Kentucky Derby 152 Prep Whiparound | Jon Lindo

I guess fantastic podcast, terrible entry music.

It is the horse racing happy hour hanging out with you.

Louis Ribow and John Lindo joins us from a much less snowy part

of the country out there on the West Coast.

Lots of Derby preps means you want to talk to the man from

thoroughbred LA. Catch them Saturdays and

Sundays. KLAA Angels Radio out there on

the West Coast, but certainly available online as well.

John, how are you? Doing great, Louis, how you

doing? I hope you're staying warm back

there. Warm is a good idea.

Yes, I have a space heater odd in my studio.

Our houses here are just not like California just not made

for this. I just not and so it's a it's a

whole, it's a lifestyle right now, John.

And the other part I was telling you off air is that there is no

consensus on the best way to do this.

And so it just, it seems like every neighborhood's trying to

figure it out, every house, every, you know, highway from

here to whatever state roads are different in different places.

So no, we're having a great time.

How about? That well, if it makes you feel

any better, we're mid 70s and I can see the ocean from here, so

we're doing OK. I I don't think that makes me

feel better, but he's John Lindo.

You should go find him at Jay Lindo.

Is it 6050? 60.

OK, there you go. 60 on the socials.

That is not his age. He's considerably younger than

that. We appreciate him jumping on the

program here. I last saw you at Breeders' Cup.

And John, this is a weird era for for media because I, I feel

like I know people really well. And then I realized I've never

met them in person. You were kind enough to come say

hi to me at the, at the Turf rider dinner, but I got to say I

got to meet the star in your family, the award winner, your

wife. That was nice too.

Well, you know, I drive to Stacy wherever she needs to, and life

is good. I know my role.

I do it, yes. Yeah, she lets you go if there's

drink tickets somewhere. That's exactly right.

So, yeah, that was nice to see you out there.

Good to be at your neck of the woods.

We'll bring the Breeders Cup back out of the to Keatland in

the fall here in the state of Kentucky.

But before we do that, of course, we've got a Derby to

contend on the 1st Saturday in May here in Louisville.

Ted Duffy off the trail. John, I kind of wanted to ask

you your thoughts. Did you, did that change the

Derby much for you? I, I don't read into the

juvenile winner as far as Kentucky Derby winner very much

anymore at all. So.

He was really impressive, Lloyd. But it's so early, you know

where there's going to be fallout.

To me, it's just too early to make a decision.

I I have a few horses I want to see run again, but you know, I'm

not locked into anybody that I have to have.

I thought last year was a little bit more clear cut.

I kind of thought journalism and sovereignty were were the best

two horses from from late in the late in their two year old year.

And it kind of worked out that way.

Yeah, it doesn't happen too often, right, that we just get

the winner of the low sell Derby keeps rolling the way the

journalism did out West, and you get a horse like Sovereignty

that's so good in the street sense as a maiden and then, you

know, keeps rolling once he gets to the spring.

It's a fascinating thing, the Derby trail itself, John,

because of course, as you know, when you were coming up in the

sport, it was based on stakes, earnings and these sorts of

things. You know, now that we're a good

decade plus into it, do you like the Derby trail?

I, I, this is the only way I know it as far as covering the

sport. I like it.

I I like because it forces me to go around the country and watch

these circuits. I do like that part about it.

Do you like the Derby trail the way that's got us out?

Yeah, well, you know, it gives us something to talk about first

of all, which is great. And it's fun to watch them

develop. The 2 year olds turning 3 and

they really do change from January to May and you just want

to see which horse is moving forward at the right time and it

can be overnight. It could be, you know, one race

does not dictate what they're going to do the next time.

So you just have to kind of watch and see where they're

going and you see who's filling out and who's getting bigger

and, and it, it, it's hard to tell, but you can see the

progress. We saw Potente the other day.

Any chance he's a late bloomer? That we'll see.

I don't know, maybe leading into the the the old Santa Anita

Derby? Well, I would think that they

would probably try. That's a Bob Baffert horse they

paid what $2.4 million for. He caught a scratch down field.

It was a watered down field and he was all out to do it.

So you know, off of that race he's got a lot more to do.

But obviously connections are have got their fingers crossed

and and Bob will test drive them all and see which ones he's got

for the Derby. We'll we'll talk about Desert

Gate when we get to Santa Anita. That'll be the last of the four

tracks that we're visiting because of weather.

John Lindo, the recipient of not having to be in the snow but

getting to handicap 4 separate dirty perhaps this week.

What? It's a good job by you, John

Lindo, I got to say, but let's go ahead and get that going.

We will start Nano Man. We'll start on the East Coast.

We'll go to the Withers. It's 9 furlongs mile and 1/8 on

the dirt there for three-year olds, $200,000 on the line in

this one, John, as we move up to New York.

And I got to say last year was, was really disappointing because

I got to go to the Wood Memorial.

Last year it was the 100th and Rodriguez won that race.

And my favorite, my favorite line for people that were

analyzing the Derby that I thought was just so stupid last

year was that we're done with front runners winning the Derby.

