- 1 day ago
Racing analyst Michelle Yu talks all things Royal Ascot on this week's TDN Writers' Room. Also, Randy Moss and Zoe Cadman look ahead to this weekend's GI Stephen Foster Stakes, recap the GIII Ohio Derby and discuss the latest news surrounding ownership of the Preakness Stakes.
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00:17and welcome to another edition of the td and writer's room sponsored by keeneland i'm randy
00:23moss with nbc sports we're taping this on tuesday june 23rd if you're wondering about
00:29my choice of headgear i'm a university of arkansas guy proud razorback but i put three kids through
00:35the university of oklahoma and yesterday monday the 22nd oklahoma won the college world series to
00:41claim the ncaa baseball championship so congratulations to ou boomer sooner wow that's
00:50really cool i can't really top that uh zoe kevin with first tv and first racing here in sunny old
00:55england it's 5 45 p.m and it's doubtful i'll be able to wait for the one and only michelle
01:04you
01:04who's going to join you guys later from paris at 11 p.m i'm going to the pub and you
01:09don't need to
01:10see me afterwards so hopefully you can join us for the interview in case you can't want to get
01:15your takeaways on the royal escut i know you're very familiar with that meeting uh give us some ideas of
01:22what it's like well i've been actually in england for the last week uh sitting on the beach in
01:28cornwall for my mother's 80th birthday so i've seen bits and bobs of that i wasn't fortunate enough to
01:34watch peacock i have michelle was brilliant by the way which she always is and uh one thing you can
01:40take
01:41away from royal ascot is that it is just you know the melbourne cup stops the nation this is basically
01:49something that you have to see to believe to be perfectly honest if any of you guys have never
01:54been to royal ascot you should go at least just once because people love to hate the monarchy
01:59but that's all that royal ascot is about and it is a fabulous occasion where everyone gets dressed up
02:06they get together the racing is on cue i think there were like 635 horses that ran in 35 races
02:14which is a
02:15lot when you come to think of it and it was a terrific week of races i think myself and
02:20randy
02:20both have a favorite race that we absolutely love i love the gold cup but you don't love the gold
02:28cup
02:28right randy how could you not love the gold it's two and a half miles on turf which in the
02:33u.s of course
02:34is just a novelty race and it never has any implications for the breeders cup and so every year when
02:40i look at
02:41royal ascot races and go back and watch the stakes races i just skip when i get to the gold
02:46cup two
02:46and a half miles i mean seriously this year i watched it live what a storyline what a race to
02:53me it was the
02:53highlight of the week yep i mean for for troll a man to lead the whole way two and a
03:01half miles
03:02and get mugged on the wire by a four-year-old he's an eight-year-old we heard all of
03:09everything that was
03:09going on with him he rode down to the start with a pair of ski goggles on because he's had
03:13some
03:14problem with his eyeballs uh just to get like mugged on the wire like that was what a race over
03:20two and
03:21a half miles and aiden and gosden and and what's the new words you learned randy was there a new
03:26word
03:27yeah aiden accused gosden of uh what's the word of being uh i've already forgotten it what is i never
03:36heard it before whinging it's a brit whinging of whinging which which is apparently british slang
03:44for whining but you could say he's a bit of a whinger he's a bit of a whinger like yeah
03:52great
03:53we can talk a little later about the uh the increasing rivalry between gosden and aiden o'brien
03:59that's even taken place in the media somewhat lately but anyway so i also want to ask you about the
04:05prince of wales's stakes on wednesday won for the second consecutive year by what might be the best
04:10turf horse in the world the john gosden trained ombudsman who was very impressive in victory what
04:16are your thoughts on him um to quote the one and only john gosden who apparently whinges according to
04:24idna brian um he says that he is too good to go a mile and a half that's his direct
04:33quote which means
04:34it's gonna be a mile and a quarter a miler for the rest of the year he is a hell
04:39of a horse he really
04:40is he was brilliant and to beat mini hawk and daris like he did it daris is an arc winner
04:47probably not
04:48the ground for daris that we saw because it's scorching you see me fanning myself it's 90 degrees
04:55here and no one's ever heard of air conditioning in england which is just fine by me it's beautiful
05:01um but that ground really wasn't his ground daris's ground but um ombudsman's brilliant
05:08fingers crossed that we get to see ombudsman in the breeders cup turf at keeneland uh thanks zoe for
05:15your thoughts and now we move on to the gains weight guest of the week and we are now joined
05:21by a very
05:22familiar face american racing broadcaster michelle you who was part of the presenting team at royal
05:28ask it last week and now as they say across the pond i believe she's on holiday with her family
05:34in paris is that correct we started with um everyone came to england so they did like the
05:42whole time that i was working they were out holidaying and now we're doing like the little
05:47euro trip so i've got my kids my mom and then uh tyler bayes and his wife because my myself
05:55and his
05:55wife are best friends and then all of our kids we call them the hazes so we've got five kids
06:00uh here
06:01and we are gallivanting through europe that is quite the entourage and as we tape this on tuesday what
06:08time would it be there right now it is currently 11 o'clock at night and we literally just walked
06:15in
06:15the door i mean we are out from this morning we were up at 5 30 because we moved from
06:20london to paris
06:21and then as soon as we got here we dropped bags and we went off exploring and went and ate
06:28and saw
06:28the eiffel tower and walked the champs d'lize and we did all the touristy stuff and not that you're
06:34complaining but i hear a rumor there's no air conditioning oh randy no no you you did not hear
06:39that uh properly i am absolutely complaining okay there is there is nothing i hate more than being hot
