Ah yes, music and horses. This is horse.
What is this? This what is this horse blood.
What do we do? Blood horse Monday.
How about that Sean Collins, where we bro hanging out with
you Great start. Spectacular start here on the
program. Thanks for making us the start
of your horse racing week here. Of course, heavy in Keeneland
here around the bluegrass. Of course, you and I spending
many days in Lexington as of late, but you certainly a ton of
mornings at Churchill as well. So the old double, the old tucky
double headed workouts up at Churchill and of course, racing
at Keeland right now. A busy time of year in the
Bluegrass, Sean, but a really exciting one too.
Oh, yeah, that's really exciting.
You know, we get tired. You're interrupting my nap time
right now of, you know, the the post training at Churchill.
But, you know, we get tired of this every year.
But when you get there in the morning, there's just no feeling
like it's seeing all the Derby horses coming out, you know,
been keeping close eyes on that. We got eight of them there right
now. So they're keeping close eyes on
them, you know, staying in touch with the connections over the
last week or so. And there's no better time right
now. And it's only going to get
better as the horses start coming in.
We start getting the dirt specific Derby training time at
7:15 starts on Saturday. So that's when they all come out
at the exact same time. So you know, that's going to be
a bit very busy 15 minutes for us looking forward to it.
So it's been it's no better time of year than right now.
No, that's exactly right. And even, you know, you and I
were out yesterday Sunday morning.
You will hear from Kate Hunter. That was our, that was our
target for the day. Yeah.
She's, she represents the Japanese contingent that'll be
running in the Derby this year, like she did previously in the
Breeders Cup and UAE and lots of different places.
You'll hear from her about what it takes to get a Japanese horse
to the starting gate. The Kentucky Derby, by the way
#1 it's tough enough to get any horse to any starting gate.
This story is really remarkable, and I think it's one that you'll
definitely want to stick around for.
She's spectacular. She she has a really genuinely
unique spot in horse racing. I'm so glad we got to catch up
with her. Yeah.
And when you think about all the Japanese presence that we've had
in the last couple years, whether it be in the Derby,
whether it be in the Breeders Cup, you know, there are two big
Breeders' Cup wins that they had a couple years ago at Delmar.
Forever Young, almost winning the Kentucky Derby last year,
just coming up a couple inches short.
All of that would probably not have happened if it wasn't for
Kate Hunter and all, all the work she does out there in
Japan. I think people are going to be
impressed. I think the word is impressed
with the process to just get horse sort of not not aware, but
but motivated to look at these options, right.
And she she clearly understands that there's a Sailor Moon
reference. I mean, it's it's you don't want
to miss anything. It was a great interview.
It really was something that you and I have intentionally held
off to doing. By the way, I have the Kentucky
voice thing. Whatever's going on in the
weather right now, you have the Kentucky spring right now.
You and I were in church. It was 40°.
It's 80° out right now. My body is just, it's completely
confused. But we we intentionally held off
on some of the replays knowing that the bluegrass was going to
be around Tuesday. So for us, it's new on this
show. And then we have the the
Japanese prep and then we in the Fuku Rayo and then we have UAE
Derby. And so we're going to go through
all three of those right now. You want to start Lexington?
Yeah, let's start. We'll start in North America
with the bluegrass sticks there at Keeland, of course.
Kerbecker on a call here. Burnham Square has to go wide
from last around Admiral Dennis. They move for the top of the
stretch. E Avenue, the lead now down to
just one length. Almighty is in second position
off the turn. River Thames is in 3rd.
Burnham Square, still has a lot of work to do, Moves out to the
center of the racetrack. Coming into the final furlong.
Owen Almighty challenging E Avenue.
River Thames seeks to join them. Admiral Dennis runs late toward
the rail. Burnham Square.
From the outside. They've got to get E Avenue.
He's got the lead in deep stretch.
He leads a length and a half. River Thames is still trying
Burnham Square, unleashing a final try down to the wire.
Burnham Square there gets there. Great call, by the way, by Kurt
Becker to to notice it when he was in fourth spot, but easily
making up the most ground and then he calls it at the wire.
Good job by Kurt. Yeah, I know sometimes those
tracking answers, you know, I'm I'm sure when you have to make
that call on the wire, like your hearts and your photo, like,
hey, photo, I would always default to photo fitness.
So I don't be wrong when Larry Colbus called Beholder and the
Breeders have this stuff, it's like, how did you how did you
know in that or the Derby last year, Travis Stone goes, OK, It
was Mystic Dan, Sierra Leone forever young nails the
trifecta. Like, incredible.
I mean, I I have no sense. That's amazing.
You and I, we both know we're big fans of track announcers.
And so you and I are track announcer geeks.
Yeah, for sure. So, you know, you guys do a
great job. I don't know how you do it.
You know, I feel like I'm pretty good at, you know, nailing a
photo, but I don't know if I'm good enough to announce it like
that. But it's confidently too.
Yeah. Right.
No kidding. Let's go back and watch the
stretch around here. There was a moment where I
thought, OK, River Times is going to win this race.
Boy, we've got an interesting entrant for the Kentucky Derby.
Very different thing ends up happening here with the Burnham
Square. We're going to go back and watch
the replay here. We see E Avenue do all the work.
We'll get to him in a second. Yeah, we see right outside of
him River Thames here. And yes, I know people.
This is this is Keeneland. So they, they the saddle claws
are for the owners there. But in the white there, of
course, River Thames. Is that a wind star?
He's the red and yellow, the red yards.
Excuse me, That's an Almighty and the white.
Oh, Almighty. Right.
So old Almighty starts to make his run, but you see him kind of
slowing down. River Thames is on the outside
here. Excuse me.
You're right. I mixed up my horses here, but
starts going and then Burnham Square, who you and I, by the
way, gave the nod to weeks back. Yes.
For the best run of the weekend, the most professional run goes
ahead and gets it done here. I went to 300 point Derby preps.
You went to 300 point Derby preps.
How does this rank in the top? You know the top ones that you
went to, it's not as impressive as some of the other ones I got
to see, but the late kick man, there's no denying this,
especially heading to temp for a while.
It's interesting because all three that I went to the Jeff
Ruby, the Arkansas Derby and now this one, the all deep closers.
So I mean, if I'm stacking the three of them, I feel like the
most visually impressive was probably Sandman, although final
gambits was pretty visually unbelievable.
Quickly. Yeah, but I I the synthetic, I
gotta give a slight discount and put Sandman up.
Well, when we talked to Brad before that race, Brad Cox,
trainer Brad Cox, he he was talking about the American turf.
Yeah, right. Even after the race he was like,
yeah, we were thinking about the turf and then he won.
Hey, how about that? I mean, and I I'm, I'm not at
all sure is that is that decision final, final.
He's running. Yeah, I think so.
Talking to him, he's getting over the dirt.
Great seeing final gambit out there every day.
And Brad seems comfortable with how he's moving over.
And I think that's probably a tough decision, both him and
Flying Mohawk, by the way. But Burnham Square, what do you
make Burnham Square see? Even though I don't feel like it
was visually as impressive as those other two that we just
mentioned, I do still really like this move.
And part of it being that, you know, we talked about this back
when he won the Holy Bowl, how he has proven he can make those
multiple moves throughout the race.
I didn't I felt like East Avenue, you know, kind of had it
his own way up front here and the fact that he was still able
to get up there, he was still able to run him down.
I know a lot of people are going to make comments.
I think about the time it, it wasn't the fastest running of
the race. That's not for score's fault.
He was in the back of the race. That's not his fault that they
were at score. He had that was, you know,
whatever they were doing up ahead of him.
But I did really like the move. I like, you know, being back at
Churchill the last couple days. I like seeing how he's bounced
out of the race. He looks like he.
It didn't really take that much out of him in the last couple
days. So I know it's weird that, you
know, this was almost a week ago in this race.
So it's like I've seen him come back.
Yeah. I'm sure many people are
listening, thinking what are we doing?
But to be fair, it was on a Tuesday.
