BloodHorse Monday Episode 1 – 2/3/25

The Hall of Famer. His name is Dan Thistle.

Very serious. John Lindale, my friend Steve

Kornacki. His name is Dan.

David Levitt. Hanging out with Jason.

His name is James Welsh. Danny Brewer's all right.

Welcome in. It is the initial edition of

Blood HORSE Monday. No case of the Mondays around

here under the Twin Spires. Hanging out with my friend Sean

Collins. I'm Louis Rubo, welcome in.

Inaugural edition of the show. So much to get into, so much to

talk about here as well. Sean, welcome in.

Day 89. To go 89 days till Derby, we're

under the Twins fires. Did you order the weather?

Because good job. I did order the weather and

knowing just for this, I didn't want to be sitting out here in

the cold while there's no horses out here.

So we made sure we got nice 66° I think out here.

Today, man, it's beautiful. It really is, man.

All right, you're hearing us either, gosh, at Blood Horse or

any of these kinds of things. Lots of different spots for you

to check us out is the Facebook page, the Twitter page,

bloodhorse.com, Blood Horse Daily, the magazine, all of

those things. And of course, you can find me

11:50 every single weekday here in Louisville on ESPN 681057.

This will air as a replay show as well over at ESPN.com or ESPN

louisville.com. Excuse me.

So Sean, excited to get this going.

Man, you and I have talked about doing a show greatly since the

fall. We hung out all the way back at

last summer at the at the Haskell as well.

So man, really excited to get this.

Going yeah, it's really exciting to finally get this going.

You and I have had a lot of long conversations about horses over

the days, so finally now people can actually listen in and see

whether or not they agree. All right, so plenty to get into

today. We will look back at the three

Derby preps that happened this weekend.

You did an interview this morning with our guy Ron

Maquette, trains down there, of course, right now at Oakland

Park. Speed King on the Derby trail

with him as well. We'll hear from him in the

middle of the show. And then, of course, we'll talk

to our buddy editorial director there at Blood Horse's name is

Frank Ganks. We'll get into different things

with him as well. Wrap up the show talk about that

week that is coming up in Tampa, different places that we're

going to be watching shows as well.

But people don't know us if they're watching from around the

country, those sorts of things. If they don't know Charlie

Collins, you know, we we got to do the thing.

What kind of bread are you what what track did you grow up at?

Because by the way, these things don't apply to me, but they

apply to everyone I know in horse racing, right?

Perry jealous. So where I'd you grow up?

In school? Well, I grew up watching it on

TV, so I'm the What everybody always says is the goal of.

Of some of. These big race days trying to

attract new fans, I'm the perfect example of that family

had no interaction with the horse racing industry growing

up. We watched the Triple Crown on

TV every year watching Smarty Jones, Barbaro.

That helped me fall in love with the sport.

Just started learning more and more about it to the point where

I was watching HRTV and TVG every single night when I got

home from school. Learning all about the sport and

eventually ended up at the University of Louisville D Point

business program. So I've got my way into the

industry now, been with Blood Horse for a little over a year

and loving every minute. There you go.

Am I allowed to admit pet peeves on this show?

Is that something we can do on Blood Horse Monday?

Yeah, go. Right.

All right. I don't like it when people put

Pennsylvania. Bread in their.

In their. BIOS.

I don't like that. You're not a horse.

Get over. You're never going to run to the

Derby. You might like oats, but you're

never going to run the Derby. What are we doing?

See. Don't.

Count me out yet. Did you see a couple years ago

the great article someone was pointing out a four year old to

run to the Derby because it was more yeah.

Oh God, what a great ball with that one.

So. Well, you know what the question

is, the trick question you want to ask everybody.

How many horses have won the Kentucky Derby?

Well, how many horses have won the Kentucky Derby?

To this point 150. No 00 because they're all cold,

skilled things. Or Phillies.

They're not horses yet until they're 5.

I don't like you at all, Sean Collins, because that was a good

question and I should have gotten that right.

How about that? All right, well, we'll get into

the replays now, as we did have a busy weekend of replays as

well. We'll head down to South Florida

first, where we saw Grade 3 Holy Bowl.

Edgar Zayas gets the win here. And I don't know if you're like

me, Sean, I have such an affinity for these guys that,

you know, Edgar's there all year.

He's there in the summer when it's 100°.

He's riding on that Tepita surface, which I have to imagine

in the sun gets warm, right? That rubberized surface.

I imagine it's got a little bit warm.

But he's there all year. He really knows the course.

He knows the trainers down there.

He's willing to do the work and he gets the win here.

Board trainer Ian Wilkes. I mean, before we go to the

replay, who did you? Who do you think you had before

the race? And it did.

It turned out a little bit differently than you thought.

It definitely turned out differently than I thought.

You saw where Burnham Square for one, he was expected to be up on

near the pace and he was able to settle back off of it after a

little bit of a slow break. But and you know, if everybody's

kind of watching ferocious how he was going to back back, come

back off with the Breeders Cup juvenile performance.

And so I think that's a real key to see, you know, where he ended

up finishing as far as we'll talk about Citizen Bowl later,

as far as how the juvenile horses that you top 2 year olds

are coming back this year. There you go.

So let's head down to South Florida.

This is the replay of the last bit of of the Great Three Holy

Bowl This house clear racetrack now and he's on the attack

Ferocious sent into action on the far outside is Tappan St.

As they round the far turn the two favourites try to go get

Guns loaded. Guns loaded has just lost the

lead to Ferocious but he's fighting back toward the inside.

Tappan Street is driven and starts to gain 3 wide trying to

run home from the back is burning glory as they race to

the first finish line. Luis Saez called on.

He's got a big kick and he strides to a length and 1/2 from

the outside. He got out of the feet.

Slowly stuck in behind, I have made a big move on the

backstretch early on. I like seeing that it works to

make. That move.

Make that. Sustained.

Run around the far turn. We always worry about the

closures, not having, you know, enough time to get up, and I

like seeing that he came. From last He's already

participating on the lead at the time they turned for home and

then separated. Himself, Yeah, it's interesting

you mentioned that backstretch part.

So he gets around the first turn, he's in dead last.

Yeah. And Zayas, this is where the

local guy I think makes a difference is he goes ahead and

he moves his force up. And frankly, you're right, it

was a tough spot along the rail that the horse had to make a

second move. So he makes that first move like

you mentioned from last into mid pack there and then eventually

has to make that move around the final term, goes ahead and moves

outside. That's a horse with a fair

amount of experience. Pretty obviously put together

horse in that way. So very, very excited about him

moving forward. Also fun to just have a guy

like. It is, yeah.

And you know, it's such a professional win.

It's the second race with blinkers.

Ian Wilkes has said that's made a huge difference because he

wouldn't go by horses before. Now he's acting a lot more

professional when he's going back horses in the race.

And that was just something that you know you want to see as a

horse is developing as they're going forward towards the mile

on 1/4. You want to see the kind of

those multiple moves throughout the race.

Ziya said before the race that the horse was a little nervous.

That's what he looks like, nervous and not 100% repaired

when he figures out what's. Going on, yeah, that's a

fairpoint. One of the good things about

Gulfstream, too, is on those Saturdays where you know there's

going to be a Derby prep, look, there's not 100,000 people

there. Let's be very clear.

Nothing's like the Derby or the Preakness or Belmont or

whatever. They do get some experience with

the crowd. There are people there.

You can hear them in that race called the High Pitaiello.

