KY Racing Spotlight | Chris Davis & Tony Calo

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bourbonandbeyond.com. Welcome to the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight with Louis Rebeau, presented by the Kentucky HBPA.

Now here's Louis Rebeaux. Welcome back into the Kentucky

racing spotlight with Louis Rebeaux.

I'm Louis Rebeaux in the studios of ESPN Louisville.

So glad that you decided to start your horse racing weekend

with us here on the program. The Kentucky HBPA, KYHBP, a.com,

of course presenting our coverage here as we get into

Ellis Park season, obviously the opening and last weekend, but

certainly starts to pick up here.

Plenty to talk about as far as things at Ellis Park.

So we've got 2 guests for you today.

Trader Chris Davis will join us first.

He'll be in the middle segment of this show today.

Horses like Nikki, 9 doors, you know his barn well.

Tons and tons of starters at Ellis Park.

We hear about coming up in Chicago in a horse racing family

and how he has settled into Kentucky training full time at

Turfway Park. I asked him about Turfway Park

during that interview as well. Everything taped on the

interview side on Wednesday just for reference.

And so it a really, really fun one with Chris.

He was on last summer as part of this program as well.

And I feel like he's one of those guys every time that I get

to talk with him, at least I learned something new about him.

And so I think you'll enjoy that one for sure.

We get into talking about especially and I'm always

fascinated by these kinds of conversations because this is

the stuff very clearly I don't do day in, day out.

I've got shows to prep for and I'm in a studio.

I'm not at the barn every day. I'm not on that training track

every day. And so I asked him about

training at Turfway. Can you tell how a horse is

going to transition well or not to another surface based on

their their training there? That sort of conversation.

Really, really interested in that.

We'll close the show today with Tony Calo.

He calls the races at Ellis, obviously calls them at Turfway

as well on the desk for all the shows at at Churchill Downs as

well. And that's a guy.

You'll hear his story. We've we've talked to him before

on this show as well, but you'll hear his story about where he's

called racist and how much of A dream, frankly, and I'm not

being hyperbole and this isn't me kissing up to anybody, but

just the, the year round employment thing in horse racing

is much rarer than people think. And the number of per diem jobs,

the number of jobs that you get paid for.

Hey, we need you for this Saturday.

Hey, we need you for simulcast for this.

I think people would be surprised at how hard that year

round type of employment is. And so a guy like Tony, you'll

hear his appreciation for the gig that he's got now.

We also talk about some of the challenges of calling races both

at Turfway Park and at Ellis Park, of course, as we shift

down there. But I wanted to start with Ellis

and the conversation around it and how much it has been an

absolute delight watching Ellis Park grow up.

There's no other good way to put it.

We talked last week on Rabo and Co.

You can hear me 11:50 on this air on ESPN 681057 Monday

through Friday. Last Wednesday we did an hour

programming and you can find it here if you're listening on the

podcast with John Hancock trainer down there.

And of course, Dale Romans. And the stories they tell about

Ellis Park are interesting because many of them just simply

don't apply now. Ellis is just in a different

spot than it used to be. Now a guy like John Hancock is

going to hold up and and and extol the virtues of an Ellis

Park. And he should.

It's the summer track. It's the of the flat tracks in

our state, it's the fourth. It's OK.

The least amount of racing, least number of racing dates.

But now in importance, it cannot be overlooked.

A maiden special right now at Saratoga is $100,000.

A maiden special right now in Kentucky is $100,000, and that

includes Ellis Park. I remember talking with Dale

Romans last fall and this came up with Chris.

He said, man, I don't know that I'll need to go to Saratoga next

summer. We heard from Dewayne Lucas

before his passing a similar echoed sentiment.

I'm not going up to New York this year.

And you see those trainers in these races, Vicky Oliver, John

Hancock, running Walsh, Joe Sharp, Mark Cassie, all of them

have a horse in the sixth race on Saturday, for example.

And when you could put those kinds of numbers up, you hear

Chris Davis talk about it. I think it's an underrated thing

that's happening in Kentucky. And yes, we see the purses and

yes, we get excited about them or whatever, and we always talk

about the owner. But man, I hate that we don't

talk about the jock and the jock's agent.

We don't talk about the trainer getting paid out of that money

as well and all of his help, all the people that help out,

whether it's an assistant trainer down to a groom,

whatever it is, hot walk or whatever, I exercise rider,

everybody, they all benefit from those purses as well.

So not only is Ellis become a spot where you've got to start

your two year old, it's become a spot where it's good to work and

that has a lot of value as well. I'm Louie Rabo, you can find me

on socials at Radio Louie. Chris Davis is up next.

