- 4 hours ago
This week on the TDN Writers' Room, we welcomed in first-time Grade I-winning trainer John Grabowski, who shared the special story behind Frizette winner Dotsy. The team also took a deep dive into the top performances over the weekend at Keeneland, Santa Anita and Belmont.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00:18welcome everybody to another edition of the tdn writers room i'm zoe cadman filling in for bill
00:00:23finley bill obviously in mourning because the red sox just got absolutely trounced i'm sorry bill
00:00:32but man oh man i mean they just got blown out the water so i'm zoe cadman with first racing
00:00:39and first
00:00:39tv obviously i'm in ocala which is about to get ready for the ocala breeders sale here on tuesday
00:00:46and wednesday since bill's not here zoe can we pile on the red sox i'm randy moss with nbc sports
00:00:53the yankees trounced them with one arm tied behind their back without aaron judge so at least at least
00:00:59there was no drama you know there were no late inning you know distraught things that happened
00:01:05to the red sox they were just uh they were just blown out from start to finish there's always next
00:01:09year and td thornton speaking to you from boston we're we are waiting for next year already uh in
00:01:16october uh i'm a correspondent with thoroughbred daily news all right you didn't want to pile on
00:01:22to the red sox as well you're being nice well we'll have plenty plenty more to do next year
00:01:27yeah there's always the patriots they're always the patriots drake drake may is now back so there
00:01:32you go well we got a lot to unpack hopefully over the next hour where we'll recap most of the
00:01:37grade
00:01:38one win and your ends across the weekend across the country let's lead off with the joe hirsch in
00:01:43which we saw minaret station before i unpack what i really think about the race let's go to randy
00:01:48randy can you recap the race for me well i'll take the high hanging fruit or the low hanging fruit
00:01:55i guess you would call it um you know minaret station keeps getting better and better and
00:01:59better this was his fourth win in nine lifetime starts he did it uh legitimately there wasn't
00:02:04any luck involved at all it looked for a point in mid-stretch like el cordovas was going to do
00:02:12what europeans usually do and that is out finish the americans on grass he blew to the lead at about
00:02:18the 3 16th pole probably opened up about a length and at that point i think everyone was thinking oh
00:02:23here here goes uh charlie appleby again el cordovas is long gone but that was el cordovas's first race
00:02:31since february and even though it's charlie appleby i i think you can probably assume that he emptied out a
00:02:38little bit in the late stages he didn't finish as well as he usually does as he did last year
00:02:42in the
00:02:43breeders cup so i think if they bring him back for the breeders cup you can expect an improved
00:02:48performance from el cordovas but take nothing away from minaret station and a a big weekend for young
00:02:54trainer will walden minaret station at five to one was wide and driving and you don't see too many
00:03:00grade one races with six course fields especially in new york where the two favorites both at odds of
00:03:07eight to five or up or less were out of the exacta um i i was really impressed with minaret
00:03:12station
00:03:13on the lead but reigniting when firebridge dove down to the inside and and kind of caught his eye
00:03:18there so i thought it was a nice late and the top two finished both very well in that race
00:03:22two grade
00:03:24ones for will warden we'll get to rhetorical in just a moment but how about instilled regard
00:03:28a homebred for my bestie larry best xoxo stables breeding this horse beau recall is the mare first
00:03:37grade one winner for instilled regard from a very small crop great training job by will walden and
00:03:43altogether minaret was much the best in the joe hush turf classic all right let's move on and talk
00:03:49about the champagne and no surprise here uss valor taking down the champagne stakes in emphatic
00:03:56fashion i feel maybe manny franco could have been a little bit more patient perhaps didn't need to
00:04:03knock anywhere one sideways at the head of the lane but man was he impressive and it looks like
00:04:08barry erwin will take the ever so cautious route and not point him towards the breeders cup td
00:04:14barry said post-race that he's going to let shug mcgahee map out a campaign
00:04:19while uh uss valor gets a little bit of a break and he'll come back in the winter he'll be
00:04:24down with
00:04:24shugs division at payson park uh he's he's had three lifetime races he's won two of them he broke
00:04:31to the rear in all three of them he did so again in the one turn miles champagne but he
00:04:36was a real
00:04:36powerful presence in the back of that tightly packed field and on the far turn he split horses at the
00:04:43back but he immediately had to wait he was caught behind the front runners he had a couple of tailing
00:04:48off horses both to his inside and outside and manny franco said i'm just going to shoulder one of
00:04:54these horses out of the way he did so in upper stretch and then it was a big blast off
00:04:59nobody
00:04:59could stick with him late yeah the big the only real surprise i mean he was obviously hugely impressive
00:05:05visually even more than the speed figure would indicate the big surprise to me at least and
00:05:09maybe it shouldn't have been is that he's not going to the breeder's cup i mean we just assumed on
00:05:14nbc um you know he's horses based in the east coast it's not like he's having a ship all the
00:05:20way out
00:05:20to del mar or anything we just assumed that his next start would be in the breeder's cup but they
00:05:24are taking what they consider to be the more conservative route with them and skipping the
00:05:28breeder's cup what's interesting to me is that in the aftermath of that decision you hear a lot of
00:05:34people say uh you know well it's yeah it can be counterproductive for two-year-olds to run in the
00:05:43juvenile and their record coming back in the kentucky derby is not very good uh completely
00:05:49different horses tend to win the juvenile then go on and run in the kentucky derby and all yeah and
00:05:55some of that stuff is true yeah i mean ted noffy last year looked like any kind of horse when
00:06:01he
00:06:01won the breeder's futurity and then he went on to win the breeder's cup juvenile and you haven't heard
00:06:06from him since um but there's also you know forte came back and ran well in the triple crown fierceness
00:06:13came back and ran well as a three-year-old i mean there's all sorts of examples of horses that
00:06:19did
00:06:19handle it very well and not just the early maturing speed type horses that couldn't get a mile and a
00:06:25quarter so somewhat of a surprise to me but um you can't deny how impressive he was in winning the
00:06:31champagne what was his by speed figure 95 95 and you know you obviously have to fact you obviously
00:06:39have to factor in the trip he had that that that td described it wasn't the greatest trip in the
00:06:44world
00:06:45uh he showed a lot of professionalism obviously in sitting back there and waiting patiently
00:06:50shouldering another horse out of the way at the quarter pole nice turn of foot um beat a decent horse
00:06:56apparently in goudreau um so yeah i mean so it's better than 95 i think in reality can i play
00:07:03bill
00:07:03why why can't run back in a month after winning by six anyway we'll save that for another day uh
00:07:11let's
00:07:12move on and talk about the frisette and dotsy and we'll get to john grabowski the three thousand dollar
00:07:19jockey three thousand wins in his career a finger late what a fabulous story that is and dotsy
00:07:25more than earned that that was a good field in the frisette kind of a bit wide open in my
00:07:30opinion but
00:07:30she won like a good thing giving tacitus a grade one win yeah some great stories involved isn't it
00:07:37with the two-year-old philly winners this past weekend the oak leaf in california and then and
00:07:43then dotsy for john grabowski's congratulations to grabowski really uh really a cool story kendrick
00:07:48karmouche the rider two for two lifetime uh she had won a race at saratoga one of those restricted
00:07:54maiden special weights but she won it impressively took a step forward at 11 to 1 in the frisette
00:08:00you know i'm i'm not going to be debbie downer here uh but if you just look at the frisette
00:08:07from
00:08:07the standpoint of okay what chance does that give dotsy in the breeders cup juvenile phillies what's
00:08:15her price going to be in the juvenile phillies she wasn't as impressive visually and in all the
00:08:20analytics as the winner of the uh the one two horses in the alcibiades that we'll get to in a
00:08:26moment
00:08:26she probably wasn't as impressive as the winner of the oak leaf so right now i would make her maybe
00:08:32fourth choice in the juvenile phillies but it doesn't detract from the fact that she is a grade
