BloodHorse Monday 9/22/25 | Brad Cox

I welcome in an equinox edition of Blood Horse Monday, Luther

Bowshawn Collins hanging out with you, Sean.

Very, very natural scape me very blank scene behind me.

Probably need something up there at some point, Sean.

But look at look at you. Look at you taking in nature.

Are you somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania?

I well, I don't know if it's the middle of Pennsylvania, it's the

eastern part of Pennsylvania. But yes, I'm still, I'm actually

in my hometown, Bethlehem, PA Shout out to Bethlehem, having

just been at the Pennsylvania Derby this past weekend and

heading back to Kentucky tomorrow for Lucas Classic week

at Churchill Downs. So that's where I am at right

now. It's been a fun week.

Got to go to my high school football team.

Or football team. Past week with my best friend

from back home. So good Little good little

homecoming week for me this week.

I always love doing that for Pennsylvania Derby time.

There you go, a little, a little high school football from Shawn

Collins. We'll break down that game later

on, but first horse racing, Really, How about that?

OK, never mind, we'll break. We don't need to.

We don't. There's no need to.

Analyze There's not much to breakdown.

They were playing a school that I don't think showed up to the

game. The meetings will continue until

morale approves at Shawn's High School, but of course over the

week, one of the regional derbies over the weekend, Amanda

will talk to it in a couple of minutes is trainer Brad Coxey

head Disco Time win the Saint Louis Derby.

I was a little surprised to see so many horses running in that

Saint Louis Derby for $50,000 less than the Bourbon Stakes

there at Churchill Downs. But hey, Disco Time gets it

done. Solid field there.

You know the the non Pennsylvania Derby Derby of the

weekend. It was a good race and I thought

frankly a good spot to put Disco time in the E show for sure.

Yeah, and he I mean, he went straight to the lead and took it

the whole way. But it was good to see him back.

I remember there's a lot of hype on this horse back in Triple

Crown, well, Kentucky Derby prep season and then he had to go on

the sidelines after he won the the Le Compte Stakes.

So it's nice to see him bounce back.

So, well, we are looking at, you know, this division we've been

and we're gonna get into this division the way it unfolded

this weekend, how you really have the big three.

You don't necessarily have that horse who's behind them that

could potentially take a shot at the big three.

And so maybe this is the horse. He's the one that I believe he's

still undefeated, isn't he? Yeah, Perfect. 4 for four.

And he was impressive back when he was on the Derby trail

earlier in the year. He was impressive coming back

here in the spot at Fairmount Park.

Nice to see them have such a big weekend there at the Saint Louis

Derby. It looked like a lot of fun.

I tried to work out to where I could do both that and the

Pennsylvania Derby. It didn't work out of.

Course you did. Of course you did Pennsylvania

Derby, the undercard to the Saturday racing there at parks.

You were there on site, of course, Cotillion and

Pennsylvania Derby both on the card there.

Baeza does win the Pennsylvania Derby, frankly far and away the

best force in that race there Sean and and really did I think

put his holding on the third horse in this 3 year old

division. I think that if you and I were

voting for Eclipse awards today, it would be a very easy vote for

three-year old male. It would be sovereignty, then

journalism and then by ASA. Do you largely agree with me?

Yes, I completely agree with you.

I think we've have it. We have a rare year where I

think we can definitively say who the top three horses in this

division are, and on top of that we can definitively say which

position they all rank in. Those top three.

They ran Sovereignty Journalism by Aza in that order.

In both the Derby and the Belmont, Anytime journalism runs

against three-year olds and Sovereignty's not there, he

wins. Anytime by Aza runs up against

not one of those two, he wins. As long as they keep doing that,

you can't change what that order is.

We know. I think I've mentioned on the

show a couple times, and I think I did last week as well, a lot

of trainers, even before Baeza finally broke through and got

this win, a lot of other trainers that had some of the

top three-year olds would constantly kind of refer to him

as being one of the big three in this division.

He finally has that qualification to prove it to.

You know, he's got his grade one win.

Shout out to Puka, the amazing brood.

Unbelievable that has now had three consecutive Grade 1

winners. That is pretty incredible.

If you haven't, if you haven't been watching the show the whole

time we've been doing it this year, go back to before the

Belmont when we got to talk to Robert Clay, who was the breeder

of all three of these horses, Mage Dornock and Baeza.

But a big win for him. He was really impressive.

And I also, you know, looking at the way that some of the horses

that were supposed to be major contenders in these races ran, I

don't know what I think about the track.

I'm not sure every horse handled the track, which is why I think

Baeza was maybe even more impressive is because he handled

it and he ran a pretty good time over it as well.

And it seemed to be one that like some horses like Gosgur, I

don't, I know he kind of had a little bit of traffic at one

point on the far turn, but he didn't really run to his best.

You look at the Cotillion, Good Cheer, Lacara, Scottish Lassie,

all did not really run to their best.

You look at the Gallant Bob, you have Barnes and Donut God who

didn't run to their best. So I think the track was not to

everyone's liking, which in my opinion made it even more

impressive that Baeza was able to overcome all that.

Yeah, Baeza, of course, was third in the Kentucky Derby

behind Journalism and Sovereignty.

Very rare that our Eclipse Awards would follow 123 for the

Kentucky Derby. But I imagine for many voters,

excuse me, that will be the case.

You mentioned the Cotillion and you mentioned those that did not

win, but frankly, a horse that you and I got to see when the

Indiana Oaks turns around and wins the Cotillion.

And I gave her out as my top pick on on the horse racing

happy hour this past weekend. And look, I think with Clicko,

once in a while you get a Philly like this, Sean, that is a

little bit later in the development cycle, right?

So she wasn't ready for a Kentucky Oaks, something like

that. But you were there in

Indianapolis with me and she's just such a professional.

I made the joke that you probably could have set off a

firecracker in the winner's circle and she would have been

like, OK, you know, whatever, I won the race, we're good, let's

go eat and we're fine and get out of here, whatever.

And I just, I think once in a while there's incredible value

in that. Cause what you just said is

true. Let's say the track isn't

playing to everybody. Let's say that the travel is a

problem. Let's say the blah, blah, blah.

All XYZ seems to not matter for her right now.

We got one that could travel. She she wins at different

places, one at Churchill, one at Horseshoe, not one at parks.

