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  • 7 hours ago
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00:00You think about your decision not to run Golden Tempo in the Preakness, this really
00:04sort of pierced outside the world of horse racing. You saw the decision making the rounds
00:09on social media. So, you know, I'd love to hear from you straight from the horse trainer's mouth.
00:15I mean, why you made this decision? What ultimately led you there? What the decision
00:19tree actually looked like? Okay, so there are multiple factors and I'm sure it wasn't meant
00:26to be phrased that we just don't want to run the horses. We just have a lot more tools
00:31at our disposal. We use speed figures to see how fast a horse has moved forward from their
00:36last race now. And the ultimate decision was just, were we going to focus on the Triple
00:43Crown for Golden Tempo or are we going to focus on his year? Because the Triple Crown does take
00:49a unique type of horse and a special horse. Golden Tempo did a lot from his last race in
00:55Louisiana to the Kentucky Derby. And he's a horse that's very much on the upward trajectory.
01:02Coming back, we very rarely run these horses back in two weeks, as you said. So that was
01:09our decision. He's done a lot. If we want to have a horse for the summer and the rest of
01:14the year, the Triple Crown path is going to take a lot out of him. And other things that
01:21people, that's not part of the discussion that I can shed light on is we're under a
01:26whole new set of regulations and rules. So some of the things that you could do to help
01:31the horse within the rules how they were, we can't do now. So, you know, we really have
01:37to give the horses time to rest. And, you know, they're 100%, you know, they have to be 100%
01:45sound, they have to be moving well. And if they're not in that two weeks, there's nothing
01:52therapeutically really that we can do to help them get there. That's not the case with us.
01:55But that that is a determining factor in a lot of decision making.
02:02Cherie, first of all, I want to congratulate you on winning the Derby. Your celebration
02:07was fantastic. Anytime I even have a $2 winner at the track, that's also the way I celebrate.
02:13So we've watched it many times in my house. I want to ask you this. Two weeks, right,
02:20you decided was too quick back for this horse. And there's a lot of chatter out there about,
02:26you know, what Maryland racing officials need to do to get the Preakness, the attention that
02:32it once had, and they wanted to have again, what kind of timeframe would work for you?
02:36Like in other words, so you're not targeting the Preakness, you did not target the Preakness.
02:39If it were three weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, would you have targeted the
02:44race? If it were four weeks, five weeks, what would it require for Cherie DeVoe to say,
02:49hey, yeah, I think we can point him to that race?
02:53Well, definitely more spacing, but we're talking the triple crown. I actually respect the process
03:02because to be a triple crown winner, you have to be a special horse to be able to do it.
03:06It's, you know, that is a special tough horse. And I'm not saying golden tempo is not tough.
03:12He's just not ready to come back in two weeks. So is it three weeks? Could it be three weeks?
03:17Possibly that would have changed our decision. Also, this triple crown season is different.
03:23It's at Laurel. It's not at Pimlico. So you had a couple of different factors in this year.
03:28It's just not traditionally the same. We're also having it at Saratoga at a mile and a quarter.
03:33However, the Belmont is at Saratoga at a mile and a quarter instead of a mile and a half. So
03:37this is a unique triple crown year for all three legs. Well, the second two.
03:45Cherie, do you look at the field that's been entered for the Preakness and say to yourself,
03:50man, I could be two to one in the Preakness stakes. Maybe I should have entered him?
03:57No, I'm pretty good. And it wasn't just my decision. It was a collective decision with
04:02the ownership group and myself. And it was a collective conversation.
04:07But, you know, we we have to make our decision and stand by it and just,
04:11you know, stand firm in that instead of thinking, you know, what if we did?
04:16Well, one of those owners that you mentioned is, of course, Vinny Viola. He is the co-founder of Virtu
04:21Financial. But Cherie, I think it's interesting that, you know, it's not just you in isolation
04:27who has made this decision as we were chatting about before you joined us. I mean, we've seen
04:32three of the past five Kentucky Derby winners opt not to race in the Preakness. And as we say at
04:38Bloomberg News, three makes a trend. So I do wonder in your view whether, you know, you do think it's
04:44a
04:44possibility that the timetable table changes here, whether or not we could actually see the Preakness
04:51get pushed out a little bit. Well, that would change my decision. But I'm also, you know, I want
04:59to drive it firm that the Triple Crown, to me, maybe if they want more participants and viewers,
05:07yes, it needs to change. But for it to be a true test of champions, the way it is, as
05:13it stands,
05:14is a real true test of champions in five weeks.
05:20Cherie, a couple other questions for you. So tell us, how is the horse doing as he prepares
05:26for the Belmont Stakes up at Saratoga this year? And then separately, I will note that you do,
05:30while you don't have a horse in the Preakness, you do have a horse earlier in the day. You have
05:35Reagan's Honor running in the Sir Barton. And tell our viewers, I mean, should they,
05:39we're looking to make some money this weekend. Should everybody go out and bet on Reagan's Honor
05:43in the Sir Barton? Okay, well, we'll start with Golden Tempo, who had a nice and easy workout
05:50this morning. So just getting his legs back under him, getting him back in the groove. He worked
05:56really well. So we'll start to increase his workload every week until we are about a week away from the
06:04Belmont. And then unfortunately, in the Sir Barton, we were very excited to run Reagan's Honor,
06:11but he shipped in and he got a fever. So we had to, and he was quite sick. So he
06:17got there and his
06:18body said, no, thank you. So I appreciate the well wishes, but we're gonna, we are scratched out of the
06:24race.
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