Santa Anita Saturday | Joaquin Jaime

Ah, yes, welcome in easiest music in horse racing.

This is the horse racing happy hour.

Lou, your bow hanging out with you Mama back porch here in

Louisville, KY Joining us from Southern California is Joaquin

Jaime there at the studios of FanDuel ahead of opening weekend

at Santa Anita back in LA with racing.

Joaquin, how are you doing, buddy?

I'm good, Louis. Thanks for having me.

How are you? I'm doing great.

Thanks so much for doing this. I really appreciate you jumping

on. You've already been on air

today. I'm doing a quick math. 11:00

you get off air. What the heck were you talking

about this morning? We were talking about Belterra,

we were talking about this down think we had some international

racing from Newcastle and of course we're doing a lot of

previews this weekend because of the big cards at Churchill Downs

and as you mentioned racing returning to to Santa Anita this

weekend as well. To the great race place out

there, Joaquin, if you had to rate your favorite places in

horse racing, where does in particular Clockers Corner fall

for you? Because as far as I'm concerned,

one of my very favorite places, not just in California for

racing, but anywhere, frankly. Yeah, Oh, I mean, that's an easy

top five without breaking a sweat.

I mean, even probably top top three.

There's just something about it. And Clockers Quarter to me is,

is great any time of the year, but in particular the time of

year that we're coming up to right now.

We've changed seasons. There's a little chill in the

morning air now, it's a little cold outside.

You get a cup of coffee, you get some breakfast and you're just

washing horses, train underneath the San Gabriel Mountains.

I mean, to me, that's just one of the most picturesque venues

that you could ever do that at. It's a perfect way to start

your. And a little bit of the whose 2

year old is that, you know, conversations going on as well

this time of year. I'll try to figure out what's

going on that way as well. But Joaquin Jaime, as I

mentioned with us from FanDuel, he'll be out there for all the

races. You have 38 people covering

Santa Anita this weekend. It's a great job, I.

Think we have as many, we have as many broadcasters as we do

horses running the weekend, right?

Just take a horse. Well, I wanted to ask you and I

try to, you know, whatever we, we bounce around the country and

have different guests on just sort of their impressions of of

the year to this point. This, you know, as we get into

this weekend and we start, you know, really turning our eyes to

that Breeders' Cup and who is in those kinds of conversations.

But you know, we just had the Pennsylvania Derby.

We kind of put a wrap on those 3 year old specific races.

We're going to see a lot more of those three and UPS as we move

forward, including that Grade 1 Goodwood out there on Saturday

at Santa Anita as well. Just your impressions of the

three-year old class and what you've you've enjoyed about this

year at this point. Oh, they've been outstanding

this year. When you start looking at the

three-year olds, of course, right at the top of the list is

going to be sovereignty. Right behind him is journalism.

And then I think right behind him, it was was by ASA, You

know, to go back to the Pennsylvania Derby, I think it

was a race that by ASA had to win if he still wanted to not

fall behind the conversation of sovereignty and journalism,

because I still think they're up here in Byesas right here.

But he got his second lifetime victory.

He's crazy. He's only a two time winner, got

his first grade one. But to me, like he you couldn't

run a good second, even a good third.

If you wanted to stay in that conversation, you had to win

that race and Byesa did. But you know, the three-year old

crop, I mean, they just been outstanding this year.

You know, you get into this time of the year, you know the

conversation is all right, Well, how do these three-year olds

stack up against the heavyweight division, the older horses?

And then they can play with them.

They can play just fine with them.

We saw the top three in the Breeders Cup Classic last year.

Of course, B 3 year olds. I'm not sure we'll get that

again this year, Joaquin, but certainly we've got three that

you just mentioned that absolutely are candidates for

that. And the cool thing is, is the

top three horses that you're mentioning, winner, Sierra

Leone, 2nd place minister, Fierceness and the horses out of

sight, out of Mind, Forever young, they're all coming back

in the Breeders Cup Classic this year.

