- 22 hours ago
John Heims joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk about the future of racing at Monmouth Park. The Writers' Room team also discussed highlights from Memorial Day weekend racing and looked ahead to Belmont Stakes weekend and what is likely to be a star-studded GI Stephen Foster.
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00:18welcome to another edition of the tdn writers room podcast my name is bill finley i'm a
00:23correspondent for the tdn i also co-host the down the stretch radio show on sirius xm radio
00:27uh my name is randy moss i'm with nbc sports in the buyer's speed figure group joined by my trusty
00:34and capable sidekick miss lucy fast asleep as always on the couch how y'all doing i'm playing
00:41that's my line i know zoe capman here with first tv and first racing y'all doing okay
00:48we're doing fine grand hell yeah all right can we get back to speaking normal
00:58joe z yeah yeah joe z don't be picking on new jersey randy it's a great place very underrated
01:05state anyways the we have the lull between obviously the preakness and the belmont but
01:11there was a time when the memorial day weekend was a huge event in horse racing highlighted by the met
01:18mile at um aqueduct and then of course at belmont and i don't know if anybody noticed but this was
01:24the dreariest deadest memorial day weekend you could ever imagine there were no graded stakes
01:30races on saturday or sunday anywhere in the country santa nita fortunately came through and we'll talk
01:36about that a little bit later um with three graded stakes races on memorial day itself including two
01:41grade ones churchill did have a grade three on memorial day as well but but guys i think racing
01:48what has happened here how is racing missed or unless you disagree with me i mean i know a lot
01:53of it has to
01:53do with everybody wants to group all their races on the big days and create these festival days
01:58like belmont stakes day coming up but my goodness memorial day without anything excuse me the saturday
02:04at least the saturday and sunday memorial day weekend was really you know the feature race being the
02:09paradise creek stake at aqueduct boy i think racing's missing the boat randy yeah well i mean you answered
02:16you answered your question it's it's the desire by racetracks right now to have these super cards
02:22and martin panza did a fantastic job when he was with naira in creating this belmont stakes day what
02:30is like nine grade one stakes or something like something insane that's that as we've mentioned is
02:35probably the single best day of racing other than breeders cup weekend in america right now
02:40and on the undercard for the belmont stakes is the met mile i mean i remember the day my very
02:46first
02:47visit to belmont park was uh for the 1980 belmont stakes and i remember being in the press box with
02:56woody stevens on a rainy day sitting on the press box steps at belmont to talk to the media and
03:02talking
03:03about how he brought conquistador cielo back one week later less than a week from running monday memorial
03:10day and the met mile and then fast forwarding to the belmont stakes in which he won in a romp
03:15but
03:15i mean because of the desire by racetracks like belmont naira to have all those big stakes on one day
03:21it's got to have an impact and i think memorial day is what's really uh taking the brunt of that
03:27and i think randy hit the nail on the head last week when he was talking about one of the
03:31single
03:31greatest days in horse racing is the undercard perhaps on the belmont stakes day
03:36um it is big days of racing we were fortunate at santa nita this weekend on the saturday we
03:43celebrated the cow breads we had five stakes for cow breads very well supported great day of racing i
03:49was a little surprised there weren't more people out but memorial day is very much family orientated
03:55with a lot of barbecues and people just doing other stuff unfortunately however on monday at santa
04:02and we'll get to that we were absolutely packed it was a terrific day of horse racing inside to
04:10outside great racing and a lot of people showed up for the grade ones i'm gonna do a little randy
04:17moss
04:17memorial day going down a rabbit hole i bet you i didn't know this it was not officially a holiday
04:23until 1971 uh so there was no uh no such thing as memorial day before that and in 1971 it
04:31was the
04:31first day that they had at memorial day uh and were able to run the met mile 61 417 people
04:39oh my goodness wasn't it wasn't those the good old days turned out at aqueduct to watch it won by
04:45alan
04:45jerkins it has not been run on memorial day since 2013 so it's been a long time i agree randy
04:53wholeheartedly with you what they've done with the belmont stakes card is just fantastic
04:57but i still say if you lose one race the met mile it's still going to be a fabulous day
05:04of racing
05:05i vote for putting the met mile back on memorial day uh i think for new yorkers would understand this
05:12uh more so than um people zoe from california randy from arkansas and minnesota uh that how important
05:19this race was and and what a big deal it was but that's just one person's opinion and i don't
05:24think
05:24i'm going to change anything am i yep it's still important it's still hugely important it's just
05:30important on belmont stakes day and not important on memorial day so yeah all right and you're not
05:35going to draw any three-year-olds either well it's used to because it gets that they get that huge
05:42break in weights that yeah but i mean the ones that ran in the derby aren't going to swing back
05:47it's too close together bill well yes we we certainly know about that and i think i said
05:521980 it was actually 1982 that was my first trip to belmont park the year that mckisador cielo won the
05:59uh met mile so let me self-edit myself there okay so let's uh just quickly go over we'll obviously
06:06talk on next week's show it'll be all about the belmont stakes but at this point it looks that 10
06:10or 11
06:11are going to run the big names of renegade golden tempo chief wallaby commandment but he needs a writer
06:17again how about that uh then you have emerging market growth equity i'll sell these kind of on
06:22the fence six horses uh coming out of the derby uh five new shooters if you do get a field
06:28of 11
