- 2 days ago
Trainer Todd Pletcher joined this week’s TDN Writers’ Room to celebrate a five-win day at Saratoga and look ahead to Whitney weekend. The team also took an in-depth look at the current situation with the Triple Crown after the news of the New York Racing Association and Churchill Downs announcing the creation of a new series for 3-year-olds and the changing of the date of the Preakness.
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00:00:17welcome to another edition of the tdn writers room my name is bill finley i'm a correspondent
00:00:22for the thoroughbred daily news also co-host down the stretch radio show on sirius xm
00:00:27with dave johnson i am randy moss with nbc sports which takes on a little bit more of a extra
00:00:36emphasis here as we talk about what we're about to talk about i feel like we're getting ready to
00:00:40to take two big steps right into a swamp it's getting steamy in here that is for darn sure
00:00:48i'm zoe cavern with first tv and first racing bill before we dive into all of that how the red
00:00:54socks doing i see you sporting your shirt they are kicking major butt zoe uh they won again last
00:01:01night they swept the dodgers uh this is the most remarkable story they were the worst team in
00:01:07baseball now they never lose it's just like they saved my summer i it's it's fantastic thank you
00:01:14for asking by the way um because it is a uh a a great uh a great uh thing in
00:01:21in in my life a little
00:01:23bit obsessed with this all right so geez we don't have much to talk about today do we guys what
00:01:29a week
00:01:30it's been in the news world and it started off with uh uh a press release coming out from naira
00:01:37and
00:01:37churchill downs that they are uh coming up with something called the thoroughbred championship
00:01:43series it encompasses six races starting with the kentucky derby then the belmont see if i can get
00:01:50this in order the matt winn jim dandy the travers and then a yet to be named championship race in
00:01:57september all for three-year-olds five million dollars in bonus money up for grabs what does this
00:02:04all mean for the triple crown well hold on for a second just a few minutes ago today on wednesday
00:02:10as we record this pimico announced that they are moving the preakness to 22 days after the kentucky
00:02:20derby they're going to run it on a sunday three weeks plus one day after the kentucky derby uh governor
00:02:27westmore gave a press conference a lot of dignitaries including bill moff the uh key man at pimico was
00:02:34there and they had said they're doing this because they believe it will help get horses that run in
00:02:41the kentucky derby to run in the preakness so where do we start i don't know this is an absolute
00:02:49i don't
00:02:51know what to call it but let's start with this um i don't think the preakness is going to benefit
00:02:58by moving the date of the race three weeks plus one day is still probably not enough for the most
00:03:07modern trainers they prefer at least four or five weeks pimico had to do something i suppose because
00:03:15they're not getting the kentucky derby winners or the kentucky derby horses anymore but i don't think
00:03:20this is going to move the needle much now also you have a situation that if horses run in the
00:03:28preakness
00:03:29after running in the kentucky derby they would be asked to come back in 13 days to run in the
00:03:36belmont
00:03:36can't see that happening either zoe like i said i hardly even know where to start there's so much to
00:03:43talk about this thing is somewhat of a mess and i think the bottom line is that the triple crown
00:03:50which we knew was in trouble before because horses weren't coming back to run in the preakness
00:03:58they haven't solved anything the triple crown is still in trouble yeah i read your piece in the tdn
00:04:04what was the headline the triple crown is dead at 107 yes i wrote an obituary for the triple crown
00:04:09yeah you did it it was you know a bit morbid but very well written thank you i don't know
00:04:15where to
00:04:16start um initially you know we're gonna hear from todd pletcher a little later on obviously we're
00:04:21shooting this part on wednesday so we got to listen to the press conference so i was at the same
00:04:27thought
00:04:28when it first came out wow this is great finally you've got two entities working together well it's
00:04:34kind of the two biggest forces in horse racing at the moment working together and that's naira
00:04:40and kentucky you know all all working together but then that kind of leaves the preakness in the lurch
00:04:47and then you've got the pennsylvania derby where does that fit in to the grand scheme of things i
00:04:52honestly don't know what to think moving the preakness a week may help a little bit but the triple
00:04:58crown is still going to be at peril because are people going to run in the derby
00:05:02in the preakness and then come back in 13 days and run in the belmont the test of a champion
00:05:08of 13 days rest i can't see it happening and the only way you're going to get a trainer or
00:05:15an owner
00:05:16to make a decision they have to decide which series is more important is the triple crown or is basically
00:05:23the kentucky derby in the preakness more important than this championship series with a five million dollar
00:05:29bonus i think you need two bonuses if you're going to run the two against each other you need five
00:05:33million for that championship bonus and then five million for derby preakness and whatever else
00:05:40they're going to add in i just don't know what to think of it i hope this isn't the last
00:05:46that we've
00:05:46heard from all these entities and maybe they can figure something out and i don't know move the belmont
00:05:53i don't know what the answer is i don't have a dog in the fight it just boggles me that
00:05:59you have two
00:06:00massive entities finally working together but why can't we all just work together
00:06:06yeah there is a lot to unpack here um as far as the series goes you know anything that creates
00:06:13positive buzz for horse racing great is a good thing yes um as long as it doesn't
00:06:22overshadow not overshadow as long as it doesn't severely impact the number one property in all
00:06:29of horse racing as everybody knows and that's the triple crown and unfortunately the positive buzz for
00:06:35the series has been overshadowed within the industry by the exclusion of the preakness from that series
00:06:43it that didn't happen by accident that wasn't a coincidence excluding the preakness was done
00:06:48with intent but why right now there's a very popular opinion within a lot of industry executives
00:06:58that churchill downs incorporated is upset at losing the intellectual property rights to maryland
00:07:05maryland exercised its option to match churchill downs 85 million dollar bid churchill had gone public
00:07:11with their plan to uh to cooperate with maryland to work with them on all sorts of of collaborations
00:07:19and help them with the racing dates and all that and maryland essentially told cdi thanks but no thanks
00:07:26and i can understand i can understand why maryland who is committing so much money to horse racing wants
00:07:34to own a hundred percent of of its horse racing inventory i think everybody can understand that
00:07:39i can also understand why churchill downs feels sort of like a jilted lover they were probably a little
00:07:44bit embarrassed by the whole thing yeah made the announcement go in front of their shareholders
00:07:49conference call and then all of a sudden whoops you know we don't have it after all um i don't
00:07:56know
00:07:56that that has anything to do with the exclusion of the preakness i'm not part of the churchill
00:08:00down's board of directors meetings i haven't heard anything about that i can't connect a and b directly
00:08:05but i know a lot of other people think that that may have something to do with it but the
00:08:08other side
00:08:09of it i happen to know a little bit about and that's the whole tv contract negotiation that's been going
00:08:17on now for six months uh for the new preakness tv deal nbc had it this was the last year
00:08:242026 of the
00:08:26nbc contract nbc made an aggressive bid to keep it fox made an aggressive bid to take it away from
00:08:33nbc
00:08:33we know fox and the new york racing association are in business together with with uh um naira bets
00:08:41their business partners they were both involved in the negotiations to uh for fox to win the um
00:08:49the the preakness contract okay now how many times and we i've i've said it on the podcast
00:08:56it it doesn't matter it shouldn't matter whether the preakness is televised by nbc by fox by amazon by
00:09:07netflix by cbs by abc um when it comes to the most important part and that is to revitalize the
00:09:16triple
00:09:16crown and to fix what's wrong with the triple crown and it looked encouraging it looked encouraging
00:09:23for a while i know for a fact that a few years ago david o'rourke the ceo of the
00:09:30new york racing
00:09:30association this is back when first racing controlled laurel and pimlico uh went to them or that they went
00:09:37to him and he said look i understand that we've got a problem you've got a problem i understand you