And all I could think was, do you know who hasn't been in this

race for three years? Like do we, do you all remember

2020? Do you not remember?

Like I just are we doing this now?

Even the year before in 2019, Sergey Empress wins the Oaks

easily on the front, right? I mean, so we've seen this over

and over here, but the the front running thing always cracks me

up. I thought Rodriguez was going to

be a serious contender. So I'm, I, I, I'm, I'm always

kind of watching the Wood Memorial Trail, even though we

haven't seen one a winner at least since Musej Pegasus.

Well, you know, things change. When they started using the

Derby qualifying points, it kind of took a lot of that cheap

speed. It had gotten early earnings as

a 2 year old. So you had a lot of really false

pace scenarios in the Derby. Last couple of years the the

pace has been fast and that's made a little difference.

But you know, when they first changed over the points, it kind

of went into a a more normal kind of pace.

Became powerful, yeah. You just have to handicap every

race as it comes up and see where they are and see where

they draw. And you know, we start the it's,

it's handicapping one-on-one as far as I'm concerned.

We move to the Withers here. We've got a pair of Chad Brown

horses right around 2 to one. That'll be the two favorites in

this one. We get the winner of that Future

Stars race that all of us saw in that three horse field that

parks by 19 lengths. And my lotta in here.

Where'd you land in the Withers? Well, to me it's a mile an

eighth race and there's a lot of speed.

You know, you've got the 2 Chad Brown Maidens schoolyard

Superman who went basically wire to wire going a mile last time

at Aqueduct. Might a lot of coming out of

that 19 length win. Talk to Jimmy.

What comes out of a fast mile at Aqueduct?

And even the horse on the outside, he's got some speed

too. So this is going to be a legit

mile an eighth and I think the race falls to #3 Otenho, which

is the other Chad Brown. You know, he'll get the

distance. He just wanted a mile an eighth

on a very slow, deep Aqueduct main track.

That was back on New Year's Eve and he he was near the pace that

day. He showed in his debut, even

though he didn't win, he could pass horses.

I think he falls into the right trip here.

Jose Lezcano has a ride. I have a feeling this may have

been a Flavian prop mount before the day switch.

And Flavian is not in New York on Friday.

So you know that that to me maybe what happened here.

But I think Otino is the right horse here just because how the

how the race trips out. Schoolyard Superman, the other

Chad Brown, I think he is a he is ratable, but he hasn't been

two turns yet. More questions on the other

horses going two turns than Otino.

Otino, by the way, means little one in the Catalan language if

you don't know where they speak Catalan, John, it's in southern

France, northern Spain, and it is the official language of

Andorra. I actually didn't have to look

at notes at all for that part of the show.

I apologize to everyone for going there.

I'm fascinated by another horse that you mentioned in here and

talk to me, Jimmy, just because I think he's going to be a

little off of the board as far as betting.

I think you're definitely going to get the double digit kind of

number on him. And boy, John, how often have we

seen a horse go from that mile, that one turn mile of Aqueduct

and just liking the two turns there in New York, son of

modernist, kind of an interesting spot here for a

cheaper, you know, breeding job, a New York bred here.

Interested to see if he can at least get up and get some

serious Derby points in here. What how do you what is that?

It's sort of more of a general question.

A horse like Mylata coming out of a race like that, are you, do

you glean much from that? Do you give him credit for, you

know, hey, your only job is to win the race, right?

You may as well give the horse credit for that.

How do you handicap that moving into the next race?

Well, first of all, he's been very well managed.

You know, you see Robert Reed, so he's put him in the right

spot. He he got, he's gotten a lot

better with blinkers on. So there are reasons why he got

good. Now he's going to get tested.

He's going to have to handle the 2 two turns.

He didn't want a mile race of parks, but a mile and 8th is

different than 7 furlongs of parks.

And these are different kind of horses.

So he's got to answer the class questions, the stamina

questions. But Robert Reed has shown he

goes to New York and he wins races.

So he's got the connections, he's in good form.

You you can't toss them out because everybody else has to

answer a lot of questions too. Yeah, should be a fun one up

there at Aqueduct. That is a rerunning of the card

from last Saturday at Aqueduct. We'll move to Oaklawn Park,

who's running tomorrow as well on Friday in their two preps.

The first one is the Martha Washington, which is an Oaks

prep that we're going to talk about at least on this program.

Race 6 on Friday's program there at Oaklawn Park Mile and the

16th on the dirt, of course, 3 year old Phillies in this one

and $300,000 on the line. This is about the time of year,

John, that we see those horses come up from Fairgrounds because

the purses are a little bit higher in Oak Lawn and of course

after the month pause they are back at it.

I talked with Matt Dinerman on Blood Horse Monday this week and

he said that the horsemen seem to have adjusted OK to the

shutdown there as long as they get to run the four days a week

moving forward. The Martha Washington race with

a great winner's list and all those things who he got in this

one. It's, you know, we have to, we

have another factor we have to figure in for Oakland too.

They with the, the weather conditions down there, they,

they did not have any workouts between January the 23rd and

February 2nd of this week. So yeah, you've got 10 days of

no works and very little training and now you got a

horses that are stretching out around 2 turns.

