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00:00:00For the love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:00:28And welcome to another edition of the TDN Writer's Room Podcast.
00:00:31My name is Bill Finley.
00:00:32I'm a correspondent for the Thoroughbred Daily News.
00:00:35Hi, Bill.
00:00:36I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports.
00:00:40Just me and you today, Bill.
00:00:41Zoe Cadman is MIA this week.
00:00:45She's not with us.
00:00:46I think she's enjoying some well-deserved vacation time.
00:00:49So Zoe, we miss you and can't wait to have you back next week.
00:00:53So usually when we start off the show, we like to talk about the big races from the
00:00:57weekend before.
00:00:58But we're in that kind of lull period right now in between the Belmont Stakes and the
00:01:02opening of Saratoga and Del Mar.
00:01:04It's not a whole lot that goes on so far as major races.
00:01:08But I just thought it was interesting that there was a bunch of really good two-year-olds
00:01:13that ran this week.
00:01:14Matter of fact, three of them got that TDN Rising Star status given to them.
00:01:20And Randy, the conversation has to start with Noonie.
00:01:24And you know, it's nothing surprising.
00:01:27Bob Baffert, $1.8 million purchase at the Ocala March sale.
00:01:32It's a filly.
00:01:34But what was really unusual, among other things, horses by win-win-win.
00:01:40So when was the last time somebody paid that much money for a horse by a sire not based
00:01:45in Kentucky?
00:01:46They obviously knew what they were doing.
00:01:48This thing went out on one by nine and a half lengths at one to five and was just literally
00:01:53jogging from about the eighth pole to the wire.
00:01:56Baffert's got a killer.
00:01:57What's new?
00:01:58What else is new?
00:01:59Yeah.
00:02:00What's interesting about these two-year-old sales, particularly the one in Ocala, is unlike
00:02:05what you see at the, let's say, the September sale at Keeneland.
00:02:10It seems to be very little about pedigree, and it's all about physical, and it's all
00:02:16about what they show on the racetrack in the breeze up.
00:02:20So you see these horses like Noonie, who when you go back and look at the pedigree, you're
00:02:25kind of surprised that not just the topside, win-win-win, who, by the way, happens to
00:02:30be a grandson of Sunday Silence.
00:02:33But you also see on the damn side that there's just not nearly as much there as you would
00:02:38expect from a $1.8 billion purchase.
00:02:41It's just all about the way they looked on the track.
00:02:44And she obviously looked sensational in her breeze up at Ocala, and boy, did she look
00:02:49good on Friday when she won.
00:02:51It's Amber Zidane, no surprise there, as the one who laid down the $1.8 billion.
00:02:57The buyer speed figure was good.
00:02:59It was okay.
00:03:00It was a 78, but like you said, Juan Hernandez was motionless coming down the stretch.
00:03:07Noonie was ridden pretty hard early to get to the lead and opened up very quickly.
00:03:11But then from that point on, once she established about a two- or three-length lead, I mean,
00:03:17Hernandez was like a statue, even coming down the wire.
00:03:20It almost looked like Ron Turcotte in Secretariat looking back at the competition all the way
00:03:24down the lane.
00:03:25So obviously Noonie could have run a lot faster than she did, and it's going to be an interesting
00:03:30filly to follow.
00:03:31Yeah, and I'm getting way, way, way ahead of myself, but Amber Zidane generally buys
00:03:37horses for one purpose, to try to win the Kentucky Derby.
00:03:40If she's that good and she progresses, could she be a Derby horse?
00:03:44I know, again, calm down, Bill.
00:03:46All she did was break her maiden, but nonetheless, I had that in the back of my mind.
00:03:50Okay, so Baffert struck again with a horse by the name of Midland Money, who ran away
00:03:56and hid in an allowance race, excuse me, in a maiden race at Santa Anita.
00:04:00And once again, raining the sire, Chancelot was a very fast horse, trained by none other
00:04:06than Jorge Navarro.
00:04:08But nonetheless, you're not buying a gunrunner.
00:04:12You're not buying an intimacy.
00:04:14You're not buying a narrow gate for $600,000.
00:04:17You're buying a horse by a sire that really isn't proven.
00:04:20But once again, same story, Midland Money, Baffert, one to five, $600,000 OBS March purchase
00:04:27and runs away and hides.
00:04:29Yeah, buyer speed figure only a 67, so the competition probably not what you might anticipate,
00:04:36although it's still way early.
00:04:37I mean, a lot of the best two-year-olds will be running later on in the year.
00:04:41It's fascinating to follow these horses right now, though.
00:04:45Midland Money, as opposed to Noonie, who's owned by Zidane, high-profile, Midland Money
00:04:48owned by a group that's relatively new in the thoroughbred business, CSLR Racing Partners.
00:04:56It's a consortium of Bill Childs and his son, Alex, for example.
00:05:01Bill's about the only one that has any experience in this group in thoroughbred racing or in
00:05:05horse racing.
00:05:06For 50 years, he was a quarter horse owner, and he's now just starting to get involved
00:05:10with thoroughbreds.
00:05:12Patrick and John Smart, Gary and Clay Lamb, Benjamin Ralston, they all combined to own
00:05:19a horse named Awesome Strong, who was a pretty good two-year-old in Florida a couple of years
00:05:24ago, won that Stallion Series stakes, and now they branched out with some big money
00:05:29and with Bob Baffert, so yeah, Midland Money looked good, but obviously he's going to have
00:05:34to run a lot faster.
00:05:35All right.
00:05:36Well, let's find out your take on Complexion, a two-year-old filly that broke her maiden
00:05:42very impressively this week at Aqueduct, trained by Danny Gargan, is a guy that's just
00:05:47as hot as can be right now.
00:05:48Won by six and a half lengths, she was $400,000, Keeneland Purchase, and she's a half-sister
00:05:54to Jack Christopher, going to go next in the Skyler Bill.
00:05:57Did she get a decent number, Randy?
00:05:5977, just a point lower than Noonie, and she didn't win with quite the ease that Noonie
00:06:05did, but she was really just as visually impressive.
00:06:08I mean, just coasted home.
00:06:12So Complexion co-owned by, interestingly enough, by Carl Pasquarella, the former CEO of Visa
00:06:18way back when there was the Visa Triple Crown Challenge, and his wife, Yuri.
00:06:24So Complexion looked awfully good, and yeah, he's got the pedigree too, being a half to
00:06:29Jack Christopher.
00:06:30All right.
00:06:31So speaking of pedigree, you don't get much better pedigree than you get from Menti, who
00:06:36broke his maiden this week at Aqualock.
00:06:39He is a full brother to Fierceness.
00:06:43So can he run as well as Fierceness?
00:06:45Is he going to be an oddball like Fierceness turns out to be and win every other race?
00:06:51He only won by a nose, Randy, but I think that John Velasquez was a little bit overconfident
00:06:56in the stretch, didn't really see the other horse coming, charging late.
00:07:02The horses we've been talking about, he was probably the least impressive of the group
00:07:07of big two-year-olds that ran last week.
00:07:08But the fact that he's a full brother to Fierceness, the fact that the race was probably a little
00:07:12bit better than it looks on paper, I would not be the least bit surprised if this one
00:07:17turns out to be a stakes winner.
00:07:18Yeah.
00:07:19And what's interesting here, he might've been the least visually impressive, right?
