BloodHorse at Kentucky Derby 152 | Final Works

You see the background, you know what time it is.

It's time for blood Horse at Kentucky Derby 152, Heshawn

Collins. My name is Louis Rabo.

Thanks so much for inviting us in as part of your Derby week.

I don't even know what we would call this content like

consumption, something for people consuming us.

Is that what's happening? I want to be consumed.

I don't want to be consumed. But don't consume us, just

listen to. Us thanks for hanging out Sean

and I back together after a week off Sean appreciate you getting

things together on Blood Horse Monday last week.

But of course we'll be here Saturday, Sunday, Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with episodes this week in front

of the Twin Spires. You'll see us probably a couple

different spots like we were at the Breeders Cup there at Delmar

in the fall as well. But Sean, I think a the kind of

episode that we try to bring to our listeners, viewers every

single week, they're going to get not just today, but all

throughout the week. I mean, just today they're going

to hear from Chad Brown, for Brad Cox, from Gustavo Delgado,

from the Connection to Starlight Racing, etcetera, etcetera.

This is the kind of thing that we want to bring to our.

Audience exactly, yeah, this is the perfect time of year to

bring you along with us as we're on the backstretch every

morning. Guys like Louie and I, we, every

single Derby, we're back here, we're walking around, we're

talking to people and now we're bringing you along with us.

If you've enjoyed all the interviews we've done with a lot

of the Derby connections leading up to the Kentucky Derby this

year, you're going to love these next couple episodes because

we're going to be talking to a lot of people that we didn't get

to talk to you during the prep season.

Some people that we have, for example, Corbin Blumberg, we

caught up with him today. We had him on after Effort won

the Jeff Ruby a few weeks ago. That's a fun segment, don't miss

that. One, yeah, don't miss that one.

So. But yeah, so it's a nice time of

year where everybody in the industry is kind of right here

in this one spot. So it's a great opportunity for

us to go and mingle with these people, bring you the

information you need to know about the horses as we are

approaching the biggest race in the country, the Kentucky Derby,

about to be run here behind US. 100 for the 152nd time here on

May 2nd, one week away from today.

You might be hearing the tractors behind us.

We're going through. We got races coming up.

It's that time of year, so we are live on site.

We got a horse coming back from paddock schooling back behind us

that you'll see cross by behind us in a moment here.

No better time to be at the racetrack and right now at

Churchill Downs and yeah just every year, every year just I

just start getting I got 2 hours of sleep last night, 3 hours of

sleep from last night and I feel great because it's Kentucky

Derby week, right that's. Exactly right.

So go ahead like subscribe, easiest way to find us

throughout the week here for the Kentucky Derby, we'll be at the

Preakness, we'll be at the Belmont.

And we want to thank Alex Smallwood, of course of

Christie's Bluegrass for presenting all of our coverage

this week. Go check him out online as well.

Look, talking to different connections, this is as calm a

group of traders as I can remember going into this.

We talked with Chad Brown, we talked with Brad Cox.

You know, you talked with Gustavo Delgado.

A real sort of, I think a second year at a row, kind of a laid

back feel behind the Kentucky. Yeah, it is, and it's been a

weird. To be fair, this is pre drawn.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Yeah.

So, yeah. So there's a lot of things that

could happen between. No, but it's an interesting

point that you make because obviously I've been back here a

lot over the last month and it's been a different kind of feel to

the Derby this year. I think a lot of that had to do

with the fact that most of the horses did not come in super

early, right? We went several weeks where we

only had like 5 between 5:00 and 7:00 horses that were here.

Three of them were all in Brad's barn, and then one of them was

stark contrast, who we all kind of figured was not going to be

in the Derby. And he did declare the other day

that he's not going to be running entering in the Derby.

He's going to run the American turf.

So, you know, it was kind of it was a different kind of feel.

You know, you had three horses from Brads barn.

You had a couple of horses here and there and one of them was

Chip Poncho, right. But we found out today is not

running in the Derby. And so that kind of, you know,

kept the tip to, like, the excitement from building too

early. But man, all of a sudden we

jumped from like seven horses to 15 in a span of two days.

And now it's really starting to get that feel.

The last couple mornings, yesterday and today, you're

starting to see the crowds gathered here on the back

stretch, that part which is always kind of kind of the

leader. Yeah.

The leading point that this is starting to get close is when

you start seeing the people out here lining the fence, watching

the horses on the back stretch. And so now, now we're getting to

that point, I believe all the horses.

Well, yeah, all the horses are here today.

They're required to be here about 30 minutes after we're

recording this. Yep.

Renegade got in this morning, so we'll see him on the track for

the first time tomorrow. Great White has arrived on the

AE list as well from arrived from Lockheed I.

Believe golden tempos got here as well.

So and we saw yesterday Dan and bourbon and 6 speed got got in

as well. Yep.

So everybody's here now and so it'll as this week continues to

go, it'll continue to get more and more exciting.

But one of the most exciting and for the connections, probably

one of the most nerve wracking parts of the week was today or

for some of the connections yesterday as we are getting the

final works in this weekend. I think we're gonna have a

couple more tomorrow as well. But final works.

That's a nervous time of year for these connections.

It really is, and frankly, you watch these works and there's a

lot on the line. Chip Pacho today is a perfect

example of that. Steve Asmussen sends him out.

He works. Frankly, he's one of those

horses, Shaw, that I watched work over this course.

He really likes Churchill Downs. It's very obvious to me at

least. And then Steve said he's just

not ready. Yeah.

So we're going to point to Laura.

We're going to head to the Preakness.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he, he was one of those

horses. He gave such a head scratching

effort in the Louisiana Derby. And I think that really kind of

kind of made Steve start really thinking about, do I want to run

him in the Derby. I talked to him earlier in the

week and, and he was very much at that point on the fence at

that point, he was #21 on the points list.

And so I think they were kind of waiting to see whether or not

they got in to really start thinking about the decision.

And Steve said he just doesn't have an excuse for why he ran

the way he did in the Louisiana Derby.

He doesn't feel like he's at the same level of these horses right

now. Chad Brown, he had two horses

that he decided to pull out, wait for the Preakness.

So Tino and Iron on and he said the same kind of thing.

I don't feel like they are ready to take on this group just yet.

So let's wait two weeks. Let's run them in the Preakness

where half this field won't be there and then we'll have the

rest. We'll be more developed and

we'll take a shot at them later in the year.

So I think Steve thinking along the same way with Chipotle.

It's a fascinating development in our sport, especially since

Kovid, where people say out loud we're not going to try the

Kentucky Derby. I.

Know that. This horse, you know that and

and you know, people hear from Chad Brown here.

He'll talk about, you know, time between races for emerging

market and what he likes for his horses.

Not so surprising. And then that we would hear,

hey, I'd like Iron Honor to try the Preakness, for example.

Well, I think a lot of it too is I think the first couple years

of the point system was such a, you know, a a change the

mentality. Now you qualified for it and I

mean you did with the purse earnings too, but now there was

like a set mark that you could hit.

You were actively trying to get points.

I feel like that almost changed the mindset a little bit.

And it's ironic because that's the time period where we had six

St. favorites win the race. So it's a little ironic from

that and I think maybe because we had so many favorites and now

that the point system has been there for a while, I think now

people are learning to be more willing to not run in the Derby

if they don't think their horses up to the task.