00:08:38one winner and a huge congratulations to her team and let's also remember that in the breeders cup
00:08:44juvenile phillies three of the past four years favorites have not won and they've been won by in
00:08:49three of the past four years by horses in the six seven eight to one range and uh dotsy had
00:08:54some
00:08:54outside speed she stalked the dueling duo she confronted the favorite she did stay on under
00:09:00strong urging uh won by two and three quarter lengths 82 buyer for dotsy in the frisette
00:09:07all right before we move on and get to keeneland can i can i just rag on jose ortiz a
00:09:12little bit
00:09:12and his ride aboard minaret station i understand the rules of the race and there was an inquiry
00:09:18and el cordobas was gonna be no worse than third i totally get that but i mean i honestly feel
00:09:26and
00:09:26i watched the drone shot if flavian pratt had not taken up and got out of there i know the
00:09:31fox guys
00:09:32were saying he should have got an oscar and was acting he's not the type of guy that does that
00:09:36type
00:09:36of thing and acts and tries to get horses to come down and does all this if he hadn't taken
00:09:42up out of
00:09:42there he's gonna clip heels or maybe clip heels but is that a chance he wants to take and i
00:09:48get
00:09:49jose admitted you know he had to take up you shouldn't ride like that am i the only one that
00:09:55thinks this if he does it and doesn't get days i don't know if he is or if he isn't
00:09:59but it's okay
00:10:02yeah i must i mean how many how many times do we talk about stewart's decisions on this podcast right
00:10:07i'm not saying take him down but you have to give him a holiday or something i don't yeah i
00:10:12don't get
00:10:13it if he does it it means it's okay for everyone to do it it does it just for some
00:10:17reason it doesn't
00:10:17happen in this country to leave a number up but then give a jockey days you almost never see that
00:10:24and in my opinion you should you should see that more often yeah okay let's move on then let's go
00:10:31to
00:10:31mainland and talk about the emphatic victory by emphatic in the alcibiades and what happened to
00:10:38summer starlet down the backside i i reached out to scott blasey for trainer steve asmerson and i'm
00:10:44like she got hit behind right because it looked like somebody clipped her heels going down the
00:10:49backside it was um oh she said yes who actually wound up third clipped her heels down the backside i'm
00:10:55not
00:10:55saying it cost her anything but it certainly didn't help summer starlet it certainly helped emphatic
00:11:00who actually scampered away at the head of the lane good victory by emphatic what do you think
00:11:05about that td uh she was sent from post one she took charge she took pressure through the race while
00:11:12the the trouble happened uh to summer starlet behind her uh she got a bit of a mid-race breather
00:11:17kind of settled down and then she and summer starlet the odds on favor really peeled off from the pack
00:11:23on
00:11:23the far turn summer starlet loomed and it looked like she was it was the race was hers for the
00:11:30taking but uh she had no excuse she she didn't she didn't seal the deal in my opinion and uh
00:11:37emphatic
00:11:37won by a length and a quarter and then it was 17 and a half lengths back to the rest
00:11:42of the field in
00:11:42third 95 buyer for the winner and she won over that keeneland short stretch configuration where races end
00:11:50at the 16th pole and that's what she'll be getting again in the breeders cup juvenile fillies so zoe i'm
00:11:56curious i haven't had a chance to reach out to anybody yet about these races what did scott blasey
00:12:00say about the incident at the half mile pole did summer starlet come back with any cuts or anything
00:12:05like that yeah she she got a little cut on her hind leg she's okay she's fine but it was
00:12:11actually when
00:12:11they turned down the backside about the three quarter pole yeah you could see the filly behind
00:12:16and it caused um flavian to sit down and look behind him it definitely cost her just a little
00:12:23bit of momentum in the wrong part of the race i wasn't at the head of the lane or anything
00:12:28but i
00:12:29mean you know if someone clips your heels that's got to pinch you just a little bit and i'm not
00:12:33making
00:12:33that as an excuse i'm just pointing out that that happened yeah it's it's just one of these situations
00:12:39where as a horse player or any kind of a race analyst you really don't know you don't know how
00:12:45much it cost her you don't know how much it might have affected her mentally yeah i mean it was
00:12:51at a
00:12:51point in the race where you know tyler gafleone aboard emphatic uh was on the lead obviously and you
00:12:59know summer starlet wasn't going to be asked for for her kick at that point she was just on cruise
00:13:04control sitting just outside of emphatic so it's not like it came at a point of the race where
00:13:09you know they were really driving and it cost her a ton of momentum but you don't know what it
00:13:15might have cost her maybe she felt a little discomfort you just don't know that but the
00:13:20bottom line here this was a sensational race this was this was a much better race as it turns out
00:13:29than the breeders futurity and run income in completely different fashion though uh emphatic got
00:13:35away with a pretty soft pace i mean they went 24.45 24 and 2 a little bit more than
00:13:4048 and three
00:13:41fifth seconds emphatic was on the lead along with summer starlet uh summer starlet had every chance
00:13:47to go buyer but you know these two horses are going to be the favorites back at keeneland for the
00:13:52juvenile
00:13:53phillies td pointed out the 95 buyer speed figure which is really high for a two-year-old philly
00:13:58this time of year and these are two uh very very nice phillies
00:14:05talk about the first lady classic q winning by a nose i'll tell you what johnny v is riding like
00:14:12an
00:14:13absolute demon right now mark cassie what a fantastic job he has done with this philly now she won by
00:14:19a
00:14:19nose i'm not sure she was best as we saw lush lips get a perfect trip under tyler gafleone she
00:14:27hit the
00:14:27lead randy her ears came up her head came up she's won a keelan before by a length of a
00:14:34quarter it's
00:14:34not like all of a sudden she i don't know if she saw something she doesn't usually pull herself up
00:14:39like that but she definitely pulled herself up and it cost her the race without question uh twice in a
00:14:46row in her comeback race at ellis park she blew to the lead and and it was even more dramatic
00:14:51at that
00:14:51point and people people chalked up including brendan walsh the trainer the defeat at odds on
00:14:58in the ellis park race to the fact that she hadn't run in such a long time and you know
00:15:03she had had
00:15:04a leg infection if i if i if i recall correctly and she's a pretty big stout philly and it
00:15:10takes
00:15:10her a little while to get back into condition and walsh thought in his words uh when we spoke to
00:15:16him
00:15:16before the race that maybe lush lips had been a little undercooked for that race and she'd come
00:15:20back and train very well and her speed figure at ellis park was way off of her norm the only
00:15:25thing i
00:15:26can say about lush lips's performance maybe she just needed one more race to get back to her absolute
00:15:33peak i mean she ran a race figure wise as good as she typically runs but she just looked like
00:15:39either
00:15:40she pulled herself up as you pointed out or maybe she just emptied out a little bit uh toward the
00:15:44end of
00:15:45the race and now maybe her third start after a layoff is going to be her best i think they're
00:15:49going to come back bring her back at a mile and three sixteenths in the philly mayor turps and she
00:15:54has run well at a mile and an eighth in the past now for the winner classic q i at
00:16:00the eighth pole
00:16:01td i would have thought there's lush lips is gone there's no chance anybody's going to run her down
00:16:06especially classic q who runs her best races on the lead now she's three wide on both turns she's
00:16:12stalking but this really just has really developed into into a horse that just does nothing but win
00:16:20i mean she's won three of her last four starts this one though i thought was the most improbable
00:16:24yeah she was looking a little bit one paced in mid-stretch there and she won the bob by a
00:16:29nose
00:16:29i think much like we talked about minaret station when far bridge dove down to the inside in the
00:16:35hirsch classic uh and and we saw minaret station re-engage similar type of story for classic q
00:16:42and she did it could have gone either way on the on the photo there they were they were head
00:16:47and head
00:16:47bobbing down to the wire and it turns out her time comes back 0.46 seconds faster than the cool
00:16:53more mile
00:16:54yeah a couple of races later and um you know we have seen classic q now run well on the
00:17:01lead she won