00:07:22When you open up five links and you've got a big lead in mid-stretch and you just barely
00:07:26hold on to win.
00:07:27Colloquial, by the way, was the horse that came charging at the end to lose a photo to
00:07:32Menti.
00:07:33But it turned out to be the fastest of all the races we're talking about by a pretty
00:07:36significant margin.
00:07:38The buyer speed figure of Menti and Colloquial, by the way, turned out is an 88, which again,
00:07:44we're in mid-June, but it's the highest buyer so far this year for any two-year-old.
00:07:50It's another Mike Rapoli homebred being a fool to Fierceness by City of Light out of
00:07:54Nona Bella.
00:07:56This was Saturday at Aqueduct, at the Belmont and Aqueduct meet.
00:08:01And Menti, I agree with you.
00:08:02I think right now, Menti looks like you would have to almost think that either Menti or
00:08:07Colloquial will probably wind up being a stakes winner at Saratoga.
00:08:12Randy, getting back to the California horses we were talking about, none of them ran super
00:08:18good, super fast buyer numbers.
00:08:21Is that something that gives you pause about them or is that just something that happens
00:08:25when horses win so easily?
00:08:28They'd have to win by 25 links to get a 90 buyer and that's just not going to happen.
00:08:33In Noonie's case, she was literally on cruise control for the last three-eighths of a mile.
00:08:40It's overrated.
00:08:41And I know as a fellow handicapper, I know you probably agree with this.
00:08:45It's generally overrated when people say, oh, a horse was never hit with a whip.
00:08:50The horse would have run five links faster if he'd been asked to run.
00:08:54In most cases, that's not the case because good horses will give their best effort, whether
00:09:00the jockey aboard them is wailing away with a whip or not.
00:09:03But in this case, it was very obvious that Noonie was just basically coasting throughout
00:09:07the entire stretch run.
00:09:09There has been one two-year-old this year that started in California that's right behind
00:09:15Menti and Colloquial on the buyer scale, ran faster than Noonie.
00:09:19By the name of Bodacious, a Calbred, it was just a $7,000 two-year-old buy, believe it
00:09:25or not, on Kentucky Oaks Day, won a Calbred Maiden by five and three quarters links and
00:09:29got an 84 buyer speed figure.
00:09:32But again, he was asked to run more, I think, definitely than Noonie was asked in her Maiden
00:09:38Wedding.
00:09:39TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:09:41How important is the Keeneland September sale?
00:09:43Well, just listen to Mark Cassie, who said, this is the NFL, the major leagues.
00:09:48What happens at this sale will determine your future for the next few years and beyond.
00:09:53And sure enough, in 2023, September graduates had 202 graded stakes wins and 37 grade one
00:10:00wins.
00:10:01That's right, 37 grade one wins.
00:10:03So make plans to attend this fall's Keeneland September sale starting September 9th.
00:10:07We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:10:10Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
00:10:17On behalf of the management and staff of Keeneland, I would like to welcome you to the September
00:10:20yearling sale.
00:10:21Good to have you back with us.
00:10:22The energy at Keeneland Book One is unlike any other sale that you'll go to.
00:10:27It is the marketplace of the center of the horse universe.
00:10:30It's electric.
00:10:31You can't replicate the urgency that's at Keeneland September.
00:10:34Quality in quantity.
00:10:35Keeneland September Book One.
00:10:37Every breeder's dream.
00:10:43This week, the fastest horse of the week is brought to you by Tom's Deta, another of those
00:10:48fast sires at Windstar Farm and another who recently had his first winner.
00:10:54That would have been on Saturday when Goosebumps launched an impressive rally in Deep Stretch
00:11:00to break her maiden.
00:11:01So congratulations there to Tom's Deta, a grade one winning millionaire sire.
00:11:06He won the Clark Stakes with a 105 buyer, 10 triple digit buyers in Tom's Deta's career,
00:11:13including nine in a row.
00:11:15And Tom's Deta stands at Windstar right now for a fee of only $7,500.
00:11:20Now the fastest horse of the week ran at Santa Anita on Sunday in an allowance race.
00:11:27The first race on the card, actually, a six furlong allowance sprint.
00:11:31His name, Man O'Rose, as in Man O'War, except Man O'Rose with a 102 buyer speed figure.
00:11:39It's now the sixth win in the last seven starts for Man O'Rose.
00:11:44Three of those on grass like this one and three of them on dirt, owned and bred by the
00:11:49B.B.
00:11:50Zeitz Stable Incorporated, trained by Jeff Mullins, ridden in all those races by Edwin
00:11:54Maldonado, a California bred.
00:11:57So Man O'Rose, this week's fastest horse of the week.
00:12:03As always, our guest of the week segment on the TD and Riders Room is brought to you by
00:12:08Lynn Green and Company at The Green Group, a tax consulting and advisory firm specializing
00:12:13on saving you money in taxes, especially if you're in the thoroughbred industry.
00:12:19Welcome in now, the Green Group guest of the week, and it's Scott Sander.
00:12:22He is a movie producer in the process of putting together a movie about horse racing, in particular
00:12:28about the Lexington breeding industry.
00:12:30It's going to be called Breeders, and it's got a lot of promise, and I think it's something
00:12:33that people in horse racing are really going to enjoy.
00:12:36So we welcome in now Scott Sanders to talk about his upcoming feature film, Breeders.
00:12:41Well, Scott, welcome.
00:12:43And what's the backstory behind Breeders?
00:12:45How did you come up with the idea to do a movie about the thoroughbred breeding industry
00:12:49based in Lexington?
00:12:51That's actually a great question, because what happened was I had what's called a first
00:12:56look deal at MGM at the time.
00:12:59And I was a guy from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a wife and five kids, and so I was supposed
00:13:05to come in with PG, family-type stuff, and all the stuff that was getting made was harder
00:13:13and harder R-rated comedies like The Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, stuff like that.
00:13:21And I didn't want to go that far, but I had this really what I thought was a really good
00:13:25idea for a big, fun, romantic comedy.
00:13:31And I knew what the idea was, and then I knew that I needed to set it in some beautiful,
00:13:38esoteric world that people don't normally get to see.
00:13:42And I thought, aha.
00:13:43So I came up with the idea, and I thought, I'm going to set it in the world of thoroughbred
00:13:47horse breeding.
00:13:49Not horse racing per se, but down in Lexington where there's those beautiful farms, which
00:13:54I had never been to at the time.
00:13:56And I thought, yeah, that would work.
00:14:01And then I realized, I don't know anything about horses.
00:14:03I don't know anything about Lexington.
00:14:05I've never even been there.
00:14:07And I gave up on the project.
00:14:09I swear to you, this is a Saturday afternoon.
00:14:13I turned on the television eight seconds later.
00:14:16Well, I turned on the TV, and it's a horse race that's on.
00:14:20Eight seconds later, they cut to a commercial for a stud farm.
00:14:24And I just looked up at the ceiling, and I was like, well, this is either the Holy Spirit
00:14:28or the devil.
00:14:29This is going to be fascinating.
00:14:31And so I booked it upstairs, got online, found out about that horse farm, said, I'd like
00:14:38to come down and take a tour.
00:14:39They said, oh, no, it's so busy this time of the year.
00:14:42Kentucky Derby's coming up.
00:14:43The tours are booked.
00:14:45Forget about it.
00:14:46And I pitched the gal on the phone the story, had her laughing.
00:14:51She was pretty excited about it.