Obviously you're still going to have people that are going to

run in the Derby regardless. We're seeing them on the AE list

right now. Great White shipping in, of

course, Ocelli, a maiden there's, they're sitting there

praying to get into the race. So you're still seeing that from

some, but I think other people are starting to kind of they're

feeling better about not trying to force yourself into the

Derby. And I think too, and this is

ironic to say because of the fact we have had some long shots

in the last couple of years, Rich Strike, obviously, but I

think the reduce reduction of sprinters in in the race and we

talked about that with Alan Porter on last week's Blood

Horse Monday. I think the reduction of

sprinters because of the point system, I think that's kind of

taken away some of the anything can happen.

Obviously anything can still happen.

We saw that with Rich Strike, but I think that's almost taken

away a little bit of like this could just be pure chaos.

And if you feel like your horse isn't going to fit into the way

the race is going to shape up, even if the pace is going to be

fast in some years, you can expect the pace is going to be

fast. You can expect there's certain

horses to go up to the lead. I think there's not as much of A

wild card now as there used to be.

And so I think that maybe has led to some of that mindset as.

The other part is the horses that have moved out of the Derby

field. It's not like there's a sad,

tragic story with them or something.

It's all bad choice. It's just, hey, we'd like to try

this race instead. We think they fit better in this

field. They got a better shot at a

grade one in Laurel than they do here in Louisville.

It's all that kind of stuff where Chad Brown just talks

about it like our honor is going to be better in the Preakness.

We're going to go try that. And by the way, we've seen them

do it before. Exactly.

So that won't I know. If you're, if you want anybody

to skip the Derby and go to the Preakness, especially if a horse

that ran in the Wood Memorial, I mean go to Chad Brown, that's

already done it twice, why not do it a third time, right, So.

Workers this week, of course, you mentioned it to open the

show here. That's what we're watching right

now. How do they look on the track?

That kind of thing. Ironically, like a stark

contrast. Not going to the Derby.

Looks real comfortable on the surface.

Oh, I know of. Course, yeah, right.

Chipacho won't be going either, but some of those other horses

that we've seen come from other places.

I'll give a couple of standouts. For me, I think Emerging Market

is one of those horses. The story is tough because it's

only his third start. You'll hear from Chad Brown

about that. But boy, he looks really

comfortable here. He's the kind of horse that if

it's going to be, you know, slugging it out in the in the

stretch, we already saw him do it in his second race against a

very seasoned Pavlovian. He's an interesting one to me.

I thought he looked spectacular. This week he, he's been, he's

been day by day winning the over since he's been out here at

Churchill Downs. You know, I've made no secret,

if you watch Blood Horse Monday, I've made no secret.

I've not thought very strongly of the Louisiana preps this

year. And to be fair to him and

Pavlovian, they were both shipping in.

They dominated the race. Yeah, and they dominated the

race. So, you know, I definitely think

he's a step above the rest of the Louisiana quality that was

down there. But he has looked fantastic

since he's gotten here. And he wasn't one that I was

really, you know, I thought he's a good, I thought he's a good

horse. I feel like he could turn into

something later on in the year. And Chad's been very, very

confident in him from the beginning.

And the reason why he's had this kind of only the two starts is

he and a couple other of the horses in the barn, Chad's Oaks,

Philly, always a runner. They developed pneumonia back in

the fall. And he was just about ready to

make that start before he got pneumonia.

And he got pretty sick. They had to back off of him.

They had to wait. So it's not like there was some

kind of other development, just a late developer or something

like that. And I mean what we've seen from

him down at Tampa and then at Fairgrounds, he's got the

distance edge. He's the him and the UAE Derby

horses are the only ones that have done the my own 316 stuff

to this point. So he's got the distance edge

and he's got of running style that I feel like could play well

here with the way that things are going.

And on top of that, since he is kind of likely race and he has

been kind of spacing out his starts, maybe that does benefit

him here. He had the he had the training

because we're going to look at the two starts a lot.

And something that Jenny Reese, a good friend of ours, a top

notch reporter here on the backstretch and she's been

asking some of these trainers recently, is something Bill Mott

had told her years ago is that the main thing about racing as a

2 year old is did they get the training to get to the races as

a 2 year old? That's the thing that really

kind of led to, you know, the not seeing a horse win the Derby

as a 2 year old for so many years from Apollo in 1882 to

Justify in 2018 is that foundation of training

underneath him. He has that because he was about

to start. So he had that foundation, that

early foundation of training. So, so maybe not your typical

didn't start until a 2 year old, only had two starts.

And so maybe the rest is actually going to benefit him

here coming into this race. He has grown on me quite a bit.

And I think we'll hear from Chad here in a moment.

I think the I think they're feeling good about their chances

and the fact that Flavian is sticking with him too, compared

to he had the option to be on commandment.

The fact that he's sticking with him I think sounds pretty good.

Urging market, a son of candy rides.

So the distance probably not an issue, but boy, we also see the

candy rides do a little bit of everything.

And here's Chad Brown with us earlier today talking about

emerging market. All right back at a blood horse

at Kentucky Derby 152 lure Beauchean Collins hanging out

with trader Chad Brown. Emerging market finished up his

work on Friday 4747 to change pretty fast, but we see a fair

number of fast works here at Churchill since horses have been

working. How did he look and how did how

did he come out of it? I came out of it great, looks

super. I thought he did it very easy,

the track was quick so time doesn't bother me.

Gulped out beautifully and came home happy and really wasn't

alone at all. When you have a horse like him

who does several works down in Florida and then you bring him

up here to Churchill, what are you looking for in that work to

kind of make sure that he's handling this surface?

Just how he's moving. You know, most of the horses, I

mean, you get to the Kentucky Derby, these are nice horses.

Most of them will be moving pretty well.

And Churchill's a pretty fair, kind track to get over.

It's a quicker track and he's been training on, so I'd expect

him to move well, but I just couldn't be happier.

I mean, the horse is very fluid when his movement, his energy is

great and I just couldn't be happier right now.

Third start ever for him, of course, in the Kentucky Derby,

one of those storylines that we all love to follow on our side

of things for sure. What was, you know, what went

into the decision to go straight to Louisiana Derby?

He just bounced out of his maiden so well.

I sort of handicapping the race. I like the spacing.

Six weeks from his maiden win to the Louisiana Derby.

That's a good time frame generally for most of my horses.

So I like that. And then the race was shaping

up. I didn't think is one of the

harder preps. Ended up being a pretty tough

one. I mean, I caught a tough

customer down down to the wire with the runner up who ran

great. But you have a horse with only

one career * putting his nose in front of a horse has nine career

starts. I mean showed a lot.

And he drew the outside post in the race going very far, mile

316. So, you know, that really gave

me some confidence to take a look now that we had the points

for the Derby and see how he was training and he gave me no

reason not to come. I feel like, you know, we're

obviously asking a lot of questions about the two start

thing, but I feel like maybe people are more confident in him

than maybe some other horses that have done that in the past.

Maybe because of that mile and three six teams.

The fact that he's gone that long of a distance, does that

make a huge difference to you? The fact that he's already kind

of almost run the mile and 1/4? I don't know about a huge

difference in how many horses he actually tried this to date, two

starts. But I can tell you, just

evaluating the horse individually going into a mile

and a quarter race like this, I love the fact that he's got a

mile on 316th race. He had a hard race from it and

then he's got those six weeks to recover.

