BloodHorse Monday 8/18/25

All right, welcome in to the 29th edition of everyone's

favorite horse racing podcast that says Blood Horse Monday.

I'm Louis Rabo hanging out with a very West of me, Sean Collins.

He's out there at Emerald Downs Post Long Acres Mile.

Sean, only you, my friend, would wake up at Saratoga and think,

you know what I need to do today?

I need to go to log Acres Mile. Good, good looking at the time.

Good morning. How are you?

Yes, oh, it's a great morning so far and yes, I probably had the

only one crazy enough to be at the Alabama thinking about how

the fact that I have to catch a flight at 6:00 in the morning to

fly across the country to come to the Longacres Mile.

But what a great weekend it was here both at Saratoga for the

Alabama and out here at Emerald Downs for the Longacres Mile.

Two really great days of racing at both places.

Great performances, especially in the big races, and it was a

lot of fun. This checked off track #47 for

me coming out here, my 43rd thoroughbred tracks, so I was

happy to be out here. It was a whole lot of fun.

What's more annoying, people like you that talk about how

many tracks they've been to, or people like you that put PA

bread in their bio? Which one's more annoying?

The number of tracks or where you were born?

I don't know. It's it's tough because both my

Twitter accounts, what has one or the other.

So probably probably the where you were born one, I'd say.

I don't know. I think, I think when you get to

I, I mean, speaking personally, of course, I think when you get

to the amount of tracks I've been to, I think that's a fun

thing to talk about. But yeah.

We'll hear from Phil Ziegler, he's the president of Emerald

Downs. So close the show for us today.

Of course, we'll hear from our guy Frank Angst, our editor over

at Blood Horse about what's coming up in the magazine.

We will have a first. And by the way, heavy lifting

from Sean. Not just traveling, doing the

interviews as well. This one happened to be during

my radio show in the morning, but we will have Brian Klasky on

from BBN Racing as well. Tons to get into with them, of

course, ahead of the traverse and of course some other good

results for them most recently as well.

But Speaking of results, Sean, you were there for the Alabama.

Nitrogen was a a logical play, but so was good cheer and so was

La Cara. There were many logical plays

for kind of a short field, but the reaction of the crowd, the

reaction of the group up there were people rooting for nitrogen

at this point. Because I'm starting to wonder,

you know, we do this in the summertime, We start to get

toward British Cup season, what have you.

Who's that three-year old Philly of the year?

Who's that? You know, whatever it might be.

We've done our mid season eclipse awards on this show, for

example. Is she starting to get a little

popularity? Is that 3 year old Philly of the

year? Oh yeah, definitely.

I definitely seemed like it being there on Saturday.

There's a great reception to her winning.

There's I mean, there's a lot of talk about her in the days

leading up to it too, just about that move over to the turf, she

looks, move over to the dirt from the turf.

She looks great on the dirt. She ran fantastic.

I know she some people were commenting on the fact that she

was drifting around a little bit in the stretch or, you know,

some of the stuff going into the first turn where she was wide.

So I think the stretch was more just of she didn't have anybody

in front of her, which I don't think she's used to necessarily.

Or she was going 10 furlongs and she'll never do that again.

Yeah, that, that's also we. Get tired of that last furlong,

call it that. Come on.

Yes, that part. Go.

Keep going, Sean. I'm sorry.

Yeah, so I agree with you. So, you know, I think that was

it was a top notch performance from her.

I think this could, I mean, she could turn into one of these

superstars. I don't know, You know, it

sounds like they're going to point towards the distaff.

But next year, if you look at where she could maybe bounce

back and forth between, you know, the dirt and the turf.

We know Mark Cassie likes going to somewhere like Royal Ascot

with Tephem a few years ago. Imagine if she, you know, wins

the Breeders Cup distaff on the dirt and then goes out and runs

at Royal Ascot next year. So she's going to turn into one

of these superstars in the sport, probably the Edge, the

way she ran, she deserves to be. But I think at least at this

point, she's definitely put herself in the number one spot

for the champion 3 year old Philly.

And I know she's only got the one grade one, but when you look

at her wins in on the turf earlier in the year, they're not

grade ones. But the Appalachian and the

Edgewood are the two races that all the top turf 3 year old

Phillies are pointing to. So even though they're not grade

ones, it's the best of the three-year old Philly turf

division in the springtime. So I think she definitely is in

that number one spot right now. We'll see what Scottish lassie

can do in the cotillion. We'll see what good cheer can

bounce back and do what Lukara can bounce back and do.

But I think right now nitrogen's in the driving spot for that.

Good cheer you. We've now seen her back-to-back

races not be the horse that we saw for example in the Kentucky

Oaks. Do you make much of of it is is

it potentially just look, we watched Sierra Leone not be

great at Saratoga last year and then he jumps up this year.

Is there any chance she just doesn't like Saratoga or do you

think she's a step slower? I don't, I don't know

necessarily that we didn't see her run as well as we've seen

her in the Alabama. You know, that pace did not set

up for her and Nitrogen might have just been the better horse

on the day. I think Nitrogen's a top talent.

I think Good Cheer's a top talent.

It was great to see her actually engage in this race when last

time in the Acorn Stakes she didn't.

And so I think it was, I think we saw a great performance from

her this weekend and hopefully, you know, we could see her step

forward from that. I'm not ready to say that that

was a bad performance from her. I think maybe she just caught

caught a really good horse in nitrogen that day and we'll see

what she has going forward. But I think that was what we

without winning. That was what we wanted to see

from good cheer to show that she was back, that Acorn was just,

you know, just a one off, at least in my opinion.

Aaron Wellman from Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners has been

very kind with his time on this show.

And they get another Grade 1 winner in Velocity out West of

the Del Mar Oakshawn. And this was one I do a Southern

California show and and call him.

Yeah. You were on top of this one.

I love this horse coming in. All of the developmental factors

made sense for horror to win a race like this, which is listed

as a grade one, but is probably look, there's no nitrogen in

that field. There's no good cheer in that

field. There's no Lacara in that field.

It's OK to say lush lips, fine horse other, you know, others in

that group find, but they're listed stakes winners or grade 3

winners, that kind of thing. This was this was, you know, a

full field. By the way, figure by the way,

Del Mar an AE in a grade one with 12 horses because you need

to move them. No, no, put the rail in for the

grade one. Let the 12 run.

I know it got down to 11, but let's just let the anyways, OK?

You got that out of your. System.

I got it out of my system. That's right.

You've been holding that in for a couple days.

I can tag. These flip spokes, man, they're

just they're picking off these grade 3, these grade ones,

excuse me, 3 year old grade ones and but velocity, this one just

made sense to me, right. Daughter of Nyquist and

interestingly, we're seeing the Nyquist babies and we're seeing

the the well, cripes, the Pharaohs too, but also the

justify babies able to switch over to the grass really well.

Well, she tried a bunch of spreading in the spring.

You know, Mike McCarthy knows what he's doing with a

three-year old brings her along and she goes against winners

going two turns for the first time.

She goes and wins that and then she wins this race.

Sean, it it feels like this year at Del Mar, these haven't been

confirmation grade once. They've been graduation grade

once. The Bing Crosby this race,

rather than confirming that velocity was one of the top turf

Phillies out West, which this wasn't a confirmation.

This was a graduation from her. Are you surprised by that at Del

Mar this year or do you think this kind of par for the course?

Because I think of the big Crosby as a graduation Grade 1

but not a confirmation Grade 1. No, yeah, I definitely think

that's the case for some of these.

And you know, a lot of it is just that, you know, you see a

horse like Nitrogen who's running on the East Coast in the

Alabama instead. You see a lot of kind of those

top grade ones, grade one horses you saw a couple weeks ago where

Johannes came over to Saratoga to run in the four-star Dave.

So you're seeing and you're going to see probably a couple

of these Bob Baffert's coming out for the for the Allen

Jerkins and you know some of those races as well this weekend

at Saratoga. So you're seeing, you know, some

of those top horses on the West Coast.

You saw journalism come over for the Haskell coming East.

And so it is kind of more of that graduation set up right now

in California kind of who are the horses that are going to

step up in their place and then when those horses come back

later on in the year are going to be able to give them a

tussle. But it was a great one from her.

I know you were on top of that one.

So congratulations on hitting that.

And it was a good race to see her kind of take that stuff up.

