Pennsylvania Derby 2024 | Matthew DeSantis

All right, welcome in Horse Racing Happy Hour September 19,

2024 edition of the show. Matthew DeSantis alongside my

name is Louis Rabo at Radio Louie on Twitter.

Find the show at Horse Happy Hour and we're all over the

socials people go. So go find us Instagram,

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If you're one of those young UNS and you need the IG in your

life. And by young UNS, I mean anyone

slightly younger than me at all. I mean, at all just any of those

things. And so, yes, if you're

wondering, yes, I did have a run in with the Barber this morning.

That's how these things go. But hey, here we are.

His name is Matthew DeSantis at Failed.

The menace on Twitter joins us from Long Island.

How are things on Long Island, Matthew?

They're lovely. It's that time of year in New

York where, you know, summer's turning into fall.

There's a little crispness in the air.

To quote the great F Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby,

life starts all over again the first time it gets crisp in the

fall. And so always love this time of

year. And I'm right out by the beach.

So just absolutely loving life. And, you know, the nice part is

we don't have to worry about conditions.

It's fast and firm up here in New York.

So we're thrilled about that. How about that?

It looks like we will have the same in outside of Philadelphia

this weekend as well. Ian, Matt's hope state of

Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania Derby.

You have to remind me, Matthew, these are the moments when I ask

people, hey, where did you come from?

Where are you going? In your case, you're actually a

Penn National First Bet guy, correct?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I grew up in Reading, PA,

which is probably about an hour and a half outside of

Philadelphia be an hour if we had better roads.

And then but I ultimately Grantville, which is where Penn

National is about 4045 minutes from where I grew up.

And so my dad took me there when I was 11 years old and I turned

$20.00 of allowance money into 26 dollars.

Thank you very much. And.

I was I. Was hooked.

Exactly. And so yeah, I've been playing

ever since. But I always love parks too and

and love to see obviously that track shine on his big day and

thrilled that we're gonna have better weather on Saturday than

we did last, which was just a monsoon, people remember.

Yeah, they, they got the absolute deluge of deluges last

year. I'm stunned that they ran the

turf Monster. I I can't imagine what that turf

course was like. But I wanted to say, you know,

one of the things about the home track or or whatever, it's

amazing what people will think of as their home track, how far

away that is, that kind of thing.

And and the other part is I was interviewing Grant Forester, the

a couple about a month and a half, I guess.

Wow. Two months ago now trainer Grant

Forester. Yeah, the winner in the Indiana

Oaks this year. And it was right before that.

And he said one of the cool things about having a horse in

the Oaks is you just get to be part of a Trax big day, right.

And so there's something cool about just being involved in the

big day. You and I happen to be at

Monmouth together this year for the Haskell, and there's

something just thought about being at another track's big

day, right? It's such, I don't want to call

it an honor, but it is. It's sort of an honor to be at

somebody's, you know, be at their big day for sure.

It is, you know, you get the razzle dazzle and in the case of

Monmouth, you just have an open bar in the paddock.

And I mean that's just spectacular.

Quite frankly, every track should have that on their big

day and it is, you know, it's really special and and the

really cool part and Louis, you know this from following all the

Kentucky Derbies and Kentucky Oaks is it's also a big deal to

be racing on the undercard of those big days.

And so many times connections will save a maiden who they're

really high on to run on the undercard of the Pennsylvania

Derby, the Haskell, you know, and certain big days you up here

in New York, the traverse, the Jim Dandy.

You know, it's not mistake that I believe last year we saw Seize

the Gray beat Dornak in a maiden special weight race on the

undercard of the Whitney. And so you see those types of

horses debut on big days like that.

And so that makes even the first couple of races on the card

exciting too. No, that's absolutely correct.

And I, I, it's so often that we'll refer to, oh, he ran on

Derby weekend or, you know, that sort of thing.

Oh, he ran, he ran during Derby week.

And you, you might not remember that it was Thursday or

Wednesday or whatever, but you remember he ran during Derby

week for sure. And no, you're totally right

about that. But Forster was talking about,

of course, he's a Pacific Northwest guy.

He was talking about being, you know, part of the races up

there, the Log Acres Mile, that kind of stuff.

And just, you know, how special it is to be, whether it's

Indianapolis or Seattle or whatever, just to be, you know,

at the track on the biggest day. I'm going to have Jessica Packet

on the on 680 tomorrow. And I was, I was going through

the sort of resume that she has. Of course, you know, Colonial

Downs, other places that she's been.

I was trying to figure out, I was talking to Tom Law, who's

done, you know, he was past president of the HPP or the AB

and he's doing all the pub for them this week.

If another female track announcer has called a Grade 1

before and I he couldn't come up with.

One she. Was the 1st.

She was the first last year and that was really cool.

I, I remember I had just started at Naira Bets and I was there

for Pennsylvania Derby Day and I actually interviewed her the day

before and she was about to make history being the first track

announcer to ever call a grade one race anywhere in the world.

And it was a just a really cool moment to be able to chat with

her a little bit. Because just a little bit of

back story. When I first started making

content, and this is probably about four years ago on my own

little show that I had called the Win Place show that had

minimal followers, but I was just starting out.

Jess took time and was a guest on my show anytime I asked and

she would come on, was always incredibly gracious with her

time. And I remember the day I had,

the day after I had her on my show the first time.

She was part of a front page story in the New York Times,

like a profile. And I messaged her and I said,

well, you're welcome. It's all because of my little.

That's right, that's right. Failed to menace.

How about not failing, huh? How about that, moving up in the

world, helping people with their lives?

No, because I, you know, it's interesting, these conversations

because I'm going to ask her about it tomorrow.

And I think people approach those kinds of, I don't want to

call them milestones, but those kinds of, you know, moments.

I think it's probably just the better thing with very different

approaches. Like I asked trader Sheree Devoe

over the summer if if she sees herself as one of the great

female trainers, she's like, I don't really think about that at

all. I think of myself as just

another trainer, you know? And I was like, well, you know,

Brittany Russell and Linda Rice and she's like, no, they're just

trainers. That's just what we do, you

know. And so I wondered, you know,

what Jessica's answer will be about that.

But it's not, it's not a nothing for sure, right?

Oh no, it's a it was a big deal and and it was, you know what's

interesting, I think everybody focused on the PA Derby, but of

course the cotillion's a great one right before that.

So it was actually calling the cotillion was actually the kind

of record setting or, or record-breaking or glass, you

know, ceiling shattering moment for her was calling that

cotillion last year. So yeah, it was, it was, it was

a special day last year despite the terrible weather.

And you know, now she gets to do it again this time around.

And it's two really good, 2 interesting fields.

I mean, obviously he's a big superstar in the gazillion.

And then I think of really wide open Pennsylvania Derby field.

Yeah, both races, by the way, have had unbelievably great

histories. You know, just in the last few

years of the Pennsylvania Derby. The winners are Saudi Crown,

Taba, Hot Rod Charlie, Math Wizard McKenzie, West Coast

Kinect, Frosted Byard. It will take charge If you put

together Matthew. I'm not kidding.

Like any 3 year old male race that stands up against

essentially any of them. It it really does, and it's

because almost every three-year old race has a couple of

clunkers. I mean no disrespect to the

horses that won, but there's a couple of them going on.

Kentucky Derby, Yeah, right. Yes, Well.

Right. I wasn't, I wasn't going to

start upsetting people in the state right away, but it was,

you know, you, you do see it. And you know, or, or sometimes

you look at the Preakness or even, you know, that's right in

the Belmont. I mean, even those races where

you go, well, who is that? You know, you kind of go for sky

tracking. Oh yeah, he did win that race,

you know, sort of thing. And that's as good a list of

three-year olds, prominent 3 year olds over the last 10 years

that you're going to find pretty much so anywhere.

