BloodHorse at Kentucky Derby 152 | Silent Tactic OUT, Team The Puma

All right, welcome into a Wednesday edition of Blood horse

at the Derby. Wednesday is what we typically

call this Wednesday before the Kentucky Derby here at Churchill

Downs. Although today wind day might be

a more appropriate name for the day as we've had non-stop rain

showers kind of going off and on throughout the day.

Pretty hard rain as you can see behind me there.

The track is sloppy as I stand just outside of the mile shoot.

Now I am Sean Collins of Blood Horse and we're happy to be

presented today by we Have Been All week by Alex Smallwood of

Christie's Bluegrass. Make sure you go ahead and check

them out and thank you to Alex for sponsoring our Blood Horse

at the Derby coverage. Now I'm alone at the moment.

Usually I have my Co host Louis Ribbo alongside of me and he

will be alongside of me later on in the episode.

But we had finished filming today's episode of Blood Horse

at the Derby and then after he went off to his radio show and

after I went on to hop on with the Racing Post out there in

England, give our selections for the Kentucky Derby.

You can check that out On Friday.

We got some breaking news here at Churchill Downs and that

breaking news is that Silent Tactic, the runner up in the

Arkansas Derby and winner of the Southwest Stakes earlier in the

year, has scratched from the 152nd Kentucky Derby.

Now I had an opportunity to talk with Mark Cassie just a few

minutes ago. It sounds like he is a foot

bruise that has knocked Silent Tactic out of the Kentucky

Derby. This is something that has been

and kind of lingering off and on for the last several months, but

it flared up in the last day or so as Silent Tactic was out here

training. And so Mark Cassie and the team

has made the tough decision, but the proper decision to take care

of the horse, to go ahead and scratch.

Hopefully, if it all clears up in good time, then we can see

Silent Tactic in the Preakness Stakes.

But let's go ahead and hear Mark Cassie's thoughts on Silent

Tactic. All right, a rainy day here at

Churchill Downs, probably reflective of the mood inside

the Cassie barn. Today, as we have announced,

that silent tactic is going to have to be scratched from the

Kentucky Derby with a foot bruise.

Mark just kind of take us through the decision and what's

been going on with him. You know, he, he's fought this

for a long time. It comes and goes.

You, you never know when it's going to come.

You never know when it's going to go.

I just wasn't that happy with him this morning.

He's actually fine galloping or even working.

It's just jogging. It's almost like has a little

bit of separation, like if you took your nail and you ever have

your nail separate underneath it and it's, it's painful on the

jog. He wasn't jogging 100% this

morning. And so I wanted to get, we

wanted to get on it and start working on that foot.

And to do that, we need to go ahead and scratch.

And we weren't going to. He was going to be at his best

on Saturday. So we're going to aim for the

Preakness and, and say so yeah, we're we're going to look at the

Preakness and see what happens. You said this is something that

you've kind of dealt with with him for a while.

When, when did it really start this this specific instance?

When did it kind of start to flare up?

Day or so ago, you know, it comes and goes.

It's been going. He he's, you know, he's had some

issues for six months. They come and go.

And normally, you know, we can deal with it and, and we have,

we, we do different types of shoeing and different, different

things. But it was just bad timing.

And, and so it's not a big deal. He's it's not a big deal at all.

It's just bad timing. Yeah, no.

Horse always comes first. You won't want to put them out

there 100%. No, we're not.

You're not. We're not going to run him.

And you know, so and Mr. Oxley, I, I feel honestly, I feel bad

for him. I feel bad for Christian Torres.

For me, this is my life. You know, it's everyday

something's going on, but we're always going to put the horse

first. And you still have the

opportunity to look forward to the Kentucky Oaks Hero, Counting

Stars and Search party. How are they coming into the

Oaks? They're both coming in really

well. I think both are doing good.

You know, counting stars, she's a little more versatile than

than search party. Search party is going to need

some pace, but I think there looks like there's a fair amount

of pace. Both both Phillies really like

it here too. They like Churchill Downs.

And silent tactic you mentioned you're going to hope for the

Preakness is this take us into the, you know, the life of a

trainer here. These kind of flip bruises.

Is this usually something that can get cleared up kind of

quick? Yeah, I can.

A flip bruise is crazy though. You, you can have it, you know,

war will. He came up out with a foot

bruise after the Derby and he missed four or five days of

training between the Derby and the Preakness and he was fine.

We got him better. He won the Preakness.

This has been lingering and it can linger for a long time.

It's just a day-to-day thing. And he worked very well the

other day, actually came out was work in good order.

And, you know, then just kind of started and it was very slight,

but enough that it was a concern and and we're not going to take

any chances. Well, thank you so much, Mark,

for taking the time to share that with us here.

Best of luck in the Kentucky Oaks and we hope the best for

Silent Tactic and we hope that we can see him in the Preakness

in a couple weeks. Sounds good.

All right, thank you very much to Mark Cassie for taking the

time to speak with us there. I actually accidentally woke him

up from his nap as I knocked out the office door.

But luckily he was already in the process of waking up anyway,

so he was still gracious enough to do that interview with us.

And hopefully he's going to get some rest in now before the

third race when he's got a horse here at Churchill Downs on

Wednesday. But hey, that's the way that the

game goes sometimes. You put all that preparation in

and then something like that happens.

You want to do right by the horse, but the timing, you know,

it always sucks. But best of luck to the Cassie

team and well wishes to silent tactic that they can get that

cleared up pretty quickly and we will see him over at the

Preakness hopefully in just a little over 2 weeks.

Now obviously there's quite a bit of disappointment over there

in the Mark Cassie barn right now, but on the flip side of

that, the connections of Great White are having a very happy

day right now. Trainer John Ennis and who also

Co owns Great White along with Three Chimneys Farm, they're now

in the Kentucky Derby. So what's going on now with the

Kentucky Derby? How does this impact the race?

Great White is going to slide into the outside of the starting

gate. So right now he's in post

position #20 Silent Tactic was in post position #13 so

everybody outside of him, 14 through 20 is going to shift

down one position. Now, if you're new to horse

racing, if you're just tuning in for the Kentucky Derby, the

numbers that they wear on their backs will remain the same.

Those are their programs, gram numbers.

And so that's going to be what you're betting on.

So you don't have to worry about the numbers changing, but

everybody is going to slide in one post position.

Now, what does that mean as far as the curse of post position

#17 which we talked about in our post position draw episode on

Sunday? So 6 speed, who was in the 17 is

now down in the 16. And that puts poor further ado

from post 18 into post 17. So that is the curse position.

It's probably just a statistical anomaly.

It's over 46th of the Kentucky Derby, no real reason to it, but

hey, I've been promoting on Blood Horse Monday and I've been

promoting here on this show because the curse of the 17

exists and so we're going to go ahead and give that little

update here. Now, what does that mean for

Further Ado? Well, he could still get into

the 16 potentially. There's more scratches that

actually happened to Sovereignty last year.

One scratch put him in the 17 and then another scratch put him

in the 16. So he was able to avoid that

curse. As far as 6 speed goes,

unfortunately the number itself on the horse's back has never

won either. So we're getting, we might find

out this year if one of them wins, whether it's the number of

the post position that's actually cursed.

But 6 speed, unfortunately, it sounds like you're still

carrying that number 17 curse. But Great White is in the field.

What does this mean for the actual race itself once they

come out of the starting gate? Silent Tactic was going to be a

closer, probably a deep closer in this race.

So it's not going to have much impact on the pace.

Great White could potentially have an impact on the pace

scenario. He was forward in his last

couple of races, especially in the Bluegrass Stakes, his one

run on dirt leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

However, we did talk to trainer John Ennis on this show just a

few days ago about what the tactics.

Might be from that far. Outside post position.

So let's go ahead and remind ourselves what John Ennis said

on that episode while he was grazing Great White, as far as

how he will plans to run in the Kentucky Derby.

How do you envision could be if he does draw into the Derby,

he's obviously going to be in the outside of the gate.

How can you envision his success happening at the Derby?

What does he need to kind of unfold for him?

Well, he needs to improve obviously a lot.

