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00:00:00For the love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:00:28And welcome to another edition of the TDN Writer's Room podcast.
00:00:31My name is Bill Finley.
00:00:32I'm a correspondent for the TDN.
00:00:35I also do horse racing radio shows on Sirius XM with legendary Dave Johnson.
00:00:40I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports.
00:00:43I also do a podcast.
00:00:44Oh, wait, that's what we're doing right now.
00:00:46Okay, go ahead, Zoe.
00:00:49I'm Zoe Cameron with First Racing and Santa Anita here.
00:00:54I have trusty doodle right there.
00:00:56Look at that.
00:00:57Perfectly positioned.
00:00:58He won't stay there long, looking out the window, waiting for something to bark at.
00:01:05So we often like to start the podcast with stories that were in the TDN that seem to
00:01:10have struck a nerve with our readers.
00:01:12We can tell by in this day and age, you know, how many hits they're getting and whatnot.
00:01:16And John Sakura from Hillandale Farm wrote a story under the headline of no simple solutions
00:01:22for a fractured sport.
00:01:24And like so many other people, you know, John is doing his best to come up with ideas and
00:01:28thoughts on ways we might make horse racing better and sustain its future.
00:01:33But I think he buried the lead a little bit.
00:01:35Randy knows that as an old newspaper guy, because well down in his story, he brought
00:01:40up something that has really hit a nerve with people.
00:01:44And he said, he talked about the purse of the Kentucky Derby, which is $3 million, says
00:01:49that includes $1 million in fees and nominations from the owners.
00:01:53And he called that an embarrassment, that the Kentucky Derby is $3 million.
00:01:57Now, why would a race worth that much money be worth $3 million?
00:02:01Be an embarrassment?
00:02:02Well, because it's the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Classic is worth six.
00:02:07The Breeders' Cup Turf is worth four million.
00:02:09The Pegasus at Gulfstream is worth three.
00:02:12It's not even to mention races like the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup.
00:02:17And John is absolutely right.
00:02:19This is the greatest race in America, maybe even in the world.
00:02:24And it shouldn't, when it comes to a purse, take second rating to anything.
00:02:29Now, I don't know that they can make it $20 million and compete with the Saudi Cup, but
00:02:34numbers that were thrown around by John were that it should be $10 million and that the
00:02:39Kentucky Oaks should be $5 million.
00:02:40Churchill Downs certainly has the money.
00:02:43And, you know, is this going to change horse racing as we know it and solve all its problems?
00:02:48No, but he's absolutely right.
00:02:50These races should be worth a lot more money.
00:02:53Randy, your thought?
00:02:54Yeah, I mean, he brought up a lot of things in that op-ed, and I would strongly suggest
00:03:01that anyone who cares about horse racing reads that.
00:03:05He's got a lot of very interesting points, the Kentucky Derby purse being just one of
00:03:09them.
00:03:11It's not going to do anything, really, to improve the financial aspects of the sport.
00:03:19But I don't disagree with him, or you, but it is an interesting fodder for debate.
00:03:29It's a fascinating debate, right?
00:03:32The Derby's worth $3 million.
00:03:35The Preakness and the Belmont are worth $1.5 million each.
00:03:39So the Derby is worth twice as much as either the Preakness or the Belmont.
00:03:43The purse money that horsemen get from the Kentucky Derby is an afterthought.
00:03:50The real value of the Kentucky Derby is what it does for a horse's value in the stud barn.
00:03:56Tens of millions of dollars accrue to the owner or the breeding farm that ultimately
00:04:04winds up standing the stallion and flowing down to the owner of the horse when he wins
00:04:10the Kentucky Derby.
00:04:11I don't think I have ever heard a horseman, in fact, I know I haven't, say, no, we're
00:04:18not going to run in the Kentucky Derby.
00:04:19The purse money's just not big enough, okay?
00:04:23But I can understand.
00:04:25I mean, the Breeders' Cup Classic's worth $6 million, et cetera, et cetera.
00:04:30All the people that commented about that from the industry, okay, agreed with Sakura, and
00:04:36I can understand that.
00:04:38Those are people who commented who play the Derby game every year.
00:04:44They play at that upper level.
00:04:47They have to pay the nomination fee, the starter fees, which probably pale in comparison to
00:04:53the hotel room costs and all that for all the people that wind up going.
00:04:59What about all those other horses?
00:05:01The purses at Churchill Downs and elsewhere in Kentucky right now are astronomical.
00:05:09They have been, you know, they've skyrocketed in recent years.
00:05:13Would it be better for the sport, would it be better for Kentucky, would it be better
00:05:19for horsemen to drop those purses somewhat and hike up the purse of the Kentucky Derby
00:05:25dramatically?
00:05:27Can Churchill Downs do both?
00:05:30Can they hike up the purse money dramatically for the Derby and keep the rest of the purse
00:05:34structure the way it is right now?
00:05:37It's a very, very interesting debate, but I do not disagree with those who say that
00:05:43the stature of the Kentucky Derby is such and the finances of nominating, running, traveling,
00:05:49et cetera, are such that the Derby couldn't use a purse boost.
00:05:57Yeah, it definitely could use a purse boost.
00:06:00Let's put it into perspective.
00:06:01We all know that European racing, the money is not that great over in Europe.
00:06:05While we see a lot of turf horses coming over stateside to plunder and win an awful lot
00:06:12of money, put it in context that the Arc de Triomphe, probably their Kentucky Derby in
00:06:17France, is worth 5.24 million dollars.
00:06:22That's that was the purse of the Arc de Triomphe.
00:06:25When you consider that maiden races over there are going for 8,000, 10,000 euros.
00:06:30So the fact that they have a race themselves that's worth 5 million euros, why can't we
00:06:37have the Derby that's worth 10?
00:06:39And to your point, Randy, you are absolutely right.
00:06:42Horses that win the Derby make millions, hundreds of millions, stallion syndicates.
00:06:49I mean, every single thing.
00:06:54Delivery, every single thing that goes into winning the Derby, you're getting paid for.
00:07:00But from the outside looking in, yeah, three million dollars.
00:07:04When you consider Elliott Walden's comeback for that was and I'm going to read it.
00:07:08The Derby's been raised twice over the last 20 years, 300 percent.
00:07:14Churchill Downs stock prices alone in the same period have gone up nineteen hundred
00:07:22percent. So why can't the price of the Derby go up?
00:07:25I mean, I don't want to take money away from the everyday racing at Churchill Downs.
00:07:29They're making an absolute fortune, but they could easily, the Derby alone, Derby
00:07:34weekend alone, 20 million dollars in revenue for Churchill Downs.
00:07:39They could easily make it a 10 million dollar pot.
00:07:41No problem whatsoever.
00:07:43But guys, here's the problem.
00:07:45They don't have to.
00:07:46This is a bottom line oriented group.
00:07:51And we all know that people criticize them for that.
00:07:53But they're running a business and they want to make as much profit as possible.
00:07:57If they came out with an announcement tomorrow and said, we read that story in the TDN and
00:08:01not only do we disagree with people, we so vehemently disagree with them that we're
00:08:05dropping the purse to two million dollars next year.
00:08:09One single person say, you know what, I'm not running in the Kentucky Derby, not one.
00:08:15So there's what is the other than it's the right thing to do.
00:08:19It's fair, but that's not how the big bad world of business works.
00:08:25They're making a goblins of money in the Kentucky Derby and they like that they're
00:08:29making goblins of money in the Kentucky Derby.
00:08:31And the fact that the purse is three million dollars does not hurt them in any way,
00:08:36shape or form unless your boss is a strong group wants to put the San Diego Derby on
00:08:42the first Saturday in May and make it a 10 million dollar race.
00:08:45And that's not going to happen either.
00:08:46So, no, it's not going to happen now.
00:08:51And on the subject of the right thing to do, another part of the of the the op ed
00:08:56written by Sakura that a lot of people have mentioned before, we've mentioned it here
00:09:00before, is, you know, is it how do you how do you fix horse racing when everybody, every
00:09:12little fiefdom in the sport, every large fiefdom in the sport from Churchill Lance
00:09:17Incorporated to first racing to the New York Racing Association are, if not exclusively,
00:09:24certainly primarily concerned with their own pile of money, with their own welfare, with
00:09:31their own stake schedule, and not necessarily concerned with the overall health of the
00:09:37sport from coast to coast.
00:09:39He points out California, the struggles that California is having right now.
00:09:43And I mentioned on this sport on the sport I've mentioned on this podcast a couple of
00:09:47times. The contrast between that and the NFL, which back in the 1930s, the best franchises
00:09:57in the NFL who were accumulating all the best players coming out of college because they
00:10:02could pay them the most money.
00:10:04The New York Giants of Tim Mara, who was a bookmaker, by the way, and a very accomplished
00:10:09horse better. The George Hallis and the Chicago Bears, George Marshall, the Washington
00:10:15Redskins, all these teams were doing really well.
00:10:18The other teams were doing terribly.
00:10:20They were losing money.
00:10:22The Packers, the Steelers now, the Rams, all these now traditional franchises were losing
00:10:29money. And so the powers that be who were doing the best in the NFL decided this is a
00:10:37league. If this sport is going to survive, we need to make sure that the weakest link is
00:10:44making it and is flourishing.
00:10:46And they created, they invented, it had never been done before, the NFL draft so that
00:10:52every team would have an equal shot.
00:10:54The have-nots would actually get first pick in the draft over the teams that had all the
00:11:00money that were having the most success.
00:11:01How do you do something like that in horse racing to fix Southern California, to fix
00:11:06some of these other venues that are struggling right now?
00:11:09That's a great question.
00:11:11He doesn't really have an answer, but, you know, just to read the column and hear him
00:11:16kind of flushing it out is very interesting.
00:11:18Well, the answer is something we've been talking about for hundreds of years.
00:11:21You have a commissioner of racing and we know that that's absolutely never going to
00:11:25happen. By the way, I would nominate you, Randy.
00:11:28I actually, I really like this point.
00:11:33You really, you really hate me that much, Bill?
00:11:38I think you'd be an excellent commissioner.
00:11:41I loved his point, what he was saying about the historical horse racing machines at
00:11:46Kentucky Downs and the fact, why can't they put a portion of that aside to help
00:11:51California racing?
00:11:52I mean, they've got money coming out of those machines hand over fist.
00:11:57It's an idea. I'm all for it.
00:11:58I live out here on an island in Southern California.
00:12:02It was a very...
00:12:03And he also had a great point.
00:12:06There was a lot of quotes from Mike Rapolle about the fascinating quotes.
