2025 Derby Draft | Bobby Flay

Life is. Good.

Yeah, life is good. Welcome in.

This is the Horse Racing Happy Hour.

It is an April 24th edition of the program.

Our annual Derby draft were presented by DK Horse Today.

Appreciate everybody jumping on with us.

We'll go ahead and introduce the panel, someone who needs no

introduction. Immediately to my left on the

screen is Bobby Flay joins us from Are you in New York?

Bobby, I saw you at Keeneland the other day.

I'm in new, I'm actually in the Hamptons right now, but I was, I

live in New York mostly, but I was at Keeneland.

Yeah, I was at Keeneland last last weekend, Friday and

Saturday. I had a couple horses running.

You know, it's always a nice place to be, that's for sure.

Is there a favorite menu item at Keeneland?

Always have to ask. Well, I mean, they're known for

their burgoo. Of course, I don't know if you

know this, but burgoo used to be just roadkill in a, in a Stew.

I think they've they were aware. I think they've gone to beef.

It's OK. They've moved up.

To beef. There you go, they.

Don't blow a squirrel. That's right.

Travis Doe joins us. He'll call the.

Kentucky dirt. But their bread pudding is the

thing I mean, you know that is that probably.

Yeah, I think that is the play. Travis, are you a bread pudding

guy? Oh yeah, I could eat that all

day, Yeah. It is one of those for sure.

Kelly Francois is with us as well.

She'll be my Co host on our ESPN Radio coverage here in

Louisville throughout the week. Really glad that she'll be

joining us starting on Monday. You can catch us Tuesday night

for a seminar here in Louisville as well.

Kelly, welcome in. How are you?

Yeah, pretty good. Just in actually in my office

here in Maryland and ready to get on the road immediately

after this. And I'll be there Saturday,

checking things out in the morning.

Really excited to get going on all of that.

I'm sure you're seeing all the workouts and different things.

Travis, are you having to get up early these days?

Today was the last day, thankfully.

That's an awfully early morning. I'm done.

Yeah, it. Is early morning.

You guys do a great job on those shows though as well.

You know, before we get straight into the Derby draft, I think so

many of us Bobby affiliate you with the Philly and mare side of

things. Do you have an Oaks favorite

that isn't named Good Cheer by chance?

Well, I bred Tenma. Yeah, Snow.

I'm. I'm hoping that Tenma can do it.

It'll be amazing. I mean, I've never had a horse

that I bred in the Kentucky Oaks, but I'm looking forward to

it. Really, really exciting.

Of course, the San Anita Oaks winner there in Tenma should be

a great race this coming Friday, but we got to talk Saturday.

We'll get right into it. If you are new to the Derby

draft, we essentially just go in a snake draft format.

So we'll let Bobby go first. We'll have Pally go second.

This is Travis's second rodeo on this show, so we'll have him go

3rd. I'll go in the fourth spot here

as part of our picks. We'll pause random, excuse me

after a couple of rounds to put the big board up as well.

So Bobby, you get first pick here.

Who's our who's going off the board?

The board first here, I think. This pressure he.

Just said the pressure this guy's got now.

Honestly, I I'm, I'm not going to take journalism.

I'm going to say that I'm going to leave that for the next

person because I. Don't.

Pierce just put second in this draft last year.

So to be fair, you could be a good company here.

I'm going to pick Sandman. OK, all right.

Why are you picking Sandman here?

I'm picking Sandman because I think that the Derby is all

about who's going to be right on that day.

And I feel like his progression has been perfect.

And even though he was a little green in the stretch in the

Arkansas Derby, I just feel like, you know, one of the

things I like about Mark Cassie is he runs his horses.

And I think that, you know, getting these horses to the

races is the thing that really sharpens them.

And I just feel like he's going to be sharper in the stretch

than he was in the last race and he's going to listen.

Let's face it, I don't care who's who's in the lead.

There's going to be tons of speed in this race no matter

what. It's the Derby people want their

name called. So I just feel like this course

can pick up the pieces and, you know, I think it's time for

Tappet to get off the the schneid and the Derby.

I don't hate that pick, Travis. What do you think of Sandman

going #1 in our draft here? I I'm a little surprised,

although I get it. He's probably going to be second

favorite compost time. Hard to argue that sounds.

Right, Yeah. How about for you, Kelly Sandman

off the board? Where do you think you had hit?

Was he a first rounder for you? See, I thought we were here for

the Kentucky Derby draft and I get it.

But I actually think he's a Belmont horse.

So I Bobby, I get, I get what you're saying and just looking,

he's just, I think mentally he might just need one more.

I think he's going to get a lot out of the Derby, I think.

He's going to run well at the Derby, don't get me wrong, but I

just, I just, with what I'm seeing, just mentally, he's just

still kind of doing his own thing.

I think the huge. Exposure to the Derby.

Is going to sharpen him up? Is it going to sharpen him up

immediately? That I'm not sure about.

So that's where I'm saying, hey, I could see, I could see this

horse running well. And then I could see Mark Cassie

saying, hey, this is this horse could keep going.

And we all know he can keep going and going going where I

think Belmont eventually is might be a better fit for him.

OK. Try that mount that Violet 1/4

Belmont this year. Of course, back at Saratoga for

a second. Go round there Callie, you get

our next pick and you are not allowed to pick Sandman.

You went out on me, but I'm going to, I'm going to go with

Burnham Square. Just not.

Not just because he's only been on.

You know he's on the top of the points thing, but if this is

when you're talking about the Derby, there's so much that's

going on the entire way around that race and if you can come

overcome adversities. If not, no worries.

This guy's got you covered from the beginning, this one has been

a consummate professional handling whatever has thrown at

him trip wise. He's going to need every bit of

go for any lack of that flashy turn of foot.

