Blue Grass Stakes Instant Reaction

All right we are live here at Keeneland race course after the

great one bluegrass of course and boy oh boy did we get a very

a treat would be I think an understatement for what we just

saw. By the way, welcome back in to

Keeneland race course. He's Barry Spears lure bow horse

racing happy hour. We think our friends are stocked

in mortgage powered by people the good old folks there at

Stockton mortgage your reaction further ado coming in.

It's one of those very where so often in horse racing.

We talk ourselves into other forces and once in a while the

game's very simple. Today was one of those days.

Game pretty simple. Yeah, yeah.

I I mean, I thought back before this race that Further Ado ran

the best Tampa Bay Derby out of all those horses that finished

in the top three came back showed it today.

I'm really looking forward to seeing him in the Derby.

I'm pretty excited by all of the horses that have gone through

Tampa this year. And it's not something I've ever

said before. And I mean, once in a while you

get a King Guillermo that I fall in love with.

Shout out if you're a horse, it's a happy hour lifer.

You got a drink. But it's look at this point, the

Puma Renegade further ado. We're just seeing over and over.

The tamper route, for whatever reason, has given us just some

spectacular performances on the. Absolutely loaded this year and

and out of nowhere, I mean, we've had Tampa Bay Derby

winners be OK in the Derby, but not this many horses that came

out of that race and a real, real big players in the Derby.

Brad Cox 3 stakes wins on the card here at Keeneland today.

This was one that you mentioned. Look, broke its maiden here when

we did the pregame show by 20 lengths.

That was back in the fall here at Keeneland.

Wasn't quite ready to run until July.

They started this one actually at Saratoga.

Gets back to the to Kentucky wins at Keeneland, goes and wins

the Kentucky Jockey Club and Barry.

When we talk about those races that we want to see horses win

as 2 year olds to be ready for the Kentucky Derby, Lately it

just hasn't been the Breeders Cup Juvenile.

Just hasn't been. But boy, last year, the street

sense with sovereignty Kentucky Jockey Club, just a couple of

years ago, a reminder that was a race.

The top three finishers in that race all went on to win hundred

point races. Maybe we've got one here again

with further. Ado yeah and and you can expect

probably next year horse is going to be pointing towards

this race that really want to get to the Derby.

Hopefully they'll be prepared in time for that race at the end of

the year, but I mean, it's definitely something going on in

that area at that. Time the November stakes for two

year olds at Churchill Downs have been great predictors.

The other one, of course, is beginning of December.

The Remsen has been a spectacular predictor as well.

Obviously Paladin hurt, so he's not available out of those

runners from this year. But further ado.

Let's stay with this real quick. The largest margin of victory in

this race in 20 years. Barry, this is not a great

predictor for high level success of The Dirty is the Bluegrass.

I don't care after what I saw today.

Yeah, I mean, you can kind of throw that out the window.

It's on a horse by horse cases, of course, but we also have

Renegade that had a blowout win. So this is really interesting.

I I mean, it's shaping up to be a hell of a.

Derby 149 and change final time here.

If I can find it on the tilt board there it is. 149 and two

in this one Barry. Very fast race.

What I liked here is that I think Irad knew he had the lead

and he was going to win this race, but it was very clear the

intention here was no, no, we're going to be third up in the

Kentucky Derby. Go ahead, move that horse

through the 9 furloughs because by the time we get to 10, we

want to be ready. Did you feel that?

As well. Yeah, I mean, I think they

learned something in the Tampa Bay Derby when they kind of went

to the lead this time. They settled on the outside and

stalked the pace and got a excellent trip and the horse did

his job and and finished up strong.

I I think that's the type of run they want to get in the Derby.

This is a great trial run. A spendthrift farm trainee here.

And look, Kurt Becker said, where have we seen this before?

We're still trying to figure out what that reference was, Barry,

but we'll get there, I'm sure at some point.

But further ado now that we've talked about this.

You know, we opened the show earlier today talking about the

top of the Derby standings, forces like Commandment that

have won the Florida Derby. Obviously, the Puma ran really

well there. Renegade goes and wins.