I'm very hopeful, frankly, after a mile on the 16th where she

looked really good and really capable, that they'll send her

to the Dista. I'm really hoping that we'll see

her at Del Mar at the beginning of November.

What did you think of her performance?

How did that concilion shake out for you?

Yeah, well, I think she definitely earned the earned the

right to try to give that race a shot.

She looked pretty good this week, and she looked good all

week leading up to it. I got here on Wednesday.

I think the first day I saw her was Thursday.

And those two days leading up to it, she looked, she looked

amazing. Brendan Walsh, you know,

sometimes he could keep his thoughts on his horses a little

close to the vest, but he was very, you know, very much

advertising how much he thought about this Philly leading into

the race. I think, you know, we've been

looking at this 3 year old Philly division, we're not

seeing the top horses from the spring in good cheer and Lakara.

We're not seeing them complete the year here in the

second-half. And so this division is wide

open for, you know, a Philly who is developing in this later half

of the year to maybe jump up and maybe even look at stealing the

divisional honors here. And this is a really good

Philly. I'm very hopeful for her future.

She looks like she's going to be pretty competitive.

But the division itself, I mean, you look at it, I think Nitrogen

is still obviously the clear front runner.

After the. Alabama and also just given the

fact that she's run so well on both surfaces.

But I think this is really going to come down to if they, if all

the big three-year old Phillies end up in the Breeders Cup

Distaff. I think the divisional honors

here could really just come down to who runs the best in the

Distaff, whether it be winning or whether it be running second

or third, a horse like Thorpedo Anna or Dorth Vader or something

like that. It'll be interesting to see how

this division shakes out when it comes to the voting.

You mentioned trader Brendan Walsh, and we had Gossgar

obviously in the Pennsylvania Derby as well, and I think many

people were hoping it was going to be a bit of a coronation for

him. I think people felt bad about

the journalism rallies in both the Preakness and in the Haskell

as far as his outcomes. I've never seen a trainer just

shrug and wonder what the heck else they can do more than

Brandon Walsh after the Haskell. I've never seen it in my life.

I've never seen anyone just throw up their hands.

Like what else are we supposed to do that effort on Saturday

worried about the horse or do you think it might be related to

the the track conditions airpark well he.

He got, there's one point on the far turn where I think it, I

think it was actually a stable meet when David of Athens was

backing up where he did kind of have to check and he was got it.

He kind of had to reroute a little bit.

That probably cost him quite a bit of momentum.

I actually happened to be standing right next to his

connections as they were watching the race and they, they

all reacted to that moment, which is what called my

attention to it as I was watching it live.

But so I, it's, it's hard for me to, I don't, I'm not concerned

about him going forward, but the track did.

I did hear kind of several comments about, you know, it was

deep. It was, it was hard.

You know, I I'm not, I could see where there's quite a few horses

who might not have liked the way the surface was.

And of course, like him, if you do get stopped at the point

where he got stopped now, to be fair, at the point he got

stopped by Aza had already blown past him.

So I don't think he was going to really be a threat to beat by

Aza in the spot. But you know, when I'm looking

at overall where he ended up finishing in the run that he put

forward, I'm I'm going to give him a pass.

I'm probably going to give a pass to, you know, maybe good

cheer Lakara as well, because this is this was a track that I

don't think was going to be to everyone's liking and I'll wait

to see. I'm going to draw a line through

this race for pretty much all of them that didn't run to their

best when they come back into the entry box next time.

We'll talk about immersive in the Seneca overnight with

trainer Brad Cox in a few minutes here, but the the rest

of the Derby field there for the Pennsylvania Derby.

Any comments on say like a goal oriented?

It feels like maybe he's just not a mile and an eighth kind of

horse. Maybe that's all it is with him,

just needs. You know, we think of all those

stakes here at Churchill, for example, down the street that

are at a mile and a 16th. He seems like that kind of

horse, right? Like maybe a mile, maybe a mile

and a 16th. That kind of horse.

Maybe he can bounce back in that.

Anyone else stand out as maybe would he either in a very bad

effort or a good effort from Pennsylvania Derby?

I want to shout out magnitude because you know, I, I need to

make sure I give him, give him a little praise after I ripped him

a couple times on this show in the past.

He impressed me because we we were all looking at him as being

the one-dimensional kind of speed horse because he hadn't

run well in the past when he wasn't on the lead.

And he, I mean, he dug in there and he came running in the

stretch to get that second spot. So I thought that was a big run

from him. So he kind of changed my thought

process on him a little bit. I still don't think he's

necessarily at the top level that a lot of people thought he

was going into the Travers, but I do think that he at least

proved that he can be competitive in this division,

especially maybe on the grade 2 or grade three scale.

As far as goal oriented, I'm not I I just think maybe he's a

couple of the top of this division, at least at this

point. And maybe he could be if he's

shortened up or something like that, like you were saying, if

he's not a mile and a force, maybe he can be more competitive

at the at the level at a shorter distance.

But I, I just think he's maybe he's maybe in that grade two,

grade 3 range. I just don't think he's on the

same level as some of these top guys in this division are.

But yeah, those were magnitude was the one that kind of really

stuck out to me. I also want to give a a shout

out to our Canterbury horse that won the won the Gallup Bob

Steaks Madhouse. He looked really, really good

winning that race. And also a shout out to our

Greenwood Cup winner, Nobien Nimal from Brazil, making his

second start in the US 2 for two.

If you haven't checkedout.com, I got to speak to the owner

yesterday about bringing him here to the United States, and

so make sure you check that out if you haven't already.

No Breeders' Cup win and ends on that parks card, but I imagine

we'll see many of the runners from that day at Delmar once we

get there, late October, early November, of course, for the

Breeders Cup itself. Did anyone stand out on Saturday

that you saw and you thought, man, I really hope they're

headed to the Breeders Cup? They mentioned that no bien

e-mail that they were if they got an invite to the Classic,

that they'd take a shot. I think that would be

interesting to see how he kind of stacks up in the Classic.

They seem really high on this horse.

Obviously him coming from Brazil, you know, you don't know

what he's faced class wise. And definitely an allowance race

in the Greenwood Cup isn't probably the way you'd expect

the Breeders Cup Classic horse to go.

But I am interested to see how he would compete in that race.

But I think by Aza, we're really starting to see him kind of put

things together. It'd be interesting to see him

in the Classic on his home track now.

He did seem like a different horse this weekend than he had

been the previous times that I saw him.