Yeah. You and I were at Keatlin on a
Tuesday. Not a workout or it was kind of
cool race. It was it was abnormal, which
made it cool. But yeah, I did.
Tom Hammond hanging out 61st Bluegrass.
That's that was incredible. Baller stuff.
That's baller stuff. What a legend.
Legend's the right word. Oh, there's no other word for
it. Yeah.
It's unbelievable. So, yeah, no, I just but.
But with Burnham Square, I mean, was it the fountain of youth?
You know, I mean, I think it was fountain of youth or the Holy
Bowl. It's the fountain of youth that
he lost. The Holy Bowl is holy Bowly one.
OK. But when he made that move, when
he was deeper and further back in that race when they were on
the back stretch, he makes that early move up the rail to get
back into contention, then settled back into the pace.
Yeah, he didn't do that here. Was purely a close in this one.
But we've seen multiple styles from him, even in closing.
We've seen multiple different ways of him doing that, being
closer to the pace, being further back, whatever it might
be, that kind of variability. I don't know that I would pick
him to win the Derby, but I'm 0% stunt if he's in the top five.
Well, he is a horse that, if you remember back to what, right
after the Holy Bowl, I said at that point in time, he was
probably my #1 Derby horse. And even though he lost the
Fountain of Youth, I didn't lose too much faith in him.
Because if you remember when we talked to Ian Wilkes on the
show, you know, about a week after the Holy Bowl, one of the
things he mentioned was the target now that he's got this
win under his belt, is the Kentucky Derby.
Now the goal is gonna change to let's do the building blocks to
get him to peak on the 1st Saturday of May.
And so even though he lost the fountain of Youth, it sounded
like Ian had kind of changed up some things with the training
leading into that race. I think I didn't jump off of him
after that. Unfortunately I didn't place any
bets this weekend or on Tuesday at England, so I didn't make any
money off of this one. I should have, but, yeah, we
were a little busy that day, but it was good seeing him bounce
back. And I think he's going to be
stronger on the next one. I think Ian's going to have him
prepped for the Derby. And I talked to Ian actually the
day right before the Bluegrass, and it sounded like he was,
again, those building blocks were just kind of, you know,
getting him set up. And now there's a little bit
more pressure because we need to make sure we get the points to
get into the race. They got more than enough by
winning. So, yeah, I think that was a
good, that was a good progress step for him.
And I think he's going to run an even bigger race come the first
Saturday in May. E Avenue.
What do we do? What do we do with that horse?
I was glad to see him bounce back.
He looked great. Yeah, he looked great.
He really did. He did all the work.
He was great. And it was one of those things
too, where it's like he got caught at the end, but he was
battling everybody off River Thames.
You know, he wasn't really getting getting 2.
Several horses made runs at him and he got caught at the point
where he didn't have time to fight back.
So we didn't get to see whether or not he would have fought
back. Yeah, that's fair too.
So, you know, he got caught at the last second.
Yeah, that's a good point. So it was a great back bounce
back race for him. Now the question that I have,
you know, his two big races have been at Keeneland.
We saw him, you know, that Breeders' Cup, he had that bad
start, but you saw him kind of run a dud out in Fairgrounds.
It's just that he likes Keeneland.
Is it just that he's finally kind of getting back in?
Maybe he just hated Fairgrounds for whatever reason.
But we heard that about Sierra Leone at Saratoga.
I mean, we hear this about horses from Texas.
So, you know, I'm, I'm on the fence about what I think about
him going into the Derby. I think we learned that he
should definitely be probably up there forward.
I mean I mean he was sitting second in the he's mid pack in
the Derby. Anything, everything's on the
table. That's how I feel about him.
I worry about him being an 18th or something.
That's what I worry about. So you'd be OK with him sitting
like probably in like that 6th 7th If he's 9th, I'm feeling
really good. If I really have the stretch
100%. I don't feel as confident on
that just because you know his 2 the bluegrass, the Breeders
futurity. He was up on the lead.
He didn't really, even though he had that stumble, he didn't
really show much of trying to get re engaged in the Breeders
Cup. And then when he had to stop the
pace in the Risen Star, he I mean, he just didn't participate
in the last half of the race. So I'm on the fence about
whether I would trust that. But I think what you just said
is why I would want him to be a little bit further back.
I think you need to save him from one big run at the end.
OK? I really do.
And I think the added distance will not be an issue for him at
all. OK, I'm on that.
I want to be very clear. I'm on that train with him.
Now the question I have you because I know you were a big
fan of him after his maiden win a couple months ago, River
Thames. Just what do you think about him
going into the Yeah, I don't know, But I will not have him as
a winner on a ticket, you know, I'll put it that way.
But Belmont something to Saratoga this summer.
What do you think about this mile and a quarter?
Because I know there were some questions about that going in.
It was kind of getting to East Avenue at the end, but it didn't
look like he's really getting to him.
He was kind of drifting out a little bit before Burnham Square
got right up alongside of him. I think it's a problem.
I think it's a little further than a lot of these horses want
to go. I think he's on that list.
OK, OK, I think he's on that list.
Sean Collinsley, robo horse Monday hanging out with you.
We'll head to the UAE Derby for this one and another shipper
that'll be coming in in who won the UAE Derby.
His name is at Myer Daytona. Myer Daytona.
You'll hear all about him next. But first up we'll watch it
drops away with flood zone. They come into the running and
the UAE Derby and it's Don in the mood who takes a narrow lead
from heart of honor who's trying to respond here through the
middle at Myer Daytona fighting back as well.
Good go here a furlong left to travel.
Don in the in the mood. Heart of honor picking up the
middle now. Heart of honor working through
with. Admire Daytona.
Admire Daytona. Stride for stride with heart of
honor. Good.
Go down to the line tight. Admire Daytona.
Maybe not sure. Photo finish.
Admire Daytona. Not sure is the correct call.
Bear, by the way, they got it right.
Once again, they got it right. At least he admitted he wasn't
sure, but he got it right. Yeah, yeah.
I got to admit, I'm a little sad that Heart's not running.
I am too. It's a weird thing to say, but
I'm a little, I'm a little sad because I think if that horse
puts a little bit more together, that's a contender.
That's an absolute contender, but nothing to be taken away
from admirer dates on who got it done on the stretch.
I I understand the decision to not bring Heart of Honor over.
It sounded like they wanted to. He's been in Dubai pretty much
the whole winter. They wanted to take him back
home. I think England is where he's
based. So they wanted to take him back
home to England. And then they heard Michael's
going to be 5° here and there. Yeah, we can't do that well, but
it's just going to be you know that that that's a lot a lot of
shipping for you to go to England and then have to try to
come here. Sounds like they might be coming
Preakness Belmont is they they have that under consideration so
maybe look out for him later, but for admire Daytona here this
is one that if we had done the show 2 days after the race, I
think that I probably would have been like I'm I'm not a big fan
of him now that we've had some time maybe this is just because
we talked to Kate yesterday. This is the reason, but I do I
like the way that he dug in, he fought back, he got headed
multiple times and he still just dug in, gave it his all in one.
And you've seen, you know, you've seen that be successful
in the past. Those horses that have been able
to kind of, you know, just battle back, just show all that
heart and remember that's mile and three sixteenths that he ran
there. That's that in the Louisiana
Derby. Those are tied for the longest
prep races that we have. So we know he can do that at a
mile and a three 16th. Can he do it at a mile and a
quarter? My one question with him pace
wise is, you know, he's going to have the Bafferts to deal with
probably in the lead. He might have E Avenue to deal
with on the lead. I'd imagine off of that race
they're going to try to go for the lead with them.
So I'm a little concerned that he's going to get a little bit
too much pressure in the Derby. But I think definitely I don't
think he was as impressive in winning the UAE Derby as your
Derma Sodagake was. But I do like this performance,
little derma talk. I I also am very biased by
having seen him now. Yeah, that's the other thing
too. We've.
But when I watched the UAE Derby, I was not I wasn't turned
on by him. It didn't do it for me.
