- 10 months ago
Brook Smith will be represented by Classic contender Sierra Leone and Juvenile Turf Sprint-bound Schwarzenegger at this year's Breeders' Cup. The enthusiastic owner joined us on this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss his horses' chances and share how he will celebrate if they come home with a win.
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00:00:00Welcome to this week's edition of the
00:00:29TDN Writer's Room Podcast. My name is Bill Finley, and I'm a correspondent for the TDN.
00:00:35How y'all doing? I'm Randy Moss of NBC Sports and also the Buyer's Speed Figure crew,
00:00:41in case you don't know from all the Buyer's Speed Figure references. And I'm here getting ready,
00:00:46trying to get ready for what should be a fantastic Breeders' Cup.
00:00:49Going to be an awesome Breeders' Cup. Zoe Cablin here with First TV and First Racing. Really
00:00:54looking forward to it. Randy, how much of your suitcases is going to be taken up by your
00:01:01paperwork? Do you have to bring like five suitcases? Well, let's see, Bill. Boxes.
00:01:08How about every past performance from every Breeders' Cup race going back to 1984?
00:01:131984. How about every chart from every Breeders' Cup race going back to 1984?
00:01:21How about an iPad? I've got one of those too. How about an iPad? I've got one of those too. It
00:01:25just takes a lot of effort to get all that into that. And then what happens if my battery goes
00:01:33dead? You know, then my brain goes dead. We've got charges. Yeah. I'll buy you one.
00:01:38But anyway, you asked Bill, so you got it. So anyways, the pre-entries came out today. Today
00:01:44being Wednesday, 207 horses pre-entered. No real surprises in the pre-entries to talk about. So I
00:01:52thought what we would do this week is just give an overview of each one of the races. Next week,
00:01:56we'll give our picks and talk about them. So I want to start on the Friday with the two big races
00:02:02for the two-year-olds of Breeders' Cup Juvenile. And I'll throw this right to Zoe. Brant is a horse
00:02:10that I don't know what to make of. But how about his recent workouts? Has he looked like the Brant
00:02:17that one has broke his maiden so impressively? He really has. And I think I said a couple of weeks
00:02:22ago that I caught up with Bob and Bob brought him out and showed him off to a bunch of people. And I
00:02:30was absolutely flabbergasted by how much he'd actually grown over the course of the past few
00:02:36months. So I was all kind of out on Brant. And now he's kind of worked his way in. Obviously,
00:02:43we're all going to be looking at Ned Toffee in there. There'll be a couple of other interesting
00:02:48ones that we'll be running. But for me, the story is going to be Brant versus Ned Toffee.
00:02:54I mean, Ted Murphy.
00:02:55Yeah, that too. There you go. We should have a drinking game.
00:03:00We're going to do that. We're going to do that so often.
00:03:01Next week, we'll have a drinking game.
00:03:04At least you did it instead of Bill this time, right?
00:03:06Yeah, right.
00:03:07Next, it's my turn. It's a classic East-West showdown, right? I mean, I know Intrepid O beat
00:03:14Desert Force or whatever his name is in the American Pharaoh. But on paper, on paper,
00:03:20it looks like it's got to be Brant versus Ted Noffy.
00:03:25Right.
00:03:25And really, from a handicapping perspective, we'll talk about our picks next week. But where
00:03:29it comes down to quickly is Brant maybe not looking quite as dominant in his stakes win
00:03:38in the Del Mar Futurity as he did breaking his maiden. And to me, the weakness for Ted Noffy
00:03:43is that all of his races, Saratoga and Keeneland, were relatively slow-paced.
00:03:51And now he's going to go out there in Southern California where they're going to be lighting
00:03:55it up in the juvenile during the first part of it. And, you know, can he adjust to that
00:04:00faster pace? Or will it see him out in terms of stamina as we might have seen with Tommy
00:04:08Joe a little bit at Keeneland and the Alcibites? Anyway.
00:04:10Randy, you're not willing to make it a three-horse race with Intrepido as the third horse?
00:04:16He's improving. And, you know, I love the way he surged right at the end to get the money in
00:04:22the American Pharaoh. But look, in terms of raw ability, Zoe, I think you'd probably agree.
00:04:27It's got to be, you would think, Brant or Ted Noffy.
00:04:30It certainly does. Intrepido will be kind of the wild card in there for me,
00:04:35I would imagine, because he's really an improving son of Maximus Mischief.
00:04:39All right. So let's take a look at the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Phillies,
00:04:45which is a race that is always quite interesting. And let me find it in my past performances here.
00:04:52I've got one I'm going to throw in here that I'm being intrigued to find out about.
00:04:57Meaning for Michael McCarthy, Bridalwood and Eclipse, right?
00:05:01We don't know the writer situation. We know that Rispoli is off of journalism,
00:05:08but we don't know that he's off of everything. Now, he hasn't ridden a horse for Michael McCarthy
00:05:13or Eclipse since that was announced. But obviously, I've heard in several news reports that,
00:05:22you know, he's not completely out everywhere. He's just off of journalism.
00:05:25Meaning is a very, very good daughter of Gunrunner. And she's going to throw a hat in the ring
00:05:32in a big way because we don't know how Tommy Joe's going to battle back. We've got Iron Orchard in
00:05:38there. Another story, they paid $2.5 million for her at the recent flash sale for Faisal Tipton.
00:05:46Katie Rich Farms bought her. And then Explorer for Bob Baffert. It's kind of an intriguing race
00:05:52with no massive standout. Now we know that Tommy Joe can get beaten or not beaten. She got put up
00:05:58on the DQ. Yeah. And the reason why, you know, because there's no massive standout,
00:06:06that's why Michael McCarthy, for example, is willing to take a shot on putting meaning
00:06:11into the juvenile Phillies after only one maiden win and why John Sadler is taking a shot and putting
00:06:18Super Corridora in there after her very dominant eight-length maiden win. And she looked really
00:06:23good that day going a mile at Santa Anita. I mean, you look at that, nothing really scares them away
00:06:30in here. Explorer should be the favorite, but, and she won by open lengths in the Oak Leaf,
00:06:35but her number wasn't really all that good. And it just leads you to believe that the race is kind
00:06:39of up for grabs. Randy, how about the other Baffert, Bottle of Rouge, who beat Explorer
00:06:43in the Del Mar debutante? Again, you know, I'm a numbers guy. I thought Explorer was,
00:06:51you know, pretty much used up on the pace in that race. And she got a lot better last time out in the,
00:06:57in the Oak Leaf when they took the blinkers off her and she relaxed just a little bit off the pace.
00:07:02So I don't think that was, I don't think the Explorer, the Bottle of Rouge ran against
00:07:07was as good as the Explorer that we saw in the Oak Leaf. And meanwhile, let's get to
00:07:15another little something on Friday. There's so many unbelievable storylines in the Breeders' Cup
00:07:22this year, right? And a couple of them, as we go into the Breeders' Cup this year in the race for
00:07:28all-time leading Breeders' Cup trainer, we have a tie right now with Aidan O'Brien and the late
00:07:35D. Wayne Lucas, both with 20 wins with Chad Brown and Bob Baffert right behind at 19.
00:07:42And on Friday, Zoe, I know you've seen this, Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore are set up for an
00:07:49unbelievable day. They're going to have three heavy favorites on Friday. True Love in the
00:07:54Juvenile Turf Sprint, Precise, who is supposedly the best two-year-old filly in all of Europe
00:08:01in the Juvenile Phillies Turf. And Shittad, is that the way you say that? I think so.
00:08:08Shittad.
00:08:08Shittad.
00:08:09Shittad.
00:08:09Shittad.
00:08:10Shittad.
00:08:10Shittad.
00:08:11And the Juvenile Turf. Now the Wild Desert is probably not going to run in that race for
00:08:16Goodolphin. I mean, that makes Shittad a pretty heavy favorite. So yeah, Coolmore and Aidan O'Brien
00:08:22are really, really on paper set up to start the Breeders' Cup weekend in a great way.
00:08:28They could win all three. Precise is amazing. She took down the Phillies Mile, the Morghlea Stud,
00:08:34the Prestige Phillies. She's a multiple group winner. She's a group one winner over there.
00:08:41True Love. So she's definitely going in the Turf Sprint?
00:08:45That's, well, I don't know, definite, but that's the way they said they were leaning.
00:08:48Okay. Because I have a down, a pre-entered.
00:08:52They pre-entered in both.
00:08:53Yeah. Okay. All right. And I mean, Christ, she just took down the grade two Queen Mary. She took
00:08:58down the Cheveley Park. She's looking to go on the heels of Lake Victoria for last year for Aidan
00:09:04O'Brien. He's basically going to have people bowing down to him on Friday because he is going
00:09:11to have some heavy, heavy favorites running in those turf races. And they're the ones to beat for
00:09:17sure. I mean, I'm really looking forward to seeing True Love and Precise on Friday.