00:17:01the just a game two races back wire to wire and uh now she scores again here showing a little
00:17:06bit
00:17:07of a new dimension for her and it's going to be interesting to see what they choose to do with
00:17:11her now she can't run with in my opinion she can't be competitive with horses like notable speech and
00:17:17blue bolt if she comes over for the breeders cup mile not to mention deterministic and all the other
00:17:22american milers male milers um because she runs so well on the front end maybe there's a chance
00:17:28they'll stretch her out to a mile and three sixteenths for the philia mare turf and hope
00:17:32that she gets left alone on the front end and if that's the case we know the classic q can
00:17:37be tough
00:17:37to pass if she gets the distance and she's by classic empire out of a scat daddy mare jewel grade
00:17:43one
00:17:43winner by classic empire i'm not i'm not buying the lush lips bottling out with her ears pricked you
00:17:49don't bottle out with your head in the air and your ears pricked all the way to the wire good
00:17:54point
00:17:54she might run in cheek pieces next time or something's going to happen let's move on and
00:17:59talk about the boys the breeders for maturity american history just keeps on coming two-year-old
00:18:05by constitution now perfect two for two johnny v again it's like pedaling a bike just when you
00:18:11think he's beat johnny keeps pedaling and pedaling and pedaling and he was much the best in there but
00:18:18what about coach pope i feel bad for him he thought he had it won over qb rocket uh yeah
00:18:25he might have
00:18:25won the internal pace battle but uh he lost the overall war there uh american history i think that's
00:18:32a good analogy there about pedaling the bike and getting there and getting there um johnny v had to
00:18:37kind of coax him out of the gate even though he came out last he always seemed to be uh
00:18:42trying to
00:18:42spark his interest through the early stages of the race and then american history was a little bit
00:18:47keen onto the back stretch never really looked settled in my opinion but he had a brisk tempo
00:18:53up in front of him and um remember this is a another short stretch finish wire at keeneland at
00:18:59the 16th pole so at the three-eighths marker which is really two and a half furlongs out in that
00:19:04race
00:19:04johnny v was really rousing him uh american history was still seven lengths behind it approaching the
00:19:10quarter pole he was five lengths behind the leaders in upper stretch i didn't think he was going to get
00:19:15there with a short stretch johnny went to work on him right-handed and left-handed with the stick
00:19:20he finally collared the leaders and he finally did level off into a nice stride late kind of a better
00:19:25late than never win and i agree with randy's earlier assessment that it was not as scintillating
00:19:30a mile and a 16th race for two-year-olds as we saw with the phillies and the alcibiades and
00:19:36i think of
00:19:37the three male races we saw the champagne uh the american pharaoh which we're going to talk about in a
00:19:42bit and the breeders futurity i thought it was probably the third best of those three races
00:19:47the buyer came back as an 85 i will say one thing for american history he might have history
00:19:53so to speak on his side uh the three times that the breeders cup has been hosted at keeneland
00:19:59two of the breeders cup juveniles have been won by the horse that won the breeders futurity we saw
00:20:04forte do it in 2022 essential quality in 2020 and the only other time brody's cause in 2015 won the
00:20:12breeders futurity he was third in the in the uh breeders cup juvenile uh behind the eventual
00:20:18champion nyquist okay it's it's uh it's it's time for me to play debbie downer again um look i i
00:20:27american
00:20:28history may go on and win the kentucky derby okay but if you're a handicapper there's no way you can
00:20:34take this horse in the breeders cup juvenile no way yeah he kept coming and coming and coming
00:20:39the race completely fell apart in front of him they went the mile in the last 16th of a mile
00:20:46in
00:20:467.2 seconds and yeah i mean he kept coming but on his left lead he wasn't exactly finishing with
00:20:55a
00:20:55full head of steam he went his final quarter in 27.81 seconds it's just fortunate for him that coach
00:21:02pope ran his final quarter in a couple of of hundreds of a second under 28 seconds
00:21:09this race was terrible in the last quarter of a mile um so american history yeah he had me 85
00:21:16buyer
00:21:16to say he wasn't scintillating is i agree with dd it's an understatement um and he's going to run
00:21:23back at keeneland which is obviously an advantage but i was very disappointed in coach pope and yes he
00:21:31was involved in a pretty substantial pace situation you can make the case that you know maybe he was asked
00:21:38to do a little too much early to try to put pressure on qb rocket uh the two of them
00:21:43just
00:21:43collapsed in the final quarter mile but if you're as good as coach pope looked in his maiden race
00:21:50yeah you go a fast pace but you finish faster than 28 for the final mile that's the only thing
00:21:57i can
00:21:58figure out zoe i don't think enough like a trainer and when i was looking at coach pope and looking
00:22:03at
00:22:03his last race it never really factored in my mind i looked at it like bill finley that he was
00:22:09coming
00:22:09back in three weeks yeah and that coming off such a huge effort that he might regress pretty
00:22:15substantially from that huge effort and in hindsight i guess you can make the case that that's what he
00:22:20did and maybe he bounces back and wins the breeders cup in the absence of uss valor but
00:22:26i can't bet american history in four weeks no way well you know coach pope is going to go with
00:22:33kenny mcpeak he likes to dance every single dance and i'm a firm believer that he did bounce and we'll
00:22:39probably see less is more from him in the course of the next few weeks okay rhetorical will walden
00:22:45second grade one of the weekend taking down the cool more breeders cup mile randy not breeders cup mile
00:22:50the cool more mile yeah a huge effort by rhetorical and you knew if you if you knew these
00:22:57horses you follow these horses um the race was over the race was over on the first turn and and
00:23:06heading
00:23:06into the backstretch when uh i read ortiz was on the lead with rhetorical in very soft fractions for
00:23:14grade ones at a mile at keeneland especially breeders cup mile grade one contenders they went a half mile
00:23:20in 49.76 seconds okay and when jose took back his brother took back on zulu kingdom wanting to avoid
00:23:30a speed duel with rhetorical and figured he'd just stalk and they went so slow the first part of the
00:23:36race it was over it was over they weren't going to catch rhetorical and he kicked hard and obviously won
00:23:41in in very very impressive fashion uh zoe can probably second this uh my colleague jerry bailey always says
00:23:49it it it takes three horses really typically often to force a really fast pace you got your two speed
00:23:57horses on the front end but then it often takes a third running up to really put the heat on
00:24:03the top
00:24:03two otherwise they can just kind of slow it down if their horses allow them and just gallop around there
00:24:08in one-two fashion to the top of the stretch and then the race is on and that's what happened
00:24:12rhetorical and zulu kingdom just as they say walk the dog until the quarter pole and then rhetorical
00:24:18took off and zulu kingdom didn't have enough uh gas to be able to keep up with it and how
00:24:24about that
00:24:24final fourth quarter i mean even considering the slow pace for the first three quarters of the race
00:24:3122.28 seconds for that final quarter coming through the lane broken up into two eights final eights of
00:24:3710.95 and 11.33 um from a numbers perspective i'm going to ask you randy because we see this
00:24:46happen occasionally you're on the buyer speed figure team classic q a couple of races before
00:24:52ran a little bit faster her final time 0.46 seconds faster than what rhetorical put up
00:24:58she got a 96 buyer but rhetorical got the 103 can you explain the methodology behind that
00:25:04yeah every speed figure vendor that you're going to see uh be it the buyers be it uh ragazin thorough
00:25:13graph time form us you name it is going to look at these two races the same way and that's
00:25:19strictly
00:25:20on the pace factor okay you see it occasionally on dirt but far more often on grass the first lady
00:25:28they went the first six furlongs in 112 flat the coolmore turf mile went the first six furlongs in 114
00:25:34flat you look at the field in the coolmore turf mile with rhetorical and zulu kingdom
00:25:39and the runner-up lake forest who i want to talk about in just a second you know these figured
00:25:44to
00:25:44be faster horses and better horses than the fillies in in the first lady but when you go 114 for
00:25:51six