Six weeks off lobby and Pratt keeps them out here.

You got to feel great about that.

We've watched him work some magic of the Derby before.

He quite likes the horse he's ridden in both times.

It just so happened to be at Tampa the day that I was

debuting on the horse, which I've been working out, and he

was very happy to keep them out on this horse.

What do you kind of how do you kind of expect the race

unfolding for him here? Well, that's going to, we have

to get through that draw today, see what he draws.

That's always a tough, tough part of this Derby process for a

trainer. But it's just always, you know,

just getting away from the gates cleanly and and giving yourself

a chance to fall into some sort of decent spot for your horse in

that first turn all. Right, Chad, we appreciate it.

Chad Brown emerging market draw later today.

Good luck with that. Thank you.

Is so happy. Kind of an interesting horse.

I think about some more interesting stories here because

of who is sire is and Ron Happy, a champion sprinter.

The ownership group having the same name is is all of our

favorite Frozen characters, but being an international sort of

ownership group as well. And then you get Mike Smith,

friend of the show for sure, but also just a great sound bite.

Also knows how to win the Kentucky Derby.

Yes he does. Talking about this horse and how

casually he is in his workouts, I'm sorry, I saw a horse that

maybe if he's, if that was casual, he's got a shot at the

Derby. Yeah, we, we heard from Mike

Smith, you'll hear from here, him here in a moment when he

talked to our Byron King at Blood Horse yesterday morning

before he had to fly back to California.

He was erased yesterday clicking on clicking on the move

yesterday despite being almost 60 years old still so every.

Time I talk to him, he's at the gym.

I'm very. I know about something exactly.

Yeah. I mean, so Happy is the kind of

horse where you know, everybody's going to be looking

at the pedigree, they're going to be looking at the but he did

run a very top notch number in in the Santa Anita.

Derby, one of the great predictors of high level

success. And he looked like a horse.

If he didn't know his pedigree and you just watched him at the

end of the Santa Anita Derby, you would not be doubting his

mile and a quarter. The team seems confident in his

mile and a quarter ability. He is out of a blame Mayor,

remember Mike Smith telling us on Blood of Worse Monday a few

months ago that blame owes him 1.

So it would be fitting if he was able to get.

It's such a good joke. It's.

So good it would be kidding if he were to get another Kentucky

Derby win on a horse out of a blame Mayor.

But I mean, he's he's looked good since he's been here too.

He just got in earlier this week.

But yet Mike said, and you'll hear from him here in a moment

that it did seem like he is not the kind of horse that really

puts a lot of effort into the mornings.

And I think that's why it's important to know these horses

going into the race and being able to see them, because if you

just look at that, you're going to think, oh, he's just not

working well. But you hear from the rider that

this is the only there, this is just the way he works every

time. And you see his race record,

he's 3 for four. And Mike said in this interview,

you'll hear that he the only time he worked really well was

the time he lost. So that's just the worst.

And here's friend of the show Mike Smith talking about So

happy after his work yesterday here at Churchill Downs, So.

You fly in, you fly out, right? Yeah, we just came in to work

him and little Philly. I'm going to ride early on and

she went exceptionally well and he went like he always does.

He just kind of just does what he has to do, especially by

himself. I knew it was going to be a

little bit challenging, but the tracks a little bit deeper in

the second break than it was the first, but he still went good

for him. He works, he just not much of A

flashy workhorse stuff and he runs his best races actually

when he does that. The only time he ever worked

good, he got beat. Mike, what is it that switches

on for him during race day? He just knows the difference for

some odd reason. I, I don't know, I wish I did

because it's interesting you. Know.

Talk about a Sandy to Derby. It's brilliant.

It was better than I was expecting it and what I was

hoping for was for certainly to win to get the points, but for

him to draw away like he did was was good.

He ran a good time, good number, beat some nice horses, really

good. And how about just being back

here, excited, Really excited #3.

You think you can break Shoemaker's record?

Why not? They're meant to be broken, you

know, It's a tough task, but I really like him a lot and if he

runs to the ability that I know that he has, he should run

really well. All right.

Thanks to Mike Smith and our colleague Byron King there.

You'll hear from him on Tuesday's edition of this

program. Blood horse at Derby 152.

Sean and Louis hanging out with you.

We visited with trader Brad Cox. You'll hear from him next.

The last couple of years, had you mentioned it at the top of

this episode, it used to be, hey, if you were the top points

leader in this race, boy, oh boy, go ahead and bet on that

horse, right? It was just one of those things.

The favorite from 2013 to 2018. Are we just overlooking

commandment in this field? Because, and look, we're gonna

talk about his work in a second, but that's a horse that ran 2

very different races at Gulf St. Park, picking off both of them.

I have never seen a thing from him that makes me think he won't

be able to go to the tent. Furlogs.

How much are we overlooking commandment in this?

Field, We're very much overlooking Commandment.

I mentioned this on the show last week when Kevin Kilroy was

joining us. It just feels like he's the one

of the top horses that's just being forgotten about coming

into this Kentucky Derby, and he's won some really tough races

against tough horses. I mean, the Puma and Chief

Wallaby are going to be considered in the top 6-7

choices here for sure. And the horse that beat him on

the square both times is kind of the 1 falling under the radar.

It feels like he's a horse that I've really liked out here.

Watching him throughout the mornings.

I just feel like every time he comes out, I just feel like he's

got that kind of presence around him and I just, I've had a good

feeling. I wasn't.

I thought he, I exited the Florida races thinking he was

the best of the three, OK, Because I felt like I was one of

the few that exited the Fountain of Youth thinking he was better

than Chief Wall. No question.

And I kept with that coming out of the Florida races.

I think he's the best of the three of those.

But I still didn't know if I was necessarily gonna consider him

one of my top picks in the race, as he's been out here every day.

I don't know what it is, but just in my mind, I've been

thinking about him more and more and more.

He's been kind of moving up on my list, and so I'm expecting

big thing from him. He looked pretty good this.

Morning. You mentioned the 2018 with

justified last winner of a hunter point race coming in to

win the Derby. Then to follow up, It's a pretty

remarkable statistic, Frank. Yeah.

No. Well, it depends if you count

authentic winning the Haskell and all that kind of getting

screwed up with COVID. But on a normal prep series, the

last one, you did that. I guess I'll count authentic

because I like you, but I just, I'm not at all sure that I count

that as the same. But anyways, only one of the

last however many have come out of those hundred point preps,

Brad's got three of them. I know it's kind of an

interesting part of this. Look, if I'm Brad, I'm not mad

that my horse is the Kentucky Derby.

He talks a lot about confidence with his horses, right?

Getting confidence into them. He's obviously not going to be

upset if they run first in their prep for the Kentucky Derby, but

Commandment falls into that for sure.

We saw Father Adu at the Bluegrass at Keeneland as well.

Pull it away, Johnny. Put that on the saddle tail,

they got a, they got a very back.

Very much. Look, I'll put it this way.

If this was an Asmussen trainee, they would keep that forever.

He would be Father Adu the rest of his career.

Yeah, that's absolutely true. We'll see what happens to the

Nerve. I'm going to guess there's

another R back in his name. But ROMs at Keeneland looks

really comfortable here. Picks up Johnny V Yeah, I look,

I like all those things. Yeah, and Johnny V got to be on

him this morning. And so get to learn the horse.

