Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00:00For the love of the horse. For generations to come.
00:00:23Welcome to another edition of the TDN Writer's Room presented by Keeneland. I'm Zoe Catman
00:00:33and I am in a small little room but I'm in South Florida in Ocala awaiting the OBS sale.
00:00:40Randy looks like you're home for once. I am where I usually am Zoe when we do the podcast
00:00:46here in my home office in suburban Minneapolis. Randy Moss with NBC Sports. TD Thornton I'm
00:00:52a correspondent for Thoroughbred Daily News speaking to you from a little north of Boston
00:00:57today filling in for Bill Finley who's on assignment. Where is Bill? Assignment? Is
00:01:03that a secret assignment we don't know about? I think that's a euphemism for he's at spring
00:01:07training for the Red Sox. The truth comes out. Finally TD speaks the truth. All right
00:01:16guys well let's get right into it and talk about the Azari stakes at Hot Springs Arkansas
00:01:22and Thorpedo Anna came out with a 95 by a speed figure. Now when I first initially watched the
00:01:28race I was like oh you know who did she beat? A mare by El Deal. She's a Louisiana bred but
00:01:35I looked into her a little bit closer. She's a good mare. She's won 21 of 47 lifetime starts
00:01:41good for 2.1 million. So yes she's never won a great estate but she's a hard-knocking old mare.
00:01:48Randy what did you think of the performance from Thorpedo Anna? Free like a girl is the number one
00:01:53all-time earner among Louisiana breds. Ironically she made her national reputation and I'm talking
00:02:01about free like a girl here and not Thorpedo Anna. I'll get to the you know I'm not burying
00:02:06the lead or anything but free like a girl ran against Idiomatic and Idiomatic's first start
00:02:15of the year after she won an eclipse award and came within about that far of beating her.
00:02:20It took her all the way down to the wire and and just lost a close one. So free like a girl's a
00:02:24good horse. I thought it was a nice comeback race for Thorpedo Anna. You know she didn't run a huge
00:02:31big number first time off the layoff but it was designed to be a prep for the Apple Blossom
00:02:37coming up at Oaklawn scheduled to be her next start. And I thought that she got pretty much
00:02:44what trainer Ken McPeak and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. wanted her to get out of it.
00:02:50Yeah she didn't have to uncork a blowout performance but it was still a nice try for
00:02:54the reigning horse of the year coming back first time off of the layoff. I think the thing that I
00:02:59keyed in on after the race where it was Kenny McPeak's comments about how calm she was pre-race.
00:03:06There were a few instances last year maybe in some more warmer weather climates it was a little
00:03:11cool that day at Oaklawn on Saturday but there were some instances last year where she got a
00:03:16little hot and bothered during the post parade and pre-race warm-ups and she was also breaking
00:03:21from the rail in the Azeri. That's something she'd only done one other previous time in her career.
00:03:27It was in the Travers Stakes when she raced against the boys. She came out a little bit
00:03:31sideways brushed against the side of the gate. She ended up losing that afternoon just barely
00:03:37getting beat in a gallant effort behind fierceness. However you know this showed a new dimension of
00:03:43her. She was a little more calm and collected and don't forget before the Azeri there was also
00:03:48another horse who was acting up in the gate. They had to back the field out and reload and she kept
00:03:53her composure through that as well. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to ex-jockey
00:03:58Robbie Alvarado who was galloping her up to the Oaks and has been back on her this year.
00:04:06It is night and day watching her train in the morning. She is so relaxed, so composed, nice long
00:04:13rein. Whatever you want to say about Robbie and I love Robbie. He is an excellent hand on the horse.
00:04:18He just gets on with her so darn well. I think it's made all the difference. Randy?
00:04:24Yeah well the horse that TD was referring to that was scratched in the starting gate
00:04:28was the horse that was expected to set the pace. So Brian Hernandez Jr. and Julian Lepereau were
00:04:34both when that horse was scratched you know seconds before they load back in. They're
00:04:40recalibrating the strategy in their mind and what they're going to do. Hernandez had expected to
00:04:46stalk the other horse. Now he expected to be on the lead. Julian Lepereau said well if Torpedo
00:04:51Ann is going to be on the lead and it looks like she will I got to be right on her right on her
00:04:56hip. That's the only chance I have. So the whole race dynamic kind of got changed a little bit
00:05:02and it was kind of interesting also Brian Hernandez Jr.'s post-race comments. He said that
00:05:09midway around the second turn he kind of looked over and saw he knew that it was free like a girl
00:05:15and he knew that she had made 2.1 million and he knew that she had almost beaten Idiomatic.
00:05:20So he said I need to separate from her. I don't want to get into a dog fight because she's pretty
00:05:25game. So he tried to get Torpedo Anna to separate and she didn't and for a second there turning for
00:05:31home he's like uh-oh and then at the 3.16 pole suddenly she switched leads and then she went on
00:05:39with it and separated nicely. So it was a nice it was a nice prep for Torpedo Anna. I believe that
00:05:45is the correct word a nice prep and it looks like free like a girl and Torpedo Anna will meet again
00:05:51in the grade one at the Blossom. All right guys let's switch gears and move down to Tampa. Fabulous
00:05:55day of racing down there for the Tampa Bay Derby. One of my favorite days of the year of racing
00:06:01at Tampa. What do we think of Owen Almighty wire to wire for Brian Lynch for the Lynch mob?