00:09:21Friday and Saturday. We've got a huge Coolmore and Godolphin theme on Saturday. You know,
00:09:27we'll talk about that. But, and, you know, going into this year in the owner's standings right now,
00:09:33Sheikh Mohammed through Godolphin, through Darley, through horses in his own name has won 27 Breeders'
00:09:38Cup races. Coolmore, John Magner, and all their different partners have won 23. So the race for
00:09:45global supremacy as it goes into the Breeders' Cup right now is, uh, Sheikh Moe has an edge.
00:09:53All right. So we start the Saturday card for the Breeders' Cup Philly and Mayor Sprint,
00:09:57and, uh, it's won a million dollars. Randy, there's the first of many Japanese horses,
00:10:03uh, entered into this race, uh, Fee Blanche. Um, you're, you tend, you're handicapped,
00:10:10you like Japanese horses. Guarantee you're going to pick Forever Young and the Breeders' Cup Classic
00:10:14because I know you. But as a whole, what do you make of their, this group this year of coming from
00:10:21Japan? To me, Bill, it looks like Forever Young and then a lot of mud they're throwing at the wall,
00:10:27hoping something will stick, you know, on, it just, they're very difficult to figure on paper.
00:10:32To me, they're very inconsistent, except for Forever Young. They run a big race and then they're ninth,
00:10:38you know, and it's, it's really hard to get a line on them, but famous last words. I certainly
00:10:42didn't like Marsha Lorraine either, um, when she won the distaff, but it doesn't look to me like,
00:10:48uh, they have any horses with any sort of reasonable, strong chance to win other than Forever Young.
00:10:56Uh, one note on this race too, you'll notice that Copian and Tam are both from Spendthrift
00:11:01are pre-entered in both this race and the male sprint race. Later on, I talked to Ned Toffee,
00:11:07uh, yesterday and he said that, um, they hadn't really made up their mind what they want to do,
00:11:12but you could read between the lines. Uh, it seems like the, both are going to go in the Philly race.
00:11:18See, that's the story. Yeah. Right. Zoe. I mean, that's, that's the real story of the race.
00:11:22Yeah, that, that is the story of the race. Those two. And honestly, I beg you to go and watch
00:11:29Copian's work. It was absolutely phenomenal. If I own the pair of them, I would have Tamra with the
00:11:35girls and Copian with the boys, because that might be the lightest division of male sprinters that we've
00:11:40seen thus far. And looking at Copian, I think she could beat them. Well, there's only 17 pre-entered
00:11:47in the sprint, which means only three will be excluded. And a couple you can know will be
00:11:54excluded. So both Tamra and Copian are going to get into the main body of the sprint after the,
00:12:00you know, the, but by the time people watch this, it will already be out, but it's going to be an
00:12:05interesting decision. And the, and a horse that it's also pre-entered trained by Richard Mandela
00:12:12is big city lights. So I wonder if big city lights winds up on the also eligibles, if that might make
00:12:18any, uh, they probably won't have anything to do with their decision, but yeah, that's the big story
00:12:23where they're going to go. All right. Coming up next is the Breeders' Cup turf sprint. This is one
00:12:30of the few turf races on the card where Americans have more than held their own. Uh, we're going to
00:12:37talk about some races later on where it's been all European dominated, but since 2010 only, there's only
00:12:43been two European winners of this race. Um, and the, it just goes to show you that the, you know,
00:12:51the sprinting forces over here still are quicker than the European horses. And, uh, they look like
00:12:58that they can hand more than handle themselves. I guess Ag Bullitt would deserve to be the favorite
00:13:02coming off a nice win and race at Kentucky Downs and won the grade one Jaipur versus males, uh, and
00:13:08the start before that. So what do you think? Ag Bullitt for sure. She'll be going to the night of the
00:13:14stars the very next day. Uh, she's likely one of the ones to be, but how about the two old men in this
00:13:19race? That's the story here. Kadeem at nine years old, he just took down the grade two Woodford at
00:13:26Keeneland under, uh, I don't know, 56 year old Frankie DeTorey will ride Kadeem for trainer Charlie
00:13:32Hills. The horse has been stabled over here and will ship fairly soon to Del Mar. So that to me
00:13:39is the story of this race. Two old men. Yeah, there have been nine year old winners before in the
00:13:47Breeders' Cup. Um, won actually Kaleidoscopio in the marathon. Remember that? The Breeders' Cup
00:13:54marathon. Kaleidoscopio won in 2012. Obviously was eight when he won the turf sprint, uh, down the
00:14:02hill at Santa Anita back in the day. I think it was down the hill. Um, those are the oldest horses
00:14:07right now, um, that have won in the Breeders' Cup. So that would be huge if another nine year old were
00:14:11to win. I think it comes down to AG Bullitt. Motorious, who was second in this race last year.
00:14:18AG Bullitt was third. If you watch Motorious' last race, and I know you did, Zoe, his prep,
00:14:23I think it was the green flash at Del Mar. Oh my God. Did this horse come running in the last
00:14:28three sixteenths of a mile? I don't even know how he hit the board. Honestly. It was unbelievable. He
00:14:34had no shot. And all of a sudden he's like making the other horses look like they were, you know,
00:14:38in quicksand and loses a photo and gets put up by DQ. But, um, those two. And what do you think
00:14:46about Arizona Blaze, the European who's in good form coming here? Ooh, let me see. I can't even
00:14:54think of him. Uh, I know No Balls is on the outside looking in. It's ammo racing. Arizona Blaze is
00:15:01coming off a win in the Flying Five. Um, and his stablemate, uh, Bucanero Fuerte is also, uh,
00:15:09He's the one that I think is the most interesting, Bucanero Fuerte, to be perfectly honest.
00:15:15All right. Well, Arizona Blaze made the trip last year and was just beaten half length in the
00:15:19juvenile turf sprint. So he's done it before and done and run well. Um, ammo racing is long overdue
00:15:25to win a Breeders' Cup race. They've come so close so often, but maybe this is the one. I don't know.
00:15:29How do you like to get Rapoli and Kia in the same room together? Have dinner with those two.
00:15:38The TDN Writers' Room is brought to you by Keeneland. This year's Keeneland Championship
00:15:43sale will be held in the paddock after the races at Del Mar on October the 29th. And it's shaping up
00:15:49to be exactly as advertised. An invitation to play at the highest level. The catalogue is out and
00:15:57feature stallion shares in Life is Good, Mind Frame, and Not This Time. Breeding rights to
00:16:03Constitution and Nyquist and fractional interest in Thorpedo Anna and grade three winner Travers
00:16:11runner-up Bracket Buster and Breeders' Cup sprint contenders Ben Tornado and Mulliken. Supplemental
00:16:17nominations will continue to be considered until the sale. We'll be right back after this message from
00:16:23Keeneland. Ladies and gentlemen, Keeneland welcomes you to the inaugural championship sale for this
00:16:33one-of-a-kind sales event right here at the center of the world championships. Your opportunity to play
00:16:40at the highest level is about to begin. Welcome to the Keeneland championship sale.
00:16:53The fastest horse of the week brought to you by the fast sires at Windstar Farm and this week
00:16:58breaking news. The Breeders' Cup sprint will be the final career start for Mulliken, Windstar's grade
00:17:03one winner who will be added to the Windstar Stallion roster for the 2026 season. And not only that,
00:17:08Windstar has supplemented Mulliken into the October 29th championship sale at Del Mar to auction a 25%
00:17:16ownership share. That's a 25% share of not only anything Mulliken might make in the Breeders' Cup
00:17:21spread, but also in his stallion career, which could be a good one. Mulliken's run four triple-digit buyer
00:17:28speed figures, including a 106 and 105, and he's earned over 1.1 million dollars so far before the
00:17:35Breeders' Cup, of course. Perhaps future Windstar Stallion Mulliken will go out as the fastest horse
00:17:41of the week. Wouldn't that be special? Meanwhile, our fastest horse from last week is Sumter, who sped
00:17:49to a four-length victory at Santa Anita on Saturday in the Lure Stakes. The six-year-old war front gelding
00:17:54bred and owned by Ramona Bass and her son Perry is trained by Richard Mandela. Sumter also won last year's
00:18:01Lure Stakes. He got a 97 buyer last year. On Saturday, his winning figure, 99. Sumter, our fastest horse of the week.
00:18:16Welcome in now to Gainesway Guest of the Week, and it's Brooke Smith, who was one of the minority
00:18:21owners of Sierra Leone. He's also a minority owner of Schwarzenegger, who'll go in the Breeders' Cup
00:18:26Juvenile Sprint. Brooke, welcome, and what I detect that Sierra Leone is flying a little bit under the
00:18:33radar this year. I asked Randy Moss to make a morning line for the race. He made him five to one.
