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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, I'm a correspondent for the TDN, and I also co-host the Down the
00:00:36Stretch radio show with Dave Johnson on Sirius XM Radio.
00:00:40I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports, singing baritone today.
00:00:44I'm a little bit under the weather, but all systems go.
00:00:48I like that deep husky voice, Randy.
00:00:53I'm Zoe Cabman with XBTV and First Racing, and delighted to be here on a Tuesday.
00:01:00And we want to remind you that each and every week we're brought to you by our good friends
00:01:03in Keeneland.
00:01:04Well, it was a special week for our team, the TDN Writer's Room Podcast, as we were
00:01:10awarded an Eclipse Award for the podcast in the multimedia category.
00:01:15And specifically, it was for our interview with Wade Yost, whose son, Carson, has the
00:01:22same disability that Cody Dorman had, called Wolf-Hirschborn syndrome.
00:01:29They named a horse after him, West Point Stable named a horse after him by the name of Carson's
00:01:33Run.
00:01:34He did very well.
00:01:35He ran in the Breeders' Cup, and it was a very emotional story.
00:01:39So before we comment on it, why don't we just show you a few minutes of the podcast interview,
00:01:45and if you want to catch the whole thing, you can certainly find it on the TDN website.
00:01:50And Wade, generally, what has this been like for your family?
00:01:53I can't imagine how good it must feel to have some good news and a positive story come out
00:01:59of all this.
00:02:00It's been emotional.
00:02:01As I already started, my voice breaks right now.
00:02:06We just want to do something for Carson.
00:02:09He's never walked, and this is an opportunity to give him some focus, give him some limelight.
00:02:17You know, we have four children, and the other three were really good athletes, are really
00:02:23good athletes, are all grown now.
00:02:24But he was always going and with us to their events, as they competed in the various sports,
00:02:32and was always in the background.
00:02:35Yeah, he's always been one of our focuses.
00:02:39And so we just, Terry and I have been talking for over a decade about this, the possibility
00:02:44of doing something in his honor, and the timing was just right with what was going on this
00:02:51year with a variety of things.
00:02:53Carson just turned 31.
00:02:58He wasn't supposed to be with us, and supposed to have passed early in life.
00:03:03But mainly because I give all the love to his mother, who has constantly taken care
00:03:10of him as I completed my military career, as I've gone into business.
00:03:16And we've just been very fortunate that he is who he is, living in his own little world.
00:03:22As you can see right now, he's happy, relatively healthy, and exceeded all our expectations.
00:03:29But we just, it was one of those things, we're like, okay, let's give him some limelight.
00:03:34And it was more of just living vicariously through something, an animal that can, you
00:03:41know, actually run.
00:03:44He's been confined to a wheelchair since day one.
00:03:47And it's just a phenomenal thing that Terry and West Point Thoroughbreds has done for
00:03:54us.
00:03:55And the fact that Carson's run has had the successes he has had to date is just an added
00:04:05smile on her face.
00:04:06It just makes us happy that we can live vicariously through it this way.
00:04:12And Carson gets to experience something, at least visually, that he can't do physically.
00:04:19One thing we love about horse racing is the stories and the people that it encompasses.
00:04:25So I'm really looking forward to it.
00:04:27Hopefully, I'll get to meet you at Breeders' Cup, along with the Dorman family.
00:04:31But I want to take you back, you're a guy who firmly wears his heart on his sleeve.
00:04:37How was that very first win for you?
00:04:40Watching a horse named for your son, you just wanted to honor him with a name to be a four-legged
00:04:49athlete.
00:04:50How was that feeling for you watching him cross the finish line?
00:04:53Not once, but twice, but three times like that's got to be pretty amazing.
00:04:57Yeah, now you're going to see my heart on my sleeve again.
00:05:03Just seeing his name in print and seeing the horse trot out and the manner which they did.
00:05:13I don't know what I was expecting, as my wife and Carson were sitting here waiting
00:05:20for it to start.
00:05:21And they got in the gate.
00:05:22And I'll say I was kind of numb at first, because you're like, okay, this has already
00:05:27exceeded all our expectations.
00:05:30And then the manner of which Carson has run the race.
00:05:35And then to see it repeated for the other two, especially this last one, where Carson's
00:05:43always in the back of the pack.
00:05:45Carson's always the one who's just there with everybody else.
00:05:49And to see him slingshot around the corner and come back and be in the winner's circle,
00:05:57be in second place, be just competing, continues to be overwhelming for me personally.
00:06:04On the scale of importance way, this is pretty far down the picking order, but I'm just curious.
00:06:09Your friendship with Terry Finley, have you been an avid follower of horse racing, or
00:06:14are you now just really getting an introduction into this particular world?
00:06:19I'm just now getting an introduction.
00:06:21I will say that I've followed Terry since the beginning of West Point Thoroughbreds
00:06:26when he first got involved and he left the military.
00:06:31Mainly in the beginning, because he made a point to make sure that we were okay.
00:06:40Every time I saw him, you know, how's Carson?
00:06:43And a lot of our friends were very apprehensive in the beginning because he wasn't supposed
00:06:50to be with us.
00:06:51So every time, especially in military, you see everybody maybe once a year, Army, Navy
00:06:55game, football game, or some event, some reunion, but you don't see him that much because you're
00:07:00all over the world.
00:07:01And so when I'd see him, there was just apprehension, you know, do I ask about Carson?
00:07:08What if he's still alive?
00:07:11Never with Terry.
00:07:12Terry was always, that was the first thing he asked.
00:07:15He pulled me aside.
00:07:16And we have this emotional aspect, and that's priceless.
00:07:21Well, once again, a very touching interview with Wade Yost.
00:07:25And I have so much to say about this.
00:07:28But first of all, I want to thank the people who worked on it.
00:07:31Because you see every week, Zoe, Randy, and myself were the face of the podcast.
00:07:38And I think we all do deserve a pat on the back.
00:07:41I think we do a terrific job.
00:07:43But this never could have happened without the people that work so diligently behind
00:07:46the scenes, including our co-producers, Katie Petruniak and Anthony LaRocca, our editors,
00:07:52Leo LaRocca and Nathan Wilkinson.
00:07:54So this is a genuine team effort.
00:07:58And of course, it would have been possible if not for Wade Yost, who is just, he's a
00:08:02tough old soldier who fought in the Gulf War.
00:08:07But when it comes down to talking about his son, you can see how emotional he gets.
00:08:11And he's a cream puff.
00:08:12And we thank him so much for sharing his story with us and our viewers.
00:08:18Yeah, we're grateful for the Eclipse Award and for the recognition.
00:08:22And we'll accept it enthusiastically.
00:08:26The people that work behind the scenes really are the ones here that deserve a lot of the
00:08:33accolades, as you said.
00:08:36But when you look back on it, after we finished that podcast, I don't think any of the three
00:08:43of us walked away saying, wow, what an amazing podcast.
00:08:48We asked such insightful questions.
00:08:51What a great job we did.
00:08:54This was all about the subject matter.
00:08:58We didn't get the Eclipse Award for anything the three of us did on that podcast.
00:09:04That was strictly the story told and the emotion shown by Wade Yost, with Carson right
00:09:12over his shoulder.
00:09:13It was an amazingly emotional podcast, as anybody who saw it or who will see it will
00:09:20attest.
00:09:21And that's what won the Eclipse Award.
00:09:24The Yosts really are the ones that deserve the Eclipse Award and the people behind the
00:09:30scenes that worked on it.