But however, I think this one, just with the way he's peeking

and I'm looking at the spacing of of, you know, his previous

one from, you know, his last one in the Bluegrass, I think he's a

week short. But it's not concerning me a

little bit at all. I mean, I remember it was one of

his first, one of his first races, I think his second start

actually. That really kind of got me

excited about this horse. I I love the gallops out

whenever I see him. So yeah, I just think there's so

much that I've seen in his trips where I'm just like, hey, this

guy can handle getting shoved around a little bit.

Yeah, a lot of speed up front in that bluegrass.

As Bobby mentioned, there's gotta be speed up front in the

Kentucky Derby this year. I wanna come to Cali's defense

here. I think Burnham Squares move in

the holy bolt. He made two different moves from

the back of the the pack on the backstretch in back into the

pack. So he was able to change speeds

a couple of different times. Completely agree, Cali.

He's very, very professional. What says Travis Stone about

Burnham Square? You know, much like Bobby said

with Mark, Cassie and Sandman, I love how Ian Wilkes has prepared

this horse, willing to race him into shape, get him the

experience that he needs. And let's be honest, Brian's

worth what, 123 lengths of Churchill?

Don't be surprised if he tries to cut the corner again with

this one. It's a pretty aggressive pick.

I don't know if I would make him my number two pick, but I like

it. Yeah, I like it.

Yeah, why not? All right, move on to pick

three. He'll call Kentucky Derby 151.

How many derbies will this be for you, Travis?

11, I think it's my eleventh, yeah.

Just so many that you lost count.

I love it. Who do you have our our third

overall pick here to close. I mean, I can't believe it.

I'm taking them. I'm I'm taking journalism.

And when you see him on the track, he he just looks amazing.

His stride is powerful. I love the progression that he's

shown. I feel like Michael McCarthy is

quietly confident. I like that he has a little bit

of tactical speed, which is going to need a little bit to

get position, and hopefully he gets a good poster.

I think he's deserving favorite and I think he's the horse they

all have to beat. I think all of the measurables

point to exactly what you were just talking about.

Bobby, do you agree? Journalism.

Probably the horse to be here. I mean, yeah.

I mean, he's got all the all the numbers, all the figures.

It's hard not to root for Mike McCarthy.

Great guy. I mean, I mean, I've, I, you

know, I, I always think about these kinds of races as like, I

kind of like what Cali does is like, I think about the story

afterwards. Can I see the story afterwards?

Like I can see Michael McCarthy in, in the, in the winner's

circle crying his eyes out. The fact that he won the

Kentucky Derby and you know, he's, he's such a great

horseman. So I'd be incredibly thrilled

for him and Aaron Wellman and all those guys.

Look, I but the one thing that I'm going against, and I'm not

just I'm not just rooting against the favorite because

he's a favorite. I think he's a spectacular

horse. He you know, he he won against

small fields in California. And this is going to be a new

ball game. If this is, you know, twenty

horses, it's the cavalry who knows how he's going to react.

And I feel like his cruising speed sometimes takes a while to

get going and if he can check once it's over.

That's just my feeling. Yeah, of course.

His run started with a first place finish in December's Los

Al Futurity before winning the San Felipe and Santa Anita Derby

in back-to-back starts. Will be the first Santa Anita

Derby favorite in a while in the Kentucky Derby.

I get to go 4th here. I can't believe what's still

left on the board for me, but I'll go ahead.

I'll take the 2nd place finisher in the Florida Derby this year

in Sovereignty. Really loved him breaking his

maiden here at Churchill in stakes company in that street

since last year. Goes down wins on debut as a

three-year old in the Fountain of Youth.

Doesn't have Junior Alvarado for that mount in the Florida Derby.

Manny Franco has to come down from Aqueduct and try to time

that ride. I thought he still looked

really, really good right behind Japan St.

We saw this a couple of years ago with Mage as well.

So give me give me sovereignty here.

I can't believe I'm getting him 4th.

Feel really good about that one. Kelly, what say you about

sovereignty? Yeah, I just love how just a big

solid individual he is. You know he can.

He has that type though, where he's so big, but you you're

surprised that he can kind of pack that 1-2 punch down the

line, the mental. Gears are really going to be.

Turning at the right time for this guy.

So I think he's got this one, you know, connections have got

this one, you know, peaked pretty well.

And plus, it would, you know, be lovely to see Bill Mott win.

Another a Derby, but it's this horse had some buzz about him

right from the beginning and I completely understand why.

I think Bill Mott should have to wear the riding helmet when he

gets into the winner's circle. I think that's something that he

should just have to have on all the time.

I love it so much. Bobby, what say you?

What say you about sovereignty? Every chance.

I mean, I know the people at Dolphin are very high in him.

He he had he had a great work last week and it looked like he

was just getting in gear at the 8th Paul the Florida Derby.

I mean, he was, you know, very gradually catching to Pan St.

and obviously the the extra quarter mile or the extra 8th I

should say, is going to help him every chance if he wins the

Derby, no surprise. Yeah.

Do you agree, Travis? Yeah, 100%.

And his win at Churchill last fall was spectacular.

He was 5 lengths behind and then all of a sudden he was 5 lengths

in front Derby, like winning move.

I think he's top three chance in the race.

Overall, solid pick. Yeah.

And also, Bill Mott's horses just get better, right?

Yeah, I. Think he's gonna get he's gonna

prove on the way for sure. I'm gonna go with one that I got

to see here for the 5th pick that I got to see in person.

Winning the Wood Memorial the fastest since Frosted.

As far as the speed figures in Rodriguez.

Really liked his performance and frankly, in a year when we're

gonna have several horses try to get to the front.

Talked with Mike Smith the other day.

He told me he thinks this horse can find another gear and will

be able to sit just off of it. I do think E Avenue's the

fastest, his horse in this year's Kentucky Derby.

I think Rodriguez, though, belongs in that company.

His dad a couple years ago, Inauthentic, wins that September

Derby with a very similar running style to what we saw in

the Wood Memorial. So give me one of the front

runners here just because if I'm going to take a deep closer like

Sovereignty, I should certainly have one at the front of the

pack as well. So 5th pick here, I'll take

Rodriguez. We haven't had a winner of the

Wood win the Derby, of course, since 2000 with Fusai Ichi,

Pegasus, Travis. What do you think of Rodriguez's

chance? I'll be honest with that.