06:44and look at me i am a complete disaster uh when people say they have air conditioning what they mean
06:50is they have these like one wall unit like this for the whole place um and it it definitely is
06:57not
06:57the same as having like central ic plus i don't know what we were thinking but like we were thinking
07:02um let's make really cool memories we're on a houseboat really yes so we're on this houseboat
07:10like you gotta scope out these floors right here look at these floors and so as we're sitting here
07:16we're like rocking back and forth we're on the sin or scene or how everyone can just butcher i'm
07:21going to butcher all my french right now but um we're literally on the river uh which is really cool
07:26but yeah houseboat was something different nothing like a combination of sweat and seasickness
07:32there you go so we are very appreciative of you going through all this just to be with us
07:38at 11 p.m and i must say i am quite jealous i've been to quite a few international racing
07:45venues
07:45including cheltenham which was quite the experience but never ask it and more specifically never royal
07:51ask it so for those of us who have yet to check that off our bucket list tell us some
07:57of the things
07:58other than the obvious the incredible racing that you think we would immediately notice
08:04on a trip to royal ask it well i think it's really crazy that it's more about the experience almost
08:09in
08:09the racing like people definitely love to watch the races but the grandstand is kind of in the middle
08:15of where the pre-parade ring is and then where the horses get on the track so if you're into
08:20the royal
08:20enclosure and you have your table over there and you're just sipping champagne there's not tvs everywhere
08:26that you can watch racing you have to understand like you hear the ding ding ding and you're like oh
08:30we
08:30have to get up and move somewhere and i feel like at the racetracks in america you know you're sitting
08:34in your box your track side you might meander the paddock but everyone kind of comes back out to the
08:38front side and that's not really how it's done now if you have a royal box you're you know way
08:43up in the
08:43top and you can see everything also because the races are run at a straight mile or sometimes they're
08:49you know two and two mile five furlong all the way around wherever you are you might not see
08:53most of the race you're gonna see parts of the race right so i think that that's certainly different
08:59obviously the dress up and the attendance of the royals uh that is like the coolest thing i'm
09:06because i'm american i got to fangirl over everybody uh so every day i was like taking
09:10my selfies when king charles would come behind me i got him to wave at me so like i think
09:14he started
09:15to know who i was by the end of the week you got this wave probably right he gave me
09:21like this and
09:21he gives me kind of like a thumbs up and says hi um so like that's like a big thing
09:25right we don't
09:26have anything like that in the states where um people press up on the rail i mean my kids wanted
09:31to see that the royals so they got there like 45 minutes before the royal procession to get
09:37themselves like a really great spot where they could see you know unobstructed views of them uh
09:42and it's really cool and the atmosphere is just it's incredible like everyone is there to like
09:49be posh and have a good time so one of the first things we notice you know other than the
09:54racing again
09:55you you referenced it the attire the men and top hat and tails and the women dressed to the
10:00nines i have a feeling my oh you ball cap probably wouldn't get me in the gate is there a
10:05place for
10:07just like rank and file ordinary people maybe in jeans to to watch the races at royal ascot or or
10:14does the is the dress code go all the way down to the bottom the dress code does not go
10:18all the
10:18way down to the bottom as far as top hat and tails go i don't know if you can go
10:21as far as wearing
10:22jeans but you could wear like chinos and a polo um they've got like there so they've got the the
10:27royal enclosure and then they've got the queen anne enclosure which is a touch more relaxed like you
10:33could wear a fascinator sort of a hat so like in royal enclosure you have to wear full top hat
10:38and
10:38everything you're also allowed ethnic dress in any um enclosure and then they have the windsor enclosure
10:45which is a little bit more relaxed and lenient and they've got like an infield kind of area
10:49so like you can kind of party there but i didn't see anybody in jeans um but i did see
10:54some girls
10:55in like tank top dresses shorter dresses whereas you know you couldn't get that in royal because you
11:00have to have like your skirt a certain length your straps a certain length and everything so my shorts
11:05and ball cap would have would have raised a lot of eyebrows all right so five days at royal ascot
11:10as
11:10always seven races per day 35 races total do the math unbelievable 16 of those 35 races were either
11:18grade or group one or group two eight a piece eight group ones eight group twos we can skip through
11:23some
11:23of the more significant races in your opinion to you what was the racing highlight of the five
11:30i think ombudsman uh i think that was certainly the the most scintillating race right the way he did
11:39i thought that was just tremendous um the whole story behind him and everything i thought was great
11:43and i thought the gold cup was a fantastic race i mean i was rooting on trawler man and i
11:49was gutted
11:49literally i don't know there's a there is a video of me cheering him on and then when he lost
11:53i was
11:54like that was so dirty and i i still like i mean you have to give scandinavia credit because he
11:59won
11:59sure uh but trawler man he did all the heavy lifting he came off that late i mean he ran
12:05absolutely
12:05bananas so like i have to give him so much credit in that race even though he didn't win
12:10so to me those two rowdy races were were the highlights for sure so let's take them both
12:16individually ombudsman and wednesday's prince of wales wales is a quarter on the turf to win by
12:23four lengths in a turf race for top class horses of royal ascot i mean mini hawk was second the
12:29arc
