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00:00:00For the love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:00:28And welcome to another edition of Thoroughbred Daily News Writer's Room Podcast.
00:00:32My name is Bill Findlay.
00:00:33I'm a correspondent for the Thoroughbred Daily News.
00:00:35Also work on Sirius Radio doing horse racing work.
00:00:37And it's a good radio show.
00:00:39I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports here with all my paperwork, ready to roll, just like Zoe.
00:00:46I'm ready.
00:00:47Zoe Kaplan here with First Racing.
00:00:50I've made it to Kentucky.
00:00:52I did not break down on the way here.
00:00:54I'm always quite happy.
00:00:55I am in my good friend, Alice Empson's house, so the palatial Empson Resort here.
00:01:03And I am ready to roll.
00:01:04I'm excited for the Keeneland sale, actually.
00:01:06Doodle made it?
00:01:07Doodle made it.
00:01:08I think it's actually outside sunbathing right now.
00:01:12And you didn't get your car towed away in Utah or something this time, right?
00:01:16My car's still actually in Las Vegas having a great time.
00:01:20I bought another car.
00:01:22It's a long story.
00:01:23Okay.
00:01:24All right.
00:01:25So we had a lot of racing action last weekend, and the two big races were for the older horses
00:01:29getting ready for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:01:31The first was the Pacific Classic that was on Saturday at Del Mar.
00:01:37And we really topsy-turvy events with this.
00:01:40First, we got all excited that Adair Manor was going to enter in the race, for good reason.
00:01:44She's a tremendous filly.
00:01:46And unfortunately, she had a minor setback, and Bob Baffert didn't feel comfortable running
00:01:50her.
00:01:51So what was left, honestly, this isn't an indictment of the Pacific Classic or Del
00:01:58Mar.
00:01:59It just tells the story of what's going on in racing.
00:02:02Race did not have much in the way of quality.
00:02:05It was won by a horse by the name of Mick Stowe, who was one for 13 lifetime and got
00:02:10beat in the Pleasanton Mile in his prior start.
00:02:13And the reason why I say what I said is that every horse in the world retired last year.
00:02:19And this is what we're left with.
00:02:20The older horse division has been decimated.
00:02:24And we don't have Randy's favorite horse, Senior Buscador, running in the Pacific Classic.
00:02:29Why did Barry?
00:02:30I have no idea what happened to him.
00:02:32So anyways, I think this is a division that really needs some help.
00:02:36I don't know what the answer is.
00:02:38But nonetheless, Mick Stowe winning the Pacific Classic.
00:02:40Yeah, it was a pretty nondescript running of the Pacific Classic once Adair Manor scratched.
00:02:48Adair Manor, by the way, she's okay.
00:02:49She's a very nervous type filly to begin with.
00:02:52And she horse racing people know what this means.
00:02:55She tied up pretty badly in the days leading up to the Pacific Classic.
00:02:59So they wanted to take no chances with her, but she'll be just fine for the Breeders'
00:03:04Cup.
00:03:05This stuff.
00:03:06Look right now, I would I would say on the West Coast, Senior Buscador and Muth might
00:03:12be the two best candidates for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:03:16Muth won this weekend in the Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar.
00:03:20He made his comeback in that race.
00:03:22It's kind of a workmanlike win, but he looked pretty good.
00:03:24And he's, you know, he's trending in the right direction for Bob Baffert.
00:03:29But yeah, the Pacific Classic, Mick Stowe, you know, he was 22 to 1.
00:03:32When you look at the horses that were left after Adair Manor, there were a lot of horses
00:03:36that had been consistent 98, 99 buyers.
00:03:40Mick Stowe wasn't one of them.
00:03:41He was one of the ones that was a little bit lower.
00:03:44But hey, Kyle Fry, good ride.
00:03:46And Mick Stowe managed to get the job done anyway.
00:03:48Zoe?
00:03:49Yeah, Kyle Fry's having a really, really good meet.
00:03:51That was his second graded stakes on the card.
00:03:54He took down the Del Mar Handicap earlier in the card, aboard Gold Phoenix for Phil
00:03:58D'Amato.
00:03:59So a terrific ride by him.
00:04:01Mick Stowe, son of good magic.
00:04:03We've heard a lot about good magic.
00:04:05So that's good.
00:04:06It did take him seven tries to break his maiden.
00:04:09So you know, good for them.
00:04:12Can't take anything away from him.
00:04:13He beat all the rest of them.
00:04:14Dr. Venkman was a bit of a disappointment.
00:04:17He was a favorite.
00:04:18Got a little bit sandwiched, turning for home, had to alter course.
00:04:22I'm not sure he was ever going to get to the winner, Mick Stowe.
00:04:25So we'll see where Dr. Venkman shows up.
00:04:28Reincarnate for Bob, he's really just a horse.
00:04:31So yeah, it was definitely a disappointing race for me.
00:04:35It was a good betting race if you were gambling and if you had Mick Stowe, hey, well done
00:04:40to you.
00:04:41But other than that, I'm not sure we're going to see any great champions coming out of there.
00:04:45Well, we may not see any horses come out of the Jockey Club Gold Cup and go on to victory
00:04:49in the Breeders' Cup Classic either.
00:04:51Jockey Club Gold Cup was run Sunday at Saratoga and again, nice horses.
00:04:57Arthur's ride looked so good winning the Whitney, he was a deserving favorite, but no star power.
00:05:03Arthur's ride was the closest thing to it and he did not run well.
00:05:06He just stopped in the middle of stretch and ran fifth.
00:05:09The winner is Highland Falls, trained by Brad Cox, ridden by Flavian Pratt, who was
00:05:13one of the big stories of the Saratoga meet with what he did there.
00:05:17But again, I'm sure there are better horses out there than the ones that ran in the Jockey
00:05:22Club Gold Cup.
00:05:23But I feel bad for Naira, they've tried very hard to make this race work because it was
00:05:29before the Breeders' Cup, it was the most important race in the country.
00:05:32And now in this Breeders' Cup era where everybody wants eight weeks off in between starts, it
00:05:37just doesn't really have a place on the calendar.
00:05:40I hope they can find a way to fix that, Randy.
00:05:43If there are better horses on the East Coast for the Breeders' Cup Classic, I don't know
00:05:48who they are because pretty much all of them, I think, and maybe I'm missing somebody, were
00:05:54in this particular race.
00:05:56Arthur's ride was a disappointment, but look, nowadays in thoroughbred racing, when you
00:06:01have a horse like Arthur's ride that had come off really, really fast, back-to-back wins
00:06:07and then came back in a spot that a lot of trainers may have skipped after those two
00:06:13really, really fast races, meaning the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
00:06:17It's not out of the realm of possibility that Arthur's ride is going to regress a little
00:06:21bit in that spot.
00:06:22And now they're giving him plenty of time to come back, they're going to train him up
00:06:25to the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:06:27To begin with, Arthur's ride had the really fast win in Kentucky, like a 1.11 Byer or
00:06:32something like that.
00:06:34And so then they penciled in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
00:06:38And as Glassman told you on the podcast, he asked Bill, Bill said, we're going to give
00:06:44him a prep race for the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
00:06:46Oh, what's that going to be?
00:06:47It's going to be the Whitney.
00:06:48And I don't think Mott or anyone expected Arthur's ride to run as huge a race in the
00:06:55Whitney as he actually ran.
00:06:57And in hindsight, he probably took a little wind out of his sails for the Jockey Club
00:07:01Gold Cup.
00:07:02So that doesn't really bother me.
00:07:03Highland Falls ran a big race at Oak Lawn.
00:07:06Big number to run second in the Oak Lawn Handicap to Skippy Longstocking.
00:07:10Underachieved in a couple of spots after that, bounced back to his best form.
00:07:14He would have to be one of the top 10 Breeders' Cup Classic contenders, I would think.
00:07:19Tappett-Trice did the Tappett-Trice thing, looks good one time, and then he's a no-show
00:07:25the next time.
00:07:26He just can't rely at all on Tappett-Trice.
00:07:30One final note about the Classic division.
00:07:32It's looking to me more and more like it's going to come down between the three-year-olds
00:07:39and the Japanese horses.
00:07:40The Japanese horses did so well at Del Mar the last time the Breeders' Cup was run out
00:07:46there.
00:07:47And they've sort of been gearing up for that.
