BloodHorse Monday 12/22/25

All right, welcome in. It is a Christmas week edition

of the program. Santa Louie with you, Louie

Claus, if you will, Louie Claus. We'll go with Louie Claus.

Louie Claus, a lot. Claud.

Sean Collins, thanks so much for hanging out with us here.

This edition of Blood HORSE Monday.

A couple of cool stories over the weekend.

We will talk about one of them early on, but man, Mick's Palace

wins yesterday. We'll talk with Carrie Simon for

from Summerhill Stables. Very cool story.

I got to meet them last night in the Warner circle there at

Turfoy Park. And I think Sean, that's where

we need to start. I had to do a Wellness check

last night. I had to text you what we do or

not. Good.

Good afternoon. How are you?

You OK? Yes, I am.

OK. I am in Michigan right now.

So I was, unfortunately, I was at Turfway 10 hours early on the

day they were supposed to. Run for Wheelbel.

Yes, synthetic championships. And then they ended up getting

pushed back until after I was already starting to move around

for the holidays. So yeah, I was experiencing some

big FOMO yesterday seeing seeing you and our good friend Jenny

Reese down there getting the job done.

Shout out to Jenny Reese, by the way, a month removed from knee

surgery. She's out there getting the

quotes. Pretty much.

It seemed like being one of the few media people that was on

site get getting comments from the winning connections at the

synthetic championships. You and I are both very good

friends with Jenny Reese. So shout out to Jenny Reese for

putting in the effort, coming back off off one month layoff

off a knee surgery. Can you believe that?

My toes were legitimately frozen last night and that woman's just

out there got her cane just bawling out of control.

The cane's more if I get tired, Louis Jenny told me as part of

the the the rehab process. But no, it was a it was a fun

night for sure. That set of races has really

turned into frankly, you know, we, we, you know, we saw Michael

Banahan up there, you know, friend of this show with Encino

winning in the Prairie Bayou. I think of I was thinking about

this last night. I think of the the Prairie Bayou

as as the race on that card for whatever reason that might be.

I think it's just the one I affiliate with this time of year

up there at Turfway Park. But even he said it, it's just

he said it's nice that these kinds of horses can run for this

kind of money. And I thought that that was an

interesting way for him to put that.

And it's something I talked a lot about.

If people are are are interested on Fridays on 6:00 on ESPN

Mobile, I have a show called the Kentucky Racing Spotlight and

I've opened many of those shows this year because we get back

into the Turfway thing. How important is the synthetic

thing going to be going forward between Belmont and and Turfway

eventually at Santa Anita? I got to imagine they're going

to use that training course to do more things.

And so obviously, we've seen that Gulfstream and Woodbine,

other places, how important that's going to be moving

forward. But yeah, a lot of a lot of

smiling faces yesterday, including the connections of

mixed pals who we'll talk with next.

Yeah. Well, and I mean you've said it

on this show many times and you've even asked a couple of

our guests, you know, how much the horses that show synthetic

in their pedigrees, how how much higher is their demand going to

get. This is one of those, this is

one of those events where it's going to put more of an emphasis

on the synthetic horses. And Kevin Attard was there

yesterday at Turfway. He's one with Caitlin, her

greatness, that's a King's Plate winner running at Turfway Park

on synthetic championship day. And I know our friend Jenny, she

talked to him after the race. He said to her like, you know, I

usually, even despite the fact that he races at Woodbine, has a

lot of horses that run on the synthetic, He usually doesn't

run at Turfway Park all that much.

And yet here he was for the synthetic championship.

So it really is going to put a bigger emphasis on this.

It'd be nice if we could see Belmont come in with a few nice

stakes races on the synthetic or at the rest of the year be nice

stream. Maybe step up some of the stakes

races on their synthetic. Put in a couple good options

there as well and see if we could really start building

outside of Woodbine and then outside of Turfway during the

winter. Start building more of a year

long structure on these synthetic tracks.

I agree with you. I think it could be a lot of

fun, frankly, and and travelling place to place is one of the

things we love about the Triple Crown.

Why couldn't we do that with more things, whether it's

Louisville, Miami and and and New York, I'm fine with all of

it, frankly. You know, I think that would be

a fun. Not Louis the Florence.

Excuse me? What am I?

It's a Florence got by me hold. On man.

I think this hat's a little too tight, but yes, I.

It's squeezing all the blood out of your brain right now.

Good old Dewey clause. Louie Claus, not so good.

That's exactly right. We did have a pair of a pair of

Derby preps and an Oaks prep over the weekend.

The gun runner sees chip honcho win.

I think one of the more likely types, Sean coming out of that

one as Muslim trains. Paco Lopez, who has rediscovered

his form down there in a New Orleans rides this one another

Kinect colt. We're seeing those Kinect Colts

all over the place. I don't I didn't see anything

here to not be excited moving forward.

I did, yeah. I, I don't know, I just, I came

out of the race feeling a little underwhelmed and I don't really

know why It's I I think it seemed like he maybe he himself

maybe should have. I felt like gotten gotten up

there a little earlier. I felt like it.

They came. I don't know what the actual

timing was at the end, but it looked like they were coming

home kind of slow. I was expecting, I was expecting

more of a kick from Liberty National.

I was expecting more from, you know, as they were coming.

I don't know, I just coming out of the race after watching it, I

just felt a little underwhelmed as far as what this shows us for

the future. Now, you can't fault Chip Ancho.

He ended up winning and so he got his 10 points and he's got

that that victory under his belt.

We know Steve Asmussen has used this trail before and use the

gun runner to launch Epicenter and track Phantom into being big

parts of this Louisiana circuit. Neither one of them missed a

single one of these prep races down there.

So that gives me confidence. The fact that it's Steve

Asmussen, this coroner, the fact that we know that Steve can take

a horse through this trail in Louisiana and have success with

them. But I don't know, I felt I came

out of the race feeling a little underwhelmed.

Maybe that's just because I did come in.

So there was some fairly high expectations on Liberty National

after seeing his debut, or not his debut, but his maiden win at

Churchill a few weeks ago. Honestly, I was more impressed

with Liberty Nationals maiden win than I was Chip Pancho's

maiden win at Churchill. But Chip Pancho got the better

of Liberty Nationals. So maybe that plays into my

opinion here a little bit, but I'm sure we can all clip this

when Chip Pancho wins the Kentucky Derby in a couple

months. Me saying that I wasn't

impressed, but I, I, I came out of it feeling a little

underwhelmed on what we saw. And I think moving into the Le

Compte Stakes next month, I'm going to be looking for some of

the new shooters in that race. Hit Parade wins the Oaks Prep

the Untappable down at Fairgrounds about a head ahead

of Love Your Neighbor, who finishes right behind Luis Saez

writes rides. Excuse Me for Brad Cox here, and

this was a considerably faster race, especially at the end.

Sean any more impressed with her?

Yes, I was. I thought that was a great

showdown, both the for the two of them.

Yeah, love your neighbor and her.

I just thought that was good old classic horse race coming down

the stretch of the two with them.