I just I'd like to see him. I'm I'm much happier now this

week than I was going into weaker bluegrass with him

Physically. I've kept him fresher and done

less speed work with him. I we're going to just take our

time in the Derby. If he gets in there right mid

pack somewhere like that and he just he can't be on the front,

Sir, like he was in the bluegrass.

He's he's a very green horse tail.

So we will kind of ride him in the middle of the field

somewhere and kind of see how we get on.

And obviously it is still Wednesday, Wednesday before

Kentucky Derby. The scratch time for the rest of

the also eligibles to get in is typically, I believe 9:00 AM on

Friday. So it'll be Friday morning when

the bedding opens on all on the Kentucky Oaks card, which has a

lot of those two day wagers on it.

That will be the deadline for the rest of the also eligibles

to get in. So who's in next if we have any

more scratches? Ocelli the maiden, who is. 3rd

in the Wood Memorial. Just a couple of weeks ago he

barely lost that second place spot in a head Bob with Right to

Party that I know. The Connections are very

disappointed in that. They were really hoping to run

in the Kentucky Derby. They might get their chance.

They are the next ones in now if two scratches happen.

Robust, A stablemate to Pavlovian, owned by Calumet

Farm, trained by Doug O'Neill, he would be the next one in if

there are two scratches. If there are three scratches,

then Dallas Stewart, who is known for long shots running

well in the Kentucky Derby, he will get Corona de Oro into the

field. He is the last of the also

eligibles. So if we somehow end up getting

more scratches than Corona de Oro, then we will not see be a

full starting gate. But luckily we still have three

more alternates just in case there are any more defections.

Obviously we hope that there are no defections.

We want everybody to make it to the Kentucky Derby starting gate

in perfect order. But that's kind of how this is

shaping up. It doesn't look like the silent

Tactics scratch is going to have much of an impact on the way the

race unfolds itself. But you are going to have to

look at now the huge horse, Great White, one of the biggest

horses I've ever seen, and he is going to be inside of stall #21

on the outside. So we'll see how that all shakes

out. Now we will go ahead and cut to

Louis and myself inside of the Backside Learning Center where

we did film the show prior to knowing Silent Tactic was

scratched from the field. So here is the rest of Blood

Horse at the Derby here on the Wednesday before.

Once again, thanks to Alex Smallwood for presenting our

Blood Horse at the Derby coverage.

All right, welcome in Wednesday edition of Blood Horse at Derby

152 alongside Charlotte College. My name is Louie Robot.

We are indoors today, a very, very rainy day here at Churchill

Downs. You can kind of see a little bit

of the moisture on Shawn's shoulders.

This jacket is not supposed to be this brown, I promise you.

And I'm sure you notice this hat from previous days is

considerably darker than it has. But we're inside the Backside

Learning Center, kind of taking people all over the track here.

What are these places that you'll hear about later in the

episode with our friend Brooke Smith, who's been on the pod

several times on Blood Horse Monday?

How important this place is to him.

It's frankly to everyone who works here on the backside at

Churchill Downs and and extending past this place.

You'll hear from the director as well later in the episode.

But up first here, Sean, besides the weather, it's starting to

pick up. You could really feel the Derby

fever at this point. Oh, yeah, You can really feel

the Derby fever. We're at the point now where

because of the timing of everyone's breezes, we're going

to start having every Derby horse on the track on the same

day. They won't be having their day

off from after their breeze coming up here.

So I think probably with the Wonder Dean coming back out

tomorrow, I imagine that that would be the case.

And so, yeah, it's picking up the crowds getting bigger here

on the backside each morning. And so even with the rain today,

we had a great crowd of people out there along the rail taking

in the sight of the horses. The owners are filtering in more

and more of them and all the people that they're bringing

with them. So you can really feel the

excitement picking up. It really is picking up.

We're going to talk first up today, Sean, with Ramiro

Restrepo, who was part of the Beige team just a few years ago

coming out of the Florida Derby and of course winning here at

Churchill Downs in the Kentucky Derby is in the representation

group. We'll call it that for the Puma

this year and call themself essentially their number one

cheerleader in this. Ramiro's one of those guys,

though, that that has a really great eye and you'll hear from

him. I asked him a question about,

you know, going all in on an essential quality.

You know what, what is that like with the a newer sire, that sort

of thing as well. But it's not an accident when

you come back with this kind of frequency with horses.

Ramiro, one of those guys. Yeah, he is one of those guys.

And you know, he, he maybe. Took a little bit of the credit

out for himself. In this interview, but you know

he did play an important role on the bloodstock side of things

absolutely got this worse. So obviously that's a very

important piece of the puzzle is first acquiring the horse.

No, not about to begin with. And so that's a very important

piece of the puzzle. And they betting opened for the

Derby yesterday and the Puma opened as the three to one, the

three to one favorite right now. There's a lot of hype about the

Puma right now. He's looked pretty good out

there on the race track. He does.

He does kind of have a little bit of.

A weird way of moving sometimes, the way his legs go, that's just

him. That's not anything to be

concerned about and obviously it's worked out for him as well

in the past. He's been a very successful

horse throughout the winter and he does seem like he's kind of

on that mage projection. He maybe got a little, he has a

great at stakes win. So that's a key difference

between him and mage. But he does seem like the kind

of horse that's on that kind of progression.

And the Delgados have ready to peek here on Kentucky Derby day.

So he definitely seems like that.

But yeah, Ramiro being back here, the Derby, I mean, we

mentioned it with Mike Ripoli on the show yesterday about his

bloodstock group having the favorite morning line favorite

for three of the last four derbies.

How incredible that is. We're going to talk to Brooke

Smith later in the show. As you mentioned, he was in

back-to-back Kentucky derbies with Sierra Leone and rendered

judgement. And so you can kind of see when

some of these guys are coming back year after year.

Obviously, they've found what has worked.

They have found the right team of people they need around them

in order to be successful. And it seems like Ramiro, the

Delgados, it seems like they have that group kind of put

together right now and they've got everything's clicking for

them. And so here they are, back

again, three years later, trying to win another Kentucky Derby.

Incredible. Anything you want the audience

to know before we throw to Ramiro?

No, it's just I. Think I don't want to spoil.

It anyway, frankly. Yeah, I know, but neither do I.

Just know it was not raining at the start when we when we chose

to do this outside so you can gradually see us get.

Wetter, wetter we. Promised and we did verify.

We did ask. Oh, are you OK with doing it out

here? And he did say yes, so let's put

that out there. But no, it's I got a chance to

the first time I ever met Ramiro was the day after major one that

can tell. And he's always been so great

with his time. And this is a guy who and he's

loved horse racing his whole life.

And so he really is a guy that, you know, appreciates being here

for events like this. He really is just trying to, you

know, have fun in the industry. And then he's also, you know,

one of those guys who likes to give back to the industry as

well, which we'll see a theme of that with Brooke later on as

well. But so yeah, he's, I had a great

chance to kind of talk with him for like a long, like 30-40

minutes. I wasn't even.

That was back the day after meeting the Derby.

I hadn't even worked for Bloodhorse yet at that point.

He just took the time to talk with me about things.

And yeah, he's he's one of the guys that he puts a lot of time

and effort into this every single day.

And so when he gets rewarded to break come out here with a

horse, with a Derby, that's it's always a nice thing.

And you can see in this interview you'll be able to tell

even though he is the. More into the cheerleader role.

This time, just how much he appreciates being here.

Trackside with Ramiro. You hear from him now.

Well, welcome in Blood Horse at Derby 152, Louie Roshawn

Collins, of course, with Ramiro Restrepo for the ownership team

of the Puma. We just learned, not the Puma as

has been said by others in media.

We will not do that to you. That answers our question.

I did a couple episodes ago, yeah.

Going to get to that. Well, good morning, good wet

morning to you. How are you?

Thank you, Louis. Thanks for having me, Sean.

How's it going? Guys go, we're doing great.

Obviously Derby week, all these things.

You've done this before. What's it like being back?

Is there less pressure after you win one of these things?

How does it? How does that work out?

What's a little different? My my role and my journey is a

little different. I know on this cold I'm just the

blood slack agent and I Rep a couple of the owners that are in

their GR ranch and high step racing to my clients.

So I'm more here as like the number one cheerleader for the

horse and and support for for the guys.

Very happy and blessed to be here.

You know the first go around your bright eyed and like just

in shock of the surroundings and can't even digest the fact that

you even now that we still want it.

