BloodHorse Monday 4/20/26 | Kentucky Derby Pedigrees

All. Right, welcome in to an April

20th edition of Blood Horse Monday.

And if my usual Co host Louie Ribeau was here, he would make a

joke about how he could make a 420 joke but wasn't going to.

But Louie is not here today. He's dealing with an important

family matter this week. But we do have Kevin Kilroy

joining us from Churchill Downs to talk about the Kentucky Derby

and a couple of things going on. Kevin, thanks for filling in for

us. You know, it's tough shoes to

fill, Louie Ribeau, but I'll try to do my best to.

Maybe I got a funny question for you later on that that can be

robo esque, but Sean, good to be here.

This is a fun time to be a horse racing fan.

Yeah, and you're the very first person to ever get promoted from

guest up to Co host here on Blood of Horse Monday.

We we had you on ahead of some of the fairgrounds races earlier

on in the year. So congratulations on the

promotion here on the show. It's an honor, you know, but

it's it's fun to talk about these Oaks Derby horses.

We're coming to the conclusion come to the finish line, 2 weeks

to go. Yeah, it's been a crazy week

here in horse racing. We've had a lot going on.

Obviously the big matchup of Sovereignty boy to Barrio

Journalism in the Oakland Handicap, everything going on

with the Derby. We had a horse sell for 10 and a

half, $1,000,000 at the Oakland or at the Obs sale.

It's on a flight line. So it's been a pretty crazy week

and the weekend is going to be pretty busy again coming up

here, not just in the United States, but also in Hong Kong

where FWD Champions Day is coming up this Saturday night

and you can witness two of the great race horses in the world

right now. And Kyeng Rising, who is ranked

the number one race horse in the world and global champion

Romantic Warrior, both of those superstars back in action in

Hong Kong this weekend alongside other top international Raiders.

The first race starts at 12:30 in the morning, our time here on

the East Coast of the United States.

So make sure you check that out. And thank you to the Hong Kong

Jockey Club for sponsoring today's episode of Blood Horse

Monday. Always great to see great horses

in action this weekend. Kyung, Rising Romantic Warrior,

two of the best that we have in the world.

Yeah, and party at Roubo's house.

So we'll be there at 12:30 at night to watch it, you know?

Yeah, the best out there in the sport.

You want to tune in for that? We're going to see the best 3

year olds here in our country and from Japan, so it's always

fun there, but you just can't beat the cream of the crop for

the world. Yeah, and we might, we might

just go ahead and watch that race and then come straight in

here to watch workouts in the morning.

That's just about the time that it's going to be.

And so, you know, it's funny when, Kevin, when I ran into you

this morning, you could tell how why you and I are good friends.

And it's because I walked up to you and I was like, oh, are you

involved with doing the workout show this morning?

He does the morning workout show for Churchill Downs.

If you haven't, make sure you tune into that every day.

And you're like, no, today's my off day.

Yeah, that's it. There you are.

We're junkies. Yeah, I know.

We can't get away. We.

Can't get in. Neither of us can actually take

an off day in this industry. I think my last two off days

were Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I drove down to Oak

Lawn after being here in the morning watching training, and

then on Friday I spent the entire morning on the backside

at Oaklawn. Yeah, Where else do you want to

be? I always tell people, you know,

it's like some people like to go to the bar, I like to go to the

backside, you know, in terms of hanging around and just having

an action. And I'm trying to find the

horses, trying to get the steam right.

But just watching these animals, it's so fun.

And and having the saddle towels on the other yellow and the pink

and knowing who you're looking at is an extra perk.

Yeah, it's an exciting time of year here.

This is always the best time of year in horse racing because

it's not the Derby. There's so many other great

events that are going on throughout the throughout this

time of year in the spring as well.

The Derby is just kind of setting up all these big

important races that are coming up in the spring and the summer

and then into the fall leading into the Breeders Cup.

So this is really where horse racing gets.

Going. That's it.

I mean, we're still telling the story of sovereignty and

journalism. The 1-2 finishers in last year's

Kentucky Derby, they showed off their talents in the Oakland

Handicap. It went to White a barrio, of

course. But yeah, this is the beginning

of a lot. Yeah, well, we'll get into the

weekend recap here with that. Oak Lawn Handicap in the weekend

recap is brought to you by Alex Smallwood of Christie's

International Real Estate. Bluegrass.

Realtor, breeder, owner, handicapper.

Luxury lives in the bluegrass and we are here in the

Bluegrass, obviously, at Churchill Downs.

You and I both live here. Pretty nice spot to be in when

you get to come to these race tracks.

Go to see the breeding farms every day, isn't it?

I'd never go to the breeding farms.

They haven't. They haven't invited me yet.

I'm still just a degenerate. Enough of the breeding farms on

the show here. Invite Kevin Kilroy to come see

some. I'd love to come see some more

but. Luxury does live in the

Bluegrass here, and luxury was also living in Arkansas this

weekend and that was at Oakland Park.

Huge matchup going in. I can't remember the last time I

felt that much hype going into a race that wasn't the Triple

Crown, that wasn't the Breeders Cup.

White o'bario, Breeders' Cup Classic winner from 2023.

He comes out on top over the younger Sovereignty and

Journalism. Sovereignty the reigning Horse

of the Year, Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Journalism, the

Preakness winner from last year. Just what were your initial

reactions at the race? You know, just watching the

coverage and watching the horses get on the track, it just

brought me right back to the 2025 Derby because when

journalism sovereignty showed up on the track, they announced

themselves, right? Their presence was that immense.

And we could see him back on the track there at Oaklawn.

And to have that, that buzz, have that sort of feel, it's A,

what we're looking for for the horses as they arrive here for

the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks, and B, just so

cool to see them with their game faces on.

Looks like journalism was a little bit keyed up.

He was cooler out there. He wasn't sort of like flouting

himself quite as much, but he was a little keyed up there in

the gates and maybe a little fresh.

Both of them get. Into the front, I felt like both

of them came into a kind of fresh.

I was watching, I was up close to sovereignty when they were on

the grass after they'd been saddled and waiting for the

riders. And he, he was bouncing around

quite a bit in that area. Journalism, obviously in the

starting gate, he was acting up quite a bit.

I don't know if that's necessarily always a bad thing

with journalism because he was like kind of freaking out a

little bit before the Preakness because they had one like his

halter on too tight and he was throwing his head around.

He obviously ran well in the Preakness when that.

But I did notice like when I was back there Friday morning, it

did seem like journalism was a little a little bit more keyed

up and sovereignty as well during the paddock I thought was

a little bit more keyed up than I had seen him last year.

It's an interesting paddock there at Oakland, something

journalism maybe has more experience with that type of

thing because of Pimlico's indoor paddock and then going

out to the grass. That was the first time

sovereignty ever had to do that. So coming off the 8 month

layoff, maybe that? When I saw Sovereignty in that

paddock, I was like, he's probably like, where are we?

Where are these Dicks? You know, this isn't the classy

sort of spot that I'm used to. You know, it's just has a whole

different view. Reminds me of Hawthorne going

out to sea. That was good.

Get it saddled there. Hawthorne, which is kind of my

birth track. But you know it, we were talking

about the horses so much, was it the rider that made a

difference? Three horses showed up to run

the race, but I rather Ortiz Junior.

My thoughts was that he just thought the two horses that you

know, should beat me here. Everybody's telling me this is

the trip that they want. I'm going to take it from him.

I'm going to get that trip. I'm going to sit the trip behind

and rates and and come at him as they as they knock head.

So that was a really cool move by Irad.

Of course, he got aggressive at the gates, but I think it it

made the difference there because why did Barrio showed

up? But he got a great ride.

Yeah, I rad. Phenomenal, right?

For sure. That's why he's won five Clips

awards. Yeah, is because of a ride like

that. I got to talk to him after the

race and he said, you know, the original plan, especially

breaking from the rail, was be up on the lead.

And then when sovereignty, you ended up there, which I don't

think anybody would have predicted the fact that

sovereignty was even close to the pace, let alone the

pacesetter. He said he felt like he was in a

really bad spot going into the first turn because sovereignty

was ahead of him. He was stuck inside.

He didn't want to be on the inside position, having to put

pressure on. And then he said he looked to

his right and here comes journalism to put the pressure

on. As soon as he saw that

sovereignty wasn't going to be able to walk the dog on the

front end, pull right back. And that was the winning move

for sure. I thought that was an excellent

ride. But we have to give props to Way

to Barrio, too. Yeah, I'll be fully honest.

And if you watch this show for a while, I think, you know, I've

not always been the highest on Way to Barrio.

It's just he's so up and down it seems like at times.

But when he's on his game, I got to give him full credit.

He is. There's not a horse that can

beat him when he's fully on his game.

We saw that this weekend and it's just a matter of getting

him on his game, I think. But boy, what a special

performance he put in. I thought when they were going

into the first turn, the fact that he wasn't on the lead, I

thought he wouldn't really have a chance.

But then he came with that run on the outside game got him.

He came with it, you know, I mean, the Breeders Cup Classic.

I was able to watch him win that we when we see him run his best,

it's special. As he gets older, he gets

whiter, his coats looks more more beautiful and he's a fun

one that's been able to keep around.

So cheers to Saffy Joseph who has got him ready, and

painstakingly so. Yeah, and that's a special

moment for them. I know they were very emotional.

There's been a lot going on with Way to Barrio over the last the

last couple of months. And so I'm sure it felt great to

get him the win here as we are looking ahead.

First of all, let's just talk about the Classic division as a

whole. How exciting does that race set

up for this classic division to because we saw Forever Young get

beat out in Dubai. We saw sovereignty get beat

here. We all came into the year

thinking it was going to be those two maybe potentially

having the chance to run the table.

Yeah, We've seen Skippy Long Stocking beat White a barrio.

Yeah, we've seen White a barrio come back, beat sovereignty.

In journalism, we have Magnitude, who I saw out here

this morning at Churchill Downs, He's starting to get back going.

This really looks like the classic division, even a race

like the Ben Ali at Keeneland this weekend with Stars and

Stripes. He's undefeated going a mile and

a for longer for Bill Mott. I mean, how exciting is this

classic? Division still around.

I just saw him on the track earlier in the week.

Yeah, it's going to be a really great division.

I mean, magnitude is the one still for me that I think he's

really just, since the fall of last year is just coming into

form that maybe is untouchable on the lead as well.