It's been an interesting season at Del Mar as well because

obviously they had the, you know, the conversation early in

the meet about the caws and how much lines were moving after

the, you know, it was breaking that kind of stuff.

And then they addressed that right away.

They've moved into this new it's, you know, they're trying

these wagers out West that I like as well.

That $3 minimum pick three at the end of the card, that's 15%

super playable. Those turf pick threes that have

popped up all over the country, which are spectacular.

The $5 double to close the day at Del Mar.

So I I'm and cautiously optimistic that they're they're

seeing issues or opportunities and they're trying to either

remedy the first one or take advantage of the second one.

I think we've seen some good positives at Delmar this season.

Yeah, I I agree. All right, so let's get into our

interviews for the day. Brian Klasky is going to be our

first from BBN Racing here. Sean, you look at you heavy

lifting on this show today. What's this conversation about?

Is there anything going in little teaser that stood out to

you in the comments? Yeah, well, you know, this is

going to be a tough task this weekend.

We got four horses that are going to take on Kentucky Derby

at Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty Bracket Buster was

one of the ones who came in over the weekend as being confirmed

to run in this race after he had a pretty nice breeze out at

Keeneland and he's one of the long shots.

He's 20 to one on the morning line.

I think that's the Co longest shot in this field.

He's coming off the 4th place finish in the Haskell and I know

this is a horse that the connections have been very high

on since pretty early on in his career.

He's late full, he's developing. BB NS had some decent success

recently. They won the Test Stakes with

Kilwin a few weeks ago. They've had a couple of horses

in grade one competition. They're gearing up for the

Kentucky Downs meet with a good number of their horses as well.

So we just went through all that, but Bracket Buster, you

might be up against it from, you know, past performance wise here

in the Travers this weekend. But hey, we've seen crazier

things happen with a name like. Bracket here.

Lose this race by a lot of legs. Yeah, weird things have happened

in this race. Here's.

And, and if anything, if any horse is going to do it, why not

Bracket Buster? We're ruining NCAA brackets out

there. That's ruined Sovereignty's year

right here of Graveyard of Champions.

But here's Brian Klatsky and what he had to say about Bracket

Buster. All right, happy to be joined by

Brian Klatsky of BBN Racing here.

It's a good time to be part of BBN right now.

Brian, you got Bracket Buster coming up in the Traverse Stakes

this weekend. You had Kill Win win a grade one

out at Saratoga and the Test Stakes a couple weeks ago.

Just what's the feeling right now for the BBN team?

Well, Sean, thanks for having us on here.

It's been a really a wild summer.

You know, we didn't, we never expected to be in this

situation. We started talking at the end of

June. Wow, we might run in three grade

ones this summer just hoping to have a shot.

You know, we had we took our first shot in the Haskell and

then we took world record out to the Bing and then kill when in

the test. You know, we never really

thought past the Haskell on bracket Buster.

So to be here in a situation to be a part of A5 horse field to

take on sovereignty again. We faced him when he was a

maiden in the in the streets since at Churchill.

So here we are, almost 10 months later, trying to begin.

Yeah. Well, hey, things change in the

course of ten months right now. What was it about or what is it

about him that you guys really like to give him this

opportunity, not just in the Travers, but when you ran him in

the Haskell? What is it about this horse that

you guys really like? I think what we've said since

the beginning was he's a late May foal.

Everything he's done, he's is come naturally to him.

If if you go back to his first career start, Vicki ran him in

August last summer at Indiana just to get a race in them.

I I think he missed the break spot of the field 20 lengths and

he made a move down the stretch, which was very reminiscent of

what Killen did in the test. And after that race we're like,

wow, this horse is going to be OK from there.

We, we, we came back at Churchill race didn't go his

way. We stretched out the two turns

and then he, you know, showed us something special when he won,

when he broke his maiden at, at Keeneland in the fall.

So we always knew there was something there.

Vicki saw it early in his training, saw it in that debut.

We knew being a late fall, we wanted to give him a long winter

break to grow into himself. And that's why we got a late

start this year, bringing him back in the Lexington and that

and that's here we are end of the summer.

Yeah, I remember going into the Lexington, I remember hearing a

lot of stuff about him just, you know, this is going to be one of

those horses that was really starting to show himself as a 2

year old and now is getting the start maybe one of those late

developers in the year. And here we are running in these

summer races, the the big summer races.

No, it's, it's been, it's been an unbelievable story with him.

I'd say that we probably came back a little quick after the

Lexington in that allowance race on Derby day at Churchill.

We gave him a good six weeks into the Pegasus and he ran, you

know, really a, a, a big time race that day.

The Haskell's a Haskell. We ran against the great group

in there. I think we, we, we were pressed

on the pace. We went a little bit faster than

we wanted. We set that, we sort of set the

table for the rest of the field. But you know, if you watch down

the stretch, you know, that other horse, the other speed

horse sort of fell into our lap. We had to get outside.

And although he was tiring, he fought on and fought again.

And Johnny V was like, you know what, this horse was not done

yet. So I, I, we thought, what, what,

what are we going to do next? We, we, we didn't really know.

A couple weeks came, went by after the Haskell, the race at

Charlestown looked really interesting.

Two turns, 7 furlongs, but that's an uncharted waters

taking a shot on on on the bull ring at Charlestown.

And you know, we started hearing from the racing office in New

York. This race is going to come up

light you guys to take a serious look at it.

And that's sort of where we we got to where we are today.

Well, you had to mention it a little bit there, but when you

look at the small field here in the traverse, obviously five

horses, sovereignties in there. But how much of A, you know,

benefit is that for you guys as an owner thinking, you know, we

just even if sovereignty runs the race he's been running the

last couple weeks, you know, we can still pick up a second, a

third, get a Grade 1 placing on this horse in a big race like

the Travers, How much does that play into the.

Desert well, that's that plays a lot.

I I don't think anybody is dismissing the fact that

sovereignty is a special horse. He has a chance to be a Hall of

Fame type of horse. And for us, it, it's not

necessarily are we, are we as good as sovereignty today?

We'll run, you know, we'll take our shot.

And if we were to hit the board and in a Grade 1 and run second

or third here with this horse, it means a lot.

We understand the significance of the traverse.

It's a very important part of racing and to be a part of it is

something that, you know, we don't take for granted.

It's an honor and a blessing to be in this situation.

Well, it's definitely you still definitely have a shot in this

race. After all, it is the graveyard

of champions. So you weirder things have

happened. And he's got the right name for

this kind of upset with Racket Buster here.

Where'd the name come from? Who's the NCAA Tournament fan?

You know, we're all BBBN is all about basketball.

You know, my, my, my, one of my sons played at Florida, the

other one plays at Georgia now. And we're big SEC fans.

And obviously the NCAA tournament, a lot of BBM

partners are sports basketball fans.

So the name sort of came from, if you look at the DAMS name,

Spring Dance, we think of the Big Dance in the spring as the

NCAA tournament and that's where the Bracket Buster name came

from. Awesome.

Well, also another horse who I like the back story of her name

is Kill win. I actually just when I was at

Saratoga a couple days ago, I just had some kill wins.

That little chocolate and candy store there.

Had to do that at least once after her win in the test.

But take us back to test day. You know, how exciting was that

seeing her, you know, really far behind in the early stages and

then mount that rally to get up in time?

Well, I think we went from panic like, is she OK?

Is she hurt? What's going on here?

Like there was a there was that 1520 second period after the

break where like this, something's not right.

And then obviously after the race, you see the replay and saw

the stumble. But you know, on the live feed,

we had no idea what happened. So we all, if you talk to any of

us for that first 1520 seconds of the race, we we were ready to

go home. She ran.

She gave the effort we had hoped for.

She did it and it was I, I don't think you can we'll ever be able

to match that moment of to, to be in that situation with the

stumble, spot the fields, 15 lanes and and make that move in

a grade one. I mean, you maybe you've seen it

in allowance races or made in races, but I don't think I've

ever seen it in a, in a Grade 1. To overcome that kind of break

against that kind of field is just something that you'd never

going to forget. Yeah, especially in a 7 furlong

Sprint too. There's not a lot of time to

make that up. But you know, the looking at

that race and she you know, she had shown some talent on the

turf course before as well. You guys had made the choice in

June to try her on the dirt. She wins that race.

She comes back, is now 2 for two.

