Sierra Leone's Strategy in This Year’s Breeders' Cup Classic

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00:00and moved to Sierra Leone, last year's Breeders' Cup Classic winner.

00:03You kind of know what you're going to get with him, Scott.

00:05He's a horse who's going to drop back.

00:07He's going to make one late run.

00:09He does not have a lot of early speed.

00:11What was really impressive in his win in the Breeders' Cup Classic last year,

00:14Jockey Flavian Pratt was able to ask him to move much earlier than he normally does.

00:20So Sierra Leone was actually striking the front at the top of the lane

00:23instead of late in the stretch like you see from him in normal circumstances.

00:27It was a really heady ride moving into a fast pace,

00:31and it was almost like he caught everybody like in a blind switch almost at that moment.

00:36Sierra Leone will come rolling after a disappointing start to the year.

00:39He's put together a couple of really nice races.

00:42He has, and this was a horse I was very high on.

00:44In fact, I picked him in races before the Kentucky Derby and the Derby,

00:49and he kind of let me down in races after that, not finishing the deal.

00:53I hate to knock a horse that's made $7 million and is running for another $7 million lion share here,

00:59but this horse needs a setup.

01:01That's why he has a rabbit in the race, his stablemate.

01:04He needs every bit of that.

01:05He got it last year.

01:06I don't know if he's going to get the same setup this year.

01:09I'm against him.

01:10The number eight is Mindframe,

01:11and if we were previewing this race in early August,

01:16Mindframe might have been the favorite or one of the favorites in here,

01:19especially if Sovereignty was not in the race.

01:21But the last time we saw Mindframe, Scott, he was in a race where he lost the rider.

01:25There was an incident in there.

01:27He didn't finish the race.

01:28So we actually haven't seen him cross the wire since the end of June.

01:32That's the big concern with him.

01:34It's not talent.

01:35It's certainly not ability.

01:36It's just he has that lack of recency,

01:38and he's going to be facing the toughest field he's ever faced in his career.

01:42Yeah, and I'll just piggyback because I agree with all you're saying.

01:44So it comes down to me is what price are you willing to take on the gamble?

01:48To me, he's going to be shorter than I would be willing to take with those questions.

01:52You need horses, in my opinion, to be fit,

01:55have everything go right coming in these big races,

01:57and that's just not the case with this horse.

01:59Journalism has been in a lot of the big fights this year.

02:01He's going to get a new rider.

02:02Jose Ortiz will jump aboard.

02:05Journalism comes off of a second-place finish behind fierceness.

02:08How do you think about journalism's chances this weekend?

02:11Man, I love this horse.

02:12I have from the get-go.

02:13He was good to me.

02:14Then he wasn't.

02:15Then he was.

02:15I think he's up against it.

02:17He just hasn't continued to move forward like some of the others in here.

02:21If I'm going to lose my money, though, I hope it's to journalism.

02:24And then rounding things out, Scott, is a horse that you like a little bit,

02:26Antiquarian, who's coming off of back-to-back really big efforts.

02:30I mean, you isolate his 20-25.

02:32It's been very good.

02:32He hasn't run a bad race.

02:34And overall, in his career, he doesn't have many poor efforts.

02:37No, and he's getting better as the distances go longer.

02:39Doesn't quite have that eye-catching win that his stablemates do or that big number,

02:44but just the steady progression.

02:45He gets to move in one post.

02:47He should get a good trip.

02:48He won the last race with a rabbit with a Jockey Club Gold Cup,

02:51which is a little bit of a different kind of race to run for both the jockey and the horse

02:55when they separate so much.

02:57So I think Antiquarian gets overlooked here,

02:59and I don't quite understand it other than maybe just name or brand value.

03:03I don't really care.

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