KY Racing Spotlight 6/4/25 | Baley Hare

On a special edition of the KY Racing Spotlight, Louie welcomes Baley Hare to the show. Baley will serve as the new Racing Secretary at Ellis Park.

Louie opens talking about Mystik Dan and our love of Derby winners, asks Baley about his priorities at Ellis, and closes with a quick discussion of the G3 Matt Winn field.

This episode is presented by the KY HBPA & DK Horse.

Full Transcript

All right, welcome in to June 4th edition of the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight with Louis Ribbo.

I'm Louis Ribbo. Thanks for hanging out with us

as part of your Belmont Week. And of course, around here we

call Batwin Week in the Commonwealth.

We'll be joined today by Bailey. Harry's the new racing

Secretary's manager down there at Ellis Park.

We'll talk with him about the new gig, how he got there from A

to B, of course, and you know, he came up industry in the

industry as well, of course. We are presented by our friends

at the Kentucky HBPAKYHBP a.com. And as it is Belmont Week, want

to tell you and point your attention to my friends over at

DK Horse. The eyes of the horse racing

world are on New York this weekend.

The race is on, but who will rise above the rest and be

crowned king of the track? Find out on DK Horse, the number

one downloaded horse betting app.

DraftKings is turning up the thrill with the King of the

Track promotion. Here's how to get in.

Head to the DK Horse app, opt in and bet 5 or more dollars on a

horse to win the Belmont Stakes. If your pick crosses the finish

line first, you'll win a share of a $200,000 prize pool.

There's a lot of great contenders in here, but of

course we are looking forward to that rematch between Sovereignty

First and the Derby and Journalism who ran runner up but

then turned right around and got it done in the Preakness.

Super excited to see them both on the track and maybe they can

help you win a share of that $200,000 prize pool.

Who will reign supreme? Download the DK Horse Racing app

and use code 680. That's code 680 on DK Horse.

That five or more dollars on a horse to win the stakes for your

shot at a piece of two $100,000 only on DraftKings The crown is

yours. Gambling problem called 1800

Gambler 18 + 21 plus in certain states to open, own or access an

advanced deposit wagering account and resident of the

state where DK horses available eligibility restrictions apply.

Void were prohibited. Opt in and place a $5 straight

win bet on the Belmont Stakes. First eligible bet only.

Must win to share $200,000 cash credit.

Buy a Click to claim Expires in 30 days.

Expires ends 6/7. See terms at

dkhorse.com/bet/offer/details. And I wanted to open with a

horse that man. I wonder if last year many of

you thought like I did, perhaps we had seen for the last time in

the Belmont Stakes. And his name is Mystic Dan.

Won the Derby last year, of course.

Derby 150, the classic three-way finish with Forever Young with

Sierra Leone. An impossible, impossible day to

forget. I've said many times and I've

written about it, the greatest horse race I've ever attended

for all of the reasons, Derby 150, that finish, frankly, maybe

above both of them. The crowd reaction, undefeated,

incredible crowd reaction as they all hit the line together.

And then as the replay hit the screen and we still didn't know

what happened, the perfect call from track announcer Travis

Stone, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

But Mystic Dan then goes to Baltimore, runs really well,

runs a good second again, the one who was catching Cesar Grey

that day, and then he goes to the ball money.

He's up the track and none of us even think about it.

You know what, good for him. He ran in all three races.

That's what we want out of our Derby winner.

We want those kinds of efforts. God bless him.

Hope he has a good rest of the summer.

And then we didn't see him and then we didn't see him.

And then again we didn't see him.

Then news comes out he's going to run in the Malibu, though

there aren't planes available because it's Christmas and he's

going to have to van across the country.

And all of these kinds of questions that we would frankly

probably only trust with Kentucky's own Kenny Mcpeak.

I talked with with owner Lance Gazaway this week on Blood Horse

Monday and and he said, yeah, the seven furlongs, it made

sense the the ability to win a grade one, all those things.

