BloodHorse Monday Episode 4 | 2/24/25

Ah, yes, no case of the Mondays around here alongside Sean

Collins. My name is Louis Ribow and this

is Blood Horse Monday for February 24th, 2025.

My sister's birthday was yesterday.

Happy birthday, Eliza. Sean, how are you, man?

I'm back stateside and I'm not happy about the weather compared

to where I was. I know you left a nice warm of

Puerto Rico. You came back and experienced

freezing cold of Saturday night, which you were at least lucky

you got to go home after you got off the plane.

I was at Turfway all night. Freezing horses kept us warm

with a great performance. It was a spectacular stretch run

there for California Burrito. We'll get into that in a minute.

Of course, racing in the Arabian Peninsula as well become a

staple of our international racing scene, Sean, between the

Saudi Cup, the Saudi Derby, all of those races, classic stretch

run up for year. Sean, we talked about the

Japanese influence on the races, whether it be at the Breeders

Cup or on the Derby trail the last couple years.

Certainly in the Derby last year with Forever Young.

Cool to see him win this race, no?

Yeah, it was really cool. You know, one, we've always

talked about him as being one of the top dirt horses in the

world, but it felt like he didn't really have that

statement victory yet, that big race on the resume.

So it was great to see him get the Saudi Cup.

So he finally kind of has that one race that you can kind of

point towards as being his top performance.

And how about Romantic Warriors switching to dirt running as

well as he did? That's probably one of the

greatest horse races I've ever seen.

I know a lot of people that have been there in person said they

probably won't see one as good as that again.

What a classic showdown. That was just a spectacular

stretch run between those two for sure.

But we did, of course, have Derby prep stateside, including

in Arkansas. And Cole Battle, who had won the

prep for this one, comes back in the Rebel Stakes.

Matt Dinnerman on the call here down at Excuse Me, down at

Oaklawn Park. And here's Cole Battle in the

stretch run. Hot Gunner is next, completely

giving way, his Hot Gunner Admiral Dennis Stillwell out of

it as they round the far turn. Innovators done.

Manicot Rd. Still on the lead Cole Battle

for the Lonnie Briley Barnes is running a big one.

Here comes Cole Battle and Juan Vargas on the outside of Madiket

Rd. rolling towards the lead. Cole Battle at the top of the

lane. Madiket Road to the inside not

done, it's Cole Battle narrowly ahead now Sandman's getting

rolling, he's third, but he's seven behind, 16th to go.

Cole Battle, 16th left for the Rebel Stakes win.

He's on top from Madiket Road and Sandman, who's run out of

ground. Cole Battle.

The story continues this fantastic story.

Cold Battle does it. Oh, our guy Matt Determan on the

call there the good stuff down in Arkansas.

He's having a blast. You can just hear it.

I look, man goes left-handed. All the things staring a bat for

trainee in the eye. No big deal.

What a run for cold battle. Keeps that great Veda form

going. Yeah, what an impressive

performance that he put forward this weekend and it's great to

see, you know, Lonnie Briley, the trainer, small time

connection from Louisiana. He was so, so happy after the

race of the post race interviews.

That was so, so fantastic to see.

It's almost like he's still trying to get his head around

the fact that he has a horse now.

Winston spot in the Kentucky Derby, 70 points.

He's the leader right now, so he's in the gate.

And one of the really cool things with this story is

connection with the owner, Norman Racing.

We had a great feature on them on bloodhorse.com last week done

by Karen Johnson, kind of highlighting their relationship.

Gave him money to go find a horse at the Texas sale.

Said come back with good horse, found Coal Battle.

I'd say he found a pretty good one, wouldn't you say, Louis?

Did OK with that. Now, the winner of the

Springboard Mile, as you mentioned, the Smarty Jones

before this and coming into the Rebel Stakes, we've seen a

single thing from this horse, Shawn, to dissuade us from

thinking that he can't be a contender in the Arkansas Derby

because frankly, I just haven't. Yeah, he's shown that he's

adaptable. He led, led the race on the

Smarty Jones. He won both the Springboard mile

and this race and the Rebel, he came from off the pace and won.

He overcame, you know, what seemed to be a track bias there

were before the Rebel. There were four mile in the 16th

races yesterday at Oak Lawn, and he managed to be the only horse

to close from over 2 lengths out of it, win the race.

Most of those races, the top three horses were the top three

the entire way around the racetrack.

And so he was really the only one who put in any type of

closing effort. And Matticate rode.

I mean, he was loose on the lead.

He went extremely fast. You know, those Bafferts, we saw

it with Getaway Car last week in the Sunland Derby.

Those Baffert horses, when they get that kind of trip, they're

always tough to run by. Even though there was a little

bit of a fight from Madiket Rd. at the top of the stretch, once

they turned for home, I never had any doubt that by the end of

the stretch Cole Battle was going to end up moving away from

him. I thought Madiket Rd.

Showed that he's right there. I think we'll see him back in

the Arkansas Derby. I think he'll try the same

tactics again under Irad Ortiz Junior and I think it may go a

little bit differently if he takes a step forward like we've

seen many Bafferts from this prep to the next.

It wouldn't surprise me at all, frankly.

And that is, like you said, a very classic Bafferts style.

Come and get me big boy kind of feeling to that running style,

which by the way, if you've got to justify, it works.

If you've got an American fare, it works, right?

So get off front or an authentic, I guess, even in more

recent years, get off front, stay out front for sure.

I thought Sandman flying at the end there was real interesting,

Sean. And if he can get a better ride

in the, excuse me, right, sorry, that's not what I meant at all.

Sorry. Christian Torres, if he can get

a little better of a path, I think in the Arkansas Derby, I

think he could be a player as well.

Yeah, I mean, I just mentioned that thing about the track bias.

There was nobody in any of the earlier races coming from as far

back as Sandman was. He didn't get up to win, but he

definitely, you know, everybody was looking at him coming out of

the Southwest Stakes when he had that horrible start.

And he almost got to Speed King at the end of the race.

And that's the reason why he was the favorite this weekend.

But he showed again, he's got that closing kick.

That's probably gonna be one of the best of anyone going into

the Kentucky Derby this year. But the problem with that is you

never know if you're gonna get the trip in the Kentucky Derby.

He's gonna probably have to go wide.

He's gonna maybe run into some traffic.

So he's one of those horses where it seems like everybody's

gonna be like, oh, next time he's gonna get it.

We're gonna have to see whether or not that next time is gonna

be the Arkansas Derby, whether it's gonna be the Kentucky

Derby, or if we're gonna have to wait later down the road.

