Brian Nadeau (@Brian_J_Nadeau) joins to talk the late sequence at Gulfstream, the Fla road to the Derby, and the importance of Pegasus Weekend.
Mike Gandolfo (@BigMikeGandolfo) hosts & Louie Rabaut (@RadioLouie) joins.
Brian Nadeau (@Brian_J_Nadeau) joins to talk the late sequence at Gulfstream, the Fla road to the Derby, and the importance of Pegasus Weekend.
Mike Gandolfo (@BigMikeGandolfo) hosts & Louie Rabaut (@RadioLouie) joins.
All right. Welcome to another edition of
the horse racing. Happy hour.
Two weeks in a row, baby. I've made it 2 weeks in a row.
Louie, I'm here. I'm good.
Cheers, my friend. I'm drinking a little brown
water today. How about that?
You know, little little Woodford Double oat.
The only Woodford that I will drink is Woodford Double Oats.
You. See, they came out with the
double double. Did they?
So there's a double. Double.
No, they had, they did that a while ago in one of those
experimental bottles and they. Yeah, so they.
They're releasing it as full bottle now, so that should be
fun. That's a good one.
Sounds good. Nice.
It's good. Double, Double I.
Agree it is good. Yeah, so all about it.
We're here. You know, we're coming off
Pegasus this weekend. We're going to talk about some
Derby preps, Louis. Actually we're this will
probably end up being a little bit of a shorter show, even
though we got Brian Nadeau coming on a little bit to talk
about what's going on out at Gulfstream.
It used to be something that I would go to all the time like
this Holy Bowl weekend used to line up with like winter break
and I would be able to go down. We had a place in Boca.
This is totally a humble brag and then I would just go to the
Holy Bowl. So.
So I kind of missed these weekends in Gulfstream and with
my tarnished silver spoon that I grew up with.
And yeah, so that doesn't sound tarnished.
Actually, now that no. It doesn't sound that at all,
but yes, you don't know. It's hard.
Yeah, I might have to look that, look that word up, There you go
would be, yeah. That's right.
Yeah. But yeah, it's it's a good, good
day. And then Lou will have some
guests on tomorrow on the ESPN show that he does every morning
from 11:50 Eastern. You can, by the way, you can
always live stream Louie if you want to listen to Louie every
day. There's no reason why you're not
listening to Louie every day. I mean, come on, don't you want
my Kentucky basketball takes, people get in here.
The. You're making horse racing most
days. I call them Scale Edwards.
Now, Mike, how do you feel about that?
Well, I mean, is that offensive to scale?
No, you need to be calling him Scale Bradshaw.
Let's get there, isn't it? Yeah, man.
Yeah, I don't think there's any questions.
I said no. I can tell you basketball talk
tonight. You know we can.
Tomorrow I will have Maddie DeSantis.
We don't call him Maddie. He's actually Matthew DeSantis
had failed to met us on Twitter. He'll join at 11/11/20.
We'll talk to our guy Matt Dinnerman about the races in
Oaklawn. So we'll do Naira at 11, we'll
do Oaklawn at 11:20. I'll give a pic for the for the
the Lewis today at the end of this show.
But we're going to be Gulfstream heavy late pick Three Oaks Prep
in the forward gal. We'll talk about that kitten's
joy, which is the three-year old turf race sets us up for the
rest of that turf season on the three-year old side.
And then, of course, we'll get into the Holy Bowl as well.
I need to ask you a serious personal question.
I don't believe you, but go ahead.
How are you handling not being notified every single time a
Connect Colt is in a stakes race?
The Dan Thistle joke, which I appreciate very much.
You know what I eventually figured out with Dan?
We would do the handicapping stuff on Friday.
I could have just had AI sit in for him.
And if I put in the name of the sire and the and the trainer and
nothing else, No distance, no surface, no track, nothing.
No jockey. Things I could have predicted
what Dan Issel was thinking. That's right.
Yeah. We love you, Dan.
We know you're listening, so we know you're not.
No, no chance. No, not at all.
They'll be doing stuff on this show though, coming up soon,
especially with Mike being out. We'll try to get some more Issel
back on the happy hour. How about that?
Yeah, I'm going to be missing the next two weeks, going to do
some traveling, so I'm going to. I'm in California next week, and
it's just not prohibitive for me to be able to hop on the show.
I think I'm still going to be on the airplane, actually, when the
show's going on next week. Oh, how about that?
And I'm doing some taking advantage of you know the boy it
is a is a junior and we got to take advantage of every long
weekend that we had to go on college visits.
So we're we're doing a little Northeast college visit tour the
week after that. So him and I are packing up the
family family car and going to, we're going to, we're going to
pack in like 5 schools over a long weekend.
There you go, man. All right.
Hey, let's get to a replay here, man.
I thought we got one of the more fun finishes to a Pegasus World
Cup we've had in a while last year.
Our collector ran them off their feet and man, Sedor Buscador did
that. Almost did the damn thing this
past weekend as well. But of course, man.
Hey National treasure, get out front.
Stay out front, man. It's a good way to run.
The lane with a quarter of a mile left to go.
Still plenty of holes here in the Pegasus World Cup.
National treasure has come away with the leads.
Senor Bushkador. He's stuck.
Holds him down the center. There's an eighth of a mile to
go and. National Treasure with work to
do. Senor Bushkador take Sam on the
outside. They come past the 8th Pole.
Chucky John on the. Inside, it's still National
Treasure. Oh my God.
Down the center, Senor Bushkador and trying to get a time
National Treasure would not be developed.
All right, 76. And you know, because I was born
in 76, they came in seven, six. I liked it.
So Signor Biscover, by the way, I mean I was, I was very
pleasantly surprised to see him get bet down to where he got bet
down. I mean, what morning line was 20
to one? Yeah, it was too high.