Thanks to the folks at Gulfstream, their YouTube page

for that replay. But the IT does stand out that

at least for him in this spot, a little bit of a crowd, if that,

like you said, if that's nerves, look out.

This guy's looking for this. Imagine when he finally gets it

all together, gets it under wraps, what it's going to be

like to see. Him.

At those longer distances fully. Composed a horse we saw in this

race that I thought did some good early work and this tired

at the end coming off of the layoff was ferocious.

I thought he looked very good, frankly.

We might see him again, of course, moving forward toward

the Florida Derby there on that Gulfstream, that Gulfstream path

to the Derby. I think I'll bet him next time

he runs. I think I saw enough that he'll

be back, especially when he gets second in the Forbes like.

Well, the thing with the Breeders Cup when he ran in that

race was it seemed like he was a little unsettled early.

Seemed like he wasn't necessarily enjoying being off

the base as much, but then he still was able to mount a rally

enough to move up forward towards the end.

This time he beginning again. He looked a little unrelaxed in

the early stages, but I think that's something that as he

continues going on, will be something that he gets more used

to, will be able to settle off the pace.

I'm not giving up on him yet. Yeah, I agree.

I think we saw several in this race that could move forward.

It'd be even better, of course, the Florida Derby, one of the

two best predictors in the modern era at least of who will

go on to win the Kentucky Derby. But it's been a couple years

since we had a Florida Derby winner across the finish line

first. But we will see if we can

reverse that this year. Another place that's been a long

time time since we had a Derby winner is up at Aqueducts on

Long Island. Of course, the Withers was this

weekend. Maybe Franco flopped mounts here

and was kind of the giveaway here as he goes ahead and wins

aboard Captain Cook. Sean, could you name the last

Wood Memorial winner to win the Kentucky Derby?

They didn't win the Wood Memorial but Funnyside ran in it

and then won the Derby 2003. I think the last winner would

have. Been that's correct, 2000.

So it's been a quarter century since the winner of the wood in

a full 22 years at this point since a wood runner has won the

Kentucky Derby. Of course, Musa Ichi Pegasus.

It's a very expensive runner in the Kentucky Derby, but hey,

turned out to be worth it. Let's go ahead and watch the

stretch run of the winners now Surfside Mood, whose Empress

suit has taken forth trying to pick him up as Global Steve.

Is making hard work of it so far and I see Captain Cook.

There on the outside, this is not your average Withers win

you. Know we see a lot of times over

the last couple years where the winners the Withers has been a

little bit of a surprise result. My number Uncle Pepsi winning

last year. This was a favorite coming into

the race. He ran like the.

Favorite. He had the long shot come up to

him on the outside. He still just kind of cropped

and separated himself from the threats.

It was a good looking win. Not a mile and 80. 2:00 You got

to love that move. 2 Surfside mood a second, but Captain Cook

wins the weather as Captain Cook wins it over surfs.

There you go. So Surfside Mood gets second

there. We'll talk about Surfside Mood

in a second here because this is the time of year when once in a

while we get to beat a 30 to 140 to one kind of dog.

That shows you what they've got, right?

And these are young horses, they're still developing, right?

We made a joke well previously with a proper Co host of mine

and Mike Adolfo guy that you've worked with before that

essentially the Derby is the very best high school freshman,

right, And then they they kind of graduate from high school at

the at the end of their three-year old season.

And then when you get into college athletes, we're talking

about four and up that kind of thing, right.

And so it's interesting to watch these horses as they move.

But Captain Cook, that's a style that can win.

If you could be a presser, if you could be near the pace and

kick away at the end of a race, you can win a lot of races no

matter the style, whether it's a Sprint or a route race.

Very impressive on that. And you remember the Derby a

couple years ago, that was the style to win the race.

You had five in a row. California Chrome, American

Pharaoh Nyquist, always dreaming, justifying all stat.

That perfect trip right in behind the leaders.

He's proven he can do that. I'd like to see, you know, in

the future races getting a little bit of dirt kickback in

his face to see how he responds to that.

I want an eighth. You can't really fault that for

being, you know, a performance there.

That's definitely something to do.

We've seen that Remsen in December, obviously one of the

key races we've seen this year in the straight court mile seems

to be one of those key races. Many forces come out of Aqueduct

really well. Last year.

The door knocks of the world, Sierra Leone's of the world, the

domestic products of the world all came out of Aqueduct last

year. It'll be interesting to see if

that is really spot for us as we move through this 3 year old

season. I believe we're both Sean

Collins hanging out. This is Blood Force Monday,

obviously, Sean is right in the middle of the Twin Spires.

If you were a field goal attempt, you would be good.

I know, how about that? All right, football reference.

All right, so I know, I know people.

We're in Kentucky and it's basketball season.

I'm very aware. I know I'm not going to talk

about Coach Cal Don't worry when we do those things.

All right, so the third Derby prep over the weekend was out in

Southern California, a guy who's back on the Derby trip.

Let's talk about that first. Same as Bob Baffert, obviously,

we saw him here as you hear the construction noises.

We are three months away today, 89 days until they crown someone

the Derby champ right here under the twins when I like to do it

on. Site you got to deal with.

Everything radio maybe. Let's go.

That's exactly right. Yeah.

They were like oh, blood horse is coming.

Construction right now all right so no.

But the look three months to the day last year we saw Nisos with.

This race. Yeah, and we all got very

excited after the Robert B Lewis.

Obviously unfortunately some injury took place there.

Great news. He's back on the track in

training. Can't wait to see if he's one of

those guys. Like imagine if Nisos gets back

to being Nisos and we get this 4 year old class this year.

Yeah, goodness gracious. 4 year old class is already pretty

good. That would just take it up in

another half. Probably an older words division

we haven't seen in years. That's right.

I mean, even with a lock to his favorite, you know, tough draw

finishes well in the Pegasus. I mean that that class sets up

really, really well, including those horses.

We didn't really to beat his three-year old, but man Citizen

Bull comes back and he's essentially locked up a starting

spot in the starting game. If he's already quenched at

this, that's amazing. Frankly, talking on February 1st

about that kind of thing. This is a classic method as

well. Get out front, keep the lead.

We saw that at 18 was justified. We saw that in 15 with American

Pharaoh. This is the kind of race where

this sets up. I'm going to mention another

name that's really interesting and the story, of course,

unfortunately after the Derby didn't go great, but that was

Nyquist. Yeah.

Wins the Breeders Cup Juvenile, comes back, wins this race, wins

all the races on his way to winning the San Anita Derby and

of course the Kentucky Derby in 2016.

I got to tell you, at this place, man, every journalist in

here, you got an undefeated 2 year old wins the Kentucky

Derby. They were booked in New York.

I can tell you that, right. And so I'm not saying Citizen

Bolos, Nyclist, I want to be very clear about that.

But it is fun to see the Breeders Cup Juvenile winner

bounce back like this. He looked.

Right. Yeah, definitely.

You know, when you have a horse that was so dominant as a 2 year

old and just kind of the way that the race set up for him in

the Breeders Cup Juvenile, you know, it was kind of questioning

whether or not like, you know, was it just the track,

everything like that. But I think he proved yesterday,

I know it was a small field. I know he's running against the

stablemate, but just the way that he did it, the way he was

able to kind of accept some of the pressure from his non

stablemate early and then. Kick.

Away and be able to hold off the challenges of the stablemate I

just. Think he looked super?

He's definitely a beater at this point.