Yeah, whatever that is. And so I, I just, you know,
watching this down the stretch, though, like you said, there's
nothing to really pick apart here.
He's, he's still developing as a three-year old.
So if he's being a little, you know, kind of loafing once in a
while, that's just young horse syndrome essentially, right.
So I, I, I don't know what to take away from him.
And I think with an American jock, perhaps, are they going to
stick with a Japanese connection here?
Do you know they're, remember we asked Kate yesterday, I think
they were, they're kind of kind of on that.
Yeah. Figuring out who's going to ride
this horse. It sounds like they like having
Christophe Lemaire on him, though.
Yeah, that's fine. That, that, that's good.
That one's OK for me because that's, that's the guy who's got
experience all over the place. I you know, for him that way,
great, if he's able. For example, I don't think you
can throw the blinkers on this horse because I think he he saw
the challenge to the side and then he reacted to it.
And so I don't think you can throw the blinkers on and make
it faster. I think he's just going to have
to get the race day and be the best, and that's a hard ask,
man. That's just a hard ask.
And like you said, what's interesting too, we were
concerned there wasn't going to be any front running speed in
the Derby. After many preps, I think we're
up to 5 front runners now. So 1/4 of the field is likely
front runners. How quick everything changes.
Well, number one, but also #2 this is a stunningly balanced
field as well, where we're going to have 5 front runners, 10 mid
pack or maybe 5 mid pack and then 10 closers.
It's just the back of the field is going to have to do
incredible running, but they're going to have something to run
at. We always assume in these big
stake races, Sean, that there's not going to be a hot pace or
that anything else, whatever, there's always a hot pace.
Oh yeah, these jockeys all want the lead.
They all want to get out there. There's 150,000 people yelling
at them. You know you're going to go get
the lead. And you know, at one point it
looked like it was only to be the Baffert horses on the lead.
So it was like, well, maybe it is going to be a slow pace
because they're not going to go after each other.
Now that you put Admire Daytona in, now that you put E Ave. in,
in that pace scenario, we're gonna we're it's gonna be decent
up front. And we've seen E Avenue.
There is no other option for that horse.
He has to go. If he gets behind horses, he's
like, I'm good, I'll stay back here.
Yeah, that's like, he's got to go.
And that'll be absolutely part of it.
Fukurai was in Japan a couple weeks ago as well.
We're going to watch this one here just for our audio
listeners. Just that if you're not watching
the video, just be aware of this one is in Japanese.
But he is winning by a lot. So that's what you need to know
about Luxor Cafe. Just spectacular.
52 in change over the mile and an eighth there.
Gosh, now I'm forgetting the name of the race track there,
but in the fugu rage tracks there, I love the late kick on
this horse and I know it's I know it's late.
I know, oh, slow, whatever. OK, OK, he's kicking it late in
the last eighth of a mile. I'm good.
He he looks incredible to me. He's top five, six for me.
And I don't care too much about the time because as you'll see
in our interview with Kate here in a little bit, the Japanese
tracks are a little bit different.
It's a little bit deeper out there and so I don't put too
much into that kind of that time for that.
And I mean, he won easy. I would say this is by far, you
know, the you think about the horses that have run in the
Derby qualifying off the Japanese Rd.
We've had a lot of Japanese horses in the Derby, but most of
them have come from the UAE Derby.
But Master Fencer came from this route last year.
We had password to come from this route.
Out of those horses that have accepted the invitation from
Japan and come over, I thought this was the most impressive
final, most impressive prep race of the Japan based prep races
we've seen. That means you're going to be
including him in tickets. Oh, I'm definitely including him
in tickets. Yeah, he, I really like this
horse. I liked his win in the Hyacinth
and we just talked about that's the other part of this.
By the way, this isn't his first rodeo.
Terrible analogy, but his first time winning in in grade at six
company, right? This is not his first attempt at
these things. The hyacinth was not as
impressive, but he's developing and and if this is part of the
development and he takes a step forward in the Derby, he's
winning. Yeah.
And behind him in the hyacinth was Admirer Daytona and Don in
the mood, who is third in the UAE Derby now.
You know, Admirer Daytona, it sounded like probably had a
little bit of a starting issue in the where he just got off
slow in the hyacinth, which is he was further back then.
So another reason why I feel like he's going to go to the
pace of the Derby is because he didn't run as well coming from
off the pace that day. But they also faced each other
in a maiden race and they were head and head.
Luxor Cafe came out on that one. So if you like Admirer Daytona
at all, you got to love Luxor Cafe coming in.
And you know, I'm obviously I like him a lot too because he's
American Pharaoh. American Pharaoh cult.
We're seeing it. We're seeing it over and over
again. First year on that Japanese
trail. And when you talk Fuku rider and
you talk the UAE Derby and you talk a couple of Japanese champs
in Luxor Cafe and of course admired Daytona, you have to
talk Kate Hunter and you and I caught up with her yesterday at
Churchill Sunday morning outside the quarantine barn.
Gunai, good soldiers, good citizens, staying outside the
USDA fence there at Churchill Downs.
A loud guy in Admiral, he was so excited to get out of there and
Oh my gosh, I get to go walk around and do all the things,
get out of my stalls, making a lot of noise.
And I'll tell you, it wasn't just yesterday.
He was doing it today too. There you go.
And Kate was saying too, he's one of those.
He did it. I think her term was, yeah, he
did that in UAE, too. We hope it's a good sign for
what can happen here, too. You know that he's doing that.
He's feeling good. That's exactly right.
But if you have ever wondered what it is, what it takes to get
a Japanese horse to the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby, boy,
do I have great news for you. Listen to Kate Hunter here in
our BLOOD HORSE interview for the week.
Her name is Kate Hunter. She joined us yesterday.
Churchill Downs. All right, Welcome backside
Churchill Downs Blood Horse Monday, Luther Beauche on
Callitz. Hanging out with Kate Hunter
here at Churchill, We saw Admire Daytona spread his wings and fly
a little over the the mile shoot here at Toronto Downs, of course
here at the quarantine barn. Kate, good morning, good
morning, welcome in. Where were you most recently
before you got to lure? I came straight from Dubai with
the connections with my Daytona. All right, so world traveller
Kate Hunter with us is how I probably should have started
this. All right, tell people who you
are. You have a very unique spot in
our sport. I got to meet you last year.
I know Sean has mentioned before as well.
What is it that that Kate Hunter does?
Yeah, well, my main role overall is helping Japanese horses
travel overseas, particularly in the United States.
I'm the Asia representative for Churchill Downs, the Breeders
Cup. I also am the Japan field Rep
for Keeneland, so I help Flyers go for there.
I've worked with Naira Strong Group, all those guys trying to
get more and more Japanese participation over here against
this. Well, over the years, you know,
we've seen this now our 4th consecutive year with Japanese
horses a couple of years now where we've had multiple
Japanese horses in the race. So, you know, just how is Japan
really just the last five to 10 years kind of taken this
international traffic? Well, it's been something we've
been growing to, I think even since the early 90s and the, the
boom really started to explode. I think, right, COVID probably
set it back at a teensy wee bit, but it was starting to grow.
Then when like Master Fencer came over here.
I, I feel like especially for the United States, having some
targeted marketing has really helped to kind of increase their
interest over here because there's, there's so much that
the European has that European races have that kind of long
term prestige that in the grass, which is obviously Japan's means
main surface. So being able to target the the
dirt horses I think has been a, a major uptick showing that I've
been part of the reason there's such a major uptick in
participation coming over here. And they also have that
opportunity in Saudi Arabia and Dubai now to to try out that
dirt surface and it gives them more confidence when they come
over from the United. States Kate Hunter with us here.
Blood Horse Monday backside Churchill Downs outside the
quarantine barn at Myer Daytona, stretching his legs this
morning. We know what you do, but how did
you get into this? I, I think it's a unique story
as far as how one even decides to do this.