00:07:49And right now, for the Breeders' Cup Classic, laying in wait and awaiting their final prep
00:07:53race, Forever Young, Dermis Otagake, Ushpa Tesoro, three horses that would be leading
00:08:00candidates on paper.
00:08:02And they're going to really be primed for the Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar.
00:08:07Whichever way you look at it, the Classic's going to be a full field and a very good race,
00:08:12especially if all of those horses come up.
00:08:15And it's kind of a tight track at Del Mar.
00:08:18It's going to be a very, very good race indeed.
00:08:21Let's get back to the Gold Cup, winning you're in, right?
00:08:24Highland Falls by Carlin at a ramp on, so he's bred all up, down, and sideways to get
00:08:30the distance.
00:08:31And how about we talk about the ride that Pratt put on Highland Falls?
00:08:34I mean, we're going to talk about Pratt a lot in this podcast, but that has to be one
00:08:38of the best rides I've ever seen him put on a horse.
00:08:41Breaks inside of Arthur's Ride.
00:08:43He knows the only way to beat Arthur's Ride is to go after him.
00:08:47So he sends his horse just enough to make Arthur's Ride work hard enough to get in front
00:08:53of him.
00:08:54So he did, he gets in front.
00:08:56And rather than just be content with sitting on his hip, Flavian's like, oh no, no, if
00:09:02I'm going to beat this guy, I've got to look him in the eye.
00:09:04So they go head and head down the backside in 47 and three, which wasn't like 45 and
00:09:09change.
00:09:10They're not going crazy, but he knew that his horse could gallop and stay the distance.
00:09:15And if he got close to Arthur's Ride, he could probably not only beat him, but win the race.
00:09:21For my mind, it was an absolutely brilliant tactical ride by Pratt and probably one of
00:09:28the best rides, other than the hopeful that we'll get to in just a moment, that we've
00:09:32seen Pratt give all summer.
00:09:34That was masterful because he was not on the best horse, but he rode him to win the race.
00:09:41The richest race in the country that is neither a Breeders' Cup or Triple Crown race is the
00:09:47Nashville Derby.
00:09:48He ran it on Saturday at Kentucky Downs, 3.1 million.
00:09:53I've said this before.
00:09:54I guarantee you they added that 0.1 so that they would be richer than the Gulf Stream
00:10:00Park Pegasus at 3 million.
00:10:03But that's brilliant because now they can say we have the richest race on the calendar.
00:10:07I got to think there's some European trainers are kicking themselves for not coming over
00:10:12for this race.
00:10:14The horse that won it is a nice horse, Bellum Justin, but he was second in a group three
00:10:19in his previous race.
00:10:22This is serious, serious money.
00:10:24It was just begging.
00:10:25They were just begging for somebody to take it down and bring it back to Europe.
00:10:29Now, he doesn't run for the full purse because he's not a Kentucky Breed.
00:10:34However, even because he doesn't get part of the Kentucky Breed Thoroughbred Development
00:10:38money, he still made 1.05 million for his owners.
00:10:43It would have taken him 10 years in Great Britain to make that kind of money, being
00:10:48the kind of horse he is.
00:10:50I think that more European people are going to have to look at this and start circling
00:10:55Kentucky Downs on the calendars.
00:10:57Zoe?
00:10:58Oh, yeah.
00:10:59I mean, and if you watch the race, if you want to look up the proverbial, and this is
00:11:05no slight on Frankie DeTorre because he is brilliant and he did his job.
00:11:09If you want to look up steering job on how to win a race on a horse that is so much the
00:11:14best it's not even funny, look up Bellum Justin and watch his race.
00:11:19Broke just in a tangle, dead last, and he literally drug Frankie through the field the
00:11:24first half mile before they even went up the hill.
00:11:28Just drug him up into contention.
00:11:30He was sitting fourth going up the hill after breaking last and just came home so quickly.
00:11:37It was just watching him throughout the race, like how's this horse going to lose this race?
00:11:42And yes, he's a grade three winner at best, but certainly not Kentucky Downs.
00:11:46He looked amazing there.
00:11:48A tip of the hat to Carson's run, he ran a very gallant second, but DeTorre got the jump
00:11:54on him.
00:11:55He was never going to catch the winner.
00:11:57Definitely a very good run by Bellum Justin.
00:11:59Do you know what that means in Latin?
00:12:03Just war.
00:12:04Hmm.
00:12:05So I thought, well, it's got to be by war front, right?
00:12:08No, it's by see the stars.
00:12:11Zoe challenging Randy and going down the rabbit hole contest here.
00:12:16She wins this round.
00:12:17There's a lot to be desired.
00:12:18My Latin is about this much here.
00:12:22Carson's runs the best three-year-old turf force in America, but American turf three-year-olds
00:12:28are typically not all that strong, which is why Charlie Appleby, year to year, comes over
00:12:33here with his three-year-olds and tends to dominate those races like the Saratoga Derby
00:12:37and the Belmont Derby and races like that.
00:12:40But how good does this make City of Troy look?
00:12:45Bellum Justin ran in the Epsom Derby and got drilled.
00:12:47I think he got beat 13 lengths by City of Troy in that race.
00:12:51So, yeah, I mean, it's just another example of how much better the European turf horses
00:12:56are typically than American turf horses.
00:12:59This horse is a group three horse in Europe, and he comes over and beats our best three-year-olds
00:13:03pretty handily.
00:13:04I had a chance to speak to Jockey Agent Ron Anderson just prior to the Kentucky Downs
00:13:11meet, and he was shipping both Joel Rosario and Frankie DeTorey to Kentucky Downs.
00:13:17And he said DeTorey was very excited about the meet.
00:13:19Ron was really excited about the prospects of both of his jockeys.
00:13:24Rosario hasn't started off very well.
00:13:26He's 0 for 17 right now.
00:13:27But Frankie DeTorey and Jose Ortiz have both won five races to top the standings right
00:13:32now at Kentucky Downs.
00:13:34So DeTorey is off to a fast start, and it's because of mounts like this.
00:13:38How much money has he made in five wins?
00:13:40Just throw it out there.
00:13:42One moment, please.
00:13:43He has made $1.56 million, compared to just a little over $1 million for Jose Ortiz.
00:13:5118 mounts, $1.5 million.
00:13:53Not bad at all.
00:13:55You mentioned Sidney O'Troy real quickly.
00:13:57Do you know what the plan with him is?
00:13:59I was really interested to listen to an interview with Aidan O'Brien the other day.
00:14:04On September the 22nd, they're going to fly a plane over to Southall, which would probably
00:14:10be like the most American dirt kind of racetrack that they have in England.
00:14:15They're flying their American starting gate over on the private plane from Gally Doyle,
00:14:22as well as four or five other horses.
00:14:25And they're going to give him a mock gallop out of the gate around Southall racecourse
00:14:29in preparation for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:14:31A simulated race on dirt.
00:14:34Interesting.
00:14:35A lot of these Coolmore wars, some of them have run really well in the Classic.
00:14:40Most of them have completely laid eggs, because you look at their pedigree and their Sadler's
00:14:44Wells and Dubois and Galileos, and you can just draw a line through those horses on the
00:14:50dirt.
00:14:51But here we've got a Justify.
00:14:52Yes.
00:14:53So, it's a completely different scenario when they bring this horse over, as long as he
00:14:58gets accustomed to kickback, like they're going to obviously try to get him accustomed
00:15:02to.
00:15:03Wow.
00:15:04Classic for the ages.
00:15:05Could well be.
00:15:07I do want to remind you that the TDN Writers' Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:15:12Some exciting updates to the September catalog came out of this weekend's Graded Stakes.
00:15:17Listen to this.
00:15:18Hip1301 from Farfellow Farms got a big update when his half-brother, Mixtoe, we already
00:15:24mentioned him, he took down the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on Saturday.
00:15:28Hip358, who will sell with Wednesday, saw her half-sister, her half-brilliant, half-sister
00:15:35Brightwork, win the Grade 3 Priorist Stakes, Saratoga.
00:15:39She was impressive.
00:15:41And across the ponds, Eintz of March became a dominating Group 3 winner at the Currah,
00:15:46and her full sister will sell with Denali Stud as hip number 148.
00:15:52Great results for this year's September yearlings out of the weekend's racing.
00:15:55We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:16:05Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
00:16:06On behalf of the management and staff of Keeneland, I would like to welcome you to the September
00:16:10yearling sale.