He's a horse that every single morning that he's been out here

has been full of energy, and that's including the first

couple of days he was out here after winning the Bluegrass.

I was, by the way, the reminder too, with, with Brad's horses,

with Brad Cox's horses here. They're here.

Yeah. This is their home track for at

least, you know, whatever amount of time between those races.

The Bluegrass, only four weeks, but a horse like 6 weeks here.

I mean, they're really settled in here.

And he, yeah, I mean, that's been the big thing with him

that's caught my eye is even in those first couple days I saw

him out here after he got back from Keeneland, he's full of

energy. Every single day he's up there,

you can kind of see him wanting to do more.

He's keep asking the rider to let him do more.

And so it was, he's been one of those horses again that I came

out of the Bluegrass. I actually didn't think I was

going to be thinking that highly of him coming into the Derby,

despite how impressive he was in the Bluegrass.

I just didn't think he beat much in that field.

But he looks like he's really taking to the surface here at

Churchill Downs. He's obviously one on the

surface before as well, but all three of Brad's horses, I mean,

full effort has worked great too.

And you know, he's coming out here, he's building in the

muscle, he's getting, getting himself accustomed to being on

the dirt. And I mean, all three of them

have the edge. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of

horses chose not to come in this year until super late.

They're three of the ones that were here for a long period of

time. They're going to have more

experience on this track than anybody else going into this

race. And so I think that's going to

be a huge positive. For you'll hear from Brad Cox

next. He mentions full efforts, work

since he's been here. Of course, like you said, he

said the big effort, the big question about him is, hey, will

he like the surface here? This is a horse.

That's what, a turfway at Kentucky Downs.

I mean, that's what we're talking about with him.

If he gets it done here at Churchill Downs on the 1st

Saturday in May in the dirt. I mean, you talk about, you talk

about a training job, Kentucky Downs Turfway and then the

Kentucky Derby. Yeah, I mean, goodness gracious,

that'd be what a heck of a training job.

And Speaking of what? Cheers.

Brad Cox from earlier today, right alongside trader Brad Cox,

Sean Collins, Lawyer Beau Blood horse at Derby 152.

Brad, a trio in this year. What's it?

What's it like having three horses in the Kentucky Derby?

That's something I'll never have to answer.

I hope it's enough. That's what I hope.

But you know, I look good. Good hand, three nice Colts and

all coming off wins at a mile and an eighth and hundred point

races and you know we're in a good spot.

Yeah, I mean, all three of them are coming off wins in that

final round. Sometimes we see people get

three horses and maybe they had one that were in second in the

final round or one that snuck in at the bottom of the points

board. Seems like you got 3 legitimate

chances this year. Yeah.

I think so I mean, obviously they're all coming in different

different regions, but you know, you know, good spot with all of

them and well, obviously further ado and commandment come from

Florida, but have having won the bluegrass.

But yeah, another they're all nice Colts and once again proven

it the mile and 8th And I thought, you know, based off

their mile and 8th races, it looked like they'd be able to

handle them on. 1/4 commandments work here.

Most recently we saw him obviously win the further the

Florida Derby as you just mentioned.

Winner before that as well. A Gulfstream.

Great predictor for success in the Kentucky Derby.

How did his work look the other day though?

Works have been good. I mean, he's not the flashiest

workhorse. He does just enough, always kind

of just stays with his company. Today he actually did Gallup out

in front of the company and I thought it was a good move, very

good for him. And he's set up.

I mean, he's proven that he can get the mile in eighth.

He come running last time in the Florida Derby, finished up

strong and I think he's set up for a big effort.

He's a horse. He always seems to be out very

early in the morning. Is there a reason to that?

Is that just the time of day he likes to be?

Yeah, I like to train him early. You know, just depends on the

horse, the situation with him, you know, he, it doesn't matter

if it's crowded early, you know, you normally get a better track

if you can get out there early. But it just depends on what

we're looking to do with them. But he's just been one.

We normally try to train early in the day.

You bet your further ado. What are the bluegrass?

You know, we don't always. You know, one of those things

that that Keeneland surface, that Churchill surface, quite

different, frankly. How's he taking to the surface

here? Seems like he's handled it

really well. Obviously trained here in good

bid last fall after he broke his maiden there at Keeneland.

He's won a Grade 2 here and his two works here this spring have

been really good. So, you know, I think he set up

for a big effort just based off how he physically looks, his

energy level, all that good stuff.

Everybody with him is kind of talking about how he's run so

much better at Keeneland, but they're forgetting he's a great

stakes winner here at Churchill Downs, so you got to feel good

about the fact that he's already gotten that win over the

surface. Yeah, I mean, look at the end of

the day, I mean that that was 2 year old day when he won the

Grade 2 here. And you know, I, I think we won

five races, had some nice horses win, but they just were not

giving out big figures off that out of that card.

I think we had a horse named Commandment that went in the

fastest or not Commandment. I'm sorry, Cannoneer, they were

in the fastest buyer of the day and you know, he's a good horse

as well. But you know, whatever I'm not

too concerned with, you know, him not being able to handle

this track. He he seems to get over it well.

Lose I rad gain Johnny. Not the end of the world there,

right? No, with obviously the success

that Johnny's had and, and obviously this is success he's

had with the Spin Thrift team, it gives us a lot of confidence

that, you know, we'll smooth transition and it should be a

good fit. We've seen horses come out of

the Ruby Run real well here. Full effort.

Looks like he's real comfortable here as.

Well, Yep, his work today was probably better than or maybe a

little more than we expected, but I like how it went.

I like how he was moving. He did it with the ease the

rider came back. And for what it's worth, he said

he's better on the dirt than he is the synthetic because he got

on him all winter. I don't know what that's going

to mean. I don't, I don't know.

But look, he's doing great and hopefully we have a great week.

He's got a lot of similarities. I feel like the final gambit

coming into this, both names start with an F.

They both won the Jeff Ruby for you both deep closers, both Gray

and is there. Can you kind of compare the two

like because also he final gambit was making his first

start on dirt as well. So kind of where does he match

up to where final Gambit? Was last year.

I'd say he's more accomplished just because you know he had the

runs in the two preps leading up to the Ruby as opposed to final.

Gambit had broke his maiden the month before, so he he's a more

accomplished horse, more miles underneath of him, more

experience and you know, it's all about getting set up and you

know, I think I like I said, I think he's handling the track.

I don't think that's going to be the issue.

It's about getting the set up. All right.

So where do you sit for the draw when you have three horses?

I think this is a legitimate question.

Yeah. I don't know.

We'll we'll see who. Maybe if there's a light crowd

with one of the teams, I'll sit there.

But yeah, no, it's exciting. You know, I hope they all draw

well. I think it's very important to

obviously, you know, I don't, I'm not certain.

You know, it can't draw inside and run well.

We had hit show drew the one hole a few years ago and he ran

really well and got a good, a really good trip.

So it's not about, you know, you can get a good trip from the

inside. But I, I, I think the only one I

I would like to see kind of draw outside is probably further ado.

I'd like to see him break and let the speed kind of run away

and hopefully set a nice stalking trip Commandment.

I don't think post means a tremendous amount as further

ado. Well, not further ADO final.

Whatever, full effort. What a great problem for you.