00:09:32And that's why we all had a conversation when we found out we won the Eclipse Award and
00:09:37what we're going to do, the right thing to do is when we get the Eclipse Award trophy
00:09:42is to send it to the Yost family so they can put it on their trophy shelf because it's
00:09:48their story that really made it possible.
00:09:51Absolutely.
00:09:52And I would actually like to be there when they receive that trophy, because this story
00:09:57is bigger than all of us, like all of us put together.
00:10:01It just shows you the love of horses and just all of the stories that encompass this
00:10:09great land of horse racing that we all find ourselves in.
00:10:13I mean, I always say that the fences aren't to keep people out, it's to keep us in.
00:10:19And that's exactly what happened.
00:10:21It's all because of the horses.
00:10:23And we wouldn't be sitting here, we wouldn't have talked to Wade and Carson Yost without
00:10:30first talking about the horses.
00:10:32And it truly does belong to the Yost family, this Eclipse Award, and also Carson's run
00:10:38and all the horses out there that make everything possible.
00:10:41I'm truly delighted to be a small part of it.
00:10:45And we just have to admit that this is bigger than all of us.
00:10:50Want to remind you that the TDN Writers Room is brought to you by Keeneland and kudos to
00:10:55all those people that went to Keeneland and made it a great, great sale.
00:11:00It was a little bit chilly there, I have to admit, but it got off to the best start in
00:11:04five years when two mares reached the seven-figure mark in the opening session on Monday.
00:11:11John Magna's 19-year-old grandson, Tom Watchman, took home the highest-priced mare when he
00:11:16went to $1.6 million for the Broodmare Prospect and TDN Rising Star Prank on behalf of his
00:11:24grandfather.
00:11:25You know, his blood had to be curling there, bidding to $1.6 million.
00:11:31Cullen's Voyage also sold for a million dollars.
00:11:35We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:11:38At Keeneland, a horse will always be measured in hands.
00:11:49Hands that see, that sense, that speak.
00:11:57Hands that hold our sport to a higher standard, not for our sake, but for theirs, for the
00:12:05love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:12:29The TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Elite Power.
00:12:43What's new at Jub Mont this year, I'll tell you what's new.
00:12:47It's Elite Power, new for 2024.
00:12:50The Breeders' Cup winner and champion sprinter and soon-to-be two-time champion sprinter.
00:12:56And why, are you asking?
00:12:58Well, I'll tell you why.
00:13:00He ran the fastest Bayer speed figure of all the 2023 Breeders' Cup winners, all of them.
00:13:07He was the fastest of all of them with 111.
00:13:10He also posted the fastest rag number, which was a zero, that's hard to do.
00:13:15And he's a two-time winning Breeders' Cup sprint champion and a winner of nine of his
00:13:21last 10 races.
00:13:23He is a horse of the year candidate.
00:13:25His name is Elite Power.
00:13:28Randy, who's the fastest horse of the week?
00:13:30Well, the fastest horse of the week happens to be a California bred.
00:13:35But first of all, let's talk about the stallions, the fast sires at Windstar Farm, which helps
00:13:41bring you the TDN Writer's Room every week.
00:13:43And this particular segment, one of the sires at Windstar Farm, that's really hot right
00:13:47now, Constitution.
00:13:49We knew his two-year-olds were good last year and they're carrying that over to their
00:13:53three-year-old season as well.
00:13:54Such as Catching Freedom, the winner of the Smarty Jones stakes at Oakland on New Year's
00:13:58Day for trainer Brad Cox.
00:14:00He was a $575,000 Keeneland purchase.
00:14:03He now has 10 points on the road to the Kentucky Derby.
00:14:06And it was quite a stylish win if you haven't seen it.
00:14:09But also born noble at Gulfstream Park, a TDN rising star who won his debut for trainer
00:14:16Todd Pletcher by five and a half lengths, 93 buyer speed figure, the Sprite Racing Green
00:14:20is grass through the lane.
00:14:22He is also a son of Constitution, who, of course, stands again at Windstar Farm.
00:14:28Now, the fastest horse of the week, Saturday, Santa Anita Allowance Race, six and a half
00:14:34furlongs, Big City Lights wins impressively with a buyer speed figure, the Weekeye of
00:14:4199, owned by William Peoples, trained by Richard Mandela.
00:14:44And Mandela admitted that the key to getting Big City Lights into the winner's circle was
00:14:49to find a race where the Chosen Vron wasn't entered.
00:14:54Big City Lights had come off four consecutive second place finishes to fellow Calbrett,
00:14:59the Chosen Vron and Calbrett Stakes Company.
00:15:02And now his next scheduled start, they've penciled in the Palos Verdes Stakes for Big
00:15:08City Lights, hoping, of course, that the Chosen Vron will stay against California Bread
00:15:13Company.
00:15:14Some big news out of Maryland last week as the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Authority
00:15:22issued its report about the future of Maryland racing and a lot going on here.
00:15:28Let me just touch on the main things that are going to happen under this report and
00:15:33this plan. First of all, they're going to turn Maryland racing into something along
00:15:37the lines of what NYRA is right now.
00:15:39It's going to be run by a quasi-public, quasi-private organization which will run the
00:15:46racetracks as a nonprofit.
00:15:50Laurel Park is going to be closed down.
00:15:53They're going to rebuild Pimlico and put all the money that they have into Pimlico to
00:15:58bring it up to speed as a modern, state-of-the-art racetrack.
00:16:02Somewhere along the lines, they're going to have to build a training center.
00:16:06Maybe it would even be at Laurel because they do not have enough space, obviously, at
00:16:12Pimlico for all the horses.
00:16:14This figures to start in 2025 and then the Preakness will be run at Laurel till 2027.
00:16:22So how about this, Randy?
00:16:24The way things are going now, the 2025 Triple Crown will be the Kentucky Derby at
00:16:29Churchill Downs, the Preakness at Laurel and the Belmont at South Oga.
00:16:36How about that?
00:16:37There's $400 million available, which was made available several years ago for a
00:16:43restructuring of the Maryland racetracks at the time that they were looking to build
00:16:48Laurel as the main track going forward.
00:16:51But that did not go over well with the politicians in the state that believe that
00:16:56Pimlico must thrive and prosper because of the Preakness.
00:16:59Also, the Stornette Group will retain the ownership of the Preakness and the Black
00:17:03Eids, Susan, a ton going on there.
00:17:06But I think by and large, it's kind of a win-win for everybody.
00:17:10The Stornette Group was making hints that Maryland was not a good go for them.
00:17:16They were losing money.
00:17:18Pimlico was in terrible condition.
00:17:21It needed to be updated.
00:17:23And we needed to fix many problems going forward in Maryland racing.
00:17:29I think the horsemen should be happy with this deal because it guarantees a safe
00:17:34future for them.
00:17:35But we're going to see a Maryland racing operation into the future much different
00:17:42than what we see today.
00:17:44And Randy and NBC, book your tickets to the Laurel Inn or the Holiday Inn outside
00:17:51Laurel for the 2025 Preakness.
00:17:54Right. If this all comes to pass.
00:17:58We think it probably will.
00:17:59But there have been other plans that were offered that didn't come to pass because of
00:18:04budgetary reasons, politics, whatever.
00:18:08I think it's kind of fun to recap something here.
00:18:13There was an article in the Daily Racing Forum, a column that talked about how Pimlico
00:18:19was in such a state of disrepair that it was hopeless.