00:16:11Good to have you back with us.
00:16:12The energy at Keeneland Book One is unlike any other sale that you'll go to.
00:16:16It is the marketplace.
00:16:18The center of the horse universe.
00:16:20It's electric.
00:16:21You can't replicate the urgency that's at Keeneland September.
00:16:23Quality in quantity.
00:16:25Keeneland September Book One.
00:16:27Every breeder's dream.
00:16:36The TDN Writers' Room is brought to you by Stone Street Bread and Reyes.
00:17:05Over the past couple of weeks, we have looked a lot at their 14 Book One horses.
00:17:10I still can't get my head around that.
00:17:1214.
00:17:13Now let's take a look at a couple of good-looking yearlings in Book Two.
00:17:17Hip number 449 is a filly by Charlatan out of Imaluka from the family of Dortmund, Champion
00:17:24Lakeville Miss, and Mogambo.
00:17:26Now take a good look at this filly.
00:17:28She's got the size and scope of her sire.
00:17:31It's really hard to believe that she's an April 29th foal as she struts her stuff right
00:17:36here.
00:17:37She looks really, really good.
00:17:39Next up is hip 754, a filly by More Than Ready out of Conquest Serenade, whose dam is a half-sister
00:17:46to Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion Sprinter, Fatal Bullet.
00:17:51And look at that hip on her, guys.
00:17:53She would make J-Lo jealous with that massive hip on her.
00:17:57She's by More Than Ready.
00:17:58And as you can see, there's an awful lot of unbridled song in the dam's sight that
00:18:03is really coming out as she struts her stuff here, walking along at Stone Street Yearlings.
00:18:09That's some beautiful speed indeed.
00:18:14This week, the fastest horse of the week is brought to you by Nashville, one of those
00:18:19fast sires at Windstar Farm.
00:18:21They've got a lot of fast horses over there.
00:18:22We talk about life is good a lot of times.
00:18:25Nashville was pretty darn fast himself, but speed is the key to your breeding program.
00:18:29Take a look at this horse.
00:18:30After all, he was a track record setter at Keen Lungset, 7 furlongs, 107.89.
00:18:36Later the same day, the Breeders' Cup Sprint was nearly a second slower than that.
00:18:42Nashville won a 6-furlong race at the fairgrounds, 108.61, the fastest at the time in two years
00:18:47at the fairgrounds.
00:18:48Saratoga, he was a rising star.
00:18:51He won by 11 lengths at 6.5 furlongs, covered the first 6 furlongs, the internal fraction
00:18:56of that race, 107.92, blazing fast, son of champion sprinter and sire of sires, Spikestown,
00:19:04and Nashville's first weanlings will sell this November.
00:19:07Now, this is a perfect segue, right?
00:19:10Fastest horse of the week ran in Nashville, essentially, AG Bullitt at Kentucky Downs
00:19:16in Franklin, Kentucky, in the Ladies' Turf Sprint, run one race after, the very next
00:19:22race after, the Nashville Derby.
00:19:24AG Bullitt, trained by Richie Baltus, started off this winter and spring at Santa Anita,
00:19:31winning the Wishing Well in the Monrovia at 6.5 furlongs, had a bad race at the Distaff
00:19:35Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby weekend on a good course that was kind of
00:19:39quirky at the time at Churchill Downs, came back in July at Del Mar, won the Oceanidas
00:19:44wire-to-wire in a mile, then they shipped AG Bullitt to Kentucky Downs, and all she
00:19:48did in the Ladies' Turf Sprint, worth only a million and a half dollars, opened up six
00:19:53lengths at the top of that long stretch, won by five and a quarter in a buyer speed figure
00:19:58of 106.
00:20:01She'd run some fast races before.
00:20:03This was obviously the fastest, and that makes AG Bullitt our fastest horse of the week.
00:20:15Special guests on this week's Guest of the Week of the TDN Writers' Room Podcast, Shannon
00:20:19Arvin, the Keeneland president and CEO.
00:20:21Of course, big doings coming up just a couple of days from now, the beginning of the September
00:20:26sale at Keeneland and then the fall racing meet after that.
00:20:29Hi, Shannon, and thanks for joining us.
00:20:30And this is the biggest yearly marketplace of the year, make or break time for a lot
00:20:35of people in the industry.
00:20:37So what are the economic indicators you're seeing?
00:20:39They'll tell you about this year's sale and how it might come out.
00:20:41Thank you all very much for having me.
00:20:43It's always fun to be on Writers' Room with you all.
00:20:46The economic indicators so far are really good.
00:20:50We watch, obviously, closely the other yearling sales that precede ours, and we're thrilled
00:20:55to see how successful they were.
00:20:58Over the years, I have been told that the horse business follows the stock market, when
00:21:03I've actually looked at the statistics, that's really not true at all, which could be good
00:21:07or bad depending on the day and what it looks like on September 9th and 10th.
00:21:12But I think we've got a lot of excitement in the industry.
00:21:16This is always, as you said, kind of a stressful time for our breeders who are bringing their
00:21:23full stock to market for this massive yearling sale.
00:21:27But it's really exciting.
00:21:28And one of the best things about the September sale, as I've been around it, is that it's
00:21:33exciting from start to finish.
00:21:36You can find gems all the way through the sale and you have a lot of prominent buyers
00:21:41that shop all the way through the sale and it pays off for them.
00:21:44Ask Kenny McPeak and ask the Arcangelo folks.
00:21:49I mean, $35,000.
00:21:51Even Midnight Bisou was an R&A at our September sale at $19,000.
00:21:55So that was a missed opportunity.
00:21:58Absolutely.
00:21:59We all missed that one.
00:22:00But there are so many opportunities throughout the sale.
00:22:03And one thing that we've noticed the past few years before we actually dive into the
00:22:08sale is that Keelan's been trying to be more innovative and we've seen some music and
00:22:13we've seen a bit more of the culinary and we've seen people offering up champagne.
00:22:19Do you plan on keep on going that way?
00:22:21Because I know it's been very welcome and it's been more like a fun boutique start to
00:22:27the beginning of a very long, exciting sale.
00:22:30Absolutely. And we do the book one brunch where we have the music and the champagne
00:22:35and this ought to be fun.
00:22:37This business is fun.
00:22:38It's obviously very serious and has significant economic implications.
00:22:43But so many people, especially principals, are there to enjoy it.
00:22:47So we want to create an atmosphere where they can do just that.
00:22:50And even beyond book one and book two, we have surprise and delights every afternoon,
00:22:54which aren't so much a surprise anymore because we do them so regularly.
00:22:58But it is a time when we want people to remember why we're here and what we're all in
00:23:05this for and celebrate.
00:23:08Shannon, obviously, the highlight is book one.
00:23:10The word on the street is that it's very strong this year.
00:23:13Any particular highlights of book one or other areas of the sale that you want to touch
00:23:17upon? I think book one and book two, it's important to recognize that what our sales
00:23:22team does by going out and inspecting three thousand yearlings, three thousand of the
00:23:27forty two hundred yearlings is really finding the best pedigrees, the best physicals to
00:23:32get in front of buyers the first four days of the sale before we take a break.
00:23:36And I think they've done a tremendous job this year.
00:23:39It's always tricky because, you know, breeders and consignors get anxious about where
00:23:45they're placed. And what we want to do is set up the marketplace for everyone to be as
00:23:51successful as possible.
00:23:53And so book one and book two really, really highlight those stars.
00:23:58Yeah, and there'll be plenty of stars to be had.
00:24:01One thing that we've noticed as well moving forward is that Keelans finally seem to have
00:24:05got it right as far as book one, book two, book three, book four and what days they're
00:24:11being held on. It seems like it's really started to work and people have got used to it,
00:24:17especially with the day off in the middle.
00:24:19We're so excited to hear you say that because we've worked really hard on it.
00:24:22I know.
00:24:23When I got here, we kept trying new things and kept trying new formats.
00:24:28And, you know, a lot of people say ideally you would want a three day book one and a
00:24:32break. But it's just what we concluded was what we really needed to do was provide the
00:24:38stability to say we are going to stick with this format.
00:24:41Every year somebody says, well, why don't we try it this way this year?
00:24:43And we've really been disciplined to say, no, the market needs to know what's going to
00:24:48happen. The market needs to know what to expect.
00:24:50So we're going to stick with this with this format consistently over a number of years.