He's at Chapter Davis racing on socials if you want to find him

there. And we're presented by the

Kentucky HBPA, KYHBP, a.com. We're Purdue.

We're out here at the studios of ESPN 680 again, where you can

find me 11:50 every weekday, Monday through Friday.

But here's my interview with Chris Davis.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Kentucky. Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and 105.7.

Now here's Louie Rabo. Hi, welcome back in second

segment here on the first summer edition of the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight with Louie Rabo. Of course, I'm Louie Rabo at

Radio Louie on the Socials. We're presented by the Kentucky

HBPA at KYHBPA on the socials and KYHBP a.com for all the

great things going on in the Commonwealth around our great

sport of horse racing. One of those people is Chris

Davis, Trainer Chris Davis down at Ellis Park for the summer, of

course, a mainstay now in the Kentucky server circuit and

second time guest on the spotlight.

How about that, Chris? How are you?

Great, great. Thanks for having me out again.

Yeah, no problem at all. We have shifted to Ellis and all

of the good things that come with the very hot summer in

Western Kentucky. But before we do that Christmas,

we're doing this for an audio medium where I, you know, our

studios are packed today. So I had to have you on my

computer. But you shake your head, how hot

does it get down there? I mean, it's got to be pretty

darn warm. And Henderson?

It gets blistering. I mean, good thing we started a

little bit earlier. Good days are, you know you're

praying for a breeze and try to keep thors as hydrated, as close

as you know, as most or as best as possible, and keeping cold

water on them and yourselves and your grooms, your hot walkers

and everybody involved. You know, it's pretty famous in

media circles how much Jay Privman, who used to be with the

Daily Racing Forum, loves the the pictures and the videos of

the bats when the horses get back to the stable.

I'm a sucker for the horse getting the the hose down right

after a race. Get the thing because you could

just tell how much they freaking love.

That, I mean, not only that if you watch some of the riders, I

mean even like some of the riders, they'll, they'll take

the sponge out of their bucket, take their helmet off and get

them first. You know, summers are hot

everywhere else, particularly because it sits a little bit in

a valley near the river. It just can get stifling at

times. Some days aren't that bad.

You know there's days where it gets so hot when a cool day of

feel like 90, but you know the first thing you know priority

wise is the horse and keeping them as cool as possible.

Do you find that you have horses that run better in hot weather

than run better in cold weather like people do?

Because I'll be honest. Like I like to jog, but I'm

terrible in the winter, I'll be honest.

Yeah, I've found some of the smaller horses handle heat a

little bit better than bigger just kind of in my my tenure,

you know, because it's just kind of less weight to move.

But also it's, it's just the individual.

I mean, there's certain jockeys because they're small, they

just, they can't and they got to reduce they, they can't handle

it. There's some, you know, pretty

famous jockeys that just have a very, really hard time in heat.

So it's it's it's a case of case scenario.

Yeah, Chris Davis with us. Find him your handle online

chapter Davis Racing. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah, there you go.

Go find him on Twitter as well. Of course, you can follow the

HPA at KYHBP a.com. I always ask people to share

their origin story, how they got crazy enough to become a

trainer. How did Chris Davis get into

this crazy job? Well, it's kind of an addictive

lifestyle to be fair. I grew up in it.

My dad worked on the starting gate in the Chicagoland for 30

plus years. My mom trained in the Midwest

for a little bit over that 35 years, give or take.

And so from a young age, we just grew up on the backside, you

know, Arlington Sportsman's Hawthorne, you know, in the late

80s, nineties, the early 2000s. And, you know, after college it

just kind of became, you know, what do I really want to do?

And horse racing. I found that I could make a

living doing it and do what I love and be able to travel and

meet a lot of cool people and, you know, do what we really are

passionate about. It's a, it's a results business.

Last year was results wise excellent for you Chris.

And it appears by your numbers at least that you are on a very

similar path this year. Is there something that's

changed the last two years? And I asked that because one of

my favorite questions for trainers is always what matters

more, your training methods or the horses?

I've yet to get a single trainer say it's their training methods.

But yeah, I was going to say, is it just better, better horses

hanging out with you or is there something, you know, are you

placing them better? What's going on there?

A combination of everything really to be fair.

Like this is my second full year stable to Turfway.

Now statistically, I did really well when I was stable at

Arlington on the synthetic and shipping all over the country

running on dirt. And I found going back to

training on synthetic and racing on dirt, I've just excelled

finding the horses that handle the dirt and Churchill,

especially Keeneland as well, that it's just overall snowball

effect. And after, you know, this is my

what, the third full year back in Kentucky since Arlington's

closed? It was a learning curve the

first year, you know, what you thought could win a maiden

special Aiden maybe in Chicago or somewhere else, Indiana.