06:28it's pretty much what we expected zoe and again you know we'll do a deep much deeper dive into it
06:34next
06:34week but it sure looks to me like renegade just from a handicapping standpoint i just jumps off the
06:40page he'll be the solid favorite and i'm tell you right now unless i i wake up and have some
06:45sort of
06:45epiphany he's certainly going to be my pick he's going to be extremely tough off the five weeks break
06:51for him give him ample time to get over um the kentucky derby renegade and chief wallaby might be
07:00two of the betting choices yeah i mean you can definitely make a strong case uh watching all
07:07the replays that renegade was the best horse in the kentucky derby taking nothing away from golden
07:12tempo who ran renegade down from behind in the final 16th of a mile i mean you can make the
07:18case
07:18that renegade would have been a little farther up the racetrack uh by that time if he hadn't had the
07:24issue at the start if he hadn't had the issue uh when he was moving sort of uh in in
07:30in tandem
07:31um with with another rallier there oh selly around the uh around this around the turn headed to the
07:37stretch and got held up in traffic a little bit i thought it was a hell of a race for
07:41renegade and i
07:42agree with you i think he's going to be a fairly solid favorite given the competition and i understand
07:48you have some pretty good stories about your first trip ever to belmont park yeah i'm actually lucky
07:52to be alive really i was so i i had been to new york once as a kid with my
07:58family and i was going
07:59back for the first time as an adult a kid from arkansas going to the big city and i wanted
08:03to stay
08:04downtown and you had an option of staying at the halloran house on i think it was third and lex
08:09downtown at the time and so i took a cab of course that's what you do you took a cab
08:14from the airport
08:15and there was a lady a really attractive older lady sitting next to me sharing a cab with me
08:20had her headphones on didn't say a word to me not even hello and so we rode all the way
08:25to the
08:26halloran house and we pull up in front of the halloran house in the cab and of course i'm going
08:30to get out of the cab and so i'm behind the driver and i start to open the car door
08:37and all of a sudden
08:38the lady says for the first time she's even she even spoke no no and she reaches out and grabs
08:45me
08:46and pulls me back into the cab fortunately i still had my hand on the door and i closed the
08:51door just
08:52as another cab came rushing by at about 50 miles an hour about this far from the cab i was
08:59going to step
09:00right out into that into the line of that cab and she saved my life and randy we're glad she
09:07did
09:10to this day i have no idea who that lady was but uh yeah that's what happens when you take
09:15an arkansas
09:15kid and send him to new york city for the first time you ought to send her a bottle of
09:19wine as uh
09:20thank you but uh we know your history with that huh that's a good idea yeah you track her down
09:25bill and
09:26i'll send the bottle of wine okay i'm right on it randy very good well we're going to take a
09:31break
09:31and we come back after these messages you'll hear from john himes general manager of monmouth park he's
09:37our gainsway guest of the week this week on the tdn writers room podcast stay with us
09:42we want to remind you that the tdn writers room is brought to you by keeneland keeneland sets the
09:47standard with its september sale and a pair of grade ones at santa nita on memorial day
09:52taken by keeneland grants proved just that first it was thought process who was a determined winner
09:58in the grade one gamely stakes and then formidable man took home the prize in the grade one shoemaker
10:05mile we'll talk a little bit more about this a little bit later on but do make plans to attend
10:09this year's september sale that begins on monday september the 14th make plans to be there i know i will
10:17we do this so your granddaughter can work on a farm someday so the stands will still be packed
10:24in 50 years that's why we come to work every day obsess over every single detail
10:34because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
10:42deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters the fastest horse of the week brought to
10:49you by the fast sires at one star farm we have told you many times as if we needed to
10:55tell you
10:55because you already know how fast life is good was as a racehorse well now the early returns are
11:02coming in and it looks like life is good is passing on his speed and precocity to his first crop
11:08progeny witness a maiden race at churchill downs on sunday won by a horse named hey tough guy son of
11:15life is good an eight-length winner at three to five odds for trainer brian lynch hey tough guy became
11:22life is good's third winner in his first td and rising star among those three winners was also waggley
11:29who won the kentucky juvenile stakes at churchill downs making life is good the only first crop north
11:36american sire with the stakes winner of course he is into mischief's fastest son at stud thanks to
11:42his 112 buyer speed figure and life is good stands at one star for a fee of sixty thousand dollars
11:48our
11:49fastest horse of the week ran on monday memorial day and i stakes packed card at lone star park at
11:56grand prairie the fourth race of the day race called the memorial day stakes for billies and mares at six
12:01furlongs won by thermal a five-year-old mare getting her very first stakes win she sped the
12:09distance in 108.56 went wire to wire won by eight and a quarter lengths coming on the heels of
12:15a five
12:16and a half length allowance win at santa anita thermal is a daughter of nyquist co-owned by by
12:21tallow racing and john sadler racing trained of course by sadler and ridden by luis saez her 14th
12:29lifetime start her first stakes win buyer speed figure 106 easily making thermal our fastest horse of the
12:37week welcome and now the gainsway guest of the weekend is the general manager of monmouth park
12:46john himes john how are you today it's beautiful uh jersey shore day here on tuesday
12:51uh as i'm talking to you from fair haven and i'm sure you're in your office in beautiful monmouth
12:56park and ocean port i am and finally the weather is broken and it is a beautiful day you're right
13:01about that after a horrible weekend but turn the page and we're moving on well we are going to turn