He's already got a spot in the gate.

You don't have to worry about that anymore.

You can sit out to the. San Anita Derby if you want to.

You already have. Yeah, you can make the Kentucky

Derby the second in the fourth cycle for him, frankly, right.

Even a third place finish in the San Anita Derby, as long as he

runs well, can be totally fine. Do you remember who ran 2nd and

3rd in that Nyquist Derby? 5 memory serves in the Derby?

No, no. Excuse me.

Nyquist in the San Anita Derby. Excuse.

Me he was. Did he run the?

That's right. That's right there.

He came back. But we're getting that kind of

performance out of Citizen. Let's go to that.

Replay now of other Robert B Lewis over the weekend.

One of the finest. Rodriguez is now re rallying on

the outside. That he already got a separated

but he is now the. Buck Tower not seen by the ball.

They kind of went against the. Mad and went out down at the

rail. Pretty early.

So took them off and give them nothing.

Set the rally now. Rodriguez very much, yeah.

Trying. To get into.

I need to separate them. I would have liked Rodriguez in

a little bit of a clear trip taking.

Something. Back a little bit, I would have

liked the team side by side, but.

As soon as pressure. Showed up Robert B Lewis for Bob

Baffert. Embarrassed.

Another great run for another Baffert trainee.

Did you see the the little little hip shimmy from Baffert

after the race? No, I did not miss.

I I don't try to read into what the clues are from trainers, but

I think a hip shimmy for Bob Baffert is a thing.

I think that's the thing. You don't get that from a little

hip shimmy. Yeah, she'll.

Get that out of every race. Bob Baffert, Shimmy.

I like that. All right.

But you know, we saw Barnes here.

Obviously we've got Citizen Bowl running on the rest running on

the West Coast. Excuse me, Rodriguez.

We still don't know a lot about him.

He's only started three times. And there's room.

And frankly, Madiket Rd. is going to be, he's going to be,

hear me out, not at the same level, likely as a Sierra Leone

type where because of his running style, races are going

to fall apart in front of him. At some point.

He's going to pick off races. Who do you like amongst that

group the most in his Citizen Bowl?

The obvious choice. Here I think Citizen Bowl, I

agree. With his.

Choice. Yeah, I think I agree with what

you're saying with Madiket Rd. You know, Santa Anita is not

always the most conducive to. His running.

Style. I agree.

So you know I mean. Especially not this beat.

It's been. It has been front runners speed

this. Up how many times do you get to

erase like the Kentucky Derby, something on that stage where

it's the trainers other horse that wins so you can't discount

these other. Horses.

I do really wanna see Rodriguez come back at a little clearer

trip and see what he's made of there.

But. Or just two turn experience

again, right. So just get more of that and

work these things in I I think next time you see him, look for

that little 5-6 work pattern. 5 Furlog 6 Furlog for Bob with the

past performances that might be the giveaway with.

Roderick, now the question for you that I have is at the last

Derby future wager was Barnes that closed as a favorite.

I believe it was 6-1 something around there.

Which of those two do you think right now has a claim to

Kentucky Derby favorite at this point?

That's a great. Question.

I think Barnes gets it just because of the hype.

I think just because of the hype, everybody just trusts that

Baffert's going to stretch these sources out, don't they?

Yeah, right. And and I think we're so

reticent to back the two year old champion because we've been

burned so many times. Yeah, I would guess Barnes is

the favorite and he's done it here.

Yeah. Yeah, we saw him do.

We saw him do it here. So I think people will give him

credit for that. But if you're about to get

Citizen Bowl right now, I got nothing for you.

I always stunned. Nothing wrong.

I would say Citizen Bowl is the favorite right now, just purely

off the back. Barnes hasn't gone two turns

yet, and you know, I don't have any doubt he's going to once he

does. But I need to see it first

before I say you're definitively the favorite, especially when

we're three months away at this point, the horses are stretching

out. If you're going to be the

definitive favorite of the race, that's what.

I need to see from you, Susan. Bowl, of course won the Breeders

Cup at Juvenile last year. Before that won the American

Pharaoh Stakes grade one in San Anita and finished third of the

Delmar Futurity after breaking his maiden in June at Delmar

last year. I, I just, I think it's setting

up that we have an interesting and diverse 3 year old class.

In other words, I think we're going to have a couple at the

very top that are going to be trained by the names that we

know and they're going to be amongst those favorites that

we're interested in. The citizen bowls of the world.

You know, the bad for trainees in general.

But I think like an Owen Hardy, a lot of different kind of

runners that maybe came off the turf or something and they're

discovering new things about a dirt runner, that kind of stuff.

I think there's a chance we've got a real diverse set of

runners for this year. Kentucky here.

It's shaping up to be an incredible 3 year old crop.

I mean, I went back and I looked at all the prep races that we've

had so far. There's not a single horse

that's won a prep race where I would say they have no shot of

winning the Derby. When we get there, how many

times do we get to this point where that's especially when you

get to this weekend, like this weekend, the last couple of

years Baffert was suspended. So the Robert B Lewis really

didn't kind of have the impact. You had fierceness, get upset

and then in the Holy Bowl, the Withers has been question mark,

as we mentioned, to have three legitimate Kentucky Derby

contenders coming out. Of.

All three of these prep races, it's going to set up for a

really exciting final couple months for 50 points to the

winner starting in two weeks from now.

That's right. So it's going to get really

exciting. Here, 50 points to 2nd place

finishers eventually as well, right?

So with the new, with the five, the five spots for all these

Derby preps and we'll see if they can keep the gates full of

Southern California as well, just, you know, in an aqueduct

and those kinds of things to keep those points up.

Of course the reduced points for smaller fields as part once we

get to the Championship series. Of the citizen now, though, he's

already in. That is correct and that

frankly, I think that's a big, a big step for them.

River Thames ran at Gulfstream as well.

I thought I would just mention that horse because if he wins

the Derby, I would like it to be on Phil because I thought he was

maybe the best of any 3 year old outside of Citizen Bowl that we

saw this weekend. Those three winners though this

weekend, which one was the best? I'll I'll get my not a Citizen

Bowl. I just, I think that's the style

that wins everywhere. I've got to go from square.

I just like seeing him do multiple different runs

throughout the race. The one question mark that I

have was citizen Gold, and this is a question mark you could

easily break out of the gate. The Derby just wire the whole

field. But it just seems like the last

couple of years we've really been seeing, you know, a hot

pace in the Kentucky Derby. We haven't really seen him sit

off the kind of stock that's something that I would like,

yeah, I'm not saying you can't do it, but I'd like to see him

do it. So right now I'd say Burnham

Square, Just knowing he's versatile, that gives me the nod

going coming out of this weekend.

All right. Well, you talked to trainer Ron

Wilquet this morning. He is he trained one of my

favorite horses of of my both my professional career just as a

fan in Whitmore. I thought he was so cool.

I told the story before 2020 Breeders' Cup.

I don't have them in my tickets because it was a front runner's

day and Whitmore was just not fast enough to be on the lead

with those horses. So he decided to just come from

off the pace on a day when it was just a parking lot of

Keeneland and just spectacular run to the I stood up and

cleared. I had my mask on.

It was 2020. There was like 50 of us there.

I threw my mask, you know, stood up.

I lost all of my bets, all, every single one.

But Whitmore was that cool that day?

How was it with Ron? What'd you guys talk about?