00:18:39Nothing wrong with being a slight underdog, but is he getting the respect he deserves?
00:18:45You know, he's always that horse where he gets respect, and then he kind of doesn't lose it,
00:18:50but doesn't keep it, you know. He's just, you know, he's had some odd races, certainly the last
00:18:56race, the last prep that he was in before the Classic, and it's hard to say that he's under
00:19:03the radar, but let's just rephrase that and say that sovereignty is the radar. How's that?
00:19:10Yeah. Yeah, for full transparency, Brooke, I made sovereignty nine to five, fierceness four to
00:19:16one, Sierra Leone five to one, forever young six to one. So I've got him right in there.
00:19:22Wow. You have a future in odds making. I think you're pretty spot on there.
00:19:28All right, so we got to cut to the chase here and get right to the nitty gritty, Brooke. You know what
00:19:32we got to ask you here. So Mike Kropole comes out with this massive text criticizing the owners of
00:19:41Sierra Leone for running contrary thinking as a pacemaker in the Breeders' Cup Classic. He thought
00:19:48that the Breeders' Cup should not allow the entry of contrary thinking. And what I thought was kind
00:19:54of funny is that Coolmore, who is a majority owner of Sierra Leone, is also a part owner of fierceness
00:20:02sports as well as journalism. But anyway, what do you think about that whole line of thinking
00:20:10that Rapoli put out in that tweet?
00:20:13Well, you guys caught me at a good time because I just went to the ear doctor because I had to
00:20:18clean out all of the yapping that seems to be out there. Whatever happened to letting these
00:20:23horses do their thing, right? I don't have social media and I'm not faulting anybody. I think at the
00:20:28end of the day, everybody has fun with it. So, you know, that's all good. You know, Rabbit,
00:20:34I guess it's allowed. It's part of racing. Really, to me, it kind of comes down to the trainer. And if
00:20:42the trainer feels like he wants that in the race, the ownership group should support it because Chad's
00:20:48done a great job with the horse to this point. It's a big race. It's a different race. I mean,
00:20:56the rabbit could get eliminated with the post position draw. So it's just one of those things
00:21:03that I think we, you know, it's clear Sierra Leone needs pace, right? And if you're allowed to have a
00:21:10rabbit in a race that could have something to do with the pace, then you're playing within the rules
00:21:15and there's nothing wrong with that at all. And it's an expensive play within the rules.
00:21:19But has contrary thinking made the difference in the last couple of races? I mean, I guess you could
00:21:28argue that. But if he can get out there and put some pace into the race and it's all part of the
00:21:35rules, then by all means. Okay, Brooke. So you're a passionate guy. You wear your heart on your sleeve.
00:21:43Take me back to the grade one Jockey Club Gold Cup. You were there. I assume you were there. Were you there?
00:21:51I was.
00:21:53Okay, so you're there. You're watching it live. Things unfold not as planned. Obviously,
00:22:00Ripolli blamed contrary thinking. Your horse almost ran over Irad Ortiz. What were your thoughts
00:22:07watching that race unfold as it did as a passionate horse owner like you are?
00:22:14Well, beyond the passionate horse owner, there was concern about people's well-being and horses'
00:22:20well-being, to be honest. It was dramatic. I was right kind of down near the rail. And when it all
00:22:25happened, you know, it happened so fast, it was tough to even determine, as you can imagine, from,
00:22:29you know, kind of the Stan's view, you know, who was involved and what was going on. And then I
00:22:35wasn't even sure at the time that it was Irad on the ground. It took a second, but he wasn't moving
00:22:40around a lot. And the race was continuing. And as I watched him go into the turn, I thought,
00:22:45this race is going to get stopped. There's just no way they're going to get this jockey off the
00:22:52track after such a terrible spill. I'm surprised and shocked that they actually didn't. The race
00:22:57continued. But really, all I was thinking about was, is everybody okay? It mainly Irad. I mean,
00:23:05the other horses seemed to be fine. There weren't any that pulled up or anything. So that's just a
00:23:10non-race, to be honest. I mean, Blavian said, you know, he kind of was trying to figure out what was
00:23:17going on. And granted, you know, he comes from off the pace, so he made a good run. But the main
00:23:23thing was, you know, after seeing what happened and understanding, you know, the first concern was,
00:23:29is Irad okay? Somebody said he did this, he broke that, maybe he did this. And then after you watch
00:23:33the replay, you're thankful that none of the horses involved, you know, were injured. And in
00:23:40particular, Sierra Leone, I mean, if he had taken a funny step and hadn't turned it to a steeplechaser
00:23:45for a second, I mean, who knows what could have happened to Irad or the horse. So, I mean, it was like,
00:23:50wow, oh my gosh. And, um, uh, happy that everybody came out of it. Okay. The horses
00:23:56and the jock and, you know, onto the next race.
00:24:00And by the way, let's don't point a finger at poor contrary thinking there. It was Phileas Fogg
00:24:05and, and Kendrick Carmouche that veered in sharply that started that whole, started that whole scrum.
00:24:10So anyway.
00:24:12Yeah, that was, um, uh, uh, unfortunate could have been disastrous. So I'll take unfortunate.
00:24:18Randy, um, tell me, tell me why Sierra Leone is going to win the Breeders' Cup classic. If you have
00:24:27to make the case for it, if I have to make the case for Sierra Leone winning the classic, it would
00:24:34be this, uh, there is a very short stretch run at Del Mar, uh, much, much shorter, almost a football
00:24:44field, shorter, almost than, uh, than sovereignty got at Churchill Downs or at Saratoga and the
00:24:53Belmont stakes or the Jim Dandy and the Traverse. And we know he's the horse. He's a horse that does
00:24:57his best running down the lane. Okay. So that will be a disadvantage for it. It's not that he can't
00:25:03overcome it. Not that he's not good enough to overcome it, but that will be a disadvantage
00:25:07for sovereignty. And if there's enough pace to keep fierceness from getting out there and setting
00:25:14a nice, comfortable, easy lead, which is why contrary thinking was entered in the first place,
00:25:18then I think that puts Sierra Leone right in the hunt. Now he's also got to deal with a short stretch,
00:25:24but he did last year effectively, obviously at Del Mar and over.
00:25:29Yeah. The pace really helped. Um, here's another question for you guys. Tell me what you think
00:25:33about older horses and younger horses racing against each other. How does that truly factor
00:25:38into the race?
00:25:41But this time, by this point, it's not, I don't, I think it's an, it's a, not a factor at all.
00:25:47Uh, three-year-old sovereignty is not going to be at a disadvantage to the four-year-olds at all.
00:25:53It's just comes down to the horse. Now, if this race were being run in, um, may or may or
00:25:58June, something like that, you may have a case for, you know, the three-year-olds aren't quite
00:26:03up to it, but we've seen a lot of three-year-olds do real good in classic. And, uh, I, I wouldn't
00:26:08think that the older horses, especially when the three-year-old is as good as sovereignty,
00:26:12I wouldn't think the older horses have any advantage there.
00:26:15No. And Brooke, I know this will shock Zoe, but I've done all the stats. I've done every
00:26:19stat possible three-year-olds versus older horses and the weight break that three-year-olds get
00:26:25from older horses, not significant, but it is a weight break makes it come out almost
00:26:29dead. So there is no disadvantage, uh, for the three-year-olds and they've got a good
00:26:34record going used to have a good record, but basically since at 2015 has been nothing but
00:26:44three-year-olds. So the three-year-olds have really risen to the cream of the crop.
00:26:48One last question and I'll be happy to answer anything you want to ask. Um, the winner of
00:26:56this, the winner of this race is the winner of this race, um, in a special class, regardless
00:27:03of who it is. I mean, especially if it's one of, let's say the top five contenders.
00:27:08Yes. Absolutely. I agree with Randy and Zoe, the field is so deep. I mean, there's no flight
00:27:19lines this year, but you can't, I can't remember a Breeders' Cup classic like this, where you
00:27:23could go down the top seven, eight horses are all very, very good horses. So I would
00:27:29agree with that. Um, that whoever wins this, as long as it's not a 50 to one shot or something
00:27:34like that. You know, I got out my calculator, I got out my calculator and added up. So every
00:27:40horse bar three in here is a millionaire or multimillionaire. So there's 11 horses in here.
00:27:47The earners of more than 44 million, 354,000 spread out between 11 horses, 44 million and
00:27:57change. Wow. I mean, this is the best Breeders' Cup classic we've ever had.
00:28:01Sounds like professional golfers.
00:28:02One of the best. Yeah. Yeah. One of them. All right. So thank you for taking away that
00:28:07stat that I've been working on.
00:28:10So let me ask you this, Brooke. All right. So your partners, John Magner et al. Right.