Yeah, it was way too high. And I think.
He was at the ball to one side. Yeah, we're looking at a horse
at set himself up for what I think would be a great campaign
this year in 2020. Older dirt two turn category
thing appears to be on pretty OK footing right now.
I worry of course with some of the Saudi crown heading to the
Saudi, you know, heading to the Saudi.
I worry that, you know, once those horses make that trip to
the Arabian Peninsula, a lot of them don't come back well over
two turns after that. But we'll see.
Look, we're set up for a decent two turn dirt year on the male
side. We take it for granted on the
Philly and Mare side, right? We just do because we just know
they're going to run the top ones at least until they're 5,
something like that. And so we take that for granted.
I don't think we're going to have to worry about that this
year. I think we're actually going to
get some pretty solid you know the Clark, I think it's going to
be really good. I think the Breeders Cup Classic
actually will set up to be a really good betting race.
I'm not sure that there's a dominant male in that group at
the very top that I can count on as far as coming back from the
Arabian Peninsula in top top shaped Saudi crown, white
Abario, any of those kinds of horses.
So it should be a fun year Mike, as we go through trying to
figure out you know does a, you know stadium Bruscador that's
that style at 10 furlongs you add right that was a mile and a
if you go a mile and a quarter to British Cup Classic he's
he's. Winning that race, he's winning
it. Yeah, yeah.
So I think that that really sets up well for a fun season.
And you know he's just, he just keeps on Matern just really
well, you know and you just hope that he doesn't peak early, he
doesn't peak in the spring and that he's able to carry it out
through November because I think he could have a really strong a
strong year. So gets the comes in second.
National Treasure was the the heavy favorite, although he was,
his odds loosened up a little bit.
I think he was a heavier favorite in the morning line,
but of course Flavian on board with the win, he was up front
the entire time, Rd. National treasure, exactly how
he has to be ridden and no surprises there.
And then we get a pretty good long shot with Creepy coming in
3rd. I don't think that was one that
we really and that's that's going from that outside post
position. That's that's one we didn't have
on our radar. I had Skippy Longsake right next
to him as the contender in the race.
They pulled the horse up. Apparently he's OK.
But yeah, no, just Creepy was not one we I had Nimitz class in
that spot. I was hoping from the one that
Nimitz class would get the right trip.
He didn't. It didn't work out for him that
day, but I thought a really fun version of that race coming off
the turn, you didn't know who was going to win.
Give me that all day in two turn races.
Absolutely anything else. From that day, you need to do
Todd Fincher's smaller barn, only like two dozen starts in
January, all together out of his barn.
He's doing an incredible job with St.
Dor Buscador. That horse is in.
Terrific, terrific. Form.
Any other takeaways from Pegasus Day?
Just that it's still a really good day of racing.
You know you could say whatever you want, but the turf racing at
Gulfstream Park, they do a good job and it's I don't want to say
it's an indictment of Churchill Downs, but it is not a good sign
that Gulfstream rebuilt their. They go you know their turf
course that quickly and they're back running those high level
races. Warm heart comes through on the
inside, for example in that in that World Cup Invitational
turf. I just man, it was nice to see
that level of grass racing down in Florida.
Hopefully the folks up here at Churchill Downs will have that
ready by the time we get to that Derby meet.
Yeah, we got to hope for that for sure.
I'm going to make an early 2025 paces prediction.
OK. I'm going to predict that we're
going to be doing the preview show in tuxedos and that we'll
be doing that show live on Gulfstream next year.
Would not hurt my feelings. No, I, you know, let's do it
almost, actually. I saw, you know, Joseph A Banks
was running a special on tuxedos that day.
And I was like, I'm going to just buy one.
So I'm going to buy one just. Get into your office as a
reminder. That we're working for, Yeah,
it's our it's, it's the goal, it's what we're going for.
So hey, when I think, when I think of Clips Awards, I think
horse racing happy. I mean it is what it is.
I think class gold. But I think we're different than
everybody else, right? So.
We're something else here, right?
We are something else, no no doubt about it.
Hey Blue, you were going to ask me a couple weeks ago or maybe
it was last week about the different seasons.
I think we were going to do it on the radio show when I do my
guest spot on Wednesdays and I never got around to that
conversation. So you know we are in Derby prep
season. I do like how the horse racing
season kind of splits up into two different six month segments
and in some ways it's really like it's 24 month segments in a
lot of ways. With the two-month you kind of
run up time. I think that's fair, yeah.
That's fair, yeah. And and you were wondering I
think were you going to ask me if you felt like it the the the
Pegasus and the Saudi races if that kind of over shadow that or
what was what was your question? No, just where do they fit, man,
Right. It's it's such a bizarre time of
year because this is the time of year if you're going to give a
horse time off, you know, you're going to shoot for December and
those, you know, kind of like the cigar mile happens and then
we all go to sleep for a month or whatever.
And, you know, it makes sense, especially in colder climates,
that your horses, you know, would go out and, you know, grow
their coats and hang out and do those things.
I just wonder what those races, you know, with a horse like
Saudi Crown, we'll just use him as an example.
Sure. You know he's going to the
Peninsula. Like is it, is it good for the
sport that instead of shooting for Breeders' Cup glory with
some of these horses, they're aiming for money in, you know,
the Arabian Peninsula? And I know it's an old question
and these kinds of things, but is it good to add a season to
horse racing or is horse racing better when we're concentrated
on the Derby and we're concentrated on Breeders' Cup?
I I really don't know the answer to that.
I think that you can sprinkle in more things, but you know, I
think we used to have those as well.
We've lost some of them. I feel like like Arlington
Million Day was one of those where it was like in the middle
of the summer because it was in Chicago.
