- 2 months ago
In this festive finale to the TDN Writers' Room in 2025, the team of Bill Finley, Randy Moss and Zoe Cadman looked back on some of their favorite races and horses of the year. They answered a few listener write-in questions and even fielded a few curveball questions sent in by the producers. Tune in for a trip down memory lane and a look ahead to 2026 with the Writers' Room.
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00:00:00welcome to another edition of the tdn writers room a special edition our christmas edition
00:00:23my name is bill finley i'm a correspondent for the thoroughbred daily news and i'm also
00:00:27the grinch of this podcast because i refuse to go out and buy an ugly sweater maybe next year but
00:00:35i'm standing firm guys me too bill zoe calls it a jumper i don't own a jumper or a sweater whatever
00:00:42jumper means so this is the best i can do i'm randy moss with nbc sports i was told to bring
00:00:48along a toddy right the tdn does not condone uh premium margaritas necessarily so drink responsibly
00:00:57but uh we're gonna have a good time here oh bill's got his wine there you go there's my glass of wine
00:01:04cheers i'm zoe cabman with first racing and first tv got doodle here got some i don't know i look a bit
00:01:11like a throwback to the 80s here with some i think i've got some reindeer ears and some snowballs on
00:01:17doodle's probably gonna exit stage left he doesn't like beer and uh we're ready to roll bill you lost
00:01:23your your little bow you were wearing where is it if i can find it see he was wearing a bow that's
00:01:29about there you go that's the best i can do my daughter gave me a bow so yeah i don't have any
00:01:34chestnuts roasting but i'm comfortable here in front of the uh in front of the fire so all right ready to
00:01:40roll well this is going to be a special christmas show and we're going to have some fun with this
00:01:44rather than having our usual format and our guest we asked the viewers to send in some questions
00:01:50to us we've got some really interesting ones that we'll go over in a little bit randy myself
00:01:55and zoe will all take a look at those and see if we can give you some pertinent answers that might
00:01:59educate you a little bit about racing but in the meantime our staff our production staff is giving
00:02:06us some surprise questions for our our panel and let's see if we can have fun with this all right
00:02:12first one randy moss i i think i'm going to need this first go ahead okay yeah randy moss and we want
00:02:18you to uh be totally honest with us here what is jerry bailey really like off camera he's okay
00:02:27oh we're we're best of friends you know um a lot of professional athletes not just in horse racing
00:02:36but in any sport you know uh especially if they're successful as jerry bailey is when they get into the
00:02:42media they don't want to work very hard they want to just live off their personality and off their
00:02:48name and they don't want to do all the homework that it takes to be really good at the job of
00:02:53broadcasting chris collinsworth does it torrey aikman does it jerry bailey does it from day one
00:03:01in 2006 when he joined the then espn crew with me i had been the sole uh analyst for you know for seven
00:03:08eight years and jerry immediately uh impressed everybody with his incredibly uh hard work and he
00:03:16and i are one in one a we go together to starbucks in the morning in the same car we sit elbow to
00:03:21elbow all day long in a production trailer we go to dinner at night and uh we finish each other
00:03:27sentences so it's great time he's a great guy so now we go to zoe oh this is a good question zoe are you
00:03:34a better jockey tv broadcaster or bloodstock agent i'm gonna plead the fifth and say none of the above
00:03:42jack of all master of none and leave it at there oh you're not giving yourself enough credit there
00:03:48zoe come on uh none of the above all right well all right so we're back to randy randy if you could
00:03:55be one horse in history who would you be oh this is a good one i like this um flight line then i would
00:04:06only have to run six times and i would immediately go to stud i'm glad you didn't say john henry who's
00:04:12gelding
00:04:13how about how about secretariat oh nothing wrong with secretariat all right bill i'm reading off your
00:04:23next question you're gonna read it i'm gonna read it what was the worst interview you ever conducted
00:04:30unbelievably the first interview i ever conducted when i was working in the publicity department at
00:04:38monmouth park and maybe they were playing a prank on me but they asked me to call leroy jolly
00:04:43leroy jolly like to speak poorly of the dead was the most miserable nasty person in horse racing that
00:04:49i've ever come across he was this is my i was i was like 22 years old it was the first interview
00:04:55literally the first interview i ever had he spent five minutes being nasty to me and yelling at me
00:05:00and i hung up the phone and thought oh my god what if i got myself into but having said that 99 of the people
00:05:09in horse racing are wonderful you get the in any walk of life you get jerks and uh uh he he certainly
00:05:17qualified under that tell us what you really think let me yeah let me roll this one out to you my very
00:05:24first newspaper sports editor he made my very first shot he told me right off the bat the key to a
00:05:30successful interview is to ask dumb questions what do you think about that uh terrible terrible idea
00:05:38not what his his thought was and i used it quite often and it worked you get more of an explanatory answer
00:05:46if you ask very simple very innocent questions that don't show off anything that you know or any of
00:05:54your knowledge or whatever just get the person to give a very detailed answer and they talk more
00:06:00in that regard when you don't give them a more specific question see that's what you should have
00:06:05done bill okay maybe maybe leon me and leroy could have been great questions if i followed randy sports
00:06:11editor advice okay this one is for zoe and it is what is the worst job you ever had oh without a
00:06:18doubt this is easy um in fact my mom was just talking about it last week when i went to england
00:06:24we were talking about bartenders and waitresses and she's like well you couldn't do that i'm like i might
00:06:30be able to do it now but when i was about 14 i took a job as a waitress in the dunkery beacon hotel
00:06:37which is a hotel on exmoor so my mom had to drive me there and i probably might have lasted an hour
00:06:44i came across one very rude man and i wasn't having that he got soup all over him and i left
00:06:52so and i didn't like like the frilly apron and the black tights and the skirt i had to wear either
00:06:59so that that was the end of my waitressing career just one start and done
00:07:04mine was a busboy at a fine dining restaurant yeah they made me
00:07:11all the waitresses who were older made all the busboys carry out these massive trays
00:07:17filled with all the food and on the first week of the job i was carrying a tray to a table
00:07:24and a plate of lasagna slid off directly into the top of a lady's beehive hairdo
00:07:30and and and that was the end of my uh that was the end of my tenure as a busboy all right randy
00:07:36we'll stick with you we want to know what was your most embarrassing moment ever on tv
00:07:41uh early early early uh when i got my first live tv exposure i was at oakland park in the newspaper
00:07:54business and a local tv station had me come on and do uh a once nightly report that later on became
00:08:03twice nightly once in the morning whatever but they told me they wanted me to wear makeup
00:08:09and i had a very you know very uh powerful five o'clock shadow but i refused to i refused to wear makeup
00:08:17i thought that was too feminine so every afternoon before we went on for the six o'clock news every
00:08:23evening i would run into the press box bathroom with a razor and shaving cream and shave using cold
00:08:30water because it didn't have any hot water and so one time i waited a little too long and just a few