Full effort in the roof is very impressive as well.

Look, silent people love that horse, but where did this ever

put him? In your mind?

Is he top three, Top five? Top 10?

Where is he there? I think he's top three.

I mean, considering what we have to look at and in the body of

work we have to analyze, that's definitely a top three horse.

Yeah, no, I think it's not a question.

Plus the connections. I think Irad's probably riding

this one in the Derby if I had to guess, and he's got I.

Don't know, he's got a choice. A bunch.

What do you think he ends up doing?

I don't know A lot of choices here.

Yeah. Must be nice.

Yeah, well, I mean, I guess you can.

You can say he probably won't ride commandment, but you never

know. You never know is right,

frankly, I'm sure that the connections will have something

to do with that. And a horse that I said, Barry,

and not on paper, not any of these things.

But you know what, Barry? You can't just live on paper,

you understand? Yeah, real world, That real

world. We live in the real world here

on the horse racing happy hour. I thought Otinia shipping down

for this one actually made a lot of sense.

And yes, it happened after there was a decision, you know, with

Paladin, unfortunately not being able to run similar connections

here, but three Chimneys folks decide to run here.

Son of Quality Rd. And I told you when before they

got to the turn, I said Ottino is about to put in a run.

And all you said to me was he's in a spectacular rhythm, only

his fourth start ever. Man, I think he can take a step

forward out of here. Absolutely.

And it looks like the longer the better.

I mean, I mean, he really settled, didn't get really into

stride until kind of the far turn and then finished up

strong. That's what you want to see.

I mean, he really made-up a lot of ground in the stretch.

Go back and watch the tape and and we'll see what really

happens. But I I really like that effort.

By the way, we are wrapping up a trio of shows.

We were out at the San Felipe the Ruby two weeks ago in this

show, hanging out with Stockton Mortgage.

Really appreciate them. Yeah, helping us out on the

horse racing happy hour. Been great partners of ours as

well. Otino, a son of Quality Rd.

here, Giants Causeway of the damn side.

How about that for a name? But that's a good one as far as

distance, like you say, man, sometimes when we're figuring

this out and frankly this was a horse in the Withers that was

way up the track and didn't finish any closer to talk to me,

Jimmy or grittiness, but frankly did pass three or four other

forces in the stretch maybe learn something doing that.

But this is a horse that broke. Its made in a mile and an

eighth. As well.

Yeah, I mean, just the way the horse ran today, you can kind of

tell they didn't get their good run in the Withers.

And this shaped up a much faster race up front.

And I think that helped Latino a lot and it should help him in

the Derby as well. We have just watched the Wood

Memorial. Elvis wins out there.

Riley Mott now has two starters in the Kentucky Derby, just like

we all wrote it up. Yeah.

You know, what? Is he, like, 19 or something?

Yeah. It must be nice.

But Elvis, son of Yaupon. Distance didn't seem to be a

thing here. Bernardini Marin, of course.

Yaupon, son of Uncle Bob. Yeah, I I don't know really what

to make of this source. I know they broke the

maintenance right at Tampa. You know what I liked about him

today? I'll do this the fourth race

ever, only the second race this year.

He had to navigate that race. Man, yeah, there was a lot going

on 20. Horse field in the Kentucky

Derby. You want a horse that can

navigate. Maybe he's won.

Yeah, it's definitely possible, but my gut feeling is that this

race wasn't that strong. Probably.

Not a great one, but we'll see. I mean, I thought Iron Horse was

or jeez, I don't. See.

Looks really good. A terrible draw, right?

Terrible. Draw and and out of gas.

I I don't think the the result of that race is indicative of

what that horse can do And, and maybe kind of just lucked out.

We had a, we had one like that recently.

I forget what it was the Pletcher horse that Kendrick

Carmouche rode, that that particular wood memorial is kind

of the same kind of. Guy, Yeah, and Right to Party

finishes second in here. Chris Elliott.