The, you know, the weather was a little better for those sorts of
things. Some of those have gone away and
I'm interested if you know, outside obviously Saratoga Del
Mar, you know those places dominate in the summer and and
they're great meets and I and I love them, but is there
something that can fill in that spot?
You know, San Anita's talking about a three-year old race that
they're going to be putting in next September in a stakes
level. Interested to see if that works
out if they can shake up that three-year old schedule a little
bit. The reason that that one makes
sense is you've got the Breeders Cup at Del Mar the next two
years and if you've got a good three-year old he wins over two
turns in that Derby, then just trade up to the Breeders Cup,
right, You're ready to go. You don't have to run in October
then. So that makes sense on their end
of things like how many more of these things can we set up?
And obviously the Saudi stuff, the UAE stuff, is more for older
horses than it is for, say, a Derby contender.
Yeah. And that's that's my point.
Yeah, OK, I I think the ultimate mess with the Derby preps,
right? The Derby preps are over here.
You, those horses want to run a little bit and so it gives them
just just enough to get out there, those older horses to get
out there and and run for some big persons.
And I would actually say that the especially with the two, the
Saudi Cup and the UAE Derby or the UAE, the older horse race,
not the Derby but the I actually think that.
The World Cup. Too right.
The World Cup, yeah, they really are.
Have been important with the Japanese breeders coming around
and and making them more of a force and I think that makes the
that makes the Breeders Cup more interesting when we have an
actual international flair. We talked about it a little bit
last year right before the Breeders Cup.
I'd love to see like we get, you know, we get the Australian
horses, but that'll never happen because the Breeders.
Yeah, their schedule's totally good.
For southern hemisphere yeah but we're it'll I think it actually
opens up for us to have a true Breeders' Cup in the in the fall
because there's a more international race feel with
those with those older horses. So I like it.
I mean I think it takes it allows those horses to go over
to Saudi Arabia over to UAE run their races.
It doesn't people notice but it doesn't really take attention
away from the Derby trail. It actually I think would be a
little bit the the foster doesn't I don't think really
gets impacted by it too much because I think that's another
just it's it's paced out enough for when those horses come back
that the foster if they want to run the foster they can.
So I don't know. I I I think I'm in favor of it
right now the way it is. OK, there you go.
Yeah. Yeah, well, let's let's get into
the the next segment which was the great estates committee.
Are we watching the Derby trail? Louis, you made this point when
you and I are on the radio mainly looking at the the races
that we have come up this weekend and other kind of grade
threes that lead in the grade twos that lead in the grade
ones. Yeah it it's interesting to me.
So I I don't know because I we haven't been at this for 100
years. I I've only really been
following as far as as doing media on horse racing since
2018, but did the Derby Trail influence the greatest stakes
committee or vice versa? Right.
And so I don't know if it's chicken and egg in this case,
but obviously all four prep races this weekend are grade
threes, right? So whether it's in New York or
in Miami, in the Hot Springs or in Arcadia, they're all grade
threes, right? And then they move into higher
rated races as we move along. The fountain of youth, the Grade
2, San Felipe, Grade 2. Gotham, still a grade three.
That Tampa Bay Derby. When we get down the line into
March, right before my birthday, we're going to talk about a
Grade 2 down there, The Louisiana Derby, A grade two,
You know, the only race at the very end that's not a grade one
because the Santa Anita Derby, the Bluegrass, the Florida
Derby, the Arkansas Derby are all grade ones.
Is that Jeff Ruby Stakes? Which is hilarious because we
had a second place finisher out of that race last year and then
we had the winner of the damn thing a couple years ago.
And frankly, since 2012 we've had two winners and a second
place finisher out of that race. And it's still a grade 3, right,
Which is interesting, but you know it's it just seems to be
following that and that's a very logical progression for grade at
stakes, right, for them to be grade threes right now and as
the horses get older for them to be grade ones when we're trying
to qualify in that very last bit for the Kentucky Derby.
So no, it was I just it caught my eye this year.
I think it was something that I just hadn't paid attention to
prior to this because we, you know, I started to watch it a
little bit more because races that I really like, like the
Cigar Mile, because I love where it is on the calendar.
I know that there's at least one more big, older dirt race, you
know, sitting there after the Breeders Cup, you know, excuse
me, Not even after the Breeders Cup and after the Clark, right.
And so after Thanksgiving, getting into that was downgraded
to Grade 2. So it's kind of started to watch
the grading and you know, it always comes out in January.
Oh, this one's this and this one's that.
And and so it's, it's been fun to watch, but I do wonder which
one influenced the other one more.
I just don't know. And then now you know, we're
kind of talking, especially once the horse gets that black type
win, then they just really care about purses, they don't care
about the grade. I you and I agree on that.
I got some pushback. I did flatter a couple like
month and a half ago and and I said, I said that and he said,
oh, I I don't know. I don't know.
I really think that the grade really matters and I it does.
But I think once a horse wins the stakes, man, people start
chasing purses. I mean, you know, we see that
especially with the Phillies and mares around here, right, where
there's a $250,000 listed stakes at Churchill, you're going to
get a field man, right. If there's $300,000 stakes,
you're going to get a field of Kentucky downs, right?
So it's. I think you're right, people.
If there's an opportunity for money, they're going to go get
the. Money.
But of course, with that being said, you would think if they're
really chasing the purses, then why does California racing even
exist? Have you been to Santa Anita?
Yeah. I mean, I've been there, yeah.
Been to Del Mar? I have been to Del Mar.
That's why it exists. I guess so, But those purses
suck, man. You know, they're just not.
