- 2 days ago
Trainer Todd Pletcher had a lot to discuss on this week's TDN Writers' Room. This weekend on the Kentucky Derby trail, he'll send Jackson Hole to the GII Fountain of Youth Stakes and Class President to the GII Rebel Stakes, plus he has two fillies in the GII Davona Dale Stakes.
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00:00:18welcome to another edition of the tdn writers room my name is bill finley i am
00:00:22a correspondent for the thoroughbred daily news and co-host of the down the stretch radio show
00:00:27and yes we got about 20 inches here on the jersey shore i got away just in time after my
00:00:36olympic
00:00:36assignment in connecticut i'm randy moss with nbc sports as much as i like biathlon biathlon it's
00:00:43not biathlon biathlon i don't want to talk like a southerner i'm glad to be back focused on horse
00:00:49racing now much like randy i got away just in time and just out of mexico before everything
00:00:56literally just blew up i flew out of puerto vallarta on thursday night and we've just seen what a mess
00:01:03it over that mess it has been over there so glad to be out of mexico had an absolutely fabulous
00:01:09time
00:01:09wanted to add just a couple of things before we get going one what about kaiing rising 18 on the
00:01:16bounce for him absolutely terrific and i'm one of randy's thoughts on constitution hill
00:01:22what an amazing performance he had at southerner and if you owned him randy or bill would you go to
00:01:29the champion hurdle or would he have a career on the flat i think i would keep him on the
00:01:35flat
00:01:35yeah right you know i mean i was at cheltenham a couple of years ago with michael dickinson when
00:01:42constitution hill had one of his big breakout performances right and it was just unbelievable
00:01:47yeah to see that horse and i'm not a you know i'm not a hurdle or a steeplechase aficionado but
00:01:53you know you can appreciate all-time great racehorses and the way he looked in some of
00:01:58those races and then to run him on the flat for the first time and and to see that turn
00:02:03of foot
00:02:03that i don't know who he was running against oh my god he was awfully good yeah he got 106
00:02:10time
00:02:11form rating and one like he was tied to a pole so here's my answer since i don't follow jump
00:02:17racing
00:02:18and i don't follow european racing i don't have the faintest idea what you're even talking about
00:02:21so that's my answer all right so let's get to something that we do know what we're talking about
00:02:29and of course uh later on in the show uh just a huge weekend of uh racing with a bunch
00:02:35of uh three
00:02:36major kentucky derby perhaps but the off the track news this week involved a very nasty spat
00:02:42between churchill downs and heisa and heisa came out saying that churchill downs has not paid their
00:02:50fees for 2025 went so far as to call them quote unquote freeloaders and has said that if they don't
00:02:59pay up they may pull the signal on the simulcasting which of course would mean no simulcasting
00:03:05for the kentucky derby i don't think that's going to happen we can discuss that a little bit later
00:03:10matter of fact i don't think there's any chance that's going to happen but there's a lot of things
00:03:15about this and randy i know you have a lot of opinions on this i don't get it well i
00:03:20want to
00:03:20say some things about both churchill and about heisa i don't think either one of them has handled
00:03:24themselves particularly well on this but from churchill's standpoint i don't understand what their
00:03:29game plan is here i mean obviously they signed on to heisa matter of fact their approval of heisa
00:03:37and their uh affiliation with senator mitch mcconnell is what got heisa over the finish line
00:03:43and got it to be the you know the the quote-unquote law of the land at least in the
00:03:48states where heisa
00:03:49covers they they have not said that that they don't owe heisa money i i don't really understand
00:03:55why they're saying now we're not going to pay you never mind so that that's my first um uh you
00:04:01know
00:04:01take on this i'm sure it's going to be settled i'm sure there's gonna be some sort of compromise i'm
00:04:05sure lawyers are going to get involved in lawsuits but randy what am i missing here what what do i
00:04:11not
00:04:11get wow i've never seen infighting and horse racing before can you can you can you imagine that
00:04:18i mean wow yeah you know when you're when you've been handicapping horses as long as we have
00:04:27one thing that you learn from experience and you usually learn it the hard way
00:04:32is that you need to come to grips that there's an awful lot that you don't know and i'm convinced
00:04:41it's that that's the situation here i there's a lot we don't know behind the scenes that's going
00:04:48on between churchill lands incorporated and heisa we don't know the corporate strategy of churchill
00:04:53lands incorporated here we don't know the communications that have occurred or maybe
00:04:59haven't occurred and what those have been like between cdi and heisa uh we don't know and it's
00:05:09just guesswork really but i wouldn't be surprised if cdi is looking at the situation and they're saying
00:05:17okay we owe how many millions of dollars according to heisa three million about two and a half three
00:05:24million something like that maybe more if they're looking at that and saying okay there are still
00:05:28legal challenges out there to the validity of heisa most of them heisa is one but there's still some
00:05:34more that are lingering out there you know what if we send heisa this big check to catch up with
00:05:41all
00:05:41of our past dues and then heisa gets struck down what do we get our money back what happens to
00:05:48all
00:05:48those millions of dollars that we then send to heisa maybe it's the corporate strategy they're a publicly
00:05:53traded corporation they're beholden to their shareholders to wait until all this shakes out
00:05:58and all the legal challenges are uh are finally you know over and done with before they completely jump
00:06:06on the bandwagon that way i don't know that's just a guess well i mean to the outsider looking in
00:06:12it
00:06:12looks like that churchill makes up their rules as they go along because if the smaller tracks
00:06:18had not been paying for the past year they too would own millions of dollars so why should churchill
00:06:25get away with it and the smaller ones have to go broke in the process of trying to pay i
00:06:31i don't
00:06:32understand and you hit the nail on the head we don't really know what's going on but from the
00:06:37outsider looking in you could certainly say that churchill wields a big stick they have big lawyers
00:06:44a lot of money and they don't get beat in court look what happened with hall of famer bob baffert
00:06:50it and sometimes they move the goalposts as well so i i don't know it's not a good look as
00:06:56far as i'm
00:06:57concerned but we don't know the full extent of the law well i think randy hit it on the head
00:07:02i mean
00:07:02there's obviously more than than meets the eye to this but let's get into the situation where i
00:07:09mentioned that the the threat of and heisa has the ability legally to say to churchill downs or any
00:07:16other track you're not complying with what we do therefore we are pulling your plug on simulcasting
00:07:23now imagine what a catastrophe this would be for not only churchill downs but for the entire
00:07:29industry and the good quote unquote good of the game if there was no simulcast wagering on the
00:07:35kentucky derby you could bet at the track you could bet within the state of kentucky but everywhere else