00:08:36minutes before i was supposed to go on the air i cut a chunk out of my chin right here and it was
00:08:43gushing blood and so right before we went on the air i'm doing this i'm pressing as hard as i can to
00:08:50try to and try to stem the flow of blood lucy's barking sorry and so then we went on and i had to
00:08:56drop my chin and it was an extended report and about one minute into it the cameraman leaned out
00:09:03from behind the camera and went like this and so i just kind of casually wiped my chin i had a whole
00:09:08handful of blood i thought the cameraman told me by the time the shot was finished he had panned back
00:09:14so far that i look like a little speck in the background i wish somebody had saved that video but
00:09:20it's gone oh we'd love to see that all right so we're back for me as a journalist who is the most
00:09:26cooperative person you have ever dealt with in racing that's a good question and again like i said
00:09:31before when i was uh doing my little diatribe about my good friend leroy jolly that that i could
00:09:36probably come up with about 50 but i think number one is mike smith um he is about the nicest man on
00:09:43the planet he is i've known mike uh since he first came to new york to ride uh as a young man i came
00:09:52from the from the uh from for the winter meet and his original intention was just to ride there for a
00:09:57little while and i believe then go to oakland or some maybe fairgrounds or something like that
00:10:01but he did so well he never left and then he became mike smith he is an absolute sweetheart he
00:10:08will do anything for you anytime he has never ever turned me down for an interview and uh he is just
00:10:15one of those priceless people and again i could i could come up with 10 more but if you ask me to
00:10:20come up with only number one mike smith is one of my very favorite if not my single very favorite
00:10:27person in horse racing i'll second that notion yeah i'll third that and my one of my best interviews
00:10:33i ever had was with mike on arrogate dubai world cup and i honestly i didn't even look at the race
00:10:39because i was so sure mike was going to win so they break out of the gate i'm on the pony supposed to do
00:10:44the interviews and i rarely see the race much like donna and i trotted off and i could just hear
00:10:50an arrogate is last i'm like oh jesus christ and i'm like looking through the pps because they're like
00:10:56he'll never make it he'll never make it i'm like i don't know anything about the rest of these horses
00:11:01so it pays to really do your homework and thank god mike won and uh he simply said it was from a
00:11:09to z it started off like arrogate and it ended up ended up like zenyatta so it was brilliant on his part
00:11:17and i thank him every day for actually winning that race and scooping me out of the hole
00:11:21all right now this is for all of us and they want us to show our yearbook photos so i don't i don't
00:11:28have it with me i think our production team is going to put up up on the board but uh let's take
00:11:34a look there we go that was me as a young man and by the way that is at the racetrack i had an uncle
00:11:40by the name of harold who owned a couple racehorses and uh is my senior year in high school and uh one of
00:11:46them won at i believe that's belmont park and that's me smiling after the victory you know
00:11:52what take away the glasses put on a coat and tie strike that same pose and you don't look a whole
00:11:56hell of a lot different bill thank you randy i appreciate that were you held back in high school
00:12:01you look like you're 40 there maybe that's why he doesn't look much different now zoe
00:12:08i do like the mullet though the mullet looks good on you bring it back oh zoe with a beer imagine that
00:12:17imagine that so this obviously wasn't my high school photo because i don't have one i did send
00:12:22you some of me when i was very young but that's myself and sarah calhoun on a boat somewhere in
00:12:28destine florida it's when i had long hair so yeah my hair is actually naturally curly and it goes
00:12:34into ringlets when it gets quite long that was probably that would have been like 1998 or 1999
00:12:42probably 98 late 90s were you riding at the time no i didn't start till 2000 i put all the i did all
00:12:51the bad stuff beforehand oh good god there you go there's a fine looking young man wow you know
00:13:00in hindsight i think i needed a little brow work but other other than that i can i can live with
00:13:10that i just wish i'd held on to uh some of that hair you got a lot of hair there wow oh zoe i had
00:13:17i my barber told me my father was bald and his brother was bald so the whole bs about it coming
00:13:23from the female side of your family is just that and my barber told me is one thing you never have to
00:13:28worry about he's winding up like your father because there are parts of your head that will
00:13:33never see the light of day boy was he right boy was he ever wow next up and we're going to all
00:13:39answer this you have a derby horse and can ride any rider in history who do you pick i'll start
00:13:44angel cordero with all due respect to jerry bailey uh your partner randy who i thought it was one of
00:13:49the greatest jockeys in the history of the sport i still think that angel cordero was the best jockey
00:13:54that i've seen in my time covering horse racing he could do things on a horse that nobody else could
00:13:59do he he understood the the uh the mechanics of a race as well as anybody and uh jerry bailey is
00:14:07an obviously a talented rider but i think his greatest asset is his smarts angel cordero is both
00:14:14very smart and also an extremely aggressive rider i like those kind of riders and uh angel will be my
00:14:22go ahead randy i'm still thinking all right well i can't say jerry bailey because then people would
00:14:28accuse me of bias so i'm going to disqualify jerry bailey from my answer and uh jerry rode with him
00:14:35but i never saw him ride eddie arcaro jerry didn't actually ride with him i just like to tease jerry about
00:14:41that you know he was aggressive as well very aggressive in fact he got set down for i think a year
00:14:48at one point for purposely trying to put a guy over the rail uh and obviously you know one of
00:14:54the most phenomenally successful riders of all time if the purse money available today had been
00:14:59available when he was riding no telling how much money eddie arcaro would have won and he wound up
00:15:04a tv analyst uh well i'm gonna have to go with jerry bailey then just because when i first came to
00:15:14this country he was the absolute man it would actually be very close with jerry and johnny v
00:15:18um johnny's still riding today obviously at they will be pretty close for them because they're both
00:15:25very aggressive tactical riders and just they just have brilliant ways of seeing a race before
00:15:32anything happens in front of them they're just sharp and reactive which is what i love
00:15:37boy randy you went uh old time why didn't you come up with isaac murphy or something
00:15:42man i i could have that's a pretty good thought i mean you look at history you look at all the
00:15:50major races won by jockeys and and he's he almost stands alone he was unbelievable so um this is the
00:15:59final question for everyone can if you can only eat one racetrack food for the rest of your life
00:16:04what is it i have to think about this so zoe you go first red beans and rice and bread pudding at
00:16:10the fairgrounds no question all right i haven't spent enough time at the fairgrounds i love red
00:16:17beans and rice and bread pudding i would say the uh corned beef sandwich and uh nachos with jalapenos
00:16:26at keeneland okay i i have a really off the wall answer to this but this this this is what i think
00:16:33um back go 25 30 35 years ago foxborough raceway which was a harness track tried a thoroughbred meat
00:16:41it lasted about three weeks before they went out of business foxborough was where um the the patriots