00:06:10Well you know there's I think in the immediate aftermath of the race I looked at it and said
00:06:15the two favorites Patch Adams and Chancellor McPatrick really did not fire their best race
00:06:20and crafty Irad Ortiz left on the lead just ran them off their feet. However upon a deeper look
00:06:28at it and when I was preparing my notes for the show I looked at it again and this it really was
00:06:33a nice ride by Irad on a compact speed oriented colt. He's all business responded to different
00:06:40types of rousing through the race. He was handwritten at first urged a little bit more
00:06:45on the turn and then really produced a nice extra gear almost when he didn't even have to late in
00:06:50the lane when he was opening up. My question however is you know look at his final time
00:06:56it came back as as 142.30 decent time for a mile and a 16th. In fact there was only there has only
00:07:03been one faster clocking in the 44 year history of the Tampa Bay Derby that was Tacitus who went
00:07:11141.90 back in 2019. So it historically came back as a very fast time but I sometimes question I
00:07:19don't have full evidence of this because I only see I only look at and pay attention to the
00:07:24internal fractions of Tampa races for some of their bigger stakes but I see a lot of fourth
00:07:29quarters coming back abnormally quick that it makes me question it and I'm having a little
00:07:34hard time believing that the 23.92 fourth quarter split that Owen Almighty produced
00:07:42is accurate. If it is accurate it's only 0.08 seconds slower than he ran his first opening
00:07:47quarter and he finished up a final 16th in 5.84 seconds. I went back through three years of charts
00:07:55of all the the derby points awarding prep races and that was the fastest final 16th in the past
00:08:02three years could have even been longer I only had time to go back through three years worth of charts
00:08:07but it was a nice effort I'm having a little bit of a difficult time swallowing if those numbers
00:08:11are accurate though. Brian Lynch, Brian Lynch screw the Pat Day mile you're going to the Derby
00:08:17listen to TD. That's the other interesting part of this there's a couple more interesting parts
00:08:24first of all about what TD is talking about the time is accurate the closing fractions are
00:08:29accurate the racetrack surface was extraordinarily fast which means that the pace that Owen Almighty
00:08:39set on that type of a racing surface was slow it was a for some reason he got away it looked like
00:08:48there was some other speed in the race but he got away with very easy fractions on that kind of a
00:08:53racing surface that's why he was able to finish so fast. Now what Zoe points out that's going to
00:08:59be fascinating because Brian Lynch had you know all but set in stone before the race that this
00:09:04was a prep for the Pat Day mile it was not a prep for the Kentucky Derby but the way he won the way
00:09:09he finished the buyer was only a 92 because of how fast the racing surface was right. Skippy
00:09:15Longstocking ran a buyer in the challenger stakes earlier on the card 11 points faster so it wasn't
00:09:23a fast time by that metric but they're still I think debating on what to do next. The other
00:09:29interesting part to me is the ownership Travis Boersma is a guy I know you've probably run into
00:09:36him Zoe at the sales who with his brother co-founded Dutch Brothers Coffee way back in
00:09:451992 in Grants Pass Oregon. It has evolved into a billion dollar company Travis Boersma went public
00:09:54with it in 2021. Growing up in Grants Pass where there was Grants Pass downs he went to the racetrack
00:10:01with his father and grandfather as a kid became a huge horse racing fan and once he got all that
00:10:06money when the company went public he decided by gosh I'm going to step up my involvement in the
00:10:10thoroughbred business. He had a couple claiming horses whatever he spent millions of dollars
00:10:15sales in Kentucky on mares on racing prospects and now Boersma under the banner of flying
00:10:23Dutchman breeding and racing has his first you know legitimate Kentucky Derby contender assuming
00:10:31that's the route they choose to go. So it's a nice it's nice to have someone like that
00:10:35spending the money that he spent relative newcomer to the business 2015 is when he first
00:10:41got involved in owning horses having success like that. And it used to be Board Shorts Stable
00:10:48was the tag name because I can remember interviewing the kids at Santa Anita when they
00:10:53had runners out there they were all in board shorts and they were all in flip-flops. It was
00:10:58really refreshing and very awesome. One point that we need to carry on with as well here
00:11:04Chancellor McPatrick with the blinkers on I thought he ran well do we think maybe didn't
00:11:10have the same kind of punch because he was closer what are your thoughts Randy on Chancellor
00:11:14McPatrick? I just don't think he's that good Zoe. I mean it looked like it's my opinion
00:11:20you know the it was a slow pace but he was right there he was in the pocket a couple
00:11:25lengths back maybe had to wait a little bit coming to the top of the stretch but he got out and he
00:11:30certainly wasn't going to make up any ground on that closing quarter the TD reference that
00:11:35Owen Almighty ran. I was very disappointed in the way he ran I was very disappointed
00:11:42in Chad's other horse Hill Road. He ran so well in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile to finish third
00:11:48he didn't change leads again the pace didn't help him he was last early and it was his first start
00:11:54of the year so he'll get another chance at a prep I'm assuming but those horses are going to have
00:11:59to really step up and run a lot better. And remember too if the winners connections do stick
00:12:03to their original plan and aim for the Pat Day mile that was a strategy that worked out pretty
00:12:08well for Seas the Gray last year he parlayed that into a win in the Preakness. Good point good point
00:12:14indeed okay TD grade three Florida Oaks run on turf went to our old friend DJ Stable with Nitrogen
00:12:22your thoughts on this run? I think Nitrogen made a little more work for herself and maybe had to
00:12:27make the betters sweat it out at three to two a little bit there she ran into a bit of a pocket
00:12:33leaving the clubhouse turn and going on to the backstretch Jose Ortiz got her settled down put
00:12:38her into stock mode just sitting right off of the shoulder of the pacemaker and really kicked into
00:12:44a nice gear on the far turn he had to give her a couple of cracks of the crop at the quarter pole
00:12:50but Jose did a nice job of keeping her focused through the lane there was some shifting and
00:12:55drifting a little bit of lateral movement there but that's pretty understandable because Nitrogen
00:13:00was just a maiden breaking filly in her last start she had broken her maiden in a stakes
00:13:05race at Gulfstream Park so she's a little maybe back on the learning curve but she moved forward
00:13:10with that effort I think. Yeah you know what I thought was cool guys yeah I had it on Tampa
00:13:16Bay Downs all afternoon long just because of the Tampa Bay Derby right so I watched Nitrogen's race
00:13:21and lo and behold there's our old friend Lynn Green who sponsored this podcast for so many years
00:13:28leading Nitrogen into the winner's circle with a big smile on his face you know he and John obviously
00:13:34operate DJ Stable and they've had so much success the Stable's going great guns right now
00:13:39and it was really cool to see Lynn getting to enjoy that being at the track in Tampa
00:13:44and leading Nitrogen in there she's now two for two this year and looks like she's got a promising
00:13:49career ahead of her on the grass. And that's what's so cool about this sport that people even
00:13:54with millions and millions of dollars not specifically talking about Lynn Green but you
00:13:59know we see it all the time with Ripolli there's nothing like leading your horse into the winner's
00:14:04circle you can't pay enough money to get that opportunity. I do want to remind you as always
00:14:11the TDN Writer's Room is brought to you by Keeneland it was a big weekend of racing and a
00:14:16big weekend for Keeneland grads. This weekend alone Keeneland September graduates Cavallari
00:14:23won the grade one behold the mile, Saffron Moon won the grade two Hillsborough at Tampa Bay
00:14:29and then good old Skippy Longstocking set a stakes and track record in the grade three
00:14:35Michelob ultra challenge stakes that was the third time he's won that race absolutely amazing that
00:14:41was also at Tampa Bay Downs. November graduate Owen Almighty scored an outstanding win as well
00:14:48in the Tampa Bay Derby. We'll be right back after this message from Keeneland.