I I would love to see that turn into, you know, a couple more

matchups between the two of them down the line as we go down the

Oaks trail here at Fairgrounds. But but yeah, I I thought that

was that was definitely a better performance in that those races

or in that race. I'm looking forward to see what

both of those Phillies could do moving forward.

I like, I know there was some an incident kind of in the middle

of the stretch where they kind of came in on the fading

pacesetter. I didn't think that really

impacted much of the race that the horse held on for 3rd.

So I'm, I'm glad they didn't make any kind of change there.

But I thought both those feelings, I liked the way that

even even after that incident, and I know the horse took up a

little bit, I liked how they moved away from that horse

afterward, put some distance between them and the rest of the

field and just kind of threw down in the final eighth of a

mile. So I did, I did really like

their performance of that as well.

What about you? Axel Concepcion, of course, Rd.

love your neighbor Ben Curtis aboard Pashamina, who was the

pacesetter here. I like Pashamina's effort in

here a lot actually. And I'm with you.

I didn't love that she faded at the end there.

But frankly, I do like that that she was willing to get out front

set those fractions. I wonder if she can't grow into

that role a little bit more as we move forward.

But where am I? What am I going to do here to

doubt the West homebred trained by Brad Conoch, by Ruiz Saez?

Like, what are we doing here? I mean, like, of course, of

course I trust that group. And so I look, man, I think hit

parade if we're getting excited about horses early in the trail.

I mean, probably not in my top three or four on the Oak Trail

at this point. But I do think she's one that

that was an effort where we can look at it.

And if we look back in a couple of months and say, yeah, we

really found out about her on the Untappable, I wouldn't be

terribly shocked. Yeah, no, that wouldn't be too

surprising. And you know, Brad Cox is always

gonna have a couple good 2 year old fillies about to turn 3 here

in just a couple of days. You know, he he always seems

like he's loaded and he's a big threat down there, especially on

the Louisiana circuit as we're leading into the Kentucky Oaks.

So definitely this is one. This is 1 to throw on the watch

list for sure. Chip poncho and Hit Parade

winners at FG Nola as the kids call it.

The winner at Remington Park in a race called the Springboard

Mile was a Cal bred named Express Kid.

Now let's let's give this a little bit of credit here as far

as the breeding because this is a son of Bodhi Express.

This is a street sets mare. So it's not as though this is a,

oh gosh, where did this horse come from breeding job here.

Sean, this is no California Chrome.

This is not California Chrome, but this is still a $71 winner.

What are we making the Springboard Mile?

This is a race that has a really mixed history.

Sometimes we get really nice winners out of this race,

sometimes we don't. What do you make the Springboard

Mile this year? I don't, I liked the performance

personally coming out of the 12. I coming out of the 12, getting

over setting, setting, you know, a good pace up front and then

the way that he drew off in the end.

Now you question maybe what he was facing in that race.

But every year we have the horse.

That's the feel good story going into the Kentucky Derby.

We saw that with last year's springboard mile winner and Cold

Battle and what he went on to do as as the next couple weeks went

on. But this is a horse that, you

know, he was sold for $2000 at an auction in Arizona.

You can't get any more more humble beginnings than that in

this game when it comes to where the horse on the Kentucky Derby

trail. And he looked good.

It wasn't like some $70 winner that was, you know, starting,

starting to get caught at the end of the race.

I mean, he saw himself down the stretch and he was running hard

down the stretch. Maybe this is one that just now

that the distances are starting to stretch out and starting to

get longer and he's getting around those two turns.

Maybe he's one that's just going to be coming into his own.

I believe they said after the race they're looking at the

Oaklawn Series, which is exactly what Cole Battle did last year.

So we'll get we'll get a true, true understanding of where this

horse stands in his next race, I think.

But you cannot be you cannot look at that that race and be,

you know, turned off by that at all.

So I I mentioned earlier, I wasn't that big of a fan of the

results of the gun runner. I was definitely more impressed

with Express Kid as we got later into the night.

Good news for him too and his connections is that being a cow

bred, there are so many stakes on dirt at a mile for that kind

of horse, frankly, weather regardless of the time of year.

So I'm with you try the Derby trail.

Got to go to Oakland, got to try those things out Not going to

fight that part at all. But man, the ability to fall

back on stakes at Santa Anita, Del Mar, at Los Altos, etcetera.

There's such a plethora of races for a horse like this.

Look, I, I think they, they, they've got one here that can

make a lot of money being in conversations for big checks for

a long time. So it's really an interesting

winner. But frankly, this horse is now 3

for five. It's not like you said, it's

not, you know, $71 winner, sure, but it's not as though this

isn't a horse that hasn't shown some form before.

Yeah, exactly. And I think if I remember

correctly, I think his win before this was on the grass too

at Remington. And so he's already, he's

already proven he can handle both surfaces.

He can win on both surfaces. So as he said, they've got

plenty of options If the Derby trail doesn't work out for him,

you just take him back to California and see, see what you

can do. And there, there's some nice

stakes races out there for the three-year olds.

And then as he gets older as well out there in California.

So definitely a bright future. You know, we'll see whether or

not he's one to keep track of for the Kentucky Derby as we

move forward. But he's definitely one to keep

track of in terms of someone who's going to be participating

in some stakes competition down the line, whether it be on the

Derby trail or in California. This is blood Horse Monday.

I'm Louis Claus. He's Sean Collins.

Got you here to start your week ahead of Christmas and all the

good things. And I, I got to witness a very

nice early Christmas present last night at Turfway Park and A

and a woman named Kerry Simon was there and, and I wanted to

express that I got to watch someone have just the most

beautiful reaction to their horse winning.

And you and I could tell immediately, Sean, you, you and

I have been in a lot of winner circles and we've been in a lot

of spots where people are excited that their horse won.

There's certainly emotion and many of them and this one just

felt different. So let's bring Kerry in, Carrie.

I met her last night in the winner's couple there at a very

cold Turfway Park. She is at Summerhill.

Stables and Carrie. I heard you talking with our

mutual friend Jenny Reese last night.

You all have a very small, very intimate operation there at

Summerhill. First off, congratulations and

thanks for joining us on. Blog.

Well, thank you so much and I appreciate you being there.

And it was not the worst night at Turfway I've ever been there.

But you know, this time of year that's what you get.

But. Yeah, so.

Big They'll warm you up from the cold.

That's. Exactly right.

Let's just talk about the race last night.

To start Big's Palace is a little off the pace.

You have to a quick jockey change, unfortunately, because

Edgar's not available. Walter Rodriguez jumps aboard.

A perfect ride, frankly. What were you thinking of the

stretch? That she could do it.

I mean, this is exactly how she likes to set up for a race and

she has such a great stride on her.

She's just a tough filly, very opinionated and she thinks she

can do it, so why not? Well, one of the things that's

impressed me with her this year is I actually ironically, just a

few days before the race, for whatever reason, I happen to be

watching re watching the Rock Solana Stakes that she won on

opening night at Churchill Downs earlier the year.

