Road To Pimlico 2025 | Dan Illman & Johnny P

Good, I'm just kidding. Good morning and afternoon and

evening, wherever you're listening to the horse racing

happy hour. Lou, your beau hanging out with

you. It is our Road to Pimlico series

for Preakness 150. How about that Johnny P Dan

Ilman back in the saddle because I I, I, I don't know why, but

boys, good to see you. Did I say have you a Merry

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, whatever you're doing.

How how about that little? It's called and.

Festival too and we get rating Louis.

Louis, it's called Ratings is the word.

Oh God, yeah, yeah, OK. All right, well, this show

staying afloat because of the Maryland series.

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We'll tell you a little bit more about them later on.

But gentlemen, good good day to you.

Dan Oman, You you have you have Maryland related news since the

last time we spoke with you. By the way, nice shirt the by

the way. Yeah, the hoodie, like those

came out OK, didn't they? They came out really, really

well. I have to admit, I was

pleasantly surprised. I wasn't expecting much more

production like this, but this was one of the better presents

this year under the tree. Well, there you go.

Look, congratulations, I we have to start there.

It's it's awesome. People don't know Dan is has

been at the Daily Racing Forum, actually first horse he covered

with Citation and this has been, this is a big move for Dan to

get away. I'm kidding.

Dan, how long have you been at the forum and what are you going

to be doing in Maryland? I'll let you tell the story. 25

plus years at the Daily Racing Forum and great time for the

entire 25 years working with some amazing people.

Leaving on some wonderful terms, but great opportunity at the

Maryland Jockey Club. Just came up to be their

Director of Communications. Of course, we're going to have a

new Pimlico in a a few years, New ownership.

Really looking forward to just helping out.

I've fallen in love with Maryland racing.

I've fallen in love with the people there, the horses there,

the stories there and just, you know, would love to help out and

help everyone get a foothold and hopefully start off this new era

with a bang. I'm excited to see what Pimlico

is going to look like. I'm, I'm a guy, Dan, and I don't

I, you know, I've never talked about this.

Actually. I love Pimlico and it reminds me

of the old Big 10 stadiums I grew up in in the upper Midwest

or, you know, Tiger Stadium for baseball games, that kind of

thing. So while I'll be weirdly sad

that they're making Pimlico nice, like at the same time, I

am legitimately very excited to see where they're gonna go with

the track itself. And on top of that, you know,

picking a training ground, doing those sorts of things.

There's obvious things are in motion.

They're very clearly taking the next steps in Maryland.

It's it's frankly it's pretty exciting.

And we're very excited about it. And again, we want to do a lot

of different things for the better.

We want to put out some more handicapping information

day-to-day, improve the quality of our our handicapping show is

whether it be the morning show or the simulcast program, and

tell the stories of our great horsemen.

We've got some amazing horses out there.

One of John's favorites, Club Man, won the other day.

He's 10 years old. That means he can't run in

Maryland next year. But he went out with a bang with

a big victory. That was one of my favorite

moments of 2020. 4:00 We'll have some others later on in the

show, but yeah, I'm very, very excited to get started.

Did a lot of Daily Racing Form, accomplished a lot thanks to the

help of so many great people, but I'm looking forward to a new

chapter right now. That should be awesome.

And I, frankly, I, I feel like you're by and low man I, I, I

have great feeling about where Maryland's going the next couple

of years. So you're getting in at the

bottom of the Maryland stock market and horse racing at least

if you will. So there you go, Johnny P are

you a Christmas guy? Are you, is your family a big

Christmas family? I, I, I was talking to John

right before he came on the show.

And one of the sad things about my adulthood is actually we've

moved several states away from my family and my job, my wife's

job, we're just, we're stuck here for Christmas.

So either people have to come here to visit or we're just

stuck. Do you still at least get to do

the family thing, John? Maybe little cousins, nieces,

running around, something like that.

Yeah, my family has hosted Christmas for a very long time.

And now that I'm staying, like, folks, it's very nice.

This year I, oh, we hosted my dad's sister who used to live in

in town bordering us a while now lives down to Florida.

So trigger came up to visit. So it was her, the husband, my

uncle, my cousin and my cousin in law.

So a small group, but eight's a good number because it's, it's,

it's enough people was like start to talk about and things

to do. But it's not like overwhelming.

I suppose like prep goes because I have friends who have like

20-30 people over for the holidays and it's like, I don't

know like how or why you do that, but they do.

But. It's a good.

Let me tell you how or why that happens.

There are eighteen of us at Christmas in Maryland right now.

18 John. 18 a. Lot of people, God bless you and

I will say also a. Christmas, by the way, that the

only person physically in Maryland right now is producer

Zach. That's hilarious.

That's true. It's very ironic.

But on Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve, I went to my

dad's friend's house and that was a gathering of about 15.

So also a good number. But no, it's always a great

time. We always open presents in the

morning. We have Big Breakfast, eat, eat

because it's dinner like 233 o'clock.

And it's, it's a fun time. And, and my mom has her CD, it's

from the 1970s, it's called the Sal Soul Christmas CD.

It was her mom's originally. And it's like all these like

disco versions of Christmas songs and it plays basically on

a loop in our house all Christmas season long.

So especially on Christmas Day, it just plays like endlessly.

And I mean that in in like the best way possible because it is

a Christmas tradition around here.