00:09:43want to move the preakness we are willing to sit down with you and discuss moving the belmont stakes
00:09:49just let us get through the whole belmont at saratoga situation let us you know get back into the new
00:09:56belmont park and then we'll sit down and we'll talk about it okay and when this contract negotiation
00:10:03for the tv rights first started o'rourke was went public again saying we would be willing to talk
00:10:12about moving the belmont stakes only one week is what we'd be willing to do i don't think right now
00:10:17we'd be willing to commit to moving it any more than one week uh but we would be willing to
00:10:22talk
00:10:22about that now behind the scenes the negotiations for the tv contract okay naira and fox were very
00:10:32confident that they would win the bid they offered maryland racing greater exposure on the weekly
00:10:39fox television broadcast which had been great for the sport fox's increased participation in the
00:10:46sport has been fantastic for the sport right but i also happen to know that they said okay we will
00:10:53move the belmont stakes by one week only if fox gets the rights to the preakness and i thought to
00:11:03myself okay are they really using the triple crown as a bargaining chip the most important part the
00:11:11most important property in all thoroughbred racing they're it but then you know okay it's business
00:11:16your business is business and there it's it's a leverage play okay well the table was pretty much set
00:11:23i think at least in the eyes of fox and in the eyes of naira they were very um confident
00:11:32that fox would
00:11:33get it the table was set silverware was all out preakness was going to be three weeks after the
00:11:39kentucky derby the belmont was going to be three weeks after the preakness and then lo and behold
00:11:43one week ago they were informed that nbc would retain the rights instead of giving them to fox
00:11:52all right so what happened the press conference was scheduled for the announcement by the governor
00:11:59westmore of maryland that nbc would get the rights and that the preakness would be three weeks after
00:12:04the kentucky derby which was the understood plan between maryland and the new york racing association
00:12:11at least that's what they thought um naira purposely rushed out the announcement of the new series which now
00:12:21excluded the preakness i don't know if the preakness was ever involved in that or not but
00:12:25they're not now at least for the time being they purposely rushed the announcement to come out on
00:12:31monday to beat by two days the announcement by westmore and by nbc sports that the preakness
00:12:38would be moved one week now why would they do that because they want to be able to say
00:12:45hey we kept the we kept the belmont date at june the 5th that's what it's always been
00:12:51now here comes the preakness moving it one week it's the preakness it's the pimlico people that
00:12:57are blowing up the triple crown it's not naira it's not us it's not fox i don't know if fox
00:13:02was the one
00:13:03that actually drove this bus or whether it was naira i have no idea which was which
00:13:08um but they wanted to be able to say publicly this is not our fault this is maryland's fault when
00:13:16in
00:13:16reality it is their fault they're being incredibly petty about this whole thing and that's the one
00:13:23word petty that's been used repeatedly by other industry executives in the aftermath of this whole
00:13:30thing hopefully as you say saner heads will will prevail i'm not as pessimistic as you are bill i think
00:13:38when we look 10 years from now when we look back on this uh whether the series is still around
00:13:44then
00:13:44or not i think it's just going to be a blip on the radar screen but this dysfunction i mean
00:13:51we knew
00:13:52horse racing was dysfunctional when it comes to all the people fighting with one another this this takes
00:13:58the cake randy you just used the the proper word blow up the triple crown and we've been talking on
00:14:06this podcast ever since we've been doing it the problems of the triple crown which have grown worse
00:14:12year after year after year three of the last six derby winners did not run in in the preakness
00:14:19the last two derby winners did not run in the preakness and that trend promised to continue
00:14:26if you don't have the derby winner running in the preakness you have a huge problem yep the problem was
00:14:34nobody wants to run back in two weeks so we had always talked about moving the spacing of the races
00:14:40you
00:14:40just touched on that a lot so now what has happened i think they've taken a difficult situation and made
00:14:50it worse because of the things that you've talked about i've talked about again if somebody wants to
00:14:58run in the preakness now because they would say okay three weeks is better than two or 22 days which
00:15:04i
00:15:04don't necessarily think is going to happen then they're not going to run back into belmont so now we
00:15:08have still a situation where the triple crown is in peril and look you know we all go back and
00:15:17remember the you know the greatness of the triple crown and secretariat affirmed of american pharaoh
00:15:22justify this was the best thing that horse racing had it was the most recognizable property among the
00:15:32american public it provided moments that we will go to our grave remembering i was a little kid in the
00:15:39stands watching secretariat win by 31 lengths in the belmont stakes this is now a mess i am extremely
00:15:48pessimistic and i'll throw it to zoe because it's her turn to talk about the future of the triple crown
00:15:54it will still exist there'll still be the three races they'll still call it the triple crown
00:15:59but it's not going to be the triple crown we know and love they're not going to have triple crown
00:16:04winners they're not going to have horses run in all three races this is you used another great word
00:16:11dysfunctional this shows the dysfunction of the industry and they've taken a bad situation and made it worse
00:16:23do we think there's any excuse the washing machine i think it's about to jump off the wall if you
00:16:28hear
00:16:29anything over there do you think there's any chance that these dates aren't set in stone specifically the
00:16:34belmont for the immediate future i think they are set in stone you know and and and getting back to
00:16:43what
00:16:44randy said and you were very tough on the new york racing association but the solution to this was
00:16:53always to move the belmont to give it the preakness a chance for more spacing it's very interesting what
00:17:01you said about the agreement that had come that that was on the table and i don't even know if
00:17:07that
00:17:07was enough i was always an advocate of the first saturday in may the first saturday in june the first
00:17:12saturday in july i thought that would work i have been told that the new york racing association
00:17:17didn't want to run the race in july because they thought it would interfere with the you know very
00:17:24cohesive schedule they have coming up after that with the jim dandy and the drivers so you know again
00:17:31i'm i'm not privy to inside information i haven't sat in the boardrooms but the new york racing
00:17:36associations on willingness to move the belmont is why we are where we're at today and you know look
00:17:46i was being a little bit flippant when i wrote an obituary for the triple crown but maybe not so
00:17:52flippant i just don't see how we move forward under this schedule and have a cohesive triple crown
00:18:00that works yeah look i agree with you that three weeks is not at all ideal right and i promise
00:18:11you
00:18:11the maryland people aren't dumb they also know that four weeks would be better than three weeks
00:18:18but the fact is naira specifically came out and maybe fox as well and said we will only move one
00:18:26week
00:18:27so what does the preakness do at that point right it three weeks is at least better than two at
00:18:33least
00:18:33from a medication withdrawal standpoint whatever uh uh there you know there are it it's not worse
00:18:40they just keep the status quo which is not working so it was really just an olive branch
00:18:46from maryland to naira okay we would rather have four weeks you say you will only move the belmont one
00:18:52week okay we'll do three weeks and then we'll have three weeks to the belmont if that's if if that's
00:18:59you know if if you're willing to move the belmont one week then you know we'll plan on moving the
00:19:04preakness three weeks after the kentucky derby and that was always the plan assuming as it turns out
00:19:11assuming that fox got the tv contract why it would matter that much would who gets the would the
00:19:20recipient of the tv contract should it take precedence over the triple crown over the health
00:19:27of the triple crown hell no but that's exactly what naira has done here all right i'm the eternal
00:19:36optimist and i think the cooler heads are going to prevail i hope you're right so this is me being
00:19:45optimistic and hopefully we're talking about this next week in in a better light because i just can't
00:19:51see how the derby and then three weeks to the preakness and then 13 days to the belmont that
00:19:59just it just doesn't work so i have a feeling hopefully that everybody can get together and have