Yeah, it's really incredible. We'll get a couple more runners

this weekend that could spice up that field once we do get back

to Del Mar there around Halloween time, of course.

Are you like me? Are your kids mad at you that

you keep missing Halloween? Is that the thing that's

happening to you too, walking on?

It so my my daughter's 15 months old, so this will be her her

second Halloween last last year. What I did is I did the

breakfast shows at Delmar, then I drove about two hours N to to

LA to not miss that very first Halloween, even though that

she's never going to remember it.

I don't know. It's important to me.

You needed the photos to to be there and stuff.

So I don't even my wife ordered some random costumes off Amazon

or whatever and I zipped it up whatever.

A it was a good time, but it was something I just didn't.

I didn't want to miss though. There you go.

I get to miss Halloween this year, unfortunately again by

heading out the Delta there for the previous cup.

But it is just part of our calendar here.

I also wanted to ask you just coming up, do you have a

favorite moment to this point this year?

We had Steve Kornacki on the show a couple weeks ago and he

said what I what I expected him to say, but I'm not mad at him

either. It's just how journalism won the

Preakness and I, and I'm not mad at that take.

I think that's a really legitimate thing.

I was, I was, I went back to Fione setting the track record

at Saratoga, that race with nitrogen 'cause I think, I think

so, so much of nitrogen, that three-year old Philly crop is a

little bit all over the place, but has a lot of quality, a lot

of depth of quality in it on the Philly side for sure.

Is it journalism for you or did you have another moment?

You know, it's interesting to see, as you said, that the first

race that popped into my mind, and there's a lot of them

because there's like there's never a slow weekend in our

sport anymore. It's just not.

It's just the race after race after race, big race after big

race. The first one that popped in my

mind was journalism. I had the opportunity to be

covering the, the Preakness for, for FanDuel Tvi was there in the

winner's circle watching it and live, you know, you just hear

the uproar of the crowd, the whole bumping incident at, at

the top of the stretch. Oh my gosh, what, what what is

going on? But even before that, remember

how Wristly was sort of shoving on him down the backstretch and

like, Oh my gosh, like what is happening is it's not his day

right now. And all the bumping incident at

the top of the stretch, the crowds going wild.

And then all of a sudden like Goss Gers puts like 5 lengths on

him and he runs down and gets them.

Somehow he was able to win that race.

For me, probably personally, that's probably the, the

highlight of the year to seeing, I'll narrow down a race live

that I saw that I was there for that.

It's not even close for me. Then talking to Umberto right

before he had to go do the media in the, in the press conference

after that and catching up with him.

We talked to Michael McCarthy after that as well.

Yeah, there's, there's a lot to choose from, but the the

Preakness would be up there that that stands out for me so far

this year. I had a tough luck moment that

was one of my favorites of the year was after the Haskell you

mentioned Gossgard. That's why I thought of it.

And then Walsh is standing right next to the winner's circle and

the the defeated shrug of that man.

In that moment, I just I'll, I'll probably not forget it for.

A while. What do I need to do?

What else can we do? That's exactly right.

That's precisely what it was. What else does this horse need

to do to get a grade one? It was really the reaction and I

I had so much sympathy at that moment because I had bet

Gossgard and the Preakness. I won't a very Full disclosure

there that that finish cost me a lot of money.

But just coming back in the Haskell, Brendan was supremely

confident with him because he had so many other options for

summer derbies with Gossgar and he was right to take him to the

Haskell. I mean, he had every every right

to be in that race and certainly sort of stunning that he didn't

pull it out. Joaquin Jaime with us from

FanDuel, he's out there at their offices, got off the air, was

kind enough to jump on with us here on the horse racing happy

hour this Goodwood Saturday at Santa Anita.

Obviously they tried the California crown thing.

It didn't stick or at least they they decided it wasn't worth

trying. Once again, just the time of

year, Joaquin, and where the other races are.

You know, obviously we've got the Lucas Classic down the

street here at Churchill Downs. They're running, you know, the

Woodward up at Aqueduct right now to be at Belmont next year.