And so she was fresh. She was fresh in my memory

coming into this race. But she's pretty much danced

every dance along this Kentucky trail for kind of her division

of the female sprinters. Just what's kind of led to her

longevity throughout the year and her ability to compete on

that stage. She, she has, she's, she has

done a lot, you know, credit to the Connealy team.

They take wonderful care of of their barn and they had a huge

day yesterday all over the world, Oak Lawn Fairgrounds and

Turfway. So you know, she's, she's

managed very well. She's knock on wood, stayed

sound. We had kept her originally

because she had an X-ray issue that we were concerned about and

we just took our time with her. And we're upfront that that this

is what she has going on and she's well taken care of there

and by some extra specialists. And you know, she was, she's

been been close and others, but it's been a thrill to have her

start and end the year with stakes wins for us so.

Perry Simon with us from Summerhill, you mentioned Minx

Palace and and ending the four year old season here with a

really great win. Do we should we expect to see

her back as a five row? Yes, that had been in in the

talks before. You know, we we'd originally

bred her because we had a nice curlin, the last curlin out of

fortune pending we had kept for Miss Schumann and she had raised

him and that curlin inspiration was why we went to Palace Malice

originally. So looking at her with the with

the scat Daddy Curlin and we're just hoping, you know, that was

one of her best speed ratings and and hopefully her five year

old year will be better. So she's getting we got her some

peppermints this morning. Good.

Hello. But she will be back at the farm

later this week for a well deserved rest.

And yeah, it'll be a fun adventure to see what she can do

going into next year. For for horse like her, I know

she's been running kind of mostly on dirt, but with these

synthetic championships that that this was the second year

where they've where they kind of collected these four races into

this one big event. Just how big of a deal is that,

especially for you guys being kind of a, a smaller ownership

team, a smaller, smaller breeding operation?

Just how big of a deal is the synthetic championships become

for organizations like yours? Well, it's, it's wonderful.

I mean, we had you could probably see we had sent her to

Oaklawn at the end of last year the same weekend.

And for some reason she just, she didn't like going down

there. So you know, her, her dam had

been out in California and placed on all three surfaces.

And when this came up, you know, she's, she's over at Keeneland

and training. So she's been on the training

track and and Jordan, who's been on her had full confidence that

that she could do this. So which is great.

So everybody had confidence that as long as she got there.

And sometimes she's in her head a little bit and can get knocked

off her game like her last race. But if if her head's in the

right spot and she gets a good trip and she's very capable,

Philly so. Carrie Simon with us here on

Blood Horse Monday. She is from Summerhill Stables.

You keep saying we and I would love to know about the we.

Can you kind of describe the operation there at Summerhill

because some of the numbers you said last night, those kinds of

numbers don't generally lead to synthetic championships.

That's all I have to ask. What's going on at Summerhill?

Is this a family operation? What are you guys doing over?

There, Yes, this. We're on a farm.

Who is? It's been in the family since

the late 1800s. I think it got a little mixed up

last night, but my mom did turn it into thoroughbreds.

She was just a horse go growing up.

Credit to her, she she broke yearlings for Hamburg.

She rode Aunt Patsy, who people in Lexington still talk about as

a wonderful hunter. She won a Quarter Horse world

championship. So Needless to say, she was a

she was great. And that's how she met Miss

Schumann with Grassman. And in the late 60s, they joined

forces and Miss Schumann just wanted her mayors at a small

farm where everything was known about every horse.

And so they had a great relationship until

unfortunately, Miss Schumann passed away.

But it's amazing to have a 50 year relationship in that

respect. So Miss Schumann kept usually

about 12 brood mares in Kentucky.

And then we had other clients as well, kind of in and out, a

little bit of partnerships with other people.

But right at the end of Miss Schumann's time here, Riley

McDonald picked out a mayor that we went in with with our

neighbor, a midnight visit. She's also known as the Grand Am

of Awake at Midnight. And so that was a fun family and

that kind of changed our outlook on not just taking care for

other people that we could maybe get a couple of nice mirrors for

ourselves, which has been like amazing obviously with her.

But it's more amazing that the two that we own by ourself are

this family that was Miss Humans with our same lovely neighbor.

We own another mayor after midnight visit.

Unfortunately passed away. And then we had kept one of

midnight visits and raced her with Eddie.

She was a street sense and we thought maybe she got a strong

attitude, but she just really liked to be second.

So we've been on an adventure, you know, in that regard and had

some others in the past with people, but this is kind of been

stepping up. You kind of have to, to alter

what you do. It's a hard world just to board

and, and to survive and to have a farm.

You know, we have 85 acres here. So it's a lot to take care of.

And, and my husband is from Cincinnati and did not grow up

around horses, but he has become part of the help, even though he

has another full time job and coaches and we have wonderful

guys here on the farm. So it really is a we and, and my

mom has gotten to the point where she deserves to not be out

here day in and day out, but she's still, you know, in

control of everything. She built it up, but we're just

trying to to keep it going. And my kids love it.

We have a 14 year old and 11 year old that you saw last

night. They were emotional about it.

And you know, when, when they raise them, you know, they, they

have the right to be that emotional about it when they've

been around them every day of their lives.

So yeah, there is a big we, it's, it's a village.

I mean, you could go through the whole list of people who've kind

of had their hands and and helped especially in a, an

affiliate like this. Yeah.

Well, you mentioned there, you guys usually only breed maybe 2

mares on your own each year. So put in perspective getting a

multiple stakes winner out of that like mixed Dallas and just

what what it means to your family, to the to your guy, to

your whole operation overall. I know it it it's still kind of

I mean, whenever anybody congratulations come in, you

know, it's just you just kind of pinch yourself and they're like

this, this is amazing. You know, I mean even mom, she

just she said was sitting there watching last night.

She's like, I didn't even know all the horses in the race.

I could tell you the favourites, but I don't think they really

said very much about our Philly. And I'm like, yo, well, it's

hard. You know, we we signed a

contract and what the end of 2019 to Palace malice after

Breeders' Cup winner and then a whole bunch of other people did.

But then, you know, a whole bunch of people decided that

wasn't the popular choice a few years later.

So we all know now he's in Japan.

So, you know, not a, not a huge following on the stallion end.

And being from a small place, it's, it's hard.

But we, we like to have our small trainer and our small farm

and our little family and our close people that she's taking

us on a fun ride with our friends and family.

So it's been great. Incredible story for the

Summerhill folks. Carrie Simon with us.

All right, so we'll get you out of here on this.

What is the temptation? You get a mink's palace.

What is the temptation to say, you know what, maybe we don't

just keep two this year, maybe a little more than two.

Or is there, is there a legitimate just farm limitation

on what you can do, financials, all of those sorts?

Of things right I. Mean because of the Mink's

palace. I mean, you see Mink's palace,

you're like, you know, this might be fun.

Maybe. We need.

I know, right? Yeah.

And we can do this again, right. It's just it's not a one.

I wonder it's going to be going right.

And and that's what she's helped us do.

I mean, we had kept her partial partially because of the issues,

but the other reason we kept her was she was the first full out

of this mayor that we really had a lot of.