But went into the decision to head to Arcadia in Santa Anita

Park to try that one out. It simply didn't work.

And then we saw him up the track in the Pegasus and Kenny Mcpeak,

only like Kenny Mcpeak can. Took the Derby winner back off

the trail of any kind, frankly, and said this horse needs some

time. Brought him back in a stake at

Oaklawn against Saudi Crown. Still very, very confident in

his horse. And boy was he right.

He almost picked that one off. And then he shows back up at

Churchill for the first time since he had won the Derby.

Damn it. If he doesn't turn the corner

again. If he doesn't cut that corner at

the top of the stretch again and get a lead and let everyone else

do the work in the middle of the track while he saved ground,

while he did the smart running, while he took cues from Brian

Hernandez junior, who told us after that Derby last year.

Yeah, you're darn right I watched Kelvin Burrell tape.

You're darn right I watched the tape of the greatest to cut the

corner and the Derby to know how to time the thing.

He did it again, and I've been overwhelmed by the reaction.

I've been overwhelmed by the reaction.

The outpouring of love online for Mystic Dan is a nice

reminder that those of us who spend hours and hours getting

ready for the Derby. And then when it's over, so many

of my colleagues say things like, I'm glad that's over.

What a long week? That's not how we should ever

feel. The Derby winner resonates for

far too long for us to say things like I'm glad that it's

over because frankly, it's never over.

What's your Derby winner? We got used to, for a while at

least from non Triple Crown winners at least the Derby

winner just didn't do this kind of thing again.

Sure, Amanda Loon in the Grade 3 Louisiana, but we didn't know he

was the Derby winner when he won that race.

It's been a long time. Country House didn't run again.

Tough. It's tough this game.

But Kenny Mcpeak, of all things, knows what to do with Mystic

Dan, because of course he does. It's a great reminder of the

genius of Kenny Mcpeak, what he's done with this horse.

We watched it last year with a healthy torpedo Anna.

He knew exactly where to place her.

His one scuff was what, the Traverse?

I don't know a single person that thinks of that as a misstep

for her. We're seeing it now with Mystic

Dan and what if we get the Derby winner as another one of these

older dirt horses that can step in right away and make this

older dirt male division, the handicapped division, we used to

call it that much better. We're already seeing on the

Belmont card all these great races.

We saw the Grade 1 Churchill Downs.

It's one of the great fields that I've ever gotten to see in

person. We're seeing it over and over

and over again to the benefit of us, those that love the sport

and Mystic Dan might become part of that conversation.

And I asked Lance Gazaway on Monday, look, is he a Miller?

Lance said, you know what's funny as as I had that thought

too. But when I brought that to Kenny

said, Nah, Milan and 8th is grade boom, grade 3 blame.

There he goes. I closed the interview by asking

him if they were targeting Stephen Foster in a month.

He said absolutely, that's the target.

It would be third the form cycle.

It would be all of the things. And after what we saw on

Saturday, there's no reason to think that that couldn't happen

again for Mr. Dan. And then, boy, are we having a

different conversation about all of this, about all of the things

around Derby winners. So often I have to remind people

that go in or the Kentucky Derby is really the best middle school

athlete or high school athlete, however you want to look at it.

And then by the time they graduate from the fall, maybe

they're into college, start to Peck at the pros when they're

the fours for sure, real pros halfway through their four year

old campaigns. And then if we get to see him at

5:00 and 6:00, we know what we get with so many greats.

Gun runner comes to mind very quickly in that category.

What if Mystic Dan is one of those?

This is a home bred for Lance Gazaway.

Certainly for them it's, it's a pick your own adventure kind of

thing. When I was a kid, those books

were awesome. Choose your own adventure.

Yes Sir. And I wonder if they won't keep

at it and a Kenny Mcpeek type man.

This isn't a train to get ready for races kind of guy.

This is a, this is a run in races because I think my horse

is ready kind of guy. We've got a couple of those in

Kentucky right now and I appreciate it very much.