Is the Goodwood still in a good spot though, because of how far

it is ahead of the Breeders Cup, do you think?

You know, for West Coast horses, it makes sense.

Yeah, for West Coast horses, it makes sense.

I mean, it's tricky because you have at the end of August, you

have the Pacific Classic and then you have the Goodwood just

a few weeks later. I don't think we're the Goodwood

is now. I don't think you can push it

back anymore. Just the day and age racing that

that we're in, right. Nobody wants 3 weeks or 4 weeks

going into the Breeders Cup race.

So I think it has to stay with the placement where it's at and

that opening weekend of the fall meeting at Santa Anita.

And, you know, it's also has to be far away enough from the

Pacific Classic if you maybe want to attract one or two

stragglers there. It's it's a, it's a tough thing

to do, but it's just the day and age we're in now.

You know, connections want the, the spacing between their their

races. So yeah, I'd say where it's at

now, I think it's it's probably the most logical spot where it

needs to be. Yeah, I largely agree with you.

Paco Lopez obviously is is facing a suspension.

Any updates your way on because we see his name a lot on these

past performances. Any you know, named as a jock

for for example, the favorite in that Goodwood.

Any updates on any of that? Nothing that I have seen pop up

this morning, although I haven't been on social media for the

last couple hours just doing the show, so maybe there is some

news floating around there, but nothing at least that has

resurfaced that I've been able to see so far.

All right, well Joaquin Jaime with us again out there at

Vandals do some handicapping. We'll get into it.

Race 4 on the card is the 1st grade at stakes on Saturday.

It is the City of Hope mile. This is a Breeders' Cup win and

in last year Johannes won the race and used it to finish

second in the Breeders Cup mile $200,000.

Obviously on the line because it is a grade 2 Johannes back in

this spot. Boy, they they shipped him out

for a tough one in that four-star Dave in the last start

there. Joaquin, I'm not going to hold

that against him here. I think he's very clearly the

yes. Frankly, he got my Eclipse vote

last year as top in North. OK, I'm glad to hear that,

frankly, because I thought he had easily the best turf year of

any horse, especially based in North America, and that second

place finish was a great cap on the Breeders Cup.

Do you think he has all the works?

Looking good enough with Johannes.

What do you make of him on Saturday?

No, I think he's gonna be tough to beat.

I'm with you. I'm just not gonna hold anything

that happened in the Grade 14 star.

Dave. It was an interesting spot to

ship out there. They could have easily stayed at

Del Mar and running a race like the Eddie Reed.

But you know, the appeal maybe was a grade one to to run of the

FanDuel 4 star day. But I'm not sure.

But he's already a Grade 1 winner anyways.

It's just it's a replay that the owners and Tim Yacht team are

just not going to walk or watch. You know, it was just shuffled

into the first turn. It was bad.

And then you go about another 16th of a mile and you're

thinking, Oh my God, it's getting worse.

It's getting worse. Like what is happening?

And you just shuffle it out towards the back of the pack,

try to get involved at the top of the stretch.

And, you know, clearly that's just, it's just not a true

representation of who Johannes is.

He's, he's a horse that is one of the most talented milers that

we have here in the States. He's never tasted defeat at

Santa Anita. He is 7 for seven.

You know, it's interesting when you look at some of the the two

best tour forces in California, they've never lost a particular

race tracks. You have Johannes who's

undefeated at Santa Anita in seven for seven.

He's very done very well at Del Mar too.

But what about Michael McCarthy? Source formidable man.

That horse has never lost at Del Mar on that turf course.

Maybe 6 for six or seven for seven as well off the top of my

head. But Johannes, he's going to be

tough to beat in the in the city hope this year.

You know, we had a a conversation with some of the

folks from the the Thoroughbred Owners Association out there in

California on on Blood Horse a couple weeks ago.

And I, I, I, I, I, I just I, I implored them play up the turf

angle of your cards. My gosh, you guys have such

great turf racing in California. Let's find a way to put even

more of an emphasis on it. If we were trying to figure out

perhaps a an exacta in this kind of race.