Fitness is going to be a question here and, and there's

some good horses in here. I prefer horses that have had a

had a race, a good race at Oakland Park.

I think that's a big advantage to me.

I'm going to lean on counting stars in here who stretched out

in the year's end. And I like the way she got the

mile and she did it very easily. A mile on the 16th with the

longer stretch to the second wire is going to be a little bit

of a different race. But she's good.

And then she's tactical. She doesn't have to have the

lead. And if you paid attention to the

the winner the the meet in December at the Oakland Park, I

think Mark Cassie won everything.

I mean, he he just wasn't losing it.

He wasn't losing any races. So I, I think Counting Stars the

one to beat here. From a fitness standpoint, I

would take a second look at #6 Mount Parade coming in from

fairgrounds because he's been, she's been in city training the

whole time. She has a work during that time

when the horses at Oaklawn could not work.

So she has a fitness thing and she's battle tested.

She went head to head last time and fought.

So I think from a fitness standpoint, Hit Parade is the

one to beat. You have another Mark Cassie

search party coming in off of off a big win at Oakland Park.

I think those are the major players in here.

It's a good race, but again, when you mix in the fitness it,

it makes it a really difficult handicapping race.

Yeah, I went 631 here. John, agree with a lot of your

points here. I think search party is a

fascinating one, especially because, as you point out, one

over this course at the distance, right.

And so and and frankly, in a time that I think we might see a

lot of similarities this weekend when we get to the race itself,

it's probably going to be a touch faster as stakes races

tend to be. These jockeys are human too.

But hit parade for the reasons that you said, especially

getting that last work in. We know the the, you know, the

Brad Cox routine, but certainly as well having to do the work

last time you love, especially early enough Phillies, you know,

sort of development to see one that's willing to do those side

by side sort of runs and and keep the lead.

Because how often do we see a young Philly that just, you

know, gets in that kind of situation, just kind of packs it

in, right. And so it's good to see.

She's one of those for sure. And gosh, I mean, Brad Cox on

the Oaks trail. I mean, what else do we need

there for that one there as well?

Yeah, Let's go out to the Derby prep on the card tomorrow at

Oaklawn. It's race 11.

It is the Southwest grade 3 here because it's Arkansas.

It's 1,000,000 bucks on the line, John, And so they're

running for that. Grade three, $1 million.

Unbelievable. There you go the the old, the

old 68 days a year at Oklahoma, they can put up 1,000,000 bucks

mile to 16th on the dirt. It's a grade 343 year olds.

And here, of course, the first major stop on the Arkansas Derby

trail before their rebel and of course the Arkansas Derby

itself. Where'd you land in this one?

But before we get there, how good is Butane?

I was disappointed in his last race at Santa Anita.

You know, he ran second, but he was never a threat.

He kind of just slunked up and got up for second.

He's a horse that has ability. Louis, we haven't seen the best

of them yet. Is it going to be on Friday?

I don't know. Eventually the lights going to

go on. But right now he's just a horse

that kind of runs around the track and his ability is getting

him what it gets. But he he hasn't leveled off and

figured it out yet as far he's going to have to beat me one

time before I follow a minute. So I'm willing to wait and

watch. He should like the the two turns

in longer distance that that won't be a problem.

It's just a matter does he want to do this?

Is he a racehorse yet? And and probably he's not a

finished product as far as the the race goes.

We know that the other Bob Baffert litmus test will not

run. He did not ship to Oakland Park.

He was the five to two morning line, one of the morning line

favorites. So this is a difficult race for

a lot of reasons. The previous race at the

Oakland, the Smarty Jones was very inconclusive because of an

absolute walking pace. And yes, you know, the winner,

Strategic Risk looked good doing it, but he had everything his

own way, sitting on top of no pace, finished home and that was

that. I don't know what to make of

that race to tell you the truth. And just because of how the race

was run, I would play against Strategic risk on on Friday.

I I'm going to do something I don't like to do.

I'm going to go with the code in here.

The Who won his maiden race at Oakland Park.

First time sprinting 6 furlongs. He's facing winners, he's going

to turns, he's trying a stakes race.

That's an awful lot on the table.

You. Know what, he really impressed

me in his debut. He did not look like a sprinter.

He he was fast, but it was a control fast.

He galloped out like this is not going to be a problem from post

#2 you just put him on the lead and you see how far he runs and

if they catch you, they catch you.

But this is a no brain kind of ride for me.

Put him out there, you've got you're going to control the race

from there. He's got a lot of ability and

you know what, try and shake this field apart down the

backside into the turn and see where you end up.

He's the horse for me. You get Luis Saez.

I mean, you didn't even mention that Louise picks up the mount.

If anybody's going to be great on the front, it's going to be

Luis Saez, no doubt. About it you're curious now

they've gone to one of the the leading riders here you know

Christian chores he did nothing wrong obviously but you've got

maybe a Louis says that I'll follow this horse through the

trail if we get there and that's kind of where yes but the code

for me a tentative pick I would have given a lot closer look to

number 13 soldier in this OK I'm.