I've liked this horse all winter.

I felt like he had suboptimal trips in the two races out West,

so when he came east and won the wood, I was not surprised.

I'm a little bit concerned that he just gets cooked on the front

end. Mike Smith, though, Mike Smith

has set some very fast paces in the Derby before, so if they

want to go with Rodriguez, I think they're going to have to

really go. And I like this.

You know, if he gets away with the 46 and 346 and four half

mile and he's in front heading to the far turn, he might be

tough to catch. Bobby, the Wood Memorial up your

way there in Queens. What did you think of

Rodriguez's performance there? What do you think of his

prospects in the Kentucky? I thought it was a good, good,

good performance for sure. I don't know.

I think he's going to have four or five horses breathing down

his neck or he's going to be part of that, that top five.

I don't know. It just seems like I, I know, I

know it's, I know it's very hard to win the Derby from way back,

but I think I think things are starting to change in that

direction and I, and I think it's AI think it's a good thing.

Actually. I don't know.

I just don't see him at the end. That's just me.

Can I ask, I have to ask a technical question, how is this

get scored? Is it just whoever wins the

Derby or do you get points for like the rest of the horses as

well? I, I love that you're thinking

about these things. We, we just award a, we award a

trophy to the person who picks the winner.

That's right. So last year was our friend

Steve Kardacki from NBC. So we gave him the, we saw him

at Preakness. So we gave him a trophy at

Preakness. Yeah, OK.

Yeah, there. You go.

I think it's a totally fair question.

Pick six goes back to our guy Travis Stone, who gets to select

for the second time. What say you, Travis?

You know, we're we're talking a lot about running style.

I think one of the things in this year is Derby.

There's a lot of closers and there's some speed, but there's

not a lot of real stalkers I'm going to take to Pan Street.

I like the way this horse is developing.

Each and every start he gets better.

I thought his Florida Derby was a notable improvement off the

Holy Bull. I know Brad Cox is bullish on

his chances and I like the fact he's going to get first run on

horses like Sandman and Sovereignty and those types.

So I'm taking to Pan St., Yeah. It's Pan St. winner of the

Florida Derby, one of the very best predictors for high level

success in the Kentucky Derby itself.

Cali and so winning that race no issue there seem to have plenty

left after the mile in tonight. Yeah, I mean, I just he, we've

seen the raw town, he's got wide trips.

We haven't seen him really overcome any kind of adversity,

which is the only thing I'm worried about.

But like Travis said, from what I'm seeing, I have a feeling if

anything happens, this horse does have the mental capacity to

just kind of take a beat, take a breath and show off a second

wind if it's, you know, if it's not egregious enough of what

goes on during the race. So there was.

He's gotten into a little bit. Of bumping in action in some of

his previous races. So this he's shown some really

good, you know, mental move movements moving forward there.

You go Bobby. Florida Derby winner It's Pan

St. You mentioned him in an earlier

comment. Yeah, I mean, he's just like

sovereignty has every, every right to win this for sure.

He's got the pedigree, he's got the race record.

He's going to be right there. Brad Cox, of course, the winner

with Mandaloon has said in in in interviews before he would

really like to be there all the day and actually cross the line

first for Kentucky Derby's fan St. certainly gives him an

excellent chance at that. Back to Cali for pick 7 here in

round two of our Derby. Draft Your second pick, it goes

to who? Yeah.

So we went through journalism, sovereignty, Japan Street.

I am going to go with a Japanese horse and I'm going to go with

Luxor Cafe, which everybody's, everybody's going to be going

for Admire Daytona. But Luxor Cafe has beaten

Daytona, Admire Daytona in the two times that they've gone

against each other. So this.

Looking. At some of these races and again

I've just I've with some of the connections, they've just been

he's. He's just, they think he's a

freak. The I've previous connections

who I know have ridden him before, they just think he's an

absolute freak. And I think that the only thing

that I saw in that last race that we were able to see is that

I'm not sure if I'm worried a little bit about the kickback.

But I've every time I've seen this horse run, he's been

progressively getting better with it.

That's the only tick I have against him.

But I think this Luxor Cafe is going to be a bit of an

underrated horse going in. There they go.

Luxor Cafe, of course, the winner of the Fukurayu Stakes

there in Japan, as she mentioned, Joao Marrero rode

over there, Jockey TBD on this side of the the aisle.

But Bobby, we've been talking on this show at least for a long

time about Japanese successes. We've seen it at very high

levels in the Breeders Cup. Obviously with with Forever

Young and Teo Password both finishing in the top five last

year. I think it's a matter of time

before we get a Japanese winner. And it could be this year.

I mean, these guys have spent decades to to to get to this

point. The one thing about the, about

the Japanese thoroughbred environment is that they,

they're patient and it's and it's, and it's now paying off

dividends all over the world. And so it's just a matter of

time before they win this race. And frankly, I mean, I also

American Pharaoh to me is the most, is the most underrated,

underutilized American sire there is.

I mean, he's starting to really show his sort of worldwide, you

know, skills a sire. And I can definitely see this

happening. I wanted that pick.

There you go. There's our first stolen pick.

Good job, Callie Travis. What say you?

Do you agree generally with the general trend of the Japanese

runners in the dirt? I mean, it's hard to argue with

the success they've had. They're knocking right on the

door. There's a great replay between

Luxor Cafe and Admired Daytona late last year.

They raced against each other and they were 12 lengths ahead

of the third place horse. It was a real dogfight.

If you if you get the opportunity to pull that replay

up, won't be surprised if this horse wins.

He's actually gonna be a good price too, unlike some of these

others where you've had to swallow shorter prices.

Luxor Cafe is going to be 15 or 20 to 1 and his his move to win

that last race was pretty powerful Derby winning move.

So won't be surprised if he if he's wearing roses come next

Saturday. Should be a stalker also, which

is kind of rare. That's going to be the plan with

them. And I think Louis Marrera is

coming to ride over, unless I heard differently.