Just take us back to that decision to try her on the dirt

after already having a successful start on the grass.

We saw the same thing with nitrogen this past weekend.

So take us to the mindset of an owner when it comes to that

choice. Well, I think Nitrogen was in a

similar boat as us. You know, you get your career

started as a 2 year old on a turf race to, to take a shot at

Kentucky Downs. You know, we never in, in her

morning work. We never said, oh, she's a turf

horse, she's a turf horse. But you know, Rusty's had such

great success with twirling candies both on turf and dirt.

He's like, look, we're going to start here at Ellis and try and

and go after a nice race at Kentucky Downs and after you win

$1,000,000 race on the grass, everyone just assumes you're a

grass horse. You know, we Fast forward to the

Breeders Cup Juvenile turf. You know, she had a not the trip

we had hoped for. She went out there 44 and change

on the front. You know, as you can see the way

she ran in the test and the way she won the untappable, she's,

you know, she likes to come off it.

So that race and the fact that she hung on with the with that

kind of speed, you know, Nitrogen did finish third that

day. That was the end of a race.

And this year Rusty always said we're going to find a spot just

to get try the dirt. But you know, after you win

$1,000,000 race on the grass, it's hard to want to experiment,

you know, with concrete Rose. Rusty said the same thing.

He's like, we'll find a time to test with concrete Rose, but she

never lost as you know, on the grass.

So how do you just say we're going to try the dirt today?

You know, Nitrogen got lucky because one came off and she had

a chance to test the dirt that way.

But usually the grade ones, grade twos, they don't take them

off. They just reschedule them now.

So after we So I'll be honest with you, after the two 5 1/2

sprints to start the year off, we could see she needed more

distance. It wasn't a surface thing.

It was like, hey, she wants to go a little bit further than 5

1/2. She won that Kentucky Downs race

at 6 1/2. So the way the Leslie's Lady was

coming up at 7 furlongs, Rusty's like, look, this is the perfect

timing because ultimately the end of the day, our goal is to

get back to Kentucky Downs. If we test in June here, we'll

know where we're at and then we can pick our next race.

So obviously after we won at 7/8 on the dirt at Churchill, it was

OK. Should we go back to the grass

now to get ready for Churchill? And then as she trained up to

the test, he's like, she's doing nothing here.

That tells me that we need to try a turf race again.

Let's stick with our plan. We'll we'll, we'll, we'll go

give her five weeks into the Kentucky Downs race.

We'll run in the test. And I'm not running here, just a

runner. We're running here because I

think she can win it. And you know, the way things

worked out, it happened to be a really great move by Rusty.

Yeah, I'd say that was the right call for sure.

Well, the Music City Stakes is coming up now in a couple weeks

at Kentucky Downs. Just how has she been since the

test and is she still on target for that?

Yeah, no, she, she loved it up in Saratoga.

We kept her up there a little bit longer just to let her get

ready. She's back.

She shipped down to Keeneland actually this weekend and we

think she came out of the race great.

So we're still about 3 weeks away or 2 1/2 three weeks away.

And I think you know, she's going into the race the way we

want her to. She's lightly race like I said,

you know, you're going into your biggest race of the year as your

fifth start. You know, we had the two 5 1/2

turf sprints in the 2 dirt races.

So to be in September in your fifth race, I think from a

timing and having her fresh at the right time, I think we we're

going into it the right way. How much of A, you know, a good

feeling is that as an owner, knowing dirt turf doesn't matter

if the spot's right, we'll run her.

How, how, how much does that got to help you guys in this

decision process going forward? Well, I think it, you know, it

just gives us options. You know, at the end of the day,

the key to to key when you, when you have a really nice Philly

mare like this is you want to be able to be a grade, you know, be

a grade one horse. And now that she's a Grade 1

winner, it's we can be really selective, find the right spots

that fit. So I think as you look forward

to this year, end of this year into next year, I think you're

going to see them on both surfaces.

Awesome. While also pointing towards

Kentucky Down as a maiden that you guys have that I know you're

pretty high on. And Mackinac, the horse that she

finished second to in her debut, just came back and won the

Bolton Landing Stakes yesterday at Saratoga.

Snow faced Princess, so that's got to make you guys feel good

ahead of her trip to Churchill, Kentucky Downs, doesn't it?

It does. We, you know, we were not

disappointed with her first start.

Snow Faced Princess ran a heck of a race that day, to be honest

with you. We were pretty high on her.

We said it's going to take a good Philly to beat her that

day. And and apparently Snow faced

Princess turned out to be a pretty good one.

So we probably picked the toughest maiden race of the meat

for turf Phillies on the grass at Saratoga.

But she got a lot out of that race.

She breathes this weekend on the grass at Keeneland and has moved

quite a bit forward, we think from where she was even on her

debut day. And we're going into Kentucky

Downs with three different races we're looking at.

And as everybody knows, these races overfill.

There's a lot of luck of the draw when it comes to Kentucky

Downs to seven day meet and there's hundreds of horses that

are trying to get in these races.

So we're going to let the entry box sort of dictate where we go.

But there's three races we've got circled.

Yeah. How you know this, this meat at

Kentucky Downs has really taken off over the last couple of

years. I know you guys have these two

pointing that way. I'm not sure if you guys have

any other ones pointing that way.

But how important is this meat now for owners, especially when

you have a Kentucky bread? Well, I think when we started

BBN, we'll be going into our 8th crop this year.

The, the Kentucky Downs program, the KTDF money was a big part of

our business plan as we saw this surge of money coming from

historical racing slots as an opportunity to invest in race

horses as, and, and bring new people into the game.

And, and, and Kentucky Downs is sort of the, the center of all

that. It's, it's really for us,

everything we buy is, is a Kentucky bred.

We usually buy everything at Keeneland.

And you know, Fast forward a year later, they're 2 year olds

and we hope to get a bunch of those started with Kentucky

Downs races. We'll try to maybe get one in

beforehand, but then we'll have two or three first time starters

at Kentucky Downs as well. So, well, to kind of start

wrapping this up here, I always want to kind of, you know, give

a little shout out to the group and everything.

Just take me through how BBN came together.

I know it's yourself, Braxton, Brendan.

Just how did this group kind of come to be?

It it goes back probably 25 years, you know, I started off

in racing with Vicki Oliver as as my trainer.

She was just getting her career started at Monmouth Park.

Jeremy Rosen and Ed Rosen made the introduction.

We were the same age. We really hit it off.

So for almost 2 decades she's trained for me.

I've partnered with her father with a lot of horses and

Braxton's been a good friends with Vicki dating back then.

So I met Braxton probably when we were all in our late 20s at

that. And and over the years I've had

mayors at Braxton's farm and we've always talked about

there's got to be a way to build a syndicate with the right

horsemen for a great experience where it doesn't become like a

big financial strain. And what we came up with in our

model was we take a one time capital contribution of $25,000

and that basically covers the purchase price and the all of

the training bills. We reserve about 50% of the

money we raise towards future bills.

So you're never going to get a bill in the mail.

And we hope to return capital through our, you know, broodmare

sales purse money. And you know, we've knock on

wood, we've been really successful.

You know, we'll spend about a, you know, 1,000,001 to 1,000,003

each year, try to buy six or seven.

This year we're going to probably buy 8 to 10.

And we try to keep our average purchase price around 175 to

200,000. And that, and that's really just

what makes our selection process maybe a little different than

others is it's really a team, our selection team with Beau

Bromagen, Vicki, Rusty, Braxton, Brendan, myself, you've got so

many sets of eyes on each of each of our horses that there's

checks and balances and we're looking just looking for great

athletes. I think being a great athlete

comes even before pedigree in our process.

So being in a situation where you have experienced horsemen

that have been around this their whole lives and that many sets

of eyes, what what's really if anybody ever sees as Ikean Lynn

in the sort of the war room at the table in the middle of the

bar, we don't hold back like we will.

We will insult each other. We will.

We get to the bottom of this thing.

Like when we go into the ring to buy something, there's a pretty

good consensus. We have everybody's opinion on

it and there there is definitely some group thing.

It's no different than a war room for an NBA or an NFL draft.

Awesome. Well, we hope that you drafted

the correct one here at Bracket Buster this weekend.

Best of luck to you and the team and the Travers.

Also, I should I should mention as well, best of luck with

trademark in the Charlestown Classic this weekend as well.