On the same day, of course, was the Honeybee Steaks 50 pointer

on the road to the Kentucky Oaks.

Quiet side gets the win here. We hear that name Irad Ortiz

Junior again in the call from our friend Matt Dinner down at

Oakland Park. Rival, she's on the rail but

sent to log now 8 or 9 lengths behind.

Then comes anonymous. Take charge.

My lady is past flash wear, still has a lot of work to do as

they come to the top of the lane. 5G, shake it up outside

right there battling is Muhima and Muhima comes off the turn

challenging with quiet side for the lead.

Quiet side tries to dig in, Muhima on the outside and 2nd.

Now she's losing that position once again to 5G.

It's quiet sided front, quiet side, 6 feet to go.

No, she's got the lead, a length and a half from 5G and Muhima.

Quiet side, reaching for the wire under Jose Ortiz, who wins

the fourth race today. It's quiet side.

It's her graded stakes day. Of course I read run 2nd and

this company did get do much of the work on the front end there.

Muhima finishes 3rd I'm sure. Disappointing for the

connections. I think she just needed a race

to get back. But hey, quiet side.

I thought she did everything right there Shawn.

Nothing to really dissect here. Yeah, I thought the same thing

with Muhema. It looked like on the turn she

was going to blow past them as they were kind of entering the

stretch, just kind of flattened out late.

It was for her first start since winning the Demoiselle, so I'll

give her a pass there and see how she comes back.

But it was great to see Quiet Side finally get on in the win

column here in these stakes races.

She'd run second in a or hit the board in a couple of those grade

ones last year. So to see her finally

breakthrough get that victory now kind of catapult herself to

the top of the Kentucky Oaks standings, clinching her spot.

That was pretty cool to see. And I'm it's John Ortiz's

birthday. I just saw a video on Twitter

where we came on here where quiet side was getting in on the

celebration for the birthday. So make sure you go check.

That out on John Ortiz's Twitter page, but happy for the

connections to see their top Philly finally breakthrough.

Yeah, I thought the splits as well.

That's the kind of reason it was fast, at least it was.

It was honest at first, right? Low 20, threes 46 and change

with the early splits. I thought a a pretty honest pace

in that one as well, going the two terms there at Oaklawn Park.

We joined by Aaron Wellman in the next segment.

His name's Sean Collins. I'm Luda Rabo.

This is Blood Horse Monday. Thanks for hanging out with us

on a February 24th edition. You were up there for the

Battaglia this weekend. One of the great stories that's

happened this winter at Turfway Park is the emergence of Irving

Moncada as a the jockey. He and Tommy Drury Junior burst

onto the Derby leaderboard with a win in the Battaglia.

The call of course, from our friend Tony Calo up there and

Spirit Rags is still at the back.

California Burrito. Here comes Baby Max Baby Max

turns it up on California Burrito who responds.

California Burrito turns into the stretch with the lead in the

John Battaglia Memorial and Baby Max is testing them at the 8th

pole. Baby Max now puts his nose in

front right there with him from the inside.

Roommates, California burrito. Nobody else is close to them.

California burrito inside of baby Max California burrito way

out in the center of the track from baby Max.

And what's what question for you there, Sean?

Again, Tony Kayla there up at Turfway Park who's riding baby

Max. Baby Max was Luis Saez.

That's right, Irving Mocato man stared Luis Saez straight in the

face that stretch and finally got California Burrito.

Still a little green, still learning how to go around two

turns there. If you watch this stretch right

here, the winner is going to be #5 California Burrito.

You can watch all of our episodes, by the way, at the

Blood Horse YouTube page. Go find us on Spotify as well.

If you'd like to watch these episodes, We'd love to have you

interacting with the show in that way.

California Burrito doesn't want to switch the lead here, Sean,

you watch this horse actually move out.

I think about two pads here and Baby Max does react to that.

I don't think they needed to throw up an inquiry sign or

anything like that. But watch Irving here, about an

eighth to go, about a 16th to go even finally gets that

correction, gets the horse to the other proper lead.

I thought in the stretch, as good a ride as you're going to

see from a young jock like Irving Mocada, watching him

develop potential superstar moving away.

This is horse racing, not jockey racing.

What do you make of California Burritos performance?

Is he legit on the Derby trailer?

I think he's definitely legit. He's a horse that's developing.

I got to talk to Tommy Drury afterwards.

He said he's just kind of turned that corner since being at

Turfway Park, so that seems to really be benefiting him.

Now. That being said, he does have

experience and win over the Churchill Downs surface.

So I think this is just a horse kind of coming into, you know,

into his top form right now. Obviously, he's still learning.

You mentioned the drifting down the stretch.

I was down on the rail watching that one and it looked to me

like they were both kind of drifting.

I don't know how much Baby Max was kind of drifting on his own

versus how much that was in response.

But once that lead change was made, California Burrito that

definitely, you know, just kind of seemed to give him that

little extra kick to dig in and fight off.

And Irving Moncada, I got to talk to him after the race and

first time I've gotten to talk to him, what a great kid and

he's got a good on his shoulder. So he's definitely.

And Tommy Drury said the same thing about how he thinks this

is going to be a superstar jockey in the future, but to see

kind of his level headed ride there as an apprentice, kind of

taking advantage of a lack of pace going up there out dueling

down the stretch. He has no concern at all about

the distance either. As soon as I asked him what does

he think about a mile and 1/4, he immediately said not a

problem. So I definitely think this is a

legit contender. And even though he was on the

lead for this race in his previous race, they seem

confident he's going to be able to rate back when there's other

speed in the race. So I think overall this was a

good starting point for them and it'll be interesting to see how

he moves forward. Army mule, of course, on the

Stallion side there with a California burrito.

Sean mentioned his win at Churchill Downs.

It was in a maiden claimer and if you just click and don't look

and just see maiden claimer, you would know that it was a

$150,000 maiden claimer, which is something.

We just talked about. That a couple.

Weeks ago. That seems to be the theme this

year. Look for the horses coming out

of $150,000 maiden claimers. All of them.

There's just so many, you know, just run your horse in those

kinds of conditions. Of course, the path through

Turfway Park since the new surface was put down a win from

of course for its strike and a second from 2 fills before

endlessly finished in the top ten last year as well.

Plenty of good finishes in the Kentucky Derby coming off of the

Jeff Ruby Trail to the Derby itself.