13:06the page and move on uh john there's so much going on at monmouth and there's some things that if
13:11you
13:12go in one direction you can be very positive about the future of the meet if you go in another
13:16direction maybe you're not so positive and a lot of that has to do with whether or not
13:19monmouth will get casino gaming and bring us up to speed on what's going on with that
13:25and you and the team dennis drazen mike musto yourself how confident are you that after all
13:30these years when a casino first came into atlantic city in the late 70s monmouth park finally could
13:36get a casino which obviously would go a long way towards making the future a lot brighter at uh
13:41jersey shore's favorite racetrack yeah i mean there is a bill pending in the legislature that has uh
13:47i want to say bipartisan support it definitely has support south jersey obviously is against
13:53any casino expansion outside of atlantic city i don't think we've ever been closer this time around
13:57than we had ever been uh time is ticking away though as the legislation the legislature goes out
14:02of session on june 30th and so uh we're a little bit up against it right now but it's still
14:07something
14:07that sits out there and we remain hopeful whether it's this session or this year or next year whatever
14:11it's going to be we anticipate at some point we will be a ballot measure and at some point let
14:16the
14:17voters decide whether or not they're going to no longer allow money from the state of new jersey
14:22to cross the borders into pennsylvania into delaware into new york city uh we're completely surrounded
14:27in atlantic city when it was just atlantic city in vegas you had a different animal it's proliferated
14:32throughout the entire country now and we're just watching our dollars cross over state borders
14:36rather than keep them here that's a very familiar argument that racetracks have used uh many of them
14:43successfully over the years to get casino gaming so there's casinos there's full-blown casinos
14:49and then there's the route that kentucky and arkansas used beginning with historical horse
14:55racing machines as an intro and then sort of morphing toward casino gaming what what's the
15:02difference in what monmouth uh is trying to do with casinos versus what you might do with historical
15:08horse racing machines i believe both of them would have to go before the uh the voting public so
15:14you'd still have to get a referendum together first and the uh the people of new jersey would
15:18have to vote on that before you could even see if hrh historical racing machines were the answer
15:23versus a full-blown casino i know the bill pending is a full casino both here and at the meadowlands
15:28and i would i'm making a presumption here but it's probably quite accurate a meadowlands casino might
15:32be the biggest casino in the world at some point what's this what's the strategy for going
15:39all out right now for a full-blown casino as opposed to sort of the interim step of just the
15:45hhr
15:46well since both of them would need a referendum in the first place you have to get through the
15:49legislature and then on to the ballot which would be a november election and so at this point knowing
15:55the legislature goes out of session on june 30th and i don't imagine they'd be recalled for any part
16:00of this although perhaps a recall if they decide they're going to do redistricting like other states
16:04have done recently maybe they would come back in i know it's sitting out there i know dennis has
16:09worked incredibly hard to get this over the finish line and he continues to do so i think the goal
16:14right now is truly to get a full-blown casino and not worry about historical racing at this moment
16:20how confident are you that that could happen because come july the first will you know for sure one way
16:27or the other you'll know if you're on the ballot for november um you might get that slight extension
16:34like i said if the legislature comes back in session at which point then if there is another session you
16:38could always vote on it again but as of now uh i mean like time is ticking away every day
16:44that this
16:44doesn't happen it's just you watch it slip away slightly but again that's just this year it doesn't
16:48mean next year it won't happen or the year after um and i know the monmouth county legislators i know
16:54the
16:54northern new jersey legislators are all on board for this obviously south jersey wants to protect
16:59atlantic city and they've been adamant against it from the onset and that's understandable for their
17:03perspective but like i said earlier we're watching our dollars cross out of the state of new jersey and
17:08it's time i mean bill and i are both taxpayers in this state it's time to stop letting our money
17:12leave the state let's keep it here john i hate to be draconian but it's kind of appropriate in this
17:18situation um dennis drazen and jeff corral the owner of the meadowlands both pretty much said
17:23we don't expect to get on the ballot this year so if you don't if you get on the ballot
17:27in 2027
17:28and it's voted down or if you don't get to the ballot or if the scenario is that really doesn't
17:35look favorable that monmouth is going to get a casino what does that mean for the future of monmouth
17:41park i will be here that's not a question it just might be a different animal at that point i
17:45mean
17:46dennis and the whole team look for alternative revenue sources at all times including we have the
17:51obviously the new sports book that opened sports betting itself which dennis championed which
17:55became a nationwide phenomenon not just a new jersey phenomenon and that generates money the gains from
18:01the sports betting have covered the losses in uh horse racing housing project across the street is
18:07going to move forward that's a long-term project that eventually will generate income that's going
18:11to go to the horsemen in the racetrack um other than that there's i mean there's always projects in
18:15the works and things of that nature including when we did fixed odds any other alternative revenue
18:20source that we can come up with we're going to utilize it and as always we've given it right
18:24back to the horsemen and i'm assuming that's going to be the case moving forward as well
18:29so john let's talk about another related issue let's assume that monmouth gets casino gaming and