And of course, Wayne Lucas comes to mind immediately whenever you

think of that. Kenny's got the same kind of

attitude out West. We think of Doug O'Neill.

I'm not training you into shape. I'm going to run you into shape.

And God bless him for doing it. We need the gates full for those

of us who love to wager on this thing.

But again, it was really just a reminder of what the Derby means

to so many people. You could just see it in their

comments. You could see it in the emojis

online and it would be very easy to be flip about this or, or

sarcastic or whatever. There's no need to be.

This is the good stuff. Mystic Dan is the good stuff,

man. And I hope that all of us are

able to stop just for a second and and acknowledge that because

it took a long time for that horse to get his confidence

back. It's a brutal game that way.

We forget that these equine athletes remember things, man.

They remember how those races run.

They remember being in the Pegasus and there's ten horses

ahead of them. Can't feel good.

Certainly in life, if you applied for a job and you

finished behind eight or nine other people, you would know and

you would remember and it wouldn't feel good.

Mr. Dan had those experiences, but I think that run against

Saudi Crown gave him a lot of confidence back.

And picking a spot like that is one of those things that Kenny

Mcpeak is better at than most, most trainers.

No, no, we're not just going to train here up to the blame.

We're going to run. And where's that spot, that spot

that happens to be in Arkansas where the ownership is?

We're going to go do it. But I thought that definitely

stood out as a real positive from the past weekend.

The other stakes as part of Stephen Foster preview day were

great as well. I think that we've got an

interesting 3 year old crop. We'll talk about the Matt win to

close the show today. But as I mentioned, to open the

show, we're going to welcome in Bailey Hare.

He is the new director down there at Ellis Park, will get

his full title and all of the good things straight from

Bailey's mouth. Joins us here in Louisville,

Just wrapped up the day of racing over at Churchill Downs.

Bailey, welcome to the show. How are you my friend?

Everything's well and got them covered.

Good enough for me, man. Well, welcome and

congratulations. By the way, whenever we have

someone on the show, we always ask them, hey, how did you get

into this crazy sport of horse racing?

You know what, the bloodline runs pretty thick.

Personally came up in a family of horsemen myself.

Father rode, grandpa rode all the way back into the 50s time

frame. Mother did everything on the

racetrack as well. She held the trainer's license

for a while and uncles are actively involved.

And grandpa also trained and had some small breeding operations

in the Northwest. So we've been all over.

Wow. And you grew up in Illinois?

No. You know what, I was born there,

kind of racetrack kid in a way. So I've been in a lot of places.

Born in Illinois of course, but did a lot of time in Texas a lot

as well. Texas and Phoenix.

So go ahead and pull back the curtain a little bit for those

listening, because there's so many jobs, Bailey, in horse

racing that I'm sure that the general public simply doesn't

think about. And, and frankly, if you do your

job well, people never think about you.

I'm right, you know, it's like in the general public.

I, I hate to put it that way, but I do think it's that kind of

job. Can you tell people what your

new job is? Give us the title, of course,

and then tell us what it entails day-to-day.

So yeah, you hit the nail right on the head there.

We're kind of the operating behind the scenes kind of behind

the curtain sometimes. But myself, I've just been

upgraded to the racing secretary over at Ellis Park, so that kind

of puts me at the lead as far as our racing product, as far as

the people you see working there, as far as making sure

that everything goes properly. And a good day is a day where

all of that happens and nobody gets thrown up in flames and

everything like that. As far as that's concerned, we

got a lot of pros here in the state of Kentucky.

So that's a very much a positive for us.

On the other side of things, for me directly, I'm the one in

contact with horsemen, they're contacting our office.

I'm going to be producing a condition book here very

shortly. We've just put out our stakes

calendar that we put out early. That way everybody made eyes on

for a whole meet. That way, regarding day-to-day

operations and races, that's what I'm probably directly

responsible for mostly. So we're trying to get the best

product we can out there for you guys to wager with, to have some

fun with and hopefully put some money in your pocket too.