00:14:53And she said, all right, there's a young man I need you to talk to.
00:14:57And she connected me with a young man who had just moved back from, he was at Second
00:15:02City in Chicago, if you know what that is.
00:15:04Oh, wow.
00:15:05The comedy.
00:15:06Yeah.
00:15:07And so he was very simpatico with the humor and everything we were trying to go for in
00:15:12this.
00:15:13And so that was a Saturday when I gave up on it.
00:15:17By Tuesday, I had rented a little cottage in Lexington, and I posted up for several
00:15:23weeks to work out the first draft of the script.
00:15:26And I did a deep dive into everything thoroughbred horse breeding.
00:15:31Wow.
00:15:33So I guess it remains to be seen if it was the Holy Spirit or the devil that was at work.
00:15:40So without giving away the story here, we want to keep we want to whet people's interest
00:15:44when you were selling it and you got the lady to really start laughing.
00:15:49Just tell us about what you told her and give us sort of a tease on what to expect.
00:15:55Well, yeah, the elevator pitch was I imagined a I could imagine in my mind like a limousine
00:16:03cruising along the bluegrass with the fences going by and the horses and the steam coming
00:16:08up.
00:16:09You guys know how beautiful it is down there.
00:16:12And then we swoop into that car and we see there's a there's a dad and there's twin fraternal
00:16:18twin five year old boys sitting there and something's amiss.
00:16:22So in classic like Disney fashion, you know, we the mom right in the first reel like Bambi,
00:16:28he's looking out the window saying, oh, your mother loved it here so much.
00:16:33And then they pull up to this venerable stud farm, which, as you guys know, these places
00:16:38are just beyond.
00:16:39Right.
00:16:40And imagine it like a modern day Downton Abbey where everybody's lined up waiting for them
00:16:45to arrive and everyone's like, oh, we're so sorry for your loss.
00:16:50And the patriarch says, look, man, I can't handle it.
00:16:53Why don't you I want you to keep them down here for the summer.
00:16:56Let them run.
00:16:57Let them play.
00:16:59Now we dissolve and it's 20 some years later and those two brothers are walking into this
00:17:04fabulous garden party at the family stud farm.
00:17:08So we know who they are, you know, and now the movie really begins.
00:17:13And the House of Windsor's royal veterinarian, who happens to be young and beautiful, comes
00:17:20into town and there's a very untoward advance that's made on her and things go horribly
00:17:27wrong.
00:17:28And that's it.
00:17:30The dad has decided I've had it up to here with you idiots, unless you two guys unlearn
00:17:35everything you think you know about women and instead get married and make a baby within
00:17:40the bounds of a proper marriage, you're broke because the money's going to go to your kids
00:17:45and your wife.
00:17:46And it's called breeders.
00:17:47So the breeder boys have to fly straight, breed to get back into the bank.
00:17:54The tragedy aspect of it, the loss of the mom, it worked for Bambi, it worked for Old
00:17:59Yeller and worked for Finding Nemo.
00:18:01I mean, it's a little bit lazy, but it really works.
00:18:06Well, the other thing is, it's great to sort of establish some empathy for the for the
00:18:10for the other thing we established is the one boy looks really smooth and put together.
00:18:14The other one is sort of an unkept bed of a kid.
00:18:17So, you know, you can then when we meet them 20 some years later, you know who's who.
00:18:24And then the then the movie really takes off.
00:18:26But spoiler alert, they don't end up doing it for the money.
00:18:29They do it for all the right reasons.
00:18:31They end up getting married to the one son has always been in love with the farrier's
00:18:37daughter, who's now a farrier herself.
00:18:40The other son sort of blindly backs into getting married to the royal veterinarian who also
00:18:48happens to be a duchess.
00:18:49So there's a big fun ending, you know, with a rom-com, you know, you need to have a big
00:18:54fun wedding.
00:18:55And, you know, when we're looking, we're doing looking down there, we're like, well, we can
00:19:00have her be some kind of royalty because we can have the wedding in Scotland and we
00:19:06don't have to go to Scotland because there's a flipping castle right down the street.
00:19:12You guys have the stud farms and you got a castle.
00:19:15It's true.
00:19:16It's unbelievable.
00:19:17Scott, I'm told that Case Clay from Three Chimneys played a role in some of this.
00:19:22What's the background with him?
00:19:24He's not directly involved in the movie in any way.
00:19:27He's just a wonderful, wonderful young man.
00:19:30He was the guy that picked up the phone and said, yeah, come on down and let me teach
00:19:34you what's going on.
00:19:37But I've gotten to become friends with tremendous people in your world down there.
00:19:42It's been a real blessing because the first thing that we want to achieve, you know, is
00:19:48to have a verisimilitude with the script, like we want to get it right.
00:19:56Which is why we're doing this as an independent movie, because we're really doing it that
00:20:02way for three reasons, for passion, process and potential profits.
00:20:09Because we're very passionate about this particular story because we've spent a lot of time and
00:20:14money developing the script and sorting out potential locations and everything.
00:20:21The process is critical because I started this company with my buddy who was the chief
00:20:25technology officer of the Walt Disney Studios.
00:20:29At Disney, they're blowing huge amounts of money making big pictures like Pirates of
00:20:33the Caribbean or what have you, right?
00:20:36On the side, because we have a little family business, it was me, him who was my best friend
00:20:43and we were best men at each other's wedding, my two sons, Christian Sander, who worked
00:20:48for Jerry Bruckheimer while he was in school, and then for Sony Pictures, and my other son
00:20:52who's a cinematographer, and their young friends, and the entire architecture was put
00:20:58together to use an ultra, ultra light crew so that we can come in and make huge looks
00:21:06with a very, very small crew.
00:21:09So we literally don't burn down the barn because you don't want a traditional Hollywood production
00:21:15coming into your $50 million horses.
00:21:21And I think we proved that with our movie that's in distribution right now, Hard Miles,
00:21:25which we set out to make the first great bicycling movie since Breaking Away, and I think we
00:21:32did.
00:21:33Scott, I'm told that people in the horse racing industry will really like this movie because
00:21:39it throws a positive light on the industry, which is something that has been a problem,
00:21:43as you well know, over the last four or five years, a lot of negativity, a lot of tough
00:21:49press from the mainstream press, particularly the New York Times.
00:21:52Is this something that horse racing people are going to look at and not only like the
00:21:55movie, but say, hey, this is nice, this guy really caught what we've been talking about,
00:22:00the love we have for the horses, the passion we have for them, and how much we care about
00:22:04them?
00:22:05I absolutely believe so, because one of the owners of one of the most venerable farms
00:22:14down there, when I met her originally, she said, paraphrasing, but like, don't you make
00:22:22fun of us?
00:22:23Because I was like, wait, yes, it is a rom-com, it's fun, but it's an absolute celebration
00:22:30of the world.
00:22:32And I said, I turned it into language that I thought would work for her.
00:22:34I said, now you're in the wine business, this movie is going to do for Lexington what Sideways
00:22:41did for the Southern California wine country.
00:22:43Wow, that would be nice.
00:22:46Well, Scott, I've noticed a contradiction of sorts, a little bit about what Bill said.
00:22:51One of the big struggles right now in Thoroughbred Racing is to try to get the mainstream sports
00:22:58fan really interested in horse racing again.
00:23:02You got competition with the NFL, with baseball, with basketball, and gambling, you have competition
00:23:07with the casinos, and it's been a struggle to get their attention.