We just had a lot of confidence that this mayor, she didn't have

the opportunity quite to do what her full expectations were with

Richard Mandela. She just kept having bad luck.

She actually was out in California and it got Michelle

and Richard got her and others out of Saint Louise Rey when the

fire hit. So she was out there at that

time and you never know what the smoke, you know, had done, but

she just had bad luck. So you've got to go with

sometimes it skips a generation and sometimes, you know, the

good ones come. So we do.

We have our half sister the that we will try to race next year

and then partnership on another that we raised with our our nice

neighbor and our new client who's been wonderful.

So it's exciting to to have that part, especially for the kids.

I mean, they love being out here, but it's a treat to be

able to take them to the races and then I don't really take

them but, but when so. Yeah.

All right, so I I lied. Carrie, we'll get you out of

here on this. What was celebration last night?

Did you just go home because you're farm folk?

Or did you have like, hey, you know what, There's a Frisch's

down the street, let's get a burger.

Like what? What?

'D we do well, I used to live in Chicago for a while.

I tried to get away from the horses for a bit because this is

how I grew up. So we stopped at Potbelly.

Thank God I sandwich my husband and I, our kids are in

Cincinnati with his parents. They were able to watch the

race, which was wonderful. So we drove straight home and

did some stuff on the farm. Yes, there it is.

You know, you know it. It keeps you grounded.

Yeah. I tell the story all the time.

Every time I talk to an owner, trainer, breed or whatever, they

sound like Nick Saban when he would win a national title in

football. And they're like, what are you

doing tomorrow? And he's like, oh, recruiting.

Yeah. And it's like, what?

What? What do you mean you're going

back to work? And it's like, well, I got to

work tomorrow, you know, that's kind of thing.

Every trainer I know is I got to get up at 4:15 to go see a horse

like. We actually went out to see our

yearlings that I said the two we're keeping, we went out to

see them at Rimrock this morning with some wonderful folks out

there. So yeah, that's what horses just

keep you grounded, because you know what?

They don't care. There's always good.

Excellent. That's right, Carrie Simon with

Summerhill, we really appreciate you jumping on.

Thanks for not being weirded out by me in the winner's circle

last night. I'm sure I was like frozen and

there was probably some icicles hanging off of things.

I was pretty zoned out myself I think, so you can tell from my

other interview I did not have all my thoughts together.

It's all right. We're very congratulations.

Congratulations on Migs Palace, all the best of her.

I'm sure she'll enjoy her much deserved time off, and my sense

is we're probably going to see her around Jeff Ruby Day then.

If she likes this Turfway Park thing, that might be.

I don't know, I never. Got right she and she also loves

your your Churchill Downs so. OK, there you go.

All right. Well, Carrie, thank you so much

for joining us on Blood Horse Punde.

No, thank you. Appreciate it you.

All, Merry Christmas Day. Thank you.

You too. All right.

Yeah. Carrie's on.

There you go. All right.

Get her out of here. How dare we do nice stories on

this show, Sean. I don't know if I like that.

I'm just kidding. This is good stuff, I know.

I'll tell you a great story. Leading into the leading into

the holidays here for sure. Yeah, no, she shot out of a

cannon too. Dude.

That was, it was actually legitimately cool to watch.

Once in a while, horses just find their stride and they just,

they're eating up ground and. And it's, it's Flavian and it's

I read. And then it's Walter Rodriguez.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about.

Very very fun man. She wasn't on the camera screen

halfway down the stretch, so that just Pew, she just flew

right in there all. Of a sudden, she's.

Two lengths ahead. Yeah, no, it was very, very much

good stuff there for sure. Appreciate Carrie joining us

here on Blood Horse Monday. Do you?

I mean the mixed palace thing and, and what you can do in

Kentucky, The rocks. Atlanta's a $300,000 race,

right? Yeah, somewhere around there.

Yeah. And this is a quarter million

dollar race and I'm. Actually think I looked

yesterday, I think it's 200,000, I remember.

Looking yesterday when I was ready, sure.

But 200,000 and 250,000 between that race and this race, so.

And I'm not putting Nick's palace down, but those are not

great at stakes that this horse just won two checks over 100K in

those races. And look, she's talented.

I'm not putting her down at all. She is she's talented.

She's fast. When she gets rolling downhill,

she get out of the way, she's going to win the race.

It's not that at all, but rather just I, I mean, if you can just

run in these kinds of races, even, you know, the 140,000 type

allowances, that kind of stuff. I mean, horses like that don't

need to leave. And, and what I bring that up

because she mentioned, oh, we had her entered at Oaklawn last

year and she ran there, didn't like it.

Oh, OK, we'll turn around and run for 1/4 million dollars.

Here, just just just keep it. Away so yeah, it's exactly right

so it's an interesting interesting dichotomy as far as

purses and different things there.

I I always want to ask those questions too like hey you you

breed 2A year for yourself. How how how enticing is it to

get out over your skis with stuff and it sounds like they've

got their that's very much on their shoulders there like yes,

I do who's what we do this is how we operate and and so very

cool. I love those kinds of stories of

horse racing and I'm sure I'm sure you do as well, Sean.

Oh yeah, definitely. It's always good.

You know, we've had many people on this show where you expect

them to have success, but it's always nice to highlight the

people who, you know, are just as much in this game.

They're out there grinding just as hard.

They're out there daily with the horses, as she mentioned, you

know, as soon as they win the race, they go right back to the

farm and check up on the horses. You know, that's, that's for

everybody in the game, no matter what level of success you're

having. That's the lifestyle that

everybody lives. So it's always nice when you

see, you know, somebody who maybe doesn't always get the

recognition every single, every single time some of your major,

major farms do when they have multiple top horses.

It's always nice to recognize when some of these smaller

groups, smaller farms, when they have a nice horse, even though,

as you mentioned, not a graded stakes winner, but winning these

big races in Kentucky, these big checks here in Kentucky, It's

always nice to give those people a little, a little recognition

to hear their stories. And you know, hopefully, you

know, that inspires other people that are out there doing the

grind on the daily basis as well to keep at it and keep keep

going hard at it because you never know when that good horse

is gonna fall in your lap and what kind of journey they're

gonna take you on afterward. Well, in Ming's palace too.

I mean, no one's gonna get to her resume as a as a broodmare

and say she didn't really run something.

Like that? Yeah, exactly.

I mean, like, she's gonna get there.

They're gonna go, oh, she won a Churchill and a turfway.

OK, cool. All right, We know what we got

here. But, I mean, we got we got we

got. We got a winner here.

That's exactly. Yeah, and that's what I was

asking with the with her whole year this year.

I mean, she's been she's been in it on on the female Sprint side

of things here at Kentucky. She was running in the winning

colors in the Chicago. Those are graded races.

Vava was the winner of the Chicago this year and so and

last year. But so you know, she's running

against these really good horses.

She's been running well. She had a couple couple seconds

and some of those ones in the fall, at the summer, in the fall

at Ellis and at Churchill. And as she closes out the year

here with a big win at Turfway. And so she's one that really is

making a name for herself on this little local circuit here

of Kentucky, which is pretty lucrative to be on right now.