00:24:56Now, after five years, if it wasn't working, of course, we'd look at changing.
00:25:00But it seems to be gaining traction and people seem to be, you know, I think we're people.
00:25:04We all tend to be creatures of habit and we don't like change so much always.
00:25:07So I think this consistency really is helping to create that stability.
00:25:13People know what to expect.
00:25:15Shannon, not necessarily linked to the September sale, but you are doing something new and
00:25:19innovative this year with your sales calendar.
00:25:22We've seen this happen in other jurisdictions like England right before we go to Alaska and
00:25:25meet. And what a great idea.
00:25:27You're going to have a sale.
00:25:28Is it the day before the Breeders' Cup or?
00:25:30Actually, the Wednesday before.
00:25:31The Wednesday before the Breeders' Cup.
00:25:33OK, so the Wednesday before the Breeders' Cup, the idea being if someone wants to sell a
00:25:38piece of a Breeders' Cup horse, someone wants to buy a piece of a Breeders' Cup horse, come
00:25:42to Keeneland and get it all done.
00:25:43So, you know, tell us how this evolved and what your expectations are for it.
00:25:48You know, we've been we we brainstorm a lot.
00:25:51The sales team sits around says, what what would help the market?
00:25:54What would help the breeders?
00:25:55What would be fun?
00:25:56And sales and racing clearly go hand in hand.
00:25:59So this seemed like a great opportunity to try something different.
00:26:04The concept is, just as you said, that it's before the Breeders' Cup.
00:26:08Hopefully we'll have entries with that are either in Breeders' Cup races or on the
00:26:13undercard or even shares or breeding breeding rights to exciting stallions you might
00:26:19expect to see there, too.
00:26:21So we're really excited to try it, that it will be held in the paddock at Del Mar.
00:26:26And more than anything, again, it's going to be a really lovely, fun night and adding
00:26:31some excitement by having some horses.
00:26:33So obviously it's so close to the Breeders' Cup that we won't have horses physically
00:26:37in the Del Mar paddock that night.
00:26:39But we'll every buyer will have an opportunity to go inspect the horses where they're
00:26:43located. And I think it'll be I think it'll be something new and exciting.
00:26:47You can go from the from the sales ring to the track in a matter of five days.
00:26:54And we've seen it work so well at Royal Ascot, people coming in and buying a leg of a
00:26:59horse just because they want to run at Royal Ascot.
00:27:02It gives people a chance, in a sense, to just get a piece of the action without having
00:27:07all the boring stuff before.
00:27:09They can just walk in onto the red carpet right away.
00:27:12So I think it's a terrific idea.
00:27:15Does it lead on to the November sale?
00:27:17Should somebody buy a horse?
00:27:19Can they turn around and sell the horse in November with you guys?
00:27:23What's the deal there? Absolutely.
00:27:25Yes. And we've we've talked to several sellers about that who are interested in doing
00:27:29that. But it really does provide the opportunity for a lot of action in a consolidated
00:27:33period of time, which isn't always the case in our business, as you all know.
00:27:37So we're really excited about it.
00:27:39I think it's going to be fun to try.
00:27:41And I think it'll be a really exciting night and a great addition and enhancement to
00:27:45Breeders' Cup week. Get people out there a little bit earlier.
00:27:48And who doesn't want to spend an extra few days in Del Mar?
00:27:51Right. Shannon, there is several tracks across the country right now going through
00:27:55renovations, Pimico, obviously Belmont, et cetera.
00:27:59You have had this ongoing project at Keeneland as well.
00:28:02Tell us where that things stand now with your renovation projects and when it's all
00:28:06said and done, which people should expect.
00:28:08So we are nine months into construction.
00:28:12And if you haven't been on our grounds lately, you will notice a lot has changed when
00:28:16you come on the grounds because the operations building is actually it's under roof
00:28:20and starting really to look like a building.
00:28:22And the paddock building is as well.
00:28:24We we had our offices, as you all may recall, right on the paddock.
00:28:28So while my office had a great view, it probably wasn't the best and highest use of
00:28:33that space because we have a we are so lucky at Keeneland to have a supply and demand
00:28:38issue. We sell out of our tickets, our public tickets in about eight minutes.
00:28:43So we started brainstorming ways that we could offer more tickets and really unique
00:28:49experiences to the public.
00:28:51And so we we initially tried to make our offices be in the same building and then it
00:28:56quickly became clear we needed our offices in a different space so that we could have
00:28:59room for our whole team to be together, because right now we're kind of dispersed
00:29:03across the campus.
00:29:04But the paddock building is the really exciting star of the project.
00:29:10It'll give us about thirteen hundred more seats that we can sell to the public.
00:29:14It'll have five dining rooms, each one with kind of a unique experience.
00:29:18I think we have to evolve in the way we think that people enjoy sports.
00:29:23So we're really spending a lot of time thinking about that.
00:29:26You know, my mother, for example, is very happy coming to Keeneland and sitting at a
00:29:30table with her friends all afternoon.
00:29:32And she may watch every race on the TV, but that's maybe not so exciting for your 18
00:29:37year old who's new to the sport.
00:29:39So we're going to have an opportunity.
00:29:40There's one room in particular where you don't have a table for the whole day.
00:29:44You get hors d'oeuvres and you can get drinks in their high tops and you actually have
00:29:49access in that room to the north part of the paddock.
00:29:52So you actually will be able to go into the paddock to get close to the horses.
00:29:56All of the the inspiration behind the project has been to get people close to the horse
00:30:02because we really think that once we do that, we'll be able to capture more fans and
00:30:07just create a better experience.
00:30:09And it also is going to provide us a lot more flexibility with sales.
00:30:13You all have probably seen we are kind of busting at the seams in our sales pavilion.
00:30:17So having this paddock building so close to the sales pavilion, there's a direct
00:30:22walkway. So we'll be able to have more spaces for people to sit while they're working,
00:30:27more places to offer celebrations, more places to serve a nice lunch and a glass of
00:30:32wine if that's what people want to do that day.
00:30:34So we're really excited about the project.
00:30:37It's going to be the schedule is that it will all be wrapped up a year from now.
00:30:41Which is hard to believe. So we're about to go through our second race meet being under
00:30:45construction.
00:30:46Well, if you see a short blonde person moseying around there tomorrow morning, it's
00:30:51probably going to be me having a good nosy around.
00:30:55I have a hard hat for you.
00:30:57A hard hat? Give me a hard hat.
00:30:58Yeah, I've got a pretty hard head.
00:31:00So I just can't still get my head around the fact that your tickets sell out in eight
00:31:06minutes, eight minutes to the public.
00:31:08Wow, that is, you know, we're doing it online now, which is one of the one of the
00:31:13solar linings of COVID that we we got a more, a better process for selling tickets.
00:31:20But people sit in front of their computers when they when they go online and I get a lot
00:31:24of calls saying either it works so well this morning or oh, I'm so frustrated.
00:31:28I didn't get the 12 seats that I was looking for.
00:31:30I got Wednesday instead of Saturday.
00:31:32So it is we are so grateful that we're able to do this.
00:31:36It is we are so grateful.
00:31:38I would love for all racetracks across the country to sell out like that.
00:31:43And I think we only have an opportunity to do that if we create the experience of the
00:31:47track that makes people actually want to come be here.
00:31:51Do you feel it helps, Keenan, because it's so boutique?
00:31:54It's not like you're running for months on end.
00:31:57Is that one of the things you feel not only just your racetrack, but racetracks across
00:32:02the country should try and aim for?
00:32:04Without a doubt, it helps us.
00:32:06And I think it's different in each jurisdiction and every track has different considerations
00:32:11and a different horse population, different trainer base.
00:32:15For us, a lot of people have said, why don't you race more days?
00:32:17Why don't you do a summer meet?
00:32:19Which, remember, we did after COVID, the fact we were very blessed by the weather.
00:32:24That could be a really hot meet otherwise.
00:32:28And we're open to looking at other times that might make sense.
00:32:32But for us, our 32 or 33 days a year gets people excited about it.
00:32:37It's such a part of the culture in Lexington in the spring and the fall that you have the
00:32:41race meets and we're embraced by the business communities here and also the students.
00:32:46I mean, the students are out here all the time.
00:32:51And I think at UK, they end up remembering it as an important part of their college experience
00:32:56that the racetrack was so close.