So it is, you know, while I know this year's field has not

necessarily gotten the high profile attention, the history

of this race is very, very impressive.

Wanted to give a shout out to someone before we go on with the

show. Roger Browning watching with us.

One of those guys in Indianapolis that hangs out with

us here on the horse racing happy hour, he had the winner

two years ago of the the turf or no last year.

Excuse me, last year's a winner of the turf monster and nobody

listens who tragically died on his way back to Indianapolis.

And so, no, I know Rodger, this is an emotional week for you.

So thanks for hanging out with the show.

I I, I'm not sure I would be able to watch things about

Pennsylvania Derby weekend. So I appreciate you making time

to hang out with us. But yeah, just that incredible

turf monster. They had, you know, legitimate

Breeders' Cup hopes for that horse as well.

And we'll see if there is another great sprinter out of

that race considerably. Better conditions for that race

this coming weekend, for sure. Much, much better.

I mean, that was, that was rough.

But yeah, this year, much better conditions.

And I mean, I just remember last year, even on the main track,

just like puddles forming, basically hanging out on, you

know, the inner rail. And yeah, there there are some

stories that maybe I'll tell you after we stop recording about

some jockeys and trainers who were not very fond of certain

things that were taking place that day.

So. And yeah, that's the other thing

about I tell people, horse racing and college football.

You gotta show up because the weather doesn't matter.

Guy, NHL fanatics saying hi to you for joining on the show

tonight. Appreciate you guys all jumping

in on the horse racing happy hour tonight.

By the way, the past winners of the Cotillion include last year

Steve Kornacki did this episode. So you're you're filling in for

Steve Kornacki today. By the way, that's just.

I feel that's appropriate. No pressure.

And so he picked stealing crusher on this show.

He got it totally right, by the way.

He was like, I don't really care about the conditions.

I love her form in California. I think she's the winner and he

screenshots the whole thing sounded to me I'm like, that's

Steve Kornacki. How about that guy before that,

though, Society Clarriere, Midnight Biizu, Songbird,

Untappable Plum, pretty Aubre de Grace.

I mean, the list of winners of the cotillion man, it's, it's

like acorn level, it's met bio level.

I mean, it's that good. It is that good.

And again, I think we have a Philly who's probably going to

etch your name into history in that group this year and

certainly has the potential to with Torpedo Anna.

And so it's it's a great group historically and it's funny.

Ceiling Crusher was a horse I really liked going into that

race last year and I think actually might have been my top

pick in that race. I'd have to go back and look at

all the stuff I wrote, but the But I remember liking that horse

showing up on Pennsylvania Dirty Day.

And there's a guy, Andrew Radinsky, who kind of covers

parks a little bit for In the Money media.

Nice guy, young kid, He's always at the track.

And Andrew talked to some of Doug O'Neill's people and he

said they're treating this race like the Breeders Cup.

And I was like, put it all on ceiling crusher.

I was like, just put it all on ceiling crusher.

And it was the idea of like, this was their big race.

They weren't going to make it to the Distaff.

So this was the race for this horse.

This was the chance to get the Grade 1.

And it was like, all right, like, let's then then you know,

just sometimes that mentality of this is your this horse is fully

cranked up ready to go for this race.

There's not. We're leaving something in the

tank for the next one that that tells you all you need to know

sometimes. Yeah, we are live right now with

our friends at the Sporting Tribune.

You can find them at Sporting Trib on Twitter as well.

And I wrote about the Derby prep this last weekend, Matthew, we

had our first one in the Iroquois.

I used to totally ignore that race, except a man named Larry

Demeret took a horse named W Saratoga, won that race last

year, and then meandered his way down the Derby trail all the way

to the freaking starting gate. It did the darn thing got to

beat some very nice people on the demerit team last year as

well as part of our Derby week coverage here on our local ESPN

affiliate. And and so I I have a new

respect for the Iroquois because it I think it'd been 2006 since

the last even starter hit the the even got to the starting

gate. But Jonathan's way wins this,

wins this race, and frankly does it in a way that is impossible

to ignore. Right.

OK. And you know, Ohio bred, we're

going to set all those things aside for sure.

But look, this is I think this is the kind of horse that makes

sense as far as his breeding, as far as his running style.

You know, you know, you know, idiot Charlie on the damn side

of all of it seems to add up. I think you had two horses right

behind him, one who's gonna be a sprinter, one who will want to

go longer actually as well. I think the third place horse in

this race, for example, Jocoso, ends up probably being a turf

horse because of all the breeding on his damn side as

well. But you know, hey, if the purse

is there, you run for $300,000. It just is what it is.

What did you think of Jonathan's Way?

Do you think that's a horse that we could see pretty prominently

in the spring? I think so.

And I think he's a pretty serious horse.

And I was, you know, on with you on ESPN Radio before the Friday

before that race and we talked about this horse and I said, you

know, just how impressed I was by his debut because things

didn't go as planned. When you have a debut and

suddenly you get pinched between two horses and you find yourself

sitting second last, that's not a position most young 2 year old

horses are comfortable doing. Taking kickback and being behind

other runners. And for that horse to then make

a move the way he did, if you go back and watch the replay of

that maiden race, so impressive because he just made a move 4

wide around the turn like it was just no problem and just gave up

all the ground knowing that he could just easily win that race.

And he did. And then for him to come back

and show so much superior speed on in the Iroquois and just take

him basically gate to wire just shows incredible versatility

from a young horse. And there's a maturation that

this horse has in terms of a mental maturation of physical

maturation. The 89 buyer speed figure

certainly matches up and more than compares with what we've

seen a lot of other top 2 year olds do.

So I'm happy for Phil Bauer. I thought Caitlin Free had a

great interview with him afterwards where, you know, he

kind of talked about, you know, listen, he's had a lot of good

fillies and now this is a chance to have some really good Colts

here in Jonathan's way, I think is absolutely a horse that

you're going to have to take seriously come springtime and

even looking ahead to the Breeders Cup Juvenile.

And of course, Phil Bauer, a smaller group because he does

train privately for Rigney Racing.

They did spend a significant amount of money on this horse.

And so, right, good for them to get return on that as well.

By the way, the winner before. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was just going to say to that

point, reminds me a little bit of what's going on with

Ferocious as well. Ferocious was a really big

purchase for Ramiro Restrepo in that group and and Delgado and

they usually don't go after $1.3 million horses in that group.

They usually are going after $250,000 horses or less, which

is what Mage was. And so that's interesting that

you had these two kind of smaller mid level trainers,

ownership groups really taking a big swing with these two

respective horses who, oh, by the way, just turned out to be

two of the top, I don't know, 3 or 4 two year olds now in the

country. Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

Phil Bauer, of course, this year has had 91 starters, 20 wins.

So it's not as though he doesn't know what he's doing, folks.

He definitely does. It's just this getting to the

starting game for the Kentucky Derby's a different ask, though.

It's a very different process. It's a very different thing in

its own right. And so if this horse makes it or

not doesn't mean that he did a poorer training job by any

stretch, but rather just how difficult it is.

I have to mention that the winner was Court Vision in 2007,

in 2008, one the Hollywood with Derby and then, of course, the

year after when the Breeders come mild.

So obviously you can win the Iroquois and go on to just fine

of a career as well. Again, he's he's Matthew

DeSantis. He's with naira bets.