That's exactly right. We'll be joined in a few minutes

by Aaron Hollowell. She's the executive director of

Thoroughbred Charities of America.

We'll talk with her ahead of the end of the year some of the

initiatives that they're working on there.

I also think she went to a college hockey school, which

means that I'm going to shove Shawn out of the way for part of

the conversation and talk one-on-one with Aaron because

Shawn doesn't know what that's hockey business.

So the. I'm kidding, kidding.

I'm in Michigan right now. There.

You go, there's a nice week within a mile of where you are.

That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. And so I don't like the Flyers

over here. No Flyers.

Oh, man. All right.

Well, yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll have to get into it.

I'm very convinced that Aaron is going to have something in

common with me, and that is the college hockey college.

Like, it's a different thing to go to a place with college

hockey where it really matters than to go to these bum schools

like Louisville or Kentucky or whatever That.

Yeah. Oh, basketball, we get it.

Oh, football, we get it. Just flame, throw everybody for

no reason at all. But yeah, no, I love the story

that makes Palace really appreciate Kerry jumping on with

us there. If Aaron is ready to go, let's

go ahead and bring Aaron in from Thoroughbred Charities of

America. She is, in fact, their executive

director. And do I have this right?

Are you a Saint Lawrence grad? Are you a hockey college hockey

person? Like that, I am a Saint Lawrence

grad. I don't follow a whole lot of

college hockey anymore, but I get it.

I absolutely get it. Yeah, when you live in Saint,

when you live there, you have to go to the games on Friday show

and otherwise there's probably not a lot going on.

It is. Yeah, there's not a lot going on

in Canton, NY, especially when the weather is just beyond cold.

I know I might have to step aside for a couple minutes.

Let this turn into a hockey podcast.

For a. Couple and then we'll come back

and talk horses. Nice.

Nice. Well, Aaron, you made the move

to, you know, in, in October of 2009.

How about that becoming the executive director at TCA

itself. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask this a

little bit of a different way rather than asking about TCA and

those things. You've been there for 16 years.

What keeps you there? Wow, yeah, that's a long time

when you put it especially in perspective like that, Wash.

I, you know, I, I started my career in the thoroughbred

racing industry at TOBA, the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders

Association, who is essentially TCA's parent company.

And you know, I just, I love the mission of TCA.

I love what we do. I love the impact we get to make

amongst, you know, in the lives of thoroughbreds and the people

who care for them. I had the pleasure of knowing

some of our founders. We were founded by the late

Alaire DuPont, who I never got to meet.

But then Herb and Ellen Molis, of course, from Candyland Farm

in Middletown, DE. You know, I, I knew Herb very

well. And, and of course, Ellen is

wonderful. So just knowing their heart and

the the organization that they created in 1990, you know,

setting out to really make an impact again in the lives of

thoroughbreds and the people who care for them, it just keeps me

coming back for more. Well, take us through some some

of the organizations or the process of picking the

organizations that you guys support.

Obviously there's a lot of thoroughbred aftercare

organizations as you mentioned, there's a few that also support

the people that support the horses as well.

Just what? What does TCA kind of all

encompass? Sure.

Yeah. So TCA we kind of have a, a, a

unique mission statement in that we're not specifically

aftercare, we're not. So we're not specifically horses

or people. We, we help all facets of our

industry really. So we were designed, we were set

up as a grant making organization.

So our job throughout the year is to raise as much money as we

possibly can through various fundraisers and events, and then

we aim to give away as much money as we possibly can every

year to our worthy grant recipients.

This year we were fortunate enough to grant over $1.1

million to 98 approved organizations across our country

and those organizations are pretty diverse and represent so

many different aspects of our industry.

And aftercare. Yeah, as you mentioned, you

know, the backstretch and farm employee sort of category

focuses on the human aspect of our industry and that's

organizations like the Belmont Childcare Association, various

racetrack chaplain sees in in Lexington, Bluegrass Farms

Charities is a is a grant recipient Amplify Horse racing.

Overall, I believe we had 24 backstretch and farm worker

charities that received a grant from TCA this year.

So you know, those grants help everything from health and

Wellness clinics to dental clinics to ESL classes, legal

services, things like that. You know, the backstretch

population, it's a very unique sort of population.

So they have some some unique challenges that we and a lot of

these programs aim to help with. You know, on the after aftercare

side, we do support kind of what you would consider maybe like a

traditional aftercare organization where they're

taking possession of horses, rehabbing, retraining and

rehoming. We're talking about new

vocations, Second Stride, Cantor organizations along those lines.

And we had about 63 organizations that kind of fall

into that category this year. When it comes to aftercare

though, we we see all sides of it, right?

So in addition to helping those organizations that are are

actively retraining and rehoming the horses, we also support

organizations that are creating a demand for thoroughbreds in

amongst equine enthusiasts. So these are organizations that

are actively sort of marketing and educating the equine

enthusiast public as to you know what, why is it a good option to

choose a thoroughbred as your next mount, right?

So organizations like the Retired Racehorse Project and

Take Two and the Thoroughbred Incentive Program are really

doing amazing, amazing work in this space, incentivizing people

to choose a thoroughbred as their next horse.

So lots going on. Erin Hollowell, she's a busy

person. She is with the TCA.

She's their executive director. My mother was in was in

nonprofit management for a long time and and one of the things

she always told me was nonprofits expose the things we

want to spend money on but don't in horse racing.

It sounds like you're filling in a lot of gaps.

And as we go through different economic cycles and different

things, Erin, I'm always fascinated by where it is that

we need to fill in in horse racing.

Is there a new trend that you've noticed?

Certainly, you know, on this show we've had different people

from different parts of the industry, immigration issues

come up. Certainly you talk about the

issues for backstretch workers as far as lodging pay, different

things like that as well. Is there something, though, that

you would anticipate needing funding in 2026 that maybe you

didn't see before? Or do you see a general trend at

all? You know it specifically in

aftercare. You know, we have come so far

over the last what decade or so I would say.

You know, TCA started in 1990 and I think our founders

recognized the need that aftercare is, is absolutely

important and is it should be part of the conversation from

the very beginning of, of obtaining your horse, you know,

and I think that has come more to the forefront obviously over

the last many years. And we've made such great

progress with the establishment of organizations like TAA and

the Retired Racehorse Project and the thorough incentive

program and additional aftercare organizations.

But we're not there yet. You know, I think we, we do

still need to do more, especially on on the aftercare

side because, you know, thoroughbreds certainly need

responsible aftercare once their days on the track are over.

And they are the most incredible versatile animals.

You know, once they're done racing, they can go on and

compete in a variety of different categories from hunter

jumper to dressage, Western pleasure, equine, assisted

therapy. We just have to give them ample

opportunity to do that. And that starts with responsible

aftercare, knowing when to say, you know what this is, this

horse is no longer competitive on the racetrack.

It's time to give him or her the opportunity to move into a

second career. And that means retiring them

sound or with as as many minimal issues as as possible anyway.