So I think he's finally kind of starting to figure it out,

finally starting to mature. Certainly one of those things we

forget as we get to this point of the summer that those 3 year

olds are still growing and they're still getting older,

they're still maturing, as you point out Sean and really trying

to figure things out. So hopefully I, I think it's

bias that it stands out for sure as the one we want to see in the

classic. And you know, last year we had

the three-year olds debate and in the classic itself between

Sierra Leone, fierceness and of course, Forever young.

We're having another great trio here, but also all three of

those back potentially if they're healthy by the time we

get to the Sean. I'm just, I'm already I'm

already try not to get too excited.

I'll essentially I'll say that. How about that?

Get it? Get it.

We're getting close. We're just a little over a month

away. We're getting.

We're getting there. I know, I know, I thought, you

see, you don't have to live like me, though.

I got to, like, coordinate with an Italian restaurant to do a

seminar. Like, these are like things that

I have to do behind the scenes. That'll be a lot of fun.

We'll have that for you here at BLOOD HORSE.

Of course, on the phone, though, is trainer Brad Cox joins us

here on BLOOD HORSE Monday. Appreciate him jumping on plenty

of action going on around his barn in different spots around

the country. But Brad, I ask you every time

we get together, where are you and how close are you to a

horse? In between Louisville and

Lexington on the Interstate. So right now, not that close.

I don't like it at all, Brad. That's how it goes.

He's headed to Lexington, though.

Good weekend for you. Plenty.

I frankly to get into with you as far as that.

We'll start with Friday. No, just go a bit of the they'll

just go in order here. But disco time undefeated gets

it done in the Saint Louis Derby.

You had to be thrilled with that.

Yeah, we're expecting him to run well way a little bit of a

difficult horse to find a spot for off the layoff.

And that race kind of jumped out a few weeks ago and he he was

training the part. You know, he really come back

this summer and and act like he was a good horse or obviously

showed he was a good horse last winter and glad to see him

return to the races in a big way.

How how difficult is that when you have a horse that you know

you've had such high hopes for early on and performed to it in

the winter when he has a couple of months off, he has that set

back. How difficult is it to bring him

back into that top form for the first start?

Well, I mean, it, it, it's, you know, from a trainer standpoint,

it, it can be. And just, and obviously we, we

have to, you know, prepare them and, and, you know, put a

workload in front of them. And if they handle it and

they're taking all the steps forward, you're doing, you're

running them with confidence. Sometimes they don't return

quite as well or they just got showing the talent that they

showed before. And as long as they're sound,

you go ahead and give them a start.

But he, he'd look, he acted as if he had improved.

I mean, we liked him last fall when we debuted him and, and

thought he was a good colt and he didn't let us down.

And over the last month or so leading up to that Saint Louis

Derby, I was really excited about running and it was just

about gradually getting them started and find the right spot.

Not a lot of options when you have a three-year old that's

three for three. And you know, sometimes

allowance conditions can be tricky with facing the older

seeds and horses. And we're just looking for a

spot that that made sense. And I think that one worked out

for him. Trader Brad Cox with us.

Did he show you enough that you'll try him and say a Clark

or something like that later in the fall?

I think yeah. I mean, look, he come back with

a pretty good number. I haven't got all the figures

back on him yet, but yeah, he went, he went, he went forward.

You know, obviously I you kind of say it's the first start of

his three-year old season really with the break since January.

But yeah, I think he's a real horse and I'm hoping that, you

know, he he can, you know, be competitive in grade ones down

the road. And you know, the Clark is

definitely a race that we we could look at that the Fayette

and Lexington once once again, we're going to have to start

facing olders. But and then those are not races

that he has to win. But we just want to continue.

Can you continue to see move forward and be competitive?

Obviously when we have to face older horses and stuff?

Another one you had over the weekend and Brad, I appreciate

how open you are about talking about, you know, getting

confidence into your horses, getting them a run where maybe

they get back to doing what they do best.

We saw that with immersive in the Seneca overnight there at

Churchill Downs. You were there on Saturday for

that one as brought my son. We watch that one together Brad.

But you know her rally in the stretch.

I was so happy to see that, you know, for you, for your, your

operation, just to see her fight back, get that kind of, you

know, that kind of finish. Do you think this was a good

step forward for her? What's the next step for her in

the next race? It was a step forward.

Obviously we didn't get the performance we were looking for

at Saratoga. The the first run off the layoff

wasn't that disappointing to me. I thought she, she ran well, She

was narrowly defeated, galloped out.

Well, the last run I, I don't know, that's a head scratcher.

This 3 yard Philly division, when you look at it as a whole,

I mean, it's kind of like they've all take taken turns

beating each other to begin with.

So, but look, I, I, I was proud of the effort the other day.

She's praying well all year. She hadn't, we wouldn't be in,

wouldn't be running her period. But but she's continue to work

well like she had as a 2 year old.

And, and I'm not certain where we'll go.

Maybe like a fall city or something later in the year or

later in the fall there at Churchill.

But, you know, for the time being, I think, you know, we'll

let her, you know, another starter too this year and then

see if we want to campaign her at the age of 5.

You mentioned that three-year old Philly division, you had

good cheer in the cotillion this weekend.

I know that didn't go to plan what you were hoping for.

What can you just tell us about how she came out of that race

and what could be next for her? Yeah, she came out of a good

ship back to Churchill happy with her from a sounding

standpoint. And yeah, look, I she was maybe

just a touch close to hot pace or quick enough pace and she

just didn't really finish up. So, you know, I'm not certain.

We'll talk it over with the good often team over the next couple

days and kind of come up with a plan.

She's had a long run now, so never been stopped on.

So, you know, she could be do a break.

But you know, once again, we'll find out more over the next few

days. Speaking of three-year old

Phillies in that division, Margie's intention on the Black

Eyed Susan this year, You're going to enter her this Friday

in the Bell Dame. What went into that decision

making process and what do you what do you expect from her on

Friday? He's trying it really well.

I do think she needs to get get a little quicker on her numbers

to be competitive with that. I mean, I listen, I think she's

trying well enough. She's going to be competitive.

But I think if we want to win, we got to take a step forward.

You know, she, I think she got a lot out of her flash race going

a mile and 1/4. She'd been freshened up.

Leading up to that race and I do think she's trying, she's trying

well leading leading up to the Alabama, but I think she's

trained better since the Alabama.