00:20:06a little powwow maybe open the crack open a case of beer and sit around a big round table
00:20:14and come up with a better solution let's just hope let me say one more thing and let me try
00:20:18to
00:20:18be a little more fair here because when i say naira i should really just say naira fox i should
00:20:24say fox
00:20:25naira because i don't know who is who in this situation which is which right maybe i i have all
00:20:34the
00:20:34respect in the world for david o'rourke i i think he's a really smart guy i like him i
00:20:39think he's a nice
00:20:40guy um he was saying all the right things um if he's the one that did this i think he's
00:20:47gotten some
00:20:48bad counsel but it could be fox it could be fox completely driving this bus and saying no we
00:20:55didn't get that we didn't get the uh the preakness contract you know we're not going to go along with
00:20:59moving the belmont instead of naira it could have been fox i don't know but the combination of the
00:21:06two either or or both in some way has has led us uh to where we are right now and
00:21:14hopefully it won't
00:21:15be permanent zoe i think you're nuts i don't see any reason for optimism in this whatsoever because i
00:21:23think naira and churchill downs have moved on from the triple crown and sadly uh they believe that
00:21:30there's a new era in horse racing triple crown is wasn't working and that this is a solution to it
00:21:38we don't agree that it's a solution to it but they they believe that they've come up with a better
00:21:44mousetrap the only other thing i'll say and i i i have so much respect for the people running
00:21:52maryland racing and they have they are trying so hard to revitalize maryland racing refurbishing
00:22:00pimico buying laurel buying the intellectual property rights to the preakness which in hindsight
00:22:07was probably a mistake so i probably am no position to second guess him but tell me if i'm crazy
00:22:15this is
00:22:15what i would have done i would have moved the race to july 4th weekend and made it the third
00:22:21leg of the triple crown and then you would have had spacing and then you know it it it would
00:22:28have
00:22:28been weird i guess but at least then you'd have uh time in between races but then again the matt
00:22:36wind stakes which is not exactly a prominent race but i guarantee you churchill's and naira's going to
00:22:42raise the purses of these races i think they'll all be a minimum of a million dollars they would
00:22:47have been going up against the matt wind stakes but the matt wind stakes is not the belmont at least
00:22:51they would have had a chance so am i crazy honestly when i first heard you know the rumblings of
00:22:57moving
00:22:57the day to the preakness that's what i thought was going to be the announcement today and then when i
00:23:02had oh we're moving in a week i'm like oh god is that it i was just like this is
00:23:07it we've been waiting
00:23:08for two hours for this press conference and this is it so i actually did think that maybe they were
00:23:15going to move it after the belmont that was my initial reaction which would have been great yeah
00:23:21but i i gotta disagree with you about one thing bill um i i don't think this new series is
00:23:28going to
00:23:29take the place of the triple crown okay i hope you're right randy i mean we've been 100 plus years
00:23:34or 100 years of tradition in the triple crown and in the industry it is still the gorilla in the
00:23:42room
00:23:42and it's sick it's in intensive care it it needs help it needs a real a couple of really good
00:23:50doctors
00:23:51right now uh but i mean look almost almost everyone you talk to that fell in love with
00:23:59horse racing did it in some way through the triple crown whether it's secretariat whether it's affirmed
00:24:07and alidar whether it's american pharaoh you name it i mean so many people uh have that as their
00:24:15entree into the sport of thoroughbred racing and i i think the triple crown will be okay ultimately
00:24:22in the long run i think 10 years from now we'll look back on this and we'll say okay just
00:24:26a blip in
00:24:27the radar so let me ask you this you're brad cox bob baffert todd pletcher whomever fill in the blanks
00:24:34mark cassie you you say you know what three weeks is a good idea i can run my horse back
00:24:41in three
00:24:41weeks after winning the kentucky derby i don't think many people i'm going to repeat what i said
00:24:48before i don't think people are going to do it i think people will still go from the derby to
00:24:54the
00:24:54belmont take the preakness off and give the horse the five weeks but let's just suppose this works and
00:25:00they say you know the extra eight days makes a difference can you see a trainer running a horse
00:25:08back in 13 days oh hell no a mile and a half race no it's not gonna happen okay of
00:25:15course it's not
00:25:15gonna happen there's no way it's gonna happen no right no look maryland and nbc really kind of for
00:25:22that matter we're surprised at the announcement on monday with the new series okay this that came out of
00:25:28the blue completely out of the blue it could be a really good thing more eyeballs to the sport
00:25:33whatever i mean that's you know there's pluses to that as well um but if i were maryland if i
00:25:40was
00:25:40running maryland and it the the the three weeks had kind of already been decided at that point by
00:25:47maryland hell i would move it to four weeks if you're not going to get any horses to run from
00:25:53the
00:25:53preakness into the belmont anyway and if horsemen prefer four weeks to three weeks
00:26:00and you can clear the tv time with nbc why not with between now and 2027 run the preakness four
00:26:08weeks after the kentucky derby instead of three and and be you know be in a better spot be in
00:26:16the
00:26:16sweet spot more in the sweet spot of what the horsemen actually want and then say to the belmont okay
00:26:22if naira fox if you want to keep your race on june the 5th we're just going to move four
00:26:27weeks
00:26:29i think you make a good point randy uh that that might have been a better strategy but uh whatever
00:26:36whatever whatever never a dull moment in this sport and uh it's uh and again zoe i hope i hope
00:26:44you're
00:26:44right i i i i i hope that and randy you too i hope we look back 10 years from
00:26:50now and say
00:26:51that was a couple bad years for the triple crown but they they all sat down like zoe said in
00:26:56a room
00:26:57opened up a case of heineken and uh and and and settled their differences um that's what i'm rooting
00:27:03for but uh going forward at least in 2027 we have a real mess on our hands we i think
00:27:12we can all agree
00:27:13on that he wants to remind you that each and every week the tdn writers room is brought to you
00:27:18by
00:27:18keeneland big massive congratulations to the connections of unomia winner of the grade one
00:27:24clement l hirsch stakes this past weekend at dalmar you know mayor is a 2023 keeneland september
00:27:31graduate who costs just eighty thousand dollars the september sale is fast approaching with book one
00:27:38opening on september the 14th book one grads from recent years include current superstars and
00:27:44magnitude always a runner napoleon solo and englishman sellers saw results buyers found success
00:27:52learn more at www.keeneland.com we do this so your granddaughter can work on a farm someday
00:28:02so the stands will still be packed in 50 years that's why we come to work every day obsessed over
00:28:10every single detail
00:28:14because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
00:28:21deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters
00:28:27our fastest horse of the week as always brought to you by the fast sires at winstar farm and one
00:28:33of
00:28:33those fast sires constitution had a new graded six winner over the weekend and that is supercharger
00:28:40the three-year-old colt who won the half million dollar grade two secretary at stakes now at colonial
00:28:46downs supercharger became constitution's 44th graded winner in 2026 constitution is a top 10 general sire
00:28:55and a top five sire of three-year-olds like supercharger you can look for seven of constitution's yearlings
00:29:02and next week's basic tipton yearling sale fastest source of the week plural fastest horses of the week
00:29:10because we had a tie both horses with 103 buyer speed figures first of all on friday at saratoga
00:29:17in the amsterdam stakes spin thrift farms local knowledge trained by todd pletcher won at a
00:29:24dramatic finish over solitude dude he's a son of yaupon and then on saturday at colonial downs
00:29:31verifier took the ray count stakes at seven furlongs both of those races on dirt verifier co-owned
00:29:38by resolute racing so both of those joint fastest horses of the week with 103 buyers
00:29:49what was a busy and exciting weekend of racing topped by the arlington million and the jim dandy
00:29:55arlington million boy burnham square he's something else he got it done again didn't exactly blow them
00:30:01away but he got his first grade one win on the grass and now has the rare feat of being
00:30:07a grade one winner
00:30:08on both dirt and grass of course he won the bluegrass last year there was some speculation randy that may