00:07:41that has legalized wagering and you know i i don't know what the percentages are but a millions and
00:07:48millions of dollars come in to be bet on the kentucky derby through simulcasting through adws
00:07:53randy there's got to be some sort of compromise or at least some sort of legal maneuver on churchill
00:08:00downs part this can't happen i would give that a less than zero chance of happening and and here's why
00:08:07i mean heisa has built up uh a lot of positive momentum and a lot of positive equity right uh
00:08:14the
00:08:15horse safety thing really more than anything else because of the the the you know the strict
00:08:20veterinary rules and the medication rules and the fact that there are now actually uh deterrence in
00:08:28terms of punishment for medication violations you know we've seen the horse death situation
00:08:33to take a dramatic turn for the positive right that if if for no other reason that's so important to
00:08:40the sport of horse racing heisa has built up a lot of goodwill with the public and with some people
00:08:46in the industry on that particular topic i don't think there's any way that heisa is going to
00:08:51completely squander all that goodwill by pulling the plug on horse players around the country being
00:08:56able to bet on the kentucky derby the biggest day in the sport of horse racing that would be the
00:09:02classic example of shooting yourself in your own foot so you know even if heisa in my opinion is uh
00:09:13uh is leaning toward punishing churchill downs by pulling its simulcast signal interstate simulcast
00:09:21wagering even in that case i don't think it would happen until after the kentucky derby was done
00:09:28so i also want to say something about heisa that that i'm not happy about this and this comes from
00:09:33a journalistic standpoint somebody over there needs a lesson in media training because this story was
00:09:40leaked to the new york times it was leaked to joe drape a very controversial writer and i mean do
00:09:47i have
00:09:48proof of that no i don't but but add it all up the circumstantial evidence joe drape is known and
00:09:56micropoli will let this be known on twitter over and over and over again joe drape has a reputation
00:10:03of being an insider with the jockey club the jockey club is joined at the hip with heisa they leak
00:10:12this
00:10:12rather than putting out a statement and contacting the blood horse the daily racing form the thoroughbred
00:10:17daily news and everybody else they leaked a story to joe drape churchill downs went so far as to say
00:10:23they didn't know anything about this until minutes before the joe drape story uh hit and that's not
00:10:30the way to handle this situation to do that and you know what do you expect when you give a
00:10:37story to joe
00:10:38drape well every single time he writes he buries the lead you have to get into about the third paragraph
00:10:44before you even know what's going on because he can't help himself and in the first two paragraphs
00:10:50says in 2023 seven horses died at churchill downs during the week of its show piece event uh the
00:10:57spring meet was one of the deadliest events in horse racing history um do we really look that's
00:11:03it happened it was terrible it was dealt with but do we really need rehashing of that and does that
00:11:10really need to be the lead couple paragraphs in the new york times and this is what you expect
00:11:16every time joe drape puts his pen to a story it's going to be all about how horses die all
00:11:23the time
00:11:23and how screwed up horse racing is and all that so i think hyza from the way they handled this
00:11:30story
00:11:30did a terrible job and somebody over there again needs a media training course and how to be more fair
00:11:38with the media and not to stick with one rider who you know is going to trash horse racing in
00:11:44his story
00:11:46i see i've silenced my two
00:11:51oh no well said all right so anyways that takes care of the uh hyza uh churchill downs battle there
00:11:58is a hearing on march 11th we will find out after that hearing uh perhaps there'll be some more news
00:12:04as
00:12:04we move forward to this but uh randy i i think you're right i think that they are going to
00:12:09pull
00:12:09the plug on simulcasting and i don't think that's going to happen period they certainly have enough i
00:12:14hope common sense not to do this until after the kentucky derby is over so here's what we're going
00:12:20to do we're going to take a break we come back our gainsweight guest of the week will be todd
00:12:23pletcher as usual he's loaded with three-year-old candidates for the kentucky derby glean jackson
00:12:28hole who runs in saturday's fountain of youth stay with us he wants to remind you that the tdn
00:12:34writers room is brought to you by keeneland tickets for the keeneland spring meet are now
00:12:38on sale head on over to keeneland.com to reserve anything from general admission tickets to to
00:12:44traditional dining rooms to space in the new paddock building that's a tongue twister at least
00:12:50for me at this hour also on sale are general admission season passes and premium tailgating
00:12:55packages one day i'll get there that looks like so much fun the keeneland spring meet runs from april
00:13:01the 3rd through the 24th we'll be right back after this message from keeneland we do this so your
00:13:07granddaughter can work on a farm someday so the stands will still be packed in 50 years
00:13:15that's why we come to work every day obsess over every single detail
00:13:23because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
00:13:30deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters the fastest horse of the week as always
00:13:38is brought to you by the fast sires at winstar farm and they don't get much faster of course than
00:13:43life
00:13:43is good his two-year-olds are now getting ready to hit the sales in fact 12 of them will
00:13:50be
00:13:50at the obs march sale in just two weeks here are some of the savvy buyers that have been smart
00:13:58enough to snap up some of the first progeny there for life is good and they expect life is about
00:14:05to
00:14:06get very good for these two-year-olds in just a couple of months when they hit the track life
00:14:10is
00:14:10good of course is into mischief's fastest son at stud based on buyer speed figures nine triple digit
00:14:17buyers topped by a 112 and life is good of course stands at winstar farm for a fee of sixty
00:14:24thousand
00:14:25dollars and you don't hear this very often the fastest horse of the week comes to us from fat
00:14:30tuesday in new orleans on tuesday the 17th at the fairgrounds the mardi gras steaks five and a half
00:14:36furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares won by a future star maybe a current star her name is shining
00:14:42star she's bred in chile owned and bred by the samaya u.s stable she began her career in chile
00:14:48ran one race on dirt in california was sent back east to trainer brad cox he moved her to grass
00:14:53and
00:14:53since then she is a perfect three for three the mardi gras was her very first stake start she won
00:14:59drawing away by four and a quarter lengths and shining star got a buyer speed figure of 103 her career
00:15:06best and to make sure the fastest horse of the week welcome and now the gains away guests of the
00:15:17week a
00:15:17familiar friend of the tdn writers room podcast todd pletcher who of course is loaded once again with
00:15:24three-year-old colts on the way to the kentucky derby and todd on january 29th the news came out
00:15:29that ted
00:15:30knoff a year number one candidate was injured and off the kentucky derby trail nothing too serious you
00:15:35expect to have him back this summer but less than a month later in nearly renegade and jackson hole