So I do think she's going to move forward and she'll need to

obviously this is going to be facing older horses and you

know, I think she's going to need a setup as well.

I think we need to have somebody in the race that can kind of put

a little pressure on randomize. If not, it's going to be tough

to get by her at any point in the race.

This weekend, yeah, Churchill Downs, you also have hit show

coming back here off of his win out at Mountaineer, the Dubai

World Cup winner from this year. When you look at this field

here, he's going up against, you know, Mystic Dan, disarm, rattle

and roll a couple of good horses.

Just how do you think that he fits in this field and how is he

coming into it? Well, he fits.

I mean, he won the race last year and I think I mean this

horsey, he's tough. I mean he just keeps springing

it every time you leave him over there, never disappoints.

There's been some races where obviously he doesn't win or on

2nd, but he always tries hard. So looking forward to to, you

know, getting back in greater state company.

He's trained very well there at Churchill, loves it there, and

hopefully he gets a good trip and he can, you know, finish up

well. We saw that the Stephen Foster

over the summer, you decided to want them in more listed stakes.

Was that a bit like immersive? Just trying to get some of that

confidence back in them. For sure, yeah, no doubt about

it. Just it's just a spot to kind of

fill the calendar and it was kind of the plan to, you know,

look, this path we're on now is the path we took to get to the

Dubai World Cup last year. So that's the ultimate goal is

to try to get back to Dubai. I'm not certain he'll hit all

those spots between now and then.

I'm not certain he'd run into Fayette, the Clark and then, you

know, then Louisiana and then Santa Anita.

But, you know, we're just trying to replicate some of the things

we did last year with him. Hopefully it'll lead to him

having at some point, we might give him a little bit of a break

at some point, hopefully have him ready for Dubai next, next,

next March. You mentioned his consistency.

He's 10 for 20 lifetime. That's very consistent, about as

consistent as you could come there.

He always shows up. Would you look at if he ran well

enough here? Do you look at the Breeders Cup

Classic at all, or are you kind of set on that Kentucky schedule

looking toward the Dubai World Cup?

Yeah, I think it would just depend on how he won the Lucas

Classic and who all showed up in the the Breeders Cup Classic.

I think we have a pretty good idea who's going to show up, but

you know, a lot of things going to happen over the next, you

know, whatever, 5-6 weeks before the Breeders Cup.

So, you know, I wouldn't say it's a total no.

We just kind of have to see how things go Saturday and you know

who's doing what, who's going where.

Trader Brad Cox with us here on Blood Horse Monday, Lou Ramos,

Sean Collins hanging out with you, another one in your barn

that I I wanted to ask about his first mission.

He's been steadily on the work tab here.

We saw most recently work on the 12th of September.

What's next for him? Or is there any any chance we

see him coming up? Yeah, he's entered in the

Goodwood on set. We entered this morning, Ashley.

So I don't I doubt it's come out yet, but he he's been entered in

the Goodwood for Saturday at Santa Anita going to mile and an

eighth there. It's a grade one that has that's

the biggest draw with it for us. Obviously he's a multiple grade

stake winner and we need to get a grade one under him.

Obviously, I think he does have a spot in the stallion barn

there Darley, but being a Grade 1 winner would definitely help

his value. So planning on that this this

coming Saturday, Santa Anita within.

It's also a Breeders' Cup Classic win and in would that

would he be able to stay out there in your your estimation if

he does win? We'll figure it out some way

It'll. Probably be a little.

Tough. Yeah, exactly.

It'd probably be a little tough, but we'll work it out.

We'll we'll figure out how to keep out there, see if that's.

I hope that's the case. I really did.

Yeah, right. That.

'D be a good problem, yeah. Well, another horse who has

recently returned to training out of I believe at Windstar is

where he is right now is Japan St. who this year can claim to

be the only horse to offense the property.

What What do you know about him coming back right now?

And just how excited is it are you to get him back in the barn?

I'm super excited. I'm, I'm, you know, he's

obviously a, a great Grade 1 winner, grade one talent and

thought that, but that pretty much all last winner leading up

to the Florida Derby that, you know, he, he could, you know,

be, be a grade one horse and he proved it on in the Florida

Derby. He's a good call.

I watched him work at Winstar a couple weeks ago and then he

worked worked again the other day and saw a video of it and

he's moving really well. He's a big, strong, powerful

horse with a great mind and, you know, excited about getting him

back. I think he's going to come come

back to us here at Keeneland the first part of October and then

we'll take him down to pace and then kind of let him, you know,

find his way. And you know, no schedule in

regards to racing quite yet, but I'm excited about getting back

into the barn and hopefully have a big year with him in 2026.

You have Nash in the Vosburg, another Breeders' Cup winning in

for that dirt Sprint is he? And you keep, you know, moving

him up into this great at stakes company.

He hasn't quite clicked in one of those races we've seen him

win at the black type level. It does this feel more to you

like a matter of time with him or is there, you know, just some

what? What do you feel about Nash at

this point? Yeah, you know, he's always been

a little bit of a kind of thought his bar still waiting

for him to kind of step forward. We have figured out I think this

year in 2025 that he's he's a one turn horse or he's best at

one turn. I think his figures show that

thought he was a Derby horse to start his 2/3 year old season.

But you know, look, he he's a horse that, you know, I think

you got to get a get the right trip and, you know, I'm hoping

that the 7/8 will something that he likes doing and, you know, he

probably needs to get a little bit of a setup.

Didn't work out well last time there at Saratoga, but he's he's

he's trying well leading up to this one at Aqueduct all.

Right. Well, there you go.

He's traded to Brad Cox. He's driving to Keeneland.

What are you doing to Keeneland? What's going on with Brad Cox?

I like being much. Actually driving over here to

play golf. Oh, OK.

Never mind withdrawing. I like that a lot.

Never mind. OK, good.

All right, let's see a Brad Cox handicap at this point.

How bad? Are you, it says it's 16, but

that's not that's, that's not, that's not accurate.

That is not accurate at all. As much golf.

I haven't played very much golf at all this year and it's

probably might be able to double that 16 to 30.

It's pretty bad right now. Keep it under 100, Brad.

You understand? Maybe you get it done.

You keep it under 100, all right?

There's other people on that golf course, all right?

He's Brad. That's right, he's.

Got 100 horses running this weekend.

We'll talk to you next time, Brad.

We appreciate. You all right?

