Bob Roberts | Ohio Derby 2024

It is time to visit with Bob Roberts, formerly of the

Cleveland Plain Dealer. Of course, their turf rider for

many years joins us ahead of the Ohio Derby up there at

Thistledown. Bob, good morning.

How are you, Sir? Louis, I'm hanging in or I'm

having a hard time this week. I'm trying to solve the mystery

of the races from Royal Ascot. Good luck.

You know what I'm talking about. I do, I have a hot take about

Ascot. Are you ready for it?

Go ahead. OK.

I just think it's it's just European quarter horse racing.

Well, well, there's 5 furlong races on the turf.

They just ran a race that was a mile and a half and they got one

coming up that's 2 1/2 miles. Of course they do.

I don't think that's quarter horse.

Racing. There you go.

Bob Roberts joins us. Look, this Ohio Derby, it is the

only graded stakes left in the state of Ohio.

But boy, they, they, you know, they boosted the purse half

million bucks here. They're going to get a Preakness

alum. They're going to get obviously a

Derby and Preakness alum in the favored and catching freedom.

You know, one of the questions I ask a lot around here, Bob, is

with the with the not even the resurgence, but with the, you

know, the the rise of Kentucky racing as sort of the

centerpiece of North American racing away from, say,

California or away from places like New York.

Is there a chance that this actually becomes an even bigger

day? Can Ohio racing benefit from

Kentucky becoming that center of North American racing?

Well, it should because if you look at the population of Ohio

and it's, it's a pretty populated state, we're in like

the top. And I'm sure, I mean, we should

be doing better than we do in Ohio.

And I, I mean, I can pass the, I mean, as a journalist, I'm

trying to look at things from all sides.

When I would cover the races at the what's called Belterra, it

used to be River Down when I was, the atmosphere there was so

different than the atmosphere in Cleveland and in Columbus.

Because I would think the people who go to the track there have

like 1 foot in Kentucky and one foot in Ohio and they really

have an appreciation for the horse there.

I don't think Ohio was capitalized on their closeness

to Kentucky. We should be breeding better

horses than we have in Ohio. I mean, hell, you got the the

the limestone, the Bluegrass. We're not that far from the

Bluegrass in Ohio, so we should be doing better.

We should be benefiting from the Kentucky sit there being our

neighbor, but they haven't done that.

I don't know why, I don't know why.

Yeah, we're seeing a lot of this and Bob Roberts with us from The

Plain Dealer. I we've seen a lot of it.

I just had a Rachel McLaughlin on from Horseshoe Indianapolis

and you see so much back and forth between trainers here at

Churchill and there Belterra. I do, I do think is a is a, you

know, a recipient of especially with with the absolute surge in

purses and field sizes and different things at Turf way

over the winter. Obviously so many of those

jockeys and trainers can make the very easy move to Cincinnati

there keep their horses at Turf way throughout the year.

So I'm hopeful that that will continue to spread as the

Kentucky thing continues down here.

Well, go ahead. Well.

Kudos to Rachel. And by the way, the track

announcer there, John Dool, Yeah, he's will be the track

announcer at Thistle on. So we him and I go way back

back. You'd like you'd appreciate

this. I'm a big soccer fan and I would

take English soccer game. I would bring the cassette,

that's how old I am up to the track and stick it in my VCR at

in the press box that Thistle down.

John would come down from the announcers booth and he would

listen to the English play by play guide and he would look for

phrases he could incorporate and it was called at the track and a

guy would dribble the ball through opponents and the

announcer would say he's really in the mood today.

And Julie, the horse would jump on to A3 length lead at the 8th

ball and he would say that horse is really in the mood.

So if him and I go way back, I applaud those people who run

Horseshoe Indiana because they have taking away a lot of Ohio

Thunder. In other words, it's easier to

go to Horseshoe Indiana than it is to go to a Belterra slash

river downs. Now they've done a great job up

there and I, I keep, I'm embarrassed to say I've never

been to Horseshoe, Indiana and I'm planning on going this year.

Oh, awesome. OK, good.

Well, we're doing our show up there pregame, so you'll have to

come find us on the big stage. Apparently they're they're

building a stage. I had no idea.

How about that? Bob Roberts with us from the

play dealer up there in Cleveland ahead of the Ohio

Derby. You know, one of the ideas that

I've had for many years because of my affinity for the

aforementioned Indiana Derby, is just, I think we should try to

figure out A Midsummer sort of Midwestern Triple Crown.