But thank you for joining us here, Brian.

We appreciate it. All right.

Thanks, Shawn. Right, Klatsky there, of course,

from BBN Racing. Little, little noise in the

background out there in Emerald Downs.

Why not Shawnee? I like that.

Good stuff with him. By the way, how many NFL drafts

has he been part of? Just like.

That you're not doing that. No, we're not doing that.

Isn't it amazing what we get to do with this show and all things

casually like average 200,000 our horse?

But I get it. I mean, that's frankly, when you

talk about those numbers and what we've seen at both the

Fasic Tipton sale at Saratoga and then in the New York bread

skill, it's not a ridiculous if you're trying to win at the

level that they're trying to win at, that's not a ridiculous

price. And frankly, sounds like they're

processing this is pretty, it's an interesting one, right?

Where they want people involved. They want you to feel like

you're, you know, not just not just throwing money into into

the pot to try to figure it out. They want you involved in the

process. You know, I thought that was

pretty cool. Yeah, it is.

And I'm trying to, I'm trying to pull up here right quick.

I know he, he told me after the interview what the purchase

price was on a couple of these horses.

So I'm pulling up bracket Busters right here.

It's yeah, they got Bracket Buster for just $125,000.

So you know, they're get they're finding these horses.

Kill Win was also, you know, pretty, pretty similar,

similarly cheap. So you're looking at where

they're being able to pick out some of these horses and you

know, we'll see what Bracket Buster can do this weekend.

But you know, he's already a stakes winner.

You have Kill Win who's a Grade 1 winner.

You have quite a few other horses that they've been

successful if as well trademark who's running this weekend.

And so they're able to find them for what we consider to be these

kind of lower prices in these sales and their running them

into some big, big time horses. I mean bracket Buster was

$125,000 purchase, he's already earned 286,000 on the race

track. So you're already getting that

return on the investment there? That's fascinating to watch.

The other part of that, that really stood out to me, I wasn't

ready for him to talk about Kentucky Downs the way that he

did and how important that money is for their operation.

And I, I appreciate the candor there because this is, this is

an expensive game for sure. And when you can get a spot like

Kentucky Downs, I know it's seven days and he talked about

overflow fields and try to get in and whatever else.

You and I go down there a lot, frankly, Sean.

And it's, it is like that. It's it's 1214 and every, every

race and, and good luck getting in, especially those two year

old races, what have you. But it's interesting to hear him

talk explicitly about using Kentucky Downs as AI.

Don't want to use the word fundraiser, but you know it's a

spot that pays bills, frankly. Yeah, well, the way the purse

money's gotten this year or the last couple years, you're

starting to see where this is going to become one of the

feature meets for a lot of owners.

This is the meat that you're going to target to.

I mean, the Music City Stakes that Kilwin's about to run into

Grade 2, she just ran in the grade one test, but it was the

Grade 2 Music City that they're kind of had in the back of their

minds the whole time as this is the race we want to end up in at

the end of the year. So that purse money's going to

start really kind of making a change you're starting to see.

I remember I wrote an article last year ahead of the Keeneland

yearling sale about some of the change in, you know, owners

starting to look maybe a little bit more for those turf horses

when they're at the yearling sales.

And they used to cause everybody goes to the yearling sales and

they wanna win the Kentucky Derby.

So they're looking for those dirt cults, but now there is

extra incentive to be looking for that horse that can run on

the turf. Now you're starting to see where

horses like Kill Win, like Nitrogen are so valuable where

they can swap back and forth between the surfaces because you

could be running in some of these grade ones on the dirt

throughout the early half the year.

And then you could switch over to the grass and go for one of

these big, you know, 1,000,002 million, $3,000,000 races that

they have there. And it looks like those purses

are only going to keep going up from here.

So that's a, that's a big, big player for a lot of these, a lot

of these owners who have a nice grass horse.

Very unhot take, but I think this is the future of the sport.

By the way, Sean is horses that run on multiple surfaces because

think about what the updates to the new tracks are.

Bailmont's putting a synthetic course in the middle, right?

You're going to have horses that are going to be multiple

surface. We already see it at Gulfstream.

They use the heck out of that Tepeda.

They use it very effectively. Frankly, they cart a lot of good

races on that surface down there.

Obviously in Kentucky, you're running at, you're running a

turfway for three months, almost 4 by the time we get to winter

time around the the Commonwealth here.

And, and so I do think this is the future, man.

I think the the very best in our sport are going to be the horses

as far as maintaining your your bills and doing those different

things are going to be the ones that can do a little bit of

everything. And I think a horse like Kilwin

is unusual in that she can be that effective in graded company

on multiple. But I think a lot of horses like

this are going to be the future of our sport and I welcome it.

Yes, I know anytime you can have kind of that big star that can

do a whole bunch of different things, that's always best case

scenario. But Bracket Buster this weekend

and the Traverse Stakes, I know we got tough tasks with him this

weekend. What do you think of his

chances? I I don't, but I understand why

they're doing it and you asked the real question and I

appreciate by the way, it's one of the things I've really

enjoyed about this show is I feel like you and I just ask

direct questions like are you trying to get grade one place

here? Like are you just right?

Yes, appreciate the honesty. Yes.

I mean you. Look here, figure out what what

that looks like. It's head for longs and then try

to hit the board. That to me, that's what they're

trying to do. Get another check.

Just keep moving on. Yeah, you, you get lucky and

Sovereignty doesn't run his race that day and you know, you could

be in the shot to win if you don't get that lucky and he

Sovereignty runs his race. If you you have a great shot to

run second or third, you're going to be up on the pace

depending on how you and magnitude kind of play that out

between those two. No guarantee magnitude loves

Saratoga. There's all kinds of things.

Exactly. Depending on how those two kind

of play out on the lead, you could look at where he could be

hanging around at the end. He can hold on, get that second,

he can hold on, get that third. That's still a big paycheck from

the personally standpoint. But then also, so that adds a

lot of value to them as well-being a grade one place.

So that's, you know, it's an important thing to think about.

I mean, we talked to Barry Irwin two weeks ago about Queen Azteca

going into the Alabama and he said we're not going in there

with the expectations that we're going to win.

We're going in there just trying to hit the board, try to get

that Grade 1 placing on her and you know, kind of move forward

from there, see where she stacks up.

Now, I did talk to Barry the day before the Alabama because we

did that interview before the post draw happened and he he

mentioned he's like, well, that we ended up getting a couple

couple more Phillies that we were expecting a couple top

Phillies. So but she still ran a decent

race for her first start in the US.

But but that's an important piece of this as well is trying

to get in find these spots when you see that nobody is going to

really go up against sovereignty like it looked like was going to

happen. I think up until Saturday, we

only had three horses that were scheduled for this.

Why not jump in and take a shot and try to get that grade one

place and try to get that second or third place first one?

Yeah, I was wondering if we'd see a horse like Crudo in this

traverse, you know, something like that.

I was a little surprised to see some of those horses not even

just take a stab at it because a guy like Bobby Flay was in the

ownership of Crudo. That's his track man.

He's a, he's a Saratoga guy. Go take the shot of the

traverse. Right.

He's won, you know, he's won a play before.

So I, I don't know. I, yeah, $1.25 million race

with, with five horses in it. I'll never get used to a shot.

Let's bring in Frank, get his reaction.

Everything we're talking about here.

Frank Eggs, of course, from bloodhorsebloodhorse.com, our

fearless editor on this thing that we call Blood Horse Monday.

Any reaction to what we've been talking about, Frank?

No, just good stuff. Always good to hear owners and

partnership owners and the strategy really kind of broke

down what they try to do and puts it all out there.

And I mean, it sounds like a good thing to be a part of for

sure. It's interesting too, Frank, as

we watch purses rise in some places and say stagnant and

others and what have you and that kind of that moving around.

It's interesting and nice to hear, frankly, that owners still

care about those graded stakes, right?

It's not just the cash that they care about in these.

They still there's prestige involved in some of these things

that a game, frankly, where you need more money than prestige to

get along. It's it's nice to still hear

those things that you know, that a Delmar Oak still has value

that kind of, you know, that kind of.

And he and he mentioned one of their revenue generators is

saying, you know, sales of broodmares.

So that's very helpful in doing that and getting a good number

for that. Killwood might might pay some

bills at the end of her running career.