00:28:15Coolmore. Yeah. In Sierra Leone also have a share of fierceness and now also have a share
00:28:23of journalism. Yeah. Nick Luck posed this question in an NBC conference call we just had a little
00:28:29while ago. I thought it was interesting. Let's suppose that Godolphin, let's suppose that
00:28:34sovereignty doesn't run his race. All right. And you're at the eighth poll and it's fierceness
00:28:39in journalism and Sierra Leone battling to the wire. Who do you suppose John Magner's rooting for?
00:28:46You know, I know John, but I don't know him well and I have a lot of respect for him.
00:28:51That's that's where I'll start the answer to this question.
00:28:53I think he's pulling for any of them. I mean, to be honestly, be honest, but I mean, it'd be it'd be a
00:29:04lot to say that you don't have a special place. It's hard for Sierra Leone. I mean, my gosh,
00:29:07he picked the horse out at a yearling sale and took the risk. And I'm sure he'd be happy if
00:29:13journalism or fierceness happened to win the race. But and I don't know if he would answer this
00:29:18question, but I can answer it if I was in their shoes. Sentimentally, buying a horse at a sale
00:29:23and watching the horse grow and develop from the beginning versus buying into a horse that's
00:29:30shown the promises of sire. I think you kind of sentimentally have to pull for Sierra Leone.
00:29:34I would like to think that. And he probably has one of those nice hats like you're wearing right now,
00:29:40too. Now, the lads don't usually wear these truckers like this, but I'll be on better behavior.
00:29:47Sure. I'll definitely have on a cowboy hat. They threatened to get hats made. I don't know
00:29:53if you know Adrian. I'm sure you do. He's a great man. He threatened to get hats made with like some
00:29:58of this scruff coming out the back that people could put on. And I'm like, well, what are you
00:30:01talking about? But anyway, I mean, look, here's the whole thing about this. You have to marvel at it.
00:30:08You have to have fun with it. And we got to take it serious. It's a sport. We're talking about
00:30:14animals and history and everything else. But if you don't just just with all this stuff that's
00:30:19going on in the world all the time, if you don't just step back a second, it's also going into a
00:30:23movie. You watch the film and you disappear in it. So I'm hoping that during the 31st and first
00:30:30that all of us that love horse racing, we disappear in those two days and and just enjoy it. You know,
00:30:37I can't wait to watch a classic. I really am excited and hopeful that Sierra Leone wins.
00:30:41But if he runs a good race and he gets beat, so be it.
00:30:45All right. You mentioned movies. You mentioned movie film. All right. Tell me if you know if
00:30:50Arnold knows anything about the horse Schwarzenegger. Does he even know you think that he's got a horse
00:30:56named after him? I don't think anybody's reached out to his people or him, but I hope he does
00:31:03because it's fun. Again, that's another that's another story. Yeah, I'm sure we could find his
00:31:07connections and say, hey, Arnold. But, you know, Schwarzenegger is an interesting horse.
00:31:14He early on, Wesley was like, this is one of the best horses, you know, and sprinter turf sprinter
00:31:18and early and, you know, what can we go to the future and all this stuff. He's been hyped for
00:31:22sure. I think he's lived up to it. And, you know, the only way to name a beast like that is to name
00:31:29after, you know, an all time monster beast in Arnold. So, you know, that's full respect there.
00:31:37Brooke, you've been sending me some texts of billboards of Sierra Leone, one in Lexington,
00:31:43one in Louisville and one in Dublin, Ireland. Are you the man behind those? And what was the
00:31:48idea with the billboards? I am. Unlike the boy that steps on top of the mountain and cries wolf,
00:31:55I'm the guy who jumps on the top of the mountain and says, Sierra Leone, let's go. Because again,
00:32:01Louisville and Lexington had a lot to do with this, this incredible cult. And, you know,
00:32:09my partners in Ireland, I hope they don't cuss me for putting the billboard up there in Dublin.
00:32:13I don't think they will. It's in, it's in respect and good fun. So yeah, I am at the root of it.
00:32:20I don't have social media, so I have to use billboards. What's that?
00:32:24Yeah. Right. Let's go back to Schwarzenegger real quick. It seems like you have an affinity
00:32:30for the Fazek Tipton sale and an affinity for Gainesway. Sierra Leone purchased for lots of
00:32:36money a Fazek Tipton off of Gainesway. And now we have Schwarzenegger purchased for a little less
00:32:42money by not this time. I think you paid 950 for him off of Gainesway at Fazek Tipton. Are these the
00:32:48only two horses you're involved with, with the lads, or do you have more?
00:32:53No. That's just kind of circumstantial, I guess, or just by chance. Though, what great,
00:33:00what a great sales company and what a great breeder farm. So when I was invited, which I jumped at the
00:33:10chance to buy into some higher dollar colts with the chance, it was the thought that maybe a derby
00:33:15horse, maybe some sire potential. The first two were Sierra Leone and Hall of Fame. So we started
00:33:21out really well. And then we, you know, I don't think I embarrassed them too much. And they invited
00:33:28me back into the next round. We bought eight, eight yearlings together, the same ownership group
00:33:33this time last year, and then considerably more actually this year. So I am all in with my good
00:33:43friends, Peter Brandt and Michael Tabor and the great Derek Smith and the great Magner family. So
00:33:51we have many together, including one that I mentioned to Bill earlier, Paladin, who ran
00:33:58a real strong race at Aqueduct last Friday. So he's showing to be a promising two-year-old and
00:34:07will probably go on the Remsen.
00:34:11Great.
00:34:12So do you mind if I ask you, let's keep it on Schwarzenegger. Can I ask you another question
00:34:16that might make you semi-uncomfortable?
00:34:18Please do.
00:34:20Okay. All right. It'll probably piss Wesley Ward off. I hope not. I like Wesley a lot.
00:34:25Wesley's great. So you mentioned you're looking for Derby. Everybody looks for Derby horses.
00:34:31Okay. You pay $950,000 for a yearling. You're thinking Derby horse. You're a colt. You're
00:34:39thinking Derby horse. You're thinking potential sire. Now, especially you buy a horse by not this
00:34:44time out of a lemon drop kid mare. Horses bred to run a mile and a half. Why is he running five
00:34:52and a half furlongs and five furlongs on the turf? Because he's fast as hell. This horse knows how
00:34:59to run. I mean, they're going to have to come up with a whole new gate system to keep that monster
00:35:04in before it's all over. Okay. Let me just tell you right now. It's not all about just finding the
00:35:11next classic winner or the next sire, though it's Schwarzenegger can prove that he's really
00:35:17talented. Maybe he graduates up and runs a mile on the turf. I don't know. I mean, it's too early
00:35:22to call. We just want him to go to the five furlongs in California. But he's an incredible
00:35:28yearling. And it was just one of those deals where everybody kind of gathered up and you're
00:35:35hanging around the phasing sales ring. And, you know, you've had a big weekend at Saratoga and
00:35:42you had a few bourbons and, oh, yeah, okay, let's go. This is a beast. And, you know,
00:35:46yeah, I'll take 10%. And that's kind of how it went together. So.
00:35:53And in fact, you're very well known in the industry for being a philanthropist. You've
00:35:58done some wonderful charity work, particularly for the Backside Learning Center at Churchill.
00:36:03What do you have in store for the charities this year if you're lucky enough to win one of
00:36:07these races? I mean, the Backside continues to benefit from Sierra Leone as a part of that
00:36:13Purse is for a Purpose program. Again, anything that I can do to help an industry that I'm passionate
00:36:22about that gives me a lot, you know, it'd be great to give back. I was very honored to be invited
00:36:29to join the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeners Association board, Toba. And I quickly jumped on
00:36:34the chance to get on the kind of the charitable philanthropic committee because that organization
00:36:39does incredible stuff across all kinds of different horse related nonprofits. So I'm spending some time
00:36:46working there. And again, anytime I can put put my shoulder into something that helps people that
00:36:54sometimes seem to be overlooked, I'm all for it. What does the T stand for, by the way?
00:37:01Trouble. No. Thomas.
00:37:06Thomas.
00:37:07Does that separate you from all the other Brooks Smiths out there?
00:37:10I don't know where the T, I don't know where the T, I don't know where the T, I don't know where
00:37:14the T entered the equation, but we're not going to lose it because it seems to be working pretty
00:37:18good. Okay. The biggest question that you need to ask me, which I haven't asked yet, is will Sierra
00:37:25Leone don the pink silks again? Mrs. Magner's silks. And I don't know how, instead of the navy blue
00:37:35silks. Yes. I don't know how he couldn't, but I'll again defer to my partners on that. But I'm hoping,
00:37:43I'm hoping that we see him in the pink silks.
00:37:45Interesting. Do you get a shot with silks or not?