That's fantastic. Well, if you don't want to

choose where to sit during the post position draw, you're

welcome to stand with Louie and I in the.

Back way in the back. Yeah.

Way in the back there. The radio guys are in the back,

Brad. Yeah.

I may do that. We'll.

See trader Brad Cox appreciate his talk.

Thank you. Thank you guys.

All right, thanks again to trainer Brad Cox.

Appreciate him and his trio of runners here in the Kentucky

Derby. But full effort comes up last in

that interview. And again, one of those you're

you're going to have to decide as a better especially what your

opinions going to be moving from that synthetic to here.

He seems like he's really happy with how the horse taken to the

course. Yeah, he's really happy with it.

And, you know, he's, he's a horse that trained on the dirt

last year here at Churchill Downs too.

So it's not like he this is a foreign substance to him that

he's had to get to work over the over the last, you know, couple

weeks. It was just I believe when we

had Brad on blood horse Monday a few months ago, I think it was

ahead of the Jeff Ruby's after he'd ran second in the

Battaglia. He'd said it was just kind of

like a time development kind of thing that kind of led them to

the turf at the beginning. And then because of that, they

left him here for the winter, which is why he ended up on the

synthetic. And so I don't, I don't think

this was ever really a horse where they we're concerned about

whether or not he would get the dirt.

I think it was more what races were available at the time,

distance wise, class wise when he was getting started.

And so I mean, it seems like watching him out here each day,

it seems like he's been taking to the dirt all right.

And so it'll be interesting to see I feel more confident about

him coming into the Derby this year and handling the dirt then

I did final gambit last year. If I'll get a final gambit where

Grant 4 great, great. So if you liked Final Gambit

last year, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't like

full effort this. Year full effort reminds me even

more of two fills that he does a final gambit, frankly, and

that's not not a knock on that horse at all.

And the main thing I really liked about him in the Jeff Ruby

was we had seen in his two prior races, the Leonidas and the

Battaglia, where he was making that late run.

He just came up short at the end.

The Jeff Ruby, he was there at the on the lead at the top of

the stretch and he kept moving on.

And so I liked that a lot from him.

I saw what I needed to see from him to feel more confident about

him in the Derby and that he can get there earlier and he can

finish. He's not going to be that horse

that gets there on the lead and just hangs there.

He's going to finish. He was mid pack and a 12 horse

field had to make a move off the rail to get to that spot at the

top of the turn that that all of that to be when a horse can work

through traffic like that or you know, we mentioned emerging

market earlier, a young horse willing to battle in the stretch

looking for those kind of cues in the crops for.

Sure. And don't discount the fact that

he's been in a large field. I agree with that.

Some of these horses haven't. So the fact that he's

experienced that multiple Times Now and he's able to navigate

through it. That's that's one of the things

that, you know, a lot of people look at with Dan and Bourbon and

you know, Wonder Dean as well since he had raced in Japan as a

2 year old. Those gates are always full out

there in Japan. So you know, they're used to

that kind of experience for sure.

And so those horses who have seen that, now, if you're a

front runner and you've been running against four horses and

you're able to get an easy week in this race and it doesn't

matter how many horses are in the race.

But for a lot of these horses, there's going to be a lot of

closers in this race. And so for a horse like Full

Effort who has had the experience of closing in a

larger field, that's going to play a huge benefit to him here

as well. Full effort in the Starlight

Racing group there. Of course, we've had Corbin

Blumber on the program before. This was a fun one and you're

going to see that this is actually 2 interviews that we do

with Corbin here. I kind of don't want to spoil

this, but there's a lot of important things in this

interview, including, you know, important things like that.

Anything you want to tell the audience before we throw to

Corbin, our favorite Marylander? Yes, our favorite Marylander for

sure. We're talking to him a few weeks

too early here. We got to, we got to save him

greatness. It's nice that we let him in.

You know that part. It's nice.

It's nice if we. Let him on the.

Back shift here in Kentucky. He's he's alright, yeah.

But he's OK with us. Yeah.

But we talked to him about full effort and coming into today,

you know, they had, they had a little bit of a debate on on one

of their other horses, whether or not they would run into the

Derby. But we'll, we'll, we'll find out

here when we talk to Corbin what their thoughts are on that

second horse. Corbin Bloomberg, he's the man

in the hoodie from Starlight Racing.

We talked with him earlier today.

All right, Blood horse at the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Derby

152 alongside friend of the show.

Now he's been on twice. This is a bad, bad job by you.

Corbin Bloomberg from Starlight Racing.

Of course, we talked with him after the Jeff Ruby Stakes and

full efforts win there. Works in a flat 59.

How do you look? How do you guys feel?

Oh. You look great.

Brad was really happy with him. You know, just cruised around

their last, last work for the race.

Just I think what you want to see but seem to be getting over

the track really well. Obviously the major question

with him is that he hasn't raced on the dirt before, racing on

turf and synthetic. He's breezed on the dirt though

the last couple weeks back when he was a 2 year old.

How does he seem to be getting over the surface to your eye?

Yeah, really. Well, I mean, the great thing is

Brad shipped him here right after the Ruby.

So he's been here. He's been here longer than most

of the horses, which is great. And you know, as far as how he's

moving over the track, he's he looks great.

You just never know until they actually do it.

But he's trained great. Looks like he handles the track

well and he's just a bigger, stronger horse than he was a 2.

So all good so far. Six weeks off between the Ruby

and the Derby. So we're now five weeks out from

that. Jeff Ruby sticks.

How's that time been for him? Any recovery needs after the

Ruby? Or was he kind of, you know,

hey, we could have run the Derby last week.

Heck. For me, which was last week, no,

the horse has done really well seen, you know, he came out of

the Ruby well he breathes 2 weeks after.

So he's been on a really steady schedule and you know, that's

that's what you want to see every week.

And I think if you know, hopefully just has a really good

week now. But it looked good back at the

barn after the work. You had a bunch of the people

with Starlight racing here today.

How what's the excitement level and also maybe the nervousness

level of the final breeze? How do you how do you manage the

excitement and the nerves of that?

Yeah, look, this is what we all all hope for, right?

It's, you know, having partners out here seeing their, their

Derby horse and, and it's, it's really exciting.

You know, I think, you know, I was up before the alarm this

morning, you know, ready to go. But I think everyone's having a

great time and I think everyone's going to do the

whole, you know, take in the whole week, all the festivities

and and yeah, I think everyone's excited.

You're so excited. You maybe were thinking about

jumping into that marathon that's going through the infield

right now. Were you thinking about that?

I thought, I think next year every, every every year I see

him. I say next year I'm I'm going to

be in the marathon. But it hasn't happened yet.

Well. You're going to have maybe have

another Derby horse next year. You're going to have to keep

putting it off, yeah. Or you're just going to have to

time the run to get here for the work, yeah.

Exactly. Exactly.

That'd be perfect. So fair play to all of them.

They're they're doing it. It's pretty impressive.

Less than a marathon, but A5 furlonger for Litmus test this

morning broke from the gate. How did he look?

We know he's on the AE list, but how do you look this morning?

He he worked great. I think he worked so well that

that that he's going to, you know, they're going to go ahead

and enter. So, you know, I think he's a

horse that mile and a quarter should be no problem and and he

seemed to get over the track great.