00:25:51furlongs there's no way in the final quarter mile you can make up that slow pace they went as you
00:25:58said
00:25:58they went 22 and one basically for the last quarter of a mile and still finished with the final time
00:26:06slower than the first lady so you have to pull out this race from the variant you have to treat
00:26:11it
00:26:11separately because of the pace and you have to look at the horses look at the margins look at the
00:26:17figures
00:26:17they've been running in the past and do what you call a projection method of speed figures and say okay
00:26:23what's a logical speed figure for this race based on the way the race was run and the way the
00:26:29horses
00:26:29finished not strictly according to the final time because the pace just messed that up now quickly
00:26:35um lake forest a second place finish um with a a absolute one-dimensional deep closer in a race that
00:26:46gave him no chance they went what 22 and one for the final quarter of a mile how's lake forest
00:26:51going to
00:26:51win in that scenario a huge effort for him to rally from off the pace between horses and get up
00:26:58for
00:26:58second all right we're running out of time randy quick mention fully subscribed taking the grade
00:27:04one sprintster just three of them in there but she was still quite impressive yeah she's uh you know
00:27:10probably going to be uh the toughest competition for uh nitrogen in the breeder's cup distaff if she
00:27:16holds form and she's gotten better and better she couldn't compete with nitrogen when they ran earlier but
00:27:20i think fully subscribed td has gotten a lot better since then second that emotion second that emotion
00:27:26well we'll take a quick break here from our friends at keeneland when we'll come back it'll be all about
00:27:31the american pharaoh at santa anita do want to remind you that each and every week the tdn writers room
00:27:37is
00:27:37brought to you by keeneland keeneland saw a quartet of sales grads win grade one races this weekend across
00:27:43the country we'll lead off with hughes who took the grade one american pharaoh stakes at santa anita
00:27:49classic q won the grade one first lady at keeneland american history won the clayborne breeders for
00:27:56churity and fully subscribed won the grade one jugmont spinster it's shaping up to be a big breeders
00:28:03cup for keeneland sales graduates at keeneland we'll be right back after this message from keeneland
00:28:10we do this so your granddaughter can work on a farm someday so the stands will still be packed
00:28:17in 50 years that's why we come to work every day obsess over every single detail
00:28:27because the story of racing is written one moment at a time and the future of our industry
00:28:35deserves nothing less keeneland every moment matters our fastest horse of the week brought
00:28:42to you by the fast sires at winstar farms speaking this week of constitution who picked up a new
00:28:49grade one winner this past weekend that was american history when he remained undefeated with his win
00:28:54that we discussed in the breeders futurity at keeneland a win in your end of course for the breeders cup
00:28:59juvenile winstar president ceo jerry duffy said i think a lot of us at winstar just lost our voices
00:29:07cheering him home constitution is the sixth leading general sire thus far in 2026 fastest horse of the
00:29:14week go outside the u.s go north to toronto at woodbine the canadian international won by
00:29:20godolphin's arabian crown trained of course by charlie appleby ridden in this instance by jamie spencer
00:29:26he won by three and three quarters lengths in the canadian international with the buyer speed figure
00:29:32of 104 just a tick higher than others in the u.s making arabian crown the fastest horse of the
00:29:39week
00:29:39it was his first start in north america he has now won seven of 14 lifetime starts arabian crown of
00:29:46course
00:29:46well brad he's the son of dubawi out of a dubai destination mayor and probably i would guess headed
00:29:53for the breeders cup church as we continue our stakes recap let's get to santa anita the great race
00:30:03place and discuss the american pharaoh hughes now a perfect three for three bob had four in there
00:30:09they all ran but then randy there was no beating hughes i don't know what kind of figure he got
00:30:14but
00:30:15visually he was very impressive and more importantly to me it looked like he learned something and did it
00:30:20the right way uh the buyer comes up uh very predictable looking at the races on the card
00:30:27in even 100 so five points faster than uss valor ran in the champagne now does that mean that hughes
00:30:37is a better horse than uss valor does that mean that hughes is a better kentucky derby contender
00:30:42than uss valor maybe maybe not um but hughes is being pointed for the breeders cup juvenile whereas
00:30:49uss valor is not and off this win in the american pharaoh in which he not only won the race
00:30:55but he
00:30:56did it the right way from off the pace very patient circled horses you know drew off uh emphatically
00:31:04um there's no doubt that hughes is going to wind up the favorite when they get to keeneland
00:31:10and he deserves it it's uh you know we have a little less than four weeks until the breeders cup
00:31:16and we have six plus months to the derby and everybody's opinions are going to change as well
00:31:20they should and we'll analyze it and we'll over analyze some of these horses and their performances
00:31:25but sometimes first impressions just stick with you and when uss valor opened up in the stretch at
00:31:31belmont park in the champagne going a one-turn mile my thought before he even crossed the wire was
00:31:36boy i'm going to want to see this horse at longer distances of course it turns out they're going to
00:31:41hope withhold him from the breeders cup and point him to longer distance races in the spring
00:31:46and when hughes was coming through the lane soaring home solo i thought this is the now horse for the
00:31:52breeders cup um he's three for three he had won his one turn races in a speed centric fashion either
00:32:00on the lead or just breathing right down the the uh the neck of the front runner and juan hernandez
00:32:07said post-race that bob baffert made a little bit of a change in that race he he cut back
00:32:11the blinkers
00:32:12just a little bit for hughes um kind of open up his vision a little bit and maybe make him
00:32:18more
00:32:18amenable to being relaxed and taken off the pace and learning the lesson so to speak and that's what he
00:32:23did he broke down on the inside he stalked at the rail juan edged him out about three and a
00:32:29half
00:32:29furlongs from the wire there was a dueling duo in front of them one of the speedsters had already
00:32:35cracked out of that race and hughes went right by him like he was standing still he took his time
00:32:39another almost uh quarter mile to an eighth of a mile to get past the surviving dueler on the front
00:32:46end and then he just opened up under hand urging there was no competition late and um that buyer
00:32:54speed figure of 100 we can look at it in the context of his progression he's gone from 81
00:32:59to 83 to 84 to a 100 my question coming out of the race out of the american pharaoh for
00:33:07hughes doesn't
00:33:07so much have to do with the colt himself but the weather that day in santa anita big heat wave
00:33:14in
00:33:14southern california on the equibase charts for the first race they said it was 102 at at 1 p.m
00:33:22first post
00:33:22i looked up in the national weather service to see what it was at 409 when when the american pharaoh
00:33:27went
00:33:27off they had the temperature at 106 so jimmy barnes bob baffert's top assistant has said that
00:33:35on sunday morning the colt came out of the race well and he's going to lexington for the breeders cup
00:33:40but if there's any notch in your head about did the heat take something out of him that might be
00:33:45the
00:33:45only chink in his armor so to speak so i pointed at you because i i thought you were going
00:33:51someplace else
00:33:52td to me if the best horse players are always looking to be contrarian right they're always
00:33:58looking for you as you pointed out chinks in the armor they're always looking for okay vulnerabilities
00:34:03here to me looking at hughes the vulnerability could be who did who has he beaten okay in the
00:34:13best pal in the delmar futurity at delmar uh he beat up on phone booth doug o'neill horse who
00:34:20was
00:34:20shipped east to run in the breeders futurity and was uncompetitive so he didn't beat much apparently
00:34:27in those two races and then saturday he beats net par who was nine and a half lengths
00:34:36ahead of third place imperial honor now certainly hughes did it the right way and it's not his fault
00:34:42that you know he towers over the competition he's been facing but from a contrarian standpoint when he
00:34:48has to run against much better horses in the breeders cup is that going to be an issue you never
00:34:54know
00:34:55and but you know the thing is i think you can say that for almost any southern california stakes race