12:29winner daris was third the longest that ombudsman has ever raced distance wise was a mile and five
12:36sixteenths last august do you think there's any chance that they would entertain
12:40the breeders cup turf at a mile and a half that so we we didn't uh the the guys from
12:45itv were
12:45interviewing gosden after and specifically ass and he was like i don't think so i think he's he's just
12:50too fast for for that kind of a race uh so i kind of chucked it out there like maybe
12:55we turned him
12:56back which i didn't like but i thought i thought what about trying him on dirt and going saudi cup
13:00uh you know mile and an eighth um and given like kind of that world so i don't know what
13:06they're
13:07going to do but they they really did not seem keen on breeders cup unfortunately and you can see why
13:12he's just so good at this particular distance it's not a configuration that we um you know have in the
13:17breeders cup so that's unfortunate but you know you're not you're not going to cut him back to a
13:21flat mile he's not fast enough for that but he might not stay uh you know the mile and a
13:26half and
13:27another thing we don't have at the breeders cup is a two and a half mile race like they had
13:30on
13:31thursday with that uh the one you referenced were scandinavia defeated trollerman in the ascot gold cup
13:36a lot of people in america i think and i'm guilty of this too in the past
13:41will skip through the stakes races to watch them and see two and a half miles and say i'm just
13:45i'm
13:45going to move on i don't care about two and a half miles we'll never see these horses in america
13:49no way no chance that race was spectacular and i think even more so when you appreciate
13:58trollerman the defending champ seven length winner last year what john gosden went through to get him
14:04even to the starting gate for this race and the ski goggles and all that tell tell us a little
14:09bit
14:10about that yeah so he um got sick and so he got this eye infection that caused like a light
14:14sensitivity so he'd been training in these goggles now at home we use pacifiers right so it's like a
14:19blinker hood but it has like a mesh and that shades it and he used a legitimate pair of ski
14:24goggles they
14:25were like this they went over his head and you know lucky for him it's kind of overcast that day
14:29already
14:30but even when they had him in the box they had him in the box with the doors partially shut
14:33just
14:33to keep that light away from he trains in them at home all the time it obviously didn't affect him
14:38once he's running and his you know blood's pumping adrenaline's going so they didn't race in him but
14:41um you know he wore them through the preliminaries there were people in the crowd that were wearing
14:46ski goggles really yeah we we found this one guy he was rooting him home as hard as i was
14:51and then when he lost he pulled him off it was hilarious but uh yeah like you know the whole
14:57kind of build up behind this and then i thought that he was still going to win because i felt
15:02like
15:02scandinavia kind of came back at him right and then trollerman kind of came back but uh we had
15:07jim crowley on the on the set with us and jim crowley said that ryan moore had his measure the
15:12whole time
15:14one of the racing post column that said that that's what scandinavia does he tortures the
15:18competition and makes it look like they're going to win and then at the last second manages to pull it
15:22out so try gosden was quoted as saying that he had never had a horse before with that sort of
15:28ailment
15:28that the horse was in such pain in his stall because of the light sensitivity that they thought
15:34it was colic and then and then they realized that it was a light thing and then that became a
15:39whole
15:39different set of circuit he was worried about the sunshine if it was going to be a sunny day
15:43on thursday i guess it was cloudy so he caught a break like literally right until post time we had
15:48it was it was overcast so it was great for him and after all that eight months off no prep
15:54because
15:55of the eye problem and they still duel the length of the stretch i mean what an unbelievable race that
16:00was so what are some of the other races let's talk about wesley ward the wesley ward race yeah the
16:05wesley ward race was incredible right i mean the the way that horse won and look came off the layoff
16:11and ran at turfway and you're like who did we beat at turfway right this is baccio we're talking about
16:17here yeah son of mcclain's music that race to me was like meh now the church allowance race i thought
16:22was a pretty good race i still did not expect him to win the way he did i mean he
16:29absolutely
16:31powered away from them and that's a wesley ward is really good at but we already saw like the
16:35juveniles not winning everything and i mean this horse just he was incredible like what a turn of
16:42foot that horse showed yeah it wasn't a graded group stakes you know it was just an ordinary
16:47run-of-the-mill handicap but to win by what three and three quarters lengths the way he ran and
16:52the
16:52way he looked he's now four for five looks like five yeah he's four for five lifetime coming back
16:58to the states now you know you could easily pencil him in as a leading candidate oh really i think
17:04yeah so uh we had wesley up on set the next day because we want to talk about what happened
17:08with
17:08the objection and everything um and he says there's actually a race at york he's pointing towards
17:14okay so he said we'll see him for the breeders cup turf sprint later then i hope so yeah he
17:18said
17:19the first time they go straight they actually don't know really what's going on they're waiting
17:22for that bend looking for that bend and and jj said this horse ran straight as a string um but
17:27still
17:27was kind of like waiting for that bend to come and so he said the second time they run straight
17:32like
17:32that light bulbs come on so he wants to get that second out on the straight all right a couple
17:37of other
17:38races to touch on notable speech was disappointing and the queen anne on tuesday 10 bob tony at 50 to
17:43one won that race but as i pointed out last week notable speech does not have a brilliant record at
17:48ascot for whatever reason uh so i wouldn't really hold that against him when he comes back to the