00:32:58And it is definitely part of creating that environment where people want to come and
00:33:04spend their day.
00:33:06Shannon, I'm just curious, what is your sellout point?
00:33:08How many tickets are you able to sell?
00:33:10Are you selling both admissions and seats, just seats, just admissions?
00:33:15What about that?
00:33:16It's the seats that sell out in eight minutes.
00:33:19The general admissions go, we are actually sold out on our big days, but we still have
00:33:26capacity on the not.
00:33:28And as the time comes closer, we'll sometimes be in a position where we can gauge the fans
00:33:33and we can release more tickets.
00:33:35We encourage everybody to get their tickets in advance.
00:33:39We used to report our attendance every race day.
00:33:43And I remember I'd get 10 emails a day with the attendance updates.
00:33:47We notice all the scans, but we don't really report it anymore because we're not trying
00:33:53to pack in as many fans as possible.
00:33:55We really want it to be a good experience for the people that are here.
00:33:59So if you're in line for a hot dog, you can get a hot dog without waiting for 20 minutes.
00:34:03So that number, I would estimate it's about 22,000.
00:34:09That's comfortable.
00:34:12It's still a lot on an average race day.
00:34:14I was flicking through Kentucky Downs because we've all been glued to that.
00:34:19And I came across a condition.
00:34:21It was an allowance race for 250,000 restricted to horses purchased from Keeneland.
00:34:29And I was like, wow.
00:34:30And of course it was oversubscribed.
00:34:32But I'm like, how did you guys come up with this?
00:34:35And I know you work closely with Kentucky Downs as well.
00:34:39We do.
00:34:39Ron Winchell has been a great client for years.
00:34:42And since he has owned Kentucky Downs, he has really focused on trying to find ways
00:34:48to create fun experiences, which is obvious from his purses and just the way that they've run
00:34:56another very, very boutique meet.
00:34:59Yes.
00:34:59And so that was an idea that was generated.
00:35:01And we were happy.
00:35:03It was their idea, I will confess fully.
00:35:05And we were happy to do it, happy to sponsor it.
00:35:08I mean, it's been really fun.
00:35:10And our partnership has extended even beyond that.
00:35:14We brainstorm about ways, things we can do during the Keeneland meet that might be enhanced
00:35:20from Kentucky Downs involvement.
00:35:23And I think that goes back to, we had this conversation about Kentucky being so strong
00:35:28right now.
00:35:29And I am grateful that Kentucky is as strong as it is.
00:35:33And certainly it has to do, there are a lot of reasons, one of which is the historical
00:35:37horse racing, which definitely provides a boost for us and lets us do a lot of these
00:35:43projects that we're doing and offer the competitive purses that we have.
00:35:48But I also firmly believe that for our business, you've got to have a healthy ecosystem.
00:35:54We want people from all over the world to come race at our racetrack because they want
00:36:00to win at Keeneland.
00:36:01It's certainly the purse money is part of it, but it's more than that.
00:36:05It's the experience.
00:36:06So to us, a healthy California is important.
00:36:10A healthy New York racing is important.
00:36:11Healthy Florida is important.
00:36:13Healthy Maryland is important.
00:36:15So that's something we really, we do spend a lot of time focusing on.
00:36:18And we talked to Ron about two ways that we can be helpful to racing as a whole, because
00:36:24I think with Hysa, and you all know, we've been very supportive of Hysa from the beginning.
00:36:29And while they haven't gotten everything perfectly right, I'll be the first to admit,
00:36:33and Lisa Lazarus would be the first to admit, I don't think that we would have much of a
00:36:38future as a major sport without national governing oversight.
00:36:46And I think that they have been very thoughtful when they have stubbed their toe to step back
00:36:51and say, oh, wait, maybe that didn't work so well.
00:36:53I hear what you're saying.
00:36:54We haven't thought about that.
00:36:56Let's try it this way.
00:36:58I think we'd be hard pressed to find many federal regulators out there that would be
00:37:02so eager to really have the interest of the sport in mind.
00:37:06So I think Hysa will help us as well to have that healthier ecosystem, certainly nationally.
00:37:15Shannon, two changes to the fall racing stakes schedule.
00:37:19The Queen Elizabeth II Challenge, the purse has been raised to $750,000.
00:37:24And the Bryan Station, the purse for that race is raised to $600,000.
00:37:28Why those two races?
00:37:30You know, Gatewood Bell, who's our head of racing, is probably the most knowledgeable
00:37:38person I know about what makes a horseman think and what would make them want to go
00:37:43to certain races and point towards certain races.
00:37:46And those were races where he felt that the purse increase would work the best.
00:37:52He's very thoughtful in feeling like at some point more isn't more.
00:37:58You know, you don't have to pay a $1.2 million purse.
00:38:02People want to come here because they want to win here.
00:38:04Let's be reasonable about what the purses are.
00:38:06Let's be reasonable about how much KTDF money we put into the purse because, again, you
00:38:11don't want somebody coming from New York with a New York bread to be surprised when the
00:38:15purse is actually, you know, two thirds of what he thought he was running for.
00:38:21So we think about all those things when we conclude what our purses will be.
00:38:26And Kentucky Downs has been helpful to us with those with those purse increases as well
00:38:31and been supportive of that.
00:38:33Well, it's nice to see two separate entities actually working together.
00:38:37That's really, really nice to see.
00:38:40What are you most looking forward to over the course of the next few months?
00:38:45Gosh, all of I'm ready to get started.
00:38:47I will tell you that we another construction project that we've been working on that we've
00:38:53been working on that we've been a little bit quieter about is are some renovations
00:38:57to our sales pavilion that you all will see when you get here.
00:39:01There hadn't been any major.
00:39:03I mean, that the pavilion was built in 68 and there hadn't been really any major upgrades
00:39:08to the aesthetics of the sales pavilion.
00:39:11And we actually worked we worked with one design firm who said, well, you should take
00:39:15the roof off and you should put a second level and you can have offices up there.
00:39:19And we said, OK, well, how much is that?
00:39:21And they said, oh, it's about 80 million.
00:39:22We thought it doesn't make a lot of sense.
00:39:25So we stepped back and we said, what do we love about the sales pavilion?
00:39:29What works?
00:39:29So we really tried to keep the integrity.
00:39:31When you walk in, you'll still feel like it's the same old sales pavilion that you've been
00:39:35in forever.
00:39:36But we've we've lightened some of the walls.
00:39:39We've updated the lighting.
00:39:41We've created an area in the back of the pavilion itself where there are some tables and chairs
00:39:46so buyers can sit and be comfortable as they bid and really trying to draw that excitement
00:39:52into the arena.
00:39:54You know, it used to be that you had to have a reservation to get a seat in there.
00:39:58And now, as you all have seen, you know, when we sell a share and flight line, it's really
00:40:03crowded.
00:40:03And otherwise, it's really hard to get people to come into the pavilion.
00:40:06They want to be out back.
00:40:07They want to be in the corner where nobody can see them bidding.
00:40:10So we're just we've we've made some changes that we think will make the sales pavilion
00:40:14more comfortable for people and bring them back into the arena.
00:40:18So we're excited to show people those changes and hope everybody will like those for sure.
00:40:23Well, we want to thank Shannon Arvin, the CEO and president of Keeneland for joining
00:40:27us here on the guest segment on the TDN Writers Room podcast.
00:40:30Shannon, it's gonna be exciting couple months with the sale on the fall meet.
00:40:33And I know you're pretty busy right now.
00:40:35So thanks so much for spending a few minutes with us.
00:40:38Thanks so much for having me.
00:40:39It was fun.
00:40:39I really appreciate it.
00:40:41Cheers.
00:40:42See you all soon.
00:40:43The PA Horse Breeders Association presents the new and improved Pennsylvania Stallion Series.
00:40:50Six $100,000 stakes for PA sired, PA bred Zoot Parks.
00:40:55Two six furlong contests on PA Derby Day.
00:40:58The two-year-olds then go seven furlongs on December 30th.
00:41:02The last two races are in August 2025 for three-year-olds.
00:41:05Then 50,000 in breeder bonuses go to the top three horses in the series.
00:41:10For more, go to pabred.com.
00:41:13The TDN Writers Room also brought to you by the PHBA.
00:41:18If your acronym challenged, that's the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.
00:41:22You should know that by now.