00:34:59yeah when we're looking at at the derby picture in particular it's baffert it's baffert with three or
00:35:05four and 14th american pharaoh for the hall of fame of bob baffert i i can tell you how i
00:35:12was feeling
00:35:12at the end of saturday and sunday in the heat at santanita if i was shipping to keeneland i'd feel
00:35:19like a new woman he's gonna be like a wild man when he gets there in that fresh air if
00:35:24he ran that
00:35:25well in the heat imagine how good he's gonna feel when he gets to keeneland you better watch out for
00:35:30him he's gonna go absolutely nuts all right let's move on and talk about the phillies domain expansion
00:35:36in the grade two oak leaf my favorite race on the day she finished second in a turf race under
00:35:43adrian
00:35:43escobedo who nobody outside of california has ever heard on only started riding in 2022 he's won 106
00:35:50races to date that was his first graded stakes win he rode her like a true pro first time on
00:35:58the dirt
00:35:58ate dirt did it the right way drew off speaker's corner picking up his first grade two win
00:36:05she was terrific for a trainer whose horses just get better and better in leo powell i absolutely
00:36:12loved the race from domain domain expansion randy all right before we before we started recording the
00:36:18podcast zoe you know i confessed i knew nothing about adrian and you had some pretty interesting
00:36:25details about it how can you be 40 years old and only be riding for uh since 2022 he um
00:36:32he gallops
00:36:34he's tall and skinny you know he used to be he's in a band he's a mariachi singer he has
00:36:39the most
00:36:39beautiful voice he's a mariachi singer he was singing karaoke at jockey karaoke held at the belly
00:36:46up every year it's one of the best events you'll ever go to him in the summertime at del mar
00:36:51and he ran
00:36:52in to matt dorman the owners of um california racing group and some of the owners down there and he
00:36:58bought
00:36:58him a beer and matt was like wow he's a really nice guy let's find him a horse to ride
00:37:03leo so they found
00:37:05this filly rode a first time out on the grass and and there you have it he said all you
00:37:11got to do is
00:37:11buy him a beer if i'd have known it was that easy i'd have maybe won a few more greater
00:37:16stakes in my
00:37:16career just buying people beers but great story right well even if i lived in california i wouldn't know
00:37:23him because i avoid karaoke like a covid breakout but he can sing okay most people in karaoke can't
00:37:32um just while they're in karaoke they're not making a living at it uh look this horse is this was
00:37:37not a
00:37:38fluke this was not a fluke a second longest shot on the board in a five horse field against three
00:37:42bob baffert trainees uh powell himself said you know it's awfully tough when you have to you know on a
00:37:47regular basis out there go against baffert in situations like this but make no mistake about it
00:37:52i mean domain expansion was much the best the buyer came back a solid 88 um no flukiness whatsoever about
00:38:00the trip or anything like that i mean this is a legitimate filly and she's not going to be 14
00:38:07to
00:38:07one in the breeder's cup but i wouldn't be surprised at all to see her make a lot of noise
00:38:11at keeneland
00:38:13she was absolutely fantastic all right i can hear sue in my ear hurry up hurry up we're taking too
00:38:18long randy can you touch on the canadian international and arabian crown oh yeah a very
00:38:25impressive um drifting out a lot through the last quarter of a mile but it didn't really matter
00:38:30uh godolphin charlie appleby td i guess it just comes down to what are they going to do with him
00:38:36um i mean godolphin has you know a loaded stable for the breeders cup are they going to choose to
00:38:42bring him back for the turf or not yeah we we often see these uh horses from that outfit that
00:38:49that win
00:38:50you know they either they're either favored and in the winner's circle or they're favored and pretty
00:38:54close to in the winner's circle in those woodbine september races every year easiest kind of winner in
00:38:59his u.s debut he just forced the issue took over in hand no competition late wandering on the
00:39:05lead a little bit but he was he was well clear it didn't really matter uh put up a 104
00:39:09buyer
00:39:11wondering he looked like swain coming down the lane he was all over the place he was on the outside
00:39:16fence i love robert geller's call split the field like a lightning bolt and that he did and then he
00:39:22just got a little bit lost on the front end we'll see more good things from arabian crown let's talk
00:39:28about the arc really quickly and the fantastic performance by daris who joins and i'm going to read them
00:39:33off right now enable trev alleged ribot tantamon carida montrico saw all going back to 1921 as dual
00:39:46winners of the arc de triomphe how good was he randy oh he's very good the ninth dual winner of
00:39:53the arc
00:39:54but the first male to do it since alleged did it in 1977 in 1978 it's been done most recently
00:40:02by the females but uh daris trained by the up-and-coming francis graffard who got his first
00:40:08breeders cup win with gizora and the philly and mare turf last year uh yeah we'll see it's probably
00:40:15doubtful i don't know i haven't talked to graffard but it's probably doubtful they'll bring daris back
00:40:19uh to run in the breeders cup but the third and fourth place finishers in there two females
00:40:25diamond necklace the third place finisher and uh friendly soul the fourth place finisher
00:40:30uh are reportedly under strong consideration that's aiden o'brien and john gosden uh for the
00:40:36breeders cup philly and mare turf and maybe even the breeders cup turf itself we'll see
00:40:41and phillies or mares beat the boys in every grade one stakes on that card except for the arc
00:40:48wow any really that's great did not know that does anyone have any other races from the arc day
00:40:55they want to touch on i mean we're going to get quite a few uh horses i think especially from
00:41:00the
00:41:00aiden o'brien barn from coolmore that ran in those races in on arc day uh back in the breeders
00:41:07cup you
00:41:07typically do um and there's a little more space now between the races than there used to be
00:41:13so uh yeah i think it'll be a very significant day of racing overall when we get to uh when
00:41:19we get to
00:41:19the 30th and the 31st of october at keeneland coming up after the break we'll have a very
00:41:25very special guest in trainer john grabowski the tdn writers room work of the week is brought to you
00:41:32by first tv phil damato's iron man cal worked five furlongs at santa anita sunday morning in 59 and 4
00:41:40that's him down on the inside working company with moonfly on the outside the four-year-old iron man cal
00:41:47won the pat o'brien stakes last out august the 29th at delmar and is being pointed towards the
00:41:53start in the breeders cup mile we'll be right back after this message from first tv
00:42:01be a smarter better with first tv the best horses
00:42:07with thousands of exclusive morning workouts
00:42:14all at your fingertips and delivered right into your inbox
00:42:19everything you need to be informed be smart bet smart with first tv
00:42:26be smart bet smart with first tv
00:42:33you
00:42:33you
00:42:33you
00:42:33you
00:42:39you
00:42:52you
00:43:01on this week's edition of first things first many breeders cup implications across the country but
00:43:06i caught up with the connections of the three major races at santa anita this past weekend
00:43:17what a way for her to break her maiden going from turf to dirt gives adrian escobedo his very first
00:43:22graded stakes win in a grade two no less tell me matt what went into the decision to even put
00:43:28this
00:43:28filly in here in the first place uh we knew she was a good filly she was training well she
00:43:33has all
00:43:33the attributes of a stakes horse we bought her at keeneland larry zap myself amanda murphy
00:43:38and i want to say thank you to my partners josie aglia kevin o'donnell and alan keith but uh
00:43:44adrian we gave the adrian the mount because we were at the jockey karaoke in delmar
00:43:48and he bought me and larry a beer so i said we got to give him a mount on a
00:43:51good horse
00:43:53we celebrate hughes getting the win and you're in american pharaoh here here with one of the
00:43:58lead owners in barbara bankey and jockey one hernandez barbara how you feeling right now that
00:44:03was exciting that was excellent excellent it was a perfect ride thank you thank you and it looks like
00:44:10he'll have plenty left in the tank for breeder's cup so all excited what did bob tell you after
00:44:15the race was that exactly what he was looking for yes that's always a and he said he's really good
00:44:21i said yeah that's a great impersonation of bob he's really good so is he really good one
00:44:26hernandez it looks like he broke just the step slow today yes uh he's really good uh yeah he broke