Glad you're saying this. It's the post position, yeah.

Right. I, I, you know, he comes off a

good effort against a good horse and further ado in the Kentucky

Jockey Club. He's got a lot of ability.

He handled the two turns fine last time.

I just don't like post 13. He's going to have to go and try

and work a way, work his way over and follow the horse.

I like to code. If you're looking for a bomb in

here, the one horse that I can actually throw that race in the

Smarty Jones #4 Rancho Santa Fe. No doubt about it.

No chance he was parked 4 wide behind a walking pace.

Just a brutal trip rider. Switch to Flavian prop, that

might help a little bit. And from an inside post you can

put him to sleep early. Follow the pace and he's a lot

better horse than what he looks on paper last time.

I ever answer Santa Fe on top part of it part of it is just

value because I I don't know that we'll get double digit, but

I 7-8 to one that wouldn't surprise me like you know that

kind of number and so the. 8 to one in there, yeah.

And I will take it. You'll be 8 to 1.

I went 413, nine and seven. I think the 13's as capable as

you said. I think the nine in here at

strategic risk is really interesting.

I think that Smarty Jones, like you said, yes, he got to walk

it, but you know, it's not your fault either, right?

And so maybe you can go a little bit faster.

We'll have to find out at some point.

And so he was a little faster last before that at Gulfstream.

Everybody's a little faster at Gulfstream than they are at

Oaklawn. But but no, Cassie right now at

Oaklawn, man, it's a thing. And he's winning half his races

there. It's, it's pretty, it's pretty

bonkers. Yeah, I can't pick 50% winners.

So if I go with him, I'm doing better than I would otherwise.

That's exactly right. Well, that was Oaklawn Park.

That wraps up Friday for us here on the Horse racing happy hour.

I'm Lou, your row, He's John Lindo.

You can find him on KLAA every Saturday and Sunday as part of a

thoroughbred LA out there, thoroughbredla.com.

Go find them out there as well if you want to listen to all

their great coverage, something I love that they do that I wish

more parts of the country would do.

They talk quarters as well, which I really, really

appreciate on that program. Tampa Saturday, the Pelican.

I'm doing this one with you, John, just so we can put

together a bit of a daily double, if you will, toward the

end of it. But I also thought this was kind

of a fun field in the Pelican. It is a six furlong Sprint,

$125,000 on the line. This is for four and up Listed

stakes in this spot, but no lay 6 for this group.

I get to see a horse in here that I've come to really enjoy.

John, a concrete glory A2 time, winner of a of a claiming crown

race here at Churchill Downs, is back in this group.

Where'd you lay into this one? I landed on a horse that I'll

bet blind at Tampa Bay every time he runs and that's a #6

Silver Slugger. He's 8 for 9 at Tampa Bay.

I think I I skipped betting on the day he lost, so he's never

lost for me there. He's.

A personal friend. He's an absolute.

He's an absolute core specialist.

He doesn't have to have the lead.

There is some pace in here. Wound up comes in concrete

glory. They're both very fast.

Silver Slugger can work out a trip.

He's got a huge home court advantage.

Yes, he won the last couple times racing with Lasix.

He doesn't get Lasix on on Saturday, but he's one without

it as well, so I don't worry about that.

To me, if you beat him, you're really doing something because

this is a real true core specialist.

So Silver Slugger for me, a horse that looks like he's

getting to be that way too, is number 8 Chrome Ghost.

This is for Gerald Bennett. I.

Agree. And he's drawn outside of Silver

Slugger. He just follows him all the way

around and if he can run him down, he runs him down.

He's six to one on the program. To me, he's the value of the

race. I think it's those two horses.

Turner for home, three and four wide, Turner for home, and you

race to the wire and good luck trying to pass Silver Slugger.

It isn't easy. Yeah Chrome goes 4 for seven

lifetime been in the try 6 times out of seven races as well.

Sammy Camacho too at Tampa. One of those things right if I

see his name down there I'm always looking and so I'm with

you. It's it's, it's a little salty

little race and it's a. Little fun to me.

It's a good car to Tampa. Really good car on Saturday.

Yeah, really, really good stuff. By the way, if you are so

interested, I do a Friday horse racing segment on my radio show.

Ren Carruthers from Tampa will join me tomorrow morning, 10:20

AM Eastern Time here in the market.

ESPN, louisville.com for that one.

If you would like to join us, The closer on the day is the big

one. It's the Sam, that's what we

call it, the cool kids at least. Same F Davis race, 11 on the

card, they're at Tampa and 20 points for the Derby on the line

leading into the Tampa Bay Derby.

Of course. Interestingly enough, the Sam

has a better list of past winners than the Tampa Bay

Derby. It's just one of those races.

Where you doing this one, John? I think this is an interesting

field as well. Well, you're going to probably

have an odds on favorite here. Number six, Renegade ran second

to Paladin and the, and the Remsen going a mile and an

eighth. Paladin's a legit Derby

contender and you know, he stays down.

He's going to be one of the ones and Renegade ran a big one

there. And so he is.

And he doesn't have to have the be on the lead.