So I think you know, kind of on the aftercare side.

I would love to just see expansion of programs.

Obviously more funding is needed to sustainably retire and move

on more horses into second careers as possible.

Well, you mentioned the need for more funding and how you guys

try to raise as as much as possible.

Well coming up here in a couple weeks is one of your biggest, if

not the biggest fundraiser for you guys in your 36th annual

Stallion season auction. You guys have the have the

online auction, I believe it's January 7th through 9th and then

the in person, in person auction on January 11th.

Just how big of a event is this for you guys here to start the

year? It is our largest annual

fundraiser. So we start the year every year

with a bang, you know, with this, with this fundraiser and

it it's so important for us and there's a lot of moving parts.

We try to offer something for everyone really.

But yeah, you're right. So we start the event starts on

Wednesday, January 7th with our online stallion season auction.

And you can view the stallions that are currently online.

I think there's about 100 or so. I've got stacks of paper here.

I'm going to add more today. So there will be many more

coming, but they're available via our website, whichistca.org

or you can click through directly to salesring.net.

That's the auction platform that will host our online Stallion

Season auction. Right now we're hopefully I'll

get to we'll, we'll get to probably about oh, 150 plus

seasons on there from at least 10 states so far.

Some of the, some of the online seasons, gosh, we've got Army

mule flight line, quality Rd., Muse, City of Light, you know,

there's some, some pretty big names on there already.

And then the online auction is great because you know, some of

the, the, the regional programs too were represented in New York

by stallions like central banker and Solomini Mind control

Florida. We've got some, some great

options there. Kozan win, win win roadster

Neolithic. So we've got, like I said, it's

something for everyone. There's hopefully I think we'll

get to about 10 states with with stallion seasons.

We also usually have a couple in Canada.

So really just trying to to reach all those markets there.

But then yeah, once we close the online Stallion Season auction

that ends on Friday, January 9th at 4:00 PM, and then we move

right into our live auction event, which is the Select

Stallion Season auction on January Sunday, January 11th at

Harper Hall in downtown Lexington.

So if anyone is in town for the Keeneland sale, please come on

out to Harper Hall. It's a nice event.

You know, we do dinner and cocktails, live music and then

have these amazing auctions. So yeah, we've got quite a

lineup of select stallion seasons.

And if I may, a little breaking news for you all.

We. Like that?

Yeah, yeah, just had a couple seasons confirmed this morning.

So currently our select Stallion season roster lineup.

We've got Constitution, Gervin, Liam's map locked, Nyquist with

a 2027 breed back Patch, Adams, Vikoma and Yaupon.

So we're looking at some heavy hitters there in the select

playing season auction. And you know most of them, if

not all of them, are completely sold out at the farm.

So if you want a season to one of these stallions, the only

place to get it is our auction. Of course, this is Aaron

Hollowell joins us from tcaandtca.org.

It is the end of the year, Aaron.

If people are looking to make a donation at the end of the year,

obviously they can go to the website.

The the tab is very easy to find as far as donate many of the

great programs. Of course on the I just listed

the transparency on the website as well.

This is where the money's going is that the best way is through

the website. Yes, that that's probably the,

you know, most convenient way. We, we love online donations,

but if you'd also like to pop a check in the mail, we won't we

won't complain about that. And our mailing address is also

there on our website, tca.org there.

You go. She's Erin Halliwell.

I I didn't mean to make you feel old earlier.

I apologize for that. That wasn't what I was talking

about. Passion, not about age.

I. Promise.

I got it. I got it.

Thank you. Thank you for clarifying.

Well, you know, we, we are as Louis mentioned, we are at the

end of the year. You, you could see his Santa hat

on right there. We got Lily Claus in the house

today. But you know, with, you know,

obviously you have the stallion auction coming up here in a

couple weeks. But just in general this time of

year as people are often looking to kind of make their donations

and kind of help people out. Just how big of a time is this

at the end of the year, not just for TCA, but really all all

programs that are involved with aftercare and kind of get it

getting some of this in. Yeah, it's definitely an

important time of year. You know, I think just talking

with a couple people over the last few weeks that are looking

to retire horses, you know, I think when you're, when you're

looking to retire horses and get them into aftercare facilities,

you know, maybe this time of year, a lot of the aftercare

facilities are kind of full and maybe, you know, just concerned

with increasing costs of hay and grain and shavings this time of

year, you know, so I think there's probably some more

financial strain on, on them. So you know, it's, it's, it's

important throughout the year. You know, donations are what we

rely on. All of our, none of our funding

comes from any mandated sources. So donations are vital to our

organization as well as to all of our grant recipients.

So certainly yes, you know with with cost escalating kind of

across the board, there's never a better time.

Well, Aaron, we appreciate you jumping on Blood Horse Monday.

All the best moving forward. Again, tca.org to go find the

website there in the easy donation tab.

And frankly, if you're just interested in the kind of work

that they're doing, go check them out at tca.org.

Again, the events coming up on January 7th at 4:00, the online

stallion season auction begins. And of course, the select

stallion season auction and celebration is on Saturday or

excuse me, Sunday, July January 11th at 5:30.

It's at Harper Hall there in downtown Lexington.

Aaron, thanks so much for joining us.

Merry Christmas and be well there at TCA.

Merry Christmas. Thank you so much.

Thank you. There you go.

Erin Hollowell on the program here.

Appreciate her. John Hollowell.

Excuse me, jumping on the program.

It is amazing to me, Sean, how many.

This is one of the things I wasn't ready for when I started

to really dive into horse racing is how many nonprofits there are

around our sport. It's a remarkable thing.

And she's totally right about one of the things that was set

out at the at the outset with TCA is whoa, whoa, whoa, we're

going to ask these, these these equine athletes to go and run.

We got to have a spot for them when they're done running,

right? And that's a just a basic

realistic thing that in 2025, I think we take for granted as

part of the verbiage of the sport because frankly, Simply

put, it sounds like it just wasn't in previous eras.

And so it's, it's nice to hear those things.

It's nice to hear people like Aaron working on that.

Yeah, it's the, it's the most important part of horse racing

is feels like what we do with the horses when when they're

done racing. You know, obviously we've talked

quite a bit this year about stallions.

You know, some of the top ones we just mentioned, some of the

top ones Aaron listed for us that they'll have available

here. But at the end of the day, if

those stallions are small percentage of the horses that

are out there racing where they're going to have that

guaranteed second career through that direction, you know, maybe

maybe a little bit more on the broodmare side of things that

you can do, you can have more of those, more of them kind of

retire and go into breeding. There's a lot, there's a lot of

geldings out there who need second career options.

There's a lot of a lot of other horses who just, you know, their

success on the racetrack was not good enough to warrant the

stallion career. And we need to make sure that

those horses are also going off and living good lives as well

afterwards. But then additionally, on top of

that, we want to make sure that we're supporting the people that

are involved with the horses, You know, all the grooms, all

the backstretch workers, all the workers at the farms, you know,

that are out there grinding away every day to take care of these

horses. We want to make sure they're

supported. We had Brooke Smith on a couple

weeks ago. He mentioned how important the

Backside Learning Center at Churchill Downs is to him,

making sure that he's giving back to the people that work

hands on with his horses and all the other horses back there.

