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00:00:00For the love of the horse, for generations to come.
00:00:28Welcome to another edition of the TDN Writer's Room podcast.
00:00:31My name is Bill Finley.
00:00:32I'm a correspondent for the TDN and the co-host of the Down the Stretch radio show on SiriusXM
00:00:37Radio.
00:00:38How are y'all doing?
00:00:39I'm Randy Moss with NBC Sports.
00:00:42Zoe Kavlan here with First TV, First Racing, and Santa Anita.
00:00:47I'm here in the Nile Brennan compound in their palatious office slash tack room here.
00:00:54And I've been swimming with manatees this morning.
00:00:56Life could not be any better right now.
00:00:59Sounds like...
00:01:00Manatees are awesome.
00:01:01It was really fun.
00:01:03Zoe, we're jealous.
00:01:04That sounds like a lot of fun.
00:01:05So off the track, the news this week was the news in the New York Times.
00:01:11And here we go again, a paper who really seems to have it out for racing.
00:01:15And they put out a 4,600 word opinion piece.
00:01:20Here is the headline, dead athletes, empty stands.
00:01:24Why are we paying billions to keep this sport alive?
00:01:27And the gist of the story was that horse racing does not deserve to get the subsidies from
00:01:33casinos, from other forms that it has been getting, because it can't stand on its own
00:01:39two feet, arguing if you take the casino money, the slot machine money away, then horse racing
00:01:47would have a chance to show what it can do without it.
00:01:52You can nitpick if you want on this.
00:01:54There's a couple of different things, obviously.
00:01:56They once again said that Bob Baffert was a doper, used the word doping for the betamethasone.
00:02:03But I don't think that's going to be all that helpful in this incident with this story to
00:02:07just nitpick.
00:02:09Because what they're going to do, I guarantee you, Zoe, that the minute this story hit the
00:02:16presses or hit the computer, every single racetrack in a country owned by a slot machine
00:02:24company, by a casino company, had this thing emailed to their state legislators and said,
00:02:30see, look what's going on here.
00:02:32You have what's going on in Florida with decoupling.
00:02:35You have a very negative article like this.
00:02:38I worry about the effect that this may have.
00:02:41Are people, the politicians, going to start listening to arguments like this?
00:02:48That's the problem, because it was a very negative, one-dimensional view.
00:02:53A lot of people, including myself, are guilty of reading an article and then not reading
00:02:59the follow-up and not reading the comments after.
00:03:02The Light Up Racing article was excellent, but New York Times has a big reach and has
00:03:09a very big arm.
00:03:10It's a global reach.
00:03:13It was definite clickbait with the title to begin with, Dead Athletes, Empty Stands.
00:03:18People are going to read that and be like, ooh, ooh, gosh, but they're not going to read
00:03:22the follow-up.
00:03:23They're not going to read the Light Up Racing article, which was very well articulated,
00:03:28very well written, and they were missing all of the facts that they put down in the Light
00:03:33Up Racing.
00:03:35What they didn't say was that private investors as well keep this business afloat, $400 million
00:03:43annually pretty much at the Keeneland September sale alone.
00:03:46That's $400 million from private investors.
00:03:49That was not mentioned.
00:03:50I'll rattle off some of the other facts that were missed out in the New York Times article
00:03:56thanks to the Light Up Racing, $36.4 billion, 491,000 jobs, $200 million annually.
00:04:05In New York alone, the Wells Resort, New York Casino put in $4 billion to the New York Education
00:04:13Fund.
00:04:14All of this was lacking, but the bigger problem is that we don't have a direct line to the
00:04:19New York Times, which is exactly what we need is a direct line because people are just going
00:04:25to read that tagline, the byline, and be like, turn the page.
00:04:29They're not going to read the comments and figure out what's really going on.
00:04:32That's my biggest problem with it.
00:04:35I was in the newspaper business for 20 years.
00:04:38That's where I met Bill some 40 years ago or so.
00:04:41I'm a newspaper junkie, and I'm distressed right now at a crisis in the newspaper business.
00:04:49It's not just a financial crisis.
00:04:50I think it's a crisis in objectivity, and it goes both ways.
00:04:53It goes both spectrums politically.
00:04:56You have newspapers on the right.
00:04:58Nothing that Biden ever did was right.
00:04:59Nothing that Obama before that ever did was right.
00:05:02You got newspapers on the far left.
00:05:04Nothing Trump could ever possibly do could be good.
00:05:06That's where the New York Times is, and unfortunately right now, the New York Times has lumped horse
00:05:11racing in with Trump.
00:05:16I feel a little guilty in saying that as the New York Times goes with their coverage of
00:05:23horse racing, I thought this article was at least slightly more objective because unlike
00:05:30some other New York Times articles we've seen in the past, at least an attempt was
00:05:34partially made to give the horse racing side of things.
00:05:39Now, it was quickly dismissed.
00:05:41In some cases, it wasn't thoroughly fleshed out.
00:05:45We know what newspapers like the New York Times do in situations like this.
00:05:50They will write incendiary headlines.
00:05:53They will choose incendiary photographs such as New York Thunder laying on the racetrack
00:05:58at Saratoga in an attempt to sway public opinion toward what its agenda is.
00:06:05Right now, the agenda of the New York Times is clearly anti-horse racing.
00:06:09If anybody over there writing for the New York Times had an inclination to go against
00:06:13their bosses and write an article that was positive of horse racing, you would never
00:06:17see the light of day.
00:06:19I think the industry should look at this article, should take to heart some of the points that
00:06:25it makes because they represent the viewpoint of the anti-racing community and maybe even
00:06:34of some of those who are in the middle.
00:06:38Horse racing should look at that and say, okay, this is what the people think.
00:06:42Some people, what can we do to counteract this sort of mindset, this sort of anti-racing
00:06:48mindset?
00:06:49I had a question to me.
00:06:52You've mentioned the light-up racing.
00:06:54It's good that we have them and we've needed something like this for a long time, an advocacy
00:06:59group that will speak up for horse racing when these sort of stories start to appear.
00:07:04I don't know how many people read the New York Times, but let's say 500,000 people might
00:07:08have read this story.
00:07:10That could be wildly off in either direction, I don't know.
00:07:13Light-up racing, the best they can do is get something on the Thoroughbred Daily News,
00:07:17Blood Horse, et cetera, read by insiders that already believe everything they say.
00:07:25What can be done about something like this?
00:07:27I certainly don't have an answer.
00:07:29We need an arm in the New York Times, which like Randy said, is not going to happen because
00:07:34people that read the New York Times are reading the headlines and they've read it, but they're
00:07:39not reading the light-up racing.
00:07:41We need some kind of backwards and forwards, which we don't have.
00:07:46That's for sure.
00:07:48Another story that happened off track.
00:07:49This is about the silliest damn thing I've ever seen.
00:07:52The owners of a horse by the name of Hold My Bourbon are suing Luan Mankato for misjudging
00:07:58the finish in a race on November 28th at Churchill Nounce.
00:08:02He was already fined $1,000 and suspended four days by the stewards, but they're alleging
00:08:08he did.
00:08:09He stood up just a couple jumps before the wire, probably cost his horse the race, but
00:08:15the owners have said that he breached his contract and showed negligence.
00:08:20He says it cost them $47,560, which was the difference between the winner's share and
00:08:27the second share.
00:08:29If they win this, does that mean next time a jockey goes seven wide on a turn, you can
00:08:34sue?
00:08:35Does it mean that me as a sports better, if Patrick Mahomes throws an interception that
00:08:40costs the Kansas City Chiefs their game, I can sue?
00:08:45It's unfortunate, Zoe, you have a fine career as a jockey.
00:08:50These things happen.
00:08:51Now, Mankato, this is the second time, though, this has happened.
00:08:54He misjudged the finish a month earlier by standing up at the 16th ball, but these people
00:08:58to me are wasting their time and money.
00:09:01Jockeys are human.
00:09:02They make mistakes.
00:09:03Guy wasn't out to get the horse beat.
00:09:06He just made a simple mistake.
00:09:08You can't go around suing jockeys.
00:09:11It would be likened to gambling on a horse race and then getting mad that you picked
00:09:17the wrong horse.
00:09:18But one thing I can say is stewards need to do a better job of stewarding the finish because
00:09:26bets get paid out first, second, third, fourth, fifth, even if you're playing the super high
00:09:31five.
00:09:32So I believe the stewards need to do a better job of pulling in those shots.
00:09:37And we see it every day across the country that may not get the win and the ease up for
00:09:43third and fourth.
00:09:44And that's costing the punters and it's costing the owners money.
00:09:48So while you cannot go around suing jockeys, I agree with you there, Bill, but I believe
00:09:53the stewards need to do a better job of pulling in those jocks that ease up for fourth and
00:09:58fifth place right through the wire.
00:10:00Just do your job.
00:10:01You get paid to do your job right through the wire.
00:10:05He misjudged the finish line.
00:10:06That's a whole different story.
00:10:07And, you know, that was an accidental.
00:10:10But if you're standing up right before the wire and you're costing an owner some serious
00:10:15money, I'm not saying you can sue them, but it's up to the stewards and the racetracks
00:10:19to do a better job of policing what is going on in that precinct.