00:16:47played the same complex but it was owned by a restaurateur who had a gourmet restaurant and he
00:16:54brought in the same kind of staff and people to run the dining room at this little crappy racetrack
00:17:01which ran thoroughbreds you you look all over ask a thousand people if they've ever seen thoroughbred
00:17:06racing at foxborough raceway and you won't find anybody but me but it was worth going for the food
00:17:12it was absolutely delicious and now poor new england after all this has no racetracks and you have no
00:17:19idea how sad that makes wow so i have a question for you having spent many many a day with nfl network
00:17:25in my 13 years there at foxborough at what they call patriot place now was the foxborough racetrack
00:17:33on that site oh absolutely it's right behind the stadium and um for a while they were both there
00:17:38until they they closed up the racetrack really and tore it down yeah um it was yeah uh kind of like you
00:17:45know the uh meadowlands or or uh you know complex with uh the hockey arena across the street right
00:17:52football stadium and then the racetrack right there all pretty much on the same property yeah
00:17:56that that was the case there was a racetrack there um you know primarily it was a harness track and
00:18:02like uh virtually so many other harness tracks it's it's long gone i never knew that and robert
00:18:07craft came in when he bought the patriots and turned all that property into retail establishments
00:18:12right behind the stadium which is phenomenally successful as you know they call it patriot place
00:18:17wow see we learned something today yeah do want to remind you that the tdn writers room is brought to
00:18:26you by keeneland now as this is our last podcast of the year let's talk about some of the records
00:18:32that keeneland set this year we'll start off with the september yearling sale that achieved the highest
00:18:38gross ever at a thoroughbred sale of over 531 million in september there were a record 56 yearlings
00:18:47who sold for 1 million dollars or more the sale featured the highest average and the highest
00:18:53median which is most important of all in november the sale grossed more than any sales since 2007
00:18:59and also established a record average and median once more the wheeling topper by gunrunner was the
00:19:06highest selling wheeling since 2015 at 2.2 million also the first one that amazadan bought
00:19:14quite a year for keeneland indeed we'll be right back after this message from keeneland
00:19:19we do this so your granddaughter can work on a farm someday
00:19:24so the stands will still be packed in 50 years
00:19:29that's why we come to work every day obsess over every single detail
00:19:36because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
00:19:44deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters
00:19:49normally for this podcast we bring you the fastest horse of the week based on the top buyer speed figure
00:19:56of the week but now we're doing the year-end podcast so it will be the fastest horse of the year
00:20:02brought to you as always by the fast sires at winstar farm and in 2026 those winstar sires will include
00:20:09three new recruits each of whom have a top career buyer speed figure of over 100
00:20:16first of all 107 was the top buyer speed figure for straight no chaser
00:20:22last year 2024's champion sprinter who won the breeders cup sprint
00:20:26he'll stand at winstar for ten thousand dollars
00:20:28he had four career buyer speed figures of triple digits next with the career buyer of 106
00:20:36mullican who won the grade one forgo stakes also the grade two john nairud stakes
00:20:42he also had buyers of 105 104 and 102 he'll stand for ten thousand dollars at winstar he's a son of violence
00:20:49and then last but certainly not least patch adams the impeccably well-bred son of into mischief
00:20:56a multiple grade one winner with the career high buyer speed figure of 103 patch adams will stand
00:21:02at winstar for a fee of 30 000 and now the fastest horse of the year go back to the traverse stakes
00:21:10at saratoga the 10 length victory by derby and belmont winners sovereignty earned a buyer speed figure
00:21:16of 115 which is not only the fastest buyer speed figure of 2025
00:21:23it's also the fastest buyer speed figure of the last seven years by any horse not named flight line
00:21:33that's how good sovereignty was as a three-year-old this year and hopefully
00:21:36we'll see him next year the fastest horse of the year
00:21:40so here's our next segment a little drink first please
00:21:48okay yes i'm running out we had asked we had asked i would have i would have drunk my bottle
00:21:55of wine but i'm still my two bottles of wine from randy but i'm still yeah did he finally pay you
00:22:00oh yeah oh yeah i'm i'm i'm hoping i'll catch up but i keep getting farther behind
00:22:08okay so on previous podcasts we asked uh our listeners and viewers to write in some questions
00:22:15for the team we got some really good ones and i'll read them this is from tim mozanek if the industry
00:22:21will start over again given a blank slate what would be the schedule forget about tradition but assume
00:22:27that the meets would stay in place okay he keeps going on would the triple crown be the first
00:22:32saturday of the month and when would the breeders cup be i think randy and i will agree with this i
00:22:37think it's very important to change the triple crown and i absolutely would make the triple crown
00:22:41on the first saturday of may june and july when would the breeders cup be no need to change that uh
00:22:48the first saturday in november works absolutely fine and i don't think even if they change the
00:22:53triple crown that the last race would go off in july i don't think that would
00:22:57affect the breeders cup one bit no no you could have the travers and the pacific classic
00:23:02um first week in august or first week in september per se you know over the decades one of the major
00:23:11problems in horse racing has always been that horse racing has tried to ignore the laws of supply and
00:23:19demand uh way back in the day when you could just open up a racetrack and be financially successful
00:23:25you had all these racetracks running on top of each other in the northeast when they didn't
00:23:29necessarily have to and now you've got a horse shortage and yet you've still got these racetracks
00:23:34like gulfstream trying to trying to run year round right so i think if you could start from scratch and do
00:23:40it over again you would have meetings if you had one commissioner that had you know uber power you would
00:23:47have race meetings that are substantially shorter at a lot of tracks than what they are now and you would
00:23:55be coordinated but you know that obviously doesn't happen all right so tim continues the second
00:24:01question he says currently in the schedule of the grade ones and the elite grade ones are like the
00:24:06streets of boston they were developed haphazardly with no thought put into it um i agree very much
00:24:15there needs to be more coordination but i would also uh add and this is kind of uh segues or uh
00:24:22follows what randy just said we need fewer graded stakes races um there's not enough good horses to
00:24:29go around uh to fill all these races i don't know if it's a graded race or not but just on a recent
00:24:35podcast we were talking about the bob hope stakes being canceled because three horses entered and then
00:24:41uh there was the stake at del mar uh on uh the native diver is it with um uh uh and uh mid right before
00:24:50thanksgiving five horses in that um we do not have enough horses to fill these stakes races and i
00:24:56think you could get rid of about 25 or 30 of them and uh the sport would be better off and i keep
00:25:03looking every time i look up there's a new pre-discop winning your end that starts next week
00:25:07and we've already spoken about how many of the winning your ends there are but i mean they're already
00:25:12starting like in january i keep reading oh there's one popping up in brew there's one over here there's