00:37:51Just recently, I actually do get to integrate my silks into the equation. And I had all black silks,
00:37:59which unfortunately I could not use at Saratoga. There's a pretty prominent racing family that
00:38:05happens to have that on lockdown. So what I did out of respect to my partners is I put a navy blue
00:38:12sash across a black silk, still with the black cap. And we actually ran for the first time one of our
00:38:20other two-year-olds a couple of weeks back in the Brooke T. Smith version of the silks.
00:38:27Great. Very cool.
00:38:29Nice. All right. Anything you could do to get me into Sandy Lane Farm this year, I would appreciate it,
00:38:35Brooke. Sandy Lane Hotel.
00:38:38You can go to the farm, Randall.
00:38:40Sandy Lane Hotel. I don't even know if there is a Sandy Lane.
00:38:42I know some people. Well, look, I want to say this to you guys because I love what you guys do
00:38:48with the writer's room. And the first time that you invited me on was kind of the first time I'd
00:38:53had a real stroke of luck with Sierra Leone. And it was the Risen Star, cold, dark, rainy night,
00:38:57New Orleans. Somehow I walked out of there with the saddlecloth, you know, and drank a
00:39:02overflowing sip of champagne out of the glass trophy that Churchill gave us. And into the New Orleans
00:39:09night we went, I'd laid the saddlecloth across my bed to try to dry it out. And of course,
00:39:14you know, not thinking any better, the wet saddlecloth and the dirt from the track,
00:39:19the Ritz-Carlton is probably still looking for me for the bedding assessment. And then I got back to
00:39:24you guys after I had been out with a pizza box that was in a room and somehow propped it up and was able
00:39:30to at least put a few sentences together. So thank you for having me back. Like I said,
00:39:35I love what you guys do. You're a great combination. It's a lot of fun. And let's try to
00:39:41spend the Breeders' Cup racing days and immerse ourselves in it and like a great, great movie
00:39:46or a great film and enjoy whatever happens.
00:39:49That's a great, that's a great idea.
00:39:53Let's go.
00:39:54Do you have any more questions for us?
00:39:56No, no. I'll look forward to, I will give one handicapping tip before we leave.
00:40:03All right.
00:40:04Include Sierra Leone in your trifecta.
00:40:10Okay.
00:40:13You're going out on a big limb there, Brooke. Are you sure you want to do that?
00:40:16Yes.
00:40:18Well, it's a great chat with you guys. Thanks for having me on.
00:40:21Well, Brooke T. Smith, thank you so much for being the Gainesway
00:40:25Guest of the Week. You're as always very entertaining.
00:40:28Congratulations on all the charitable work you do.
00:40:30And good luck with Sierra Leone and Schwarzenegger in the Breeders' Cup upcoming.
00:40:35Watch out. Now, if Sierra Leone wins the Breeders' Cup Classic, I'm grabbing the trophy
00:40:40and I'm going to run down the middle of the track like Ferris Bueller. So get ready.
00:40:44See you guys.
00:40:44Let's do it.
00:40:46Our guest of the week, Mr. Brooke T. Smith, was brought to you by Gainesway,
00:40:51home of the hot sire McKenzie.
00:40:53Most recently, McKenzie got a nice win at Keeneland on Thursday as the sire of Ken Ramsey's Dr. Kapoor,
00:41:00who ran an 87 buyer speed figure in that maiden race.
00:41:03It is now being pointed for the Kentucky Jockey Club stakes next month at Churchill Lounge.
00:41:08Meanwhile, Gainesway released the 2026 stud fees for their stallions this week,
00:41:13with the exception of McKenzie.
00:41:16That's because McKenzie has several hot Breeders' Cup prospects out there.
00:41:21Baeza, Chancer McPatrick, Scottish Lassie.
00:41:24So Gainesway's understandably waiting for those results before they sit that stud fee.
00:41:29Gainesway, power, passion, performance.
00:41:32McKenzie, in a dominant performance.
00:41:44Million two, million two, right there, a million two hundred thousand.
00:41:47Baeza gets his moment in the sun in the Pennsylvania Derby.
00:41:50Chancer, McPatrick wins the champagne impressively.
00:41:53A spectacular display from Scottish Lassie, who's in front by 15 legs.
00:42:04On this week's edition of First Things First, I caught up with the connections of Baeza prior to his penultimate work.
00:42:11Give us the lowdown on the work this morning.
00:42:23Okay, well, Baeza went six from the five.
00:42:27He had a real stiff work last week, so we wanted to just have a nice little stretchy work today.
00:42:33I thought he went very well.
00:42:34Hector Barrios was very pleased with him.
00:42:36And so we put Silent Way behind him to trail him and just get a feeling of what he was doing in front of Silent Way.
00:42:45So we get some feedback from Silent Way's rider and Hector.
00:42:49So I thought it all went very well.
00:42:52Big thumbs up then.
00:42:53Big thumbs up.
00:42:55All right, good.
00:42:56Good to know.
00:42:58We've got the whole team out here this morning.
00:43:00We know Lee's excited.
00:43:02He's giving more instructions over here to Hector.
00:43:06Many thanks to John and, of course, Lee and Susan Searing are on hand there to watch Baeza.
00:43:16But that wasn't the only horse to work at Santa Anita this past weekend.
00:43:21How about Copion getting put through her paces for Hall of Famer Dick Mandela?
00:43:26She was ridden by exercise rider Cisco Alvarado.
00:43:29And this, for me, was probably one of the best works that you could possibly see.
00:43:34He broke her off, sat behind horses, had to check at the 5-16s pole, went inside, and in a blink of an eye, she opened up 10 on her other two workmates.
00:43:45I got back to the barn and Dick Mandela was grinning like a Chessier cat, like the cat that got the cream.
00:43:51That was an A-plus work for Copion.
00:43:53We know she's pre-entered in the Philly and Mare sprint.
00:43:56I actually wish she was running against the boys, to be perfectly honest, coming off of that work.
00:44:00All right, what's going on at Santa Anita this weekend?
00:44:04We have Racing Friday through Sunday for closing weekend, 1 o'clock post-time, as always, free Fridays, all-day happy hour.
00:44:12Saturday, we'll have the Pumpkin Patch and Fall Fun Fest along with Japan Family Fun Day.
00:44:18And then on Sunday, along with everything else, we've got Halloween-a-fest.
00:44:24And you know what that is?
00:44:25Sue's already jumping up and down.
00:44:26It's the Wiener Dogs.
00:44:28They're racing, and they're racing in costumes.
00:44:31So a lot to look forward to this weekend at Santa Anita Halloween-a-fest, only at the Great Race Place.
00:44:39All right, move along on Saturday's card to the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
00:44:43Grade 1, $2 million.
00:44:44I would agree with you, Randy.
00:44:46This is not one of the more tougher Breeders' Cup Sprint races that we've seen lately.
00:44:51My man Bookumdano would have killed these horses, but he's been sidelined and won't be back till next year.
00:44:56How about Straight No Chaser?
00:44:58Anybody give him much of a chance?
00:44:59It would be a good story to see him come back and win, and as a six-year-old, come back and win two Straight Breeders' Cups.
00:45:07The reason I ask that is because his race in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship was just okay.
00:45:12I mean, he led to the stretch and then faded to finish third, but perhaps trainer Dan Blackler was just using that as a tightening race.
00:45:20We'll see.
00:45:20Yeah, he's worked just fine.
00:45:24Honestly, watching him walk over for the Santa Anita Sprint Handicap, there is no doubt in my mind that he was not a fit horse.
00:45:31Maybe they just had to brush the cobwebs off because physically looking at him and watching him work, he's as fit as a fiddle.
00:45:38So I don't know if he can improve off of that or not.
00:45:41I don't know what to think.
00:45:44Nakatomi will be interesting.
00:45:46I mean, the story for me in there, again, we spoke about this last week, is Lovesick Blues, another old man, coming in for Liberado Borosio, the seven-year-old who just got beaten a Calbred Cal flag six and a half down the hill.
00:46:00Wouldn't that be a story?
00:46:01To me, it boils down to which straight-no-chaser we're going to see.
00:46:07Are we going to see last year's straight-no-chaser or the one that prepped with a sort of surprising defeat, I thought?
00:46:16And I think the winner is probably going to come from one of three horses, either straight-no-chaser, Ben Tornado, who was second last year to straight-no-chaser and tuned up at Churchill with a fantastic race right off the bench, and Lovesick Blues.
00:46:31And Ben Tornado, Ben Tornado's looked terrific working.
00:46:36His works at Keeneland have been terrific.
00:46:42All right, next up is the Breeders' Cup Distaff, and this was a race that, again, could have become up a lot stronger than it did.
00:46:51Obviously, they made the right move, not running the last year's two-year-old, excuse me, not running for a while in this race.
00:46:58But with her out and some other injuries, I guess this Seismic Beauty would be the horse to beat for Bob Baffert.