It's time for our interview this week from one of our, you know,

someone in the industry and really cool interview we got to

do with Aaron Wellman from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

And Sean, you set this up. They've got some exciting horses

on the Derby trail. Yeah, they have Built, who has

been kind of that hard knocking horse in the Louisiana Derby

trail. It seems like every year we have

that one horse that dances every dance, doesn't always win every

single race. You always can count on him to

run well, and that's exactly the kind of horse that he's been so

far. So we highlighted Built with

Aaron and then also we talked about journalism, who kind of

launched himself to the top of a lot of people's Derby lists with

a win in the Low S Futurity last year.

And it's coming back this weekend on Saturday running in

the San Felipe Stakes. So it was great to kind of pick

Aaron's mind on both those horses.

And You Hear me gushed about one of their recent runners with the

Eclipse folks as well at the end of this interview.

So thanks to Aaron Wellman for joining us.

Here's Blood Horse Monday's interview for the week, Aaron

Wellman of Eclipse Thurman Partners.

All right, we love welcoming and guests here on Blood Horse

Monday episode 4, of course, alongside Sean Collins, Lou

Rebeau hanging out with you and Aaron Wellman from Eclipse

Thoroughbred Bartner, Really, really excited to have him on to

talk built and journalism. Not often to have a guest on

that has multiple on the Derby trail.

Aaron to be introduced as a guy with a couple of the Derby

trail. How's that feel?

It's an honor for sure. You know, this is what our

partners are in the game for is to have horses capable of

allowing them to believe big and dream about the run for the

Roses and to be this deep on the trail late February, early

March. At this point, you know, we feel

very fortunate to have two legitimate horses that hopefully

can carry us over the course of the next, you know, 8 weeks or

so. Obviously, Aaron connected with

Derby Winter Animal Kingdom in the past.

We'll get to that later in the interview for sure.

And so you've had that great experience this year.

You've got a horse in built third, last out in that Risen *

stakes. Another nice performance from

this young colt. Look, early mood after a move

after magnitude got loose on that lead track, playing that

favoring speed. You wanted to be upfront that

day, kind of an UN, you know, an uncatchable scenario there for

him as far as magnitude. But what did you take away Aaron

from his performance? He had to be at least a little

encouraged. Yeah, absolutely.

Look, you know, we're not an operation that likes to make too

many excuses for our horses. But you alluded to the inside

speed bias at Fairgrounds the day of the Risen Star, and it

was palpable. We knew we were a little bit up

against it. I don't think we expected

magnitude to gun from the outside post a horse that we had

gotten the better of in the Gun Runner as well as in Lecomte.

But kudos to him. I mean, their tactics paid off

big time and he was ultra impressive.

Super sad to see him knocked off the Derby trail for his

connections. That's just a big bummer.

And it's, you know, a stark reality that any of this can be

swept out from underneath any of us at any time.

But as far as Bilt's performance was concerned, we were really

pleased. We were a little disappointed

that he didn't hang in there for second, which would have made a

considerable difference in terms of the points that he's got on

the board. Was the difference between

sitting up there with 35, which he has right now, versus 45,

which historically has made the gate, which would have made our

management decisions moving forward between now and the

Derby a little bit easier. But it wasn't meant to be.

He put in a big bold move from the half mile pole to to the

three sixteenths pole and then magnitude just rebroke and and

found another stride. But you know, built has shown up

in every single one of his races today.

Short, long, inside, outside slop, coming from off the pace,

being upfront, you know, so he's a very versatile individual and

he just keeps showing up time and time again.

So as long as he keeps telling us that he's in good form and in

good health and and willing to run in these big races, we're

gonna keep allowing him to prove whether he belongs or not.

You mentioned that versatility that he's shown so far in the

Gun Runner. He went wire to wire in the

Lecomte Stakes. He kind of sat back on that

muddy track and made that run and just got caught at the end.

How much confidence does that give you, especially when we're

looking at the big scale of this year's Derby so far, where we

see a lot of horses who have one on the front end and aren't

necessarily proven doing anything else?

How does how much confidence does that give you that he's

shown that ability? He's just a hard knocking horse.

He's obviously got a lot of talent.

He's versatile in terms of his ability to be forward tactically

in his races and carry his speed, and he's gutsy enough to

take dirt and try to work out a trip if he's got to as well.

You know, I think this time of year the biggest question as it

relates to the Derby isn't necessarily quality, but it's

whether horses can handle the distance.

And in the gun Runner, he got things all his own way and and

just sort of ran against the wind that day in the Lecomte, he

showed some ability to handle adversity in the slop down on

the deepest part of the track. And he kept at it going, you

know, an extended distance, which was good to see.

The other day he sat a stalking trip in the Risen Star, made a

big bold move and wasn't able to sustain it.

But I think that if you look at the dynamics of his last two

races, he really has had to run against the grain.

But it gets us back to the question, does he really want

the classic distance? And and that's a question that

he's going to have to answer on his own.

As of right now, our intentions are to move forward to the

Louisiana Derby. He will have run in all four

prep races down at Fairgrounds if we're able to execute that

game plan. But we're viewing it as, you

know, sort of our Derby, you know it.

It's still a big, prestigious race with A7 figure pot, and it

would be a big feather in his cap.

So we've got five weeks from the Risen Star to the Louisiana

Derby, which is nice spacing. And if he pops up and runs

another enterprising race in the Louisiana Derby, it gives us six

weeks to consider whether to run in the Derby or not.

At that point, he'll have shown to us whether he's going to see

out the trip. And if he does, then we'll March

on to the Kentucky Derby. And if he doesn't, hopefully

we're in position to consider a race like the Pat Day Mile,

which is Derby Day, which is an elongated spread at a mile

around one turn at Churchill as well.

So it's a good position to be in.

And talk to Wayne Catalano this morning.

Horses doing extremely well. We didn't train on him much in

between the races to this point, so his races have kind of been

acting as his major preparation as we go along this path.

So he's had a lot of racing, but we've tried to finesse him in

between at the same time. Aaron Wellman with us, of

course, from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

Really glad to have him here on Blood Horse Monday episode 4

here, Sean Collins and Louie Rebeau hanging out with you.

On the flip side, in a very different place, you have a

horse named Journalism Comes out of last year.

Put himself into the two year old conversation last year by

winning that Los Al off your charity.

He's only got 10 points right now and but it was because of

that race set to make his three-year old debut this

weekend. Aaron, we've seen historically

you want to win the Derby at least.

This 3 year old debut is really an important race to see where a

horse is as far as his development and how he's coming

along as a three-year old. We'll see him in the San Felipe

this weekend. How's he been since the Los Al

fraturity and what do you expect on Saturday?

Yeah, just super excited about this horse journalism.

You know where his built is slightly a more blue collar

individual. This son of curl in journalism

is truly got star quality written all over him.