There is some pace in this race #9 Doctor Kapoor has got to go

from the outside post game game for the four horses.

Got some speed as well. So with Renegade, I respect him.

He's the one to beat as far as value though, and a horse that I

want to try. I I marked him down when he

tried his maiden race and that was #3 the Puma.

Who did not win, but he was the whisper horse that day.

Everybody was saying, well, this horse can run this and he ran

super. He opened up at the top of the

lane and he got run down by a Bill Moth horse named Chief

Wallaby, who we're going to hear about on this Derby trail as

well. He's legit.

So the Puma I I looks like he'll handle two turns no problem.

He's a maiden going into the stakes race, but he missed a

break that last and in his debut ranged up four wide, made a long

run and got rundown. I think he'll either be on the

lead if he breaks or real close, but he's a horse that's going to

improve out of that that debut, and I don't know what his

ceiling is. I think he's a pretty good

horse. He's six to one of the program.

That's the value of the race to me.

Renegade, the one to beat late, I'm going to try and beat #1

confessional, but this horse was six to five against nearly, so

that tells you something. He's the one that broke to the

right and really slammed nearly coming out of the gate.

But he didn't really have an excuse after that.

He ranged up, had first run in yearling and he got past pretty

easily and he didn't tell me he wanted to go two turns watching

him get to the wire last time. So he's going to have to prove

to me he wants a route of ground.

You've got Flabby and Pratt on the rail, so he'll get a good

trip. I just think the distance might

be a question mark there. So I'm going to to to try the

maiden the Puma here in the in the same F Davis.

Let's go ahead and feel old together.

Confessional as a son of essential quality out of an

American Pharaoh dam. That's how old we are, John,

that the dams are having babies from American Pharaoh.

I don't like it. It's a whole thing.

But that would suggest distance, would it not?

It's kind of interesting, right? Because I actually agree with

you. The puma's gone 7 furlongs.

He's an essential quality. I've got no questions about two

turns. And I'm with you on the one

here, real questions about two turns.

Yeah, I know he's bred to get the trip.

Just the visual to me watching the race, Does he really want to

go that far? And again, he's got to prove it

at this point, you know, if we can knock something, we're going

to just try and knock it for the day.

I think if you get Irad and Todd in a race, I think you're right.

Renegade's going to be the favorite here.

But the horse that just lost to nearly how much money is he

going to get? You think a lot, right?

Yeah, I think he'll with especially with Flavia and Prada

out there, he'll I think Renegade would probably be right

around even money. I would think confessional 5 to

2 if I could get anything 4 to one or more on the Puma.

I think that's fair, taking a shot.

OK, there you go. All right.

I was going to ask you, Doctor Kapoor, on the outside, I I

don't know how much you're like me and, and a nerd about these

things and probably making bad, you know, such a decision.

But watching a guy like Safi said this one to start its

career at Saratoga and Keeneland before trying the stakes in the

Kentucky Jockey Club, does that make you think that he thinks

this is a special one or is that ownership?

What do you think there? I think he thinks he's pretty

good, yeah. I think so too.

There's no reason to leave South Florida unless he really wants

to show a horse off. And he came out running.

You know, he ran well at Saratoga.

He ran well at Keeneland. He threw in the dud last time in

the Kentucky Jockey Club. Don't know why, but you know,

again, to come back in this spot, he could have stayed at

home at Gulfstream Park. There's a gazillion races down

there. You could have gone in A1 turn

mile. No, we're going in.

We're going two turns to Tampa Bay.

He's telling you that. I think this horse has got

ability and you know he's got speed.

He's going to have to leave the gate running and he's not

without a shot in here. I think he'll probably be in the

4:00 to 5:00 to 1 range too. Yeah, no, I think he will be

too. Just yeah, I, I, you know, it's

interesting because, you know, I'm trying to gosh, what's the,

the race. They, the, the Derby prep before

this that they had, they had to cancel.

I'm forgetting the name of it. But anyways, the, you know,

they, they cancelled that race and you're like, Oh my gosh,

they can't even get four or five horses together for this.

This is a nice field like this. This race came together really

nicely, actually. So on a weekend with four Derby

preps, this, I thought, I don't know.

Tampa stands up against any of them, frankly.

So. I really do.

I do too and they're coming from all all different corners which

makes it fun. Yeah, no, that's right.

Gulfstream from New York, whatever.

Yeah, it's good, good stuff for sure.

We're going to head out West now.

John's neck of the woods, St. Anita.

We're going to do the late pick three just because I want to

cheat ahead of my SoCal Saturday show tomorrow at 11:00 AM

Pacific, 2:00 PM Eastern. Get John's thoughts on the late

pick three. Love playing that $3 late pick

3. John, which one do you find

yourself playing more? I know you're, you're, you're a

a multi race guy. Turf pick three or the late pick

three. Which one do you find yourself

playing more often? I usually play them both and

it'll depend, it'll depend on what the fields are and if you

know if the turf races are real chalky and and I know I'm

looking for the best payoff. So you look, I look at a mirror

each day. If I can play them both, I will.

If one to me is does not offer enough reward for the risk and

I'll just stick with the other and double up on that bet.