Who who else are you looking at here?

I think right next to him. Final boss is really interesting

here for John Sadler was in that Del Mar handicap last out mile

and 3/8 just too far. I think at a shorter distance

that horse makes a lot of sense. Who'd you land on?

You think second in here? Kyla Spirit, I mean, he's a

horse that might just fall a cut below in in some of these races.

You know his style. There's no guessing game.

You know he's going to be out there on the front end.

He's lost his last three races, but I thought he's been

competitive and run very well. Anywhere between 8 prolongs and

9 prolongs, he'll be out there on the front end with Mike Smith

once again. I think he might be able to to

hang around there pretty deep in the stretch.

Race 5 we'll do quick pick here, but I wanted to at least include

it as it is a maiden special weight.

It's in between 2 Great at stakes here on the card.

Joaquin 2 year olds in this one as we start to look for those

two year olds the at at this time of year out there.

Baffert's got a couple of second timers in here.

Is it provenance in a bunch of dudes?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, if you go back and watch

the the film on Providence, first of all, you look at his

pedigree, he's by into mischief out of Monomoy girl, Kentucky

Oaks winner, two time Breeders' Cup Distaff winner.

You breed the best of the best and you hope for the best,

right? And this is her first full to

make it to the races. He did not break great in his

debut. He broke his steps slowly.

He was taking dirt going into the first turn.

He really wasn't having it. He was climbing a bit.

He was taken wide out of that kickback.

He did make a pretty big move on the far turn, and then he just

flattened out and fizzled out to finish third.

I think he ran in spots. He's clearly got some greenness

there. The talent is still there.

But good news for him, He's got the Hall of Famer Bob Baffert in

his corner. So I think he'll get it figured

out and start #2 for a short price in that fifth race.

Bob Baffert and Juan Hernandez now up to 39% in their most.

Recent. That's it.

Works together at Santa Anita, which is lower than their

overall number at 40%. You know it just if they get to

Santa Anita, it all goes in the toilet.

That's what happens. Race sex is up next out there on

Saturday talking with Joaquin Jaime.

He is with FanDuel. We appreciate him jumping on the

program here. The John Henry turf championship

is a grade 2. It's race Six Mile and a

quarter. They will start on the downhill

turf there, run over the dirt and then finish out the race in

this one. Again, $200,000 on the line.

Gold Phoenix comes in three to two.

Does that make sense to you? Yeah, he should be favored I

think based off his his Delmar Handicap victory.

You got to get some credit to this seven-year old too.

Four straight years he's won that the Delmar handicapped.

But you name any race in the country, pretty damn hard to win

any race. Four straight years to be at the

top of the game. And even if he makes it into the

Breeders Cup, that'd be four straight Breeders' Cup

appearances for for Gold Phoenix as well.

And a couple of those the last couple years.

I think he finished fourth at a billion to 1 each time.

I mean, for him, those are wins for the Connections.

I mean, he's, he's shown up with some big performances in the

Breeders Cup to fill out the superfectas in the last couple

years. You know, the Connection said,

you know, two starts back on August 9th, they shorten him up

to 8 furlongs even though he's a Grade 1 winner at 8 furlongs.

We know he's a distant specialist.

That was clearly a prep for the Del Mar Handicap.

They made note of that and he was able to get the victory over

Stay Hot that day. I thought the trouble probably

cost Stay Hot a little bit in there and I would look to Stay

Hot who's going to be just to his inside.

That was his first time going a marathon distance on the turf

course clearly showed he can handle it and compete with one

of the best turf marathoners that we have out here in

California. Yeah, I thought Stay Hot was

really good. I think Mike Smith is actually a

linchpin of several of the graded stakes on the card on

Saturday. If he has a good day, there's a

chance of a pretty, maybe not huge upsets, but at least

reasonable upsets with some of the mounts that he does have on

Saturday outside of them. I was interested, you know, in a

horse like Mondigo is going to break from the five.

Kazushi Kimura gets the mount here.

Did he just go over 1000 career North American wins?