You can find him on Twitter at failed the menace.

I'm Louie Rabo at radio Louie on Twitter.

I was going to do the blind rankings with you and then I

lost my producer. So I can't do both and I'm not

going to. I'm not going to pretend that I

know how to do both. I'm not that guy.

I'm not not yet, not yet. I'm not, I'm not not, not yet

43, not 44. You understand me?

I got time. And so the the, the last 10

winners, I was going to have you blind rank the last 10

Pennsylvania Derby winners. By the way, I set it up

perfectly last week. I got Ilben to put Justify as

the 5th best Derby winner in the last 10 years.

Oh. Beautiful.

Oh, Louis Rabo just set it up. Let's Go was fantastic.

And so, but of these winners, I'll mention them again.

Saudi Crowd, Table, Hot Rod, Charlie, Math Wizard, Mackenzie,

West Coast Connect, Frosted, Byron and we'll take charge.

Do you have a favorite of those horses?

Oh, God, do I have a favorite? I mean, part of me is always

going to love Frosted, but I I, yeah, God, I would have to say

out of that group. Honestly, I'm looking at it

because you texted me this group as well.

And maybe it's a little recency bias, but hold all tickets.

I like hot rod Charlie. I just that horse.

I I just always like that horse. He always found trouble one way

or another. And because there was even like

a long objection in that Pennsylvania Jersey, if you

remember as well with him in Midnight Bourbon.

And those two kind of had a, you know, went back and forth.

Obviously Midnight Bourbon, you know, falls in the Haskell and

comes back to then run really well after that.

So it was but Hot Rod was always a really a horse.

I always really liked. I mean, how could you not?

I think the ownership group, bunch of young guys, you know,

get behind that horse. And so that was one.

But what I will say is the other horse I wanted to shout out is

McKenzie, who has suddenly become quite the first crop sire

that we have this year and is the sire to Chancellor

Mcpatrick, who we just saw win the Hopeful up in Saratoga.

So I feel like sometimes when you see horses like Gun Runner

and McKenzie now on some of these lists, it's so interesting

to see how people's estimation of their horses, of those horses

grow because of their second career as a sire suddenly.

Yeah, Kinect stands out on the list for that, right, For me at

least. Right, as far as the the

breeding side of things and, and what that's turned into in his,

with his prodigy especially. And so, yeah, no, it's an

interesting list. And Gandolfo, who did this show

until two weeks ago, 'cause he's a bum, was a big fan of Hot Rod

Charlie because his grandfather, who got them into horses, was

named Charlie and he sold cars for a living.

Oh my God. Joke, joke grows and I and I

think it's was it Breeders' Cup Juvenile?

He ran second at like 50 to one or 60 to one or something.

I think that's the story. Mike was like, you know what, I

got to put 5 bucks on this horse and he didn't bother to go

across the board. And he always got towards the.

Board and it's one of the great stories because we're standing

there and he goes and I'm like, oh man, he went deep in a

second. Good for you, Mike, good for

you. He's like I I I didn't bet him

across the board, Mike no, what are we doing?

That was fantastic. So oh man, just one of those

great moments. With the track.

Yeah, Hot rod, Charlie. I'll remember that story almost

certainly forever. NHL fanatic wants to know, man,

his unmatched wisdom. The wise guy horse for Saturday.

I have a problem here. Matthew and I, We need to get

into it. So we had a buzz horse for the

Iroquois and now we got a wiseguy horse for the

Pennsylvania Derby. I, I want to be clear with our

front NHL fanatic. I am OK with wiseguy horses.

I'm not OK with buzz horses for Derby.

Perhaps what? What says?

Matthew does ask. Yeah, and by the way, thank you

to Kevin for putting another jinx on another buzz.

You know what? And.

So you know, what's funny is actually I got it wrong in the

broadcast. He was totally right.

He was on Jonathan's way. I mentioned the wrong words

that. He was talking.

So he was totally right. So in the in the piece of the

Sporting Tribune, I gave him all of the credit that I could.

I opened the article with the guy because I said it wrong on

Friday with the with you. Yeah, I love it.

That's hysterical. You know, it's interesting.

I think Unmatched Wisdom here's what I would say if Unmatched

Wisdom's morning line was seven to two.

I don't think he'd be a wise guy.

Horse. Yeah, right, I think.

Right, all right, let me.

Check. My connection.

There we go. Sorry about that.

Yeah. Sorry.

And so, yeah, so I was just saying like if unmatched

Wisdom's morning line was. 7:00 to 7:00.

I don't, yeah, I don't think he'd be considered that.

But I agree. He's the horse that everybody's

looking at in the morning line going, you know, if we can get

him at, if we can even get him at 4 to one, nine to two like

that, that would be a great price to be able to get on that

type of a horse. Because you know, Dragoon guard,

you know, we can start diving into this if you want, But like

Dragoon guard, his his numbers don't really stand out over the

rest of the field at all. And I mean, he's he's kind of 1.

He gives me a lot of Arthur's ride vibes of a horse that's

managed to like just get out up on the front end and kind of

carve out fractions without really being pressed.

And now suddenly you're in a race with seize the Gray

unmatched wisdom and just step on it all who want to be

forward. That's going to be tough.

I can't remember a race of this this level with this many front

runners and a mile and an eighth 2 Turner.

I can't. I mean, it's if this is just a

stunning number of horses, they're going to want to be near

the front like you mentioned. I mean, I think the only hunter

buyer in this in this field is sees the grey in the in the

Preakness, right? I mean, and so it is, you know,

it, that one stands out. And so it is there's going to

be, if there's a chance at least of that kind, what you just

mentioned, this pace explosion at the beginning of the race,

essentially, who might be behind that group of horses.

He's going to be part of that group of horses.

We'll get into it. I like another horse around

those odds. And when we get to the

Pennsylvania Derby, I will explain why it's one of those.

Matthew, I'm I'm sure you have these moments.

You look at the past performances and you're like,

why do I love this horse? Why do I love this horse?

Why do I love this horse? And then you just finally go

with it. By the way, sees the great was

that horse in the Preakness for me and gang smoking was the

horse of the United Nations for me this year.

So I'm gonna trust this one as well because I'm 2 for two on

those horses and I'm gonna try to make it 3 for three as we

move forward. But of course our show is

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All right, tons of steaks on the card you mentioned, by the way,

trying to get into the maiden races on this day.

They're 100K in Philly this weekend, right?

So it is, you know, they got eighteen horses entered for a

maiden race this weekend. So make sure you're checking out

all the different bets available at at parks this weekend.

But let's go ahead. I mean, Next is running in the

Greenwood. I don't think we need to spend a

lot of time on the Greenwood. But how many times have you

gotten to watch Next in person? I don't think I've seen him in

person. I've seen him 3-4 times in

person and I saw him last year. I've just, I've seen him the two

Greenwood Cups that he's won and I've seen, I saw him this year

up at Aqueduct and I saw him in Saratoga as well.

So yeah, this made my fifth time.

He's amazing. And it's just so and and I also

am so happy for obviously for Dan Callens, but also for Lawan

Machado, who, you know, puts in a lot of time down in your neck

of the woods and at Turfway Park and, you know, really grinds it

through this winter and for him just to get a special horse like

this to ride. And I just love seeing Lawan

come up and stay on the ride and, you know, always, always a

big fan of the axe man. And so you know that that's

that's going to be fun. And he just doesn't have an

equal. And he's just so dominant.

And I get, I get people wanting him to maybe go shorter.

And in my heart of hearts, I would love to see him run in a

mile and 1/4 and see what happened.