17:54states and runs uh you know the defending champion the breeders cup mile bow echo the saint james palace
18:02again matched up against gestad who he defeated in the 2000 guineas because scott uh gestad then went
18:07to ireland and won the irish uh 2000 guineas and now they're rematched again in the saint james palace
18:13bow echo undefeated five for five he's a heck of a three-year-old that horse ran an absolute banger
18:19i
18:19mean and i i kind of i backed stod that day because i thought that maybe he was just caught
18:25like a little
18:25short and you know bow echo had had the race like you know i just i thought stod could come
18:30back
18:30and stod got the trip he wanted everything and bow echo was so much the best i mean that is
18:35a super
18:36duper nice cult right there all of these greatest six you pull them out individually and just watch
18:41the performances and you got i mean almost every race you've got a scintillating performance even 10
18:47bob tony tom tom stanley was talking about that horse like michelle you love this horse he's so pretty
18:51uh you know so face yeah big white face and everything like and so he was talking about it beforehand
18:57and
18:57well he ran to his looks because he ran really well now i guess we'll have to pay attention to
19:02some of these horses because the high draw um was certainly beneficial so we have to kind of pay
19:08attention to that going forward and see just where some of these horses bounce out but like you said
19:12notable speech i liked him but i kind of i regulated him to underneath just because he hasn't wanted to
19:18ask it and i feel like he has things his own way he just doesn't like it for whatever reason
19:22um and you know charlie appleby's been really really cold at ask it for those watching or
19:28listening they don't really understand what a hot what a high draw means when they're running down
19:32the straightaway right to left uh on your tv monitors the high draw the high post positions would
19:38be the closest to you on the stand side rail and all week long those horses seem to have an
19:46advantage
19:46over the horses in the middle and further out yeah they were coming i mean they were coming up the
19:51rail
19:51they were right there and i felt like the middle was okay too but it was just that far side
19:55they
19:55just couldn't seem to they just churned a little bit and i hear i know these guys talk about like
20:00the sun comes and that part of the track it's drier than the other oh you have a puppy on
20:05your
20:05shoulder uh you know some of the yeah she wants down sorry lucy she was sitting on your shoulder
20:11like a pirate um you know that the the the track gets a little bit more sun in some spots
20:16so it
20:16makes a little bit faster i don't know how much credence to play into that but it certainly didn't
20:20see it seemed like the higher draws or the more stand side you were the better and wesley ward's
20:25baccio was stand side right up against the the rail and a lot of europeans are maybe dismissing it a
20:30little bit because of that one more thing i want to talk to you about we could talk about the
20:33races for
20:34another 30 minutes a lot a lot was written and said over there royal ask it week about the rivalry
20:42between aiden o'brien and john gosden which was fueled by some comments that gosden made in the
20:48racing post just a few days before the beginning of the royal ask it meet saying that it's a problem
20:55that coolmore and aiden o'brien have won the epsom derby in seven of the last 10 years uh he
21:03said
21:03anyone who doesn't think that's a problem is being either deliberately obtuse or naive he talks about
21:10the team tactics right that coolmore often uses with three four or five horses in these major races
21:17and then aiden o'brien counter by saying that he was whinging which means whining whining whining and
21:23then gosden said that was a strange choice of words for a no brian to say i was whinging so
21:29yeah it's
21:29going back and forth over there it really uh and the trawler man matchup obviously against scandinavia
21:36pitted o'brien with scandinavia and gosden with trawler man so that sort of played right into the
21:42media's hands there oh a hundred percent and then uh you know with aiden getting his hundredth ask it
21:47win in that particular race i mean then it was all the fanfare and we did interview both of those
21:53guys
21:53after and you know mentioned each other kind of oh yeah john's a great guy great lad great lad you
21:59know he's he's good i asked tom i'm like how often you think aiden calls uh john he's again never
22:06as opposed to an american rivalry a rivalry between gosden and o'brien will be very genteel
22:13and very you know very diplomatic uh well you know aiden is super diplomatic but i feel like there's
22:20some of those guys that are a little bit more verbose and i feel like gosden is one of them
22:24he is
22:24not afraid to speak his mind um you know we had simon christopher over there complaining about the
22:30the favoritism to the higher draw gates and how that was kind of a shame and i feel like at
22:35home
22:36we don't see as much you know even if trainers think there's a bias they're not verbalizing that
22:42um as much and i felt like at ask it they're they want to say what they feel right well
22:50michelle
22:50anything else you want to mention about the royal ask it week that i haven't touched on with you uh
22:55you
22:55should definitely go if anyone is considering going plan a trip around it go and do it all up
23:02get your get your hat get your coat get your tails i know you might feel weird at first but
23:08everyone's wearing it so just make sure your hat fits that's the key you don't want your hat to be
23:12too small or too big because you look a little funny um but if your hat fits good you have
23:19to go
23:19michelle thank you so much find a nice stable spot on the houseboat find some a breeze at least
23:25if you can't find any ac wetting i'm absolutely gonna go find a breeze i'm gonna go lay on this
23:30swamp cooler get some sleep and enjoy your holiday as well thank you again for taking the time
23:36no problem our guest of the week michelle you came to you courtesy of gainsway the home to stallion
23:43muth who covered his first crop of mares in 2025 and thus we'll see his first weanlings come to