18:35you stop the hemorrhaging of money crossing state lines uh and it puts you on an even scale maybe even
18:43a
18:43higher up than the states that you're competing against right now that have casino dollars you've
18:50still got the situation of a fairly dramatically declining full crop nationally and all these
18:57racetracks in a tight geographical area competing for horses i think we've seen with field sizes
19:04in some of these situations it makes it really really tough what what do you think i mean what can
19:10be done
19:11about that from a cooperation standpoint or anything well i mean if you if you look at it for a
19:17cooperation standpoint it would have to be monmouth coming together with racetracks in the mid-atlantic
19:22region and simply say we are running too much to support what we have right now and i i don't
19:27think
19:27this is a surprise to anybody this year in particular we were hit very hard in previous years we had
19:32done
19:33quite well in terms of field size and horses on our backstretch versus some other places that weren't as
19:37lucky as we had been this year we have been hit pretty hard we have less than 800 horses on
19:41our
19:41backstretch right now which is the lowest number i can ever recall being here so like you're saying
19:47though in terms of the full crop and things of that nature you know on a bigger bigger scale of
19:51things
19:51there's got to be some form of an incentive uh to breed horses and you would think that the sales
19:56prices
19:56as you see them right now are through the roof which is probably subject to bonus depreciation and things
20:01of that nature that are driving these prices so high but when you see the prices and you see the
20:05purses that are an exponential from where they were years ago and yet the full crop continues to
20:11decline the economics just don't make sense because if you want to spend the money and breed
20:15and you want to sell the horse or race the horse you're running for a lot more money than you
20:18used
20:18to get and yet it's moving the other direction which is rather surprising economically
20:24let's talk about some good things at monmouth park i've been to monmouth one time okay and i hate to
20:31say it just one time the weather was gorgeous which i know that you've not had this past weekend
20:37but i was struck by the family atmosphere it almost reminded me of arlington park the party in the park
20:45and all the umbrellas and the families coming out and having picnic with the kids and i think this is
20:50one of the things that monmouth holds so dear to itself is that it really is a family-based
20:58atmosphere at monmouth park and i would love for that to survive because i went one time and i
21:04thoroughly enjoyed my time at monmouth park uh it's one of the foundations of what we do here and
21:10it's the thing that creates generation after generation of horse fans that fall in love not
21:15just with racing but with the racetrack itself and so we do protect that very well we do everything
21:19we can to get families out here with whether it's food truck festivals family fun days we have
21:24morning tours where the kids come out and go through the barn area and they get to feed horses
21:28and things of that nature i mean every part of this is a community-based event which tries to get
21:33the
21:33whole family here which if you look at our numbers on track handle you'll see a large attendance and a
21:37per capita of about 40 per head and it's because the number as they go through the turnstile they just
21:42that's not what they're here for yet and so you're just building that fan base into the future and
21:46that's the attempt we've always done here um i would say on a weekend we can do 10 000 easily
21:52on any given saturday and it's not even an issue so i would think this weekend in particular we're
21:57going to see a very large number as it's mid 60s that's not beach weather the water is definitely
22:02way too cold to be going in there so i would i would think we're going to have a pretty
22:06decent
22:06weekend ahead of us how do we make them start gambling uh well hopefully they're 18 by the time
22:13they start but you never know because there are a lot of kids but it's an education process as you
22:20go through it and i mean you know as this sport always is if you're interested you're going to
22:24learn it if you're not interested you might be a casual player it's like the concentric circles of
22:28who's a fan you get to that center and that's your core fan and then you move out from there
22:31and how much do you spend to get the guy in the so far outer rim you don't bother you
22:35just got to keep
22:36it to where you know you're going to have a return on investment whether it's dollar or you can
22:40measure it by dollar or you're just going to measure it by a fan base in the future that's
22:43not quantifiable but you know it exists john i just want to before we let you go i want to
22:48uh
22:49circle back to something that randy uh asked you about the the idea of circuits and i know you're
22:54the head of your horseman's group mike musto has been trying very hard have you guys had any ongoing
22:59talks with any other tracks to you know cooperate with the schedules i mean frankly you know delaware
23:05park is another racetrack that is struggling mightily to fill races i mean something
23:10along the lines of a monmouth delaware circuit would make so much sense but again things that
23:16make sense in horse racing usually don't happen i just want to know if if you guys have had any
23:21discussions what feedback you have are there other tracks other horseman's groups out there that are
23:26kind of standing in the way you know what's keeping this from happening i think what keeps it from
23:32happening is everybody wants to run saturday sunday where they can maximize the gambling dollar
23:36and so nobody wants to give up those core dates and especially if you're if you're us here as you
23:40know the jersey shore it's weekend traffic that's what you get so we could not give up a saturday
23:46or a sunday during the summer it just would not make economic sense for us and i'm not sure the
23:50other tracks want to give up their weekend dates as well where they make the most of their handle
23:53the only one you could consider i suppose would be parks who runs monday tuesday