Yeah, yeah, he's gonna ask about that would be a lot of fun.

But I also like seeing greatness and just go out and do your

thing. Yeah.

You know, David Aragona, who does the lines up where you are

and does, frankly as good a job as anyone in the country.

He he was talking about, you know, hey, this might be a

category that's going away. Why are they running horses?

You know, why are they running next only in these kinds of

races? And to that number one, I think

the easy answer is, well, the races do exist right now and he

can go get the checks. But the second part is we got

ten horses for this field, man. It's not like you know it it We

forget that running for second stinks for the jockey, but it

doesn't stink for the ownership at a $200,000 race.

So I, I'll tell this story now. I was going to tell the story

off air, but I'll tell the story now and I'll I'll protect some

names, but last year. A little redaction on the horse

racing. Happy I'll redact a little bit

but I will say last year in the Greenwood Cup, if people

remember and all you have to do is look at the PPS, know who I'm

talking about, but there was next wins by 20 plus lengths.

The horse that was in second was appeared to safely be in second

and the jockey on the 2nd place horse, quite frankly, kind of

stood up and was riding the horse through the puddles

thinking, I got this. And some kind of like it was a

relatively inexperienced jockey is busting his ass to get to the

line at 69 to one and gets up for second by a nose over the

horse that was, I think second choice that day.

And I will just say that there was a very displeased trainer at

that jockey immediately after that race.

Because you're right, there's a big difference between 2nd and

3rd place money in a, in a, you know, two $300,000 stakes race

and, you know, run through the wire and it doesn't matter if

the other horse is 20 legs ahead.

You got to worry about winning your next race just to be

second. So no, it it's, it's a big deal

to get second and you know, to be grade three placed, you know,

those are things that are important for connections and

for horses futures. It reminds me of the flight line

Pacific classic. I'm gagging for the name of the

the Baffert horse that ran second, but was it?

He country. No, it wasn't country grammar.

Wasn't country grammar I'm I'm forgetting who he was right now

but but anyways, Baffert said that flight light was so far

ahead that his horse thought he won.

It was confused why he wasn't going to the winner's circle.

Yeah, I love that kind of story. So I imagine with next last year

the Greenwood, that second place finisher thought he had really

done the work it. Got up to the second place,

right? Yeah.

He thought he won it, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

I mean, it's, it's so incredible to see just how easily he pulls

away from everybody and just, and he's shown doing so much

versatility and he's such an interesting horse too.

And he's a little bit of a quirky horse, but he's he's,

it's really great to see that they've figured out what he does

well. And man, he does it as good as

anybody we've seen lately. If someone wanted to play the

pick four there, Matthew, where next is in the Greenwood Cup and

then it goes, you know, through the Turf Monster, some other

races, the mile there. How would you play that pick 4?

Are you trying to catch a price of the other legs or are you

understanding? Hey, next is part of this.

We're essentially playing a pick three.

Play it for a dollar, play it for 2 bucks.

Play it for 3 bucks if you can. Yeah, I mean that that's kind of

how I approach that that kind of latter approach of going,

listen, if if, if the horse racing gods are going to give

you a free square, don't spit in their face about it.

You know, don't try to out think yourself sometimes and and just

yeah, go and look at the next leg and maybe you can find a

price there. And I actually think that some

of those other races are a little bit more contentious

around, you know, that that Greenwood Cup.

So if you can find a six to one, an 8 to one horse that can kind

of get you a little bit of a price in the second leg, that's

great. But I've always been of the

opinion like don't try to out think yourself and you know, die

Vernon is a nice horse at 12:50 in that Greenwood Cup, but I'm

not picking Die Vernon and I'm I'm not fading next off of that

or I'm not including another horse and next certainly that

would be sacrilegious. But you know it.

It's just being smart about those sorts of things.

And I, I'm, I like putting together skinny tickets.

I don't mind putting together a like $8 pick 4 ticket or

something like that. You know, and, and, and having,

yeah, there might be two heavy favorites in there, but I might

throw in a couple of prices in the other two legs.

And OK, it might only pay $38, but it only cost me 8 bucks to

put it together. And so, you know, if I do it 2-3

times, it's going to pay off. The second finisher was country

grammar. So congratulations, you win

royal ship for this third and express train filling out the

ever popular flight line superfecta.

So there you are. That's an excuse me, here's.

It now here's a little quiz. From Louis Oh boy quizzes here.

We go what? What horse was what horse

finished closest to flight line in his career?

I'm going to go with Olympiad. Is that possibly correct?

It is not, but it's not. It's a good guess.

OK. It is happy saver.

How about? That that is random.

OK, yeah, I like that a lot. OK.

I'm not going to lie to you. Was that the Matt mile?

Yeah, Matt mile. You can use that anytime you

want, it's all yours. This free information that I

knew you could also use it. How about that?

All. Right, the turf monster.

Shout out to our guy. I want to pull him up again

here. Our guy Roger Browning.

Emotional weekend for him. Had last year's winner with

Nobody Listens. We got to party on my birthday

at Turfway Park when he won the Big Daddy in 2022, before that,

of course, and then I went on to a really, really great career

after that. But the Turf Monster is five

furlongs, the Breeders Cup distance on the turf there at

parks go for a quarter, $1,000,000 for three-year olds

and up here. I thought this was an

interesting field actually, and I think 1, where you can get

creative or you can kind of just press on horses you like.

We get horses coming out of Saratoga like Super Quest, who I

thought ran really well behind Big Invasion last time out, beat

our shot before that as well. But I think, you know, 6-7 and

eight in here, Allegon for for Edward Allard in here, maybe

Robert Reed's horse in four, Harp the seven I think at a

longer price might have had something said.

Bay coming in here. Anybody stand out to you in this

field? Yeah, it's interesting.

I I agree with your kind of initial thoughts and I've my

ultimately landed on the 6th as my top selection Allegon.

I just thought this one of five to one presented some decent

value won the essentially won the prep race for this the parks

dash back in August and I this awards that has some really nice

races to run back to. You look back, you know, was was

just in over his head 3 back in the japer and I felt like maybe

pressed things a little too much last time two back.

What the one thing I'll say about this horse is I really

like this horse specific specifically 5 furlongs.

I actually think that's kind of where I want this horse.

And so like this one a lot. Good tactical speed should be

able to sit just behind the pace of super quest and Jean Valjean

the number 4. So those two presumably are

going to go at it. And then I also identified as if

you're going to take a shot with a bigger price for harp makes a

ton of sense. Willing to just kind of toss

that effort last time out on the dirt, obviously in an off turf

race. But you know, you look at some

of those other efforts pretty solid, including a, you know,

losing to a horse like Surveillance and Running with

Scissors, who are both pretty nice horses.

And you know, was kind of going to I think make that next step

in that third start in the form cycle.

And like I said, ultimately that race got taken off the turf.

Another one I like at 5 furlongs specifically.

Good early speed there. Yeah, tons of everybody's going

to be in town this weekend for these races as well, so you'll

see all the connections that you are very familiar with in this

one as well. Moving on to the next race is

the Gallant Bob. It's a grade 2400 K here, 6

furlongs on the dirt. And without being terribly rude,

Matthew, I was thinking back to five years of doing this show.

I can't remember a Grade 2 with a field like this.

This is we, we do our own grading system here on the horse

racing Happy Hour. We have for a very long time.

I I this is a listed plus for me.

Yeah, I, I, I wouldn't disagree with that at all.

It was. It was.

Which, by the way, can mean great betting opportunity,

frankly, is what it can. Mean, right.