But it is something that I it's very much a part of the Piassic

Christmas experience. God.

I love that so I'm so jealous. Disco Christmas.

Man oh man, that's. Just I'll send you a link after

we're done. With the show, I would love that

very much. Oh well.

Speaking of great moments, I kind of wanted to just ask you

guys as we get to the end of the year for your favorite sort of

moments, horses, etcetera. But first thing first, if people

are new to the path to the Preakness, the path to the Black

Eyed Susan, I thought it would be worthwhile sort of explain

that path in Maryland and how they do that here.

So this weekend we'll be we'll be previewing, excuse me, two 6

furlong races for two year olds, the heft run for the boys and

the gin talking for the girls again, both at six furlongs.

In January we'll be talking about the spectacular bid on the

Preakness side and the extra heat on the Black Eyed Susan

side. The girls will stay at six

furlongs. The boys will move up to seven

when we get into February, late February, the miracle would and

the wide country will be contested at 8 furlongs and

seven respectively on the male and female side.

If you are new to Laurel Park, it is A1 turn mile at Laurel

long stretch as well. So very similar to the layout of

a lot of tracks that you've seen around the country, but

certainly A1 turn mile at that point.

And then by the way, if you're thinking, Oh my gosh, this is

logical. They do logical things in horse

racing. Yes, they do in Maryland.

How about that? And then we move to a mile of

the 16th the month after in the private terms on the boys side,

we move out to that full one mile turn, A1 turn mile, excuse

me, in the beyond the wire on the Philly side.

And then we get to the day and there's only one guaranteed

spot. It's in the Federico Tessio and

it is in the Weaver City Miss Run it full 9 furlongs for the

boys there for the Tessio and eight and a half four of the

ladies. Odd the Weaver City Miss spot.

If you win there, you get a spot in the Preakness gate or the

Black Eyed Susan gate, a very logical progressive for horses

within the state of Maryland. And John 1983, the last winner

of the test he had to go on to win the Preakness.

His name was deputed testimony. So we will talk about him many,

many times on this trail as well.

But gentlemen, 2024, I was about to say.

Louis what? What's your quote?

The winner of the Tessio is the only horse you know is not going

to win the Preakness. The Tessio is a great predictor

of who will not win the Preakness Stakes.

That's exactly. Right way to put over the

product, Zach, appreciate. It there you go.

That's why, so make sure you tune in for all five of the the

episodes that we're going to do here.

That would be really great of you.

We appreciate it very much. No, frankly, we love doing these

because they turn into great betting races.

Whatever it is about this series, they turn into great

betting races. And on top of it, frankly, look,

the Maryland winner can definitely hit the board in any

of these races. And frankly, at some point

there's going to be the next imputed testimony.

It's just going to happen. So we will get there at some

point. But favorite moments of this

year, I I gotta say, mine was probably seeing Mike Beer,

meeting him at the paddock at Del Mar at the Breeders Cup.

What a great moment that was for me personally.

Such a a great handicapper, wonderful on screen, great hair.

Just very jealous of all the things.

Mike Beard, Johnny P. What was your biggest moment?

Well, I had to break it up by they had to break it up by

favorite Marilyn moment and. Yeah.

And and favorite non Maryland moment.

So her overall moment was in the Molly picture on the House of

undercard in which the great idiomatic battled out with soul

of an Angel who eventually went out to win the Buddhist Cup

billionaire Sprint. I mean, and it's it's one of

those races where if you were trying to get somebody into

racing and and if you wanted I'm show them a race that would be a

perfect candidate champion mayor great Philly in in in in her own

right being her rival. Those two bounding it out down

the stretch idiomatic showed tremendous hard won by a nose.

Just a fantastic stretch battle on the Maryland side.

I picked 2 races. 1 was Benlico special in the Co special, which

we had Pyrenees get the job done over Kings Bones.

And I'm proud to say I picked him for all the gold sheet

Reuters out there. Hope somebody out there made

that money. All this money lasted till

Christmas weekend and that you buy all your folks Christmas

stuff. If I, if I if, if I contributed

in any small way to somebody having a nice Christmas, I am

happy about that. And then in a, in a very similar

track as the Molly picture. I also love the Frank Whiteley

Stakes for this run at lower back in April in which 2 local

stars Coastal Mission, who's WW West Virginia bred and Maryland

sired by the top stallion in Maryland, Great Notion battle

with Prince of Jericho, who's been competing in local stakes

for a million years. Those two both were in huge

Coastal Mission won by a nose, and later that fall, Coastal

Mission became the first offspring of of Great Notion to

earn $1 million. On the track.

There you go, Class, don't class on that one year and $1,000,000

got a drink? All right, Dan, go ahead with

your favorite moments of the year besides seeing me at

Breeders' Cup. That was an absolute just

pleasure. Talk about hair.

I mean boy, it really doesn't get better than that than seeing

that in the Delmar Sunshine Glistening 1.

I got a Sunbird. It was like 61° out.

Yeah, right. It was.

It was great. No, I we couldn't give you a

Triple Crown this year, but who would have had on their bingo

card two years ago that Wayne Lucas would have a classic

winner in 2024? And that to me was a pretty cool

moment when Sees the Gray pulled off a little bit of an upset in

the Preakness. The great Lucas can still train

horses and he took Sees the Gray from basically a virtual unknown

during the spring to a Pat Day mile winner, a Preakness winner,

and then never lost the faith after a couple of defeats comes

right back to win the Pennsylvania Derby.

