Kevin Kilroy Previews the Indiana Derby

Kevin Kilroy (@trustyourluck) joins to discuss the late sequence at Horseshoe Indianapolis for the 2023 Indiana Derby. Louie Rabaut (@RadioLouie) & Dan Issel (@DanIssel44) host. To close, Louie issues a correction from Thursday's show and podcast.

Full Transcript

All right, so we do have Kevin Killer.

We'll invite him in. Here he is at Trust your Luck on

Twitter. He's the king of KC.

Mo, What else do we want to say about Kevin?

Oh, he writes for First Gen. Sports.

How about that First gensports.com does a A column.

Kevin, I have to say Caitlin Free is a friend of the show and

she on Twitter was very complimentary of the piece.

Except for, as she pointed out, so many of us have horses that

we're just gonna bet on, right? And for her, it was.

You're so silly. But we just have those horses

we're going to bet on. But that column started to pick

up, pick up a little steam if anyone doesn't know what it is.

Essentially it is Kevin looking back at what did we miss that we

didn't bet on a horse over the weekend trying to figure out the

trends that are going on. Kevin, how are you this morning?

Where are you this morning? I'm doing good.

Thanks for having me on though, he doing good.

I'm living a dream, my friend. Where are you this morning?

I'm in Door County, Wisconsin, Baileys Harbor on the Lakeside.

Got my inlaws have a home here so we come up for a week and

have the 4th of July. There's a small town parade that

goes down the Main Street and the kids love it and it's

beautiful. Life is good.

Door County is that little finger that sticks out into Lake

MI. Off the eastern part of

Wisconsin, Will, you're in college.

You should know those things. Our producer today is a young

college student. And so, Dan, did you know that

that was what a Door County is? No.

Oh, you grew up near Chicago. I'm surprised by that.

Okay. Yeah.

No, I did. I didn't I?

I I've rarely got farther north than Lake Geneva.

Oh. Okay.

Yeah, that's a good stopping spot.

What about Michigan, though? People tend to either go into

the Michigan camp or Wisconsin camp from the Chicago area.

I agree. Yeah, we we, my family had had a

cabin when I was in high school on a little tiny lake called

Turtle Lake, and it was more of a fishing You could only have a

wake from like 3:50. So yeah, you could only water

ski 10 to four. Other than that, it was for the

fishermen. But Wisconsin's beautiful.

Yeah, it is. It's it's a surprise, you know,

it's a lot of great people, you know, especially in the summer

when they get, we get lively, you know, the winter,

everybody's kind of turned in and and honory, right.

But the sun is shine and then the days are long and

everybody's up here having a good time.

So Wisconsin really opens up to you.

Well there you go, Kevin Kilroy with us First Gen.

Sports First gensports.com for the stuff that he started to

write there as well and catch him of course on the track feed

of fairgrounds. I'm working track feed today and

tomorrow at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

I've done it before, Kevin, but what are your basic tenants for

doing track feed work? For doing track feed work, like

feeding the horses. No, no, no like working on the

simulcast. I mean, I think it is.

You know you want to look in the camera, Louie.

It's not radio. You want to don't look at the

person you're talking to. Talk to the people.

Make sure you have a shirt on, that kind of stuff.

Put a shirt on. You know, I think being

animated, moving around a little bit is good.

You know, give something people something to look at and then be

concise and, you know, just just pop, just pop.

It's all got to pop. Give out winners, right is a big

part of this. That's the main.

That's the main one. Bingo.

There's that, too. You want to give out some

winter? Yeah, you got some good picks

for today. You got.

You've already gone over. I did.

So I'm doing the early pick five up there today and we have not

gone over them yet. But no, no, you're good.

I think in race 6, the Ravelli horse romps, but I love a six to

one horse in race 5. It's a state bread allowance.

Angela's coming out of a. A win in a maiden special weight

at a faster time than the horse dropping out of the stakes is in

that race. So if you wanted the longer shot

horse, the one in race 5 in Indiana would be my longer play

today. Love it and I hopefully you get

to run into John G Dooley. He's.

Oh, of course, yeah, yeah. We're having dinner with John

tomorrow night, so. Are you OK?

Great. Great.

Great. So we'll do that.

I don't know, Dan, have you spent much time with John

Dooley? I've never met the man.

Oh, how about that? There you go.

There'll be a couple of tall dudes.

How about that? There you go.

Tall guys they could. Could hang out.

I mean, yeah, Dooley is so great.