Did he get to that number? You're right.

Yeah. No, no, he just got it.

Yeah, 1000, 1000 N American wins for for Kazushi Kimura, multiple

Sovereign award-winning jockey in Canada recently just moved

his tact. I say recently, what is it now?

A couple years, you think times already flying.

But yeah, thousand North American wins and maybe even

gets his first Breeders' Cup win because he's the regular rider

at Copion and, you know, she's clearly been one of the best

female sprinters in the country this year.

Yeah, it's been fun to watch him develop in Southern California

as well, because it's so clear that the racing is is very

different than what he was doing outside of Toronto there at

Woodbine. But Mondigo does come in out of

that. That Del Mar handicap we see 5th

place but it was only by a length and a quarter.

Is this one Is the mile and 1/4 an OK distance?

Can is this one that can get the engine going in time to get

there? Yeah, I think so.

And now that Kazushi's ridden him the last couple starts,

maybe he's, he's learned something about him.

He's just steady one paced all the way down to the finish line.

So yeah, I, I, I do think the, the 10 furlongs, even though

he's over 5 at it, I think the 10 furlongs would be, would be

all right for him. Yeah, you mentioned gold.

Phoenix went over $2,000,000 in earnings career wise last out a

pretty incredible 7 year old gelded on there of of Ballardo.

How about that of all things? So we move on to race 8.

We're going to skip ahead just a little bit to the late pick

three. It is the second leg of the turf

pick three, but also the start of the three dollar late pick

three. Are you like me Joaquin?

And just give me the bigger the bigger denominations in the

lower take outs because I I love this bet.

Yeah, I like the bigger denominations because you know

what you have to do? You got a handicap, you got to

make some you got to make. Decisions.

You know, you're sitting there, you're mapping out, you know, 50

Cent pick fours, this and that, throw the horse on, throw the

horse on. Now you got a $3 denomination

and you're like, oh, OK, I can't play that big of a ticket right

now. That's not going to work.

You know, forces need a handicap.

I like it. We're going down the hill a

couple of times to close the card.

We'll do it the first time in race 8.

About 6 1/2 furlongs is what they tell us is the distance

$200,000 on the line in the Eddy DA Grade 2.

This is for three and up. We see a bunch of names in here

of of of turf horses that we know from out West and and

Joaquin. When I look at races down the

hill especially, I look for horses that have had a lot of

success in that and that's why I have first piece on the outside.

We saw that horse in the Greenfish last out at Ed Delmar

and way, way, way up the track for Mike Smith and Mark Clap.

But Mark Clap, second off the layoff, hits it over a third

with his runners at 34% in recent times.

I'm going to lean on those kind of stats here and lean on the

outside horse here. Joaquin, who do you think you're

going to land? On yeah, he won the Eddie D and

that was just his race to two starts ago.

So he's only had one race in 2025, so clearly there was some

sort of issue there. He's much better than what he

showed in his most recent start in the green Flash.

You know, I've been looking to a horse like yellow card,

Kazushika Murray Kamura is going to be back aboard him as well.

He's another one that had a layoff.

He's only had a couple runs this season.

I've seen some improvement from first start to second start this

year. He hasn't gone down the hill,

but he ran, he ran decent enough at Kentucky Downs going 6 1/2

and plays a little bit longer. So all right, you know, weird

configuration at Kentucky Downs, weird configuration down the

hill with San Anita. You can maybe piece something

together there. So I could see an improving

horse like like Yellowcard jump up in here.

He's the five horse 7:00 to 2:00 morning line.

Yeah, I think he's, he's my second, second choice here.

I think he's absolutely in there.

When you have a horse that hasn't been in Kentucky Downs

and hasn't been down the hill like a reef runner breaking from

the inside, how do you handicap a horse like that for for this

course, I should say. Yeah, I mean, this is especially

Reef Runner where look, this horse has had a steady diet of

five for a long turf sprints, Right, right.