Comparatively, they do. I mean, I I I was looking by the
way I was thinking about this. The Oak Lawn card this weekend,
115 GS Maiden Special $140,000 allowance allowance 140 Aiden
115. A crappy starter allowance for
65, which is the same price as a Maiden special in LA. 115 for
Maiden Special, 140 for an allowance, 150 for a steaks, 250
for a steaks, 150 for a steaks, and then 800 for a steaks and
1:40 for an allowance. I mean that's just better money,
right? I mean it's just better.
But you got to, you got to want to be in Hot Springs, AR.
You got to remember how Dinnerman talked about being in
California, man, that's the difference, right?
For people out, you know, people in a certain region of the
country, they just want to be there.
It is. What is?
I hear that. We're going to keep things going
here, see if Brian's ready to go.
I think he's getting situated. All right, we got, we got Brian
Nadeau. Ready to go?
How about that came on, there's that.
The toe ready to go. Camera on that was really Oh.
I got a camera. Hey, guys.
We heard that you were going to go audio only.
How about that? And then you shift, You're like,
oh, these two guys aren't that good looking.
I'm all right. What's up guys?
You know what you get at Gulfstream?
You get the best combination of chest hair and man bun with
Saffy Joseph Junior, and then you get the best soul patch in
the business with Brian. Brian, how are you man?
I'm doing good. Thanks for having me guys.
Yeah, we love to. Happy down here.
He's a, he's a good guy. So yeah, with.
The most Yeah. No.
For sure, a little bit about just like your horse racing
story and kind of how you got involved.
And I think it's always interesting because everyone's
got such a unique answer to this question.
How'd you get involved in horse racing?
Yeah, I grew up about 15 minutes from Saratoga.
So oddly enough, though, I didn't go there until I think I
was 18. I went once, All my friends were
going kind of with their parents and stuff or their dads, and my
parents were just never really doing that kind of thing.
So I found it. I think I was.
I had graduated high school. I found it that summer went
once, never really clicked and then the following year while
while I was in in school, I bet the Derby in 1995 and and
Thunder Gulch won and paid about $52 and that that buys a lot of
draft beer as a as a college person and that kind of just hit
me. And then obviously that was May
and when I got back home in the summer it was just non-stop and
that that was that was kind of it.
And you know, I was just a gambler for a while and then in
2006 I interned with Naira and just kind of got going from
there. Just you'll make.
And so we're going to work. You're not the Mets fan.
Are you excited about the season coming?
Up the the Mets, you said you're breaking up a little bit.
I don't. Know you're a Super 70 shirt and
that ain't a. Yeah, it's it's hard being a
it's hard being a Mets fan, that's for sure.
But we keep the faith. It's a it's it's hard.
Drives me to drink sometimes, but we love it.
We got a good owner now and last year was a big punch in the
face. There's no doubt about it after
a huge 2022. But farm systems kind of stocked
a little bit and we might have to punt this year.
But we're going in the right direction.
I I I think. There you go, the eternal
optimism that's I appreciate you jumping on Brian, Brian and I've
been texting back and forth. We even talked about last week,
but of course the Pegasus, what's that weekend like, man,
that's one actually I haven't gotten to do yet.
Is the Pegasus weekend is that, I mean when you get when you
talk like Florida Derby and those kind of comparisons, how
does it compare to like a Florida Derby Saturday?
It's it's much more upscale, we'll call it, you know,
obviously limited tickets in a much more, how do I say you get
much more of an experience at the Pegasus where the Florida
Derby is, you know open to everyone and and there's a lot
going on and it's phenomenal racing.
You might see a Kentucky Derby winner.
Pegasus is much more of a kind of a a red carpet type of thing
where you get elite entertainment along with the
horse racing. So they they put on a heck of a
show last week. It was jam packed.
It's probably the best weather we've ever had for the Pegasus.
And you know, the racing delivered too.
They bet over 47 million national treasure.
We had the Preakness winner and senior buscador threw it down.
So it was a great way to end it. Warm heart, Group 1 winner, you
know group through and through ends her career in the the
Pegasus World Cup turf. So we were very, very happy with
how everything played out. Who was your favorite?
What was your favorite performance of the weekend?
Was it warm heart slipping through on the Mariel or was it
someone else? You know what I I think it was
national treasure. You know, I don't love him.
I don't hate him but he ran so big in the race.
The horses that were second and third were last and 2nd last at
the pace call and and he was up there chasing a a hellacious
pace and they you know they could have run around 7 times
and senior Buscador was never going by.
I will say this it was really cool to see him win.
I was at fairgrounds when Todd Fincher him run.
Well, excuse me, I was at fairgrounds when Todd Fincher
brought him there and things just did not go right for him
kind of ever since then. It's just a great job that
Todd's done to get him back to, you know, listen, one of the
best handicap horses in the country right now.
So I think both horses acquitted themselves.
Super, super good. That's awesome.
All right, we're going to get into some handicapping.
You ready to do that, Lee? All right, we're going to, we're
going to start with the four gal.
This is an Oaks Prep Grade 37 Furlongs $125,000 purse here.
Of course, this is for three-year old Phillies.
Louis, we'll start with you. Who do you like here?
How about that? Look at me.
I get to go first. I was just going to ask Brian.
You're the king of the Phillies, man.
Look, scalable is in this race. If she runs big, I think she
wins. You know, we talk about
classical class on this show. If she shows up with her class,
I think she's got a real shot. Obviously the local 4, Safi, we
mentioned him earlier is our Harper Rose, the four here, man,
I'm really interested in Nikitis, the five horse here,
daughter of Audible. I think she's one of these
horses that's starting to figure it out.
If you watch go back, watch her at Aqueduct the last time out
under Mandy Franco kind of juggles at the beginning and
then she climbs slowly throughout the race and sort of
figures it out. I'm interested to watch her.