23:57and they're concerned i mean they have the casino obviously and have plenty of money
24:01but i don't think it can be too far off where there's going to be some form of a circuit
24:06or
24:06some form of everybody has to get in the same boat and row to make sure that we can continue
24:09to do what
24:10we do all right we want to thank john himes uh interesting times at monmouth park and uh we you
24:16know zoe you nailed it it's such a great place and it is the just one of the great racetracks
24:22in the
24:22country you can't root hard enough for it uh to to not only six uh survive but to succeed and
24:28prosper
24:29john keep up the good work i know you guys are trying very hard to make monmouth um bigger and
24:33better all the time thanks for joining us stay in the tdn writer's room podcast i appreciate it
24:39thanks very much guys thanks thanks john our guest of the week john himes of monmouth park appeared
24:44courtesy of gainsway home to stallion mckenzie the mckenzie's have been in demand at the two-year-old
24:50sales this spring just last week john isner's delta squad racing went to three hundred ten thousand
24:57dollars to acquire a mckenzie colt that was at the phasing tipton mid-atlantic sale at obs april eight
25:05mckenzie's sold for an average of over two hundred thirty six thousand dollars they were led by a philly
25:10who brought nine hundred thousand dollars from donato lanny on behalf of the bauma corporation of
25:18charles and susan chu mckenzie has been represented by three grade one winners and he stands at gainsway
25:23for seventy five thousand dollars gainsway power passion performance
25:40million two million two right there a million two hundred thousand
25:43by aza gets his moment in the sun in the pennsylvania derby chancer mcpatrick wins the champagne
25:49impressively spectacular display from scottish lassie who's in front by 15 legs
26:00on this week's edition of first things first back by popular demand we have the corgis this is for you
26:07sue finley oh and we'll also put jj hernandez and his three thousandth win in there as well
26:17hopefully everybody's having a great day memorial day weekend the carnival i love the carnival ron
26:22he he put together the carnival thank you ron for putting together just a great show and we got a
26:27great show here because this is the finals of the corgi nationals they're going to start loading
26:31into the gate number one mr corginton is acting up a little rank but it's going to be put in
26:38with mochi
26:40and they're all set they're all in the box
26:43on your marks get set and go and they're off and it's going to be gnaty taking the big lead
26:50on the
26:51inside though mr corginton mr corginton in a photo a wonderful race here with the winner mr corginton
26:59number one tell us about his name it's profound it's established you know it's mr corginton well he
27:05came from behind today how exciting is it for you guys to be here and win this so exciting so
27:10exciting he's been trying for years such a good boy we wish you guys the best and congratulations
27:17on winning the corgi finals here at sanita park he's going to be having puppies soon guys he's going
27:22to be a dad retirement retirement he's going to head into it congratulations all right one win
27:283 000 yesterday how did it feel to get it finally done well it feels feels really good uh you
27:34know
27:34it's a lot of races and uh i'm really uh grateful with uh with my family with uh with uh
27:41all the
27:42trainers and owners for for all the support and uh you know i was just really happy and uh just
27:49just
27:49give me a motivation to keep to keep going and keep winning uh more more races seems like that you've
27:56kind of upped your stock you're riding better horses better races you're riding better you rode
28:01your first kentucky derby this year what do you think the future holds for you jj well uh you know
28:08it's always a big uh biggest expectations you know so it's uh i'm uh i'm really hungry so you know
28:15when
28:16when you when you do something and uh you always want more i feel like i always want more so
28:21you know um i just want to win more more more races stay uh right on the big races again
28:27and
28:27hopefully hopefully i can uh win some big races next next i mean this year and next year again
28:38mr corgington and jj hernandez never did i think i would say that in the same sentence uh mr corgington
28:45very nice winner of the corgi nationals and jj well done on win 3000 there we look forward to
28:51seeing him riding meaning in the upcoming acorn stakes we know for sure he is very very excited
28:57about that do join us this weekend at santa anita as racing does continue friday saturday and sunday
29:04free fridays all day happy hour don't forget about that and on saturday we'll have the santa margarita
29:09stakes as well so come and join us at the great race place well talk about big races and big
29:16racing
29:17events boy is the stephen foster this year going to be something else and right now the lineup
29:22includes sovereignty by a's of magnitude wide a burial skippy long stockings but that wasn't the
29:27news this week so much because we knew those horses were going to run churchill downs raised the purse
29:32from 1 million to 2 million they're calling the race now the summer showdown randy i correct me i don't
29:38know if this is something new but they're going to put you to work uh they're going to have the
29:42race
29:42on peacock and nbc sn and the one thing i want to say about this is you know how much
29:47we're all going
29:47to look forward to this and churchill downs i tell you they get it and people are going to be
29:54mad at
29:54me for saying that because everybody wants to knock churchill downs the arlington thing was horrible
29:58we all know that but here they had this premier race they've got all this money they didn't have to
30:04raise the purse nobody it's not like somebody was going to say i'm not showing up for 1 million but
30:09i
30:09will show up for 2 million so you know kudos to churchill downs for doing this and this is going
30:14to be you know bar none uh especially post belmont stakes the event of the summer and my goodness you
30:21know this is a breeder's cup classic to be run in june randy yeah i mean originally the oakland
30:27handicap was the race of the year because it got three of them right and now all of a sudden
30:31doesn't this one doesn't have journalism but it now becomes the best race i think run so far this