00:12:10Anyone who has spent any time at all with Mike Rapolle knows, A, how passionate he is
00:12:17about the sport of horse racing.
00:12:19This is a guy that's made billions of dollars in business.
00:12:22And B, how frustrated he is with the state of horse racing right now and the way the
00:12:28industry is being operated.
00:12:30But Secura had a great point about all the tremendously successful business people who
00:12:36are involved in horse racing.
00:12:37Some of the smartest business minds in the world.
00:12:40And they're all frustrated about what's going on in the sport.
00:12:43Why can't you sit all these people together and try to come up with some kind of a
00:12:47solution? Because there's no teeth to any sort of solution like that.
00:12:52Because to your point, Bill, there's no Central League office with any authority that
00:12:58can say, you know, this is a great idea.
00:13:01We're going to implement this.
00:13:03Every track in America has to follow it.
00:13:04It is frustrating to all of us.
00:13:07Randy and Zoe, I just want to remind you that that was not an op-ed in the TDN written by
00:13:13John Secura. It's actually a very well done interview from Chris McGrath.
00:13:18But Chris McGrath relaying the thoughts of John Secura and as a team, they did a very
00:13:23good job. OK, so we finally have a resolution of Arpacogate at Parks.
00:13:28Remember last week on the show, we talked about his ride on riding with Biden in the
00:13:32Greenwood Cup where he pulled the horse up before the finish line and cost the horse
00:13:36second place. That cost the owners $19,000 and cost bettors who had the riding with
00:13:43Biden underneath next exacto or riding with Biden to place or whatnot cost them easily
00:13:49tens of thousands of dollars.
00:13:51They gave him 30 days.
00:13:52I'm OK with the 30 days.
00:13:53I would have given him 60 personally, but I was more worried that it would be a slap on
00:13:59the wrist and that would have been the bad thing and sent the wrong message.
00:14:03So they got it somewhere in between, but that they did not slap him on the wrist and they
00:14:09told Paco this is not OK and obviously told him not to do it again.
00:14:13I think the stewards at Parks deserve some credit for that.
00:14:18Definitely 30 days, perfect.
00:14:23It's a deterrent, that's what it's supposed to be, I promise you.
00:14:28Well, I can't promise you because, you know, I can't get in the mind of Paco Lopez.
00:14:32I don't think he'll ever do it again.
00:14:34Put it that way. Not that he did it on purpose to begin with.
00:14:37It was an accident. But, you know, there were bettors that lost money.
00:14:41There were owners that lost money.
00:14:43And I thought it was a pretty fitting punishment for the crime, in air quotes.
00:14:49Yes. And but one way or another, Paco will be back in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
00:14:54Tremendously talented rider.
00:14:56But boy, does he seem to get into, you know, messes like this much more often than perhaps
00:15:03anyone else. Now, what's coming up?
00:15:05This is a silly thing to be talking about here and debating about on our podcast.
00:15:10But I think we should because it involves Bob Baffert, the number one trainer in the
00:15:15sport, most visible trainer in the sport.
00:15:18And for months, if not years, there were two people in particular on Twitter.
00:15:24Now, X, I'm not going to say X.
00:15:25It's Twitter. Enough of that.
00:15:27X, the website formerly known as Twitter, who just roasted him left and right with most
00:15:34outlandish claims whatsoever.
00:15:36One was a guy by the name of Justin Wunderler, who posted under the name of Swift Hitter.
00:15:42And the other guy who really I'm not quite sure why they involved him in this lawsuit
00:15:47because his activity, anti Baffert activity and postings compared nothing to what
00:15:53Wunderler did. But a guy by the name of Daniel DeCorsio wrote on the name of Barshoe
00:15:59Life. They sued him for both of them for extortion and defamation.
00:16:05This really hit a boiling point when Wunderler came out and said that he has a video and
00:16:11implied that it was so nefarious that when he releases it, it will, quote unquote, end
00:16:15Baffert's career.
00:16:17They accused him of blood doping.
00:16:19They have urged others to engage in this, according to the lawsuit.
00:16:23So this is allegedly have urged others to engage in violent behavior towards Baffert and
00:16:29all sorts of just I mean, they were relentless.
00:16:32And, you know, it was it was definitely crossed the line.
00:16:37And I've often wondered about that.
00:16:38How is it that people can get away with saying whatever they want on Twitter?
00:16:44And there never seems to be any payback.
00:16:48Certainly, I think the things that they said and did do come under the the under the
00:16:55whatever the guidelines are legally for extortion and defamation.
00:16:58And it was it was, you know, Baffert said, I've had enough of this crap and went out and
00:17:03tried to put a stop to it.
00:17:04So, you know, look, if I want to put on Baffert that Randy Moss is the world's lousiest
00:17:09handicapper, OK, I can do that.
00:17:12He's a great handicapper.
00:17:13We all know that. But I can't come out and say that when Randy Moss shows up at the
00:17:17Breeders' Cup, people should engage in violent behavior towards him.
00:17:22I mean, no, that's not OK.
00:17:24So they absolutely crossed a line.
00:17:28And the one guy, Wanderer, Swift Hitter hasn't stopped.
00:17:32He's been been since then continuing to post some things about Baffert.
00:17:36The other guy's gone gone cold.
00:17:38You don't hear from him whatsoever.
00:17:40But, you know, like again, and only in 2023 and only in the world of social media can
00:17:45we have a story like this.
00:17:46But, you know, Baffert's Baffert just said, I've had enough of this crap.
00:17:50And I think good for him.
00:17:53Yeah. I mean, everybody knows that's been involved at all in social media, you know,
00:17:58that Twitter can have some incredibly positive aspects to it.
00:18:02Right. And it can also have these negative aspects where people sometimes hide behind
00:18:07anonymity and then just just throw out these, you know, these unbelievable comments.
00:18:13I've had them directed at me before.
00:18:15I blocked a couple of people on Twitter before I realized that that doesn't do any good.
00:18:20You know, I've come back at them before on Twitter when they when they say things that
00:18:26doesn't really do any good either.
00:18:27So now, you know, you just got to develop a thick skin and just kind of ignore stuff like
00:18:31that. I'm not saying it happens to me a lot, but in the in the area of Bob Baffert, you
00:18:37know, I'm my gosh, I mean, the stuff that that has been tweeted out about him.
00:18:43And it does seem like it, you know, if there is no basis to it and that's what a judge
00:18:50is going to decide, that's what the lawyers are going to decide, then it seems like it
00:18:54would cross the line to defamation of character, to slander, possibly extortion, things
00:19:01like that. So we wonder why people never get called on the carpet for something like
00:19:07this. Maybe this is a situation in which they will.
00:19:10It's going to be a fascinating case to follow.
00:19:13I mean, it's just crossing the line, it's got personal and you can say whatever you
00:19:19want on social media, it's a public platform.
00:19:21But once you cross that line and you get personal and you start slandering, you know,
00:19:27Jill, his son, Bodie, and getting people, you know, to get violent at them, it's become
00:19:34personal and it should never cross that line.
00:19:37So kudos for Bob for taking some action and going after them.
00:19:42Yeah, and I don't know this, I don't know the answer to this question, but I was also
00:19:46wondering that, you know, when you talk about extortion, what they were saying was that
00:19:52they were saying to Baffert that give us money and we won't release this alleged tape
00:19:58that doesn't, they've been talking about or Wonder has been talking about forever and
00:20:03doesn't seem to ever come to be.
00:20:05And also, you know, urging other people to engage in violence against them.
00:20:11I wonder if the next step is criminal charges.
00:20:13I don't see why not.
00:20:15That'll be interesting to follow as well to see if we'll get there.
00:20:19But I'm not sure Twitter has made the world a better place.
00:20:23And this is a good example of that.
00:20:26My tweets are so boring that nobody ever gets.
00:20:31I don't know what that means.
00:20:32I think I last tweeted in 2021 or something like that, and I was involved pretty heavily
00:20:37there for a while and it just kind of petered out.
00:20:40Sorry to all the people, to the 30,000 or so people who follow me.
00:20:44But you did the right thing.
00:20:46And not much good can come from that.
00:20:48The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:20:51Keeneland has cataloged, listen for this guys, 3,569 horses for its 80th November
00:20:59breeding stock sale.
00:21:01It'll begin on Wednesday, November the 8th and run nine sessions through Thursday,
00:21:06November the 16th.
00:21:07With the standalone, we mentioned this last week, November horses of racing age sale
00:21:12followed the following day.
00:21:14The breeding stock sale features proven producers, coveted broodmare prospects who
00:21:19are successful racehorses and royally bred weanlings at all levels of the market.
00:21:25The auction will open with a single day book one, which begins at 1pm and will
00:21:30showcase an exceptional group of broodmares, broodmare prospects and weanlings.
00:21:35Among them, you might have heard of this one, our stakes winner, Puka, carrying a
00:21:40full sibling to 2023 Durba winner, Mage.
00:21:44Breeders' Cup winner, Caravelle, she'll be in there along with her dam, Zizi Zunzum,
00:21:50who is now in foal to justify.
00:21:52And also grade one winner, Delica, who is in foal to the one and only flight line.
00:21:57We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:22:04At Keeneland, a horse will always be measured in hands.
00:22:09Hands that see, that sense, that speak.
00:22:17Hands that hold our sport to a higher standard, not for our sake, but for theirs.
00:22:26For the love of the horse for generations to come.
00:22:38The
00:23:02Retired Racehorse Projects Thoroughbred Makeover presented by the TCA takes place
00:23:07at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, October the 11th through the 14th.
00:23:11It is a must not miss event.
00:23:14The makeover will welcome 404 horses, including both recently retired race
00:23:20horses, and for the first time, my favorite category, former broodmares.
00:23:25Take a look at the entry list and look for your favorite former racehorse
00:23:29at the rrp.org slash entries.
00:23:33In this week's edition of First Things First, I caught up with trainer
00:23:37Doug O'Neill and discussed Slow Down Andy.
00:23:50Slow Down Andy.
00:23:51Yes.
00:23:51Quite the accomplishment.
00:23:53Finally, he went off favored.
00:23:56I mean, he is two wins and two seconds, I think, since going off favored now.
00:24:01He's pretty amazing, Andy.
00:24:02He's one going a mile and eighth on the turf, on the dirt, one going one turn.
00:24:07He's done just about everything.
00:24:08So and just being a homebred of Paul and Zilla is pretty awesome.
00:24:12Right.
00:24:13Grateful to to be part of the team with Slow Down Andy.
00:24:17Cool horse.
00:24:18How did he come out of it?
00:24:20Came out of it good.