00:18:25It would it would need to be torn down and rebuilt, and that wasn't financially
00:18:30feasible. So therefore, all Maryland racing needed to be moved to Laurel, including the
00:18:36Preakness states. The Maryland Jockey Club and the Maryland Racing Commission sent a
00:18:41letter to the governor of Maryland saying that Pimlico does not afford the facilities
00:18:46for the convenience and comfort of the public and the horsemen, which are necessary and
00:18:50desirable for a first class track.
00:18:54So what happened?
00:18:55The Maryland General Assembly, specifically the powerful Baltimore legislation, and I'm
00:19:02reading from a wire service story here, was uneasy over the prospect of the city of
00:19:07Baltimore losing the Preakness and the national advertisement and the sense of identity
00:19:12that the Preakness gives Baltimore and also reluctant to lose the hotel and restaurant
00:19:18business if the Preakness was moved to Laurel.
00:19:22Nineteen forty nine.
00:19:23Oh my goodness. This was 74 years ago.
00:19:28That's how long this has been going on.
00:19:31This sounds exactly like something that could have happened and probably did happen to a
00:19:35certain extent in the last four or five years.
00:19:38That may be his deepest dive yet.
00:19:40That may be the biggest rabbit hole he's ever dove into.
00:19:44I mean, we're going we're going back decades and decades and decades here.
00:19:48Oh, oh my God.
00:19:50Nineteen seventy nine.
00:19:52Yeah. Are you kidding me?
00:19:54News. Nineteen forty nine.
00:19:55Newspapers.com.
00:19:57Yeah. Forty nine.
00:19:58Nineteen forty nine.
00:20:00So seventy four years ago.
00:20:03So hopefully twenty twenty four can seal the deal a little better than than what was
00:20:10going on back in nineteen forty nine.
00:20:12And we can all make this work out.
00:20:13Come to a happy. Holy shit.
00:20:15Nineteen forty nine.
00:20:17Oh my God, I just can't believe that.
00:20:20All right. What are the Triple Crown purists going to think about this one?
00:20:26I mean, we're going to have asterisks all over the place for the next couple of years
00:20:30for the Triple Crown.
00:20:31I mean, it is what it is.
00:20:33Going to Laurel won't be a big move as far as the race is concerned.
00:20:38The Laurel racetrack is a mile and six hundred feet.
00:20:41That's almost a mile and eight.
00:20:43Stretch is one thousand four hundred and nineteen feet compared to Pimlico's, which
00:20:49is one thousand one hundred and fifty two feet.
00:20:51So you're going to get a little bit of a longer stretch, which isn't going to hurt
00:20:55anyone. It's better than having a shorter stretch.
00:20:58The only question that I really have going forward and this this was noted in TD
00:21:02Thornton's article is the turf course.
00:21:06They're not planning, at least for now, on widening the turf course at Pimlico.
00:21:12And we all know that turf racing is at the fore of horse racing right now.
00:21:17The races are easier to fill.
00:21:19You get more starters per race.
00:21:22If you look at Laurel, nine point two starters per race last year in twenty twenty
00:21:27three. So if they're not widening that turf course right now, it stands at ninety
00:21:34five feet. The one at Laurel is something like one hundred and forty two feet with
00:21:40six lanes.
00:21:41So if they're not going to widen the Pimlico turf course, they're going to just make
00:21:46the turf racing smaller.
00:21:47I mean, you got six lanes at Laurel compared to two or three at Pimlico.
00:21:51So the plans have to move forward to make that turf course bigger as far as I'm
00:21:56concerned. And what Pimlico does as well is give a break to Laurel's turf course.
00:22:00If they're just racing at Pimlico, it doesn't get a break.
00:22:04That is my only negative thought as far as that, and that's purely on TDN's brilliant
00:22:11column in the TDN.
00:22:13So I understand what you're saying there, and it is going to be a problem.
00:22:17I don't know if they have it.
00:22:17They probably don't have enough room to put in a torpedo course there.
00:22:21I couldn't imagine.
00:22:22But the way things were going, it was not sustainable.
00:22:27Something major had to happen here.
00:22:30I mean, Pimlico was literally crumbling to the ground.
00:22:33So, you know, I think they've taken a bad situation.
00:22:38And, you know, after we get through the Laurel, but that's so strange, the Preakness
00:22:43at Laurel, after we get through a couple of those and a new Pimlico is up and built, I
00:22:50think everybody's going to look back at this as something that was much needed for
00:22:54Maryland Racing and really moved it forward into the future.
00:22:59Couldn't agree more.
00:23:00Could not. After having to to go to Pimlico for a few years in a row, it definitely
00:23:06does need a revamp.
00:23:07I'm looking forward to it.
00:23:10It also would have worked in 1949, by the way.
00:23:15All right, Mr.
00:23:16Deep, Mr.
00:23:18Deep Dive Rabbit Hole, Randy Moss.
00:23:23TDN Writer's Room also brought to you by the PHBA, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders
00:23:27Association. Drumroll, please.
00:23:31Oh, wait, that's the name of Pennsylvania's newest horse on the Kentucky Derby Trail,
00:23:37the one that Jerome stakes on Saturday at Aqueduct for trainer Brad Cox, earning 10
00:23:40points on the road to the Kentucky Derby.
00:23:42Drumroll, please.
00:23:44Bred in PA by Barlar LLC, was previously third in the Rimsen, and he is Pennsylvania bred
00:23:50through and through his sire hard.
00:23:51Spun was a PA bred, as was his dam implied.
00:23:55Now, let's give kudos to the first, second and third place finishers in the just
00:24:00concluded 2023 PA sire PA bred stallion series that wrapped up December 27th at
00:24:05Parks. First, Aoife's Magic bred by Mone's Hill Farms.
00:24:08Second, Notice of Action bred by Brian Minick, and third, Jody's Ruby bred by
00:24:14Gilman Hallenbeck.
00:24:15They earned their trainers $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.
00:24:20Now, for this coming year, the series will continue with a couple of minor tweets.
00:24:24It'll still be six races.
00:24:26The first four will be for two year olds and they'll carry it over to early 2025.
00:24:31So you'll get two year olds and three year olds in that six race series next year.
00:24:36And also the series will be six furlongs and seven furlongs only.
00:24:41You can nominate your eligible foals for $200 to the 2024-2025 series.
00:24:47That's due by Jan 31st.
00:24:49If you don't do it by then, then the fee will go up to $500.
00:24:57PA bred, I think we've built a brand at this point.
00:25:00The state of Pennsylvania has the best breeders program in the entire United States.
00:25:08Angel of Empire wins the Arkansas Derby and wins it clear.
00:25:12Caravelle in the Breeders' Cup turf sprint.
00:25:16Pennsylvania and the PHBA have the best state bred program in the country bar none.
00:25:21The best Breeders' Awards and Stallion Awards in the country.
00:25:24Every sire hopes to have a son to follow in his footsteps.
00:25:28An impressive debut.
00:25:30For Munnings, that son is Jack Christopher.
00:25:33Jack Christopher to win the champagne.
00:25:36Unbeaten grade one winner at two.
00:25:39Dual grade one winner at three.
00:25:41And he is pouring it on here.
00:25:44It is Jack Christopher winning the grade one H. Alan Jerkins Memorial.
00:25:49Jack Christopher.
00:25:54It's time now for the Coolmore Stallion of the Week.
00:25:57And who is it this week?
00:25:58It's Jack Christopher, the best son of leading sire Munnings.
00:26:02Jack Christopher was five for five around one turn with three grade one wins.
00:26:06Chad Brown, his trainer, said of him,
00:26:08I've never had a horse with this much pure brilliance.