So hats off to the legend Wayne Lucas.

A tremendous training job with Sees the Gray and he is still

going strong on the Maryland side.

I think it was the emergence of post time for me.

I just going on to the National scene and doing some wonderful,

wonderful things. He won the Carter.

He was second in the Met Mile. He ran so well up at Saratoga

when they stretched them all the way out in the Whitney.

And he ran so well in the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile getting

up for second. Looking forward to a nice

campaign for Brittany Russell this year.

It seems like Brittany's worked out all the kinks post time.

Might have been a little bit ouchy early in his career.

He seems just fine right now. Those are good choices.

I'm a really lucky person. We've had the same table at the

Kentucky Derby since 2018 and at the essentially at the 8th pole,

and that Derby is the best horse race that I've ever attended.

I don't think it's close. Just being Derby 150 that finish

the crowd. I'll never get over the crowd

reaction. I think that's really the part

that I'll never get over. 100,000 people all gasping at

the same moment and then they play the replay and everyone

gasps again because I can't figure it out.

Even on a replay, who won that one?

It was just a spectacular moment and so I'm so glad that I got to

see that I'm going to go a different way here.

Disappointment of the year was idiomatic having to be retired

ahead of that distaff showdown with Rukito Anna the.

I think not even close to what could have been of horse racing

this year. And so but if we're going

positive it it's not even something that happened on the

track. Fierceness, Sierra Leone, Mystic

Dan are all going to race next year and that is just good for

our sport. I'm very excited about the

prospect of seeing more of these great 3 year olds who are great

over two turns coming back and running as 4 year olds.

And so I'm hoping that we had a more of a blip on the radar and

this will become more of the norm moving forward.

And so those are my three that I would point out.

But yeah, no, just AI thought, you know, Dave, you bring it up,

not a Triple Crown year, but I thought a really interesting and

Goodyear for the three-year olds.

Certainly, and I think the three-year olds got a lot of

Flack. If I recall back in the winter

and spring, it was the typical Twitterverse X verse.

Oh, it's not a great crop. And Mr. Dan, I think has come

back and even though he hasn't won since the Kentucky Derby,

we'll be seeing him in what, about 15 minutes in the Malibu's

bakes. He's come back and has shown to

be a a legitimate race source. Of course, he's the Gray in the

Preakness door knock. We forget about the year he had.

He was so, I mean, tremendous Beaumont.

And then to go on and do such great things later on in the

year and of course Sierra Leone and fierceness and we've also

had mine frame was. Mine frame?

What about that? You see come back as a four year

old as well. So a lot of really good things.

And listen, 2024 is not over just yet.

I think the greatest moment could be tomorrow at Laurel

Park. John's going to claim coffee

with Chris for 7500 I believe. I'm actually legally allowed to

have a horse in my yard in Kentucky.

I have enough land. So you, you bring coffee with

Chris over here. He'd come hang out with my kids,

chase the coyotes that we have in the neighborhood around.

I think it'll have a lot of fun. It'll be good, but there you go

John Piasek, Daniel and hanging out with us.

This is road to Pimlico on the horse racing happy hour.

Louie robot with you as well. We're gonna go through the late

pick four at at at Pimlico. We are not Apiplico yet at

Laurel Park. As we get through that card,

we'll talk about the last race when we get there.

We'll we'll we'll we'll we'll talk about it when we get there.

I'm it's not as bad as it used to be.

I appreciate the people in Maryland, but we'll we'll get

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All right, boys, let's go ahead and head out to Laurel Park this

weekend. Race 6 starts off the late pick

4 here. 6 furlong Sprint on the dirt here.

This is for Phillies and mares that have started for 8 grand or

less in their last three starts and or they're in for a 12/5

claiming price here. The purse is $24,000.

Dan, anyone cutting back in distance that you like here?

Not really actually. I'm picking a horse that's oddly

stretching out in distance. You rarely see that in these

situations. Golden Can ran 4 1/2 furlongs

last time out at Charlestown. Now, Golden Can is not exactly

what's known as a wind machine. She hasn't won a race in about 2

1/2 years, but she's pretty quick.

She's going to be a good price in this race.

I think she can make the lead and I thought her last race in

Charlestown was pretty good because she was on a very hard

chase behind a one to 10 shot that got loose on the lead.

And Golden Can really never showed any quid in the stretch.

Hanging on to finish second. Six furlongs is actually

stretching it a bit for Golden Can, who I think is 12:50 on the

morning line, but I'd like to use this source.

To me this is kind of a spread race.

Anonymously is obviously the horse to beat.

A tremendous amount of back class and when you think

Brittany Russell, you think a lot of quality horses, steaks

horses, maiden horses, quality well bred maidens.

Brittany's 11 for the last 26 off the claim and soft fit to

take anonymously last time out off of a game win.

That's the horse to beat, but I'm not sure that horse has such

a tremendous edge over this field.

I want to use golden can. I want to use anonymously, and

then because I have a single later on, I want to use a couple

of others. Utterly enchanting.

Came close to anonymously last time out.

Must have been 478 wide into the stretch.

I think that ground loss hurt underly Enchanty and I think

Jeannie and a bridle could be this key to the pick 4.