Well, we talked about how Sweet King's coming to come out of the

race, kind of what his thoughts were on the race and his early

thoughts on. Also talked a little bit about

his relationship with the owner, Ted Bowman.

He's a local guy. He lives about two blocks away

from East Lawn Park. He's very emotional in the

winner's circle after the race, winning that, now having a

horse, but possibly for the Arkansas Derby.

We saw some of those very cool connections with this to Dan, to

those Oaklawn folks last year. So maybe we'll get lucky.

We'll get that as well. But here is Sean's conversation

earlier today with Ron McQueen. We thank him for joining us here

on BLOOD HORSE Monday. I'm Louis.

He's Sean. We'll see in about 11 minutes.

Yeah, about 11 minutes. There you go.

Today, years from now, people are going to be playing a horse

racing trivia game and the question is going to be who was

the first ever guest on the Blood Horse Monday podcast?

And the answer to that is going to be the one and only Ron

Maquette, trainer of Southwest Stakes winner Speed King.

Ron, how does it feel to have such an honor to be the 1st

guest on this new show? It's great.

It's it's an honor to be the 1st and in my industry you want to

be the first. So we're we're happy to say

that. Well, obviously you're on here

because of the success of your fantastic 3 year old colt Speed

King after he won the Southwest Stakes and has now put himself

in 2nd place on the road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with

25 points. It's been a little over a week

since that race. Has it settled in yet that you

have one of the top Kentucky Derby contenders?

Well, yes, it has, but I know it's a long way and you got to

have a lot of really good nights and days between now in the

first Saturday in May. So we're we're going in there

guarded and, and feeling a little confident that we got a

nice horse. But we need we need the the

racing gods to keep smiling. And take me back to that race,

he ended up on the lead in there.

I think I read you said that that wasn't necessarily the game

plan, but the other speed didn't break coming out of the gate.

So what were your thoughts on his performance and how do you

see him adjusting it to the other races coming up?

I was very pleased. I thought Mr. Bayarano did a

wonderful job. You know, so many times we have

all these laid out plans and they open the gates and then

nothing is like you thought it would be.

And we thought we'd be sitting second or third and we could

relax and go get them, try them down the stretch and for for a

teaching thing and thought we thought that could be his most

efficient way of running. But when we found ourselves on

the lead, I was glad that that Ralphie made good decisions and

and the horse was able to, you know, accommodate the situation

that we were in. I was very proud of him.

He's learning. He's lightly raced, obviously,

but he's learning very quickly. So down the back stretch of

going into the far turn he had received quite a bit of

pressure, but he was able to separate from that horse and

kick away. How much confidence does that

give you moving forward into the next couple races?

Well, you know, as the races, the races go on, they're going

to get more contentious and better horses and you're going

to have different obstacles. I was happy to see him handle

that pressure and still have enough enough energy to fight

and gallop out good after the stretch.

So it only gets tougher from here.

So I'm glad to see that it wasn't super easy and that he

handled it. Well, it's been about a week

since that race. How is he doing now?

How's he come out of the race? And is the next goal going to be

the Rebel? Well, to, to use a cliche, we'll

let the horse tell us. We're going to work the horse in

about probably 5 or 6 more days. And our goal ultimately is the

Arkansas Derby. I want to win that race at my

home track. So whatever gets us to the

Arkansas Derby, the best and in the best, best position to win

it is what we're going to do. And if that means going to the

Rebel, then we're going to do that.

But he has to tell us, and then we have to.

We have to listen. And I know there's been a lot of

hype around this horse in your barn since the very beginning.

What signs do you look for as a trainer and a 2 year old that's

just joined your stable? That really kind of helps to set

them apart and make you know that this is going to be a good

one. Lots of stuff.

Intelligence class, the desire to be in front, you know,

obviously they need to stay sound, they need to have

ability, but there's a lot of different things that can can

give you a clue of what you have in your hands.

He ran second in the Springboard Mile and that ended up being

quite a good race because the winner came back and won the

Smarty Jones Stakes as well. How did you see him kind of what

did you think of that performance and then how did you

see him adjust and grow into the Southwest?

For that to be a second performance of his life, to

travel to a new place to deal with thunderstorms and all the

things that you had to deal with.

The track was no one that ran on the front end that day, hung on

for anything the entire day. It was a weird anomaly where

everybody closed and speed faded to to get nothing.

We did a lot of things for our first time.

We took on winners for our first time.

We handled a sloppy surface for the first time.

We went two turns for the first time.

We we ran at night for the first time.

We saw a big billboard real close to the track, which is the

the screen of the reef of the live action to for our first

time. And all these things.

He reacted to some of it, he reacted well.

Some of it he didn't, but I was really pleased with him

overcoming all those things and still been in a position to win.

I took nothing from him in that defeat at all and was even more

gratified when I saw how well the horse that that beat us come

back to run. And you know, now, you know, I

would like to think that that we're in a position to where

we've got a little more experience.

Maybe if the same thing was to happen that we we would actually

perform better. And he didn't have an easy Rd.

leading into the southwest either.

There was quite a bit of training that got cancelled at

Oaklawn because of the weather, so we might not have even seen

his best performance on that day.

Would you say that? Oh, that's that's surely easy to

to think you. We're all about rhythm and

getting into a groove with our horses and every trainer is and

he basically went to the track three times in 16 days, I

believe it was and two of them was right the day before the

race. So he had the work and then he

did not get to go back to the track until two days before the

race. And that was that's not our,

that's not how you want to bring a horse to feel confident about

where you're at. But having said that, the top

two finishers were here stuck at Oaklawn during the the ice

storm, and the rest of them were out being on normal schedule.

So that definitely shows the depth of the horses that are at

Oak Lawn this year going towards the 1st Saturday in May.

But Ron, I want to ask you about your relationship with the

owner, Ted Bowman of Triton Thoroughbreds.

You 2 have been together for a long time.

You won your first grade one together with Seek Gold in the

2006 Stephen Foster. He's a local guy there in

Arkansas. He lives just a couple blocks

from the track. What does it mean to you to be

bringing him, a long time client, a long time friend along

this journey on the path towards the Arkansas Derby and then the

Kentucky Derby? It's rewarding and you know,

obviously we're, we're very thankful for loyalty in the

sport that the, the trend is not to be, it's the trend

unfortunately is to go to whoever's hot now.

And you know, that's why we have a lot of a lot of horsemen that

are going out of business is because they see on TV 11 outfit

winning all the races and they forget to, to use common sense

and say, well, they have all the horses.

They should be winning all the races.

But he stuck with me. He's been very loyal and he's

been a consistent good owner from helping me secure my first

grade one to to now, you know, us doing this together, it's

been very rewarding. It's not always been easy, but

you know, relationships that are worth worth doing or, you know,

have require work and in a in a game that it don't happen often.

I'm I'm proud to say that I have a lot of that in my barn and him

being one of the longest, if not the longest.

I remember watching his post race interview at Oaklawn right

after he won the race and he was getting pretty emotional.

What do you think his reaction will be winning the Arkansas

Derby if he were to do that? Well, I'm sure everybody

involved will be emotional. It's not a, it's not a corporate

mindset the way we operate. So we, we operate on passion,

hard work and, and demanding that we put ourselves in a lucky

position. So we're not, you know, no

offense to Mr. Baffert or Fletcher or Brown or Cox or, or

any of the other guys. We don't have a a stable full of

horses that are supposed to get to the Kentucky Derby every

year. We try to help our horses reach

their potential. And if we can do that and we're

lucky enough to get to the Derby, it's obviously going to

mean more, be more emotional, be more gratifying to us than it

would be to somebody that thinks that they're supposed to be

there every year. And Speaking of the Derby, today

is 3 months until Kentucky Derby Day.

