Jayson Werth & Whit Beckman | Flying Mohawk

1057 we'll start with Wit. Wit.

Good morning, man. How are you?

Good. Morning, Lily.

Good. I'm doing good.

How are you? I'm doing great, man.

I had Jason on Blood Horse Monday this this week and we got

the story of how it was that he discovered wit Beckman.

How do you remember that story? Well, you know, a friend of ours

and a bloodstock agent has done a lot of work, you know, helped

me build my stable. Christian Volante.

I guess he, you know, met met Jason at certain point.

They were, he's a Philadelphia guy.

So, you know, he's enamored with, you know, Jason's time

there in the World Series. But yeah, they just kind of

started talking, hit it off. And then, you know, things kind

of developed with Jason's involvement.

We got to know each other and just kind of realize, you know,

we're the, you know, same type of guy, one of the same type of

things. And, you know, trying to, you

know, make some waves in the industry is, you know, new

trainer, new owner and just trying to, you know, buy good

horses, win races, and, you know, have fun while we're doing

it. Yeah, a bunch of success

recently. Jason Worth with Beckman with us

here on ESPN 680 and 10571 of those winners the other day,

Jason Nikon comes storming down at Churchill down.

So excited. Are you about that 2 year old?

Yeah, Nikons are really cool. Philly, she's kind of the

flagship of our our first fund we put together for Icon Racing.

Icon Racing Affirmed is the our first fund.

Big Brown is our second, which is is still open for for new,

new investors, new new, you know, people to sport and old

really. I mean, any money is we welcome

pretty much everybody as long as they're as long as they meet the

criteria. But Nyquist the Nikon was a

Nyquist Philly. We, we, we got it, the, at the

Keeneland sale, we identified her.

It was kind of a, it's kind of a cool story for me because being

the first sale for the fund, first of all, we, we put a plan

together and, and you know, the, her breeding was, was pretty

exceptional and she's kind of our target in that sale.

We knew, I think it was book 3 and we kind of had it, we played

it, we played our cards right. We went, we went a little bit

over budget on her, but we got her.

She was kind of like the flagship of the of the fun.

And then she comes out and runs a big race the other day and you

know, you just you, you, you love it when a good plan comes

together. You never know in horse racing,

but with her, she's pretty cool. Jason Wirth with us and of

course, Wit Beckman. Wit with with you, buddy.

We've seen Drexel Hill, we've seen Simply Joking.

We've seen you have starters in the Kentucky Oaks.

Does Nikon fit that kind of mold at this point?

Absolutely. You know, she was one even, you

know, kind of when she was purchased, you know, we never

really thought she was going to be, you know, kind of a

precocious 2 year old to when we really just take our time with

and that's kind of, you know, it's time time that's going on

with her. Just told everybody, you know, I

think we just need to wait for her to show us.

You know, it's that one little, you know, kind of push that they

kind of show you at a certain point when they're ready to go.

And, you know, she didn't get ready for Saratoga, which we

took her up there and was just kind of, you know, breezing

along weekly, you know, but she was improving every week, doing

everything she needed to do, you know, to just kind of develop

along those lines. And then, you know, she ran a

fantastic, I mean, really, really nice maiden race in her

first start at Keeneland, you know, kind of broke, picked up

horses, just, you know, very professional.

And then coming back here, I mean, I knew she was wired,

wired for sound. And yeah, she showed us how loud

she could be. Is there plans for her this

winter where I know you've got a string at fairgrounds in

different places. Have you thought of next race

for her? No, we haven't really thought of

the next race. I think right now we're just

kind of letting the dust settle from this one.

You know, there's some options, you know, you got like

Demoiselle and you know, some later 2 year old races coming

up. But for right now, we're just

going to got to see how she comes out of this plan is

probably taking down to Florida to Payson Park and, you know,

just go from there. Wit Beckman and Jason Werth with

us, he's from iconracingiconracing.sportsdatagenie.com.

If you want to go find them there and get involved with

them, you can become a member with them over there as well.

And Jason, Flying Mohawk back in tomorrow, Commonwealth Turf,

this is a horse we saw in the Jeff Ruby Stakes, of course,

runs a very good second that day, and you decide to run them

in the Kentucky Derby. Outside of just being in the

Derby, what's their other motivation than that?

Well, look, you know, you never know.

And I think the ownership group was, you know, we're all fairly

new to horse racing and to get an opportunity like that, it's

hard to pass up. I think if we, if we had that

opportunity 100 more times, I think we, we take the chance

even knowing the outcome. I mean, it's just, it's such an

honor to for being the Kentucky Derby.

You never know how the horse is going to run.

I don't think he didn't like the, he didn't like the track

that day. He got banged up early spit the

bit and wasn't it wasn't his day.

Whether or not it was his race. You know, we can say that it was

an obvious, you know that it wasn't his race, but he never

know until he tried. We we love this dude.

He's awesome. He took us to the Derby.

Look, we could have ran an American turf classic and you

know who who knows what would have happened there?

But for me getting into the sport, having Dornick with his

success, I'll I'll try I'll try all day long again to to run the

Kentucky Derby. It's just, it's just that

special of a, of an event and flying.