00:23:10But yet in Hollywood, you see Seabiscuit, which was a big success, and Secretariat,
00:23:16which was a success.
00:23:17And those movies seem to resonate with mainstream fans.
00:23:22Why do you think that is?
00:23:23And is there an appetite, you think, in Hollywood for horse racing as a result?
00:23:28I think that there's two parts to that question, if I can.
00:23:32The first is, is horse racing being treated as entertainment the way other major sports
00:23:38are?
00:23:39Or is it something that lags behind?
00:23:43And that's a whole different discussion.
00:23:46And then there is the creation of a really big, high production value, quality feature
00:23:54film that happens to be set in this beautiful world.
00:23:58What I think we've done here, what we will do with this movie, is show what happens before
00:24:07and after.
00:24:09The popular culture sees two-and-a-half minutes, lots of hats, drinking bourbon, whatever.
00:24:16It's fun, right?
00:24:19But that's their perception of the sport.
00:24:22What they don't see is the love, and the care, and the money, and the quality of the effort
00:24:28that goes into these equine athletes from the point...
00:24:35I had not even gone to a horse race.
00:24:37I went to multiple of the horse sales to meet all the owners and go tour the farms
00:24:43and stuff, because that's really the part that we're going to show in this movie.
00:24:49And people don't get it.
00:24:50I think it's possible that people don't get it because historically, of course it's called
00:24:55the sport of kings, it wasn't exactly a place you could just waltz into.
00:25:02But it's opening up a bit, and you see people having a lot of fun with things like MyRaceHorse.com
00:25:11or whatever.
00:25:13And I'm not saying that you need to democratize the sport of kings, because being into sales
00:25:20I can see that you need a really deep checkbook to play in this game.
00:25:27Obviously, there's some very high-profile owners that are firing flaming arrows at each
00:25:35other about what the sport needs, etc.
00:25:37It's been fascinating to watch.
00:25:39I don't have a dog in that fight, but yes, I think the sport could benefit from something
00:25:47like this because people won't watch this movie because they're into horse racing.
00:25:54I wasn't into horse racing.
00:25:56Now I'm flipping Royal Asshock.
00:26:02It got to me.
00:26:05It's a fantastic sport that I knew nothing about.
00:26:10And now I know loads.
00:26:11Scott, do you have any actors lined up yet, or were you too not ready for that part of
00:26:18the process?
00:26:20We have a strategy, which is evident in our current movie that's in release.
00:26:26That's the other reason why I came to London, because our movie Hard Miles is playing in
00:26:29over 100 theaters in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland.
00:26:37It's all over the UK and Ireland right now, so it was a good time to come over because
00:26:41I'd never been to Royal Ascot.
00:26:46But I think what we did with Hard Miles – are you familiar with the term A-list actor?
00:26:54Sure.
00:26:55Sure.
00:26:56Well, we have a strategy, we'll call it a gray-list actor.
00:27:03Somebody that everybody knows will be the patriarch in this movie.
00:27:08So that'll be the most expensive guy.
00:27:11And then the four young characters, the two brothers and the two young women that they
00:27:15fall in love with during this rom-com, those are up-and-coming actors who are just great
00:27:20comedic actors.
00:27:21And so that's the way that we're able to craft this movie for a price that enables
00:27:31everybody involved to actually have some headroom to make some money.
00:27:34And by having that named actor be sort of the anchor tenant, if you will, of the story,
00:27:44you attract a lot of great young talent.
00:27:46And when we put that together, our objective is to make something that's a classic so
00:27:51that people watching, as you've talked about some other movies, 20 years later, they're
00:27:57still going to be watching Breeders if we land the ball where we think we can put it
00:28:04in play.
00:28:05Well, Scott, Bill and I are D-level actors, but if you have any bit roles that you need
00:28:11to fill or whatever, we'll volunteer, right, on the lower end of the pay scale.
00:28:19I have met some absolutely fabulous, fun people while researching all this.
00:28:27And yeah, it's been great.
00:28:29You guys, I don't think you realize, well, of course you do, you realize what you have,
00:28:33but I don't think the broader popular culture realizes what the game is, really.
00:28:40Well said.
00:28:41Yeah.
00:28:42And that's the challenge.
00:28:43Well, Scott, this is terrific.
00:28:45Definitely looking forward to another.
00:28:46I'm sure it's too premature to have any ballpark for when the movie might hit the theaters
00:28:51as well.
00:28:52It actually is.
00:28:55We're in a critical moment right now because it's going to snow in Lexington, you know,
00:29:00and so it's like we have a scenario where we could shoot it this fall, depending on
00:29:08talent attachments, or more likely it could slip to the springtime.
00:29:13We're not going to shoot it in January, you know, because we want it to be lush and green
00:29:18and beautiful.
00:29:21And so, but once we do, well, for example, we went down, we sent a second unit down to
00:29:26capture stuff in and around Churchill Downs and because you can't fake the Kentucky Derby,
00:29:35right?
00:29:36We captured that stuff on the Thursday before the Derby, the Thurby, which I didn't know
00:29:43was a thing.
00:29:44But it was great because, you know, there were 65,000 people there.
00:29:48It's going to be in the movie.
00:29:49It's going to look like there's 150,000 people.
00:29:53And that's in the can for sort of establishing shots and things like that.
00:29:58We wanted to do that because we want to get this movie done before next year's Derby at
00:30:03the absolute outside.
00:30:05And then when it is released is another dark art that depends on a lot of factors.
00:30:11But you know, a year and a half.
00:30:14Well, Scott, so much fun learning about this project.
00:30:16We wish you best of luck.
00:30:18I'll be first in line when it premieres in New York City or wherever it will be.
00:30:24And thanks for joining us.
00:30:25We're in Washington.
00:30:26Okay.
00:30:27Yes.
00:30:28Sure.
00:30:29Yeah.
00:30:30And again, thanks for joining us today in the TDN Writer's Room, Green Group, and being
00:30:33the Green Group guest of the week.
00:30:35Hey, thanks for having me.
00:30:36Thanks for having me.
00:30:38As this week's Green Group guest of the week, Scott Sander will receive a free one-hour
00:30:42tax consultation with the Green Group.
00:30:45If you want to learn more about how the Green Group can put more money in your pocketbook,
00:30:49log on to greenco.com for more details.
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00:32:01You can't go back to the way at the start he said, hold on and a million five last time.
00:32:31Well, it's time again for the News You Can Use segment that we've been doing here on
00:32:35the Thoroughbred Daily News brought to you by Darley.
00:32:38And what a better time to talk about European horse racing and sales than right now with
00:32:42Royal Ascot going on.
00:32:44We bring in now Brian Sheeran.
00:32:46He's the Thoroughbred Sales Editor for the TDN.
00:32:49And Brian, thanks for joining us.
00:32:51And Darley has already made some news this week.
00:32:54So far at Royal Ascot, they had this terrific sire, Blue Point, and one of his sons, Rosalian,
00:33:01won the St. James Palace stakes.
00:33:03This is obviously a very promising sire, has had a big win today for him.
00:33:08Tell us more about Blue Point and where's he going with the stud career?
00:33:11Well, obviously, Blue Point has a huge affinity with Royal Ascot.
00:33:15Bill, you remember he won twice in the same week, he won the King's Stand and the Diamond
00:33:19Jubilee Stakes.