He's a horse that from the time we sent him down to Bridlewood

Farm to get broken put a saddle on his back and A and a bit in

his mouth. He's just shown that he could in

fact be a real racehorse. We sprinted him first time out

for Michael McCarthy, let him take some dirt, you know, did

his best running as we would have expected.

The last three sixteenths of a mile galloped out huge.

Brought him back in three weeks because that was our only option

at the time to stretch him out around two turns and he answered

the question big time. And then within a seven week

time span from the time he sprinted in his debut, he went

and took care of business impressively in the Los Alamitos

future security. Right after that, he got a

little sick on us as a result of a vaccination.

It wasn't anything major, but reviewing it as sort of a little

bit of a blessing in disguise because it allowed us to take a

step back, get him, you know, refreshed and rejuvenated for

what we hope is going to be a big time sophomore campaign.

And by all accounts, to answer your question, Louis, he is

training like he will go on to bigger and better things at age

3. He's filled out physically.

He's always been an imposing specimen, but even more so at

this point. And you know, we just can't seem

to get to the bottom of him. And as we alluded to earlier in

this conversation, as to, you know, the the $64 million

question, do these three-year olds get the classic distance?

He's one that we absolutely, positively do not have any

concern as far as his scope is is taken into consideration.

Well, with the breeding, it makes total sense here.

I mean, frankly, if he acts like mom wins a great too, I think

he'd be fine with that. But of course, the son of Curlin

as well. Do you?

Are you seeing some of the characteristics of mom and dad

as well? Yeah, You know, we've been very

fortunate with progeny of Curlin over the years, you know,

starting with Carolina, multiple Grade 1 winner, point of honor,

grade one Philly and and of course nest our champion 3 year

old from a couple seasons ago. So he's been very good to us on

the on the Philly side of the equation.

And it was just a matter of time before we hit the jackpot with a

cold. And, you know, if there's

anything that I can say about journalism resembling his father

and Kerlin, it's it's just his constitution, both mentally and

physically. He's a super intelligent horse.

He does what's asked of him. He takes it all in.

So as far as his his presence and his intelligence and smarts

are concerned, it's there. And then we all know Kerlin was

just, you know, sort of a, a God like figure and and journalism's

got a lot to accomplish to catch up to his daddy.

But there are definitely some physical and some mental traits

that that we see translating over into his blood.

When you look at the California prep races over the last few

years, obviously Bob Baffert being a Hall of Fame trainer,

he's always going to be in there if a couple big horses.

Now, journalism has already beat some of the best Bafford horses

last year in the Low S Futurity. You think about Getaway Car, who

was second to him in that race and came back and won the

Sunland Derby. Baffert's probably going to have

Barnes and maybe another horse or two in this race.

How do you see him stacking up with that competition?

How much confidence do you have knowing you've already taken him

down once? Yeah, look, anytime you take the

Kentucky Derby path in California, you're going to have

to go through Bob Bafford. He's he's the long reigning king

of the two and three-year old scene, if not more than that in

Southern California. And, and honestly, when we put

together this group to, to purchase journalism and then we

huddled up between the breeder Don Alberta, who stayed in

Bridlewood Farm of the Malone family and George Isaacs, Bob

Lepente and his team and Eclipse.

We really made a concerted effort to say, OK, once we saw

the way he was training down in Ocala at Brattlewood Farm.

Do we have the goods to, to go out to Socal and, and take on

the Baffert behemoths? And you know, so far so good.

The the tests are only going to get that much more difficult.

I think Bob's going to enter at least 2 if not 3 in this

weekend. San Felipe will know here this

afternoon. But it looks like Barnes and

Rodriguez, 2 extremely talented individuals are going to show up

in the starting gate. And you know what's nice is that

journalism showed some tactical ability in the low S futurity.

It's not like he's a stamina horse that needs to drop out the

back and make one big run. He definitely has a little bit

of gas that he's gonna be able to put himself in position and

hopefully not allow the speedier Baffert types to get too far

away from him. And then hopefully his quality

and his endurance takes over from there.

But look, you know, we're always up for a challenge.

You know, somebody's got to take the bafferts on at some point

and and hopefully it's us. Like you said, we were able to

get the best of him in the low S futurity.

You know, I think gaming was probably falling a little bit

off form at that time of his campaign and didn't come back

and run well after that getaway car.

It was really good to see him come back and and win a nice

race at Sunland last week. So that form is slightly frank,

but not having been Privy to the inside knowledge of the Baffert

camp, I'd say that the big guns are probably the Champ Citizen

Bowl, who may or may not show up in the San Felipe.

But we're going to have to face it some point, hopefully down

the road. And of course, Barnes and

Rodriguez were are very highly regarded individuals.

So the the waters just keep getting deeper.

Aaron Wahlman with us from, you know, Eclipse, their bed

partners. Go ahead there, Sean.

Yeah, you mentioned that kind of that decision of sending him out

to Southern California. Obviously, both these two horses

we've been talking about two completely different trainers, 2

very, very good trainers and Wayne Catalano for built with

Michael McCarthy with journalism.

What goes into those decisions as which horse is getting sent

to which trainer? Well, like you said, both top

not elite horsemen in our book. Wayne Catalano's a guy that I've

known for going on 15 plus years now dating back to my days when

I was the vice president of Team Valor.

And people may or not may or may not remember that Wayne was the

original trainer of Animal Kingdom who ultimately won the

Kentucky Derby for Graham Motion and Wayne did a wonderful job

with him at age 2. It was circumstantial that the

horse got transferred to Graham at age 3, and he did a great

job, you know, taken the baton and running with it from there

to to historic heights with Animal Kingdom.

But after Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby, I had probably

hundreds of texts hit my phone right after the wire.

But the first one was from Wayne Catalano congratulating me about

Animal Kingdom's triumph. And I never forgot that.

And I always said that if and when the time came that I went

out on my own, I'm going to make sure that I support Wayne.

And we've had a great run with him.

We actually won the Breeders Cup Sprint a couple years ago with a

horse called Aloha West going to be by Hard Spun.

And when we bought built a son of Hard Spun, it was very, very

clear who we were going to send him to and it was the Cat Man.

So he's done an incredible job developing him and it's always

fun being in in the Cat Man's camp.

You know, he's a wonderful horseman, but he's a great human

being and very entertaining, wonderful for our partners.

And you know, hopefully we could get him back to the big dance.

And as far as Michael McCarthy's concerned, he's just a guy that

been close with from the early days, both grown up here in the

scene in Southern California. And then of course, you know, he

he worked at several barns here in Southern California before

shifted out east to to be the primary assistant for Todd

Pletcher, had horses with Todd during my Team Valor days.