Whatever you want to say about him, he took us to the Kentucky

Derby and he's he's, you know, one of my favorite horses of all

time. Take us through that moment.

You see your horse is second in the Jeff Ruby Stakes.

You know that if he maintains that position, he's going to the

Derby. Take us through that stretch

run. Well, there's a really good

video that we captured and it shows us celebrating in second

place like we like we won. And as the story goes, we had a

pretty, you know, as we usually do with Icon racing, we got a,

we, we have a, we have a lot of fun.

And as the story goes, we're walking down to the winner's

circle after the race and you know, we, we ran second.

So it's not typical to go towards the winner's circle, but

we wanted to go see the horse. We were excited and there was a

lady there that was part of the connections for final gamut that

won the race. And we're all walking down the

stairs. Everybody's excited and she

leans over to someone of the persons that is with us and she

says, excuse me, did did we win or, or did you, you know, it's

we're like, no, no, you guys won.

Congratulations, way to go. But you know, we kind of won

too. And we, we celebrated such, we

created a second place winner's circle.

Jeff Ruby was actually there. He came over with the, with the,

the carnations or the roses, whatever it was draped over.

And we got a good picture. We had a lot of fun with it.

And, you know, we, we knew that that was, you know, pretty much

man, we were going to Kentucky Derby.

So we celebrated as such. Jason Worth with us.

He's the owner of Flying Mohawk, trained by Wit Beckman, who's

also with us. He's in the Commonwealth Turf at

Churchill Downs tomorrow as part of their Cardwell Candy Cap That

race in the next segment with Steve Kornacki from NBC Sports.

Wade, I wanted to ask, you know, I see the name Joe Ramos aboard.

He was obviously aboard as well for the Kentucky Derby.

I'm seeing his name attached to more and more of your horses.

What do you like about Joe? Joe is a young rider, You know,

I kind of, we started hooking up in Indiana, you know, a couple a

couple years ago and our percentage was just

astronomical. I mean, this kid, he just, he

gave me 110%. I'm not staying on the effort,

but he gave me some of the smartest rides I've seen, even

from old seasoned riders have been doing for a long time.

So I think as we've kind of, you know, developed and we've had to

pull in where I, you know, sometimes it's tough to get your

top five guys, you know, So insofar as like giving guys

chances and he's one I thought deserved a lot of chances, I

bring him down periodically for stakes here, stakes there.

And he always, I mean, he was finishing second graded stakes

on horses he'd never ridden before.

And he just was so consistent with that.

His confidence in me and my confidence in him just feed off

each other. So as we've kind of developed

and, you know, put him in these spots, he's done everything

right. Attitudes, perfect efforts

there. I mean, all the things we're

looking for insofar as bringing people into our team.

So with this, he rode Mohawk perfectly last time and he's

going to get the opportunity to ride him again tomorrow.

And you might see him, you know, on some more steaks for me next

weekend and even going through the next year.

You know, I just think this is a kid who's got a ton of

potential. He's been the leading rider in

Indiana. He's a big fish up there and I

think he's going to jump bigger pond next year.

When you had him break his maiden in October last year on

the turf at Churchill, obviously runs it back at Fairgrounds in

an allowance after that before you placed him in the Jeff Ruby

Stakes getting back to turf here is is that the long term goal

with him? Is there a synthetic

championships thought with him? What what's the the long term

goal you think with Flying Mohawk at this point?

Turf. All turf.

I mean, listen, we're going to, you know, as things come along

with synthetic, you can make those decisions as they come.

But for right now, this is a turf horse.

You know, like I said, Jason said, I'm from Louisville to

Kentucky Derby is a Kentucky Derby and I take that shot every

day, every day of the week. You know, you obviously you look

back and you know, this could have been that.

But at the end of the day, it is what it was.

And now we're going to move forward knowing this is a, you

know, turf specialist. I think he's probably going to

be one of the best, you know, 4 year olds coming on the grass

and you know, his is the right time to get in his, you know,

kind of final start of the year and prep him for next year.

You are throwing the blinkers on.

Are you going to try to get more of a trip like he frankly did in

his maiden win at Churchill Downs, where he's a little bit

closer to the pace? Is that the?

Idea yeah, he's had the blinkers on the whole time.

I pulled him off in the Derby just because, you know, with

that race, you know, getting 2 teen early for a horse like

that, there was just a couple things in his works.

I just like, you know what, let me just go ahead and, you know,

just try something different as his works were really, you know,

getting very sharp. So with that, his blinkers I

think have always been part of him and he'll continue to wear

them. How's he working?

Is he coming in in good form? Oh.

Perfect. Couldn't be better.

I mean, he has had a little bit of a layoff.

You know, I think we're right kind of that, that, you know,

fitness, fitness threshold. But this is a horse that loves

his job, wants to run and you know, like I said, the turf is

going to be wet if we do run on it.

We've had obviously some rain for the last week here in

Louisville, so we're kind of keeping an eye on that.