00:15:42probably have three of the top 10 on just about anybody's list did you ever anticipate that you
00:15:48read about you would rebound so quickly yeah any any time you lose the the two-year-old champ it's
00:15:54uh you
00:15:54know it's a big blow to the stable and and you know disappointing but uh we did have high hopes
00:16:00for
00:16:00for several of these colts and you know the ones that you pointed out nearly and uh in particular
00:16:05would look like he was coming up to the holy bull in good shape and you know we're very high
00:16:10in the
00:16:10way jackson hole had been training and so you know it gave us optimism renegade was coming off a good
00:16:15second in the rims and training very well and so we had high hopes for all of them and uh
00:16:20you know
00:16:21now we just gotta hope we can continue on and keep them healthy and keep developing
00:16:27yeah before we get into the ones that you're going to be running this weekend including jackson hole
00:16:31uh nearly it was just so impressive in each of his last three races and from a numbers perspective
00:16:37he's been running really fast in his last couple i mean you've had you've been blessed with a lot of
00:16:42really good three-year-olds over the years but where does he in your what what's your opinion of nearly
00:16:47in that context as a legitimate kentucky derby contender you know i mean we we we love the way
00:16:55the horse trained before his debut and we were completely dumbfounded by you know him not running
00:17:00well first time out um so we kind of regroup took advantage of the fact that he's florida bred ran
00:17:05in
00:17:05a florida bred maiden which he won you know very impressively came back in the allowance race again
00:17:11super impressive although it was a you know it was a scratch downfield of i think four horses and
00:17:17you know so we said wow that was impressive the time was very good it was what we expected but
00:17:22you know now we need to step up stretch out and and so we kind of had three races fairly
00:17:28close
00:17:28together and you know i was a little concerned about doing too much but he he just kept coming
00:17:32back at us and and showing good energy and we felt like because of his greenness in his debut that
00:17:39we
00:17:39wanted to get that two-turn experience and see where we stood see if he was going to need an
00:17:44extra race
00:17:45or not and when he passed that test and we said okay now we can kind of kind of regroup
00:17:50give him a
00:17:51give him a little bit of extra spacing to the florida derby you know the holy bull the criticism
00:17:55was they went pretty slow late but they went super fast early and i think you know what we've been
00:18:01working on and i think the key to his success moving forward is going to be if he settles a
00:18:05little bit relaxes in the early part of the race it was it was a difficult for me anyways a
00:18:10difficult
00:18:10race to analyze because it was the only two-turn dirt race on the card and so you really had
00:18:14nothing
00:18:15to compare it to other than you know visually it was very impressive i was interested that we thought
00:18:21it was a conscious strategy on the part of you and johnny v to put that much pressure early on
00:18:28brad
00:18:29cox's horse in the race and then after the race johnny was quoted as saying that no not really i
00:18:33mean the
00:18:34horse was a lot more aggressive than he had expected i mean we we wanted to come out running we
00:18:40wanted to
00:18:40get good position going to the first turn we knew that we couldn't allow that horse to walk the dog
00:18:45on an easy lead but you know we didn't intend to go 22 and change 40 you know 45 and
00:18:50change you know
00:18:51that wasn't our intention either but uh we you know we didn't feel like it was a match race necessarily
00:18:57but you kind of had to ride it almost a little bit like it was is that his deal is
00:19:03he a little bit
00:19:03keen because i noticed you work him on his own most recently in the fog i'm not sure how anyone
00:19:09saw
00:19:09any of that work to be perfectly honest but is he is he a little keyed up and that's what
00:19:14you've been
00:19:14working on he's really not he's a i mean he has good energy he's a good feeling cult and comes
00:19:21out
00:19:21on his toes every day but he's not rank he's not aggressive to gallop he's not you know a difficult
00:19:25horse by any means this first work back we put him by himself because i was sort of torn like
00:19:30does
00:19:31he need to work this week do i have an extra week and i just felt like you know he
00:19:35was he was feeling
00:19:36so good i needed to let him let him do a little something so we went by himself that day
00:19:40and he
00:19:40actually did a little more than than i was hoping by himself he went in 48 and changed effortlessly
00:19:45and so his last breeze we put him in company we kind of let him set a couple links off
00:19:49the other horse
00:19:50early in the in the work and he seemed to handle that really well so you know he's not he's
00:19:55not an
00:19:56overzealous kind of horse that i worry about you know being too rank all the time i just worry in
00:20:02a
00:20:02race situation when you have to come out and you have to establish some position can we do that and
00:20:07still turn him off a little bit and i i think you know that's what we'll continue working on
00:20:10leading up to the florida derby tata and jackson hole um very impressive horse two-part question
00:20:17number one uh why did you decide to send him to fairgrounds for an allowance race when of course
00:20:22you're based in south florida and uh the also the jockey situation is very interesting johnny v rides him
00:20:28in his first race use flavian in the race at the fairgrounds now you go back to john velasquez
00:20:33was that the plan all along just because you know of your long affiliation with john
00:20:40no it it actually you know so so much of this and i enjoy reading a lot of about what
00:20:46people are
00:20:46strategizing and how everyone's analyzing you know how these things are going to work out so
00:20:51my intentional my first intention was to take him to tampa and running him in an allowance race there
00:20:57which we've had pretty good success over the years doing the problem was the entries at tampa
00:21:03were taken the day after the entry at the fairgrounds and so when i talked to the racing
00:21:08secretary at the fairgrounds he said you know if you come i'll use the race with six or seven
00:21:12and so i had to commit to that prior to the race at tampa which i wasn't sure if it
00:21:18was going to fill or
00:21:19not so if if it would have been flip-flopped in the order of of entry dates i would i
00:21:24would have
00:21:24opted to stay closer to home and go to tampa but when the allowance race went at the fairgrounds
00:21:29we said let's go ahead we want to get the two-turn experience as it turned out the tampa race
00:21:34did
00:21:34actually fill so um it was just one of those things and and then we decided rather than the ship
00:21:40back to
00:21:40the fairgrounds again we would we would stay home for the fountain of youth and not do the you know
00:21:44the
00:21:45two long ships in his first start at gulf stream when he won uh but he won but i thought
00:21:54he kind of
00:21:54personally i thought he kind of ran in spots and it looked like maybe he was just a little bit
00:21:59green
00:21:59and didn't really know what he was doing for the most part and yet he still grounded out and was
00:22:04able
00:22:05to win anyway just on sheer talent alone but next time out i thought he was a lot more professional
00:22:09even though he was on the front end what did you think about the two races