00:10:23So you know what my first thought was when I saw that article?
00:10:26I wonder if the owners of Romantic Warrior read this.
00:10:31But I've got nothing to add to anything Bill has always said.
00:10:34So I'm going to play the skip card here.
00:10:36I agree.
00:10:37We'll be out talking about Romantic Warrior and your friend James McDonald, I think, for
00:10:42weeks to come.
00:10:44But I'm sure the lawsuit will go nowhere.
00:10:46But I'm so you know, it's too bad that they cost the horse the victory.
00:10:51But this thing is not going to go anywhere in court.
00:10:56The TDN Writer's Room, as always, is brought to you by Keeneland.
00:11:00Save the date for the April selected horse of racing age sale.
00:11:03It'll happen on Friday, April the 25th after the races.
00:11:07Now the April sale presents proven runners and ready to race runners.
00:11:12An elite racehorse sale, perfectly timed for summer campaigns.
00:11:16We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:11:20Still catching.
00:11:21Leslie's Rose.
00:11:22Sierra.
00:11:23Leo.
00:11:24Mike, five million dollars.
00:11:27Carl Spackler.
00:11:28A mercy.
00:11:29She feels pretty.
00:11:30Hut.
00:11:50Our fastest horse of the week is brought to you by Independence Hall, one of those fast
00:11:56sires at Windstar Farm, who was the fastest two year old of twenty nineteen with his one
00:12:02oh one buyer speed figure, Independence Hall's first crop are now two year olds.
00:12:06Sixteen of those are entered in the OBS March sale next week, and the judges are giving
00:12:11them two thumbs up.
00:12:13Eddie Woods, one of the consignors at OBS selling Independence Hall, says they have
00:12:17plenty of speed and are big training horses.
00:12:21Kieran Dunn says we're very excited about the Independence Halls.
00:12:24Having had him ourselves as a two year old, he was a beautiful young horse and Independence
00:12:30Hall stands at Windstar with a princely sum of just seven thousand five hundred dollars.
00:12:36Now, who is that fastest horse of the week?
00:12:38You would expect logically that a horse that wins the San Andean Handicap by eight and
00:12:43a half lengths would get a big speed figure, and that's exactly what happened with locked
00:12:48so far.
00:12:49The best speed figure of twenty twenty five is Copion with her win in the Santa Monica
00:12:54at a one ten buyer.
00:12:57Right after that, at one oh nine, of course, you had quite a barrio winning the Pegasus
00:13:02World Cup and now locked from the Santa Anita Handicap.
00:13:06We'll talk more about this race a little bit later in the podcast, but at one oh nine locked
00:13:11is our fastest horse of the week.
00:13:20And welcome in the Gainesway guest of the week, none other than Aaron Wellman, the managing
00:13:24partner of Eclipse Thoroughbreds, had an unbelievable weekend winning the big cap at Santa Anita,
00:13:30winning the San Felipe and also winning the Here Comes the Bride stakes with Vixen at
00:13:35Gulfstream Park.
00:13:36But before we get into all those accomplishments, Aaron, I understand there's some news.
00:13:42What can you tell us about Locke's future as a stallion?
00:13:46Yeah, really thrilled to be able to announce that he will be standing stud at famed Gainesway
00:13:52Farm upon retirement from his racing career.
00:13:56And we've had a lot of storied success with Gainesway, the Beck family, Brian Graves,
00:14:02their whole team there.
00:14:03So hopefully Locke's got a lot of running left to do, but we're excited for him to potentially
00:14:10prove that he's a generational talent in the breeding shed when the time comes.
00:14:15And just by coincidence, you're the Gainesway guest of the week, just in case you didn't
00:14:19know that.
00:14:20We call that in the Jewish religion, Beshert, Randy.
00:14:25It's all Beshert.
00:14:26All right.
00:14:27Before we, I mean, we got so much to talk about while we're on the topic of Locke.
00:14:31Let's stick with that and talk about the big cap.
00:14:34I mean, you know, obviously he was already regarded before that race as one of the best
00:14:40older horses in the country based on what he had already done.
00:14:43But it seems like he took his game to the next level at Santa Anita with Blinkers.
00:14:49What did you think, just your thoughts about what you were expecting going in and what
00:14:54you saw coming out?
00:14:55Yeah, thanks for that, Randy.
00:14:57He's a horse that we've always had huge expectations for from the moment we hung a bridle over
00:15:04his head at Ocala Stud as a baby and through his two-year-old season.
00:15:09As far as going into the Santa Anita handicap, we thought that it was a race and a distance
00:15:16that he could put on a show, and he certainly did that.
00:15:21From the time he first ran as a two-year-old at Saratoga when we sprinted him and he fell
00:15:28way back and came storming home and galloped out huge and then was a TDN Rising Star actually
00:15:33when we stretched him out to a mile second time out.
00:15:36We always, in the back of our minds, Todd and I and Jose who was riding him at age two
00:15:41and even Johnny when he rode him, the allowance win at Aqueduct and the Cigar Mile win and
00:15:46then the Pegasus second, that he might benefit from Blinkers.
00:15:51He had just kept running so well that it was really difficult for us to make that equipment
00:15:55change, but we finally felt it was appropriate before the big cap.
00:16:00It seemed to make him a more engaged individual throughout the entirety of the race, and he
00:16:06certainly polished off the race brilliantly.
00:16:09I couldn't believe it when I read after the fact that it was the largest margin of victory
00:16:13in the history of the Santa Anita Handicap, so that was pretty cool.
00:16:18The high weight, which always creates some trepidation, but he delivered and hopefully
00:16:26with these Blinkers on, he's just going to be a more consistent individual.
00:16:30So Aaron, can you give us any updates then from Todd on how he came out of the race and
00:16:34have any of you guys powwowed yet about what might be next?
00:16:38Yeah, I spoke to Todd this morning.
00:16:40He traveled yesterday back to Florida, got into Palm Beach Downs late last night, and
00:16:48Todd said that he was hollering and on his hind legs all morning.
00:16:54The initial signs are good that his energy levels are high in the wake of cross-country
00:16:59back-and-forth travel and a huge run.
00:17:03That's encouraging.
00:17:04We'll obviously monitor him over the next few weeks.
00:17:07We've got a couple races on our radar in the interim, potentially the Oakland Park Handicap,
00:17:14maybe the Alisheba.
00:17:15We'll just kind of see how he trains and what his energy looks like in the next few weeks
00:17:19before making that decision.
00:17:21But it's a nice segue into what is a more obvious second half of the season.
00:17:27We'd love to be able to have him sharp for a race like the Met Mile, then look at the
00:17:32Whitney and of course work our way backwards from the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:17:35That's an ambitious campaign, but we certainly think he's the caliber individual that's worthy
00:17:39of considering those types of races.
00:17:42Aaron, I was there on Saturday.
00:17:45It really was an outstanding performance.
00:17:48I've got two questions for you.
00:17:50The first, how hard was it for Eclipse Thoroughbreds and all the partners to avoid going overseas
00:17:58for the lucrative purses over there?
00:18:00And the second one was, you're a California guy.
00:18:03How did it feel to win the big cap?
00:18:06Yeah, those are two deep questions, Zoe, but I'll do my best to answer them.
00:18:11The first part of it is, how did we resist the temptation to go to Saudi Arabia for
00:18:16$20 million?
00:18:19And I'm really fortunate to have some incredible partners under the Eclipse umbrella, Womack
00:18:24Farm, Gary Broad, and of course, the whole team at Gainesway were involved in this decision.
00:18:29It really boiled down to the fact that he had run such a huge race in the Pegasus, even
00:18:35though it was in defeat, and it would require him to travel all the way across the world
00:18:39within a three-week time span, run back within a month against the likes of the two Asian
00:18:47horses who are exceptional.
00:18:49And it's not that we don't think that Locke could have run with them, but it just wasn't
00:18:53the appropriate spacing to have him on top of his game like we thought we needed him
00:18:58to be in order to make that endeavor.
00:19:01The second layer to that is, there's so much prestige associated with the San Ysidro handicap.
00:19:07Clearly, California has fallen on hard times, but it's incumbent upon all of us as stewards
00:19:12of the game and ambassadors of the sport to try to do our best to support these jurisdictions
00:19:19that might be struggling right now, like California, and to try to bring bona fide grade one horses
00:19:26to races that need to preserve their grade one status.
00:19:30He won the Cigar Mile at age three that had been relegated to a grade two.
00:19:33I'm very hopeful that the Great Lakes Committee will reconsider that status and reinstate
00:19:40the Cigar Mile as a grade one.
00:19:41He beat four grade one winners that day, he being a grade one winner himself, now a multiple
00:19:46grade one winner.
00:19:47So we're really trying our best to showcase him in the most important, the most historic,
00:19:52and the most prestigious races that not just will be incredible races to win on the racetrack,
00:20:00but also enhance his ultimate residual value as a stallion, because we really do believe
00:20:06that he is that type of individual.
00:20:09The second question you asked was, as a California boy, born and raised, and literally spending
00:20:16every weekend of my life at Santa Anita with my parents, winning the Big Cap was one of
00:20:22the most gratifying achievements I think that I could ever experience.