She's been off for a little bit, about two months, training a
pace, and so she's at least no, doesn't have that winter coat on
or anything like that. 5 to 1. You get IRAD, you get Chad.
Is this the kind of horse where she's developing the right way
that she might be the one that jumps up here?
I don't think you're going to get that 5 to 1 number just
because of the connections, Brian, but I think solidly 4 to
1 on this horse, I think she's definitely worth trying.
Yeah, she's my pick. I like her and her at this spot,
too, Louis, because Scalable's nice.
I I wasn't overwhelmed with her last race.
She had to win. She did.
To her credit, she did it pretty easily.
Nobody ran an inch in that race. The other favorite was beating a
football field. And then our our Harper rose,
too. I don't see a lot.
I don't see a lot of give between these two horses.
They want to go. It's 7 furlongs.
That could be a real problem for for for them.
I like the fact that scalable is outside our Harper Rose.
I think she's got a Harper Rose is going to have to step up in
here. I think she's got more questions
than than scalable. She's she's beating up on
inferior competition. She stubbed her toe going two
turns last time and she's inside scalable.
I think that's a problem for her too.
And and you said it Chad's gotten going a little bit of
lady popped with a really nice three-year old on on Thursday
and I think the Barnes turning over a little bit now and I I I
kind of feel like at the end of the day Nikitas is going to be
the the best 7 furlong horse in here and I think that might play
out. I'm.
Interested in your take? Oh, go ahead, bro.
Mike, I'm sorry. No, you got you got quite.
I'll finish it up with mine. So go ahead, just.
Going to ask, you know, I was, I was down there when when Tyler
was just starting out and he was still running in the summers
down there and doing those kinds of things.
Edgar Zayas is a is a board. Nikiti's here.
Is he? Do you think he's the kind of
guy that eventually will take a Tyler type route and move north
during that summer or do you think he's just the Miami guy
just wants to be down there? Well, he's gone around a little
bit, you know, it's more when Saffy ships and things like that
and he's his main guy. Listen, Edgar, we we get to see
him throughout the year, but he can play this game on a national
level. I don't think there's any doubt
about that. He's got his family down here.
Sometimes it's also, you know, even more than just, hey, I want
to go here and ride and I think there's a little more to it than
that. He's got a young family and
things like that. But listen, he's he's world
class and and he's he's standing up in the jocks room.
To anybody down here, it's just a matter of you know, getting
the horses and things like that. But I I do think if if he ever
wants to make a move, you know, you got.
It's tough. We see it every winter.
We've got guys like Leonel Reyes, we've got guys like
Miguel Vasquez. These are these are really good
riders. But you got to get into a barn,
you know, and you got to have a barn that's going to take you
places. Tyler has got Barnes in Kentucky
and it's worked out very well for him.
But you know, Edgard is is his class and and really darn good
through and through. Yeah, the summer.
I just tell people, look for Edgard, you'll be OK to go.
So one of the things that we do on the show, Brian, is we try to
make horse racing approachable and we try to teach better is
kind of what to look for. Maybe some traps.
So there's two horses you all didn't mention that I could see
a better kind of getting tricked into maybe and and not that they
don't have a chance to win because they obviously would.
But one of that being the two horse Fiona's Magic with that
80s speed figure and six furlongs coming off two straight
wins. And then the other one being the
seven, which I'm guessing is Whitewaters Rand, not Witwaters
Rand who's coming off a grade three win, but obviously looks
like it's probably favourites A2 turn race, maybe over A1 turn
race. Well, was on the.
As an 85 straight period. So what, what say you guys about
those two horses? I know they're a little bit of a
layoff. You know the the the Mike Yates
horse is good. She's she's very good.
She's in a tough spot here. That's Fiona's magic.
She beat a good horse last time and she did it on the on the
square. She's good at being inside is a
problem for her. She kind of probably only knows
one way to go. She's going to have to step up.
You know, Mike won races last year with Darth Vader on the
national scene, so he knows what he's doing.
He's a good trainer. This might be a little more than
biting off a little more than she can chew on to the outside.
You know my partner Samantha Perry likes with water, sand in
here and she thinks she can run on dirt.
She's got a lot of class coming down from Woodbine.
She's another horse where seven might you know running in that
two turn race, the Mazarin. She might have some foundation
down here. But you know you kind of
mentioned traps a little bit. Don't you know, this is also
something that that Team Cassie can throw against the wall and
see if it sticks, and if it doesn't they can go back to Wood
Woodbine. They can try the turf and things
like that. So I'm going to fade her a
little bit and make her prove it.
But you know, I don't think I wouldn't fall over if she won
either. Yeah, I think that especially
about the outside horse there with woodwater sand, I I would
say the switch from that Tapeta surface north of the border is a
very different surface than they have at Gulfstream for sure.
And I I would wonder about that. I don't think the honest magic
is out of, out of, necessarily out of the class here.
I think that, you know, you know, despite being, you know,
Saint Patrick's Day of Florida bread, whatever else, like like
Brian said, this is, this is a training group that that has put
up a Darth Vader and other things.
And so it's not as though she can't win here.
I just think it would be. I mean, I think 8 to one's a
very probably very accurate price for what we'll get on
Saturday. The second leg of the late pick
three is the 11th race. This is a mile and a 16th on the
turf. It is the Kittens Joy Grade 3
rates $175,000 Purse. Brian, who did you like in this
one? I like deadpan in here.
He's got to step up. Nobody's crazy fast in here on
whatever figures you you're using.
Deadpan got a trip last time he got kind of AI.
Don't think they tried too hard with him.
Jose Ortiz, I I thought he could have been asked a little more.
Now we switch over to John Velazquez who will probably put
him in the race a little bit more.