So Bailey, talk about how that condition book comes together.

You talked about talking with horsemen with different people

involved with the Ellis Park scene.

Are you, I mean, are you having like legitimate face to face

conversations with people? Hey, what does your barn look

like? What races can I fill?

Is it that, does it get down to that kind of rudimentary level

or does there happen to be some kind of, you know, equation that

that kind of fills these things out for you?

You know what, there's, there's, there's everything you can have

sit down talks face to face just fine.

Obviously in the, in the electronic world that we live in

these days, everything's through text or through trying, through

phone conversations and that sort and a perfect world.

We kind of know what's going on to be honest with you.

When you're on an island in some of your smaller racing areas,

you may know exactly who's on your backside at all times.

And in the perfect world you do through the in and out process

in your stable gates. The thing here that we're

grateful for is our horsemen obviously, but we're able to

house a lot of them. You know what, at Ellis, there

is a lot of shipping to be done and thankfully participate,

whether that you're from, you're in Louisville, you're in

Lexington, we have multiple training centers.

So we have not only our backside to worry about which we can

actively track and know what's going on and see face to face

and have conversation with those trainers when we see them at the

stand when they're working a horse or anything like that.

But we're able to spread that out to training centers, to

Churchill Downs itself two hours away, to trackside over the

sister facility to Lexington, to TTC that training facility, the

Hyatt points, the skylights, the anything and everything.

So especially when it comes to the summertime where horsemen

have multiple areas to run instead of the winter where it's

kind of all compacted to maybe a turfway or a Mahoning in the

area. You have your Belterra, your

Indiana, your Ellis Park, NAMI. It's even worse on the West

Coast as far as what's available for horsemen.

So being able to be in contact and know what they want and try

and keep things in a going in a positive smooth manner kind of

keeps everything on track that way.

That way people know what to expect out of what we can

provide them and what we can attract for them to come to us.

So. Bailey here with us, new racing

secretary down there at Ellis Park.

I want to ask you about the 2 year old program because it is,

it is I, I think it's not a secret what's being attempted

here, which is to make it really, really, really good.

And I'm in favor of these things.

And so raising the purses certainly goes toward that.

I understand that part. However, Bailey, look, the king

of this to this point in North America thoroughbred racing

history is Saratoga. Is, is that a target for a place

like Ellis Park? Or is is there more of a sense

for you moving forward to put your own stamp on it to have

Ellis have its own unique kind of two year old program?

So yeah, for a while now we were kind of a diamond and rough and

and things have definitely blossomed here for Ellis, for

us. I've been here for AI think our

10 or 11th year for myself personally.

And obviously Ellis wasn't always that way.

I mean, we we enjoy it. I have my fun there.

A horsemen seem to enjoy it. The horses have fun here.

It's a laid back experience. It's good.

That being said, obviously with the performances we've seen over

the past 2-3, four years, the 2 year old products has been on

the upswing to say the least. We're happy to have that.

Obviously, like you said, purses are a part of that.

I think you can attribute a lot of that to our lower, our local

Kentucky horsemen. You know what, everybody wants

to be at Saratoga. Saratoga is beautiful.

I get it, It's all that. But you know what, when you can

run at home and you can sleep in your own bed at night and be in

a similar position in your pocketbooks or keep your own or

happy because you know what they're paying the train bill

for the months at that big win. There's a lot to be said about

that. So we have to thank our local

horsemen that way for staying continuing to stay with us and

not go out of state, not leave us behind in the dust.

And I think that between the, you know, you can say surfaces,

you can say it's easier on the horse, what may be packing up

the whole barn, maybe it's a help situation, you can go on

and on with multiple small factors.

But in reality, for them to stay here is obviously a big plus for

us so. I, I was talking with Dale

Romans down in Kentucky Downs last year in August of all

things, and I remember him saying in August, I think

they're going to bump purses enough Louis that I'm not going

to have to go to Saratoga next summer.