00:20:30And it's thanks to our partners at Eclipse, Womack Farm, like I said, Gray Road, also
00:20:36a Southern California guy.
00:20:37So we understood the magnitude of a race like the Big Cap.
00:20:42For Todd to win his first Santa Anita Handicap with Locked is super cool.
00:20:46And like I said, it's just, there's a rich history associated with this race that is
00:20:54so important to preserve.
00:20:56And I'm so glad that a horse like Locked was able to carry our name and our silks to
00:21:04victory in that race.
00:21:06Couldn't agree more.
00:21:08Aaron, let's turn our attention now to journalism in the San Felipe.
00:21:12And when you have horses on the road to the Kentucky Derby, especially ones making their
00:21:16first start of the year, biggest question is, how did they transition from two to three?
00:21:22Boy, did he transition well from two to three.
00:21:25He was a good two-year-old, won the Los Alamos Futurity.
00:21:29But were you expecting what we saw on the racetrack?
00:21:32In a very tough customer in Barnes, he beat him by a length and three quarters and ran
00:21:37a 108 buyer figure.
00:21:39So obviously, he did make that transition with plus, plus, plus, plus, plus.
00:21:45Is that somewhat what you're expecting or even you taken by surprise?
00:21:50We never take anything for granted.
00:21:52And of course, from age two to three is the biggest question mark, whether they're going
00:21:57to translate that brilliant format to into their sophomore campaign.
00:22:01So you have your guard up a little bit going into these races, especially since he hadn't
00:22:06run since mid-December in the Los Alamos Futurity.
00:22:09We had a little setback with him after he got sick with a vaccination.
00:22:14So you always go in with cautious optimism that they are going to perform up to your
00:22:20expectations because journalism is a horse that from the moment we started breaking and
00:22:26training him down at our partner Bridalwood Farm in Ocala, he exhibited the type of physical
00:22:33talent and mental constitution capable of indicating that he was going to be an elite,
00:22:40exceptional performer.
00:22:42So to see what he did in a very short window of time at age two was almost ahead of the
00:22:49trajectory that we had anticipated for him.
00:22:53And going into Saturday's race, the San Felipe, we knew that we were going to be the meat in
00:23:00the proverbial Baffert sandwich with Mellencamp on the inside, us in the two hole, Barnes in
00:23:06the three and Rodriguez in the four.
00:23:09It was going to be a real cat and mouse game.
00:23:11But we just wanted to make sure that our horse got into his rhythm and ran his race because
00:23:17we know that he has got the engine to be able to see out the trip.
00:23:21And that was really the big question mark going into the race for Barnes, is whether he would
00:23:26see out the two turn distance.
00:23:28And honestly, I think Barnes did.
00:23:31He ran an exceptional race, 105 by, I'm not sure what they gave him on the sheets,
00:23:37Rags End and Thorograph.
00:23:39But I know what journalism ran.
00:23:42And that means that 99 out of 100 times Barnes would have been a clear and decisive winner
00:23:48in that case.
00:23:48So credit to him.
00:23:51We've just got a serious, serious horse on our hands.
00:23:55Michael McCarthy's done an awesome job developing him really methodically.
00:23:59We have not tightened the screws on him.
00:24:01He was spotting four pounds to Barnes on Saturday, which is a whole issue unto of itself that
00:24:07I think that if there's Kentucky Derby qualifying points on the line, they should all be
00:24:12on a level playing field.
00:24:13But that's a discussion for another time.
00:24:16But just super proud of the horse.
00:24:18I thought Umberto Rispoli wrote a world-class race on the occasion.
00:24:23And hopefully this is just step one in what we hope is a monumental sophomore campaign
00:24:28for journalism.
00:24:29Well, Aaron Eclipse is right in the middle of the two most exciting divisions right now
00:24:35in American horse racing, right?
00:24:36With the three-year-olds, journalism and Barnes and sovereignty with what he did.
00:24:41Oh, by the way, Citizen Bull and whoever else might pop up between now and the Kentucky
00:24:46Derby.
00:24:46Then in the older horse division, Fierceness and Sierra Leone and White Abario and Locke,
00:24:52Forever Young.
00:24:53If he makes it back, what does it feel like to be a part of all that?
00:25:00It's what we're in the game for, Randy.
00:25:04It's what our partners put their faith and their hard-earned dollars into the Eclipse
00:25:07program for.
00:25:09We're actually an operation that is predominantly based on Phillies.
00:25:14So to have a top handicap cult like Locke right now is really cool for our partners.
00:25:24And we've got journalism who I think many consider along with Sovereignty and Citizen
00:25:30Bull to be one of the top two, if not three prospects for the Kentucky Derby right now.
00:25:37Touchwood, we've got a long way to go.
00:25:39But we've also got Bilt, who's right there towards the top of the point standings for
00:25:44the Kentucky Derby as well.
00:25:46We went back and did a little research.
00:25:48And for this year's three-year-old cult crop, we only bought 11 three-year-old cults who
00:25:55are now three out of that crop.
00:25:57So to have journalism and Bilt in that category, both towards the top of the Kentucky Derby
00:26:03qualifying ranks is a huge feather in our cap.
00:26:06Just a wonderful experience for our partners to go through, no matter what happens come
00:26:13first Saturday in May.
00:26:15But yeah, it's a real privilege to be associated with these types of animals.
00:26:19It's what we all dream about, is to be connected to brilliance on and off the racetrack.
00:26:27And Locke and journalism and Bilt are certainly in that category.
00:26:32And we've got a few other prospects in the roster right now that are also quite exciting.
00:26:37So it's exciting times for the baby blue and black, and hopefully we could just continue
00:26:41and sustain it.
00:26:42You've got an old guy named There Goes Harvard for the grass races as well.
00:26:45So that's a nice spot to be in.
00:26:48Well, Aaron, welcome to the Boys Club.
00:26:51You've been in the Girls Club for years, and now you've joined the Boys Club.
00:26:56Let's talk about the ownership group with journalism, because when you bought him, he
00:26:59was originally just listed as Eclipse Thoroughbreds.
00:27:03And now it reads like a who's who of horse racing.
00:27:06How did everyone get involved, and when did they get involved?
00:27:10Yeah, it's one of those things.
00:27:12When you go to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, I don't want to downplay it by saying that
00:27:21it's an easy sale to work, because it's boutique in volume, and you've got a lot of time to
00:27:28prepare, perform your due diligence and your inspections, and you've got so much quality
00:27:35to work with pedigree and on the shank.
00:27:39It's just a matter of, can you afford these amazing animals that are on offer up there
00:27:45at Saratoga?
00:27:46And we decided to go it alone last summer when we bought both journalism and a colt
00:27:56called Valentinian, who actually broke his maiden first time out the same day as journalism
00:28:01won the San Felipe on Saturday.
00:28:04They were both big ticket items.
00:28:06We take a few swings every summer at the Keeneland September sale as well for some colts that
00:28:14have that potential stallion making profile.
00:28:18And journalism, A Son of Curlin out of Mopetism, a grade one performer, grade two winner by
00:28:23Uncle Mo, certainly fit the bill physically and on paper.
00:28:26And Valentinian is A Son of Into Mischief out of Rachel's Valentina, a grade one winner
00:28:31out of Rachel Alexandra.
00:28:34So we took some swings for the fences.
00:28:38And obviously, we have a storied history with Bridalwood Farm, the Malone family, their
00:28:43CEO and farm manager, George Isaacs, have been wonderful supporters of Eclipse for a
00:28:48long time.
00:28:49Going back to Taprit when we bought him as a yearling at Fasig Saratoga, ultimately went
00:28:54on to win the Belmont Stakes.
00:28:55And part of that partnership was also Bob LaPenta, longtime owner, New Yorker through
00:29:00and through, but has really started to diversify and spread his holdings throughout the country
00:29:05and into partnerships.
00:29:07So the Taprit partnership was Eclipse, Bridalwood, LaPenta.
00:29:11And once they saw that we signed the ticket for him, it was one of those things where
00:29:18we thought we'd put the band back together.
00:29:20And thankfully, it's worked out so far and hopefully going to take us back to the big
00:29:24dance.
00:29:25And as for Don Alberto, they're the original breeders of journalism.
00:29:29They own the Mare Mopetism.
00:29:30They did the mating to Kerlin.
00:29:33And that just really came about by happenstance.
00:29:36I was walking on Broadway the day after we purchased journalism, and I ran into the Don
00:29:43Alberto team headed up by Reed Ringler and the whole South American contingent.
00:29:48We're talking about it, the purchase, so on and so forth.
00:29:51And we just sort of handshook on the spot that they were going to stay in for a portion
00:29:57of journalism.
00:29:58So it all just sort of came together.
00:30:00The stars align, and hopefully we've got a star on our hands.
00:30:03But if not for our partners at Eclipse that put their faith in us, we would never be able
00:30:08to make purchases like this.
00:30:10And thanks to strategic alignments like Bridalwood and Mr. LaPenta, it's really worked out well.
00:30:17And hopefully he's just getting started.
00:30:20And that's Broadway.
00:30:22Not Broadway Theater District, Manhattan.
00:30:25Correct.
00:30:25Who came up with the name, Aaron?
00:30:28It's a fabulous name.