00:25:17one over there i'm like my goodness me they're everywhere i would tell tim that a lot of thought
00:25:24actually does go in to skip to stake schedules for example at naira they put in a tremendous amount
00:25:32of thought in which stakes go at aqueduct in the winter into what's going to be belmont in the spring
00:25:40and then on to saratoga and then back to belmont and then back to aqueduct a lot of thought goes into
00:25:46coordinating stakes races to make sure that the preps run at the right time of the year for the
00:25:53whitney let's say but it's just only in new york that's all they think about right and that's all
00:26:02they really need to think about they're concerned about what's best for naira they don't look at
00:26:07what's best for the entire sport of horse racing the same goes with churchill downs the same goes with
00:26:14every other racetrack right they tailor their stake schedule and their dates based on what's best for
00:26:21their own provincial interests and not what's best for horse racing as a whole so if we had a league
00:26:29office let's say with any kind of power which is never going to happen but if we did then you could
00:26:34kind of solve that problem by coordinating racing dates as well as stake schedules all right the next
00:26:41question is from jonathan hollenberger he says i love the paddock especially being there when i have
00:26:46a horse in the race other than being dappled out i have no idea how to evaluate which horses are looking
00:26:52good uh bad fit eager exhausted ready etc what tips and sources can the groups point to for how a horse
00:27:00player can effectively evaluate horses just by looking at them yeah zoe but first i want to tell a story
00:27:05why i don't even bother um that i was working at buoy racetrack uh for the daily racing forum uh the
00:27:13the late great buoy racetrack and i had circled some horse i was waiting for him to come back uh he you
00:27:20know i loved his last race back then horses actually ran every two weeks so i had to wait about two weeks
00:27:25now buoy of course ran in the winter and it was about nine degrees out the horse comes on the track
00:27:31and he's washed out from head to toe i said oh my god this horse looks bad i'm not betting on him i
00:27:38can't bet a penny on this thing he won and paid 2160 and i decided i never again will try to look at a
00:27:46horse and figure something out i'll leave it to the experts like miss cadman well there's there's many
00:27:52so basically bill what you should have done was gone and asked somebody or listen and say hey does this
00:27:59horse always do that because you have to compare the individual so say you're watching the breeder's
00:28:06cup or you're you're there down by the rail and you see someone with the horse hey is that horse always
00:28:11get hot and sweaty perfect example highland real hot and sweaty if he wasn't hot and sweaty you'd he'd
00:28:18have been dying or something another example do you remember when sovereignty in the spring dub duby week
00:28:25if i heard another person say this horse is hot and sweaty i was gonna like just throw a rock at
00:28:31the tv or something because sovereignty at that time got hot and sweaty he won the derbies since
00:28:36grown up so it's basically is that normal for the horse as far as how does a horse look all of us
00:28:44knows what a good looking human being is right so if you can look at a human and be like wow he's fit
00:28:51she's fit that guy looks like he can run a marathon look at the horse and kind of figure out the same
00:28:57way you're going six furlongs does the horse look like a chunky good looking man or a chunky good
00:29:03looking female that could sprint it it's not too dissimilar from people so you you want them to be
00:29:11healthy and bouncy another thing you could take in is how are they when they first walk over if they're
00:29:17a little bit crazy are they better once the tack goes on a lot of times horses feel really good
00:29:23but once the blinkers go on the tack goes on they're there and they're like okay i need to
00:29:28settle down and figure out what's going on so that that's another thing and one other thing you could
00:29:35do with a perhaps a class a racetrack is stand at the winner's circle see what kind of horses walk
00:29:41into the winner's circle like if you're there on a stakes day and it's all stakes horses go to the
00:29:46winner's circle and take a look at these horses they come in all shapes and sizes but most of them
00:29:51aren't going to be my size grade one winners aren't usually my size there are the exceptions
00:29:56but they're generally a bigger good looking horse and that will be the best advice is to go and stand
00:30:02at the winner's circle and take a look at those suckers when they come in i can remember when zulu
00:30:07kingdom walked over for a stake of saratoga's first race in the country and i was watching them walk over
00:30:13and i'm like oh who's that midget and and they had the banged off tail like chad brown likes to do
00:30:19bobby frankel style i'm like god yeah no tiny crossed him off turf horses don't ride them off for their
00:30:26size or anything they can be diminutive they can be teeny look at english channel um and of course he
00:30:32parked that day so turf horses are a different kettle of fish they come in all shapes and sizes i'll
00:30:38never forget the first time i saw english channel or perhaps the only time was when he ran in the
00:30:44arlington million and he walked into the paddock and i'm like good god he's about 14 three and the
00:30:51track was bottomless that day i'm pretty i'm almost positive it was a million and he won and i was like
00:30:57wow there is no way on god's green earth that i thought just looking at that horse he would have won a
00:31:03race and he did it's a tough what i what i tell people all the time zoe and i've gotten this
00:31:08question a ton and it's not my specific area of expertise but i try to tell them that and this
00:31:15might be controversial unless you go to the racetrack very often you're better off not paying a whole lot
00:31:24of attention yeah to what you think you see early because it's all about how a horse looks today
00:31:30compared to how a horse looks before the last time he or she ran all right we move on this is a
00:31:36question from pamela borra could you answer the question of whether or not one veterinarian was
00:31:42allowed to make the scratch of white abario with five minutes to post should this not be a consensus
00:31:47of three veterinarians at a minimum and who can make a scratch pre-race just one vet or does a team
00:31:54collectively look at all the accumulated data over the weeks and months preceding the race
00:31:59i believe that it's in this particular instance it was a scratch from just one vet um perhaps though
00:32:07like they have the three steward and that they have to have a uh a vote among the three maybe it would
00:32:13be a good idea to have three bets but randy i'm not i'm not sure do you know the answer to this
00:32:17well i mean there's really not enough time to to convene a conference of three veterinarians on the
00:32:23racetrack as the horses are warming up with five minutes to post in the case of white abario there was
00:32:28one veterinarian who thought he saw that white abario was off in his left front he notified the
00:32:34official track veterinarian who was in charge who came over uh thought he saw the same thing called
00:32:41the stewards recommended a scratch and then it was the stewards who had to make the final decision
00:32:47on whether to scratch him or not but what stewards zoe are going to get advice from two veterinarians that
00:32:53a horse should be scratched and not scratch him that's just not going to happen no not going to
00:32:58happen whatsoever and you know win lose of draw i know they've posted pictures of him jogging on the
00:33:04racetrack and he looks fine now horses can wake up and have a bad day sometimes they might sleep funny
00:33:11i i don't know what i'm not even going to get into it it's not worth it but um there was a lot of