This source had severe trouble two and three starts back and

then just ran into a runaway. Big favorite last time out.

She's a lot better than she looks on paper.

So I think it's kind of a spread race genie in a bridal golden

can kind of my value players in there.

You got the logical horses and anonymously and utterly

enchanting. How about you, John?

Do you land on anybody? You know, I kind of have have

the opposite philosophy of Dan in in that I think this is a

race where I I'd want to single and and spread elsewhere.

And I also think looking at at this race from a win betting

perspective or a pick four or pick 5 perspective is much

different than an exacto players.

Because if I was playing an exacto, I would be happy to play

a cold anonymously golden can combo or an anonymously genie in

bridal combo. Because I think those latter 2

are going to be massive overlays for the reasons Dan outlined.

But I think anonymously is much the best in this field.

I'm not overthinking. Brittany Russell, First off the

claim and she won at this level last time while beating some of

the horses she is burning against today and beat them in

in a way that I think looks much better than it looks on paper.

She was three to five in that spot behind horses at at the top

of the stretch and Andre Chavez tried to send her through a hole

that really wasn't there and kind of had to muscle his way

through. And she got kind of knocked

around at about the 316th pole did finally get clear.

And once she got clear, she showed a lot of punch.

One by 1/2 length, probably wins by 2 1/2 or three if she gets

clear. I and trust Sheldon Russell keep

it out of traffic this time. And and if she's in the clear at

the top of the stretch, she was whooshed by everyone else and

and I think win as much the best.

However, if Golden can is near who who 12:50 morning line, I

think she'd be a good horse for underneath in the exacta.

Thinks she'll set the pace and hang around Genie and her bridal

likely to come from well out of it.

Don't think she has as much late punch as much class as

anonymously, but she's a good bet for second or third as well

all. Right, we move on to the gin

talking. It is for Phillies for the two

year old. 7 furlongs here on the form.

Boy, why did I say 6 furlongs earlier?

Is this a six or seven furlongs? 7/7.

It is at 7. OK, so both races at 7 furlongs

tomorrow or Saturday. I apologize.

And so we will start there with the gin talking.

This is for two year old Phillies, $100,000 in the Kitty

here. As we mentioned, 7 furlongs on

the dirt there at Laurel Park. The four to five favorite Dan is

Caprice coming into this one. Look, this is a horse with a ton

of experience. 5 for six lifetime.

Only blemish on the record is a second place finish and that was

a three back at Delaware in a in a, you know, in elicitor, I

guess a black type stakes up there.

Is this a worthy 4 to five favorite here?

Absolutely. I think the Source is the horse

to beat by far and is going to be my single in the pick 4.

Especially since the weather up at Parks has been so disastrous

the last few days and many of the horses that are entered in

the stakes races for two year olds at Laurel on Saturday based

up at Parks, including the number 5 Beyond Belief.

Now. I talked to Beyond Beliefs

trainer Ed Coletti earlier here today.

He cross entered this horse at parks.

He's planning on running there and several horses in the Hefner

Cross Center are planning on running in a stakes race at

parks as well. So I expect Caprice to actually

kind of go to face a shorter field, to be one of the

controlling speeds in this race. I I just think she's going to be

real tough. All right.

I think you're going to try to spread here, John.

Who are you going to use to try to beat Caprice in this spot?

I'm not trying to be Caprice. I think even if beyond belief

runs, priests would be 1:00 to 5:00 and if Beyond Belief

doesn't run, Caprice would be probably one to 10 of an

underlay. I mean as you said she's done

nothing wrong, especially not at one turn.

She's run huge races going 7 furlongs or shorter who only

lost Kim going one mile at Delaware Park in the White Clay.

Crew probably wasn't ready to go that far yet, but has done

exceptional work at Sprint's. Got the 7th Furlong test last

time out in the Maryland Juvenile Philly Stake.

She got pressed all the way that day by safe trust.

Really never had an easy moment on the lead, but shook clear who

laid one by a length and a half. Just missed her career.

Top figure on the prison at scale with an 89.

Runs in mid 80s, low 90s pretty steadily on that scale.

Nobody else in this field can even really come close to that

on a steady basis. I mean, if you're not going to

single her here, I don't know where you'd ever single in any

sequence ever. So I think it's best to just

take the free square and try to find a good price output.

Reminder, low 12% take out on the pick fives and so if there

is a true single here folks, we can kind of use this to make it

a pick four in a sense that way as well and add a leg to your

wager that way. Dan, I want to ask you about

Caprice then we are doing a Road to Piblico show here on the

breeding side of things. She is, you know, buy golden

lad, That's Medallia Doro. She's out of Grand folly.

That street cry on the mayor side that screams two turns to

me. Is this a horse that we might

actually see in the Black Eyed Susan starting game?

I'm not sure if she's going to be able to make it to the Black

Eyed Susan again. We're talking very early 2 year

olds and she got an early start. She's obviously a precocious

type. I talked to Cal Lynch before the

Source ran at Delaware and he was confident that the horse

would get the two turns that day.

And while she was defeated that day, I thought she didn't.

You know, it's not like she showed she couldn't handle the

distance. I just thought the ride was sort

of silly where she was battling it out throughout and made this

big early move into the teeth of the pace and just it set things

up for a closer that I think snuck through on the inside and

got them all. So I think distance might well

be within her scope. The major concern when they get

to the Black Eyed Susan or just the quality of horses just going

to be way tougher. And I think they're going to

catch up to her from sort of a physical standpoint.