00:24:20He's a little tired, which is to be expected, but he looks well.
00:24:25And we've got the British Cup Classic circled and see how it goes.
00:24:31The old cliche, he'll tell us.
00:24:32So we'll see what he tells us.
00:24:34Do you think he could well be the speed of the speed?
00:24:38You know, he definitely has enough speed to be on the lead for the place
00:24:43in a mile and a quarter race.
00:24:44So I just have to see who who shows up and all that.
00:24:48But he sure broke well the other day.
00:24:50And yeah, he showed speed and stamina for sure.
00:24:56Is this your morning regime up here in your suite training?
00:25:00Tell us about your suite here.
00:25:01The Key Dozen Club.
00:25:02What's going on?
00:25:03Well, we had a dear friend named Steve K.
00:25:06That passed away.
00:25:07It's been five years, four or five years ago.
00:25:11So in honor of Steve, Steve was always the man behind the suite at Del Mar
00:25:17and Sanita. And so Steve's still with us.
00:25:22But when the bill comes up, we need like 12 of us to pay for it.
00:25:29But no fun group.
00:25:30And we're up here on workout mornings.
00:25:32And it is it's a wonderful place to watch and train.
00:25:39Much thanks to Doug O'Neill for that.
00:25:41Just a reminder that the Santa Anita Fall Meet is back and it's in full swing.
00:25:46The meeting runs until November the fifth, culminating in the two day
00:25:49Breeders' Cup World Championships.
00:25:52Don't miss free admission Fridays.
00:25:53Be there or be square.
00:25:55Every Friday, race fans enjoy free admission.
00:25:58Parking and three dollar beers and five dollar margaritas,
00:26:02which, you know what, are actually really, really good.
00:26:08Kind of like those five dollar margaritas.
00:26:11All right, guys.
00:26:12Tons of races to review from last week.
00:26:15We can't go over all of them.
00:26:16We simply don't have time.
00:26:17But it was one of those big pre Breeders' Cup weekends
00:26:20with a lot of winning year end races.
00:26:22So let's kind of look at the highlights.
00:26:23And the biggest name of the weekend, obviously, was Cody's Wish,
00:26:27who ran in the Vosburgh, a race really on paper.
00:26:30There's absolutely no reason to expect that he could possibly lose.
00:26:34I guess maybe he had to prove a little bit of something,
00:26:37a little bit of something after he didn't perform to his best in the Whitney.
00:26:42But remember, that was a mile and eighth race around two turns,
00:26:44which is not really his way of going.
00:26:48He got off to a slow start again, which he did in the Met Mile as well.
00:26:52He was professional.
00:26:54It was one of those grinding wins over a horse.
00:26:58What the heck is this horse's name?
00:26:59I can't even read my writing.
00:27:00You guys can remember it was second, I hope.
00:27:03But, you know, it did it move him up in my book.
00:27:05No, did it move him down in my book?
00:27:07No. He moves on to the Breeders' Cup mile.
00:27:10And he's still a neat story and still a very good horse.
00:27:13But but definitely not a race that took your breath away or anything like that.
00:27:16No, no. I mean, he wasn't one of his finest efforts. Right.
00:27:20But you mentioned that it looked like on paper
00:27:23there's absolutely no way he could lose.
00:27:26But Bill Mott saw that as well.
00:27:28And there's no reason to get a horse just entirely cranked up
00:27:32for a maximum A effort against that field in the Vosburgh
00:27:37when really the ultimate prize that they're looking at is the Breeders' Cup
00:27:40Dirt Mile, which is going to be the final race of his career.
00:27:43This was just a means to an end.
00:27:45He accomplished it, still ran a good race, still won.
00:27:49Didn't break. The pace was slow, which is one of the reasons
00:27:52why it looked like kind of a grinding win as opposed to that sweeping
00:27:57move coming from off a fast pace like he had in the Metropolitan Mile.
00:28:02So I thought it was a good effort all in all.
00:28:04It didn't blow me away.
00:28:05But I'm not really going to penalize him for that.
00:28:08Zoe, given the circumstances, it was fine.
00:28:12I mean, that's basically all you can say about it.
00:28:14It was a fine effort.
00:28:15He he does have problems in the gate listening to Junior Alvarado afterwards.
00:28:19He said the problem with him getting an outside draw, which is great,
00:28:23is that they put him in.
00:28:24He wants to act up and they spring the gate.
00:28:27And it's not even like he broke that slow.
00:28:30It's just he doesn't want to be involved that early.
00:28:33Like if you watch him break, he broke in a teeny bit of a tangle,
00:28:37but he was right behind the last horse.
00:28:39Ten jumps later, he's like five lengths behind.
00:28:43So he leaves with the field and then just drops himself back naturally.
00:28:47And that's, I think, what he wants to do.
00:28:49He was just like, I'm just going to throw in a fine effort.
00:28:52This isn't the big dance.
00:28:53I'm going to gallop around here and I'm going to win.
00:28:55But it was a fine performance.
00:28:57And that's it. And I hate the word fine.
00:29:02Well, it might be able to use the same word for Zanden's win in the Woodward.
00:29:06It was a fine performance.
00:29:08And the story here was, I mean, this horse was so consistent,
00:29:13but he wasn't winning.
00:29:15His last win goes all the way back to the last year's bluegrass
00:29:17on April 9th of 2022.
00:29:20And he's lost eight straight since.
00:29:21He's lost eight straight. He must be a bum.
00:29:23Well, look at some of these races he ran second in.
00:29:26The Whitney, the Met Mile, the Pennsylvania Derby, the Jim Dandy.
00:29:30He was just never quite in the right place at the right time.
00:29:33Some of it was, you know, maybe he wasn't quite up to the caliber
00:29:38of the A plus stars he was running against in these races.
00:29:43Unfortunately, the Woodward is one of those races that is not what it used to be.
00:29:47It is now down to a grade two.
00:29:49And he he found a field he could beat.
00:29:52But on top of that, he looked pretty good.
00:29:54He looked better than fine. Let's put it that way.
00:29:57I'd like the way he accelerated in the stretch.
00:30:00He's going to come back in the Breeders' Cup Classic,
00:30:02which will be a much stiffer test.
00:30:04And you know what?
00:30:05He's going to run third because that's what Zanden does.
00:30:09He runs second.
00:30:10OK, that's a much better record running second.
00:30:12Let's give him that much.
00:30:14He could be second.
00:30:17All right. Well, who's he going to have to beat in the Breeders' Cup Classic?
00:30:19See, that's the you know, that's the big question to ask.
00:30:23Arcangelo is the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Classic poll.
00:30:27He's been the favorite for a few weeks.
00:30:28And yeah, I mean, he looked good winning the Travers.
00:30:30Got a 105 fire speed figure.
00:30:33Zanden just got a 104 winning the Woodward in a cakewalk.
00:30:37He got a 106 running behind Cody's Wish in the Metropolitan Mile.
00:30:42He got a 105 last year as a three year old running in the Travers
00:30:47at the Breeders' Cup Classic distance of a mile and a quarter.
00:30:51So, I mean, you've got quite a barrio
00:30:55who missed a workout a couple of weeks ago for no apparent reason in California.
00:30:59That probably doesn't concern Rick Dutrow, but it concerns me.
00:31:03You've got Forte who's battling a quarter crack who might not even make the race.
00:31:08You've got Slowdown Andy, who we'll talk about in a minute,
00:31:11who just comes off a win in the Awesome again,
00:31:13who has questions in a stiffly run mile and a quarter.
00:31:19You've got a couple of really good speed horses in Saudi Crown
00:31:23and Arabian Night who could compromise each other.
00:31:27Hell, the Breeders' Cup Classic is a complete grab bag right now.
00:31:32So I could easily see Zanden slugging from off the pace
00:31:36with a repeat performance of the kind of form that he showed in the Woodward.
00:31:41And maybe even pulling down all the marbles
00:31:44if nobody jumps up and runs a huge race in front of him.
00:31:48I thought he ran a big race.
00:31:49I thought he overcame a lot in that race.
00:31:52Yes, he was the best horse he was supposed to win.
00:31:55Flavian rode him like the best horse.
00:31:58He let him lay back and do his thing.
00:31:59He came very, very wide, ate an awful lot of dirt.
00:32:02But then once he got clear, he kicked clear and won like a good horse.
00:32:06So it was a good performance.
00:32:08I'll be happy to see him out here.
00:32:11And you're right.
00:32:12Breeders' Cup Classic is shaping up to be a very, very good race.
00:32:15Indeed.
00:32:16Archangelo continues to train just like he trained in Saratoga
00:32:20here at Santa Anita.
00:32:22Very forwardly is up and rolls around there.
00:32:25As far as wider barrio, I believe it's feet issues for him.
00:32:30Ian McKinlay, the blacksmith, was out here to fix some shoes.
00:32:33He has glue on shoes.
00:32:35So I think that's been one of his problems
00:32:38when he wasn't allowed to work here at Santa Anita.
00:32:40He did work yesterday morning at 6.30 and went one on one and change
00:32:45and looked good, looked very happy doing it.
00:32:48I popped by the barn and saw him yesterday.
00:32:50So I think his feet issues are in the rear view mirror.
00:32:54And it is shaping up to be a really good betting race.
00:32:59Is there a standout in there?
00:33:00Is there a flight line? No.
00:33:02But it's going to be a good race.
00:33:03And I'm delighted to see that it's going to be a full field,
00:33:07which I don't think we've had a big field of decent horses
00:33:11in quite some time.
00:33:13Bill, you know who else is going to run in the classic, I think?
00:33:16Yes. Dermot Sotogaki.
00:33:18Yes. Along with Ushpa Tesoro, the other Japanese horse.
00:33:24Who won? Was it the Saudi Cup or the Dubai World Cup?
00:33:27He won one of the two.
00:33:28Dubai World Cup. Yeah.
00:33:29I mean, it's a good feeling.
00:33:31Where does Awesome, Slowdown Andy, the winner of the Awesome again,
00:33:35where does he fit into the mix?
00:33:37He won by two and a quarter lengths over Defunded.
00:33:39The way the race developed was a little bit surprising.
00:33:42He got the lead and got it fairly comfortably.
00:33:45I don't think a lot of people expected that.
00:33:48The writer in the racing forum called it a speed favoring track.
00:33:52I didn't take a close enough look at the day to really make an assessment on that.
00:33:55But what about Slowdown Andy's performance in the Awesome again for Doug O'Neill?
00:34:00It was good.
00:34:00I don't think anyone expected him to be on the lead.
00:34:03Doug didn't expect it.