00:33:16thought that went into it and if two vets are telling you the horse is off and you're the steward
00:33:21if i'm the steward i'm going to listen to the two vets and scratch the horse yeah better safe than
00:33:28sorry exactly all year long our guest of the week has been brought to you by gainsway who is the home
00:33:36of a new stallion in 2026 by the very familiar name of locked locked a multiple grade one winning son of
00:33:43gun runner was excellent made headlines right off the bat in his career debut at saratoga got a buyer
00:33:51speed figure of 96 that was the fastest by a two-year-old in a maiden race at saratoga in a decade
00:33:57since 2015 he also won graded stakes races every year from two to four as a two-year-old the grade one
00:34:03breeders futurity three-year-old the grade two cigar mile four-year-old he freaked in the grade one big
00:34:08cap the santa nita handicap ran off the tv screen and that one locked retires with earnings of over
00:34:141.9 million dollars he won or placed in 10 of 11 starts and best of all his initial stud fee at
00:34:20gainsway 35 000 gainsway power passion performance
00:34:26and it's lights out locked pouring it on running aggressively through the stretch to win by seven
00:34:39easy lengths
00:34:40here is locked locked racing by on the outside for the lead locked the wine steward it is locked
00:34:52here comes locked after mulligan locked catching with every single stride and locked will win the cigar mile
00:35:02it's all about locked dominating the big cap cruising home to an effortless eight length romp
00:35:17so we continue with more questions from our readers our viewers uh etc and uh some very good
00:35:35ones here and this one is from carol salvaggio she says i am a new fan and appreciate this chance to
00:35:40ask pretty and amateur questions i look forward to your show every wednesday i am learning what
00:35:46difference is there if any for when a jockey rides a turf or dirt horse and do some jockeys specialize
00:35:52in turf now i'm going to take this one first randy um all right the i yes of course there is i mean
00:35:59you know as great a rider as jerry bailey is um you know he was really really good on turf race but i am
00:36:05going to have the opinion that this is overrated and let me give you an example the jockey right now who
00:36:11everybody is raving about as a turf jockey is hector barrios out in california matter of fact there was a
00:36:18headline in a newspaper uh the other day it says on del mar grass course barrios is a cut above so i
00:36:25looked up his statistics for 2025 he does win 21 on the turf but he wins 19 on the dirt i'm not saying
00:36:35there aren't some that are better than uh others on the turf but i have always thought this was
00:36:40overrated i mean could jerry bailey not ride on the dirt of course not he was a great jockey
00:36:45on both surfaces yeah so we uh i mean if you're looking for differences in style i think if you are
00:36:55going to be a very good turf rider you've got to have a little bit of patience because dirt races go fast
00:37:00early and slow late turf races go slow early and fast late you have to have the patience to sit in
00:37:08the pocket which is why a lot of bug riders don't win a lot of turf races they might do if they send
00:37:15them to the lead because you're getting the weight break and people think two turns on top they're just
00:37:19going to send the bug boy to the lead but they generally don't have the patience to save ground
00:37:25and sit in the pocket and that is the key to winning a turf race you'll look at flavian pratt
00:37:32very good on the grass he's equally as good on the dirt because he's an adaptable adaptable rider
00:37:38there are some you know like if you're looking at pacco i'm sure pacco uh lopez's stats are equally
00:37:45as good on the turf but i'm gonna say he's probably a better rider on the dirt because he's more
00:37:50aggressive you know a bit more aggression lends itself very well to dirt racing a bit more patient
00:37:57lends itself very well to turf racing and and that to me is the end of it i told you all the time i've
00:38:06spent elbow to elbow with jerry bailey over the last 20 years we've actually been a team for 20 years
00:38:11now and i've heard him say this numerous times numerous times you get these jockeys for example i'm
00:38:18not going to name names that come over from england present company excluded and they're accustomed
00:38:24to riding on turf where as you just said zoe patience is rewarded okay and jerry contends that in
00:38:33moments of pressure kentucky derby grade one stakes races big pressure that jockeys will tend to fall
00:38:43back even subconsciously on what they are most familiar with and a jockey that's more familiar
00:38:51with turf racing will fall back in moments of pressure on going backwards whereas jockeys who
00:39:00are more schooled in dirt racing will fall back on going forward and that is one of the primary
00:39:07differences when you're riding on dirt zoe were you better on turf or dirt i loved riding the grass
00:39:14let me sit in the pocket all day long and sure you'll get beat a few times but there is no better
00:39:21feeling than sitting in the pocket cutting the corner when some moron comes off the rail and beating
00:39:26them right on the wire there is absolutely no feeling like it you sound exactly like bailey
00:39:31absolutely look if you can ride the perfect race and nail someone on the wire i can't tell you the
00:39:41amount of times i took a beer into the shower after i got done riding and like was like yes yes
00:39:49having nailed someone nailing the leading rider and that is the thing as a jock or at least for me
00:39:55having a beer in the shower obviously i didn't drink that much beer because i was watching my race
00:40:00my weight but having a beer in the shower after the last race was a definite treat for me this next
00:40:06question is from vandy grift from milwaukee wisconsin i love the tdn riders room podcast thank you very
00:40:12much for saying that i never miss an episode bill has been soliciting questions for the upcoming holiday
00:40:17year end i have a question for the team having to do with handicapping the team frequently makes
00:40:23picks on races and bill always plays in the handicapping contest on the down the stretch podcast on
00:40:29sirius xm radio i've often wondered how the team handicaps a race not super in depth obviously but
00:40:34basically when they are handicapped in a race and pull up the pps what is the first thing they look
00:40:39uh they each look at what do they each consider a couple of the key things to look for is it speed
00:40:45class form connections etc randy you are one of your very specialties is handicapping i'll let you start
00:40:50hey well i'm down two bottles of wine to zoe on handicapping so uh zoe go ahead i'll follow you
00:40:58i'm gonna say the number one thing to look for is conditions of the race there are a lot of very good
00:41:04racing secretaries nowadays that can really really get pretty technical with the conditions so it would
00:41:12behoove you to read them some of them will be like non-winners of two non-winners of a race since
00:41:18october the third must not have won twenty five thousand dollars twice so you need to generally
00:41:26look at each horse and see who best fits the condition who was this race written for because
00:41:32a lot of the times some of the leading trainers might lean on a racing secretary and be like hey i've got
00:41:37this horse been sitting on the bench for five weeks i really need this race to go and they'll
00:41:42write the condition around a horse or said horse and see if it fills and then the race will fill and
00:41:51you'll be like oh look this horse just fits the condition maybe that's the way i want to lean so
00:41:57always look at the conditions always look at the sexes of the horses sometimes you've got fillies against
00:42:03the boys and then for me look at the weights of the race usually there's not too much disparity with
00:42:09the weights nowadays but sometimes you'll have a bug rider riding a filly who's getting an 11 pound