30:36year and i i will volunteer to be a part of it unfortunately nbc is taking the fan duel feed
30:45so jerry bailey and i won't be a part of it not that there's anything wrong with that the fan
30:49duel people are more than capable and they deserve a little break uh right now with what's going on
30:54with fan duel but i'll be watching and glued to the tube definitely zoe it's going to be terrific and
31:00it's going to be a fantastic supporting cast as well i'm pretty sure the undercard is going to be
31:05great in fact the whole weekend at churchill downs will be great i'd like to see it run in the
31:11evening one more time i know historically they've had it before in the evening and it was a tremendous
31:18success it's not like the derby in the evening but they've got the chance to do it the weather's
31:24perfect at churchill downs i'd like to see it in the evening but whichever way you look at it it's
31:29going
31:29to be a great race indeed i remember doing it for nbc at night uh at about 98 degree temperatures
31:37with
31:38with a coat and tie and shorts by necessity yeah by necessity for sure so zoe i'm sure you were
31:48paying attention at the phasic tipped in mid-atlantic two-year-old sale last week and uh randy and i
31:53also
31:53supposed to just let you go and let you tell us all the news is we don't this is not
31:57our expertise
31:57but from reading the stories in the tdn i see that the sale was just the prices were great all
32:03across
32:03the board everything was up but the difference this year was that there were no timed workouts so
32:08obviously that didn't hold the buyers back no it really didn't and i have to say a big round of
32:15applause to phasic tibpton it looked like there was some rain coming in on the wednesday so they moved
32:20the breeze show to two days we didn't actually get the rain but we sat through nine sets and eight
32:26hours of breeze show and honestly it was a pleasure to watch they weren't allowed to use the whips which
32:32was fantastic because before before they get to the pole i mean you could hear them coming to the pole
32:38so that was nice the horses honestly didn't go a whole lot slower there were some people that
32:43did actually gallop stopwatches were tick tocking throughout everyone timed their own horses
32:49but it was just none of the horses in fact i'm going to quote consigner randy miles who always
32:55stands in the same spot and watches the horses come off the racetrack and he said he's been standing in
33:01that spot about 30 years and he said for the very first time you know sometimes these babies would
33:07come off the racetrack like they just run for their lives like that was the race of their lives and
33:12he
33:12said this year everyone kind of stepped off the track and was cool calm and collected it was a nice
33:18experience and i think the sellers and the buyers truly experienced it now people weren't actually
33:25just galloping they were a lot of breezes and a lot of fast breezes some of them wickedly fast but
33:31they
33:31all look good new records were set gross average and median were all up i think the median was up
33:38to
33:3970 000 from 60 last year which is 16.7 percent the rna rate was only 16 000 384 two
33:49-year-olds sold for 52
33:51million up 19.3 percent from last year alone there was a gun runner who sold to pedro lands kas
33:59stables
34:00from becky thomas's sequel that was a filly she sold for 1.375 millions the sale topper coming from the
34:07same consignment new york breads becky thomas chester broman homebred out of grade one winner
34:13bar of gold that one sold for 2.1 million already back here in southern california under the tutelage
34:19of trainer john sadler so wishing him the best of luck all in all it was a big thumbs up
34:25i thoroughly
34:26enjoyed it it was tough to buy and i believe there's going to be some really good horses coming out
34:31of
34:31there so i i pressed a button here to raise my hand because i have a question for zoe yeah
34:38why were
34:39there no time workouts what what was the the philosophy behind that change uh i think they
34:46were just trying to get people off of the clock which is never going to happen because people just
34:51time their own and there's varying times last year we had a lot of rain perhaps not the safest track
35:00in the world um it just it wasn't good last year so they're just trying to change things up without
35:08you having to be forced to look at the clock uh carrie fromer every single horse in her consignment
35:15two minute licked and galloped and she can sell a very good horse there was some that specifically
35:21only galloped and i think if this is the standard moving forward the two-year-old sales a little later
35:26in the year we've got one more to come with obs in june uh that some people can point to
35:32it and
35:32it's the only two-year-old sale all year long that's on dirt so the rest of them are on
35:38synthetic
35:39at obs so it kind of it's a big separator sometimes a lot of horses can look good on the
35:45synthetic and
35:45it's kind of hard to tell between 10 flat 10 flat nine and four nine and four they all look
35:50the same
35:50sometimes um but the dirt kind of pulls them apart even if they're going slower all right well zoe you
35:58can take the ball and run with this as well it was announced last week that golden tempo the obviously
36:03the kentucky derby winner are preparing for the belmont sakes will stand at stud at lane's end
36:08congratulations to lane's end for uh nailing a obviously someone who is a terrific racehorse
36:14by curling very well bred um it's a little early i thought though zoe don't they normally
36:19make these deals a little bit later in the year hey anytime you win the derby you've got people
36:24banging on your door i believe four or five different stud farms were in the bidding war
36:30to get golden tempo you got the derby winner everybody wants him right so at the end of the
36:36day it comes down to logistics and where you think is the best spot to stand your horse
36:41we know that the phipps family and the farish family go back generations together they've bred horses
36:48together who they bred storm song 1996 they were co-breeders on that horse so it's not like all of
36:57a
36:57sudden you've got daisy phipps uh with a horse with sheree and gordo obviously her husband is david and