00:47:06A lot will depend on the draw.
00:47:07This horse has got a lot of early speed, see if anybody can keep up with her.
00:47:12I'm also interested in these two Japanese horses again.
00:47:16Alice Verite and Arjean both are turf horses.
00:47:20Throughout their career, why are the Japanese connections running them in a dirt race?
00:47:25Well, Arjean is expected to run in the mile on the turf.
00:47:30That's her first preference.
00:47:31She was pre-entered in both races.
00:47:35So Alice Verite is expected to run.
00:47:37And again, I think, you know, I've been Mr. Japan in the Breeders' Cup, but not this year, other than, you know, with the possible exception of Forever Young.
00:47:44I don't see a lot of other early speed in here, really.
00:47:47Seismic Beauty is kind of early speed.
00:47:51So to me, Seismic Beauty is going to be 8 to 5, 9 to 5 in here.
00:47:55And one of the interesting storylines in this is that there are only two dirt races at the Breeders' Cup that Bob Baffert has not won.
00:48:05The Distaff and the Dirt Mile.
00:48:08And he's going to have favorites in both races in this year's Breeders' Cup.
00:48:13Good stat.
00:48:15How's Seismic Beauty looking, Zoe?
00:48:17She's looking okay.
00:48:19I'm not going to say I'm totally in love with the – she's been working just fine.
00:48:26But, man, she can be a really good workhorse and a big, burly workhorse.
00:48:29I'm just not quite seeing that.
00:48:31And she's coming off a little bit of a layup.
00:48:33Fitness is not going to be a problem for her whatsoever.
00:48:35She is fit as a fiddle.
00:48:37I'm just not seeing that spark that I've seen from her before.
00:48:41Now it's Bob, and we're two weeks out.
00:48:43So, you know, anything can happen as far as I'm concerned because Bob is a master genius at getting horses ready for Breeders' Cup days.
00:48:52But if I had to lean a hat or lean some way, I'm going Darth Vader.
00:48:58Owner Breeder, John Robes, just missed by a nose.
00:49:01A heartbreaking loss in the grade one personal end sign to Torpedo Anna.
00:49:05Her last race ever.
00:49:07I mean, if Torpedo Anna was in here and she'd just come off a win, she'd be the favorite.
00:49:12So, don't sleep on Darth Vader.
00:49:14I was just going to say, I think that's the biggest threat to seismic beauty.
00:49:17Yeah, she is.
00:49:18And she doesn't need the lead.
00:49:20Or she can press the pace.
00:49:22Johnny V is just the perfect rider for her.
00:49:26Now, no one has mentioned Nitrogen, the three-year-old filly owned by DJ Stable.
00:49:30I know she got beat in the spinster by Jin Jin, who's no real star.
00:49:36But she's been so consistent and so good throughout the year on both surfaces.
00:49:41Randy, am I missing something or is there a particular reason why you don't like her?
00:49:45No, I mean, she's run well.
00:49:47She was the best horse in the spinster, even though she lost.
00:49:51She lost, you know, she ran farther.
00:49:53She lost more ground, obviously, than Jin Jin did.
00:49:56And she just lost by that much.
00:49:57You know, I still, I've seen the photo of the spinster, the wind photo.
00:50:05And I've looked at the video, and I've stopped the video on the finish line.
00:50:08And I still have difficulty believing that Jin Jin won that race.
00:50:12I know there's parallax distortion or whatever you want to call it.
00:50:14But that was very surprising to me.
00:50:18But anyway, they're both in here, Jin Jin and Nitrogen.
00:50:22You know, I mean, you can like Nitrogen, but then you have to like Jin Jin.
00:50:25Yeah.
00:50:26So I think they're both, you know, maybe a little bit overmatched, Nitrogen against the
00:50:33older horses.
00:50:35All right.
00:50:36Coming up next is the Breeders' Cup Turf.
00:50:39And this is the one that the Americans have had a terrible time winning lately.
00:50:44The last five winners of this race have been European horses.
00:50:47And nine of the last 10 winners have come from Europe.
00:50:51And they look pretty strong here, too.
00:50:53They've got a lot of really tough horses in here, including Rebels Romance, who won the
00:50:58race in 22 and 24.
00:51:00He'll be trying to win it for the third time in his career.
00:51:04And I see Minnie Hawk, who won the second in the Arc de Triomphe, is a three-year-old filly
00:51:11by Frankel out of the Coolmore Bunch.
00:51:14You know, and we don't run, no one in the United States would ever run a three-year-old
00:51:18filly in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
00:51:20They don't, they think differently over there.
00:51:22And they've had a lot of success with that.
00:51:24So Minnie Hawk is another horse to look for coming out of the European contingent.
00:51:29Zoe?
00:51:30Oh, my goodness.
00:51:31What a race this is.
00:51:33And we're talking about the Distaff.
00:51:35This shadows the Distaff.
00:51:36It's going to be the most amazing race.
00:51:39Minnie Hawk just beaten a gut-wrenching head by Daras in the Arc de Triomphe.
00:51:45The premier race in Europe for Turfers there.
00:51:49She's a three-time Oaks winner.
00:51:51It was soft ground at the Arc.
00:51:53She's going to get some ground.
00:51:54She can feel her feet rattle.
00:51:55She runs on broken glass, if you ask her to.
00:51:58She is an absolute beast.
00:51:59So Minnie Hawk's in here.
00:52:01Rebels of Romance will be going for a three-peat.
00:52:05Who else we got in here?
00:52:06We've got Ombudsman coming out of some really good races.
00:52:11He's not in.
00:52:12He isn't in, though.
00:52:13You got Goliath.
00:52:14Yeah, Goliath was supplemented by Jon Stewart for $200,000 coming off a Group 1 win in Germany.
00:52:22So the gelding will be allowed to run there.
00:52:24El Cordobas, we saw what he could do.
00:52:26And then Amalok, second in the ledger, gets a cut back in distance, which is really going
00:52:31to help him.
00:52:32He's not a mile and three-quarters horse for Rafe Becker.
00:52:35Who knows how to win over here?
00:52:36So it's a really, really good race.
00:52:40Oh, Rebels Romance trying to join Goldikova and Beholder as the only three-time Breeders'
00:52:48Cup winners.
00:52:49He'd be the first horse to ever have a three-peat in the Breeders' Cup turf.
00:52:52You got the Godolphin versus Coolmore, you know, global dominance thing going again here.
00:52:58And another cool storyline at the Breeders' Cup this year that we've never really had before.
00:53:04Ryan Moore would be riding all these Coolmore horses, Mini Hawk, all the ones on Friday.
00:53:08And, of course, Ryan Moore is out with an injury.
00:53:11And the lads at Coolmore decided to tap Christophe Soumion, the veteran jockey, one of the all-time
00:53:17greats in France, 44 years old, to come fill in for Ryan Moore.
00:53:23And he's been killing it.
00:53:25I mean, he says he feels like a kid at Disneyland, getting to ride all these horses.
00:53:31And he knows he's not going to get to live at Disneyland forever.
00:53:34You know, Ryan Moore is going to come back at some point.
00:53:38But Soumion says he's just, you know, really enjoying it while he can.
00:53:43And he has not even ridden in the Breeders' Cup in the last six years, hasn't had a mount.
00:53:50And his only Breeders' Cup win was 20 years ago in the Breeders' Cup turf.
00:53:55And now Soumion's on at least four favorites, True Love, Precise, Shustad, and Mini Hawk here.
00:54:03And, you know, the reporters are going to love it, too, because he's a much easier interview than Ryan Moore.
00:54:10Much more talkative.
00:54:13All right, folks.
00:54:14Well, let's get tied down for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:54:17We all admit it's a tremendous field.
00:54:20And as Zoe pointed out earlier, the combined earnings of these horses are $44.3 million.
00:54:27Randy, why don't you give us your morning line and if our graphics people can pick it up and put a board up with your prices.
00:54:35Because you said this was a very hard race to make a line on.
00:54:38Oh, yeah.
00:54:38I mean, I thought, okay, what would be in reasonable prices?
00:54:41And I started off making Sovereignty 8-5 and Fierceness 7-2 and Sierra Leone 4-1.
00:54:51And points are out of control.
00:54:53Points are absolutely way too high.
00:54:55So you're going to get some great bargains on horses in this race.
00:54:59I ultimately made Sovereignty 9-5.
00:55:02You'd think maybe on paper he'd be a shorter price than that.
00:55:05But there are too many other horses to bet on.
00:55:08Fierceness at 4-1, 5-1, Sierra Leone 6-1, Forever Young.
00:55:14And then you're probably going to go up to double digits or close to it on horses like Journalism and Mindframe.
00:55:21You know?
00:55:21I mean, there's a lot of really, obviously, really fantastic horses in here that people are going to want to bet on.