00:26:12I remember seeing Jack Christopher before his first race and watching him in the paddock.
00:26:16And I'll never forget that race in 2021 at Saratoga.
00:26:20He was bet heavily.
00:26:21A little unusual for Chad Brown starting around the dirt.
00:26:24But boy, did he impress winning by eight and three quarter lengths.
00:26:27I knew then he was going to be a major player.
00:26:29And he proved he was just that with wins in the champagne.
00:26:33Pat DeMaio, Woody Stevens and Alan Jerkins Memorial.
00:26:36Everything about him suggests he should be a terrific sire.
00:26:40Zoe, I know you were obviously impressed with him also.
00:26:42Yeah, and his very first start.
00:26:44And talk about keep it in the family.
00:26:45He now joins his sire at Coolmore, Munnings.
00:26:49So not only did they have Munnings, they have Jack Christopher as well.
00:26:53And, you know, we spoke about elite power earlier in the show.
00:26:57The only horse to beat elite power this year is Gunite.
00:27:02Do you know who Jack Christopher beat when he broke his maiden?
00:27:06Gunite.
00:27:07Do you know who he beat when he ran in the champagne?
00:27:10Gunite.
00:27:11I mean, it looks like a no brainer to me, doesn't it?
00:27:14So here's a shocker.
00:27:15Our Green Group guest of the week brought to you by the Green Group,
00:27:19our longtime TD and Writer's Room sponsor, a tax accounting and advisory firm
00:27:23specializing in the thoroughbred industry and designed to save you money on your taxes.
00:27:30And we welcome in now the Green Group guest of the week, and it's Michael Blowen.
00:27:35From old friends, he's been the man in charge there for many a year
00:27:39and a surprising announcement came out last week.
00:27:41Michael is retiring and stepping down after so many years of good work,
00:27:46working with some of those old pros that he has come into old friends.
00:27:51Michael, why are you retiring?
00:27:52What's up?
00:27:53Well, you know, Bill, you get a certain age and you can see the finish line.
00:27:58It's like you turn it for home.
00:27:59You go, oh, there's a finish line.
00:28:00So you better figure out what's going to be happening,
00:28:05what you can do to make it a little better.
00:28:07And so I started looking for somebody a couple of years ago to take over,
00:28:12and I could never find the right person.
00:28:14And then I ran into John Nicholson.
00:28:17And I would probably still be doing this if I hadn't run into John,
00:28:21because John was the perfect person.
00:28:24And I thought, boy, oh, boy, if he'll do this, it would be great.
00:28:27And people who know John know that he ran the Kentucky Horse Park for a long time.
00:28:32He loves the horses.
00:28:33He's really well respected in the thoroughbred community,
00:28:36in the horse community around here.
00:28:38You know, he brought the World Equestrian Games to the horse park,
00:28:42and he's a great guy and he loves the horses.
00:28:44And I thought, boy, if he'll do it, then it's time for me to step aside
00:28:48because it's going to be really, it's going to take this place to a whole new level.
00:28:52It's going to be really great.
00:28:53Well, Michael, it's amazing what you've done for the horses and for the industry.
00:28:58When you started this project way back when, what did you have in mind?
00:29:03You couldn't have envisioned that it would get to where it is right now.
00:29:06How did all this ball start rolling to get old friends to where it is at this point?
00:29:13Well, you know, my wife, Diane White, she was a very good columnist for years at the Boston Globe.
00:29:18All the people always used to say, I love your wife's column,
00:29:21and I remember your reviews when I was working there.
00:29:23And but they loved her.
00:29:25And we both took the buyout at the Globe at the same time.
00:29:29And I just done a story on the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's
00:29:33great program with the prisons.
00:29:35And I come down here and and and there was a horse named Saratoga,
00:29:40Saratoga character who was who was retired to the prison.
00:29:45I did a story and I got connected with the TRF and I really liked everything that they were doing.
00:29:50So simultaneously, I was cleaning out some stuff and the TRF was having a charity event.
00:29:58So I had some stuff like, you know,
00:30:00Globe Jack Nicholson Warren as the Joker, and I had some stuff they could auction off.
00:30:05And so I brought it up and it was a year of it was a time of point givens Belmont.
00:30:09So as a retirement program president to myself,
00:30:12I gave myself a trip to watch the point given Belmont.
00:30:16And the night before we had dinner with the TRF, I had dinner with the TRF people
00:30:22and somebody it could have been Angel Pena, Jr.
00:30:25It was somebody who had too much wine to drink.
00:30:27I know that offered me the job as the operations director for the TRF.
00:30:32And I thought it was a big joke and not much.
00:30:35And then the next day they reiterated it.
00:30:37So when I went home, I said to Diane, I said, you know, there's this thing they might
00:30:41I might have this opportunity, you know, go to the TRF.
00:30:44I said, they'll be fun.
00:30:44She goes, you've never done anything like that.
00:30:46I said, I know that.
00:30:47But, you know, what do we have to lose now?
00:30:49We're retired.
00:30:50We got to buy out.
00:30:51We got our Social Security.
00:30:52You know, our parents died.
00:30:54Our son lives in Australia.
00:30:56I mean, let's try it.
00:30:58And if we don't like it, we'll just come back.
00:31:00And then I came to, you know, I decided to take it.
00:31:03We moved here.
00:31:03Oh, she did say to me, she says, well, I'll go with you, but only under one condition.
00:31:08And I said, what's that?
00:31:09And she says, well, when I leave you, you won't come looking for me.
00:31:15But she's still here.
00:31:16And that was 20 years ago.
00:31:18And then I, you know, everything that we that we built on old friends is stolen.
00:31:24So I stole the name from Barbara Livingston's book.
00:31:27Now they think that poor Barbara's books named after our farm.
00:31:31But anyway, we we stole that.
00:31:33Then I went over to the horse park years ago.
00:31:35I went to Memphis to interview Jerry Lee Lewis.
00:31:37And on the way back, I stopped in Lexington because I wanted to see
00:31:42both Forbes and Forgo who were at the horse park.
00:31:45So we stole that idea.
00:31:46And I thought, you know, when I was around the movie stars, I really didn't get that
00:31:50excited about it.
00:31:50But I'm around these racehorses.
00:31:52I just really get excited about it.
00:31:54I just think that they're amazing athletes.
00:31:56And I always thought that.
00:31:57And I was that way around these horses, the way a lot of these people were around movie
00:32:01stars.
00:32:02And and so I thought, you know, if we did something like they're doing at the horse
00:32:08park and open it up to more people that that would be good because, you know, the the crop
00:32:16of stallions, I mean, what do you do with a retired stallion?
00:32:19So the idea was when I first started it, after working and learning everything from
00:32:24the TRF, thank goodness, I'm learning a lot.
00:32:29I did that for a year and a half.
00:32:30But then when when that ended, I decided, oh, I'm going to try this and see, see what
00:32:35happens and see if we can't attract some visitors and make it into a tourism destination.
00:32:40Because, you know, all the really great places that retrain the horses like New Vocations
00:32:44and rerun and all of them and the TRF, I could never do anything like that because I don't
00:32:49know how to do any of that.
00:32:50But I do know how to feed them carrots and I do know how to feed them Mrs. Pasture's
00:32:54cookies and I and I do adore them.
00:32:56And so I said, there's got to be a little spot in there for that.
00:32:59And and then we started to get horses and started with a horse that was left, actually,
00:33:06at the Fasig-Tipton sale.
00:33:07And we're going to get stallions.