She just seems to me like a very precocious type.

And Cal does this with these young horses, gets the money

when he can. I would say it's time to move on

to the half stakes. This is 7 furlongs on the dirt

for the boys, for two year olds. 100,000 in the Kitty here as

well. We're on the road to the

Preakness. John.

We'll start with you. One man team is a 2 to one

favorite here, but we also get a 7:00 to 2:00 second favorite in

Sacred Thunder. Similar to Caprice has run a ton

this year. Are you going to try to beat A1

Man Team in this spot? Yes and no I mean it's very wide

open race. I think about 5 or 6 of them

have a very good shot. So so if I was playing a pick

four or a pick five, I would spread in here, but I did not

pick one man, one man team on top.

I ended up going with sacred Thunder on top.

He ran a big race. I thought two starts back in the

James Lewis came him just off the pace wore down what what and

pay per click like a very salty field including top 2 finishers

in the Maryland really nursery and do it Michael and remarkably

beat them by a length. Matched his career top prisoner

figure that day with a 93. Then had what I thought a pretty

rough trip in a Maryland juvenile.

Last time he was bothered at the break from the inside post,

didn't get his usual spot towards the front end.

His behind horses the entire way on the far turn never really had

a place to run and once he got going in the clear on the

outside in the stretch, he ended up showing some good punch and

ended up losing place in the three horse photo.

Now he's drinking a little bit further to the outside.

He's drawn post 5. If fire Pit does guard pokes to

be in post four, he should be out in the clear just on or or

near the pace. He'll have every shot to get his

trip and if if he wants back to really his braces two or three

back, he'll win this one. How about for you, Dan?

Well, it looks like Fire Pit and the 9 and the 10 baby Dukes and

Crab Daddy are going to scratch and run at parks, at least

according to their connections earlier today.

So the heft lacks a little bit of the same heft it did when

they drew the races. But I I'm with.

Quite as hefty as before. I like Sacred Thunder in here

and Gary Capuano even mentioned some of the things that John had

said that he thought the post position got this horse beat

last time out. He had to break from the rail,

he was just buried down inside. The pace was not fast at all.

He had to come from last and widest in the stretch and he was

running on at the end and his win two starts back in the James

F Lewis shows that obviously he belongs with this kind of horse.

One man teamed, all eyes are going to be on him.

He is a son of Nyquist out of 1/2 sister to justify.

There's a lot of pedigree here. He won his debut by 6 lengths

for Brittany Russell as the favorite and he has speed.

We're going to learn a lot more about one man team in this race.

But I think if we're trying to to score here in this pick four,

maybe this is kind of the spot to try to fade one man team

where I'm not sure he has again, such an edge over a horse like

Sacred Thunder. I might even want to use

Barbadian Runner as a little bit of a backup.

I think blinkers could be the answer for this horse.

Last time out he was sort of in between and in and among on the

backstretch. I don't think he was very

comfortable with that. He sort of backed himself out of

it and then an upper stretch when he was produced with his

run, he started drifting in a little bit.

So he's a bit green. Maybe the blinkers will get him

to focus. It is worth noting he did hold

off Sacred Thunder for 3rd money in that race.

So he showed a little bit of he's going to be a good price

for Henry Walters, who's sort of a under the radar trainer,

maybe, maybe a horse. You may want to use a price

along with Sacred Thunder and curious to see what we get from

one man team. I think even in a field of

eight, which you're talking about, I think you're going to

get Barbadian runner every bit of eight to one.

I think that's a totally. I think the morning line is

going to be pretty accurate on that one.

We always play a game with the feature of the day.

I don't know if you guys remember this ad, but I loved it

so, so much. The hefty company Hefty, hefty,

hefty and. Then there was wimpy, wimpy,

wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. There is all.

Right, so if the. Well, here's there should be a

question. By the way, here's a a A to a

question for Dan. Louis might know this too, but

you may not. Of course, the Heft thinks is

named after Arnold and Sylvia Heft.

Who are they best known for owning?

Oh, you're, you're talking to a man that is suffering from the

beginning of dementia. I, I, I, I who?

I should know this, but I don't. You could give me the answer,

John. Three time Maryland Million

Classic champion, 82 fast to catch.

Yes, ain't too fast to catch. Very, very nice, very good

times. Very good.

That's a good one, by the way, 82 fast to catch Hefty, hefty.

Hefty. That's right.

You darn right. Let's.

Go one for each one for each Maryland million Classic win.

Yeah. That's exactly right.

Fire pit will be on the post position if you take out the

runs on turf. This horse has hit the board

first or second every single run on dirt.

John. First up, hefty, hefty whippy

whippy whippy for the one Horse Here fire pit.

I mean, I think fire pit he has to be at least respected.

As you said, if you take out his grass form his his his third

form has been very sharp loss of Saxton in his last third start.

Of course, Saxton came back and came in second in the Maryland

juvenile. He's also in in this field 1

long shot. What who I kind of like who's

cross entered at parks. But if Linda Albert changes her

mind and runs him here #10 Crab Daddy, I think has to be

respected. And a big second on debut back

in early in November. Came from well off the pace that

day. Came in second under Darwin

Rodriguez, who was a very young Fentis knot, has experienced a

writer as, say, Ruben Silvera, who got aboard the next time in

the Pennsylvania nursery. Made a very nice move up the

inside. Came from well off the pace.