And then when we started Eclipse, when Michael was still

acting as an assistant in the Midwest on the East Coast.

And when Michael went out to hang up his own webbings, we

were the first to support him and take a lot of pride in that

because Michael, like Wayne, is on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

You know, Wayne won a couple thousand races as jockey.

He's won a couple thousand races as a trainer, multiple Breeders

Cups. You know, he's a Hall of Famer

in my book. And and Michael's got some work

to do it with his own resume. But in a short period of time he

has done incredible work all across the country.

So when we decided to send journalism out to Southern

California, Michael, you know, with his background and being

able to train classic horses and classic contenders, he won a

classic in the Preakness with ROM Bauer.

Of course, all the classics with Todd while he was with him and

painted an integral role in that, it was it was pretty clear

we were gonna hang that white bridle over journalism set.

Aaron Waldman with us from Thoroughbred.

Excuse me, Eclipse Thoroughbred partners here on Blood horse

Monday episode 4. Really appreciate him jumping on

with us. You bought both of your Colts

that are on the Derby trail respectively, Journalism at the

Phasic, Tipton, Saratoga Yearling Sale and then built at

the OBS Spring Sale. When you are there, when you're

with your team or whoever's there, what are you looking for?

Especially with young Colts trying to figure out who's going

to be able to develop into a good two year old, a good

three-year old, maybe hit the Derby trail, maybe hit a Pat Day

Mile, which by the way, like if it happens last year, you can

still want to Preakness in a Pennsylvania Derby after that.

But what are you looking for when you go to those sales?

First and foremost, athletes, you know, we don't have

unlimited resources to work with.

We're very fortunate to have great partners who support us

under the Eclipse umbrella with our brand.

And then some strategic alignments like the bridal

woods, like the Bob La Pentas, like the Don Roberto's and of

course the Gary Barbers and the Micropoli's of the world.

So we've got great strategic partners as well, but we're

always looking for value for money.

And, and when you go to yearling sale like the Phasic Tipton

Saratoga sale, you know it's going to be very difficult to

seek out value because it's the cream of the crop.

It's a very boutique sale. There's not a lot of volume, you

know, so there's plenty of time for everybody to do their

homework and, and land on the horses that they think are

right. So you're really looking for

elite prospects in that environment and you know that

you're going to get a lot of pedigree to back it up.

So when we go to the Phasic Tipton Saratoga Toga sale, you

know, you got to stretch the pocketbook a little bit.

And with an individual like journalism by the classic Steyr

and Kerlin out of a Grade 1 caliber Uncle MO Mer, like

mopatism, you're going to have to pay up.

And you know, I think 800 + 1000 dollars was, was a pretty penny

to to pay for him. Hopefully he's well on his way

to to proving worth that money and then some potentially, you

know, the home run hit hitter, you know, to come back clean up

for us because we're going to be wrong way more than we're going

to be right at these sales, you know, But all it takes is a

horse like journalism to really knock it out of the park and

make up for a lot of the failures we're inevitably going

to encounter. When you go to the two year old

in training sales, obviously you get to see a lot more of them

physically, whereas in the yearling sales you only get to

see them walk in the flesh and sort of monitor their presence

and their class and their, you know, character, so to speak.

The intangibles. When you go to the two year old

in training sales, it's more of like an NFL combine where you

get to see them display a little bit more of a skill set.

Obviously going an eighth of a mile or 1/4 of a mile with a

gallop out isn't exactly what you expect of thoroughbreds

because they're gonna have to run at least six furlongs and

hopefully beyond. So we're really just looking for

some speed and athleticism. And we've had success with the

sire Hardspun, so when Built came on our radar, he was just a

really athletic, sturdy individual with a good mind that

we thought just had a racehorse written all over him.

He was actually pin hooked by a friend of ours, Eric Sparks,

who's a partner in Eclipse as well, and he retained an

interest in him. He's one of my neighbors here in

Del Mar. So that was a nice like kind of

all in the family vibe. But the horse had to stand on

his own merit and he did. And thankfully he's delivered

the goods. But like I said, when you go to

these sales, there's so many smart, sharp, intelligent, crude

blood stock agents and owners, principals out there.

There's so much information at your fingertips now that you

know the horsemanship has to show out and and really prove

because no stone goes unturned at these sales anymore.

There's no secrets. There's no putting anything past

anybody. Maybe you'll get lucky and be in

the right place at the right time and catch some people

sleeping at the wheel and you get a little better value than

you would otherwise. But it's a war anytime you go to

any of these auctions anywhere domestically in the USA.

And of course, you know, our reach extends into Europe and

beyond Australia down under. So, you know, we're we're really

trying to hone our skill set, stay disciplined, get value for

money. But it's wonderful competing

against some great horsemen and women year in and year out and

trying to draft the the best athletes.

They're gonna represent the baby blue black eclipse silks to the

best of our ability. You mentioned earlier Animal

Kingdom, how you were involved with Team Valor at the time that

he won the Derby, and I know you started Eclipse soon after that.

Did you learn anything from that experience?

Guiding a Kentucky Derby winner kind of threw the lead up and

into the race. That has really helped benefit

you with horses like journalism, like Built, now that you're off

on your own. Yeah, At the end of the day, you

got to treat all these horses like individuals, you know, But

experience is is key in these situations.

Yet you have to have the talent, you have to have the soundness

and you have to have the mental constitution for a horse to be

able to carry itself through the qualifying stages and then be at

its best come Triple Crown season for the first Saturday in

May and hopefully beyond. Animal Kingdom was a special

cult. You know, he was, he was pretty

unexposed by the time we got to the Derby.

It actually never even run on the dirt.

So that was a very unique experience experience, but it

just sort of ingrained the notion that a horse has to earn

himself to the big dance. And back then it was great at

stakes earnings that got you into the gate as one of the 20

stalls. Now it's a point system, which

is a little trickier I think than than it was back when it

was great at stakes earnings because you have to strategize a

little bit more and you have to keep your eye on where everybody

stands. So that management process is a

little bit more unique nowadays. But at the end of the day, our

focus is always on doing what's best for the horse.

And if the horse is good enough to earn himself into the gate as

one of those 20 entrants come the Run for the Roses, then

chances are they're going to make it there on their own

volition. And our partners understand that

it's always horse first, you know, aspirations and dreams

2nd. And and if we do right by the

horse, they're going to repay our partners and deliver the

goods for them. All right, I've been promising

to gush on a horse that you own because I couldn't figure out

why no one was betting on her last year.

And her name was Anderson and she ran in a couple of spots

last year. How much did you just enjoy?

No one noticing how good she was?