00:33:09But the first horse we ever retired was Narrow Escape, which is a great name because she
00:33:13was left at the sale at Fasig-Tipton.
00:33:16And Wendy Rice, who was running it at the time, called me and she says, are you are
00:33:20you started yet?
00:33:21And I said, well, I don't know what he got in mind because we hadn't.
00:33:24And and she said, well, they left this horse here named Narrow Escape.
00:33:28And I thought, wow, what a great name for our first horse.
00:33:31So we took her and then it started to grow and it started to grow.
00:33:35And then the unfortunate news about Ferdinand dying over in Japan came.
00:33:42And so we started working on getting horses home from Japan and that worked out really,
00:33:47really well.
00:33:48And now they have an old friends in Japan and their logo is better than ours.
00:33:53Their farm's nicer than ours.
00:33:55Their program's great.
00:33:56They have more money and but now they have it.
00:33:59And so now we're working on getting horses home from Korea.
00:34:02So we just brought any given Saturday home from Korea and he settled in very, very nicely.
00:34:07So the whole thing is not so much of my vision at all, because I didn't ever envision it like this.
00:34:14I mean, not in my wildest dreams that I think I would end up with silver charm in my backyard.
00:34:20It's like people say, don't you want vacation?
00:34:22I said, well, when I worked, I need a vacation, but I don't need one.
00:34:25Now I go away for three days.
00:34:27I get to stay for free at my at Anne's Washington up at Saratoga.
00:34:31I could stay there for the whole meet if I wanted to.
00:34:34And yet after three days, I get homesick and I got to come home and hang around these
00:34:40amazing horses.
00:34:41And they've certainly taught me a lot over the years.
00:34:43And I'm so grateful to them.
00:34:45I mean, they're the reason all this is going on.
00:34:47Anyway, they're just it's so much more than I could ever have imagined or envisioned.
00:34:52And it taught me that in so many ways that the art creates the artist.
00:34:57It's not the other way around.
00:34:59And it just gets bigger and you're kind of reacting to circumstances and reacting to
00:35:03horses.
00:35:05I have a horse here, Bill.
00:35:06I have a horse here that I claimed for thirty five hundred dollars at Finger Lakes in 1999
00:35:15on Mother's Day.
00:35:16And he's still with me named Summer Attractions.
00:35:19We have everything from silver charm to this this horse I had all these years ago and everything
00:35:25in between.
00:35:26And I mean, I'm so excited because now I've got silver charm in my backyard and I have
00:35:31Red Knight and Channel Maker in the same paddock in the front yard.
00:35:36And they they ran against each other eight times over their long careers.
00:35:41They retired completely sound.
00:35:43They were really well taken care of.
00:35:46And they became friends in about 30 seconds.
00:35:49And they play every day and they do it together.
00:35:52They drink together.
00:35:53They roll around together.
00:35:55They play halter tag together.
00:35:56They just adore each other.
00:35:58They look the same.
00:35:59And it's just I never lost a feeling of what a thrill it is every day to wake up here.
00:36:04I really haven't.
00:36:07It's just fun.
00:36:09Come on.
00:36:10You're let's have it.
00:36:12You're not retiring.
00:36:13We know you better than that.
00:36:15No way you're going to close the door and disappear.
00:36:18I'm going to try and stay out of sad, poor John's way as much as possible and let him
00:36:26let him do the job.
00:36:27But, yeah, I'm going to do tours and I'm going to feed the horses carrots.
00:36:31You'll have to drag me out of here.
00:36:32I told my wife when I die, you know, the the house where we live in, we have a great house
00:36:37here and the back the backyard is one of the we have two cemeteries.
00:36:43And I told my wife when I die, get me cremated, throw my ashes out the back.
00:36:46Just don't put my lifetime earnings on the sign.
00:36:49But that's where that's what I hope.
00:36:51They'll have to drag me out because it's fun.
00:36:56Can I ask how old you are?
00:36:58Yeah, I'm going to be Bob Baffert and I have the same birthday, January 13th.
00:37:03So I'm going to be 77, you know, whenever that is pretty soon.
00:37:08That's Saturday, Saturday.
00:37:11Yeah, all days of the century.
00:37:13But I know one of the great things I have is one of the great things about retiring
00:37:18is I haven't bought a racing form for a Wednesday in decades.
00:37:24And now I have my racing form for tomorrow.
00:37:30I'm going to have fun.
00:37:31Michael, of all the of all the special horses you've had there, the one you speak most
00:37:37glowingly about is Silver Charm.
00:37:40It seems like you have an extra special relationship with him.
00:37:43Is that so?
00:37:43And why?
00:37:45Well, obviously, I, you know, I spent my life sucking up to celebrities.
00:37:50So, you know, he's a celebrity.
00:37:54He's in the Hall of Fame.
00:37:57But I don't know what it was.
00:37:58It was when I was working for Carlos, actually, and I was bringing some old horse up to the
00:38:03races at Suffolk on Derby Day.
00:38:05And and I was trying to get him into the race so that I could just get over there and watch
00:38:13Silver Charm on TV.
00:38:14And I saw what he did that day.
00:38:16And he wouldn't let those horses pass him no matter what.
00:38:18And I just fell in love with him.
00:38:20And I like I like the way the Lewis's reacted.
00:38:23I like I like the way everybody was so excited.
00:38:26And then I just love this horse.
00:38:28And then I found out he was when I came to Kentucky, he had already gone to Japan.
00:38:35He spent he was 11 years in Japan as a breeding stallion.
00:38:39But the Lewis's left an endowment.
00:38:42They left money to bring him home.
00:38:44They left and they left.
00:38:46And he gets a ten thousand dollar annual endowment.
00:38:49So they really cared about him.
00:38:51And they made sure that everything was going to be OK, even though Bob and Beverly have
00:38:54both passed away.
00:38:56There's he's still taken care of by their son, Jeff.
00:38:59But anyway, I don't know.
00:39:00It's hard for me to explain it in one way, because it's hard to explain why you fall
00:39:04in love with somebody.
00:39:06You know, you fall in love with a person.
00:39:07You thought whatever you fall in love with, no matter what happens, your life's going
00:39:11to change.
00:39:13And and and when Sandy Hatfield called me in November of 2015 and said, how would you
00:39:20like an old gray stallion at your farm?
00:39:22I freaked out.
00:39:24The only problem was I couldn't tell anybody.
00:39:26They were supposed to keep it a secret.
00:39:28And then I did keep it a secret, which is probably the only secret I ever kept in my
00:39:33life.
00:39:33But I kept that one.
00:39:36And when he got here on December 1st, 2015, it was the greatest day of my life.
00:39:42And and I didn't even know him because that's the first time I ever laid eyes on him in
00:39:47person is when he got off the trailer on that day.
00:39:50But I knew I was totally enthralled.
00:39:55And I realized I started to realize because I spent I was started to spend some time with
00:40:00him how smart he was.
00:40:02Really, really, really smart.
00:40:03If you go to the sale now and.
00:40:07And and just and have an IQ test for these horses, I'll take, you know, Silver Charms
00:40:13breedings, mediocre at best, that's kind.
00:40:16He's he his confirmation is not very good.
00:40:19I mean, you know, he passed through the sale a couple of times for cheap money.
00:40:24And and yet he won all these races.
00:40:27One of the one of the great things in my life is that the house is right there.
00:40:33And then we had Silver Charm in one paddock and in the neighboring paddock, Princess
00:40:37Hissa donated Swain to us.
00:40:40So it's Swain on one side of him.