00:22:13yeah i totally agree i mean to be honest i didn't think his debut was as impressive as he had
00:22:18trained in the mornings um we were expecting a good effort from him i think he overcame some
00:22:23immaturity and some greenness to to win you could see like where i was standing in the grandstand when
00:22:29he came by me and you know he got to that point where he made the lead you could visually
00:22:32see him
00:22:33like idle like you know what do i do now that i'm on the lead and just just you know
00:22:38first time
00:22:38starter that ran on talent more than than uh anything else and and uh i agree i thought the
00:22:45the race at the fairgrounds was was much more professional he made the lead he stayed pretty
00:22:51focused i still thought coming down the lane he kind of saw some footprints and balked just a little bit
00:22:56but um you know i thought it was it was a much better effort and and you know step in
00:23:02the right
00:23:02direction wow he's a fantastic horse to watch work in the morning he really puts his best foot forward
00:23:09he looks fantastic so was johnny v supposed to ride him all along i'm still trying to get caught up
00:23:14on
00:23:14this so i can you know write something about it yeah i mean the the original idea was we were
00:23:19going
00:23:19to go to tampa that race was on a friday and uh and johnny was going to go ride him
00:23:24and when we had
00:23:25to kind of flip-flop and ended up going to the fairgrounds because we weren't sure about the tampa race
00:23:29going then you know everyone's schedule was sort of off and then so you know flavian was there and
00:23:35it worked out you know well that we had a good good substitute for johnny that day is he ascend
00:23:40from
00:23:40the one hole i tell you i gotta be interested to see how the gulfstream tracks playing i mean
00:23:46yeah historically you'd say i love drawing the rail at gulfstream you know especially in a two-turn
00:23:51race the the rail has been absolutely dead for pretty much the entire meet and everyone's riding
00:23:57these races four or five six paths off the rail all the time so you know i don't know if
00:24:02that's
00:24:02going to change this week we'll obviously be watching that closely i mean we have to come out
00:24:06try to establish some position but on paper this this race has a lot of pace and it looks to
00:24:11me like
00:24:11any concern about a pocket trip for him no i think you know the one good thing about him being
00:24:17green in
00:24:18his debut is he kind of you know he got behind horses a little bit he got a little bit
00:24:21of an education
00:24:22that day so you know if we were just had two wire to wire trips like we did at the
00:24:27fairgrounds i'd be
00:24:28a little bit more worried about that todd on the numbers he's a tad slower than some of the other
00:24:34horses in the race uh you know napoleon solo ran that big race in the champagne uh does he have
00:24:40a you
00:24:41know a four or five point buyer improvement in him certainly trains like he does he's always you
00:24:47know giving us the impression that he's he's got uh more talent than we've seen like a like we talked
00:24:52about his debut he was so green second race was a pretty pretty easy win for him so i think
00:24:57there's
00:24:57there's still room for maybe a couple more moves forward and while we've got you here and you're
00:25:03we're on the derby prep bandwagon let's talk about class president uh going in the rebel stakes his
00:25:10first start around two turns a couple of inside trips uh especially his first start i thought he got
00:25:15a lot of education they're sitting behind horses um how do you feel about him stretching out now in the
00:25:21rebel we feel really good about stretching them out we're a little frustrated that actually that we
00:25:26didn't get to stretch them out in his second start um you know as you said debuted going a mile
00:25:32that ran you know very well set behind horses no problem and uh in in his second start we intended
00:25:40to go into one mile later than and uh when that didn't fill we we had to look for something
00:25:46and the
00:25:46swell seemed like you know our best option at the time so uh drew the rail in there always a
00:25:52disadvantage particularly with the way the track was playing you know the the winner got loose through
00:25:57pretty comfortable fractions and i thought he i thought he ran uh i thought he ran pretty well
00:26:01considering everything kind of seemed stacked against him but he's definitely a horse that we feel
00:26:05like once once more distance and two turns all right what about the girls enough of the boys let's
00:26:11talk about your two in the devona dale and do you have an update for us on tommy joe i
00:26:16saw she worked
00:26:17once in late december is there any she's actually in ocala barry eisman's getting a little time off so
00:26:24we hope to have her back early summer in time for uh for racing uh at saratoga and the girls
00:26:30in the
00:26:31devona dale yeah both both of these fillies are you know doing well same thing um you know didn't get
00:26:37an allowance option as you know with calumet they're they're always looking to to you know
00:26:42run running a graded stake when it's available so uh philly ran you know i thought a good race in
00:26:49her debut the philly that was second came back and won impressively i think was a td and rising star
00:26:53so that kind of flattered her her debut a bit i think the the added distance will help and you
00:26:59know i
00:26:59think the imperatrice ran a ran a good solid race last time in the forward gal and and she too
00:27:05you know burker maiden going going longer so i think uh you know it's it looks to me that that
00:27:10race looks very competitive i think you can make a case for a large number of the fillies in there
00:27:15but
00:27:15but both of ours i think are two of those look at you all media savvy and knowing your audience
00:27:22and
00:27:22promoting the tdn rising star brownie points i've got one more for you um let's give some love to our
00:27:33sponsor gainsway and uh one of their stallions charge it how excited are you to see some of
00:27:40his babies because as good as he ran on the racetrack watching him in the mornings it seems
00:27:45like there was a lot more speed than we ever really saw in the afternoon especially for the shorter
00:27:50distances yeah i mean you know you hate to say a horse uh frustrates you a little bit but uh
00:27:57you know
00:27:58and accomplish what he did on the track and to win the you know the dwyer by some ridiculous margin
00:28:04and
00:28:04and uh suburban you know i mean he was he was a really really talented horse but as as you're
00:28:09kind
00:28:10of alluding to like we saw him do some things in the morning that you would say you know he
00:28:15would
00:28:15have accomplished even more than he than he did on the track and and uh you know he's got a
00:28:20fantastic
00:28:20pedigree he's an awesome looking horse so i i i think he could be a real sneaky stallion prospect for
00:28:26sure
00:28:27not sneaky before we let you go let's um just all things being equal and if things go right for
00:28:34you
00:28:34we know nearly is penciled in for the florida derby if uh renegade um and jackson hole continue to
00:28:41prosper as you would hope jackson hole runs well in the fountain of youth um have you mapped out a
00:28:47plan
00:28:48i mean uh you're based in florida but i can't imagine you want to run these horses uh against one
00:28:53another until the kentucky derby so uh if you could just you know look ahead a little bit what's in
00:28:57the
00:28:57back of your mind about how you manage these horses and maybe even uh class president if he runs well