00:33:20And I suppose if there was a worry when he went to stud, it might be that some of his
00:33:24progeny will be sprinters or they might just be, you know, pigeonholed as being sprinters.
00:33:29But today we saw kind of a coming of age performance with Rosalian winning the St.
00:33:33James Palace Stakes.
00:33:35And that's his third group one in three different countries.
00:33:37So I mean, he followed up his Irish Classic success, beating obviously the Guineas winner.
00:33:43And he also beat the French Guineas winner.
00:33:44So I mean, it was an amazing performance.
00:33:46And then, you know, it was, Bill, it was a really big day because we got Big Evs running
00:33:50in what was formerly known as in the King's Stands today.
00:33:54He finished again on third.
00:33:55I think he'll be better in something like a non-top because he is all about speed.
00:33:59But, you know, Rosalian, it was an amazing performance.
00:34:02And just because I knew I was coming on today, I actually dug out a quote that his trainer,
00:34:07Richard Hannan, gave to me just over a year ago.
00:34:10And it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy here.
00:34:13He said, I love the blue points.
00:34:15They're pretty similar looking and you can see the chammered out coming out and they
00:34:19all go nicely.
00:34:20I think I won't be able to afford many of these blue points next year.
00:34:23He could have a big year, which would make him very expensive, you know, talk about right
00:34:27in the future.
00:34:28And maybe he's a victim of his own success now with these blue points, Rosalian flying
00:34:33the flag for him today.
00:34:34Yeah.
00:34:35And one of the horses behind Rosalian, of course, was the 2000 Guineas winner at a notable
00:34:40speech who disappointed at three to five, but some good competition, obviously.
00:34:44But I want to I want to hit on the say you're a sales expert for people that aren't familiar
00:34:50with this.
00:34:52There is a sale on Monday, the day before Royal Ascot, strategically placed called the
00:34:56Goff's London sale.
00:34:59Over the years, we've seen a lot of horses go through that sale, change hands and go
00:35:02on to race at Royal Ascot.
00:35:04But yesterday, the real fascinating story has to be the French Oaks winner, Sparkling
00:35:10Plenty, who went through the sale.
00:35:13It's just a fantastic story about what happened in the drama and all that.
00:35:17Tell us about what went down there, Brian.
00:35:19I mean, I think the Goff's London sale is going on for 10 years now, and I mean, I suppose
00:35:26it started off with a novelty factor.
00:35:28Now it is kind of hammered in a bit of a date in the diary.
00:35:31Everyone kind of looks forward to trying to get a horse for it.
00:35:34I mean, talk about an update with that, with obviously the Philly winning the French Oaks.
00:35:40I mean, we were kind of covering it remotely.
00:35:42It was it was hard to know what was going on.
00:35:44Initially, she was she was knocked down for eight point one million.
00:35:47It emerged later afterwards that the owner had bought her back.
00:35:51But Alshacab Racing did buy part of the horse for five million, which is a colossal sum
00:35:58of money, but obviously a testament to what she has worked not only for the rest of her
00:36:03career on the racetrack, but when she goes to stud.
00:36:06But I suppose when you move that on, I think the whole dynamic of these boutique sales
00:36:10has changed a lot.
00:36:11You've got a lot of private sales have been done in the build up to Royal Ascot.
00:36:15No more so done by Wattenham Racing, you know, they actually hit the crossbar in the
00:36:19Coventry Stakes.
00:36:20They did the second and the third.
00:36:22I think you'll see better from them as we progress if they've got Hatem in the Jersey
00:36:26Stakes.
00:36:27And I think he's going to be very hard to beat.
00:36:29And of course, the one who bought half interest in Sparkling Plenty, as it turned out, was
00:36:34Sheikh Johan Alfani of Qatar and his brother Sheikh Tamim is Wattenham Racing.
00:36:39So Qatar, however you want to say it, is is really, really coming on as a major player
00:36:45in horse racing.
00:36:46Exactly.
00:36:47And like they did hit the crossbar, they obviously had a huge week last year with the one the
00:36:53Gold Cup and those private acquisitions, and it's just gone tenfold.
00:36:57I suppose the one thing you could say is, you know, they are walking around these sales
00:37:01grounds and in the build up to to the Royal meeting with what is essentially a blank check.
00:37:07OK, but it's one thing having the money and then producing the results.
00:37:10And, you know, they've got the results.
00:37:12So you've got to take your hat off to them.
00:37:15Brian, so many big races to talk about, but I'd like to look at some of them that have
00:37:20themes that relate to American racing fans, and that would be first and foremost, the
00:37:24Prince of Wales, because we have two Breeders' Cup winners in Spiral and Auguste Redan coming
00:37:30into that race as some of the headliners.
00:37:32Having said that, both of them don't look like they're in the greatest form right now.
00:37:36Auguste Redan was 12th in Dubai and then second as a heavy favourite in the Tattersalls Gold
00:37:40Cup and in Spiral ran a real clunker last time out of the locking stakes, but beaten
00:37:45almost 13 lengths, finishing fourth.
00:37:48What's the take on those two horses?
00:37:50Can they rebound?
00:37:51Any excuses in those races I just talked about?
00:37:55You know what? I think Aidan has done some Phoenix from the ashes type performances in
00:38:01the last couple of years with City of Troy and who's to forget Auguste Redan in the Derby
00:38:05last year. I wouldn't be betting against Auguste Redan.
00:38:08I think he's going to win it.
00:38:10But I have to say some of the gloss off this race was taken off when White Birch was
00:38:14ruled out. I would have loved to see John Murphy's horse, White Birch.
00:38:18He obviously beat Auguste Redan in the Tattersalls Gold Cup.
00:38:21I actually don't think that was a fluke, so I'll be following White Birch as the season
00:38:24progresses. But when you're talking about Wednesday, I think Auguste Redan, I think he's
00:38:29going to be teed off for the race.
00:38:30I think he's going to be very difficult to beat in Spiral.
00:38:32It's obviously she's a dream filly.
00:38:34I mean, she comes back season after season and she's going to be a tough nut to crack.
00:38:38But I just I'd fancy Auguste Redan to edge it.
00:38:41But if you're talking about races as the week progresses, I think it's going to get even
00:38:46better for Aidan. I think the big one that we're really looking forward to is Opera
00:38:50Singer and Opera Singer in the Coronation Stakes.
00:38:53I think that is the potential to be probably the race of the week.
00:38:56So in Spiral and Auguste Redan, obviously based in Europe, Ireland and England, and
00:39:02came over to the United States and raided the Breeders' Cup successfully.
00:39:06What people have become accustomed to over here is is the reverse of that.
00:39:10When some American based horses come over to Royal Ascot and try to compete against
00:39:14your best, Wesley Ward obviously has been the trendsetter and all that with his
00:39:19success over there with his two year olds.
00:39:22It looks like we have four American based horses, three from Wesley Ward, Ultima Gray,
00:39:27Saturday Flirt, Burning Pine and one from the John Sadler Barn and Miss the Cut.
00:39:32Who are going to be competing during the five day Royal Ascot meet.
00:39:36What's been sort of the opinion over there about some of the American horses?
00:39:40I have some pretty strong opinions about them, but what's what's the what's the word
00:39:43over there? Well, do you want to know my opinion?
00:39:46I'm not going to give you other people's opinion.
00:39:47I'm going to give you my opinion. I think it's actually a bit of a shame that we don't
00:39:51have more, you know, American raiders.