Thanks guys. Talk to you soon.

No. Pro, there you go, Brad Cox here

with us on Blood Horse Monday. Sean, there you go.

Lots of boy, boy this. I think of this as you know, I

saw STAT the other day. I forget where I saw it.

I apologize, but essentially Brad Cox and grade at stakes to

Churchill Downs in September, just get out of the way.

That's the that was the essentially the stat get out of

the way and so immersive. Obviously not a grade at stakes,

but certainly gets that started for him last weekend.

Bunch of interesting runners. I guess we get to break the news

that first mission will in fact run in the Goodwood.

There was some speculation about that, but of course entered this

morning in the grade one out there.

One of the things I like about talking to Brad Cox is he says

things like it's the grade one that matters the most to us.

Thank you for saying that. Thank you for just telling us

what what your motivation is here.

It's not muddy, It's great. It's safe.

We know where he's going to stand in stud.

We know about this. Let's go get the grade one.

I appreciate that kind of honesty as well.

It's interesting to hear trainers talk and I love this

about what you and I get to do, Sean, about other people's

horses, right? And he talks about that, that

three-year old Philly division. It's interesting to hear him say

essentially what you said earlier in the show, which is

whoever shows up that Saturday is going to win the race.

It's been a fun division for that reason.

Yes, I know it is fun. Yeah.

I feel like a lot of times when people see these horses kind of

beat each other all the time, we end up hearing in the comments

of like, oh, this was a weak crop or something like that.

But I think this is a pretty good group of three-year old

fillies and it's been fun watching.

I mean, it keeps it exciting each race that you know, you

know, you look at the flip side of it with the three-year old

Colts. If you see sovereignty in the

race, you know he's going to win versus, you know, the cotillion

this weekend, you didn't know which of those three grade one

winners was going to end up winning.

And then none of them did. None of them even hit the board.

And so it keeps the excitement going when you're watching these

races, see which one of them is going to is going to be there on

that day, which one of them is going to put it all together on

that day. But it it's it's left a question

mark on this division for sure. I'm glad to hear good cheer came

out of the race in good shape, immersive as one who looking

forward could potentially jump back into this division and be a

factor as well as these as these Phillies turn 4 next year.

So it's it's definitely interesting to see kind of where

this is going to shake out with these horses.

It's interesting to hear the talk about the three-year old

class, especially the Phillies side.

Of course, he's immerse. He's a daughter of Nyquist to

Bernardini Bears. She's what?

Enlisted states. Look how good this class is.

Yeah, I'm with you, buddy. I don't want to hear about how

this is a down year for this class just because there's a

bunch of horses, you know, that that on any given Saturday, any

of them can win. No, it's OK.

It's just a deep class this year, almost a three-year old

Philly. So big, big fan of that.

I'm, I am very interested to hear, you know, Brad talk about

the, the path with hit show and just the assumption, Hey, we're,

we're trying to go back to Dubai with this horse.

We know what we want to do. And it's interesting because the

Goodwood is one of these races, Sean, that I think about.

We'll preview it toward the end of the show.

But just where it is on the calendar, right, Because in

Southern California for years, the big cap was the race, right?

The, the, the San Anita handicap, it was the race.

Now it's the Pacific classic. That's a month before this race,

but this race is now on the same day as the Woodward and all

these other races that are going on the loose Classic, of course,

here at Churchill Downs across the street.

And it it's just interesting to watch the calendar and how these

things ebb and flow in the sport, especially as we move to

a model. And Frank's talk about this on

the show a lot where it is we're shooting for big days in horse

racing rather than, you know, a stakes a day.

You know, Mama still has the thing where there's the stakes

on every card And, you know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that

kind of so many places are going away from that.

I think the only two stakes yet yesterday were at Albuquerque

and one it would buy in North America.

That's it. Otherwise, people are condensing

these two big race days and we're seeing that over and over

again. They're starting to overlap.

And so this Saturday we'll see some of that, of course, with

both the Lucas Classic and the Goodwood out West.

But thanks for training. Brad Cox joining us here on

Blood Horse Monday. Another man who's going to join

us here on the show is Frank. It's for Blood Horse and

bloodhorse.com, of course. Wanted to get a an update on the

sale. Frank, are you jealous that Brad

Cox is going golfing? You know, I'm a terrible golfer.

I think I, I mean, my excuse is if I'm watching 5 hours of horse

racing every Saturday and then trying to work, I mean, they're,

they're both kind of a long haul game.

It's, it's not, it's, you know, the races are over in 2 minutes

but it's an all day affair and golf takes quite a bit of time

as well. And that that's my excuse

anyway. That's a good idea.

I took my that in my. Height.

I don't see a whole lot of 6 foot 5 golfers tooling around.

It's fair enough. Those are my 2 excuses.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who have figured out a

way to overcome both of those, but that's my line anyway.

As the short guy on the show, I'm probably also the best

golfer. So there you go, the Frank.

We are smashing records in Keeneland with this sale and

continues a trend throughout the industry of these of these sales

just breaking records year after year.

Now as inflation happens and years go on, we're supposed to

break records frankly, but to get halfway through the sale and

to have a new record growth at the Keeneland sale on September.

Frank, can you remember something like this on the sales

side in your career? No, I mean, it really went to

another level. They've been think this is the

third year and the last four that they've set a record.

But even as a record, this was just another level.

I mean they sold about not quite 200 more horses this year, but

it they, those horses brought more than $100 million extra.

I mean it went from 428 million in change last year to 531

million in change this year. So just, I mean that's up.

I think it's almost a quarter, 25%, I had 24%, so basically a

quarter. That's quite impressive.

And the the good news and I mean we talked about kind of the

beginning of the sale last week that the good news that for this

week is, is a wrapped up on Saturday is the good numbers

continued all the way through the end, all the way through 12

sessions. Every single sessions average

was up from last year. So no matter what level that you

were selling your horse, you got it.

You got a decent price on on average and the median was up

for nearly every session of the entire sale.

So it, it really should strength throughout.

You know, a median's a good number that you can't just say,

oh, there was some big horse that maybe should have been

higher up in the book and, and just sold for a big number that

brought it. No, no, it was, it was really a

consistency throughout that we saw.

So I think we're about 2/3 of the way of the yearlings that'll

probably be sold this year and it's on a record pace for sure.

And we've seen some positive, you know, the New York bread

sale did well after the Saratoga sale.