One by almost 4 going away improved his his prisoner

figured 13 points that day from his debut.

Beat the Boys Warrior, who had won the Whistle Pig Stakes on

Pennsylvania Derby today. So he beat some classic horses.

He should pack a solid late punch here. 15 to one on the

morning line. If you got anywhere near that,

that would be a pretty big bargain.

For me, Louis, I would say fire pits, kind of a wimpy, wimpy,

wimpy, though for me, I'm going to guess because he's probably

going to scratch a talking to Lupe Prosciado, who is sunning

down in Florida instead of spending the the winter up in

parks where the weather's been lousy and they haven't been able

to train. But also, Lupe told me that this

source still is a little bit green.

He's shown some abilities, a little green.

And I think the rail post worries him here that maybe if

he has to break inside, it's just going to freak this horse

out a little bit. And then you throw in the ship

down to Laurel. Remember these are babies so if

fire pit does happen to and the connections do happen to change

their mind and he runs here to me outside looking in.

All right, to a Barbadian runner, the Boyce Walters

combination here we already know.

For Dan that is hefty, hefty, hefty.

What say you, John? Can this horse win here?

About absolutely. I mean he has been kind of

knocking on the door in these kind of stakes races.

As Dan mentioned, he was a very solid third last time out in the

Maryland juvenile. And one thing that's interesting

about him is he was bred at Shamrock Farm, which is home of

the new Maryland Training Center and by Barbados who happens to

stand at Shamrock Farm. So that'd be a nice little

connection there. As I said, he's been knocking on

the door. I'm I'm I'm not sure if it's

going to be the day today or Saturday, but he has a good

hoist to use in the exotics underneath.

One man team, one on debut and is trained by Brittany Russell.

I will go ahead and hefty, hefty, hefty for the show and

then we will move on to Saxton. The four horse here, not one

that we spent a ton of time on, did finish second, as you

mentioned in that Maryland juvenile, John.

But Dan, is Saxton a hefty or a wimpy?

I think he's a hefty in here simply because he has the

ability to stay close to the pace and as we talked about in

the last race, Sacred Thunder, Barbadian Runner, these are

horses that came from out of it and I think are more comfortable

coming from off the pace. Saxton was chasing a pretty

solid, a pretty even pace last time out and then was still able

to finish. He's another horse that to me is

still learning. My worry is that maybe he

doesn't have the upside of some of the others, but for now, I

I'm going to use him as hefty, hefty, hefty because he's shown

that he can meet with these kind of horses and he's going to be a

price. We'll move on to the six Yaris

Quest since I think both of you think Sacred Thunders at least

got a really good shot here. Yaris Quest comes in off the

maiden win at six furlongs. Did a lot of the the work in

this race frankly on the front with the group there of eight

that he was in broke from the two last time.

Gets the six here. Does this son of Liams map Yaris

Quest What says John Piasik? Hefty, hefty, hefty or wimpy,

wimpy, wimpy. I think he's kind of wimpy in

here. You know, I did not think that

was an especially strong batting field, a figure at least on the

Brisnet scale and not come back that quickly.

I mean and, and, and, and also he's made only one start.

A lot of these horses in here are a little more bowel tested.

Sega Thunder, for instance, has raised 8 times.

Saxton has raised four times. The beta runner has raised 7

times. And I think everyone else in

here has or at these other contenders have either made

multiple starts or have won a stakes race.

Yard's quest, fight on. It's neither of those criteria.

He'll have to improve in a hurry to win this one.

A little bit deeper, John. To John's point though, Louis, I

talked to Horry Duarte earlier today and I think one of the

reasons Duarte's been grilling these this horse 5/8 of a mile,

3/4 of a mile is to try to get as many miles and experienced

into this horse as possible in a short amount of time.

Not knowing with the weather that you might miss a day or two

if the track is frozen or if the track is snowy or rainy.

And also because he knows he's going to be facing experience.

So he's a very well bred horse. The damn here was a great stakes

winner. But that being said, I do wonder

if this is a little too much too soon.

We have seen 2 year olds improve their speed figures.

There's leaps and bounds from start to start.

This source is going to have to do it against a pretty good

field. There you go.

That was the six yards question. Moving on to shooters.

Got to shoot the seven horse. That's actually How I Met my

wife and what wait a minute, what I walked up to her.

It's the only woman in my life I ever just walked up to.

It worked. I don't know very one for one,

Dan, how about that? That's that's called, you know

what that's called? Hefty, Hefty, hefty.

How about that? Especially since she's actually

a palatable human being, which is kind of stunning given that

I'm not shooter's got to shoot Dan Hefty or Wimpy here.

Tough, tough choice. You know, something I think

shooter's got to shoot actually is a hefty, hefty, hefty for me.

And the Grace because I think he's underrated and he showed

that, you know, he's been in some stakes competition before

the stakes placing at Monmouth over the summer and speed

figures are not too far off of those are the top competition in

the race. And again, we have a situation

where we have a horse who's going to be a price and maybe

he's just found the right field at the right time.

If you were talking to me about shooters got to shoot in the

Tessio 6 months from now, I thought about that.