00:30:30Yeah, so that would be me.
00:30:31Kerlins are not easy to name.
00:30:35We've been really fortunate to have several progeny of Kerlin that have taken us to big
00:30:41heights, starting with Carolina, Point of Honor, Nest, of course.
00:30:46Now we've got a Cole.
00:30:48He was difficult to name.
00:30:49And mopetism, despite a lot of Google and deep dive research, we have no idea what it
00:30:55means.
00:30:56I think it's just a Paul Redham word that he made up.
00:31:01I think Paul is the king of isms.
00:31:04And being a daughter of Uncle Mo, he came up with mopetism.
00:31:08I think.
00:31:08I'm not sure.
00:31:10So we really just landed on, can we come up with a name that ends in ism?
00:31:16And a lot of people accused me of being a disgruntled journalist or sports writer in
00:31:22my own right.
00:31:23And I'm a big fan of free speech and proper journalism, like the three of you all on this
00:31:31podcast.
00:31:32So we just rolled with it.
00:31:34And we're firm believers in strong one word names that have clever connections to pedigree.
00:31:40This one really didn't, other than the ism, but hopefully good names translate into good
00:31:46horses.
00:31:46And we feel like we've got the goods with journalism.
00:31:49Well, Aaron, congratulations on an absolutely terrific afternoon at Santa Anita.
00:31:54Also, the win at Gulfstream Park.
00:31:56We'll be seeing these horses, I'm sure, in the winter circle.
00:31:58As Randy said, it's going to be a tough year because these divisions are very strong, but
00:32:03you certainly fit right in.
00:32:05Thanks so much for joining us as the Gainesway Guests of the Week.
00:32:07Congratulations.
00:32:09On the stud deal with Gainesway, and we'll catch up with you again soon.
00:32:13I hope so.
00:32:13Thanks for all you guys do.
00:32:15And thanks for thinking of Eclipse.
00:32:16Our Guest of the Week, Aaron Willman, was brought to you by Gainesway.
00:32:20The Gainesway Stallion of the Week is McKenzie, the sire of Hopeful and Champagne winner,
00:32:24Chancer McPatrick, scheduled to make his three-year-old debut on Saturday in the Tampa Bay
00:32:30Derby.
00:32:30The connections are hoping Chancer McPatrick emulates his sire.
00:32:34McKenzie turned in 11 triple-digit buyer speed figures in his racing career and was
00:32:40an immediate smash at stud.
00:32:42And it wasn't just Chancer McPatrick.
00:32:44McKenzie finished 2024 as the number one freshman sire in grade one winners, grade one performers,
00:32:51graded stakes winners, and graded stakes performers.
00:32:54And also among those was Scottish Lassie, the nine-length winner of the preset.
00:32:59This year, McKenzie already has four black-tie horses.
00:33:03And McKenzie stands at Gainesway for a fee of $75,000.
00:33:08Gainesway.
00:33:09Power.
00:33:09Passion.
00:33:10Performance.
00:33:17Here comes that big, great Tappet Trice right down the outside.
00:33:23Tappet Trice wins the Toyota Bluegrass.
00:33:26Tappet Trice's 2024 debut was awesome.
00:33:33Tappet Trice is lunging.
00:33:35Tappet Trice wins the Woodward.
00:33:42Back to 50 feet was out of the question.
00:33:44He was an authoritative winner.
00:33:46He set the bar so high as a two-year-old.
00:33:50Champion two-year-old, Irish guineas winner, ran super race in the Eclipse.
00:33:53He's got the constitution of a rhinoceros.
00:33:55He just loves it.
00:33:56Native Trail hits the lead.
00:33:58Native Trail has won the superlative.
00:34:00Native Trail is going to stay up.
00:34:13And welcome to our favorite segment, one of our favorite segments.
00:34:16It's News You Can Use with Emma Berry, the European editor of the TDN.
00:34:20Emma, it's been a little while.
00:34:22How has your winter been?
00:34:23And what's new?
00:34:25Well, it's been soggy and freezing, but I'm happy to say the sun is shining now.
00:34:29And I had a good long walk down Newmarket's Rolling Mile on Sunday,
00:34:33and I'm starting to feel in classic mood.
00:34:36Well, okay.
00:34:37It's interesting you bring that up because one of the things we want to talk about,
00:34:40we all know how the American horses are prepared for the classics.
00:34:44Most of them have two, some have three preps starting in March,
00:34:47maybe a little bit earlier to get them geared up for peak effort.
00:34:52How are the...
00:34:53You have also the classics coming up in England, Ireland, and France.
00:34:58How do the trainers overseas, how do they prepare their horses?
00:35:02It's really kind of varied, actually, depending on the trainer,
00:35:07and pretty different, as you say, to the American buildup,
00:35:11where you've got a much clearer idea already of the road leading in to Churchill Downs.
00:35:16But here, we tend to see less of the classic prospects in the buildup.
00:35:23Some go straight into the 2000 Guineas, for example,
00:35:26the first classic on the first weekend of May, without having run at three.
00:35:30I mean, the Liverpool C have been running at two.
00:35:34And there's been a rise now in trainers
00:35:38using the all-weather surfaces through the winter a little bit more.
00:35:40And we had a very unusual situation last year,
00:35:42when Notable Speech won the 2000 Guineas.
00:35:46He'd run three times, January and through on to May,
00:35:51just at Kempton on the all-weather.
00:35:53And we hadn't seen him as a two-year-old.
00:35:54And I think it's the first time a 2000 Guineas winner
00:35:57had ever not run on the turf first.
00:35:59So that's being used a bit more often.
00:36:02And I think we've seen Charlie Appleby this winter as well,
00:36:05do a similar, trying a similar approach with Opera Ballot,
00:36:08who looks a very exciting colt.
00:36:10He's by Gayath, he's from the first crop of Gayath.
00:36:13And he's won twice at Kempton so far.
00:36:16He's only run twice.
00:36:17He was a TDN Rising Star on his debut, won very impressively.
00:36:21And he's right up there in the betting for the Guineas and for the Derby.
00:36:26So he's one that's sort of Charlie's trying that favoured approach.
00:36:30But Charlie also had the European champion two-year-old of last year,
00:36:36Shadow of Light, who's already a dual group one winner at two.
00:36:41I don't know whether he'll appear in one of the more formal trials,
00:36:44which kind of start from mid-April.
00:36:46Or I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe just has a race course gallop
00:36:49and comes straight into the 2000 Guineas.
00:36:52But he's actually, Charlie Appleby's rather spoiled for choice at the moment.
00:36:57I mean, obviously there are plenty of other big staples
00:37:00with big entries for these classics.
00:37:02But we saw Ruling Court as well on Saturday in Maidan,
00:37:06winning very impressively at the Jumeirah 2000 Guineas.
00:37:09He's by Justify.
00:37:10And again, he's going to be a very interesting horse to follow
00:37:13when he's back in England in the spring.
00:37:17So Emma, after the 2000 Guineas over there,
00:37:19the three-year-old focus then shifts, of course, to the Epsom Derby.
00:37:24The entries for the Epsom Derby are out.
00:37:26They were released last week.
00:37:28We would call them nominations.
00:37:30You'd call them entries.
00:37:32Who is the favourite right now for the Epsom Derby?
00:37:35And what are some of your thoughts on the entries?
00:37:38Well, it won't surprise you to hear that Aidan O'Brien,
00:37:41the winning most trainer at the Derby, has the favourites.
00:37:45The Lion in Winter.
00:37:46He's by See the Stars, who obviously was a Derby winner himself.
00:37:50And the Lion in Winter, we actually haven't seen since last August
00:37:52when he won the Aitken Stakes at York.
00:37:54But he's still at the head of the betting market for the 2000 Guineas and the Derby.
00:38:01Aidan O'Brien has the highest number of entries once again for the Derby.
00:38:05I think he's got 22 of the 90 entries.
00:38:09So we'll see, as things progress over the next months,
00:38:14how that shakes down and which horses he ends up running.
00:38:16He often has more than one runner in that race, as we know.
00:38:20But we've also Riff Beckett.
00:38:24We saw him winning at the Breeders' Cup last November with Starlust.
00:38:28He's got a notable high number of entries in the Derby this year.
00:38:32I think he's got 12 colts in there.
00:38:34And it's going to be also very interesting to see how Wooden Basset fares
00:38:38because he, of the sires with Derby horses, he's got the most.
00:38:45I think he's got about 12 colts entered.
00:38:48So I'm sure Coombe will be hoping to have one of his...
00:38:54He had four, I think, Brute One winning two-year-olds last year.
00:38:58To see one of those step forward when Classic will be high on their wish list,
00:39:05if we should say, for next year.
00:39:09And I was just actually going to note a couple of new training names
00:39:13that might not be so familiar to American listeners.
00:39:19Rafael Freire is a Brazilian trainer based here in Newmarket.
00:39:25He's literally just moved in this weekend to Sir Michael Stout's very famous yard,
00:39:28Freemason Lodge, which was bought by Ammo Racing over the winter.
00:39:32Ammo Racing made a really big splash at the yearling sales last October.
00:39:37And they're going to have a lot of very well-bred, very exciting horses to follow.