00:30:15be a mile and a quarter wouldn't be a great fit for him after he had been running in longer
00:30:19races but
00:30:20it didn't prove to be a problem again did he take our blow us away or take our breath away
00:30:25no but you
00:30:26have to have a lot of respect for this horse he just keeps on keeping on oh you totally have
00:30:31to have
00:30:32respect for him i mean at four to five odds at a shorter distance and he'd been running i thought
00:30:37he was a bet against i still think that was sound logic i don't think he's as good at a
00:30:44mile and a
00:30:44quarter even with the arlington million win as he is longer distances but his overall level his talent
00:30:52level and his gameness that determination uh showed its uh showed its face again in the arlington million
00:30:59where he wins by a half length in a in a blanket finish i mean the fourth place horse in
00:31:04there was
00:31:04beaten half length a nose and a neck but burnham square just gutted it out what a dude he is
00:31:11and
00:31:12to quote trainer ian wilkes he is my john henry he's a gelding i mean he's going to be around
00:31:17an awful
00:31:18long time he is seven for 15 lifetime he's made more than 2.8 million dollars a son of liam's
00:31:24map out
00:31:24of a scat daddy mare it's going to be really cool to be able to cheer him on and i
00:31:30mean he could win
00:31:31the arlington million next year and the year after and the year after that so really good story for
00:31:37him terrific job by trainer ian wilkes for keeping him going it's not often you see these horses that
00:31:42run in the derby and then resurface and are as good if not better than they were as a three
00:31:48-year-old so
00:31:49kudos to him there's some really cute pictures and videos of him and his goat messy named for the
00:31:55footballer on social media who went with him to virginia so take a look at those but yeah great
00:32:02job for ian and his team and a homebred to boot as well so a very cool story trying to
00:32:09think of the
00:32:09last horse that won a grade one on both turf and dirt i came up with catholic boy who won
00:32:15the
00:32:15travers in the belmont derby in 2018 can anybody think of anybody else uh randy that's usually a
00:32:21rabbit hole question for you my head you know recent history i don't know i mean you can go
00:32:26back a long way obviously and pick out a lot of horses like john henry uh but yeah i haven't
00:32:31thought
00:32:31about it recently big brown i don't think he won a grade one on the turf i don't believe he
00:32:39did but
00:32:39that that's something worth looking up the other cool thing about this one you should have had randy
00:32:45guess you see you spoiled it we could have tested randy oh come on bill i'm sorry also think another
00:32:54cool thing about this horse um and i've talked to ian about this um being a gelding and with ian
00:33:01being
00:33:01uh australian i think he's going to show up in the melbourne cup someday and ian said yeah uh not
00:33:06this
00:33:06year um but maybe somewhere down the line that that's something that that he would uh uh certainly
00:33:13entertain okay we're going to hear from todd pletcher coming up he's the gainsway guest of
00:33:18the week we'll hear his thoughts on a renegade uh winning the gym dandy but when he was 11 and
00:33:25a
00:33:25half lengths behind down the back stretch i didn't give him much of a chance but he ran that same
00:33:32race
00:33:32that he ran in the arkansas derby he gets to the outside and he gets going and he just powered
00:33:39past those horses a one-two finish for sire into mischief with commandment running second but
00:33:45after he was defeated in the derby and the belmont ran well in both races he's back and will certainly
00:33:53be a major contender coming up in the traverse where he will face the divisional leader golden
00:34:00tempo zoe he ran a banger race i mean he was so far back so far back i i just
00:34:08written him off
00:34:09at the five eights pole um and i think i read ortiz finally realized that the last time he rode
00:34:16him
00:34:16he needed to wait just a little bit longer and he had the confidence to do so and that was
00:34:21the
00:34:21winning move commandment ran a winning race in fairness with the blinkers on for him i actually
00:34:26went to see commandment the day of the race i popped into brad cox's barn i'm like hey yeah i
00:34:32wanted to go see his good two-year-old the life is good two-year-old but he's already shipped
00:34:36back to
00:34:36churchill i'm like his commandment here i love to see him and i popped my head in the stall when
00:34:41i
00:34:41saw him derby week he looked like kind of a fat clodhopper and when i saw him the morning of
00:34:48the
00:34:48race he looked like a racehorse i'm like man he's tucked up and he's like yeah he's really turned the
00:34:54corner since they put the blinkers on him he ran a winning race he just got run down by renegade
00:34:58in
00:34:58the middle of the racetrack i'm not sure ortiz could have been any further out but it worked
00:35:04and he won fair and square going away yeah i mean he was 11 and a half lengths back at
00:35:11one point uh
00:35:13after a half mile and we all expected the pace to be slow and it was slow by grade one
00:35:19top level
00:35:20three-year-old standards chiponcho made a relatively comfortable lead wasn't quite as easy a lead as we
00:35:27thought it would be um silent tactic wasn't on my bingo card as the horse that was most likely to
00:35:33be
00:35:33pressing the pace early but let's face it chiponcho had absolutely no excuses i mean he had a clear
00:35:39lead the pace was not particularly fast he was just a no-show he was beating 14 lengths and this
00:35:44really
00:35:45sets up the travers as just one heck of a race if golden tempo makes it as expected uh you
00:35:52know with
00:35:53renegade and commandment both in there uh chad brown's curland stakes winner look really good as well
00:36:00uh and then whoever else might wind up in there the traverse is going to be one heck of a
00:36:04midsummer
00:36:05derby yeah it certainly is and don't uh don't count out baby vino uh the house winner uh lindsey
00:36:13schultz confirmed this week that that he will go in the traverse as well so randy you're spot on it's
00:36:19the traverse is always a great race but this is going to be uh another one and and we'll find
00:36:24out
00:36:24of golden tempo if he wins i think maybe he's cinched the eclipse award for three-year-old but
00:36:29we'll uh let's not get too far ahead of ourselves because that's going to be a uh a tough assignment
00:36:34for him uh out at delmar on the clement hirsch you know me after saffy joseph he must have won
00:36:40stakes
00:36:40races at 32 different tracks this year i mean it's unbelievable but he got the job done with micah
00:36:47husbands aboard i think the bigger story was seismic beauty the three to two favorite for bob
00:36:52baffert happy 27 and a half length she won this race last year getting 110 buyer and uh zoe this
00:37:02happens sometimes i believe she's five and sometimes these older mayors they just don't want to do it
00:37:07anymore and that looks like the case with her um i'm not one to tell bob baffert as owners what
00:37:12to do
00:37:13but i would think it'd be time to retire her yeah i mean face it on her past performances she
00:37:18should
00:37:18have been able to beat that field and she she didn't she was just put her hands up and said
00:37:25that's it i'm done full credit to the winner micah husbands his first time writing at delmar and uh
00:37:32she hung on on joy was coming closing late but you know me the daughter of tis the law she
00:37:38won like a
00:37:39good thing picked up a first grade one for saffy yeah i mean on sa on seismic beauty's past past
00:37:47performances uh she looked like she would have to be tough to beat but honestly i mean we talked
00:37:51about it last week i i'm very surprised she was a three to two favorite i mean two races back
00:37:57she was
00:37:57beating 39 lengths in the breeders cup disc staff she came back in the santa margarita she was two to
00:38:03five she was beating 10 lengths in the santa margarita you know i don't know how anybody could
00:38:08have backed her with any confidence at three to two in the clement hirsch with simply joking once
00:38:14again to her inside that was going to be a pace rival and that's exactly the way it played out
00:38:19the
00:38:19two of them once again uh went out for the lead together simply joking held on pretty nicely to
00:38:25finish third and seismic beauty just went into reverse um around the second turn i agree with you
00:38:31bill i wouldn't be surprised at all uh to see boyd racing and bob baffert pull the plug on seismic
00:38:37beauty at this point and she's going to make a heck of a broodmare i mean she's by uncle mo
00:38:41out of a medaglia dororo mare and she's a great one winner uh other news of the week nysos was
00:38:48retired it's a shame it looked like he was going to be a a real factor in the pacific classic
00:38:53and
00:38:53perhaps in the breeders cup classic as well but uh talk about horses that look like they'll make
00:38:59very nice tires he certainly looks like one of them the td and writers room also brought to you by