And so really this is the, this is the biggest, I don't that's,

well, it's definitely the biggest concern, but you know,

it's one that we are addressing. It's one of the, it's the

biggest thing that we need to in this industry be paying

attention to is what we're doing with the horses after they're

racing. And then also, you know, how

we're taking care of the people that are taking care of them as

well. So the TCA covers both of those

sides of things. Like every good organization,

you take care of your most vulnerable, right?

And our most vulnerable in horse racing are equine athletes.

And unfortunately, they're also our backside workers.

We need to take care of them for sure.

And what I liked about Aaron's response immediately was what

you just talked about. She didn't go to, oh, when they

go to their stallion career, they go, no, she went to

whatever their second career might be.

If it's not, if it's hunting, if it's jumping, whatever it might

be, or if it's just hanging out, man, just being, just being a

horse, right? That might be the second career

for many of these horses. And so I, I, I appreciate that

the conversation. I, I just, I just wanted to

point that out because I don't want to ever take that for

granted that we, we have gotten to a point in this sport where

we're doing that we're doing the right thing more often than not.

And, and we need to keep going. And, and people, it sounds like

TCA and Aaron and those kinds of people are making sure we move

in that direction. That's why I asked the question,

Hey, what, what are we funding next year?

What is the, what's the next thing?

What's this trend that's coming up?

And she went straight to aftercare and.

And that, you know, I think it speaks to exactly what you were

saying, is this is what we've got to be great at.

If we're not, then, you know, then, then we don't deserve to

do this, frankly, if those horses don't have a place going.

Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.

Well, there you go. All right.

Appreciate Aaron jumping on the program.

It is now time to be silly. We are going to try to put

together our best attempt at Santa's reindeer based on

thoroughbred animals. All right.

So I don't know how this is going to go, Sean, but I will

let you go. 1st and then we can go.

Back and forth. First grad rule here.

Are we, are we sticking toward, you know, this year's horses

like horses that have been relevant this year or are we,

are we, is this a historic like is Secretariat going to come

back to life or to the pulse? Fantastic question.

How are we? How are we doing this?

Is Louis taking war Admiral first overall?

No. OK, so I think why don't we just

set a hard since COVID, since 2020, OK, pick your reindeer and

I'll we'll go for five and I so here's let's have a conversation

about your thought process, Sean, going into this.

So I think part of this is distance, right?

I mean these reindeer. I mean distance is a

consideration. Right.

You're covering the whole planet here.

I mean, this is got to have got to have a little stamina.

We're not going 10 for long, so we're going 15, right?

I mean, we're doing the thing, OK.

Go ahead. But you also, you also got to

get to these houses quickly, so you do need a little bit of

speed in here as well. So all right.

OK, Yeah. And then both of us, by the way,

will also pick our Santa jockey. OK.

So all right, OK, all right, here we go with the first.

Now are we, are we covering? Are we covering Rudolph's

position? Are we doing 9 or 8 reindeer?

Let's do nine. OK, OK.

All right. Or should we, is there, is there

an obvious Rudolph here? I mean, this flight line just

got to be, is that what we're doing here?

It's got to be somebody who catches your attention to show

the way. You know you can't show the way

without catching attention. Right by you, man, that's a good

job. So I think, I think the obvious,

if we're doing since COVID, I think the obvious choice for

Rudolph has to be flight line, right?

OK, OK. It was pretty flashy.

That Pacific classic was pretty good.

Yeah, it was pretty point. If you want, I mean you.

Got to have somebody. Somebody up there to lead the

way. So I think you got to say flight

lines are Rudolph here. Was it forensic?

Fire that tried to bite Yao Pone is forensic fire not since 2020.

The most like out there horse is that not the moment that we

remember is him biting at another horse in the stretch

full speed. No nothing flight line go flight

line. All right, all right.

So we got flight line upfront is I read Santa because he's won

the most Eclipse award since 2020.

Hold on. I thought we were doing Santa at

the end. You're jumping ahead.

We got to pick eight more reindeer here.

Come on, Louis, we got Flightline in the Rudolph

position. Now we need who's going to be

filling in for Dasher? OK, Dasher, we got to.

Build them with the correct order here.

All right, so if it's A-I nominate Whitmore as our as our

dasher. Interesting.

I know he's not a distance guy, but he's running the Derby

durable got it done to the Breeders Cup of Keeneland.

That is in 2020, so since 2020 I.

Longevity. Just say Dasher, I might go

Whitmore here. I I can agree with that.

Yeah, I think that's a good. Thing I I can get, I can get

behind Whitmore's. All right.

So we got Flight Line and we got Whitney.

Rudolph and Dasher, all right. Dancer next?

Yep, dancer next all. Right.

I got a good dancer for that. I got a good yeah do.

We pair, do we pair Whitmore with another speed horse though

in that front row, OK. It's a good question.

I think there's speed up there. If we're talking about Dancer,

OK, which horse did the most dancing this year?

I think the answer is very easy. His name is journalism.

He had to dance off the rail in the Preakness.

Dude, that's our dancing, I'll tell him.

Give me journalism as our dancer in this spot.

And hey, don't discount his dancing in the Santa Anita Derby

either. Off the.

Rail, I agree with that, too. OK, yeah, OK.

We need a little more dancing in that Pacific class.

I'm kidding, of course. All right, let's keep rolling a

little bit and then he shows up sub two O 1 in the classic.

He's good. Believe me, that works fine.

He doesn't need me talking about him.

All right, sorry Aaron. What?

OK, so dasher dancer, Prancer. Do we have a prancer on this

side? I got a good one for.

This one go, go for it. Let me see if I agree.

I think idiomatic just never pulled away from horses and she

kind of pranced her way down the stretch every time she ran.

I but I like idiomatic. Obviously durability did it over

multiple years. Was the was the Philly of the

year. I just I think she was I think

she was very good and I think that's one that we should

include in for for prancing. All right.

I can get behind that. I think she definitely, she, she

was definitely well one, as you said, she didn't really draw

away. So we know that she likes being

in the large group of horse deer, I guess we'll call them

here. Is it horse deer or rain horses?

Boy, but rain of breads. So she'll be comfortable being

within within the squad here and and not helping out.

She was, yeah. I mean, she was a tough

competitor every time. So, you know, she's going to be

able to be able to pull her share of the sleigh here for

sure. Yeah, I agree.

All right, dancer. So dancer.

Dancer. Prancer.

Vixen. Well, I mean, we got to go, and

I think this one's easy. Do we?

Well, hold on. There's a horse named Vixen.

OK, that's even easier than what I was going to do.

Vixen stands out as a as a woman's name.

Who is the strongest female horse we've had the last couple

years? I think this one isn't close.

Torpedo Anna. It's TA man.

I think she gets it and so I think torpedo Anna's in.