00:41:24They paid over $30 million in 2023 to end breeders awards, stallions awards,
00:41:30PA bred stakes, hundreds of restricted races.
00:41:33In fact, they've paid an average of $28.5 million over the last decade.
00:41:39That's consistency.
00:41:40If you want to be among the hundreds of owners and breeders that have taken
00:41:44advantage of all these lucrative awards, you can contact them.
00:41:48That's the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.
00:41:50That's them at info at pabred.com.
00:41:55That's a simple email address, or you can call them at 610.
00:41:58Here's the number, 444-1050.
00:42:02Well, Saratoga Meet ended on Labor Day,
00:42:04wrapped up with a very interesting running of the hopeful stakes.
00:42:07The news out of Saratoga, it's seemingly never bad.
00:42:11They had a handle of, once again, 800 million, record attendance.
00:42:17Everything was pretty much kind of stagnant from last year,
00:42:20but if the balloon is ever going to burst, we sure haven't seen it.
00:42:26Let's talk about the hopeful.
00:42:29Chancellor McPatrick won it over by half length over Ferocious, trained by Chad Brown.
00:42:34I was interested in one of the quotes he gave to the Naira Press Department afterwards,
00:42:39saying we can train all kinds of horses, meaning don't stereotype me as a turf-only trainer.
00:42:49A hopeful winner hasn't won the Kentucky Derby, I believe, since affirmed, to be honest.
00:42:54However long it has been, it's been a long, long time.
00:42:56This horse really looked good, and especially his running style.
00:43:00In a one-turn race for two-year-olds, he was nine and a half lengths back
00:43:04in the first call, and then motored down the middle of the stretch, caught Ferocious,
00:43:08and is in good hands with Chad Brown.
00:43:10We may be seeing this horse.
00:43:12We may be talking a lot next year about Chancellor McPatrick.
00:43:16Zoe?
00:43:18He was good.
00:43:19And in fairness to Chad, when I first came up,
00:43:23when I first got Saratoga at the beginning of the meet, I run into him all the time.
00:43:28I'm like, hey, who do you think your best horse is?
00:43:31Who's your best two-year-old?
00:43:33I've got a really nice McKinsey colt, because I like the McKinseys,
00:43:36but they're going to need a bit of time.
00:43:37And they do.
00:43:38They're big, growthy, scopy, lengthy-looking horses.
00:43:41They're not going to come out running in April, much kind of like him.
00:43:46And I said, I've got this really nice McKinsey colt.
00:43:48Sure enough, watching him break his maiden was a delight to watch.
00:43:52He did everything wrong and then got to the wire first.
00:43:55And it was much the same in this race.
00:43:58If you watch ahead on, he needs to learn how to get out the gate a little bit better.
00:44:03So he broke a little bit tardy, broke into the gate.
00:44:07Pratt lost an iron, which no one even noticed because he managed to get it back oh so quickly.
00:44:12And then him and Menti collided.
00:44:16And then he was last and ate all of that kickback and circled the field.
00:44:21It was a terrific race from him.
00:44:23Now, perhaps the disappointment for a lot of people was Ferocious,
00:44:27who may have gone off the favorite.
00:44:29He did go off the favorite because this horse was nine to two.
00:44:33So when he came to Ferocious with Irad Ortiz aboard him, that horse re-engaged.
00:44:39Irad, of course, was riding for the injured Javier Castellano.
00:44:42And he took off.
00:44:44So don't rest on your laurels if you dismiss Ferocious,
00:44:47because he ran such a game race to come back when he looked like he was beaten.
00:44:51The best horse that day was Chance McPatrick.
00:44:53The ride he got from Pratt, the fact he lost his iron at the start,
00:44:57managed to regroup, eat dirt and do everything like a good horse.
00:45:01Those top two are two very nice horses.
00:45:04Yeah, and they're kind of tied together in another way, too, that's sort of interesting.
00:45:08Chance McPatrick was purchased at Ocala this April.
00:45:12It's $725,000 by Flanagan Racing.
00:45:15And a lot of Chad Brown's horses at these sales
00:45:18were picked out by a bloodstock agent named Nick Solusto.
00:45:21I know you know very well, Zoe.
00:45:22They actually tried to buy Ferocious, and they bid heavily on Ferocious.
00:45:28But ultimately...
00:45:29Everybody tried to buy him.
00:45:30He was gorgeous.
00:45:32They got outbid at the end by Romero Restrepo and his group, the Mage Group,
00:45:37who wound up bidding $1.3 million to get Ferocious.
00:45:41And it was primarily because they lost the bidding on Ferocious
00:45:45that they then pivoted to Chance McPatrick.
00:45:48And now, lo and behold, here we have the hopeful where Chance McPatrick
00:45:52and Ferocious are teamed up against each other,
00:45:54and Chance McPatrick gets the best of him.
00:45:57But, you know, a lot of good two-year-olds we've seen at Saratoga.
00:46:01Some of them just recently broken their maidens.
00:46:05The way racing is right now in the United States,
00:46:08there'll be a lot more that will emerge this fall in California,
00:46:12probably for Baffert at Churchill Downs, Keeneland.
00:46:16You know, so we're just beginning to dip our toes into the water.
00:46:22of the three-year-old division next year.
00:46:25And props to John Kimmel, too, because he was involved.
00:46:28And John is a trainer, but he's buying Sean Flanagan's horses.
00:46:31So big props to John Kimmel.
00:46:36Well, the weekend began.
00:46:37This is a water, by the way, just in case anyone thought that.
00:46:41I just want to throw it out there.
00:46:43This is a Waterloo sparkling water.
00:46:46Yeah, sure.
00:46:47That was a familiar sound if you've hungered on Zoe, right?
00:46:51It's a really good sound, but this is water, I promise you.
00:46:55Well, the weekend at Saratoga began with a card on Saturday
00:46:59with a grade one spin away stakes.
00:47:01The story in there was with the Queen's MG,
00:47:03that horse offered $3,500, I believe,
00:47:07before it got into the hands of Safdie Joseph.
00:47:10Could she win all three of the two-year-old Philly stakes races at the meet?
00:47:15Something that hadn't been done, I believe, was since 1987.
00:47:19She ran OK, didn't get the job done.
00:47:22But again, immersive is the winner.
00:47:25And I'm totally guilty of redboarding here.
00:47:28But considering the odds on this horse for Brad Cox and Godolphin,
00:47:36was a nice payoff, a nice win.
00:47:38And I'm sure we'll be talking about this horse come Breeders' Cup time.
00:47:41Yeah, I mean, she was fine.
00:47:44I know the Cox barn really do like her.
00:47:46Honestly, I think a lot of these Phillies in there
00:47:48were hindered by the track conditions.
00:47:50It was a mess out there.
00:47:51It was absolutely raining sideways when the spin away was running.
00:47:55So I'm drawing a line through every single Philly in that race.
00:47:58As far as MG is concerned, two tough races in a row.
00:48:04I think it was a lot to ask for her.
00:48:06I applaud, or maybe not applaud,
00:48:09I wonder why Dylan Davis stayed to ride her.
00:48:12I can understand why he stayed to ride her.
00:48:14He's won two on her.
00:48:16He rode Parnak earlier on the card for West Point.
00:48:19But if I was Dylan Davis, I would have been riding in the Nashville Derby
00:48:22aboard my first grade one winner.
00:48:25I would have definitely been riding Carson's run that day.
00:48:28The Queen's MG, we'll see what she does throughout the rest of the year.
00:48:31I just thought it was a lot to ask for her to put three solid races together
00:48:36in a short span.
00:48:37And she's still got something to prove, the Queen's MG,
00:48:40from a handicapping perspective.
00:48:43She was a nine-length winner in her race before in the Adirondack
00:48:48in an extremely hot-paced race, when everything in that race
00:48:51just completely fell apart the last quarter of a mile.
00:48:53I mean, it's not very often in Saratoga you see a horse win by nine lengths
00:48:57in a stakes race and get a 73 buyer speed figure,
00:49:01which was a legitimate speed figure.
00:49:03I mean, I expected her to improve on that a lot coming back in the spin away.
00:49:07She didn't, obviously.
00:49:08Maybe the muddy track had something to do with it.
00:49:10Good effort by the runner up, Quietside.
00:49:13Very strong effort for her.
00:49:15Looked like she was a winner in mid-stretch before Immersive ran her down.