So I think he's the one that I'm really keen it on.

But sovereignty, journalism, I want to see him back one more

time and maybe they can prove it to me.

So you know how the NFL every year, like, they post the, like,

the circle of parody of like, all the teams, like this team

beat this team who beat this team.

And like, all 32 teams have ended up beating each other.

And then you can, like, say that the 2 and 14 Browns are better

than the 14 and 2 Patriots or something like that.

That's the way it's kind of feeling like the classic

division shaking up right now. Everybody's going to take a shot

at each other throughout the year.

Yeah. That's what you want to do

exactly? Yeah.

I think we really saw this this weekend, no matter who you were

a fan of, whether it was white, a barrio, sovereignty or

journalism, I think you really saw that this weekend.

How exciting horse racing is when you keep these superstars

on the racetrack. Because we saw, I mean, just

being there that day, feeling the buzz in the crowd.

I posted a video on social media of the paddock and just

everybody that was there with several rows back, all with

their phones up trying to get pictures of the big horses.

It just it felt different in the past week leading up to that

race. You could feel it on the

backstretch. You could feel it at the

racetrack. I know you've been to a lot of

big races. You know what that feeling is

like. We're about to have that feeling

here in about 12 days from now at Churchill Downs and when you

can get these superstars. We saw it last year with Sierra

Leone and fierceness coming back.

Obviously Forever Young is still out there.

Sovereignty and journalism back this year.

White Abario and Skippy Longstocking are 7 years old and

they're they're still going. We mentioned it with Hong Kong

and Cogging Rising and Romantic Warrior.

When you can have those horses on the track year after year

after year, boy, it really makes this sport a lot of fun.

We just need Jake De Lome to bring Touch upon A Star into the

mix out of Louisiana into the mix.

That two time New Orleans Handicap winner, he would be a

big one to add to it, so it's super fun.

Cheers to the horsemen to keep these horses sound and keep them

coming back. You obviously spent a lot of

time in Louisiana. How do you think he would stack

up if he showed up in a race like the Alley Sheba next

weekend? How do you think he kind of

stacks up against some of these top guys?

Obviously he beat Sierra Leone last year, so there is some

reason to believe he can hold his own.

He stacks up, he really does. I mean his his ability to to

take command, a true alpha and get to the front and roll

through fractions, sharp fractions.

If he does, he doesn't quit at all.

He doesn't need the lead. He is a serious horse.

I think he would be a major player and of course a better

price. Find him in Louisiana.

But yeah, I think he does stack up.

So maybe one day. Yeah, well, we'll see whether or

not that will come to be. Hopefully we can see him throw

his hat in the ring. Maybe a better chance this year

given the Breeders Cup being at Keeneland.

He doesn't have to ship all the way out to California.

Maybe that could play a role here.

But at this point, I know it's very early in the year at this

point, Kevin, who would you say could you consider the Breeders

Cup Classic favorite at this moment?

And why is it further ado? Just because the fact that it's

at Keeneland? He's not just a Keeneland

specialist. He's not, but he obviously runs

very well there. So he runs very well.

He. Likes this track too, though.

We saw that in the morning. Yeah.

I would think magnitude would be would be his favorite, yeah.

Yeah, I just again, going back to that circle of parody, I have

to see him against sovereignty again because we saw how easily

sovereignty handled him last year in the traverse.

Obviously it's been several months.

Magnitude has appeared to have developed more and more.

I also like the fact he doesn't need the lead anymore.

Yeah, It seems like obviously that worked out for him in

Dubai. But we saw like in the car

doesn't need to be up on the pace anymore 100%, which at the

time of the Travers, I think we all believe that.

And that's what I think they believed at the moment.

Yeah, he just continued to develop, you know, I mean, the

fall with him and what he was doing on the track was just a

different horse. And I was hearing it from from

everybody who was sort of around him.

That magnitude was just really showing himself.

And he's been able to hold that form throughout and across many

different tracks, different parts of the world.

So he just seems like the guy to me.

Yeah. Well, our weekend recap once

again, it's brought to you by Alex Smallwood of Christie's

International Real Estate. Bluegrass Realtor, breeder,

owner, handicapper, luxury lives in the bluegrass.

And another thing that happened last week that we mentioned it

earlier at the OBS sale, the spring sale of two year olds in

training, 10 and a half, $1,000,000 for us on a flight

line. This is the first crop of

Flightline. Just when you saw the news break

that he had sold for that much. It's been a while since we've

seen a horoscope for that much. I believe it's the second second

highest price on a 2 year old in history I'm pretty sure.

Is that what it is? I thought it was the highest.

Now the green, the green monkey was 16,000,000 about probably 20

years ago. Come on out of the Phasic Tipton

sale. Who's the green monkey is Who's

the green monkey? Oh, you've never heard about the

green monkey? Go look him up $16,000,000 sale

back about 20 years ago. The fact that you've never heard

about it and tells you how that went it.

Didn't go that great. No, I think he ran third once

and didn't have a good style. I mean, it's the, it's the name

of a horse that's just waiting for the joke to happen, right?

Exactly. The green monkey.

But you know, we see stuff like that.

We see the green monkey. I think the highest price

yearling sale as well, which I think was somewhere around like

$13 million. A relative of the Seattle's

Slew. I don't think that he didn't

become a stellar racehorse either to the expectation

Seattle Slew was. And so when you see a price like

that, a 10 and a half million, what what's your initial thought

when you see something like that?

You know, something's wrong in the market.

You know, I've asked my, my thought is that these markets

are just exploding in a way that just doesn't, it's not rational.

You know, it's a big gamble. That's a big gamble, $10.5

million. Obviously so much can go wrong.

My thoughts are like who's the trainer going to be?

How much pressure is that going to be to have that horse and

your stall, the grooms, etcetera, everybody who's

touching that horse every day making?

Sure, it's going to be cautious day ball around that horse.

Yeah, they're not going to let you do your photos nearby, Sean.

You're not going. To be able to, no, I'm not going

to be able to get close. And he might end up here.

At one point, a horse is going to be trained by Bob Baffert, is

that right? Yeah.

And he's because he was purchased by Zidane Racing.

And so he's going to be, he's actually, believe it or not,

he's already at Santa Anita. They flew him out there.

He got to Santa Anita. I think like the night that the

sale was I think was on the 17th and he got out there the night

of the 18th. So he's already out there.

And Bob Baffert's going to have a bigger string here at

Churchill Downs this year than he's had in the past.

I keep hearing that they're renovating the office in there.

I'm sure I'll never have a. Chance to see there's a great

mural in there. I know I want to go inside and

see. So Bob, if you're happen to be

watching, please let us come in and see how nice the office is

because it's been the talk of the backside back here, aside

from Derby horses, is how nice Bob Baffert's office is going to

be in in his bar and back here, I've heard.

A lot of talk on the backside. Yes, so, but yes, so who knows,

we might get a chance to see him here if Bob decides to bring him

out. Here at something, what's

success for him? You know it would be a stallion

career, right? I mean not what he does in terms

of. Yeah, you're not going to make

it back on the race track unless he would have to go win the

Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup and probably the Kentucky

Derby on top of that with the $5,000,000 purse to, you know,

make the make the 10 1/2 million back on the racetrack.

But he doesn't need to do that. All he needs to do is when a

couple of these grade ones go off and earn it back in the

breeding shed. And that I think is what the

Zadon team is focusing on for sure.

But yeah, it's always interesting when you see those

prices get that high. It's not a flight line, Chris.

See his his first crop on the track this year.

What do you think about just seeing a horse like Flight Line?

All the buzz that he got, being able to see his first horses on

the track this year, how excited.

For me, I can't wait. We only got to see Flightline in

a handful of times. So here's our here's our

encores. You know, it's just so fun to

see how they get expressed in the bloodlines.

You know how it comes forward and how you can see, you know,

whether it is the sire or the damn, you know, in terms of

their success and their their qualities, their talents, you

know it, it's fun. I'm excited to see the

epicenters. That's one that I'm really

excited to see. Was just hard knocking.

Such a good, good feeling horse. A big fan of mine.

So it's always fun each year those freshman crop to see them

come out and race. It's going to be great.

Yeah. And for me, we've talked quite a

bit on the show, Louis and I, about a couple horses on the

Derby trailer earlier in the year were grandchildren of

American Pharaoh. Made me feel kind of old, the

fact that he's already got Korean kids out there.

Has there been a horse for you that you've seen like on the

grand sire lines that you've been like, wow, has it really

been that long? Has there been one that kind of

stood out to you that made you feel old?

There's a lot of things that make me feel old, but no, no,

nothing like that. But you're a young man.

Sean, I know I shouldn't be feeling this, but man, that's

you see American Pharaoh pop up as a grand sire and you're like,

man, has he really been gone for that long?

It's just that's going to be pretty soon.

We're gonna have flight line as a grand sire before we know it.

So. Yeah, no, I mean, I don't know.

I I there's some horses that I'll see like in the bloodlines.

Does that make me think to my early days, like why 7?

I saw this past year, you know, as an influence, you know, and

it was when the first horse that ever cashed on.

And I'm just like, wow, this is, this is kind of curious to see,

you know, but nothing like that. Yeah.

Well, we are going to move, move along here on Blood Horse

Monday. We just talked about the Oakland

Handicap. I actually had an opportunity to

meet up with Junior Alvarado this morning, who obviously

wrote Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby last year in the

Oakland Handicap this past weekend.

He was out here to breathe Chief Wallaby for the Kentucky Derby

for Belmont this morning. So we caught up with him, talked

about the breeze with Chief Wallaby, him adding blinkers,

and then also got his thoughts on Sovereignty being on the lead

in the Oakland Handicap and how he thought that race played out

and will help him set up for the year.

So here is my interview with Junior Alvarado this morning,

rolling along on Blood Horse Monday.

I'm happy to be joined here by Junior Alvarado, the reigning

winner of the Kentucky Derby. We're here at Churchill Downs,

the site of that victory last year.

What's it like to be back here at Churchill Downs at this time

of year? You know, it's great he's give

you that, that that good feeling.

You know, I was very lucky last year to to been able to win the

Derby and you know, we just right here again trying for a

repeat. Yeah.

Do you feel like any kind of extra possession over the Derby

right now? You think about a guy like Joey

Chestnut, who's won 17 Nathan's Hot Dog titles.