So that's positives there for for a regional type sale.

So as we get into some more of those and, and wrap up the

yearling season, it's, it's really optimum, you know, it's

really looking good. I mean, you, you have to be

optimistic to buy a yearly. I mean, it's you're, you're.

Good point, frankly. Yeah, it's obviously you're

happy about the way things are trending now, but you're also

sort of predicting, hey, when I get the race, this horse in the

year or, or Pin Pinhook this horse in the year, I'm confident

that things are still going to be going well.

So it's it's really Keeneland because of the sheer numbers and

so many prominent horses offered.

It's really the bellwether for everything and it's you couldn't

be, you couldn't see more positive numbers, that's for

sure. In the sale itself, you know,

we're seeing not this time Colts get into nearly $1,000,000, that

sort of thing. Has any, has any individual sire

stood out to you as oh boy, we're starting to pay a lot more

for that than we did before? You know, it's those top rung

stallions, they, they keep proving it, You know, they keep,

they keep showing that this, you know that they're doing it over

and over on the track, which is what you want.

I mean, the track is where horses prove themselves.

The track is the ultimate barometer for how stallions are

doing. And I I just think you can throw

a number of them in into that basket.

The not this time into mischief, the gun runners curlings.

I mean, they keep doing it over and over.

That gives buyers an amount of confidence and the, you know,

the other good, rightfully so. Occasionally we'll feel the call

that says, Hey, I, I wish prices would stay the same or go down.

But you know, ultimately, if you have horses and you're seeing

numbers like this in the sale, it means the horses that you

have are going up in value too. So I, I understand that

sentiment, but I think ultimately you hope for steady

growth. And this shows that it's, it's

tough to keep up with inflation these days.

So. So just that alone is is a

positive for sure. I did radio with Kentucky legend

Dan Issel for a couple of years and I texted him the other day

and said, boy, you, you won't be coming to a Keeneland sale for a

while. He said, oh, if I'm selling, I'm

coming. You know, So like, you know,

there's both sides, right? It really is.

It's that there's there's incentive to buy because of

purses and different things. You know, within the Kentucky

program, for example, you mentioned the New York program

with that Phase Tipton sale up at Saratoga as well going

strong. Those states that have those

built in programs go well. You talked with Greg Justice.

Frankly, if we're going smaller scale with Indiana, but yeah, it

it there's multiple sides to this.

It's not just people spending money.

It's people that are able to to breed and spend and sell as

well. Yeah, I mean it.

That's if that's what you're doing this, that has to give you

all kinds of confidence. Just seeing these types of

numbers points to that, you know, success can be had that

you can make a make a go at it. What I'm waiting for next is

this to spur a little bit more breeding.

I mean, we keep seeing small percentage declines from year to

year and in the number of horses produced.

But boy, at some point yet you would think this would give

people the confidence to to add to that and and turn that around

as well. You know, Tony Lacy at the end

of the sale credited the strong purses in Kentucky and beyond

favorable tax legislation. I know the NTRA and other

leadership organizations in the industry were worked hard to get

the 100% bonus depreciation, and I think that really goes into

the planning when you're planning things out.

The industry's had that for a while, but it was always

temporary. So it came up for vote, you

know, every time it came up for vote, everybody had this to make

sure it got passed. Again, this is permanent.

So you can do it. You can count on it a little bit

more. Now somebody would have to make

the effort to actually reverse it, which it's hard to get

anything changed in Washington. So that that's a good thing.

We we want that in place and you can count on that and, and plan

going forward just growing confidence in the sport.

He mentioned. I I think that's directly tied

to HEISA and having a national oversight of our medication and

safety is so important. And, and then also just how much

exposure to sports getting on television.

The New York Times had a story recently that, you know, horse

racing is, is drawing better than NBA games and NHL playoff

games. I mean, people are paying

attention. It's it's getting good ratings

and, and people are liking what they're seeing.

There's more hours on it, you know on it for the people

watching day-to-day that there's terrific coverage on FanDuel,

There's terrific coverage of Naira on the Fox channels.

So just a lot of positives right now and it certainly helps that

we have a terrific crop of older dirt horses racing that people

got familiar with last year and now we have these three-year

olds that come came along that the top three especially, it's

just it's real. A lot of things have come

together to make this happen. Frank inks with us

bloodhorse.com for everything that Frank works on, on the

website of course, and of course the daily, the magazine.

All the good things he works on I wanted to bring up and it was

buried at the bottom of of the article at bloodhorse.com.

But a Virginia bred Philly let's led the 6th session.

And as as far as Price and and Frank, this is I, I kind of

wanted to to support your point with this, that as these states

have these good incentives and different things, we need to see

more horses filling those spots because you're going to be

Virginia certified and get that money.

You know, like we hear these stories, you know, Speaking of

Greg justice, people that'll breed with Greg in Indiana, move

their horses to Virginia to be certified in Virginia.

They can take care of, you know, take advantage of both of those

jurisdictions, then run in Kentucky if you want to, right?

Why not? It's right there anyway.

It's just, it's interesting seeing a Virginia bred on that

list. But it's a reminder to games

always kind of changing. Virginia becoming a player,

frankly. Yeah, find that next

Secretariat. But I mean, in all seriousness,

Virginia is very much in position to do what Kentucky's

done with the historical horse racing.

And Churchill Downs Incorporated has made a big commitment there

and some good ideas have followed because a lot of the

Maryland breds can get Virginia certified.

So it's really nice to see those two states cooperate and, and

try to try to lift the entire region, the entire Mid-Atlantic

region, instead of compete and fight against one another, which

they haven't really done that. But it's really good to see them

come together even more and and make for a great circuit and

great opportunities for the horsemen who race there and the

Breeders who breed there. Yeah, there was some pushback

from the Maryland folks about shutting down for the Virginia

time, and then their horses went and won those races.

It's a little less complaining about it because the buddy's the

buddy for sure, but Frank eggs with us.

What should What are we working out for the magazine, my friend?

You know, the magazine should be out tomorrow in terms of the

virtual edition and then they'll get mailed out.

It's a really exciting issue. We've touched on some of those,

some of this story and main stories in there.

I took a with James Gazelle. I took a look at Mill Ridge Farm

just as an economic driver of the entire region.

Not, not that they're the only one, but we thought we would

really concentrate on one farm and then apply that to the many

farms in the region just so you can see how much economic impact

all these farms and breeding operations mean for a, for a

area like Central Kentucky and Eurocallis of the world.