I mean, this is this is going to be a different ball game for

Reef Runner here. He was the one that was

disqualified and placed second for interference in the green

Flash. You know, it's it's really a

guessing game, right? I mean, if you ask David Fox how

the horse is going to handle the 6 1/2, I don't know if you can

prepare him a certain way to to go down the hill.

I don't know if he gets Stewart's permission to maybe

gallop down the hill and cross the dirt.

I don't know if that's a thing, if they'd be able to do that.

It's a guessing game. It's certainly an unknown and

part of the handicapping puzzle here.

Yeah. All right.

We'll move on late double another higher denomination as

the birds have moved in Joaquin, I don't quite know what.

They are. Thanks for coming out.

Now I have some kind of umbrella here, we'll be all right.

But yes, race side starts a late double, the $5 late double there

at Santa Anita. It is the grade one.

It is a Breeders' Cup win and in for the Classic and it is the

good one we're running for. $300,000 and we are going a mile

and an eighth in this one. First mission listed as the

eight to five favorite. But of course, the news about

Paco Lopez hangs out there Umberto Rispoli doesn't have a

mount in this race to this point.

Joaquin is there. I mean, I mean, I'm largely

we're making assumptions here, but I got to think he's at least

a candidate to ride first mission here.

Oh, his name, no, no doubt would be at least in the in the

conversation to to go ahead and pick up the mount on this

Godolphin homebred in here. You know, you mentioned first

mission 8 to 5 on the morning line, his big win this year.

I was there for him in the in the Oakland Park Handicap.

I spoke to Michael Banahan representing for Godolphin

immediately after the race and they said, look, we're going to

look for a grade one for this horse because they've always had

high hopes to remember it was a couple years ago he won the

Lexington, then he was entered in the Preakness Stakes, got

scratched out of the Preakness Stakes and then went to the

sidelines for quite some time. So he was always a classic horse

in their minds. They always thought he had the

talent and he showed that talent in the Oakland Park Handicap.

My thing is, are we going to get that version of Fierce Mission

where he can win the Oakland Park Handicap Handicap and put

up a one O 9 buyer or are we going to get the version that

lost a surface to air in the in the Iselin?

I'm just not sure what to what to do with him in this

particular spot. Yeah, he's tough one too because

I I was there in November of 24. So we're coming up on a year

here. He almost won the Clark as a

three-year old man. And that's not something that we

see very often here at Churchill Down.

So you're right, the TL, it is just staring us in the face.

But the other part of this Joaquin for me is I haven't seen

many horses leave Oak Lawn and be great on other dirt surfaces

this year. I don't know what that is and

maybe I'm I have too much of A Kentucky bias that way and it

just hasn't translated Perchil. But I mean, I I just haven't

seen that happen for many, many of those Oakland runners.

So I I have at least a little bit of a hold back.

But of course his losses are to who, you know, surface to air in

mind frame, like why we hold that against him, you know, that

kind of thing as well. Losing the mind in the foster.

I mean, good gracious. Yeah.

So the tale, it's really obvious who else stands out in this

field, though, because, you know, it's interesting.

I don't think Baffert puts Pribman in here by accident.

I think this is an intentional placing for him.

Yeah, I mean he's he's won back-to-back races.

It took him a while to figure it out and break his maiden, but

you go back and watch the film in his last two races.

I mean, he's winning these races on raw talent, but there's

there's something going on up here that he's looking around at

the top of the stretch because he's green, he's lugging in.

He's got some kinks to to work out.

He did it in his maiden win when he got hit with the right-handed

stick. He swapped to his left lead,

lugged in. He got it figured out in the

stretch and was able to overcome it and and get the maiden win.

You you can get away with mistakes to get against easier

competition, right? That that's just sports.

You're you're stepping up down to some greatest stakes company.

Are you going to be able to get away with those mistakes if he

does it again? I'm not sure.

He's done it in back-to-back races.

Bob Baffert's going to figure him out, but we know that.

But the talent is there. But he's got some kinks to work

out. He's been goofy in his last two.

Yeah, he runs like his dad likes to get the lead.

Another horse that's going to try to get the lead, or at least

be real close is a horse named Full Serrano on the outside.