And it doesn't have to be, you know, too much more money, but

just an incentive to run horses, say, in some kind of combination

of the mid of the West Virginia Derby, the Ohio Derby, the

Indiana Derby, maybe out in Prairie Meadows at the Iowa

Derby. Do you think that's a good idea?

Do you think it's one that could get traction?

I think I wrote about it years ago.

I think you could easily put three states together that

actually touch each other. You could have the Ohio Derby,

the Indiana Derby and the West Virginia Derby and face them out

and then offer some kind of prize if you sweep all three,

maybe you get a a smaller prize if you win two of the three.

So yeah, I I think that would work.

That would be no problem. Just got to put out the spacing

now. Ohio Derby is going to be this

Saturday, which is what, the 22nd and then you're going to be

up there. See, that's too close.

So we. Had two one.

Of them already, you know what I mean?

They probably have to move the Ohio back a little bit.

It would be great. You know it would be great.

How about this? You run one Memorial Day

weekend, you run 1/4 of July weekend, and you run the other

one Labor Day weekend. So there's your Triple Crown

holiday, three state, Triple Crown I.

Love it Bob Roberts with us from up there in Cleveland, but this

field itself coming up on the Ohio Derby, if people are not

familiar with this race has had some past winners that people

almost certainly know of two fills last year Derby alum goes

up there for Larry Rovelli is very dominant in the race last

year. Tawny Port two years ago

Massacre paid de de martini. Excuse me, I wrap Owendale MO

Tom Mr. Z who came out of the Preakness that year for Dewayne

Lucas. We get another Derby and

Preakness alum in chasing freedom.

I'm probably not going to spend a ton of time handicapping the

Ohio Derby because of him. Bob.

Well, I tell you what, the race does have a great history.

There's been some big time broad brush skip trial, There's been

skip away. There's been some big winners

there. Up before I handicap the race,

I'll tell you my favorite. In 1978, I was with the

Cleveland Press. It's no longer in existence, but

it was the afternoon paper and the Derby was on a Saturday and

we did not have a Sunday paper, so I could linger longer and

talk to the winners while the PD guy, The Plain Dealer guy, he

had to rush off and get his story done to get it in Sunday's

paper. Well, the horse was the race was

won that year by horse you shipped up from Kentucky.

His name was Special Honor and he went off at 100 to one and

paid $203.20 to win. I'm talking with these good old

boys from Louisville. The owners were Linda Gaston and

some guy named Haynes, and they got drunk enough that they told

me they made more money betting on the horse than they got from

the purse. And the winner's share was

90,000, so you could imagine how much they bet.

Wow. That's fantastic.

That horse broke his maiden in November of 1977 at Churchill

Downs, won back-to-back allowance races at Oak Lawn, ran

third in the Arkansas Derby, ran six in the Bluegrass, did run in

the Kentucky Derby and then ran up there in the great at the

time the Grade 2 Ohio Derby ran and won that one.

So they, you know. The favorite was that year.

The favorite was the Believe It, who ran second and third in the

Derby, and Stevie Coffin wrote him.

He was $0.30 on the dollar and never picked up his feet and

ended up six. Yeah, that was a hell of a year

for me for for as a reporter. And I guess two guys own that

horse. One wanted to go to the Ohio

Derby, one didn't. He pouted.

He stayed home in Louisville and these other guys partied and got

all the money. You do have a fair number of

interesting runners this year. Gold's Gold coming out of the

Sir Barton on Preakness Day at Pimlico.

Copper Tax won the Federico Tessio, which is the final prep

for that Preakness Stakes. Uncle Heavy comes in ran in both

the Wood Memorial and the Preakness this year as well.

Look, this is a race that people are taking very seriously, Bob.

Do you worry about its future at all or do you think because of,

you know, that that grade 3 next to that half million bucks,

they'll be OK? It was like you said, at one

time it was a grade two. I worry.

I mean, look, let's be blood here.

Casino companies own a lot of these race tracks now and

obviously they care more about the casinos than the racing.

So to me, the emphasis has to be and the the people who have to

take care of this and guarded and protected are the horsemen

and the Breeders and perhaps the racing Commission.

They've got to make sure that these that we stay on top of

this stuff in Ohio because it could slip away.