00:39:06the phba the pennsylvania horse breeders association shane's wonder pennsylvania
00:39:12bred a three-year-old son of the pennsylvania sire eastwood ran his record to four for five last
00:39:19week by beating older horses easily in an allowance race at delaware park shane wonder's only loss was
00:39:25a second place finish to obliteration the steve aspison trained top sprinter and that was on
00:39:31preakness day in the chick lang steaks shane's wonder owned and bred by uptown charlie brown
00:39:37stud for more questions about the pennsylvania bred program or breeding increase to eastwood or any
00:39:43pennsylvania sire receiving at 40 percent in breeders awards you can contact brian sanfratello
00:39:48of the phba at 610-444-1050 the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country
00:39:58the stallion awards the owner bonuses also the restrictive races and the stakes races for
00:40:05pennsylvania breeds last year 321 pennsylvania breeders earned breeders awards 22 pennsylvania
00:40:12breeders earned over one hundred thousand dollars we have the best program in the country take
00:40:19advantage of the fantastic program that we have learn more at pabread.com welcome and now the gains
00:40:26way guest of the week it's the hottest trainer in the sport todd pletcher coming off a win in the
00:40:31gym
00:40:31dandy with renegade todd before we get to your exploits on saturday at saratoga where you won five
00:40:37races big news in racing this week was a new series announced by churchill downs and naira for three-year
00:40:45-olds
00:40:45as someone who has always has a lot of quality three-year-olds in your barn what do you think
00:40:50of it are you a fan of
00:40:51a new idea it's a great question i'm going to be interested to see what you guys think but you
00:40:57know
00:40:57my initial reaction was this is great we're doing something different we're we're you know mixing
00:41:02things up we're hopefully going to create a series where we can catch sort of play off the energy and
00:41:10the following we're getting from the derby and it'll last longer and then sort of later on is like wait
00:41:15a
00:41:16second i think we just blew up the triple crown and that you know is something that racing has really
00:41:23been holding on to for a long long time so i guess the one thing that i'll be interested to
00:41:29see is it
00:41:30it seemed like sort of in the press release um that there's a lot of open ends still and a
00:41:38lot of maybe
00:41:39things to fill in and and maybe you know we're we're seeing sort of the general concept without
00:41:44all the details just yet all right so todd renegade bounced back in a big way in the jim dandy
00:41:52stakes uh after what what was i guess sort of a disappointing performance in the belmont um you
00:41:58were on record as saying that you thought the extra time leading into the jim dandy was a key factor
00:42:03in that um you had to be very pleased with the way he ran yeah we were super happy with
00:42:09the way he ran
00:42:10and you know i look i'm people kind of i think are a little over critical of the belmont you
00:42:16know he
00:42:16did run third it's not like he was you know beaten an eighth of a mile or anything but uh
00:42:23we felt like he was back to him his arkansas derby form kentucky derby form coming into the jim dandy
00:42:31his energy level was was good his appetite was really good he'd put on some weight since the belmont
00:42:37so we felt like you know he was back to his very best and in retrospect i think we're
00:42:42week or two short of being back to our best for the belmont and i also think i read sort
00:42:49of
00:42:50felt adamant that he took away a little bit of his closing kick by trying to be a tick closer
00:42:55in the
00:42:55belmont and i think that's a big part of why he let him run the way he did the other
00:43:00day which
00:43:01early on i felt like was letting him drop too far back but uh you know it did did it
00:43:07did show that
00:43:08you know by waiting on him he he's got that more explosive kick late yeah he must have been giving
00:43:13you a heart attack at the half mile pole because he was already maybe just starting to move on him
00:43:19a
00:43:19little bit but he was so far back yeah down the backside i mean at the seven eights pole three
00:43:25quarter
00:43:25pole i just said nah this is this is too much you know to this is too much ground to
00:43:30make up but
00:43:31you know when he when he got rolling he he was really really flying well that being said todd you
00:43:37had a pretty darn good day on saturday for a guy who can't win a race on the dirt
00:43:42couldn't win a race on it anywhere for a while there
00:43:47so you're up to five thousand nine hundred and ninety eight we're just i'm just gonna act like
00:43:53you've hit the six thousand mark what what will that mean to you when it actually does happen and
00:43:58were you expecting to have such a big day with your runners on saturday
00:44:03we felt like we were live in several spots i don't think you ever anticipate you know that you're
00:44:09going to win five on a card anywhere much less at saratoga so you know it's just
00:44:14one of those days everything seemed to be kind of falling in place and for the previous two months
00:44:19it didn't seem like much was falling into place at all so um you know it was it was it
00:44:24was a lot of
00:44:25fun good to see but yeah just you know when you when you approach these milestones i think uh
00:44:32you don't get many opportunities to reflect in this business and think about you know the whole thing
00:44:37so it seems like these these moments kind of allow you to do that for a brief moment and
00:44:42you know when it when it gets to numbers like that it kind of makes you think about
00:44:46you know each individual horse and how each each one and each win really really does count
00:44:52how special will it be to you that this milestone will take place at saratoga
00:44:58well like two months ago i i looked at it and i said wow we got a you know we
00:45:02got a chance that
00:45:03this could happen at saratoga and then we went into a slump and i was like no i meant in
00:45:082026 not
00:45:102027 um but uh now it it is kind of cool that that you know it looks like it could
00:45:17happen at
00:45:18saratoga todd after the preakness you had said that you thought the five weeks um excuse me after
00:45:24the the well around that time of coming up to the belmont you had thought that the five weeks
00:45:30was not enough time for you to get renegade really where you wanted him to now you've got four weeks
00:45:36for the travers if five wasn't enough why would four be enough what's different this time
00:45:42i think i'm just looking at a totally different horse um right after the right after the gym dandy
00:45:48i mean as we know the the derby there there's something about the derby that's just more taxing
00:45:54than than a lot of races and and we saw with fierceness a few years ago like we got back
00:45:59to saratoga and
00:46:00i was like we had no shot of making the belmont with renegade i felt like you know the first
00:46:06couple of weeks we weren't we weren't there but as we got closer i thought we had like a really
00:46:11good
00:46:11week leading into it but in retrospect i don't think we were quite there yet the way he's bounced
00:46:17out of the gym dandy so far i i'm seeing you know a different horse he's carrying his weight much
00:46:22better his appetite's really really good out of the race his energy level's good he'll go back to
00:46:27the track tomorrow um yeah right now i'm just you know physically seeing a different horse than i
00:46:33saw after the after the derby so if he continues to give you those same vibes right up to travers
00:46:39day
00:46:40how confident will you be about round three versus golden tempo i tell you what i mean i got a
00:46:47lot of
00:46:47respect for that horse and and uh you know i was i was in the camp of a lot of
00:46:53people i think after
00:46:54the derby saying okay you know he got he got the best trip he ran the best race hats off
00:46:58to him but
00:46:59you know i think he he backed that up in the belmont and showed everyone that that was you know
00:47:04that his
00:47:04derby was a legitimate performance and uh you know so we look forward to try him again but also respect
00:47:11him a lot too you have a busy day this this saturday as well you've got antiquarian in the whitney
00:47:17but man
00:47:18oh man what a race that is shaping up to be yeah i mean i would say probably the strongest
00:47:23fields
00:47:24we've seen since the classic probably super deep race and uh very very interesting one
00:47:31what's his best shot of running a game performance oh i think he's gonna i think he's gonna run well
00:47:38you know last time he he spread eagled at the start and you know it's basically over at the beginning
00:47:43for him but he's run some good races here at saratoga and i think he's he's really coming
00:47:47into the race in in good form so i i give him a little bit of a puncher's chance todd
00:47:54one of your
00:47:54winners on saturday was a two-year-old filly by the name of life changing who absolutely ran off the
00:48:00screen one by seven mike ripoli by the way we haven't mentioned you won five races that day four
00:48:05for mike um first of all was that enough to make mike happy to win four races for a little