You're not going to win a maiden special in Kentucky.

You just have to be realistic. If you're going to race in, in

Churchill, Keeneland, Ellis, even Turfways, it's, you know,

very competitive. You're going to have a certain,

you know, kind of caliber of horse versus what you might find

somewhere at kind of a lesser circuit.

And then, you know, I kind of, I won a bunch of races in Chicago

with horses that if we were stabled in Kentucky, I would

have a really hard time winning with.

So as you know, we've picked up obviously placing the horses

better and, and you know, a slight increase of just better

quality over the last few years, which is what we want to do.

We want to trend upwards, you know, day-to-day, month to

month, year to year, and try to find the better horses, the

quality horses to win, you know, the races on Saturdays.

You mentioned Churchill and Keeneland and Turfway.

Obviously Ellis falls into that category now with the maiden

specials hitting $100,000 this year, Chris.

And you know, it's interesting, I was with Dale Romans at

Kentucky Downs last fall, end of summer, I guess if you want to.

He made an off comment and was off air the whole thing and he

said something like, you know, they're opening another

facility. I'm not sure I'm going to need

to go up to Saratoga this year. And he just said it so casually

and then he was right and here we are.

Obviously we're running for the same money and all those things.

I know that helps your bottom line as far as training and your

percentages and all of those things.

But does it also affect at Ellis like you talked about with a

Churchill or Keeneland or what have you, how good you have to

have of a horse to even win a made special at Ellis now?

I mean, it's, it's, it's ridiculous.

I mean, if you look at back I ran a horse named Mackenzie St.

You know, one other than straight 3 year olds.

Mackenzie St's grade one, grade two, grade three placed running

in California against Citizen Bowl.

Madacat Rd. Barnes and he wasn't even the

favorite coming off, you know, a little bit of a layoff.

He was 7 to 1 and ran 2nd and had to run.

They almost brought the track record.

They went 120 2/5 or something. If you would have tell if you're

going to tell somebody hey in Kentucky, you're going to have

to rub a run a sub 120 for 7/8 of a mile or 3/4 and one O 8

flat to win a one other then and not it not a great at stake, not

a lifted stake, not a stake, just a first level allowance

race. I would tell you you're crazy.

You know, walking over. I thought we had the nuts and

you know, Jimmy DeVito got one in on me.

But like I said, my horses, he'll come back and run better.

But just the quality of horse that you'll catch in some of

these first level allowance races.

I mean these three three-year old allowance races, even the

first level ones are basically what you'd see in a grade two,

grade 3 anywhere else in the country.

So you really got to have your running shoes on when you when

you show up. It's fascinating because hims in

that race, Faust is in that race.

Of course big boat wins it. I mean, you're talking about in

many circuits and I agree with you by the way, in many circuits

that's that's a stakes race and of course it is.

Now to be fair person Churchill, it's like a stakes race.

That's what it is that way too, right.

I mean, frankly, you get it to the allowance level.

You were talking 102 in Ellis. That's a stakes race.

That's a grade 3 in California. I mean, and that, and that's

what's really kind of made the, you know, back in the day, if

you had a horse running 8590 buyer first time out, you'd

never see that that horse in allowance race, they go straight

to stakes. Now you're catching them in

allowance races and you just sit there and go, well, maybe I'll

get it next time. You know, hopefully we can

improve from this start, come out of it good, learn a little

bit and you know, go forward to the next one.

But you know, it just seems like the last few straight 3 old

allowance races between Churchill and Ellis, they've

been grade threes all day long without the grading.

You, you had horses all over the place this past weekend,

Horseshoe Ellis over at Prairie Meadows, as well as the big days

were all over the place. I wanted to ask you, you know,

you mentioned being based at Turfway Park and how just, you

know, generally excellent that's been for the frankly, for the

circuit to have that spot available 12 months a year.

Do you think of, of, of Horseshoe almost as an extension

of the Kentucky circuit a spot? Because I see frankly where you

where you place your horse. And you mentioned it earlier in

this interview. Hey, if I've got one that can

win at a maiden special level, but maybe not at a Churchill or

maybe not in a Keeneland, what have you, maybe I'll ship up to

Indy. I also see it on the on the

claiming level, frankly, for so many trainers, just the what's

available, the different climbing levels, more races on

the turf for claiming type horses.

Is that do you see them sort of as an extension that way?