00:40:42And I have touch gold who beat him in the Belmont, ruined his triple crown on the other
00:40:46side of him.
00:40:47And he's in the middle.
00:40:48And I'm out there going, you got to be kidding me.
00:40:50How did this ever happen?
00:40:52How did this ever, ever happen?
00:40:55And the idea that these people now will trust us with these horses and and.
00:40:59And Sheikh Mohammed just brought Alpha home from Brazil and he gave us Alpha.
00:41:08So Alpha's here.
00:41:11The other thing is, I think a lot of people, when they reach a certain age, like old,
00:41:17they get bored.
00:41:19You know, they just they're just bored.
00:41:21They just don't have anything to do.
00:41:23And I told Diane when we moved here, we're going to die of something.
00:41:26But just two things were not dying of shoveling snow and boredom.
00:41:28And so far, both of those things have been true.
00:41:31We're still alive and we'll probably pass on to something else.
00:41:35But it won't be boredom.
00:41:36Too exciting.
00:41:38So if I've got if I've got my math right, Michael, Silver Charm just had a pretty important
00:41:43birthday on Jan one.
00:41:44Right.
00:41:45I think he turned three.
00:41:46Oh, yes.
00:41:47Yes.
00:41:48His actual birthday is on February 22nd.
00:41:51The same as George Washington.
00:41:54And there's a lot of parallels.
00:41:55But anyway, yeah, he's 30 years old.
00:42:00He slowed down a little while he says I slow down a little too.
00:42:04And but he's doing good.
00:42:06He knows how to take care.
00:42:07Again, he's very, very smart.
00:42:09He knows how to take care of himself.
00:42:10And the only thing I tell the people that work here and we're really fortunate because
00:42:14after 20 years, we finally have a team that's going to win the World Series.
00:42:18We finally put a team on the field, but there's no weakness.
00:42:22It's just the people that work here, both in the office and on the farm are like it's
00:42:26100 percent perfect.
00:42:28And that's another reason that I'm not at all worried about doing the stopping, doing
00:42:33whatever I do, because the team is so, so phenomenal and they take care of the horses.
00:42:40And the only thing I tell them is this.
00:42:42When these horses get here, they've been told what to do their entire lives.
00:42:46You know, some of them have come from racing and breeding careers.
00:42:50Some have had racing careers and careers in eventing and all of that.
00:42:55But they've always been told what to do.
00:42:57And when they come here, we have to find out what they want and let them tell us what they
00:43:03want.
00:43:04And it sounds kind of facile to say that, but it's absolutely true.
00:43:08Like for Silver Charm, he he doesn't like getting petted and he didn't like the cars
00:43:15at night with the lights.
00:43:17Other than that, everything was fine.
00:43:19You can lead him around with dental floss and he'll be fine.
00:43:22You just those are the two things.
00:43:24And those are the only two things.
00:43:26You know, War Emblem didn't like anything.
00:43:30He liked himself.
00:43:36He didn't like much, but he was.
00:43:40Michael, I've got two quick questions.
00:43:43The first one, I hope he's still alive.
00:43:45Little Silver Charm, how is he?
00:43:48And the little Silver Charm is fine.
00:43:49He's still alive.
00:43:52What's that, Kazoe?
00:43:53And yeah, he is good.
00:43:55Yeah, he is.
00:43:55What are your hopes for Old Friends moving forward now with your new CEO in place?
00:44:02Well, you know, we we don't have the luxury of adopting horses out.
00:44:10When I first started Old Friends, I adopted a couple of them out and I wasn't sure that
00:44:14they ended up exactly the way they should have.
00:44:17And I'm still not sure.
00:44:18I don't really know.
00:44:20It's very vague and all that kind of stuff.
00:44:22But I said, you know, from now on, we're not adopting anybody out.
00:44:25I'm not taking any chances.
00:44:27Now, I will say that one of the greatest things that's ever happened to aftercare is the Third
00:44:32Grade Aftercare Alliance and their their qualification system for being accredited is unbelievably.
00:44:40We've got audited.
00:44:41We've been audited by the IRS and we've been you know, we had to go through the accreditation
00:44:45for the TAA and the TAA is 10 times harder than the IRS.
00:44:50So I think the idea of having horses that can go from, you know, I think that's a great
00:44:58safety net.
00:44:59But I just fall in love with all these horses and we take all the horses unconditionally.
00:45:05So people are under no financial obligations to take them.
00:45:08If we take the horse, their only responsibility is getting the horse to the farm.
00:45:11And after that, we take care of everything.
00:45:14And we've been very lucky.
00:45:15I mean, you know, we're just down the road from Rood and Riddle.
00:45:19I mean, Game on Dude, I think the idea that we're so close to Rood and Riddle saved Game
00:45:23on Dude's life when he had the colic surgery because he's in the trailer and off during
00:45:28his 14 minutes, you know, half an hour from the time you notice that there's something
00:45:32wrong till the time he's in the clinics a half an hour.
00:45:36We've just been very fortunate that way.
00:45:38And I really pride us.
00:45:40I pride this farm on that.
00:45:41They get health care as if as if they're going to the derby.
00:45:47Well, Michael, we want to thank you so much.
00:45:49This has been a delightful discussion.
00:45:51And we really appreciate it.
00:45:53I speak for the whole racing industry, all the great work you've done with these old
00:45:57pros.
00:45:58And it's even when Michael's not there, you got to go visit old friends because it's
00:46:04a very, very special place.
00:46:06And you, too, can see some of these heroes of yesteryear.
00:46:10Michael Blowen, thanks for being the Green Group Guest of the Week.
00:46:13Thank you, Bill.
00:46:14Thanks.
00:46:15Thanks.
00:46:15Thanks, Randy.
00:46:16Thanks, Zoe.
00:46:16Thank everybody.
00:46:17Just come visit these horses.
00:46:19I think you'll have a good time.
00:46:20And if you don't, I'll give you your money back.
00:46:22As the Green Group Guest of the Week, Mr.
00:46:24Michael Blowen will receive a free one hour tax consultation from the Green Group and
00:46:30Len Green.
00:46:30For more information on how they can save you taxes as well, you can visit www.greenco.com.
00:46:41Are you paying too much in taxes?
00:46:43The Green Group can help.
00:46:45There's a reason the most successful owners, breeders, and horsemen select the Green Group
00:46:49as their tax advisors.
00:46:51They save you money and share successful strategies.
00:46:55Over the past 40 years, the Green Group founder, Len Green, has owned and bred some of the
00:47:00best racehorses in the history of the sport, like Eclipse Award-winning champions, Jay
00:47:05Walk and Wonder Wheel.
00:47:06His DJ stable competes at the highest level and has received the game's most prestigious
00:47:11honors.
00:47:12Len Green's in-depth, hands-on industry knowledge, combined with cutting-edge tax-saving
00:47:17strategies, has produced positive results for his clientele and has made the Green Group
00:47:22the top-rated accounting and tax firm in the thoroughbred business.
00:47:25For a confidential and complimentary consultation, contact us at 732-634-5100 or visit our website
00:47:34at www.greenco.com.
00:47:37The Green Group.
00:47:38Proven strategies to save you taxes.
00:47:42So the Santa Anita meet is well underway.
00:47:44What's going on at Santa Anita, Zoe?
00:47:46First things first.
00:47:47What do you have for us?
00:47:48We had a couple of great steaks this past weekend, of course.
00:47:52We'll skip on Mooth and the San Vincente for a moment, but we're going to touch on
00:47:56Dick Mandela and Kopyon, who I caught up with just a couple of days ago.