00:42:15break in weights somehow so that would be the first thing that i would look at all right bill zoe what do
00:42:22you think i would look at first when i'm handicapping a horse race buyer figures absolutely any kind of speed
00:42:29figures a horse race is just the amount of time it takes horses to run from point a to point b
00:42:36and speed figures measure that and if one horse consistently runs faster from point a to point b
00:42:43than the other horses in the field then that's where you need to start it's not the be all and
00:42:48the end all i think andy buyer wrote that back in the day and he's kind of come off that a little bit
00:42:52there are a lot of other factors to consider there have been books written we could go
00:42:56you know multiple podcasts on the art of handicapping it's more than just speed figures
00:43:02but i think you need to start with which horses are inherently faster than other horses you could
00:43:10have a horse that fits that that checks all the boxes uh but if he's you know five lengths slower
00:43:18than several other horses in the field then you can't realistically think uh all things being equal
00:43:25that he's got as good of a chance to win so like randy i i i look at the speed figures quite a bit
00:43:32i i look at both the buyer figures and thoragraph and and i'll differ from him a little bit in this
00:43:37um one thing i do take into account is i'm not looking for the horse that just ran the huge number last
00:43:44time out yeah um i'm not looking for a horse that has just peaked i'm looking for and that goes into
00:43:50the bounce theory um i'm looking for horses that are on the verge of running their best race and some
00:43:55of my biggest scores over the year have been throwing out horses uh that i just think you know
00:44:01they ran a 111 buyer last time out and their previous buyer best buyer in their career was in 98
00:44:06i'm throwing that horse out even if everybody else in the field runs you know 102 buyers um sometimes
00:44:12you're totally wrong about that but i'm trying to figure out the who is the improving horse in the race
00:44:18and i don't want the horse that has already run his best career race i want the horse that is about
00:44:24to run his best career race so that's my little piece of it that's a good that's a good philosophy
00:44:29and if you use speed figures you have to always ask yourself you know how was that speed figure earned
00:44:36if a horse is running a mile on a 16th and he has post position number one and he saves ground all
00:44:42the way into the stretch and gets through along the inside and runs a career best buyer and now he's
00:44:46stuck in the 11 hole and he's going to get caught four wide around the first turn no he's not going
00:44:51to run that same speed figure back again if a horse gets loose on a sloppy racetrack for the first time
00:44:56in his life and freaks and runs a huge buyer and now he's on a fast track and he's got competition for
00:45:01the lead no you can't expect him to run that fast again so you've got to look at nuances uh but i think
00:45:07you start with the fix the td and the riders room also brought to you by the pennsylvania horse
00:45:12breeders association the phba just two more stakes races for two-year-old pennsylvania breads left on
00:45:20the calendar for 2025 in this case they're for horses pennsylvania bred and pennsylvania sired they
00:45:28will both take place on december 30th at parks the 75 000 wait for its stakes for two-year-olds
00:45:34and the 75 000 misbehavior stakes for two-year-old fillies to learn more about that pennsylvania
00:45:41bred program you can contact brian san frontello at 610-444-1050 or just log on to pabred.com
00:45:51the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country the stallion awards the owner bonuses
00:45:59also the restrictive races and the stakes races for pennsylvania breads this year eight breeders are
00:46:05on track to earn over two hundred thousand dollars in breeders awards and two could hit the million
00:46:12dollar mark we have the best program in the country take advantage of the fantastic program that we have
00:46:19learn more at pabred.com
00:46:22be a smarter better with first tv the best horses
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00:46:40everything you need to be informed be smart bet smart with first tv
00:46:52it's time for the first tv work of the week and it's not really the work of the week it is the
00:46:57work of the year brought to you by first tv we're going to go back in time not too far back
00:47:03to october the 25th at keeneland many thanks to keeneland for getting this it's on the first tv
00:47:08website we take a look at the breeders cup sprint champ ben tornado working in 49 and 2 now this is a
00:47:16perfect example of it's not how fast you're going it's how you're going fast 49 and 4
00:47:24or 2 for ben tornado there is pricking backwards and forwards just an absolute picture this is the
00:47:30work that sold me on him winning the breeders cup sprint now ben tornado uh is by valiant minister
00:47:37who only won one race trained by hall of fame of bob baffert he's a son of candy ride valiant minister
00:47:43and ben tornado sold for 680 000 at the obs june sale the highest graduate at that time he's a
00:47:51good horse and he showed it two for two this year ben tornado the first tv work of the year
00:47:57okay we move on to by the way i well this is off i didn't have to go to the bathroom i just need to
00:48:03change my shirt are you gonna spin around like wonder woman oh is that book them down oh oh yeah
00:48:08and it's a real book them dano not a hawaii 50 i love that oh it's the horse book them dano i love
00:48:16it on a surfboard i have gotten so much grief through the years for wearing not only uh t-shirts
00:48:22but especially my collection of book them dano t-shirts of which were hawaii 50 t-shirts now i've got
00:48:29the mona lisa of book them dano t-shirts look at this isn't that cool oh and book them dano now
00:48:37so i'm wearing this because the first question is who was your favorite horse this year that is the
00:48:44easiest question i've ever had to answer my entire life can i bet on that it's book them dano and who
00:48:51is i hope will be the sprint champion of 225 but uh yeah i mean i've always been infatuated with this
00:48:58horse particularly because of his uh blue collar roots and the fact that he's a jersey bred and i'm a
00:49:03big jersey guy so here's my shirt and uh uh if uh if he doesn't win this uh in saudi arabia maybe
00:49:10i'll put it on ebay and he can buy it off me for 15 bucks or something that was a one to ten shot
00:49:15okay go ahead zo i'm gonna go with the old man the old gray horse love sick blues now he's only won
00:49:26two races this year liberado liberado borosio trains him i was going with sierra leone i'm like no i love
00:49:33that gray horse he's just such a cool dude seven years old grade one winner this year if you think
00:49:40go back to october the 30th 2020 steve miardi was training him he ran in a maiden 12-5 claimer
00:49:50at golden gate field and got beat he was second that day uh yes he wound up breaking his maiden
00:49:59for 16 000 not in a maiden race uh an a other than 16 000 claimer and broke his maiden but he's just
00:50:07such a really cool horse that is now a grade one winner this year so i have to root for lovesick blues
00:50:14watching him work in the morning watching him train you can always see him he's just a cool dude
00:50:19to be around so it's going to be him i could see that i could totally see that that's cool you know
00:50:25we always joke about or i always joke about my favorite horses right i mean you guys have gone
00:50:30along with that senior buscador derma sorakake right so they didn't run this year they're gone
00:50:37they're they're retired uh i i kind of really started rooting for she feels pretty
00:50:45the horse trained by sheree devoe uh four-year-old philly uh once sheree put the blinkers on she feels
00:50:53pretty uh late last year in 2024 she just transformed from a really good horse into a really really good