00:34:04Mario certainly didn't expect him to be on the lead.
00:34:07But Mario is such a relaxed rider when he popped out with his head in front.
00:34:11He just let the lines go and said, go on, my son, and just go and do it.
00:34:16Defunded broke a tad slow.
00:34:17So he sat back when perhaps he should have just gone.
00:34:21But I'm not sure Defunded is the same horse that we saw in last year's Awesome again.
00:34:25His works haven't been as good.
00:34:27He's just he's not as sharp as he was.
00:34:29So that honestly didn't surprise me.
00:34:31As far as the track, we got a daily.
00:34:33It was such a shame on a day when New York wasn't running right at 1230.
00:34:40It just pissed down.
00:34:41It was a deluge of rain.
00:34:44Cats and dogs are flying out of the sky.
00:34:46We were expecting 20 percent chance of rain.
00:34:49Nobody was expecting what we saw.
00:34:52So they immediately horses were in the paddock.
00:34:54They took the first race off the grass because there was standing water
00:34:57on the turf course, which after a few hours and a few drying hours,
00:35:01it did actually seep in.
00:35:03And they carded a couple of the latter turf races on the turf.
00:35:07And it actually yielded some fast times.
00:35:09But immediately the moment that water got into the track and it was
00:35:14it was a little speed bias there on Saturday through through nobody's fault.
00:35:18I think he got it was a fair pace.
00:35:21I mean, he went 46 and changed 110.
00:35:24That was a good time.
00:35:25He earned the win.
00:35:26That's for sure.
00:35:28Where does he stack up amongst that bunch in the Breeders' Cup Classic?
00:35:34Yeah, I'm not sure.
00:35:37I can't put him in the top three, I honestly can't.
00:35:41Yeah, if you were making a line right now on the Breeders' Cup Classic,
00:35:44you would probably make slow down any eight to one or ten to one.
00:35:48And that's even with the fact that it's in his backyard, right?
00:35:51It's in Santa Anita, which has got to be a benefit, always is.
00:35:55But he never seems to run a bad race.
00:35:57You know, he doesn't win.
00:35:58He's in there.
00:35:59He's in there plugging away all the way to the end.
00:36:01I have questions, like I said a little while ago,
00:36:05in a strongly run mile and a quarter with him up kind of close to the pace.
00:36:10I have questions about his ability to see out the entire ten furlongs.
00:36:15But he's in this classic field.
00:36:17He's right there somewhere in the mix.
00:36:20He's an overachieving Calbreton.
00:36:22Who wouldn't want one of those?
00:36:24I mean, really, he's making them an awful lot of money
00:36:27and he's a cool horse to be around as well.
00:36:30Randy, in previous shows, you've talked about how tough it looks
00:36:33like the Breeders' Cup Distaff is going to be.
00:36:36Just a loaded field.
00:36:37Now let's put Adair Manor in there as well.
00:36:39I mean, we knew she was in the mix, but, you know, here's one that's
00:36:43flown under the radar.
00:36:44You know, Baffert is not known for winning with older fillies and mayors,
00:36:48but he's got this one in fantastic form, having won five straight.
00:36:52She won the Zenyatta.
00:36:54And, you know, again, another horse in a race.
00:36:57I agree with you.
00:36:58There's seven or eight real stars in there.
00:37:01She belongs in the mix as well.
00:37:03Oh, yeah.
00:37:03She was one to ten in the Zenyatta in just a four horse field
00:37:08that, you know, she dominated from a pace perspective
00:37:11as well as on paper going in.
00:37:14So but she did what she was supposed to do, right?
00:37:16I mean, she's won five races in a row.
00:37:20She's won by open margins in most of those.
00:37:22She won the Santa Maria by four and three quarters,
00:37:24the Santa Margarita by four and a half, the Zenyatta by five and a quarter.
00:37:28If you're going to critique her, though, for any of those races
00:37:32and you're going to look ahead to the distaff,
00:37:34really the only way you can the only black mark
00:37:38against her, if you want to call it that, you could say,
00:37:42who's she beating and how fast is she running?
00:37:45Right. Her last five wins.
00:37:46Big Switch behind her, Bellamore and Big Switch, Kirsten Bach,
00:37:51Desert Dawn, the last two who were behind her.
00:37:55She was odds on favorite in each one of those races.
00:37:59Ninety five, ninety eight by her speed figures.
00:38:03Ninety four.
00:38:04And now she's going to have to run against Nest.
00:38:06And you're looking at, you know, Clairie Air and Secret Oath
00:38:10and Idiomatic and all these horses that that have really run
00:38:15some fast, very powerful races.
00:38:17But it's in her backyard, just like we said about Slowdown Andy.
00:38:22And you got the Bob Baffert factor.
00:38:24She's got speed, which is always beneficial.
00:38:27I think you got to put her in the mix.
00:38:29She's in excellent, excellent form right now.
00:38:33You have to throw her in the mix.
00:38:34I have a lot more confidence in her than Slowdown Andy.
00:38:37Sorry, Andy.
00:38:39But even just looking at her physically, she's like looking at black beauty.
00:38:43She's this big, black, beautiful filly.
00:38:46She's about 17 hands.
00:38:48She stands over a lot of ground.
00:38:51She's an imposing individual.
00:38:52When she prances into the paddock, you're going to be like, whoa,
00:38:56what what just came in here?
00:38:59So she definitely has an edge and being her hometown track.
00:39:04I really like her.
00:39:05And she's going to be a price up against the bunch that you just mentioned.
00:39:09I'm pretty mischievous, too.
00:39:12Let's stick with Zoe to give her report.
00:39:15She is our official European correspondent.
00:39:18The Arc de Triomphe. Take it away, Zoe.
00:39:20I think we all watched the arc, didn't we?
00:39:22And our jaws absolutely dropped.
00:39:25Now, I like Westover.
00:39:27Dan Ross like Westover.
00:39:28Westover looked like a winner until all of a sudden
00:39:32down the outside of the racetrack.
00:39:35I'm like, who is that?
00:39:37Oh, my God.
00:39:38I mean, like he was shot out of a cannon.
00:39:42Ace impact.
00:39:44An imperious winner like he was absolutely fantastic.
00:39:49He left the rest of them like they were tied to a tree.
00:39:53That's how fast he took the britches off most of those jobs when he went by them.
00:39:57That's how fast he finished.
00:39:59I mean, it was a wicked turn of foot, something that I'm not sure
00:40:03that we've seen in the arc in a while.
00:40:05And I was helped by the ground.
00:40:07The ground was listed as good to soft.
00:40:09I don't know where they came up with the good to soft.
00:40:12I've got no idea or soft or whatever it was, but it was definitely on the firmer side.
00:40:18It rode quick. It supported quick times all day.
00:40:21He was absolutely terrific.
00:40:23Westover was terrific.
00:40:25The second, the third place finisher, Onesto.
00:40:28How about Frankel?
00:40:30Frankel was the grand sire of Ace Impact.
00:40:34He was the sire of Westover.
00:40:36He was the sire of Onesto.
00:40:38He was the sire of Kalina, who also won a Groupon race.
00:40:42I mean, he is the sire of sires and the sire of the moment.
00:40:45He had a terrific day.
00:40:46It was a really good car.
00:40:47That was fun watching those races.
00:40:51Yeah. And yeah, you were excited, too, right, Randy?
00:40:55We know Bill doesn't care.
00:40:56Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:40:58I loved him.
00:40:58And the undercard races are always huge for the Breeders' Cup as well.
00:41:03You know, the opera races like that are always gigantic.
00:41:06And this was Ace Impact kind of rewrote the rules,
00:41:10so to speak, that people are always talking about going into these big races.
00:41:13We talked about it last week.
00:41:15He hadn't run since August because the trainer wanted him fresh.
00:41:18That almost never happens in the arc.
00:41:20He's the first arc winner.
00:41:21What did we say, 33 years or something like that
00:41:24that came into the race without a previous win at a mile and a half.
00:41:28Did that bother him at all?
00:41:29Hell no. I mean, he looked awesome.
00:41:31And to your point about how strong the performance was,
00:41:35I haven't seen the time form rating yet, but Racing Post does its own ratings.
00:41:41And if you look at like the last dozen or so runnings of the arc,
00:41:45he is tied with Enable for the highest rating,
00:41:49129 Racing Post rating.
00:41:52Now, are we going to see him?
00:41:55My first thought after the race was over was probably not.
00:41:59But since then, the ownership, the trainer has been quoted as saying,
00:42:03hey, we love international racing.
00:42:05We love to travel. We get a kick out of it.
00:42:08We're not ruling out any sort of travel in the future,
00:42:11whether it's to the US or Hong Kong or Japan.
00:42:14Who knows?
00:42:15So maybe Ace Impact is still in the running for the Breeders' Cup turf.
00:42:21And, you know, right now, the way the Breeders' Cup is shaping up,
00:42:24there are just some fantastic international participation involved.
00:42:29Right. Emily Upjohn, who didn't run in the arc,
00:42:32is being pointed for the Breeders' Cup.
00:42:34I don't know if it's the turf or the Philly and Merritt turf.
00:42:36I think it's the Breeders' Cup turf.
00:42:39And you've got Auguste Rodin
00:42:42from the Comore crew who's being pointed for the Breeders' Cup turf
00:42:46and a lot of other international horses and other races as well.
00:42:49It'd be great. Yeah.
00:42:51It'd be great if we get to see this horse.
00:42:53We might.
00:42:54She's she's pointing towards the the juvenile turf.
00:42:58She won the Prix Marcel Bussac.
00:43:01And then, you know what I heard this morning?
00:43:02I'm not sure the Ace Impact is coming here.
00:43:06They were talking about perhaps perhaps a matchup
00:43:09between him and Equinox in the Japan Cup.
00:43:13Now, who would you give the vote?
00:43:16Equinox. Yeah, I know.
00:43:18OK, that was easy.
00:43:21All right.
00:43:24Home field advantage in Japan is huge.
00:43:28The TDN Writer's Room also brought to you by the Pennsylvania
00:43:30Horse Breeders Association.
00:43:32We talk about this every week.
00:43:34It's been a heck of a last 12 months for Pennsylvania breds,
00:43:37and they're trying to keep it rolling this weekend
00:43:40where you've got our shot running in the grade two Woodford stakes
00:43:45at at Keeneland, part of the Keeneland opening weekend festivities.
00:43:49He's coming off an allowance win
00:43:51and a third place finish in the stakes at Saratoga.