00:48:01Here's First Things First.
00:48:12Richard, how proud were you yesterday of your Phillies' impressive win?
00:48:18Very proud.
00:48:20Especially being in Omaha Beach kind of makes it special.
00:48:23But she's been a beautiful Philly from the first day we saw her and always trained well.
00:48:29So we had high hopes and she fulfilled them.
00:48:33Has she ever surprised you in anything she's done?
00:48:36When I worked with Tamara, she didn't want to work with her and give it much.
00:48:41That's the only time she did anything wrong.
00:48:44Can you give us an update on Tamara and how she's doing?
00:48:47Tamara's just about completely healed.
00:48:50She had a little crack in her splint bone and a hind leg.
00:48:54And that's just about perfectly healed and probably be back starting to train in a couple weeks.
00:48:59And as far as Kopyon is concerned, she's already...
00:49:03People are talking about on the road to the Kentucky Oaks, she picks up 10 points.
00:49:07Would you just assume to go the regular route with her?
00:49:14I'm not sure what regular is.
00:49:17But she'll probably run.
00:49:20We'll find a two-turn race next time.
00:49:22All right.
00:49:22And talk a little bit about Omaha Beach and how proud you are to train some of his progeny.
00:49:28His first graded stakes winner yesterday.
00:49:31Yeah, very proud.
00:49:33Frustrated I didn't get enough on.
00:49:36There's still time, Richard.
00:49:38There's still time.
00:49:39There you go.
00:49:39You've mentioned before he's one of your favorites.
00:49:42Can you just expound on that?
00:49:44No, he's just temperament, class, looks.
00:49:49He had everything you need.
00:49:52Ability.
00:49:58Many thanks to Dick Mandela.
00:50:00And just really cool to see he was rushing off to meet the Tim Manns owner.
00:50:05All right.
00:50:05Do want to remind you that racing does continue at Santa Anita.
00:50:11We're a little bit later, 1230 post time, Saturday, Sunday.
00:50:15And of course, Friday, we do celebrate the cow breads on Saturday with five stakes
00:50:21highlighted by the Cal Derby and the Cal Oaks.
00:50:24These five stakes totaling nine hundred thousand dollars.
00:50:28It pays to own a cow bread as well as we have burgers and brews.
00:50:33And I know guys, Randy loves his burgers and brews.
00:50:36Don't you, Randy?
00:50:38Oh, yeah.
00:50:39Oh, yeah.
00:50:39Put a little green chilies on the burgers.
00:50:41Maybe have a margarita ready on the side to go with your brew.
00:50:44Oh, yeah.
00:50:45Margarita on the side of a beer.
00:50:47I'm impressed.
00:50:49So how about Copia and winning the Santa Ynez?
00:50:52So, I mean, obviously she looked extremely impressive, but there is a big but here.
00:50:58Four horse field.
00:50:59What do you think?
00:51:00Well, she can't help who she started against.
00:51:03I made a big case for Faiza last year and that came back to bite me in the bum
00:51:09a little bit later on in the year.
00:51:11But but that's OK.
00:51:13She's a good filly.
00:51:14I know that Jesse Piper was getting on her earlier in the year and she actually came to me
00:51:19in the spring was like, there's this filly over there.
00:51:21I don't know who she's by, but she's the real deal.
00:51:24And she's been on enough to know.
00:51:26And that is Copia.
00:51:28She's bred to be a good one.
00:51:30She's a half sister to Amy's Gizmo and Amy's Flatter.
00:51:35She's out of a Sovereign Award winning broodmare of the year.
00:51:39So that doesn't hurt.
00:51:41She's out of a victory gallopmare.
00:51:43Did you know, apparently, he's still breeding mares at age 29?
00:51:50What?
00:51:50I just hope for Bill.
00:51:51Just hope for Bill, yeah.
00:51:57Sorry.
00:51:57Now, now, Zoe.
00:51:58I couldn't help myself.
00:52:00He's in Turkey, apparently.
00:52:03We have to look that up because I find that hard to believe.
00:52:08All right.
00:52:09So the story of that of that particular race, the Santa Ynez, I mean, it was only a four
00:52:13horse field, as Bill pointed out.
00:52:15And I agree with you, Zoe, you can only beat who you're in against of the four horses.
00:52:19Two of them were clearly hustled into the race.
00:52:22So it would go to begin with.
00:52:23They were completely no hope horses.
00:52:25So there was only really one other horse in the race that on paper could have could have
00:52:31given Copion any kind of competition at all.
00:52:34And that was a filly called Tambo, who went to her face coming out of the starting gate,
00:52:38stumbled badly at the start, completely costing her any chance.
00:52:42She was back last early.
00:52:43So at that point, it became just just a public workout, really, for Copion.
00:52:49But she looked impressive.
00:52:50She looked impressive doing it.
00:52:52And what's what's further interesting, Zoe, is that in the Dick Mandela stable route,
00:52:58you've got Tamara also who's sitting on the sidelines getting ready to come back.
00:53:02So Mandela might have a double barreled attack as we look forward now to the Kentucky Oaks.
00:53:08Yeah.
00:53:08Back to Copion.
00:53:09She was very green as well.
00:53:11When she left the starting gate, she almost hooked to left and made a left hand turn.
00:53:16She definitely tried to jinx at the gap there.
00:53:18I think there's a lot more to come.
00:53:20I really do.
00:53:21OK, so the day before the San Vicente, guess who won?
00:53:25Bob Baffert for the 12th time, first and second with Muth over stablemate pilot Commander.
00:53:32Interesting way Baffert's handled this horse.
00:53:35The horse, last two starts were around two turns, including the second in the Breeders'
00:53:39Cup Juvenile and a win in American Pharoah.
00:53:41He chose to put him back in the sprint race at seven furlongs.
00:53:45Yeah, he's good.
00:53:46He belongs in the A class, I believe, of the Baffert horses.
00:53:51There's at least 10 or 11 that are going to take a crack at the Kentucky Derby.
00:53:56Did what he had to do.
00:53:57Got a 91 buyer.
00:53:59So I give him a grade of an A minus.
00:54:04I'm going to give you a little bit of a different take.
00:54:07All right.
00:54:07I'm going to give it a C minus.
00:54:09I was not impressed at all with Muth's win in the San Vicente.
00:54:15He went the last quarter mile in 25.54 seconds, which for a Kentucky Derby type contender,
00:54:26going seven furlongs in a race like the San Vicente is not fast, not fast at all.
00:54:31And it was really kind of an optical illusion.
00:54:33He was pulling away from his stablemate pilot Commander.
00:54:36OK, but pilot Commander, who had been up on the pace with Slider,
00:54:40went his last 16th of a mile in right at 6.9 seconds.
00:54:46Almost a seven second final 16th for pilot Commander, which is why Muth was pulling away.
00:54:53The 91 buyer speed figure was projected up.
00:54:56It actually would have been lower based on the final time of 123.01.
00:55:02I was disappointed in Muth's win.
00:55:05And I think going forward until he rebounds in my eyes and shows me something else,
00:55:12the next time he runs, I think from my standpoint, anyway, Muth will be a bet against.
00:55:18I thought he would air going back to one turn considering the way he has worked.
00:55:22Now, the pair of them did surprise Bob a little bit.
00:55:25He mentioned afterwards that he thought that Muth would be on the lead and pilot Commander
00:55:31would be stalking.