Yeah, I mean, Indiana is not a not an easier spot necessarily

really go to considering the money that you're running for.

Because so many of us will go up there with specially like

conditioned grass horses or even just a little bit lesser, you

know, maidens, horses that might run third, fourth in a maiden at

Churchill might pop up there just to get a win, especially

with Phillies, you know, owners and these breeding farms will

use a place like even Belterra to be, you know, extreme

Belterra and Indiana to try to you can catch a really tough

maiden Philly, just because these people want to just break

their maidens and show a winner on the age.

So yeah, we use it, but it's not it's not a place where you every

time you walk over shipping from Kentucky that you're guaranteed

to win, especially, you know, that track plays to certain

types of horses and, you know, you might just get not catch the

bias that day. And, you know, there's no really

easy place in the in the racing world to go racing where you

just walk over and expect to win.

But yeah, you know, we use, we use me personally, I use Indiana

for those conditioned grass races that you just can't find

at Churchill or Kingman. You know, those non 2 for 20s,

non 2 for 30s, even the 12 fives.

Like you're not going to find those kind of races in Kentucky.

They just don't want those kind of horses here.

And they're all useful. And just because they can't run

here doesn't mean they can't run somewhere else.

Chris Davis with us, trainer down at Ellis Park currently, of

course, here on the Kentucky circuit.

We're seeing, you know, at Ellis and we mentioned the purses and

different things. We also have that relationship

between Ellis and Kentucky Downs, which has been really,

really positive both for the movement of money from and

frankly, I think we take for granted in this state, different

entities. They're not owned by the same

people, right? And the fact that that money is

staying in state and doing what it does for purses and different

things, I think is really excellent.

But also that preview day, do you find yourself at all?

Because look, the National Derby this year.

Three and a half million bucks, Chris.

It just is right. And I expect at some point that

purse to be the same as the Kentucky Derby, which is a

remarkable thing to say out loud, but here we are.

Do you find yourself ever scheduling backwards from

Kentucky Dallas? Yeah, I mean, obviously, you

know, I missed out on a $2,000,000 race last year.

The Music City with Nikki 9 Doors, who was a really good 3

year old last year, won the pee patch, but I missed out on that

race because she wasn't great at 6th place.

So you kind of have to use that in the back of your mind that if

you have a horse that you are targeting, even one of these

stake races for, you know, your horses, you better have graded

earnings to get there. So even if you're not good

enough to win a grade one, grade two, grade three, you're better

off taking a chance, you know, early in the year in those

races, pray that you run second, third, get a piece of it and get

that graded money because that way it moves higher up on the

list in terms of preference. Because I thought I had one of

the better three-year old Phillies sprinting on the grass

last year and I was like 19th on the list to try to get in.

And these horses were beating me that had graded money from 2

year olds but hadn't won a race since they were two.

So it wasn't, it's not like a yearly preference.

It just says total preference, graded stake earnings go on.

So these horses that were running in, you know, grade

threes on the dirt as 2 year olds and then transition to

three and still really haven't jumped up and done anything.

They got preference over my field.

He was a stake winner on the year.

So yeah, you have to take that into consideration.

Any time that you're going to try to run in stake races and

even in the allowance races over there, you just got to pray the

gods you have turf earnings and can get in or have a date to get

in. You got to have your papers

there. Or that they were sold in a

Keeneland sale in a restricted, whatever kind of environment,

that kind of thing. And no guarantee that you'll

just have those falling out of your barn.

But the, the Ellis into Kentucky Downs thing, obviously we're

getting away from the, you know, the big stages of a Churchill or

a, or a Keeneland, what have you.

Do you like this time of year? Do you kind of like that?

It's more just about the horse racing rather than just the, you

know, and I don't want to put down what happens at Churchill

on a Wednesday or something like that because that's not, you

know, plenty of good horses running for 20,000 or whatever

it is. But, you know, just do you like

this time of year? It's a little out in the

country. It's a little quieter.

This is This is the fun time of year.

This is when you have the options of having, you know,

10/11/12 race tracks running, you know, 14 race tracks running

on a weekend where you know, especially these, you know,

lower level stake races or you know, where you can kind of

nitpick where you really want to go.

You know, just much more options if you're willing to ship, ship

around. You know, like you said earlier,

we were at Indiana Prairie Meadows and Ellis this year or

last weekend. And just with the options to be

able to ship around, you know, hopefully you have good results.

You've got one in this weekend in a maiden in Zeus's Echo.

It's a a son of by my standards. Anything you that we should know

about him before he is this his debut?