23:50market this fall on the racetrack muth was a chip off the old block as they say his sire
23:56champion two-year-old good magic won grade one races at two and three and so did muth in fact
24:02muth is so far the only son of good magic to accomplish that feat winning the american pharaoh
24:09as a two-year-old and then the arkansas derby the very next year at a total of 1.6
24:14million dollars in
24:15earnings during his career muth stands at gainsway for a fee of thirty thousand dollars say hello to
24:27it's a one-horse race very professional and very fast move rolling home by four in fine style
24:39move the son of good magic coming down the stretch at hot springs to win it
24:52we do this so your granddaughter can work on a farm someday
24:57so the stands will still be packed in 50 years
25:02that's why we come to work every day obsessed over every single detail
25:09because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
25:17deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters
25:22do want to remind you that each and every week the tdm writers room is brought to you by keeneland
25:27so many of the sport's biggest moments continue to be powered by keeneland sales graduates
25:32in fact the keeneland september sale has already seen 100 graded stakes wins in 2026 from its graduates
25:41really wow that's amazing like always a runner in the kentucky oaks
25:45dubai world cup winner magnitude woody stephens winner englishman he was impressive
25:50and preakness hero napoleon solo for forty thousand dollars who'd have thunk it
25:55find your next graded winner at keeneland september sale beginning monday september the 14th
26:01so number one easily on the menu of the races we want to talk about for the upcoming weekend
26:07of racing in the united states the stephen foster at churchill downs on saturday
26:12upped now to a two million dollar purse and it's obvious why the stephen foster is now the best race
26:21we've seen so far in the united states it features sovereignty last year's horse of the year
26:26why the barrio former breeders cup classic winner who just defeated sovereignty in the oakland
26:32handicap which previously you can make the case was the best race of the year so far by aza
26:38also like sovereignty from the bar now of trainer bill mott and magnitude the winner in his last start
26:44of the dubai world cup you know the oakland handicap was the previous best race of the year prior to
26:51the
26:51stephen foster with why the barrio running what i thought was the best race of his career to run
26:56down sovereignty and journalism finish third but that was a little bit of a funky race and we talked
27:01about it beforehand because of the complete lack of early speed in that race and sovereignty
27:08found himself on the early lead with junior alvarado which is not really the kind of race he typically
27:15likes to run it was also his first start of the year and i just thought that that race was
27:22kind
27:23of a race that you could ride off a little bit the defeat uh in terms of sovereignty you know
27:30falling
27:31victim to why the barrio's late kick and i i think sovereignty is going to be the horse to beat
27:36even
27:36though you know even though why the barrio handled him fairly convincingly at oakland there's plenty of
27:42early speed in here uh magnitude being one of several horses i think that could be up as part
27:48of the pace which will help sovereignty will help alvarado be able to relax him a little bit off the
27:54pace and to me i think sovereignty deserves to be a pretty solid favorite again zoe and i think he
27:59will
27:59be oh absolutely no question whatsoever it's a really good race and you have several trainers with
28:06two in the race like saffy joseph navajo warrior it'll be interesting to see if all of these horses run
28:12speed navajo warrior tyler gaffione you've got ford steel one by nine the gold cup at santa anita the
28:21hollywood gold cup and you might look at that and be like oh who did he be he was so
28:25impressive that
28:26day i can't even tell you what kind of horse he is because that was a breakthrough performance for him
28:32102 by a speed figure speed from magnitude last time out by ace is probably going to sit in the
28:40catbird
28:40seat along with sovereignty who will likely want the same position but they're both trained by the
28:46same trainer so how do they kind of navigate things throughout and then you've got wider barrio can sit
28:53just off it's a terrific race and there is a ton of speed in here but how fast are they
28:58going to go
28:58randy could you give an over under of the opening half mile i think it's going to be pretty quick
29:04i think
29:04it's one of the reasons why forged steel is in the field i mean he went wire to wire in
29:09the gold cup
29:09owned by c2 racing who also owns wide abario and they obviously he's a good horse too yes he's not
29:17he's not just a rabbit i mean he wants to be on the early lead but i think that's you
29:21didn't hear much
29:22about forged steel going into this race beforehand or at least i didn't and i think it's a it's a
29:27uh
29:27it's a dual positive for safi and c2 racing they ensure a pace they ensure someone to run with
29:35magnitude early and they also can help set it up for wide abario and uh in that respect as well
29:41as far
29:41as magnitude goes i mean he wins the dubai world cup he beats forever young okay if you knew that
29:47forever young ran his a level race in the dubai world cup and magnitude still beat him you could make
29:54a really strong case for magnitude to beat sovereignty and magnitude to beat wide abario
29:59yeah i mean we're all about opinions here that's what we do my opinion is that forever young was not
30:07nearly as good in the dubai world cup as he was in the saudi cup or the breeders cup classic
30:12it was a
30:12good race by magnitude he's a good horse do i think he's quite as good as sovereignty though
30:18and wide abario based on that dubai world cup win over forever young i'm a little bit skeptical
30:24that i want to go quite that far so if they were to match up in the september 18th um
30:31jockey club gold
30:32cup with forever young who wins because he's gonna run that that's the latest uh that's the latest news
30:38uh the yoshido yahagi or whatever yeah that's a yoshido yahagi uh has come out and said that they are
30:46going to use the uh the jockey club gold cup as a prep for the breeders cup classic whether he