I I don't see her slowing down anytime soon, Frank.

But over the weekend that Alabama, the 10 furlongs we get

nitrogen over the weekend just turned it into a special little

3 year old, doesn't she? I mean, she's really positioned

herself well for championship honors.

I mean, there's not too many holes you can poke.

There's still some big races coming up.

So, you know, not nothing's decided yet.

There's still some opportunity there, but I'd say she's at the

front of the class at this point.

I know you're working hard on the magazine.

Of course, bloodhorse.com, you can click on the magazine tab at

the top of the homepage. You go get signed up there.

And of course, if you're watching, you can catch the QR

code at the bottom of the screen.

Once that pops up, Frank, what are you working on for the

magazine? Yeah, that'll be the September

issue and it will, the virtual issue will come out tomorrow and

the the hard copies will be mailed out tomorrow.

And we're doing a lot of new things with our virtual magazine

platform. So just go on there and check it

out for yourself. It's my advice.

You can really do a lot more with stories and what you're

able to do like a year ago. So that's been a big

improvement. And the September issues,

terrific. We had Lonnie Schulman had a

good idea and it was, it's a fun story on Vinnie.

Vinnie Viola, who's of course a prominent owner and Breeder

Jockey Club member and he of course, I think many of us know,

is also the owner of the Florida Panthers, the back-to-back NHL

Stanley Cup champions. And then Everett Dobson, also

prominent owner of Breeder, is the owner, is one of the owners

of the Oklahoma City Thunder who just won the NBA.

So that's some considerable leadership.

And Everett? Yeah, Everett's of course,

doubly interesting as he just took over as chairman of the

Jockey Club. Right yeah, no that should be a

lot of fun and frankly I don't it's very chicken or the egg.

Sean, what do you think came first success with the Stanley

Cup or horses like it's very difficult you don't have to

answer that It's it's above your page you worry about emerald

downs we. We translate the success of

those sports over to the sports every time they bring the stands

sharp. Enough to be out of it.

If you're sharp enough to be a successful owner in this game,

you're pretty sharp and in any sport I would say for sure.

You were up there at Saratoga for the sale and different

things, Frank and I know that we've, you know, we, we went

through the sale and you know, the state bread sale was right

after that. Now that you've had a couple of

days to kind of ruminate on it, anything stand out, you know, a

couple days on? Yeah, I, I mean the, the top end

has been strong. So the select sale, that's very

much the top end. It's meant to be going in, but

that showed another level of strong, so that's certainly

encouraging. Last year's sale was a success

and that ended up proving out that the yielding crop did very

well. This is another level of

success, so hopefully that's a good sign for the things ahead.

Actually the September issue is our MarketWatch Keeneland sale

preview. And just as every number you

could want terrific analysis from Pete Deng.

So that's that's kind of a must read as you any owners or buyers

and sellers prepare their strategy going into that sale.

But yeah, I mean, you can't say anything but good news coming

out of it. I mean, it was just an amazing

night of sales. It was just one after the other.

I just, I think there's a lot of confidence in the game right

now, a lot in some new blood, some amount of new blood in the

game. There's confidence in the top

sires for sure. Into Mischief keeps doing it.

Gun Runner keeps doing it. Not this time.

I mean it. It's curling just over and over.

You see that success and you know that sales very much driven

toward winning the biggest races in the country, and those are

sires that have done it. I'm a host and a horse player in

different things. Frank, I will be very clear

about one thing. Before I did this show, the

sales were not part of my heavy rotation vocabulary, etcetera.

Is this an even for the sport, an unusual number of high end

quality sires right now? Is this a an unusually high

number? Because it feels to me at least,

you know, I've been following the sport since 06 or something

like that, feels pretty high the last 20 years.

I feel like the success on the track on in dirt races has been

really good. I mean, we we've we've seen some

sires that they establish that name and they keep doing well at

sales and it's they're generating top sales numbers.

You don't always see it quite as much on the track.

I don't want to pick on any sire.

And I mean, we're talking about past sires, but and, and they

had some level of success clearly, or else they wouldn't

have gotten there. But I mean, Into Mischief just

keeps doing it over and over with Derby winners.

You know that that's plain. Let's see.

That's going to give you nothing but confidence.

Gun Runner has broken all kinds of records as a young stallion,

relatively young stallion. Still Curlin, his books aren't

generally aren't as big as some others, but he keeps doing it

over and over. So, yeah, they're doing it on

the track. Other stallions have done it as

well, but it's just yeah, I mean that that I think that's what's

people, what people are seeing. You know, you look at Tappet, he

had some top dirt runners and some top turf runners and, and

now he's hitting as a broodmare sire.

So that's that's exciting to see too.

And he's he's still around producing and you know, he's

still an active sire as well. It's very attractive.

So yeah, it's, I think there's something to be said for that,

Louie. I agree.

Yeah, it seems really high level and frankly, I think it's

trickled into some other spots and I think that's why you're

seeing the numbers that the New York sale as well, right?

They know the money's gonna be there purse wise.

They know the opportunity's gonna be there whether it's at,

you know, renovated Belmont or at Saratoga, that kind of thing.

Eventually, if you want to be in this game, New York's a good

spot to be for sure. And long term with the

investment in the sport, it's it's good to see that on the

sale side as well, Frank, where there was obvious, not just

confidence in New York, high level confidence that the very

highest level stakes as well, that stallion series, whatever

you want to call them is going to be worthwhile for for owners

as well. So I thought that part was

really positive too. I mean, you, you look at those

New York bred mayors some, some years they're with Kentucky

stallions, some years they're with New York Stallions.

I mean, these are some of the most productive mayors in the

world, frankly. So that sale, you know, deserves

to do as well as any other. You can put whatever stamp on

the horse New York bred, but they these are well bred horses

for sure. Well, he's Frank angst again,

bloodhorse.com. Click on the magazine tab at the

top of the homepage. Get signed up or if you happen

to be watching QR code right on the screen for you there for

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Start your day with bloodhorseandbloodhorse.com.

Frank, appreciate you buddy. See you next week.

Thanks guys. There you.

Go all right. And Frank Gates appreciate him

jumping in sales talk, Sean, I'm getting all I'm all all excited

by sales talk now. It's a big change in my life in

2025. I know well this is going to be

extra exciting for you based off of what's coming up here.

I. Know keep the talk buddy.

It's going to be happening. I'm you know I'm fascinated by

all this, but we do have one more interview to get to on this

program today. You are out West at look, man,

You're at Emerald Downs and you're in a spot that I think.

Oh, I am. I think for many of us, I don't

want to call it a forgotten spot or anything like that, but you

know, the Mariners or the Seahawks or whatever, we know

they're going to play the 10:00 evening game.

It's going to be out there. I know of Emerald because the

take out rate on pick threes is 12% and I love that.

That's my favorite ticket in the world is a pick three and

getting the lowest take out of pick threes that I can think of.

Maybe Canterbury. It was very attractive to me.

Your experience at the Long Acre Mile.

We'll get to that after this interview here, but kind of a

primer here as you talk to the president of the track there.

What would what should we expect from this conversation?

Well, first let me give you a little back story here.

So this has been a plan that I've had to come out here to

Emerald Downs for a couple of months.

I've been kind of going back and forth on the idea of whether or

not I come out here because I'm someone who likes to check off

all these big race tracks. And this was a weekend where I

could make it work. And oddly enough, at the corgi

race at Saratoga a couple a couple weeks ago, actually just

a week ago, I met Phil Ziegler. He was out at Saratoga for the

corgi race. That was something that's become

really popular out here at Emerald Downs.

A lot of their fan interaction events, whether it be the corgi

race, the people dressing up in the T Rex costumes and running

the grandparents race. They do a lot of those kind of,

you know. Extra Whoa whoa, grandparents

race. Have you not seen that?

You got to. Look that up.

You had. You had the one.

Grand. I mean, I appreciate that this

time left on this show, but I'm not going to watch the rest of

it because I have grandparent race replays to go watch other

past performances for Doris and for for what's the grandpa's

name, Bill? Is he Bill?

Yeah. It's no Bob.

Maybe. Yeah, maybe Bob.