00:14:53So catching Leslie's Rose Sierra Leo Mike five million dollars thank you
00:15:10Carl Spackler a mercy she feels pretty
00:15:24This week's fastest horse of the week brought to you by Timberlake one of those fast sires
00:15:29at Windstar Farm we know how good into mischief is we know how good the sons of into mischief are
00:15:34but Timberlake is the only son of into mischief that you can say these three things about
00:15:41Timberlake was a TDN Rising Star one he had a grade one win as a two-year-old two and he also
00:15:49had a graded stakes win in his three-year-old debut Timberlake also if you want to throw a
00:15:55fourth thing in there was a TDN silver value sire he stands for just twenty thousand dollars
00:16:02at Windstar Farm now our fastest horse of the week we alluded to him a minute ago
00:16:07Skippy Longstocking who won the challenger stakes on the Tampa Bay Derby undercard for a
00:16:13third consecutive year he's a remarkable horse Skippy is they only paid thirty seven thousand
00:16:18dollars for him at Ocala as a two-year-old he's now knocked out three and a half million dollars
00:16:23he's yet to win a grade one he's 0 for 10 in grade one competition but he has eight
00:16:27grade two or grade three stakes wins such as the challenger on Saturday he beat Most Wanted
00:16:33an up-and-coming horse in the Brad Cox stable in the older horse division nice win for Skippy
00:16:38Longstocking fire speed figure the best of the week 103.
00:16:48It is now time for the Gainesville guest of the week and I'm very happy to introduce Maggie Sweet
00:16:53she is the executive director for the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Maggie how are you doing
00:16:58today thanks thanks for joining us. Hi thanks for having me Zoe I'm doing well how are you?
00:17:05Great here in Ocala what what could possibly be better than that all right let's let's get on and
00:17:11just discuss what's been going on with you and the TRF what's one of the biggest challenges
00:17:18you've come across since joining the TRF because you went from working for Todd Pletcher for
00:17:24decades as his COO handling million dollar horses to now handling retired horses for the rest of
00:17:31their lives. Yes I think the thing you hit on there was for the rest of their lives yeah they
00:17:41I would say with Todd by the time they were five they were definitely off to a second career
00:17:50here at the TRF I would say we don't get the first ones we get are at five the average age
00:17:57of the herd is 21 so that's there's a lot of years that happen after the racetrack where they
00:18:03need to be taken care of I think that's one of the biggest learning curves. Did you realize it was
00:18:08such a big undertaking when you first went to the TRF or is this something that you've learned over
00:18:14the course of the time you've been there and were like oh my goodness there's so much more to this?
00:18:19I would say it's definitely 2024 was it was a huge year of learning for me
00:18:24you almost have to be involved in an organization throughout an entire year before you see every
00:18:31facet of it I think and every nuance so 2024 was the big learning year. One thing that we did and
00:18:38we actually just finished it was strategic planning so we spent six months doing strategic
00:18:42planning and one of the main conclusions is that the TRF needs to educate the racing industry
00:18:52about who the TRF is what exactly we do how we're different from other aftercare organizations and
00:19:00why you should support us. Maggie I understand that one of the key aspects that did come out
00:19:07of that six months of strategic planning was that specifically when you drill down that
00:19:12educational effort one of the things that you guys found was that the industry needs to be
00:19:19more in tune with the realities of lifetime care for these horses could you touch on that a little
00:19:24bit please? Sure yeah so the strategic planning it we have a really good board and we have a really
00:19:32good staff and it's a lot of you know passionate people much like you find in the industry it's
00:19:38usually people with a lot of passion and feeling for what they do and we realize that what we are
00:19:46feeling is not being conveyed properly to the industry so we're the only national organization
00:19:52that accepts retired racehorses for lifetime care dignified lifetime care. I think owners trainers
00:20:01breeders the lifeline of a horse they tend to be as I said before like up until about you know age
00:20:07five and when a horse is no longer able to compete on the racetrack or when a horse is just not going
00:20:15to be a racehorse you know your first instinct is and this is me too when I was with Todd was
00:20:21okay let's get this horse you know let's get this horse out of the right off the racetrack into a
00:20:28different place move on to a second career and I've watched that change over the years with Todd
00:20:34you know that used to be a difficult thing to find a second home for a horse and now it's become
00:20:38much more matter of course but I think what most of the industry participants have in their mind
00:20:45is the re-home re-retrain re-home model of it which is a much shorter stay therefore a whole
00:20:55lot less money than it costs to take a horse and keep it for 25 years I mean our cost our cost per
00:21:03year if even if you budget at three thousand dollars per year twenty five thousand or twenty
00:21:09years that's seventy five thousand dollars and I think other organizations have done a better job
00:21:15of telling their story and so the industry has this the industry thinks that you know it costs
00:21:23three thousand dollars to to re-home your horse but it it actually costs it can cost seventy
00:21:29five thousand and that's something that we're trying to get across. For the layman that's
00:21:35listening can you just explain the kind of horses that you're keeping so the TRF will keep horses
00:21:42that nobody else wants so you've got a very comfortable that I'm just going to phrase this
00:21:46like a three-legged horse that's quite happy being a three-legged horse the TRF takes this
00:21:51horse and keeps it for a lifetime. Well I think one distinction that we do also need to make is
00:21:58that we often get horses who have been through a number of other aftercare organizations I think
00:22:04the ideal timeline of a horse is you know say five years on the racetrack then you go on to a
00:22:10second athletic career then maybe you step down to you know you're a lesson horse and then you've
00:22:17got a 15 year old who suddenly there's no place for that horse to go and the horse still has 15
00:22:22years of life that is one example of a horse that the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation takes often.