He comes back every year kind of with with that mojo going in.

Do you feel that this year? You know, yes, it's kind of

feels kind of that way. You know, I feel like, you know,

one of last year. So like, I feel, you know, I

actually, because I have a good horse, you know, I'm feeling

pretty good about it. And, and you know, I think, you

know, like I say, I, I feel pretty good about it.

Now, you mentioned that good horse.

It's Chief Wallaby, who was second just by a small margin in

the Fountain of Youth and then another small margin 1/2 length

third in the Florida Derby. He's a horse that seems like he

has a lot of potential. Just what do you think about him

coming into this race? You know, he's a horse.

He's started his racing career a little bit late, but you know, I

think we're catching up with him at the right time.

You know, we just added the blinkers today actually for the

first time working today. So you know, he he kind of

respond to to all the answer we were looking for and and I think

we're we're sitting in a go with him you.

Mentioned after the Florida Derby that it seemed like he

wasn't necessarily entirely focused at the end and didn't

kind of give you that final push through.

Is that something you think the blinkers are really going to

help him with? Yeah, that's that's what I

think. You know, we added the blinker

for the same reason, because I think he was just kind of like

looking at the horses in front, looking at the other horse in

the outside. So he was kind of holding his

finish right there. So yeah, I think it with the

blinkers, you know, that that that did the trick for him.

And then you worked in this morning in the blinkers.

Just how do you feel out there on this racetrack and how did he

react to having them? No, I wouldn't.

He was pretty smooth. You know, he's a horse.

He does, he's very kind. He does everything you want in

the morning. And, and, and like I said, you

know, we were just kind of like making sure he was serious with

the blinker. He didn't get to to to rank with

him and he was very kind and and like I said, he finished up the

work just as we we were expecting and and very strong

today. Now he did not race as a 2 year

old. You mentioned earlier kind of

he's a little bit later on. Do you think about Sovereignty

last year where he had a couple starts and he had the big win in

the Street Sense Stakes at last year here at this track?

Is there anything you have to do differently with a horse like

Chief Wallaby that hasn't had as much experience when you're

facing a 20 horse field like this?

You know, we we take every horse differently.

You know, we were just trying to to figure them out.

And, and like I said, just because he started, you know,

he's racing career a little bit late.

You know, we were just didn't want to add the blinkers right

away. We get we want to give him a

chance to to develop, to Start learning how to how to race

without them. But you know, I think eventually

was going to need it. So, you know, we will decide to

put them on since, you know, like I said last last time we

saw that that that that he was kind of looking too much and and

you know, we decided to put the blinkers.

But that's the only challenge we face with a horses start a

little bit. He's racing career a little

late. You know, we got to try to

figure them out very quick, you know, especially with a good

horse like him heading into the Derby.

Yeah. And you have faced very good

horses down there at Gulfstream Park Commandment.

You face in both races, the Puma you face in the Florida Derby.

Just it seems like the horses, whether they were running at

Gulfstream or at Tampa, are really strong in Florida this

year. Is that kind of how you you feel

when you're analyzing the race? Absolutely.

I think, you know, this year's Florida Derby, you know, one of

the most stronger prep for, for the Derby.

And you know, last year we, we came out with the finished

second in in the in the Florida Derby with Sovereignty.

We won the Derby. So I think this year, you know,

is, is, you know, is might, could be a horse coming out at

that same race, you know, since, you know, there were like 3 good

horses in that race. And but, you know, we'll, we'll

say, you know, I think, like I said, I like my chances with my

horse so far. Now take me back to that moment

you crossed the finish line with sovereignty in the Kentucky

Derby last year. Just a little bit back behind us

there, past those twin Spires. Just as you look back on it, I

see the big smile on your face right now as you look back on it

a year later, what do you remember about that moment?

Just what do you, what do you? What did you take away from?

That, you know, just an incredible feeling, you know, it

just feels like, you know, the, for me, it's like where you

hold, you work your whole life, the thing that you you dream of.

And you know, for me, you know, I remember even many times kind

of feeling like it was kind of fading away.

Then all the sudden sovereignty comes into the picture and we

ended up winning the Derby. Just something you have to, I

got to be appreciated and grateful, you know, whatever

same thing we like with my family.

You know, it was, it was such a joyful moment and and like we

know we will treasure that forever.

And sovereignty. You got to be back aboard him

this just two days ago in the Oakland Handicap.

I'm sure you were very happy to get back on on his back.

Just take us through the running of that race.

He kind of ended up on the lead. I know I talked to Bill Mott

afterward and he said that was kind of more just sovereignty

putting himself there. How did you kind of see the

beginning of that race unfolding?

Yes, you know, I thought Wayabario was going to end up in

the league. You know, he kind of tried to

go, but I guess his horse wasn't as fast as the first part.

You know, I guess my horse coming from the layoff, he was a

little more aggressive. You know, one thing I like, you

know, I learned with with with Mr. Mudd, you know, don't don't

fight too much those horses, you know, just let him do what they

want to do. And like I said, he was maybe a

little vicious coming from the eight months layoff.

And and, you know, I didn't want to fight, you know, fight with

him and and, you know, make it do something he didn't want to

do. But, you know, it was a very

good race. You know, at the end of the day,

you know, that's a horse. You know, he doesn't do too much

in the morning sometimes. So he probably was one of those

horses who needed that race and gonna benefit from it.

And, you know, just, I think just big things coming ahead for

him. And I saw him in the paddock, he

looked like he was kind of a little extra bouncy than I had

seen him last year. So it definitely felt like he

was feeling good and feeling fresh.

When the gate popped open, you were, I know there wasn't

expected to be a lot of pace. And as you said, you thought why

Debarrio was going to be up there.

Did you give him a little nudge like the first part to get him

up there, or was he just entirely up there completely on

his own? Yeah, no, that was all, all by

himself. I figured, you know, when I felt

them in the post parade, I knew I didn't have to probably do

much. I can feel he was a little

aggressive and, and, and he wanted to to to get in the gate

to get out of there. So, you know, I just, you know,

when we leave the gate, I kind of set back and grab the reins

because I just want to make sure he didn't get too aggressive for

me the first part. But yeah, I mean, that was just

him by design. And I think, you know, that's

probably what we're going to keep seeing from him now on, you

know, he's going to be very close to the base and and you

know, that's AI think it's like a good advantage for us, you

know, to having him running a little more close to the pace

instead of closing from way back.

Yeah, because we saw here in the Derby last year, obviously he

came from way back, but it seemed like as we went to the

Belmont, the Jim Dandy, the Travers, each race he was like a

little bit closer to the pace in the early stages.

So now he was on the lead in that race in the Oakland

Handicap. So does he feel comfortable up

there? Is that something that he's just

starting to put together, that he's kind of figuring things out

now and so he's getting a little bit more involved earlier?

Yes, Like you say, you know, I think after the Derby, you know,

he started failing it out, that he can be a little closer

himself. And he started doing that all on

his own. We didn't make him do anything.

We let the horses do what they want to do and kind of like let

him develop in their own way. And I think with him, he's for

sure he's gonna be closer this year than what it was last year.

Now, he got defeated by way to Barrio this weekend, but you had

his archrival journalism in there who was right on your

shoulder the entire time. Did you feel him really locked

in in the stretch as far as facing journalism was concerned

to fight him off? Did you feel that kind of fight

from? Him yes, definitely you know, he

was he was all all the time kind of felt fulfilling the horse in

the outside you know I knew he was never going to let it go by

you know I just wish by the time where Mario came, you know he

would have come a little closer to me to to make a race out of

it but. You know, it could have made a

difference if if he was a little.

You know, probably, you know, my he's a fighter.

So you know, like he I never got to to he never got to see the

horse until he was already like like in front of it and and and

you know, and in the gallop power.

I could see my horse going right after him and gallop out pretty

good. So but you know, that's that's

how race. Sometimes they they go that way.

But you know, like I say, it was, it was a good race coming

back from the eight months off and, and, and like I said, I

used to think we're gonna move forward from that race for sure.

Yeah, definitely. Looks like that's a good race to

build off of. It looks like his next starts

probably gonna be here at Churchill Downs and the Stephen

Foster at the end of June. Are you hoping White a barrio

shows up there? Do you want to get even with him

here? Are you looking forward to a

rematch down the line? Absolutely, I think that the

more good horses they come, you know, that's that's good for the

sport, you know, and I think you know, like if you're the

champion, you got to face good horses to to to, to stay be, to

be in the champion. So I wouldn't mind if he comes

and and runs against those I guess again.

It's just running in April. You get you get a good second in

April, it sets you up for the rest of the year.

That's how it went last year so it'll happen again this year.

Well, you are back here for the Derby with Chief Wallaby.

Obviously you had the experience of a lifetime winning it last

year. Is there anything now that

you've won it, that you're kind of looking forward to, If you

could win it again, maybe you'll enjoy it a little bit more now

that you kind of know what to expect from it?

Yeah, I just think, you know, last year was it was just a lot

of things happening at once and and, and, you know, sometimes

you don't get to enjoy as much as, as we should.

You know, we're going to keep going into the next, next, you

know, next things that we have to do next day of racing.

But for sure, you know, I think this year, you know, if he, if

it's meant to be again, you know, we'll definitely we'll

we'll enjoy a little bit more. Yeah.

Now, the last time we had you on Blood Horse Monday, it was right

before the Belmont Stakes when you won that.

And you're sponsored by Hildebrand Ice Cream.

And so you told us that they were making a flavor named after

you, I believe, the Junior Mint, correct?

Yes. You had not had a chance to try

it at that point. Have you had a chance to try it

now? What do you think?

Yeah, that's that's pretty much what I ate my whole summer.

That that that's how it was my my diet the whole summer united

the Junior Mint. But it was delicious that it's

still there. So yeah, I'm still enjoying it.

You're. Going to have Hildebrands on the

on the pants sleeve again this year.

Yes, that's that's the plan. That's the plan.

If you know if everything goes as planned, you know it should

be Hildebrand again. Did did they give you like some,

you know, that was your diet? Did they slide you some free ice

cream or like a little thank you, anything like that?

Yes, I have plenty of ice cream at home.

So, you know, I think I have. I'm stuck for the whole year

already. There we go.

All right. Well, when I'm out at the

Belmont at Saratoga, I'm going to hit you up for the ice cream

when we're out there in New York.