00:39:42And Rafael is a young man who's been training for a few years.
00:39:46He has a Derby entry, as does James Owen,
00:39:51another trainer who's making quite a big splash here as well at the moment.
00:39:54He's got four, I think, horses entered.
00:39:56He's going to be someone to watch out for.
00:39:58He's also a very good jumps trainer.
00:39:59He could make a big splash next week at Cheltenham at the festival.
00:40:04But he's also got some notably well-bred horses for the Gredley family.
00:40:09So they're going to be...
00:40:11It might be a bit of a shake-up to the sort of regular Classic order this year,
00:40:15with some new names coming to the fore.
00:40:17Emma, you mentioned Aidan O'Brien with a big stable coming in from Ireland.
00:40:23You mentioned Charlie Appleby from the UK.
00:40:26What about France?
00:40:26I understand there's some French horses, though,
00:40:29that also deserve a second look, or are also right in the thick of things.
00:40:34Yes, there's one colt who really came out
00:40:37and made everyone sit up and take note a couple of weeks ago.
00:40:42He's called Tito Mo Sen,
00:40:43and he's actually a half-brother by Uncle Mo,
00:40:45the late Uncle Mo, sadly now.
00:40:47He's a half-brother to Rematuelle,
00:40:49who I'm sure people will remember,
00:40:51came over to Delmar last November.
00:40:53Was scratched, unfortunately, from the Breeders' Cup.
00:40:56But she's a Group 1 winner for Christopher Head,
00:40:59bred by a Guada Centurion.
00:41:01And now her younger half-brother
00:41:03is actually in training with Victoria Head,
00:41:05who is Christopher's sister.
00:41:08He was made a TDN Rising Star
00:41:10with a very, very impressive debut.
00:41:13I think one by seven lengths on the Chantilly Polytrack.
00:41:17He's certainly gone into a lot of notebooks
00:41:20and has Classic entries for Victoria.
00:41:23There was a lovely filly as well last week,
00:41:25winning for Carlos and Jan Lerner,
00:41:27who had their first Classic victory last year
00:41:30with Luc de Wege in the Prelude Jockey Club.
00:41:33They have a filly named Godspeed by...
00:41:35She's from the first crop of Hellejoomzaen
00:41:38and, again, was a very impressive winner last week.
00:41:41We're going to see a lot more.
00:41:43The turf season's underway in a few weeks here.
00:41:47And, yeah, they've been racing in Cansiomare
00:41:50in the south of France
00:41:51and on the Chantilly Polytrack quite a bit.
00:41:53We're going to start to see some nicer horses
00:41:54coming out in the next few weeks
00:41:56and get a clearer picture
00:41:57of what's going to be happening in the Classics
00:41:59come May and June.
00:42:01Well, Emma, I want to thank you so much
00:42:03for News You Can Use, brought to you by DALI.
00:42:06We'll be having you back soon
00:42:07to keep track of what's going on over in Europe
00:42:10as it's an exciting part of the year for them as well.
00:42:13Once again, thanks, Emma.
00:42:14It's a pleasure. Bye-bye.
00:42:16News You Can Use is brought to you by DALI,
00:42:18and that brings us right to Native Trail.
00:42:21Who does stand at DALI?
00:42:23Native Trail was the undefeated European champion at two
00:42:27and a Classic-winning miler at three.
00:42:29He has 150 infaumeurs in his first book.
00:42:34The infaumeurs include siblings to 117 stakes horses,
00:42:3920 grade one winners, and 41 grade one horses,
00:42:44namely Kind of Blue, Coronet, Pretty Pollyanna,
00:42:48Timepiece, Footsteps in the Sand,
00:42:51Harbour Law, Margot Did, and Belvoir Bay.
00:42:5436 mares from that first book have already produced
00:42:57a stakes winner or a performer, 26 of them at group level.
00:43:03The Irish 2000 Guineas winner is now covering
00:43:06his second crop of mares and is available at DALI
00:43:10for the cheap fee of 16,000 euros.
00:43:14Well, tons of action on the racetrack last weekend,
00:43:17including some very important preps
00:43:19for the Kentucky Derby.
00:43:20Why don't we start in Florida, where the Fountain of Youth
00:43:23was the big race on the card when it comes to derby preps.
00:43:27I was gonna bet sovereignty.
00:43:29I was on the sovereignty bandwagon,
00:43:31and I just kept hearing from Bill Mott,
00:43:33oh, I'd just be glad if he'd be second or third,
00:43:36first race off a layoff, short stretch.
00:43:39So I got off of him and went to River Thames,
00:43:42who ran a tremendous race to be second.
00:43:44Sovereignty looked really good, Randy,
00:43:47and considering all the things that Mott said,
00:43:50you gotta think that he's going to improve.
00:43:52They didn't, afterwards, when on your telecast
00:43:54and the CNBC telecast, they asked him
00:43:56where he was gonna run next.
00:43:57He didn't, he didn't say, he said,
00:43:59that's up to the team that could off him.
00:44:01But obviously, I think it would be the Florida Derby.
00:44:03But I think this horse right now belongs way up
00:44:07on anybody's list based on that race.
00:44:09It was an impressive race.
00:44:11And when Mott says he's gonna do better next time out,
00:44:13you gotta listen.
00:44:14Yeah, I'm really excited
00:44:16about the three-year-olds right now.
00:44:18We've got a lot of things to look forward to
00:44:20in the run to the Kentucky Derby
00:44:22and then in the Derby itself.
00:44:23And I agree with you about Sovereignty and Mott.
00:44:26Mott, his specialty over the years
00:44:28has been bringing horses back off long layoffs
00:44:31to a peak performance first time out.
00:44:34And Mott told us that this was a little bit different
00:44:38because the schedule pretty much forced things.
00:44:42He couldn't wait as long as he wanted to, to run him.
00:44:45He needed to run him in the Fountain of Youth.
00:44:46He needed to get a couple of races into him
00:44:48before the Kentucky Derby.
00:44:49Horse needed points.
00:44:51So his hand was sort of forced to run in that race
00:44:54before he would have really wanted to.
00:44:56He was also concerned about the short stretch,
00:44:59690 feet for Sovereignty,
00:45:02who had done his best running in his previous races
00:45:04once he turned for home.
00:45:06He overcame all that, won anyway.
00:45:08And I think he is looking, you would think,
00:45:11logically at improvement next time out.
00:45:17And not just because of the longer distance,
00:45:19because he'll be one race tighter, Zoe.
00:45:21It was a wow for me with Sovereignty.
00:45:24And, you know, looking at him going down the backside,
00:45:28I could just see this vision of my mind
00:45:30because I talked about how bad he worked the week before
00:45:33and what a bad work horse he was.
00:45:36And the horse that I loved for the day, Chillax,
00:45:39he ran down the field as well.
00:45:41So he'd already run earlier in the day
00:45:43and got beat like a dozen lengths.
00:45:44I'm watching him go down the backside
00:45:46and I'm like, oh God, this is terrible.
00:45:49And as the race unfolded, he just kept picking horses up.
00:45:52He made this wide, sweeping move.
00:45:55He had an honest pace to run into.
00:45:57And you're going to the first wire
00:45:59and I'm thinking, there's no way he's ever going to get there.
00:46:01And he looked like he was leaning in
00:46:03once he got him out of the dirt and he switched leads.
00:46:05This big, glopping stride.
00:46:08It was amazing to watch.
00:46:09And for him to cover that amount of ground
00:46:12in the last 16th of a mile like he did
00:46:15and when going away,
00:46:16because by the time they got to the proper wire,
00:46:20he was way in front.
00:46:21Now, River Thames lost absolutely
00:46:23not a damn thing in defeat.
00:46:25He ran hard the whole way.
00:46:26He got headed.
00:46:28He ran honest fractions.
00:46:30He's a good horse in just his second stop.
00:46:32But Sovereignty, I'm never watching another work of his again
00:46:35because he's a horrible work horse.
00:46:37I could outwork him in the morning.
00:46:39It's like he goes to those PM hours
00:46:41and he's like, oh, it's race time.
00:46:42Don't worry about the morning for him.
00:46:44But wow, that was pretty awesome.
00:46:46And Mott knows the whole family.
00:46:48He trained, the sister just broke her maiden.
00:46:53Actually, she didn't.
00:46:54He's got one sister who is 0 for 8.
00:46:56Four-year-old sister, she's 0 for 8.
00:46:58He trained another one who's now retired.
00:47:01She was like 1 for 13 or something.
00:47:03So he is by far, so far, the best one
00:47:07that crowned his dam has had.
00:47:09And the second dam is, what was her name?
00:47:12I wrote it down here somewhere.
00:47:13Mushka.
00:47:14She was a very, very good race horse that Mott trained.
00:47:17So he's trained the whole family.
00:47:19Mott knows what he's doing.
00:47:20I'm trusting in Mott and I am super excited.
00:47:24Burnham Square is the favorite.
00:47:25It was third, really was not competitive with the top two.
00:47:28So I'd say somewhat of a mild disappointment for him.
00:47:31Filizin going for the triple, excuse me, for the Kentucky Oaks.
00:47:35Met in the Devona, Dale, Randy.
00:47:37The Queens MG is the winner by two and three-quarter lengths
00:47:41over Lacara, who is the favorite.