00:39:53I mean, growing up, Royal Ascot to me, like Wesley Ward, he was the first American to
00:39:58actually win a race at Royal Ascot.
00:39:59And, you know, it's always been about Wesley.
00:40:01I think he said something about the rising costs was put put up as one of the main
00:40:05reasons and maybe a lack of interest from owners.
00:40:08Look, we all know that the prize money at Royal Ascot is not what you go to Royal Ascot
00:40:12for. It's the pageantry, the whole event.
00:40:16And I mean, your prize money is amazing.
00:40:17So, you know, maybe some owners have had enough of it.
00:40:20I don't know. But look, he has, I think, three runners this week.
00:40:23I'd love to see more.
00:40:24Maybe you might tell me more about their chances.
00:40:28Well, I'll try.
00:40:30You know, Wesley, we're familiar with seeing him debut his two year olds at Keeneland
00:40:37typically in those four and a half furlong dirt races.
00:40:40And we've seen some extremely impressive, powerful performances by Wesley Ward
00:40:46trained horses who go over to Royal Ascot.
00:40:48Some have won.
00:40:50Others have been beaten pretty, you know, pretty soundly.
00:40:54These three, in my opinion, are well below the form of some of the best two year olds
00:41:01that he sent over there in the past.
00:41:03Ultima Grace won very impressively at Keeneland on April 18th.
00:41:08But it was a very slow four and a half furlong time.
00:41:12And the horses that she beat was probably the worst maiden field of the meeting at
00:41:17Keeneland. So she was supposed to win that race impressively.
00:41:21And she did. But she's got a lot left to prove.
00:41:23And Saturday Flirt and Burning Pine look pretty good winning Saturday Flirt on the
00:41:27turf and Burning Pine on the dirt.
00:41:29But still not as impressive as some of the Wesley Ward horses that we've seen come
00:41:34over there in the past. Missed the cut.
00:41:37You know, he's he's got proven form over here at a mile and a half on the turf.
00:41:43His couple of races at Santa Anita were flattered by a horse that he beat.
00:41:47They came back and ran well.
00:41:49Silver Knot just beat him in the Elkhorn at a mile and a half.
00:41:52He gets that distance in the Hardwick.
00:41:54But it's just hard to imagine that there's not a couple over there at a mile and a
00:41:59half that would be superior to miss the cut.
00:42:01But I would think he would at least be competitive.
00:42:05Yeah, obviously, we remember mystical from his time with George Boy, he's very much a
00:42:08flagship flagship horse for him.
00:42:11I would give him a big chance as for the Wesley Ward juveniles.
00:42:14I don't know. I'd be disappointed if we didn't have some bullets that were too too
00:42:18hot to handle for them. So, Brian, you talked about opera singers.
00:42:22One of the big stories of the week as we're recording this on Tuesday.
00:42:26So some of the races have already obviously been run.
00:42:29But what are some of the other main storylines people will be reading about or
00:42:33hearing about as Royal Ascot progresses and the bigger group one races come up?
00:42:38Well, look, you guys, maybe you're not as fascinated about the stairs as we are over
00:42:43here. We've got a punch on for them.
00:42:44But Kiprios is going to be difficult to beat in the Gold Cup.
00:42:48It's kind of going to be a familiar team, I think, going forward.
00:42:50I think it's going to be very much some of Aidan O'Brien's big guns have yet to run.
00:42:54You know, you've got opera singer.
00:42:56I think it's going to be difficult to beat.
00:42:58As I said, Auguste Rodin shall be difficult to beat.
00:43:01If there's a filly that I would actually just put you on to, and it's actually a
00:43:04Blue Point filly runs tomorrow, the Queen Mary, make haste.
00:43:07And you should know this filly because LNJ Foxwoods have bought into it.
00:43:10And so Gainsway. So, you know, she runs in the first race and she couldn't run for a
00:43:14nicer guy in Diego Diaz.
00:43:16She's actually the favorite. So I'm not sure if there's going to be much value.
00:43:19They got the value of buying into the filly.
00:43:21So I think she's going to run a big race.
00:43:23And if you wanted maybe a big price horse for the betters out there, I did an
00:43:27interview with Ross O'Sullivan, who's got a small but select string.
00:43:31He's not a guy that many people would know, certainly not in America.
00:43:35He's a small trainer here just off the Curragh.
00:43:37He's got a horse running called Follow Me in the Britannia Stakes.
00:43:40Now this horse, Ross is convinced, is a group horse on the way up.
00:43:44He's running in a handicap, so he should be thereabouts.
00:43:46And at high double figure digits, I think he could be valued.
00:43:51So your confidence in Augusto Dan, despite the way he ran in his last start, do you
00:43:56just chalk that race up to his is sort of in the same category as some of his past
00:44:02inconsistencies?
00:44:04Yeah, I mean, and probably because he has been trained for the race, that is the
00:44:10thing that Aiden has been hammering home.
00:44:12And I'm loathe to ignore Aiden because I took on City of Troy in the Derby and I've
00:44:16learned an expensive lesson there.
00:44:18So I'm not going to do that again.
00:44:20I don't want to diss the race, but obviously White Birch coming out, that was a small
00:44:24disappointment. I think obviously Inspire is a very good filly, but I think Augusto
00:44:29Dan will have a measure, you know, outside of the top two, credible opposition.
00:44:35I think Augusto Dan should, if he comes back to his best, which we're led to believe
00:44:39is on the trajectory towards being delivered to, I think he should win.
00:44:44Brian, I actually have one non-Royal Ascot story for you, but what is the take
00:44:49overseas and in England and Great Britain on Frankie DeTorre and, you know, this new
00:44:55chapter in his career where he's come over here and is just riding lights out?
00:45:00You know, after talking about retiring now, it looks like the guy could go on for
00:45:04another 10 years.
00:45:05But, you know, we have been so unbelievably impressed by him and he's been such a
00:45:10breath, given us such a breath of fresh air.
00:45:12We're lucky to have him and I'm sorry that you guys had to lose him.
00:45:15But, you know, are people kind of pleasantly surprised that he's doing as well as he
00:45:22is? I don't think we're surprised to see him doing so well.
00:45:28Obviously, you've got some brilliant sports people over there that are riding well into
00:45:33their 50s and beyond and the same over here in Ireland.
00:45:36But I think in sport and, you know, Frankie has such a good legacy.
00:45:41He had obviously a torrid Royal Ascot the year before he retired.
00:45:46Okay. And I just feel for a sports star, especially someone of his of his status, I
00:45:52think you should always leave them wanting more.
00:45:54Okay. He left on that.
00:45:56He couldn't have asked for a better send off on British Champions Day and King of
00:46:00Steel. You know, what more is there to gain?
00:46:03It's not money. I mean, you can go off to America, but your status, where he earned
00:46:08his big reputation in Britain, in Ireland, all across Europe, I think he left on the
00:46:14top. And I think there's a lot to be said for that.
00:46:16He can ride away in America, you know, for another 10 years, no doubt.
00:46:21He's so fit, he's riding at the top of his game still.
00:46:24But I think it was the right time for him to leave Britain and I don't think he
00:46:27regrets that.
00:46:30Well, Brian, that was great.
00:46:32Got a good education on what's going on at Royal Ascot and enjoy reading your stuff in
00:46:36the European edition of the TDN.
00:46:39Thanks so much for joining us on this week's News You Can Use, sponsored by Darley.