But this is like a business trip and you know, you definitely

feel comfortable being here and hopeful for another lovely

result. Well, you mentioned that your

bloodstock agent here. What was it about the Puma that

you guys really liked when you were picking him out at the

sales? Well, it was like a combination

of things from both junior and minds thought process.

Like he had a fantastic work. I think he had a 46 and change

gallop out, which for that consignment, Hidden Brook was

really unique. His damn eve of war was one of

those like Shoulda Coulda Woulda, but different race

mares, kind of like puka, and those were some of the things

that really stuck out in my mind physically.

I know for Gustavo Junior, it the look of the horse, the

stoutness and his unique action kind of like caught his

attention to the other red colt from 2023.

So, you know, I could see how that was appealing to Junior's

eyes. So, you know, when we combine

our our thoughts and our our NFL big board on the draft, we

placed them high up there and went for them and got them.

When you're looking for horses, you mentioned it kind of maybe

some of that color of Mage kind of picking up some of your

guys's eyes. How much are you looking for

what Mage had now that you kind of know what to look for, How

much are you at the sales? Kind of looking for what Mage

had when you're looking for a Kentucky Derby prospect?

Well, from mages from with mage had physically was his own

unique traits. He reminded me a lot of good

magic. Go watch side by side tapes of

good magic in the beers cup juvenile in the Haskell.

His action, his his motion, his his movement was just like his

daddy's and I think all good horses in general.

Besides the physical attributes that you can apply to their

pedigree or to what you know you feel comfortable with

confirmation wise, Sean, what you're really looking for is

their demeanor, their disposition.

How they exude intelligence and class and obviously in a brief

show, athleticism and how they do their, you know, their motion

and their workouts. It's it'd be, I'd be a miss to

say, Oh yeah, we're only looking for Derby horses.

This is what a Derby horse looks like, but you're looking for

just attributes of a classy good horse.

All right, you mentioned daddy there and we're talking about

Ramiro Restrepo, excuse me from the Puma team.

Essential quality. When you're looking at stallions

like this, sires like this that are, you know, newer to the, you

know, having three-year olds and high quality 3 year olds at this

level. What are you looking for?

Is it the physical attributes or is it kind of?

Is it a bit of a gamble with a with newer sires?

You know, when you're operating at a limited budget, you know

and you're going to be battling everyone who's looking for the

Uncle Moe's and the into mischiefs and the tappets and

all this. So you're looking for an angle

with the first year sires and we've been fortunate to have a

good run of that of buying those first year sires.

I like to look for a first year sire that has a runner was the

real deal. And when you look at essential

qualities, peepees, I mean, it's, it's pretty, it's just a

really impressive, you know what I mean?

And you see his physical attributes and you try to say,

you know, what does he have that that the babies might have and

try to find the similarity, see how he's stamping them and

hoping that there's a little bit of a of a cloning there and that

they can inherit some of the internal gifts too.

Now, as you've gotten him onto the racetrack.

He was a maiden. Still, when he won the Tampa Bay

Derby, what gave you guys the confidence out of his debut to

then pursue the Sam Davis in the Tampa Bay Derby with him, even

though he still hadn't gotten that win yet?

Well, that's all on Gustavo's the one who drives the bus with

that. You know when you have a trainer

that's been around enough to turn route 3 year old Colts,

they know what they know what a 2 year old or excuse me, what a

racehorse looks like on the track in terms of what ability

he's carrying. If you remember, he had Bodhi

express that won the Clark. He ran him as a maiden through

the toll Triple Crown process and had been in he lost a maiden

race against chance a lot by a nose.

So like and kept on through the path.

So you know he's been around good horses.

Cara Caro was second in the Florida Derby, actually was

second in the Travers Majesta that was second in the in the

and Bodie Express, a second in the Florida Derby.

So they've been around these kind of horses.

They've been down the ship of contrail and they have the

confidence that the horse had that kind of ability and if he

could go through the steps and qualify, it would leave him

here. And he did.

The team has had a lot of seconds in the Florida Derby,

this one being one of them. It worked out with Mage a couple

years ago. Obviously we've seen some

successes you mentioned with some of the other ones as well.

How does you guys, I know you wanted to win the Florida Derby,

you would have liked to get your nose down, but does it give you

a little little confidence, a little good luck that you were

second in the Florida Derby at all?

I mean, look. It's he's here, right?

Who? Doesn't want to win, right?

But he's here, right? But we're here.

We made it. You made it back to the show.

You know, the team made it back to the dance.

And that's all you really want is just progression and to show

that you belong and the horses done that on both fronts.

And you just are thankful he's here, healthy, feeling good,

training well by all accounts, and hoping that he's ready to

fire his best on Saturday. All right, so I got to ask you,

I'm, you know, you're the handicapper here and the Tampa

route this year has been so fruitful.

We see Renegade leave Tampa, go win the Arkansas Derby.

A maiden winner in emerging market goes to New Orleans with

Louisiana Derby. Your horse goes down darn near

picks off the Florida Derby. Does that give you some hope

that maybe that that Tampa was the good starting point for this

guy? Oh, totally.

I mean, look, Tampa's a fantastic race track.

It's a wonderful surface. Just a pleasure to have horses

run over there and you see the results obviously coming out of

there. I think it's just cool that the

colt, every race that he's been in, he's took it on, you know,

top class horses. So and he's have a fantastic

record, you know, against her. Yeah, we've taken a couple of

Owls against Renegade and Chief Wallaby, but we've come back

and, you know, by most accounts gotten back, you know, our

revenge. So look, the Tampa results speak

for themselves, like you mentioned, all across the

country, and you're just hopeful that it all comes together for

Saturday and that's like the most important thing.

Well, not only Tampa, but the top three finishers there in the

Florida Derby are going to come and be some of the top betting

choices here. The Kentucky Derby.

With everything going on right now in Florida with the

decoupling issue and all that, how big is this for the state of

Florida to see these horses running so well down there

coming up and being the top horses up here for the Kentucky

Derby? Well, it just goes to show how

Florida is so important to our ecosystem from Ocala, the horses

that are raised there that are broken and pinhooked there.

It's just an important cog to to our industry.

And year in, year out, you see horses that come out of the

Florida Derby and the Tampa Bay Derby and the, and the and those

Triple Crown series to watch them go out and have success.

And in the past we had Hialeah Park, which was another huge

winter destination. You know, it's historically the

tradition and the importance is super vital.

And hopefully the powers that be, whoever they are, come

together for some type of resolution where we know that

there is going to be something there permanent and concrete.

And going forward, we don't have to think about those issues of

uncertainty. Last one from me.

Puma did not breathe, did not do a full work.

A time to work here at Churchill Dallas.

How's he looked on the surface though?

Look, the colt ran a bunch of races in a short period of time.

He came back on three weeks to run in another monster effort.

Every time he's been on the track, he's laid it down and

given a heck of an effort. His work 2 Saturdays ago was,

you know, a mile and 1:37 and changed and with a, with a, with

a savage gallop out. They've been galloping him here.

Colt seems to be happy and training well.

I think sometimes, you know, people who don't have the

practical experience or have their own unique training style,

maybe don't recognize how training is in cookie cutter.

Every horse has their own particular system in in

bodybuilding. Not everybody works out

differently. Ronnie Coleman trained different

than Dorian Yates, like everyone has a different program.

So for you to think that a horse needs to breathe every seven

days and this and that, it's just something that look, I

don't blame those on the outside who have question marks.

It's just everything is tailor made to the individual horse.

You can't just have a blanket statement.

I remember last year Mage Brees, his last work and everybody was

saying how slow it was, a 116 or whatever it was.

And everybody was like, what is that total work?

But there's a method to, you know, people's programming and I

think that needs to be respected.

Clearly Gustavo knows how to how to get a good horse to go a

distance aground. And you know, if this is what

the training that the Puma needs, it's what he needs to

give his effort on Saturday. This is an industry, well, this

is a race where a lot of times people are like, what?

We'll take whatever we can get as far as, you know, luck or

anything like that. When it comes to the Derby, the

Puma is in Mage's stall, maybe a good omen there.

When we asked Doug O'Neill about Pavlovian being in Nyquist stall

a few days ago, he's like, that was definitely.