He should be a square price. I think he's coming into the
race you know maybe potentially able to run a lifetime best.
I know the big figure last time was with Lasik.
That worries me a little bit but you know Agate Rd.
The two pletchers, Agate Road and Noted are are.
They're fine, don't get me wrong, but they're no great
shakes and they don't lay over this field by any stretch of the
imagination. Noted got an epic meltdown in
the pulpit. The horses that were up front
early totally melted down. It was all closers.
The runner up had a world of trouble.
It was a perfectly time ride by Irad.
But to me, these are horses. You're allowed to fade a little
bit, or you're allowed to try to be, or if nothing else, you're
allowed to spread in this race a little bit.
And that's where I went with Deadpan.
Louis worried about you? You know a horse that he didn't
mention his First World War in here.
This is another Tyler actually we talked about the two in the
last race, Tyler's award on the 6th year First World War for
Brendan Walsh just a son of warfront interested here.
This is a horse going back to the turf as one previously at
Kentucky Downs on the firm go man, It's so hard for me to to
to watch horses leave Kentucky Downs and go other place to try
to figure out if it's going to work out for them.
I'd like this spot for that horse though.
I think if you look back at that grade 2 bourbon at Keeneland at
this distance, grade two last time, 4th place finish, don't
look at that. Look at the amount of lengths
beaten. Only a length and 1/2 was right
there. Tyler knows this course, knows
this horse. I think at 4:00 to 1:00, I think
you'll get every bit of four to one because you're going to have
the Ortiz boys getting all the money thrown at them.
You're going to get the Pletcher name money thrown at him.
I think you're going to get nice value here.
I think you might even get 9:00 to 2:00 on a horse like First
World War and coming out of that Mucho Macho Man.
I don't love surface changes as one of my handicapping tools,
but I think if one is going to make it, it's going to be that
horse. You mentioned top Fletcher.
Top Fletcher, looking to win this race for the third year in
a row, has two big time, you know.
Noted being the the his best shot and nine horse and then a
Gate Rd., the four horse there for Todd Fletcher.
I was going. To ask Brian about a horse in
this race, the one Hammerstein. So you're not going to get blown
away by the speed figures with this horse.
But at Gulfstream, last out brace is Maiden and is coming
back into this race. It was the first attempt over
two turns, first attempt on turf the 141 and change Brian, I
think that's actually potentially a winning time in
this race on Saturday. Does that horse at least have a
chance to maybe be part of the trifecta in this race?
Yeah, he ran well and everything.
Brian Lynch. Brian Lynch has had a just all
of a championship meet. I mean, he's not going to throw
eight horses at you a day, but he was I think 4th in the
trainer stand. He's got fifteen wins.
It's quite remarkable actually. Hammerstein slow, but you know
he drew well. He's going to sit a nice trip.
He's going to be, you know, you don't get Brian at a price and
you know, I put him at, I made him at 15 to one on the morning
line and he should be every bit of that.
It's just it's tough to kind of see him being bet before some of
these other horses. He's going to have to step up.
But as we kind of, you know, as I mentioned when we kind of
started this race, I I don't really care who you like in this
race. Whoever that is is not all that
much faster or even better than than a Hammerstein in here, so I
would expect him to improve. Does he improve enough?
I don't know. But you know, he can certainly
get in the number in here at A at a square price.
Hammerstein's Grand Sire, by the way.
Hit and join. How about that?
There you go, Full circle. How?
About that full circle. Full circle.
There you go. Move on to the the main event of
the evening or of the afternoon. A mile on the 16th. 2 turn rates
on the dirt for the three-year olds.
This is the Holy Bull. The grade 3 Holy Bull.
And listen, we this is a this list of who's won this race.
It's a it's a who's who, right. Why Debario won this two years
ago. Tis the law won this race
audible Irish war crime. O Haman all the way back to
Barbara winning this race in 2006.
You know, good horses come out of this race and I just, I
scratched the surface. There's a lot more outside of
that. So who do we like in this one?
We'll start with you, Brian. Yeah, it's tough to go go past
fierceness. I mean, he might be 1 to 9 in
this race, 2 year old champion. The scary thing about fierceness
too is the only time he's been on on dry land on a fast track
was at the in the Breeders Cup and he just ran off the length
of the stretch. That's really, really.
Scary. You know, clearly this is not a
big deal for the connections, but the the plan is to run here,
skip the fountain of youth, come back in the Florida Derby as a
fresh horse. I I don't.
I don't see much in his path in here.
He's probably going to be one to five maybe 1:00 to 9:00.
I I will say this this is a short stretch finish line race
and what that does is that can carry horses home.
I mean promises fulfilled 1. The fountain of youth.
That's always my example. I mean promise was still
couldn't get two turns in the van in the proper race.
But you wake up off that far turn and you can see the wire
and it's close. So to me this is just a one
punch straight exacta with Hades down on the inside.
He was good last time. Go watch his race.
I know he'd be Florida breads. Big deal.
He was really good. Paco will put him on the lead
and I don't really see much in here that's going to run with
him early. I don't think he can beat a
fierceness even if fierceness is is 80%.
But he might get brave and hang around longer than people think.
And and that's my just seven one right to the hoop for me.
Look, I got to ask Brian. I mean, look, last year we were
having the same conversation about Forte at this time of
year. Right.
Fierceness in his class, you think?
Yeah, I do. Because I think fierceness has
the ability to make his own race, whereas Forte especially.
I mean, we saw it in the Florida Derby and he ran huge, don't get
me wrong, but he he, I don't want to say he was at the mercy
of the pace. That's not fair, but he is.
He didn't have the tactical speed that a fierceness has.
And when you have that kind of running style, you can basically
do anything you want. You can make your own trip.