37:04gordo who works closely with lane's end that that's not a big part of the equation this is a relationship
37:10that goes back decades a lot of them days daisy's sister is married to bill farish exactly yeah there's
37:18a family connection there as well yeah it keeps it in the family and lane's end does a terrific job
37:23any stud farm would do a terrific job with a derby winner they've done a great job with flight line
37:28and it just seemed like the best fit for them i'm i'm assuming you figured it would have to be
37:34either
37:34lane's end or claiborne because the phipps family has a long-standing connection with claiborne and then
37:40there's a family tie with lane's end so yeah makes sense it's a good fit all right we're going to
37:47take a break and we're going to hear from the pennsylvania horse breeders association and first tv
37:51and we come back we'll wrap it up with segment four plenty to talk about here on the tdn riders
37:55room podcast the tdn riders room also brought to you by the pennsylvania horse breeders
38:01association the phba and the time is now upon us this friday night penn national will stage
38:09penn mile day special first post time 5 p.m the evening features massive night of racing with 10
38:17races with purses totaling over 1 million dollars of course you've got the penn mile and the penn oaks
38:23but the card also features a couple of stakes for pennsylvania breads the 75 000 leafard stakes for
38:30phillies and mares and the 75 000 alphabet soup for three-year-olds and up both of those races
38:36at a mile and a 16th on the grass the evening is a fun fan event special entertainment giveaways and
38:43more penn mile night friday first post 5 p.m you can get more information about the pa bread program
38:49in its entirety by visiting www.pabread.com or by calling brian san frantello at 610-444-1050
38:58the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country the stallion awards the
39:06owner bonuses also the restrictive races and the stakes races for pennsylvania breads last year 321
39:13pennsylvania breeders earned breeders awards 22 pennsylvania breeders earned over 100 000
39:20we have the best program in the country take advantage of the fantastic program that we have learn more
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40:00the tdn writers room work of the week is brought to you by first tv and this week it was
40:05journalism
40:05who worked a speedy five furlongs at santa anita this past friday stopping the clock in 59 and 2
40:12for trainer michael mccarthy that's journalism on the outside he breaks off on the outside
40:17it looks like juan hernandez is riding him by my eyes anyway and you can see he works right along
40:24speedily on the outside here gains some company at the quarter pole and is in the middle of a gaggle
40:29of
40:29horses but gallops out very very nicely indeed we can expect the 2025 preakness winner at saratoga
40:37next weekend when he runs in the one million dollar met mile handicap on june the 6th on the belmont
40:44stakes undercard well i think somebody at pita has a voodoo doll where they keep poking pins and poor
40:50paco lopez my man paco and you know when he was riding in the preakness the first thing that went
40:56through
40:56my mind is oh my god somebody's going to say he violated a rip world there's going to be some
41:00sort
41:01of controversy here and there was pita came out with a statement with still photos and paco did this
41:07and he raised his whip above his arm and suspend him for the rest of his life and you know
41:12send his
41:12children um to reform school and everything else um randy much ado about nothing or did maybe paco
41:20cross a line as paco was known to do in this case it's probably much ado about nothing i mean
41:26paco has
41:26been his own worst enemy for the longest time it's not like none of these other things ever happened
41:32and he's obviously a heck of a heck of a rider i mean he's won 4 000 races and he's
41:38uh you know he's
41:39beloved by many horse horse players around the country for the aggressiveness that he shows and the
41:44results that he gets on horses uh in this case i i thought it was much ado about nothing when
41:51you
41:51actually look at the video in motion he has a very zoe can speak more about this he has a
41:56very
41:56unorthodox style of riding the loose reins and seems to be kind of all over the place on a horse
42:02but he
42:02gets results maybe that had something to do with this particular situation he's an ugly rider there's
42:08nothing pretty about watching paco come down the lane how he stays on i've got no idea
42:13but he does get the job done uh he did only hit the horse four times which was good i
42:19don't think
42:19he overused the whip he should try he really should try and kind of do something about his style to
42:28stop
42:29peter from because they're going to keep on they're going to keep on they're going to be counting every
42:34single race they will have assigned because they've got a billion dollar payroll one person to keep an eye
42:40on paco and count every single race how many times he hits horse i guarantee it there is one person
42:45assigned to the demise of paco lopez so he better watch his back and bill yeah go ahead randy no
42:54go
42:54ahead go ahead bill you already have a book and danno t-shirt should we just get you a paco
42:59lopez
43:00t-shirt with a big heart on it that says i love paco i'm i'm gonna get right to work
43:06on that zoe thank you
43:07thank you you know and of course he rides book and danno which is uh um you know my uh
43:12why my love
43:13affair with uh all things um book and danno and paco runs very deep all right paco ahead hang on
43:19paco is definitely a target of pita okay yes because of who he is and the way he rides
43:29okay but horse racing in general is a target of pita pita would love nothing more than to see the
43:36you know horse racing completely abolished so i think we have to keep that in mind every time
43:40pita sends out these press releases and things like that sometimes they have some basis in fact and
43:47they occasionally they have a good point to make but you know most of the time it's done with a
43:54colossal agenda which is why paco needs to watch his back because we don't need another another nail in
44:04the coffin and if they're after paco and they get him then they've already crossed him off and then
44:10they'll come after something else so it's up to paco to save the sport bill will you talk to him
