Stronghold's Trainer Phil d'Amato Checks in With Zoe Cadman

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00:00On this week's edition of First Things First, I caught up with Phil D'Amato, who had literally

00:06just got back to Santa Anita.

00:08Phil, you got back quick from Churchill, when did you get back?

00:17Yeah, like about 12.30.

00:19I was able to hop on an owner's private plane, which always helps, and just catch an Uber

00:25right off the plane.

00:26Awesome.

00:27Tell me a little bit about your experience, stronghold, how he came out, and what the

00:31plans are now.

00:32Yeah, I'm very happy.

00:33He came out of the race 100% perfect.

00:38Considering that kind of race, it's a really good thing.

00:41I talked to the owners, we're probably just going to give him a little freshening in-house,

00:46and then point for some nice, all these nice three-year-old steaks throughout the country.

00:51Do you have any in mind?

00:53I made a long list of them, and we're just going to kind of play it by ear, see how he

00:58trains.

00:59The good thing is, there's a lot of them throughout the country, and I'm sure we'll find a couple

01:04good spots.

01:05Was it fun?

01:06Oh, it was awesome.

01:08To experience that with my family, it was just kind of an electric feeling, walking

01:12over with the horse with them.

01:14It was cool.

01:15It's definitely, any trainer that gets that itch, they'll definitely want to come back

01:20every year and do it again.

01:21All right, well, you were gone.

01:22You won a good race here at Santa Anita with Gold Phoenix, taking down the Charlie Whittingham.

01:27A winner you're in for the Grade 1, Group 1 Coral Eclipse in England.

01:32Tell us about Gold Phoenix, and do you need a rider for England, because I am available.

01:36Yeah, I mean, he ran a sensational race.

01:41He didn't really show up the race prior.

01:44Kyle Frey had ridden him before for me, and it's breezed him a lot.

01:49He knows him like the back of his hand, so I just thought, let's change things up a little

01:53bit, put Kyle back on him, and he just gave him a nice, more aggressive ride, put him

01:58in the race, and he battled through the stretch and got the job done.

02:02Are we going to All Blighty?

02:05We'll talk to the owners.

02:06I just think with this kind of horse pointing for the Breeders' Cup, going over there and

02:11coming back, you might take too much out of him to have that chance to do that, and we

02:18want to focus on the Del Mar races where he really loves Del Mar.

02:22I mean, that's where he's won his winning you're ins, and we're going to try to do it again.

02:27Maybe next time.

02:28Maybe next time.

02:34Many thanks there to Phil.

02:36Looks like I won't be going to Sandown any time soon, but perhaps next year he'll have

02:41a shot.

02:42All right, let's talk about Santa Anita.

02:44This weekend, we will resume racing on Friday, and there is a massive pick-six carryover

02:50for that eight-race card on Friday.

02:52We'll start with race number three, a carryover of over $100,000, expected to exceed $500,000.

03:00And for all you fathers out there, and husbands, don't forget, it is Mother's Day on Sunday.

03:07You can bring your wife, or your mother, or your sister, or just bring the whole family.

03:11Bring them out to Santa Anita for a Mother's Day brunch on Sunday.

03:15You can go to santaanita.com for more details on that.

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