But maybe this is just the right spot for him.

I'm not willing to to throw him out just yet.

Hefty. All right, Blanche's Mule is the

8 here for you. John is a maiden winner out of

Charlestown at the four and a half distance.

You give this one a shot here, 30 to one if you want it.

How about that? You know, it would be cool if he

won, but he's not going to so. There you go.

All right, so there's your field for the heft.

We move on to the final here of the finale, if you will, as the

kids say, 12 1/2 claimer here. We're going 5 1/2 on the dirt

course, of course, 22K in the Kitty for this one.

This for Phillies and mares 3 and up, which have never won

three races. Or if you're just three years

old, you're in for the tag here at 12 five.

You're allowed some weight as well, down to 10,000.

So you'll see those differences in the claiming price here.

How are we closing this one out, Dan?

Because we got a 2 to one morning line favorite to True

Sunshine here. I think you got to use True

Sunshine though. He looked pretty good last time

out for Quran. McGee just sat off the pace,

blast into the lead and kept on going.

Don't love that he was drifting out a little bit in the stretch,

but I think he was mostly doing it on his own.

It's not like the jock was attempting to correct him.

But I this is a race again where I'd like to use some longer

priced horses. Horses like maybe Little Hot

Mess, for example, a horse that I think just aimed way too high

last time out of facing another one of those one to 10 shots and

is now getting a little bit of a drop in class.

A horse like at first sight is going second off the layoff.

And I just thought the last race was a perfect prep.

He probably needed that race and he was on a hard chase going

after the winner from the start, then understandably tired with

that race under his girth. I think he can probably, you

know, take that speed a little bit longer and even if you want

to, he was a horse like Shake It Baby, who was wired in a race

last time out where they ran 1-2 all the way around the track.

If you think the pace is going to be stronger and he gets a

better flow, he can come with a kick spread in this race.

True Sunshine's the horse to beat.

I'm not sure I completely trust him.

John, where did you land in this one?

I agree with Dan. This feels it's a nice closer to

a multi sequence wager. It feels, it feels pretty wide

open. Oh, oh, absolutely.

And and what's interesting is 6 out of the nine horses in in in

here fit this class by being 3 old Phillies.

So you have horses who have won multiple times unlike the older

Patriots. And I think it as such it makes

for a little better race than the condition might let on.

I think true true sunshine on top for the reasons Dan

mentioned. Very nice win at this level.

Last half looks like she's in career best form. 1 long shot

who I want to give a shout out to is number 4 Pinot's Little

Girl for Lisa Gaudet and Tais by Pastina.

This one had some really nice races last winter at Turfway

Parking, including a big gate to our victory against her fellow

through old Phillies back in early most which she was pressed

on the pace 1 going away, then came here in the spring.

Made her local debut on the grass against nominators of

three types. Sat a great kicked away very

professionally, won by length and 1/4 in a very solid prisoner

figure of 77. A month like that probably was

this one. Haven't been seen since early

June where she pressed the pace against her elders and lost by

three lengths. Came back to the work tab in

early in mid November. Has gotten 5 drills in the past

five weeks. Not the kind of workload you

usually see for a horse at this lower level.

Clearly Lacy got it on it to get as many works into her as she

could afford, bringing her back to the races.

She still might need a race First off.

First off, this Longwood layoff, but I would not be surprised.

See you on a big race here and at 12:50 on the morning line.

If you get somewhere around that, that would be a good

number. By the way, this race is full of

horses we love. I think the smallest number of

starts for this year is five in this field.

Everyone else, lots of double digit numbers and eights and

nines and that kind of stuff. These are the you know, you get

to know these Phillies, these mares, right, This kind of

thing. So this is the kind of race that

if you watch a circuit you you get kind of used to.

I think determined blue is really interesting in here.

Getting back to Laurel is gonna get dry go for this weekend, I

hope before, but since then has been trying 7, has been trying,

you know, a turf Sprint at Laurel as well.

I think this horse just getting back to the 5 1/2 on the dirt, I

think will make it at least a little chance at a hefty, hefty,

hefty. Probably not nice to say about

the Phillies. They probably don't want to hear

that they're hefty. You know, that's that kind of

thing. Yeah.

There's no work. All right, so let's do this.

We'll wrap up the show. It is Road to Pimlico.

It is Preakness 150. It is amazing to me how often in

horse racing. Young Dan and young John, I

think we just take for granted that, oh, they're running the

150th Clark. Oh, they're running the 150th

Preakness. We we just kind of take these

things for granted. It's pretty incredible.

But they're going to rebuild Pimlico and I'll go first.

The thing I will miss about old Pimlico the most, and it is it

is very I I'm going to do something very arrogant and I

apologize to everyone. I'll I'll tell all of you that

are listening is the roof at Pimlico and hanging out with the

Baltimore City snipers. Is its own experience on Black

Eyed Susan and Preakness Day that is impossible to describe.

And I have to imagine with the redesign of that building that

that place from where I have done the horse racing happy

hour, by the way, on that roof will no longer exist very soon,

young Dan Ellman. And so I will miss the the roof

at Old Pimlico very, very badly. Watch the Preakness up there,

the whole thing. Just one of those great vantage

points in horse racing. I'll go to Dan first.

What are you going to miss about old PIMCO?

I won't miss the elevator that doesn't work.