But, you know, if all things, you know, come together the

right way, I suspect you'll see a big performance out of this

horse. Wanted to ask you with as well.

You've got another one in next week in regaled and I wanted to

ask you about that. The one graded stakes on

Thanksgiving, of course here. And this is this is an

interesting raise coming up the fall city.

What do we What do we need to know about Regaled?

Well, she we, you know, she was a private person.

Well, sorry, she was an auction person at the English Digital

Sale a couple months back. And since I've had this mayor,

she's just absolutely blossomed. She was second in the Groupie

Doll, third in the Locust Grove and she won the Delaware

Handicap, came back third in the Breeders Cup.

This staff, I mean, this Philly has just gotten better and

better and better. And I'm telling you, every time

I run her, she just actually she wants more and more.

Now she's had a pretty tough campaign since we've had her.

I mean, she's run on this beer, you know, fifth start in the

matter of, you know, four months.

So I put her in this race knowing it's kind of the, you

know, swan song of the year. You know, there's not much else

after that. And she'll probably get some

downtime. And the fall city is one of the

races that run, you know, second, third in the past couple

years. And, you know, just being a

Louisville guy, the fall city, you know, she's she's wanted to

run. So we're going to give her, you

know, kind of one final shot of the year and then we'll, you

know, gear down for the for the winter and, you know, kind of

pick up in the spring with her. But yeah, she's just.

Oh, OK. All right, Jason, if you're

there, go ahead and talk. I guess we might have lost him

there as part of the interview, but Icon racing again for

jasoniconracing.sportsdatagd.com. I was going to ask him a follow

up question there. Hopefully you can call back in.

But with Rick Ald, I mean, is this a, is she going to run?

I, I assume she's going to run next year and we're we're

setting her up for a campaign. Maybe that's even OK.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I haven't figured out what we're doing so far as her winter

campaign. I mean, like you say, we got a

long spring. So right now we're just going

to, you know, I'd probably take her to Florida, too for the time

being. And then just kind of let her,

you know, have a little bit of a break, not much, but a little

bit. And then, you know, start to

carve out next year, you know, based off a how she's training

and be where we think we'll get us in the Breeders Cup this

stuff next year. Jason Werthwit Beckman with us

here. Honorable and Co on ESPN 681057

with Flying Mohawk running tomorrow.

Jason, what are your plans for watching the race?

Well, we'd, we'd plan to come in with the weather.

We have had a pretty good group lined up to come in and we're

going to fly on a buddy of mine's plane and the plane went

to service yesterday, had a maintenance issue.

So I think we're going to, we're going to hunker down here up

Illinois at the farm and it's deer season up here.

So I think we'll probably do some hunting in the morning and

then TuneIn in the afternoon all.

Right, best way to consume venison is.

I prefer jerky. We got a good recipe.

We got a nice little whitetail ranch up here, organic farm.

So they're eating a bunch of organic grains and and then I

tell people Jerky's organic as well.

That's good. Yeah, I wid are you?

Are you a venison guy? I'm a venison chili guy myself.

Yeah, I'm not a hunter, but if somebody gives me some, I'll be

there pretty much that whatever. I've I've yeah, pan fucker jerky

ish shitly dude. I don't give these.

I don't care. Just yeah, Give me, give it to

me. It sounds like you might have a

connection there with. I don't know, I'm just saying.

It might be, yeah. Now I know for sure I want some

that jerky. Well, there you go.

Well guys, I really appreciate both of you jumping on.

We'll be watching tomorrow. But Jason, if people want to get

involved with Icon, how do they do that?

Best way, go to our website, iconracing.com.

There's a link there to send. Send us an e-mail.

We'll get back to you. Send us the information.

You know, like I mentioned, there is a little bit of a

vetting process. We got a group of, of some

really good people that like to have a lot of good time, good

time at the races. It's a fun group.

We're $100,000 a share. You know, there's, there's

other, there's other syndicates out there, but I'm telling

people right now, we are by far the cheapest.

This is a labor of love for us. No, no fees, no markups.

And you know, you, we, we invest alongside with you.

So 10%, five percent, 10% ownership, 100% of the fund.

Icon Racing. Let's go there.

You go all right, that's what Beckman that is Jason worth.

Guys really appreciate you both jumping on.

Have a good weekend. Thanks.

There you go wit Beckman and and Jason Worth appreciate both of

them jumping on. They will have but #9 fly Mohawk

in race 10 tomorrow, the Commonwealth turf.

It is a grade 3 going a mile and a 16th on the turf there at

Church Hill Downs. I will be talking with Steve

Kornacki in the next segment here.

We will talk that race. We will talk the native diver

out there at Del Mar in San Diego and then we'll do, we'll

pick 3 action at Laurel Park. They have a trio of steaks and I

found out from Steve yesterday that he's been watching the

Laurel Park action. So we'll get his thoughts there.

And I may have gone ahead and cheated and got help from Johnny

Pi Mean, listen, I listen when you have when you have the

locals, you go after the locals. It is what it is.

All right. 437-9680, Keep those texts coming here on the UPS

jobs text line. Steve Kornacki, NBC Sports.

Talk to him next.