No, second time starting he ran. He ran deceptively well at Ellis

or at Churchill. Sorry.

First time out, sprinted 5/8 on the grass.

They went quick that day. Obviously you can't take

anything away from Wesley's runner.

I think he had like a 30 foot stride.

Like it was remarkable to watch him run.

He was stupid impressive. My horse ran really green, broke

well, set a good trip. Horses kind of got around him

turning for home and he kind of cocked his head, kind of logged

out a little bit, kind of looked around and at the 16th pole he

realized that, oh, we got to go forward and within a couple

jumps he was on heels, galloping out, galloped out, you know,

really well, Machado was real happy with him.

He's back on bored. I'm going to add blinkers to

him. I broke in today, actually blew

out, you know, pretty sharp little quarter 3/8 from the

gates. Not sure if they'll publish it

or not, but even like 35 and 3:35 and 4:00 from the gate with

the blinkers on by himself. So hopefully, you know, the turf

over there at Ellis can be extremely speed bias.

You got to be quick away from the gate.

If he shows, you know, kind of what he showed last time with a

better draw and the blinkers on, I think he's going to run an

improved race. And, you know, I think they got

him 15 to 1. I personally, I don't think he

should be 15 to one in that race.

But you know, hey, it might be better off for us.

You talk about that work this morning.

I use the term blowout. I mean, we're talking about, you

know, an aggressive move out of the gate.

Is that a normal practice for Chris Davis or did is this jump

dead that he just needed? Not really.

We kind of had a circumstance in the work last week where he kind

of went a little bit slower. 51 and change a little bit of rider

error but some incidents on the racetrack where they had to pull

up during the work and then you know just I didn't get a lot out

of it. But with the blinkers on, you

know sometimes, you know with the second time starter they

might not break great if you put blinkers on they might kind of

look at the gate and suck back right when they open so I'd like

to break him at least one time with blinkers on just the way

there's no surprises come race day.

So we did, you know, I told my rider go, you know, a decent

little quarter, but he galloped out, you know, really, really

well. And, you know, I think he's

fairly talented and we'll see kind of just where he puts us.

Stonehenge in an allowance this weekend.

He's running for $100,000. Chris.

And what can we, what should we know about Stonehenge?

Well, I'm probably going to lean to scratching him and wait for a

straight 3 year old race. The race came up a little bit

saltier than what I thought, but he was another one that I wasn't

really over the moon with. The ride that we got in the last

start of the horse broke on top and you know, for whatever

reason we decided to take back and then third hit him in the

face and he just didn't run a jump.

But he he actually is Mackenzie St's work partner and he

actually can almost out work Mackenzie.

Obviously Mackenzie came back to run well and his form kind of

speech for himself. So between you, me and everybody

who's listening Stonehenge, I think you know, he's going to be

worth a bet back in his next start.

I just think, you know, we just had a bad day the other day with

a bad ride and hopefully we'll we'll turn the page and get him

again. Straight 3 year olds and I even

like to route him a little bit farther.

He's a big, good looking Gray horse that you know, when you

watch him train, he looks like he wants to go all day.

So hopefully we can get maybe one of those kind of weird turn

mile races, straight 3 year olds at Ellis for him.

I mean, there's plenty of three-year olds here.

I would have a hard time imagining that race doesn't go.

But again, that's subject to the racing secretary and what we're

allowed to do. By the way, if you go back in

the previous archives of this show, I talked with Bailey, our

racing secretary down there a couple of weeks ago after he got

the job, and we went through what his expectations were and

what he was hoping to do. You're based at Turfway Park.

Do the horses like it more? Do the horsemen like Turfway

Park more? I think combination of both

really. I mean, I mean, obviously we do

a lot of shipping, which is just it's tough on us.

I mean, last like for me last week I did almost 3000 miles in

my car going from Turfway, Lexington, you know, to Ellis to

Prairie Meadows to Indiana Grand to Ellis, back to Lexington,

back to Turfway. So it's, it's a lot of shipping.

But from what I found, the horses are are staying sounder

historically for me. Then they were training, you

know, conventionally on the dirt and that's kind of helped my

numbers kind of multiply where I went from, you know, a pretty

minimal number after I left Arlington to now I've got a

string about 50 that, you know, I'm not sending them out as fast

as I was, you know, training on dirt and whether that's a

testament to whether how I train on the synthetic or just

Turfways track itself. But yeah, overall we're really

happy with Turfway. We're I'm very fortunate that

it's open. How different is that surface

from what you don't than what they had in Arlington?