Torpedo Anna in that second row right there.

I'm just telling you, this is strong so far.

Dude. This is a good group of horses.

A good group of group of Thora Thora deer.

Now I do want to make sure though.

Right now our only. Breads.

Our only sprinter was a deep closer.

So we do need to point, we do need to put a, we do need to put

a little bit of speed in into into the front right here.

Who are we thinking as far as? So Donner and Blitzen are up

next, right? And so I think Donner is gonna

be a longer, slower plotter. And then you're gonna have

Blitzen is gonna be Blitzen, quite literally.

OK. So I think we've got to be a

little more thoughtful about, you know, just just a little bit

slower. I think, I think because of this

show and because of my predictions on this show, I

think Ethical Diamond makes the nine this year.

There you go. I think that's ethical Diamond.

Who you got for Blitzen? I think you've got some.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Because I just want to ethical

diamond, you know, if we run into some traffic problems with,

you know, a chimney is too tall, we know he's going to be able to

jump over it. So yeah, that that puts that

puts some needed skill into the team there.

He can kind of help guide the rest of the team up and over the

chimney, you know? Got it.

By the way, I am intentionally saving Comet and Cupid for last.

I think those are the funniest ones.

We can get to those in a minute. So we've got Ethical Diamond.

Who do you have for Blitzen? I think your boy Jose D'Angelo

had a couple of good ones this year.

Oh, he did, but I was. My mind also was looking toward

Jackie's warrior. We.

Want to put some? There we go.

We. Want to put some more speed in

here, A horse that we know. I mean, he, I mean, he won what

grade ones at Saratoga for three or four straight years, right?

So we, we know, we know he he can last.

He can, he can sustain the entire journey of Santa's sleigh

around the world. And so we want to put some good

speed that we know can last. We're going to put Jackie's

warrior. We're in that spot.

All right, I don't hate it. All right, we got Comet and

Cupid to do last. I don't know what to make of

Comet. I thought about this one way too

long. And so is it that that that the

horse leaves a trail of excellence or like a wake of

like defeated horses behind it? Because the second one is a

sovereignty comet, right? He's just leaving a wake of sad

horses behind him as he just blows by them in the traverse or

in the Belmont or something like that.

Everything's just behind him. He's like, that trail is for

everyone else, and I'm not going to Baltimore.

Deal with it. What do we have?

What is it? Why do you got to?

Why do you got to end my year bringing that up again?

Because we're talking to Steve Kornacki next week when I'm not

ending your year at all. What?

What's the comet? Is it, is it sovereignty?

Is he the comet? Is he leaving just?

The. Trail of destruction.

Not how can we not put sovereignty on this, this team

of Excellency that is required to pull Santa Claus around the

world. I mean sovereignty and you know,

we and we got him toward the back of the sleigh too, because

his power, the power that he has, well, he's going to need

that as he's closer to the sleigh to kind of help pull it

along. So yes, I think I think

sovereignty is definitely the correct choice to to add in

here. This.

Will be the one time journalism's ahead of him too,

because we got journalism up in the front of the slice so

journalism for one night could be ahead of him.

We now. Need Cupid?

Let's pick a horse with a great lovey name for Cupid that also

was a good runner that isn't Cupid.

Obviously a horse as well. Loves only you of course comes

to mind. True.

Try to think of. When did great.

Bread because it's like it's like the chosen Fran get to get

thrown in here or something like just one of these great state

breads that that jumps up and wins.

Or like I'm trying to think, you know, we had touch upon A star.

We had Jake Loman just a couple days ago, like just these these

kind of off the radar. Do we need one of those in our

nine? In other words, you know, do we

need to include a horse that's a little bit off of the mainstream

here, or we just get to stay with all these power horses?

So I'm not mad. Wow, really?

Good. I do have I do have one other

nomination that I want to mention.

I don't know how well it fits into the name Cupid, but but if

we really are looking at the stamina side of things and we're

looking at, you know, who's going to last for the entire

night going all across the world.

I mean, you got to consider next as far as stamina.

Goes. I was wondering when you were

going to bring that horse up. Yes.

Yes, I was waiting. Well, you started kind of going

other directions by the name. I didn't get a chance to throw

him in here yet, So, but I just, I want to, I don't know if

you'll agree to putting him on, but if we wanted stamina, I

think that's the horse we got to go with Stanley.

Wise for sure. I I think between him ethical

diamond, we're good to go. We left out rebels romance, who

I love, I love, and I think he should have gotten a little more

love as far as as this group dude as far as year to year

distance stamina all over the world talk about horses that win

everywhere. I mean we could have thrown in

clandic in here. We could have thrown, I mean

like, you know. I mean, haven't you ever heard

of all the reindeer that are sitting on Santa's bench that

are ready to come in and. There you go.

That's the real issue. I don't know if you.

Know this or not, I don't know if you know this or not Santa

Claus actually has a second set of nine reindeer.

Well, eight reindeer, because Rudolph's got to do the whole

night, but he has a second set of eight reindeer that sit on

the prime Meridian, you know, halfway through the world and he

switches halfway through the night.

I don't know if you knew that or not.

There's an entire second set of of of reindeer that come in and

he's that down. Let me get the.

Bum ones in. The mountains too.

Does that we we get, we get the bum ones in North America that

like the first stringers go through Asia and Europe and then

we get the bum ones in in America?

Is that what I'm hearing is that?

Probably. Isn't there the Japanese get a

good one, you know, the Congolese get a good one and

then they get to us and it's just bombs Yeah, right.

I I don't like that at. All why do you think the

presents you want are never under the tree?

Because he's he's swapped to the bum.

Reindeer kid. Cairo gets what he wants.

I don't. Yeah, no, that's right.

It sounds right. Oh, man.

All right. Well, next week.

You heard me sort of allude to it there.

Steve Kornacki, who joined us for our summer.

Thanks for the. Spoiler of the year, halfway

through the year. Eclipse Awards will join us next

week for our final show of 2025 before we get there.

Because I imagine what Steve will just do Those kinds of

things. Sean, I could not have asked for

a better Christmas present than this show.

I've had so much fun working with you this year, getting to

know everybody. A blood horse.

I cannot wait to fully unveil this show to everyone next year.

The different things that we're going to be able to do because

of some of the great partners that we have as part of this

program as well. So thank you to all of you who

have hung out with us throughout the year.

Thanks to to Sean and to Frank and all the good people at Blood

Horse for dragging me in here. And if you're not getting the

magazine yet, what are you doing?

I mean, you talk about Christmas gifts, just go ahead and order

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Just order the magazine and then put on a piece of paper and a

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Like just do that. That's what I did last year.

I got got a subscription for my mom so perfect Christmas gift.

There you go. She loves the stallion registry

as much as the next person. There you go.

So, all right. Well, Sean, safe travels, my

friend. I know you are through Michigan

and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and all kinds of places the next

couple of weeks. So be safe.

Merry Christmas to your family. Say hi to your, your your

parents for me and all the good things.

And we will be back next week. Does Steve Kornacki think next

should be a reindeer? Find out.

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