44:16next time you two are on your friday night date please wow um he speaks english and i can't
44:23understand a word he said yeah i was gonna say it's it's the most broken english it's it's paco paco
44:31lish um incredibly hard to understand and how about that for a final interview for donna brothers on
44:39horseback for nbc and she's got to interview paco lopez that'd be great how did that work yeah so we
44:46talked about uh santa nita having a great card on on after i whined and complained about memorial day
44:51weekend being so lackluster santa nita came through with a very good card the gamely stakes was won by
44:57thought process trained by phil damato uh and then the highlight i thought uh zoe was the shoemaker
45:03a formidable man so of course it doesn't get uh you know a lot of acclaim as as most you
45:10know one mile
45:10grass horses really don't but what an accomplishment to now be a grade one winner at three four and five
45:17after winning the shoemaker this is a very underrated horse god he's a gorgeous he's absolutely
45:23gorgeous he's a son of city of light who of course michael mccarthy trained as well this is a whole
45:29california family fantacola was trained by phil damato she just missed a few years ago in the gamely
45:35a formidable man coming into this race perhaps a little light on the work tab he'd only had five or
45:41six works and watching him i was at the gate watching him warm up under pratt looks a bit fat
45:47um but he's just a big hulking horse and was much the best and he might have been short that
45:53day
45:54but class did prevail a grade one winner at three four and five he was absolutely fantastic and you know
46:02let's give the grade one gamely some love as well thought process absolutely brilliant she is seven
46:08for ten lifetime now a grade one winner giving young california leading sire collected his first
46:15grade one winner so that was fantastic and this has been a plan all along for her to win a
46:21grade one
46:22and win the gamely so billy karch didn't rule out start on the dirt for her we know the collected
46:28was
46:28the pacific classic winner so we might see her on the dirt but long-term goal now she's learned to
46:34relax
46:34a little bit under hector barrios would be the philly and mad turf great day racing when thought
46:40process won those races heading into the breeders cup juvenile phillies turf uh i i loved her i she
46:46looked so good i was so disappointed with the way she ran in the breeders cup so i'm really glad
46:51to see
46:52her bouncing back yet to the level that it looked like she was going to be at uh right now
46:56as far as
46:57formidable man goes uh you know we all know we've seen it time and time again it's some of it
47:03has to do
47:03with chad brown but it's not just chad brown the east coast turf horses are typically solidly better
47:09for whatever reason than the west coast turf horses there are the occasional exceptions
47:14formidable man is nine for 14 on the west coast he's oh for three when he shipped east but he
47:21was
47:21a good second to notable speech at del mar in the breeders cup mile last year and the breeders cup
47:27of
47:27course this year is at keeneland so that's going to be a storyline that everyone talks about it
47:32formidable man makes it back to the breeders cup mile in kentucky again this year let's just mention
47:38the gold cup as well saffy joseph going back to back and pratt came into town he obviously right
47:45road formidable man but he spent about seven hours on the runway before he even got to santa nita
47:51missed the scheduled ride in the race before the gold cup literally ran out of the cab through the
47:56jock's room put his silks on in a superman fashion and jumped on to forge steel the gold cup winner
48:04and ran away and hit he won by 10 he was fantastic now not sure who was behind him i
48:11don't really care
48:12it was very good placing by saffy joseph to ship this horse west to take down another edition of the
48:18grade two gold cup you talk about being on a roll oh my gosh i mean saffy is just going
48:24crazy
48:24uh graded stakes swim skippy long stocking in the essex handicap and before that the pegasus world
48:32cup a couple of graded stakes wins for our disaster including a grade one in the derby city disc staff
48:37you got the unfortunate uh claret beret uh winner of the apple blossom grade one wide abario beat
48:45sovereignty in the oakland handicap um navajo warrior wins the pimlico special my miss mo wins the black
48:52hide susan yeah and now and now this i mean it's everywhere saffy goes his horses are just running
48:59lights out right now turning to gold yes and we will see more from saffy joseph as we mentioned
49:06earlier in the uh stephen foster with um wide abario and skipping long stocking td and writer's room also
49:12brought to you by west point thoroughbreds the proud owners of intricate spirit the winner of the
49:18paradise creek stakes on saturday at the belmont at aqueduct meeting he returned to his best form
49:24in the paradise creek perhaps helped by trainer miguel clement's decision to put the blinkers
49:28on he was ridden by manny franco intricate spirit also won the grade three futurity stakes over the
49:35same course and six furlong turf distance last fall as a two-year-old of course miguel's late father
49:41the hall of fame trainer christophe clement all the fame inductee that will be a proud moment
49:46uh secured intricate spirit as a yearling at keeneland september
49:53all the thrills
49:57fraction of the bills
50:02experience the power of the partnership
50:07change your life make new friends and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing
50:15west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpoint tv.com
50:22that's a wrap on this week's show i want to thank our gainsway guests of the week john himes
50:27i want to thank my partners in the show zoe cabman and randy moss i also want to thank the
50:31people that
50:31work behind the scenes our producers and directors are the ones who are the big stars of the show
50:35that's the team of sue finley katie petruniak anthony laraka and alia laraka next week we'll break down
50:41the belmont stakes for you thanks for tuning us in this afternoon and we'll be back next week with
50:46another edition of the tdn writers room podcast
50:49you
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