00:51:02horse and sometimes like in the breeder's cup the distance might have been just a little beyond her
00:51:07her peak distance her preferred distance mile and three-eighths but she still always ran her heart
00:51:14out since the blinkers went on she only lost twice she lost once to excellent truth in the diana
00:51:19when she was spotting four pounds to excellent truth and then she lost to gazora in the philly
00:51:25mare turf at a mile and three-eighths roy and gretchen jackson owned her it's the best horse they've
00:51:30owned since barbaro way back in 2006 uh so they had a little karma going for them there uh johnny
00:51:37velasquez wrote her in each of her 13 career starts how many times do you see that nowadays
00:51:44yeah so i i really you know i got a kick out of following the career she feels pretty
00:51:48which is now over by the way all right so the next question what was your favorite race this year
00:51:55again not necessarily the best race uh randy why don't you take that one um the saudi cup
00:52:02i thought it was the most entertaining best race run of the year at any racetrack in the world
00:52:07thought it was amazing uh and if and if i had been in the press corps uh at the white house this past
00:52:15week when the crown prince of saudi arabia muhammad bin salman showed up i would have not only asked him
00:52:22about khashoggi i would have asked him what he thought about the ride of james mcdonald on
00:52:26romantic warrior in the saudi cup
00:52:28what an unbelievable race that was for both horses and of course you know it was punctuated in the end
00:52:38by the fact that forever young comes back and beats the best of our older horses uh in the breeders
00:52:45cup classic zoe well that's where i'm gonna land the classic it was purely the build-up to the classic
00:52:51and the agony with sovereignty scratching but all the other horses still being in you got one two
00:52:58three from the derby the last two years being in there was just to me terrific that was the race
00:53:05of the year and you know i could have been a bit more original but for me that was definitely it and
00:53:10it probably wasn't so much the race it was just the fact it's so great to see so many good horses
00:53:17that ran their guts out last year being kept in training and hopefully that's going to be a theme
00:53:23that just keeps continuing on so we have rooting interest for the two-year-old year the three-year-old
00:53:30year and the four-year-old year which for me will be absolutely marvelous you know we're all getting
00:53:35older our memories aren't quite so good as they used to be wouldn't it be easier to remember a horse
00:53:39you've watched the last two years and try and think of one that just popped up on the scene
00:53:44so for me that the build-up and then the race was terrific and i actually did just watch back the
00:53:50claiming crown uh the classic that was a really good race 14 horses in there and all of them found
00:53:57across the track at churchill downs going into the 16th pole was a pretty remarkable if you've not seen
00:54:03it go and watch it again all right bill so what was what was bookham dano's best race
00:54:08that would have been the uh alfred vanderbilt by the way but um anyways i i told i agree with zoe the
00:54:16breeders cup classic was the best race but just have a a little bit of of of thought outside the box
00:54:23i would say any race that involved both sovereignty and journalism this was the best rivalry we've seen
00:54:30in a sport in a long time that just doesn't have rivalries anymore because horses don't run enough and
00:54:37they don't run against each other um when was the last time we saw two horses like this two absolutely
00:54:42very very good horses go head to head and there is a little bit of an affirmed alidar uh uh analogy to
00:54:50this in that one horse uh journalism couldn't just couldn't beat the other horse sovereignty but
00:54:57those were two of the best three-year-olds that we've seen in a long time and if journalism thank
00:55:01goodness he's coming back next year um if he had been born in any other year um he had been horse
00:55:07of the year this year and i almost said the preakness just because of what happened in all
00:55:11the conversation and all the debate that that race uh that that race generated what horse are you most
00:55:17excited to watch again next year besides sovereignty um journalism to me is an obvious um answer um but
00:55:24i'll give you a you know i'm trying to think a little bit again trying to think a little bit
00:55:28outside the box i want to see what a horse by the name of disco time does next year a brad cox has
00:55:34been very careful with this horse really hasn't run him in any major stakes races he's only won one
00:55:40grade three i mean he ran in all things the saint louis derby at fairmont park but he is five for five
00:55:47he's improving every time out brad cox is a master trainer is he a fairmont derby horse or is he a
00:55:54pegasus world cup horse we'll find out go ahead randy oh no disco time you know uh the people of
00:56:03collinsville uh illinois were very impressed with uh with disco time when he won the saint louis derby
00:56:08and he looked good he ran a ran a big number nothing wrong with that if you look at the breeders cup
00:56:13classic which was the best race of 2025 run in the uh in the continental united states
00:56:22um the top three finishers all came back from 2024 sierra leone's been retired fierceness has been
00:56:30retired mind frame down the list a little bit has been retired you know the two that jump out that
00:56:36haven't been retired are forever young in journalism so i think other than yeah i i can go with bill's
00:56:43disco time but other than that i think it would be one of those two horses um the japanese horse who
00:56:50hopefully who's he's supposedly going to run and maybe be rematched with romantic warrior in the
00:56:56saudi cup and then point for uh point for the breeders cup classic again in 2026 uh and journalism
00:57:04obviously is is trying to get there as well so zoe i think one of those two i'm i'm with you i'm going
00:57:10to throw in by azer as well so for everyone journalism by azer we've yet either he's just going to plateau
00:57:17or he's going to get better and if he gets better he's still just such a baby you know and that's
00:57:23kind of how john trains his horses it takes him a while to come into themselves look at senyata
00:57:29so his best year is ahead of him by azer but john is not a patient trainer not a patient trainer do
00:57:36not call john a patient trainer that is the worst insult you could possibly give the man
00:57:42the best best thing you could probably say to john was like john god you are so impatient
00:57:48he's like oh thank you zoe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me
00:57:53all right so we wrap this up with uh the final question what moment in racing um this year
00:58:02made you remember why you love the sport and i'll go back to my friend bookham dano um i i uh you know
00:58:09i've had a lot of favorite horses over the years for whatever reason i haven't had easy go or holy
00:58:14bull or my two favorite horses of my professional career riding and then of course secretariat uh and
00:58:20then uh the ill-fated timely rider uh because i was um a fan in college and went to suffolk downs
00:58:27every single chance i got and he was looks like looked like a horse was going to come out of
00:58:32suffolk downs and actually be a major threat in the kentucky derby until he tragically broke down
00:58:37but of course it's bookham dano uh for me um i haven't like i said i haven't had a favorite
00:58:41horse in a long time uh i'm biased you know um and and all this bookham dano stuff i keep saying
00:58:47on the show it's not a shtick it's not an act i really like this so as a matter of fact i'm going
00:58:51out with his owner tonight for dinner and uh i'm going to make him pay i mean the horse is worth
00:58:56probably three million dollars i'm not paying for damn dinner tonight uh i'm going to make him pay