00:22:29Another example is the horse that at age five can no longer compete on the racetrack
00:22:33is not sound enough for a second athletic career and then that's you know the 25 years that the TRF
00:22:4025 years of dignified lifetime care that we are committing to. Maggie some of those horses that
00:22:46do require the lifetime care actually they all require lifetime care but the ones that require
00:22:50the extended lifetime care in the way that you just mentioned they go to your Second Chances
00:22:56program which is a collection of eight correctional facilities. TRF is well known for this program
00:23:03it gives a second career to horses it gives a second chance at life to inmates who I understand
00:23:09aren't within your program called inmates they're students because they're learning a vocation that
00:23:13will help them once they do get released from that correctional facility. Touch on that a little bit
00:23:19and one thing I was a little surprised to learn I knew about the eight correctional facilities I
00:23:24didn't realize one of them was for juveniles. Yes the juvenile facility is in Ocala and it is
00:23:32right next door to the women's facility in Ocala at Lowell Correctional which I know that some of
00:23:38your readers or listeners have heard of because you've done stories about that facility also
00:23:44because we're very proud of a graduate Julianne Stowell who last year won the Godolphin TIEA
00:23:52newcomers award which is really indicative of what the Second Chances program can do for people
00:24:01not only did it teach her horsemanship skills farm management skills to the extent that she was
00:24:10lauded as the most impressive newcomer in the industry last year I mean that's a significant
00:24:15amount of of skill and knowledge that that she left this program with what it what it does to
00:24:23human beings for their souls is probably the thing that I've taken from it more than anything you
00:24:34there's one one woman in particular in Ocala who there was a horse that unfortunately had not been
00:24:41responsibly retired she was pulled from a bad situation she went to Lowell she was considered
00:24:47you know dangerous and and she was distant and then there was this woman this incarcerated
00:24:53individual who was in our program who she she had been given up on in life and the two of them
00:25:02formed this team and they worked together and by the end of it you have this this horse who is
00:25:10who has come back to herself and this incarcerated individual who now has self-confidence she has
00:25:18belief in herself and it's it's it's transformational it really is it's it's very very touching
00:25:27those of us in the industry know know what horses can do we know that they're courageous
00:25:32and they're resilient and and they're not judgmental and they're intuitive and they make
00:25:38you they make you be your best self and to watch this all to come together is really really moving
00:25:47having been to Lowell myself I can definitely second that the facility there is outstanding
00:25:54just one of eight across the country and some of the horses I remember some of them running
00:25:59they've got some x-ray horses down there at Lowell that's really cool to see them kind of
00:26:05not the best movers cantering around the field very happy and and giving these women a chance to
00:26:11to learn horses how many horses would you have in the correctional facilities across the country and
00:26:17is this something in the TRF's plan to really focus on more second chance programs for the horses
00:26:25so our herd is close to 400 horses about half of whom are at these eight correctional facilities
00:26:32across across the country we definitely are focusing on second chances we changed our mission
00:26:40statement recently to reflect the fact that not only are we providing this dignified lifetime
00:26:45care for retired race horses but that that they are serving as teachers in these vocational programs
00:26:53so we're always looking for a chance to expand second chances with you know a
00:27:00a state government so to speak because they're very individual where there's a synergistic
00:27:06approach and part of the strategic planning is second chances can apply to many different
00:27:14instances so are we going to do something other than a correctional facility sometime the next
00:27:21three to five years that's a possibility too but we know correctional facilities we know which
00:27:26programs work and they're they're helping people and they're also turning out
00:27:33very skilled horsemen and women
00:27:38Maggie our industry is uh even though we like to think it's a big huge industry it's really a very
00:27:43small industry uh compared to some other sports and some other industries and it also operates
00:27:50very differently with the way that we take care of the people with industry-facing charitable
00:27:55organizations for example we take care of our equine athletes uh the human athletes the jockeys
00:28:01and there are also very worthy charities that take care of the backstretch community
00:28:06and in the end i guess it's a lot of these well-meaning charities and and excellent
00:28:12charities are chasing the same group of donors and how does that affect the way that you do
00:28:18fundraising not not just at the trf but how does it affect everybody um i think that's a really
00:28:24good point that we are all kind of chasing the same um funding source it affects us in that we
00:28:32i mean we specifically have staff members whose only focus is to fundraise i mean you should be
00:28:38able to fundraise but it would be wonderful if there could be some steady streams of revenue
00:28:43that were directed to um non-profits within the industry so that you always knew you know 25
00:28:52of my of my operating budget is coming from this source and 25 is coming from this source and i
00:28:59don't have to ask the same people over and over and over again for the money and wonder if it's
00:29:04going to come you know just for planning purposes also i mean our industry is um like i said before
00:29:11it's full of passionate people but compassionate people who i think when properly educated will
00:29:17do the right thing you worked for todd for an awful long time you know eclipse award-winning
00:29:23trainer hall of famer that was your passion for a long long time what how did you make the choice
00:29:31to go from todd to the trf and what have you taken with you that you learned with todd after
00:29:37decades working for him i'm gonna blame stephanie brennan for that
00:29:42there's so much to date from working for todd i mean it was so much a huge part of my life and
00:29:48and it's so professional but it's so um it's so passionate you know there was just such a
00:29:57you're just part of this team and you you work so hard for this for this result and it i couldn't
00:30:02speak higher of todd and my time with todd it was wonderful and it certainly did set me up for this
00:30:07it's a completely new challenge um with things that i haven't dealt with before but you you can't
00:30:13come from working for todd and not be able to transition to something else um todd is a huge
00:30:20organization in one sense but also a very small organization in another so you end up doing
00:30:25everything uh you you get exposed to so many different parts of running a business that um
00:30:32a business that um it is a bit of a it's just an overall education i would say
00:30:41well maggie thank you so much for joining us it was delightful to have you on this
00:30:46um i did have something that i wanted to shout out to the industry or a challenge if the number
00:30:53of years that you've been in the industry is greater than the number of years you've been
00:30:56actively supporting dignified lifetime care then please call me contact me come to our website
00:31:06you know sign up for our newsletters go to our social media we have this collective responsibility
00:31:13to take care of these horses that were supporting us before we knew to support them or before we
00:31:19were educated enough to support them or before we were capable of supporting them that's
00:31:26my final point that's really what i want to get across is that that we have that legacy to deal
00:31:32with and that has to be taken care of as well as moving forward in the much more responsible way
00:31:37that we are couldn't have said it any better thank you maggie thank you so much for joining us thank
00:31:43you for your editor the guest of the week is brought to you by gainsway home to four new