So when you're looking at the next three months, how do you

balance? You know, you obviously want to

win the big purse money that's offered in the Rebel in the

Arkansas Derby. You need to make sure you get

probably at least 20 more points to make sure you get into the

Kentucky Derby. And obviously you want the horse

to perform his best on Kentucky Derby Day itself.

How do you balance? Trying to make sure you give

yourself the best shot at all three of those things.

My job is simple. We can make it as hard as we

want, but my job is simple. Wake up every day, look at your

horse making good decisions, what's best for your horse.

And I, I can get caught up really easy about saying, well,

we got to do this, We got to do this.

But our job is just to listen to the horse and do what's right

and he'll tell us. And if it's meant for him to be

in the Derby and and and perform well, then we will and we will,

we will take will take every little hand he gives us to put

him in the proper position. I know that, you know, I want to

make sure I make as much money for my clients when we have the

opportunity. And the purse structure is

lucrative, especially here. So would we like to to, you

know, make leave this leave Hot Springs, AR with a pocket full

of money, obviously. But our job, irregardless, is to

take care of our horse and try to do the very best with it.

So I just leave that, you know, leave all that up to we'll look

at him in the morning and see what we need to do then.

And you've been down this road before.

You've had a couple of contenders in the Derby far

right in 2015. Whitmore, your champion

sprinter, was in the Derby in 2016, King Russell just two

years ago. Does having that experience of

being down this road, does that help you going into this year?

You know, Sean, I said forever. Everywhere I've been has been on

the back of a horse in this industry everywhere, everything

I've ever learned has been taught to me by something that

happened earlier. So far right taught me a lot.

Whitmore taught me more. King Russell showed me some

things and I'm still learning today.

So yes, you know, thank goodness for those horses because I feel

a little more confident about things I should do and things I

probably shouldn't steer away from.

So we're, we're, we're learning daily and I'm very thankful that

I've had those those opportunities to give me a

little bit of a leg up, as you say.

All right, well, hopefully that'll all lead to you being

part of the Kentucky Derby starting gate on the 1st

Saturday in May Hopefully that gives you your best opportunity

to go out there and try to win the roses.

Thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast, Ron, and

best of luck the rest of the way to you, your team, the owners,

and to Speed King himself. Thanks John and anytime I can

help I appreciate, you know, I got a lot of respect for the

work you do and the passion which you do it.

So if I can ever help in any way, be sure to reach out.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Ron.

Take care. Thanks.

Appreciate him joining us here on Blood Horse Monday.

You know what I don't like, though?

He was nice to you at the end of that interview.

I don't I don't need that kind of positivity on the phone.

I don't need that stuff around here.

Don't worry, he's the only one. He's the list.

That's right. Your little black book is is

Ron. But cool interview.

You know, people say profound things once in a while and I

think they don't realize they're saying something incredibly

profound. And at the end of that

interview, he said, everywhere I've been is on the back of a

horse. And I really hope on this show

that we get to talk about those things that really celebrate our

equine athletes that way going forward because it's so it's so

obvious when you get to talk to people in this industry.

You know, you and I are here at Churchill Downs and we'll be

here someday on Derby Week at 4:45 in the morning and we won't

be close to the first person. Here.

Now, right, And the other side of this track, the other side of

those twinspires, which you see on the screen with us right now

on the backside, there's a small city state, an ecosystem going

on at every single racetrack in America.

And guys like Ron are part of it, right?

Part of that clog and that machine that we get to that we

kind of probably almost certainly take for granted.

Now, you and I are lucky. We get to go, we get to go see

those things if we want to, we get to go celebrate those

moments. And so it's great to have Ron

on. That's such a profound thing to

say though. And it's such a, he said it so

naturally it's so beautiful, right?

So I just, I didn't want that to kind of slip through.

What else stood out to you as part of that interview?

I think he's pretty high in speaking.

He's very high in speaking and I had heard I talked from his son

before the before the Southwest. Yeah, unfortunately I did not

turn that into betting wise. I could have taken that tip and

I should. Have put some money down if you

bet. Ought to be finished this fifth,

yeah. They've been really high on this

horse and that springboard mile we'll talk about.

That's the race, man. Important race.

Both those top 2 coming back winning at Oaklawn on the Derby

Trail. It's a nice reminder.

Pay attention to everything. You never know where those

horses are going to come from, especially in the modern era

where so many people are. They're doing a better job of

putting their horses at different tracks, right?

And Asmus, it's been going to the mile for years, but other

people are realizing remix. It's a good place to land.

With your, with your 3 year old, you never know where a Derby

horse can come from. Oh, that's right.

Speed King, you know, he's Kentucky bred, but he grew up

part of his early, early days as a foal was in North Carolina

with his breeder and Nancy Shufer.

And so I got to talk to her, did an article with her a couple

weeks ago. And you know, you just never,

you never know where that Derby horse is going to come from.

It's great to see, you know, everybody involved with this

horse from, you know, owner, trainer, jockey, breeder,

everybody involved. It's really easy to root for,

which is great to see. All right, someone else who's

easy to root for is Frank Eggs, editorial director down there at

Blood Horse, bloodhorse.com. We welcome him in for what we

hope will be a very, very common occurrence of joining us here on

the podcast. Oh, we're going to have to lean

in. Get in here, Sean.

Let's make this a romantic show for a day.

Frank Eggs, how are you? Hi.

Louis. Hi, Sean.

Hey, Frank. How's the weather?

Is it beautiful there too? Are you in a library, Frank?

You know you can get outside. It's all right.

I just lost you in there. Oh.

No. I lost the audio there for a bit

guys. Oh.

OK, let me work on your stuff here Frank as we get used to

doing this show like settings. Yeah.

So it's not better. There we go.

Clicked on something there. You just heard the interview

with, you know, with Ron. We'll fight down there at at

Oaklawn. Obviously, we've had a series of

20 point preps, three of them this past weekend as well.

We'll get into Citizen Bowl with you in just a second.

But anybody stand out so far to Frank Hanks?

Well, Speed King was my number one horse on my initial NTRA

poll. I vote in that poll.

I really like the progression of that horse.

Probably was a bit biased because I did all right at the

windows on that horse. Never hurts.

But you know, there's some question on the breeding and

I'll be able to handle a mile and a quarter, but we'll see.

But in terms of impressive outings, that had been the most

impressive outing that I've seen from this generation.

This week I did vote for Citizen Bowl because he's the champion

and now as of Saturday, he's a winner at 3:00.

So that that's enough for me to move him to that number one

spot. But yeah, both terrific courses

we wrote about. We looked at Citizen Bull coming

into this week in a column that I have, it's called The Road.

Myself and Byron King, we combine on that.

We just kind of look at trends on the path to the Derby and

certainly going to be an exciting year anytime that

juvenile winner, in this case also the champion comes back at

3 and is clearly himself and progressing and, and that

doesn't always happen. Quite a few years it doesn't and

it does. It usually shows itself right

away. You know, if they're going to be

a contender at three, they usually come right out and then

first race and show it. And we certainly saw that

Saturday, both juvenile winners to go on to win the Derby.

Both won their initial starts, Nyquist and St.

Sense. St.