I know they're both listed as synthetic but like I can watch a

race at Golden Gate. No, it wasn't the same as what

was happening at Woodbine for. Example, I mean, Arlington,

Arlington was it was a little deeper than Turfway.

It was a lot older, but still it was an extremely safe surface

that horses get deceptively fit over.

Like they might work, they might look like they work easy over

it. But I've, what I've found is

every time I took a horse from anywhere in the country and they

could be running fit. As soon as I work, I'm one time

over that track, they come back tired, which means to tell me

they're working different muscles than what they're used

to working on the dirt. And they're when they leave

here, they're fit, they're ready to run.

And I think everybody that races up here from, you know, Turfway

to Churchill, they find that they have pretty stellar

results, especially on the dirt. For whatever reason, the horses

just seem to get over it easier. I was going to ask you about

that. Do you get a sense that, So

let's say you're training a a young horse is going to go off

for the first time and they're training a turfway.

Are you gleaning something from a work over the synthetic

deciding whether let's say it's not turfway season, obviously

for this purpose you're going to LS dirt or turf and they're

training a turfway. Do you see something during

those works that says, you know, we got to try the turf first or

we got to try it or is it, is it not necessarily just the surface

doing that? You know, we do a lot of

research. I'll look at pedigrees, I'll

look at, you know, the dams, the sires, you know, kind of

siblings to kind of have an idea.

But ultimately, if they're if they look like they're working

well and they're doing well and there's nothing that screams

turf about them, I'm going to run them on the dirt.

And if not, then we'll try to grasp first time.

You know, I don't really have an issue doing either when from

just necessarily the way they work, it might be a little bit

more action, they might move a little bit more turfy or a

little bit more dirt. But to me, as long as they come

back safe and sound, which they normally do, especially on this

track, then I can just kind of use some research, some

pedigrees, you know, some sometimes, you know, I have

horses that are down at the training center.

A lot of these two year olds quicksand job boss, you know,

both maiden winners this year at Churchill there with a buddy of

mine named Danny Weir. And guess what starts up a lot

of my 2 year olds for me and he'll work them up to like

quarter 3 eights and he'll kind of give me an instance like,

hey, I really think this one will kind of handle the dirt.

This one probably more turf, but you know, and you get more of a

a line kind of based off that too, because the training center

tracks deep. So if they handle that track

early on, they'll probably handle a dirt course just fine.

Last one, we'll get you out of here.

Nikki. 9 doors. I'm asking about her because my

station manager here is married to a woman named Nikki.

Same spelling. How's she doing?

She's doing great. Didn't didn't go our way last

time. Obviously she's a she's a Philly

where I told I read, just do me a favor and just try to get her

either make the lead or get her outside.

She will not run inside of horses.

And that's just one of her quirks.

And that's things that handicappers don't necessarily

always, you know, think about when a horse race is they're not

cars, they're not all the same constitution mentally wise.

They're not all going to run the same act the same everyday.

You know, trips win races for a lot of these horses.

If they get things their own way and the way they want it to

unfold for them, they're probably going to run their best

race. We I don't think we got the most

out of her in that last race at Churchill.

I think she wanted to be outside and even I read asked me after

the race where I was going to run her next because he wanted

to stay on or he like threw that bunch and he even said he goes,

man, she like you said, she didn't want to be in there, but

I had to go. I couldn't get out and she just

wouldn't do it. And when I showed her the

outside on the gallop out, she took off on me.

So hopefully we'll go back to Ellis on there's a race, I think

below the 29th, give or take, and she'll go, you know, back to

5 1/2 where she won a steak race there last year.

She won the Pee Bash. So we know she likes that turf

course. And hopefully we'll get a little

bit better trip and you know, it'll, it'll go our way.

And you know, went in from Churchill Ellis.

Obviously it's a little bit different than money, but we're

still running for 100 and 2003 thousand for allowance races.

So it's no, it's no kick in the pants to to have to go to Ellis

to win an allowance race. Is she a potential at Kentucky

Downs if she runs well? She is.

I mean, if we can get her, get her in if she she runs well, you

know, in this race we'll try to find a little grade three, grade

24, you know, anywhere in the country to try to get her.

You know, that greatest takes place like we discussed earlier

and then try to aim for, you know, one of those races at

Kentucky Downs. I mean, even if it has to be a

wide open allowance race, then we can do that for, you know,

200,000. But, you know, I'd really would

like to get her some of that's money at Kentucky down for the

state's company because she's a horse that I do think physically

would handle that turf course just fine.

But again, you don't know until they run over it.

But you got to be in the race to run over it.

So we got to try to do everything we can to get her,

you know, into a race there. I'm talking to Tony Kalo next.