00:31:52stallions this year including charge it charge it registered buyer speed figures of 100 or higher
00:31:59on four occasions he won the grade three one mile wire by an outstanding 23 lengths earning a career
00:32:07best 111 buyer speed figure charge it also posted 106 buyer in the grade two suburban states at a
00:32:15mile and a quarter with a four and three quarter length victory there tying the highest figure of
00:32:20all horses going that distance in 2023 a dominating a multiple graded stakes winner
00:32:27the son of tappet stands at gainsway for initial fee this is a bargain basement fee of 12 500
00:32:35gainsway power passion performance
00:32:40charge it is pouring it on winning the dwyer by the length of the stretch
00:32:53charge it wins it convincingly in this grade two suburban
00:33:09state
00:33:11on this week's edition of first things first our own millie ball
00:33:15caught up with speedway stables peter floor to talk about cavalieri
00:33:25very important race for these fillies and mares the grade one beholder won by cavalieri and i have
00:33:32her owner with me right now peter floor peter uh she's undefeated you bought her as a two-year-old
00:33:40what were you told when you were considering buying her about her potential well marrette fell
00:33:48marrette farrell uh who helps us as a bloodstock agent loved her physical and we talked about the
00:33:55breeding and nyquist speaks for itself and kind of beyond that you just keep your fingers crossed
00:34:03but casey weiner my partner and i are obviously thrilled with this victory today and i wore a
00:34:09little speedway red in the pocket for good luck well congratulations to you that's a wonderful
00:34:15performance from cavalieri thank you so much peter floor and his grade one winner
00:34:26and yeah she's a filly with an awful lot ahead of her so good luck to speedway stables well
00:34:33done to hall of famer bob baffert do you want to remind you that we will have a four-day racing
00:34:38week this week at santa anita friday through monday so get your irish on lads as we will be
00:34:44racing on paddy's day on monday we will have a pot of gold competition where you can enter for
00:34:52free and you have a chance to win up to thirty thousand dollars so come on out to santa anita
00:34:57and come on out for the luck of the irish on monday all right let's switch gears after first
00:35:03things first we move forward and stay with santa anita and discuss the grade one behold the mile
00:35:08good to hear from peter floor talking about cavalieri and just in case guys you are wondering
00:35:14who she's named for she is named for lina cavalieri who was an opera singer back in
00:35:20the early 1900s who was described as the most beautiful woman in the world quite fitting really
00:35:26for this gorgeous daughter in nyquist brandy is she the next adair manor so she's not named for
00:35:32the 17th century italian mathematician i guess there's there's been more than one famous cavalieri
00:35:38back in the day right she's named for a beautiful woman she's named for a beautiful woman and she
00:35:44ran a beautiful race in the beholder mile look i i thought it was going to be really tough to
00:35:48beat ricci we talked about that last week because ricci was coming off a couple of fast sprints it
00:35:53looked like she was going to be able to stretch out looked like fractionally speaking she was
00:35:57going to be able to get a clear early lead uncontested all of that transpired exactly the
00:36:02way i thought it would and cavalieri was just too good just too good you called it last week zoe
00:36:08cavalieri was too good uh ran her down good effort for both horses 101 buyer speed figure
00:36:14yeah it doesn't always pan out this way in thoroughbred racing but it it will be really
00:36:20cool down the road uh even if it's in the breeders cup distaff if we get to see cavalieri
00:36:27and torpedo anna square off against each other that would be really nice i actually think you
00:36:33could make the case that ricci is going to be the one to watch in her next race because
00:36:37coming around the far turn uh cavalieri who was even money going for her fourth win out of four
00:36:43career starts she was already being set down and asked five sixteenths from the wire and ricci was
00:36:50not really set down until the quarter pole and it was a long grind down type of stretch run and i
00:36:56think ricci did very well uh holding as well as she could in that race no quit in either of the
00:37:02top two and as randy said the winner got a 101 buyer but when you run a triple digit 100 in
00:37:08defeat uh that ain't bad either that's cavalieri though she's you gotta pedal her you gotta pedal
00:37:15a shout out to my friend marat farrell who purchased her at the obsl which is where we're
00:37:20at right now for speedway stables but she's four for four and becomes nyquist eighth grade one
00:37:26winners so congratulations to speedway stables for that guys also at santa anita this past weekend
00:37:32we had eagles flight back on the docket perhaps better known as flight lines little brother but
00:37:38randy i think we can more than say he made amends at the hands of defeat with miramadi and his last
00:37:45start he became a tdn rising star this past weekend at santa anita what did you make of his
00:37:50performance it was a nice effort i mean he you know it's unfair to compare him to flight line
00:37:56there's only been one flight line you know i mean he's not going to be that good but he could
00:38:01definitely make some noise in the stakes division in southern california and there are some similarities
00:38:07between he and flight line aside from the fact that they're half brothers they're both trained
00:38:10by john saddler the ownership of eagles flight uh you've got the heronis brothers and you've got
00:38:18jane lion and you've got the ferris family who all three were involved in the ownership of flight
00:38:22line and also there's this as of right now mid-march of their four-year-old season right
00:38:30flight line had only run three times and eagles flight has only run three times due to some minor
00:38:34setbacks along the way but i you know td i thought it was a nice effort for eagles flight he looked
00:38:39good yeah he forced the issue on the front end he took over seemingly at will about a half mile out
00:38:46just a couple maybe two unfocused strides in upper stretch but drew off nicely and i guess
00:38:52he's bound for stakes company next time out i'm not sure where he'll land though
00:38:56randy lots of nice races what kind of buyer does a nice race get
00:39:04yeah he got a 100 buyer a career high 100 buyer for that uh that will win a lot of grade three
00:39:11stakes maybe even the occasional grade two stakes uh and he's that was only his third
00:39:17lifetime start so you would have to think that he's got more improvement in the tank
00:39:22just by the virtue of his inexperience and also of course looking at his bloodlines so
00:39:28you know he could definitely even move up from there and become a grade one grade two player
00:39:34oh and just to clarify while he was a tdn rising star it was last may so eagles flight
00:39:41tdn rising star let's move on guys and switch gears and head on down to colonial which is
00:39:46something i never thought i would say in march we're heading to colonial downs for the virginia
00:39:53derby i mean kudos to them guys they've got a fantastic 10 race card on hand highlighted by
00:40:00the five hundred thousand dollar ungraded mile and an eighth virginia derby that has points
00:40:06towards the kentucky derby i mean how awesome is that randy yeah i mean it was originally a turf
00:40:12race it was a grade two then a grade three grass race of some note and cdi decided they wanted to
00:40:18turn it into a kentucky derby prep race which of course they can do because they own the kentucky
00:40:22derby and it is now a prep race worth 50 points to the winner and it's got a pretty nice field
00:40:27john hancock was entered he's not going to run in the spot brad cox is going to run him instead
00:40:33if all goes well in the louisiana derby the next weekend but brad has a horse called rapture who's
00:40:40an impressive maiden winner at oaklawn park in his last start uh who will run in that spot
00:40:46and also bob effort had to call an audible he was going to run gaming in this race but gaming
00:40:51spiked the fever and so since this is a one turn mile and an eighth i mean what a great spot for
00:40:58getaway car the winner of the sunland derby with all his speed so getaway car is now in there and