Intentional and. We're going to take whatever.

We can get. Absolutely.

Is there any kind of thought process for you guys keeping him

in that same stall? Oh, I mean, I don't know how it

ended up happening, whether it was Quest or the powers that be,

but you know, it's always nice to be home and it's lovely to

have those kind of good vibes surrounding the horse.

I mean, like I said, that 22 three moment for everyone was

one of the most beautiful experiences you can experience

with a group of friends and a group of partners ever.

And if any of that magic can carry over to this year, I'll

take it for sure. Is there any part of that

experience? A lot of times, maybe sometimes

when people win something the first time, it's such a chaotic

moment that you don't necessarily get to sit down and

enjoy it as it's happening. Is there any part of the

experience that if you get a second chance, you're gonna kind

of take a little extra moment to appreciate part of it now that

you know what to expect? Well, you know, I was lucky that

America's Best Racing actually followed me around the whole day

for the experience, so I was very fortunate to have like this

8 minute documentary that I probably watch once a week to

lift my spirits and enjoy every second of it.

So selfishly speaking, I got to soak it all in and I still did

to this day. For this one, it's more about

the clients and it's more about the partners in on the horse.

I'm just the number one cheerleader here.

I have a secondary role to just make sure that that they're

happy that they're enjoying their moment in the sun.

I'm thankful that you guys even want to chat with me about this

and give my two cents about what's going on.

But I'm way more behind the scenes here.

I'm an off to the side. I'm just, you know, it's cool to

observe it from afar, but it's all about Jr.

Ranch high step racing, Michael Ivor on Bruce Alden and

obviously the Gustavos. This is their moment in the sun,

their moment to enjoy all this and their moment to bask in the

glow. And if the horse happens to win,

it's cool for my resume and, and just, you know, be thankful of

that. But it's for these guys to, to,

to really soak it in and, and I have my video to, to enjoy my,

my mage moment. Well, I think that's a perfect

spot to wrap this up. Ramiro, really appreciate the

time. All the best up until Saturday

and on Saturday. Safe trip and all that.

Thank you, Luke. Thank you.

Thanks, Sean. All right, thanks to Ramiro

Restrepo, they're part of the Puma team here at churches now

break from the 9. I think he's going to be single

digit odds this weekend for sure.

And so it's an interesting development on that front.

Speaking of developments, of course the weather always a

question this time of year in the Ohio, the Ohio Valley, no

different this year ahead of Kentucky Derby 152.

It rained a lot the other day and the track we came out on

Tuesday and it was fast and firm and we were good to go.

It rained even more last night and it is not fast and firm

today. No, it's it's been interesting

kind of watching the weather. I feel thankful that this did

not come over the weekend. I know that we had a little bit

of rain that made Riley Mott. Choose to push out this an

incredible work back a day. But I always say Brad Cox is the

Gee for me for whether or not it's going to be bad rain.

The fact that he sent his horses out on Saturday.

I was like, all right, he's, he's thinking, thinking well

about the weather. So it's not as important.

I feel like that we're getting the rain right now when it comes

to. You know, the daily training and

the galloping and stuff. But you did see a couple, a

couple. Changes in some people's

schedules and kind of what they were doing today.

For example, Renegade did not do like a full jog over to the

front side. He just kind of came out, took a

right and he immediately went into his gallop as did Zany for

the Kentucky Oaks. That's not a surprise that Todd

Pletcher horses I've seen do that for the Derby anytime we've

had a wet track in the past. Sure.

So that that that's not that's not a surprise there.

Albison incredible were the first two on track this morning.

Brad Cox actually did not send full effort and commandment out

first thing like they had been doing.

So I thought that was a little interesting.

Also a little interesting this morning was Commandment Galloped

galloped with a partner, so. And he had been working

exclusively solo before. That yeah, he, well, yes, but

like especially in the gallops too, he had a different rider on

in the day, Jonathan instead of Katie, and he was galloping with

a partner. So I'm not entirely sure what

what the goal was with him there.

So I thought that I thought that was a bit interesting.

Probably just trying to make maybe keep him a little bit more

focused in the training today would be my guess.

Well, Brad Cox has told us before he'll do small changes

with horses to kind of indicate, hey, a big day is coming.

Exactly. And sometimes he'll change the

time of day. Yeah, sometimes he'll change.

And perhaps this is one of those where hey, Extra horse, get out

there, let him know, hey, we're doing something a little

different. Today, yeah, so.

I thought that was probably that was, that was the biggest

talking point of the of the morning for me because the fact

that Commandment came out and did that and then full effort

did end up coming out with further ado right after

Commandment was out here. So they did come out before the

break before. And I think the biggest shock to

me, this doesn't necessarily have to relate to the Derby

itself, but when the horses came out on the track this morning at

5:15, the tracker hadn't been sealed.

Yet right? So with all the rain we got last

night, when I was shocked when I got here yesterday morning and

it wasn't sealed and it actually looked pretty good to attract

maintenance teams on top of their game right now they're

they're getting they're getting them the water out of that track

as best they can. And so they're they're all all

systems are firing in the track maintenance crew team here at

the start of Kentucky Derby week it it appears.

But yeah, so I thought that was interesting.

We had the news yesterday on the FanDuel TV show that Golden

Tempo is dealing with a little bit of, I think they call it

cracked heels. Yep, yeah.

And so. Right.

Right Hind, I think, yeah. It doesn't sound like anything

that. Is to be too concerned about

it's kind of it sounds like it's kind of more just like, you

know, you think about like if your skin cracks on other hand

or something like that. So the main concern is just

making sure you don't get it infected.

My question will be as we get away from today with the weather

today and him going out on the seal track, whether or not that

does anything with him. So we'll have to keep an eye on

him over the next couple of days.

I feel like and see how he how he continues to train going

forward to it. But it sounded like from what

Cherie said yesterday, Cherie Devote, the trainer, it's kind

of like it's not anything to be super concerned about.

We talked to Brooke Smith right here in this room.

Yes, you'll see that next. Brooke has become a friend of

the show, which we like. One of the themes of this Derby

is who's not here? Yes, it is every year for sure,

but this year feels a little heavier for some reason.

But that noffe, of course, out of the spendthrift team Paladin,

of course, here would be Chad Brown's best Derby horse,

probably, unless you know how you feel about emerging market.

Tough game. It is a tough game, but Brooke

is probably one of those guys that I, if I were an owner, I

would look up to his his approach to this.

Exactly right. As far as hey, he's OK, we

needed to do XYZ. Hopefully he's back on the track

this year. We'll see him, you know, do

these things, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, absolutely one of the

themes here is who is not here? Yeah, it is a big theme.

Ted Nafi was obviously the favorite coming out of the two

year old season. Absolutely.

Yeah. We never even got to see him in

a prep in a three-year old race before he had some bone bruising

and he had to come off the Derby trail.

Paladin then took over the favoritism role.

We had Byron King on yesterday to talk about the Derby Dozen.

Ted Nafi was his starting horse on top of the Derby Dozen.

And then Further Ado had taken over for maybe a week and then

after that of Paladin took over once he won the Risen Star as

the number one. And so Byron then lost another

of his number ones when he got injured in his final workout

ahead of the Bluegrass. But luckily both horses are

fine. We will see them later on down

the line, create an interesting challenge for whoever does come

out of the Derby and the Triple Crown right down the line to

have to face them potentially in the future.

So, but it does play a big role. In the story of this Derby, a

little bit about the fact that we do have two horses that we

thought were clear Kentucky Derby contenders that are not

here. Right.

We still have a fantastic feel, don't get me wrong, but it

definitely was a big storyline. But I think the one thing I've

always admired about Brooke is his ability to talk about

horses, whether it's his own or others, and give you his

insight. And I thought he gave us great

insight to what it was like to lose the favorite for the

Kentucky Derby that close to the race, you know, a month out as

you're preparing for the final prep race.

So I thought he gave us some great insight.

And he's a guy who's had a lot of success recently, Sierra

Leone being one of them. You know, he's been in with the

Cool More partners on quite a few of these top horses

recently, both Paladin and Sierra Leone involved with the

Cool More owners. And so he knows what it's like

to have a lot of success recently and he's knows what

it's like now to be on this side as well.