00:43:54And also looking in the rearview mirror just this past weekend,
00:43:58a horse named Hardy Constitution bred in Pennsylvania
00:44:01traveled to Churchill Downs.
00:44:02She was sent off a one to five favorite in the allowance race,
00:44:05romped home by four and a half lengths.
00:44:07Hardy Constitution, a four year old filly bred by Dr.
00:44:10Roberta Schneider.
00:44:12A lot more PA bred news coming up in subsequent weeks.
00:44:15To learn more in the meantime about owning and breeding
00:44:18in the great state of Pennsylvania, email info at PA bred dot com.
00:44:24The PA Horse Breeders Association presents the Pennsylvania Stallion Series.
00:44:29Six races for PA sire, PA bred two year olds at parks.
00:44:33Two $100,000 contests at five and a half for lunch on August 21st.
00:44:38PA day at the races.
00:44:40September 23rd, PA Derby Day has two races at six and a half for lunch,
00:44:45both with a $150,000 purse.
00:44:48And in December, two races going long, each worth $200,000.
00:44:52For more, go to PA bred dot com.
00:44:55The TD and Riders are brought to you by the fast sires at Windstar Farm,
00:44:59which is kind enough to always sponsor our fastest horse of the week every week.
00:45:04First, though, we like to spotlight one of those hot sires at Windstar.
00:45:08And anybody who owns horses, train sources,
00:45:12gambles on horses has to have noticed that this summer, the two year olds,
00:45:18the sire Constitution has been just fantastic.
00:45:21He is the leading two year old sire in wins.
00:45:25Sixty two wins among two year olds.
00:45:27That's one more than into mischief.
00:45:30And also in money, one one point five six million by Constitution
00:45:34two year olds this year.
00:45:36That's just a touch over.
00:45:37Justify, who we've talked about, has had a hot start with his two year olds
00:45:41this year. So right now, Constitution is clicking on all cylinders.
00:45:46And also, you know, what's also great about Constitution.
00:45:49This has nothing to do with the money aspect of it.
00:45:51The names that you get, right?
00:45:54Horses sired by Constitution, American Revolution, federalism, congressman.
00:45:59I've got a bunch of them here.
00:46:01Give me liberty.
00:46:02OK, I stopped at the Jays with James Madison.
00:46:06But that's yet another thing to like about Constitution.
00:46:10So you breed the Constitution, you get a good racehorse
00:46:13and you also have the possibility to name one of those great names
00:46:17that honors American history.
00:46:19Constitution standing at stud at Windstar Farm.
00:46:24Fastest horse of the week.
00:46:25We've already talked about him.
00:46:26We've already talked about the figure that would be Zandan off of his win
00:46:31last week. One oh four buyer speed figure for Zandan,
00:46:36whose next start penciled in as the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:46:44The TDN Writers Room is brought to you by the Green Group,
00:46:46a tax accounting and advisory firm specializing in the thoroughbred
00:46:50industry and designed to save you taxes.
00:46:53And we welcome in now the Green Group guest of the week,
00:46:56and it is Cormac Branick, who wears lots of different hats at Keeneland.
00:47:00He's the director of sales and operations, and we're having him on today.
00:47:04He can talk about just anything, Keeneland, the September sale,
00:47:07the November sale, the race meet coming up.
00:47:09But Cormac, why don't we start with the September sale,
00:47:12since that's the closest goings on at Keeneland as we do this podcast.
00:47:18And once again, you produce figures that were largely in line
00:47:22with last year's record breaking sale.
00:47:25Lots of optimism, lots of good numbers.
00:47:28What does this say about your place in the market?
00:47:31It was a remarkable sale.
00:47:33Last year, we broke all records.
00:47:35We set record average median gross and RNA rate.
00:47:38And this year we edged slightly up on the average,
00:47:41while the others were very close to last year.
00:47:43So we were thrilled.
00:47:45I think one of the things I was really excited about,
00:47:47we had 168 different horses bring a half a million or more.
00:47:51I think there was a great spread in the market.
00:47:53The top was very strong.
00:47:54We had 37 figure yearlings that went to 21 different domestic or international buyers.
00:48:00So you see a huge spread in in the market
00:48:03and the congregating here at Keeneland in September.
00:48:06So it's very exciting for us and for our team.
00:48:08And we're very thankful, obviously, to the breeders and consignors who supported us
00:48:13because you're only as good as the catalogue you can put together.
00:48:16But to see a lot of people rewarded well and a lot of smiles
00:48:20really makes it all worthwhile.
00:48:22Cormac, delighted to have you here.
00:48:23Before we go any further, I want to commend Bill
00:48:26on the pronunciation of your last name, because I can't remember
00:48:30how many people have mispronounced it, because what do you get?
00:48:34Breath match? Brenich?
00:48:36What do you usually get?
00:48:38Breath match would be the that would be the go to.
00:48:41But I've been here 27 years now, so I answer to most things.
00:48:45I did my home. I did my homework.
00:48:47So I think Carmichael pulled that out of the pull that out of a hat. Yeah.
00:48:52Well, we're delighted to have you.
00:48:54And having been at the Keeneland September sale, I want to give you guys
00:48:58a massive round of applause because it seemingly went off without a hitch.
00:49:02It's like, you know, the geese swimming across the top of the lake
00:49:06and put their legs underneath the going a million miles an hour.
00:49:09That is exactly what it looked like.
00:49:11And I commend you for sticking to your guns and sticking to the book
00:49:15one principles that has got more people actually wanting to be in book one.
00:49:20Who would have thought it?
00:49:21Million dollar horses coming out of book one.
00:49:25Yeah, thanks, Zoe. I mean, it was great.
00:49:26You know, we got a lot of support and a lot of people like yourself
00:49:29were there every day from from tip to tail, just walking the barns
00:49:32and finding diamonds in the rough and million dollar horses alike.
00:49:35So we, you know, Tony Lacy was hired as VP of sales.
00:49:40And a few weeks later, he called me and invited me to join the team.
00:49:42I couldn't have been more excited.
00:49:44And really, you know, having my first September sale
00:49:48I've done from was in 1995 as groom and show person.
00:49:52And so I've been part of a lot of them for a long time.
00:49:54And we really recognized and agreed on the fact that consistent format was
00:50:00going to be a tough nut to crack, but something that we really needed to do,
00:50:03because you get in a cycle of trying to adjust based on previous year's results.
00:50:07And in the end, one thing everyone agrees on is you can't hide a good horse.
00:50:11And so to be fair to the buyers, to make the sale flow, to make it all make sense,
00:50:17putting the better horses forward is is critical to to all of that.
00:50:21And so we saw, you know, tremendous trade
00:50:25each of the three September sales we've done, but particularly last year and this year.
00:50:30And it builds a momentum that allows the sale to stay
00:50:34productive right through the end.
00:50:36So we had record prices in both sessions in book four this year
00:50:40and again in the last day of the sale at one hundred and eighty five thousand
00:50:42dollars sale of a Canadian bred horse that, you know, is the highest price
00:50:46ever on the last day of the Keenan September sale.
00:50:47So, you know, there's nothing that that's easy that you can take for granted.
00:50:51But I think we've we've found something that works and consistency is a big part of it.
00:50:56Cormac, this is going on while the full crop is going down year after year
00:51:00after year down three percent this year.
00:51:03And you know the numbers.
00:51:04I mean, it's now something that we've come to expect each year.
00:51:07We're down to eighteen thousand folds,
00:51:10which is a huge drop from even about eight, nine years ago.
00:51:14However, you look at the Keenan sale, your catalog this year, four thousand
00:51:18two hundred and fifteen in the catalog.
00:51:20It was the second straight year that you actually cataloged more horses
00:51:24than you did the year before.
00:51:26How are you making that work?
00:51:27If the full crop is going down,
00:51:29it would stand to reason that you'd have fewer horses in your sale.
00:51:33But that's not happening.
00:51:34Why?
00:51:35I mean, it's a it's a great question.
00:51:37And I'm not sure there's an easy answer,
00:51:39but there's a lot of things that we look at in there.
00:51:41First of all, we're very grateful to the support that we get.
00:51:44We're up to 24 percent of the entire North American thoroughbred full crop
00:51:49that goes through the Keenan September sale, which is staggering.
00:51:52It it's a pays tribute to the people who came long before Tony and I,
00:51:56you know, people like Rogers Beasley and Jeffrey Russell and everybody else
00:51:59that made Keenan what it is today.
00:52:01And we're just trying to be stewards to advance it as far as we can.
00:52:07I do think logistically what's changed
00:52:10the 2008 correction since when the full crop has dropped about 50 percent or
00:52:15almost 50 percent that did weed out a lot of, you know,
00:52:19a lot of people that maybe had lesser mares,
00:52:21but also the people, I guess the better way to put it,
00:52:24the people that are breeding nowadays are extremely savvy.
00:52:27There are a lot of very clever, very experienced,
00:52:31very dedicated commercial breeders.
00:52:33And thankfully for us,
00:52:35they're looking to Keenan September as a large outlet for their for their stock
00:52:39every year. So that's a privilege for us,
00:52:43but also a huge responsibility that we do the best we can with what they're
00:52:46bringing us.
00:52:47So I do think the change really is in the level of sophistication
00:52:53and the investment and everything else, the quality of the mares,
00:52:57you know, everything else that comes to our doorstep, because it.
00:53:02There aren't the lower end horses that were being bred maybe 15,
00:53:0620 years ago, nearly as many of those now.
00:53:08There are a lot fewer of those.
00:53:09So really, you look into book five and book six.
00:53:11And when we're tasked with placing
00:53:13horses into the books to make the sale flow,
00:53:15you have to make some really tough decisions about horses that you wouldn't
00:53:18think in your own mind are book six horses, but because of literally space
00:53:21constraints, that's where they have to end up.
00:53:23So and we saw it in the prices this year.
00:53:25The prices stayed strong right through to the end.
00:53:27The clearance rate was extremely good as it was last year.
00:53:29I think that's a testament as much to the breeders as anything we're doing here
00:53:32with the quality that they provide.
00:53:35So that was September.
00:53:36We'll skip October, we'll get to October and the races in just a moment.
00:53:41Let's fast forward to November.
00:53:43How do you go from yearlings to weanlings,
00:53:47to your horses of racing age sale, to your mares?
00:53:50Tell us a little bit about what we have
00:53:52to look forward to in the upcoming November sale and the massive horses
00:53:56of racing age sale as well. Sure.
00:54:00Yeah, we also here at Keeneland have the world's largest breeding stock sale.
00:54:03So that'll start on on Wednesday, the 8th of November this year.