And I remember kind of going, Oh, really?

We're going to get to that point already.

And, and here we are. And, and I don't think he was

trying to be rah rah Kentucky. I I really think he was just

planning ahead Bailey. And so I, I think horsemen have

been not just expecting this, but hoping this was going to

happen. You know what it's it's funny,

the obviously Keeneland is impeccable and Churchill is hard

to beat. Saratoga, they're at all these

monumental places. There's this aura around it.

The racing is wonderful, things of that nature.

But that being said, you know what the down home country

family vibe that we provide, if anybody has ever been to Ellis,

you know what we we thrive on that.

We got the picnic benches, we got the funnel cakes, we got the

lump, we got the fresh screened lemonade.

Like we have fun with it. It's family.

We, we, everybody wants to have a good time, do their thing, go

home, everybody has a good day. That being said, with the money

that we're providing, I think it's to the we can attribute it

to our local horsemen staying with us in state instead of

having to be at the big show like Saratoga.

And granted, Saratoga is wonderful, but we have our own

big boys around here that are showing up and they're getting

the owner backings and the owners are liking what we what

we got down here. And you know what, if you got to

go for this prestige or the big race or maybe a grade one or a

stakes race, I get it. It makes sense.

You got to do what you got to do.

But we got some good stuff going on here.

So there's there's there's definitely an argument to be had

to stay at home. Like I said, whether or not you

want to sleep in your own bed, keep your health going, things

of that nature. Yeah, Bailey here with us from

Ellis Park is the new racing secretary, just announced this

week the Sunday stakes schedule. I happen to love it because I

know when else is going to be running their stakes during the

summer. I also feel like, you know, a

very intentional move to be able to have jockeys who ride on

Saturdays at other places join you for Sundays for some of

those stakes days as well. Am I right in the motivations #1

and #2 are you planning to continue that kind of schedule?

Yeah, no, you know what? You hit it right on the head.

We in, we kind of made started making that switch in years past

and granted, you know what horsemen are going to run their

horses or they want, but obviously when they can get the

connections that they previously have with a, with a rider that

fits a horse perfectly, things of that nature.

There's nothing wrong with Sundays.

You know what, there's there's a lot of racing product any day of

the week these days. You know what, everybody wants

to participate on Saturday. I get it.

I think we can rock with the big boys.

We we put it, we put together a big enough card.

But when there's so much going on at Saratoga or anywhere else

or a big parks day or anything in between, everybody Saturday,

Saturday, Saturday, you got to have something leftover too on

the plate there. So you know what, Sundays have

been a plus for us. We our big turf weekend.

We have Saturday and Sunday as a 1-2 punch just because of turf

racing. But yet again, it keeps those

connections together. You see some of those big names,

whether or not Brian goes out of town to ride the big horse for

Kenny, he can come back on Sunday.

We've had a few guys ship in for a Sunday card too, because guess

what? Those old New York riders, which

are now Kentucky based riders, most likely your Jose Ortiz's,

your Louis sizes, We're happy to have them.

They can go play up there, but if they got somebody that

they're really high on, they can come play with us too and still

still be involved in the conversation and not lose any

winning mounts, possibly for their own business.

You mentioned without mentioning Kentucky Downs preview weekend.

Is that something you'd like to keep going?

It's, it's a rarity. I love the preview weekend

thing. You know, we just had Stephen

Foster preview Saturday ahead of the Stephen Foster, you know,

finale kind of weekend at Churchill Downs.

This one is between two different ownership groups.

And frankly, for those of us here in the circuit, we, I

really appreciate this kind of partnership between frankly, a

place in Kentucky, Dallas. It doesn't have a lot of common

with the flat racing that we do in other places around the

state. But is that something you'd like

to continue doing? Because I'm really hopeful that

you do. Yeah, you know what?

It's it's been a plus. Obviously, yet again, back to

the whole end state thing. Everybody shakes hand.