And you could just go and bet, win tickets and not have to

think about it. I mean, you had to love that

part, right? Aaron, come on.

Yeah, look, you know, owning horses is the ultimate gamble in

and of itself, but I think we're all gamblers by nature,

otherwise we wouldn't be in this game.

You know, that's the common denominator no matter what

sector of the industry you're in.

Everybody's, everybody's like liking to put a wager on a

horse. And she was a pleasure to have

in the stable. Three time Grade 1 winner,

multiple grade at stakes winner showed up every time we put her

out there on the racetrack at the highest level.

Those are so hard to come by. You know, we've been fortunate

to have several of them throughout the years and do it

year in and year out. But you get your hands on a

Philly like that and it's just, it's, it's an honor to be

associated with them. And of course, you know, you

have so much confidence in them and you just want them to do it

for themselves 'cause you know how good and classy they are for

the partners who that's what they're in this for.

And they put their hard earned money into the game to own these

horses or for the opportunity to potentially have a horse as good

as Anna said. And then of course, if the

opportunity arises where you think you could sneak a wager in

and you know, Cash, Cash a bet, we're, we're always happy to do

that as well. We'll ask him about Candy next

time he's on, but he's there and well, and he's from Eclipse

Thoroughbred Partners. We really appreciate him joining

us here on Blood Horse Monday. Safe trips throughout the

spring, Aaron. And hopefully you'll have to

come here and by then the weather will be nice around the

1st Saturday in May be well my friend.

Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.

Thanks for thinking of Eclipse and please keep doing what you

guys are doing for the industry. We appreciate it.

All right, very good. Thank you.

Aaron Waldman with us from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

On the other end, we'll talk with

frankangstfrombloodhorse@bloodhorse.com, our Stallion of the Week

segment. That's next.

All right, and thanks again to Aaron Wellman for joining us

earlier in the show there from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

Very nice to have him on as part of Blood Horse Monday.

Thanks so much for joining us here.

Sean Collins, Lou Rebeau, and of course, Fred of the show.

Frank Angst. You'll see him quite a bit on

here with us. I'll go ahead and remove that so

you can see the top of my bald head there.

Frank. Of course, the editorial

director over at Blood Horse, bloodhorse.com, the magazine,

all the things. Frank, how you been, buddy?

How you doing this week? Pretty good.

Hey, Louis. Hey, Sean.

Stallion of the Week conversation continues as we

roll through the Derby trail. I've got an idea of who it might

be after a spectacular weekend, but of course we leave it to

you, our resident stallion. I mean, it's all all things cold

battle this week. We had to go beyond the borders

of Kentucky for this one, all the way to cold front stands in

Louisiana at Red River Farms. Just I mean the the horse is an

underdog story from the start. You know, Cole front, it's a

five time graded stakes winner. Want one to group 2 Godolphin

mile. But he's you know, he stands for

$2000.00. But you know, in terms of the

classics, if you're wondering, you know, is distance going to

be any problem for Cole battle? I mean, besides what we've seen

where he looks more than comfortable going two turns.

You know, he he spies stay thirsty.

Who is placed second in the in the Belmont Stakes and he's out

of a mayor by Mineshaft, who who won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at

a mile and 1/4 and and earned Horse of the Year honors at

4:00. So yeah, there's every reason to

hope that. The Cold battle's going to

actually do better the longer he stretches out.

So it's very exciting and very exciting that to see a regional

type sire get this type of attention.

I mean, he the horse this year he has 11 winners from 30

starters, which is 37%. So that this is, I mean, this is

his biggest earner, but he's a, he's a nice sire if you're

looking to race in Louisiana or race beyond Louisiana, as the

case may be. We see such a a robust state

bread program in Louisiana makes sense that frankly for this kind

of cost, Frank, that someone would want to get in in the

program down there. And like you mentioned, you

know, like a Jonathan's way. We also think of is it Ohio

bread, this kind of stuff on the Derby trail.

Do you do you find yourself being affected at all, Frank,

when you're looking at your handicapping, trying to figure

out who's going to move forward? You see those KY letters.

Does that change how you feel or are we just looking?

For, I mean, most, you know, most of your horses come from

the top breeding for a reason or, or what's perceived as the

top breeding, but you learn something every year and, and

you just never know what combination might, might lead to

a really good horse. And that looks like the case

here. I, I, I'm really excited about

this horse. He's shown he can win from

different paces. He's pace type scenarios.

He he's what he won on what I think was a strongly speed

favoring track yesterday. So I I've seen enough, I've I've

I think highly of him. And when you when you get into a

cold front in a Louisiana kind of situation, man, this having a

billionaire Sunday, the worst thing ever.

He may become more than just a Louisiana sire for sure.

I wanted to hit a go ahead. No, I was just going to say,

when you start in a state bred programs, you you have that

opportunity, but there's no cap. If you have a terrific horse,

you can go on to open open categories of racing.

So it kind of gives you a couple chances there.

And this horse started at Evangelin Downs and it's just

kept going up and up undefeated on dirt.

So just really exciting horse. There really is, you know, in

the Aqueduct, at Aqueduct this weekend, excuse me, in the

Gotham. We'll see a bunch of New York

breds as well within that race. So, you know, you never, like

you said, never quite know where horses are going to get to get

their spot. Of course, you can check out all

of Frank's writings about stallions and different things

at bloodhorse.com. Go ahead and go check him out

over there. And look, I know you talked to

Chance Poquet this week. He's been charged with

essentially relooking how we look at the claiming system

within horse racing within North America.

Can you kind of update us on the progress of that project?

Yeah, we had a nice story at bloodhorse.com a few weeks ago

and BH Daily kind of good. I find a Google search works

really well, you know, search blood horse and ratings.

That should come right up. Chance McKenna will also trigger

that. And really what Equibase is

looking at, it's giving racing secretaries just another option

to offer as a conditions for races.

I think on the claiming end, it makes a lot of sense.

You have these horses that have run out of a conditions.

By that we mean main conditions, allowance conditions.

And they're maybe they're not quite good enough for steaks

yet, but the trainer and the owner, they don't want to

necessarily risk losing the horse.

You know, it's a good horse and you know, the, the claiming

system has worked well for years and, and that that can continue.

But this is another option where every horse would be assigned a

rating. And if the racing secretary

wanted to, it could be as easy as, hey, tomorrow there's a race

at 6 1/2 furlongs for every horse rated between 60 and 70.

So you wouldn't, you know, maybe it's older horses, it, it could

be males, Phillies, mayors, whoever wants to show up that

has that rating. And I think it would be simpler

for a lot of racing secretaries just to see they, they would

have a good sense of what horses are available on the

backstretch. They could just look at the

ratings and that could be really convenient and it could be

something that's attractive for them and for the horsemen.