Say something nice about Tony Kalo.

Tony does a great job. Obviously Turfway and Churchill.

I mean, obviously he's picking good horses and he's he's not

far off. If he posts something online I

I'd. Listen to him.

Be the better. That's right.

Yeah, that's how that works. That's exactly right.

I the standing room only. He gets to do that here in

Kentucky. You know, Turfway Ellis.

He gets to standing room only. Yeah, we're looking down to.

He's Chris Davis. Fifty horses, man.

He's standing room only himself at Chapter Davis Racing.

Go find him on proposals that way.

Maybe we'll see Nikki 9 doors soon.

Chris, thank you very much. We'll talk to you.

Thanks. For having me on.

No problem at all. There you go.

Chris Davis with us trainer down there at Ellis Park.

Bunch of entries this weekend to watch a couple of Brian

Hernandez junior later in the weekend there as well.

Chapter Davis Racing, go find him there.

As I mentioned, we'll talk to Tony Kalo next.

He calls the races at Ellis Park and had a hell of a spring up

there at Churchill Downs picking the ponies.

We'll pick his brain about all of it.

Next on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight with Louis Rabo.

Look, we're presented by the Kentucky HPPAKYHBP a.com.

Go check them out for all of their great resources at the

website. Tony Kalow.

We talk to him next. Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and 105.7.

Now here's Louis Rabeau. Hi, Welcome back to the final

segment on a 711 edition of the Kentucky Racing Spotlight with

Louis Ribow. I am Louis Ribow hanging out

with you in the studios of ESPN Louisville.

Thanks to Chris Davis for joining us in the previous

segment. We'll watch his numerous entries

in the gate of Ellis Park this coming weekend.

And the man who will call those races is now on the line with

us. His name is Tony Kalo.

You can find him at Totally Kalo 5 on the socials and comes out

of the five is appropriate since you hit every pick five at

Churchill's. They should try to go.

Yeah, we had a good meet, Churchill.

It was good. It was busy, very busy from the

beginning. You know that with the Derby

work show and then concluding with five days a week that that

gets a, that gets a little tough.

It's a lot for sure and you wear different hats during the

meeting as well. You know what you call 3 races

this year or something like? That did four, yeah, 4 I

believe. Obviously you're on the set,

you're giving out free money to the people, which is great.

But you talked about those Derby work shows.

I want to start there. I love what that has turned

into. I think those shows are so well

done, They're so well produced. Obviously all of you on the set,

good camaraderie and different things there, but good eye for

what's going on as well. Have you been surprised with how

much you enjoy those shows? Yeah, those, you know, last year

was my first year and I was kind of a little nervous.

I was like the Derby work show. That could be, that could be a

different animal than I'm used to.

And you know, we last year we didn't get to really do a full

show. We had some issues going on.

I don't really know what they all were.

Somehow they just weren't able to produce the whole show for

the hour and a half like they normally do or the hour plus.

So we had a little abbreviated version which gave me a good

little warm up. So for this year I was kind of

ready and tied on, and last year I had a lot on my plate.

This year I was able to really follow the Phillies and the

Colts and, you know, the boys leading up to the Oaks and the

Derby. So I felt like, you know, when I

was on air, I was ready to talk about every horse.

I always ask people when they're on this show and you've you've

been on with me several times at the station once on this show

and your history and horse racing to get to this moment to

be a full time guy in Kentucky and all those things growing up

East Bay back in California, all that stuff calling races in at

Finger Lakes at different places like that.

Now that you've settled in and you know, you mentioned second

year during the doing the Derby works, excuse me now a second

year calling both the Turfway and at Ellis Park.

Does it feel like home? Are you home here in the

Commonwealth now? Yeah, I I would say I'm home,

that's for sure. It's hopefully it's going to be

my my end home. I don't, I don't want to check

out any time soon, so hopefully I'll be, you know, a little bit

down the road. But yeah, I've been all over the

country, as you've mentioned, called races at some smaller

venues for, you know, many years.

Northern Cal was fairly, you know, I felt Northern Cal was

like good. It was like it was California.

So everybody kind of has their eyes on California.

Makes sense. You know, when it gets a little

later on the East Coast, it's still got some action in

northern and southern county. We had a good product in the Bay

Area. We get a lot of good California,

LA horses come into town and, and, but no, I'm, I'm, I'm very

happy, you know that. And back to Ellis, you had your

first weekend calling back this year.

Do you forget how big that place is till you get back there every

year? It's a tough, it's not an easy

race track to call. It's it's a big race track.