And I don't hate to see it because look, we just lost San

Francisco. Golden Gate Fields just closed,

right? Detroit lost racing several

years ago. Boston lost Suffolk Downs a few

years ago. I don't like this.

Phoenix is going to lose Turf Paradise Pyramid.

These are major cities that don't have horse racing and I

don't like that. In this field, obviously we get

catching freedom. He stands out both from a

numbers perspective and from a class perspective.

Is there another horse in here you really like?

Yeah, yeah. I've been handicapping the hell

out of this race. And if you look at it, the past

performances, where is the speed?

Everybody wants to come from off the pace, including obviously

catching Freedom, who rallies from mid pack, from the back of

the pack. I see one lone speed horse in

this race and I'm going to bet him and he's 8 to one on the

morning line. I'm going to bet the 9.

Batten down. Now we know he's never running a

stake race. He just broke his maid in the

Churchill on April 30th easily, and they thought about running

them in the Belmont and they changed their mind and they're

pointing him for the Ohio Derby's owned by Judd Mont, big

boys trained by Hall of Famer William Bill Mott, and the jock

is Junior Alvarado. I think he's going to go to the

front and stay. There the interesting thing

about this connection group is and by the way, of course,

Junior Alvarado Belmont. They win tons of races.

I always watch this Part 2 things I watch on big race days

outside of a where jockeys usually ride Junior Alvarado,

not a normal guy at Thistle dot, right?

But when they when ownership wants to ship in a guy like him,

they're they're taking this very seriously.

If there were a race after the Ohio Derby, I would be watching

to see which jockeys were sticking around to ride that

race because usually that's a giveaway too.

There's no race after the Ohio Derby.

But I, I agree with you, Judy Alvarado is not going up there

by accident or because they think they have no shot.

No, no, I mean, Mott's not messing around this horse.

That's right. He won on April 30th.

They shipped into Saratoga and he's had 4 workouts.

Two of them are bullets. Yep.

I mean I I have a hard time getting Bill Mott right when I'm

betting because it's just the way it falls for me, but I'm

betting the source. By the way, Speaking of betting,

just digress for a minute please.

Did you see what happened at Royal Ascot on Tuesday?

Which part? They had a race where the race

was won by 114 to one shot. Yep, 40 to one ran 2nd. 50 to

one ran third. This may be a world director.

Take a guess at what the $2.00 trifecta?

Pay O2 dollar, try 6. I'm going to go 6 figures.

First, you can make a if you want a dollar, you can have a

dollar, but we're going to give you the $2.00.

Yeah, I assume it's a six figure sum for sure.

You. Ready.

Yes. Two, $245,336.

Best game in the world, Bob. You think some guy bet his

address and he's he's probably just waiting, waking up now

after fainting in that race? Yeah, How about that?

Bet his address. His name's Bob Roberts.

He's up there at the can. You imagine, oh, I had it for a

dollar for 122,000. Yeah, right.

The lady Jacqueline is before it.

I got to admit I I'm because it's not a great at stakes.

It's not the easiest race to look up how how old is this

race? Was it graded before?

Etcetera. I can only find about 5-6

runnings of this race. Well, you're not that far off

because it's only been run 8 times.

OK. They used to run the they used

to run a race that day back when I was covering it was called the

Cleveland Oaks, but it went away.

So this would, I guess this would be it's for a, it's for

1/4 of a million. Dollars.

Oh, that's right, they're not messing.

They're not messing around here. You got big time trainers

shipping horses in and Louis Syed picked up the mound on the

one horse for Sappy Joseph Junior Batacuta.

So this is a it's a nicer I always thought when I was

writing, I said man used to have a turf course at the salon.

They took it out. He said if you put that turf

course back in and had a Philly and mare stake race for like

200,000, it would have like the stellar field of Stellar field.

So there's always room for a good Philly and mare stake race,

and a few more good winners of this race would go on to win

some graded stakes and this will become graded.

Yeah, I was, yeah. I, I think that's right,

especially since it's a rare opportunity because it is a

three and up race for older Phillies and mares to run for a

quarter, $1,000,000, right. Eventually, you know, these guys

are going to have to come back and, you know, pay attention

because of what you mentioned. I mean, look, look, Kenny, Kenny

Mcpeake's got corny Corning stone in here.

Misty Vale's in here. People probably remember her.

She ran into the Baikoa these area, the Apple Blossom Handicap

this year, frankly, right? So she's been running in super

high level company and makes a trip to Cleveland for this one.