Where do you live, etcetera. How does how does Kate Hunter
get into all of this? Well, initially it was a mix of
Silver Charm and Sailor Moon and those things being an odd
combination that sent me to college to learn Japanese.
And when I was in over there sitting abroad, I learned that
the Silver Charm was sold to Japan.
Most people's reaction to a horse like being sold overseas
is tears. And I'm like, oh, I'm over here.
And so it kind of gave me that opportunity to go visit him.
And so when I moved there, you know, I kind of wear it out on
my own exumption to try and become a freelance photographer
just out of the blue. Like I wasn't a very good one,
but it was. I was the only American over
there. And so I was able to kind of
wiggle my way in. Well, Silver charms now here in
the United States at Old Friends Farm, you get to go see him
every time that you come out here.
Not every time, but I just see him every year.
So I try. I make it a purpose that if I
haven't seen him by the November sale, that's that's the last
thing I do before I leave Kentucky.
Well, we have two horses coming from Japan this year at Myer
Daytona, who won the UAE Derby and Luxor Cafe, who is the
number one point earner on the Japan road to the Kentucky
Derby. Let's start off at Myer Daytona
since he's the one that's here, He's the one we saw this
morning. How has he settled in so far?
I settled in great. He arrived.
The first thing he did when he arrived at he just ate all of
his feed. He was really, really hungry and
he was. He was always chipper and ate
and drank up until he was released and so we gave him
another day off because they just kind of felt like after
such a long trip, maybe another day off not going to the track
would be a good idea. So today was his first day out.
Just stretching his legs, getting to know the place a
little bit before they put any pressure on him.
And how did he respond to Churchill Downs?
Obviously Dubai a different place than here, the weather or
whatever else, the environs in general.
How did he respond here? Well, unlike the people, I think
the horse likes the weather. So because we're we're coming
from a 90° weather spike in Dubai.
So we're like Burr, but he I think he was very happy to be in
the less slightly cooler environment today.
He behaved himself quite well. Mike Crowder was is our go to
pony guy and he took good care of him to take him out there to
the shoot to warm up a little bit and so far so big.
Shot recognized Mike from last year actually, so it's nice.
Yeah. He's kind of a pattern here.
Yeah. He's been doing that a couple
years ago with the Japanese horses.
Well, just kind of tell us a little bit, you know, when
Admired Daytona first gets here, he's got.
They go through those two days of quarantine and, you know,
he's still living in the quarantine barn even though he's
coming at the train every day. It's just kind of tell us a
little bit about what that process is like for all the
Japanese horses that come over. Well, basic quarantine, you've
got 42 to 48 hours where they're, they've got bloods,
blood drawn on arrival. And so waiting for those blood,
blood tests to come back to make sure they are not carrying any
weird diseases. It's kind of, that's why you're
kind of sitting there waiting. You take bloods to make sure
there's no fever, no temperature or anything like that.
So take the temperature every couple of hours, twice a day and
then it's usually pretty easy. Then you're open and free to go.
We're still in quarantine because currently it's, it's
currently under review. So hopefully within a year it'll
be different. There is a, there's a lack of
one test that they don't do in Japan that they can do in
Europe. It's called it's a CEM.
It's like a basically a horse STD test.
And since you they can't do it, they have to stay in special,
not quarantine, but it's isolation.
So they can't join the general population for fear of
accidental spreading of an STD, which they won't have.
But it's just basically paperwork, some box checking at
this point. But hopefully if we get that
test, then you could go somewhere over there if you
wanted to. And you talk about going
somewhere over there. This is something we talked
about last year with the two runners TO password, of course,
and forever young over here. And and obviously outside of the
view of of the camera in front of us.
It's it's surrounded by pavement essentially here, right as
opposed to the horses here that we see walking so often either
on some mulch or something like that.
Is this? How much of A disadvantage do
you think this is? 2 in the top five last year
didn't appear to be much of one last year, but what do you
think? Well, I the Japanese people
really, really like it. They like how quiet it is, how,
how separated from all the hustle and bustle it is.
We've got a wash Bay, which the Japanese horse is not
particularly good at standing and washing because they're
actually, they do, they tie the horses up in Japan.
They've got multiple wash stalls at the training centers there.
So they're not used to being held.
And so they like to move around. And so it becomes quite a hassle
so that we've got a little wash Bay in there and they, they
just, they kind of like having their own private quiet space.
So as long as we've got at least two horses in there, they, they
really, really like it. And the horses don't seem to
dislike it here. I remember seeing Derma Soda got
Gay and continue our I think that they were best buddies at
here all the time. So yeah, they seem to always
like having that partner out here.
Well, as far as the racetrack is concerned here at Church of
Downs, how does it compare to what they've seen in Japan?
How does it compare to what they, what I admire Daytona has
seen in Dubai? Just kind of how does the
surface kind of match it? I think that the surface change
will always be a little bit more difficult for the Japanese than
anything else because they run on such deep, soft, slippery
sand in in Japan. But that's why I typically like
to look at horses and see how they run on off ground off dirt
in in Japan. So if it's rained in Japan,
you're more likely to see a horse if they excel like Luxor
Cafe has on multiple of his races where it rains a little
bit, the sand became firmer. I that speaks highly of his
ability to then adapt to the track over here or or anywhere
in particular. I think that the probably the
Dubai track might be a little more forgiving than some of the
American dirt tracks, but we'll we'll see how it goes.
So you mentioned some of that direct marketing to the
Japanese. You know, last year, you know,
we see two horses in the top five of the Kentucky Derby
finishing order. What's more important you think
that marketing or success or is it a combination?
What do you think? Oh, the success, definitely.
That's free marketing. Correct we.
Always like free marketing, no, but oddly enough, the Japanese,
despite their reputation for being a very tick, tick savvy
country, love sexes and letters in the mail.
And so every couple of months or every month I'm usually sending
out some mailing letter to about 300 Japanese people.
A lot of looking envelopes, but it's I've had massive success
with it. So it ain't broke.
Don't fix it. I learned from Seinfeld, don't
buy the cheap envelope. So make sure you don't do that
yet I. Like to see this.
I've got no ones where you can just pull a little tab.
I like a few too many paper. Cuts, I'm sure.
Well, we've mentioned Luxor Cafe.
I feel like for a lot of fans in America, a lot of them watch the
UAE Derby. They maybe know Admirer de Tono
a little bit better. Just tell us a little bit about
Luxor Cafe. I know he beat the Admirer de
Tono. If he starts to go, let's tell
us. Yeah, twice.
So just tell us a little bit about him and how he's coming
over. Well, I think the fact that both
of these horses have been up against each other and multiple
times kind of really adds to both horses credentials coming
into this race. You know, when in the maiden
race that they were against, they were, you know, fighting
back and forth with each other. It was just a narrow loss for
for Daytona. And then after that, obviously
Luxor Cafe is really blossomed and really become quite the
force in Japan. And so like the the Japanese
public seem to be pretty excited about the possibility of him
coming over. And I think that with with the
Hyacinth Stakes, where you look at, I talked, actually, I talked
to the assistant trainer, like what happened in the Hyacinth,
like he was so far back. Like what happened is like he he
missed the break basically. And so didn't get to really run
the race that he wanted to run. And, and the other is
Christopher Mayer wasn't on Christopher Hammond and like
this connection where they can really like pull the best out of
each other. And so Christophe committed to
ride this particularly. So that's admired.
Yes, admired Joe sorry, no, so that's that there's your much
breaking news. I'm on that flip.
But so you've got that, that's how much they feel confident in
this works to be able to give up a ride in the in the 10 off
show, which then propels you to think like, oh, well, now you've
got to look at the, the performances of Luxor Cafe.
Because if, if he's done this, well, then look what, what,
what's Luxor going to do? So Mr. Horry doesn't travel
unless he thinks he's got a good shot.
He's he's a very, he's hard to direct market to.
So it's like he does what he wants and right now he wants to
come to Kentucky Derby. You're telling me the Sailor
Moon stationary isn't working with him is?
That I might I might need to change that a.
Little bit. OK, All right.