00:49:18And one more note in here, the third-place finisher, Sherbini.
00:49:22We heard a lot of talk last year in the aftermath of some of those
00:49:25highly publicized injuries at Saratoga about how Bobby Fischer
00:49:29was kind of washing his hands of the thoroughbred business.
00:49:33He was selling his house in Saratoga, selling his bloodstock,
00:49:36getting out of the game.
00:49:37Sherbini is co-owned by Bobby Fischer.
00:49:40So that's a very good note.
00:49:43People close to the game know that Fischer didn't get completely out of thoroughbred racing.
00:49:47He just downsized a little bit.
00:49:49And it's nice to see Bobby back with a, you know, a graded stakes contender
00:49:54as a two-year Ophelia moving forward.
00:49:56And it looks like the top two may well have a rematch in the Alcibiades,
00:50:00I do believe, at Keeneland, so that should be good.
00:50:04Guys, we talked about the weekend racing and we missed the biggest story of them all.
00:50:07Travis Kelsey buys into a Team Valor horse, runs in the Toronto Cup up at Woodbine,
00:50:14didn't get the job done, didn't win.
00:50:16But the horse's name, Swift, where's the heck is my notes?
00:50:20Somebody help me here.
00:50:21So is this the start of something?
00:50:24Are the Swifties going to start storming the racetracks to watch
00:50:27Travis and then Taylor's horses run?
00:50:29Wouldn't that be fun?
00:50:30It'd be awesome.
00:50:31Bring them on.
00:50:32Bring them on, I say.
00:50:34Randy's a big fan.
00:50:36Sounds to me like a great marketing job by Mary Irwin of Team Valor
00:50:40to have a horse named Swift delivery and bring in Travis Kelsey as a co-owner.
00:50:44Yeah, I think it's a great idea.
00:50:46It is that time for the XBTV Work of the Week.
00:50:49And this week, it's the exciting Bob Baffert two-year-old Getaway Car,
00:50:54probably one of the best names in racing as far as I'm concerned.
00:50:58Getaway Car was purchased for $700,000 out of the Gainesway consignment at Keeneland
00:51:03September and has won each of his two stars.
00:51:06So, Bob, thank you so much for joining us.
00:51:08Thank you for having me.
00:51:09And I'm excited to see what you're going to do next.
00:51:11Bob Baffert has been purchased for $700,000 out of the Gainesway consignment at Keeneland
00:51:16September and has won each of his two stars, a Maiden Race at Del Mar in July
00:51:22and the Grade 3 Best Pal Stakes last time out.
00:51:25See him here working solo under Juan Hernandez in 59 and 3.
00:51:30Not sure you can go much easier than that, going 59 and change.
00:51:34Baffert said he's being pointed, of course, towards the September 8th Del Mar
00:51:39in that.
00:52:10Well, racing action over the weekend included his Sunday card at Del Mar in the second race
00:52:15that day, it looked like a race that would just come and go and you wouldn't pay much
00:52:19attention to it, but there was a pretty controversial DQ in that race.
00:52:23And Randy, I know you were the one that wanted to bring this up.
00:52:25Yeah.
00:52:26So give us give us the skinny on what happened at Del Mar.
00:52:28It's a pretty nuanced situation going down the backstretch.
00:52:33Antonio Fresu was riding the 9-5 favorite named Seven Wonders and came over about a
00:52:40path or so, I want to say it was right before the half mile pole and interfered pretty severely,
00:52:48nearly dropped, actually.
00:52:49Sal Gonzalez on a horse named Fireman Dan, who happened to be the longest shot on the
00:52:53board at 30 to 1.
00:52:55Seven Wonders goes on as the favorite to open up at the top of the stretch and win the race
00:53:01very emphatically by three and a half lengths.
00:53:03Fireman Dan doesn't recover, finishes sixth in the race in an eight-horse field.
00:53:09There was a steward's inquiry immediately because it was a very easy incident to see
00:53:14on the backstretch.
00:53:15And Seven Wonders was disqualified in the race from first all the way down to sixth
00:53:21behind Fireman Dan.
00:53:22Now, this this brings up something that I think is maybe not addressed enough.
00:53:29Maybe not addressed enough in thoroughbred racing.
00:53:32And we don't see enough of.
00:53:35When I say it's nuanced, this is what I'm talking about.
00:53:38I mean, when you disqualify a horse, what it's supposed to be nowadays especially is
00:53:44stewards are supposed to look at a race like this and they're supposed to say, you know,
00:53:48can we be confident that this impacted the result of this race?
00:53:55And yeah, you can say that it might have cost Fireman Dan a placing or two maybe, probably.
00:54:04Seven Wonders was clearly, clearly the best horse in the race.
00:54:08It didn't impact the winner of the race at all.
00:54:10And Bill, I'm probably preaching to the choir here because as a horse player and a better,
00:54:16I'm guessing you would agree with this.
00:54:18There are situations, including this, in which stewards should leave the number alone.
00:54:25OK, don't disqualify the horse.
00:54:27Give the jock a five-day suspension for careless riding.
00:54:32Don't punish the betters because Antonio Fresu shifted in a lane and bothered the longest
00:54:38shot on the board in a situation that probably didn't have anything to do with the top three
00:54:43or top four in the race.
00:54:45But does he deserve punishment?
00:54:47Yes, obviously.
00:54:49I mean, he almost dropped Gonzalez.
00:54:50Give him days.
00:54:52But there's a million and a half dollars total that was bet involving this race on straight
00:54:59exacta trifecta as well as daily doubles, you know, pick three, pick five.
00:55:05And there's no need to punish those betters, I think, in a situation like this.
00:55:10I don't know if Zoe, as a former rider, would agree or not.
00:55:13I concur.
00:55:14And I bet on the horse that was DQ'd.
00:55:18So I'm just going to leave it at that.
00:55:23But Zoe...
00:55:24Give him a little holiday is all I could say.
00:55:26I'm with you.
00:55:26Give him a holiday.
00:55:28Didn't you see another race over the weekend, Zoe, you thought was...
00:55:31I did.
00:55:31It wasn't quite the same thing.
00:55:33I just thought it was a really interesting DQ at Horseshoe Indy on the 29th of August.
00:55:39It was the ninth race, a horse coming down the rail, trained by Chris Jackson.
00:55:44Mercado, I think, was riding the horse.
00:55:47Bright Lady Day.
00:55:49Now, this horse looked like the horse had room on the rail to get through.
00:55:52Not much room at all.
00:55:54And there was a Brad Cox trainee just to the outside who seemed to come over under Fernando
00:56:00for Cox.
00:56:01Anyway, the horse got through on the rail.
00:56:03I don't know how.
00:56:03If I was a horse, I wouldn't have got through there.
00:56:05But the horse was halfway in.
00:56:07So you're either in or out, right?
00:56:09Horse gets in, gets through, and wins the race, probably by a head or a neck or something,
00:56:17and then gets DQ'd.
00:56:18So it's apples and oranges.
00:56:20I just thought it was just...
00:56:22It's not very often you see a horse actually get through on the rail, and it deserves watching,
00:56:27whether you agree with the DQ or you don't, because I agree that you could look either
00:56:31way at this situation.
00:56:33In a case like Seven Wonders, you know, stewards are obviously reluctant to leave a number
00:56:42up and then give a jockey days.
00:56:44I know it's kind of unconventional in American racing.
00:56:46I think it's done more overseas.
00:56:48I don't know if they're afraid that they'll be criticized for, you know, hey, if you give
00:56:54the jockey days, how come the number didn't come down?
00:56:57Or if maybe there's a fear that the rider will appeal the suspension and use the fact
00:57:04that the horse wasn't disqualified as evidence as to why he shouldn't get days.
00:57:08But in my opinion, it should be done a lot more often than it actually is done.
00:57:14As a former rider, I can agree with that.
00:57:16Well, speaking of riders, let's segue back to Saratogas.
00:57:19We promised we'd talk more about Flavien Pratt, and he was not leading rider at the
00:57:23meet, Irado Ortiz Jr. was, but he was the star of the meet.
00:57:27And when he came over to the East Coast and decided to end his run as California's top
00:57:32rider, I thought he was making a mistake.
00:57:34I can't say that now because not only was he caught on, I mean, he is on fire.
00:57:39He is riding great.
00:57:40And he set a record with the most stakes wins ever during a Saratoga meet by a jockey.