Kenny Mcpeek. There's here, Kenny.

Mcpeek was here today, no offense to the party of the nice

of the of the Chester Broman Senior ownership group here, a

$325,000 purchase right here in Keeneland in September of 24.

Man son of Constitution. You know MC on the damn side.

I'm not saying, and I'm certainly not saying I want to

be clear, but OK, welcome to Louisville.

Let's have some. Fun.

He was certainly overlooked. I mean if you look at his past

performances, he finished behind Iron Honor twice and didn't run

poorly. Actually got beat by him the

first time, came back and broke his maiden right after that.

Faced him in the Gotham, Didn't run back poorly.

Now when Iron Honor stubs his toe right.

The parties right there. So it makes sense, yeah.

And we talked about this race earlier in the week and frankly,

it was just what we talked about that people could pick up the

pieces in a race like the Wood Memorial.

It makes sense, frankly, that it would have gone this way.

Some others in here that might be looking in other directions.

Let's go with three horses here. I think Iron Honor we don't have

to talk about because it's Chad Brown.

That horse is going to the Preakness.

That's what he does. I assume at least that's what's

going to happen here between Napoleon Solo and talk to me,

Jimmy, what are you looking at here?

Because in my mind, if I don't talk to me, Jimmy, I'm getting

back to the New York ranks and just picking off every race that

I feel like because Saratoga runs a bunch of those stakes

during the summer, they'll be able to pick off all those kinds

of races. They have a lot more thoughts

about Napoleon Solo, but his two best rounds have come over one

turn. Do you see him going back to?

That yeah, he's going to cut back.

Any chance on any of these horses of Pat de Mile type of

horse? I think frankly.

Napoleon Solo might be the one of that, you know.

Your Honor, as a as a Pat de Mile.

Horse. Absolutely.

OK. So this is a real question, I

think now, son. Of you might have seen that's

the same field. Right here you might have seen

it. And so my sense with him is you

either are going to the Preakness, which is my guess

with Chad Brown and with this ownership group was saying

Elias. But Pat de Mile as far as I saw

that horse in the Gotham. I know he likes that one turn.

Maybe that could work out of Churchill.

Yeah, certainly. Can you know Butane too, another

one that that probably could warn a cut back.

Yeah. So there, there's quite a few

horses in there that might end up in the pat de Mile and cut

back to one turn. You were watching Bravaro the

entire way. That horse could not have run

into more bleep. Oh man.

You know, Barry, in a weird year like this where you know the top

horses, unfortunately Ted and Offi, you know, a palate and

just unable to run because of injury, we feel like this Derby

is pretty wide open. Is there a world though, in

which a bunch of these second tier horses show up at Laurel?

Is a Bravaro a candidate here to show up at Laurel?

Obviously we've thought about Iron Honor being in that group

as well with Todd Pletcher. Skip the Preakness.

Of course he would. That's a good joke.

You didn't laugh. I knew you were.

Going to do that. I'm so sorry, people.

I'm so sorry that that happened to you.

He knows. I'm a tough crowd, man.

A single tough crowd. One guy.

But right to party man, that was going to be fun in in

Louisville. Napoleon Solo.

If you're in the ownership group of that horse, are you looking

at the Pat Day mile? You're trying the previous.

I'm going Pat Day mile. I don't really think this horse

wants to go over a mile. The one turn suits his.

First, he breaks super well. He's fast, so he's fast.

He can get out of the gate, do the one turn thing there at

Churchill. Yes, it's a long stretch, but

man, this is a liams map. Scott Daddy on the damn side.

He should be able to get a mile, no?

Problem. Yeah, yeah, I think that suits

him well. All right, so some others on the

Keeneland card today that we saw here as I hit the wrong button

on my computer. Let's go back to the Madison.

Ecliton gets it done in the stretch in this one, our girl

Cleco gets bent down. Maybe we will see her back over

two turns soon, but in this case, man, Ecliton gets it done

and this is a bad job by me. I want to be really clear for

our betting group here, we hit the pick five.