OK, there you go. Well, talk just a little bit,
you know, forever. Young comes over, he gets beat
just a few inches. To win the whole.
Thing, I know that was probably tough for you guys, but when you
get back to Japan, what was the public and the racing
community's reception to him coming back?
Is there like a little bit more of a renewed sense that we can
actually pull this off at some point we can win the Kentucky
Derby? I felt that mostly with the,
the, the horsemen in particular, who I, I deal with on a regular
basis, they've like, like, oh man, I like northern farm and
all those guys, like I'd be able to actually do this.
So it was a, it was a pretty, pretty exciting moment.
I think for, for all Japanese that are invested in this kind
of international events and, and, and the Derby in
particular. I know that for the, the love of
forever young is probably he's one of the most popular horses
in Japan right now, which is rare because the dirt horses
usually don't get that popular. I think Ushpa Tesoro with his
his quirks was kind of up there and I'm an illusion, but for
every young, I mean he's just such a cool, cool customer and
just so he just has so much confidence that like all the
fans just really like him. I'm so excited they're gonna
make a little plushie for him. So he's got his two group ones.
So by the fall I should have a bunch of.
So yeah, you're gonna be bringing them over for next
year's Derby. Right.
I have to give them out to all of our friends at the Saudi Cup
1st and then I will bring a couple.
Whatever I have left, I'll bring them back to the Kentucky next
year and I've hopefully got some more.
All right, I'll be looking forward to that.
You know, I love getting the hats for all the Japanese words.
I had my forever young hat on when he won the Saudi Cup a
couple of months ago. Award to Turfway that night when
I went up there, everybody's like, that's so cool.
And I'm like, yeah, ever young. I love that horse so.
So you'll see him again here at the the Breeders Cup later in
the year. So that's that's their end of
year target. When you, you know, guys like us
based in Kentucky, we're thinking about the Derby.
He thinks about it every minute of every day.
She's just like that. You know, we start that trail in
September and we see on the website the European path.
We see the Japanese path. How much of the Japanese gotten
into it? Is it?
Is it something that they've done a good job, Churchill
Downs, other other entities of making people aware that hey,
the Fukuda who's going to happen here?
This is something that you should pay attention to.
Have they done a good job of that, you think?
Well, that's my job to do so. I hope so.
Well, I, I send out monthly newsletters to all the trainers
and a lot of the big ownership groups letting them know you
know what's coming up. And like, I think the first
notifications I started about that are actually in the late
summer when their two year olds are really starting to kick off.
So, you know, it's, it's really important to make sure that they
know very quickly to know that when they're when they got to
nominate, when those cut offs are because like Daytona here,
he didn't nominate until the day after the he won the UA Derby.
So it's like, you know, save some money, not late, early.
And we had a record number this year.
So we had I think over 50. So it's, it's getting higher and
higher each year. And I think that just shows the
the interest and the impact that the Kentucky Derby has.
And the Triple Crown is old. So, you know, we saw Mandarin
Hero a couple of years ago come over and run second the Santa
Anita Derby to qualify for the Kentucky reviews on the AE list,
but he ended up drawing in once you mentioned the test earlier.
Once that gets approved, is that going to open the door for more
things like that? The Japanese coming over for the
American Crabs coming over for, you know, older horse races like
the Whitney or maybe some of our turf races.
That's something that maybe is in the future once that happens.
Yes, absolutely. That's one of the reasons I've
been pushing it so hard with the GRA and everybody else.
And the race tracks have been super helpful, helping me try
and it on a more senior level than than myself expressed the
the need for it. Because at at the moment, you
know, the quarantine can cost between 25 to $30,000 a month
for the CEM because the vet has to follow you the whole time.
It's a lot of time the vet has to spend and it's it's it's a
lot of money and, you know, the Japanese don't really want to
spend it and the tracks don't really want to spend it.
And so like trying to figure out how we're going to do that.
So it's really hard. Except these major events like
the Derby and the Breeders Cup, like there's just that vacuum
where no one wants to spend that money.
No one can spend that money in some situations or no one can
build the quarantine facility like a Delmar, their summer
meets so popular, there's no room for a whole barn to be
isolated. And that's not Delmar's fault.
So, you know, being able to change some of these rules,
which is a simple test, I think will really open the door to
Japanese participation. Because I've had horses wanting
to go to Whitney. I've had them wanting to go to
the Travers to the yeah, to the Pacific.
Like I but for every young was kind of interested in that,
thinking about that or thinking about the California crown and
thinking about all of these different races.
But just looking at the cost of it, it it it really is a set
back, I think for the Japanese. And if we can get this passed,
which it looks like hopefully in the next year or so, we will, I
think the, I don't imagine it'd be the floodgates, but I think
we'll get a lot more horses here.
And I'm one of those. I hope to have 1/4 of the
Kentucky Derby field at one point.
That's that's my let's. Go, we're into it.
I was going to ask. We're going to see all twenty
horses. Just a guarantee we're going to
get that win at some. Point that I might I might have
to try in that but like I don't know if I can do all of them but
I will definitely go for at least 5 would be awesome.
Well, I love hearing this progress on, on this testing
because it was something when we spoke last year that you were
very passionate about. But you, I, it felt like in the
interview at least, Kate, that you felt like almost you hitting
your head against the wall about it.
Did something happen this year that there was a breakthrough?
Was it Derby success by chance? That was part of it.
It was actually just the number of horses we got at the Breeders
Cup. We had so many horses and it
finally became clear to both the JRA, to the JRA that it was, it
was time to make some movements. And so we're really thankful
that they've been willing to, to work with us on this finally
and, and move things ahead. It's, I know it's, it's a hard
suspect because you think you always have, you have to talk to
the government, you have to get the, you know, the, all the
departments of agriculture. So it's a slow process, but just
getting the ball rolling like I, it's, it's been really awesome
that the, the JRA has been helping us with that.
Oh great, well, she's Kate on her.
When does when's your other guy get here?
When's Luxor Cafe? Show Luxor Cafe He arrives in
the United States on the 21st I think, but he will get here by
van on the 23rd is the plan. They still flying into Chicago,
is that the preferred route? Well, that's the only way that
the plane goes. So there's the we were very
lucky this year that one of Sheikh Mohammed's planes was
able to fly the horses from Dubai directly here to
Louisville. I think that that's a huge
thing. It's not always the case.
So hopefully shake a comment, we'll continue that practice
going forward because the all the Derby horses that get
invited, you know, especially by the new European Norwegian Rd.,
I think that it'd be a huge advantage to them and and help
hopefully the UA Derby eventually lead to a Derby
hunter. Awesome.
Well, she's Kate Hunter. How do people find you?
I know people want to find you. Please don't find her.
Don't find her. Subscribe to the Sailor Boone
Channel instead. I'm going to thanks to Kate
Hunter for joining us yesterday Kate McCabe, if you will on
Twitter and all those things over at Churchill Downs outside
the quarantine barn. You saw the twitch fires in the
background there at least the the big board and the dorms and
the bars all the things that's exactly right.
But just a a unique story, just a, you know, into into Japanese
culture as a kid decides to study that obviously loves horse
racing, ends up living in Japan, becomes this incredible
ambassador and all the little things.
Sean, I was thinking about this overnight.
One of my favorite things is her understanding of Japanese
culture and the the value of of sending actual paper letters and
sending paper communique right where that still has real value
to the Japanese. And I want to be really clear
when someone sends me a birthday card, that's cool, man.
Like I appreciate the text message, but at the same time,
like if someone goes out of their way to send me a card or
something. So I understand at least the
sentiment there. But I thought that was, it's
those kinds of little things that you don't.
Where would I? I don't, I don't even want to
think about it. But like, how important is it,
right? I mean, it's obviously
incredibly important. That's interesting, right?
Yeah. Because, I mean, you look at
these prep races and you can award points to any race you
want, but if you're not really kind of advertising the route to
get there, right, people aren't gonna really see it as an
option. And so to have somebody over
there who's passionate about it, who knows all the INS and out,
because it's not just convincing them to come over here.