30:53stays
30:53in the country during the interim i don't know the jockey club gold cups the 18th of september as you
30:58said halloween october 31st the breeders cup classic we didn't hear anything about it but yahagi
31:03actually said and posted on april the 25th that he was looking at two different routes for forever
31:14young route a was the jockey club gold cup in the breeders cup classic route b was turf
31:20was a race in leopardstown on september the 12th and then the arc on october the 4th and he said
31:29i'm
31:29going to be responsible and flexible while watching the condition of the horse uh to decide what to do
31:37in the future and after talking to the owner uh susimo for uh for hito after talking to their
31:43overseas racing manager they finally confirmed that they were going to come to the united states to run
31:48in those two races and then he hopes to run once more in japan by the end of the year
31:55but i think
31:56forever i'm gonna be clicking on all cylinders by the time he gets to the u.s in the fall
32:02let's talk
32:03about some other races on the card at churchill downs i am actually really looking forward to
32:07race number one and i love the two-year-olds two-year-olds are my favorite thing in the world
32:12i love the baby races i love the yearlings i love everything about them and there's been a lot of
32:18hype
32:18about the flight lines and we might see a winner by flight line on the undercard so the first race
32:26there's a two-year-old colt by flight line they paid 1.8 million dollars for him at the saratoga
32:31august sale sold by lanes end i do believe because summer wind fun stayed in for a piece west point
32:38thoroughbreds uh bought this horse steve asmussen trains jose ortiz to ride his name is power line
32:45which is a brilliant name for a son of flight line and hopefully we'll see the first north american winner
32:51by flight line in the first race of churchill downs on saturday and as always there are plenty of other
32:58stakes races on the card you know traditionally the stephen fosters paired up with the fleur-de-lis
33:03for phillies and mares that's the case again on saturday and in the fleur-de-lis you've got a very
33:08interesting matchup tactically between splendora uh the bob baffert trainee who drew the rail and shred
33:16the gnar who also has speed coming off a win in the grade one la treyenne on kentucky derby weekend
33:23those two horses are going to be uh probably going at it right from the start flavian pratt
33:27might try to who knows with splendora what the tactics are going to be she's always going to be
33:32forwardly placed will he want to go out there early with shred the gnar or ease back and maybe flip
33:37outside it's going to be fun to watch you've also got the wise dan and you've got another race
33:41that i'm interested in it's a six furlong sprint called the bango stakes it's only a grade three
33:47but you've got cornucopian coming back for bob baffert against dr venkman who finished a really
33:54good third behind ben tornado and imagination in the breeders cup sprint and built the four-year-old
34:01cold who's really now sort of being reconstituted as a sprinter and he's had a couple of really fast
34:07sprint wins for wayne catalano so far this year so it looks on paper to me the bango as being
34:15a
34:15little bit better than your normal grade three so a lot to look forward to on the card saturday at
34:20churchill the fastest source of the week brought to you by the fast sires at one star farm and one
34:25of
34:25those of course is nashville whose first two-year-olds are tearing it up on the track nashville had his
34:32second and third winners this past weekend friday at aqueduct georgie's warrior won a maiden special
34:38weight by five and three quarters links and then sunday night at prairie meadows it was a philly
34:43potential sam who won as an even money favorite both were making their career debuts as a racehorse
34:50nashville won his debut by 11 and a half lengths went on to set a six furlong track record at
34:56keeneland
34:56and now stands at winstar for a fee of twelve thousand five hundred dollars now fastest horse
35:02of the week bit of a slow week in that regard no triple digit buyers the fastest horse of the
35:08week
35:08came from last to first in a mile and a 16th turf allowance race on friday at churchill downs with
35:14a
35:14buyer speed figure of 97 his name is lambeth he is a son of arrogate a five-year-old owned
35:21by carl moore
35:22of texas trained by joe sharp what's interesting about lambeth is that he began his career
35:28racing for judd mod he's bred by judd mod after five starts he had made eighty five thousand dollars
35:33they put him in the phasic tipton october digital sale moore bought him for one hundred and thirty
35:39five thousand dollars and now since then lambeth has made four hundred and forty two thousand dollars
35:44more the owner has done this before in 2008 he spent thirty five thousand dollars to claim a gelding
35:51who went on to win one point eight five million dollars that would be chamberlain bridge who won the
35:58breeders cup turf sprint later in his career
36:05the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country the stallion awards the owner bonuses
36:13also the restrictive races and the stakes races for pennsylvania breeds last year 321 pennsylvania
36:19breeders earned breeders awards 22 pennsylvania breeders earned over one hundred thousand dollars
36:26we have the best program in the country take advantage of the fantastic program that we have
36:33learn more at pabred.com the td and riders room also brought to you by the pennsylvania horse breeders
36:39association phba congratulations to elizabeth merriman the owner breeder and trainer of pennsylvania
36:47bred seven-year-old gelding witty the half brother to caravel who surpassed the one million dollar mark
36:53in earnings when he won saturday's one hundred thousand dollar ben's cat stakes at laurel witty is
36:59now two for two this year and suddenly is showing a bit more tactical speed the ben's cat was witty's
37:06ninth career stakes score to learn more about breeding and racing your own pennsylvania bread like
37:13witty you can visit www.pabred.com or call brian sanfortello at 610-444-1050
37:22in other huge domestic horse racing news we had talked previously about churchill downs incorporated's