But Junior, thank you so much for taking the time with us

here. Congratulations again on all the

success you had with sovereignty last year, and hopefully we'll

see some more success here with Chief Wallaby moving forward.

All right. Thank you.

All right, thank you once again to Junior Alvarado for joining

us this morning at Churchill Downs.

Sounds like sovereignty is going to be pretty, pretty well set up

for the rest of the year off of that performance.

Junior seems to think so. Also seems like he's pretty

excited about getting on Chief Wallaby here for the Kentucky

Derby. And we're going to be very

excited about some of the horses coming up this weekend in Hong

Kong. Once again, this episode is

brought to you by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

FWD Champions Day is coming up this Saturday night.

You can witness the clash of World's top ranked race wars.

Kai Yin rising #1 ranked on the Long Jeans World's best Racing

awards. He's going to be in action this

weekend. Romantic warrior, the global

champion at this point, He's going to be in action this

weekend as well out there in Hong Kong.

And so make sure you tune into their races as they face some of

the top international Raiders. First race will start at 12:30

AM Eastern Time. That's good news for us.

I'm here with Kevin Kilroy from Churchill Downs on the Churchill

Downs backstretch. Great news for us because that

gets us set up for Derby works. You and I have been out here a

lot. You've been out here the last

couple days while I've been at Oak Lawn.

We've been seeing some of the Derby contenders finally putting

in their works on the racetrack. You saw Chief Wallaby this

morning. What'd you think of his work

this morning? He's all class from the moment I

saw him stand on the track and take it in for the first time

when he stepped up, I think we were watching them together when

he came out, right? He's just is all class.

You know, the first day I could see he was trying to find his

footing, you know, just as he was moving around, just feeling

things out. And he's found it.

He, he, he's taken to the track really well.

He's moving great. He, he's well sized, not as big

as sovereignty, not quite that sort of stature, but he's, he

put in a good drill. I have been able to watch it,

you know, because we were on the backside and.

Yeah. So we kind of just saw him

coming off the turn. He looked like it's in my guy

about, you know, he looked like he was moving well on that.

It was nothing that was like, all right, you know, you're kind

of waiting for those moments with these horses.

You're like, that's that's it. That's the move.

That's the one. It wasn't anything like that.

The gallop out was strong for sure.

Wasn't quite strong as further ado.

So I thought what the what he did here when he came around the

bend was, was quite sensational. But if you're a fan of Chief

Wallaby and there's no reason you really shouldn't be, I

thought he he he's looking great here.

So a major contender, Could you do back-to-back?

Could Junior get it done again? How great is Junior watching him

get interviewed by everybody? I know in your interview he's

just such a class act, so well spoken.

He's just a a big part of the sport that we need to prop up

even more. He's just one of the best.

Yeah, And I think the last time we've had a jockey go

back-to-back in the Derby, I believe was Victor Espinoza,

California Chrome, American Pharaoh, 2014 and 15.

So we'll see whether or not Junior can get that done.

He obviously feels pretty confident about it.

When you look at Chief Wallaby having not started as a 2 year

old, obviously quite different from sovereignty in that

respect. When you look at him coming in

and the races that he's run down there in Florida, he's adding

blinkers for the Derby. Do you do you trust him coming

in off that spot? Obviously we saw Mage and

Justify have success without running as a 2 year old, but

this is a hard race to come in without the foundation.

That's why it was so long between Apollo in 1882 and

Justify in 2018 where we didn't have a horse win without running

as a 2 year old. Yeah.

What do you make of that? It it's in the con, you know,

you got pros and cons. It's definitely a mark in the

con. You know, in terms of having

that season, having all those situations.

It's like when you take a horse to school in the paddock, you

bring them to the track. They just need to have all those

spots. They learn from all those

situations they could find themselves in.

They don't have quite a big of a vocabulary for that, right?

And so they could find some trouble that that causes them to

sort of shut down and turn off. So I think it's it's a con

blinkers on. I don't love an equipment change

before a big race. I just don't.

Mott did it with Rocket Can a couple years back.

Yeah, it was more maybe for Reach really trying to to move a

horse forward. It's interesting because Wallaby

is right there looking at the Rags 866 further Ado ran A5, you

know, in the Bluegrass. So he's right there.

And you can see there was a spot for sure in the Florida Derby

with he would just been more forward minded.

He could have been there. He galloped out in front.

So he's proven that he fits with this group and you're going to

get a double digit price. I think you should get 12 to

one, something like that on Chief Wallaby.

So with me, I'm thinking about the price I'm going to get.

It is a mark in the con column, but Chief Wallaby, I think it

should be reflected in terms of the price and the value you can

get on them. So yeah, it's not ideal, I don't

think, but he could still win. What do you think about Florida

this year? Because we obviously had a

terrific Florida Derby. I think we can all consider that

Commandment, the Puma and Chief Wallaby are considered among the

top choices for this year's Derby.

And then you look at Tampa Bay as well and you had the Puma

beat Further Ado, who comes back and wins the Bluegrass in the

Tampa Bay Derby. Before that, you had Renegade,

the Arkansas Derby winner, defeat the Puma and the Sam

Davis. It does seem like the top of the

division at least entering the Derby.

We'll see what happens on Derby day, but at least coming in the

top betting choices, it seems like it really did run through

Florida this. Year, it's kind of ironic with

all the trouble that Florida has had in terms of the coupling,

you know the slots and everything like that.

But what we're seeing is Barnes are going there right.

Brad Cox is a stronger contingency down there and

Payson right between Palm Meadows.

We got Will Will Walden down there with Beckman's down there.

You know, of course the Chad Browns and Todd Pletcher's and

Bill Mots are down there too. So horsemen like to be down

there. I think they probably like this

sort of more seclusion to it, the weather.

Some of those tracks just offer really nice setups for their for

their horses. So I think that makes sense that

they're running in those races at Gulfstream and Tampa Bay with

their big strings down there. It seems to be a nice ship and

an easy focus from those from those training centers.

So it's definitely seems like the strongest runners have been

coming through there. I think, you know, I was

thinking about it today. Obviously it seems like the

Florida Derby and that prep series has produced the best.

But if you did want to to find value, if you just kind of key

in on a different prep series and just sort of say, you know

what, that could be the one, but I'm just going to key in on a

different one to try to find the winner in the Kentucky Derby.

You could be finding a really good 20 to 1, something like

Louisiana Derby, looking at Golden Tempo, emerging market,

Pavlovian. I think it's quite interesting.

So if you are just trying to be contrary and try to think

through things in a different way, I think it would be to get

away from Florida because the money is going to go towards

Florida's direction, I feel. Like Commandment this year is

maybe coming in more under the radar than Florida Derby winner

should. And not that he's not getting

attention, but like coming out of the Fountain of youth, it

felt like the a lot of people came out of that, even though

Commandment one thinking Chief Wallaby was the horse to bet

back. And then I think Chief Wallaby

ended up being the favorite in the Florida Derby, if I'm not

mistaken. Was he the favorite?

And then he gets he gets beat again.

Commandment wins again. It seems like coming out of the

race, everybody that there's a lot of people that are talking

about how good the Puma was in that race.

And then obviously, and I think part of it maybe is the jockey

changes as well. I read Ortiz Junior wrote him in

the Fountain of Youth. He had to make a choice between

Renegade or Commandment in the Arkansas Derby day because they

were the Arkansas Derby and the Florida Derby were on the same

day. And so he chose Renegade to go

out in the Arkansas Derby. So then Flavian picks up the

mount on Commandment for the Florida Derby, wins that and

then Flavian's going to ride Emerging Market in Kentucky

Derby. So now I believe he picks up.

Is it Luis Saez, the Command picked up And so is that really

kind of keeping him under the radar?

Do you think is he coming? Am I, am I making this up?

I think that's a. Huge part of it, where these

jocks go, the money goes, you know, And there, that's a big

read there. And sometimes it's noise, you

know, sometimes it really is. I think it might be in this

situation, I think commandments, the horse commandments, the one

that I he's. The one that I like the best out

of the Ford Derby for. Sure.

And it's interesting because he's not going to have that move

on the track that's going to create that buzz that brings all

that money towards him in terms of the Kentucky Derby.

Because he just, you know, I was comparing him to Allen Iverson.

He's like practice. He's just not as that interested

in it. He's just he needs a company.

He needs, you know, somebody with him in the morning to keep

him honest, keep him moving forward that he's going to pay

attention to. I'm watching him this morning.

He was the first one on the track with full effort.

And you're like, all right, this is what this is our guy.

You know, this is it. He's just sort of and he's still

built. He's got that little choppy

stride. He just visually, he's not going

to stun people. He's just not, but he rolls 12,

Sean, and that's what I'm talking about, you know, and

he's so strong and he's put himself through some tight

spots. God, I think he's the one.

Will the what will the price be? I'm still scratching my head

about that. I think he's going to obviously

going to take good money in there.

Third choice Could he be the second choice?

I could even see him potentially floating up to maybe fourth or

fifth choice. Really.

Yeah. Because I just think there's

going to be a lot of people who are going to think the.

I mean, we'll see one say I'll get here who people start

talking about. I think a lot of people are

going to kind of back the Puma. I think a lot of people are

going to back Chief Wallaby. I think Commandment definitely

should be at least third choice. I think he should be.

But you know how it goes. Once all that money starts

coming in for the derbies and those odds start changing, I

could see him floating up, potentially getting getting left

up there. Hopefully for if for those of us

that like him that he gets a yeah we we that does.

Happen in 10 to one or something like that that that'd be

amazing. I think further ado is going to

be the the favorite really in this race.

OK, he's a proven fastest source if you're looking at third

graph, if you're looking at rags, if you're looking at

buyers and that's that's just the the money goes there, right?

It does. And he just put in a huge work

solo move here on Friday. As I mentioned earlier, the

Gallup out was fantastic. He got a little bit of a

shoulder tap here coming out of the bend just right behind us

and he just went right back into his his top speed.

So it was a huge move. Renegade's going to obviously

going to command a lot of of the market, probably second choice

in here, but I think it's going to be further ado.

Yeah. And I feel like it sounds like

maybe Renegade might end up being the Morning Line favorite,

but you're thinking further ADO is going to end up probably.

Tamara. What's Tamara?

No, you know, not joking. It would make sense.

I could see why he would make Renegade.

That he's visually he's been most impressive, but not quite

as fast on the paper. It makes me think that I would.