So I'm not sure if he's going to get in but in the body.

But I think, you know, he's a beautiful horse and I think, you

know, he's a horse that's run some numbers that would give him

a shot if he got back to his best.

And he looks great. He's 21st on the point board as

we're filming this this morning on entry day, so we'll see

whether or not he ends up making it into the main 20.

But looking back at his Arkansas Derby, how did he bounce out of

that and how do you guys expect him to improve?

Because he worked out at the gate.

That was a couple days ago now and he looked like he was moving

very well. So it seems like he recovered

pretty well. Yeah, I think, look, I don't

really know what happened. Just draw a line through it.

The horses run some races that would give him a shot and he

bounced out of it really well. I thought that gate work

yesterday just to my eye was probably the the best work I've

seen from him and and I know that the Baffert team was really

happy. So if you know, I think he'd be

live if he got in. Most important question, for

this show at least. Does Sean get a hat?

Yes, we've, we've arranged, we've arranged a hat.

We've any Tatums getting one tomorrow.

Most important, most important part of the week is, is making

sure Sean's got a hat. So we've got that sorted.

I'm glad you understand that, I was very worried about that

part. It's awesome.

We're excited. Merch is not our issue.

Please Corbin, Bloomberg, Starlight Racing of course full

effort and litmus test on the AUS Appreciate us joining.

Appreciate you joining. Us thanks guys.

Really appreciate it. All right, just hitting edition

of Blood Horse at Kentucky Derby 152 back with Corbin.

Corbin Chip Honcho not going to enter the Kentucky Derby.

That means Litmus test slides up to 20.

Congratulations. Yeah, everything I said a few

minutes ago, if he gets in, I guess he's now in.

So it's exciting for. So we could still get the 10

furlogs. He still worked well the other

day. Yeah, yeah, I know.

He worked well enough to get in. So yeah, he's going to enter and

look, it's great for our partners to, to have not one,

but, but two horses enter the Derby.

And you know, it's such a special horse race and anytime

you can have a second shot at it, it's it's well worth it.

So the the horse looks amazing and we're we're excited that we

we got a shot at it. Literally just minutes we walked

that way and then we turned around and came right back.

How much, you know, there's probably when you're thinking,

obviously you guys have full effort as well, but how much

pressure is there coming up to entry day, not knowing whether

or not you're gonna make the list, being the next one in, and

then just suddenly having that weight lifted off the shoulders.

Yeah, no, I mean, you don't know until I get to.

There's all sorts of different pressures and nerves and

excitement about the week and I think just to sort of it would

have made it a long week if he was on the AE all week.

So and you know, I think Chip Pancho came out just because

they're going to go to the Preakness.

So it's good that you know it's good to scratch and get in the

right way and the horse is doing great and hopefully have a good

shot at it. There you go.

All right, well, a second interview with Corbin and I.

Is there still a hat? Still a hat.

Hats are promised, you know we're.

We have our priorities straight at Starlight so can't can't

wait. Is there someone else from the

Starlight Barn that's like a little bit further down the AE

list that we might have to turn around and come back for if we

have a couple more dropouts? You never, you never know.

I mean, we, I'm sure, I'm sure we can find something out there,

but I think we've got a bunch undercard action and it's

already been a good week for the star ladies, so we'll just keep

it rolling. Congratulations, we'll see you

at the draw. Yeah, see you at the draw.

All right. Thanks again to Corbin.

Quite the quite the back and forth there.

That's one of those moments, Sean, that if you are, and I'm

so glad we got to share that with our audience because that's

this is that's that's draw day. Yeah, that's what happens.

It's why we're out here, right? Because we want to know who's

going to be in this field, how trainers are feeling.

Obviously. We literally walk up to talk to

Steve Asmussen about Chip Honcho our colleague Byron Byron.

Frank Anks, If you watch Blood Horse Monday, you know Frank

Anks. He was on the scene.

We walk up as he's talking to Steve and Steve's telling him

we're not running Chip Honcho in the Derby.

And we walk up in that moment, turn right around and go right

back up to Corbin to be like, hey, guess what, You're in the

Kentucky Derby. Litmus test.

So you saw that interview 90 seconds after he learned about

that. Just an interesting runner.

Litmus test. They worked him from the gate.

They did for his final work. 59 flat from the gate.

I love as a handicapper. Gate works very important to me

as a handicapper. 59 flat doing that, Super impressive.

This is a horse though, coming on Arkansas.

We had a lot of questions. About there's so many questions

with him. It's gotta be interesting.

If we get a chance to talk to Bob Baffert this week, I think

it'll be really interesting. How many times can you really

think of where as you could hear them testing, testing the sirens

behind us here, we're live at the track.

This is what happens, but how many times can you really think

of where he's worked? A Derby contender out of the

gate in their last breeze. I I, I was going through my

mental rolodex. I cannot remember.

Yeah, and apparently he really liked the work because they kept

him in the Derby conversation. And I did not like him at all

going into the Arkansas Derby, not from a handicapping

perspective. Watching him in the paddock

before the race, I didn't think he was prepped to run a big

race. He did not run a big race.

I was shocked the last week or so that he was still on the AE

list and he comes out and fires that out of the gate and I'm

like, all right, OK, I guess all of a sudden we're going to have

to we're going to have to pay attention.

And this is race where I think we've been talking about for the

last couple weeks. Did not seem like there was

going to be any pace in here other than 6 speed.

And we don't know whether he's going to gun it or if he's going

to try to take it easy on the lead.

He got Brian Hernandez Junior as a jockey assignment today, by

the way. I feel like that's a point in

the direction of he's not going to gun a gun.

And so, I mean, take a shot with Lit and miss a test, try to get

him up there on the lead. But it's interesting 'cause it

didn't sound like in the Rebel when he was on the lead that

they really felt like that was where he would run his best

race. So it's an interesting, it's

interesting that he's here. It's gonna be a whole week of us

debating what exactly he's going to do in the race.

But hey, he's in. You can't win the race if you're

not in. It was AI don't.

He hasn't been in long enough for me to really form an opinion

yet, but I did not think very highly of him coming out of the

Arkansas Derby. I'll see now that I can kind of

actually focus on him now that he's in over the next couple

days. Now I can kind of maybe start to

watch him and see if see if he's looking better to me than he did

going into the Arkansas. Derby.

Kind of an old school throwback. Last work for Renegade was down

in Florida, Palm Beach Downs, and I watched this one several

times. I love this work.

I think he looks great. People are going to see the 50,

almost 51. Yeah, don't worry about the time

if you're doing that. By the way, you think

Commandment has no chance of the Kentucky?

I would say if you're looking specifically at workout times,

I'd say usually for most horses this weekend is not really the

weekend to do that because for a lot of horses they're major,

major prep is the two weeks before and then this is just

kind of the maintenance make sure everything's.

Ready to you even heard from Chad Brown earlier.

He even said about a market. I'm not worried about the quick

work, exactly. It was 47.

You'd be like, oh, that's fast, That's great.

It was like, oh, I'm not worried about it.

And that's. Not this track has been playing

fast since the horses have come back in March too, Yeah.

Yep so so that part even where even Chad Brown's like don't

worry about it. He wasn't going too fast.

Kind of interesting this time of year.

I thought he looked really great.

Nothing about that work or the fact that he's not here,

frankly, Sean bothers me at all. Would you rather he be here for

that last work? I.