00:47:43Well, I thought it looked really good coming into this race
00:47:46after winning at Tampa Bay Downs.
00:47:48But considering the outcome of this race and an 80 buyer figure,
00:47:53that's not good.
00:47:55Saffy Joseph wins everything,
00:47:57so he'll probably win the damn Kentucky Oaks.
00:47:59But you can't come out of this race
00:48:02with a lot of confidence in this horse
00:48:04or anyone in the field when the number was that slow.
00:48:07No, I'm drawing a line through the race
00:48:09as a Kentucky Oaks meaningful prep.
00:48:12The Queens MG even got a rail trip and could only run an 80.
00:48:15I was most disappointed in Ballerina Doro
00:48:17because I know Chad Brown was very high on Ballerina Doro.
00:48:22Felt that she was hands down
00:48:24the best three-year-old filly on the East Coast.
00:48:27And I thought she was very disappointing
00:48:29to finish third in there.
00:48:30I mean, she probably needed the race,
00:48:31but again, it's Chad Brown.
00:48:34And with his confidence level going in,
00:48:36you'd have to think the horse was ready.
00:48:37I just didn't like the race at all for any of them.
00:48:40I concur.
00:48:41I will say one thing about the Queens MG.
00:48:43She did it the right way.
00:48:44Now, to me, she's a one-turn sprinter
00:48:46and she's going to be much better
00:48:48or maybe an elongated mile.
00:48:50I like the way that she finished the race.
00:48:52So visually, it was a good race.
00:48:54Numbers-wise, not.
00:48:55What kind of number did Maysam get
00:48:58at Santa Anita for the Santa Isabel?
00:49:00I don't know.
00:49:02I'm sorry.
00:49:02I cannot answer that.
00:49:04Okay, because she only won by a nose
00:49:05over Sadler's filly.
00:49:06But if we're talking three-year-old fillies,
00:49:08you had the Santa Isabel going as well.
00:49:11So she's got points.
00:49:13The other big race at the Gulfstream Park,
00:49:16of among the big races,
00:49:17was the return of Mindframe.
00:49:19One to nine in the Gulfstream Park mile
00:49:22and something that caught a lot of people's attention.
00:49:24Mike Rapoli, who loves to go on Twitter
00:49:27and will express his opinions about a month ago,
00:49:30he said that,
00:49:31I think I have the best three-year-old colt
00:49:33or actually now,
00:49:34before-year-old colt in America
00:49:36and it's not necessarily fierceness.
00:49:39Whoa, wait a minute.
00:49:40Mindframe might be better than fierceness?
00:49:43That's quite a statement.
00:49:45I don't know what we learned from this race.
00:49:47It was one to nine.
00:49:48It was his first race back.
00:49:50I mean, he had such a good campaign
00:49:53running second in the Belmont Stakes
00:49:55out in his third lifetime start.
00:49:57He didn't blow me away.
00:49:59He wasn't bad, wasn't good.
00:50:01I guess they got what they wanted out of it
00:50:03and they'll move on now to bigger and better things.
00:50:05But Mindframe right now is back
00:50:08and it's exciting to see a horse like this.
00:50:10He could have a very big year, Randy.
00:50:12Yeah, I mean, he's still doing
00:50:14sort of the mentally immature kind of things.
00:50:16It looked like he was going to completely blow him away
00:50:18at the top of the stretch
00:50:20and then he went in
00:50:21and then he came out
00:50:22and he did the whole Mindframe unfocused,
00:50:25zigzag kind of thing.
00:50:27And so consequently,
00:50:28he didn't look quite as strong when he crossed the wire,
00:50:31but loads, loads of ability.
00:50:35Nevermind Mindframe.
00:50:36Give me more Tom Brady.
00:50:37Can we bring him to the races every weekend?
00:50:40I mean, that's what we need.
00:50:41Bring that handsome man.
00:50:42Can we get him on the podcast, please?
00:50:44I'm working on it, by the way.
00:50:46The important thing that Ripolli did was bring Tom Brady.
00:50:49Absolutely.
00:50:50We love that.
00:50:51Come on, let's have him.
00:50:53Jason Worth, I'm sorry, Jason.
00:50:54You're hot, but give me Tom Brady.
00:50:57I'll take Tom Brady.
00:50:59That was great.
00:51:01I mean, that was great.
00:51:02That's what the sport needs.
00:51:04It's more people like Tom Brady showing up
00:51:07and coming to the races.
00:51:09Can we get Taylor Swift to come too?
00:51:11How about that?
00:51:12Oh, you're Swifty.
00:51:14Look at you.
00:51:14No, I'm not.
00:51:15I don't know anything about her.
00:51:17Couldn't name one song.
00:51:19I'm sorry.
00:51:20I don't know.
00:51:21There's more to build than meets the eye.
00:51:22You never know.
00:51:24Okay.
00:51:25Well, anyways, we'll see what Mindframe does down the road,
00:51:27but I agree with Randy.
00:51:29It was an okay race.
00:51:31I'm sure he'll improve next time out,
00:51:33and it looks like he can have a big year.
00:51:36Not many Americans made the long haul
00:51:38to the Saudi Cup Day races,
00:51:39but the ones who did ran well,
00:51:41including a pair of Kentucky bread winners.
00:51:44Straight No Chaser took the $2 million redyed dirt sprint,
00:51:47reasserted himself as the best sprinter in the U.S.,
00:51:51and in the $1.5 million Saudi Derby,
00:51:55how about a Kentucky bread exacta halfway around the world?
00:51:58Golden Vekoma won it over the Japanese-based,
00:52:02but Kentucky bread Shin forever.
00:52:05And also, as you would expect,
00:52:07Kentucky bread sovereignty and journalism
00:52:09put a stamp on last weekend's Derby preps.
00:52:11More on journalism in just a minute.
00:52:13San Felipe actually had a Kentucky bread trifecta.
00:52:17Kentucky breads, buy them, raise them, race them.
00:52:20We all win.
00:52:22With some of the fullest fields in the country
00:52:26and quality racing year-round,
00:52:28there's never been a better time to reap the rewards
00:52:31of breeding and racing in Kentucky.
00:52:35Purse money in Kentucky is at an all-time high,
00:52:38as is average purse per race,
00:52:39outpacing California, Florida, and New York.
00:52:44Kentucky breads, breed them, raise them, race them.
00:52:49We all win.
00:52:52Be a smarter better with First TV.
00:52:55The best horses.
00:52:58With thousands of exclusive morning workouts.
00:53:06All at your fingertips and delivered right into your inbox.
00:53:10Everything you need to be informed.
00:53:13Be smart, bet smart, with First TV.
00:53:22The TDN Writers' Room is brought to you by First TV.
00:53:25Last Sunday at Santa Anita,
00:53:27the grade one Del Mar debutante winner, Tenma,
00:53:30worked five furlongs in 102 and three
00:53:32for trainer Bob Baffert.
00:53:34She worked solo and worked very nicely.
00:53:36The Bobby Flay bread Tenma is four for five lifetime
00:53:40and won her 2025 debut
00:53:42in the grade three Fasig-Tipton-Las Virginas states.
00:53:45She is pointing towards the April 5th Santa Anita Oaks.
00:53:49In this week's edition of First Things First,
00:53:52drum roll, please.
00:53:55Here we have Mr. Michael McCarthy.
00:53:57♪♪♪
00:54:01Michael McCarthy, a first win in the San Felipe
00:54:04here with journalism.
00:54:04What does this moment mean to you right now?
00:54:06Yeah, obviously nice to have a horse
00:54:08on the Triple Crown Trail for connections
00:54:11that we've had a lot of success for
00:54:12and obviously some new people involved with the horse as well.
00:54:16You know, it's always great to have a horse.
00:54:19Any type of horse, it's going to take you places
00:54:22and it looks like he's taking himself
00:54:23and everybody else with him.
00:54:27I was fairly confident today.
00:54:28I wouldn't say I was overconfident,
00:54:30but I thought he was doing well enough
00:54:31to go ahead and make some noise today
00:54:32and he certainly did.
00:54:35A little overwhelming, you know,
00:54:37kind of thinking of where this horse could go.
00:54:39But yeah, good performance.
00:54:43But yeah, good performance.
00:54:46Can I read into this that he wasn't 100% cranked
00:54:48and ready for this thing?
00:54:49He was certainly ready,
00:54:51but obviously with a horse with a reputation like Barnes,
00:54:55obviously, you know how good he is.
00:54:58You always wonder if you're good enough.
00:54:59And certainly today, he proved like he was.
00:55:02Michael, how's it to be back in this moment right now
00:55:04celebrating when, you know,
00:55:06you were so personally affected by things
00:55:07at the fires that we had out here earlier this year?
00:55:09Yeah, terrible deal for a lot of people.
00:55:16So we're fine.
00:55:18House is fine.
00:55:20A lot of people have lost everything.
00:55:23So it's all good.
00:55:25It's a little bit of an inconvenience,
00:55:26but yeah, a lot of people were thinking about today.
00:55:29Biggest congratulations to you.
00:55:31Thanks.
00:55:31I think maybe Randy might've got a few more words
00:55:40out of Michael McCarthy or maybe Michelle did
00:55:43post stakes wins.