If I was making the line, I'd make it further.

Ado, well, and I think anybody who maybe doesn't follow horse

raising year round as well, they're going to look at

further. Ado winning by so much in the

Bluegrass and they're going to go ahead and bet on him.

We obviously don't know what he beat in that race.

Otino, who was second, announced over the weekend that he will

not be running here in the Kentucky Derby.

He'll point to either the Peter Pan or the Preakness, and that's

what allowed Chief Wallaby to then move into the field.

And reggae Zon are bled, so yeah, he didn't run his race.

So, you know, we don't really know what he beat there.

He does have the win on the track though.

So I did make the Keeneland joke about him earlier in the show.

But he does. He does like Churchill Downs.

He has one here before you mentioned something talking

about commandment, the rolling 12.

Yeah. And so, you know, firing off the

12:00 second every 8th of a mile, how important is that when

you're looking at a mile and a quarter race like this to have a

horse that can do that? According to Kenny Mcpeak, it's

everything. I know that's what he said.

The other. Day earlier on, you know.

He knows what he's talking about.

He's one of, actually. He knows what he's talking

about. You know, I think it's just that

one of those points that we always talk about, it's not how

fast you go, but how you go fast, right?

And to be able to at every point within the race, to continue to

be able to search yourself and have that energy and to be able

to, to, to push forward, whether it's out of the gates or whether

it's late in the race is, is just a, a huge, huge advantage.

Because for me, it's every, every moment from out of the

gates, that initial scramble into the first turn out of the

first turn, etcetera, is just like a point of aggression.

You've got to be able to move forward, right?

And he's proven that time and again.

So he's got, he's got the muscles, he's got that that

steady action and he's he seems quite legit.

Louis PSI is up. I think it's the best fit he's

had so far. Yeah, well, you can catch

Kevin's insight every single morning on the Kentucky Derby

morning workout. Except for today.

Except for. Today, in which case he's here

on Blood Horse Monday with us. But you can catch that show

every day, see these horses out on the racetrack.

Obviously, you can catch plenty of that content as well on

bloodhorse.com and on social media as well.

Bloodhorses social pages, my social my ex page.

I post a lot of clips of the horses training in the morning.

BH under score S Collins. You can also catch all those

trainings on a pharaoh 12 on YouTube as well.

But Kevin, you get to see these horses every single morning

watching even on your off days as you're out here this morning.

Who else that we haven't talked about has caught your eye with

some of the breezes from this past weekend?

You know, definitely full effort is is, don't doubt that he can

run on dirt. You know, he's just an absolute

racehorse. He just is.

It doesn't matter the surface. They had him on turf initially

because he was smaller, he was lighter.

It made sense that he could be a really strong turf horse is

often you see that sort of lighter horse succeed on turf.

He's filled out, he's big. He's been moving really well out

here. Albus looks good.

He still hasn't filled out enough for me.

He looks about the same size as he was as a 2 year old, which

which was which was immense and impressive, but he just hasn't

filled out quite the same, but he's moving well out here.

I think he's going to be a really neat horse going forward.

He's definitely more within himself than he was a 2 year

old. Riley's doing great work with

them. We'll see Incredible tomorrow.

I'm excited to see Incredible. I think there was more there.

And the Virginia Derby. I think that he, you know,

didn't get the biggest number, but he could have run much

faster. He did it really impressively.

So watch out for Incredible. Well, take a pause real quick

here to talk about the Derby horses because we got Prom

Queen, a Kentucky Oaks horse right behind us here on the

racetrack. Katie Tolbert for Brad Cox

aboard as she's beginning her exercise.

What have you thought thought about her out here on the

racetrack from what you've seen? She breathed a couple days ago.

She's neat, you know, she's very neat.

She she looked fantastic getting it done in the, the Florida Oaks

and you know, another lightly race Philly talking about these

three-year olds when they're lightly raced, they bring her

out this time of day consistently.

She kind of gets spooked a little bit.

You can see her looking around. She's just a touch nervous.

So I think that's one thing to keep in mind.

She fits on figures. She worked huge.

She galloped out and got pulled up at the 3/8 pool, which is

deep, deep backstretch. So she fits in every way.

My one question mark is it's going to be too much with the

with the huge crowd. Yeah, well, it's always nice

when we're out here. I mean, this is just the time of

year that we're in right now. Here we are just talking about

Derby horses. Here comes an Oaks horse right

behind us. That's part of what makes this

time of year so exciting. But before we pause there to

talk about Prom Queen, you mentioned it.

How excited you are to see incredible out here on the

racetrack and have a couple other horses start showing up in

the next couple days. Emerging Market got here this

morning. I believe the Puma supposed to

arrive tomorrow. We have all the, well, most of

the California horses flying out tomorrow as well.

So Happy, Pavlovian and Intrepido, who's on the AU list

are coming out. I believe Potente will be here

later in the week and then by Saturdays when they're all

required to be here. So we'll see Renegade Filter in.

We will see golden tempo come on down.

Is there anyone specific that you're really anxious to get

your eyes on? Pavlovian.

Pavlovian intrigues me to to no end.

He was sensational. Louisiana Derby, they went fast.

He took all that pressure from from one of Cox's horses that

was a little bit unexpected. He handled that.

He dug in against emerging market.

They put the blinkers on him. I think he started to figure

things out. I just been watching him train

out in California. He just trains himself.

He I think he's a very mature horse, so I'm excited to have

him here here to have Doug O'Neill here talking about him

Potenti as well. I want to see him.

I thought he moved very well and had an excuse in the San Anita

Derby, but moving well on his his works in emerging market.

He's one of those the Chad. I mean all the talk was that

Chad liked him more than Paladin, you know, before

Paladin was taken off the trail because of his maturity.

His mental is just how strong he was with the mind and not

necessarily physically doesn't doesn't wow you.

So I'm excited to see how he takes everything in.

It's fun. When they start, especially the

California courses get here, that's when you know it's on,

right? Yeah.

That's when you really kind of start being like, all right,

we're getting close, we're getting close, we're getting

close when they show up and Prom Queen is coming back around

behind us there. If you're watching on YouTube or

Spotify, you can see your Gallup past is there.

She's looking good to me as she goes on by.

So make sure if you are watching on YouTube or Spotify, make sure

you leave a like and comment down below.

Let us know who your pick is for the Derby or just what you're

excited to see from the Derby, what you thought of the Oak Lawn

Handicap, everything like that. Now, Kevin, you were down in

Louisiana quite a bit this year. You're always kind of paying

attention to that trail. I have said on the show multiple

times this year that I didn't think Louisiana was the

strongest road to the Derby this year.

I know, I know. Be careful there.

You're going to knock the mic off your mic off your microphone

too strong. But but.

So why not? Why don't we?

Do well, I just felt like, and this is going to be the part

that I'll caveat to here is we saw that I I wasn't that

impressed with chip poncho at the beginning and the way that

the the gun runner ran, I didn't necessarily think that much

better of the. Golden tempo.

Of Golden Tempos winning the comps and then Paladin is able

to ship in and take the Risen Star, and then we have Emerging

Market and Pavlovian ship in and kind of dominate the Louisiana

Derby. I know Golden Tempo was running

on at the end, so I've been saying that and on this show for

a couple weeks now. I'm going to give you the floor

to now counter my argument here. Now that you're on, go ahead and

give Louisiana it's love and why we should be paying attention.

To those horses, Well, I mean, Paladin was the the top

three-year old, right? Yeah, besides, of course, Ted

Nafi before that. He was, he was the talk of the

town. So for him to come in and get it

done over Chip Honcho and Chip, you know, it was a forward

track. Maybe he took advantage of that.

But Chip Honcho is a big dude who had put in really good form

lines together and he seemed like he was developing like a

classic Steve Asmussen Derby horse.

So I thought he was very much in the conversation at that point.

The Louisiana Derby I think maybe drew some questions.

Golden Tempo, he's the one who's just, you know, he had his first

race at the the end of his two year old year, really all as a

three-year old basically. And he stretched out and he got

it done with a cop and with a big finish.

They got the blinkers on him, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I think he could have won the Louisiana Derby, which you know,

we can talk about that ride that Jose gave their dive into the

rail there at the end, but that emerging market came in and got

it done. Figures wise, it fits for me

looking at the figures, which makes a big sense.

It's a little bit of a hard read because we did have speed

favoring tracks on all those days, except we got a little bit

different there late in the day there for the little comps.

So I mean, we'll see. I think they fit.

Figures wise. I like those horses that we

came, but it was some invaders that came and took advantage of

us, so that could be a little bit of a knock against the

horses that were there. Yeah, well, we'll see how it all

pans out and you can follow along as we get closer to the

Kentucky Derby. Starting this Saturday, we will

begin our Blood Horse at the Derby podcast.

If you were watching us around the time of the Breeders Cup,

you saw our Blood Horse at the Breeders Cup coverage in the

days leading up. We will be doing that, Louie and

I, every day leading up to the Kentucky Derby, bringing you all

the insight from out here on the racetrack.

We'll be grabbing connections. We'll be at the post position

draw on Saturday. Get some reaction from that

reaction from the final workouts.

Kevin, if you see us and you're walking by, feel free to come.

Up go the other direction. You could do that as well.

I wouldn't blame you after doing this with me today.

I think the fans need to to tell Louis Ribbo what he should wear

on on Derby day. I think that should be a boat.

Maybe just in the comments below.

What should Louis Ribbo wear? What should he wear under?

Derby day, I like that. And Ascot, you know, maybe a

little bit. That could be nice.

You know the the top hat and. The something like that, I could

see him maybe like, what's the little spectacle?

The. The Monocle.

The Monocle. The Monocle.

I could see him pulling that off.

But but yeah, so if if you're enjoying our talk here about the

Derby, make sure you turn into that blood horse at the Derby.

We'll be covering as much as we can that week.

Also make sure you check that out at bloodhorse.com.

You can find that podcast series wherever you're watching right

now. So whether you're on the Blood

Horse Monday channel on Spotify, whether you are watching on

Blood Horses YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, wherever you can

find those Blood Horse at the Derby podcast right here,

exactly where you are. So make sure you subscribe to

whichever platform you're watching or listening to in

order to catch that. Now we just talked a lot about

the works in the training of these horses going up to the

Derby. Louis is going to make an

appearance on this episode. Don't worry, he is not missing

the entirety of this episode because last Wednesday he and I

had the opportunity to sit down with Alan Porter of Trunix.