It would be nice to have races where you don't necessarily risk

losing your horse. And I think for handicappers,

it's kind of a nice thing for for anyone who has sat down and

read a condition of a race that takes about 500 words to

describe, you know, for horses who haven't won on a Tuesday in

six months. Yeah, I'm being silly.

Allowed. Allowed two pounds.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I.

Think we've all been there and and tried to say, well, exactly

what is this race? It's just a simplification of

things. And so Chance Maquette, who's

well known as Ron Maquette's son and he's come on at Equibase and

charges special projects and he's really hit the ground

running on this. And right now they're forming

committees. They really want input from all

the the people that will be impacted, racing secretaries,

tracks, horsemen and handicappers.

So it was really good talking with him for the story and I

thought we'd reach out to him for the podcast here.

Here's a Here's what Chance had to say.

Erica, we're we're hopeful can be a mechanism to allow racing

secretaries and owners the opportunity to run their horses

more in in competitive fields in a in a nutshell, but it's going

to be an algorithmically based statistic number rating that

will hopefully provide provide a new way of looking at how horses

are competitive at what levels they could run at outside of

what exists today. Rating systems have been used

overseas in quite a few jurisdictions, but this would be

new to the US But it it's not completely new to the world, is

it? No, no, that's right.

I, I think most, most established and sophisticated

racing in, in other countries are, are all using it in some

variation today. Most of them are using it with a

group of individuals, a group of handicappers.

It's manually raiding, raiding their horses and in their

jurisdictions as well as internationally.

So we're excited to bring some modern day technology to it and

add that to America. What are some of the reasons

that could be be useful in America?

There are lots of reasons that the rating system can be useful

for, for America. There's, you know, primarily we,

we want to have owners and, and racing secretaries the

opportunity to run horses more often.

We want to, we want to give people an option to run in

competitive fields. We want to give handicappers an

option to, to bet on a, on a competitive field that, that

maybe there's not an overwhelmingly, you know,

overwhelming choice in that race.

And then there's also some some downstream things that that we

feel that is that it, it can be safer if, if horses aren't

changing hands every, every race or every few races.

And so all sorts of benefits that can come from it if we can

get it right. It doesn't sound like you

envision this taking over every race.

Yeah, No, I, I think that the, the condition book in the

current state is, is going to, to maintain.

I, I think that the, the ratings system and the ratings option

to, to run in a rated race will be something that is, is

intriguing. I think it'll be interesting.

I'm hoping that it's incentivized in some way down

the line and, and by by running in a competitive race that you

know you're going to take your horse home in.

But in no way do we do we envision this replacing

allowance races and replacing claiming races or replacing

state bread races. We just think that it could be

an interesting way to put new horses against new faces and and

get better as a good opportunity to to tackle a big car.

And and talk about your arrival at Equibase.

I mean, this was kind of one of the things that fell on your

plate. Immediately, isn't it?

Yeah, it was. So, you know, my dad's trainer,

Ron Maquette, I've, I've been, I've been raised in, in the

sport of racing at least as a fan for, for my whole life.

But I, I worked in, in transportation logistics and,

and also spent several years in, in the technology sector,

leading big teams and doing, you know, doing all sorts of project

management and everything from from sales to operations and,

and data consultation. So it's it's sort of a mesh of

both worlds to to be from, from my my experience in a barn, my

experience in racing and then also have my corporate

experience come to meet at a place like Equi basis is really

neat. And this was this was one thing,

probably the most glaring thing on a laundry list of projects

that I'm I'm hopeful to be able to tackle as as head of

strategic projects here. But it's certainly one that I

think can have the biggest lift for the industry as a whole,

which is ultimately why I came here.

How can we make a difference and keep pushing the sport forward?

And where's the ratings system at in terms of this process,

kind of what's the latest where it was, where is it at?

Yeah, we're early days yet, but but pretty, pretty significant

progress overall. We've met with every, every

committee at this point in time. We've got 4 working committees

and A and a strategic advisory group.

We've gotten lots of good feedback and, and we've gotten

lots of ad hoc and sort of sort of hallway conversations that's

come from, from some of the early conversations.

And so we've, we've got our marching orders to come back

with some data to all of our groups.

And the way that we've, we're not going to meet just to meet.

I know that Rick Hammerly has a, a term that he uses all the

time, corporate quicksand. We're very aware of that.

And so we're, we're going to make sure that that we're not

falling into that. We're only going to, we're only

going to meet whenever we have something to talk about with our

committees. And so right now we're in

action. Item 1.

So I've got, I've got some things to to drive home from a

data data analysis standpoint and then come back to the come

back to all of the groups with what we've found and figure out

what the next marching orders need to be.

Sounds like Equibase wants to hear from a lot of different

people on this. Why is that important?

So that's something that's important to me personally and

something that I wanted to really bring to the table here

is I feel like the industry has been, can be at times a little

bit myopic. And, and so for, for me, I

wanted to make sure that there was a seat at the table for all

corners of the industry. And, and fortunately Equibase in

the Jockey Club and that leadership was, was totally

aligned with that. And so we wanted to develop a, a

crew of individuals that that we felt represented the industry as

a whole, inclusive of handicapping and, and wagering

inclusive of, of all sorts of horsemen and, and all of the

downstream vendors like sales companies and breeders and

ultimately racing secretaries, trainers.

So we, we wanted to, we wanted for everybody to have an

opportunity to tell us what we thought might be wrong or right.

That way we can hopefully iterate and get to the get to

the end goal of of pushing us forward.

Sounds good. It'll be great to see how it

takes shape. Yeah, I'm really excited about

it. Thanks, Chance.

Thank you. But he's got that nice library

background at Bloodhorse. Yeah, I think his bookshelf's

bigger than my bookshelf. So, you know, he's very, very

knowledgeable. There's.

Code for the bookshelf title. I don't like it Frank.

I get my. Bookshelf, he's got to be

awesome, but now just some really good stuff and and you

can see where he's the Equibase is looking for input from a lot

of different areas to to really get this right as they get

going. Well, there's no reason in an

era where other sports and certainly horse racing is, but

just the analytics era that we see in other sports, Frank, and

we can't translate to that, you know, something like that for

horse racing and you know, thinking from, you know, the

ownership side and the training side, I think it's very easy to

see, very straightforward, at least to see how this would be

beneficial for them. I think though, for the better,

this would be really great as well.

Where, you know, one of the grand challenge is, is the class

question when you're handicapping, right?