If he's fortunate enough to advance to a a Florida Derby or
a Kentucky Derby, man that plays really big time because you know
you don't have to worry about traffic as much.
Whereas Forte, we saw it in the Florida Derby, he's got to go,
what, 8-9 wide and revealed that's a problem.
So I think Fierceness has a leg up on him there.
With that being said, he's won run one race at 15 to 1, whereas
Forte on his way to a 2 year old championship on the way to the
fountain of youth on his way to the Florida Derby.
Much more accomplished. Yeah.
So my question for you, I guess, about the pace scenario for this
version of the Holy Bowl. Do you expect it to be Hades on
the front and eventually fierceness will just pass him
and that's your 1/2? Yeah, yeah, he's got to be on
the front. There's no path to victory or or
running well with food. Hades that's not on the front
with an aggressive Paco Lopez the the best you know, Speed
Gate rider I I feel we have down here.
That's got to be the plan. There's other horses that want
to be close. They want to be involved.
They're not as fast though. Right, right.
I agree with you. Otelo's in this race.
I'm really actually interested in this horse won.
The macho man on New Year's Day comes back in this spot.
Obviously that's a one turn mile.
We're going two turns. But a son of curling here, has
he got a shot? Maybe because he's a little bit
more of a late speed. Yeah, I don't like that race at
all. I'm going to play against all
the horses. I'll throw something out at you.
The cash run was run that day for the three-year old Phillies
at a mile too. And I know the complexions of
the races were a little bit different.
The Mucho Macho Man went in one 3776 the.
Cash run. Went 13719.
So the Phillies, you know, essentially outran that.
The Colts by about 3 lengths. I don't want to poo poo Othello.
He won. He came from off the pace.
It was a good effort. There wasn't a lot in there.
I mean, the horses that were in there are 20, but probably, if I
made it more proper 3030 to one in this kind of race, the race
fell apart a little bit as well. He's the kind of horse I'm going
to play against in this spot. Domestic product is in here.
The six horse Tyler aboard is coming out of that money Remsen
that Remsen actually has put up. You know, there's a lot of buzz
out of that race, right people now Door knock rally people are
really high on Sierra Leone, for example, who I imagine we'll see
next month any, any chance that it was just a bad track for
domestic product and he runs a back at a ball in an eighth
tomorrow or Saturday. Excuse me, Ed Gulfstream.
Yeah, I think you can draw a line through it.
I mean, if you want to, you know, if you like him, you're
certainly going to draw a line through it.
He ran very, very well, too back to break his maid.
I wonder though guys if if he needs a proper two turn race,
little bit more of a grinder little bit more of a a a horse
that probably needs a little more distance.
This is so sharp on Saturday if you go back and watch some of
these mile and 16th main track races, it's it's really quick.
I don't, I don't necessarily know if he's quick enough to be
up there. And again you know here's the
other thing too with it, with the Hades too as well.
I'm not saying domestic product or or these horses, they don't
want to win on Saturday. That's not fair, and that's not
right. But you know damn well Hades is
in there to to run big and they got to figure out what they
have. A domestic product is certainly
a a fierceness who probably will win anyway.
But it's a it's a means to an end to get them going on
Saturday. To me, I think it's like with
the Hades, where do we belong? Do we belong on this trail?
And he's going to fire as as good as he can do on Saturday
there. You.
Go. All right, guys.
Well, you mentioned deadpan in the last race.
Who's your favorite deadpan comic?
Either one of you guys go? Do you have a good favorite
Deadpan comic? Mitch Hedberg.
Oh, that's a pretty good one, actually.
Wow, he. Died, right.
He died. Yeah, he did pass away.
Yeah. After him, I'd go Anthony
Jesselman. Know Steve Wright on that
though. I mean the.
Class Steve Wright was good. But he's the GOAT like that's.
Like, but he's the he's the goat of deadpan comics, right?
I mean, you got to be. Yeah, he was an odd bird, right?
Yeah. I had a friend that was named
Steve Wright in college and we always used to bust them up on
that. All right.
Brian man we really appreciate you people can find you on
Twitter your Brian under score J under score Nadeau is that
correct that. Is out there.
And. Find him too, man, I want to say
they put it out the other day. The capital OTB, man that sheet
is so easy to use. It is so well organized.
Brian, kudos to you guys. We've been trying to figure it
out. It looks great.
Yeah, I appreciate it. Those guys are great.
The big sponsor with Gulfstream as well.
So we got a nice little role there.
So appreciate it guys. Nice.
Man, Yeah, no problem. There we go.
All right, We probably. Appreciate you man.
Have a great. Yeah.
Anything you need guys, just hit hit me up.
I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
All right, Bud. Take care, Brian.
Nadeau Just expanding our Rolodex of guests there, Louis.
I'm just happy to have people in the different corners of this
country that follow horse racing.
I just want people to know though that how hard Louie works
for all this. Man, he really you.
You bust your tail for this show and I just really appreciate
you. Oh.
That's nice of you to say. Ryan made that very easy.
That did. Very easy.
He's great. He was good, man.
He's been really good people. Gulf St.
Got some on set for sure, So. They absolutely.
Samantha Perry, he mentioned her.
I I She didn't. Respond to me what?
I'm just kidding. I never reached out.
OK. All right.
All right. Yeah.
It's not in the book. Brian's in the book, anything.
Anything else to kind of wrap up today?
Man, I don't think so. Just a reminder again, if you, I
mean you can listen anywhere, you know, ask your smart speaker
to play ESPN Louisville 11:00, We'll do the naira route. 11's
gonna give a lose pick or what's that?
You gotta give a lose pick or what?
Oh yeah, we do have to talk Robert Williams, but just the,
you know, people can check us out tomorrow for the Naira route
and then for of course for the Arkansas route.