00:41:03will probably uh wind up i'm guessing is the favorite yeah getaway car is the morning line
00:41:09favorite for the race before i talk about him however let's just back up here for a minute
00:41:14and talk about the the virginia derby being switched to march in my reporting for tdn
00:41:21i can be very critical of cdi they're the big corporation they sometimes come across as the 900
00:41:26pound gorilla but i have to give them credit and i've been saying since they made the announcement
00:41:31in september that they were going to switch that from a late summer grass race to a mid-march
00:41:37points awarding derby race that's a pretty shrewd move um i think from a couple of perspectives
00:41:42number one we're in the middle of the derby chase it's mid-march and the third saturday in march
00:41:49for the past three seasons has just been a black hole it's been a dead spot and that happened back
00:41:56when oakland park decided to switch its placement of the arkansas derby which moved the rebel
00:42:02stakes back to late february and there have been no meaningful three-year-old stakes no meaningful
00:42:08stakes graded stakes of any kind for the past several years on the third saturday of march and
00:42:15they're moving it to colonial it's a dirt race colonial is not known for its dirt racing but
00:42:19it's going to have a unique twist in that it's a nine furlong one turn race and in subsequent
00:42:26years cdi has said we are hoping to have grass racing on that weekend so i think this is going
00:42:30to end up being a very nice weekend for them they took came in and took ownership so to speak
00:42:35of what was a dead weekend and they're trying to make it into something um i would imagine that
00:42:41in a couple of years when the new belmont park reopens and they host the wood memorial that will
00:42:46also be a nine furlong one turn race because that's the way they run those races at belmont
00:42:51but uh pretty nice move as for getaway car is the favorite i wouldn't bet on him um i think he's
00:42:58going to be vulnerable coming off of that win in the sunland derby he was really ridden hard off
00:43:04the far turn he lost the lead turning into the lane and he didn't so much claw that that lead
00:43:10back is re-inherited i don't like him coming into the virginia derby who am i going to try and beat
00:43:16him with i don't have a clue at this point i usually don't have a clue anyway but randy and
00:43:20tolbert off the air before we started and he mentioned obviously at the top of when we were
00:43:24talking about this race that john hancock uh was scratching i like after seeing what almighty did
00:43:30uh the horse that's that john hancock beat in the sam davis back in february i kind of liked his
00:43:36chances but he's not going to run and i have not had time to regroup and figure out who i might
00:43:40like but i would try and take a stand against getaway car yeah coach yeah rapture could win
00:43:46it definitely he looked good in that maiden win and american promise the coach could win it with
00:43:52wayne lucas he'll have caldera running the next week in the louise in the louisiana derby if i
00:43:57can go lightweight here for a second uh which i'm good at there there are also uh three of my
00:44:04favorite names in this race zoe okay what better name for a son of audible than omaha omaha if
00:44:11you're a football fan right a nod to peyton manning there what better name for a mayor named
00:44:17surrender now right to have an offspring named getaway car okay and maybe my favorite in the
00:44:25bunch if you're a comic book fan of any kind back when you were young maybe uh there is a
00:44:30horse in here render judgment number nine who's out of a mayor named barbara gordon by commissioner
00:44:41barbara gordon was bat girl yeah in the old comic books and her father was commissioner gordon
00:44:49what a name that's awesome that's really cool and now they kind of drop the ball by naming
00:44:56the offspring of barbara gordon render judgment but still you know i like the name of family
00:45:02that could definitely be a trifecta how about that we should just box those up and go to the
00:45:08window you picked it up though batman you had it batman yeah i'm that old thanks randy thank you
00:45:16yeah what's going on with the phba uh well zoe as always the phba thank you for the lead-in is
00:45:25one of the sponsors of the td and writers room and again we're going to be talking about
00:45:29meet the 2025 pennsylvania stallions we've been doing that every week now now we look at the
00:45:34roster of mountain springs farm in palmyra pennsylvania the state's largest thoroughbred
00:45:39stallion station leading their roster of stallions is enticed who stands for five
00:45:44thousand dollars he raced and was a form and formerly stood at darley enticed as a sudden
00:45:49medallion doro he won graded stakes on turf and dirt at two and three and he was even a top 10
00:45:54first crop sire with 23 winners mountain springs is also the home to uptown charlie brown pennsylvania's
00:46:02leading stallion in both 2023 and 2024 uptown charlie brown's the son of lime house his
00:46:08progeny as we've told you in the past earned two million dollars in pennsylvania breeders awards
00:46:13in the last two years alone and charlie stands for a three thousand dollar fee some of the other
00:46:18stallions there eastwood go ahead and make my day by spite's town 2023 is leading pa stallion by
00:46:25average earnings black type horses and winners to starters he stands for two thousand a son of
00:46:31curlin alejandro stands for 1500 beverly park by munnings 1500 type 10 son of tappet stands for
00:46:372500 uncle benny by declaration of war 2500 and well spelled by spellbinder at 1500 to learn more
00:46:46about these stallions and much more about the pennsylvania breeding program you can take a look
00:46:51at the 2025 stallion and boarding farm directory online at pabred.com or you can call that number
00:46:57610-444-1050.
00:47:04PA bred i think we've built a brand at this point it's excitement at every step roses for
00:47:12deborah just set a new track record on average for the past decade pennsylvania paid over 28
00:47:18million a year in breeders awards restricted races and owner bonuses plus PA bred shine on
00:47:25the world's biggest stage just three states have bred more breeders cup winners learn more at pabred.com
00:47:34be a smarter better with first tv the best horses
00:47:40with thousands of exclusive morning workouts
00:47:47all at your fingertips and delivered right into your inbox
00:47:50everything you need to be informed be smart bet smart with first tv
00:48:02the tdm writers room is brought to you by first tv now i've had a lot of rain out there in southern
00:48:08california so it's only fitting that bob baffett took some of his best horses to the training track
00:48:14we take a good look at gaming who was clocked over the tapita he went in 1 12 and 3 he's on the
00:48:21inside there this was last last friday working at santa anita now he was expected to be entered
00:48:29in the virginia derby but he did spike a temperature so he will not go but you have to
00:48:34say he looks good in this work and it looks like we'll see him in just a couple of weeks so a good
00:48:40look at gaming there trained by hall of famer bob baffett let's move on guys and if you read the tdm
00:48:47and subscribe to it you will have read a really good article by a good friend dan ross who
00:48:52basically penned an article the headline was are so few really capable of training good horses and
00:49:01he highlights dan blacker talking about something we've talked about a lot on this podcast with
00:49:07the super trainers and all of the good horses just going to a handful of trainers four or five
00:49:14select trainers td can you weigh in on this first for us yeah i think dan's op-ed articulated the
00:49:21issue really well um you know why is there such a collective mindset in the industry that the
00:49:28the guys at the top of the food chain keep getting good horses thrown at them and cycling through
00:49:33their barns and uh we've seen that over the years we've seen that you could probably trace
00:49:38it back to the 1970s when jack van berg started to uh have divisions at many different racetracks
00:49:45all throughout the country and a lot of horses cycled through his barn and then we saw it happen
00:49:49with dwayne lucas continued that on and todd pletcher and bob baffert i think we all agree
00:49:55that it's an issue or a problem if you want to call it a problem but i still don't have a clear