Yeah. There you go.

All right, closing out round two.

That will show our big board and what we've gone through so far.

Pick eight goes back to Bobby Flay.

Go ahead, Bobby. Well, I'm going to pick a Shock

the World Horse publisher. Nice.

OK. I mean, you know, I, I think,

look, we've picked a lot of really good horses up to this

point. You know, I, I, I can't count

out Steve Asmussen in this case. And he's, he's in this race for

a reason. You know, I, I know his record

isn't, you know what the other ones are, of course, but I just

think he's got a shot. Steve Asmussen, of course, a

very, very big favorite on this show.

If you've ever wanted to hear Steve say his own last name,

Asmussen, that's how it sounds. That was outside the stakes barn

at the Preakness a couple of years ago.

We got that sound. What make you a publisher here,

Travis? Will you be surprised if you

call the maiden win in the Derby?

No, not at all. Steve deserves a Derby.

I mean, I'm happy for the rich strike connections, but he got

robbed when he snuck up on the rail and Epicenter.

Epicenter was so good that year and I love the way both Steve

horses are coming into this race.

I think they both got big chances.

We've seen stranger things that have that have made him win in

the Derby. Let's let's put it that way.

I don't think it's out there at all.

Of course, the 2nd place finish behind your other pick there,

Bobby in the Arkansas Derby. So we go to the big board here

and as you can see, we have Bobby with Sandman and with

publisher. So coming out of that Arkansas

Derby and Bobby, by the way, you're in good company.

I work with Frank angst at blood horse.

He thinks the Arkansas path of the Derby was the best path and

so at least you have that all covered except for cold battle,

of course, but you could take next.

Travis has journalism coming out of the San Anita Derby.

The winner there in Japan St. the winner of the Florida Derby.

I got to say that's a pretty good first round.

Travis, you. Got to.

Yeah, I'm not complaining. No, I like my Spot 100.

Percent. Alley gets the Bluegrass winner

in Bird of Square, my favorite run of the year there earlier on

in the Fountain of Youth and Luxor Cafe coming out of the

Fuku Rayu Stakes there in Japan, I'm on Sovereignty, the second

place finish of the Florida Derby.

And of course Rodriguez, the winner of the Wood Memorial.

And that's who we have through the 1st 2 rounds here.

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dkhorse.com/bet/offers/details. Easy for me to say back at it

here Bobby. You have our next pick.

The first pick of the third round.

Where are we going next? Some good ones still left on the

board here for sure. Well, I'm going to.

I'm going to look for another good story here and I'm going to

go with American Promise. D Wayne, Virginia Derby winner,

baby coming to the Kentucky Derby.

I don't know. I mean, look, the one thing

about him is that, you know, he comes up with amazing

performances. I'm talking about D Wayne out of

nowhere. He's he's done this as as as

well as anybody ever. And you know, he's hard to count

out. And so I'm taking American

Promise there. You go of course Lucas, the

winner of the Preakness Stakes last year, don't want to stay

out of nowhere with the Pat De Mile winner, but with with sees

the grey, who of course went on to win the Grey 1 Pennsylvania

Derby as well. You called the Virginia Derby

this year. Travis and I have seen this

horse. He's huge.

I mean, it's just a massive. Horse as well.

You like the size of a horse, if that matters to you.

I made a lot of money on Serengeti up for City Oaks a

couple of years ago with that kind of approach.

Travis, what you called this this race.

What did you see that day? You know, I think, I don't think

he faced much at Colonial. However, there's one thing about

Lucas, he's not afraid to use some tactical speed.

I would anticipate this horse being on or near the lead and

sometimes a lot of others forget to do the same thing and they

can get away with some stuff. The workout the other day was

stout. I think this horse is going and

you know, Lucas, he knows how to get his owners a thrill for a

little bit of time. So we'll see if they can pan it

out for the last half mile. Juarez keeps them out here,

which I love, making the trip all the way up from the

Southwest. There isn't Star and the

Virginia Derby with this one. It's been training in Oakland

but has arrived since then at Churchill Downs.

We go to Cali Francois for our next pick here in the third

round. I'm in between 2:00 and I wish

Bobby would have gone a different direction to make my

life easier. OK, let's go.

Let's go with another out of the park.

Well out of the park horse. He's going to be seen as a

little bit of with a wise guy horse, but I'm going to go with

final gambit winner of the Jeff, winner of the Jeff Ruby.

Of course, coming over from Brad, you got to trust Brad.

I know that Brad is kind of like, well, they you know,

they're coming in a little bit on a whim on the Derby.

What sold me on this womb is that obviously you can't to

look. I don't look too much at the way

he traveled in the Jeff Ruby, but I look.

At one of those latest works, I loved what I saw on the dirt

with this one. So I think that, you know,

obviously, again, I think he's going to be a wise guy choice.

I just didn't I I wanted I again, I loved what I saw in

that work when I saw it. I think that he could

potentially be fun. Rich Strike, a winner of the

Derby 2 fills, frankly ran much of the best race and lose age in

his Derby as well. Coming off the Tepita there.

Travis, it seems to be less of an impediment than we thought it

might be when the Ruby was elevated to a 100 point race.

Yeah, that's fair. My, my issue with Final Gambit

is that race collapsed completely and he came from

last. The other horses came from the

back and some of the speed wilted.

But the workout the other day did look good.

It's just different when you have to breeze four or five

furlongs versus race 10 furlongs.

That'd be my only quibble there. And this, without a doubt, Final

gamut. I think he's officially been

labeled the wise guy horse this year.

He's he's going to get back quite a bit, I think, Yeah.

He's very professional, I will tell you that both on the track

and fading all the things at the barn, he's very, very

professional. Bobby, do you, are you

comfortable playing these Tepita horses?

Is this is that an angle that bothers you at all?