00:54:08And, you know, that actually putting that
00:54:11together is something that happens really after the September catalog has gone
00:54:14to the Jockey Club for fine analysis and then for printing.
00:54:18So we're really working on that November
00:54:21sale from sort of the third week of August through to the day before horses ship
00:54:27in here or the day that you ship in here for the September sale.
00:54:30So that catalog has been sort of baked for a few weeks now,
00:54:34except for supplements that we'll have to announce weekly here,
00:54:38starting shortly for book one.
00:54:41It's, you know, we announced a catalog with just over thirty six hundred and fifty
00:54:45horses, about eighteen hundred weanlings and over two thousand broodmares and
00:54:49broodmare prospects, a handful of stallion prospects and active stallions as well.
00:54:54So it's a huge another nine day sale,
00:54:59another huge catalog that'll go for, you know, for nine consecutive days.
00:55:04And then at the back end, which is Friday, the 17th of November,
00:55:07we'll have our November Horses of Racing Age sale.
00:55:10So one of the things that we did and that I took real interest in starting here
00:55:15at Keeneland was having a separate Horses of Racing Age
00:55:18sale, both in April and in November, where they could be standalone,
00:55:21where the entry deadline wasn't as early as it is for breeding stock sales
00:55:25for a catalog of that magnitude.
00:55:26So we have our entries.
00:55:28We're just closing our entries now for the for the November Horses of Racing Age
00:55:32sale and we'll add supplements as we go.
00:55:33So we have about two hundred and sixty
00:55:35or so to have in our initial catalog at this point.
00:55:38And that'll that'll all happen on Friday, the 17th of November.
00:55:43Cormac, I know there's still some I's to be dotted and T's to be crossed,
00:55:46but could you give us a snapshot of some of the major names that people
00:55:51will be following as they come into the Keeneland November sale?
00:55:55I know one of them is Caravelle.
00:55:57Sure.
00:55:58Breeders' Cup winner from last year.
00:56:00But give me off the top of your head,
00:56:03six, seven horses that you're excited about selling.
00:56:05Yeah, we have Caravelle's obviously one of the very, very choice offerings.
00:56:09And I think it's particularly exciting
00:56:11for us here at Keeneland because we have the race meet as well.
00:56:14And, you know, glove fits hand.
00:56:16We're working hand in hand with the race track all the time and sales helps fund
00:56:19our purses. So to have somebody like her that's been so successful around our race
00:56:24track and won the Breeders' Cup here come to our sale is very exciting.
00:56:28Her dam is also in the sales, ZZ Zoom Zoom from Elizabeth Merriman.
00:56:31She's also going to sell in book one in November.
00:56:34And then Case Clay has set up his own
00:56:37consignment and has two incredible offerings that are in book one.
00:56:41Puka, the dam of mage carrying a full
00:56:42sibling by good magic and and Dalika is one of 11 mares in
00:56:47full to flight line in our catalog.
00:56:49So that's, you know, you can bundle in 11 of those.
00:56:52There are 13 mares in full.
00:56:53Life is good.
00:56:54And there are a lot of mares in full to a very exciting first crop or first
00:56:59covering sire group, including the five horses at Ashford,
00:57:03like Epicenter and Jack Christopher and Golden Pal, etc.
00:57:06And you've got mares in full to Olympiad.
00:57:08It's a it's a really exciting catalog.
00:57:10This will be one of the first chances for
00:57:12people to get in on the flight line phenomenon.
00:57:15What kind of buzz is around these mares that are there in full to him?
00:57:19Oh, we've had a lot of calls already from
00:57:21all over the world about what mares are going to be in the catalog and how many
00:57:24and so on. So I think he's going to create the splash that that everybody expects.
00:57:29Plus, they did have a little a little into his to his career last year when we
00:57:34sold a two and a half percent fractional interest, four point six million
00:57:37to kick off the sale last year.
00:57:39So we're excited to continue that story.
00:57:41And with his mares in full this year and
00:57:43folds and yearlings in time and years to come.
00:57:45Well, we're really looking forward to it.
00:57:47And you must be looking forward to opening
00:57:49day at Keeneland that starts on Friday.
00:57:52Full stars, all stars.
00:57:54There are winning your ends not only here
00:57:56at Santa Anita, but across the country.
00:57:58What are you most looking forward to?
00:58:00And what can we as viewers, people that may be looking on the Google box,
00:58:04what can we expect to see from Keeneland this weekend?
00:58:06Oh, it'll be fantastic.
00:58:08We have 11 stakes this weekend.
00:58:10Eight of them are Breeders' Cup win
00:58:12and you're in events and the Fall Stars weekend.
00:58:14So it's three unparalleled days of action here.
00:58:18One race that I think really jumps out to me is the Alcibiades.
00:58:21I think that race is loaded.
00:58:22And you look at the morning line,
00:58:24you've got fillies like Alice Beach and horses like that at 20 to one.
00:58:27It could be one of the races of the year,
00:58:29but it's going to be action packed turf and dirt sprints and long races.
00:58:34I mean, it can't wait for it.
00:58:35And for us in the sales side,
00:58:37it's a really good time to welcome our clients back and share some fun
00:58:41and the action of the game that we're all also dedicated to.
00:58:45Cormac, we've been used to great stakes races at Keeneland for quite some time,
00:58:48but this phenomenon in not just at Keeneland, but all of the Kentucky racetracks
00:58:53that I guess is about four or five years old since the historical horse racing
00:58:57machines came in and what I still look at and my eyes just
00:59:04pop out every time I see these races on the Saturday card.
00:59:07You have $100,000 made in special weight races, $120,000 allowance races.
00:59:13Again, and I know this is not just a Keeneland story.
00:59:16It's a Kentucky story.
00:59:17But these overnight races with these fabulous purses,
00:59:21what does that mean for the whole Kentucky racing circuit in Keeneland in particular?
00:59:27I think it's really hard to put in words, Bill, to be honest.
00:59:30I mean, I remember two years ago
00:59:33in my first September sale, only a few months on the job,
00:59:35just being marveling at how strong the market was through to the end of the sale.
00:59:39And and that's really what's fueling it.
00:59:41I mean, the purses are making it a lot more
00:59:43sensible for somebody to invest $40,000, $50,000, $60,000,
00:59:46get a group of friends together, do whatever they need to do to have a horse.
00:59:50I mean, there's really a huge change,
00:59:52seed change in the last five or six years with that injection of revenue.
00:59:57And so it's tremendous and something
01:00:00that really drives the sport from from the grassroots up.
01:00:03And it makes so many more so many people's lives better that are involved
01:00:06in the sport, no matter what their job is.
01:00:08It's it's really invaluable and something
01:00:10we are very appreciative of and take very seriously.
01:00:14Cormac, you're a guy that has worn many, many hats in the industry.
01:00:19A lot of people might know that you are a qualified veterinarian.
01:00:23And what else have you done?
01:00:26We know you work for the great late Brent Jones at Airdrie.
01:00:29Give us an overview of what you have done
01:00:32that has led you to Keeneland that people might be like, hmm,
01:00:35I'm not sure I know much about Cormac.
01:00:39I still wonder how I ended up here, Zoe.
01:00:41I'm not sure I can really answer that, but
01:00:45I'm not quite a vet, but I'm a PhD in veterinary science.
01:00:49And so that was my ticket over here back in 1996.
01:00:53So in 95, I spent a summer while I was
01:00:55in university here in Lexington, it was where I always wanted to come work
01:00:59the sale, wanted to get back here, went to graduate school at UK,
01:01:02at the Gluck Equine Research Centre and spent 11 years in research while
01:01:06working on the side with people like Jackie Ramos, Richard Galpin,
01:01:09and doing as much bloodstock work as I could and working weekends on farms.
01:01:13And in the mid 2000s, I made the switch out of research into
01:01:17this full time work for myself for a couple of years and then went to
01:01:21Adina Springs and then subsequently to Governor Jones's Airdrie Stud.
01:01:25I worked with Brad and his family there for four years prior to coming to Keeneland.
01:01:29So there are a lot of ways to in this industry to to get, you know,
01:01:34to different places. And it's a it's a great industry to be part of.
01:01:38How has your veterinary degree helped you?
01:01:40Like, does it help you in the day to day things,
01:01:43especially when you're looking at horses?
01:01:45You know, I don't know.
01:01:47I think it helps a little in a lot of different ways.
01:01:50I think it's it's helped, especially in terms of this job
01:01:54and looking at what we're trying to do and looking at things sort of critically
01:01:58or analytically in some ways.
01:02:00But I think there's no
01:02:03training for horsemanship other than just being around them all the time.
01:02:06Right. And so that's what I've done in whatever
01:02:09whatever facet I've been I've been lucky enough to be in.
01:02:13And that's just being immersed in them since very early days.
01:02:17So with the Ph.D., have Zoe and I not done you justice?
01:02:21Should we have been calling you Dr.
01:02:23Brannick?
01:02:25I hide from that.
01:02:27Well, Cormac, thanks so much for your time today on the TDN Writer's Room podcast.
01:02:31It's always great to talk about Keeneland, especially with the meet coming up.
01:02:35It's a 17 day meet.
01:02:36It starts Friday and Fall Stars weekend, as you mentioned earlier,
01:02:41is just loaded with one major great stakes race after another.
01:02:45It's a great time of year when Keeneland is selling horses.
01:02:48But for me as a racing fan, even greater time of year when you're racing horses.
01:02:51So thanks so much for being the Green Group guest of the week on our TDN.
01:02:54Thank you both very much. Really enjoyed it.
01:02:56Thanks, Cormac.
01:02:57As the Green Group guest of the week, Cormac Brannick will receive a free
01:03:01one hour tax consultation with the Green Group.
01:03:03For more information on how the Green Group can save you taxes,
01:03:07visit www.greenco.com.
01:03:11We'll be right back after this message from the Green Group.
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01:04:14With some of the fullest fields in the country and quality racing year round,
01:04:20there's never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and racing in Kentucky.
01:04:26Purse money in Kentucky is at an all time high as is average purse per race
01:04:31outpacing California, Florida and New York.
01:04:35Kentucky breds, breed them, raise them, race them.
01:04:40We all win.
01:04:45The TDM Writers Room is brought to you by Kentucky Breds.
01:04:50European Group One winners are bred in Kentucky.
01:04:54Listen to this.
01:04:55Kentucky bred opera singer, we just talked about her by Justify,
01:04:59won one of the most important two year old races on the European calendar
01:05:04when taking the Group One pre-Marcel Boussac a long shot on Arc Day.
01:05:09And she was impressive.