00:29:03in the rebel as well yeah i mean you know the great thing about this time of year is there's
00:29:08there's a
00:29:09there's a prep almost every weekend but if things were to hold true and we kept everything on the
00:29:14schedule we currently have it on have them on nearly would would be targeting the florida derby
00:29:19renegade would be targeting the arkansas derby we'll see how jackson hole and class president
00:29:24do you know obviously have races like the wood memorial and the bluegrass potential options as
00:29:30well so your horses in the devona dale todd are both they're not going to be the favorite they may
00:29:36not even be the second choice but if the kentucky oaks were being run in this weekend zany
00:29:42would undoubtedly be the betting favorite in there so give us an update on zany she's been
00:29:49lugging in a little bit in some of her last you know especially her last start uh how is she
00:29:54doing
00:29:54and does that concern you at all well she's doing great and of course you know any anytime any of
00:30:02them
00:30:02do anything not perfectly especially one like her you know it worries you but she has a tendency when
00:30:07she changes to her right lead in the stretch she wants to drift in a little bit she's a very
00:30:11big
00:30:12long filly and she just needs a little bit of space to get her balance to make that lead change
00:30:18she's also a very curious filly and she's she's kind of taking everything in and looking at looking
00:30:23at things so i think it was kind of a combination at tampa where she was in a new place
00:30:27she was looking
00:30:28around a bit she kind of got tangled up a little bit and then once she finally switched leads she
00:30:33drifted in pricked her ears was looking at everything as she came to the wire and despite
00:30:38doing all that she was still able to win by a pretty comfortable margin so without making too
00:30:43big of a deal of it we're trying to focus on keeping her straight when she makes her lead changes
00:30:47in the
00:30:47mornings and uh you know she just she's a real natural talent and we just gotta hopefully keep her
00:30:55focused and keep her moving forward and where does she run next she's gonna go right now we have her
00:31:01scheduled for the ashland april 3rd at keeneland and in another shameless plug she's been number one
00:31:07in my kentucky oaks top 10 from day one so uh after that huge win in the uh demoiselle last
00:31:15year
00:31:15and uh on her way to the sun coast zoe and randy we all said one more for todd i
00:31:21need some inside
00:31:22information what have you heard about the life is good babies we got the obs march sale coming up i've
00:31:28heard good things there's no way he can be a mess in my books yeah we actually have our first
00:31:35life
00:31:35is good two-year-old coming in today so uh i was in ocala last week kind of you know
00:31:41making my rounds
00:31:41uh looking at some of the babies and that was kind of the one thing i consistently heard every place
00:31:47i
00:31:47stopped was they had a life is good that they liked and like you said i mean if if he
00:31:53misses then you
00:31:54know it's just hard to understand you know what it takes to make a good stallion i mean the horse
00:31:59phenomenal looking horse tremendous pedigree and and you know superior talent so yeah we're we're
00:32:05excited about seeing some of those well todd best of luck with all your horses particularly uh jackson
00:32:12hole in this week's fountain of youth and uh class president in the rebel and of course your horses
00:32:17in the devona dale as well and good luck on the road to the kentucky derby looks like as we
00:32:21speak
00:32:21we're recording this on february 24th you're in very good shape and uh hope that continues right
00:32:27up to the first saturday in may thanks so much for being our gainsway guests of the week and spending
00:32:31a little time with us once again good luck this weekend thank you thanks todd our guest of the
00:32:37week segment highlighted this week by todd pletcher sponsored by gainsway the home of the stallion
00:32:43charge it who registered buyer speed figures of 100 or higher on four different occasions
00:32:49including of course that dwyer stakes is a three-year-old which he won by only 23 lengths
00:32:55with a career high buyer of 111 he also had a 106 buyer in the mile and a quarter suburban
00:33:01tying the highest figure of all the horses going a mile and a quarter during the calendar year 2023
00:33:06charge its first foals arrived this spring and he stands at gainsway for a modest fee of twelve thousand
00:33:13five hundred dollars
00:33:21charge it is pouring it on winning the dwyer by the length of the stretch
00:33:32charge it wins it convincingly in this grade two suburban
00:33:46and now it's time for this week's edition of first things first back by popular popular demand
00:33:51we go to the corgis and it's girls that lead all the way
00:34:02corgis in the country competing and let's beat the field these guys made it hundreds tried
00:34:07let's beat number one is naru first time starter and he made it here to the finals 20 to one
00:34:13on the
00:34:13morning line cassie loves twirling and cheese and let's see if uh you know she can cut the cheese
00:34:20and make it 10 to one for cassie our favorite is number three natty the first female corgi national
00:34:28champion she blew away her field in the semi-finals she's six to five favorite on the morning line
00:34:36number four is captain the 2024 champion four to one on the morning line number five he came in third
00:34:44in the semi-finals but don't rule out emmett's chances emmett has won this corgi national race
00:34:50five times it's the record number six is mr finley two-time champion
00:34:58won his heat and he is currently eight to five number seven is scooter first time ever first time
00:35:06starter made it to the finals mouse is 20 to one and apparently when mouse gets nervous passes a little
00:35:12guy so you got to be aware if you're uh right next to moose bucky is eight to one also
00:35:18first time
00:35:18starter here maple may is currently six to one bucky baited here by qualifying by winning the san diego
00:35:26corgi championship and on the outside is maple may maple may is uh got a special quality she's good at
00:35:34healing broken hearts and it's her first time here as well they're all in the gate and there they go
00:35:42and cassie gets out to leave but here comes natty like a rocket ship
00:35:48natty holds off captain to get the victory in a hard-fought stretch duel
00:35:56we're here with maddie and if she could talk what would she say that she had a lot of fun
00:36:01it got close but she did it how have you got her to win another final no clue she just
00:36:08loves to run
00:36:08she loves the frisbee what's her favorite toy this beer right here honestly even though she's not old
00:36:14enough to drink she loves it who doesn't love beer congratulations maddie she is the winter corgi
00:36:19national champion well done girl
00:36:28i think it's the first time that a female has actually won the corgi race and she was very very
00:36:33impressive winning our heats as well so well done to them we do have some news from santa anita we
00:36:39have a massive two-day pick six carryover into friday's card that starts in race number four
00:36:45there's 198 000 in the kitty expected to make about 1.3 million dollars so many ways to play
00:36:54that nine race card on friday at santa anita of course we'll race on saturday highlighted by the
00:37:00buena vista stakes and on sunday the santa isabel well as i mentioned earlier a great weekend of
00:37:07thoroughbred racing we have preps galore for not only the kentucky derby but for the kentucky oaks