Almost won the Pacific Classic last year at a mile and a

quarter. I think the mile and an eighth

sets up pretty well for him as well, Joaquim.

Yeah, the 9 furlong should be, should be right there for, for,

for Serrano speed outside draw only making the second start of

2025. Two races ago, he won the

Breeders Cup Dirt Mile. And I remember talking to John

Sadler before that and you know, he was saying that the only

reason he went to the Dirt Mile is because he missed some time

after the Pacific Classic, which he nearly won, as you mentioned

a second ago, he's only second defeat at 1/2 length because he

missed some time. They felt that rerouting him to

the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile was more realistic for him at that

point. So they bring them back in an

allowance race that they had their eye on for for quite some

time. And I think they accomplished

what they wanted to, right? Get him back to the races, get

the ball rolling, and then let's get him back into the winner's

circle and start looking for Gray and stakes company again.

And that's what he's doing. Second, start off the layout.

This race is going to be telling because depending on the type of

performance, even if it's a winning performance, depending

how the numbers come back visually, how he looks.

Is this an audition for the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile that'll

try to repeat in or we take on the big boys in the Breeders Cup

Classic? That's a fascinating question.

When he did win, at the end of the day, you could tell who was

from California. I will tell you that at the

Breeders Cup, because there's. A rally.

With that group, I won't say that to the end of that day.

I'm not mad, by the way. It was awesome.

I I really enjoyed the boat for sure.

But who would you land on, do you think, on top here?

I think Fosterano's my pick here.

I'm with you then. Full Serrano for me.

I mean, he showed since he's come here to the States, he's

got a lot of talent. Nearly won the Pacific Classic

at a mile and a quarter speed on the outside, Good form.

Juan Hernandez, John Sadler, I'm with you.

I'm looking for full Serrano on the outside.

The newly named John C Harris, the old Unzip Me as a Grade 3,

will close the card on Saturday at Santa Anita as race ten,

$100,000 on the line here. This is a race for three-year

old Phillies. In this one, we do have one

horse that has won twice down the the hill in this race,

Joaquin, and that horse is 30 to 1.

And so if you want to get wild here, folks, go ahead and get

wild with the Patrick Gallagher trade.

I think it's shiplied is the name of that horse.

Shofied. Yeah, sounds right.

Something like that. I landed on a Baffert down the

hill on the grass. How about that in Kazalu?

Who has won on this course before?

Keeps Kazushi Kimura in the mountain.

Did not love the mile and in 8 Delmar Oaks.

I think getting back to spreading here will be much

better. Where do you think you'll land,

Joaquin? Yeah, three starts back Castle

Lou, you know, won the sweet live stakes, did it up on the

pace has been in the exact in two or three.

This race is impossible. Like just going through it.

I mean, I mean, if you're ending any pick fours, pick fives,

whatever it may be, I don't think he could go deep enough in

this race. He might be 6 deep and still

holding your breath in the in the night cap in gear the grand,

the grand motion horse interests me warming down on the inside.

She comes out of some tougher races in the Belmont Oaks and

the Lake Placid. Graham Motion just over the

years when he ships into California, he means business

and he did that a couple times over the summer at Del Mar.

She's never been down the hill. Clearly that's a question mark.

But Graham knows that this race is going to be down the hill.

If he feels that this Philly is capable of handling that, then

I'm going to trust Graham Motion in here.

So I'm going to be looking to to warming down on the inside.

Umberto Rispoli picks up the mount there on warming

previously, Manny Franco riding up there at Saratoga.

I think sneaky and I know it. It's hasn't been at in all the

big splashy spots. One of the best training years

of Grand Motion's career, frankly.

This year he's been incredible and he's placing horses in

spots, whether it's Gulfstream, out West, etcetera.

It's been really impressive. Yeah, I, I mean, hovering right

around 20% winning major races all across the country too, you

know, coming out here to Southern California.