But yeah, so, you know, they they've done a great job at

generating crowd size out here. And yesterday was it was filled

with all of it. Yesterday, yeah, it looked

great. Yesterday it was filled with

people. And that's not even their

busiest day on Long Acres mild day because they have so many

other kind of fun events. They've gotten some great like

the Corgi race has been picked up by ESPN the last couple of

years. They're still playing the replay

of the 2022 Corgi race here at Emerald every once in a while on

their different channels. So you know, you know, it's

something that brings publicity to the track.

This track has a plays a huge role in the local environment.

And so it was great talking to Phil.

That was ultimately when I met Phil at the Corky race last

week. That was the final thing that

pushed me into coming out here to come see the racetrack for

myself. It was great day of racing with

Arrow the great ending up winning the race.

We're going to see, we'll talk about this after the fact, but

you're going to see this interview.

We did this before the races. We accidentally made some

correct predictions it seemed like throughout the day.

So unfortunately every all the betters are going to be

listening to us after the rates of stuff happened.

But but yeah, so it's a great interview with Phil kind of what

Emerald does to kind of help increase that crowd interaction.

So we'll go right on into my conversation.

With professional handicapper Phil Ziegler, here's Sean

Collins. All right, well, I am here at

Emerald Downs in Auburn, WA with Phil Ziegler, the president of

Emerald Downs. I made it out here, Phil.

I told you I know. Last week, I know it's amazing.

We saw each other 3000 miles from here.

Yeah, we could go at Saratoga and now you're here at Emerald,

where it's a little bit cooler than it was there.

Yes, the temperature is definitely a whole lot better

here than it was when I left Saratoga, especially after

yesterday on Alabama day. But we were watching the corgi

races last time that we saw each other.

What made you come all the way out to Saratoga to see that?

You know, they, they were interested in doing corgi races

at Saratoga and Naira content management handles are

simulcasting here and we have a relationship with them and they

knew we did corgi races. So Tony had asked me about

coming and helping with corgi races and maybe giving them some

of our rules and things and how we do it.

So kind of help them along as they did their first corgi

races. And then I couldn't miss seeing

them, so I had to be there. And it was just spectacular to

see the crowd reaction pretty much the same everywhere when

those little dogs are out there and the smiles and on kids faces

and adults faces was when they're watching those dogs run.

Well, I know we're talk about horse racing usually, but

Speaking of corgis, you mentioned rules.

What kind of rules come into place in a corgi race?

I thought it was pretty straightforward, just let them

run. Well, you know, you got to sign

them up and then like, what distance is it going to be?

And you're going to have the banner, you know, for the start

line and the finish line. And there's more involved than

this, you know. I know I never would have

guessed. I know this sport has taken off

because I think they had three different dogs that had won NFL

halftime corgi races from the Buffalo Bills, the Giants, and I

think somebody won the Eagles I believe as well.

And we see the same thing here. The Seahawks do it and a bunch

of other NFL teams, basketball teams, hockey teams, everybody's

doing corgi racing now. It has become a huge sensation.

I know I remember hearing as they were announcing some of the

dogs coming out onto the track. We're getting way off topic here

right as we start, but I think, I think that's it's OK because

people love corgis. But I remember just some

announcing like, oh, this Corky has won this race, So this corgi

has won this race. And I was like, are there

qualifiers for? This, I was surprised.

It's become like the thing and these people are taking their

dogs and when we first did corgi racing and Wiener dog racing and

all those things, the dogs would run all over the place, right?

They didn't know what to do. Well, now they know what to do

because they've been practicing and people are training them to

run and it's about 40 yards distance and it's amazing how

good they have got. And so there's this old circuit

taking place and we have a show on ESPN every year with our

corgi races that a lot of folks have probably seen.

This will all come full circle to.

Work exactly. Yes it will.

Come full circle while we're talking.

About the, well, you know, Speaking of the Corgi races, you

know, out here in at Emerald Downs in Washington, you guys

are kind of on an island from the rest of thoroughbred racing,

at least in the United States. I know you got some maybe

Canadian tracks that are a little closer, but you know, for

you guys that plays a big role in getting attendance out here.

Some of these events that you do, whether it be the Corgi

races, the Wiener dog races, the T Rex races, just what first of

all, whose ideas have these been to get these going?

And then how have you guys kind of used this to turn into crowd

attendance? Well, in some cases, Emerald

Downs has been doing this since even before I was here under the

previous ownership. Ron Crockett and his group, they

did Wiener dog races many, many years ago, before almost any

racetrack. So the dog thing kind of started

there. But I think the Great Leap was

saying, well, you know, you have at a racetrack you have

generally 25 to 30 minutes in between races and there's always

some time and for the fans to be engaged in something else going

on. So I like to say if you have 9

races, you have 8 halftimes. So during those halftimes, you

know people are going to go get food once or twice.

They may go to the paddock, they may get ice cream.

And then if you can give them something else in that other

time period, then they walk out and they realize, you know, you

spend 4 1/2 hours at racetrack and you're seeing maybe 12

minutes of racing. But if all this other stuff

happens, they walk out here saying, wow, that was a full

day. There was a lot of fun.

So you have this track out there.

And the other thing, I think that was the genesis for some of

this was at baseball games where they let the kids run the bases,

right? And I was like, well, if the

kids can run the bases, then why can't the kids run down the

stretch of a racetrack? Because it's better set up for

that, if you think about it, where the fans are watching and

you're running to a finish line. So we started doing kids races

here where we set up the starting gate and it's not

competitive and the kids all run through the gate and they get to

run to the finish line. And sometimes we'll have 200 to

250 kids out there running in these races.

And then we give them an ice cream at the end in the winner's

circle and all the parents are taking pictures and videos and

it's just so much fun to see everybody smiling and having a

good time. And then it takes maybe 6-7

minutes and then the track comes, the track crew comes

through and and grooms the track and we're ready for the next

race. There you go.

And it's not just the kids. We had the grand, the

grandparents. All the grandparents.

Yes. You haven't seen the viral

video. It's out there.

It's been a couple of them, but the first one, a couple guys

went down and we begged them to take it easy.

They didn't listen. They went down, they were OK and

that viral, that video went viral all across the world.

It's amazing how people in Australia were waking up to the

news and seeing in Emerald Downs in the US they had a race for

grandparents and nobody has done that one before.

I know that was an original, and nobody, strangely enough, has

copied us on that one yet. Well, we'll have to start

getting getting the circuit going.

We'll start shipping grandparents.

Across the country somebody says you have them sign a waiver and

I said the second year we did. Well, how much you know for you

guys kind of being, you know, a smaller track maybe don't always

necessarily get the top horses coming out here, how much does

that play a role into really kind of ingraining the race

track into the community and kind of guaranteeing your

success for the races themselves?

Yeah. Now, I mean, from the horse

standpoint, it's a beautiful place to run horses.

The weather is ideal for the horses.

We run April through September. And generally speaking, the

weather in this part of the country, folks thinks it rains.

You know, Seattle doesn't rain all the time.

Well, it does in the winter time it's pretty gloomy, but during

the summer time it doesn't rain much.

And our track is fast almost every day and it is great

conditions. And the folks that come here

love it. And the trainers, in fact this

year because of no Northern California racing, we have quite

a few trainers that are have come up here for the first time

time and they all remark about, you know, the stable area is so

well kept to the barn area is so well maintained and for a 30

year old facility, this place looks pretty darn good.

So great facilities. We really try to take care of

our horsemen. Little things like having, you

know, cable TV hookups in the dorm rooms and things like that.

Every little thing we can do, we have a Drake, great track

kitchen and the community around here really embraces the horse

racing, so it's kind of nice, yeah.

You mentioned that facility right before we started this

interview. You took me on the Grand Tour of

the race track and I agree with you.

It looks fantastic for being 30 years old.

We see the paddock kind of back behind us as we're sitting here.

You kind of have your, you know, your picnic areas out there.

Just how does the facility itself generate into making it

an easy experience on the fans? I know you mentioned to me as we

were walking around how easy it is to get from the paddock to

where you can actually watch the races, how they're kind of side

by side. Just how does that help kind of,

you know, increase the fan experience while they're here,

just the facility itself? Yeah, everything is pretty

close. So if you come on track level

and you want to get ice cream, it's close by.

You want to get a hot dog or a hamburger, it's close by.

You want to go to the paddock and see the horses, it's close

by. You want to pet the pony horses.

If your kid wants to pet the pony horses, it's close by.