Cal Breads in Race 7 starts the late pick three on Saturday at

Santa Anita Mile on the turf course.

When you think California racing, you think a mile on the

turf. 70,000 bucks on the line, 20K if you want your horse in

for the tag here and a lot of horses between 7:00 to 2:00 and

about 6:00 to 1:00. But in nine to five.

Warm sun and brew. Is that horse worthy of nine to

five? No, no, he's the one to beat.

But I I thought the Sprint prep last time was just OK.

He did win on the stretch out in his second career start, but he

got a real easy trip that day. You know he'll he'll like the

two turns better than going a Sprint race.

But is he does he stand out amongst this field?

Not, not really. So I'll use him in that.

Pick three. I think the horse would beat is

number 2, Sir Percival, who beat Warm Sun and Brew to break his

maiden and he came back last time and he ran a super race.

He got run down by a good horse and a cowbird earlier in the

meet. He's tactical, He's got post #2

he ought to be in the race from the start.

Get the jump on the field, Turner for home.

And I just think I, I don't know why he's 5:00 to 1:00 in the

morning line. I would have made him about 3

and I think three or five to two is the right number here.

Is it Tyler Bayes being one for 50?

Is that it? That has a lot to do with it.

I know I'm I I'm not a fan and I'm, you know, he's just the guy

that has not ridden this meat well, and that's the caveat to

this horse. But I it's horse racing, not

jockey racing. So I like I like Sir Percival

here and you know, work out a trip.

Tyler, come on. 5:00 to 1:00, I'll take it.

Much faster race that he was in last time than straight up

country who got the lead, kept the lead under MSI.

Aljar Mio picks up Juan Hernandez here.

Are you going to be including that horse?

No, no, I, I, I thought he'd beat a bad field last time and

he had things his own way. There's going to be some pace in

this race. This is a lot better field than

what he just faced. He's going to have to jump

forward. He was a surprise that day and I

think the conditions allowed him to win.

He won't get the same condition, so I'll take a stand against

him. He's.

Probably not going to win here, but I just wanted to give a

shout out to a horse that I've talked about since the beginning

of this show, Freeport. Joe will break from the eight in

this race. He's going to finish 5th.

It's OK. It'll be 3 1/2 lengths off the

winner. It's OK.

He's still having fun. I'm so glad he still gets to run

because he still looks like he's having a great time.

He's just, he's just John. And I get it.

They don't want to put him in for the tag.

I get it. Like I get it, you don't want to

get this horse up. I get it.

But it's it's good to see Freeport Joe still kicking

around there in Southern California.

Derby prep out West is the Robert B Lewis and John.

We were talking about him before the before the show, Who is

Robert B Lewis? Robert B Lewis was a long time

owner for D Wayne Lucas and Bob Baffert that he had the green

and green silks with the yellow hoops for the Oregon Duck

colors. He was a owner of Silver Charm

among many other good horses and owned a Budweiser dealership

here in the San Gabriel Valley in California and he and his

wife Beverly loved to go to the races.

They won a ton of races, had a good run with a lot of good

young horses with both the Lucas and Baffert.

Good stuff there. Of course, a mile on the dirt

here. And of all the races we're going

to talk about today, John, at least in the last 15 years, this

one has by far the best winners list.

Many of those horses are still very much a part of our

conversations to this day. Desert Gate will break from the

inside at six to five, probably around that number.

That seems about right to me. Intrepido is back disappointing

in the juvenile, but before that did with the American Pharaoh

against Desert Gate. He'll be seven to two.

I think that number, he'll be a little bit lower than that by

the time we get to the gate. For Jeff Mullins, who by the

way, not just a good meet this year, had a really good 2025.

That really a really just a really good year.

Nice to see Jeff doing as well as he is.

Where did you land in the Lewis? It's a tough race.

You know, from a pace standpoint, I think Desert Gate

has to go from the inside. You've got robusta #6 is going

to have to come out running from and you got Amici Al Jaramillo

now riding out in Santa Anita. He's an aggressive rider.

He'll put that horse in the race.

You have #7 secured freedom coming out of two good sprints.

I don't think he's quick enough to be on the lead, but he had to

fall into a stocking spot. I ended up on Intrepido.

Again, this is the horse that was eliminated in the Breeders

Cup Juvenile. He missed the break and that was

basically it for him. Again, you talk about Jeff

Mullins, Nobody had a better year than him last year.

He really did a terrific job. Whether it be claimers, turf,

dirt didn't matter. He did it all.

And, you know, he doesn't show any flashy works, but that's

just Jeff Mullins style. And this is a horse that

overcame adversity to win the American Pharaoh.

He got stopped cold in that race.

I, I, I'm a big fan of Intrepid. I think he's a good horse.

And we'll see what he does coming off the layoff desert

gated the one to beat in here because I think from the rail he

can probably hold the race. And you've got the two other Bob

Bafferts in there #2 Plutarch and #3 Cherokee Nation.

They're not going to get in the stablemates way.

They're going to let him go early.

You know, Plutarch finally ran a straight race last time.

It was a mile an eighth on the grass.

