Chilukki & Cmnwlth Turf ’24 | Tony Calo

We welcome in Tony Kalo from that outfit.

They call themselves Churchill Downs about a mile from here.

Day of racing tomorrow. But it's been a fun boy.

I saw something on my sheet that is not related to what I was

about to say. It's been a fun November over

there at Churchill. Tony, how are you this morning?

I'm doing great, Louis, how are you?

I am living a dream, my friend, and so it's a lie whenever

someone Zach, by the way, you're a young guy, you don't know this

yet, but someone says they're living the dream it's the

opposite of that was a lie. That's right.

It was the opposite of whatever their dream was.

That's. Yeah.

There it is. Yeah.

No, that's exactly right. Midwestern.

I hate my life. I don't actually hate my life.

All right. But Shaluki, tomorrow, the

Commonwealth turf tomorrow. Are there track sort of

tendencies that you've noticed? I've been out there a couple of

times. I was out there for sure for

that claiming crown. Frankly, I think both services

are playing pretty fair. Yeah, that's what I, I, I kind

of walk in every day with assuming a fair race track.

I haven't really seen any pronounced biases, yes.

I just kind of tried to handicap the way I do with the pace

scenarios and company lines and all the good things that we try

to do to pick winners. Yeah, the Shaluki tomorrow will

be race 8 starts at late pick four out there.

I think this is an interesting field.

Tony, do you happen to know, did Amonara make the trip from

Gulfstream? Is she going to be starting?

That I am not aware of. I'm still at the house right

now. I haven't got in there and I

should have asked Kevin Kurstein about that, but.

So that's all right. No, no, it's OK Only break bring

it up because we had actually Rachel McLaughlin on the podcast

last night just kind of do a year interview at Indiana.

But also she was like, if this horse makes the trip, I think

she's got a serious shot. And what's interesting is she

talked us through why and, and man, it made me think any of

these eight really do have a shot tomorrow.

Yeah. You know, it's a very

competitive race, that's for sure.

And I kind of was, I wasn't really looking at her that much.

I, you know, I've fallen in love with some of the gals here in

Kentucky. Obviously the ones that I've

I've gotten used to the pee galls and taxed and and there'd

be one from the outside fancy who's been underrated.

But I think the up and Comer is the one that really is worthy of

talking about the most. And that's the four too sharp.

I just think she has a ton of ability.

Her speed figures are off the charts.

She was highly touted for the debut run and didn't have the

greatest of trips since then. She's basically a neck away

against bright work who's a very, very talented 3 year old

Philly from being undefeated in those three subsequent starts

since the since the maiden voyage.

And what's very interesting with her is she's she's fast.

And now they're even putting the blinkers on and it looks like

her workouts are even faster. Right, yeah, Has moved to the

track and seems to really, really like it.

One at Saratoga on debut up there.

Of course, first run, as you mentioned, was that Churchill

before that under Axel Concepcion, Junior Alvarado into

ride tomorrow, as is Flavian Pratt.

Do you ever, I mean, going from six and a half, two mile, is

that ever a concern? If someone said hey that's why

I'm going to play against, would you follow that logic?

I would follow that logic, that is for sure.

You know that could be one of the question marks for but the

blood suggests it should be no problem twirling candy out of a

distorted humor mirror. Now the dam did try a mile and

had the lead at the 8th pole and gave up the lead, but you know,

that was the dam and this is her and I just think she has the

utmost talent. She is, she is ultra, ultra

impressive, but there are some other good ones in here, that's

for sure. She's a three-year old tackling

some elders and you know, as you mentioned, this is a very

competitive field. Peagall has really come into her

own. I think Peagall is much better

at the one mile distance and she is a one mile and 16th affair.

You know, she has three out of her last five races at one mile

that are victorious. She's a she's very, very

talented. Tax I think is a much better one

turn horse. I expected better things from

her at Ellis Park in the groupie doll.

That race got a little tight compact group at the 8th pole

and she was on the inside and just didn't really roll.

But she hasn't quite looked the same since she had that one turn

allowance victory. I thought that was a sensational

score and I liked her race at Oakland.

Perhaps she's just an allowance horse these days.

You know, you get Royal Spa who will see if her her kick is the

same at a mile. Sometimes when these horses come

with big runs at six and seven furlongs, it's not quite as

effective at one mile. But if they go fast early, she

could kind of come running. Pasitano Sunset is doesn't

really get a lot of respect like she deserves.

That's a really bang up second to Zylos in the open mind and

you know, very, very cool race, that's for sure.

No, it works out that way for sure.

The only comment I made last night is my sense opposed to

Thomas onset is she's not in this company when she runs A

grade threes. She really doesn't miss the

board that often. And so I think if you're filling

out a trifecta kind of bet pose the tunnel sunset, the six has

to be in there at 12:50 for Ian Wilson, Julian Leperoux, fancy

on the outside, got that freshening last outlook really

good, frankly, over that short stretch at Keeneland.