If you want a good view of the race from the apron, you have a

great view of the race. We have a big screen, so the

different we're, we're vertical, a lot of tracks are way more in

length. You know, this place is built

with six floors, so you have pretty much a different

experience. Track level is where most people

want to be. We have box seats on the 3rd

floor and then are enclosed. If the weather is a little cold

or rainy, you can go up to the fifth floor and see things out

of an enclosed window there and get a great view of the track.

And then we have suites up on our 6th floor.

So different experiences no matter where you are, but

everything is close by and convenient and I think that's

what people really like. So if you want to watch the

horses in the paddock, you can do it every race and go back and

forth and just take a few steps. Yeah.

And I'm out here today for the Long Acres Mile.

Now, by the time all of our listeners and our viewers are

watching this, the Long Acres Mile would have already

completed. Yes, but know who?

The winner is. Right, yes, we'll know who the

winner is. I'm sure Louis and I will be

talking about that on the show here, but just what goes into

getting today to happen, You know, this is the biggest race

at the track. Just take us through what goes

into getting Long Acres mild day off the ground.

Well, one of the things we made the change in the last couple

years, it used to be two stakes races, then we went to four

stakes races. Now we have 6 stakes races on

one day. So a lot of tracks have done

that with success and we're piling our stakes races onto

these big race days and then we're in all editions of the

Racing Form. And then you get folks maybe

shipping an extra horse because maybe they have a horse for one

of the other races. So it's a great opportunity for

owners, jockeys, trainers locally and even a few from out

of town to experience kind of where horse racing is the main

event here on a day like today. The longer the longer because

mile has this huge tradition. It's 90th running today and 30

years at Emerald Downs and it is truly the Derby of the

Northwest. It's the one race when people

grow up in this industry that they want to win.

If you're, you know, we've seen tears in the winner's circle

over the years and people who their lifelong ambition and

dreams were to win the long equals mile.

Because if you're from around here, that's how much this race

means. So it sells itself in that

regard. It's a big race.

It's a big race day. And I think that you look at

similar races around the country that don't get the kind of

attention, but this, the media attention and the attention from

the local community, this is this is the big race, this is

the one you want to win. And we have a celebrity owner

out here who's part of that this year, too, right?

Arrow the Great, the horse which may have won or not.

We've probably already said who won by the time you're.

On Oh, Brian Malarkey is a chef who's well known, if you look

him up, hosts a TV program, and he's a very popular and famous

chef. And he's part owner of that

horse. Yeah.

So kind of. And he's from this area, so

Northwest ties. And again, I believe he was

quoted in the form of saying how much it means to him to be able

to run in the Long Acres Mile, have a horse in the mile.

So a lot of folks just to have a horse in the mile, that's that's

special. Yeah, and I believe is that the

same horse that's trained by Dan Blacker?

Yes, it is. So that's for those watching on

the horse racing side of things. Dan Blacker, you know as the

trainer straight, no chaser, the champion sprinter from last

year, Breeders' Cup winners last year.

So you're getting getting big horsemen coming up here for.

This race and he's going to be here today, so it'll be good to

see him here. And again, I think this this

race is special, right? Yeah.

And our other like a five other races as well that are stakes

races and all stakes, pick six and pick five and pick four.

And people really kind of gravitate those bets and love

taking a shot. And we have a couple again after

the fact that everybody's going to know if we're on it or not,

right. But there are some couple of

forces that are going to be pretty heavy favorites today.

If they couple of them go down and lose, the pick fives and

pick sixes may pay a lot of money, you know, And if all the

favorites win, it's going to be one of those, you know, $11.00

for four races. So who knows what's going to

happen today. That's what makes it fun.

Yeah. Well, and I know you were

mentioning to me earlier a lot of these big odds on favorites

or horses kind of trying something for the first time as

well. Now this doesn't help anybody

listening to this betting the races are already over but.

Fools don't know what they're talking about, right?

But keep I don't this is after we have six straight one to nine

shots when but you know, for Emerald, you know, it's one of

those things where this is something that you can expect

when you're playing the pick fives.

The pick 6 is here sometimes. And for handicappers who maybe

don't usually give this track a look, it's a good opportunity to

give you guys a look. Yeah.

And a couple of these races are two turns today and the Long

Acres Mile. The tradition of the mile is

that that mile distance back in the 1933 when this race was

developed, it was special because there weren't any other

races really at this distance. It's a middle distance.

It's still not a very popular distance if you look at all the

races in the country. But there's a specialty to a

horse that can go a mile and it's your sprinters can

sometimes get the mile, your route horses can go the mile.

It's a really great distance for a race like this.

That makes it very intriguing because at least one of the

horses who's favorite in the race is he's a really good

sprinter, you know, and he almost won the race last year.

So it's going to be very, it's always a very intriguing race to

try to handicap I think every year.

Well, I always like to, before we kind of, you know, sign off

here, I always like to, you know, ask you about yourself,

you know, what got you into the sport.

Tell us. Tell us about.

You I'm originally from Long Island, so I grew up going with

my dad to Belmont. Park big fan of the Yankees

jersey that he has in his office.

So, you know, I was at the track, people say the good old

days and one of the traffic on the Cross Island Pkwy to get to

Belmont Park and all those years and going to the harness track

at night with my buddies during the college years and everything

fell in love with horse racing. And this is how we're going to

get back to full circle. Remember I said this is full

circle right? This is full circle because

somebody just told me, and it's really true.

When I think about my own experience and so many other

folks, they said there was a survey done by, I don't even

know what company it was. I don't even think he knew what

company it was who told me this. But like, if you don't develop a

fan of a sport by the age of 12, there's a less likelihood

they're ever going to become a fan of that sport.

So. If you're trying to, because so

many of us talk about going with our dads and going with our

grandparents or going with our mom and dad on Mother's Day or

whatever it is, you know, that's how it all starts when you're a

kid. So when we do things like the

Corky races and we do things like the kids races and we do

all those things, it's families. It's people bringing their kids

and grandkids to the racetrack. And that is the next generation

of race fans and it's making people fall in love.

They may love the dogs, they'll see the horses, they love the

horses and it brings them back. And that's how we get full

circle because that's what brings them into the sport of

horse racing and why it's so important to keep that family

engagement in in horse racing so we can build those fans for the

next generation so that horse racing will thrive for many

years to come because there's a lot of competition out there.

There we go, We made it all the way around the circle.

One final thing for you here, Phil, for any of the smaller

tracks who maybe you know are struggling with attendance

across the country, what are any, any advice, any tips that

you can give them to try to help boost those numbers?

Boys, that's that's a tough one. It's don't be afraid to have

these promotions. I think we're seeing more of an

acceptance of doing a corgi race out on the racetrack.

We saw Saratoga do it. I know everybody loved it.

And then as soon as it was over, the crowd cleared out.

They all went home as soon as it was.

Over that's no good, but it was kind of late in the day and it.

Was hot, but I know they spaced it out well where you were there

for a long portion of the car. They kept them there and, and,

but when you see see the smiles and all this, so have the.

And if it takes something we learned here, it takes 10 extra

minutes in between races and take 10 extra minutes, you know,

if it's going to bring thousands of people to the racetrack and

oh, by the way, on those days, you'll see that they may be here

for one of these other events. But boy, they're screaming and

yelling when those horses are running and running up to the

show or to the place or whatever.

But they're all yelling and screaming.

And sometimes I take video of just the crowd reaction to the

horse races on these other days, and the jockeys even say how

exciting it is to have the crowds so get folks to the

track. I mean, that's that's the thing,

A lot of tracks run on weekdays and I understand why they do it,

but people don't go to the track on weekdays and you're not

building fans by doing that. So the more you can have a few

weekend race days and do something to get the folks out

to the track and get them to bring their kids, I think the

better. And that's what will keep us all

around for a long time to come, I hope.

Yes, awesome. Well, I won't keep you any

longer. I know we're getting close to

the first race here on Las Vegas Mile Day, but thank you so much

for the hospitality. Thank you so much for taking the

time to talk with us here, and I hope it's a great race day

today. Yeah, thanks for being here and

I hope you picked a lot of winners.

By the time this airs, you'll know, right?

Let's hope. Let's hope.

All right. Thank you, Phil.

Hey, thanks all. Right, Sean out there at Emerald

dot C in the background still, and thanks to Phil, by the way,

his name tag just said Phil power moves Sean.