00:48:11bit okay
00:48:12all right i'm glad he was happy for a little bit but tell us more about this philly who cost
00:48:171.025 million at phasic dipton saratoga what is her future when you go from here to the spin away
00:48:24yeah i mean to philly that's trained really really well leading into her debut had a sharp gate work i
00:48:30mean kind of gave us you know all the indication that she was the type that would go over and
00:48:35run well
00:48:35first time out um so we were we were looking forward to getting her started i thought when
00:48:42she broke well and made the lead that it was you know going to be pretty pretty straightforward
00:48:46from there and um what i really liked is just the way that she handled herself in the paddock and
00:48:52she was just all class about you know everything she did um so yeah we would we would certainly hope
00:48:59that you know that we'd be ready for the spin away in her second start and todd you um trained
00:49:04for the second half of the of his career life is good the sire of this philly uh he's the
00:49:11hottest
00:49:11thing on the planet um i mean he's he's doing things that a first crop sire we haven't seen doing
00:49:18a long time uh having trained life is good and knowing how talented he was you can't be surprised
00:49:24by what a good sire he's turned out to be i mean i said when he went to stud that
00:49:30if he
00:49:32can't make it as a stallion then you just are totally guessing on who can because i mean he had
00:49:37all the ingredients he had the you know terrific mind he had speed he had stamina he had confirmation
00:49:45he had pedigree you know just i mean he was an extremely talented horse and uh yeah so i you
00:49:53know
00:49:53i'm happy to see it but i'm not surprised i mean i think she was what his fourth td and
00:49:57rising star
00:49:58already which you know that's that's pretty awesome so he's off to a great start so some of
00:50:03these racing publications like maybe the saratoga special some online websites have what they call
00:50:09barn tours stable tours with trainers right so other than life changing can you give us just a little
00:50:15barn tour right now of who you think some of your best two-year-olds are how about the two
00:50:20we can probably how about live i want to know live who's in on saturday who's a two-year-old
00:50:27cult
00:50:28by life is good and then red poppy the philly you bought out of obs yeah no they uh red
00:50:36poppy's been
00:50:36training really well i think you know if she can get off to a clean start she's uh she's certainly
00:50:41displayed some talent and i i like the way live's been training also he's not been quite as sharp from
00:50:48the gate those these two phillies uh life-changing and red poppy so i'm hoping he can get away from
00:50:53there cleanly but uh both of them have trained really well coming into this are there any ted
00:50:58noffies that might be lurking in the background that nobody uh that nobody knows anything about
00:51:03right now he's back yeah ted is back um i don't know yet i guess would be the honest answer
00:51:11we got we
00:51:12have we have some more two-year-olds that have been you know just getting to that point where they're
00:51:15getting ready to run but um yeah it's it's uh actually one of them is is ted noffy's little
00:51:22sister uh half sister by munnings that's that doesn't have a name yet because mike doesn't name
00:51:27them until they're going to the gate but uh yeah she's been training okay too if you had to have
00:51:33a favorite horse in your barn right now it doesn't matter if they're the best or the worst do you
00:51:39have
00:51:39a favorite that you're like oh good boy good girl one of your pets no no i try i try
00:51:46not to play
00:51:47favorites i think everyone knows malethat was one of my favorites um so one of one of the other two
00:51:53-year-old
00:51:53fillies that we have going pretty well right now is is her first foal by into mischief and uh so
00:51:59she's a she's a work or two away from being ready and she's she's been training pretty well so we're
00:52:04excited about that and todd give us an update on ted noffy uh i've talked to uh i'll just have
00:52:10to be
00:52:11careful ned toffee a while back he said he thought the horse would have his first work at saratoga but
00:52:17uh probably wouldn't be ready to race at saratoga is that still sort of the um thinking what's he up
00:52:24to and when will we see i don't believe he's had his first work yet um so he correct me
00:52:28if i'm wrong
00:52:28but what uh what's going on with him and when will we see him uh get into action again yeah
00:52:35so he just
00:52:36arrived a few days ago had his third gallop today and he had two breezes at ian brennan's stone street
00:52:44nocala before he came up here so he's breezed two three eights and and watching those on tape i mean
00:52:50they were they were nice works with with you know pretty decent gallop out so i think uh i think
00:52:55he'll
00:52:55come to hand pretty quickly but you know we're still probably looking at six to eight weeks before
00:53:00he'd be ready to run and obviously he doesn't have many conditions left so trying to trying to find the
00:53:06the right spot to come back and we'll we'll see as we get closer but it it won't be at
00:53:11saratoga
00:53:13it's monday todd no it's tuesday you're at the barn what are you doing what have you done today on
00:53:18your day
00:53:18off uh a lot of condition book work you know the last condition book for saratoga just came out so
00:53:25that that's been a big focus and then could have the rapoli conference call which thankfully mike's
00:53:32not on you get to do that with his team so it only lasts about 40 minutes that way um
00:53:37then yeah some
00:53:39other calls with saint elias and you know just catching up on busy work and but mainly condition book
00:53:45stuff todd when you hit 6 000 how will you celebrate uh good question uh no idea when it's
00:53:54going to be so probably just uh depending on if any of the kids can be here i think you
00:53:59have a chance
00:54:00a couple of kids are going to be here this week and so probably just go out to dinner and
00:54:04something
00:54:05simple like that so many professions out there todd it's such a big deal for people to get that two
00:54:11week three week paid vacation and people go and take cruises for a couple of weeks just to get
00:54:17away from it all when's the last time you took a two-week vacation two whole weeks uh haven't done
00:54:25that but uh yeah i i i do feel like over the years i've gotten a little bit better with
00:54:31you know trying
00:54:32to trying to take a week anyways and and uh so a couple years ago when my daughter was on
00:54:40uh
00:54:41studying abroad we we took a took a week and went over to austria and and uh so that that
00:54:48was fun
00:54:48toured that a little bit and uh but yeah i i think over the years you know we found that
00:54:54if i can sneak
00:54:55away for five to seven days with the family that that's kind of good and and you don't get so
00:55:00far
00:55:00behind but um it's it's hard when you got so much going on back at the barn that you you
00:55:06know things
00:55:07change so quickly that uh you feel like uh you're gonna miss something if you're not around and i'm
00:55:12guessing you're still on the phone a couple times a day right even when you're on vacation
00:55:17yeah usually usually you mean the keeneland sale for a week at keeneland's that's not a vacation todd
00:55:25some people think it is but it's probably the i i think keeneland september sale and then
00:55:31the saratoga sale this is always like this week will be people think travers week is busy it's
00:55:38nothing like sale week at saratoga because literally really everyone's here for that it's crazy well todd
00:55:45thanks so much for taking some time out for your busy schedule i'm glad to know that you've
00:55:49occasionally get some time off and go on vacation congratulations on renegade winning the gym dandy
00:55:55and a fabulous saturday afternoon saratoga you tied the record for most wins by a trainer in one day
00:56:01thank you for being the gainsway guest of the week and we'll see renegade next in the traverse we're
00:56:06all looking forward to that thanks again for joining us thank you cheers todd todd pletcher this week's
00:56:13guest of the week appeared courtesy of gainsway the home to cara conte sire of grade two winner roha
00:56:21roha maintained her perfect 2026 record on saturday by winning the andy guest stakes at colonial
00:56:27it was roha's first start since her win in the intercontinental stakes grade two the victory was
00:56:33roha's third and three starts this year in her fourth straight the same day at del mar the cara
00:56:40conti juvenile off in the corner won a maiden special weight race by an easy two and a quarter
00:56:45length so if you're looking for precocious miler speed look no further than cara conte gainsway power
00:56:53passion performance the sun shines bright on cara conte his versatility is evidenced by winners on
00:57:03all surfaces across the globe spanderella turns it into a procession yet another grade one for this
00:57:11magnificent daughter of cara conte roha waved goodbye right out of the gate to win the intercontinental