Sense started a little bit later in the year and Tampa Bay Derby,

but he got it done. And Nyquist started mid February

at Santa Anita and went on to win the Derby.

Yeah, I, I, we talked about Nyquist earlier, the show

actually, as you know, when he wins the Derby and he's the

undefeated 2 year old champ, everybody's booking New York,

you know, that kind of thing. And horse racing has its ways

for sure. But Citizen Bowl coming back,

Frank. And I know you're working on

some stuff for bloodhorse.com as well, of course.

Frank Angst with us here on Blood Horse Mondays, the

editorial director there at bloodhorse.com and magazine and

all the things Blood Horse Daily.

If you haven't checked us out, come check us out over at

bloodhorse.com. What is it that stands out about

Citizen Bowl? Other than of course being the

two year old champ, being a bapper trainee, What do you

think stands out about? I mean, he has a dominating

speed and it fits in with the style of three-year olds that

Bob has won the Derby with. You know, Authentic went gate to

wire, being a spirit that came down, but went gate to wire.

Yeah. I mean, most of his winners of

the Derby have gone gate to wire, you know.

Yeah, Justify, as you mentioned, American Pharaoh came a little

bit off the pace and real quiet, of course, was a deep closer.

But you know, he's had success and a lot of trainers struggle

with that front ender in the Derby, but Bob's had a lot of

success with it. He seems to rate really well

with his horses that way. You know, IA River Thames ran on

Saturday at Gulfstream Park as well for Todd Pletcher.

I thought he looked really good of the of of other horses that

ran on those days. Maybe finished second, maybe

Rodriguez or something else. Did anyone else kind of catch

your eye, Frank? Net the the horse at Gulfstream

Burnham, is it Burnham St. Yep.

Yeah, I, I'd like to have that horse.

I thought that horse overcame some trouble, which is always a

nice thing for a young horse to show that ability.

And Derby's certainly capable of presenting some problems.

I, I don't think any 3 year old's going to overcome like

massively getting slammed or something, but but the horse

showed some ability that he's not going to shy away from

horses or, or give up over a few problems.

So, so that was encouraging for sure.

You know, in recent years, the San Anita Derby, the the Florida

Derby are excellent predictors for success in the Kentucky

Derby. Obviously, we've even had a

couple good runs from, you know, A2 fills or a rich strike out of

a turfway. Do you look for those sorts of

things? For example, with the Captain

Cook running at Aqueduct, do you hold that against him since it's

been so long since we've had a Wood Memorial horse win the

Derby? Or is that just a you know it

happens? To be yeah, I just, I try to

consider who looks like the best horse and most suitable.

Yeah, I think that's a. Reasonable time.

The one thing I will say about this week's weekend's races is

unfortunately, all three races were small fields.

Citizen Bull really had his way. You know, he he wasn't he didn't

steal the race by any means. He was definitely quick and was

pushed along early and there was they tried to challenge him late

but he kept going so and he looked like a horse that needed

to run. You can see why why they got him

out on the track to get a race and then my I suspect he'll be

even sharper next time. I thought that, you know, he

wanted to kill. So he certainly probably burned

more energy early than he will in his next race.

I think he'll probably be more within himself.

So that's very encouraging for him.

But no, the, the tracks I try to consider every track, the

trainers, the trainers are trying to put their horses in

the best spots to to progress that horse.

So it I don't see any special, you know, you know, you want to

start with the biggest tracks, that's usually where they're at.

But they they can come from any track and circuit.

Yeah, we had, you know, we have Captain Cook win and like a

Surfside Moon finishes second, that kind of stuff.

I'm always looking for that horse who has the really great

kick at the end of a race, try to set up for the next 1.

And so Captain Cook sort of stood out that way.

But as we look at on the breeding side and you mention,

hey, who's going to get 10 prolongs here?

Who's going to be good at that? Was there a sire that you

thought had a great weekend? Yeah, I I thought one thing we

could do on this podcast is recognize some of the top stiers

in the country and really all along our first issue or not our

first issue, this is our first podcast, but our February issue

of Blood Horse looks at the leading stallions of 2024.

And for the 6th time, just really an incredible run into

mischief is at the top of that list.

So I thought I was going to highlight him based on that.

Well then he goes and has Citizen Bull win win Santa Anita

to create. Also takes down the forward

gout. Forward gout.

Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Good call. Yeah, Eklatons.

So just a huge weekend for him anyway.

So he wins it on career and he wins it on the weekend.

So. You know he's getting it done.

He's trying to have his third Derby winner since 2020.

The the 1st 2 have kind of had some oddities and that you know,

you had one horse put up after Medina Spirit was taken down and

then authentic one in the COVID year.

So it was a not in May. So well they all count though.

But I'm sure that every all the connections would love to have

one that they can celebrate immediately in May, not

September. The good news is into mischief

photographs really well. So if you're doing anything with

photos, he's going to look great.

I mean, I just, he's got great hair.

I don't it's a whole thing. Frank and Bob Bob Baffert, of

course, is was the trainer of authentic, so he's already won

with one into mischief. Besides Citizen Bull, he also

has barns. So he's got two really nice into

mischiefs this year. And now it looks like there's a

nice Billy. There's there's a few others too

that have been stakes place that we need to keep an eye on.

Well, sovereignty won the the streets ends at Churchill Downs,

so Into Mischief is looking strong again for this year.

And on the Oak side of things, you and I really haven't gotten

into the Philly side of things. You mentioned I'll be taught in

that board gal. Of course, they'll stretch out

for to the mile and then to the mile and on 8th or a mile on

16th, excuse me, when they get to the Florida Oaks, the Ghost

Tree Park Oaks, excuse me, eventually.

Is there anyone on the oak side now, of course, that we lost

immersive from for this, you know, a couple months here.

She'll be back in the summer. Last time I talked with trader

Brad Cox, he was essentially aiming for those steaks up at

Saratoga as part of their program.

Anyone stand out on the Oaks show?

Yeah, that one I'm going to have to dig into a bit deeper.

Louis. I don't haven't formed a strong

opinion on that yet. Yeah, we've definitely seen some

talented Phillies to this. Point yeah, I think on Bhutan,

if she can stretch out and we watch Brad Cox do this every

freaking year, right, He puts together a great stretch out

season. I think she's one of those we'll

be watching for sure. What else is Frank Ganks working

on a blood horse. You know, kind of did a So we

also have a dollars and cents column in the Blood Horse Daily,

our newsletter that comes out each day.

And with it being Super Bowl week, I thought I'd have a

little fun. I was reading it, reading a book

called The League earlier this autumn and it highlights 5

gentlemen who really shaped the early NFL.

And we're talking about very initial years, basically 100

years ago at this point. And three of them were big time

bettors who loved betting on horse races.

Ben Bell. And it ties in with the Super

Bowl because he went on to own the Eagles.

He was kind of a black sheep of a a well off family in

Philadelphia and he definitely enjoyed his trips to Saratoga

and actually it didn't do so well there.

Tim Mara is a bookmaker in New York and he would travel to

Saratoga each year and he he did well enough that he would he

purchased the New York Giants and that fan, his family still

owns the Giants. And the third is Art Rooney

Senior and he was possibly the most successful better of that

of that decade. And one day at Saratoga, he

cleared $100,000, which would be like almost $3,000,000 in

today's money. And he there were stories on him

and everything on how he was a celebrated just from the betting

side to not at that point own horses, but with some of that

windfall. He bought the Steelers, not not

that the NFL teams were. I mean they were $2500, which

would be a lot more money than it sounds, but it was still not

a huge, huge amount as the the league was really unestablished

at that point. And the guys that bought in

were, were very much gamblers, gambling spirit gear.