00:55:27And that's going to drive the price up a little bit on everybody.
00:55:30What a classic this is going to be.
00:55:32One, two, three in the Derby, all coming back.
00:55:35One, two in the Classic, all coming back.
00:55:38$44 million in purses.
00:55:40I can play Brooke Smith here, Brooke T. Smith.
00:55:44All right.
00:55:45Let me ask a question.
00:55:46What happens if journalism wins by five?
00:55:51Is he horse of the year?
00:55:52Good question.
00:55:54I would.
00:55:56I don't think so.
00:55:58Sovereignty beat him too many times.
00:56:00I think it depends on how sovereignty runs.
00:56:03Okay.
00:56:04And it may not even depend on that.
00:56:06It may be sovereignty in the bag.
00:56:08I don't know.
00:56:08So if journalism wins by five and sovereignty runs a bad sixth or whatever, that would be hoping.
00:56:15It's an interesting question.
00:56:17All right.
00:56:17I know who John Magna is going to be rooting for coming down the lane if it's fierceness, journalism, or Sierra Leone.
00:56:25All right.
00:56:25I have my opinion.
00:56:26What do you say?
00:56:27I'm going with journalism.
00:56:29Me too.
00:56:30Son of Carlin out of an Uncle Mo Mare.
00:56:32I mean, goodness gracious.
00:56:34People are stacked up to breed to him already.
00:56:37And, you know, Michael McCarthy has kind of left the door open if it was up to him.
00:56:42He said that he would run him next year.
00:56:44I don't know if that's going to be the case.
00:56:46But if you consider fierceness had a four-year-old campaign, hasn't it hurt him?
00:56:51Sierra Leone has had a four-year-old campaign, hasn't it hurt him?
00:56:55Why not journalism?
00:56:56Maybe this is the new age for Cool Moor.
00:56:59Sierra Leone has won his Breeders' Cup Classic.
00:57:01He's established his bona fides last year and his other races as well.
00:57:07Almost won the Kentucky Derby, for crying out loud.
00:57:09Fierceness has won big races.
00:57:11He's established who he is.
00:57:14Journalism has the most upside if he were to win the Breeders' Cup Classic, I would think, from a Cool Moor future stallion perspective.
00:57:23And that's why I agree with you.
00:57:25I think if it comes down to those three, they would be rooting for journalism.
00:57:28So what do you think about the decision to take Rispoli off and put Jose on?
00:57:34I want you to answer that because, you know, being the former jockey, it's part of the game.
00:57:40I don't think it's going to make any difference.
00:57:43I mean, it's not like you're taking a bum off the horse.
00:57:46But Zoe, I mean, Rispoli, I feel bad for him, though.
00:57:49I mean, you can look at it a bunch of different ways.
00:57:52Some people have said, why did it take him this long?
00:57:55Why didn't they do it sooner?
00:57:58You know, they should have made a change earlier.
00:58:00The one thing I can say for Rispoli, I don't believe he's done a bad job the last few races riding this horse.
00:58:06Has he made some bad decisions in previous races?
00:58:09Yes, but he stayed on the horse then.
00:58:12I thought it was a little late in the game to be changing jockeys.
00:58:1615 days out, pre-entries almost out.
00:58:19That, to me, was a little bit unfair.
00:58:23And yes, it happens.
00:58:24You got Jose Ortiz.
00:58:25They want the horse to be a little bit closer and a little bit more tactical, according to the connections.
00:58:32So, you know, I feel bad for Rispoli.
00:58:34I really do.
00:58:35Because, you know, he's done a decent job with the horse.
00:58:38Has he always ridden him great?
00:58:40No.
00:58:41Has he ridden him particularly badly in his last few starts?
00:58:44It's for them to say everything's fine and not utter a word until 15 days out.
00:58:50But, you know, I don't own the horse.
00:58:51It's not my decision.
00:58:53Yeah, I agree with everything you just said.
00:58:55You know, I might have done it after the Preakness, honestly.
00:59:00Even though he won.
00:59:01And he wouldn't have won if he hadn't done what he did.
00:59:03But, you know, we'll see.
00:59:08It'll either be good or not.
00:59:10The TDN Riders Room is sponsored by the PHBA, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.
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01:01:01With First TV.
01:01:06It's time for the First TV Work of the Week.
01:01:09The Work of the Week is brought to you by First TV.
01:01:11And this week, drumroll please.
01:01:13It's journalism, who had his penultimate Breeders' Cup work on Friday at Santa Anita, going five furlongs in 59-1 alongside stablemate Yellow Card.
01:01:25Now, journalism and Yellow Card did experience some unexpected company in the form of Constant Conflict, who joined them for the last quarter of a mile.
01:01:35Well, Constant Conflict, working in 48-5, journalism going in 59-1.
01:01:41They actually finished head-in-head.
01:01:43And it was kind of interesting because Constant Conflict is entered on Friday for 12-5 claiming.
01:01:49However, he did get the jump on journalism, and journalism galloped out like a freight train.
01:01:54Big thumbs up, couldn't blow out a candle, and he is on track for the Breeders' Cup.
01:01:59In fact, he's already down at Delmar.
01:02:02He'll have his next work next week at Delmar.
01:02:06Just three races to go on the Breeders' Cup Saturday card, and we're coming up now on the Breeders' Cup Mile.
01:02:13Americans haven't fared too poorly in this one.
01:02:16Since 2011, there's been eight U.S. winners and six foreign winners.
01:02:21But this is, once again, there's some real tough European horses entered into this race.
01:02:27And I think they're going to be pretty tough.
01:02:29I would take Johannes as the best American horse, but can he beat Notable Speech or some of the other Europeans that are coming in here?
01:02:41You know, it's funny.
01:02:41Charlie Appleby has become more mortal.
01:02:46He had that three-year stretch where he won like 12 of 15 races or something like that.
01:02:52He's still very good, but he's not that automatic that he used to be.
01:02:56All right, Randy, U.S. or foreign?
01:02:58Well, we knew, and Charlie knew, that that wasn't going to be sustainable, that kind of incredible success.
01:03:03And you mentioned it a couple times.
01:03:06So if you, and I've done it, if you go back and look at the stats of European dominance in these turf races, okay?
01:03:13Hugely dominant in the turf.
01:03:15They won actually 21 of the last 26 turf races.
01:03:19Then dominant, but not quite as dominant in the Philly and Mare turf.
01:03:25And then dominant, but not quite as dominant in the mile.
01:03:30And then it goes down again for the other races.
01:03:34It's by distance.
01:03:35The longer the distance, the more dominant the European horses have been in the Breeders' Cup.
01:03:42And the mile, as you pointed out, Americans have done fairly well.
01:03:45And I think the Americans have a heck of a chance this year.
01:03:47You mentioned Johannes and Notable Speech.
01:03:50They ran against each other last year in the mile.
01:03:53Johannes was second.
01:03:54Notable Speech was third.
01:03:55They were side by side at the top of the stretch.
01:03:59They came down the wire right together.
01:04:01And try as he might, Notable Speech could not get past Johannes.
01:04:07Now, I think Notable Speech is probably going to be the favorite, despite that, just because it's Godolphin and it's Charlie Appleby.
01:04:14But we'll see.
01:04:15I think it comes down to those two, although there are some other good ones in here, Zoe.
01:04:19Yeah, Notable Speech for sure, especially winning on the tight track, the inside turf up there at Woodbine last time out.
01:04:26So, yeah, John Quill, maybe he could improve off his Keenum race.
01:04:31He only got beat a length and a quarter.
01:04:35But Johannes is in terrific form.
01:04:37Didn't get the best of trips last time.
01:04:39Rispoli going to have to make a decision.
01:04:40Does he ride Johannes or Formidable Man?
01:04:42I know which one I'd ride.
01:04:45Oh, he's already made that decision.
01:04:46Yeah, it's Johannes and Johnny V.
01:04:49John Velasquez is going to ride Formidable Man.
01:04:51Okay.
01:04:52So, yeah, those are the top three as far as I'm concerned.
01:04:56Yeah, I know Will Walden won't agree with this, but I thought, honestly, John Quill might have been the best horse and not rhetorical in the Coolmore first mile because he had a poor draw.
01:05:07He had a far outside draw.
01:05:08And given a choice, they decided to go back instead of forward to move over, drop behind the field.
01:05:15And they were like 12 or 13 lengths back.
01:05:18Way too much ground to make up at Keenum going a mile.
01:05:20And still, he came rolling down the lane and got beat, what, like a length and a quarter or something.
01:05:24Do we know who's riding John Quill?
01:05:26No.
01:05:27Okay.
01:05:28Next week we will.
01:05:29I don't.
01:05:30Next week we will.
01:05:31Somebody does, but I don't.
01:05:33Yeah.
01:05:33We'll figure it out.
01:05:34Next up is the Dirt Mile in here.