01:05:10The win has already established opera singer as the favorite
01:05:13for the 2024 1000 Guineas and the X and the Epsom Oaks
01:05:20and gave Justify his first European Group One winner.
01:05:24Opera singer earns a berthing to the one million dollar Breeders Cup
01:05:27juvenile Phillies turf with the win.
01:05:29But Aiden O'Brien, ever cautious, said he would have to talk with the lads
01:05:34back at Coolmore before deciding upon her next start.
01:05:39Well, another huge weekend of Breeders Cup prep races built up
01:05:42Belmont, Santa Anita, Keeneland will all be in action with major races
01:05:48that will have major ramifications for the Breeders Cup.
01:05:52Just to mention a few Belmont, we have the Champagne and the Frazette
01:05:55and they will now run the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic.
01:05:58Last weekend was canceled.
01:06:00That big storm in New York and they decided rather than run it
01:06:03on very soft turf course conditions, they would bring it back for this week.
01:06:07Santa Anita, the American pharaoh and the chandelier
01:06:09news out of the American pharaoh, Prince of Monaco,
01:06:12looks like possibly the most talented two year old in the country,
01:06:15trained by Bob Baffert, will train up to the Breeders Cup.
01:06:19The American pharaoh.
01:06:22I want to hear a guy say, you know what?
01:06:24We're running up to the Breeders Cup.
01:06:26We're going to give him two preps between now and Breeders Cup day.
01:06:28Then that would really surprise me.
01:06:30And then at Keeneland, there's four grade one stakes races over the weekend,
01:06:34starting with Alcibiades on Friday and then three more on Saturday.
01:06:37You know, guys, because Keeneland was nice enough
01:06:38to get their past performances out before everybody else.
01:06:43Because you know what?
01:06:44It's not easy talking about these races before the past performances out.
01:06:49So no slight on the other tracks, but we are going to talk more about those races.
01:06:53And if Randy and Zoe have anything particular to say about them, that's fine.
01:06:58But let's do a deep dive into the four grade ones at Keeneland,
01:07:03starting with the Alcibiades on Friday,
01:07:05which is, of course, a grade one prep for the Breeders Cup juvenile fillies.
01:07:07And you've got the division leader in there, Brightwork,
01:07:12four for four lifetime for trainer John Ortiz,
01:07:15has won the Spinaway Adirondack, the Debutante and Broker Maiden.
01:07:19But lo and behold, Vivi's Dream is coming off a huge win last time out
01:07:24in the Pocahontas for Ken McPeak, where she won by eight and three quarters,
01:07:28got an 88 buyer figure.
01:07:30But in her prior start at Ellis Park, she was beaten by Brightwork.
01:07:34So Brightwork could win this easily.
01:07:36She does quite possibly.
01:07:39Well, Tamara could be the I think will be the Breeders Cup juvenile fillies favorite,
01:07:44no matter what.
01:07:45But maybe Brightwork is the second choice.
01:07:47We'll see what happens in the Alcibiades.
01:07:49I don't think you should discount Emery.
01:07:52It's a lot to ask of her.
01:07:54She's only made one start that was in the mud.
01:07:56But she is a filly with an abundance of talent for trainer Brad Cox.
01:08:01She'll get Tyler Gafleone.
01:08:03Brightwork is the one to beat.
01:08:04She's answered every question that's ever been answered of her.
01:08:08She continues to train forwardly in every way,
01:08:11throwing in a bullet work at Keeneland as well.
01:08:14So she is undoubtedly the one to beat.
01:08:16But they're all going to be trying something most of them have not tried.
01:08:19And that is going around two turns for the very first time.
01:08:23It's a quick run into that first turn there.
01:08:26So we'll have to see what they could do.
01:08:28Brightwork hasn't done it either.
01:08:30The only one that's well, actually, Ken McPeak,
01:08:32that's a one turn mile at Churchill as well, shimmering allure.
01:08:36She's coming out of restricted races, but she's OK.
01:08:41I really like Emery.
01:08:43But Brightwork is most definitely the one to beat.
01:08:46The thing to me to like the most about Brightwork
01:08:50is the way she won the spinaway.
01:08:53When you go back and you analyze the spinaway,
01:08:56any horse that was up close to the pace in the spinaway absolutely collapsed.
01:09:00The race did not finish very well at all
01:09:04because the pace was fast for those two-year-old fillies at seven-eighths of a mile.
01:09:08It's very challenging for two-year-old fillies
01:09:10to get that extra furlong out to seven furlongs.
01:09:13And Brightwork was only a length and a quarter behind.
01:09:15She was the only filly who was up there close to the lead
01:09:19who was around at all at the finish.
01:09:22And yet she still managed to out-duel Ways and Means down the stretch.
01:09:26Now, having said that, Ways and Means was arguably the better horse
01:09:29because of what happened to her on the back stretch.
01:09:33So that's what makes this kind of a point-counterpoint thing about Brightwork.
01:09:37Vivi's dream really took a step forward in the Pocahontas along with Emery.
01:09:42So I think it's a fun race to handicap.
01:09:47And Ways and Means came out of that with a chip, too.
01:09:50So we won't see her in the Breeders' Cup.
01:09:53The Saturday grade ones begin with the First Lady's stakes.
01:09:57And surprise, surprise, Chad Brown has won this race each of the last five years,
01:10:03six times overall, and he's got three of the six horses in here.
01:10:08Gina Romantica, White Beam, and In Italian.
01:10:10In Italian will be the favorite, I would imagine,
01:10:12despite losing to stablemate White Beam in the Diana.
01:10:15I've always been a big In Italian fan.
01:10:18I like, especially on turf horses,
01:10:20they just go to the lead and make everybody come and get them.
01:10:23Could White Beam beat her again?
01:10:25I suppose it's possible.
01:10:26But a couple of things.
01:10:28She picks up six pounds off the race in the Diana where she beat her by a nose.
01:10:33Also, they drop back from a mile and eighth to a mile.
01:10:36I think the mile probably suits In Italian a little bit better than the mile and eighth.
01:10:41Joseph O'Brien brings in Jumbly.
01:10:44We've been talking on the podcast how dominant the Europeans have been,
01:10:49but you do have some U.S. form to go on.
01:10:52Horse ran third in the Ballston Spa, grade two at Saratoga.
01:10:55And that performance, it wouldn't be good enough to beat the Chad Brown Express.
01:11:01Randy, Chad Brown? Which Chad Brown?
01:11:04Someone else.
01:11:05Well, look, at a mile, you got to go with In Italian.
01:11:09I mean, all the credit to White Beam for running down In Italian in the Diana.
01:11:13But as you pointed out, the Diana, is it a mile and an eighth?
01:11:18You know, I mean, she won the Diana In Italian last year,
01:11:21but her best distance is a mile as opposed to a mile and an eighth.
01:11:26And especially when she's in a situation where she can control the pace.
01:11:30And the only other speed horse that you can find, really, there's a couple.
01:11:34There's heavy jets on the outside,
01:11:36but she kind of showed a different dimension in her last race,
01:11:39being taken well off the pace.
01:11:41And I don't think she has the same speed as In Italian anyway.
01:11:44And In Italian is drawn inside of her.
01:11:46And there's another huge long shot in there,
01:11:48an allowance horse called This Name is OK.
01:11:49But again, In Italian is drawn inside of that one, too.
01:11:53So I think she's going to control the pace.
01:11:55And that kind of scenario at a mile,
01:11:58good luck beating In Italian,
01:12:00who probably will be three to five as a result of all that.
01:12:04I like White Beam.
01:12:05I think she can definitely be close.
01:12:08And we'll go head to head in here.
01:12:10She won going seven furlongs going away at Newbury.
01:12:13She wasn't one of those horses that they ran a mile and a half,
01:12:16a mile and a quarter over there in Europe.
01:12:17She's by Caravaggio out of an oasis dream mare.
01:12:22That's a sprint pedigree if I ever saw one.
01:12:25So I think a mile is going to knock her right between the eyeballs.
01:12:28She'll get an advantageous trip from the inside under Pratt.
01:12:31She's never far off the pace.
01:12:33She can be handy.
01:12:35And I'm pretty sure we've not seen the best of her yet.
01:12:38She's a four-year-old facing some, you know,
01:12:41In Italian's five turning six.
01:12:43I think she's got less miles on her and she's going to be my pick.
01:12:47Head to head.
01:12:49We shall find out.
01:12:51Ninth race at Keeneland on Saturday is the Claiborne Breeders Futurity
01:12:55for two-year-olds getting ready for the Breeders' Cup Juve.
01:12:58Not a lot of big names in this race.
01:13:00Wes Saratoga won the Iroquois for trainer Larry Demeritt.
01:13:05I believe he's the only graded stakes winner in the field as I look down on this.
01:13:10But Randy, the number is going to turn locked into the favor.
01:13:15Oh, yeah.
01:13:15I mean, it was came in a maiden race at Saratoga.
01:13:19So he's jumping from a maiden into a grade one competition.
01:13:23But he got a 96 buyer and it's Todd Pletcher.
01:13:27It's Eclipse Thoroughbreds.
01:13:29It's Jose Ortiz riding.
01:13:31Not the best post position necessarily,
01:13:34but that 96 tells you that he's just faster than these horses.
01:13:38Will he run back to another 96?
01:13:40You never know.
01:13:41Maybe he'll run better.
01:13:42Maybe he'll run 105 or something like that.
01:13:43But, you know, we have faith for all the right reasons in the buyer figures.
01:13:48And that figure jumps off the page and makes him look like the one to beat
01:13:52for Todd Pletcher, who could have a very nice hand in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile
01:13:58because he looks like he has the possible winner of the Champagne and Fierceness,
01:14:03who was 11 and one quarter length winner in his maiden,
01:14:06getting a 95 buyer at Saratoga.
01:14:09So we'll look for Todd Pletcher and locked in the Claiborne Breeders' Futurity.
01:14:13And Pletcher won this race last year with Forte.
01:14:16If you remember, it was a spirited stretch battle with a horse named Loggins,
01:14:21who we never saw again, trained by Brad Cox.
01:14:23And Forte came out the better of that.
01:14:25But you say there's no big names in the race and there's not.
01:14:28But I think Locke is probably going to be a big name after this race.
01:14:32Now, what's interesting to me about this horse,
01:14:34he's got an interesting set of two, you know, limited data, right?
01:14:39Just two races.
01:14:40But you look at his career debut.
01:14:41You've got a horse by Gunrunner, $425,000 yearling, Todd Pletcher, Saratoga,
01:14:49maiden special weight race, first time starter,
01:14:52tailor made for a Todd Pletcher, right?