He wants to run all day. He's been green as grass, still

learning the ropes. He'll he'll log in, log in.

I mean, he does, you know, he's a remedial student is what he

is. But he's got ability.

And if the light went on last time, like it looked like he's,

he's capable of beating these horses.

He goes right on those horses in the American Pharaoh, and Bob's

going to give him a chance on the dirt.

He's handled the dirt OK. He's the interesting horse in

here. Watch him and watch him on the

Galba and Florence Giro gets him out for Bob Baffert, which is

really interesting. So.

I was going to ask you about that.

Is there any, I mean, I, I saw some little chirping about

Girubian out West. Is there much excitement about

it? Do you see him?

As you know, we see it said to Frazier back, for example, he'll

be back from his ankle injury, obviously with a better wristley

being out some mounts available out there on the West Coast.

Is this a move it while Roberto's out or do you think he

might end up in in LA for a while?

Well, he's here for a while. The agent for Umberto Risley,

Matt Matt Nakatani, is the one who's going to represent

Florence Giroux. So he's got the the business for

Umberto Risley. This was probably a Risley mount

and you know, he's now using his this rider on that.

When Risley comes back, and it's going to be a while, we'll find

out if Giroux stays out here, but he's planning on being here

for a while now. So now he's got to take

advantage of it. Then he kind of lost the

business of Steve Asmussen and Brad Cox.

I don't know where he stands in his career right now, but he's

going to get a good opportunity to get established in

California. It's a little bit of you got to

prove it to me as an owner that that you know, he's where he can

be. So we'll find out.

But Bob Baffert's giving him an opportunity on a horse that can

run. The interesting thing, you know,

I, we watched this in Kentucky with Ricardo Santana Junior

because he had all of the mounts for Steve Asmus in here and all

this Churchill Downs money and all the stuff.

And he said no, no, I want to go to that New York colony and be

great in New York. And then he didn't go.

But by the time he had made that decision, he had really ruined

the relationship. And and you know, but then this

last year he gets to New York and he has a really great year.

I'm hopeful for Floral that something like that, a bit of a

renaissance in California, you know, has a bunch of good mouths

because you just pointed out he's going to get good mouths.

Like he's going to get good horses here.

He's going to have a chance to win some races.

Hopefully he's able to string those together because he's

always been kind to me when we've done interviews and

different things and, and so hopefully that works out for him

that way. I wanted to throw this one in

too, because if we don't celebrate the downhill turf

course on this show, then no one will.

It is the Suite life to close the card on one of America's

great turf courses, the downhill turf course, about 6 1/2

furlongs because the people at Santa Anita are just too busy to

measure if it's actually 6 1/2 furlongs, You understand me?

They're just too busy. They don't have time.

There's never any downtime at that place.

They have no chance to just put a wheel on the ground and see

how long it is from the starting gate to the final to the finish

line. They can't do that.

Just like at Keelan. It's about 7 furlongs in the

Sprint there. Kind of.

Keelan has no time in the 10 months that they don't race to

go ahead and measure if that's 7 furlongs or not Stop asking.

All I know there's one gate location on the hill.

It's at the top of the hill. They're not going to adjust it

when the rails are asking if they're losing the horses,

that's where they're going to open the gate and do with it,

which it will. And it's it's worked for me for

70 years on that race. Hawaiian, you know, 71's going

to be fine too. The main thing is they're using

it because it's the most beautiful to watch in Southern

California and it's exciting. And horses really, you know,

without the tight turns, they really just to get get get

running. It's fun to watch.

I know it's during Del Mar, but you do need to like fly out here

for like a Wednesday of Kentucky down sometime I.

It's on my list, I have to do it.

Just but pick a weekday. I don't I'm not trying to take

you away from your big Crosby's and all your your pretty stuff

down there. Del Mar.

I'm not trying to do that. But if you love the downhill

turf course, Kentucky Downs is it, man?

It's it's, it's only downhill turf course essentially it's the

best though. We will close with this.

Undulating turf course. I think I sold it to you.

Three years, 3 year old Phillies in this 100K on the line.

I love these kinds of races. For those of us who don't, I do.

But for those who don't, handicapped Southern California

very often. John, I do two things When I

look at downhill races, I look at horses that have had success

there before. That makes sense.

The second one, though, is once in a while you get a sense from

a trainer that they're going to try going from a mile to 6 1/2,

and that seems to be a good angle as well, shorting up a

little bit, but really treating it more like it is a route race,

something like that. Those are kind of angles I look

for. What do you look for when you're

looking for a horse going down the hill?

Route to Sprint is a huge handicapping angle.

Coming down the hill, you know you.

Got here. If you got speaking going two

turns, you can just drop the reins and let them place

themselves and they've got the foundation to finish.

It really works, especially early in the meet, it coming off

the five furlong Sprint races. When you come back from Delmar

in the fall, those horses, they'll hit the 8th pole and all

of a sudden like wait a minute, you know, what are we doing now?

It's a different, it's a different race.

Horses that run a mile and a quarter will handle the 6 1/2.