It does. It bothers me a little bit,

yeah. I mean, because I, I, I do what

most people do, which is I look at Tepita as more of a sort of a

grass form, you know, just those horses sort of seem to pair up

in, in, in that direction. But listen, we've seen this

happen before and it can happen again.

And also, it's a great horse, so why not?

It is a very good horse. We saw with Animal Kingdom too

before about 15 years ago. Travis, our third pick here in

the third round. Yeah, I mean, y'all going to

keep giving me these final round prep winners.

I got to take them. I I think Tis Tastic is really

interesting in this Derby. As we've talked about, Steve is

such a great conditioner of horses and allowing them to

develop and get better with age. This would be career start #9

for Tis Tastic. His last race was Stout.

It looks like he can run all day.

I mean, they could run the Derby at 10 1/2 or 11 furlongs.

I don't think there's any issue with Tis Tastic getting that

distance and with the projected pace.

And I love Joel Rosari on a horse like this.

And the Derby, He's done it before.

He did it with Orb. So give me Tis Tastic.

Tis Tastic, of course, as he mentioned, ran the longest of

the Derby preps alongside the UAE Derby at a mile and three

sixteenths there it fairgrounds in New Orleans.

Bobby, what do you think of that that that Fairgrounds route to

the Derby this year? Yeah, I mean, definitely one of

the one of the ways to go. I mean, listen, there's only a

handful of preps in my opinion that really, really matter and,

and, and, and frankly that that's one of them.

So I mean, he, he definitely has a chance for sure.

Big step forward from a fifth place finish there in the rebel

place finish in the southwest. I get to go next year.

I'm going to take the the fast, what I think is the fastest

horse of this field. I'm not at all sure he's gonna

get the Ted Furlongs on Saturday, but that's E Ave.

trained by Brendan Walsh. I love how this horse has been

moving over the Churchill Down surface since he's been there.

I think his run in the Bluegrass is wildly underrated.

I think if he gets there 2/10 of a second faster, he wins.

We're not talking about Burnham Square the way that we are.

We're asking the question more. Hey, can E Avenue get the

distance? I thought that run in the

Bluegrass, like I said, really, really underrated.

I think he's the fastest of a race that's going to have, as

has been pointed out on this show many times, multiple

frontrunners in this spot. Bobby, do you think he can get

the 10 here? This is obviously.

I think of him as as essentially the speed here potentially.

I mean, this is this is what this is the horse that kind of

moved down like the draft, like he got left right as we as we

kept thinking, because everybody's kind of thinking the

same thing. One thing about the Derby that I

I mean, obviously I've been watching the Derby for a very,

very long time. You think of the Derby as a

very, very long race because the mile in the core, it's the

classic distance, right? But all I always find that

they're in the stretch a lot quicker than I think they're

going to be and all of a sudden there's nobody coming.

This horse who knows. I mean, he threw in a couple of

not so great performances and then the the bluegrass was

obviously it was, I mean, if you, if you like Burnham Square,

I mean, he was right, obviously right there.

So he definitely has a chance. I, I, I, I would not count this

horse out. I really wouldn't.

Kelly, what say to you about about East Ave.

I'm going to go off of exactly no notes for what Bobby said,

but I think this horse will get just blasted by a dirty nose if

he does hang about that much. I mean, listen, loved that they

were able to kind of get all of his, you know, ducks back in a

row for the bluegrass with the blinkers on and just kind of

making everything nice and pretty.

But I think it's going to be a he'll run well.

I think it'll be a struggle right until the very end.

All right, I get to go next year.

First round, first pick, a fourth round.

Here I'll go. Bobbye mentioned storylines

after the Derby. I'll go with one that I think

would be spectacular, which would be Lonnie Briley getting

the win with Coal Battle. This force won both the Rebel

and the Smarty Jones on that Arkansas route to the Derby.

Finished third in the Arkansas Derby.

Reminds me a lot, frankly, of how Mystic Dan came into the

race last year. And so I'm gonna use Cole Battle

here in this spot. Actually really like getting him

here in the fourth round. I think it's a pretty good value

as far as that concerned. I've seen him anywhere around on

the on the morning lines at 15 to 20 to 1.

I think that's a very playable number.

And Travis, where do you think he'll be sitting in this field?

You know, he's got he's got real push button speed.

I think a lot of people equate him with being more of a closer

type. But if you watch his replays, he

breaks sharp and he can go where the rider needs him to go.

I think they moved a little bit early in the Arkansas Derby, so

I'm anticipating a little bit more of a patient ride.

But he has enough speed to get position early and not get

shuffled out. So I think he's definitely on

the underrated side of the Ledger, if you will.

He just got he's got to get a little bit faster late.

He's kind of a small horse, so if you're watching the workouts,

look for the little red piping on his, on his, on his, all of

his accoutrement, if you will. Kelly, what do you think of

Cole? Here's the thing, you get that

feeling when this horse runs that he leaves it all on the

track. But at the same time, I think

there's a little bit more that we see of him where we don't see

that with some of these other entrants.

I think he's been put in a number of different positions

and race configurations as far as the, you know, a race tactic

setup goes and you know, second of all from the timing from the

Smarty Jones. To the rebel where he had some

success very similar to the time in between that, you know, the

Arkansas and this Derby, you know, with this one week off.

But again, as Travis said, he's got just because he's I feel

like he's been through so much he's able to he's very battle

tested. So you can kind of that's where

that push button comes from is just that mountain of experience

that he's had leading up to this and all like I said, so much, so

much stuff has happened in both his wins and his losses.

Very, very interesting. Horse all right Travis, you get

the next pick here in the fourth round.

I've made my last pick by the way, I I relegated to the last

spot here, so I will get whoever is left over here when you get

to the end of the draft. But Travis, who are you

selecting next year in the third?

I'm going to take Grande, who I think ran a sneaky good race in

the Wood Memorial kind of middle move from the five furlong pole

to the top of the stretch. Couldn't run down the loose on

the lead. Rodriguez This was Grande's

third career start. Todd Pletcher's no stranger to

winning the Kentucky Derby. I think I like the horses

tactical speed if needed, or if they want to be closers, they

can do that too. So I think Grande in terms of a,

you know, 3rd, 4th, 5th round pick, I think he's a great

choice, so I'm taking him. How about for you, Bobby?