Yeah, I get to spend time with him down in the fairgrounds in

New Orleans and he, you know, he's he's a man of his spots and

he, he's always got a good spot that he goes to each night.

So you kind of just hop a ride with Dooley and you'll find good

spots throughout New Orleans. He's a good one to follow.

Well, there you go, Kevin. Kevin Kilroy with us at Trust

Your Luck on Twitter. All right, so you're looking at

some of the derbies for this weekend.

Where did you land other you have a piece up right now about

the the Indiana Derby. Obviously the Iowa Derby going

on this weekend as well. Indiana Derby.

Interesting field we get verifying we get raised.

Kane, who has confirmed for Indianapolis this weekend.

Did you land on anybody in particular outside of those two?

Yeah, I'm all about the Calio is thrown here.

The 8 horse in the in the. Yeah, the number eight, I think

8:00 to 1:00 in the morning line there coming out first to read a

bow. A horse that was down and with

me in New Orleans so I got to work at work watch work out and

spend some time with, wrote an article about him.

All that sort of good stuff. He's you know he's poured of

bread been really well intended the whole time that they thought

Kentucky Derby for him. But he's been a project.

He's mentally just a little bit of a nut pretty pretty pretty

loco. But you know in terms of

watching a barn work with with a with a with a crazy colt no

better than the street of O barn they've been so good.

In terms of just letting him go to his own pace and and coach

him around coaching him along, he has the talent always has had

the talent. He started to really figure out

the race just a few back and he got that layoff after that

Louisiana Derby and you can you can draw a line through that

Derby because he broke through the gate, which always, you

know, run through a wall before you run, you know, a mile and

3:16 and you're going to run a little bit slower, right?

And then it was such a horrible pace set up right we had that

King's barns just walk the dog out there so that was a you know

a race that you can kind of draw a line through that comeback

race at Churchill A2 on 3rd raft which is right there with

verifying and that wasn't that was the prep race for this it

was one turn two turns is his jam according to Sharita Bowe

and I think he's going to step forward now he's going to need

some paste to close into. He does sit midpack.

And I mean, I think Horseshoe plays pretty favorably to those

those forward runners also inside draw.

And so he's got a little bit of tough there.

But I don't know what do you guys think?

I think this is going to be a pace meltdown.

I think it's going to be really sharp at the front.

And here I think the one and the three got that rebellion horse

who looked good on the turf act the fool last time and then you

got transect put the blinkers on for that first start.

They're off the layoff. I think they're both going to be

wanting the lead. I think verifying is going to be

in a tough spot either trying to go in front of him, which you

know we saw what happened in the Derby when when that when that

happened. I think he sits better pressing

and they had that wild card. The number six stay in your lane

who's going to be going from Sprint to route.

Doesn't look like he belongs in the race.

Maybe the owner just wants to be in there was a horse that I did

get some some pushes on when he. Debuted there in March

Fairgrounds so there is some talent there, but just hasn't

really been showing up. Maybe an excuse last time

according to my trip notes here. So I think it could be

interesting in in messing things up for verifying.

So I like Kyostro. I'm going to try to be verified.

Try to beat them out of the out of the, out of the money

altogether. Play a Tribec that they go for

go for it all, go for the big score, yeah.

Kevin that that cult the 8th horse for Sherry must be a good

looking cult. They they paid 385,000 for him

in a 2 year old in training sale and he's by upstart that's that.

That might be as much as an upstart can bring right there.

So I like that pic. Yeah, absolutely.

No, David and Gordo knows how to how to pick him out.

He definitely has that has that ability, right, a great record.

And yeah, they they paid a good pretty, pretty for him, you

know, I think. He yeah, I think he's going to

step forward from that last effort.

It's just all about getting that, getting that base set up.

Kevin Kilroy with us here. Honestly, Lou, we're taking you

up until noon. Bobby Vee after us at noon, fast

break Friday and of course first replay three to six.

Love the mixtape today around 5:30 as well.

We're talking Indiana Derby and those races we're having Brad

Cox on after you. What would you ask Brad Cox

today, do you think? I would ask Brad Cox, what are

you going to do with that speed draw on your inside?

Are you going to try to sit right off of it or are you going

to try to get out in front because, you know, verifying has

a sharper pace figures, early pace figures.

But you know, what is this preferred running style?

Is it to sit right off of it or is he can he get bullied on the

lead? I think that would be the big

question just given some insights in terms of how that

the race design is going to be, because I think that's the

interesting part of handicapping this one.

What do you think of Collie Ostro Dan?

Yeah, no, I I I like that. I like that pic.