00:59:01but um you know he just to to be i don't know how close you guys follow new jersey uh racing but
00:59:08the jersey bread program is in disarray because all there is is 60 days of racing at monmouth park
00:59:13where you have places like uh parks that run year-round so what would you rather have a
00:59:18pennsylvania bread or a new jersey bread it's a no-brainer they're down to a very small fall crop
00:59:22and for new jersey bread to i believe uh be in position to win an eclipse award uh he was the one
00:59:28to put a big smile on my face have you met him yet bookham dano i have not no i have to take care
00:59:34of that next year you need your picture made with bookham dano there you go all right wearing your
00:59:39shirt yeah okay and holding a surfboard right that was before they didn't go to the breeders cup
00:59:47obviously matter of fact um they gave me a hat too and on that they have the jockey holding a surfboard
00:59:55as he's riding the horse i wonder if heisa would find paco lopez for trying to hit a horse with a
01:00:01surfboard i think all right bill can i ask you a question that you wouldn't want to be asked
01:00:07okay i'm a little nervous if it weren't bookham dano how critical would you have been about the
01:00:13decision to skip the breeders cup sprint with an otherwise very sound inform horse okay um i i am
01:00:21critical of it um and um i i have some insights on this um and i believe they handled the situation
01:00:30rather poorly the reason i mean matter of fact an article came out in uh some other publication not
01:00:35the tdm thank goodness that they skipped the breeders cup because they couldn't get paco lopez
01:00:39to ride that that was absolutely complete nonsense it was i mean and it was a terrible excuse and it
01:00:45made him look bad um the horse has some problems that's the real story okay and they should have
01:00:52should have been more honest about it um he should be fine for next year they're pointing for this the
01:00:56saudi sprint race but um i you know again we talk about and this is just me thinking and guessing
01:01:04because you know the trainer and owner even though i know them uh the whole crew pretty well they're not
01:01:09going to admit this i don't think they thought they they could pass the bet at the breeders cup uh you
01:01:13know consider and considering all the discussions we had about how stringent the breeders cup vets
01:01:18were but uh yeah i i don't think that was handled particularly well um i think they should be more
01:01:23transparent about it but um i i think the the real answer was that the horse really wasn't right for
01:01:29the breeders cup i'm glad you're going to dinner tonight and not tomorrow night right it might not
01:01:36get paid for tomorrow night all right so my best but yeah the most heartwarming moment of the year for
01:01:47me on thursday of preakness week this year at pimlico at the stakes barn nbc arranged for a sit-down
01:01:58interview with me jerry bailey wayne lucas and bob baffert and especially in hindsight given how few
01:02:08days wayne had left and i almost think that bob had a little bit of insight into that at the time
01:02:14it was uh it was quite a poignant uh 45 minutes that we spent all talking to each other
01:02:22and bob sitting down for that interview was uncharacteristically very nervous because of
01:02:34how he wanted to come off because of his respect for lucas and you know what wayne had meant to him
01:02:43throughout his career and it was it was especially interesting for me because like you guys i was
01:02:51around back in the day in the mid 1990s late 1990s early 2000s when bob first burst upon the scene
01:03:00and wayne was the man there was quite the rivalry there between the two and i talked to wayne without
01:03:09bob and i talked to bob without wayne and they weren't denigrating each other but there was clearly
01:03:16a lot of competition between the two and now fast forward to preakness week of 2025 and that was all
01:03:25water under the bridge and uh it was pretty remarkable sitting in between the two of them talking about
01:03:31their their friendship and their shared experiences and thank you for that because it really was awesome
01:03:38to watch just you know for bob knowing bob how we know bob out here on the west coast for him
01:03:46to to be so heartfelt in an interview like that because ever since you know everything's gone on with
01:03:52bob and churchill downs he's kind of shied away from the media just a little bit he's not quite the
01:03:57same as he used to be and i can't blame him for that uh it was good to see and he had the utmost respect
01:04:02i think there was a part i'm pretty sure it was on nbc that i saw of like wayne tying his tie for him
01:04:09yes and making sure his pocket square was straight and it was just those little nuances it was just
01:04:17really cool to see kind of a side of the pair of them almost like father and son that you wouldn't
01:04:23ordinarily see for me that was really really cool and and thank you for reminding me about that moment
01:04:31but for me without a shadow of the doubt the moment that made it for me was this year's breeders
01:04:38cup turf and willie mullins winning and the fact of how shocked he was that he won it was almost like
01:04:48i remember watching the interviews when his son patrick won the grand national this um this spring
01:04:54he was just shocked unbelievable and the fact that willie mullins came over and won one of our
01:05:00biggest races you bet your bottom dollar he'll bring 10 next year 10 jumpers to run in every
01:05:05flat rate and he'll probably win one of them and now you look on ethical diamond is by otard okay
01:05:14no one's ever heard of otard he he stands for like nothing he does apparently throw a good looking
01:05:20horse i'd never heard of him his full brother just sold for 380 000 euros now if he hadn't won the
01:05:29breeders cup turf in record time that horse is probably selling for 10 um and it was just a
01:05:35really cool moment to see a trainer who's so highly regarded over the jumps in europe in ireland in
01:05:43england come over with one horse who's like a gazillion to one should have been even bigger price
01:05:50and win it and to watch that just means that it could happen to anyone i thought it was just
01:05:56absolutely brilliant yes brilliant that was great and the td and writers room brought to you by our
01:06:02friends at west point thoroughbreds west point had a record-setting year in 2024 and they ended 2025
01:06:09with quite the bang with a win in the breeders cup juvenile fillies with super corredora other notable
01:06:16victories for west point this year included the grade one arkansas derby with sandman shout out to
01:06:21griffin johnson there the grade two red smith stakes with cujino and most recently the knickerbocker
01:06:28stakes with ohana honor and don't forget in the sales ring right west point and partners also the
01:06:35owners of flight line who was the leading sire of yearlings with an average of around 750 000
01:06:42dollars 10 of flight lines yearlings sold for one million dollars or more can't wait to see flight
01:06:49lines two-year-olds run in 2026 for more information on being a west point partner you can check out
01:06:55www.westpointtb as in thoroughbred.com all the thrills
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01:07:32well that's a wrap on this show i hope everybody liked what we did a little bit something different
01:07:36but i had a lot of fun i know it looks like zoe and randy did as well and i hope the listeners and
01:07:40viewers did as well i want to thank the team that uh makes this show go on the in the uh background
01:07:47katie petruniak anthony larocca leah larocca and sue finley they're our producers and directors they do
01:07:52an absolutely phenomenal job and of course where would we be without my brilliant co-host randy moss
01:07:58and zoe cadman uh knowledgeable fun and great to work with so we've enjoyed really in doing these
01:08:05podcasts this year everybody have a great holiday and we'll see you again soon
01:08:21you
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