01:14:54He's 12 to 1.
01:14:56Why in the world, given that scenario,
01:14:59would this horse be 12 to 1 in his first start?
01:15:02And what happened was he got checked a little bit leaving the gate,
01:15:06then he got shuffled back, pretty much lost all chance.
01:15:10Came running, finished third in a decent field,
01:15:14blew by the horses on the gallop out.
01:15:17So you knew he kind of probably wanted to go longer.
01:15:19They stretched him out to a two turn mile or mile,
01:15:22I guess a turn and a half at Saratoga, the new one mile distance.
01:15:26And he draws off and wins by seven.
01:15:28Big time, legitimate.
01:15:30So, you know, he's not without competition in here,
01:15:33but I think Locke is definitely the worst to beat
01:15:37and should have a bright future.
01:15:40He looks like a Locke on the outside.
01:15:43And I'll tell you why he wasn't favored going into his debut.
01:15:46His works in the morning, because he wants to go two turns.
01:15:49He's not one of those on the bridle, you know,
01:15:52running daylights, throwing bullets down in the morning.
01:15:55He's just not.
01:15:56So he didn't peak any of the so-called clockers,
01:16:01you know, anyone's real attention in the morning
01:16:03until he ran that debut race where he galloped out ahead of anyone.
01:16:07And then it was all over.
01:16:08It was like, oh, well, Locke is a Locke next time.
01:16:11And he most definitely was.
01:16:13He gets a good draw on the outside.
01:16:15He should stay out of trouble.
01:16:16And he looks like the one to beat.
01:16:18For sure, he does.
01:16:20Third of the grade ones is the Coolmore turf mile.
01:16:23Grade one person, one million dollars.
01:16:25And how about my man, Charlie Appleby?
01:16:27He hasn't drank the Kool-Aid.
01:16:29Master of the Seas wins on September 16th at Woodbine.
01:16:33Every trainer in America would have put him into bubble wrap
01:16:36at that point and not run him until the Breeders' Cup.
01:16:37He's coming back in three weeks
01:16:40and he is going to be one of the favorites in the Koolmore turf mile.
01:16:43Good for him.
01:16:44The European guys, they still will run in some of these darn races.
01:16:48How about that?
01:16:49However, this is no easy assignment,
01:16:51even for the Appleby Express,
01:16:53because America's best turf horse is in there.
01:16:56That's up to the mark for Todd Pletcher.
01:16:58So a couple of things.
01:16:59We'll get some evidence about the U.S. horses
01:17:02versus the European horses,
01:17:03because if up to mark, I do think is our best turf horse
01:17:08and see how he represents himself in this race.
01:17:10Also, after he won the Manhattan in a mile and a quarter,
01:17:14I wonder if Pletcher kind of was,
01:17:16he's one of those in-between horses.
01:17:18Does he go in the Breeders' Cup turf or a mile and a half?
01:17:21Or does he go back down to a mile,
01:17:24which he last ran in the Maker's Mark mile at Keeneland and ran third?
01:17:28Pletcher, by running in this race,
01:17:30is obviously pointing him for the Breeders' Cup mile.
01:17:31But this is perhaps the best race of the weekend
01:17:35because it matches our best turf horse
01:17:37against maybe the best turf horse among those
01:17:41that are coming from Europe for the Breeders' Cup.
01:17:44I'll be fascinated to see how this one turns out
01:17:47and we'll learn a lot more after the Coolmore turf mile.
01:17:51He's going to have to save some ground this time,
01:17:54James Doyle, our Master of the Seas.
01:17:56You can't tip as wide as he tipped
01:17:59on that Woodbine turf course at Keeneland.
01:18:00And expect to win like he won.
01:18:03He has a wicked turn of foot.
01:18:05He is drawn inside,
01:18:07so he's likely to save all the ground going into the first turn.
01:18:10He only faced a field of six up there in Woodbine.
01:18:13But if he slingshots like he did up there in Canada,
01:18:17he'd better have a little bit quicker turn of foot
01:18:20because it's a whole tighter turf course at Keeneland
01:18:23than it is up there at Woodbine.
01:18:25He could well be the horse to beat,
01:18:27but you are absolutely spot on, Bill,
01:18:29that up to the mark is going to be very, very tough
01:18:33and could likely get the jump on him,
01:18:35which is crucial on a track like Keeneland.
01:18:38Zoe, where would Buick be this weekend
01:18:41that he wouldn't be making the trip for this?
01:18:43I don't know.
01:18:45Honestly, I don't know.
01:18:49Can't tell you.
01:18:51So, as we talked about before,
01:18:55I tend to strongly favor, for good reason,
01:18:59European horses when they get to the Breeders' Cup
01:19:01in any of the Breeders' Cup turf races.
01:19:03January the 28th at Gulfstream Park.
01:19:06I didn't see it in person.
01:19:08I saw it on video.
01:19:10But when I watched the allowance race of up to the mark,
01:19:12I thought at that time,
01:19:14Jerry Bailey and I talked about it on the phone.
01:19:16I said, you got to watch this race.
01:19:18This is the Breeders' Cup mile winner.
01:19:20And then he comes back and looks just as impressive,
01:19:22just rocketed to the front
01:19:23in his next start in allowance race.
01:19:26Then he runs third, just a neck behind Modern Games
01:19:30in the Makers Mark mile, and then keeps improving.
01:19:33Turf Classic at Churchill, the Manhattan at the Belmont.
01:19:36Now, that was before we saw
01:19:38Master of the Seas run at Woodbine, right?
01:19:40And then there's another horse in the Breeders' Cup mile mix
01:19:43by the name of Ken Ross,
01:19:45who probably should have won the Breeders' Cup mile
01:19:48that Modern Games won last year.
01:19:50So, it's going to be a tough task for any of the Americans,
01:19:52including up to the mark.
01:19:54But that's what makes this race just fantastic.
01:19:56I agree.
01:19:57Best race of the week,
01:19:59when you have up to the mark running against Master of the Seas.
01:20:02And, oh, by the way,
01:20:04the defending champion in this race is Annapolis,
01:20:07who had a horrific trip in his last race at Kentucky Downs.
01:20:10It's a complete throwout.
01:20:12So, it just adds to the intrigue here.
01:20:15And once again, the rerun of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic.
01:20:18That'll be a very interesting race
01:20:19and have a lot of Breeders' Cup ramifications.
01:20:23The top three finishers from last year's Breeders' Cup Turf,
01:20:26Rebels Romance, Stone Age, and Warlike Goddess will all be back.
01:20:29Rebels Romance trying to rebound after falling in the Bowling Green.
01:20:33And we'll find out what happens to him.
01:20:35Hopefully, it'll be much better weather this weekend
01:20:38at Aqueduct than it was last,
01:20:40when it was just miserable.
01:20:42The TDN Writers' Room is brought to you by XBTV.
01:20:46This week's XBTV Work of the Week
01:20:48is Arabian Night.
01:20:50The Pacific Classic winner worked four furlongs
01:20:53in 48-2 at Santa Anita on Saturday.
01:20:56Now, he has already earned a berth
01:20:58into the Breeders' Cup Classic.
01:21:00And you won't like this, Bill,
01:21:02but trainer Bob Baffert says that will be his next start.
01:21:05The three-year-old son of Uncle Mo
01:21:07has won all three of his four lifetime starts
01:21:10with his only loss coming in the Grade 1 Haskell,
01:21:13where he finished third. We'll be right back.
01:21:18♪♪
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01:22:04and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing.
01:22:08West Point Thoroughbreds,
01:22:11the gold standard in racing partnerships.
01:22:13Visit westpointtb.com.
01:22:16The TD and Writers' Room,
01:22:18brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds.
01:22:21You've heard it before.
01:22:22I've heard Bill and Zoe say this for years now.
01:22:25Joining a West Point partnership
01:22:27can vault you into the world of instant camaraderie.
01:22:30And look at the action that West Point is in this weekend.
01:22:34They have 10 stakes runners this coming weekend.
01:22:37That's between Keeneland.
01:22:39I'm not going to call it Belmont at the big A.
01:22:42Aqueduct, Santa Anita, Woodbine.
01:22:44They kick things off Friday
01:22:47with a pair running in the five-horse Gio Ponte.
01:22:50They've got two of the five starters,
01:22:52Northern Invader and Ohana Honor.
01:22:54The Gio Ponte, of course,
01:22:56is for three-year-olds on the turf at Aqueduct.
01:22:59♪♪
01:23:06Well, here comes Arcangelo at Santa Anita.
01:23:09Jotting along.
01:23:10I'm trying to look over my shoulder.
01:23:12This isn't as easy as it may seem.
01:23:13There he goes.
01:23:15He's just turned loose from the pony.
01:23:17This is Robert aboard him,
01:23:19and he's going to have a happy gallop,
01:23:21which is quite apropos for him.
01:23:23Absolutely normal.
01:23:25As he goes off into the backside,
01:23:28unfortunately, you get to look at me right now.
01:23:31It's just poetry in motion.
01:23:33Going by the gate, he usually clicks off.
01:23:35It's going quite steady for him, actually,
01:23:37because I've timed him definitely
01:23:39two-minute looking at Saratoga before.
01:23:41Oh, there he goes.
01:23:42Oh, I'm going the wrong way.
01:23:45Oh.
01:23:47There you go.
01:23:49Well, that's a wrap on this week's show.
01:23:51I want to thank my partners,
01:23:53Zoe Cadman and Randy Moss.
01:23:55And you guys, you came through.
01:23:56You were nice to me this week.
01:23:58I was long overdue, fellas.
01:24:01We tried. We tried.
01:24:02Zoe and I talked about it beforehand.
01:24:04Just be nice to Bill.
01:24:06And we also want to thank
01:24:08our Green Group Guest of the Week,
01:24:09Cormac Brannick, our co-producers,
01:24:10Katie Petruniak and Anthony LaRocca,
01:24:13our editors, Aaliyah LaRocca and Nathan Wilkinson,
01:24:16and our mascots is always Zoe's out there somewhere.
01:24:19And so is Doodle and my dog.
01:24:21And there she is.
01:24:22So congratulations.
01:24:24Good to see as active as ever.
01:24:27Zoe Cadman's favorite dog.
01:24:30Doodle.
01:24:31Doodle.
01:24:32The Doodle.
01:24:33Your favorite dog is Doodle.
01:24:35But we get such a kick out of Lucy.
01:24:37Thanks for listening, everybody.
01:24:38Thanks for tuning us in.
01:24:39We'll be back next week.
01:24:39We'll be back next week.