I I don't know, I I I wish that he had Torres up instead of

Morales. But I I guess that's okay.

I was going to ask you actually, because you mentioned you

mentioned Larry Ravelli, an act of fool who's coming off of the

turf. They they ran here, ran him,

excuse me, in that in that Hawthorne Derby, comes back

here, gets back to to dirt. Larry Ravelli does everything

well, So we're not worried about that.

But he does pick up Orlando Mojica here, who I do think is

an interesting move as far as jockey, but a positive one as

well. I think he's tipping his hand a

little bit here that he thinks this horse has a serious shot.

You and I, Kevin, have talked before about, for example, Kenny

Mcfeek, Gruner's if you see Brian Hernandez Jr. that's it

right? That you know Mendel since March

earlier this year, we thought he was kind of tipping his hand

about who he thought had a real shot in the bluegrass leading

into the Kentucky Derby. Yeah, we should have played a

rattle and roll last week. I mean, I made that mistake of

going smile happy instead of following DJ.

And so there it is. That's a great example.

Actually, Raised Cane was a horse that you were very high on

prior to the Kentucky Derby, didn't run well last time out in

the slop. Is there any concern for you

about Kali Ostro if it is wet in Indianapolis tomorrow?

Let me think here real quick. Do we have any?

No, no performances. On the wet, you know, I mean in

general if I think a horse is in form, I don't care if it's if

it's wet or you know or fast or whatever.

Unless I've seen something to the contrary, right, where I've

seen that just all they just don't want to run on a wet

track. So I I trust the form more than

I do worry about the surface. So I I think he should he should

be good. But you know if it's wet we

might have some scratches so that could that could change

some things up. But no I don't I don't have any

concern about that. Kevin, what about what about the

Oaks is, is the Oaks just a 2 horse race like the morning line

states between taxed and defining purpose or is there

somebody else in there that you might play well?

Remember we were talking last week for the other card there

and on the Stephen Foster day with that Sandra D, that Steve

Margolis horse that I was interested in.

I think it's really curious that he scratched out of that spot

and entered into his oaks, you know, seemingly.

Tougher spot this is, you know, George Messina as part of the

ownership group here. And he does great work with the

horses that he owns and runs the fairgrounds.

Steve Margolis brings his horses along at the right time.

We're going for that second time, going two turns.

We saw some really nice speed for that first effort there.

I think we're going to step forward.

We see that bullet workout. So I'm interested in standard D

I'm also interested in #6 Lily Pooh.

Looking at that Summer Oaks run from the Lily Poo, I think she

looks fantastic. She was running in tight in that

second term, but really bold and making a great move was wide.

Just didn't quite have it to kick home at the end there and

traveled wide throughout. So I think we're stepping

forward at the right time. That's what you got to remember

with these three-year olds is that they're continuing to

improve. They're they're maturing

mentally as well as physically. And I think Lily Pooh, the

number six, is sitting on a good one, but Taxed is hard to deny.

That was a big effort, a nice modest step forward, and I think

we're going to see another good run from the two.

But those are the three that, that I like the best.

The Oaks is interesting because the the Indiana Oaks itself.

Something I love to do, Kevin, is I love to try to figure out

which races are good predictors for success in following races.

So for example, the Florida Derby leading into the Kentucky

Derby or the Santa Anita Derby into the Kentucky.

Derby for example. In a more obvious one, there is

no great. Prep race for the Indiana Oaks,

you know, and that's that's understandable.

But we did have two years ago Sue say shipped in from

California out of that out of the out of summertime Oaks and

she ended up winning the Indiana Derby Interstate Daydream last

year wins the Black Eyed Susan at Pimlico ships in wins the

Indiana Oaks. And so it is it's more about,

you know, so that was with a Flavia and Pratt three years ago

when we had the the weird COVID year.

And the Indiana Oaks was before the Kentucky Oaks, She dares.

The devil actually won. The Indiana Oaks Talk Vov to me

won this race five years ago. So it's a quality race As far as

the Phillies that end up winning it, are you looking for anything

from a previous performance as far as, like, you know, you

mentioned a Lilly Poo coming out of a out of the summertime Oaks.

Is there something else that you might be looking for?

Because for me, she's a toss, which is interesting that you

and I are in different spots on that.

Is there anything else you're looking at?

Because I do think, for example, that that tax coming out of that

Black Eyed Susan, I thought she was so impressive.

Rafa Bejarono is on an absolute tear right now.

That's the horse I would be looking at here.

Yeah, and talking to OR here in Morris.