37:29decision to acquire from first racing the intellectual property rights of the preakness stakes for a total
37:37of 85 million i believe we also mentioned at the time a few weeks ago that the state of maryland
37:43retained the option to instead spend 85 million to purchase those rice and usurp churchill downs
37:51incorporated's move and that is exactly what happened last week the state of maryland spent the 85 million
37:59and now maryland is in complete control of everything involving the preakness stakes from this point
38:05forward it's no surprise that the state of maryland wound up doing that probably as much out of uh you
38:11know state pride as anything else the real question was whether they were going to have the appetite
38:17to spend more money because look at what they're already spending they've got 400 million dollars in
38:23state bonds that have been earmarked right now for the demolition and the rebuilding of pimlico then
38:31they spent 48 and a half million dollars to acquire laurel from first racing uh in calling an audible to
38:39make laurel the future home of the training headquarters for maryland racing and then they're
38:44going to spend 120 million dollars to upgrade laurel the barns the facility the site and all that
38:51on top of the 48 million dollars that they spent to acquire the property from first racing and now
38:57you're 85 million dollars to acquire the intellectual property so they're well over a half a billion
39:02dollars they're over 500 million dollars right now in terms of what they're spending on thoroughbred
39:09racing and there's some there's some pushback i mean there was a headline in the washington
39:14excuse me in the baltimore sun a maryland gambling 500 million dollars as the horse racing
39:22industry shrinks and some of the politicians have not been all that happy about it either but it's
39:27happening zoe what i'm hoping is that okay it's in maryland it's going to stay in maryland obviously
39:33i don't think that was ever really a doubt uh maryland is going to be in charge but i'd like
39:38to see him
39:39and churchill's offered to reach out to churchill to you know take some of the expertise that churchill has
39:46in running the kentucky derby and sort of make it a collaborative effort if possible
39:53yeah and that would be a good thing but honestly i think the most important thing is to change the
39:58date
40:00and i don't know where that's gonna fit in all of it i don't know if they have that as
40:06their number
40:06one target because at the end of the day you need good racing and you have it two weeks we
40:11discussed that
40:12the undercard is crap the race is crap if you spread it out you're going to get those derby horses
40:19running on that segment and then they're going to go on to belmont state so we need a better racing
40:27product put forward rather than just the preakness in two weeks it's going to be an interest yeah yeah
40:34it's going to be an interesting tug of war because recently david o'rourke who runs naira was quoted as
40:41saying that they're going to sit down with baltimore with maryland and they're going to try to come up
40:46with a solution to the spacing uh he said he would be amenable to moving the preakness one week
40:53to making it three weeks instead of two he said anything more than that uh he thought that would be
41:00too much um i don't think churchill believes that i don't think maryland believes that so it's going to be
41:06interesting to see what happens i think it needs to be at least four and maybe five weeks if fox
41:11gets
41:12the preakness uh which is definitely a possibility it's up it's up for bidding right now as we speak
41:17you know keep in mind fox and the new york racing association are business partners fox has invested
41:25in naira bets heavily you know they are uh partners with naira on telecast and in horse racing really
41:33and so if naira thinks that three weeks is the sweet spot for the preakness to be moved from the
41:41kentucky derby then i think fox will be in lockstep with naira um if it's in bc i'm not sure
41:49what the
41:49situation would be but it's going to be maryland that calls the shots uh in terms of where the
41:54pregnant it's not going to be you know their tv is not going to really dictate anything that
42:01churchill maybe and pimlico and uh belmont don't want to do the tdm rice's room work of the week is
42:09brought to you by first tv the multiple stakes winner knightsbridge had his first work back since
42:15his second place effort in the june 6 mile at saratoga where he completed a nyquist exactor
42:22behind nicers here he is friday working four furlongs in 49 and three on the oklahoma training
42:28track for hall of famer belmont we'll look forward to seeing him later in the saratoga meet but randy
42:33he always looks good doesn't he yeah this gives me an opportunity to point out that i might have been
42:39a little harsh on knightsbridge he was beaten he was he was beaten soundly by naisos in the met mile
42:46but still finishing second in the met mile is a really good accomplishment and i look forward to
42:52seeing knightsbridge run later in the year oh you must have called for your godolphin swag and they said
42:57no randy moss i started i started thinking about it a little more i thought you know that'd be a
43:03little
43:04harsh on old knightsbridge there all right well randy moss acquiesces we'll be right back after this
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44:05west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpoint tv.com
44:13the td and writers room also brought to you by west point thoroughbreds which is always taking pride
44:17in introducing newcomers to horse ownership but lately many of the newest partners
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44:29access to different trainers and bloodstock and to enjoy west point's unprecedented level of client
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44:42kentucky derby west point's team helps coordinate everything from licensing and credentials to race day
44:48experiences and hospitality it's a hands-on approach that allows partners to focus less
44:54on dealing with the logistics and more on enjoying the sport meanwhile all 17 of west point's 2026
45:02two-year-old purchases are now fully syndicated and the attention can turn to what promises to be an