And I, I think that's such an important distinction to make

and, and something I try to emphasize when people go, that's

a disappointing field, OK, It might be a disappointing field

from what you expect a grade one or a grade 2 or a grade 3 to

look like. That doesn't mean it's a

disappointing betting field. And those are kind of different

things sometimes. And so, you know, and also, you

know, this as well, these things ebbs and flows.

You know, one year of race looks pretty weak and the next year

you go, man, they got a bunch of monsters running in this grade

too. So it just, it sometimes it's

just the nature of the racing calendar and the crop and just

who is is active and who's not. And you know, and this is the

group we ended up with this year.

And so I think honestly. By the way, it's restricted to

three-year old. So I mean, this is going to

happen sometimes once in a while, you're just going to have

a sprinter crop like this. And I'll be honest, I think if

anybody's to blame for this is the fact that the H Allen

Jerkins was so incredibly loaded with talent that I think a lot

of horses kind of took some time maybe after that race.

And I honestly, there are probably three or four horses

from that race who probably should have come here instead,

in my opinion. And and then the field would

have looked a lot better. But obviously you take a shot in

a grade one. I get it.

But yeah, this one, listen, you could look at the number one Ben

Tornado for Jose D'Angelo, second back from the

International start running in the Saudi Derby, finished behind

Forever Young and Book of Dano. You know, listen, I'm not going

to talk anybody off of that horse at 9:00 to 5:00 if you

want to go with that one. But I do think the number three

Bucharino is at least a little bit of an interesting play here.

A horse that's, you know, one last time out at parks going 6

1/2 furlongs and one easy over Maximus Beridius and Sunny

Breeze, who are both in this field as well and has some good

early speed. I, I don't know this one at 4:00

to 1:00. It's hard to say the source is

value because it's essentially the second choice.

But I still think there's at least something interesting

about that horse and maybe that horse is able to take a step

forward. And the other part is, you know,

with Ben Tornado breaking on the rail, I always get a little

worried about horses breaking from the rail on the sprints.

And just if you don't get out exactly cleanly, sometimes that

inside path just all of a sudden closes off to you.

Yeah, no, it'll be interesting to watch the start of this race

as you mentioned. I do wonder with Bucarino if

that was a one off or if this is something sustainable for that

horse that was second off the layoff last time, second in the

form cycle. Now you hope with a with a

bullet work just a week ago at parks that that would be, you

know, translating into the speed here as well training on the

dirt course. They're going the 6 1/2 in that

race. I mean, the horse didn't need 6

1/2. This horse could have won at 5.

This horse could have won at 4 1/2, frankly, right?

Got the lead, kept the lead, pulled away at the end there.

Jose Loscato, by the way, it should be said, has been down

for 13 races this year at parks, has won thirteen of them.

So this is a course where he's very comfortable, has won these

races. And so if you see Loscato next

to a horse on Saturday, might be one to look at as well.

I thought a a a potential longer shot here that could be

interesting is the out of the Olive barn Sunny Breeze.

That horse did not show up well last out in that Sprint.

If it's the course then I'll be happy to be wrong, but I think

that horse is going to run a better race this weekend.

I'd agree more. I just finished editing my

episode of Capping the Card where I go through all 14 races

with my top pick, my top value play, my top pick was the

Bucherino. My top value play was Sunny

Breeze. I completely agree with you on

that spot. I think 8 to one's a really good

price. And this is a horse that won a

stakes race going 7 furlongs off Lasix, 2 back.

So you know, that's one where the Lasix question was already

answered. The horse can run off Lasix.

I'm not worried about that. Can go longer if necessary, can

do a little bit more distance, has a little, a little bit more

foundation. And yeah, I think just maybe

didn't quite, you know, was pressing a little bit that day

and then just kind of faded. I think comes back with a little

bit of a better effort there. And I, I just, I think you're

gonna get a really good price for connections.

Who, by the way, you know, Edward Allard and Jaime

Rodriguez win at a 43% clip over the last year with a $3.44 ROI.

So just flatbedding them is really not a bad deal.

That's exactly right in this field, Bucarito, who you

mentioned as your top pick 3 for three lifetime at parks as well

the cotillions the next race one of the absolute gems of this

part of the season in horse racing.

Mile and a 16th on the dirt. There go for three-year old

Phillies, 4,000,000 bucks. This.

They're a little like, like Grand Slam tennis, Matthew.

The ladies, they run for the same amount of money as the men.

Who did you land on in the cotillion that's not named

Torpedo Anna? I have to say, every week I try

to identify the race that can make you the most money if

you're a contrarian. OK, yeah, I think this weekend

it's Torpedo Anna because with Next, I don't think it's in a

part of the card that's going to get a ton of money.

And so I think Torpedo Anna, Torpedo Anna's probably your

chance to really maximize, say the late pick 5 or something

like that, which is a mandatory, by the way.

I know they have the jackpot Big Philly 5 there at parks.

It is a mandatory payout on Saturday, so they will be paying

it out. Torpedo Anna, though, how many

times have you gotten to see her run?

I've only seen her the one time at the Oaks.

I've only seen her one time in person actually.

I was holed up inside my office, I think, for the coaching club,

America Oaks. But I got to see her obviously

run in that traverse and that was what an effort.

I mean, that was just that's as good as you can see a horse run.

I mean, she just ran so well that day.

And yeah, I think that the big question is, is there going to

be a bounce, right? And you know, if you look at the

numbers, she kind of outran everything she's done before.

What I would say is 2 things. One, I do think sometimes buyer

tends to be if you're using buyer speed figures, I do think

they tend to be, I'm not going to say sexist, but I do think

sometimes Philly and mare's races are downgraded a little

bit from what some of the numbers are for the boys.

The other thing is if you watch her previous races when she's

running 9699 buyers, Brian Hernandez Junior is not asking

her for everything. You know, she's running those

numbers at 90 percent, 85%. And what we saw at the Travers

was when she's asked for 100%, what she's able to do.

That's pretty damn impressive. And, and I got to give a ton of

credit to Kenny Mcpeak, who has been incredibly transparent

throughout this whole process. You know, the videos that he's

been posting of her, she looks even better, quite frankly, than

she did before the Traverse. She looks bigger.

She looks like she put on weight.

Doesn't look like that race took a lot out of her.

So I get people wanting to play against her in the spot.

I don't blame them. I don't begrudge them.

And from a betting standpoint, that's exactly, you're 100%

right. That's how you're going to make

money in this sequence is zigging against her.

And the horse that I really like that I keep coming back to is

the number 2 scalable. And I like this horse because

this horse closed into really slow fractions last time out at

the Monmouth Oaks and. Beat Gun Song and was able to

was able to close into a fraction that was 113 and change

to the six furlongs and went about four wide under Paco Lopez

and still managed to win that race.

And those aren't necessarily ingredients that you see coming

from off the pace at Monmouth. Going wide behind slow

fractions. I mean, that's not a winning

recipe. A lot of times this is the

worst. I've always kind of liked for

Todd Pletcher and it feels like maybe this horse, I know that 89

kind of came out of nowhere from a buyer speed figure standpoint,

but you look at the rest of the Phillies here and there's really

not much else that's better than an 89 in a lot of cases.

So at 12:50 I'll take a shot with a horse like scalable and,

and even if I end up using torpedo and up top I might just

do a simple, you know, 6-2 Exactor or something like that

and just, you know, see where that goes.

Yeah, I think that's a totally reasonable play and I think

you're probably gonna get 12 to one in that spot.

So that's the best way probably to use Torpedo Anna in any kind

of any kind of ticket. You know, the interesting one to

me is Sidamara, 'cause I don't quite know what to make of her.

