00:41I want to throw out a horse in here.
01:00:43I'm just going to roll him out there
01:00:44for people to think about.
01:00:45And he may be eight to one,
01:00:47six to one or eight to one.
01:00:48Far outside post,
01:00:49a horse named Two Fills.
01:00:52Now, if you go back
01:00:53and you look at his last couple of races
01:00:55in the Breeders Futurity,
01:00:57he tried to bolt around the first turn
01:01:00and consequently,
01:01:01he was much further back early
01:01:03than you would have expected him to be.
01:01:05And again, it was against
01:01:06very tough competition.
01:01:08So I kind of discount
01:01:10that race a little bit.
01:01:11Then he came back last time
01:01:13out in the street sense
01:01:14at Churchill Downs.
01:01:15And yes, it was on a sloppy racetrack,
01:01:17but he had the worst trip of any horse
01:01:20in the street sense.
01:01:22And yet he still wins the race
01:01:23by five lengths.
01:01:24I figure it wasn't all that good.
01:01:26I understand that.
01:01:27But I think this horse
01:01:28is maybe a little bit better
01:01:30than he gets credit for
01:01:31and he could be a decent price.
01:01:33And I think he's got a legitimate chance
01:01:35to upset Instant Coffee.
01:01:37Yeah, he's drawn way on the outside as well,
01:01:40which I think is going to help.
01:01:41And there's a long run
01:01:42in that stretch, Two Fills.
01:01:44I think he appreciated
01:01:45a little bit of moisture in the track,
01:01:47that sloppy track street sense.
01:01:49But I'm with you.
01:01:50I like Two Fills,
01:01:52but there is a chance
01:01:53that the best three-year-old
01:01:54is not running in a stake on Saturday.
01:01:56And that's race number nine, guys.
01:01:58Banishing, Brendan Walsh,
01:02:00a Godolphin homebred.
01:02:01We hear Godolphin all over again.
01:02:04He's by Ghost Zapper.
01:02:06He ran faster winning his maiden race
01:02:09than Jace's Road ran
01:02:10in the gunrunner stakes
01:02:11the day he won his maiden.
01:02:13So watch out for banishing.
01:02:15And lest us not forget as well,
01:02:17the girls are running, guys.
01:02:19We'll get to see the Silver Bullet day
01:02:21as well on Saturday.
01:02:23And the return of Chop Chop.
01:02:24I mean, she was the favorite
01:02:25in the Breeders' Cup juvenile fillies,
01:02:27was she not?
01:02:28Can she bounce back?
01:02:30Oh, we will certainly find out on Saturday.
01:02:33The TDN Writer's Room
01:02:35is brought to you by XBTV.
01:02:37The XBTV Workout of the Week
01:02:39is Speaking Scout.
01:02:41Seen working here on the training track
01:02:43at Santa Anita in 48-1,
01:02:45Speaking Scout is already
01:02:47down at Gulfstream Park
01:02:48in preparation for the Pegasus Turf.
01:02:51He's also working with
01:02:52the Grey Wizards seen here
01:02:53and he'll run this weekend
01:02:55at Santa Anita.
01:02:56We'll be right back
01:02:57after this message from XBTV.
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01:04:21We've talked a lot about Flightline
01:04:23and deservedly so.
01:04:24The world's top-rated racehorse.
01:04:26Well, of course, West Point
01:04:27was one of the partners in Flightline
01:04:29and they also have a stakes performer
01:04:31coming up on Saturday.
01:04:32Gold for Kitten runs for West Point
01:04:35in the Astra stakes,
01:04:36trained by John Sadler,
01:04:38in partnership with another one
01:04:39of Flightline's owners,
01:04:40the majority owner, Ronis Racing.
01:04:42Good luck to all the connections
01:04:44of Gold for Kitten.
01:04:45This week's Remy Cartoon is in
01:04:47and Remy was certainly,
01:04:48well, we know what he was doing last week
01:04:50and he was watching football games
01:04:52because he's got a starting gate
01:04:54and he's got 12 horses in the gate
01:04:55and a horse of the auxiliary gate
01:04:57and all the jockeys on the one through 12
01:05:00are looking over
01:05:01and it's not the also eligible,
01:05:03it's the wild card horse.
01:05:05So the wild card weekend,
01:05:07last weekend for the NFL.
01:05:09Well, that does it for this week's edition
01:05:10of the Thoroughbred Daily News
01:05:12Writer's Room podcast.
01:05:13I want to thank our guests of the week,
01:05:15our Green Group guest of the week,
01:05:16Will Walden.
01:05:17I want to thank my cohorts,
01:05:19Randy Moss and Zoe Cabman,
01:05:20as well as our producer, Patty Wolf,
01:05:22our associate producer, Katie Petrudiak,
01:05:24our editors, Anthony LaRocca,
01:05:26Aaliyah LaRocca and Nathan Wilkinson.
01:05:28See you next week.