It'd be nice to talk to Matt Dennerman tomorrow of course too
who's absolutely crushing it at Oakland like we thought he
would. And so look man there's a couple
of interesting horses in this spot.
I am. I'm interested to find out in
the Lewis how good the low sale fraturity was.
They're sending Winstock are the you know they're sending
Winstock to it's Arkansas actually which is interesting.
And so I'm I'm interested if if that's you know the horse out of
that group. I mean Kyle Frye is flying in,
Baffert's flying him in for that race, you know to Arkansas.
If Baffert thinks enough of the horse to send him to Arkansas
after the low Sal Fraturity, could the 2nd place finisher in
that race in stronghold, the 7th under Antonio Frasu for Phil
D'amato? Could that be the horse who lost
by 1/2 a length last time be the one that jumps up here Broke his
maiden of course at Churchill in that high level the highest
level of maiden special at Churchill goes out runs in the
Bob Hope finishes second by a billion lengths to Nicos who's
in this race. Winstock though does go a mile
and a 16th in that low sell fraternity.
Nicos hasn't gone two turns yet so if you're going to try to
beat the very very very heavy favorite under Flavia and Brad
here, that would be your opportunity.
I think is with Stronghold, the seven out there, Nicos is gonna
be pretty difficult to be here 6.
What do you make of Wind Me Up? Wind Me Up's a nice horse, but
the the issue there is, and you know this, we've been doing this
show for a while the the Nicos numbers out West are 96 and 97
on speed figures. Out West, those speed figures
are just massive. If you're wind Me up and you're
running fast races and you're under Juan Hernandez, you're
under Ramon Vasquez and you're running in the 80s, I I just in
California, I don't think that holds up.
So that's what I would say about Winegum.
Gotcha. It's gonna end up being a good
grade two Grade 3 horse and. Or or he feels that it's no what
I what I want to say we. Were just talking about very
differently at the Breeders Cup, is all I'm saying, you know. 7
furlong one turn mile kind of horse in California that's just
hard to find, right. And so I just, I wonder you know
if they're just running them in this spot because that's where
the purse money is and and that kind of stuff.
I mean you know, once in a while I'm sure too owners are just
wondering you know, and this is the, the pegram folks, you know,
do we have a Derby horse here just run them in the Lewis,
let's find out. And I I don't think we're in
that time of season, right. It's that time of year where you
find out, hey, is this horse of that quality.
We just talked about it with Brian with horses at Gulfstream.
I think we're going to, I think wind me up is very much in that
category in California. All right, Louis, I want to just
real quick since we're kind of done with the horse racing
stuff. Let the the horse racing fans
out there who don't follow me on Facebook might not know the
stupid decision that I made to to Speaking of.
Stretch out. Seasons Speaking of stretch out
season, this is very legit. But I need, I need people's help
here. OK, so this this is a reason I
was asked, Actually not I was asked to dance be one of the
celebrity dancers for Let's Dance Louisville 2024 on
Father's Day weekend. And this one fundraiser feeds
65,000 people. This one fundraiser does and
what all I'm looking for is I'm looking for 4000 people to give
25 bucks. And if you go to
letsdancelouisville.com you'll see the 2024 dancers.
You'll see my ugly face up there and Mike Gandolfo, you click on
that, you donate under my name. It's a vote for me and we're
trying to you know break some records here and and really help
them feed the hungry and the the hungry population here in
Louisville. And and yeah, just if you if you
can help, that's great. I'm.
I've met my dancer by the way. Louis.
Yeah, you got the best one. They obviously think you stink.
She you know what? I found out that she got to pick
me. So I have AI have a really
important question. OK.
Was the local gas station attendant in Anchorage not
available? The.
Local gas station in Anchorage? No, that's right.
Yeah, we're not. Allowed to They got down to the
bottom of the barrel. We actually have someone who was
a finalist on America's Got Talent.
There's a lot of local dudes, personalities, local chefs, that
kind of stuff. So, you know, so I'm excited to
represent the horse racing world to get out there.
And I just, you know, I want to raise a lot of money.
I don't care if I'm going to have fun with it.
We picked our songs, which, you know, you're going to have to
wait and see what that's all about.
Chrissy, my wife is the the dancer's a redhead.
So Chrissy's like, you know, this redhead Russian is going to
just kick your ass. And that's 100% true.
I go, she we met. And she's like, your sessions
are only going to be 45 minutes long.
I'm like 45 minutes. She's like, I'm going to kick
your ass in 45 minutes. So.
And she will. Yeah.
Let's dance louisville.com. They.
Do it again. Let's Dance louisville.com Find
me on their The 2024 dancers, donate $25 and then share it.
There it is. I'm giving Mark, Mike a hard
time. It's it's a terrific, A terrific
benefit. Good.
Go, go. You should.
Because I'm nominating you next year to do it, so you know.
I don't really dance with redheads.
Is that a thing? You know you don't have to dance
with Irena. You can see what happens.
I know it's a problem. So, John, So John from Chef's
Cut isn't available. Like what's?
Dude, he's there's a real celebrity, right?
You know, get Chris Cook out there or something like that,
so. I heard Brian De Dozed in the
next one. It's the whole thing.
Yeah, yeah, you know, So we just asked.
All right, man. That soul patch is legit.
Should I? Next time we have them on, I'll
shave everything, just leave the soul.
Patch Oh, you won't, you liar. I've had this beard way too long
at this point. Way too long.
All right, TuneIn to Louis tomorrow.
And if not, we'll still release as a pod and.
I serious thanks to Brian in. A couple weeks, Absolutely.
Brian, thanks a lot. This has been, we're going to
pay the tab, we're going to get out here.
This has been the horse racing happy hour.
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