Doesn't mean that certain things don't get a little bit shaky

sometimes, but thankfully everybody's been very on the

same playing level. That being said, between myself

and the team over at Kentucky Downs, I also have worked there

multiple years. We're happy to see this happen

just the same as you are. It's a plus for us.

It keeps those horses, it keeps those horses timing perfect,

prepping for steaks at Kentucky Downs.

Obviously, as you mentioned, it's a different type of course,

but as far as fitness level and things like that and categories,

on the plus side for us, if you get a horse that's coming off a

layoff or just really trying to prove itself or you have, you're

full of heart that you think that you can get in there, But

guess what? Those Kentucky Downs fields are

hard to get into because they get overfilled.

These automatic burrs or entries and things like that that we

offer included in that just make it that much more better for our

local horsemen in the way of automatically getting their spot

and guaranteeing them and and getting the weight off their

shoulders about being able to draw into that race.

So stakes over at Kentucky Downs.

So there's a lot of positive for our horsemen that way and it's

just, it's just keeping everything in in a symbiotic

relationship with just how how well we work with one another.

There's a lot of states these days and the state are racing

and things like that where people want to knock heads and

try and fight for their own space.

But you know what, when horse, when race tracks and horsemen

can come together, I think it's a big positive.

But one personal question and one silly question.

We'll get you out of here. If you thought the other ones

were silly, that's fine as well. But, you know, we see the

releases online about you and we see, I've seen the reactions

online. I see the quotes from people

like Ben Huffman. You work, you know, alongside,

you know, a guy like Dan Bork who's been very, just very

expressively supportive of you as well.

What does that personally mean for you?

You know what it means a lot? The the opportunity is something

that I wasn't exactly expecting this soon, to be honest with

you. I enjoy horse racing and it's,

it's always been a big plus in, in, in my life in that way for

like I've explained with my family and everybody being

involved. So giving people the opportunity

to make a living and be involved in the sport on my side of

things, to be able to push horse racing and make it kind of

flourish in a way is obviously a blessing.

That being said, there's a lot of pros around here between Dan,

between Ben, between the likes of other guys in the racing

office, the, the Tyler Pickleseimer's, the Tia

Murphy's, the Tiffany Borgs, the, the people that I work

with, everybody currently between Jewelry, Chad Obi, I

mean, I can, I could go on and on and on.

There's a lot of experience there.

What we pride ourselves on in our offices is a relationship

that we have with horsemen. We're not jerks.

We understand where you're coming from.

We, we, it's a, it's a give and a take.

We can't, we can't have everything.

They can't have everything. But everybody gets to go home at

night. And we're very proud of the job

that we do. And me being behind Dan, you

know what? Dan hired me 1011 years ago at

Ellis. I was a little man on the totem

pole and here we are now. There's a lot of people that I

would explain myself to and say that if I would have told you

five years ago that Dan Bork wasn't around and Tia Bork, Tia

Murphy wasn't at Ellis Park, that they tell, they call me a

liar. They were just staples.

And it's, and it's weird to see myself maybe in that kind of

position, but I'm happy to carry the torch and kind of continue

their legacy and what they've taught me.

And so the likes of everybody has been a a positive influence,

just to say the least. An agitator named Kevin Kerstein

has asked the open question why you don't have a Twitter

account? What is it going to take to get

Bailey Hair on Twitter? You know what Twitter.

Twitter can be a fun space. But I might, I might, I might be

a wanderer from afar. I like I like getting the second

hand stories just to see how far off it is from the true story.

So KK is my informant there. There you are.

And the things that the things that you can come up with on

there is great. The the experiences and and and

little new snippets you can get out of people are even better.

But second second hand might be good for me there.

You go who crosses first in the Belmont between sovereignty and

journalism? Oh, that's a tough one.

I'd like to say journalism to just reward the effort, but I

think sovereignty is going to give him a run for money.

It's it's going to be tight, but I, I would almost say have to

say that it'd be 1-2 punch right there automatically personally.