00:46:44Have a great Royal Ascot meet and keep giving our family those winners.
00:46:47Okay. Okay.
00:46:49Thanks, guys. Thanks, Bill.
00:46:50Thanks, Randy. Thanks, Brian.
00:46:52The TDN Riders Room, also brought to you by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders
00:46:55Association, the PHBA.
00:46:57Another reminder here, because it's very important, if you have purchased a
00:47:00Pennsylvania sired or Pennsylvania bred horse, if you privately or at a sale, who
00:47:06is now a two-year-old, you have just until the end of this month, the end of
00:47:10June, to nominate for the PA sired series at the price of $1,000.
00:47:16This makes you eligible for those three sets of $100,000 stakes races that are
00:47:20restricted to PA sired, PA breds, two sets for three-year-olds and another couple
00:47:25that are going to be run early next year for three-year-olds.
00:47:27So first, go to pabred.com, check out the featured section on the homepage to
00:47:31double-check if your two-year-old is already nominated.
00:47:34If he's not or she's not, print out that nomination form, send it with a $1,000
00:47:39fee, postmarked by June 30.
00:47:42Any questions, contact the PA bred office.
00:47:45There's that number, 610-444-1050.
00:47:50The state of Pennsylvania has the best breeders program in the entire United
00:47:55States.
00:47:56When you buy a yearling, it's a little bit like buying a lottery ticket and we
00:47:58are trying to provide a lottery ticket that the likelihood is to hit the jackpot.
00:48:03Angel of Empire wins the Arkansas Derby and wins it clear.
00:48:08Uncle Heavy late, it's a photo finish.
00:48:11Pennsylvania and the PHPA have the best state bred program in the country, bar
00:48:16none.
00:48:16The winner, Uncle Heavy, he's a three-year-old bred in Pennsylvania.
00:48:20With some of the fullest fields in the country and quality racing year round,
00:48:26there's never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and racing in
00:48:30Kentucky.
00:48:32Purse money in Kentucky is at an all-time high, as is average purse per race,
00:48:37outpacing California, Florida, and New York.
00:48:41Kentucky breds, breed them, raise them, race them.
00:48:46We all win.
00:48:50So you want to know who's bred in Kentucky?
00:48:53Pretty much all of these major stakes winners nowadays, including acorn stakes
00:48:57winners like Torpedo Anna, who added that dominating win in Friday's acorn at
00:49:02Saratoga to her Kentucky Oaks victory last month at Churchill.
00:49:05Dornick, also a Kentucky bred, the Belmont Stakes winner who gave Kentucky
00:49:09breds a sweep of the Triple Crown, of course, with his upset score in the
00:49:13Belmont Stakes.
00:49:14Congratulations to the breeders of Torpedo Anna and Dornick, Judy Hicks and
00:49:18Grandview Equine.
00:49:20Kentucky breds, remember, buy them, raise them, race them.
00:49:25We all win.
00:49:27Well, more racing news was made over the week.
00:49:29Of course, we're about eight days removed from the closing of Golden Gate
00:49:33Fields track that was the main hub of racing in the San Francisco area and
00:49:37been around since 1941.
00:49:39And the people that are behind Northern California racing, the breeders,
00:49:44trainers and owners are trying very hard to save themselves from a crisis.
00:49:50And generally what they've done is they're going to try to take the fair
00:49:53tracks, the California Association of Racing Fair Tracks, and build them into
00:49:58a year round circuit or close to a year round circuit.
00:50:01So they started off this weekend with the first of these tracks to run after
00:50:06Golden Gate Fields had been closed down and it was pleasant.
00:50:09And the numbers were not good.
00:50:12Six races on Friday with 33 starters, seven races Saturday with 38 starters.
00:50:18Did a little bit better Sunday, eight races with 51 starters, average
00:50:22about $900,000 in handle.
00:50:24And, you know, I looked into this and I feel bad for these people because I
00:50:28think everybody should be rooting for them.
00:50:30Nobody wants to see a racing circuit in Northern California or
00:50:34anyplace else just disappear.
00:50:36But it just made me wonder how can they get by with these kinds of numbers?
00:50:40And it's certainly not going to be easy.
00:50:42And one of the big things too is, you know, it's so hard to fill races now as
00:50:46it is, of the four fair tracks, only one has a turf course at Santa Rosa and
00:50:52they only run for nine days of the year.
00:50:54So they're going to try to take a circuit, which has terrible horse
00:50:58shortage problems as it is, and go forward basically with no turf racing.
00:51:03Randy, I hope I'm wrong, but this is going to be a tough, tough go for these people.
00:51:08No, I mean, the entire state of California has a horse population problem.
00:51:12Southern California does as well.
00:51:14It's a crisis in Northern California to try to fill races
00:51:19with the horse population they have.
00:51:21And the horse population problem is the main reason why Santa Anita went to
00:51:26the CHRB meeting and opposed giving racing dates to Pleasanton in the first
00:51:31place, because Santa Anita had hoped that with the closing of Golden Gate, those
00:51:35horses in Northern California would then migrate South to Santa Anita and at least
00:51:40create a better field size situation for Santa Anita.
00:51:44I don't know what's right and what's wrong.
00:51:45I mean, obviously you want the people in Northern California, whose livelihood is
00:51:51tied up with this, to see horse racing succeed in Northern California.
00:51:56But I agree with you, it's going to be an uphill climb.
00:51:59And to me, the primary reason why there's a horse shortage and the primary reason
00:52:04why it's going to be an uphill climb is the lack of purse money fueled by
00:52:09alternative forms of wagering.
00:52:11Right. I mean, we've talked about it a lot, almost everywhere around the country
00:52:15where the purses and the sport is flourishing.
00:52:18You've got casino gaming or other forms of gaming that are supplementing the
00:52:22purses. And in Southern California, the Indian lobby is so strong, the Native
00:52:27American lobby, that they have thwarted any effort whatsoever for horse racing to
00:52:32get any kind of legislative traction, to get alternative forms of gaming.
00:52:36And it certainly doesn't look promising that they're ever going to.
00:52:40Another issue in Northern California, I think, is the narrative against horse
00:52:47racing. I was absolutely crestfallen to read the media coverage in Northern
00:52:54California, in the San Francisco newspapers about the closing of Golden Gate.
00:53:00I mean, you would expect, at least on the closing day of Golden Gate, when the
00:53:04racetrack is going out of business, and they did such good business of people
00:53:08there to celebrate what Golden Gate had meant to the San Francisco area, you'd
00:53:14expect there to be at least some positive media coverage.
00:53:18A lot of the media coverage that I saw, the print media, focused on horse deaths.
00:53:23The racetrack at Golden Gate that suffered so many horse deaths over the year is
00:53:28finally closing.
00:53:30Even on its last day, it couldn't get a break, right?
00:53:34So the media narrative up there with the animal rights activists and all that,
00:53:40putting on a full court press against horse racing is obviously going to be
00:53:45extremely difficult to overcome to get any kind of public traction for horse
00:53:50racing up there. And that's another problem that they're going to have to deal
00:53:53with. It's a double-barreled challenge, I think, in the San Francisco Bay Area.
00:54:00Yeah, I mean, they have to pull a rabbit out of their hat.
00:54:02I certainly hope that they can do it.
00:54:04But, Randy, you made the best point.
00:54:05And this is a California story, not just a Golden Gate story.