Obviously the Pletcher connection here are real

positive. I mean, it's Todd, right?

And he's going to bring this horse, you know, ready to roll.

I mean, you know, his last race he kind of just flattened out

even, you know, he made like a little bit of a middle move and

then he got kind of just flattened out.

But again, it's like it's Todd Pletcher.

So I'm not counting him out ever.

Yeah, there you go. Grande goes in the fourth round

here. Cali.

Your fourth round pick is whom? I admire Daytona.

I might as well grab the other Japanese horse while I hit him,

so the effort that. And I just all the reasons I,

you know, like my other like Luxor Cafe as well.

The only thing I've and I, I'll say it before anybody else can

say it, it's just shipping over from the Middle East.

That's always going to be a little bit of my concern.

But at the same time, with what I saw over there, I just, I, I,

so with I, I just always think that horse is coming from the

Middle East, sometimes need a race.

But seeing as his horse is coming over and the way he did

it in the UAE, Derby just took charge of the race, made it his

and was able to take on late competition.

That's what I really love to see.

There you go. Admire Daytona, of course.

Part of that, part of that Japanese contingent, if you have

not seen it online at all. Him leaving the the accordancey

barn, how excited he gets to head out to the track.

Go find that video online. You can find it on my Twitter

page. Different things.

What do you make of Admire Daytona here?

Travis coming into this. One, he's got some tactical

speed, I don't think he'll be too far out of it.

He's a bit of a tough read. I think I prefer Luxor Cafe of

the two of them coming from overseas.

I think they also learned a little bit over the years with

some of these horses they sent to the front and the Derby.

That speed they don't typically see and we don't typically see

in any other dirt race even around the world.

So I I would expect more of a mid pack type trip for him even

though they have a little push button if they need it right?

All right, Bobby, your 4th and 5th round picks here, closing

out your your selections here in our annual Derby Draft on the

Horse Racing Happy Hour. Who do you have closing out the

fourth round? Citizen Citizen boat.

I think this this horse reminds me of Thunder Gulch, which I'm

dating myself long time ago, but Thunder Gulch was the was the

Derby favorite. Threw in a clunker and then came

back and won the Derby. Like if this horse had run a

good race in his last race, he'd be right up there with

journalism is one of the favorites.

And, you know, dealing with a guy that knows how to how to win

this race. Let's let's face it.

So again, if this horse kind of turns his form around in Derby,

I would not be surprised. I agree.

By the way, the last two winners or last three, I should say,

winners of the Breeders Cup Juvenile and then their first

race as a three-year old, two of them went on, went on to win the

Derby and the other finished third.

And so Citizen Bowl in good company there.

Is there a chance, Cali, that we're just forgetting how good

of a horse this is? And he's going to be second in

his form cycle coming out of that San Anita Derby.

Yeah, because I would be one of those people forgetting about

that. Listen, I had this horse as my.

Breeders' Cup top pick. And I just and I'm quick.

Here's the thing, I'm quick to jump off when I see a horse that

is typically a speed horse. And then they just get, you

know, so discouraged. So that's just it's just a

personal thing with me. But Bobby brought out a lot of

good points, you know, with Bob prepping him in.

And then you brought up that great stat that just kind of has

me sold a little bit back. But it's going to be an out for

man symbol. All right, Citizen Bowl, of

course, the winner of that Breeders' Cup Juvenile, as we

mentioned, the Robert V Lewis coming in and then not a great

showing there in the Santa Anita Derby.

Here is our big board to to this moment from our friends at DK

Horse Bobby. Now rounding out that fourth

round with Citizen Bowl. American Promise was his third

rounder. Travis has his Tastic and Grande

lots of winners until you get to Grande.

The 2nd place winner The Wood Memorial Cali taking final game

at the winner of the Ruby up there at Turfway Park and Admire

Daytona coming out of the UAE E Derby I get E Avenue 2nd place

finish there at Keeneland in the Bluegrass Cold Battle up the

track third place in the Arkansas Derby last out as well.

Final round. Bobby kicks us off here with the

first pick of Round 5. I'm going to go with Owen

Almighty. This would be my my one.

I think just sort of stalking horse.

He's got some tactical speed. Should be sort of, I don't know,

in the top, maybe 4th, 5th, 6th, something like that.

Just in case the just in case the closures can't close and

somehow the the speed, you know, disappears.

I mean, this is obviously a stretch, but I want a little

shouting at the beginning of the race.

So I'm going to go with Owen Almighty.

Plenty of shouting with old almighty Travis.

Do you expect to say his name pretty prominently on the front?

You know he might not want to get him on 1/4, but if you watch

his workout today, he had a massive gallop out that went all

the way back to the track kitchen, which is near the far

turn. So that was a real stamina

inducing workout. Kind of surprised me to be

honest with you. I kind of looked at this horse

as more of a Pat de Mile type. That kind of woke me up a little

bit. I mean, we are in the, you know,

fifth round here. We're not talking about one of

the favorites. I think it's a great pick as we

get down toward the bottom for sure.

All right. I'll.

Say I think he'll get all of all of that.

I think you're going to get all of 4045 to one on him because I

think people just, we'll assume no distance, but frankly, we see

it over and over. Tampa Bay, he dominated that

race. He could have gone to mile and a

quarter that day, in my opinion. So I think a great pick to get

in the fifth round. Cali, your turn here in Round 5.

I mean, yeah, we're in the we're in the tail end of what we can

kind of pick and choose. And I can't believe I'm ending

up with this horse. But Flying Mohawk also coming.

I can't believe I'm getting another horse coming out of the

Jeff Ruby. But the thing about this horse

is that I've also watched his works and he's kind of got one

tempo on the dirt. We haven't seen that on the

turf. So this is going to be clearly a

trip horse as long as the connections aren't going to play

the hey, let's come from off of the pace game.