She's the one that's in charge of getting them set up with the
USDA, getting them set up with all the paperwork and all all
that stuff. So she's very involved with the
whole process. She's going out there and
watching them train every day and I believe reporting back to
the, you know, the trainers, kind of giving them a heads up
on how the horse is doing and all that stuff.
So she's very involved with every single one of them.
And, you know, it's I, I, I feel like, you know, without that
kind of presence that she has over there, we probably don't
see. Maybe we see a Japanese horse
every once in a while, but we don't have where we're now three
years in a row with multiple Japanese horses.
I think she eases, eases some concerns for many people.
Yeah, right. That oh, we have this person to
handle those things. Great.
Because when I I even joke, like, is Churchill doing a good
not even a joke. Is Churchill doing a good job
here? And she's like, that's not their
job. It's my job.
Yeah, no, that's right. But like, if you're Churchill,
you love to hear that. If you're the Japanese, you
know, trainers and and connections, whatever, you love
to hear that, right, That she's willing to personally take these
things on. I think people don't know that
this whole story. I'm very glad we got to talk to
her. Yeah.
And, you know, it's it's just, you know, you think about
they're going the Japanese or their relation to Sunday
silence. That's how important he is.
You know, winning the Kentucky Derby for them would be such a
big, such a big deal. And, you know, they almost got
it last year. And to just see like, you know,
how excited they are to come over here.
It seems like over there in Japan, dirt racing has now kind
of taken on a larger focus because they're turf based over
there. But they just I think it was
last year for the first time, they actually put together a
Japan dirt Triple Crown series to kind of rival their turf 1.
And so and she mentioned, you know, forever young is now one
of the most popular horses over there.
So you're seeing where, you know, dirt racing is becoming a
bigger presence for them over there.
They're participating on the dirt on the world scale.
And a lot of that has to come from her.
And, you know, that's you think about just a small thing of like
just making sure that they know when they have to nominate the
horse by, you know, imagine if a Meyer Daytona won the UAE Derby
and didn't realize he only had two days to submit the late
nomination fee and then he misses that and then they
probably don't come over. So it's having somebody there
who's keeping track of everything in constant
communication with everybody. She plays such a big role.
And she's one of those people that, you know, you don't see
her on TV when you're watching the race.
You don't read about her too much other than maybe a quick
mention of her name, translating comments from somebody on the
team. But she is probably the most
important part of getting Japanese horses here and in the
starting gate from the Derby, at least making those connections
comfortable. And, you know, and thank you,
Kay, for if you're watching. We appreciate you.
I always laugh because she's always like, oh, I'm not a
really. You're a great.
She's a great interview. Yeah.
That was great. She's tremendous.
Yeah. No, we.
I've interviewed lousy interviewees.
You're not allowed to do anything at all.
We get pretty lucky on this show.
We've had another great guest. I agree.
Also, if Blood Horse Monday bump is coming, we're going to get
another 2 Japanese finishes in the top five, which of course we
had last year with Forever Young Auntie O password.
I I I do you hear the thing where a basketball player gets
compared to a guy from a previous era and they kind of
look the same. Yeah what I don't want us to
start doing is like oh I'm Bayer Daytona he he reminds me of term
a sort of guy here. We need to not do that.
It was just compared to other horses.
It doesn't have to just be one that came off the Japanese
travel plenty of course of good things happening down in Florida
right now where the seeds of success are planted in the
spring of nowhere do bloods. Excuse me, buds of talent a
little more than at the OBS April sale of two year olds in
9. Graduates from OBS April have
won grade one races since 2024, including the champagne and
hopeful sticks. Most recent is Cavalieri out
West in that prestigious beholder mile. 2 year old source
of the world is fertile ground for victory.
See who blossoms next at the OBS Spring Sale happening this week
April 15th through 18th as well. And down there on the ground for
us is Olivia Newman from Blood Horse.
You can find all of us off at bloodhorse.com.
Of course. Head over to the website.
Great coverage of the OBS sales going on right now.
Our NFL draft, our NFL combine, if you will, of the two year
olds there. She speaks with Todd Wojkowski,
who is the director of sales of OBS.
We hear from them now. We would like to welcome into
the show Todd Wojkowski. Thank you for joining us.
He's the director of sales here at OBS.
How did the under Tax show go last week, Todd?
Well, thanks for having me, Olivia.
We were really happy with the under tax show.
We got very lucky with the weather.
Matter of fact, we're continuing to enjoy great weather here
right now, a little cooler in April than most people are used
to here in in Florida, but very fortunate.
I I thought it was great from start to finish.
What are your thoughts going into the sale as a, you know,
general market coming off the March sale?
And also could you talk about the growth of the April sale?
It's really become the world's two year old sale.
There's a great international buying bench here.
Yeah, You know, we were very fortunate.
We had a great March sale set a record with highest selling
horse ever $3,000,000 Gun Runner that Eddie Woods sold.
Even though you see things in the news that maybe not as
always encouraging to to racing, people are still looking for
good race horses and you know, fortunately they're finding them
here at the 2 year old sales at OBS.
OBS grads have done really well lately.
Tenma in the Santa Anita Oaks, Sandman won the Arkansas Derby.
Could you just talk a little bit about that, what it means to
have a horse on the Oaks and the Derby trail and and good ones at
that? Well, it's pretty exciting.
You know, we've had Derby winners and we've had oaks
winners before, but it's always exciting this time of year to to
have some of your graduates on the trail and not only on the
trail, but, you know, really in the hunt for the Derby and the
Oaks. So that that's very gratifying.
And then, you know, Dark Saffron continue the legacy for OBS in
the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the grade one on World Cup day.
And you know, that's a tenth win of the Dubai Golden Shaheen for
OBS grads over there. So yeah, it's a, it's an
exciting time. It's really fun when it's
happening while we're getting ready to have the sale.
So it's good time. Definitely.
I was also going to ask you about the first crop sires.
They've been received really well.
What first crop sires have stood out to you with the way they
performed in the Under TAC show? Wow.
Yeah, there was a number of those first year sires that I
thought performed exceptionally well in the under TAC show, Yao
Pawn, Max Fields, Independence Hall, Silver State, just to name
a few. But I think all of the first
crop sires are going to be well received here.
Touching on something that's, you know, been an issue here in
Florida, the decoupling. I know there is a Senate meeting
tomorrow. Tom Ventura, the president of
OBS is planning on attending. Could you just touch on that a
little bit? Yes, that is a an issue that all
of racing should be and has been paying attention to and and can
have a dramatic effect on all of racing and establish a very bad
precedent for the industry. We have attended House committee
meeting. We've attended 1 Senate
committee meeting. They scheduled this other one
tomorrow, I fear mainly because they knew it was during our
April sale and it may cut down on the amount of people that
might be able to travel to Tallahassee to, to be there and
voice their opposition to it. But they are holding a Senate
committee meeting tomorrow. As you mentioned, Tom is going
among other horsemen from here. So we are continuing to voice
our opposition to it, trying to get the Florida legislature to
understand that while we understand a long term solution
needs to be bargained, it's a little hard to have a
conversation with a gun to your head.
So we're urging our legislators to kill this bill.
Allow us the time to sit down and and craft a long term
solution. Great.
Well, thank you for joining us and we wish you the best of luck
this week at the sale. Hey thanks for having me.
And thanks to Olivia and Todd for joining us from down there
at OBS Sales. Again, bloodhorse.com for all of
our sales coverage on the site. Very, very easy and good
resource for all of the happenings down there.
At least they are getting good weather this time shot people
remember previous episodes here, we were really concerned about
wind conditions for those two year old workouts.
Yeah, sounds like a lot smoother sailing this time.
And so, look, life blood of the industry is still finding the
next horse, right? Yeah.
Whether whether it's at the claiming level or the Derby
level, whatever it might be. But finding that next horse,
certainly if you're trying to find the top, top people head to
OBS. And you, you were telling even
you're seeing people with Derby horses jetting for OBS.