00:50:00understanding of what is the solution dan does mention in his op-ed that the this is a quote the
00:50:06industry has agency uh over which horses might go to which barns and i'm still unclear of of how you
00:50:15would how you would work that i mean i don't know what the solution is i think there are complications
00:50:20and there are risks about when you try and foster competition by in ways limiting competition
00:50:28it just doesn't work out too well so i think while a lot of us acknowledge that it's an issue
00:50:32or a problem i don't really know what the solution is yeah i'm not sure there is one td i mean we
00:50:37know the how what when where why of the situation right i mean it the fact of the matter is if uh
00:50:45you know if i had a five hundred thousand dollar yearling purchase that i wanted to try to win the
00:50:51kentucky derby with and i'd go to bob baffert probably or todd pletcher or brad cox or one of
00:50:57the big names you know in the business um guys that have been there before and have done it before
00:51:03and and i don't you know you can't blame owners for wanting to do that i mean i have proposed
00:51:12something in past podcasts along the lines of limiting the horses that a trainer the individual
00:51:21horses that a trainer can start at a meeting not stalls just the individual number of horses that
00:51:28they can start but i'm not even sure that would be a solution to it because take a guy like brad
00:51:34cox right he wants to win the kentucky derby as much as anybody he's not going to turn down
00:51:39an expensive yearling if he's if in my scenario if he's running close to the max on numbers
00:51:46at a particular racetrack i mean hell brad's got horses at oaklawn he's got horses at the
00:51:51fairgrounds he's got horses at gulfstream he's got horses in new york he's got horses in turfway
00:51:55yeah he can just farm them out to another location so i don't know if there really is a
00:52:01solution other than uh work on getting the full crop up now that's that's really
00:52:09a big part of the problem i think is that there just aren't enough horses to go around
00:52:16is it hard to fathom that dan blacker won the breeders cup sprint he wins over in saudi
00:52:22barely picked up any new owners you know and he's he's a young guy and up-and-coming young trainer
00:52:28you think you know his resume now would speak for itself and the doors will be opening and like come
00:52:35on in come on in and it just hasn't happened yeah i mean you can just go down the line that guys
00:52:41that won the kentucky derby that were no unheralded trainers going in david cross with sunny salo cam
00:52:49gambolotti with spend a buck right and you can john service had made a name for himself in the
00:52:54mid-atlantic but not necessarily nationally at the time of smarty jones what an amazing job
00:52:59he did with smarty right i mean you can just name a bunch of guys like that um it just it's
00:53:05it's a mystery i just think one thing we have to touch on though is the notion of a horse shortage
00:53:13and i used to say horse shortage a lot myself i'd say that in my reporting for tdn but one point
00:53:19that i would bring up that i didn't realize this until somebody in the bloodstock industry in
00:53:24kentucky brought this up to me while i was during my course of reporting a story and the horse
00:53:31shortage is almost a misnomer because what we're really dealing with is an owner shortage and
00:53:38the as this person in the bloodstock industry mentioned to me
00:53:42the american bloodstock industry stands willing and ready to start producing more horses if there
00:53:47are owners out there to buy them what's happened is the market has fallen and it's reorganized
00:53:53itself in ways where the top part of the market is way up there in the bloodstock industry and
00:54:00the middle part of the market has just shrunken out of existence and that's why you see those
00:54:03middle type of owners those middle level trainers they're vanishing so the horses are capable of
00:54:10being produced if people are out there buying them yeah so it's a horse shortage as a result
00:54:15of an owner shortage i'd say it's yeah and it took me a while to figure that out and just start
00:54:19phrasing it that way but that's that's the way i think now good reporting nevertheless by dan ross
00:54:25in his op-ed in the tdn if you haven't seen it look it up all right we've got some sad news to
00:54:30report it's been reported all week long that clem murphy one of the most respected members of the
00:54:36coolmore team died just a few days ago after a short illness he died at 75 a lot of people reaching
00:54:42out on x and twitter to express their condolences and one thing that you got from this demi o'byrne
00:54:50described him as a magnificent man everybody nobody had a bad word to say about clem murphy
00:54:57i've met him a couple of times he was always the nice guy with demi you know the nice guy because
00:55:02then he could be hard on the sales people at the sales i think marrette farrell my good friend
00:55:08described it best she described him as a man who could play all the keys on the piano i thought that
00:55:15was very very fitting did you ever run into him randy i was introduced to him once uh and you know
00:55:23just said hi to him and i knew who he was he was an accountant originally in ireland joined the
00:55:29coolmore team back in 1978 so he's been with coolmore uh throughout its you know stratospheric
00:55:36rise to the top of the of the worldwide breeding and racing industry he's always it was always at
00:55:41the sales he loved to go to the breeders cup and loved to go to the races as well um we could have
00:55:47used him in the united states john magner had this to say about him he told the tdn this he said clinton
00:55:54was an extraordinarily clear thinker who could always find solutions where others saw only
00:56:02problems every business could use somebody like that american racing could use somebody like that
00:56:08and actually when you dig a little deeper um he was on the board of the breeders cup now you know
00:56:16what's one of the most successful aspects of american horse racing it's the breeders cup
00:56:21what's one of the most successful parts of the breeders cup the international participation that
00:56:27it gets every year the last 15 years what's been one of the biggest innovations at the breeders cup
00:56:34making it a two-day event expanding the turf racing expanding the international participation
00:56:40clint murphy was said to be one of the driving forces behind that behind the expansion into two
00:56:47days in the expansion of turf racing at the breeders cup so clint has had an impact on
00:56:52american racing uh in a pretty big way so sad news indeed all right let's move on trevor denman
00:57:01has called it a day called it a night i would have loved to have heard his last race call like he went
00:57:07out on a high note it wasn't like i'm going to retire at this day he just said yeah i'm done 72
00:57:14years old he's gonna go and do some fun things um he came here in 1976 and he revolutionized race
00:57:22calling i obviously wasn't here in 1976 because i'm so young guys but i can tell you when i first
00:57:30came to santa anita even i'd been on the east coast but i'd never really heard trevor denman
00:57:36and i was just like oh who's this guy he's he's bloody awesome and he really was i mean you
00:57:42listened to him for years randy oh yeah and you know i'm not you know i don't want to dog
00:57:48announcers of the past announcers of yesteryear you know some of the famous names that everybody
00:57:54you know that's a big student of horse racing has heard of clem mccarthy on the east coast and joe
00:57:59hernandez on the west coast i'm not trying to dog those guys because times have changed tastes have
00:58:05changed but you go back and you listen to those old calls and it's like so-and-so first by lane
00:58:11so-and-so second by two so-and-so third by three and it's like watching paint dry compared to what
00:58:17we're accustomed to now and trevor denman helped change that narrative he didn't just tell you
00:58:24where the horses were during a race he described the whole tapestry of the way the race was
00:58:31unfolding he told you what was happening not just where they were and tom durkin followed in that
00:58:38same vein and if if you bet on a horse it was running and trevor was called in the race and
00:58:46trevor told you that your horse was in trouble you might as well just tear up your tickets because