As long as they send this horse a little bit into the field, you

got a shot of, you know, striking somewhere underneath.

So I think, yeah, I, I think others have impressed me.

I just with the way he traveled on the ground on the dirt, he's

just got very much A1 tempo on the dirt, if he shows up on the

dirt at all. Fly Mohawk, of course, Trained

by Whit Beckman. Louisville native ridden by Joe

Rahman. His first Derby this year comes

out of that second place finishing the Ruby.

As Cali mentioned, Travis, he's going to have to do his running

later. But what I like about him is he

was actually mid pack for all of that race.

If he's willing to be 8th, 9th in this race, I think he can at

least pick up some of the pieces.

Maybe part of the Trier or super effective.

I don't know, I might even go the other way and say the

Derby's got a lot of historical examples of horses clunking up

for 3rd or 4th that come from way out of the backfield.

I'm, I'm going back to like make music for me, who is widely

considered to be hopeless, just came on to grab a piece of that

late superfecta. And to me, the way the Derby's

run and the way this Derby projects to be run, you might

want that last mover to sneak in there at a big price.

So I, I I would like to see him farther back and and maybe try

and make that move with some of the others there.

You go. I have to ask you, Bobby, Jason

Worth involved in the ownership of that horse.

Do you like his hat collection? I just like that Jason's

involved in the game. He's got, he's got, he's got a,

he's got a good microphone for the sport.

I mean, I don't know if you guys saw the I watched every minute

of the documentary. It's fantastic.

I mean, you know, finally, just a positive speaking, you know,

documentary about the sport that it deserves.

It's great. There you go.

It's worth, of course, involved with a flying Mohawk.

Very sentimental for me. Wit lives just up the street

here, so hopefully he's involved in the equation.

Did have Anna Marie in the Derby last year.

Of course. Has a couple really sneaky good

horses in the Oaks as well. Travis, you're picking the fifth

round here. I don't mind this pick for my

5th pick. I think Chunk of Gold is a bit

underrated. I thought he ran well in the

Louisiana Derby. He was kind of close to that.

That pace that collapsed. He's lightly raced.

I think they tried a little bit of a different tactic in there,

getting a little bit closer to the pace than he probably wants

to be. Now.

He's probably going to have to come from farther off of it.

And much like Flying Mohawk, sometimes you just got to pick

up those pieces late and you can nab a share of the Derby.

So yeah, chunk of gold for me. Chunk of Gold trained by Ethan

Wester Lovebury right there. Love that very New Orleans

connection there. Let's say you, Kyle, you got a,

you got a strong opinion about Chunk of Gold.

Yeah, because it was. I was either going to go with

Chunk of Gold or Flying Mohawk, and I think for all the reasons

I'm trying to find the notes that I had on this horse, I'm

all over the place. I think the reason, Yeah, the

reason. I immediately, you know, just

looking at the form before the replays, this horse just needs

to be put in the right spot. Just kind of but Travis has a

different opinion about that. But if he's if he's getting up

there and if he's, you know, let's just say this horse, you

know, goes to win for the Derby, he's just getting it by a dirty

nose. I think, you know, he's had a

couple of different type of trips where the connections are

going to, you know, they're going to settle on a spot that I

think is well for him when the gates open.

Interesting one there for sure. I get to go last year and I'm

actually reasonably excited about my last pick here.

I get built in the very last spot here for Wayne Catalano.

Mostly. I just like Wayne now.

I think eventually today we're going to find out that this

horse is going to run in the Pad Day Mile, but if he goes in the

Derby, I think I have one thing going for me and that is Jose

Ortiz. I think one of the underrated

horse racing stories last year was Jose Ortiz moving his mount

to both Churchill Downs and then down to the Fairgrounds.

How successful he was with that move.

He's very comfortable here and if you're watching him at

Keeneland at all, the guy is on absolute fire.

So if I can get a jockey bump there, I'll take built in the

last spot here and round out our big board.

So we go to that board now with our friends again at DK Horse.

And so here's our top five. I go to you first, Bobby.

How are you feeling about your picks?

I feel good about them. I the one the one that kind of

pinched me was when Cali took Luxor Cafe because he could be

anything and I wanted him. But I'm really confident with my

top pick especially and now I know what my I, I, I I have my

trifecta and superfecta box, no. That's exactly right.

Travis Hubble for you, man. You got I I'm sorry, but you

have to feel exceptionally good. Yeah, I mean that's.

Your top three. Yeah, I mean, I've been telling

everybody my top pick is journalism and my second pick

has always been to Pant Street. And so for me to get the 1-2

punch there and I think tis tastic is a a sneaky, a

developing sort. Same with Grande.

And I love chunk of gold. There's a live long shot.

So yeah, I'm on board. Cal, you've made the terrible

decision to spend a week with me around the Derby, but you may

not have made bad decisions with your horses in this draft.

How do you feel? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I

can't believe Bobby and I left Travis with journalism, So good

on you for good on you, Travis, for that.

But and then Travis, I was in between.

Travis also got his tastic for me.

But again, that was my decision I did not make.

I get I have a bunch of horses that are kind of those.

It's like a wise guy. Box that I've got going on here

with, with a lot of these trip horses and a lot of these horses

that are just so you have no idea what they're going to be

coming with. But again, I'm excited about

Burnham Square, I'm excited about Luxor Cafe really, and

admirer Daytona. I'm really excited about a

couple of those horses for sure. I think I got the best deeper,

closer and sovereignty in this race and I think Rodriguez and

East Avenue are the best of the front speed horses.

So I feel really good about my top three.

Cold Battle I think is a total wild card.

Like Bobby just talked about Luxor Cafe, you might get

anything there. So I feel good with him in the

fourth spot. And then of course, built coming

into the fifth spot, I feel a lot less good about.

But Jose, Jose Ortiz, at least we get to do that.

All right, so let's do the bourbon part of this and I'll

get everybody out of here. So we've got really great

friends on this show at Sazerac Brands now.