Yeah. This is the fun part of the
industry. You know, we're already we're
we're less than 20 days until the Kentucky Derby and
everybody's already thinking about next year's Kentucky
Derby. I remember.
Yeah. I was talking to Lonnie Briley
for Cold Battle, his trainer a couple times, and he was showing
me, you know what he looks for inside of the catalog and he was
excited to go down there hoping to come back.
He started talking about trying to come back next year with a
Derby horse, but he flew out this morning to go down there to
OBS. Talked to Kyle Zorn of Legion
Bloodstock right after flying Mohawk at his workout.
Right after I interviewed him, he left to go get on a flight to
go down to OBS. So everybody's excited to head
down there. Even though, you know,
everybody's focused on trying to win the Derby this year.
We can't get behind on trying to win the Derby next year.
We got to make sure we're keeping let's if everybody else
keep up with Jones here, right? Yeah, exactly.
The Jones is meeting other connections.
That's right. Yes.
Got to be me in the winner's circle.
That's right. But a guy who writes a lot for
the Blood horse. And we're bloodhorse.com, the
magazine, all the things. His name is Frank Inks joins us
for our weekly dollars and Cent segment with him.
I guess not always weekly. Yeah.
We give him a day off every once in.
There you go. You know, Frank, I wasn't taking
a break because we don't know. I'm just kidding.
Well, good. Tell us what's going on on the
site this week. Of course, we always promote the
magazine. Get that piece of paper in your
hands, like a good bedding slip, something like that at your
house. Listen, let's just make the
coffee table look nice. We gotta do what you gotta do.
But Frank Eggs joins us. Little dollars and cents, what's
going on this week? Yeah, it won't won't be long for
that magazine that may issue to to go out here soon with.
Yeah, the dollars and cents column will run in BH daily or
Daily News free daily newsletter.
It'll come out in the issue that goes out tonight, dated tomorrow
morning, whichever way you want to read it.
And the idea had kind of been bouncing around in my head for a
while. And to move a little bit away
from the three-year olds is just how deep this year's older horse
divisions are, specifically on the male side.
I mean, it's tremendous that Torpedo Anna has come back and
it's already put two nice wins together as horse of the year.
But and, and we've been fortunate to see some of the
older Phillies and mayors come back at 4:00 and 5:00 and 6:00,
but we haven't seen it as much on the male side.
You know, the breeding is obviously a huge draw and it's a
it's a chance if you know, if you get a horse like that, you,
you want to contribute to the breed.
And I'll be on that end. But for this year, the, the
older horse division's really strong and, and for in terms of
dollars and cents, what I was thinking of is really nice now
is we have these big race days, top big race day tied to the
Derby week, Derby weekend, really big race day tied to the
Belmont Stakes, the lesser extent the Preakness, and then
throughout the year. And I really think that and the
Breeders Cup Challenge series will be a way to promote these
horses, market these horses, because we have people that
aren't watching the sport constantly.
They get familiar with a horse like Mystic Dan and then they
tune in the next year and that horse is no longer there.
But good news, it's the exception this year.
Mystic Dan is back. You know, he's still trying to
find his best stride. But I'm sure Kenny will get that
done. He's going to enter in a race at
Oaklawn on Derby Day. So he'll he'll be back.
You know, we have the last two Breeders' Cup classic winners
are both in training in Sierra Leone and White Barrio.
That's pretty big. That's amazing that the top
three finishers that were in the Derby photo finisher are all
back already mentioned Mystic Dan and Sierra Leone.
But and you guys earlier were talking about forever young and
all he is is the highest rated horse in the world right now.
Yeah, I mean, and they're pointing for a return to to the
Breeders Cup where again the top three finishers from last year's
Classic are all coming back. I already mentioned Sierra Leone
and Forever Young, but Fierceness is also back.
So Fierceness was the two year old champion two years ago and
the wait, Sierra Leone was a three-year old champion.
So these horses have checked off big accomplishments.
And then you get into mine frame and placed in the Belmont States
chasing Freedom and Praise, placed in the Preakness Stakes.
They're both back then. If that wasn't enough, the
international race season, season on dirt has provided 2
more US horses and hit show and mixed though who ran in Dubai
and you know, rattle and roll on a Group 2 or Group 3 over in
Saudi. So it's just a really
accomplished division and hopefully racing takes some
advantage of that to remind these horses, remind the casual
fans that turn in for the Derby or turn in for the Belmont, you
know, hey, the Alice Sheep is a pretty good race and these are
horses. I'm familiar with.
And the Met miles are really good race and and I mean, we all
know that, but be casual fans, it's a chance that hopefully
they see that going on and they see these horses are back and
and continue to follow the sport throughout the year.
I love that you're talking, you know, the colt side of things,
but even just Friday at Keeneland, these horses are
running in the double dog. They're just FYI, Tarifa candy
and a cult. So even on the Philly and
mayor's side, we're seeing a significant Sean, we're seeing a
significant return. Now I I do other work and my
name, you know, other podcasts horse racing happier.
One of the things we encourage people to do is fall over the
Phillies because they race longer.
But now what Frank is talking about that came about because
there was there was frankly, just even a half decade ago,
this was unimaginable that this many older dermales would be
running at this level, frankly, at the same time.
But the Philly and their side doing great as well.
But I mean, just Frank's totally right here.
It's it's awesome to watch his old horses too.
And you got a race like this weekend, like the Oakland
Handicap or you got horses like Skippy long stocking and disarm
and 1st mission. You know, those horses that
maybe haven't broken through at the grade one level yet, but
they're constant participants. They're constantly winning those
grade twos and grade threes. And so they're really kind of
rounding out the division as well.
It's a pretty good older horse division right now.
All right, well, he's gonna. I didn't even get to the horse
that I used the photo of which is blocked who so impressive at
the end of last year, second in the Pegasus and then really
turned my I mean, I already knew really turned everybody else's
head in the Santa Anita Handicap.
He's he is really something to watch.
So just a really exciting division, which is great to see.
We haven't seen that quite frankly every year, but we
welcome it now. Yeah, it's awesome to have all
of the different levels cuz we know once the summer hits we're
gonna start watching the 2 year olds as well.
And we'll try to figure out through the Triple Crown what's
going on and obviously into the Traverse and the CCA Oaks and
the Alabama and all those things as well.
But yeah, the older dirt male, because what Frank said, we're
going to get an added dimension, Sean, on these big race days,
big race days. Excuse me, a better older dirt
races because for a little while they were lagging behind the
quality of the other races. Yeah, they were a little bit.
But, you know, that's one of the strengths of, you know, these
big race days now is it's really become a showcase of every
division. You know, I think about like,
great, look at Kentucky Oaks day.
They're gonna have the Edgewood Stakes.
I think back to Nitrogen just winning the Appalachian at
Keeneland this past week and she looked fantastic.
So you're gonna have like your 3 old Phillies on the turf in the
spotlight. We're going to have, yeah, you
have the LA Trey Anne, which probably is going to have
Torpedo Anna Anna in it, it sounds like.
And then you got races like, you know, the Churchill Down Stakes
with the sprinters and the Derby City Distaff for the female
sprinters. So you look at Belmont Day, you
look at Kentucky Derby day and Frank's right, it's a big
opportunity to kind of really push.
Hey, there's more than just the three-year old division.
Look at how good these horses are.
Yeah, it's it's been become a spectacular thing.
And the other thing that I like is that Frank, you can speak on
this too, just the the mix on those big days, you know, using
Derby day, for example, but to get, you know, those high level
turf races, you know, those longer turf races or a turf
burner or something like that, it just does make for a really
entertaining day. Yeah.
I mean, I've always, I'm a older generation maybe I've always
been good with spreading those steaks out.
But I do think when you have these star horses come back, it
is a is a way for to reconnect those casual fans that are just
picking this up and say, oh, Sierra Leone's still running.
So that that could be really exciting.