So that fit right into what they were doing with their fun time.

I mean, cripes, by Detroit, Lions were playing in

Portsmouth. OH, how about that?

At that time, that's where they were.

And so I'm not surprised to hear that $2500 feature.

Very familiar with the Portsmouth Spartans that worked

there for three years and. Oh did you?

That stadium is still there, I've heard.

Stadium's still there. The public high school and the

Catholic school, which is the Catholic school's really small.

They both used when I was there. The public school has since

built a new stadium, but the Catholic skilled school still

uses it. Portsmouth, Notre Dame I

believe. That's wild.

All right, well, he is. Frank Ganks.

We're going to check in with him a lot on this show.

Of course, bloodhorse.com for everything that Frank is working

on. Dollars and cents, sire.

Watch all of those things, Frank.

We appreciate you, buddy. We'll talk to you really soon.

Thanks guys all. Right.

Thanks. There you go.

Frank Ganks joins us here on Blood Horse Monday.

Sean Collins, Lewer, Beau Twinspires.

We got all of it here. Frank Ganks on a Monday.

You like that? Yes, I do.

All right. OK.

We're closer to the mic there. How about that, Sean?

Yes, I do. All right, we're good.

So look, talk through a lot of things and he's right.

So a couple of things are going on in our sport right now on the

breeding side especially that are legitimately unprecedented.

The run into mischief is on as far as a steak sire for 1/2

decade is insane. I mean, it's legitimately

incredible. He's the only stallion to ever

sire gets second American when I'm pretty sure I mean authentic

and Mandalu. So you know that that itself

tells you that he's a super excited run.

He's on right now. Yeah, I'm not sure.

I mean, I'm sure they're maybe 20 years from now we'll see

another sire. But I feel like this is

something he's on a historic run that we might not.

See. So by the way, I have to imagine

something Frank said many of you listening are are wondering

about, which is, well, fierceness didn't come back in

his debut as a three-year old very well, but still ran really

well that year. Go read the article.

Frank outlines all of that. It talks about actually

historically over what overall you do want to bounce back well

when you first make your run. Actually, Chris, this is an

outlier with those things. So it's a really cool article.

Go check it out at bloodhorse.com.

Frank does a great job over there as well.

The thing with the thing with Into Mischief being 1/2 decade

is it lines up with the dolphin being breeder and owner for 1/2

decade in the Eclipse. Extraordinarily unusual as well.

An incredible run we're seeing for both of those groups.

I mean it, well, it's a mischief.

That would be dolphin incredible.

It has been incredible running the Dolphins loaded right now.

You got both the Eclipse awards and so like, I mean, they win

the Eclipse award there, right? I mean, probably the easiest

path, the easiest bonus. Yeah, right.

But, you know, they're allowed to go into the Derby.

First Resort Sovereignty poster. They are, you know, then on the

Oak side, too, they lost Immersive.

But they still have, you know, a couple of good Phillies there

and good cheer. So yeah, don't be surprised if

you see them getting that award again.

Sets up, Yeah, sets up really well.

Of course, we'll wrap the show here, Sean.

And this is with what we're we're looking forward to.

Obviously bloodhorse.com. If you're ever wondering and

what's going on in the sport, the stakes calendar at

bloodhorse.com is the easiest resource around.

It's unbelievable. It's a great aggregation of

what's going on in our sport at the highest level, especially

when you get to those Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, you want to

know what's going on on as far as you've been.

We head to Tampa Bay this weekend for both the I learned

that. So I've called it the Davis for

years. The guys that said, OK, maybe

not the guys, but Jason is trying to get people to call it

the Sam. Sam.

I like that a lot. Here's what.

Here's what I need. Where's the camera?

There is. All right.

Tampa Bay. I need a hat that just says the

Sam. Do you understand me?

Give me a hat. I'll wear it on this ridiculous

show. We'll get that together for you.

I need the Sam hat. These are things.

That you want too, I'll take one of.

Those This guy holds more hats. And he has.

Words in a It's surprising that I'm not wearing one.

I'm stunned you didn't wear a hats but but who looking forward

to the Sam F Davis some names that we know and you just

mentioned the posters in this race.

We saw him, you know. Excuse me.

Frank just mentioned him as well.

When Almighty's going to try to rebound from what was a subpar

performance last out at Tampa. Naughty Rascal gets back into

this race. A fortunate winner of the race

last time out. Who are you looking for this

weekend? I think frankly an underrated

thing is the route to the Derby through Tampa because usually

it's a leap. It's a stepping stone to another

prep, right, Because the Sam is the lead in of course, of the

Tampa Bay Derby, which is a 50 point prep.

This is 20 point prep this weekend.

Who stands out in this well? I really want to see how poster

comes back. For a start.

We just mentioned the run Godolphin's been on.

He's the first one of those Tree of Godolphin horses that I

mentioned make their three-year old debut.

So it'll be really interesting to see, you know, how he, you

know, he was so impressive in the Remsen last time going that

mile on an eighth. He has got back now mile on a 16

point. So it'll be interesting to see,

you know, kind of stretching out and then cutting back He's.

Over the first we're going to see.

Do that on the Derby trail. But I've always been a big fan

of Owen Almighty since he won that race down at Ellis last

year. I know he kind of, he got sick

during the fall. They had to stop on him.

He had a good comeback race last time out.

Just that awkward moment going into the turn where that other

horse got a little too close and then checked out of there.

Not sure if that was really Owen Almighty's fault, whether it was

the other horse's fault, whether it was just happenstance.

But I think it was the right call to disqualify him from that

performance. But he still stayed on strong

after that crossed the wire first.

I really want to see how he's going to run at these longer

distances. I believe that one in the Pasco

Stakes that he was 7 furlongs, so I want to see how he's going

to stretch out to these two turns here.

I think it's his first time doing that, but Naughty Rascal

was right with him the whole way during that.

He was kind of the one that put that pressure on to force that

move early that eventually led to the disqualification.

So by the way, you're right, I should mention disappointing

because of the DQ, right that that he that he did drift in we

need to I agree with you, by the way, I think it was a good DQ.

I think it was a reasonable DQ for what did happen and even

Brian. Lynch, the trainer, told me it

was IDQ. After the race, there you go.

The trainer says it's a good DQ. It's a good DQ.

Well, the other part is the horse ran well enough that he

knows at least he's going to be fit.

Yeah, in his three-year old, the start of his three-year.

Old And that was the big thing. You know, when I I talked to

Brian Lynch immediately after that race, I called him right

after and one of the things that he told me was we didn't really

care about the fact he got disqualified.

We were just happy that he came back off that long layoff, came

back his illness in a good shape as he was.

So if he continues to build off that now second start off the

layoff, we're going to see, you know, an even.

Fitter horse and even better horse coming up here on

Saturday. Owen Almighty, of course, was

the second place finisher in the Iroquois Stakes here at

Churchill. The first race on the road to

Kentucky Derby 151 came back well, as Sean mentioned, a long

layoff frankly going into that Pasco Stakes and does finish

technically, but of course cross the wire first in that one.

Poster comes in. I want to talk a little bit

about poster. Just because I get to do a local

sports show here. I get to interview coaches.