00:57:18and his offspring are lighting up the sales ring three hundred thousand dollars emma thank you
00:57:23cara conte standing at gainsway well this is the type of saturday you can only get at saratoga
00:57:31not just four stakes races but four grade one events starting off with the test stakes seven furlongs on
00:57:39the dirt and speaking of bob baffert i think he's got the winner in explorer she's coming off a win
00:57:46in
00:57:46the leslie's lady at churchill downs at one point um she was a distance horseman okay in the kentucky
00:57:52oaks but since uh baffert looks like he's decided that her future is sprinting uh she's done very
00:57:59well uh as two for three at the seven for long distance not an easy race for her but uh
00:58:05with
00:58:05flavian proud aboard and bob baffert randy explorer is my pick in there all right i think we've got a
00:58:11potential superstar in there and i don't particularly like the post position draw because the rail is not
00:58:18a great place to be at seven eighths of a mile especially in a field of any size but movie
00:58:23night
00:58:23to me has been tremendously impressive in her last two races a maiden win at churchill downs and then
00:58:29an allowance race at churchill uh visually just tremendously impressive even more impressive
00:58:35than i think the speed figures indicate she's well bred um i don't you know i respect explorer and
00:58:42you know i respect sipping pretty and good all and some of the other leading contenders in here but
00:58:48i was really impressed visually by movie night
00:58:53and you should be it had to be a hard decision for pratt and his agent because he wrote movie
00:58:58night
00:58:58in her last obviously he has to stick with bob baffert and explorer but he also wrote goodall
00:59:04who's not without a shot and here for trainer steve asmussen so pratt is riding explorer that's where
00:59:11he lands and maybe it's her race to lose but i'm with you i like the rail horse and sipping
00:59:17pretty for
00:59:18iran wilkes is no slouch either and she does have a win over the track to me which is key
00:59:23especially at
00:59:24saratoga so it'll be really interesting to see how this race shapes up i'm quite intrigued by percy's
00:59:32bar as well cutting back i think two turns is a thing but they've got the blinkers on her and
00:59:37they're cutting her back in distance we move on to the four star dave which is next and one of
00:59:42the
00:59:42leaders of the turf division deterministic will be the favorite in there what a good horse he won
00:59:47this race last year he's just uh doing everything right for miguel clement i'm going to try to beat
00:59:52him with lagnos another horse that has won uh five straight part of my thing is there's an awful
00:59:58lot of speed in here and deterministic can rate off the pace but i think they're going to go pretty
01:00:04fast kendrick carmush he likes to send horses so uh if deterministic uh doesn't get the perfect trip
01:00:12trace is good enough and there's a lot you know uh horses that are good enough in here including lagnos
01:00:18who doesn't get a whole lot of respect uh for steve asmussen uh riding a terrific winning streak of his
01:00:25own so i'm going to predict that maybe deterministic's winning streak somebody's winning streak is going
01:00:30to end here zoe so i'm going to say that uh lagnos for steve asmussen and jose ortiz that's my
01:00:37pick in
01:00:37here what a good race this is you've got seven horses in here between the seven of them they've won
01:00:4449 races there are no slouches in here it's one of the best races on the card there's also plenty
01:00:52of
01:00:52speed and horses want to sit just off the speed you've got the filly in there classic q
01:00:57for mark cassie she's certainly got speed she loves saratoga deterministic could be the horse to be but
01:01:04he's going to get some company i'm not sure how fast he's going to have to go um langos like
01:01:09you
01:01:10mentioned i'm going to go with zulu kingdom in here for chad brown and flavian pratt uh who draws
01:01:16position number three but it could be anyone's race yeah i mean i'm a big fan of rhetorical but
01:01:23when you look at the way this race is going to shape up pace wise if you as you guys
01:01:27have talked
01:01:28about i mean just in the first two posts me bago is a confirmed one-way one-dimensional front runner
01:01:36so you know and with louis sai as a board they're going to go with me bago rhetorical from the
01:01:42rail
01:01:42post has got to go the philly classic q always has to go deterministic is always right up there
01:01:49early so bill i'm with you laganos to me looks like he's going to sit the trip and i think
01:01:55he's
01:01:55in great form right now well we will see this is a very good race as it always is named
01:02:02for uh
01:02:02one of the great horses of saratoga the blue collar hero four star dave move on to the saratoga
01:02:09derby next and uh this is really a just a repeat for the most part of the belmont derby the
01:02:15three
01:02:15horses that were noses apart on the wire title role west end kid and remember mamba all come back in
01:02:23here and boy just flip a coin i i mean i i have a hard time separating them randy i
01:02:30know you were a big
01:02:30remember mamba fan and he ran a very good race i'm going to pick him here just for the fact
01:02:36that i think
01:02:37the extra 16th of a mile that he gets in this race might be good enough for a horse who
01:02:43has that
01:02:44great closing kick but just hasn't quite got the job done in his last two races but he's certainly a
01:02:51quality horse but again if you're talking about difficult handicapping races my goodness this is
01:02:57tough yeah just again this past weekend and uh you guys might have the name at the tip of your
01:03:06tongue i don't but uh one of the big races at saratoga was won by a michael taber owned european
01:03:13trained by george bowie yes okay uh finishing last quarter mile in 22.07 seconds sitting four
01:03:23lengths off a slow pace typical european unbelievable late kick and typical european dominance in turf
01:03:31racing so at eight to one in the program line give me glacius in here the european trained by hugo
01:03:38palmer coming over uh making uh his first start in the united states the three-year-old like they all
01:03:43are uh has been placed in a couple of group threes over there you know glacius wouldn't be one of
01:03:48the
01:03:48top 20 three-year-olds on turf in the uk but um at a price the euro i'll take him
01:03:56all right i want
01:03:59to stick with the house horse west end kid who gets something that he hasn't had before now will
01:04:04walden's been wanting to take the blinkers off him for his past few stars but he kept winning
01:04:08you can't take the blinkers off a horse who keeps winning so he lost a gut wrencher last time out
01:04:15to
01:04:15title role a nose in the belmont derby gets the blinkers off i'm not sure where tyler gaffione is this
01:04:22weekend he must be at ellis park but you get flavian pratt replacing him gets a comfy draw on the
01:04:28outside
01:04:28for a horse who can be a little bit keen hopefully with the blinkers off he'll get to relax and
01:04:33come
01:04:33flying home with that extra 16th of a mile to work with uh so uh just uh going back a
01:04:40little bit um to
01:04:41a point that i made earlier uh about burnham square uh this is why our production team is so good
01:04:47sue finley our executive producer pointed out that war of will
01:04:51uh-huh in 2020 one grade ones on both the turf and dirt one the preakness and the makers mark
01:04:59miles
01:05:00so uh sorry about that war of will and mark cassie that we overlooked that horse but thank you
01:05:06sue for pointing that out okay so the this race on the card that is just fantastic is the whitney
01:05:15this
01:05:15older horse division is so good and i'm going to try to beat magnitude it's probably a silly thing to
01:05:23do but how could you not like baeza's last race in the stephen foster where he got beat by magnitude
01:05:30after getting left at the gate it was a career best race uh bill mott looks like he's got him
01:05:35in great
01:05:35form and nitrogen i think this spot is probably a little bit too tough for her but i just want
01:05:43to
01:05:43say a shout out to the green family and dj stable for running her in this race it's a real
01:05:50sporting
01:05:51thing to do i'd like to see more people run phillies against the boys matter of fact i'd like to
01:05:57see mark
01:05:57cassie as i've said run stable make counting stars in the travers um i'm not going to pick her but
01:06:03i
01:06:03wouldn't be surprised if she won and again i think they deserve a tremendous amount of credit
01:06:07for taking on the very best males older males in the division randy
01:06:13yeah okay so follow my logic here this is just from a horse players gambling perspective right
01:06:20magnitude right now is the leader in the horse of the year race uh he just won nicely in the
01:06:26stephen foster he's the now horse but in the stephen foster he was able to control the early tempo of
01:06:34the
01:06:34race clear early lead on a sloppy track and we all know if you're handicapped at any level you all
01:06:42know
01:06:42that typically front running horses have an advantage on a sloppy track and they can run