And it's, it is a big economic driver, you know, so we, we

thought that would be a fun way of pointing that out.

Bobby Hall has looked at the champagne steaks as a stallion

making race. My favorite distance in racing

is the one turn mile. And I, I think that has a lot to

do with it. You have these precocious 2 year

olds and speedy 2 year olds and talented 2 year olds.

But when they, when they get to that one turn mile, you really

start to separate some things. And I think that's why we've,

you know, seen some of the influential stallions.

It just, it goes way back, but just recent years Scott Daddy

and Uncle Moe have been huge and good Magic who finished second

in the race and has gone on and done very well.

So that'll be coming up. So before you watch the race,

you can read the story and have some understanding of of what

might be on the line this year. It's also the champagne.

You're the past winners. Chancellor Mcpatrick,

Timberlake, placing sevens, Jack, Christopher, Jackie Word,

Tis the law, complexity, forensic, fire, practical joke,

daredevils on this list. Shanghai Bobby, you did rags,

etc. Uncle Moe, of course, right

before them. So yeah, not a bad list there,

Frank, for sure. Yeah, a few good ones on that

list, right? Works out okay.

Yeah. And we didn't do the three, but

that was a. Pretty good look at the claiming

crown as well and running AJ Huffy, JJ Huffy Jay recently

wrapped up a book on the Oak Tree Racing Association and

we're running an excerpt from there.

And Jay, of course, is as good as they come so that it's a

terrific historical look at at the Oak Tree Racing Association,

which is kind of a unique, unique setup that they had.

And if you like, if you like it, you can buy the book.

Back-to-back to San Anita this Saturday.

Speaking of oak trees. We're really really the next

three weekends are your kind of your final blast before the

Breeders Cup in the I especially like watching the 2 year old

races in these. Unfortunately, I don't know that

we'll see all the dirt horses we would like to see in these

weekends but leave that for another day.

A lot of these horses are training up, but still we're

going to see a lot of quality 2 year olds and a lot of quality

turf racing especially to be on the lookout for next three

weekends. Bloodhorse.com for everything

Frank is working on there, of course.

Click on the daily tab at the top left of the whole page.

Get that free e-mail to your inbox every morning.

Start your day with Blood Horse every single day.

Frank, we appreciate you. Talk to you next week.

Thanks guys. Sounds good there.

You go. No problem, Frank Angst selling

Virginia breads, Sean. You know, that's just it is it

is interesting to watch the changes going on, but as Frank

points out, as those prices go up, it it means that there's a

group of people that are very they're bullish, frankly, right.

And so, you know, in a in a time when when it is very easy,

especially if you go to a horse racing Twitter, which I suggest

to no one, you know, you can be pretty negative about the sport,

But frankly, the economic indicators seem to be different

in many parts. And so hopefully, like Frank

said, that full crop up a little bit.

Yeah, Brad Cox has a horse in for $148,000 in a non tube this

weekend. Rate your horses people.

There's money out. There, that's really the last

piece that we're missing here is just getting that full crop up

because there's a lot more attention on the sport right

now. As Frank mentioned, with the

amount of views that the sport is getting, there's a lot of

interest in the ownership side right now.

Not just from, you know, these guys that are paying all this

money at the sale, but there's always, there's also all that

interest in kind of your micro share groups and your

syndicates. A lot of those more and more

knows are popping up all over the place.

And so there's a lot of interest of people who don't know how to

get involved in the game, wanting to get involved in the

game and going towards those groups right now.

And so there's there's a lot of excitement within the industry

right now. And definitely, as Frank

mentioned, when you have the the athletes that we have this year

in both the older division and the three-year old division,

that's going to help out a lot. But that's that's kind of we

just need it to start transitioning into more people

choosing to breed their horses. That's the next step.

If we can get that step, I think future of racing is looking

very, very bright. I got ADI, got multiple DM's.

Hey, can you talk about the Princess Rudy on your shows?

I own part of a horse in the Princess Rooney, by the way.

That's my racehorse, right? It's one of those syndicates

that you mentioned, but that was multiple people asking me if I

can go ahead and handicap a race at Gulfstream Park in September.

No, But yes, that was that. That was the question.

Like that was in my direct messages.

How about that? But we'll go ahead and talk

about the Princess Rooney then. By the way, if you didn't watch

it over the weekend, spectacular race, your winner of course

there at Gulfstream Park was Holland Ice.

That is a winning in for the Breeders Cup and so a Holland

Ice. Congratulations, you're off to

Del Mar. Did I do that right?

Was that good? I I I would clip that and put it

on a card. Congratulations.

You know, you say that I do want to give a a shout out to Holland

Ice because back when I was at this was Arkansas Derby weekend.

I believe that weekend was the day that she became the

Arkansas's leading money earner on the female.

So now that you mentioned her winning, I got to see how close

she's getting at that time record there in Arkansas.

But we just talked about some of these state bread programs.

You know, think of all the money that Arkansas is now offering in

their races. And then you got a Philly like

this or yeah, Philly like this who's, you know, being able to

compete on the greatest stakes level, winning Breeders' Cup,

winning year in races. And she's earning money that

Arkansas breds had never earned before.

And so right there is kind of proof in the pudding on what

some of some of these purse money, some of the purse money

and some of these other changes that are happening in the

industry, some of the benefits that can come from it.

Looking forward to the weekend, the Breeders Cup wins and in as

Frank mentioned, we have multiple of them this weekend,

two of them at Santa Anita, one of them at Aqueduct as part of

that Belmont at Aqueduct meet, including it, which is the

Bosberg on Saturday. It's a Sprint for the dirt.

We asked Brad about it, of course, as he will have Nash in

that race. But we get to see very likely at

least I don't have the the the full probables list in front of

me, but a Scotland or a Baby Yoda, maybe, perhaps a Super

Chow, Crazy Mason, Lots of really, really nice horses here.

Frankly, Sean, that's the kind of race that if we get a good

winner out of it, I'll be watching them in the Breeders

Cup for sure. Yeah, definitely.

Those are the kind of horses that you could definitely see

potentially taking that next step.

Baby Yoda's always the one. He always seems to love Saratoga

and we'll see what he can do here.

But it looks like a very competitive race for sure.

I'm, you know, I guess there's still question whether or not

Bucum Dano was going to end up going out to the Sprint.