If you've got any kind of turn of foot, it's going to feel like

you're going uphill after going downhill for the first half

mile, you're really you, you've got a level off and finish.

But it is a terrific angle to use.

I use it all the time. And if you're looking for a

price horse, that's kind of where I start.

OK, who's shortening up? Who's going to be running and

are they going to be a number? Who you got?

Well, kind of that angle I like #3 your, yours sincerely, who

was a router for Phil d'amato shortened up on a Sprint on the

flat course last time, and she looked really comfortable doing

it. She was a lot closer to the pace

in mid pack than I thought she would be.

She ran by the leaders. She did it handily.

She's got that route foundation. I think she'll love the 6 1/2

down the hill. There's speed in the race and

she'll just fall into a trip. And Kazushi Kamura has been

riding as well as anybody out here in California.

I think she's a horse that might really love this course.

A slight edge to her in a very wide open race.

The horse just to her inside #2 La Ville Lumiere comes out of

round races, won a stakes race around 2 turns to Santa Anita

last time. The only Sprint she won in her

she ran in she won in her career was a Del Mar 5 furlongs.

She's another one. I think she's going to love the

6 1/2 down the hill. She'll probably be mid pack and

at the 8th pole when some of these speed horses start to

flatten out, she's going to still be running and she's

probably the one you have to catch.

I don't know what to do with the the Bob Baffert, Philly Hamika.

You know, when she when she gets her trip, she's really good.

But there are times when she if she has to go too early, fast

too early, she just says no, I don't want to do this and she

should handle the grass off her breeding.

You know, obviously she's got class.

She's already a stakes winner and she'll be forwardly placed,

but is there any value on her at 3:00 to 1:00 and not?

Not really. So, you know, I won't get beat

by her in the rolling bets. I'll use her, but I wouldn't, I

wouldn't play her straight in the race like this.

I would look some for some value.

You know, other horses in here. Again, there are many.

Mulhaven is a cow bred who comes up, makes win and I know the

connections. We're considering the Dixie

Belle next week at Oak Lawn on the dirt forward this race in

the grass. And they said we're going to

roll the dice here and give it a shot on the grass, see where

it's at. She's good right now.

I just don't know about the grass for her.

And, you know, hyper gaming from the inside for one of those

Phillies shortening up from a mile and she's she ought to like

this as well. So I think the three Phillies on

the inside kind of route, Phillies coming back down the

hill, if they can save some ground crossing that dirt and

have a little punch there, maybe there's an upset brewing from

the inside. 3 post. A little different than what we

think of with some of these races where maybe being closer

to the rail is a good thing. Sometimes being close in those

downhill races, not great. Any worry for a horse like her

Burgundy being in the water is is, however, real.

Just fast enough, like we're not worried about that.

I, I don't worry about it too much.

Again, with the full field, they make a slight right hand turn to

begin with, so you got to try and save a little ground there,

but you're going to naturally switch down toward the inside

when they cross before the dirt. And you want to save some ground

crossing the dirt because they tend to fan out.

If you're 4 wide starting to cross the dirt, you're going to

be 8 wide when you hit the main turf.

If you can be two or three wide crossing that dirt, you ought to

have a spot to run. And so and and you want guys

that have ridden this turf course a few times because it's

tricky and they have to know when to move.

And you know, as harm you has been here now for a few weeks.

I'm sure he's gotten the hang of this.

But yeah, if you're a newcomer and you're trying that hill,

it's a little different story. Give me a guy that's done it

before. Miracle de Burrell's on the

outside horse in total Val. Any chance we get some value

there? I don't know what to make of

her. I mean, her one came out of left

field and she's probably going to have to do that from post 12.

And, and Merkel rides the grass really well.

He's a good summer turf rider. I think she's going to be way

back in this field early. I don't know how good she is.

I remember she's not fast enough.

So we'll, we'll find out then. Mandela's done this before.

You know, if somebody's jumping in down the middle of the

tractor at the 8 ball, who the heck is that?

It could be her. There you go.

Well, he's John Lindo, of course.

You can find him on Thoroughbred LA Radio out at KLAA Saturdays

and Sunday mornings. An hour on Saturday, 2 hours on

Sunday, thoroughbredla.com. Make sure you go check them out

for all of those things. John, I did all of that from

memory. Are you impressed?

No, I know, I know. You do your homework so I never

have to worry. Oh, Dang it.

All right, OK, well, there you go.

Unimpressed with me is John Ledo.

We're going to let him go. See you, John.

Have a good one. Thanks, buddy.

There you go, John Ledo. Appreciate him joining us here

on the horse racing happy hour. He's off to nice weather and I'm

off on the crappy weather. So there you go.

Appreciate everybody hanging out with us.

Back at it tomorrow. Re show it for me 28 at Eastern

Time on ESPN Louisville. Catch me with red car others.

We will preview all those races there on Saturday at Tampa Bay

and of course, 2:00 Eastern, 11:00 Pacific right back here.

However, you're watching us SoCal Saturdays presented by our

friends over at Amwager right here on the horse racing happy

hour with my friend Barry Spears.

We'll be back at it tomorrow. We hope you're here too.

Have a great day everybody.