If I throw Ecliton in it, I threw her out because I was

like, oh, last race Lasix, I'm not going to worry about that.

But then I should have remembered Brad's got Immersive,

Brad Cox got Ecliton and she's here and Immersive's in New

York. That's what Immersive did in

four horse Field. She lost.

Ecliton comes here, she wins the.

Next, yes, you know, I, I think I still think this horse was

dressed up and got a perfect trip today.

It was kind of weird that whole race actually, you know, you had

a couple horses pull up, you had other horses just not fire at

all. And it it was, it was really

weird but I mean Equiton ran him down and ran fast.

Storms wake wins in the Appalachian the Grade 2 for

three-year old Phillies on the turf here was thirdly Here Comes

the bride was a big play for you today.

We hit that one today at 21 to 1.

Yeah storms wake you know got kind of fell into a really good

trip Joel actually gave this horse a really nice ride keeping

this horse clear because back of the.

Field but close. Right but close.

He kept that one within 6. Seven wide and clear I'm sure

were the instructions and he did it to a tee.

This horse picked him up, put him down late and and just got

it done at a big price. Brian Lynch and yet another

graded stakes. Over 15% winners in graded

stakes recently for Brian Lynch, who has become a bit of a force

that way. Before that, of course, in the

Commonwealth we got a bit of an A bit of a return to form, if

you will, for Saudi Crown. How good can he be, do you

think? I mean it, it just depends, you

know, I, I think this horse. Now he's the son of always

dreaming, which should make you feel old that he's 6 and he's a

son now. Streaming, but keep going.

Yeah, I mean, he he's an enigma for sure because he has a lot of

100 point buyers and not many wins.

I mean he looked really good today.

I I I love the patient ride by Flavin and maybe we'll see a new

Saudi crown that stalks and not is just a one run speed ball

type all. Right.

So you watched him today in this race, Man, it's a Grade 3 here

in the Commonwealth. I don't want to call it the,

the, you know, the prep race for the Grade 1 Churchill Downs, the

seven furlong dirt Sprint for older horses at Churchill during

Derby week. Would you try Saudi Crown there?

I would, I think. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, if he's in. Good form?

Absolutely. I mean, it seems like that

division isn't too too strong. Yeah, who's at the top of that

right now is a good question, right.

And so if if you're if we're having to think about that part

of it, who's going to show up for that race?

By the way, I think California is going to send a lot of holes

for that race. But they should.

They should, by the way. Yeah, I think he fits in that

group, especially if he breaks like he did today.

Yeah, he's clean, super sharp. I mean, he's the sharpest I've

seen him to the point where top. Of the stretch you're not

watching. We watched his years move.

Lobby had made a noise. He was right on cue, right on

cue and and and took off. If he can rate like that, that's

gonna be a tough horse to beat. Santa Anita Derby coming up in a

few moments. You and I have talked through

this one before, but we will let the audience get to that one.

That one's in about 40 minutes, so good luck with all your

wagers the rest of the day there at Santa Anita Park.

Barry, if someone hasn't been to Keeneland like you hadn't been

before today, yes, what would you tell?

I would say it's like a horse racing museum, the most

Immaculate place you ever want to be.

The fans are are very sophisticated, the drinks are

flowing and the racing is spectacular.

There's nothing more. People are betting to you can

ask for right? People are betting there's

nothing more you can ask. From a race track like high

level DJ. Yeah, yeah.

That's what it feels like. Yeah, yeah.

You. Know pinky out tee time?

All right, well, he's Barry Spears.

I'm Louis Reubo. Happy Easter to you and yours

out there. Happy Passover if you're doing

that. We'll be back on Friday with

Socal Saturdays. We'll do a bit of a of course,

as Sanity the Derby recap get you ready for those races as

well. Catch me Thursday ahead of the

Lexington here. We'll do a Keeneland preview

show for Saturday as well. And of course, Barry saved your

problem. Happy Easter, buddy.

Happy East. There you go.

I'm in. We'll see you next time.

The horse racing gap here.