00:44:32step slow today but uh you know on the paddock bob told me that that he caught a little bit
00:44:37of blinker
00:44:37so he was a less less blinker so he told me i do that to relax uh relax and you
00:44:42can do whatever
00:44:42you want with him and you know he was right here with billy karch managing partner little red feather
00:44:47how cool was that talk about walk the dog it was pretty cool um you know special thanks to brett
00:44:53jones
00:44:54and his crew at airdrie for breeding this philly and owning it with us and and to sol kewman and
00:44:58his
00:44:58whole crew at matiket um we knew how special this philly was and kind of a little disappointed last
00:45:04time and hector even said he he blamed us for not just sending her to the lead in the uh
00:45:08race down at delmar so he took command today and we had a long talk about just letting her be
00:45:15comfortable i didn't care how fast or slow they went i didn't think a mile and a quarter was going
00:45:19to be a problem and and hector really did a great job he flew home i mean i think they
00:45:23went sub 23 home
00:45:24so um you know let's see what happens at keeneland
00:45:32many thanks to everybody who spoke to me this past week and massive congratulations to the
00:45:36connection of domain expansion and young adrian escobedo who picked up his very first graded
00:45:42stakes if i'd have known all those years ago when i was riding all i had to do was buy
00:45:48the owners of
00:45:48beer i'd have won a gazillion grade one races anyway enough of that let's move on and talk about santa
00:45:55anita this weekend we do have a four day race weekend we will have racing on monday holiday
00:46:02monday two buck monday two dollar hot dogs two dollar beers we know that randy will be there with bells
00:46:08on
00:46:08do come and join us this weekend at santa anita oh we'll also have octoberfest but we got some
00:46:14steins for you randy we're even going to put a randy moss name on a stein just for you i
00:46:19have room i have
00:46:20room on my shelf and now it's time for our gainsway guest of the week absolutely delighted to
00:46:25bring in grade one winning trainer john grabowski john how does that sound and how are you doing
00:46:31today it's it's it's amazing it's an amazing feeling i i never thought in my wildest dreams
00:46:38that i'd ever win a grade one stake um let alone any stakes at at bellmont park so it's been
00:46:46just
00:46:46incredible it's been incredible it obviously has not sunk in yet has it sunk in the enormity
00:46:53of what you have done it has it has not i'm still on cloud nine it's it's just been an
00:47:00amazing ride
00:47:01and i'm so proud of my filly dotsy she is just a spectacular two-year-old filly and and her
00:47:10i i i have
00:47:13lots of hopes and dreams in the future for her well john in every sport people love a great underdog
00:47:20story
00:47:20and this was one of the biggest stories of the month in thoroughbred racing now you're headed to
00:47:26the breeders cup in four weeks if everything goes well you said you were a little emotional after
00:47:30the win understandably and said that it was the biggest moment in your life other than the birth
00:47:36of your children that's people looking at this from outside the sport might say it's just a horse race
00:47:42what what are some of the things that made this so special for you what made this so special is
00:47:51uh
00:47:51well my relationship with this horse um i uh i found her in the sale um it was the october
00:48:00sale in
00:48:01kentucky i i flew there and uh josie pomisano put a put together actually a shortlist for me
00:48:09uh joseph pomisano is an ex linda rice agent she's she's she's worked the sales she's she's
00:48:16excellent she put together a shortlist for me of about 25 horses and i looked at all of them
00:48:22and when i came up upon dot see she just stood out she was so correct she was beautiful i
00:48:29mean she was
00:48:30big and she looked like a colt and uh i said i want this horse this is the one i
00:48:36want and uh
00:48:38uh and and it looked off her pedigree i could we can maybe possibly do it it's possible that we
00:48:46could afford her i was just hoping because i had i had about 60 70 000 to to spend and
00:48:53uh and i got
00:48:55her for 37 it was just when that hammer went down i was shaking so hard i was so excited
00:49:03and i had a hard
00:49:04type signing the the the slip um the fellow that was he gave me the slip she was kind of
00:49:11laughing at
00:49:11me so so yeah i have a special relationship with this horse uh jesse hopple uh we sent her down
00:49:20to
00:49:20jesse to uh to break he did a fabulous job breaking her i even went down to visit her a
00:49:27couple of times
00:49:28and uh with the owner and uh and she just galloped her stride was just beautiful and he loved her
00:49:36and
00:49:37uh so i got her back at finger lakes and i started uh working with her and uh and the
00:49:43and the further
00:49:44we were breezing her the better she was going and uh we we breezed her and get some really really
00:49:52really
00:49:52nice horses older horses and she toyed with them it was just it was shock and awe watching her breeze
00:49:59so we got down to uh i i i i plan on a race for her at saratoga and i
00:50:07got her all down there and uh
00:50:11i took her down there three days ahead of time wanted to give her a chance to uh
00:50:16gobble to the track and school in the gate and school in the paddock a couple of times so and
00:50:22that's what we did we schooled in the paddock and and uh she got excited very excited the second time
00:50:29we schooled her and it's all the i schooled in the afternoon all the horses left left her to go
00:50:36race
00:50:36and she really wanted to be with them and so she got really really excited we calmed her down i
00:50:44said okay
00:50:45now now now it's time to put uh try to practice saddled her so when i saddled her um she
00:50:52went up and
00:50:53over and she flipped in the flipped in the stall um yes she got stuck on the wall and she
00:51:00was really
00:51:01really cast and at that time though just the the you can't even imagine the motions i felt for her
00:51:11it was uh all the air went out of the room and uh all i could do was just hope
00:51:18that she was okay
00:51:20and and we finally got her off the wall she got up and she was okay and we had to
00:51:27vet the vets many
00:51:28vini vets check her out and uh and and and she was okay so um so at that time we
00:51:37had to come up with a
00:51:39new plan for her and the new plan was me stay with her i have a string of horses at
00:51:45finger lakes but i
00:51:45have a great assistant trainer her name is daniel boroski anyway she she handled everything all my
00:51:52affairs at finger lakes i stayed with her at saratoga and got her through the the fears of the paddock
00:52:02and
00:52:02the crowd and the starting gate and just because saratoga is unlike any other place it's a lot of
00:52:11action going on so she she i schooled her i schooled her eight times
00:52:19you had never won a race at saratoga i have never won a race at saratoga no i finished second
00:52:25once on a
00:52:27uh a maiden that i brought up but uh a couple years before that but yeah no i've never won
00:52:33a race
00:52:33at saratoga not as a trainer as a jockey i i've i've i've won some races quite a few races
00:52:40but not
00:52:41as a trainer it was just so so much uh elation when we did win and how she won she
00:52:49i know it was an
00:52:51auction race and uh but she just toyed with those horses and we were so excited the offer started
00:52:59coming in on her and uh and thank god we didn't sell her and my owner he he wouldn't have
00:53:06it he
00:53:07and i was very very grateful because that was the dream would have ended if we would have sold her
00:53:13of
00:53:13course obviously but we were going in i said what do we do with her now okay so we got
00:53:19her back to
00:53:19finger legs and chilling out and um we had to decide whether where we're gonna run now i wanted
00:53:28to originally just pick an easy easier race like like a a step up maybe it never went to allowance
00:53:35but there was none there was none and and i spoke to the race i go well when are you
00:53:41gonna write one
00:53:43rob and he says uh well not until november he says it's it's a frisette
00:53:49or nothing i said oh my goodness so i did nominate her i nominated her and i said well we'll
00:53:58see
00:53:58what's in there and it looked like um and i got the email i got the text from from the
00:54:05stakes
00:54:05coordinator he says looks like it might be a bit short field um so i thought okay well
00:54:14i had the last second last minute i i called up like you're like because they i they were they
00:54:22said you know that's they were getting ready to draw i says okay i better call and ask how many
00:54:27horses
00:54:27there was six in there at the time well let's enter let's enter let's pay the fee and see what's
00:54:34in there
00:54:40and uh so um there was a couple other hurdles that we had to go through to get there but
00:54:47we decided