And the amazing thing is even in studio, I could be on a

Wednesday or Thursday, he's winning some race at Delaware

Park. And then over the weekend he's

he's winning a greatest stakes in Southern California and Santa

Anita. But to your point, he's been

doing this all across the country and not an easy place

for him where he's at in the Mid-Atlantic, you know?

I'll give you a, for instance, you said you can't go deep

enough in this race. The five horse in here for Carla

Gaines is Lee's baby girl. Mirko Demuro picks up them out

here. This one is 1/2 in a row coming

out of a maiden win, goes against winners for the first

time off a layoff, beats him at Del Mar and gets to come back.

And this company, I don't know. I think that's a horse.

If it won, Joaquin, we'd look back and go, OK, it took a long

time for that horse to figure it out, but here she is and she

won. And now she's a great at stakes

winner. I think it's that kind of race,

yeah. Yeah, I mean, one price that

would catch my eye in here, the nine Eiffel for Mike Pipe and

Little Red Brother. I I remember working that day on

the 8th of June which she broke her maiden at Santa Anita.

I mean that was a huge run. I mean the the margin is ahead.

It's a deceiving head victory with how much the best she was

in her debut. Then she just misses against

allowance company going a mile. I don't know what happened in

the allowance race at Del Mar going a mile to 16th.

Maybe it was a distance thing. That's not her.

If I go back and watch the film on the 1st 2 races for for

Eiffel, you know they're going to go and they're going to spurt

away from her on the cutback in distance as soon as they cross

the dirt. I know she's got a strong

closing kick. I could see a price like Eiffel

really starting to roll down the lane.

Unironically, I have that horse second in my handicapping as.

Well, horse, it's going to be a good good weekend or a bad

weekend for. Us, man, that isn't Antonio

Freisu Mount, of course, he was the leading jock last time we

were at Santa Anita was Antonio Freisu his first riding title at

Santa Anita in the spring? Well, he is Joaquin Jaime, tell

us what is going on in your coverage this weekend out at

Santa Anita. I know you're going to have I I

joked about how many people you're going to have there.

It's going to be great. Yeah, there's probably 678 of us

that are going to be out there at Santa Anita as we always do,

full team coverage from race number one to the nightcap.

There'll be multiple reporters on the grounds as well.

And just really looking forward to getting back to the great

race place and and you know, a lot of Breeders' Cup

implications that we're going to to see over the weekend.

Breeders' Cup winners. We have full Serrano Dirt Mile

winner on Saturday. You have Straight No Chaser, the

Breeders Cup Sprint winner coming up on Sunday as well.

So some big nickname horses still in their final runs before

their respective Breeders' Cup races.

I'm very excited for the return of Cavalieri as well.

I want to be on record with that as well, because if she's good,

I. Haven't seen her since the

Beholder mile, right? No.

Right. And if we she could spice up

that Distaff division, I'll take it for sure.

He's Joaquin. I'm a fellow voter for Johannes

of the Eclipse Award, so we appreciate him very much on the

horse racing game. Thanks a lot to you.

Have a good rest of the day. Thanks man all.

Right. Thanks, Lou.

We appreciate it. Have a good weekend.

Likewise, thank you. There you go, Joaquin.

Jaime joined us here on the Horse Racing Happy Hour.

Appreciate him joining us from those FanDuel studios and all

the great coverage they've got out there.

As he mentioned, they'll be at Santa Anita.

I think they're 7 deep according to the graphic.

It's so plenty of coverage out there at the great race place.

Make sure you get in with them that way.

Want to thank our friends over at Sazerac.

We tried out the Colonel EH Taylor cigars today as part of

their series. These are not flavored cigars.

They are they are blended to pair with a whiskey.

So if you wanted to try them out, you are certainly welcome

to go check them out there. But for Joaquin, Jaime, my name

is Louis Robo. This has been the horse racing

happy hour. Thanks for hanging out with us

on a September 25th edition. We'll be back next week.

And and yeah, the Churchill getting closer to Keeneland and

all the things that of course, try to keep you up on what's

happening out and Adidas as well.

And thanks for Joaquin.