00:55:32So already that just goes to show you maybe Muth wasn't having the best day of his life
00:55:38that day, because if Bob thought he was sharp enough to be on the lead and beat pilot Commander,
00:55:43what happened?
00:55:43No one really took a stutter step out of the gate.
00:55:46It was a fairly clean break.
00:55:48And in contrast, when you look at the times of the race, 123.01 for the boys, Muth,
00:55:54and then you look at Kopi on 123.89.
00:55:57Now she did it in a hammerlock in a paid workout and he wasn't.
00:56:03So I'm with Randy here.
00:56:05I really am.
00:56:05But he might have been having an off day because he's a sharp horse.
00:56:09And to one turn, he should have been right there.
00:56:14And you can also kind of tell how slow they finished the race by watching Slider.
00:56:19Slider was up on the pace with pilot Commander stalking, right?
00:56:23Muth and pilot Commander both put away Slider pretty convincingly at the quarter pole turning
00:56:29for home.
00:56:30And yet when they hit the wire, Slider had almost fought back again to pass pilot Commander.
00:56:35They finished heads apart at the wire for second and third.
00:56:38And that kind of tells you right there that they weren't going that fast up front.
00:56:41Yeah.
00:56:41But can any of them be crimson light down the road?
00:56:45And boy, if you haven't seen this race on one of the replay channels, this was about
00:56:51the craziest thing I have ever seen.
00:56:54Crimson Light was a first time starter trained by Todd Fletcher, owned by Mandy Pope's Whisper
00:56:59Hill Farm.
00:57:00And here is what the track man had to say of him coming out of the gate.
00:57:06Crimson Light veered in at the start, brushing the gate and then start strike and then struck
00:57:11the temporary railing move, bucking a bit under correction, conceded a minimum of 20
00:57:18lengths to the leader before settling into stride.
00:57:22This was like something you'd see in one of those old movies, you know, of a fake horse
00:57:26race and the horse gets so far behind and like, you know, he's being ridden by Mickey
00:57:32Rooney and, you know, he's going to have to pass all the horses.
00:57:35The first call of the race, he was 23 lengths behind.
00:57:41And he did at the start, he like bucked and like stopped and came to a complete standstill.
00:57:47The rest of the field took off.
00:57:49Somehow, someway, he won this race.
00:57:52TDN gave him a rising star performance out of it.
00:57:56It'll be fascinating to see what this horse does next time out.
00:57:59In fact, he can get out of the gate.
00:58:01Also, I want to give Kendrick Carmouche, the jockey, some credit.
00:58:06I think a lot of riders would have just said forget about it and just let the horse gallop
00:58:10around the racetrack, 20, 30 lengths behind the rest of the field.
00:58:13He did not give up.
00:58:15And to his credit, but, you know, I don't necessarily know what this means about this
00:58:20horse going forward.
00:58:21Randy, I believe the race got a terrible buyer number.
00:58:24Was it a 59 or something?
00:58:26Yeah, I think 57, something like that.
00:58:28New York Breds, New York Breds, they were really, really slowing down the last part
00:58:34of the race over a very deep and tiring surface.
00:58:37He got a 57 spotting the field, 25 lengths.
00:58:40So however that commutes, I don't know.
00:58:43But Zoe, what do you think of this guy?
00:58:46I mean, it's Kendrick back to his Cajun roots.
00:58:49That's what he credited with.
00:58:50You know, they call them all mud bugs down there.
00:58:53And that's exactly what he was.
00:58:54The horse leapt in the air and then he actually tried to jump the temporary rail.
00:58:59That's whether the hopping came that looked like a buck.
00:59:02He tried to jump it.
00:59:03I don't know how Kendrick stayed on him.
00:59:05He managed to gather him back up and just see where the horse took him.
00:59:09I mean, he was on the favorite.
00:59:11So I guess he figured he would just get them together and just see what happens.
00:59:16But he was very, very visually impressive.
00:59:21I think is the word we need.
00:59:23I think the buyer was maybe even lower.
00:59:26I think I read 53 or 51.
00:59:29Well, we'll have to figure that out.
00:59:30Yeah.
00:59:32And to put a little different spin on this, if you go back and watch the video,
00:59:36and we encourage that you do, you really need to watch the head-on replay,
00:59:40which gives you the really good view of what happened leaving the gate.
00:59:45And it also gives you a really good view of what happened in the final 16th of a mile.
00:59:49The horse should have been disqualified, right?
00:59:52But thanks to our wonderful friends in the New York steward stand,
00:59:56the worst stewards in my lifetime, as far as adjudicating foul claims.
01:00:02They did put up the inquiry sign to their credit, but the number was left up.
01:00:08Yeah.
01:00:09My personal opinion.
01:00:11Other people might see it differently.
01:00:13One way or another, a remarkable race.
01:00:15We'll keep our eyes on Crimson Light and see if he can get out.
01:00:19First, I'll get out of the gate next time.
01:00:21And what happens if he does?
01:00:24The TDM Writer's Room is brought to you by XBTV.
01:00:27This week's work of the week is Nyso's.
01:00:30He turned in a sparkling five furlong work in 59 flat on Sunday morning.
01:00:36That's him on the outside working in company with Coach Prime on the rail.
01:00:40And if you know anything about Bob Buffett's work ethic,
01:00:43the better horses always go on the outside.
01:00:46Nyso's is two for two, breaking his maiden in October at Santa Anita.
01:00:50And then he went on to win the grade three Bob Hope Stakes in November at Del Mar.
01:00:55Bob's not decided where Nyso's will make his next start,
01:00:59but we'll see where he makes his three-year-old debut.
01:01:02I have an inkling it's going to be a stake somewhere.
01:01:36All the thrills.
01:01:41Fraction of the bills.
01:01:46Experience the power of the partnership.
01:01:51Change your life, make new friends, and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing.
01:01:59West Point Thoroughbreds, the gold standard in racing partnerships.
01:02:03Visit westpointtb.com.
01:02:06The TD and Riders Room also brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds.
01:02:10West Point picked up its first win of the year with Caboo at Gulfstream Park, Sunday's first race.
01:02:17And they also had Slider, who we talked about was a nice third in that San Vicente.
01:02:21Now going forward, West Point could have three horses in triple crown prep races coming up.
01:02:28They may give Slider a chance to carry his speed around two turns for the very first time
01:02:33in an as-yet-undetermined prep.
01:02:35They also have Scatify, who, like Slider, is trained by John Sadler.
01:02:39He's the son of Justify, who looked good at Los Al breaking his maiden.
01:02:42Feb 3, Robert B. Lewis is the target for Scatify.
01:02:46And Stretch Ride, trained by Dale Romans,
01:02:48who's being pointed for the March 2nd Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.
01:02:53If you are interested in joining a West Point partnership and vaulting into the world of
01:02:57instant camaraderie, you may find out more at westpointtb.com.
01:03:05All right, guys, that's a wrap on this week's show.
01:03:15I want to thank my partners, Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss.
01:03:18I want to thank our co-producers, Katie Petruniak, Anthony LaRocca,
01:03:22and our editors, Aaliyah LaRocca and Nathan Wilkinson.
01:03:25And guys, we're Eclipse Award winners.
01:03:30Randy's got two.
01:03:31Randy's got two, just so you know.
01:03:33Randy gets two this year to add to his mantle.
01:03:37Well, that's right.
01:03:38NBC, yeah, NBC won the award for the Breeders' Cup.
01:03:40So they have a pretty nice Eclipse Award trophy collection going on there.
01:03:45No doubt.
01:03:46Well deserved.