Did you have a favorite in here? Nah, not really.

But I am looking at Corningstone with the Hernandez Mcpeak combo.

That's because hey, they could, they could pull an Oaks Derby

double, they could pull an Ohio Derby Jacqueline double because

they got a horse in the Ohio Derby too, and in Ghouls Gold

who was coming on. So yeah, they could.

They could have a big Saturday in Cleveland.

Who is who is Lady Jacqueline? Lady, I think that's a take off.

There is no Lady Jack. I think it's a take off on the

name Jack Casino that you know what I mean.

They just they just female eyes. The the Jack thing.

There is no Lady Jacqueline. There was no portion Ohio named

Lady Jacqueline that I know of. No, no.

OK, you know what? I'm going to.

I have to admit something I hadn't thought about the the

Jack angle. That's that's actually pretty

clever. I'm not going to lie.

It's pretty clever. That's pretty good.

Yeah, that's not bad. Greatest Ohio bred ever, by the

way, was believe it or not, was trained by Kenny Mcpeak,

remember, and he went on to be a tremendous stallion.

Harlan's Holiday. Oh, of course.

Yeah, Maiden. Yeah.

And the stake rates at Thistle Down and Kenny Mcpeak was the

trainer back in those days. Well, there you go, Bob.

You know, I feel like I have to ask you about your golf game

since I wanted to have you on tomorrow and Oh my.

And instead you're you're playing golf with your

grandkids. Are you at the point where your

grandkids are better golfers than you are?

Oh God, yes. Now how about this story I went

to I, I graduated from high school in 1966.

OK. And one of the guys moved on to

Youngstown, OH, met a girl who had money.

I think this is a story. They built a golf course called

Reserve Run in suburban Youngstown every year.

He has AI. Can't even use the word for what

it's called for the tournament. And all the guys who went to

high school go back and play for this.

So last year I my three grandsons, they have 3

granddaughters, 3 grandsons and one's in college, 1 graduated

from college and one's in high school.

And I got to play a foursome with my 3 grandsons and ready

for this. We were nine under par without a

bogey and a scramble and we're putting that back together.

And tomorrow is the second time that I'm going to go to

Youngstown with my grandson to play in this golf thing.

So I'm pretty and they are better than me because one

played high school golf, the other one was a high school

baseball. But yeah, they're much better

than me because I can hit it pretty good, but not like they

can. One of those kids, believe it or

not, hit it is driving the ball 300 yards, 300.

Are you a golfer? Louis, poor one.

I'm more of a, I'm more of a driving range guy.

How about that? Top golf guys.

Yeah, Top golf's fine. Yeah, I don't buy Top Golf.

Yeah, I can get into that. Yeah, for sure.

That's right. Yeah, but yeah, so that's,

that's that's why I couldn't do the show tomorrow.

And by the way, how about 3 grandsons, 3 granddaughters.

One of the boys sisters is studying in England this summer.

And my daughter, her mother went over there and the father,

they're going to go visit her and they go, hey, what's this

Royal Ascot? I said, are you kidding?

That's the big 5 day meet with the royal.

They're going tomorrow. They got tickets.

They're going to Royal Ascot tomorrow.

There you go. Well, you I have good news.

I replaced you with Brad Cox tomorrow.

He's a good guy. He won this race a couple.

Times just a couple yeah, there you go he's.

He's been crazy. He's an incredible stories of

success he had. Yeah, I know he's a.

He's a racetrack rat. Not terribly.

He's a racetrack. Rat, there you go.

I'm terribly upset about it. We I'm getting many texts on the

text line that we need to have you on more than once a year.

When is the next time you're coming on?

You whenever there's a race you want to talk about, I'll be more

than happy to talk. I mean, because I handicap New

York, I do some work for Northfield Park, the harness

track. I put out AI, put out a tip seat

every Saturday and Sunday because they have a free

handicapping contest. So I put out my picks.

I usually follow the Naira track.

And then in the winter I switched over to Golf Stream.

So I'm around anytime you want to talk racing, Lou, because I

love the game. Done.

There you go. He's Bob Roberts up there in

Cleveland ahead of the Ohio Derby.

Bob, we appreciate the visit every year.

Let's make it more often, my friend.

And good luck with the golf match tomorrow.

Louie, stay healthy buddy. Can't stick it.

There you go. All right, Bob Roberts.