00:58:50the horse was not going to win he was he was that keen that perceptive in the way the race was
00:58:56developing and that good at translating that to the public with his race calls and he has influenced
00:59:04an entire subsequent several generations of race callers because of that here in america
00:59:10now the european and where trevor came from south african style was always a little bit more
00:59:15narrative even going back into the 1970s but when trevor started his first full-time gig in 1983
00:59:24he was astounding people at santa anita by saying you know he was mentioning the jockey's body
00:59:31language he was telling you whether a horse's ears were pricked or not and telling you how
00:59:35comfortably or not the horses were running back then and you have to remember he did that against
00:59:40a paradigm where the reason that some of those older generation race callers sounded so
00:59:48boring for lack of a you know comparative term compared to what we hear today
00:59:53was because announcers back then were almost forbidden to call tight photos because there
00:59:59was a fear that people would rip up their losing tickets and cause a ruckus at the racetrack and
01:00:04there was even i remember in new york it was a um it was a rule that the announcer could not say
01:00:13who the trailing horse was you could not say the word last because that would be embarrassing
01:00:17to the slow horses connections so when trevor came in it was a whole new ball game and you heard
01:00:23his everything from his understated and away they go and horses scraping paint coming up the inside
01:00:28rail and horses coming like an express train and horses that would have to sprout wings
01:00:34and perhaps his best known one is moving like a winner and zoe you mentioned his last race call
01:00:40i went back and listened to what you know i kind of wondered if trevor knew that his last race at
01:00:45del mar in september would be his final race call and he did use that moving like a winner call
01:00:51in that race and i looked up for a tribute piece that i penned for trevor in the weekend review in
01:00:58tdn and back in 1983 andrew byer within several weeks of trevor landing stateside went out to
01:01:06santa anita and did a profile on him and within that story trevor articulated how he came upon
01:01:13that moving like a winner call it was the uh the big race in south africa and there was it was 1978
01:01:21there was a horse named politician in the race and politician was buried in the field of 18
01:01:27and trevor picked up that this horse was moving and he said politician is moving like a winner
01:01:32and his first thought was after the words came out of his lips were why did i say something
01:01:36so audacious as that uh but then when politician did win trevor admitted to andy byer you know that
01:01:43really put me on the map and uh i i think one other thing is trevor's going to be remembered
01:01:47for his catchphrases kind of a reel of greatest hits so to speak but let's also not forget
01:01:53something important that trevor did was once he became established here in the states after about
01:01:5810 years he's in the early 1990s when nobody else was doing this he started speaking up and being
01:02:05very vocal about uh the cruelty of the whip horses who were sore and and lacking veterinary oversight
01:02:11and being put into fill races and trevor had built up enough gravitas at that point that
01:02:18those words stung but they were also credible words coming from a credible source and some of
01:02:23his criticisms resulted in changes that are the forerunner of the changes that we see today so
01:02:28we'll remember him for for his catchphrases he exuded class just like he said he was calling
01:02:34horses did but let's remember that the guy is not limited to the catchphrases that he produced
01:02:39i got one more thing to say about trevor dimmon's retirement and away he goes
01:02:45uh i will let him get it i may add in one more story about trevor that i don't think has ever
01:02:50been told before and it was really i've only met trevor a handful of times in my life but
01:02:54one time stood out to me and it was memorial day weekend 1996 i was at suffolk downs working in the
01:03:02press box and i was also the backup announcer to larry colmus and larry had gone to monmouth for
01:03:09his gig that started on memorial day weekend so we brought in at suffolk downs trevor to call the
01:03:15races that was the first year that he was no longer doing every track on the socal circuit
01:03:20he had left hollywood behind and trevor loved to go out he needed a break and he realized he
01:03:26was a fresher race caller for it and he went to his farm in minnesota and he spent time there
01:03:32between meets and the one thing that i'll never forget is i went to the airport to pick trevor up
01:03:39with another colleague at suffolk downs we greeted him and the very first thing he said to us was
01:03:45boys i have a favor to ask of you and trevor laid it out and he said when i go to my farm in
01:03:51minnesota to unwind i go into a news blackout for racing i don't look at racing i don't look
01:03:56at results i don't read stories i don't have anything to do with the game that's what keeps
01:04:01me fresh so mind you this was in may of 1996 and he said so my request is i don't want anybody
01:04:09during my four days here calling races and he was doing a lot of interviews and meet and greets with
01:04:13fans i don't want anybody to reveal to me who won the kentucky derby or who won the preakness
01:04:20and i don't find out who won the triple crown until my first day at delmar and then i reveal
01:04:24it to myself that was the way he operated so wow imagine this we had trevor for the whole weekend
01:04:31and we we told the reporters who were going to interview and we could at least pull them aside
01:04:34and say hey here's the deal uh he doesn't want to know so please don't ask him but he was doing
01:04:40tons of meet and greets with fans so we had to kind of hover around trevor for the entire weekend
01:04:46like the secret service and fling ourselves in front of anybody who seemed ready to ask or
01:04:51mention the triple and that was the year 96 that grind you it was a very impactful year because
01:04:57grindstone had won the derby and then he didn't run the preakness because he was out with an
01:05:02injury so of course it was at the top of everybody's mind but we were constantly flinging ourselves in
01:05:07front of people and making you know what oh you want to meet sure what do you want to ask him
01:05:12and we made it through the entire weekend without blowing the triple crown for trevor
01:05:18no twitter no facebook no instagram it was much much easier back then just a bunch of dairy cows
01:05:24at his minnesota farm yeah what's happening with west point mr finley i saw him he's out here
01:05:29shopping if anyone wants to join west point terry finley is in the house terry finley and west point
01:05:36one of the sponsors of the td and writers room he and bloodstock agent david ingordo considered
01:05:41jackson traveler to be one of the few bright spots in the stable from those early days of
01:05:47the covet 19 pandemic back in 2020 that's because they were able to get the maryland bred son of
01:05:52munnings at the obs spring sale of two-year-olds in training for a final bid of 140 000 and on
01:06:00saturday jackson traveler will run in the whitmore stakes at oakland park 250 000 he carries a four
01:06:08race winning streak into the whitmore which oh by the way he won last year by a nose for his hall
01:06:14of fame trainer steve asmus and meanwhile west point david ingordo as we pointed out have been
01:06:19busy recruiting their new two-year-olds at obs march this week you can see photos
01:06:24and videos of all the new west point editions at www.westpointtb.com
01:06:34all the thrills
01:06:38fraction of the bills
01:06:43experience the power of the partnership
01:06:45the power of the partnership
01:06:48change your life make new friends and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing
01:06:56west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpointtb.com
01:07:07and that brings us to a close guys it's been fun
01:07:10i mean who needs bill finley anyway right td what a nice host zoe is
01:07:15i'm just kidding
01:07:19it's been fun guys we'd like to thank randy td thank you so much i've gained to a guest of the
01:07:25week maggie sweet along with the big boss sue finley katie petruniak and ally and anthony
01:07:31the rocker we'll see you next week