00:55:45He wound up winning four on the day
00:55:48that Saturday at Santa Anita.
00:55:50Truly a magical day for him.
00:55:52And perhaps next week, he'll win a few more.
00:55:55We do have racing Friday through Sunday next weekend
00:55:58highlighted by the B. Wayne Hughes.
00:56:00Behold the mile.
00:56:01We'll be talking a little bit more about that later on.
00:56:06All right.
00:56:06So let's get back to the three-year-old picture
00:56:08and find out what happened at Santa Anita over the weekend.
00:56:11On Saturday was the San Felipe.
00:56:13And once again, as usual,
00:56:15Bob Baffert seemed to have a couple of aces in his hand
00:56:20with Barnes and of course Rodriguez.
00:56:24I'm sorry, I get that name.
00:56:25I don't like to say Rodriguez because I hate A-Rod.
00:56:27So it gives me the chills every time I have to say that.
00:56:32So it looked like Baffert, again,
00:56:35is going to win this race for the 5,000th time.
00:56:37I was very curious to see how good Barnes would be
00:56:40considering that he was a little bit erratic
00:56:43and then his first start, he was just okay.
00:56:46His second start in the San Vicente, he was very good.
00:56:48But I overlooked journalism, the winner.
00:56:51And he looked like he had a lot of catching up to do
00:56:54to be able to run with the Baffert horses.
00:56:56Now he hadn't run since the Los Alamitos Futurity last year,
00:57:00but his high was an 87 buyer
00:57:02running against these Baffert monsters
00:57:04who just looked faster and looked like they were
00:57:07more in tune to running a big race
00:57:09since they weren't running off a layoff.
00:57:12Zoe Cabman, can we call journalism
00:57:13the best three-year-old in California off this?
00:57:16I liked him going in and I loved him coming out.
00:57:19Now Barnes is a good horse.
00:57:22He did everything right.
00:57:23It looked like he was just going to scamper off
00:57:25because he got a little bit of separation
00:57:27between the rest of the field.
00:57:29Umberto Rispoli rode a brilliant race.
00:57:32He had the horse inside, journalism inside.
00:57:35Going down the backside, he started to feel
00:57:38maybe he wasn't quite so comfortable.
00:57:40He got a good bit of schooling
00:57:42and he got him out just in time.
00:57:44And once he switched leads, it was all over.
00:57:47He won like a good thing, an excellent training job
00:57:50by Michael McCarthy to get him ready off the layoff.
00:57:54And the best is yet to come for journalism.
00:57:57I'm delighted for them.
00:57:58And you know, it's really cool.
00:58:00It's kind of like a cow bred dam as well
00:58:04because we watched Moppetism win many races out here
00:58:07on the left coast as well for trainer Doug O'Neill.
00:58:10So it's good to see her babies.
00:58:12I've seen like all the babies at the sales.
00:58:14I looked at this one.
00:58:15I looked at the most recent one as well.
00:58:17So kudos to Eclipse Thoroughbreds
00:58:19for picking this up for 825,000 as a yearling.
00:58:22And he looks like he has a very bright future.
00:58:26When Magnitude won the Risen Star
00:58:27and got a 108 buyer speed figure,
00:58:29people were like 108 for a three-year-old.
00:58:31Here we go again.
00:58:32Journalism gets a 108 for his win over Barnes.
00:58:36What, I mean, what a three-year-old picture
00:58:37we have right now.
00:58:39Not just journalism, but I mean,
00:58:41if journalism hadn't been in the race,
00:58:42Barnes wins that race by 10 lengths.
00:58:45And that's all anybody's talking about.
00:58:47And then you've got sovereignty.
00:58:48And oh, what about poor Citizen Bull?
00:58:50Nobody's even talking about Citizen Bull right now.
00:58:53And then you got a lot of these others as well.
00:58:55Brad Cox has got several of them in his barn
00:58:57that have looked pretty good,
00:58:58including the winner of the Gotham.
00:59:00So we've got a lot, I think,
00:59:02of really nice three-year-olds this year
00:59:04and something we can all kind of really get our,
00:59:06sink our teeth into in this next month or so.
00:59:09Oh, I've got one question.
00:59:12Are we missing something?
00:59:14What about Todd's three-year-olds?
00:59:16Now he didn't light things up
00:59:17with his two-year-olds last year.
00:59:19Has that just kind of slid into his three-year-olds?
00:59:22Yeah, it looks like he's got River Thames
00:59:24and I don't know about anything else,
00:59:27unless he's got something.
00:59:28He had a very nice maiden winner during the week,
00:59:31Grande, right?
00:59:33He also had Disturbed, Undisturbed.
00:59:36On the undercard, right.
00:59:37On the undercard, okay.
00:59:39And they catch up.
00:59:40I mean, it's asking an awful lot.
00:59:42So no, Pletcher for Pletcher
00:59:45is definitely not loaded this year.
00:59:47Randy, back to journalism,
00:59:48there's a kind of a school of thought
00:59:50that sometimes a horse can run too fast
00:59:53for his own good.
00:59:54Right.
00:59:54And is that something that you believe in?
00:59:57And could that be something
00:59:58that catches up with journalism?
01:00:03Bill, it's something that I never did believe in.
01:00:05I'm starting to believe in it more and more now
01:00:07when you see a horse like Magnitude.
01:00:09Magnitude, right.
01:00:09Run like he ran.
01:00:10And it's not just Magnitude.
01:00:12Nysos last year, right,
01:00:14was breaking watches with all these big numbers
01:00:16and we haven't seen him run back since.
01:00:19To me, that's a bit of a concern.
01:00:23But journalism had run well before this.
01:00:25It might not have been reflected necessarily
01:00:27in the buyer's speed figures.
01:00:28I think we said this last week on the podcast.
01:00:30I know I said it on NBC.
01:00:32A lot of that two to five on Barnes was potential.
01:00:36People look at the yearling price.
01:00:38People look at the fact
01:00:39that he's trained by Bob Baffert.
01:00:41People look at the fact that he's two for two.
01:00:43But honestly, if you watched journalism's races on video
01:00:47and then you watched Barnes' races,
01:00:49not a lot of difference between the two.
01:00:52So I thought the jury was still out
01:00:53as to whether Barnes was good enough,
01:00:56actual performance on the racetrack
01:00:58and not potential,
01:00:59whether he was good enough to be journalism.
01:01:01And he ran the race of his life,
01:01:02but just wasn't good enough.
01:01:05The big cap, Locke, the favorite.
01:01:07Wow, what a big race he ran
01:01:09after also running a big race in the Pegasus World Cup
01:01:12where he had trouble at the start,
01:01:13finished second behind Nwada Berio.
01:01:15I think it's kind of cool
01:01:17that they could have gone to Saudi Arabia
01:01:20and the big cap we all know isn't what it used to be.
01:01:23But it looks like the connections thought,
01:01:26we're going to stay home.
01:01:27We're going to go for a race
01:01:28that still has a lot of prestige.
01:01:30The purse be damned.
01:01:31We're going to go out to California
01:01:33and become the big cap winner
01:01:34and add that to his resume.
01:01:36Not only did he get it done,
01:01:38he got it done by eight and a half lengths.
01:01:40Very impressive race, Randy.
01:01:43Oh man, a tremendously impressive race.
01:01:45You always kind of suspected
01:01:47that that sort of performance was no pun intended.
01:01:50It was locked in there somewhere.
01:01:51You just had to get it out.
01:01:53Blinkers might've had something to do with that.
01:01:55Todd added the blinkers,
01:01:56but the horse just, I mean, just ran out of the TV.
01:01:58And you talk about the three-year-olds
01:02:01we can get excited about.
01:02:02What about the older horses?
01:02:03You've still got Fierceness and Sierra Leone
01:02:05sitting out there.
01:02:05You've got Nwada Berio who ran his 109
01:02:08in the Pegasus World Cup.
01:02:09Now you've got Locke.
01:02:10Oh, by the way, you've got Forever Young
01:02:13who's being pointed for the Breeders' Cup Classic
01:02:15at the end of the year, the way he ran in Saudi.
01:02:18We know from experience, the odds are very slim
01:02:22that all of those horses are going to make it
01:02:24all the way to the Breeders' Cup
01:02:25without something going wrong.
01:02:27But man, they're loaded in that particular division.
01:02:32Watching his performance,
01:02:33do you feel if he'd have got off to a fast start
01:02:36down there at Goldstream,
01:02:37he would have beaten Nwada Berio?
01:02:40No, I don't think Nwada Berio still won by a length of,
01:02:44well, he still won by six or seven lengths.
01:02:45I don't think Locke lost six or seven lengths at the start,
01:02:49but take nothing away from him.
01:02:50That was a tremendous performance
01:02:52and it was a tip-off for what was to come.
01:02:54Well, let's talk about what's coming up this weekend.
01:02:57And the big story, of course, is Azeri is going to run in the,
01:03:00not Azeri, the Torpedo Anna is going to run in the Azeri.
01:03:04Not Azeri going to run in the Torpedo Anna.
01:03:07It's so exciting to see her come back.
01:03:10I don't really know what she's going to prove in this race.