00:54:48let's try it let's try it let's go for it see what she can do and uh so off we
00:54:56go to belmont
00:54:58and uh so at that time now i once again i shipped her plenty of times so i could school
00:55:06her i schooled
00:55:08her uh uh twice in the past do you get on her as well i have gotten on her in
00:55:15the past but no i have a
00:55:17uh a jockey actually he writes here uh his name is uh louis pena and uh he's he's her uh
00:55:27exercise
00:55:27rider and he gets on her all the time he loves her and so and and pretty much from day
00:55:33one he's gotten
00:55:34on her i've been on her just uh jogging her in the shed row but uh but as far as
00:55:40going to the track and
00:55:41stuff he's because he's he's so good with young horses he's got so much patience and that's what
00:55:48she needed was patience because she she was she wasn't easy at all she she she her mother is uh
00:55:59uh sire was fuchiachi pegasus if you know the fuchiachi pegasus um reputation um they're very
00:56:09volatile so but they could run and uh she uh tacitus was the same way so so it was kind
00:56:16of
00:56:18high stress and high stress on both sides so and that's but she she it is so it takes some
00:56:28time to
00:56:30she wasn't easy to work with so but take a pony with her every everything uh is uh planned out
00:56:38every
00:56:39day for her and everything has to be go just right but she she's gotten through all that stuff and
00:56:45she's really really matured so i tell you when she won when she broke and and kendrick was sitting on
00:56:55her really hard against her and i was going oh my goodness she's doing it so easy and she and
00:57:03i says i
00:57:04think she's gonna win i think she's got these horses and she he he inherited the lead and she just
00:57:11it
00:57:12looked like she just toyed with him and the emotions that came out of that race uh when she crossed
00:57:22the
00:57:22finish line it was just i i can't explain it i can't explain it it was it was it was
00:57:30the biggest thrill of my life like i said other than the the birth of my two children and and
00:57:38i
00:57:38know that comes i know that came from rocky but it's true it is so true john now it's it's
00:57:46four days
00:57:47as we're uh recording this podcast it's four days after her race tell us how she's bounced out of it
00:57:52and what the plan is leading up to going to keeneland well we we uh shipped her um the next
00:57:58day back to
00:57:59finger legs i wanted to get her back here as soon as i could and so i can get her
00:58:04at home and evaluate
00:58:06her and today she trained for the first day so i i i want a few days to see how
00:58:13she's doing and see how
00:58:14she's going and uh and then we'll decide uh at that time pretty in the in the in the soon
00:58:22very soon
00:58:23whether we're going to the breeders cup or not because there's a couple of different paths for
00:58:27we can take and i i spoke that with the owner i said there's here's two paths we go to
00:58:33the breeders
00:58:34cup obviously and uh and i think she she fits to go um or or we take the kentucky oaks
00:58:45path and pass
00:58:46the breeders cup and and then do the prep races going into the kentucky oaks so those are the two
00:58:53decisions
00:58:54that we have to make uh obviously breeders cup is our number one though twice right now but we got
00:59:01to
00:59:01see better see how how everything's going with her anyway and she's going to tell me if we're going
00:59:08or not can't you do both we can it's your thing yes yes so john as a jockey as a
00:59:18jockey you were
00:59:20an institution at finger lakes uh you won correct me if i'm wrong 3 400 races in the saddle and
00:59:27it's
00:59:28not that common for a rider who had that kind of success to then switch immediately to the stressful
00:59:37job and sometimes the thankless job and the early early mornings of training racehorses and all the
00:59:43frustration that goes along with that uh why did you choose to do that to yourself after you
00:59:49retired from the saddle i don't know i was talking to gary contesta and i told him yeah i'm thinking
00:59:56about retiring next year he says why and he said what are you gonna do train horses and he says
01:00:02why
01:00:07so i don't know it seemed like the most natural thing for me to do and my wife and i
01:00:11both talked
01:00:12about it and uh my wife is uh is pauline uh for camera grabowski she uh she came up with
01:00:23uh clive rice
01:00:24and and linda rice and she worked for todd fletcher and also bill mott she has a equine science three
01:00:34um
01:00:35and uh so we both it was a team effort um when we started and um i felt it the
01:00:45learning curve was
01:00:47very large in training resources um it took us a really a few years to to really get the feel
01:00:56of it
01:00:57they you get thrown so much thrown at you but i tell you what really um helped me over the
01:01:08years
01:01:08was linda rice the conversations countless conversations i've had with her now linda you'll
01:01:15only get about 30 seconds to talk but you better listen because whatever she has to say matters and
01:01:25you better retain what she has to say because she's a just a phenomenal horse person so we we have
01:01:33a
01:01:33relationship with uh linda uh my wife is uh her assistant trainer here at finger lake so we get all
01:01:40the linda rice horses in and um so just just working with linda and and knowing uh you know i've
01:01:52i've
01:01:52had like i said i've had countless conversations with her um over the years and uh well linda how would
01:02:01you handle this i tell you what john this is what we're gonna do okay so and and uh and
01:02:08like i said you'll
01:02:09have maybe 30 seconds but like i said you better have there been times when you second guess your
01:02:15decision uh yeah you always do as a trainer you're always gonna second guess that's this is the nature
01:02:23of uh of it you but but you have to live with your uh decisions and you've got to stick
01:02:29with them and
01:02:29and you just make your best decision and you go forward so what's been the hardest thing from the
01:02:36transition from jockey to trainer well dealing with uh your employees okay yeah but you're gonna say
01:02:45dealing with owners absolutely dealing with them i'm very very lucky because i have great owners
01:02:54and most of them are very low pressure owners uh right now um i've got that could change i've got
01:03:02one
01:03:02more question dot c it's a very unusual name you mentioned the owners of dot c who are they and
01:03:10how did they come up with the name dot c it sounds like it means something to somebody it really
01:03:15does it
01:03:16really does it's uh t uh uh uh tsp enterprises um it's uh it's uh my owner's name is thomas
01:03:26uh pollack
01:03:28um it's p-a-l-u-c-k um anyways um his wife is named dorothy and he he he
01:03:38named it uh after his wife
01:03:40yes that's how that name it's really a great name it's really here comes dot c it's dot c coming
01:03:48down
01:03:48the lane so it's great i'm just curious to know that the next race is obviously the goal wherever you
01:03:56go but
01:03:57i would imagine that there's also it has to be in the back of your mind that there's a lifestyle
01:04:01decision for you in the near future because my understanding is you're a finger lakes based
01:04:06trainer right that means you race from the spring until finger lakes meet ends exactly in late autumn
01:04:13so you might have to contemplate a going to florida for the winter i would imagine for the first time
01:04:17no question no question i'm with this philly wherever she goes and i'm looking forward to it i'm
01:04:23so excited it's you can't even imagine how excited i'm so but no chance they're ever selling this philly
01:04:30because i'm sure even after the grade one your phone has been buzzing off the hook uh it's been uh
01:04:35buzzing off the hook we got many many large very large offers and um no we had a long conversation
01:04:43i
01:04:43wanted to make sure i threw it all out there um with the with tom and uh yesterday we had
01:04:51a big we
01:04:52had a three-way conference call um and i i just threw everything out of there and he does not
01:05:00want
01:05:00to sell um matter of fact i think after she's uh done racing he wants to breed her so it's
01:05:08great and
01:05:09it's great so i love that me too absolutely awesome great story john it's it's really something
01:05:17congratulations well it's it's been an honor it really has it's just so exciting well john we are
01:05:25wishing you the very best of luck and hopefully we'll all get to catch up at breeders cup thanks
01:05:31so much for being the gainsway guest of the week thank you so much i appreciate it it's like i
01:05:36said
01:05:36it's been an honor our guest of the week john grabowski came to you courtesy of gainsway farm
01:05:43the home to top stallions like cara conte who is the sire of agate who earned his automatic birth
01:05:50in the breeders cup juvenile turf with his off the pace win in a castle and key bourbon steaks on
01:05:56sunday at keeneland cara conte himself of course was a classic winner in france and a breeders cup