01:06:48races better than they've ever run before okay so i'm going to just from a betting perspective i'm
01:06:53going to discount that race just a little bit okay now you look at sovereignty sovereignty had the
01:07:01layoff after that unbelievable traverse win he comes back at oakland park it was a weirdly run race
01:07:06in the oakland handicap he's head and head for the lead he was coming off a layoff everyone expected
01:07:12him to step up and run the sovereignty type race in the stephen foster and he didn't he was disappointing
01:07:19he finished a well-beaten third but again it was on a sloppy racetrack is that an excuse well it
01:07:25could
01:07:26be maybe it's not an excuse we'll find out but we finally get a chance amazingly to get a decent
01:07:32price
01:07:33on sovereignty he was one to two in the gym dandy he was one to five in the traverse he
01:07:38was four to
01:07:39five in the oakland handicap four to five in the stephen foster right now he's three to one in the
01:07:45morning line and i think people may have given up a little too soon on sovereignty so if the racetrack
01:07:51is fast for uh for whitney day i'll take a sovereignty biazza exacta and try to beat magnitude and
01:08:01maybe put him in the third spot um it's it's face it too i know biazza was very impressive
01:08:07you know especially given his starts in his last couple of races but sovereignty beat him in the
01:08:12kentucky derby sovereignty beat him in the belmont sovereignty beat him in the gym dandy sovereignty
01:08:17has had biazza's number all along except for the stephen foster on a sloppy track so i'm willing to put
01:08:24him on top of biazza in an exacto can i just say that bill mott will win the whitney
01:08:32can i can i just leave it at that well i mean what a great race kudos to the whole
01:08:38racing team
01:08:39here to put this race together it's going to be fantastic i'm going to go to the paddock and i'm
01:08:44just
01:08:44going to salivate over these gorgeous horses inside to outside biazza i got a good look at him in the
01:08:51stall the other day and he's really filled out into that big beautiful frame it'll be really cool
01:08:57to see him win with john sheriffs being inducted into the hall of fame next week as well obviously
01:09:04bill mott trained his damn puka puka um to win as well she i remember when she broke a maiden
01:09:11by like
01:09:1217 lengths or something ridiculous so it'll be some really cool stories coming out of it but i'm with
01:09:18you sovereignty has been working really well like a different kind of sovereignty with some renewed
01:09:23energy that we've seen from him over the course of the past couple of weeks i can't knock anything to
01:09:28do with magnitude and he's proven that he doesn't need the lead he's one sitting just off the pace
01:09:35so it'll be really interesting to see what kind of ride he gets from the inside which i'm sure steve's
01:09:42not delighted about because you're going to have nitrogen she's quick off the blocks as well
01:09:48it's a real writer's race i don't think i'm going to gamble on it at all i'm just going to
01:09:53sit back
01:09:53and watch because this is one of the best races that i think we're going to see in quite some
01:09:57time
01:09:57and now you know what's going to happen why the barrio is going to roll and he's going to wind
01:10:02up
01:10:03beating everybody in there again yes okay team i'm the only one that showed any love for nitrogen i want
01:10:09to get your guys opinions on her chances and whether or not she belongs in this race randy
01:10:13i think it's a sporting gesture i i love the fact that that mark cassie is so aggressive
01:10:19uh and he's willing you know coming off that huge win in her last start he's willing to you know
01:10:25to
01:10:25give it a shot and try the boys i would feel better about nitrogen's chances if this were
01:10:32an average or a below average field for the whitney i but i think it's much stronger than that
01:10:39so that's why i think nitrogen at four to one may be a bit of an underlay
01:10:43she's a perfect three for three at saratoga she does love this track i will give her that her works
01:10:48have been stellar in the morning as well um so i'm just going to wish them good luck and obviously
01:10:55they're going to save her for the rest of the year if she's not handling anything i'm sure
01:10:59they'll just tell johnny b hey listen it's not the be all and end all save her for the next
01:11:04time if
01:11:05she's not going anywhere but yeah kudos to dj stable for even putting her in there why not absolutely
01:11:11absolutely so uh before we uh sign off um we encourage our viewers and listeners to post comments
01:11:19on youtube when we get a chance uh we can't get to all of them obviously but um when we
01:11:25get a chance
01:11:26we will respond to them and this is from dash has hassle dash has old two five eight two zoe
01:11:34this is
01:11:34for you oh i've only watched this the last few weeks and i'm sure someone has asked this previously
01:11:40they have not but i am really curious about the pictures behind zoe
01:11:46and i would love to know the identity of the horses so it's not oh it's not burt reynolds he
01:11:52thought it was naked burt reynolds but but reynolds had to get taken down that someone's not a fan of
01:11:58burt reynolds so um yeah right here okay so i am in nile brennan nile and stephanie brennan's house
01:12:06in saratoga and these are their stable graduates i'm gonna have to go over here because i can't
01:12:11remember who they are let's see uh i thought that question absolutely had to be about the
01:12:18cosmopolitan centerfold on top of your piano at home with burt reynolds yeah we've um we've uh
01:12:25x that out uh no no x-rated uh pictures are allowed on the tdn writers room podcast are you
01:12:31ready
01:12:32we had to pixelate that one a little bit nile brennan graduates orb point of entry palace malice
01:12:39and gun runner front center right there so those are the graduates of the nile brennan stable so
01:12:44that's kind of cool right if you go in the bathroom there's more i won't take you in there but
01:12:48there's
01:12:49more in the bathroom and this is zoe's place in saratoga not to be confused with her place
01:12:54it's not brennan's place display pornography each week until some of our uh uh viewers uh objected to
01:13:02that the tdn writers room work of the week is brought to you by first tv we learned last week
01:13:08that
01:13:08the bill mott trained knightsbridge coming off a sensational performance in the monmouth cup
01:13:12where he earned a whopping 122 by a speed figure he'll go next in the pacific classic on august the
01:13:2022nd at del mar bill mott had him out over the saratoga main track on saturday a little bit foggy
01:13:26that morning here he is coming out of the fog and a half mile work in 49.95 mott said
01:13:34he feels that
01:13:34winning a grade one would go a long way towards enhancing his value we'll be right back after
01:13:40this message from first tv
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01:14:35west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpoint tv.com
01:14:43meanwhile our friends at west point thoroughbreds capped a stellar month with trainer steve asmussen
01:14:48when runaway rojo won an allowance on wednesday at horseshoe indianapolis and preside prevailed in a
01:14:56maiden special weight the next day thursday at saratoga west point's four runners with asmussen
01:15:01combined for three wins and a second in the month of july the one defeat was with the promising two
01:15:09-year-old power line
01:15:10a son of flight line who received an educational debut experience at saratoga and power line will be pointing
01:15:16for a longer race distance wise in the next condition book to learn more about all things west point
01:15:23you can visit westpoint tb as in thoroughbred.com
01:15:34before we sign off some sad news that i'd like to report and anybody who's been watching this podcast over
01:15:39the years
01:15:40knows that randy zoe and i are all dog lovers and matter of fact we all are kind of a
01:15:46similar boat
01:15:47that uh we own dogs that are are geriatric
01:15:50old and old old and zoe that's oh god it breaks my heart to see that picture that's doodle
01:15:58you've seen on this podcast many a time and uh zoe had to put him down just the other day
01:16:04it was time
01:16:04zoe right oh doodle that's that's him just last week that's pretty good for pushing 18
01:16:10dear doodle bless him yes and we will miss him very much and uh uh we certainly um
01:16:19give our condolences to zoe because we know how much she loved doodle and he was humping all the
01:16:24way over the rainbow bridge he's got many friends up there he'll be just fine god bless him all right
01:16:32so that's a wrap on this week's show i want to thank our gainsway guest of the week todd pletcher
01:16:37i want to thank my partners zoe cadman and randy moss also our production team who works behind the
01:16:42scenes and does such a great job at sue finley katie petruniak anthony larocca and alia larocca
01:16:48topped by the whitney it's going to be a great weekend of racing everybody enjoy
01:16:52and we'll catch up with you next week thanks for tuning us in
01:17:01you
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