There are men who can play the power game.

Phil's one of those guys. Very nice.

That's a first. Interview just says Phil.

He doesn't he name? Doesn't he name?

Not to burst your bubble, but that was everybody on the staff

at. It was just the first name.

But you are correct, you are correct.

This is, buddy, you need to learn.

This is theater of the mind. You're screwing this up for

people. All right, So Emerald Downs,

it's interesting. So I learned a lesson probably

about two years ago doing radio. And it was Grant Forster, who

was a Pacific Northwest guy himself who's now based in

Kentucky. And I was just doing a simple

interview with him. And we were hanging out for 10

minutes. And he said, oh, and it was

something I knew but I'd never thought about, and you got to do

it yesterday. There's something about being at

a track on its biggest day, right?

It doesn't. Work, we talked about that.

We talked about that at Indiana Derby Day a couple weeks ago,

just being at that, being at the track on the big day.

Yes, and it with with Phil, you can tell he knows that.

And so he's trying to recreate a smaller version of that with a

corgi race or a grandparent race or whatever, just to get that

kind of excitement. And I think there's something to

it. And so no kudos.

I thought that was a really cool interview.

And I thought of Grant about halfway through because I know

he came out of that area and he had thought about so.

But he talks about the Long Acres Mile and he's right.

It is the Derby, the Northwest. Because even Grant in that

interview a couple years ago, Oh yeah, I'd love to pick off on,

you know, I'd love to get a Long Acres Mile, blah, blah, blah.

You know, I'd love to do that. And it's fascinating to hear

those different races from around the world.

How loud did it get there? Oh, it got very loud yesterday.

And the, the, the point you were making there what they have one

of these special event weekends every single weekend of the

meet. So they've got something going

on every single weekend. There's a we have to.

Play baseball team here in in Louisville, Sean.

They haven't been over 525 years.

They still pack the place. Yeah, yeah, because bluey's

there and whatever else. I mean, it's this has been tried

in other sports. It's nice to hear it from

somewhere in horse racing as well.

Yeah, there's there's a sign back behind there that's got

them all listed. But you know, they get they're

getting people out to the track. That's in translating to when,

you know, like he said with these kids that see that and

they now have a like for horse racing because they know it's

somewhere fun that they go to. Maybe that turns it on going to

a different racetrack their round.

Maybe that turns it into lifelong horse racing fans as we

go forward. But it is a race out here.

There's a wall inside the grandstand that says the

Northwest's premier race. That's what the Long Acres Mile

is. We talked about Brian Malarkey,

the celebrity chef on Era of the Great, which we talked about Era

of the Great, and then he went and won the race.

So we were right on that one, I guess, by talking about him.

And so I talked to him after the race yesterday and he said that

same thing. He's been dreaming of winning

the Long Acres Mile his entire life.

It was something his dad was an owner and a breeder, his dad

said at one point when he was about nine years old, like, I

really want to win the Long Acres Mile.

And then Brian finally got it done for the family yesterday

and he wins the Long Acres Mile. And he was very happy, very

emotional after that. But it's such a big race day.

Some of the changes that, you know, he mentioned that they

made about putting the six stakes races on the card.

He, we mentioned or we were talking about that we were

joking about whether or not we were gonna have all 1 to 9

favorites or if we were gonna get some long shots. 11 races

yesterday and the winner of the Long Acres Mile was the only

favorite to win the entire day. We had a lot of nice long shots

so it was a great opportunity for for the gamblers.

The track broke their single day record of handle $3,305,806.00

wagered on the card. They were just short of the

state record for handle, which was set on the final day of Long

Acres Mile, the day that it closed permanently.

So a pretty historic day there. But then on top of that, that he

mentioned the multi race wagers. They broke their record for

their largest pick 5 carryover because of how many prices came

in. They have a $78,841.35 carryover

going into the Friday card. So it was a great opportunities

for betters, a great opportunity for people to make some money

here. And I know that I know that

appeals to you a lot. It does, but the other part is

underrated. State of Washington went to

penny breakage. So on a day like that, I know

people kind of scoff, but I would bet a day like Long Acres

Mile, that's worth in the range of five to $6000.

Just back to matters. It's a huge amount of money.

I think people have no idea. But yeah, no, it's, it was, it

was a fun day. I, I, I just kind of threw it

on. I had it on, you know, on on

screen all day. Just one of those things.

But it was just AI thought of grant a lot, which is funny to

say. But yeah, just, you know,

biggest day of the year at A at a track and the fact that he's

got the long acres on his list. They're for sure a an important

day at a place called Saratoga this weekend as the traverse

will be run on Saturday. Lighter field.

I'm getting a little tired of the Twitter conversations about

lighter fields and horse racing, but I just started to ignore

them. Sovereign season here, the

Pennsylvania Derbies in a couple weeks, the, you know, the

Pacific Classics in a couple weeks.

I don't know what people want essentially is what I would say

to that. You got sovereignty or we got an

American Pharaoh situation. No, I think as long as

sovereignty shows up, I mean, I can't see a way now.

I'm probably gonna do him right here.

I can't really see a way where he loses this.

It's at his preferred distance, that mile and a quarter.

We know he likes to race track. I mean, he's just in general a

monster. Maybe something weird happens

where Magnitude can sneak away on the lead.

But now a bracket Buster in the race.

I don't really know that that's what can happen.

Even if Sovereignty loses this race, like say Magnitude ends up

jumping up and beating him here 'cause he gets a loose lead, I

still, I still think, you know, that it's probably more of

Sovereignty loss than somebody beat him.

We'll see if that's correct when we get to to Saturday.

But that's how I feel going into this, that it would just be a

case of Sovereignty not running his race.

Yeah, I think magnitude is the obvious, you know, threat here

and so I I wouldn't be surprised to see him run a good race.

But I'm with you buddy. It's rare that we get a

three-year old of this quality. But this is exactly what we

talked about apparel. Now the difference is the key

nice of this year ain't in this field that that's that's the big

difference here is is no offense to magnitude.

He might be key nice maybe, but he ain't yet not not from what

I've seen at least the Iowa Derby 88 key nice territory.

That's OK, but we'll see. We'll see where he heads up that

way. Great field in the jerkins as

well. This 3 year old crops, Sean, not

just going the two turns on the Philly side, you know in the

Alabama. Then on the traverse side here

we're getting great sprinters out of this some turf horses.

I mean this is this 3 year old crop man.

This is this has been a good one.

I know this has been a really a really good group of three-year

olds this year. I'm excited to see Patch Adams

coming back in this spot, excited to see Verifier kind of

taking this step forward. Both of those two horses coming

out of the Brad Cox bar. And I think I mentioned Verifier

last week when we were talking about the three-year olds to

watch. And we also have a couple of

these Bob Baffert horses coming in for the weekend.

And so we'll see what Barnes has.

You know, remember all the hype we had on him at the start of

the year when we first started doing this podcast?

I would love it if I am huge, because if we could just insert

one more horse into this category, my God I would.

Love it and. Frankly, if he's ever good at

Del Mar, he could be the Breeders.

I just I give me give me a new shooter in both of these races.

As far as I'm concerned, give me a magnitude, give me a barns

like just give me these horses step up, be part of that

conversation. I would love it.

So hopefully we get something like that.

We'll be back next week. We will cap those race, recap

those races and of course start looking forward to man roll it

along. Of course we'll be.

I'll be out at Kentucky Downs this week, but then I'll be

there a couple more times. Moving.

I'll meet you there soon. I was going to say, I'm sure

Sean will be there as well. You know our guy Sean on the

screen right now, the QR code for the magazine, of course, at

bloodhorse.com. Check out the magazine tab at

the top of the homepage. Frank mentioned it.

A digital has gotten a major upgrade.

But if you want to have that copy sent to your house, we

don't blame you. It's beautiful.

Got those great photos. Makes anyone's coffee table look

great as well. Well Sean, safe travels back to

Saratoga, my friend. Safe, safe flight to New York.

How long is that flight? 4 hours.

I guess it's probably about maybe 4 1/2 five hours to where

I'm going into Baltimore, and then I got a flight from

Baltimore up to Albany, so. That's a Southwest special right

there, folks. All right, well, we'll be back

next week on a Blood Horse Monday.

Thanks so much for starting your horse racing week with the Blood

Horse is dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred

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