00:37:13also a bunch of other really good races around the country at gulfstream oak lawn etc there's the
00:37:18gotham at aqueduct in new york so why don't we start with the fountain of youth which is really came
00:37:23up very very strong race uh you've got several extremely good horses in here several major
00:37:30contenders for the kentucky derby uh we just talked to todd pletcher about jackson hole will be one of
00:37:36the favorites but uh this is a race where i think you could land on four or five horses not
00:37:42only say
00:37:42they might win this race but uh they might join the top two or three along with pletcher's nearly who
00:37:48was in number one on most people's list so far as the top contenders in the kentucky derby um i
00:37:55am
00:37:55going to pick commandment in here for brad cox horse ran away from the field in the mucho macho man
00:38:01stakes to win by a pole with irad ortiz aboard i think napoleon solo is very interesting as well off
00:38:08that big win in the champagne but i did see chad summers the trainer uh quoted as saying this is
00:38:14a
00:38:14building block it's the words he used it makes me think that this is uh he's using this as a
00:38:19prep
00:38:19obviously for the florida derby and trying to take it one step at a time to get the horse uh
00:38:25right and
00:38:25fit and at his very best for the kentucky derby but this is a very talented horse a 95 buyer
00:38:31in the
00:38:31champagne last year as a two-year-old is a huge number zoe your thoughts on the coolmore fountain of
00:38:37youth well it's a really good race indeed uh i like jackson hole in here for trainer todd pletcher
00:38:44his works have been sensational johnny v wrote him in his first start flavian wrote him in his next
00:38:49start which was terrific at the fairgrounds and now johnny v gets him back he does draw the one hole
00:38:54which will force his hand a little bit but he's a keen horse in the morning so i don't believe
00:38:59that
00:39:00is going to hurt him whatsoever so jackson hole is very intriguing to me napoleon solo you know
00:39:07everyone wants to hedge their bets with this is a building block i meant to call chad this morning
00:39:12and i completely forgot sorry chad uh but he's got some good works coming in and he's kind of a
00:39:17high energy horse so i doubt that he's not ready and if he's as good as he was when he
00:39:24left he'll be
00:39:25a force to be reckoned with as well by that really good sire liams map oh man i mean this
00:39:31is is so many
00:39:32different interesting parts to this uh chad has pointed out and i think we would both agree
00:39:37that if this horse is going to be a legitimate kentucky derby contender he can't blast off the
00:39:45way he did in the champagne i mean he went his first half mile in 44 and change in the
00:39:51champagne
00:39:51and i mean to me that was part of what made that race so impressive was that he went so
00:39:58fast even
00:40:00compared to the other races that day i mean that race was off the charts from a pace perspective and
00:40:06yet he still draws off and wins very impressively with a very nice figure um they're not going to
00:40:13have to worry about getting him behind a horse in the fountain of youth because solitude dude is in
00:40:18there breaking from the far outside and he basically beats the gate every time he runs he's a tremendously
00:40:24fast sprinter whether he can get two turns or not is the huge question mark but you know he's got
00:40:30to go
00:40:30from an outside post and uh you know jackson hall will probably show a little bit of speed from the
00:40:35inside but he's not fast enough to keep up with those two and then commandment the way he won the
00:40:40mucho macho man you know sitting behind a wall of horses with no place to go coming to the top
00:40:45of
00:40:45the stretch and then splitting them and then boom that nice quick turn of foot and just drawing off
00:40:51winning by six and change lengths i mean that was visually very impressive bravaro was close to a
00:40:58fast pace in the holy bull and he was outside uh on both turns lost some valuable ground uh they're
00:41:05running in this race by the way and not the rebel uh they were in uh he was entered in
00:41:08the rebel as
00:41:09well and i texted uh with safi this morning and he said the founder of youth definitely for bravaro
00:41:15so yeah i don't like jackson hall as much as you do uh because i'm a numbers guy yeah i
00:41:21know uh but
00:41:23it's just i mean he certainly deserves to be in the conversation it's a very good race
00:41:27how about kendrick carmush getting back on napoleon solo and joel rosario who was a boredom for that
00:41:34fantastic champagne rides talking who kendrick carmush was riding lots of jockeying for position
00:41:42here it's a good race so a horse neither one of you have mentioned and i don't know where he'll
00:41:47be in
00:41:48the wagering but chief wallaby is fascinating to me because this is not like and i talked to bill
00:41:53mott about this now it's impossible to find an allowance race this time of year so his hands were
00:41:59kind of tied but this is not bill mott's style to go from a maiden win into a grade two
00:42:05stakes race
00:42:06um and it shows me one that like i said there was not a whole lot of other options it
00:42:12also shows me
00:42:12that he has an awful lot of confidence though in this horse yeah and the fact he won first time
00:42:18out
00:42:18and was almost favored first time out and the way he won he did it the right way so you
00:42:25know it's it's
00:42:26bill mott's year last year maybe it's just going to continue into 2026 he's got by a's now as well
00:42:33sky's the limit for bill to your point i mean mott is not known for his prowess in winning with
00:42:38first
00:42:38time starters because he doesn't ordinarily try necessarily to win with first time starters this
00:42:43horse win his last quarter in 24.32 seconds and he was a lot more impressive than the length and
00:42:49a
00:42:49half margin would indicate because the runner-up or what's called the puma was nine lengths ahead of
00:42:55the rest of the field and then the puma came back as a maiden and finished third in the sam
00:43:00f davis
00:43:01at tampa bay downs so this was a this was a really strong race for chief wallaby and bill thanks
00:43:08for
00:43:08bringing that up randy i have a rabbit hole for you i don't think you'll have time this week i
00:43:14love
00:43:14those maybe for next week okay when bill mott wins with the first time starter they're usually really
00:43:19good horses i would be intrigued to know say the last seven years how many first time debut winners
00:43:30bill mott has had that have gone on to be really good horses i guarantee it's a lot all right
00:43:36next week
00:43:36yeah i will i will have the answer for you next week five years i can do i can't do
00:43:41seven yeah five
00:43:42five five is fine so you actually stumped him on something that is maybe a tdn writer's room first
00:43:49but we'll give randy one week to come up a while to go down the rabbit hole sovereignty lost in
00:43:55his
00:43:55debut and he was actually a maiden when he won the street sense stakes right at churchill downs so we
00:44:00know that he didn't win his debut so there's one you can cross off one we can cross off all
00:44:04right
00:44:04so a couple is a great card at golf stream a couple other races i wanted to mention
00:44:09one is the devona dale because it is essentially a prep for the kentucky oaks but being a one turn
00:44:15mile uh at golf stream it it seems that that maybe some of these horses uh you know their futures
00:44:21might
00:44:22be a little bit shorter um i'll go with brad cox here the horse to beat one-time girl who
00:44:28was four