So I think a very, very good perspective and obviously he

does a lot of work with the Backside Learning Center.

So we're going to hear some great information from him

there. We're also going to talk to

Sherri Stanley, the executive director of the Backside

Learning Center. A lot of great work here.

I'll let Brooke and Sherri tell you about all the great work

here, but I've had the opportunity to cover the

Backside Learning Center and several their events quite a bit

recently and really see how important this is to the

industry as a whole and especially to the community here

at Churchill Downs. It's a phenomenal organization.

They do a lot of great work with all the backstretch workers

here. Here's Brooke Smith from just a

few minutes ago. Frankly, with me and Sean all

right, rolling along on Blood horse at Kentucky Derby 152

alongside Sean Collins, my name is Louis Ramone.

I say alongside, it's actually not correct.

I'm alongside Brooke Smith here at the Backside Learning Center

and frankly, Brooke, a place that means a lot to you.

It does, and this a blood horse sandwich that I'm smashed in

between also means a lot. No, it's great because you know

when something arrives, you call that its initials, right?

So you know, BLC. So that's that's the thing.

Backside Learning Center is a mouthful.

But BLC scrolls right off. You're talking like a BLT,

right? I agree.

So Sherry pro BLT in case anyone was wondering out there.

Brooke pro BLT I assume a. 100% good to know they need tomatoes

tell as a young man and I'm making up for lost time,

especially on BLT. So, yeah, I mean, when you start

thinking about things, the sport, the industries and and

how they function, you know, machines right now we're all

focused on technology, but there's still people right,

involved in everything that we do, especially in horse racing,

especially on the backside. And BLC has turned into an

organization that is beyond vital and it's it continues to

grow. It continues to expand the

awareness of the backside worker, what it means to be

around these horses. I mean, their day starts when,

you know, when you wake up, generally speaking, they've

already covered, you know, a third or half of their day and

it's a lot. You know, there's families that

live here. They come from, you know, all

over the place. And with the backside learning

centers done is just kind of been that, that safety net that

catch all for anything that they need.

If they need to get to the the grocery or go see the dentist,

like I did this morning. And and to work with their

families, the kids, mental health, just anything and

everything because it's an intimidating world that people

live in, especially from foreign countries, even if they're fully

documented. Everything he's crossed is

dotted. It's just over your shoulder

kind of mentality. So the Backside Learning Center,

I think takes that edge out of the equation and isn't just

incredible. It's impossible to walk around

this place and not hear and see all of the things that you just

mentioned. Frankly, as a guy who speaks

Spanish, I could hear the different accents from the

different parts of the Spanish speaking world even.

So it's not just we have a bunch of folks from, I don't know,

Panama pick a spot or something. No, they're from a lot of

different spots. And they came here to do this,

right? They came here to, to work with

these animals because that's what they want to do.

They, they want to live that agrarian lifestyle.

And yeah, this, this kind of place, supporting them is, is

absolutely vital for what we do. It's their passion first.

I mean, anybody that's in around this business, you guys, myself,

any component, any person that has anything to do with horse

racing, it is about passion. And you know, and it's again,

it's a, it's a hard way of life. You know, it's dirty this

morning. It's raining and soggy out

there. Horses need to go to the track.

So what incredible community and the Backside Learning Center has

elevated them and has continued to elevate them.

Sierra Leone was a horse that did a lot for the Learning

Center through their Purses for a Purpose program.

We'll talk about that in a little bit, but thinking back to

the Kentucky Derby two years ago, you were very, very close

to winning the race. Just what do you remember about

that experience with him a few years ago?

Still the greatest race I've ever attended.

I want to be on record. It's the greatest race I've ever

been in person. Best one I've ever seen in

person. It was magic.

It's unbelievable. It's incredible.

Again, this out of body experience.

I've said that before. It's it sounds a little

dramatic, but you're sitting there and, you know, here they

come well on the backside or in the back stretch.

I felt like Sierra Leone was like this horse is even going to

hit the board. You know, I mean he always does

that to you. He did when he was racing.

But to have that finish, I actually thought it was a dead

heat. It was that close and and they

looked at a long time. So it was a, you know, fraction

away and, you know, because of the numbers, the little section

that they see you in, we were right next to, you know, Mystic

dance connections and obviously O'Brien and Kenny.

And it was just like to watch their elation when they won the

race. You know, I didn't feel like the

rug had been pulled out from underneath me.

I just kind of was just, I felt like I was inside like a film or

something. And I was just kind of taking it

in. I had the one youngest son,

Grayson was like right next to me.

Or hold on to each other. You know how it is.

And so experience of a lifetime. Certainly want and hope for more

of that. But if it never happens again,

the box has been more than checked.

You were the shortest interview for us at Blood Horse at the

Breeders Cup, but it was because you and I, after the race, after

the classic walk together back to the owners enclosure, arms

around each other of all things, just to get through the crowd.

And you told me in that interview, and I'll never forget

it, Brooke, that you'll have a moment at some point where you

sit down and you really collect your thoughts about what Sierra

Leone meant on the track. And I know he's off the stud and

he's got plenty of babies that are going to be running.

You'll get to at least it's a great part of our sport is that

you get to have that, that continuance of that line of his,

you know, of his legacy, essentially.

Have you had that moment yet? I try to get bits and pieces of

it all the. Time.

I'll have to tell you, I'm not a guy that sits around like at my

desktop or on my phone and watching the replays of the

races. But a week or so ago when all

this Derby stuff started up, maybe one more bourbon that

should have had. And I watched a lot of races and

it was just like, Oh my gosh, you know, just amazing.

He won some big races. I'm super proud of him.

He was an incredible horse to watch his running style.

And if you get a chance to go see him at Ashford, I mean, he

looks like Adonis or just chiseled out of granite.

If appearances translate to, you know, results, he's got that

covered. So just amazing.

I love, I love going to see him. I like to think he knows me, but

I don't think he does. Yeah, I mean, we just right

before we did our interview with Ramiro Restrepo, who we had on

earlier in the show, he said to you how great Sierra Leone looks

when he was over. There cool 1 is amazing.

I mean, he's a standout. So we'll see, you know how that

translates. He's he's taken the breeding

really well. He's right on pace.

He's all business. You know, he was a bit

persnickety maybe especially as a younger cult, but when it

comes to the breeding, he's all business.

He walks in, he does his thing and doesn't overexert himself.

They're like, this is a classic size.

This is exactly what we want. So we'll see.

Now, you mentioned earlier, you know, you never know whether or

not you're going to be back when you're at a race like this or

when you have a horse like Sierra Leone.

You had the complete opposite experience, I guess this year.

You're wearing his hat right now.

Paladin, who was the favorite for the Kentucky Derby just a

month ago. And then unfortunately, he had

an injury that knocked him off the trail.

What is it? Like kind of getting that news

at that stage that close to the Kentucky Derby, just put that

into perfect into perspective. Good questions and tough ones.

I've got to tell you, that was a lot harder than finishing second

at Kentucky Derby, which sounds a little strange.

I actually get that. Yeah, I really get that.

We, we, you know, we had a rash of great luck and better, you

know, rash of some unfortunate stuff.

You know, Canaletto's no joke, probably wouldn't have made to

feel this because of it. You know, when he started to get

cranked up. But but the phone rang on a

Saturday. When you see that happen on a

Saturday morning, it's usually not good news.

And it rang Saturday and I picked it up.

And I'm like, please tell me it's not the big horse.

And they said, well, no, but Canaletto has a, you know, an

injury. It's going to require him to

take some time off. And I was just like, oh, gosh,

you know, is he OK? Yes, he's fine.

It'll he'll heal. Well, guess what?

A week later, the phone rings again.

And I'm like, I'm like, do I answer it?

Do I answer it? I waited till the very last.

And finally I was like, you know, just, damn it.

Boom. And I said, you're not calling

to tell me. Yeah, we are.

So I was super excited about him.

I still am. He's you know, the good news is

these horses are fine. Other injuries are just a kind

of a function of being, you know, young and and a little

pressure. But, you know, this is all part

of it. But for for I was gutted.

I mean, for like 48 hours for the first couple hours, I was

just like, damn, because we have a horse like that that's in the

mix. It's so exciting.