01:06:03winner he took the breeders cup mile at santa nita with a 110 buyer speed figure back in the day
01:06:09cara conte's two-year-olds have really come out running this year so far he has four black type horses
01:06:16and
01:06:16two black type winners from his 17 starters in stakes races and he's seen 10 of his juveniles
01:06:22reach the winner circle in 2026 gainsway power passion performance the sun shines bright on cara
01:06:32his versatility is evidenced by winners on all surfaces across the globe spandarella turns it into a
01:06:40pro session yet another grade one for this magnificent daughter of cara conte roja waved goodbye
01:06:48right out of the gate to win the intercontinental and his offspring are lighting up the sales ring
01:06:54three hundred thousand dollars emma thank you cara conte standing at gainsway
01:06:59the pennsylvania breeding program is the best program in the country the stallion awards the owner bonuses
01:07:07also the restrictive races and the stakes races for pennsylvania breads last year 321 pennsylvania
01:07:13breeders earned breeders awards 22 pennsylvania breeders earned over 100 000 dollars we have the
01:07:21best program in the country take advantage of the fantastic program that we have learn more at
01:07:28pa bread.com and now it's time here on the td and writer's room for our weekly look at pennsylvania
01:07:35breads brought to you by the phba the pennsylvania horse breeders association easy pickings this week
01:07:41to decide who to talk about it was a huge weekend overall for the pennsylvania bread program but emphatic
01:07:48tops the list emphatically bred by john marshall emphatic went wire to wire in that very fast
01:07:54al sabaitis steaks on opening day of the keeneland meeting holding off the favorites summer starlet she is
01:08:00now three for three lifetime emphatic she will be one of the favorites in the breeders cup juvenile
01:08:05phillies for which she earned a fees paid birth coming up of course in four weeks at keeneland to get
01:08:11in on the action and to learn more about the pa bread program contact brian sanfratello at 610-444-1050
01:08:19or
01:08:20log on or go to your browser and point it toward pa bread.com
01:08:27okay guys it's time to look forward and we're just going to give keeneland some love here and touch
01:08:31on the grade one qe2 challenge stakes at keeneland this coming saturday we'll cap off a terrific weekend
01:08:38of racing we've got the king's plate winner in there randy i know you are luster's number one fan you've
01:08:44been on her actually since she broke her maiden what can you tell us about the qe2 and who to
01:08:49look forward
01:08:49to well i think she's going to be a pretty solid favorite as usual the qe2 is just a fantastic
01:08:54race
01:08:54though from top to bottom uh griffard ships in a horse from france who's got some form
01:08:59i i'm just yeah td if it was my horse uh you know if it was my horse it probably
01:09:04wouldn't be where she
01:09:05is right now but luster is is bred for dirt right she's by nick's go out of a the factor
01:09:11mare she's
01:09:12not bred for grass she's not necessarily bred for synthetic although nick's goes do well on synthetic i
01:09:18mean why not what spinster and then the and then try the distaff maybe she'll run on the philly
01:09:24mare turf if she wins here but i kind of doubt it uh they're being very conservative with her i
01:09:29think
01:09:29she's better than that yeah i thought that was a curious placement for her and this is a race where
01:09:34you know the qe2 annually comes up uh right around the three week mark to the breeders cup
01:09:40so it's a little bit of a tight turnaround by today's standards but the race comes up pretty good every
01:09:45year uh i landed on faithful departed in this race turning back to nine furlongs which i think is her
01:09:52better distance off of a two-month layoff uh she has a win in this and a very close second
01:09:57at that
01:09:58distance and in fact throughout her career in eight starts she's never been in the races she's lost
01:10:04she's won three she's been second and three and in the other ones she's never been worse than two
01:10:08and three quarter lengths off the winner and uh we saw her last in the saratoga oaks going a mile
01:10:14and
01:10:15three sixteenths indicating to me maybe that race was a little too long for her she led late and was
01:10:21just collared at the last jump and um i i like her uh turning back coming off the short uh
01:10:27mid mid type
01:10:29of layoff two months uh on saturday's race how about the francis crafard horse randy
01:10:36i've been sitting here i've been sitting trying to find a video on youtube on racing post this this
01:10:44is what we do is it braida or braida i don't know and i wanted to be correct assuming that
01:10:49the race
01:10:49caller is correct but i couldn't find it but no i think grafard obviously we said this sound like a
01:10:54broken record anytime the europeans ship a horse over uh you got to pay extra extra attention to it on
01:11:00the grass and so i wouldn't be surprised at all to see uh b-r-a-i-d-a when
01:11:06the uh the qe2
01:11:08she's gonna win on saturday oh you know he'll get it right he's the greatest okay let's talk about
01:11:14keeneland really quickly some news coming from keeneland that i heartily applaud they have raised
01:11:20the age or put an age to mares going through the sale that'll start this november mares cannot
01:11:27be older than 18 years young to be sold via auction which i love i mean people should take
01:11:33care of their own and not dump their mares at an auction so well done to keeneland you've got a
01:11:39bit
01:11:39more about conditions for sale td yeah the the asterisk to that however is unless it's part of a complete
01:11:45dispersal and a couple of other tweaks for keeneland starting in 2027 with the sales there the minimum
01:11:52acceptable bid to put a horse through the ring is going to be 2500 and they've also added a
01:11:59new term of sale that pregnant mares must have a cover date of march 1st or later in the preceding
01:12:05year to be eligible for the sale so great news coming out of keeneland i think that'll do it
01:12:11for us won't it are we done here randy's still going down a rabbit hole he's got a rabbit hole
01:12:17look
01:12:18to him it's apparently an old italian footballer ariido braida i don't know go ahead
01:12:28i get down these rabbit holes zoe and it's hard for me to climb out
01:12:33ariido braida we got it right the tdn writers room is brought to you by kentucky breads did you
01:12:40know that kentucky breads comprise nine out of the ten spots on the breeders cup classic rankings and after
01:12:47this weekend they're going to make their presence felt in all the other races as well here are just
01:12:52the grade one kentucky bread winners from this weekend alone minaret station took down the joe
01:12:58hirsch turf classic at belmont uss valor took the grade one champagne dotsy took the frisette
01:13:05classic hue the first lady american history the breeders futurity use the american pharaoh at santa
01:13:12anita and fully subscribed took down the spinster stakes what a weekend that's why we say kentucky
01:13:18breads breed them raise them race them we all win with some of the fullest fields in the country
01:13:26and quality racing year round there's never been a better time to reap the rewards of breeding and
01:13:32racing in kentucky purse money in kentucky is at an all-time high as his average purse per race outpacing
01:13:41california florida and new york kentucky breads breed them raise them race them we all win
01:13:54all the thrills fraction of the bills
01:14:03experience the power of the partnership
01:14:09change your life make new friends and compete at the highest level of thoroughbred racing
01:14:16west point thoroughbreds the gold standard in racing partnerships visit westpoint tv.com
01:14:24and the td and writers room also brought to you by west point thoroughbreds which salutes mark cassie
01:14:29and his entire team for guiding counting stars through an ambitious but highly successful three-year-old
01:14:36campaign her runner-up finish in the spinster stakes kept a remarkable stretch of 12 races in a little
01:14:41more than 12 months you don't see that often nowadays at the top level and it keeps counting
01:14:46stars firmly in the running for an eclipse award as this year's champion three-year-old filly she will
01:14:52skip the breeder's cup and earned a well-earned rest spending 30 to 60 days off at cassie's training
01:14:58center in ocala there's news for you our thanks meanwhile on behalf of west point thoroughbreds to mark
01:15:04and his team for their dedication and outstanding care of this special filly she has given her west
01:15:10point partners plenty to celebrate and of course plenty to look forward to for her next chapter
01:15:15in 2027 as a four-year-old all right guys well that'll do it for us many thanks to everyone
01:15:25who
01:15:25puts on the show and we'll be back with bill next week thanks for joining us just found a great
01:15:32video
01:15:32a great video and it's in italian