You think she's got a shot with Tyler?

Without a doubt she just doesn't really get a lot of respect.

I know last time she was odds on and she finally did get the

respect enclosure is a is a is a is a nice, nice filly.

I I'm really high on her. She kind of, you know, every

once in a while she doesn't give us her best effort, but she, she

has a lot of ability, a fancy just really came into her own,

you know, winning a couple of races at Churchill on sealed

sloppy race tracks. But she is effective on a fast

track. She might be a little better on

a wet race tracker record would maybe indicate that perhaps her

speed figure doesn't. But you know, when you're 2 for

3 / a wet race track and one for five or three seconds on the

fast. But that's a that's a great

race. It really is.

And you know, the one thing, the one knock on the horse that I'm

really fond of is you're going to get a short price on a gal

with question marks, you know, go on the mile and and create a

competition against elder fillies.

It's one thing to do it in that first allowance condition, but

but I just think she's the one that we'll be talking about with

with a lot of enthusiasm heading into 2025.

Shaluki, of course. The daughter of Cherokee Run.

She's born in 1997, last ran in 2001 at Santa Anita in the La

Canada did win multiple grade ones and grade twos in her

career. The the race there named for her

in the ninth race in the allowance tomorrow.

A horse like a goo on the outside, the 11 for Ricardo

Santana junior wit Beckman. Is this a you know, when you see

a horse, for example, 2 back wins at Churchill over six in a

minute, 8 and change, but it was at the 80 claimer level.

Do you think of the 80 claimer level differently than you do

like A50 claimer or or that kind of thing like the 80 number does

that does that kind of, I don't want to say remove the claiming

tag from the race in that way because it's so much money?

Or do you look at that more as, hey, no, it's just a high level

claimer? You know, I, I, I guess it would

depend on the of the quality of the field.

Sometimes you'll get a $50,000 claimer that is just stacked

from top to bottom. It was nice to see a goof

finally rebound. I wasn't that familiar with him

when I when I got here in the spring and I had heard a lot of

good stuff about him. You know, he actually beat the

Kentucky Derby winner when graduating.

He runs big against just Steel who who ran big in the Arkansas

Derby and he kind of tailed off forms.

I was really happy to see him rebound on the 14th of September

and I gave him a puncher's chance against world record.

He almost came through for me, but I think I had them both on

my tickets. And of course, when you've got

an odds on and you've got an 11 to one, you're you're rooting

for the 11 to one shot. And he he he ran big.

So I think he's AI think he's definitely a player.

He's a good price too at 4:00 to 1:00 on the morning line.

I like him and I like attache. The three horse.

That's the horse that I've yet the three horse.

That's the horse I've kind of been trying to get home.

I like him getting back to six furlongs.

He ran so big against star of wonder.

Star of wonder is a pretty nice horse.

I'm pretty sure star of wonder the damn produced she dares the

devil, if memory serves correct. And he I know he disappointed

recently in A2 turn race at Keeneland, but his one turn race

is to start his career at Churchill have been sensational

and attache just ran his heart out running 22 and change and

from the far outside. I I think he kind of regressed

on the 30th of October. I don't know why he had ample

time for a recovery after that big, big effort, but but he ran

a big race in early June going nine and one and I know his best

race is is right there. So those are the two that I'm

I'm leaning on for that race. I will say the six trust issues

kind of come into his own. You know, I always look for

horses. Why have they improved

noticeably in recent starts? And a lot of times it could be

anything, you know, equipment changes.

And that's the case here with the blinkers on.

Yeah. But a big, big race to senior

officer. Senior officer, he comes out of

that attache race. And that was his first Test

against winners. And he ran huge in Harrodsburg.

Harrodsburg's a horse that was really going good in the spring.

He was always low, low odds. And for whatever reason, it

seemed like, you know, he just, I don't know, I don't think he

was really getting the respect, I think from, you know, you

know, some of us handicappers, myself included, and some of the

people I work with. And he he's kind of come back

into his form. He he's a nice horse.

So, so I think trust issues is another one that may be falling

a little bit under the radar at a heck of a price. 8 to one

there did break his maiden last out.

Two trips, 2 excuse me, two races since returning to the

dirt, second place in a maiden and then goes back out at the

highest level of Churchill over 5 1/2 and goes ahead and wins by

open links there. The Commonwealth Turf is the

Grade 3 tenth race. It'll be $300,000 in the Kitty

for this one. Kind of the bookend on the

three-year old turf races there at Churchill for the full year.

Dashman is in here. The three horse ran in that

Jockey Club Derby Invitational at Aqueduct, last out in

October. Blanket finish in that one.