We saw Ben Tornado last week, who I really, really, really

like in this division as well. But these are going to be some

of those horses where that you know, can maybe if you're

looking for someone to play underneath those guys or if

you're expecting those two to not run their race on that day,

you could be looking at potentially one of these horses

fitting that spot for you depending on how they run this

weekend. I also, I believe Straight No

Chaser, last year's Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, I believe is

supposed to be coming back is a next week, the week, not this

upcoming weekend, but next weekend for the Santa Anita

Sprint Championship. And so the the Sprint division

has a couple of interesting candidates in it this year for

sure. Yeah, it should be a fun one.

By the time we get to Del Mar itself, of course, the Bosberg

will be, like I said, at Aqueduct out West.

We will have the City of Hope Miles, Grade 2.

I'm hopeful Johannes will be in this one here, Sean, because of

course we took a bunch of time off.

They brought him back in the four-star.

Dave, good luck with that shipping across the country,

running in that kind of company. It's always one of the very best

mile races on the turf in North America every year.

But in the Goodwood itself, which of course is a winning in

for the Breeders Cup Classic. I just, they're in such a tough

spot here as far as timing after the Pacific Classic and ahead of

the Breeders Cup. And do you go to the Woodward?

Do you stay in Kentucky for the Lucas?

Because if you win the Lucas, sure, you don't get paid to be

in the Breeders Cup, but then you didn't have to ship like

Brad Cox is about to ship first mission.

It's such all the things right. And so I I know there's a lot

going on here, but of the of the probables here, man, because

look, you're gonna get all the West West Coast horses.

Excuse me, that we would expect the primans of the world.

The Doctor Venkman's probably midnight mammoth even out of the

Craig de Laos barn, maybe a full Serrano from the Sadler barn.

But first mission, man, I don't I don't hate the ship here.

I think it makes a lot of sense, frankly.

It, it does make a lot of sense. This is a spot they've been

trying to get that great one all year and even last year too.

Pretty much any, any interview with them in the winner's circle

after they've won a Grade 2. Comments are always, we need, we

want to get a grade one on this horse.

I think this is probably the right spot for it.

When you look at some of these other monsters that are in this

division and obviously First Mission has shown he can run

with them. He just hasn't gotten his head

down first yet in one of these races at the grade one level.

But this is you look at Sierra Leone, you look at Fierceness,

you look at those guys that are on the East Coast or

occasionally going out to the West Coast in fierceness's case.

But you look at some of those guys over there on the East

Coast. Why not take the shot going out

West? And also, you know, if it works

out, then you don't have to worry about, you know, you can

kind of let him sit and get acclimated to California and

maybe that helps you out a little bit more when you're

looking at the Breeders Cup going forward.

I like this move for him and even if he, even if he doesn't

win, like say he runs a good second or a good third and they

decide to leave him out there for the Breeders Cup.

I I like that a lot going into the Breeders Cup, kind of giving

him that month to kind of acclimate to what Southern

California is. It's interesting too, because of

the injury to Tapan Street. This would be Brad Cox's best

chance to have a classic runner, right?

And that's pretty incredible to say since there are 6 very good

Colts that are going to run in the Breeders Cup, but all six of

them are trained by other people.

It's a pretty remarkable thing to say, frankly, at this point

in history with trainer Brad Coxon.

And it is I like this ship a lot.

I don't know that he wins, but I think this is a very wise group

for them to land in. Obviously they were wait until

the last moment today to to figure out what the field is

going to look like for that one. But obviously a good one as far

as the win end in for the Breeders Cup Classic in the

Grade 1 Goodwood there out at Santa Anita.

Well, that'll wrap it up for us here on Blood Horse Monday for

this 22nd of September edition of the program.

Sean, when are you back in Kentucky, my friend?

I will be back in Kentucky. I'll be driving back.

Tomorrow, so I will be back in Kentucky for the Lucas Classic,

also the Lucas Classic. I'm not sure if you can hear

those birds chirping behind me. No, not at all.

OK. But the Lucas classic this.

Weekend's going to be a good race.

Mystic Dan, the Kentucky Derby winners race.

I just want to give a give a, you know, thoughts and prayers

to Brian Hernandez junior, his regular rider, who was in a bad

fall yesterday at Churchill. And from what I hear, it sounds

like he's doing all right right now, but he's a knight in the

ICU. So, Brian, if you're watching

this just for our thoughts and prayers are with you.

We're wishing you a speedy recovery and hopefully you'll be

back in the saddle soon. One of the easiest guys to.

Root for in horse racing always makes himself available to those

of us who do what you and I do, Sean as well.

And so I'm with you. And and also just you don't want

to lose the best competitors in your sport either, right?

And so not having Brian on the circuit would be negative.

Like we didn't have Tyler for a couple months.

It was a negative for the sport. So hopefully Brian back in the

saddle soon. Like you said, our friend JD

Reese kind of breaking right as we went on to to record this,

that it looks like Brad or Brian's going to be OK after

Tommy Drury went to visit him in the hospital to make sure he was

all right. But yeah, reminder that's a it's

a dangerous sport that we covered from time to time.

And so glad that Brian's going to be OK and able to move on

from that accident. Well, for Sean, I'm Louis at the

bottom of the screen right now. You see that QR code for the

magazine? Get in right now.

You can even. OK.

But I've never done this before, but I'm going to do this right

now. If you've never had a stallion

registry sent to your house, I think you're missing out.

And I think. You would enjoy reading.

It a lot more than you think you would.

I think it would bring up a lot of nostalgia.

I think you'll see a bunch of horse.

I remember him, I remember that horse running, I remember that

race, that kind of thing. It could be included as part of

your annual membership with a Blood Horse magazine, your

annual subscription with them. So get in right now,

bloodhorse.com, click on the magazine tab at the top of the

page or use the QR code if you're watching on YouTube or on

Spotify. For Sean, for Frank, for Trader

Brad Cups. My name is Louie Rabo.

Thanks for hanging out with us on another edition of the

program. Plenty to recap when we get back

together next week and of course, will be one more week

closer to the Breeders Cup as well.

Have a good one. The Blood Horse is dedicated to

the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing over 100

years. Don't forget to like, subscribe

and save Blood Horse Monday on all your platforms.

For the latest news, analysis and insights, visit us at

bloodhorse.com. Thanks for listening and we'll

see you next week.