01:05:38And this race, it's interesting because, Randy, you talked about this being one of the races that Baffert hasn't won.
01:05:45And he's got three in here, including the favorite, Nysos.
01:05:49Citizen Bull is very interesting, too.
01:05:51I mean, remember what a good two-year-old he was and how he won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last year.
01:05:57It looks like since Bob has decided to keep him to a little bit shorter races, the shared belief was a nice race.
01:06:04I know he didn't beat anything in there.
01:06:06He went off at 2-5, but at least it showed that he's back on top of his game.
01:06:10And then, yeah, and goal-oriented.
01:06:13I wouldn't really put much stock in him.
01:06:16You also have Mystic Dan, of course, a Kentucky Derby winner coming back.
01:06:19And Brian Hernandez is still sidelined, so I guess Francisco Arrieta will ride him.
01:06:25Randy, is it Nysos and Baffert, or is it somebody else?
01:06:28I mean, Nysos has got to be the favorite, I would think.
01:06:30But, I mean, would anyone be surprised if Citizen Bull wins?
01:06:34I don't think so.
01:06:35Full Serrano, defending champ.
01:06:37Obviously, he's got a great shot coming back.
01:06:40I wouldn't be surprised if goal-oriented runs extremely well.
01:06:42Mystic Dan, no.
01:06:43Nysos, obviously, is the favorite.
01:06:46Why do Barrio?
01:06:47If why do Barrio runs his race back that he ran in the Pegasus, he probably wins.
01:06:54I mean, if he runs one of his A races, Breeders' Cup Classic, Pegasus, if he doesn't get too
01:07:00far behind in here, he's in with a great shot as well.
01:07:04It's a hell of a race.
01:07:06He's the unicorn in here, pun intended, why do Barrio?
01:07:09Because Nysos, you know, he's still got to jump through all the hoops to get there.
01:07:13Had a sore foot going into the Pacific Classic and was scratched.
01:07:17So he's still got to get there.
01:07:19But he is by far the best horse in the race.
01:07:22But yeah, why do Barrio on his best day can beat all of these?
01:07:26And when he's firing bullets, he's doing really, really good.
01:07:29And he's firing bullets.
01:07:31All right.
01:07:33The Saturday card concludes with the Breeders' Cup Philly and Mayer turf, mile and three-eighths.
01:07:39Once again, a lot of Europeans in here, as you would expect, including Minnehawk.
01:07:45Is Minnehawk definitely going to run on the turf, Randy?
01:07:48Yes.
01:07:48Yes.
01:07:48That's the plan.
01:07:49Okay.
01:07:51You know, and again, it's a situation.
01:07:54Can we beat the Europeans?
01:07:55There's been only five U.S. winners since 2012.
01:08:00But with Minnehawk not going in here, there's no European horse that really jumps off the page to me.
01:08:06So I think she feels pretty can get the job done.
01:08:10She's proven to be, I think, the best Philly and Mayer turf mayor in the United States.
01:08:16And she's in great form right now.
01:08:17She won the EP Taylor last time out for Cherie DeVoe.
01:08:20That's probably where I would wind up going when we make our picks next week.
01:08:24But I want to take a little deeper dive into the European horses.
01:08:27And you've got a Japanese horse in here, too, which is, again, Randy, you're right.
01:08:31Like this Alice Verite, just the form is so in and out.
01:08:36It hasn't been very good lately.
01:08:37So I wouldn't put much hope stock in that horse.
01:08:40And her first preference is in the distaff anyway.
01:08:43So she probably won't run in there.
01:08:46Watch out for See the Fire in here for Andrew Boulding.
01:08:50Just beating a neck in the Prida Opera.
01:08:54Comes in with some good form.
01:08:56Excuse me.
01:08:57Going to love the top of the ground.
01:08:59I mean, she's been running against some budsmen.
01:09:01She's been running in some really, really good races.
01:09:04And Andrew knows what type of a horse to bring over here.
01:09:07So she could be very interesting.
01:09:10I do agree with She Feels Pretty.
01:09:13It's a good race.
01:09:15It's a really good race.
01:09:16From a value betting perspective, See the Fire might be the best play of the two days.
01:09:22Yeah.
01:09:22What price will we get?
01:09:24Six to one.
01:09:25Okay.
01:09:26And she's not six to one on paper.
01:09:28No.
01:09:29And Zoe, I'd be interested in getting your opinion on this.
01:09:31Here's my concern.
01:09:33I'm a big She Feels Pretty fan.
01:09:35Yeah.
01:09:36I mean, I've been saying all year long, she's the best turf filly in America.
01:09:40Okay.
01:09:40But she's very aggressive.
01:09:44She's very keen in the early part of her races.
01:09:47Johnny V winds up fighting with her part of the time to try to get her slowed down.
01:09:51He's always taking a really hard hold of her.
01:09:54Mouths open.
01:09:55She sits behind horses.
01:09:57And then when he gives her her head, finally, three-eighths pole, five-sixteenths pole, she
01:10:02makes these massive moves and just blows by horses and opens up.
01:10:06Last time at Woodbine, at a mile and a quarter, okay, she did the same thing.
01:10:12She was very keen.
01:10:13Let her go.
01:10:13Opens up.
01:10:14And if the race had been a mile and a quarter and 20 feet, she loses to Diamond Rain.
01:10:21Yeah.
01:10:21And Diamond Rain had a worse trip.
01:10:24And she was absolutely eating up.
01:10:26She feels pretty at the end.
01:10:27And now she feels pretty.
01:10:28She's got to go a mile and three-eighths.
01:10:31She's got to conserve that energy to get a mile and three-eighths.
01:10:34And I'm just worried that her keenness is going to be her undoing.
01:10:39And Drawer is going to be critical for she feels pretty to get a comfortable trip, in
01:10:44my opinion.
01:10:47I mean, I would take see the fire over her purely for the fact she's got to relax.
01:10:53You know, if she's got Stellify, she's got speed.
01:10:55There's plenty of speed in here to kind of rev her up and jump her into the bridle.
01:11:00Can she get a mile and three-eighths?
01:11:02Sure.
01:11:02Will she get it better at Del Mar over that track?
01:11:06Definitely.
01:11:07So it's within the realms of possibility for her, especially at Del Mar, which will
01:11:12favor horses stretching out perhaps a little further than they want to.
01:11:17But she's going to have to drop the bet against some of the best euros.
01:11:20Yeah.
01:11:21And the reason this might be such a good betting race, Bill, is that, okay, you've
01:11:24got She Feels Pretty, who's been odds on in her last five races.
01:11:27And she's won four of them.
01:11:29She'll probably be the favorite.
01:11:31But you've got Diamond Rain, who's going to be bet on because she almost beat She Feels
01:11:35Pretty last time.
01:11:36And you've got Cinderella's Dream, who, like Diamond Rain, is owned by Goodolphin, trained
01:11:39by Charlie Appleby.
01:11:41Cinderella's Dream was second in this race last year and should have won.
01:11:44She was the best horse.
01:11:45And the more people don't like it when I say that.
01:11:47But she was the best horse in last year's Breeders' Cup, Philly Meriturf.
01:11:50She's off form, though.
01:11:51Her last couple of races, she hasn't been as sharp as she was in her earlier races.
01:11:55So all those horses are going to take money.
01:11:58And that's going to drive the price up on not just See the Fire, but Gazora and some of
01:12:04the other horses in this race that would have a shot on paper.
01:12:08All right.
01:12:09Well, it looks like it is going to be a fantastic Breeders' Cup coming up in a week and a half.
01:12:13And especially that classic is one for the ages.
01:12:17The TD and Riders' Room also brought to you by West Point Thoroughbreds, which entered,
01:12:24pre-entered, that should be, three horses for the Breeders' Cup.
01:12:27Futurity winner Intricate Spirit, who takes a perfect two-for-two record into the juvenile
01:12:31turf sprint for trainer Miguel Clement.
01:12:33Vava, the popular grade one winner trained by Cherie DeVoe, who's made $2 million and
01:12:38goes in the Philly and Mare sprint.
01:12:40And Super Corridora, such an impressive maiden winner recently at Santa Anita.
01:12:46The trainer John Sadler's wheeling her back in a wide-open juvenile fillies.
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01:13:33That's a wrap on this week's show.
01:13:37I want to thank my co-hosts, Randy Moss and Zoe Cadman.
01:13:40I want to thank our Gainsway Guest of the Week, Brooke Smith.
01:13:43Also, the people that work behind the scenes, our producers and editors, Sue Finley, Katie
01:13:47Petruniak, Anthony LaRocca, and Aaliyah LaRocca.
01:13:50We'll be back next week with a lot more Breeders' Cup talk.
01:13:53Should be a great couple weeks of racing to look forward to.
01:13:56And we'll see you next week.
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