It's not like you think about every minute, but it's like this

Halo around, you know, and it's, it's everything else is easier

to deal with And, and it's just so exciting to be a part of

something again. And you know, that's just going

to be put on hold. The Derby only comes once.

So I allow myself to be sick to my stomach for about 48 hours.

And I said, you're going to have to let this thing go come

Monday. And I and I have and so, but you

know, I'm super excited about the race, even though he's not

in there. Obviously Renegade is kind of,

you know, arguably the favorite, what the current odds are.

He's essentially 5:00 to 1:00 this morning.

Would we? Right before we taped this,

Yeah. He was the morning line

favorite. He was also the morning line

favorite at 4:00 to 1:00. So I, I, I think there's a

chance we got a nine to two, five to one kind of favorite

there, but. Yeah, no question.

Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see

how he runs. And now we're like, kind of, you

know, Paladins was pretty competitive with him, beat him a

couple times. So, yeah, but it's all the, it's

all the trip. I mean, I was talking to people

earlier is it is, is the Derby a third trip?

Half the trip? I mean, what decides who wins?

And anymore I would have to say it's I'd say it's half at least.

Oh, sure. I mean, there's so many great

horses that just didn't have the the good fortune in that race,

which also makes it kind of exciting, you know?

So I I can't wait to see what happens.

Konichiwa. I think that the that, you know,

what is it? Dannenberg Yes, I think what I'm

hearing about him is, you know, I mean, they keep talking about

how he he compared it very young at this stage and how fast he's

been running and everybody's just like, oh, well, those

horses just don't win. That's not a great handicap in a

place. It is not your it.

Just isn't, so we'll see. We'll see.

Is it the that just because you you saw what it was like to run

against Forever Young in the British Cup Classic last year,

is that? Is that changing your mind

right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Password finished with that Derby.

Yeah. No, no.

Question right, Like it's interesting, I think forever

young would people would argue that if if between forever young

and Sierra Leone, who's more important?

What earnings? Clearly forever young, you know,

head to head matchups. Kind of a toss up in the sense,

but those are two horses we'll look back on for sure,

especially if they become, you know, meaningful sires.

One of the things I've always admired most about you is your

ability to wear, even when you have a horse in the race, to

talk well about other people's horses.

And you're doing that here as well with Forever Young and some

of the horses you just mentioned for the Derby this year.

So what are your kind of thoughts on some of the other

horses in this year's Derby? Who are you kind of keeping an

eye on as you're out here this week?

Well, I mean, there's great human interest stories too.

You know, there's just some incredible.

That's the best thing about the Derby.

I mean, it is actually an incredible day of watching on TV

if you don't make it out to the track, because they do a great

job of talking about the backstories and things like

that. There's always, always something

there. I'm really curious about Dan and

Bourbon or Yeah. And also, I mean, it's

surprising to me that further ado wouldn't be, you know, kind

of bet to the favorite. I think there's a very good

chance that you will be, yeah. I mean, you're talking, oh, a

bounce. OK.

He's, he's amazing. He's he's just unreal, gritty,

gutsy, you know, then there's there's horses like this could

be the year where we're all like, Oh yeah.

Well, incredible 1, you know, absolutely.

I mean, you know, it's like this.

Maybe good for my wallet, yeah. Exactly.

It's like a mad dash, you know, to get to the to get in it and

you have to be in it. You have to be up there.

I mean, you know, forever young in Sierra Leone came fly, but

they didn't win it because they were they were back and they

were we were further back, just more more to navigate.

You know how many times we watch races and we see a horse and be

clearly the best, but as traffic problems even in even in a six

810 horse field. So I don't know.

I mean the jockeys really factor in the Derby.

Chad really likes emerging market and he loves his Oaks

Philly, you know, and you got flabbying up.

And so it's it's so exciting to talk about.

It seems like it's a lot longer than two minutes because we so I

mean, like I would say if I was going to do some kind of box, I

would definitely put Dan and bourbon and emerging market

further ado those 3 and then throw an incredible bolt or who

knows? I mean that freaky work that

Baffert's horse had. Yeah.

Potete. Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, this is this is what it's all about.

Yeah. All of those horses.

Except water are going to be double digit odds.

It's fun, isn't it? It is.

It's incredible. Yeah.

It's about no question, no question about it.

You mentioned further Ado. That was the race Paladin was

supposed to be in the Bluegrass Sticks.

How do you think he would have fared there with some further

ADO runoff by such a wide margin?

I think. I think, but Paladin was

training better than he ever had.

Even the day he got in the injury, he he came off the track

after just almost a bullet work and did it easy.

So that would have been interesting to see.

That would be interesting to see.

It's tough to sit here and say, Oh yeah, well, Paladin will

handle that. I mean, the horse ran a

monstrous race. Unbelievable.

He was great. He was legitimately.

Great that day. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's, it's so exciting. I can't wait to see what

happens. Well, Sierra Leone was part of

the Purses for Purpose program. I know your horses are right

now. So bring it back to the Backside

Learning Center. We did have a chance to talk

with Sherri Stanley, the Executive Director of the

Backside Learning Center to learn a little bit more about

this place. That's so important to Brooke

and to everybody here on the backstretch.

So let's go ahead. And before we hear some more

Brooke's thoughts on the Backside Learning Center, let's

go ahead and hear from Sherri. Continuing on here with Blood

Horse at the Derby, we're in a pretty unique place here at

Churchill Downs right now at the Backside Learning Center, where

I am joined by Sherry Stanley, the Executive Director of the

Backside Learning Center. It's getting kind of busy at

this time of year. Sherry, just what is it like

being on the backstretch around Derby week?

It's really exciting and of course there are lots of, you

know, it's just a one week out of the entire year that we have

a lot of attention. Just, you know, people back here

milling about and you know, all of our clients, that workers who

are workers back here are all kind of stars.

They're all in the spotlight for a short period of time.

So it's just really fun and exciting with all the attention

back here. Yeah, obviously we see.

All the horses that are going to be on the track, there's plenty

of videos and photos of all the horses that are in the Kentucky

Derby and the Kentucky Oaks online right now.

But usually in those photos with the horses, you're going to see

the exercise riders on their backs, you're going to see the

grooms taking care of them, the hot walkers walking around the

barn. You see all those people that

are involved with it as well. It's a lot more than just the

horses back here, isn't it? Absolutely.

There are about 1000 people back here at any given time that are

taking care of about the 1400 horses that are stable back here

when we're at full capacity. So it truly takes a huge team of

people. And these are all the unsung

heroes that we always talk about that are served by the Backside

Learning Center. So, yeah, anyone that's back

here is eligible to receive services, participate in our

programs. So, yeah, many, many people

required to carry out this, this great race and of course the 365

days of of work that's taking place around the Derby.

Yeah. And we have horses here at

Churchill Downs pretty much from mid March until the end of

December. And so we're going to have

people that live here on site. The Backside Learning Center

does a lot as you mentioned of kind of helping them through a

lot of the necessities life. Obviously we have a lot of

immigrants that are here at the racetrack, so people that are

getting used to kind of life here in the United States and

maybe need some extra support. So what kind of support options

do you guys offer them at the Learning Center?

Really a variety kind of everything under the sun that

people are, you know, looking for and needing.

We try our best to accommodate that.

We have kind of we usually explain it like break it on into

two different groups of people. So the the workers who live on

site, it's about 600 people that live here on the track between

the months that you mentioned. So about 10 months out of the

year there are 600 people that are living here on site.

And we have specific programs to that that group of people.

So social services obviously would distribute all the

backside mail. These are kind of like the small

things that we do the. Things we don't think about

like. Needing to be done on a.

Back stretch, right? And just helping people navigate

how to get from point A to point B, how to get transportation.

We have access to a lot of bicycles.

We have some great donors throughout the city that give

bikes to us, so we're always distributing bikes because

that's the main form of transfer transportation back here.

English classes start up on Tuesday after Derby.

So we have this very busy time with Derby, but then our busy

time really starts right after Derby when we're starting all of

our programs off. So just, you know, helping

people on the backside kind of navigate life in Louisville, get

what they need, get questions asked.

And then the other group is our families who have kids here and

live in the vicinity of Churchill Downs Racetrack.

So the majority of families, you know, you can't kids can't live

back here and you have to have, you know, you have to be

employed to be able to get housing back here.