And every time I interview coaches, I always ask what's

more important. Your ex's and O's are your

jimmies and Joe's. And so when I interview

trainers, I always ask what's more important, how you run your

barn or having great horses. Not a single trainer, not one

has ever said, Oh yeah, me. Not one.

You heard it earlier from Ron Maquette.

I everywhere I've gotten is on the back of a horse.

Owen Hardy, we all know he's a good trainer and now all of a

sudden he's getting sons of of of money's, you know, out of

mares by tapping right. And then, oh, stutter, he's

winning these kinds of races, right.

And so it's nice to see these other names on the, on the on

these, these past performances. You have Baffert loaded this

year. You know Fletcher is going to

come up with something. You know, Brad Cox has quite a

few horses background. They'll all find horses.

But right now, one of the stories, you know, Baffert's

winning everything out West, but one of the stories out here on

the East side is that there's a lot of different trainers that

are being represented, guys that you don't usually see on the

Derby trail. I don't want to make it more

fun. There you go.

Well, anyone else maybe a Suncoast contender?

Anything else that you're looking at as we get into the

weekend here? Because I'm still, I'm like

Frank, I'm still really getting to know the Oaks contenders.

One of the more difficult parts of the Oaks series is that many

of the like the four gal was 7 for Yeah, right.

And so we're still getting to know some of these Phillies if

they're going to be able to stretch out whatever it might

be. But you know, for example, like

10 MO over the weekend, I thought she did nothing wrong.

That's. Far.

Oh yeah, that was impressive. Right.

And now I get it again. We're dealing with, you know,

scratches and three horse races out of San Anita.

I'm with Frank. I wish there were more horses in

that race, but frankly, I think she did everything we wanted to

see. And she essentially went into a

match race the first half the race she came out stronger and

was still pulling away at the end of the race.

So you know, it's about how you do.

It doesn't really necessarily have to do with who's behind

you. Obviously you want to see good

horse behind you and you want to see a lot of horses behind.

You but. She can't control who scratches

out out of that race. She can only go out there and

run. And she ran to perfection

yesterday. And Baffert said after the race

she's still maturing. So if she's figuring it out

right now, he skipped the Breeders Cup Juvenile Phillies

with her because he didn't feel like she was mature enough yet.

That could have been the right move.

And so she's looking like a big threat, one of the ones I'm

looking forward to this weekend. I believe I saw that Bakara, the

Pocahontas winner, is pointing towards the Suncoast Stakes here

at Tampa. Last time out she ran in the

Breeders Cup Juvenile Phillies, so I just want to see how she

bounced. Her back on that, of course we

have running away who's won a 20 point Rep up at New York.

Simply joking, of course we went back then.

I think has made a very strong impression at the fairgrounds to

this point. Starts her in Baden race in a

stakes race. Goes ahead, wins off the pace

over six furlongs. Come back, gets the lead, puts

everybody away in that silver bowl.

A day down there. We watch when Beckman guide

Honor Marie to the Derby last year.

Maximize everything out of that horse.

I would love to see him come back and do that.

Then wait. If it's on the 1st Friday May

was smoking. Simply joking.

Excuse me, I'm here for that too.

I love to see him come back the very next year with multiple

horses pointing towards the Kentucky Oaks.

I believe he has her laugh as well that's pointing there.

You know, joking names. We got got a couple of them.

We seem to have a theme there with his horses that's going to

be, you know, it's just nice to see him come back the very next

year. He's going to be a trainer that

we're going to hear from a walk. I agree.

I think Grace is. I think he's one of those guys.

If you were buying stock on trainers, you're buying Whit

Beckman stock, right? That's not the stock.

Now you want a dividend stock, You go get the Baffert stock,

the Brown stock, the pleasure stock, the cock stock, whatever

it is. You want to get on it before it

turns, but. If you want it before it's that,

yes, that's exactly right. Go grab his stuff as well.

You know, we talked about Equiton winning over the

weekend, you know, You know, Cox also has good cheer here as

well. Either those horses stand up or

do you? I think people are a little more

on good cheer, Frank. Yeah, I'm more on good cheer.

First of all, good cheer beat Hepaton the last time they met

Goldenrod. And so I just, I think good,

good cheer from what I saw as a 2 year old, I have to kind of

bite my tongue a little bit because I said the same thing

with Hoosier Philly a couple of years ago and it didn't pan out.

But with what I saw as a 2 year old last year from her, I would

not be opposed to seeing her take a shot against the boys in

the Kentucky Derby. I think she's good enough for

that. So if I think she's good enough

for that, I clearly think she's probably the horse to beat right

now for the yokes. Never know what's going to

happen, especially with the Phillies as they go from 2:00 to

3:00. So we'll see what ends up

happening with her. But her and Cox's other horse,

they both look like they're going to be legit horses.

Cox is loaded if you lost Mercy, but he is loaded on the Oaks

trail. I'd say there's a very strong

possibility Oaks winners coming from his barn.

I felt good for Manny Frank over the weekend getting a win in the

Derby front because he did lose immersives about on immersive,

at least for the oaks. You know, it's up for a little

bit. It does just a little.

But no, but you but you watch guys.

You know, I mentioned Edgar fires earlier in the year, just

thought right there all the time and that's his life.

And and so you you root for those guys that are our

mainstays where they are. Sean Collins.

We were both twins, fires on Churchill Downs, all the things

here on Blood Horse funding. As we wrap up the show, what did

we not get to today, Sean, that you'd like to get to?

Or is there something this week that you're looking forward to

especially? Well, I think one of the big

things is right now up there in Lexington, we currently have the

basic Tipton Kentucky Winter mix sale.

Going This is an interesting little twist to the show an

interesting. Twist, We just talked to Ron

Wolcott earlier about Speed King, Speed King's Dan.

The median beauty is in that sale.

She was supplemented into that sale, so I'm interested to see

what she goes for, you know, taking advantage just the big

performance of speaking this past weekend and seeing what she

brings. If you want to follow along with

that, you just go on the Blood Horse later on today.

Our sales editor, Olivia Newman is there at the sale covering it

so you can catch the news from her.

You can read it in the Blood Horse daily, whether that be

tonight or tomorrow morning. So make sure you keep an eye out

for that. There you go.

Well, this has been episode 1 of Blood Horse Monday.

I think we did all right. We spoke English the entire

time, so that works out very, very, very well.

He's Sean Collins. I'm Louis Rabo.

I haven't mentioned it. I'm at Radio Louis on socials,

if you are interested. Of course, at Blood Horse for

everything that we do around the station.

How do people find you on socials?

Well, on social media you can follow me. pH under score S

Collins. That puts my Twitter account for

Blood Horse. Also find me on YouTube at 8th

Pharaoh. 12 that's. My YouTube channel where I go

to. Live, and this show will go up

on that as well. So yeah.

And then just keep checking for me on Blood Horse.

If you want to read specifically what I'm doing, you just type in

my name and then Blood Horse and it'll pop up for you on Google.

Otherwise, you know, just keep an eye on the website, make it

to a lot of different places, talk to a lot of different

people. So usually get some good

insight. There you go.

We'll be doing the show live going forward.

And so if you would like to comment during the show, we can

even put more comments on the screen during the show.

We'd love to hear from you as part of it.

For Sean, I'm Louis. Thanks so much for joining us

here on the inaugural edition of Flood HORSE Monday.

We'll be back next week, and we hope you are too.

Have a great week, everybody. The Hall of Famer, his name is

Dan. This one very serious.

John Wendell, our friend Steve Cornack.