00:54:10When you have $120,000 maiden races at Oaklawn and Churchill Downs and $100,000
00:54:16maiden races in New York, these guys at Santa Anita, you know, Bob Baffert's
00:54:20running these million-dollar yearlings buys in races where the purse is about half as
00:54:26much as it is at other places.
00:54:28Now, Bob is obviously very committed to the West Coast.
00:54:31I could never see him pulling up stakes and moving.
00:54:34But, you know, if you're an owner getting into the game, it's just the money, it's so
00:54:39obvious. I mean, you would want to choose California for a number of reasons.
00:54:43Santa Anita is a beautiful place with a lot of history.
00:54:45But you got to look at the bottom line and the bottom line without the slot money, you
00:54:50know, their purses are just not competitive with the other tracks right now with all this
00:54:56huge amount of slot money coming in.
00:54:58And purse money has never been more important because the full crop in general in
00:55:02thoroughbred racing around the country is going down, is declining.
00:55:07And so there's a lot of competition between racetracks to get horses, to get full
00:55:13fields. And it's the purse money that will attract these owners with inflation and all
00:55:17that. It costs more now to run a racing stable.
00:55:22It costs more now to own racehorses than it did 10 years ago.
00:55:26And the way owners get their money back obviously is through purses.
00:55:30And if the purses are substandard at a wonderful place to run like Southern California, it
00:55:36really raises eyebrows and it, you know, it causes concern.
00:55:41Yeah, well, we can only hope for the best for especially Northern California and Southern
00:55:45California as well.
00:55:46We also like to see good news, especially when it comes to what is the one of the really
00:55:51difficult topics in the sport is the number of horses breaking down.
00:55:54Like Randy said, that's what the San Francisco media, mainstream media concentrated on on
00:56:00the last day of Golden Gate Fields.
00:56:02And year after year after year, these numbers move in the right direction.
00:56:06And now that Haiza is behind collecting all the data and everything, they were able to
00:56:12put out a report for the first quarter of 2024.
00:56:16And this is at their tracks only.
00:56:18It doesn't include the ones in Texas, Louisiana and elsewhere that they don't have any
00:56:23control over. But breakdowns were down 38 percent in the first quarter.
00:56:29If they keep that up, this is going to be the first time since statistics were first
00:56:34kept by the Jockey Club in 2009, where the breakdown rate, which was 2.0 in 2009, will
00:56:41be below 1.0.
00:56:43You know, we always say that it can never get to zero.
00:56:46But you know what? It can get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller
00:56:50all the time. And hats off to all the people.
00:56:53Santa Anita has become one of the most safe tracks in the country.
00:56:56They had some good news to report.
00:56:58But, you know, it looks like right now, once again, this trend is going in the right
00:57:03direction. And that's really good news for horse racing.
00:57:05Let's hope the next time a newspaper wants to write something about how messed up the
00:57:09sport is, they please look at the fact that it's getting much better all the time.
00:57:15Yeah. And quite frankly, I don't think the newspapers in Northern California are even
00:57:20interested in knowing that they were running on Topita at Golden Gate, which was a very
00:57:24safe racing surface.
00:57:26And the breakdown rate at Golden Gate was much lower than at many racetracks around
00:57:30the country. They just didn't seem to care about that.
00:57:32Hey, great news overall about the about the horse death rate.
00:57:37Three cheers to Santa Anita.
00:57:39I mean, they've really been the ringleader in establishing the protocols and all that
00:57:44that, quite frankly, initially, especially a lot of horsemen out there bucked against.
00:57:51I mean, they really, really complained about it.
00:57:54They considered considered it to be draconian.
00:57:57A lot of them did. They considered it to be an overreaction.
00:58:01But I think what's transpired now is that I think there's been a lot of buy in from the
00:58:07owners and trainers in Southern California who, quite frankly, you know, all they had to
00:58:12do is just look back five, six years earlier at how close the sport came in Southern
00:58:18California to complete disaster with the horse death epidemic they had at one point.
00:58:23So, you know, Amy Zimmerman, the whole crew out there at Santa Anita, who has just been
00:58:27laser focused on horse safety.
00:58:31This is just fantastic news for them that Santa Anita has now become, based on
00:58:35statistics, the safest racetrack, dirt racetrack in America.
00:58:40And that's the trend is going in the right direction.
00:58:45You know, you can't ease up.
00:58:46You can't rest on your laurels right now because it's just so important to the sport that
00:58:51this continues in the right direction.
00:58:53Yeah. And I think with all the things they're doing with Haiza and with Stride Safe and
00:58:58all those things, I think it's only going to get better as the years go by.
00:59:03So, again, love to have that love to have good news.
00:59:06So, by the way, the XB TV work of the week this week is King's Barnes.
00:59:10King Barnes worked a half mile at Saratoga Friday and forty nine point twenty two
00:59:15for trainer Todd Pletcher in preparation for the June twenty ninth.
00:59:18Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs.
00:59:20King's Barnes was most recently second in the Pimlico Special.
00:59:23He has two great at stakes wins to his credit, the Louisiana Derby and the Ben Ali.
00:59:27And we'll be right back after this message from XB TV.
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01:00:28Visit West Point TV dot com.
01:00:31T.D. and Writer's Room also brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds, a lot of
01:00:35fathers involved in the West Point Thoroughbred Partnerships, and it was a
01:00:40happy Father's Day across the country for West Point.
01:00:42Four wins in a twenty four hour span bridging Saturday and Sunday.
01:00:48Final boss got his first stakes victory, a front running win in the cinema stakes
01:00:52for three year olds. That was on the turf at Santa Anita.
01:00:55Before that, Pony Express scored a nine length maiden race.
01:01:00Maiden win for the same connections as final boss.
01:01:04That's Jockey Juan Hernandez, trainer John Sadler and co-owner Michael Talla.
01:01:08And that Pony Express win came on Saturday.
01:01:11Battle of Normandy got in on the act with the wire to wire win on the grass at
01:01:15Aqueduct. That was on Sunday.
01:01:16And on my honor at Churchill Downs scored a maiden win in a dirt sprint.
01:01:22So three different racetracks.
01:01:24Big Father's Day weekend there for West Point this weekend.
01:01:28West Point will send out Vava.
01:01:30How fast is she?
01:01:31She'll be a short price for West Point and her partners in the Chicago Stakes at
01:01:36Churchill Downs. That's a carryover from the old Arlington Park, a grade three.
01:01:40Vava looking to follow up on her grade one triumph on Kentucky Derby Day.
01:01:45To learn more about how you can join in on all this fun, visit WestpointTB.com.
01:01:51Well, that is a wrap on this week's show, I want to thank my partner, Randy Moss.
01:01:56We missed you, Zoe Cabman.
01:01:57Come back soon.
01:01:58We'll have Zoe back for next week.
01:02:00We also want to thank Brian Sheeran for appearing in the Darlie segment and also
01:02:05our Green Group guest of the week, Scott Sander, and also the people that work so
01:02:09hard and do so well for us behind the scenes.
01:02:11Our producers, Katie Petruniak, Anthony LaRocca and Aaliyah LaRocca.
01:02:15That's a wrap on this week's edition of the Fox News Show.
01:02:17Aaliyah LaRocca and Aaliyah LaRocca.
01:02:19That's a wrap on this week's edition of the Thoroughbred Daily News Writer's Room
01:02:22podcast. We'll see you next week.