Well, there you go. He's Bailey.

Here will be the resting secretary down there at Ellis

Park. Best of luck with everything,

Bailey. Thanks for jumping on the

Kentucky Racing Spotlight. No, I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Lee. Bailey all right, appreciate him

joining here on the spotlight program.

Not often that we get to catch people right after they get the

job, but you can tell from the interview there that Bailey

really this is something that he's been training for, frankly

for a decade and knows the place in and out.

And when you work with a guy like Dan Bork, a person that

those of us on the circuit have gotten to know really well and

have watched grow that 2 year old program into what it is now,

it it gives you hope that we're going to continue to have a

great 2 year old program moving forward.

And so I'm hopeful that Bailey will do exactly that as we move

forward here in the Commonwealth.

And of course, on Sunday, we will see 5 Derby alums in the

Matt Wins Stakes. That'll be over at Churchill

Downs down the street from where I'm broadcasting from right now.

There'll be a 422 post time. The Grade 3 Matt win race 8 on a

nine race card there at Churchill Downs on Saturday, we

see the names. We see the final Gamuts of the

World out of the Cox Barn. We see the chunk of golds out of

the east and West who became kind of a buzz horse as we got

closer to the Derby time. Burnham Square, of course, the

top points winner on the road to the Kentucky Derby will be

running in the mat win, as will Cole Battle for Lonnie Briley.

I think a great spot for a horse like Cole Battle if he were to

turn around and return to form here.

But the one I'm going to be watching and probably the one

that I'm going to be concentrating on the most here

is East Avenue. I'm really fascinated to see him

on Sunday. What does he look like coming

off a little bit of a layoff here?

If you followed me at all on the on the road to the Derby, I I

described his front running second in the Bluegrass Stakes

as the best front running, you know, the the sneakiest one at

least. Obviously Rodriguez winning the

wood, doing it in a way that was the best since Frosted in 2015.

We know what Frosted did. He ran into American Pharaoh.

And if he doesn't, I can't even imagine what kind of horse

Frosted is historically. But when we talk about East

Avenue and that that turn of foot, Brendan Walsh before the

Derby, man, he couldn't he couldn't talk enough about this

horse. And so I'm this is the one I'm

really fascinated to see. We just watched Brendan put

Gossgur in the Preakness, almost pick the darn thing off.

So I'll be watching E Avenue this weekend.

I'm really fascinated to see him come back onto the track.

Does he love Churchill still? Is that something that he can

get figured out? I'm very, very bullish on him

and I think Luis Saez as good as they get on the front there.

But man, isn't Final Gambit. Isn't it interesting to see him

here again for Brad Cox and isn't it interesting that Flavia

and Brats making the trip for Sunday?

I think it's really fascinating and we'll see gaming in here for

sure for Bob Baffert. And Pratt isn't riding for Bob

Baffert, he's riding for Brad Cox here.

Is he trying to tell us something about Final Gambit

here? Now, it's a lot shorter distance

here. So this is going to be a horse

that can't sit back. As far as Final Gambit likes to

sit back, He's going to have to be closer to the pace cause a

horse like East Avenue, way too fast to close into if you're

going to be that far back, I think sets up to be an

absolutely spectacular race, one that I'm very much looking

forward. I'm going to be taking my kids

to that one on Sunday. Well, good luck with every race

and every bet this weekend. I'm Louis Ribow.

This has been another edition of the Kentucky Racing Spot

Spotlight. Thanks again to Bailey here for

joining us from Ellis Park. He's the racing secretary down

there. Congratulations to him, by the

way. And if you were looking for us

on socials at Kentucky Racing Spotlight on so many of the

socials, find us on Facebook, find us on Twitter, wherever you

want to hang out. We'll be back with more

episodes, especially during that Ellis Park meet.

So make sure you're looking for those right here, wherever you

get your podcast. Again, I'm Louis Revoke and this

has been the Kentucky Racing Spot.

Horse Racing Happy Hour