Would've, yeah. And that's not just me saying

that so I can get video of it. That's not the only reason, but

it's not 0%. And.

It's interesting to, you know, kind of hear trainers opinions

on this because obviously they all differ for a big race like.

And by the way, when I first started covering the Derby,

horses would show up on Wednesday.

Yeah, but that was the California horses.

Absolutely. Before, they were required to be

here as early as they are now, so obviously it's not something

that's been detrimental in the past.

No, no, I can very clearly in my mind think about how California

Chrome got here. And I think his first day on the

track was the Wednesday before. Obviously that didn't impact him

at all. Yep.

I think a lot of times I think it could be a horse by horse

basis. Is the horse a horse that's more

comfortable staying where he is, or is he one that you wanted to

teach him what it's? Like running full effort,

getting on the dirt more often because he hasn't been running

on it. I think that makes sense, Zach.

I'm less worried about a horse like Renegade who's won at

multiple. Tracks, but personally, for me

personally, not that I'm a trainer or will ever be a

trainer, but I would like to for a race like this, I would like

to have one, one breeze on the surface.

They're going to run it because this is so different than any of

the race. This is the biggest race of

their life. This is the one race you for

sure want them to win. I would want to have them have

that experience. But Todd mentioned, you know,

coming out of that work, there were, I think he was talking

with David Grening of the DRF where he had said, you know,

this is the one weekend of the year, the one Derby weekend

where I haven't had to worry about the weather in several

years. I'm actually going to be able to

sleep this weekend because I don't have to be watching the

weather. And we got rain this morning,

last night into this morning. Now, Brad Cox is always the guy

I use as my judge on whether or not that's going to end the

track of a when. Yeah, when I saw his horses not

breeze yesterday morning, I knew the track was going to be OK

enough to breeze today. It'll be fast for races today.

So, but you know, it's one of those things if you if you are

looking, if you're Todd and last week you're looking, do I ship

him or do I stay? You see potential rain and you

don't see potential rain down there in Florida.

Well, after so much this winter as well, New York, Arkansas,

here in Kentucky having to cancel because of frozen

conditions, it's got to be at least a little PTSD for some of

these trainers having to have taken time off.

I mean, we watched how much did it affect, you know, even the

Arkansas Derby trail and and you know, how much of those, you

know, those horses had to take time off from training.

We watched horses ship in because they were able to train

in New Orleans, for example. So I imagine some of those

considerations as well. Hey, we know what the weather's

going to be in Palm. Beach exactly.

Now, on the flip side of that, Riley Mott was supposed to

breathe breeze Albus and incredible today.

He did go ahead and make the choice.

We're going to wait till tomorrow.

We're going to wait until Sunday to breeze them.

And so different, different philosophies by trainers here.

You're seeing that now, you look at a guy like Mark Cassie who

breathes Silent Tactic a few days ago on Thursday, you know,

kind of getting ahead of everybody else.

He likes to go usually a little bit longer out from the race.

I think this ended up being 9 days.

I think last year he worked Sandman like 10 days before the

race or something like that. And so you could see these

differences in the trainers. That's one of the fun things to

see. Huge difference though, that I

definitely want to touch on. Obviously the Japanese horses

and Wonder Dean, you're gonna look at that time.

I think it was about 1/17 and 3/5 something like that for.

1:17 and 4:00. 14 if you're just a time looker, get over it.

If you haven't learned over the last couple years, do not look

at the time when it comes to the Japanese.

And he finished up the final quarter pretty well.

I think it was 23 and change, Yep, for the final quarter.

It won't be distant for one underneath, it won't be that.

And I did get to talk to his exercise rider yesterday.

If the Japanese horses, this has been a common theme with them as

far as the times go in the last couple years, they are not going

to work the horse very quickly in, especially in these kind of

last breezes going up to it. And they kind of worked him

into, I remember yesterday when he breezed, I watched him come

off the turn right behind me here.

The first time I was like, is he already breezing?

Is he? And then he came back right the

second time. I'm like, did he breathe?

Did he breeze? But they got exactly what they

needed. They were they were talking

about when I talked to them yesterday.

They were very happy that they got what they needed out of him,

just stretched his legs. They know that he's a horse

that's fit. That was his only breeze that

he's done here. He is very fit coming out of UAE

and they've been very happy with his fitness levels.

The one concern that they have for them that a lot of the

Japanese connections have had in the past is the track itself.

The track from what I have heard and from what I've understood

from talking with them over the last couple of years, the dirt

tracks here in the US tend to be a little harder than the tracks

over there in the in in Japan. And when I was talking with

Runder Dean's exercise writer yesterday, he did say I don't

know if he's really liking the track to the to the fullest.

Now that being said, I usually I've heard in the past some

comparisons that the track in Dubai is pretty similar to the

track over here. And now you obviously ran pretty

well over there. Obviously Forever Young ran very

well here as well, as did TO password and so.

I was going to say, we've got some pretty good examples.

On the Yeah. But you know, it is one of those

things if you're listening to anybody talk to the Japanese

connections and ask them about the track this week, you're

going to hear some comments about them, where they're 5050

and whether or not they're going to like the track.

What I can say is from what I have seen from him, he looks

like he's getting a track. Obviously, I'm not sitting on

his back, so I don't know how he feels now compared to how we did

before. Sure, he does look like in his

breeze yesterday in his warm ups in the shoe.

Looks like he's excited to go to the track, so it's not as though

he's comfortable he's. Feeling good.

He's probably the happiest source on this back show right

now. To be completely honest with

you, I've been. Closer to you than your

girlfriend has been the last couple of years.

I mean, that's really. What he loves coming up and

saying hi to the camera, But I'm interested to see Dan and

Bourbon had his first just kind of a slow day on the track

today. We'll see him galloping Bourbon.

He is. But but yeah, so don't keep that

in mind if you're thinking about the Japanese horses, about

whether or not they're going to like the track and they're going

to run to their best. But also kind of take that with

grain of salt as well. I think that's just kind of the

standard way from the last couple years.

I think that's kind of the standard way.

They just tend to talk about the dirt course here in the US

because it's literally been the same answer for all the Japanese

horses the last couple years. We have yet to have one where

it's been like, oh, they love the track.

This is their favorite track. Obviously, we've seen them run

well in the past. So take that with grain of salt.

Even go back to TO St. Sandini running second second in

the the alley Sheba a few years ago.

So I think I think he'll be fine.

He looks very happy. But yeah.

The other horse that's working in Florida, or excuse me, that

worked, his final work in Florida is the Puma.

The Puma, depending on where you live in the world.

I know I never realized people called him the Puma until we had

Alan Porter on last week. The old were here in Puma.

I had so much fun with Alan. I know that was.

It was fantastic. But then I've heard other people

doing that too. Anybody has the accents have

been have been calling? Them should we each of us do one

like you're the Puma guy and I'm Puma or do you want to be Puma

and I'm Puma like Puma you like you want to be like Puma so

you're poo when I'm. Pew Puma.

Yeah, you're more of a Pew guy. By a Pew guy.

Yeah, a little Pew guy over here.

OK, so the the pupil works in Florida at Gulfstream Park.

And I am a guy Sean, I love, but I love historical data in horse

racing, especially for races like the Derby, the Florida

Derby, obviously one of those great predictors of high level

success in the Kentucky Derby. I love what the Pumas done to

this point in his development that win in Tampa.