Deterministic Carson's run. El Reason in that one.

A great little tidbit in here. Does Tony Kalo know the naming

convention of the four horse here in Exarbon Derby?

Of course I do. It's Nebraska backwards.

There you go. I, no, I brought that up last

night, Rachi. Rachel didn't know what that

was. Well, I'm, I'm a little older

than racing, Rachel, and you know.

Is that what it is? I'm an old man.

She might not have been following horse racing when ex

Garban was running. But I do have to commend you

though. It was an excellent choice to

have Rachel on your podcast and keep me on the radio.

That's a That's a very, very wise.

Move. I've been at this for a while,

Tony. Yeah.

Yeah, good for you. I yeah, no, it's urban Derby.

You know, it's funny you bring him up ever since his 2nd place

witness to Dash, man, he has really stepped up his game of a

great maiden special weight victory, you know, in late

August at Ellis. And then he runs a huge

Hawthorne Derby. You know, Higgins Boat is a cool

horse. He he stepped up against older

competition and just missed third by a head on the 1st of

November. I'm a little surprised that he's

not in this affair. Maybe that race took a little

bit out of him. He doesn't seem, you know, but

he would have been a player also in this spot.

So but Dash man's the five to two favorite.

Well, the one thing I'm concerned about Dash man and is

is just the drastic cutback. I've noticed it over the years.

Those those, those cutbacks from a mile and a quarter, a mile and

five sixteenths, a mile and 3/8 back to a mile and sixteenths.

But the flow of those long marathon races is just so much

slower than a mile and a 16th. Sometimes it takes them a start

or so to get accustomed to back to that flow.

So that at a short, short price. I mean, he'll, he'll probably

come running with a huge run and he's probably the horse to be.

But gosh, it's just something I'm I've never been a big fan

of. Well.

We saw it in the last race in the Clayman Crown.

Segoy comes out of those longer races at Colonial, runs a mile

and a 16th and the clothes are on Clayman Crown Day and is is,

I don't know, 16th of a mile? Too late.

I mean, essentially. So no.

We just saw it on Saturday. Actually, it it happens all the

time, it really does. It's and you know, whether it's

dirt, synthetic turf, it's just you know, the dynamics of those

type of races are just so different than our conventional

mile on the 16th. 2 Turd Affairs.

By the way, I love Laganos in this spot.

That is a horse that's over nine this year.

But if you watch that Brian station, and I'm not picking on

Christian Torres here, but that, that, that trip, I should say

the route that that horse had to travel on.

I I can't believe that horse got up for fifth by two and a half.

I mean, just it's it's insane to think about because that horse

was behind. I don't know.

Yeah. 9th place out of eleven horses with about about an

eighth of a mile ago, I mean. So just a a remarkable thing

there. I will have to go watch that a a

little more closely. I haven't really got back into

the replays yet for this. I I remember the race.

You know, I'm I'm a big fan of brilliant birdie.

He's such a cool horse. I was happy to see him turn the

tables on trickery who defeated them the time before.

But another horse that I'm fond of sentimental soft spot in my

heart is the 8 Hershey twirling candy.

You know I like the the sibling. He has a sibling named Clyde got

a gun who's a pretty cool allowance horse around here.

Joyful applause is very useful herself and Hershey was my long

shot pick of the day to close the spring summer season and I

got rewarded a huge price. In fact, that was the first time

I ever swept the signature plays at when I was on the set.

So he's always going to be one of my favorites and I think he's

a pretty cool horse himself. But his price is a little low

when you've got other horses and and now you've got me intrigued

with Lagunos with the trouble and especially getting the one

of the best jockeys in the country.

That's the big part too, for sure.

Tony Kalo with us. Tony Kalo 5 on Twitter, by the

way. Go find him over there at

Churchill Downs. A quick pick the closer here.

Who Who could beat girl math in this one?

You know, I thought I was just trying to look at dad and once

again, I'm going to have to get into the replay.

You know, the four horse. I Serafia, I believe, is that

how we say her name? She she possibly could.

You know, I'm going to have to go listen to what Kurt said.

I like I haven't listened, watched the replays yet, but you

know, the dam was pretty productive.

She, you know, she had two wins and five second 5 thirds out of

her ten starts, but she was capable of going a a round of

ground and tenfold was a very nice horse for Steve Asmussen.

That's one of the siblings who made one point $2,000,000.

So I would give that 1A puncher's chance.

And then obviously I want to go watch the replay and I want to

see how close Golden Gamble was. You know, girl Meth had racing

recency and had foundation already in her corner by Golden

Gamble was debuting. And I always think it's

difficult to debut around two turns on dirt.

I think it's easier on turf. I've seen a lot of two turf

debut winners over the years versus the two turn dirt

winners. So Golden Gamble and Sarah FIA,

those are the two that I'm kind of looking at right now.