He also writes for Blood Horse. Every Wednesday in the daily you

can find a pedigree analysis of one of the top winners from the

weekend. This guy's an expert on

pedigrees, let me tell you. I need him.

I know I need him to check it out.

He sat down with us last week on Wednesday to talk us through

some of the pedigrees of these Derby horses.

I mean can't go much further in his credentials other than he

helped to plan the mating of Gun Runner and Arrow Gate.

So I mean, this guy knows what? He's the dinner, the the first

chorus. What'd he do?

He's. Good they will he set it up, you

know, he got the he got the first date going with the

between the the stallion, the mayor, he got that all set up.

And so I mean, he's a real wealth of knowledge.

His his column in the blood horse daily, every single

Wednesday is fantastic. If I know, there's a lot of

people that I meet back here on the on the backside where

they'll tell you that the thing that got them into horse racing

when they were younger was just kind of reading through

pedigrees. And like some of these people,

they can go back as many generations.

I'm not one of those people. I could.

Don't ask me who the grand sire most horses is.

I'm not know unless it's American Pharaoh, in which case

I know because I'm old. We covered that earlier.

But, but yeah, so it's a wealth of knowledge.

And here's Alan's thoughts on some of the pedigrees of this

year's Kentucky Derby contenders.

All right, welcome in. So glad if you, by the way, if

you are a smart person and you start your day with Blood Horse

Daily. And if you don't, by the way,

bloodhorse.com daily tab at the top of the homepage every

Wednesday edition, there's a pedigree analysis column in

their analysis column. And his name is Alan Porter

joins us from trunixandtrunix.com.

All the good things over there. Alan, thanks for joining us on a

Derby preview edition of the program.

How are you? Hi, good.

Thanks. Glad to be here.

Well, Alan, we got the Kentucky Derby coming up and since you

are the Blood Horse expert on pedigrees for us, we'd love to

kind of get your thoughts on some of the pedigrees in this

field. I guess just.

Overall, when you're kind of you've been analyzing these

horses throughout the winter, throughout the spring in your

pedigree analysis column, has there been anything that's

really stood out to you among the group overall this year?

Hi, I think 1 interesting feature is there's a trio of

Into Mischiefs coming up there and it's an interesting Inter

Mischief made his name really as a Cyrus sprinters and milers,

but he's now got 3 Derby winners which ties the record and he's

going for a fourth Derby winner with Commandment, Renegade and

Potenti. I think what it is with Inter

Mischief, I think it was deceptive.

He actually won over 8 1/2 and a Grade 1 as a 2 year old.

But when he went to stud, he tended to get inexpensive mayors

which would tend more towards to a cheaper speed.

And I think he probably tends to put speed by a mechanics on a

horse. So when he gets a staying mayor,

he really needs a kind of scopey mayor.

And I think breeders are kind of working that out now.

And so you've now got plenty of these inter mischiefs that look

like they can get a mile and an eighth at least and probably

stretch to a mile and a quarter, especially as a three-year old

against other 3 year olds. And so, you know, from a horse

viewed as a Cyrus sprinters and milers, he's now on the verge of

being the first horses are for Kentucky Derby winners.

And you know, obviously Man and Renegade are two of the

strongest prospects. When you are.

Kind of looking at some of these top ones you just mentioned

Renegade and Commandment there and their connection to Into

mischief. When you're kind of looking at

some of these top contenders in the Kentucky Derby, are there

any that where you look at them and like, man, this horse is

really going to love the 10 furlongs or there anywhere

you're like this source might be a little bit questionable and if

somebody's betting on them at a low price, it might make some

value for. Other horses.

It's much harder than it used to be because you don't get

sprinters in the field anymore. Pure sprinters.

You know the horses, you know more than Reddies and trippies

and things like that. The groovy years ago it was easy

to write them off. These days I think most of these

horses have been weeded out through the process and most of

them are going to get a mile and an eighth and you know, a mile

and an eighth horse against, if he's mature enough against other

3 year olds at this time of year, it can be enough.

So it's it's different, you know, when in England you can

have a horse coming off a 2000 Guinness win over a mile and

going to the Derby at a mile and a half.

And you know, pedigree is really a guide here is it's a real fine

thing. And you've also got to look at

the horse as an individual. For instance, take a horse like

Incredible. He's got a brother who's a

pretty smart allowance winning sprinter, Dr. Sakali, but

incredible is just a different type.

So you know, you can't purely look.

Oh, he's a brother to a sprinter.

We're going to throw Incredibolt out.

You know, he's a horse who finished up very, very strongly

over a mile and an eighth and he's going to he's going to like

that mile and a quarter very probably.

You've got an enigma in so happy who's by run happy champion

sprinter who's been a was a real disappointment now been

exported. He's actually out of a mare

who's only two wins. First two starts came over six

furlongs. So you've got so happy by a

champion sprinter out of a mare who won twice a six furlongs,

then got injured in your third star.

I mean, obviously he gets a mile and an eighth in California.

It's, you know, very hard to believe that a horse like that

who's going to be closer to the pace and with that funky

pedigree is really going to love a mile and 1/4.

You know, he'll be probably quite a, a fancy, you know,

California's left us a bit short of quality speed this year,

which puts a different perspective on the race.

Well. You, you mentioned so happy they

are kind of the lack pace 6 speed coming in from the UAE

Derby. I feel like it's kind of the

horse who is thought of as being the horse that's going to be

setting the pace in this year's Kentucky Derby.

He has an American pedigree. Do you see him being able to

last out this distance or I've we saw him get caught at the end

of that UAE Derby at a mile and three sixteenths.

So just what are your thoughts on him?

Yeah. I mean, he's interesting because

he's by not this time and not this time.

This just an incredible influence for class.

He doesn't seem to be an influence for specific aptitude.

You think of a horse like Coburn.

I mean absolute flying machine. And then he serves a horse like

next, you know, well, if we were back in the old days when the

Jockey Club Gold Cup was the championship decider, 2 miles

next probably champion older horse.

So, you know, I, I mean 6 speed, I think is going to go as fast

as he can for as far as he can, but I don't think that's going

to be well. He might finish Jennifer Longs,

but I don't think he'll be in front.

It's interesting that you bring that up and Alan Porter with us.

You know, last year we had Owen Almighty in this field.

His trainer, Brian Lynch, told us over and over, this is a

Miller. This is a Miller.

He finishes, Yeah, in the top five of the Derby last year.

And he was one of those speed horses you were talking about.

Yeah, Yeah. But they can all get the 9

furlongs at this point. It really does seem to be that

case. One of them that's going to be

in this field is full effort, Alan, and of course, a horse

that's largely been on the synthetic and then before that

on the turf. How does his pedigree do you

think, move to the dirt? Well, you know, you've had

horses. I don't know whether I'm right

this. I've always thought there's

something about Churchill that can allow a horse with a turf

background or a horse is ultimately going to be a turf

horse to perform well. I mean, if you look at Animal

Kingdom, he was a turf horse really ultimately.

And if you look at Big Brown, his future would have been on

the turf I'm sure if he'd have stayed in training.

I mean, he won a good turf race. One thing about full effort with

I think he'll stay, I mean he's by Liam's map who won over a

mile and a 8th and Liam's map's got some horses that go low on

the turf, you know, Colonel Liam, Deterministic, those kind

of horses and full efforts have the power Squeeze who won I

think with the Alabama a mile and a mile and 1/4.

So a full effort will stay and you can't write him off just

because he's coming from a turf. I mean, I think what it is,

there's something about Churchill allows those turfy or

weather horses to give it a good one off effort.

You know, they may not consistently be turf forces, but

a a good turf horse like a Giant's Causeway for instance,

came over in the Breeders Cup. Yeah, all but one of Breeders'

Cup. But I don't know that he would

have been a Durf horse if he'd have kept running on the dirt.

You know, I think they can put in this big one off effort.

So if you like full effort, you think he's classy enough.

I would not think on pedigree or that turf background.

In the short term, I wouldn't rule him out of a Derby.

I think long term I wouldn't be surprised to see him want to go

to the turf. The other horse that's a turf

influence horse that's on the bubble is Stark Contrast and he

looks like a turf Miller to me. Yeah.

Well, on the flip side of that, you know, last year we had a

horse like Burnham Square who, you know, he'd been running.

Obviously he was a Grade 1 winner on the dirt.

So he was running well on the dirt.

But the whole time kind of leading up to the race, Ian

Wilkes kind of mentioned, you know, we'd like to get him on

the grass in the future. He's now been moved to the

grass. It looks like he's going to stay

there going forward there. Any horses like that in this

year's Derby that maybe we could watch?

Out for making that special. The full, full effort is kind of

this year's Burnham Square because he's biling.

He's not the same, sire. Yeah.

But is there anyone else aside from him that we might see, you

know, maybe maybe having some pedigree somewhere in there

where they could maybe be successful on the turf?

I mean, that's the that's the horse that's probably got the

most potentially. Oddly enough, his granddam was a

champion turf force and intermission.

You can get a quality turf runner.

I don't know if you'll ever try it, but there's he's got turf

elements in his pedigree. His granddam was champion turf,

really perfect sting you. You do sometimes see turf in the

bottom of these. Dirty Horse just probably has

some turf stamina there. So it's it's more a a stamina

aspect than a turf aspect. Alan Porter with us from True

Knicks has been in the Volvo Thoroughbreds for over 50 years.

His main occupation is advising breeders and and others on the

pedigree aspects of buying and breeding Thoroughbreds.

But sometimes, Ellen, we get these forward horses shipping

over, we kind of don't know what to make of them.

But not this time in Maxfield. Make two of these easy at least.

But with Dean Majesty, the sire of Wonder Dean, the one thing

I've largely heard is distance shouldn't be a problem.

Do you agree? 10 furlongs within the pedigree

here. Yeah, Dean Majesty was a great

one, winner over 11 furlongs, so he's got plenty of stamina.

He's by Deep Impact, who's a very, very much a stamina

influence and he's actually depend back to courses by Sunday

silence, who not only won a Derby, but went to Japan and

probably almost single handedly caused the rays of the the

Japanese breeding industry in the class of it.

That combined with shrewd importation of mayors with

stamina and class. And the interesting other

interesting thing about Wonder Dean is that he's damaged by a

horse called Wonder Acute and I don't think any of us have heard

of him. But wander cue just by

charismatic who won a Kentucky Derby Preakness.