And we've actually seen this year, you know, last year on the

Derby trail, we had to watch the Revson and horses coming out of

Aqueduct. They ran well when they came out

of that race. Horses are running well out of

Delaware right now. And it's it's an interesting,

you know, year to year thing that sort of happens.

Obviously power squeeze wins that race.

Cinnamara was the favorite in that race.

If people remember first time off Lasix, I thought she looked

really good. She closed in that race.

Frankly, if she if she gets ahead, she loses by a nose.

If she doesn't lose that or you know, she wins it in that photo

finish, I think we're talking about her really differently.

I think you're going to get a solid 5 to one type of number on

her on Saturday. So she might be my horse that I

would use in the exacta this weekend to get awesome value as

well. Of course, that is Bill Mott and

Jose Ortiz. I will talk about Bill Mott now

as we preview the Pennsylvania Derby.

His horse is the one that I cannot get off.

We're going to mile and an eighth on the dirt. 3 year olds,

of course, 1,000,000 bucks on the line just outside of

Philadelphia. And look, this is an interesting

field. You get, look, let's be clear,

you get a Grade 1 winner in here.

You got the Santa Anita Derby winner in Stronghold making the

trip from California. We have seen California horses

travel very well in the past. Those member those winners,

Mackenzie, we've seen West Coast, obviously Taba, we've

seen those horses come in from from out West and show up

really, really big in this race. So I expect that I think

Stronghold, I don't know if he wins here, but I think he'll run

at least a respectable race. You mentioned your goon guard,

all the questions there for sure with him.

And of course, our guy NHL fanatic asked about he asked

about unmatched wisdom for this weekend.

But where did you end up landing?

Who's your winner for the Pennsylvania Derby?

Yeah, so I was from the very beginning, I was against Dragoon

Guard and I was against Stronghold simply because of the

post position being kind of marooned out in post 11.

I think it's a tough spot for him.

I I think he might get the right sort of trip though, because he

does like to track the pace rather than be on the pace.

And so he can't sit right behind that speed.

And so if Antonio Freizu can kind of work out the right trip,

then that might be interesting. I do worry about him though, You

know, I'm, again, I'm not an acolyte to buyer speed figures,

but he's never cracked, He's never bested A-90.

I mean, he he feels a little slow maybe for this race.

So we'll see. I ultimately landed on unmatched

wisdom, which is not a particularly original idea, I

don't think. And I think that 8 to one kind

of is what everybody's kind of drawn to.

You're not going to get it, but this is a horse.

There's two things that I think are interesting.

One, of course, look phenomenal first three starts of his career

and then he goes to the Travers and he faces the best group of

three-year olds we've seen run this year, basically in terms

of, you know, a crystallized collection of.

And, and so he gets the he gets a terrible trip that day and he

just doesn't get to his spot. And suddenly he's sitting fifth,

He's throwing his head. He's not comfortable.

He you could tell the whole time the horse was not happy with

what how how things were going. And what I appreciate is the

fact that Chad brings him right back in another grade one.

He's not dropping. He didn't see the Travers ago.

Maybe we have a grade 3 horse here.

You know, maybe maybe that was a little ambitious.

Let's drop him down into something else and spot him

here, cut him back to one turn mile.

You know, something like that. No, we're going right back to A2

turn grade one because that's the level of confidence we have.

And that's the horse that has shown the ability to rate

previously. Now it's granted it's just

sitting second, but doesn't need to be on the lead construction

from off the pace. And I think that's important to

point out. And quite frankly, two of all

three of his career wins are faster than anything Dragoon

guards ever run. So I just ultimately landed on

him in this spot. I do think Sees the Gray is

going to have a big effort. That's a horse I'm really

interested to see, you know, for Dewayne Lucas, by his standards,

coming off a massive layoff of two months.

And. So you know, he he you know, so

he's going to be fresh and I think that's another horse that

if he gets to his spot, you know, if I'm if Jamie Torres can

get him on the lead going into that first turn, I think he's a

different type of animal when he's up on there going to turn.

So I had a lot of interesting tactics there.

But I know the horse that you're talking about and I'm a big fan

of this horse as well. I'm using him underneath and all

of my tickets and that is time out.

Yes. Oh, that's right.

Here's here's what I cannot figure out, Matthew.

And it's bothering me a lot. Yeah.

Which sees the Gray are we gonna get?

Because the last time he came off a layoff, he ran in an

optional claimer at Oaklawn. And then people forget he ran in

late February. He ran in March.

He ran in early April. He ran in May twice.

He ran in June in that Belmont, okay?

So that horse was on his seventh race in that sequence.

They finally give him a little bit of time off here, which by

the way, is a horrific angle for the coach.

I want to be very clear, it's not a good angle for him as far

as this amount of time off. It's like one for 20.

I mean, it's not good, okay? But this horse last time off a

little bit of a freshening and it was considerably longer

before. I want to be clear about that.

He took off like 5 months between races, something like

that. He was great though after a

freshening, I wonder if we won't get a little bit more of him

with some better legs and those kinds of things.

I think of the front running horses in this race, he's the

fastest. And so if he can get that lead

and Jaime, like you mentioned, if he can rate properly, man,

good, good. Good for him.

I am so worried about the front pace of this race, Matthew.

I think I think there's a chance because of who's in this race

and where they're gonna have to break from and who they're

breaking next to. We might see high 20 twos for

the first quarter or for the you know, I mean like this kind of

stuff. I mean, I think there's a real

chance the half miles like 45 and change and I just that's too

fast for sees the Gray and those sorts of things.

And yes, you're right. It is time out and I don't know

what to do with this horse, Matthew, except I know he likes

to close and it's if people don't know the stretch of parks,

he's gonna have time to close. That's just how the the course

is stretched up. They'll have plenty of time,

yeah. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. The stretch actually, if people

don't know it runs from Penn State to Philadelphia.

So it's a it's a longer stretch there in Pennsylvania and parks.

So he's gonna have time to make up the the distance there.

And who's been better this year with this kind of horse than

Bill Mott? The answer is no one.

You talked about Arthur's ride earlier.

He screams Arthur's ride in a spot to me.

Actually, this is the horse for me that actually reminds me the

most of Arthur's ride. I love the 12:50 kind of price,

man. I, I just, I need Joel Rosario

to show up like a man on Saturday, for sure.

It's just, it's one of those races.

Go ahead. Here's the thing.

He lost our match Wisdom. Is there's there is an element

to Joelle where there are certain horses that fit Joelle

that I like seeing him on? This is actually one of those

types of horses. So I like Joelle when a horse

naturally has a running style of coming from off the pace.

What I don't like is when Joelle gets cute and decides to turn

like a stalking horse into a deep closer and then we go, OK,

Joelle's doing Joelle things. But when there's a horse that

like I loved him when he ran Clarriere because it was like

great, that's what you do best. Great point off the pace with

these incredible finishes and he nobody out finishes Joelle

Rosario. And so it's, you know, the horse

fits him from a pedigree standpoint, sired by Curlin out

of a warfront dam. I mean, she'd want to run for

days. I mean, distance is not going to

be an issue at all and is going to get that trip because you

figure a horse like lonesome boys probably going to have to

go sees the Gray's going to go. Doc Sullivan has some speed and,

and it's going to be a little bit forward, but you would

imagine time out's going to be getting pretty close to the

rail. Maybe the two payoff is is not

going to be hung wide in any way like for Stronghold or maybe

even unmatched wisdom or others. And so is going to save ground.