00:57:46He won 18 stakes races, 14 of them were graded.
00:57:49Zoe, he's a superstar.
00:57:51Oh, for sure.
00:57:54I mean, there's no question.
00:57:55We all knew he would do just fine going to Saratoga.
00:57:57I don't know what you've been watching, Bill, but there was no question that he would have
00:58:03fit right in with both the Ortiz brothers and everybody else because he's a world-class
00:58:08rider.
00:58:09I actually did pull up his stats because being out in Southern California when he came over
00:58:15for a few winters for Wertheimer and Frey and galloped for Mandela primarily.
00:58:202009, he came over, was his first year.
00:58:23One ride, zero.
00:58:262010, he had two rides.
00:58:28I think the first one, no, 27 rides and two wins.
00:58:32One paid a hundred bucks.
00:58:33One paid like 57.
00:58:362012, he came over, just rode three.
00:58:38He only came for a couple of weeks.
00:58:41But it was really in 2014 that he came over and kind of caught people's attention.
00:58:46He won seven races and hasn't looked back since.
00:58:50Winning 2021 was the first year he won over 200 races, 246, 236, 22, 183 last year.
00:59:02And he's well on track to winning just as many as he wants to.
00:59:07And it's more the quality of the races he's winning and the graded stakes.
00:59:12As you mentioned, he smashed the record and the way he's riding.
00:59:15Sky's the limit right now for him.
00:59:17Ortiz is always going to be there, but it's just a question.
00:59:20The one thing that he wants more than anything is to win the Eclipse Award.
00:59:25And right now, he's definitely got it right in his sights.
00:59:30As far as graded stakes, he's never going to win as many races as Ortiz.
00:59:34That's just probably not going to happen.
00:59:37But he won the money title, which is all him and his agent, Brad Pegram, care about.
00:59:43And Flavien specifically said when he made the move from the West Coast that
00:59:49one of his primary goals, as you said,
00:59:51was to win the Eclipse Award as the Outstanding Jockey in America.
00:59:54And despite the fact that he was dominant in Southern California,
00:59:59he was killing it in Southern California, right?
01:00:01When you look at the previous winners, the most recent winners of the Eclipse Award,
01:00:06let's start with last year, right?
01:00:08I read and we'll go back.
01:00:10I read Joel Rosario.
01:00:11I read, I read, I read.
01:00:13Jose Ortiz.
01:00:15Castellano, Castellano, Castellano, Castellano.
01:00:18Ramon Dominguez, Ramon Dominguez, Ramon Dominguez.
01:00:22That's 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
01:00:24That's 15 in a row that have been won by East Coast riders.
01:00:29Before that, Julian Lepereux.
01:00:31There's another one.
01:00:33Garrett Gomez in 2008.
01:00:35Zoe, I don't remember if 2008 was a year that he rode mainly in Southern California
01:00:40or if he was riding on the East Coast then.
01:00:43I think he went back with some forwards.
01:00:45Okay.
01:00:46Yeah.
01:00:47So Garrett won it in 07 and 08.
01:00:49Before that, it was Prado, Johnny V, Johnny V, Jerry Bailey four years in a row, Chop Chop.
01:00:54Gary Stevens in 98.
01:00:57Might have been the last jockey to win the Eclipse Award riding full-time in Southern California.
01:01:02So that's why Flavien made the move.
01:01:05And I think he's going to win the Eclipse Award this year right now.
01:01:08I think it's deservedly so.
01:01:11Well, you'd think Bill was voting.
01:01:12There's a distinct East Coast bias there.
01:01:15Yeah, there is.
01:01:18No, what I meant by that was I didn't think he wouldn't be good enough to ride in New York.
01:01:23But when you own Southern California like he did, I think he took a big risk.
01:01:29I mean, he could have come in and easily been the seventh leading rider because of the Ortiz
01:01:34brothers, because of Johnny V, Castellano, Manny Franco, because there's such a strong
01:01:39riding colony.
01:01:40So I never thought for a minute that he wouldn't be successful.
01:01:43I just didn't think he would be this successful.
01:01:46And I would advise him to stay in California, and I would have been wrong.
01:01:48So that's the first time I've been wrong.
01:01:50It won't be the last.
01:01:51Let's give kudos to Brad Peck, his agent too, who's done an amazing job with booking mounts.
01:01:56It's obviously easier when you have a jockey like Flavien Pratt, where people are calling
01:02:01you up, knocking on your door all the time.
01:02:03But he's picked the right spots in so many different situations.
01:02:06And it's a great team right now, Flavien and Brad.
01:02:11The other jockey I wanted to bring up that had just a remarkable meet was Dylan Davis.
01:02:15And he's been winning races for a long time.
01:02:17But in New York, he was one of those riders that was mainly getting his wins in the winter.
01:02:22When the big boys came back from Gulfstream, not too many people were giving him much of
01:02:25a chance.
01:02:26Boy, has he come around.
01:02:27He had 35 winners at this meet.
01:02:31We talk about Pratt, who's a superstar, on his way to the Hall of Fame.
01:02:34It's only 10 less than Pratt, or 10 fewer than Pratt.
01:02:37Dylan Davis, I love his whole family.
01:02:39The two daughters of Robbie Davis and one son have all become jockeys.
01:02:44It's a cool story.
01:02:45And Dylan Davis, I think, is somebody to watch, was a star in the making.
01:02:50Good kid.
01:02:51Good rider.
01:02:52Has really improved leaps and bounds.
01:02:55I think he won his first race in 2012 at Suffolk Downs.
01:02:59So it's 12 years in the making for Dylan Davis.
01:03:03He works hard.
01:03:04His agent is Mike Migliore, who's actually Richie Migliore's brother.
01:03:09So you're keeping it in that horse racing family.
01:03:12I think he won 36.
01:03:13He tied Tyler Gafleon for third and had $3.5 million.
01:03:18But just terrific.
01:03:19And going into the meet, he was hoping to be in the top five, right?
01:03:25So he winds up third or fourth.
01:03:28Last year, going into this meet, the highest he'd ever been was ninth in the standings
01:03:33with 18 wins.
01:03:36And to get 35 or 36 this year is truly remarkable.
01:03:40It's a testament to his work ethic more than anything.
01:03:43And one thing that people forget about riders, and maybe not so much back in the good old
01:03:50days, but now, people have to like you.
01:03:53Flavian Pratt's a likable guy.
01:03:56Dylan's a likable guy.
01:03:57He can come back and tell you something about a horse.
01:04:01You know, there are a few riders that are simply just absolutely brilliant and can be
01:04:05assholes, and people will still ride them.
01:04:07But the likability factor really is a big thing.
01:04:12And those two guys have it.
01:04:14The TD Riders Room, brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds, with a win by Miss Enchanted
01:04:20on Sunday for Dale Romans.
01:04:21West Point Thoroughbreds wrapped up its Saratoga meet with five winners.
01:04:26Not a bad haul for Saratoga for an owner of the Highlights.
01:04:28The grade one triumph by Carson's Run in the Saratoga Derby.
01:04:32Don't Look Back at All won the grade three Caress stakes.
01:04:36Both of those horses came back to run really well at Kentucky Downs also this past weekend.
01:04:41We told you Carson's Run finished second in the Nashville Derby, and Don't Look Back at
01:04:46All was second also in the ladies' turf sprint behind A.G.
01:04:49Bullitt.
01:04:50West Point also had a debut two-year-old winner at Del Mar on Sunday when Bullard rallied
01:04:55from last to draw away four-trainer Michael McCarthy.
01:05:00West Point owns the son of Gunrunner along in partnership with St. Elias Stable, Three
01:05:06Chimneys and Michael Talla.
01:05:08To learn more about West Point and how you can get involved in all this frivolity, you
01:05:13can visit westpointtb.com.
01:05:19All the thrills.
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01:05:40West Point Thoroughbreds, the gold standard in racing partnerships.
01:05:44Visit westpointtb.com.
01:05:50Well, that's a wrap on this week's show.
01:05:51I want to thank my partners, Zoe Cabin and Randy Moss, and I want to thank our guest
01:05:56of the week, Shannon Arvin from Keeneland.
01:05:58Also, the people that worked so hard behind the scenes to make this show work, our producers,
01:06:02Katie Petruniak, Anthony LaRocca, and Allie LaRocca.
01:06:05Guys, we'll see you next week.