So charismatic. We've not really seen him in

many pedigrees of class horses in recent years, but he's

showing up there. So I mean wander Dean, I mean,

he beat a non staying horse probably in the in the UAE

Derby, but that was over 9 1/2 furlongs.

And he's got ton of diamond in his pedigree as the most

Japanese horses. Of course, you know Dan and

Bourbon. I mean we know all about his

pedigree because he's a he's an American bred.

He's by Maxfield who won the clerk.

Maxfield might have another winner on the card, actually,

with the Englishman in the pap day and he's out of a mayor by

by tappet. You know, there is actually a

lot of speed in the bottom of Dan and Bourbon's pedigree

because the Dam's half sits with a very fast horse called

Cassadero, who is by Maxfield SAR St.

Sense and the Grand Am was the good sprinter Wild games, but I

wouldn't let me put me off because he's already won over a

mile and an eighth in very, very good style.

Worth noting with him By the way, that win was on a muddy

track, so if it gets wet I wouldn't throw out down in

Bourbon. Is.

There anyone else on the field as far as pedigree goes that

would suggest they would run well on a sloppy track if we end

up getting that? That's a good question.

I'll be truthful. I have not looked at, you know,

from a wet track perspective. So I'd I'd have to take a pass

on that one. Send us to your list once you

handicap feel read it off. Or we'll keep it to ourselves.

It's a pair of mutual game at the end of the day.

Ellen. Yeah, right.

But no, I wanted to ask, you know, we we have some sires that

I was just betting on in races, frankly, that are siring

starters here in the Kentucky Derby, The Puma sired of course,

by essential quality. And as you get down the other

line a little bit, we see, like you said, Maxfield as the sire

of Dan and Bourbon. Either of those guys get you

excited about, you know, are you excited about their prospects?

We're seeing a lot of these essential qualities jump up in

these kinds of races. Yeah, essential qualities,

making a nice quiet run, you know.

I mean, I know he was champion 2 year old, but he was more one of

those tap tap. It kind of gets more and more

kind of somewhat something of a grinding horse if they stay.

And he was more in that frame and you figured he'd take time

to to make an impact. But he's he's shaping pretty

well as a central quality and the Pumas, one of those horses

that's kind of horse that's always going to be around there

somewhere. He did get rundown.

He got caught from behind, but he's out of the mayor, my

declaration of war, who won over 10 furlongs and his third damn

one over very nearly ten. I think the puma's going to

stay. He just strikes us maybe a horse

that's going to get in the places.

He's a looks looks to me like a real good horse for the places

and maybe something, something comes, you know, they came from

behind and caught him in the last start.

That something comes and catches him if he's in the front rank,

but I think you'll stay and you know, essential Quality had a

really rough trip in the Derby. I'll see.

They've been very, very close to winning out.

Yeah. What are your thoughts on a

horse like Albus by Yaupon? Obviously Yaupon we know as a

sprinter, but Albus definitely looked like he was handling the

distance in the wood memorial. What do you make of a horse like

him? He's got standing on the

downside he's got, I mean he closed, he's pretty very

inexperienced, but he closed well.

I mean, you know, Yaupon is Uncle MO Line.

So you've had you've had a Nyquist by Uncle MO.

It's I mean he's got an awful lot.

I mean, if you're handicapping apart from pedigree, he's got an

awful lot to find in terms of class.

I mean, he did close. You've got another horse

actually that closed well in in that race too.

Which was great to party. Yeah, I, you know, he closed,

made-up a lot of ground and he's a horse that could be a kind of,

if you were looking for a long priced kind of horse that could

just be keep coming, keep coming, keep coming if there was

enough speed on the front, you know, which is a big question

this year. He's a constitution as is.

Of course, you've got Chief Wallaby by constitution there

too. Chief Wallaby is a horse that

kind of reminds me a little bit of Constitution Sun mine frame

at the same stage that kind of comes there and looks like he's

going to go by and hasn't. And Bill Moss put blinkers on

him and gosh, if that kind of works.

I mean, mine frame might have been a mile and an eighth horse.

I mean, he was fast enough to win a grade 174 hours as a four

year old. So he was kind of like

stretching out minor. I think mine frame a very good

one. But constitution, all of this by

constitution of Medaglidoro mere and it probably depends if

you're looking at him, you know, is that hesitation due to

inexperience and focus or is that usually not quite getting

the distance and and you know, just coming to the edge of his

stamina? I think he should stay and he

could be an interesting horse with those blinkers on.

You know, like I say, mind frame turned out to be a very good

horse when he got focused. And if if it's that same lack of

concentration as the his fellow constitution, he'd be 1 to keep

in mind. Alan Porter with us from true

Nick, someone we haven't mentioned yet is Silent tactic.

This is a son of Tacitus. But to make us all feel old,

it's a he's out. He's out of a dam by by gun

runner. Let's let's all feel old

together. But look, Tacitus babies, he

runs like his dad. It takes him a little bit of of

time to get going. But I, I got to say with that

breeding line, I think the the staying part here not an issue,

Alan. Yeah, I mean, Tacitus was

certainly, you know, another of what I call those grinding

tappets. You know, these tappets that

that want to go long. They seem to be once they once

once they confirm themselves as a horse that got stamina, they

they seem to want to go long. Tacitus was third in the Derby.

This is his first crop, the dams by Gun Runner who Gun Runner who

didn't look as if he wanted 10 furlongs at 3.

But obviously as a four year old when the Breeders Cup Classic

and he's pretty well bred because his second dam is 3/4

assisted the Malibu Moon. So you know, he's got the

pedigree. I mean, he's going to be one of

those more off the pace horses he's going to need again, need

some pace in front of him to get involved.

And he hasn't really moved forward a ton since his, you

know, early start. He's not not not making a lot of

forward progress, you know, but he's consistent, you know,

probably similar to the Puma from the same star line, maybe

not quite as good as him, maybe coming from a bit further back

than him. It's interesting too, Speaking

of Tacitus, right? He began his career at Woodbine.

He's actually won. Sean, you were asking earlier

about what's that we might see on the grass eventually.

Silent tactic with Mark. Cassie certainly might be

amongst that. You know, the only others that I

don't think we've really tapped on that I think could be

interesting in here. What do you make of a horse like

an emerging market only making their third start?

It's a candy ride, which is always, you know, good at

everything, you know, great at some things, certainly with a

candy ride. What do you make of an emerging

market in this race? Yeah.

I mean, he's trying to do something that hasn't been done

since 1883, but that's not a pedigree issue.

Right. It's got a very good pedigree.

I mean, good cross candy ride, remarkable that, you know, he's

quite an advanced age candy ride.

There's no doubt that stallions overall do diminish with age.

I mean, you know, and there are there are actual concrete

genetic reasons for the way genes are expressed for that.

It's not it's not a theory. It's it's something that

actually happens. But he's Candy Ride at an Empire

Maker mayor, So you've got to. I mean, don't forget that Candy

Ride blew Medaglidor away at 10 furlongs in the Pacific Classic.

I mean, Candy Ride had no problem with 10 furlongs.

An Empire Maker won over 1 of Belmont when it was 12, you

know, 12 furlongs. The dams have to champion cheer

old Philly she be wild. But the same cross produced the

Santa Anita Derby winner in Rockfield World.

You know, he's an interesting horse to keep an eye on.

You know, even if the experience at this stage is not, you know,

the whole thing's too much on 1/3 start, he'd be a good horse

to keep an eye on down the line. I think he did run down the

front runner. We got a horse is not going to

be probably another pace factor. Pavlovian, he ran him down.

Pedigree is not a problem for emerging market.

What do you look for when you have a?

Horse like Further Ado, who wins so impressively in the Bluegrass

Stakes and just kind of pulls away from the competition.

What what are you looking for to determine?

You know, is he just really good at a mile and an eighth or what

is he? Was that just a sign that he's

going to get even better as the distance goes longer?

I mean, I think he's good enough a mile and an eighth if he'll

handle 10 furloughs, put it that way.

OK. I mean, Gun Runner, as we said,

you know, looked often at 3:00 as if 9 furlongs was as far as

he went, wanted to go, and they dropped him back for the

Breeders Cup mile as a three-year old.

But obviously 10 furlongs at 4 was pretty useful.

And he's got horses like Sierra Leone and Locked who are Grade 1

winners at 10 furlongs. Then he's got Taber Cyberknife

Grade 1 winners at 9 furlongs. Early voting won a Preakness, so

plenty of the Gun Runners want to run long.

The dam went over 8 1/2. Well the oddity is she brought a

sprinter Miller by Temple City in.

There was was a good horse in I think Dubai.

But the dams three quarter assisted to a Grade 1 winner

over 9 furlongs. Dream Dancing and the third down

was Beautiful pleasure. It was champion older Mayer.

She was a Grade 1 winner at 10 furlongs and assisted the Mecky

who was a Grade 1 winner over a mile and a half.

I mean, there are quite a few sprinters in the first two dams,

oddly enough. But I mean, he did look

sensational and he was doing it at the end.

He wasn't a horse that was showing a lot of speed and then

tiring towards the end. He was going away towards the

end. You know what, he beats

anybody's question. But but he was a horse whose run

style was, you know, if he was a pure miner stretching out, I

think he'd just shown a lot of speed early and then been

hanging on towards the end. And he certainly didn't do that.

And, you know, a gun runner with that background, certainly good

enough at 9 furlongs run, you know, huge buyer.

Yeah, you can't. I, I don't think you could see

if you were looking at pure pedigrees and and hadn't seen

the race, you could have some question.

But I you know, the way you run nine first and there's a gun

runner and out of a man who's 3/4 sister to a great woman at 9

furlongs, I think you've got to give him the benefit of the.

Doubt Alan Porter with us from True Knicks.

We'll get you out of here on this again.

Catch him every Wednesday edition of The Blood Horse

Daily. Stark Contrast we we have this

debate every year it seems like with a horse that is a little

bit more turfy in their past qualifies through the Ruby,

something like that. You mentioned the dirt course at

Churchill Downs. You also said you think Stark

Contrast might be a turf Miller moving forward, which I largely

agree with a horse like that though, on Derby day, you've got

the option at 10 furlongs on the dirt in the Derby, you've got 9

furlongs in the American turf on the grass.