00:44:28for five lifetime uh coming off a very nice win in the forward gal has never gone beyond seven furlongs
00:44:34but i i don't think the stretch out to a one turn mile is that big a deal is she
00:44:39a uh kentucky
00:44:41oaks candidate we'll find out a little bit more after saturday randy your thoughts on the devona dale
00:44:46oh i i she had she ran a really good race uh last time out in the forward gal i
00:44:52mean if you go back
00:44:53and watch that race uh you know irad ortiz had her right up with the pace tucked in between horses
00:44:59passing the half mile pole and as they were heading in the turn and horses start to you know
00:45:03drop to their left lead and and you know shift in just a little bit irad could see that coming
00:45:09and
00:45:09did not like where he was in relation to the horses around him and he just reached up and grabbed
00:45:15a
00:45:15hold of on time girl and backed her out of there and she she goes from being about a half
00:45:20length off
00:45:21the lead to being about three lengths off the lead and at that point you're like uh-oh this is
00:45:25not good
00:45:26but she just handled it perfectly well she relaxed she was okay with where she was at
00:45:31he asked her to go again at the quarter pole she steers around horses and was gone
00:45:36so i thought that was very impressive but i also like bill mott's horse in here
00:45:39a swing boat so zoe you're nodding i mean i thought that was a very very nice maiden win
00:45:46for a swing boat it wasn't a first time starter for mott it was the second time
00:45:51you're gonna foil me on this you really are i thought she looked good
00:45:56she looked really good yeah she's just got to get out of the gate that's been her nemesis in her
00:46:01first two starts she gets a little bit of extra ground to work with that's not going to hurt her
00:46:06she's by constitution out of a fast anime so she could be just about anything so i really like her
00:46:12swing vote for me all right i just wanted to mention briefly the golf stream park mile for that's a
00:46:18grade three and it's not you know one of the major races just because nice bridge i mean what a
00:46:23fantastic again bill mott but this horse has just blossomed in its last two races into to a horse
00:46:30that looks like at least at a mile as a horse that's going to be a big star i'm served
00:46:34bill
00:46:34mott has the met mile uh circled on his calendar but uh then the fred hooper a 105 buyer and
00:46:41the
00:46:41mr prospector a 104 wins by easily in both races uh randy uh i mean i can't see this horse
00:46:48losing on
00:46:49saturday but but you know this is an awfully awfully good horse oh well i had a high opinion
00:46:55of life and life and times a cool morse horse trained by todd pletcher and they ran against each
00:47:00other uh in that in that last race at uh at gulf stream park going a mile and they were
00:47:05right there
00:47:06together they were going really fast for that distance since there's no run-up at a mile at gulf
00:47:11they were flying and knightsbridge just treated life and times like he was a claimer just with
00:47:20disdain just get out of here and just opens up and wins very impressively to me if niceos doesn't
00:47:27run in the met mile this horse wins it i can't i can't see another horse out there unless maybe
00:47:32it's
00:47:32full serrano and met mile i'll i'll take knightsbridge okay i'm glad to see one broker's maiden
00:47:42oh did he break his maiden first out my pps don't go back that far yes he did okay thank
00:47:49god for that
00:47:49in uh long long time ago i got the pps right in front of me you have to go back
00:47:54to november 4th
00:47:552023 there he goes zoe break his maiden he won by 10 and a half lengths with james graham
00:48:01aboard so randy there's one you can already talk up to your uh okay is that zoe has has given
00:48:08you
00:48:08uh to uh give us the answer i got him right here okay all right we're going to take a
00:48:14break we're
00:48:14going to hear from our friends at the pennsylvania horse breeders association also about learn more
00:48:19about kentucky breads when we come back we'll go over some of the other big races at the weekend
00:48:23the gotham and the rebels stay with us here the td and riders room brought to you by the pennsylvania
00:48:28horse breeders association the phba it's out the pennsylvania bred 2026 stakes schedule has now been
00:48:37released it includes 20 stakes races worth 1.7 million dollars the big day of course is pennsylvania's
00:48:45day at the races that's a card featuring exclusively pennsylvania breads it'll be held july the 18th
00:48:53parks and will feature four 100 000 stakes races and of course there will be pennsylvania bred steaks
00:49:01at the other two of the state's tracks as well penn national and presco isle downs to uh to look
00:49:07at
00:49:08the complete steak schedule you can go to www.pabred.com if you want more information about the pennsylvania
00:49:15breeding program you can go to that website as well or you can call brian san fratello
00:49:20610-444-1050 the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country the stallion awards
00:49:30the owner bonuses also the restricted races and the stakes races for pennsylvania breeds this year
00:49:36eight breeders are on track to earn over two hundred thousand dollars in breeders awards and two could hit
00:49:44the million dollar mark we have the best program in the country take advantage of the fantastic
00:49:51program that we have learn more at pabred.com with some of the fullest fields in the country
00:49:57and quality racing year-round there's never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and
00:50:04racing in kentucky purse money in kentucky is at an all-time high as its average purse per race
00:50:11outpacing california florida and new york kentucky breads breed them raise them race them we all win
00:50:25so of course we've had a lot of weather related cancellations around the u.s the last couple of
00:50:30weeks the bomb cyclone hitting the northeast this week but in the middle east no problems like that
00:50:37and kentucky breads have been heating up those tracks in the last couple of weeks last week the uae oaks
00:50:43won by labwa that's a group three race and boy was labwa impressive she won by seven and three quarters
00:50:51lengths she actually is a legitimate kentucky oaks contender and she earned 50 qualifying points
00:50:57kentucky bread imagination of course won the riad dirt sprint on the saudi cup program and later that
00:51:05same afternoon of course kentucky bread nice escape forever young all he wanted in the 20 million
00:51:10dollar saudi cup the world's richest race breed them raise them race them kentucky breads we all win
00:51:17well the feature at aqueduct on saturday is the gotham stakes it is a prep for the kentucky derby
00:51:23only one winner in the history of the gotham has gone on to win the kentucky derby there's none other
00:51:29than secretariat uh the new york route to the kentucky derby has really suffered in recent years
00:51:35and for obvious reasons where would you rather be on february 28th in snowy cold new york or in
00:51:41sunny florida or in uh usually great weather at oakland park uh for the rebel stakes um i don't
00:51:48think there's a kentucky derby winner in here but there is a very interesting horse in iron honor and
00:51:54and randy it just you know you're the figure guy and the horses only run one time only won by
00:52:00a
00:52:01length and a half but won a key race both the horses that ran second and third came back and
00:52:05won
00:52:06but for chad brown back on december 13th horse got a 95 buyer that absolutely towered over this field