Mcpeak has one bottomless mimosa, something that I'm

pretty fond of, you know, whether it's that or a Bloody

Mary on a on a nice Sunday when I don't have to work and get to

watch some football. But I know that sweet note

looked sensational winning. That was a good looking winner.

So I'm intrigued by that one a little bit as well.

But you know, girl mascot, she she ran so huge against Claire's

charm that I think we all just assumed, and rightfully so, at

odds on with Tyler on the 27th of October that it was just a

walk in the park. But you know, that's why we run

the races, Louis, right? Yeah, that's why we that's why

we owe it to ourselves to always go searching for some value.

It looks like Louis Saez has more than a puncher's chance to

win the riding title there. I think of this as a really big

positive in the the route forward for Churchill Downs and

its jockey colony, etcetera, that it isn't just dominated by

one guy, even though Tyler is an exceptionally good jockey.

Do you agree with me sort of on that general take?

Yeah, I, I, I would definitely agree with that.

You know, it's kind of like football, you know, I'm not a

Patriot fan. I'm not a Patriot fan.

So it was like, it got old. It got old and it gets old when

the same people, the same humans dominate competition, brings out

the best and all. And I don't think he's ever been

riding better. He's he's so aggressive, he's so

strong. Just watch him finish a race.

Now, granted, he, you know, he's taken full advantage of Tyler's

misfortune this season. Tyler missed a few days and then

he's been injured and then he supposedly was not.

He, you know, came up a little sore again yesterday.

I'm not sure his status for today.

I'm assuming he's going to be back on bounce.

But you know, it is nice. It definitely is nice.

You got to remember Louis I, I did most of my most of my damage

in my career in Northern California.

So it was pretty much before the before the season even started,

the jockey and trainers race were already a foregone

conclusion. Yeah, last one get you out of.

Baze and Jerry Holland or for Yeah, Oh yeah.

Get you out of here on this, you're going to be calling races

again in a few weeks. Scale of scale of one to Tony

Kalo. How excited are you?

Yeah, I mean scale under Tony Kale of.

Course I'm. Excited, I mean, yeah, well,

I'm, I'm excited. You know, it's funny.

It's like one of these things like when when you when you go

call races like, OK, so I I had to do the, you know, the analyst

work from April till the end of June.

So it's like then all of a sudden I got to get back into

horse racing mode and there's just always that little bit of

uncertainty. You're like, jeez, I'm, I know

how to do this. Have I forgotten how to do this?

So then I got back in the booth at Ellis and I've never been

there before. So the good thing is at least I

know what to expect at Turfway. Bad news.

I got my angles down and this and now the, the bad news is

it's just it's, it's, it's tough.

There's twelve horses in every race.

The holiday season's a juggernaut.

The, the angles are difficult. So it's going to take a couple

of a couple of a couple of races a couple of days probably to get

into the groove. And, and they're kind of feeding

me to the wolves early because the second Saturday of the meet

is something new. We have like the synthetic

championship over $1 million, one $1,000,000 in purses.

So I would have liked to seen that maybe like the third or

fourth week where I kind of established a little groove.

But hey, you know what? I'm I'm 56 and I've been doing

it a long time. So they're like, get to it, big

kid. You could just adopt the Ellen

Iverson school of thought. How is practice going to make my

race calls any better? He's Tony Kalo fine event Tony

Kalo 5 on Twitter. He'll be on the on the cycle

cast today out at Churchill and tomorrow and Sunday, of course.

Why are you? Down the step today I I really

actually offered it. Yeah, we have David Levitch and

I guess David was a former walk on basketball player at

Louisville. Anybody knows David Time?

Yeah. So looking forward to to meeting

him. And I've met him once before,

but this will be a little better.

Get to hang out throughout the force of the day.

And yeah, now Joe, I've been, I've been on the set a lot.

Sunday, Monday or Sunday, Wednesday and 3rd.

Yeah. So Joe said, you know what?

Why don't we give you a little bit of a break?

Just come on and get your expert picks all ready for Saturday and

enjoy the day. So that'll be a that'll be nice.

See I. Don't.

I don't need stories public about how nice Joe is.

I don't need that. It's already, I don't like that.

I don't see don't do that. He's the greatest.

He's one of the greatest guys in the world, I'll tell you that.

He's really, really a genuine man, that's for sure.

Very, very, very first class. All right, you've had enough.

Of that, No, no, it's all right. Just I don't want to hear nice

things about Joe. We get it.

The no. Have a great weekend out there,

buddy. I'll be out there Friday for

Clark next week for sure. So we'll we'll see you then.

Sounds good. All right.

Cool. Thanks, John.

There you go. All right.

There you go, Tony. Caitlin over Churchill Downs.