If that were your horse, what do you think you would do on the

1st Saturday May? Oh, he's absolutely going 9

furlongs on the grass. He's he's by a sprinter.

He's by a sprinting son, Caravaggio, who was a sprinting

scat Daddy. I did actually.

I did the meeting for Caravaggio's dam.

It was a stake swinger by Holy Ball.

Look at that. But Caravaggio is is, you know,

pure speed, he's out of there by quality Rd. too, I mean, and

quality Rd. did not get 10 tray long.

So I mean, Quality Rd. was probably a brilliant miner who

just about got a mile and an eighth.

No, you know, this horse does not.

I mean, it's not even, you know, a mile and a quarter looking

turf force. You know, he's by a sprinter.

I think the same connections, I think ran a turf force last

year. No, he goes.

He goes a mile and an eighth on the turf for me.

There you go, Alan. Porter from True Nicks.

Giving us the thoughts on stark contrast and of course the rest

of the field there. Catch him every Wednesday in the

Blood Horse Daily and of course at True Nicks as well.

Alan, really appreciate you jumping on the show and good

luck with all your Derby wagers. Thank you.

All right, thank you so much for Alan for joining us on the

podcast here once again, you can find him in the Blood Horse

Daily every single Wednesday of his pedigree analysis.

That will also be up on the Blood Horse website in the that

morning as well. So subscribe to the Blood Horse

Daily. Come straight to your e-mail.

Just go to the top of the homepage of Blood Horse.

You will find the tab there in order to do so.

A lot of great stuff in there. Coming up, we're going to have a

lot of Derby features here on Blood Horse.

We're going to be talking a lot of the connections.

I just myself a couple days ago, I spoke with Jaime Torres about

kind of the the change that he had going from being a

relatively unknown rider to winning the Preakness, suddenly

being on the big stage and then riding two horses that qualified

for the Derby this year in Incredible 2.

He will ride in the Derby and Albus for Riley Mott.

So we're going to have great stories like that coming up in

the Blood Horse daily now through the Kentucky Derby.

So you're going to want to make sure that you sign on for that.

And Kevin, we're getting closer and closer.

We got a nice little kind of mouth watering for the Kentucky

Derby by having the big matchup in the Oakland Handicap this

past weekend. How exciting is this next week

and 1/2 here going to be for? US yeah, it's the best time to

be a fan of horse racing, to be in horse racing, to be on the

backside. You know, it's just not only

just what's happening on the track right now, but all the

memories that can I come forward and you hear all the stories,

right, People just so excited to tell the stories of the past

derbies, these past winters. All this sort of stuff starts

coming through and yeah, no place I'd rather be even on my

day off. Exactly.

That's why we're here on our days off because we just love it

that much. We love the Kentucky Derby.

You mentioned those stories and building memories and

everything, and this is really one of the big events that does

that. And for me, I had a moment like

that this weekend being at Oaklawn.

So my mom is a huge Sovereignty fan, and so she came all the way

out. She wasn't sure if she was going

to make it out. We mentioned on the podcast last

Monday that she was not planning to be there.

She thought about it. She decided with coming to the

Derby next week, she probably shouldn't do it.

And then her and I were talking on Tuesday and I could tell in

her voice that she did not want to miss Sovereignty coming back

for his race this year. And she ended up 10 minutes

after a phone conversation, she texted me saying, I'll see you

at Oakland. I'm arriving Friday night, Come

pick me up. And so she came out.

She obviously, you know, she was disappointed at sovereignty

loss, but she was so happy to see him.

Kevin, you're kind of on the flip side of me in our stages of

life at the moment when it comes to that stuff.

You know, you're, you have your kids that you're starting to

kind of bring out here to the race track, building those

experiences with them. I'm on the side where, you know,

my parents, we're not really into horse racing before I got

involved. And so now I'm starting to kind

of use my my access back here to kind of give them some awesome

experiences and kind of paying them back that way.

And you know, my mom coming out to see Sovereignty, she got to

go and we had Matt Dinnerman on the podcast last week, but you

got to go sit in on him watching a race or calling a race while

we were at Oak Lawn. I mentioned on the podcast when

I was at Aqueduct a few weeks ago that I got to get my dad in

the winner's circle because somebody I knew won one of the

races. So we were able to get him in

the winner's circle. I ordered him the winner's

circle photo and he texted me all excited, like, oh, these are

the same ones that they have on the wall at Wagner's over there.

And so getting to see that kind of excitement in my parents and

you know, everything as we're getting closer, this is the time

of year that really kind of it makes me feel kind of think

about that kind of stuff that's. Great, I mean.

And I know you're probably in that same boat right now as

well. Not with your parents

necessarily, but. Still trying to get any of my

family involved in this stuff. I mean, my family back home in

Kansas City, they're all still like, yeah, wait, what are you

doing? You know what's going on?

You know, they're supportive as can be, but they still can't

quite figure it out. And my kids, you know, my

daughter, she'll come out with me and I'll usually sit, you

know, right by the finish line and watch the works.

And she likes to come out and, you know, bring her book and,

and really enjoys the horses, enjoys the morning.

So. But I haven't got them to get

that excited. So good for you, you know, Sean,

for you to get them. You'll get them.

I'm trying. But you know, it's just, it's

one of those things, you know, when I'm not from a horse racing

area, I'm from Pennsylvania. And so you know when I what?

About you're not going to get the PA bread.

Oh, I know we need to get the I know we need to get the PA bread

sponsorship on here. Pennsylvania bread myself.

Louis hates when people call themselves like a some state

bread, the mid, I guess probably because Michigan breads don't

really exist. That's probably why he hates it.

He can't really call himself that.

But but you know, it's, it's that like, you know, growing up

in that kind of area where, you know, my parents heard a lot of

like, oh, your son's going to college for horse racing, Like

what's he going to do with that? Never wavered on their support.

So to be able to kind of pay them back now of all these cool

experiences is pretty awesome. And seeing my seeing my mom's

excitement to see Sovereignty, seeing my dad's excitement to be

in the winner's circle has been pretty cool.

Kind of seeing them learn more and more about the sport as I

have. But this is the time of year for

that. So I recommend to anybody

watching, you know, if you have that favorite horse that you

really love and you've only ever watched them on TV and you have

the opportunity to go see them race.

You know, if it works out, go book that flight, go take that

once in a lifetime opportunity from two guys who love being out

here on the racetrack every single morning.

Take that opportunity. There's nothing like being here.

There's nothing like seeing the horse in person.

I think you and I are two people that really embody that here on

the industry is that we just love being out.

Here the mornings. The mornings I.

Love, I love the afternoons, the races are so fun, but the the

mornings are are absolutely special.

So if you can get on the backside or even on the front

side to watch them train, I think you just get it in a

different. Way yeah, and I mean, we're

seeing that. I know I've made no secret about

how much I like to travel for horse races on this show.

We talk about that all the time, but there's certain horses out

there that just kind of get you moving around.

Sovereignty and journalism were two of those this past weekend

for me. And I've what it was going to

say this at some point on the podcast, even before the Hong

Kong Jockey Club sponsored this episode, which thanks again to

them for sponsoring Kai Young rising and Romantic warrior.

They're two insane talents. I'm looking at trying to get out

to Hong Kong now in December. I want to, I'm thinking about

going out there to see them cuz I mean, they're just, they're

special horses and there's certain horses out there.

I'm lucky where forever young comes here for the Breeders Cup

to where I don't have to worry about trying to travel to see

him. I would like to see him run in

Japan though, if that worked out, But not that he ever not

that he ever runs there, but but you know, it's horses like that,

these special horses that you know, could be kind of those

once in a lifetime type horses that you want to go see.

So I'm even looking at if Kyung rising goes back to the Everest

in Australia this year, going down down for that potentially

if it works out. So I'm starting to eye some some

of those races. So I always recommend, obviously

you don't have to fly all the way out to Hong Kong to see your

favorite horse. I'm a little bit crazy when it

comes to that. That's good crazy, but but go

ahead and take the take the jump, get on that plane.

Come down here if you love sovereignty and you've never

seen him in person fly down here for the Stephen Foster.

It's a great day of racing anyway, I'll let you you can

promote that since you are the Churchill Downs representative

here. I was going.

To say we keep on racing after the Derby, you know, Wednesday

through Sunday in June, but up up until then, it's Thursday

through Sunday. So come on out and join us to

the track any of the days, you know, it's it's it's it's, it's

a neat place to be, that's for sure.

It's. Going to be a busy weekend for

me. Sovereignty running on Saturday

and then hop on a plane, head on out to Aqueduct for the final

day of racing at Aqueduct. You already know you're doing

then. I don't even know where I'm

taking my kids tonight. I know they got practices

somewhere. I got to look.

At the you do not want to see what my calendar looks like as

far as targeted races. There's a lot of things on there

I'm probably not going to hit, but they're planned just in case

I can. I think I had Emerald Downs last

year on on the the Long Acres mile.

I had that on my radar since April.

I didn't actually book the ticket until like 3 days before

the race. Yeah, because I wasn't sure if I

was gonna be able to make it work and I was like, alright,

I'm just gonna go do. It yeah, you gotta pull the

trigger. Yeah, I gotta pull the trigger,

but so go pull the trigger. Come out there, see your

favorite horse, get to your local racetrack, especially on

Kentucky Derby day. Go enjoy it with the fans.

You can follow all the lead up to the Kentucky Derby on the

Churchill Downs Morning Work Show Kentucky.

Got it on YouTube, find it on Facebook, find it on X just at

Kentucky Derby. Yep.

So follow them on their, you can keep an eye on all the Derby

horses on Blood Horses channels as well on a Pharaoh 12's

YouTube channel. And you can also follow along

Blood Horse at the Derby beginning.

I believe this Saturday Louis and I will be covering the draw

and everything. So make sure you check that out

once again, thanks again to the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Make sure you check out those championship races this weekend.

Kangeng Rising and Romantic Warrior back in action.

First post at 12:30 AM Eastern Time.

Will Louis be back on the show when we start Blood Horse at the

Derby or is Kevin now my new permanent Co host?

Find out next week. The Blood Horse is dedicated to

the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing over 100

years. Don't forget to like, subscribe

and save Blood Horse Monday on all your platform.

For the latest news, analysis and insights, visit us at

bloodhorse.com. Thanks for listening and we'll

see you next week.