And then Joel's going to kind of use probably that inside move

that he likes to do and try to find some and, and it's going to

get to your point. It's a long home stretch.

It's because it's going to be a strung outfield.

I guarantee it. There's going to be plenty of

room for him to maneuver around coming from home.

I think at 12:50 he presents outstanding value.

He's going to be on every single one of my tickets in terms of my

vertical, my horizontal plays, my pick fives, my pick fours.

He's going to be on all of those.

I, I'm not going to get beat by him.

I'm going to say that I like him way, way, way too much to leave

him off my ticket. So I, I like that a lot.

Now you know, depending on what price unmatched wisdom is versus

what he is, I might end up doing some wind bets on him as well.

People talk about the end of horse racing a lot.

People are very negative in our space about the end of horse

racing. I have evidence of it.

I have an Eclipse vote. So the, the, the horse in here

that I need to win Matthew so that I get to have these debates

for the rest of the year essentially is I need seize the

Gray to win this race. Because then he injects himself

with multiple high level grade ones, including the classic race

of the Preakness and this race of the Pennsylvania Derby, which

we just named the last 10 winners numerous times on the

show because it's that good. OK, he didn't show up in those

other two races, but they were races 8 and nine of his season

that started in March. I mean, this, this is a, a horse

that just ran and ran and ran. We all pined for the days when

horses would run 1012 * a year. We'd get one.

And the chance of him winning the Pat de Mile, turning around,

win the Preakness 14 days later and then running back and

winning the Pennsylvania Derby in September.

I think that would inject him seriously into the conversation.

It it would have to because if you just look, if you take the

names of the races away and you just look at the resume, he and

fierceness basically have the exact same resume, two grade

ones and a grade 2. Win.

That, that that's the exact same thing.

And so now, you know, Florida and, and by the way, that

Florida Derby, please, I that was an allowance race.

I mean, you, you were talking about listed stakes plus.

I mean, you look at that Florida Derby, Wolf.

I mean, that was not a Grade 1. And, you know, our late friend

Chuck Simon, you know, would always go on rants about, you

know, you can't. Great.

There shouldn't be grade ones to prep for a Grade 10.

He's totally right. Yes, of course.

Which, yeah, God bless Chuck for for that.

And so the, you know, the the reality is that, you know, then

you look at Dornak, OK, he's got his two grade ones, but you

know, that's and then a grade 2 as well in the fountain of

youth. So same sort of thing.

Sierra Leone, you know, just kind of shows up and runs on us

but never doesn't win. The big one hasn't won since the

bluegrass. And so, yeah, I think you're

absolutely right. If sees the great wins, then

it's at least a couple more months until you get to the

Breeders Cup classic and then OK, we'll see who ends up

running the best out of that group probably and that's kunai

who who's going to end up being your champion 3 year old.

But I I think until then we'll see.

And by the way, you want to talk about debates.

What if forever young comes over and wins the Breeders Cup

classic? Well then, now what do?

You do. That's the three.

Year old. Yeah, that's right.

I could even see just because I I, I I've watched his patterns

before. I could see a coach being very

comfortable going in the Breeders cup dirt mile with him,

for example, with sees the grey right and then gives him a legit

shot to be in that field. It's a two turn type of race.

I think he would really like it. And so I, I wonder, you know, if

he actually might benefit from missing the classic and, you

know, having that kind of resume.

So could be, I mean, I just obviously a lot to happen before

we have those debates. But I, I need it, Matthew, you

understand me? I need it.

I need it for this show. I need it for my crappy 11:50

show that I do, I need all of it.

You understand me. And so I hope he's the winner

of, of, of hoping, if you will. But frankly, let let's say that

one of our longer shots, protective or not protective,

excuse me, unmatched wisdom or timeout ends up winning this

race. You know what?

I'll throw in a protective. OK, what do we make then of this

3 year old crop? Where are we after all of the

major derbies are done? I I think we're in an evenly

balanced crop that, you know, there's not a standout

necessarily, you know, fierceness.

I do, I have to say fierceness certainly answered a lot of

questions and and answered a lot of critics when he won the

Travers coming back on relatively short rest.

And you know, that was a little bit of a concern was is he a

horse that needs three months off in between races basically

and being able to do things his but you know, he still gets kind

of his own trip in his own way. We kind of talked about the

others. It it really leaves you kind of

scratching your head a little bit without kind of a clear

choice. And that's why I bring up city.

That's why I bring up forever young.

That's why I bring up city of Troy.

You know, these are three-year olds who are going to come over

potentially into gaze. The city of Troy only had ever

run on the turf. Son of Justify is going to

probably try to the classic, according to Aidan O'Brien.

You know, it would be it's fun to see.

And I think that's why there's so much excitement about these

international 3 year olds coming back, because it is so unclear

where our three-year old stand. And I think that's honestly what

makes Torpedo Anna so special is it injects her into that

conversation. People go she's as good as any

of these boys, if not better than 95% of them.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to watch her for sure on Saturday

in the cotillion. But then going forward, do they

go for it in the, you know, it's just so it's so nice we keep

getting these Phillies. We've got, you know, we've got

idiomatic, we've got her. He's just, they show up every

freaking time, you know, It's just so honest.

The effort's so honest, you know, it's gonna be a great

race. I mean, frankly, I'll be honest

with the Traverse. I didn't know she was gonna get

anywhere near her fierceness in the stretch.

And she was like you said, like everyone knows she was right

there. Just fun.

I mean just so fun having horses like this around.

One of the things I'll say my my colleague and I are bets.

Kaylee Shapiro brought this point up, and it's something I

hadn't thought of until she said it, which is she goes, we've

never seen a horse run up at fierceness when he brings his A

game. And it was absolutely right that

Sierra Leone was wiping away on him and the gym dandy, but not

in the same sort of way. You never thought he was going

to get there. And, you know, every other time

fierceness brings his A game, it's over.

I mean, nobody gets close. And for her to do that when he

gets his way, it was just so impressive.

And yeah, it's going to be something to see.

And you know, we, you mentioned idiomatic, you know, before for

that we had Malafat and Clary Air and you know, the secret

oath and these great horses. And you know one thing I'll tell

you tomorrow. I'll give you a question to ask

Jess Paquette tomorrow when you have her on, ask her about Mayor

Energy, because she's got a good answer about that.

That chatted with me about it today.

And I think that that very much so applies to Torpedo Anna and

maybe where she's going to go in the Breeders Cup Distaff.

And and and when you talk about a horse like idiomatic and going

up against older Phillies and mares, I think this could be a

lot of fun. That was Matthew's way of

usurping the fact that I have Jessica tomorrow and he had her

today. So there you are.

It's just you. Listen, we, we get it, we get

it. You know, you New York guys are

a big deal. And us rubes in Kentucky.

Have to play like that. Oh, man.

All right. Well, I think it's going to be I

mean it's setting up to be a tremendous race because there's

going to be three different storylines.

Essentially. You've got the proven horses,

you've got the unproven, you've got the the the the front end

speed, you got the the closing speed.

And there's a bunch of connections in here that are

really interesting as well. So I think it's going to set up

to be really great. I think we would do a disservice

to the folks watching if we didn't talk about the park

Sprint to close the card. This is 6 1/2 furlongs on the

dirt for 100K four and up in this one.

The only non graded stakes that you and I are going to talk

about listed or black type stakes here.

I should say, excuse me underneath on here.

I thought an interesting field here as well.

I'll be honest, I don't. I don't love a horse in here,

Matthew, which I think sets up a really good closer at parks.