Then he goes to Florida 3 weeks, gets the five weeks.

Coming in here. I think all of that makes a lot

of sense. Him not working here though,

does that one bother you? It does not bother me.

It might bother me if the connections weren't the same

ones. I won the Derby of Mage with

Mage and did something similar with him.

It's amazing how similar the setups.

Are they're in the same stall, They're everything's the same.

It's coming out of the floor Derby, the way you.

Did the only difference is the Pumas actually won a greatest

stakes race already? But he's got better hair too, to

be fair. I mean, there's a really great

cloth. You're not a 90s kid though.

So like, he looks like a 90s kid.

Like if he came up in like 95, they'd throw him in the

Backstreet Boys. That's a real thing.

There you go. All right.

You don't know, the Backstreet Boys do.

You. I do know who's OK.

Backstreet's back all. Right.

There was a chance, folks, that I was going to be the oldest man

in the history of Churchill Downs if he did not know who

backstreet. Boys, that's a hard contest.

There's been some pretty old people here, but But no, it

doesn't concern me that much. I did.

Because of the connections. I did well.

I did like his move down there at Gulfstream, and you'll hear

from Gustavo Delgado junior here in just a moment.

A lot of their thinking went into the fact he did a lot of

racing in a short time period. You think about that short turn

around 3 weeks between the Tampa Bay Derby and the Florida Derby

and you know he's coming into the Tampa Bay Derby off a month

from the Sam Davis. He had just broken his.

He'd run in his debut. He didn't win his debut, but

he'd run in a few weeks before that and so he had a lot of

racing into him. He's obviously very fit from

that racing and they're going to take the strategy of let's kind

of just lengthen him out. I think in their gallops in the

morning. He's going to do something a

little more serious, kind of a more intense gallop in the first

half of this week, probably either Monday or Tuesday.

But I think they're they're feeling, they're feeling all

right with where they have him and they don't feel the need to

send him out there. And so obviously they know the

horse, all trust their judgement.

We've seen them be successful before with it.

But let's go ahead and hear from Gustavo Delgado Junior on his

thoughts on the Pumas work last week at Gulfstream, but then

also, you know, the decision to not breeze him here at Churchill

Downs, here at barn 42 of Gustavo Delgado Junior with team

the Puma here leading up to the Kentucky Derby.

We're getting close. We're talking about works today.

Gustavo the Puma put in his final work at Gulfstream Park a

few days ago. Just what did you think of that?

The word before coming in here, yeah, amazing.

I mean, that's exactly what we want to see.

We are in the opinion that the hotel doesn't mean much.

His campaign has been very demanding up until now.

Remember he didn't run up a three-year old and started to

generate and after that he's really monitored that you know

went for a maybe from an Indian race grade three.

I think it was the something. Then the dump already there.

We break 3 again, talk to some position, then the story that we

3 weeks later, a lot of asking we have done until this point,

and every single time it's been 8 plus.

Then the breeze was pretty nice. So at this point he's hit enough

and I think we might do something more, increasing the

tempo in the gallop. I'll be Monday.

Tuesday, yeah. Has he gotten over the tracks so

far since? He seems to like it, like it.

And more importantly, we think that the weather he's hopeful

helping him a little bit because you know, we're going from hot

weather down in Gloria and now here's more chilly more, you

know, so. How does his training kind of

reflect what you guys did with Mage leading up to the Derby a

few years ago? Pretty much the same.

You know, consistent strong gallops more than pastimes

during the recess and the recess is usually going solo, some

things increasing the tempo. The that's, that's basically,

you know, like my dad's style and, and he seems to adapt well.

Thank you, Gustavo, and best of luck the rest of.

You, Sir, All right. And thanks to Team Puma for

helping us out with that one. Gustavo Delgado junior, of

course, on that. It is amazing how often we get

to just have nice conversations with traders over and over today

on this show. We really appreciate that.

So we appreciate Gustavo, Chad, Brad, all the folks that hung

out with us today. Alex Smallwood hanging out with

us from Christie's Bluegrass. We love that guy.

He'll be with us all week long on the program.

We'll be back tomorrow with another episode of this thing

that will be taped after the draw.

So we'll get you reactions. Frankly, you might hear from

some of the same connections you already heard from today.

It should something dramatic happen with that.

But look, draw day I feel like is the start of the nerves for

some folks. You could kind of hear, you can

hear it in Jed Brown's voice and Brad Cox's voice a little bit

like we'll see what happens with the draw here.

Even Brad Cox said, hey, I'd like, you know, further ado to

be further outside that kind of stuff.

Any horse that you can think of top of your head that's really

draw dependent here. There's no one that I feel like

is specifically draw dependent. I think obviously if you're 6

speed, you're going to want to be down toward the inside so you

can get. You don't have to worry about

crossing over. I also think if you don't want

to be inside of 6 speed, I think it's more I think it's more of

that type of year where it doesn't really matter who's in

what gate, but it matters who you're next to because there's

going to be a lot of closers in this race.

I think 6 speeds ideal scenario is for him to draw where he's

got like stone cold closers right to his inside and he

doesn't even have to worry about it at that point.

I think. I think he, maybe he's, I really

do think 6 speed is the entire key to the Kentucky Derby this

year. I think he, I'm not saying he's

going to win the race, but I think he's, whatever he decides

to do is really going to shape how this race unfolds.

And so I think a huge part of that is where does he end up in

the gate? Is he going to be outside of

another potential pace competitor?

Is he going to be inside of all of them and just be able to park

himself on the lead as the set the second the gates open?

I do think that he really is going to play a big role in

this. And the only other interesting

thing that I'm going to say about the draw today, whoever

dressed 17, we know we can toss them out.

All right, So I got one other force that I am massively

fascinated with their post position because he ran two

different, very different Kentucky Derby preps.

That's Patente. That's a horse.

That's a horse. He went to the lead in the in

the San Anita Derby. I don't think that's what they

wanted. I think that's just how that

race played out. They're not gonna have to do

that here in a week. Simply put, I think if I'm them

with him, I want somewhere between the four and the 10.

So he's not behind too many horses, but he can also, I think

he's he's able to be part of that early speed in in so much

as he's in 7th, 8th position, something like that.

And then does his best running later in the race.

Patente to one for me. If he's way too inside, it would

be a real, real big flag for. Me, yeah.

If he's way down on the inside, you feel he's like a tour or.

Three or something. I mean, he'd have to go.

He'd have to kind of be in the Citizen Bowl position actually,

where Citizen Bowl came out of the rail and it's like he just,

he had to go. And I know Authentic wasn't down

at the rail, but he'd have to run that kind of race, frankly,

if we're talking about that for trainees, Starlight horses,

etcetera. So and and so, yeah, Potente,

you know that I'm so fascinated by his drawing today.

So yes. I think that's a good one, but

yeah, 6 feet and potenti, the two are real.

Well, there you. Go some random draw candor from

us today. Well, he's Sean.

I'm Louis. Again, thanks to Alex Smallwood

and the team there at Christie's Bluegrass for presenting our

coverage here of Derby 152. We'll be back with a post draw

episode tomorrow. You can find that right here.

Does Sean draw into the Kentucky Derby?

Find out tomorrow. 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.

We'll see you next week.