It's. Not an elevator, it's just a.

It's just an elevator shaft, yes.

It's not. I, I, I, I won't miss, you know?

What that elevator is, you know what it is?

It's wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. There you go.

I. I will miss though the tiny

little paddock. I know it was very tiny, but it

was kind of charming, the indoor paddock.

And I have to admit, last year when I was sort of standing

there before the the Pimlico Special and Red Route One walked

by and he just did not like the cut of my jib.

And he turned around and he sort of mule kicked about 6 inches

away from where I was standing and left the hoof print right in

the wall. So it's all missed that.

That was just a great moment. Red Route One needed.

Got the Maloika from me from now on.

I will say something that we get spoiled with when we're trying

to get quotes and find trainers into that stakes barn.

Man, if there's not a stakes bar to Pimlico going forward, that

which I think there probably won't be, right?

Just and you know, if you go to the modern Lord sort of layouts

and that kind of stuff, I would hate for it to go away very

selfishly. It's such a cool aspect of of

Preakness weekend, all those things at Pimlico.

But yeah, I had to decide between those two things.

The stakes part of the roof with the roof.

How about you, John? I would say the old Pimlico kind

of straddled that line in between, you know, being like a

little bit seedy, a little bit dingy and is being totally

unpleasant. Like it did have a lot of

character bottom charm. Like, you know, like, you know,

you go back in the and look at photos of, you know, really old

Preaknesses and you're like, this is the same building people

watch, like, you know, secretariat and and and

particular bid and and of course your testimony race from and new

building. It's going to be very nice, a

lot more glamorous, but it's not going to have quite that same

history and that little pinch of character that makes like like a

really fun place to go. And hopefully they keep the same

food provided because I I am also nostalgic for the chicken

tenders. I, I, I like the food of

Pimlico. I the, the thing, the little

stuff too, like when it rains, you're, you have to walk through

a puddle to get to the, to the media area.

Like I'm going to miss that. I'm not going to lie.

Like and actually, Pimlico does have an underrated press.

Balcony like old? Oh yes, absolutely.

It's it's a amazing man. It's stunningly great.

Yeah. Producer Zach joins the show.

I think you're wearing Christmas pyjamas, which makes me very

happy. If you're not, that shirt is

Christmas. Oh, it's just a.

Dad shirt. Oh, OK.

That's disappointing. Never mind dad shirt, go ahead.

You're all wrong. There's one word freakness.

Because, you know, they're not going to let the infield exist

the way that it does now. That might go away.

I think that's right, Yeah. No, the the real hero, though,

Zach, you know, this is our, is Our Lady who helps us park our

car every year, Raven every time.

There's actually a woman that works at Biblico named Raven,

and she gets us a great parking spot every year.

But once Elman's in charge of parking, we're screwed.

I mean, she he's going to go to Raven.

He's going to. Be like these guys.

Not allowed on the grounds we're.

Done. It would be a new experience for

you guys to pay to get in. I've done that before.

He he watches. I've done that before.

I've made a biblical before. Oh man.

Well, good stuff. But Preakness 150 coming up.

Want to thank our friends at am wager they're going to be

hanging out with us all the way through.

We'll be doing our annual night before Preakness.

We'll be at Jimmy Seafood doing our seminar with our friends at

Amwager. We'll have tons of giveaways for

that kind of stuff too. So if you are planning your trip

to Charm City, we'll be there as well.

Dan, again, we joke a lot. There's a lot of hefty jokes on

this show, but I mean it, man, I'm selfishly, and I mean purely

selfishly, I'm so happy that you're going to be in Maryland

because I love that trip every year, frankly.

Now I'm probably going to make it to to make sure that I get to

the Maryland million every year. And so just congratulations on

the job and I am I, I'm thankful that someone of your capability

is going to be part of the rebuilding of Maryland horse

racing and, and so congratulations.

That means a lot. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

All right, well, there you go. He's Dan Ellman.

He is Johnny P John, what's going on year end here at

Yonkers that we need to know about What?

What's going on with our friends, with the guys in the in

the in like the chairs with the wheels and they're in they're

they're, you know, running around the the, the, the, the

Oval thing there. Yeah.

What's going? On we had our last day of the

season back on December 20th, our 200 and 41st and final day

of 2024. Nobody in the country versus

more days than us. So on our the winter hiatus back

in action January 20th and this is Sambu, we had the first ever

MGM Grand Prix pacing series kind of series for top older

Pacers him something to do after the Breeders crown and the final

was worth 1/4 of $1,000,000. That's the richest, hardest race

anywhere in North America in the month of December.

So it was really cool to host that.

We had a trotting series earlier in the year.

Flavian Pratt came by on trotting final night and that

was really awesome. We interviewed him on our

simulcast feed. So it was a great first year at

Yonkers for me and looking forward see for 2025.

Thanks. Yeah, it should be a lot of fun.

And listen for John on the mic up there at Yonkers when they

get desperate. That's essentially.

How that works? That was a.

Great job up there now. We love you, John.

Get out of here. All right, well, that has been a

road to the Preakness episode one.

We will be back in January. We'll be talking on the

spectacular bid and the extra heat, both of those similar

races to what we'll be seeing on Saturday for John and Dan.

Thanks for hanging out with the horse racing happy hours.

Zach, go ahead. Play us out of here.