So that's another very large group of people.

So we have a lot of programming geared towards kids and, you

know, helping them be successful in life.

So there's a lot involved in that.

But our families who are here year round, typical scenario

would be moms stay in town with kids over the winter while dads

move South or move to other tracks to wherever their their

trainers are going. Then we also have trackside

training center, sports spectrum that where horses are.

So that's a a spillover track that's also on by Churchill

Downs, a training center and that is full of horses year

round. So 12 months out of the year,

that's another community of about 300 people that we also

serve. So our programs services are

taking place here around. How did you get involved with

the Learning Center and kind of how did this come to be?

Obviously it's a very important mission that you guys are

accomplishing here and helping the backstretch community, kind

of a unique mission to that we don't necessarily see at a lot

of different race tracks. So kind of how did this all just

come to be? This was before my time.

I've been here since 2013, but the the Learning Center has

existed since 2004. So what I was told when I

started was that this was an initiative that happened.

So I guess conversations were probably happening for a few

years prior to 2004. And really a collaboration

between Churchill Downs Racetrack and the Kentucky Derby

Museum, because the museum has a lot of focus on education.

They were really the the leader there at the time.

The CEO, Lynn Ashton, was very passionate about English classes

and just getting more educational programming back

here as the community was shifting more to more of an

immigrant workforce. Communication, of course, was

really important. You're working with live animals

and of course you don't want to have any, any communication

breakdowns because you're, you can put people or horses lives

at risk. So they really, they saw the

need for English classes and then it was a, a lending library

at the time also when it first started.

So really that was the collaboration and Churchill

Downs racetrack gave or donated this, this building that we're

sitting in right now, which was the racing office at the time.

They gave this to the Learning Center.

So we have lived here ever since over 20 years rent free and they

provide, you know, our, our maintenance and pay our

utilities and all that. So that's a huge, you know, if

we wouldn't exist if it weren't for having this facility here on

site. So that's that's how the

Learning Center started and we have evolved and changed a great

deal since that time. And you mentioned some of the

services and the programs and stuff that you guys offer.

So obviously it's very important work that you guys are doing,

but how important is it now looking at like the response

from the backstretch workers and like seeing how much they

appreciate the work that you guys do?

How much has it really helped them out having something like

this available for them on the backstretch?

That's one thing that makes our job so gratifying is just people

are incredibly gracious and appreciative of the services

that they have available here. And we just heard kind of

anecdotally that people really do seek out, people that work in

the equine industry, really do seek out Kentucky and

specifically Churchill Downs because of the resources that

are available to them here through the Backside Learning

Center. So we're really proud of that

and proud to be a one-of-a-kind in the country and other other

organizations in New York. But we're kind of everything

under one umbrella. So it's, you know, a really,

we're so happy to be able to provide all that we do to this

community and everything is 100% free of charge.

So I think, you know, where I feel like we've been able to

make a great deal of impact is with families.

Of course, as you mentioned, it's about 80 to 85% immigrant

workforce. And, you know, immigrants come

to this country in order to have better, you know, job

opportunities and to be able, it's kind of a more of a

financial drive so that they can invest in their kids and invest

in that, you know, future generations so that they can

have, you know, opportunities to go to college and to work as

lawyers and doctors. And they have a lot of really,

you know, ambitious dreams. And we've seen a lot of kids,

you know, fulfill these dreams because their parents are so

dedicated to their success. And, you know, because of the

nature of their jobs within this industry that is, you know,

literally 24/7. Not not 24/7, but definitely

seven days a week and very long hours.

They're really limited with what the time that they can dedicate

to, to their kids and the development of their kids.

So I feel like in that area specifically, we have been

really, really instrumental in opening up opportunities and

just kind of, you know, forging a path for the positive path for

the future for these kids. Yeah.

And I, I got to write an article for Blood Horse magazine a few

years ago about kind of your mission being the 20 year

anniversary of the Learning Center.

And as part of that, I got to sit in on some of the some of

the classes for the kids, just kind of see that work first hand

and talk to a lot of the volunteers and just like how.

How connected they are and how important of a mission they feel

it is and how much they just love being here and being able

to provide that for the kids. So that really is a very

important part of what you guys are doing back here.

Obviously we think about the workers themselves, but you

know, there's all their family as you mentioned, everybody

that's kind of connected to that, that really benefits from

it as well. Yeah, 100% and it's, you know,

they are a part of this community.

We talked about how workers and horse racing are transient.

Yes, that's true to a certain extent.

But they do spend the the majority of their time here in

Kentucky and particularly families.

So they are a part of this community.

And so it's not only a benefit to the industry, but just to our

community as a whole. This neighborhood so really does

have kind of rippling effects into, you know, the city for

sure. Now, one of the ways that owners

can get involved with giving back to the workers is the

Purses for a Purpose program. This is one that really kind of

gained some national attention just a few years ago with Sierra

Leone, who was second here in the Kentucky Derby, won the

Breeders Cup Classic in 2024. His owner, Brooke Smith, is a

very outspoken supporter of of the Backside Learning Center

here. So just tell us a little bit

about that program and kind of how owners are giving back to

the backstretch workers here. You know, Brooke, of course, has

been, I always call him our number one cheerleader.

We were just looking at an article in Trainers magazine

that came out. There was several pages about

him and his dedication to our mission.

So he has really been a great example of an owner who you

know, to him this has been a no brainer.

Like, you know, owners in the industry, trainers in the

industry need to give back to their workforce because in the

end, you're going to have a better product, right?

Everyone's going to be more successful when you invest in

all the people that are working so hard behind the scenes and

are not necessarily recognized for all the work that they do to

make this whole industry possible.

So we had, we started a program and this was kind of Brooks, you

know, he planted this seed to, to, you know, for this program.

But it is, it's very simple. It's just basically if you, you

know, own horses or train horses, it's it's more geared

towards owners, but please consider donating.

You know, I know that it's, it's expensive to to own a racehorse

for sure, But if you are fortunate enough to for your

horse to win and become successful and you're making a

profit off of that, please consider donating a portion of

of whatever it is that you earn. You know, it's completely

flexible, whether it be 1%, ten percent, 50%, whatever.

You know you're willing to donate, but think about donating

a portion of your winnings to the Backside Learning Center,

which will in turn support the workforce that has made has been

played a large role in making your your horse successful.

So if you're an owner or trainer watching this, obviously it's a

great mission to support the backstretch workforce here by

kind of joining into that Purses for a Purpose program.

But for those that are watching that maybe are not owners or

trainers and they want to give their support and they want to

thank all the backstretch workers for the hard work they

do taking care of the horses, how can they support the

Learning Center? We have a lot of information on

our website and we have a lot of information also on all the

social media channels that exist.

So I would recommend people going to our website,

backsidelearningcenter.org, and you can learn about our

programs, you can learn about how to get involved, you can

learn about how to donate. So there's really opportunities

for wherever you are in your life.

If you don't have the time to get involved personally and, you

know, volunteer either as an English tutor or tutoring kids

or helping in another way through fundraising events, for

example, of course, we're always open to donations.

We rely on, you know, private donations for 100% of our

budget. And it's just a constant effort

to get the word out there to, you know, we organize

fundraising event. So we have our big event,

November 20th is going to be this year a benefit for the

backside. Lots of ways to get involved

with that. We have sponsorships, we have a

a winner's circle program that are that we're really trying to

promote right now because we need kind of that, you know,

dependable source of income that is, you know, coming in every

month. So whether it's $5.10 dollars,

$50.00 a month, that's money that we know that's coming in

that we can rely on. So our Winner Circle program is

a great one. We do backside tours all the

time. So I think that is a great entry

point of just learning more about our mission, seeing the,

you know, community in action in the mornings.

So scheduling a tour with us. Again, you can get our contact

information on our website and just e-mail us, call us.

Whatever you, you know, whatever works for you to reach out to

us, we will. We will make it happen for you

to be able to either support or get involved personally.

Awesome. Now obviously everybody started

coming back in last last month here in March.