It it does and I there's a couple of six to one horses that

I like. The number 9, my buddy be coming

off a win last time out at parks going 6 and there are 6 1/2 I

should say kind of one in gate to wire fashion over another

horse that I like a little bit in this race, which is

recruiter. The number 5 also six to one for

Kathy Lynch. Those two are interesting to me

and are they good enough to win this spot?

We'll see. But you're going to get it's

going to be interesting to see how the betting plays out in

this race because there's a bunch of horses that are all

kind of clustered around that six to one price.

I'll probably end up playing against Super Chow a little bit.

That horse just lugs out a little too much for me when you

get past six furlongs and so I was worried about that with with

him a little bit. But I think you can find some

big prices in here potentially to close things out and gonna be

interesting to see. I'm I'm curious where you kind

of landed in in this one? I'm interested in my buddy B

actually, who won the state representative Sprint last out.

So the prep for this race at Park's first time ever trying

the surface is what, twice this year out of the heat trick part?

And so I am interested at 6:00 to 1:00 if that horse can run

that back. It is a if for Krista.

That's a pretty good angle for her.

She wins the 17%. It's a smaller operation for

sure, but these are the kinds of races, frankly, that that a

horse like that can jump up and win, right.

If we think of this as a black type, as a high level allowance,

essentially, that horse can win here for sure.

The buyer speed figure seems to be a consistently high 80s low

90 runs a 97. Once this horse gets to the this

five year old son of Creed of cause gets there ran in the

Vanderbilt. I thought ran fine in the

Vanderbilt, frankly, you know, I I I mean, as the kids say,

didn't show his ass or anything. So you know, I mean it's you

know, I think I think a horse that can run a big race here.

I love that six to one price. Yeah, I think, you know,

whenever you see is, you know, the Grade 1 Vanderbilt and

Nakatomi Skelly Twisted Ride, I mean, come on.

I mean, those are good horses. Obviously Twisted Ride in this

race as well on the far outside. But yeah, I think you're getting

a bet you're going to get a much better price partially because

of what you just said, which is the connections.

It's not Todd Pletcher, it's not Brad Cox.

It's not a big time name and so. Or even a Jamie Ness at the

local, right? I mean, it's not.

Even right or Lou Linder or fair to me or Yeah, absolutely.

It's not even the parks connections that you would

normally see bet heavily. So I think you're going to get

an honest price. And again, you look at the races

this horse has run on dirt and a pretty honest overwhelmingly.

I mean this horse really shows up and kind of runs it's race

just about every time out. So you know, if you get 6 to

one, maybe it floats up a little bit, who knows.

And that'd be a great price and great way to close out the car.

And of course Brad Cox. First off, the claim throws Top

Gunner in here with Flavia and Pratt, the seven-year old

gelding. We will see what he does on the

outside as well. I don't hate the outside post

for 6 1/2 at parks. I think it should be just fine

as well for the connections there.

The two of them only winning at 30% / a massive sample size

including places like a where. I mean, good luck.

So there you are back at Churchill right now on our

circuit at Aqueduct right now. What should people be watching

for? As they play Aqueduct as well

just because I know you're there all the time.

Yeah. So listen, we have a double pick

6 carryover tomorrow at the big $159,000 double pick 6

carryover. So want to make sure you get in

and play that. So we have a lot of stuff up on

naira bets to help you out with that stuff from track stats,

looking at how the track is playing already during this

first couple of days of the meet through the first weekend and

now the first day. So always great stuff there.

Have some previews of the Dogwood taking place down in

Churchill Downs as well. I think that's going to be a

really fun race. So that's up on Naira Bets as

well. Got a lot of previews and a lot

of analysis for all the stuff taking place at parks.

I'll be down at parks on Saturday, so if you follow me at

Failed the Menace or follow Naira Bets at Naira Bets, I'll

be posting videos, interviews. Got to have Maggie Wolf and Dale

Lafite, Pink Eye, Jess, the whole 9 yards.

Everybody's going to be doing it.

And so we're going to have a lot of fun with that.

Just keeping people posted about all the great racing taking

place down there. Fantastic.

All right, well, I am not going to Churchill on Saturday.

Matthew, Are you ready? Why?

It's the old man stuff. I hope you're ready.

This is Old man. Stuff.

I'm ready. Within like a mile radius right

there, they're playing a college football game.

Louisville and Georgia Tech they're.

Running at Churchill Downs. They're running at Churchill

Downs and there is a music festival that draws 100,000

people to Louisville. Get the hell out of here.

All within a mile. Stop it.

God bless. God bless the Dogwood.

Your your your buddy, your boy ain't going.

I'm not there. It's just not happening.

So yeah, it's it's just not, but I didn't even look I should I

should look to see who's on the mainstage for bourbon and beyond

on Saturday. I simply.

Don't. While you do that, I will.

I will tell you a very quick story which is please my dad.

First of all. So I grew up outside of Philly.

We used to go down to Eagles games.

We left every Eagles game at the end of the third quarter to beat

the traffic. Now that was not a bad decision

because the Eagles usually gagged the game away when I was

throwing. That said, my dad applied the

same logic to my college graduation.

My last name DeSantis, he stayed through the HS to see my friend

Danny Hill graduate. And then he texted me and said,

congratulations, I'm going home to beat the traffic.

And when graduation is over, we go down to the football field

and everybody's there with their parents taking pictures.

And everybody comes up to me and goes, Matthew, where's your dad?

And I go, he beat the traffic. He left already.

By the way, do you know the winner in that story is Danny

Hill? It's not even close.

I mean, it's not close. People.

I want you to understand Mr. DeSantis, who blocks everyone on

Twitter. It's it's a whole thing.

But yes, it's just how it goes. And he's a big show better.

That's how he operates those $2.00 show bets.

However, this man, shout out to Danny Hill.

I hope you're doing well, buddy, because that's, that's respect,

dude. That's a high level of respect

that the guy who loves to beat traffic, hangs her out for your

freaking graduation and you're not his kid.

That's high level. Yeah, and Danny's doing great.

He's going to appreciate that shout out.

So he's doing well. But yeah, my dad always liked

Danny for some reason. Funny.

There you go. Hey, our parents always like

someone more than they like us, for sure.

I, you know, I, I, I married a, a fine woman.

She's great. I love her very much.

I think my dad liked the girlfriend before a little

better. That's how it goes.

All right, well, this has been the horse racing happy hour.

He's Matthew DeSantis. We'll get him out of here.

Thanks so much for jumping on and these suggestions for

questions for Jessica Paquette. I appreciate it very much.

Anytime Louis, man appreciate it man, so much fun.

All right. Thank you, Matthew.

We'll get him out of here. I am Louis Ribow.

This has been the horse racing happy hour.

Thanks for jumping on with us. Next week we are doing a preview

of the Cali Crown first ever. So there's only one place for us

to go on this show. We're going to talk to our guy

John Lindo, who is with Thoroughbred LA out in

California. We'll make sure we get you set

up for that. And of course, John lives just

north of Delmar. We'll start talking Breeders'

Cup with him, what his expectations are going into that

as well. As I mentioned numerous times on

the show, if you haven't found me yet, I'm on 11:50 Monday

through Friday on the local ESP affiliate here, ESPN 680 in

Louisville. You can find me every Friday.

We do a ton of college football, a ton of NFL, and of course a

full horse racing segment as well.

So if you're in any of those things, feel free to drop by.

You can find us anywhere in the world, ESPN at louisville.com.

Again, I'm Louie Rabo. This has been the Horse Racing

Happy hour for September 19th, 2024 at Class Gold Class.