45:08exciting summer racing season to learn more visit westpoint tv.com and perhaps the most interesting
45:16race last week on our racing calendar was the ohio derby on saturday at thistledown which featured
45:23four horses who competed in this year's kentucky derby ocelli who finished third then there was chip
45:30honcho then there was robusta and then there was albus also the favorite in the race is a horse that
45:37was none of the above the four to five choice trained by bob baffert was desert gate trying to stretch
45:43his speed to a mile and an eighth which didn't really work out it looks like desert gate might be
45:47better
45:48at distances of one mile or perhaps even a little bit shorter but it was a heck of a race
45:52in the end
45:53uh i thought it was a outstanding performance by chip honcho who showed again in the ohio derby
46:01the same thing that he showed in the preakness for the very first time settling off the pace
46:08and then relaxing although he got a little bit rank on the first turn of the ohio derby before he
46:12settled down uh but then finishing with a nice kick and he actually ran past ocelli in the final eighth
46:20of a mile uh to win it with a buyer of 96 so good performance by chip honcho very good
46:27performance
46:27poor ocelli poor ocelli the world's most professional brilliant maiden that you could
46:33ever want to own i mean what a horse hasn't even broke his head honestly i think chip honcho is
46:39going
46:39to wind up to be a very useful horse for steve asperson and this is what he does steve's no
46:45dummy we all
46:45know that you know for him to skip the big dances and now point him to the smaller dances and
46:53he's going
46:54to get some confidence and he's going to wind up being a horse to be reckoned with towards the end
46:59of the year mark my words he'll be a good horse and steve is so good at you know pointing
47:05horses to big
47:05races and then running well and be like okay enough enough we're going to miss skip the big dance
47:10and we'll pick up these along the way and we'll we'll meet you at the final dance and we'll see
47:16who's
47:16best then so i i just feel incrementally he's going to be a better horse towards the end of the
47:23year
47:23and one more note about ocelli when when you have a maiden like this who's got you know x number
47:28of
47:29near misses i think the temptation for a lot of horse players is just to say this horse doesn't
47:34want to win he you know he doesn't he doesn't have the killer instinct you know he eases up when
47:41a horse
47:41gets next to him and no that's not the case with ocelli right he made the lead in the kentucky
47:46derby
47:46yeah and he was third he was beaten one length but golden tempo is a better horse than ocelli as
47:52we saw
47:52in the belmont stage so that's not ocelli's fault that he didn't now finish golden tempo and renegade
47:58by the way and then in this race he kicks nicely he makes the lead at the 316s pole and
48:04he just gets
48:04run down by a horse and chip on show that just ran a better race and and finished a little
48:09more
48:10strongly i think ocelli i don't think he's going to be a maiden for long if he keeps running the
48:14way
48:14he's running right now so another big so another big news story that just popped up uh we were as
48:20we
48:20taped this on tuesday a little bit earlier on tuesday morning is that finally after a couple
48:27of centuries zoe the uh the arctic triumph is going to do something that the epsom derby doesn't do and
48:34the irish derby doesn't do and that is going forward permit geldings to compete which i think is a
48:43is a fantastic choice when you look at all the top geldings like romantic warrior for example
48:49that are out there right now were you surprised it's been a long time coming and honestly i feel
48:57that it was goliath that really took the scales on this he was such a good horse and and back
49:04he's
49:05kind of maybe fallen by the wayside a little bit didn't have the best of trips to ask it sumion
49:10lost
49:10the stirrup and you know all kinds of stuff went on but there was such a big kerfuffle thank you
49:15very
49:16much john stewart to him not being allowed at that time to run in the ark i think it brought
49:22everybody's
49:22attention to the fact they don't allow geldings and you know there's a lot of people a lot of very
49:28smart people sound like trump right then um that that didn't know that geldings can't run in these
49:36classic races like i had a few friends of mine so what do you mean goliath there's gelding can't run
49:41in the classic it's not allowed it's it's just not so i think he brought it to the forefront because
49:48at that time he would have been one of the main contenders in the ark had he been allowed to
49:54run
49:55yeah and now you've only got romantic warrior out there you got rebels romance
50:00it would be you know he he easily would have been one of the favorites in the ark the last
50:04couple
50:05years if he had been allowed to run and what i didn't realize guys is that in this country um
50:11from 1918 until 1956 geldings couldn't run in the belmont stakes geldings couldn't run in the
50:21jockey club gold cup until 1957 and they made that change in 1957 and three years later kelso won the
50:31first of his five consecutive jockey club gold cups and now you look at it and we've had kelso
50:37forgo john henry funny side diversify evening attire crim fresh the only gelding to ever win the
50:46jockey club gold cup and the belmont stakes so look at what the jockey club gold cup for example would
50:52have been without geldings and by the way one one little uh addendum never never use ai to try to
51:03ask
51:03for information like this ai told me that skip away acceler and slew of gold were all geldings
51:10that won the jockey club gold cup and of course they were not geldings at all they may as well
51:16have been
51:16honestly they should all come as geldings life would be much better for the horse players
51:25put them on the ones you like
51:31well on behalf of everybody at the tv and writers room i would like to wish you a jolly good
51:35night
51:36many thanks to michelle you for joining us all the way from paris france i hope you had a very
51:41good
51:41time over there randy moss the brilliant co-host thanks for joining us i'll see you next week
51:46in the good old us of a
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