Bobby, New York guy, but I gotta think you're in Kentucky quite a

bit. You've become a bourbon guy.

We done that to you yet? Yeah, I have tons of bourbon.

So we have some very cool ones. They come in these great

packages. So of course, I think lots of

people have seen the EH Taylor, this happens to be the Single

Barrel. So this one's a pretty rare

bottle here. Really appreciate that.

And then we've got the Weller 12 here.

If you haven't tried the Black Label yet, that's a very, very

fun one as well. The Weller series has expanded

and expanded since I lived here. It's the last 15 years or so.

My favorite of their collection is the William LaRue Weller.

I think this one is just absolutely spectacular.

It is 128 proof and you would not know.

That's really sneaky and dangerous.

And of course, you can't beat the Blanton's gold with that

beautiful horse on the top. You can get all of those the

different way they come in, the velvet bag and all of that.

Bobby and Travis, you will get to pick your bottle after the

show. Bobby though, have you tried one

of these that really stands out in your mind at least?

I've tried the Blanton's for sure.

I'm really interested in the tailor.

I don't think I've tried that one.

I just want to say one thing because, you know, we, we

everybody on this, on this podcast follows this and, and

you know, there's, there's some things that we, we probably take

for granted because we just, we just see it all the time.

But a friend of mine who doesn't really know that much about

horse racing, but is interested in horse racing was, was

watching the Netflix show and she said to me, she's like, so

if you don't spend millions of dollars, you can't win the

Kentucky Derby, right? And I was like, absolutely not.

In fact, I, I pointed out chunk of gold that was a $2500

purchase at Fasic Tipton. I think it was July.

I mean, such AI mean that's the thing.

It's like everybody thinks they know everything that when they

look at these horses at the sales and then something like

this happens. It's such a there's so many good

opportunities for storyline in this Derby.

And that's the thing that I love about it, because it gets it

into the mainstream of the world.

Yeah. I, I agree.

I think that I think the cold battle potential angle, I think

they brought him for 1500 bucks, that kind of thing.

I mean, it's all out there. You're right, Bobby.

Yeah, a good horse can come from anywhere, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

That's what we've seen for sure. So who's in your stable right

now? We should be watching Bobby.

You know, I haven't. I have an unusual situation

which I have AI have a cult that might be OK.

He won the other day called Crudo at at Keeneland.

He broke his maiden very nicely for Todd Pletcher.

And my, my sense is that he's going to be if he's if

everything goes as well as we'd like it to that he'll he'll be a

player later in the summer for sure.

He's just sort of just getting going.

So he's not thinking about any of the the current big races,

but he's he's a good horse crudo.

There you go, crudo out of Bobby Flay's barn.

We appreciate him joining us here on the horse racing happy

hour. I know both you and Travis need

to run to other appointments, so I will let you get out of here.

Gentlemen, Thank you so much, Bobby.

Very nice to meet you. And I'm sure you know what, next

year let's do an Oaks draft. You know those Philly, you know,

you know those Philly lines up and down.

Let's let's do that next year. I'd love to thank you very much

for having me. I appreciate it.

Thanks, Bobby. Thanks, Bobby.

OK. All right, and.

Travis will. Be on the calls.

We'll see you on Saturday as well for the draw, Travis, one

of your many skills there at Churchill Downs.

We'll see you again. Appreciate it.

Thanks guys. Have a good one.

Thanks, Travis. And of course, Cali with me.

She'll be with me for the next 6 days, Monday through Saturday

here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, trackside at Churchill

Downs. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

we'll be backside doing radio. Thursday, Friday, Saturday up in

322, we'll have tons of guests for you throughout the week,

handicapping the Derby, of course, Oaks Day as well, but

we'll take you Tuesday through Saturday with the racing days as

well, so we'll update you day-to-day on the races that

way. Callie, what is your travel plan

to get here? What do you got going on?

So I'm actually I am leaving. Like I said, I'm in my office

right now and I'm leaving immediately after I get after I

log off and I'm actually headed, I'm going to take my I've got a

couple friends in Middleburg that I'll say hello to goodbye

to. And then I'm actually going to

stop halfway through in Virginia, do a little bit of

sightseeing a little bit. I'm a, I'm, you know, outside

girl. So I'm just going to go check

out some sites and then I will be Friday morning.

I will be leaving and I'll head back.

I'll stop in Lexington for a beat and then I'll head on my

way up to Louisville. So yeah, Friday and then

Saturday I'll be there for morning workouts and ready to

rock'n'roll and ready to go for this first Derby experience.

Very excited. I'm honored to go through the

1st experience with you. It's it's something I now I'm

close to taking for granted. I had to have a moment.

You know, this this is a nice reminder, too.

And I, you know, I don't mind saying it, but like, when a guy

like Travis Stone is like, yeah, of course I want to do the Derby

draft. Remembers the episode he calls

the Dang Derby every year. A guy like Bobby Flay has so

much fun with this. It's a reminder that what we do,

it's fun, right? It's great.

And so, you know, get to go through these things and so

hopefully never really totally take this all for for granted

that way. But a Tuesday night in

Louisville here, we'll have the seminar as well, 7:00 Eastern

Time start on all of the blood horse socials and all the happy

hour socials as well. So make sure you're tuned in for

that. All of our work next week will

be up on the happy hour platform.

So you'll be able to download whatever you want.

But of course, ESPN, louisville.com can stream

everything live. We start at 7:00 AM show before

me, Kelly, and I'll be on 11:50 Eastern Time.

So even if you're out West, easy to listen to us, we have a text

line, the whole thing. Get involved with the show that

way. Ally, I'm Louis, I can't wait

for you to get up here. I think we're going to have so,

so much fun and I think it's just going to be fantastic.

Again, thanks to Bobby, thanks to Travis, thanks to our

friends, it's Sazerac friends and of course, our friends over

at DK Horse get locked in right now.

One $5 win bet after you opt in. I'm going to be a chance at that

one million prize. See you next week.

It's every week.