Just what is that? Feeling like at the beginning of

the year, as people start kind of filtering back into Churchill

Downs and the horses start coming back, and just how

exciting of a time of year is that for everybody to kind of be

reconnected? It's really exciting and it's

kind of like a family reunion because 1 great thing about the

Learning Center is that we are working with a lot of the same

people and a lot of the same families year after year that

they've been working in this industry for 5:10, 20-30 years.

So you know, we have deep relationships with people.

You know, we've seen kids grow up they're you know, we met them

when they were in middle school or elementary school and now

they're going to college. So that's really a great thing

and it's just it's really is like a family reunion and it's

kind of quiet. It's more quiet here over the

winter cuz there aren't any horses or people on the

backside. So having you know, life come

back into our building and seeing people that we hadn't

seen and knowing that people had a successful winter got, you

know, they traveled safely. That's just a great feeling.

So everyone's very happy in the spring to receive everyone back.

Well, thank you very much for taking the time with me here,

Sherry, appreciate you telling us all about the Learning

Center. Make sure if you're watching, go

check out the Learning Center on their website and just enjoy

Derby as it's coming up. It sounds like it's going to be

pretty busy after Derby as well. So best of luck to you and the

whole team here at the Learning Center.

And thank you for all the work that you do for the backstretch.

Community, thank you so much for having me.

Really appreciate it all. Right.

Thank you very much to Sherry for joining us to talk about the

Backside Learning Center. Yeah, that's great stuff.

And Brooke, she we mentioned the purchase for a purpose program

and how big of a role that you played in that first getting it

off the ground in addition to obviously being a big supporter

of it now. How did that?

Idea kind of come to be. And why are you such a big

supporter of that mission? Well, it's the easiest place.

When you win something, you have to share it, right?

So that's money coming in and if you have a number of horses with

different trainers and different like banning bills and things

like that and it's around the area to take 1% or 2% of a

particular horse or you're stable and, and to give it back.

It's just that simple because if you don't, it just doesn't

function, you know, and these places can work, but if they

don't have the support, like this place is developed, then it

exists. It doesn't function properly.

And now it's beyond functioning properly.

They're continuing to add more programming and think about

different things that people need.

So the purses for a purpose is just an easy way for an owner to

say, hey, yeah, OK, I want to roll my horse.

You know, we need to, we need to put some wind back in that sail

and start to really kind of, you know, it's like everything else,

it's about awareness. And we talked about this stuff,

which is great when we have these horses, but we need to

continue to, you know, put a billboard up or just to have

like one day everybody at the track.

Happens to wear a purchase for a purpose sticker.

Or something like these are the kind of things that keep it top

of mind because it dirty comes and goes and then it gets real

quiet back here. But it's still the essential of

the industry. So yeah, it just, it has a good

ring to it. It's fun.

There's number of horses in there.

I always keep mine in there and let's hope that other owners do

the same thing. I would encourage them too.

Yeah, you don't need a Kentucky Derby horse to be part of this

program. Yeah, anybody that's got

horseback here, go ahead and donate some.

No, no question. And it's really easy to set up.

We could even probably come up with some kind of a direct draft

or something like that. Look, there's a lot of people

that are very, very philanthropic in this industry.

And I would say as a whole, the horse industry is probably more

philanthropic than less compared to other industries.

You know, I'm involved with TOBA and the TCA and you know that

that organization raises money, you know, 7 figures and

disperses it because the tough part is to get it in and then

kind of find the little places that it needs to go.

So, you know, this isn't like shame on you.

You should have your horse in this program.

It's just like, hey, why not, you know, and then the backside

gets behind you. Not that they aren't already.

And look, I believe that some of Sierra Leone's good fortune was

because he was a part of the Person for a Purpose program.

I mean, it's called good Karma. Come on.

Also, happy workers make happy horses.

They really do, and they just really do.

And so if we can take care of the horse people back here,

they're gonna take care of the horses with an even better

attitude. I'm not putting anyone down.

Call them like they're not in a good mood.

Would they get? Here, but man, if you feel.

Like you talked about just the the comfort level of the of a

place like this, a program like this, it, it affects the horses

too. Well, exactly.

You know, it's a passion. These folks work hard.

I'll try to tell you one backside story.

Doesn't specifically apply to Churchill, but this is when we

had some young horses a long time ago when Danny Hunt was

training and we bought some cheaper yearlings.

We went to Florida. We were breaking them.

And I love any backside. I don't care if it's a training

center, but Churchill's obviously special and this place

is special. But we had a, we had a cult by

Holy Bull long, long time ago, Sir.

Beautiful Gray. And there's a gal out there with

the in the food truck, which I love.

I mean, if you ever want to find me at the backside, I'm either

going to be here or at the food truck, OK?

And I'll definitely have a burrito in my hand that ties

back to this story. So this gal is sitting there and

the food trucks right outside the barn and here comes this

beautiful Gray 2 year old. And she says, well, who is this?

And we say, oh, we haven't named the horse yet, but it's by Holy

Bull, beautiful Gray horse. And she says, you need to name

him Holy Burrito. And I'm like, absolutely you do.

So Holy Burrito is christened in that moment.

And he ended up winning a number of races.

So it's like those interactions that are just magic that you

don't forget, you know, and it all it all, it all starts here.

The races go in a minute, 2 minutes backside constant.

And just walking around today, even though it's rainy and

seeing families and kids that maybe you're going to go to

school late and and everything about it and hello.

How you doing? It's so friendly.

Everybody's excited. You know what's up, man?

Good to see you. Hey, how are you?

Nothing like it. Yeah.

No, it's a good stuff. Well broke.

We'll let you go. Appreciate it very much,

Paladin. Do it.

OK. You said great back summer fall.

Is there a target at all at this point?

Procedure couldn't have got any better.

He is actually at Ashford over in Versailles and you know, I

think he's just about to cover his star rest so we can move

around a little bit more. Yeah, I mean he looks great.

So I'd say again, the horse tells you and I and I'm the last

person to pontificate, but I I'd say he'll get a race in them

between now and, you know, probably close to Breeders' Cup.

I don't think there's any specific plans for him, but you

know, based on the timing of, of him, Maven Canaletto, there's

some races a long way from here that have some magic, magical

things and purses and, and it maybe he just signed a contract

to to go there 'cause he'll be fresh and so who knows.

Paladin to Kentucky Downs. You heard heard it here first.

Magic purses. No, I'm just.

Kidding. I've had a couple 20 + 1 shots

at the one there and the bourbon that they gave me in the

winner's circle did not make it very long.

Oh man, shoot well, good stuff. Appreciate it.

Those are amazing. Thank you for your chance to

chat about the Backside Learning Center and let's meet in a week

and see who's right. There you go.

He's Brooke Smith, Appreciate him juming in here at the

Backside Learning Center. More Broadhorse at Derby 152

next. All right, thanks to everybody

who joined us today here on the program.

Sean. It really gets real.

I think starts it feels tomorrow like people.

It gets real busy back here. Yeah.

And then, you know, Friday is just go day.

You even heard it on the loudspeaker backside here.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday. You need paddock passes, people.

Yeah, like they're starting to warn you.

Hey, today's the last day where we get to act like Churchill

Downs. Starting tomorrow, we got to act

like Derby. Yeah, Churchill Downs changes

into the home of the Kentucky Derby here pretty quickly.

And yeah, I mean, the excitement, as we mentioned to

the top of the show, the excitement is building.

We're getting close. We know we're almost there for

the Kentucky Derby. We're putting and the final

touches on the horses right now and man, it's just it's getting

close. We're down.

We got one episode. Left of these we got tomorrow

and that's it sounds like we're getting a good lineup of people

to talk to tomorrow as well, so make sure you stay tuned to

that. Also, make sure you're following

along on bloodhorse.com. And the Blood Horse Daily for

all of our great stories on the the contenders in this year's

race. All of our reporters have been

running around all over the place talking to people.

So you can catch all those stories on there and also make

sure you check out all the blood horses social social media pages

to learn some more and to see the horses up close.

Thanks to all of you who came out to Blood Horses Derby 152

seminar last night here in town. We had a great time with all of

you. Thank you so much for making us

part of your Derby week for Sean.

I'm Louis. This has been Blood Horse at the

Kentucky Derby for 1:52 Wednesday edition.

We'll be back tomorrow. We'll see you then.

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 platforms. For the latest news, analysis

and insights, visit us at bloodhorse.com.

Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.