01:03:13She just towers over the field.
01:03:15It's a starting point.
01:03:17The Apple Blossom, I assume, will be tougher.
01:03:19Then we'll see what Kenny McPeak does afterwards.
01:03:23It's always fun to just guess.
01:03:27You can pretty much guarantee that he'll do something
01:03:30outside the box,
01:03:31whether it's running the Whitney
01:03:32or the Breeders' Cup Classic.
01:03:34But she was such a good story last year.
01:03:37And she's going to be one to five.
01:03:40She's going to go out, probably get the job done
01:03:42and move on.
01:03:43But it's a good starting point for Zoe.
01:03:46It's a good starting point.
01:03:47You're exactly right, because
01:03:51I don't see anyone in there that can beat her,
01:03:53to be perfectly honest.
01:03:54She draws the rail.
01:03:55She's got speed.
01:03:56So I'm sure they're going to utilize that
01:03:58just to get her out of trouble.
01:04:00And it's going to be a big pull for Oaklawn Park
01:04:03to have a run there.
01:04:04It would have been nicer if there had been
01:04:06a few more top-class mares to run against her.
01:04:08But you can only beat who's up against you.
01:04:12Other big races over the weekend
01:04:14is the Tampa Bay Derby,
01:04:15which is the return of Chancellor McPatrick
01:04:18for Chad Brown.
01:04:19He won last year the Champagne and the Hopal
01:04:22and was sixth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
01:04:24And Chad also has a horse in there
01:04:26by the name of Hill Road,
01:04:28who was turned over to him
01:04:29by the European Connections,
01:04:31by Foreign Connections,
01:04:32after running third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
01:04:35Chancellor McPatrick,
01:04:37I think you can give him...
01:04:38Sometimes horses just don't run
01:04:40in the Breeders' Cup for whatever reason.
01:04:43But he's a two-time grade one winner.
01:04:46Class-wise, he towers over the field.
01:04:49Will be interesting to see how Hill Road does.
01:04:51But Chancellor McPatrick
01:04:53will likely be the big favorite in this.
01:04:56Let's see, Randy,
01:04:56if he can take his first step on the campaign
01:04:59on the way to the Kentucky Derby
01:05:01and join the elite horses
01:05:04you've been talking about,
01:05:05all the big three-year-olds out there.
01:05:06Maybe you'll be talking about him next week.
01:05:08Tell you what, it's tough for me though, Bill,
01:05:11to look at the Breeders' Cup Juvenile
01:05:12and take Chancellor McPatrick over Hill Road.
01:05:15I mean, Hill Road blew his doors off.
01:05:17And Hill Road was going fastest of all
01:05:20at the finish in his very first start on dirt.
01:05:23I wondered what had happened to him.
01:05:24We talked to Chad Brown this past weekend
01:05:26about the horse that he had in the Honey Fox.
01:05:30And then later on, I'm like,
01:05:32oh, wait a second.
01:05:33And so I texted Chad.
01:05:34I said, what's going on with Hill Road?
01:05:36And he said, he works tomorrow morning.
01:05:39That's Saturday morning.
01:05:40And if he works well,
01:05:42then we're thinking about the Tampa Bay Derby.
01:05:44So I texted him back mid-morning Saturday,
01:05:47how'd the horse work?
01:05:48Excellent.
01:05:50So, I mean, to me, he's the horse to beat in there.
01:05:57He could well be.
01:05:57It'll be interesting to see what Chancellor McPatrick
01:06:00does with the blinkers on
01:06:01because he's an inherently slow breaker,
01:06:05seems to find trouble wherever he goes
01:06:07because he's got to wheedle through horses.
01:06:09He does get Pratt.
01:06:10I know that Pratt's excited to go down there.
01:06:12Chad's got a very, very busy day
01:06:14on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
01:06:17But Hill Road, he came out of the Breeders' Cup
01:06:20with some bone remodeling and some sore feet.
01:06:22So Chad's been working with that
01:06:24over the course of the winter.
01:06:26And it'll be really interesting
01:06:27to see how he moves forward
01:06:29because if he can move forward
01:06:31off that third place finish,
01:06:32he will be a force to be reckoned with.
01:06:34That is for sure.
01:06:34But I'm still intrigued with Chancellor McPatrick
01:06:37with the blinkers on.
01:06:38Hopefully that does the trick.
01:06:40His works have looked good down there at Payson Park.
01:06:44Zoe, on your home turf at Santa Anita on Saturday
01:06:46is the grade one beholder, Mile.
01:06:48Can you tell us who's going to go in there
01:06:50and some of your thoughts?
01:06:51I can tell you.
01:06:53I've got to pull it up first, though.
01:06:54Hold on just one second.
01:06:56I had it a minute ago.
01:06:58I'll take Richie,
01:07:00trained by Bob Gafford from Post Position Number One.
01:07:03Save all the ground.
01:07:03Big numbers.
01:07:05Richie for me.
01:07:06OK.
01:07:07Copion beat her last time out in the Santa Monica
01:07:10with that 110 by a speed figure, like you mentioned.
01:07:13We're all surprised to see who's your filly in there.
01:07:15Are we not?
01:07:16A five-year-old mare by intermischief.
01:07:19She's still cracking on.
01:07:20She just was third at Houston.
01:07:24I have to go with the Cavalieri
01:07:26for Hall of Fame of Bob Gafford.
01:07:28She's a filly who's never overly impressive
01:07:30when you watch her,
01:07:31but she just keeps on coming.
01:07:34This is a race where there's going to be
01:07:35plenty of speed in here as well.
01:07:37So I don't know if JJ can take her off the pace.
01:07:40Richie is liable to be up on the pace with who's your filly.
01:07:44Perhaps Cavalieri can sit a pocket trip behind them.
01:07:48The TD and Riders Room also brought to you
01:07:50by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, the PHBA.
01:07:53And as breeding season gets underway,
01:07:55we're featuring a segment that we like to call
01:07:57Meet the Pennsylvania Stallion.
01:08:00In this case, our focus is on three stallions
01:08:03at the Equistar Training and Breeding.
01:08:05Zozos is new for 2025.
01:08:08Zozos was a graded stakes-winning
01:08:10grade one placed runner for Brad Cox,
01:08:12who finished second in the Louisiana Derby.
01:08:14Zozos won seven of his 15 starts,
01:08:17earned over a million dollars,
01:08:18and stands for an initial stud fee of $2,500.
01:08:22Also at Equistar, Brody's Cause,
01:08:25the sire of two graded stakes winners,
01:08:26six black-type winners, and nine black-type horses,
01:08:30including Calypso, Appealing Addy, and Sitting on Go,
01:08:32Brody's Cause stands for $3,500.
01:08:36And last, but most certainly not least,
01:08:40Equistar is also home to Smarty Jones,
01:08:43now a new nominee to the Racing Hall of Fame.
01:08:46Smarty Jones is also standing for a fee of $3,500.
01:08:50To learn more, visit pabred.com
01:08:53or call 610-444-1050.
01:08:59He did it with his eyes shut.
01:09:01For those of you just listening,
01:09:02he did it with his eyes closed.
01:09:04That's how well he knows the number.
01:09:10PA Bred, I think we've built a brand at this point.
01:09:14It's excitement at every step.
01:09:17Roses for Deborah just set a new track record.
01:09:20On average, for the past decade,
01:09:22Pennsylvania paid over $28 million a year
01:09:25in breeders' awards, restricted races, and owner bonuses.
01:09:29Plus, PA Bred shined on the world's biggest stage.
01:09:32Just three states have bred more Breeders' Cup winners.
01:09:35Learn more at pabred.com.
01:09:39All the thrills.
01:09:43Fraction of the bills.
01:09:48Experience the power of the partnership.
01:09:51Change your life, make new friends,
01:09:55and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing.
01:10:00West Point Thoroughbreds,
01:10:02the gold standard in racing partnerships.
01:10:04Visit westpointtb.com.
01:10:08The TDN Writer's Room, brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds.
01:10:14West Point three-year-old alert.
01:10:16Statesman, another well-named son of Constitution,
01:10:19needed four starts to get his bearings
01:10:21and break his maiden for trainer Suge McGahee.
01:10:23But now Statesman has gone back to back.
01:10:26He came back and took an allowance race
01:10:28at Tampa Bay Nouns at one to five odds.
01:10:30And now Statesman is being pointed for the Wood Memorial.
01:10:33Meanwhile, Suge is also preparing, get this,
01:10:36what promises to be his first ever starter in Dubai.
01:10:41How about that?
01:10:42West Point's Pegasus World Cup turf runner-up integration
01:10:47is now targeting the $5 million Dubai turf
01:10:50on World Cup night on April 5th at Maidan for Suge.
01:10:58That's a wrap on this week's show.
01:11:00I want to thank my co-hosts, Randy Moss and Zoe Cabin.
01:11:04I want to thank our guests of the week,
01:11:05our Gainesway guests of the week, Aaron Wellman,
01:11:07as well as our producers, Sue Finley, Katie Petruniak,
01:11:11Anthony LaRocca, and Aaliyah LaRocca.
01:11:13It's going to be a great weekend of racing.
01:11:14Hope you enjoy it.
01:11:15We'll talk to you next week.