And you know, when these horses run on those actual big days,
which is more and more frequent because that's where the stakes
are concentrated. That can definitely be a
strength of that set up for sure there.
You go only Frank Hanks, check them out. bloodhorse.com of
course for all the good things happening there, dollars and
cents with him. And of course, go subscribe to
Blood Horse Daily and of course, the Blood Horse Magazine as
well. Blood Wars Daily, though.
It's just a nightly e-mail, right, Frank?
Yeah, you just sign up for it on on our website and it's a free
daily e-mail with all the news, breeding, racing sales.
No reason not to get it if it's free, Sean, and especially at
this time of year and we're going to have all of our Derby
coverage start coming up here pretty soon as well.
This is the, if you haven't already subscribed, I don't know
what you're doing if you haven't already subscribed, but this is
the perfect time to do it free. It's free.
There you go. Thank you, Frank.
We'll talk to you either next week or the week after.
Sounds good. Thanks.
Guys. Thanks, Meg.
There you go. All right, Frankie, Blood Horse
and bloodhorse.com. Of course.
All the good things happening over there.
Really appreciate Frank jumping on.
I think Frank likes podcast more than I do.
How about that? Yeah, he's into it.
No, it's all right. You know why.
Do you know why you like some more than I do?
Because I got this green screen. We've got that library.
I know dominating. We haven't even talked about it
on the screen behind this. You like it?
I do like it. I like the green.
I'm sorry. I think we've got a good logo.
Yeah. Simple.
It works like I like simple, but I like it.
Yeah. There you go.
Some good stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks, including
the races that you mentioned, the Tessios this week.
Yeah, at Laurel Park. And I wanted to talk about that
in particular because I think one of the cool things if you if
you don't do it, I would suggest that you start somehow next year
maybe. But I watch the Road to the
Preakness every year starting in essentially in December.
Extra heat, steaks, all that kind of stuff.
And you get to know the Maryland horses and look, let's be clear.
1983 deputed testimony the last Maryland Tessio winner to win
the Preakness stick. So it's very unlikely you're
going to get the winner out of these out of these, you know,
out of these prep races. But the Tessio this weekend,
someone's going to win that race.
And it's going to be there's at least a good chance that it'll
be the greatest race they ever win on the on the grandest stage
in Maryland, something like that, right outside the
Preakness gets them into the Preakness, into the starting
game in the Preakness. And if you're a Maryland person,
man, that's an unbelievable thing to be able to do.
And I got to say this too, I, I see a lot online of people
complaining about information costs and, and, and access to
horse racing and what's going on in those things.
What they're doing at the Maryland Jockey Club right now
is the opposite of is, is solving all of those issues with
information, different things. Dan Ellman's taken over as a
communications director there does a great job.
If if you are looking for a spot to find a new look, branch out.
It's one of the great things. You know, you and I, you
mentioned Lonnie Briley being there at the in the flying Obs.
He was talking with Corey Larry and that was a dialect of
English that I'm very not around, right.
That's fine, But that's horse racing, right?
Louisiana's its own thing, Maryland's its own thing,
Kentucky's its own thing. And it's cool.
It's cool that we come together for these big days, these big
stakes days. I know Frank was talking about,
oh, I'm from a generation where I don't mind those things being
spread out, but it forces all of us to get together on those big
days too, which is a cool thing that's happened and developed
and the horses run once a month now.
It's different than it used to be, that kind of thing.
And but the Maryland thing, the Tessio this weekend, I'm really
excited to get going on that. You can see our coverage on
Thursday night on the Horse Racing Happy Hour show that I
host as well. And Dan Ellman, Callie Francois
be on the episode. There you go.
I know it's one of the things that everybody's kind of
critiqued over the last couple of years is the horses coming
back in the Preakness. We haven't been getting a lot of
Derby participation. So it's important to have races
like the Tessio, like the Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oakland
that are kind of these late April.
You're not going to make the Kentucky Derby.
Lexington this last Saturday, and Keeneland was.
It turned out to be that way. Guess how many people scratched
out? No one.
Yeah, no one. Everyone is still looking at
Baltimore. And I hope they, I hope they'll
all consider very seriously. I feel like everybody, I feel
like all the people that just get on social media, you know,
it's easy to kind of RIP the freakness.
But there's a lot of people that's still one of the big
three races to win in this country.
It's so fun to go to and it's so fun to go to.
And you know, and you know, it's going to be it's going to change
over the next couple years, you know, with the new facility and
stuff. But you know, this is still one
of the premier races in the United States.
And there's still, you know, if if you can't win the Derby, what
race would you want to win? The Preakness, the Belmont?
It's like those are the races that people want to win.
And so when you have a chance for maybe some of these smaller
connections, the big dogs are out of the way, they're on their
way to the Derby, this is your opportunity to, you know, see if
you have what it takes to get into the Preakness, right?
And then you catch those horses coming back off 2 weeks rest,
maybe something happens and you end up winning the Preakness.
So this is a big weekend for all those connections either in
those races. Could not agree more with you.
Yes. And so plenty to watch as we go
through that Triple Crown, not just the first Saturday in May,
which of course, we're gonna spend lots of time on, but it
does extend after that, right? And look, your horse might
develop at a different time than someone else's horse.
And it's OK, by the way, to win a $2,000,000 race.
You know, we're going to check in a $2,000,000 race.
You'll be fine if you do head to Baltimore.
The other part about the Preakness, that stakes barn
chefs gets undefeated. Oh, that was the last year, was
the first year I had access to the barn area during the
Preakness. Man, happened to everybody in
like everybody barns right next to each other.
Man, that was fun. So that's a great setup.
You don't at Derby, they offer us red carpet access, but it's
really for like, celebrities and yeah, that kind of stuff.
The stakes part of Pimlico is a real red carpet of horse racing.
Oh yeah. It's Baffert.
It's Jenny Reese, you know, balling out of control.
Like how it's a Jenny Reese second.
How about that? How about like Kenny Mcpeek and
his dog just walking around? Yeah.
Talking about for talking to the coach, talking to whatever.
I mean, it's it is a who's who right around that barn,
especially once you get to like Thursday morning.
Yeah, I kind of think one of the cool things last year for me was
the day after the Preakness sees the grace and after getting the
bath and Dewayne Lucas and Bob Baffert are just hanging there,
you know, talking to each other, making jokes with each other,
you know, Bob's congratulating him and everything, and it's
just that's one of the cool things to see.
You know, obviously I've spent a lot of time on Churchill's
backstretch, but, you know, sometimes you don't get that
close connection sometimes by the trainers because everybody's
so spread out on that backstretch.
That's one of the really unique and cool things about Pimlico.
There you go. All right, Well, yeah, a couple
preps there for the Preakness this coming weekend, Tessio and
Bathhouse Row. We'll be getting into that.
But of course, this is Blood Horse Monday.
He, Sean. I'm Louis.
We're going to wrap up the show here.
I want to thank our friends at OBS for hanging out with us this
week. But of course, we always want to
remind you to subscribe to Blood Horse Magazine.
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Get that, Get that. Make your coffee table with nice
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People love getting the magazine.
A cold battle was on the cover of the magazine a couple, I
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course, the first thing he said was, Oh, that cold battle's on
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And you know what one of the things when I was in high
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I checked that out. Find the website as well.
If you are happened to be listening, driving around,
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So then you can find it on the website after you're done
driving. All right, but we're going to
get out of here for an April 14th edition.
We'll be back next week, week before Derby week, busy of
course. April 28th will actually be out
of Churchill Downs on the backside doing the show from
there, getting you ready for all things Derby week that week as
well. I'll have 6 days of radio
coverage as well out there on ESPN Louisville.
You're welcome to join me for that.
Of course, Blood Horse and bloodhorse.com, you cannot miss.
Tons of great coverage for people like Sean Byron King all
the way up to Frank Inks. Tons and tons of good coverage
of the Kentucky Derby. We'll get out of here.
It's been Blood Horse Monday. I'm Louis Hichon, we'll see you
next week. The Blood Horse is dedicated to
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