Talk on the Steve Big show after I mean he's really thinks that

she's going to continue to step forward.

So it it it's like in my pick five I'm singling Kyostro.

So you know I just want to be a little bit more spread here than

just the tax. But if I I wouldn't blame

anybody for for singling her she should she should be informed

and have a good run. But that's what I love about

these three-year old races that you can find value by seeing

that the race they haven't run yet.

You know you're looking at past performances but it's all about

projecting. Forward what they could do in

here And yeah, I really do think Lily Pooh was showing something

there and what do you all think about defining purpose?

I mean I think it was a perfect set up there in the in the

Ashland, it really was. And you know we just haven't

seen anything come out of that race punch bowl and Julie

signing to have it run. So that's kind of.

A little bit of mysterious mysterious in terms of you know,

who did she be. We know those horses had great

form coming into it in the you know going into the oaks.

She was working very sharp in the morning maybe a little bit

too sharp. She was she was really put a lot

forth in the mornings and she was in a hot pace that was a

that was a sick pace there in the oaks.

So she got an excuse but maybe she gets tied up again in

another hot pace. It's it's she she could I mean

if if the price was right on defining purpose.

She could be interesting. I know the morning lines got

8:00 to 5:00 on that one. I'm surprised to see that that

she was made the. Favorite I think that that first

finish line sometimes at Keeneland gives us a false sense

of who these horses are when they have to be in deep stretch

and I think defining purposes that horse I think that I on the

on the other side you see like a malathat win that race win the

Ashland and you knew that she had another two furlongs in her

right that there's a difference there.

I think defining purpose happened to pick off.

Generally finish Line in the Ashland.

Go ahead, Dan. I'm sorry.

Well, she was 20 to one too, let's not forget that.

So that she kind of that kind of she out ran her odds and didn't

back it up with I I don't think a great performance in the Oak.

So I I I think she's a toss for me.

Well, there you go. All right, well, he is, he's

Kevin Kilroy. He is the, the appetizer.

To Brad Cox this morning. So we appreciate him doing that.

We're no, no, I'm making. I'm making a segue.

Hang on, damn. We're going to St.

Elmo in Indianapolis tonight. Have you been to St.

Elmo before? St.

Elmo No, but I know there's a place called Kilroy's in

Indianapolis. You should go.

There. Well, Kilroy's is in Bloomington

and I was there one there to see.

OK, so the reason that exists is because a bunch of of beer guys

like me. Drink at the one in Bloomington.

And then when you graduate, you have to get a job.

And so you move to places like Indianapolis.

And then you still want to drink like you're in Bloomington even

though you can't. And so you go to Kilroy's to

remember what you think are your glory days.

And then you have a bunch of kids and get married and you

realize those weren't your glory days.

The thing to Elmo, I haven't been there, so you're gonna hit

it up. A little steakhouse, Yeah, a

little old school. You know, nothing's changing

there in about 75 years. Kind of steakhouse.

Yeah, it's been there longer than you've been alive.

I mean, I actually have my wife's cousin is from Indy.

I can go ask her. If you do, you need to push on

this place. No, no, no, no, we don't.

We're doing. No, no.

No, we know what we're doing. Like, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we need. We need no push.

I was asking Kevin, because I do.

I see. You know, hey Kev, can you do

the podcast? Oh darn, I'm going to this

restaurant in New Orleans is usually what he says to me.

I'd love to hang out, but I'm busy eating at awesome

restaurants that. Was a nice mosque is with Neil

Pess and that's, that's something that guy Pess.

If you can never go out to eat with Neil Pess and just do it.

Cancel everything and just do it.

He's the man. There you go.

He's got the killer at Trust your luck on Twitter.

What else can people find you have?

You were on a bunch of pods this week.

What were you? What'd you do this week?

What did I do this week? What do I do?

Oh, I've got my my pick 5 plays up on Twin Spires.

So they'll shoot that video out here pretty soon and you can

little bet share action. So they'll be offering you can

buy a piece of that pick five. It's like a $96 pick five

leaning on the 8 obviously. So try to find that then.

Always on edge. I've got my columns up on Twin

Spires Edge so you can find out that stuff.

And if I was on another pod, I totally forget.

But you know that's how it is when you're on vacation. 1st and

on 1st Gen. sports of course too.

With the the articles. He's shooting over our way as

well. Kevin Kill, right?

We appreciate the time man. Talk to you next week.

Thanks guys. Talk to you.

Thanks, Kevin. There you go.

Horse Racing Happy Hour