Was that starter optional field as good as the allowance field

as good as a, you know, a black type or something like that?

Figuring those things out, Rating system won't replace that

at all, but it'll be another tool.

Yeah, it's just, I think it simplifies a lot of things and

you know, the past performances are still going to be on the

page and and you take it from there.

But you know that that's what the claiming system has done so

well for years. It's matched, it's put together

evenly matched horses. I think a rating system has the

potential to do that as well. So it'll be exciting to see it

come together, I think. Frank Blood Horse,

bloodhorse.com of course, go find us on all the socials and

at the website as well. Frank appreciate you buddy.

I'm sure we will see you in the in the coming weeks.

Sounds good. Thanks guys.

Yeah, Thanks, Frank. All right.

And then, of course, we always use the end of the show as a

chance to talk about the races that will be coming up on this

coming weekend. The Derby Trail gets heavy on

Saturday, 350 Pointers, Long Island, Miami and in Arcadia.

Sean, let's start. We'll talk 1st about Aqueduct.

We'll talk about the Gotham. We're going to see some

interesting horses in here. And I have to remind myself this

time of year, all the time, Yes, we're trying to figure out who's

going to be on the Derby Trail and can they get the mile and a

quarter. But also we have to wager on the

the race in front of us. And a horse like my Batoli, for

example, gosh, if you've ever had a sire who's great for A1

turn mile in New York, give me Batoli.

Yeah, exactly. He's going to definitely going

to fit this type of this type of distance and racetrack you're

looking at. You know, the Gotham of the last

couple years has always been that interesting race because it

is the one turn mile and you get 50 points towards the Derby.

So I know we've had a couple times over the last years where

the Gotham winner ends up not even running in the Derby.

So it'll be interesting to see what we get out of here.

I think the key horse for me looking at this race is McAfee.

See how good he runs. 1/2 brother to Thorpedo.

Anna, obviously the horse of the year.

Last year he was supposed to run in the drumsticks earlier the

year, earlier in the year and he had to scratch.

So now he's finally getting his year started.

One turn mile I think will be interesting to see kind of how

he gets his hooves on the ground for the season and then build

forward to the Wood Memorial. So I'm excited to see him.

Yeah, I'm, I'm interested in Sand Devil here, ran in the

Runyon last time out. We're watching that Equi by

speed figure click into the triple digits here.

And so interesting to watch this horse move from, you know, from

that race in the Runyon State red race into open company here.

Many state Reds in this race. Actually on the New York side of

things, I think it's 4 out of 10 something in those numbers.

And so interesting to watch those horses move from, you

know, those local preps into the bigger races.

Should be a fun one when we get there on Saturday, we move South

to the Fountain of Youth Stakes. Tons of horses in here.

Very interesting. A horse that broke his maiden in

the street sets comes back here in Sovereignty.

One that, you know, a couple weeks ago when we had Frank on

that important first race back as a three-year old.

Sovereignty. One of those horses we've yet to

see on the Derby Trail, Sean, that I'm really looking forward

to seeing on Saturday. Yeah, I'm really looking forward

to this as well. And I know Bill Mott, the

trainer, has kind of made a couple comments saying that the

racetrack, the way it's designed, doesn't necessarily

fit to his style. He's a deep closer, at least he

has been up to this point. Yet that short run into the

first turn, you have the short stretch as they're finishing at

the 16th pole with this distance that they're running on

Saturday. So I think, you know, obviously

you want to see your horse win when they come off the layoff,

but I think for this specific instance, it's more important to

just make sure that he's closing well, even if he doesn't win,

say he runs 3rd or 4th, what I want to see is him picking up

ground late for him to be picking off horses and that'll

be the good building blocks going forward.

Sovereignty in here, as has Bertram Square won.

The prep for this one in the Holy Bowl.

Is that you and I, We gushed over this guy last time.

The move that he made from the back of the field on the

backstretch was able to move into company, Goes out in the

three path, pulls away. Think he can do it again?

I think so, yeah, he's definitely, I know I mentioned

it, I believe when we talked to Ian Wilkes and Clay Widdam a

couple weeks ago, but he's my number one horse on the Derby

trail right now. I just think he's been the most

impressive and we just talked about with Sovereignty how we're

gonna have to see how he closes on this racetrack.

Burnham Square's already proven he can do it at the same kind of

layout with that mile on the 16th distance.

So the thing that gives me confidence with him is the fact

that he is able to make multiple moves throughout the race and

it'll be really cool to see him going forward.

But if you remember when we talked to Ian a couple weeks

ago, he did say that there are a couple more things that he kind

of wants to teach him. He said he was going to train

him differently this time. So we're going to see whether or

not, you know, it's going to be the same performance or if this

is going to be kind of a learning building block into the

Florida Derby. River Thames also going to be in

this one. Wowed in a one mile prep at

Gulfstream Park, last out on on, excuse me, holy bull day.

We'll see him step into greatest stakes company for the first

time in that race as well. And then out West, we already

talked to Aaron Wellman about journalism.

We're likely to see we'll have the draw right after this show

goes off air, but of some kind of combination of Barnes and

Rodriguez and that kind of thing.

A bit of a Baffert showdown, but gosh, we get journalism again.

Should be a fun San Vicente. Yeah, it should be a great,

great race this weekend in the San Felipe.

You're looking at, you know the you're looking at journalism

coming back off his layoff. I know we just talked to Aaron

about it, but he's already proven he can take down the

Bafferts. I know a lot of times in these

prep races you're looking at the Baffert horses.

You're kind of giving it to them on paper.

But we saw last year a stronghold in the Santa Anita

Derby. If you have the right horse,

they can come in there and make some noise.

So it's I think it all is going to depend on how journalism

comes back off that layoff. I know Aaron spoke highly about

how he's doing coming into the race, but he did have that

little bit of an illness. So you don't know how he's going

to come back off of that. So and Barnes, I mean, with him,

I'm sure a distance won't be a problem with his pedigree, but

this is the first time stretching out to two turns.

So if he's going to be vulnerable, maybe this is the

time and maybe it's a horse like journalism, maybe it's a stable

mate. We'll have to wait and see.

Obviously plenty to talk about next week on our Blood Horse

Monday episode. Then we'll recap those three

races, look at the Oaks preps as well.

Get you ready for your horse racing week with another guest

and of course an update from our friends at Blood Horse and

bloodhorse.com for Sean Collins, my name is Louis Rebeau.

This has been Blood Horse Monday for February 24th of 2025.

Have a great week. We'll see you next Monday.

The Blood Horse is dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred

breeding and racing for over 100 years.

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Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.