00:52:14i would certainly think randy based on the numbers uh and i would guess you would agree because you're
00:52:20the numbers guy this is very much the horse to beat yeah he did get a beautiful trip he got
00:52:25an
00:52:25antiseptic trip so i'm treating that 95 more like a 90 in my handicapping which still kind of towers
00:52:32over the field but i'm also interested in uh the number two horse in here uh hammond who finished third
00:52:38in the swale stakes despite breaking slowly from the gate being last behind a fairly slow pace uh circling
00:52:46the field widest of all and still was running nicely toward the end and i also am interested in
00:52:52this horse because hammond is named after uh my former colleague tom hammond of nbc sports
00:52:58um who i who i emailed with this morning tom wasn't aware that this horse was named after him so
00:53:04now he
00:53:04has a horse to root for i think that's really cool very cool indeed and i just wrote down antiseptic
00:53:11trip
00:53:11i have never heard that in my life i got a lot of them like that zoe okay antiseptic wow
00:53:20antiseptic
00:53:22okay that it's down in the books if the favorite doesn't win i don't know who wins it's wide open
00:53:27that's all i'm gonna say all right so let's move to oakland park on sunday the rebel stakes
00:53:32love these purses at oakland one million dollars up for grab uh in a race that is the prep first
00:53:39for
00:53:39the arkansas derby the arkansas derby of course a uh prep for the uh kentucky derby uh litmus test
00:53:46is kind of the big name there boy baffert's had a hard time deciding where to run this horse he's
00:53:50told everybody he's gonna run on the san felipe uh and then he shows up in the rebel but based
00:53:55off
00:53:55his good performance in the breeders cup juvenile and the los alamitos futurity flavian pratt aboard i'm
00:54:01sure he'll be among the horses to beat and the likely favorite but i'm gonna go with blackout time
00:54:06in here uh the horse ran second in the breeders futurity behind ted noffy we know how good he is
00:54:12and also uh beat litmus test uh earlier in that very race blackout time was ted noffy was first
00:54:20blackout time was second and litmus test was third so litmus test uh what might be the favorite but i
00:54:26think blackout time for kenny mcpeak and brian hernandez jr could be the horse to beat in there
00:54:31and of course mark cassie is coming back with silent tactic who won the southwest stakes which
00:54:38is the uh prior uh race in this series uh he's been busy he's running the smarty jones southwest
00:54:44now the rebel so mark cassie is uh running through all these big races at oakland park that horse
00:54:49certainly has a big chance in here but uh to me uh randy it's blackout time how about you
00:54:56i i could see blackout time i think it's between litmus test blackout time and silent tactic the
00:55:04way he rolled from last uh to first to win to win the southwest so one thing about litmus test
00:55:10though
00:55:10that i will say in the race that blackout time beat him uh that was as you mentioned the breeders
00:55:16futurity at keeneland flobby and pratt absolutely sent litmus test out of the gate in that race
00:55:23it had to be instructions had to be instructions from baffert he didn't have the rail it's not like
00:55:28it was a strategic thing they really really had to go and i don't think the horse really uh ran
00:55:34his
00:55:34best race because of that i think the next two he's he uh took a step forward because uh he
00:55:40was
00:55:40ridden a little bit more patiently litmus test for me i love the fact that flavian's riding him
00:55:46although in fairness jj hernandez did nothing wrong on him rode him very well in the las alfa
00:55:51maturity um we've seen over the past week or so florent giroux riding a little bit more for baffert
00:55:59than on some horses that maybe jj should have been on so i'm not sure what's going on there but
00:56:04have to root for litmus test especially after reading carrie brogdon's uh breeding for the year
00:56:11in today's tdn it's a very informative and entertaining read and randy if you haven't read it
00:56:16you really should read it she talks about study hard the malibu moon mare who she owns who who
00:56:22she's going to breed to this year so it's very interesting and fun well that's a wrap up of all
00:56:29the big races this weekend hopefully we've given you some insights and hopefully we've given you a few
00:56:34winners gonna be an absolutely fascinating week of racing which we'll recap next week on the tdn
00:56:39writers room podcast it is time for the first tv work of the week brought to you by first tv
00:56:45now
00:56:45we're going to take a look at journalism and michael mccarthy if you'd ever pick up your phone i could
00:56:50give the writer props for the brilliant job he did here last week we saw a no time work with
00:56:56his regular
00:56:56exercise marker board today there was somebody else not sure who it was but he did a fantastic job
00:57:03you'll see uh grand slam smile she's won about a dozen races she winds up working 58 flat for sean
00:57:09mccarthy and catching up to him at the three eights pole was journalism who got caught between horses
00:57:14that's him in the middle with the tan sleeves you can even tell by this work how much weight he's
00:57:21put
00:57:21in what a big physical presence he has right now he works in 36 and four trainer michael mccarthy said
00:57:28he got him in a maintenance pattern right now with the met mile in june at saratoga the major target
00:57:34for the year good to see him back on track and he looks like an absolute monster you can check
00:57:40out the
00:57:40work on first tv and more be a smarter better with first tv the best horses
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00:58:36west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpoint tv.com
00:58:43terry finley and all of west point thoroughbreds of course were deeply saddened at the passing of
00:58:48trainer john's sheriffs and wish to extend their condolences to his family including his stepson
00:58:54west point's longtime bloodstock agent david and gordo and to david's wife trainer sheree devoe
00:59:00who continues the family's outstanding work on the racetrack and how fitting was it last week
00:59:06when reagan's honor stamped himself as a kentucky derby candidate with that very impressive allowance win
00:59:13against older horses at the fairgrounds it's fitting because reagan's honor comes from the
00:59:19the female family the same female family as kentucky derby winner giacomo and also tiago and of course
00:59:27giacomo and tiago both trained by john sheriffs for west point west point got it up close and personal
00:59:34look at john's brilliance with interesting horses given his work with a wonderfully quirky one-eyed
00:59:40mayor hard not to love hard not to love could be very stubborn could be very opinionated sometimes
00:59:47she didn't want to train but john's tender loving care brought out her very best hard not to love won
00:59:53five races under sheriff's guidance including a grade one win in the 2019 la brea stakes
01:00:02that's going to be a wrap i want to thank our gainsway guest of the week todd fletcher
01:00:07also my partners in crime zoe cabman and randy moss who has an assignment next week to go deep down
01:00:14the rabbit hole to find out more about bill mott first-time starters and their history i also want
01:00:19to thank our producers who worked so hard behind the scenes to make this show look as good as it
01:00:23does
01:00:24that of course is sue finley katie petruniak and leah larocca and alia larocca catch you next week
01:00:29thanks for tuning us in
01:00:31you
01:00:37you
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