And you know, the booth has, it's got, there's this table up

there. The thing about the booth, have

you been in the booth before, Louis?

It's it's got like a little, it's got like a a little ledge.

Like I don't know how to describe it.

You take like a little step up to to be in the area where you

call the races. So you're always got to be

conscientious. You don't take too many steps

backwards. Otherwise you're going to go

tumbling. And it's got a three sided

windows and it just kind of gives you a little Vertigo

effect. It's like there's it's, it's a

it's. And then to make it matters

worse, it's a far, it's a long ways on the turn.

What I'm noticing, the turf races, it's very difficult from

the five sixteenths to about the quarter pole, little past the

quarter pole until they bend to see a horse in the two paths.

So when those horses are making coveted inside runs looking for

somewhere to go, they're not easy to find.

There was a horse who took a bad step the other day and you know,

thankfully the horse was okay. Maybe just some hind end issues,

nothing catastrophic. Somebody ripped me and you a

hole on Twitter saying how I how could I miss that horse?

Well, I was going through my progressions and when I got back

there, that horse was in the two path.

I couldn't see it and I even stepped up with a nice pair of

binoculars for Turfway. You know, I bought some nice

Canon stabilizers, about $13150. They were worth more than my 4

runner I had up until recently. But I was like OK, cool, I'm

going to get these new binoculars.

I'm going to be ready to rock'n'roll you.

Still, I still have trouble when those horses are making that

little inside run or they're backpedaling just a bit in that

two path. You you can't see them.

Interesting. Yeah, they.

Yeah, it's a long way the way, Louis.

No, I did it. The other part too is, you know,

you're called the races at night at Turfway and sometimes at dusk

and then it's night time and it could be pitch black up there,

especially when we get to January and those kinds of times

of year. And then you're out at Ellis and

it's 100°, it's all sunny and all those things.

Is it just, is it, are you able to sort of just settle in and

OK, I'm at Ellis, I'm doing that for eight weeks or whatever.

I'm at Turfway, I'm doing this for three months, whatever.

Are you able to do that? Or is there part of your brain

just because of muscle memories? Like, OK, this is this is not

what I've been doing. You know the last couple.

It's like, I mean, once you get through the first couple races,

it's you're all right. You know, I did notice last year

there were some moments in the day a little bit later in the

day on the turf racing that sometimes those light blue silks

might come across as a little different color.

I believe there was one on the Fairgrounds preview day, or not

Fairgrounds, the Kentucky Downs Dueling Grounds preview Day,

whatever they call it. There was a horse that I kind of

misidentified because her silks didn't look the way they did

with the sudden reflect them through my binoculars and.

So you just got to make a couple of adjustments, but what you

really have to you just have to be conscientious and try to

remember where every horse is during every part of the race

call. And that can kind of help you

like, Hey, I remember that horse was out there 3 deep when I was

through them last time. That'll get, you know, so I've

been doing it a long time. I I kind of have my little ways

of getting through moments. Yeah, you, you mentioned last

year when we talked about this, Michael Rona saying, yo, if you

ever get lost, just go back to the top, right?

Just start over. Just go back to the top.

You'll figure it out and luckily for for him, that's probably not

usually an issue with seven and eight horse fields at La Salle

during the the Orange County meeting.

For you though, with 12 horses at Turfway and Ellis, I'm sure

go back to the top. What's all pretty helpful.

It is helpful. He taught me that back in 92.

It was probably the best advice that you know anyone could give

and I've given that it I've given that advice to fellow

announcers that have asked for a little bit of help.

Hey, if you ever encounter trouble, get back to the front

and try to re establish a rhythm.

I are you impressed that I remembered that because and

here's why. Here's why.

I'll be honest, I think the OK, so I'm a geek for for red track

announcers. I love them.

But the other part is, I think Michael Rona, if he's not the

best in North America, he's right there.

I, I, I think that much of him talent wise as far as calling

races. Do you find yourself with a guy

like that? I see you're nodding.

No one can see that on the radio, of course.

But I'll throw it back to you in a second here.

But when do you find yourself trying to find a Tony style?

Do you find yourself doing Michael Rona things ever in your

calls? What do you think you're?

Once a while, you know, when I first started, there were a

couple little of his phrases. I would, yeah.

And I might have already used one of them, I think early on in

the meat. Linking up with the course

proper. That's a Michael Rona.

That's a Michael Rona term, I believe that's really popular in

Australia. So I, when I'm, you know, 92

when he answered my letter 9394, you know, just hanging out with

him. Some of his mannerisms would

come into play in my race calls. But I, I think, you know, over

the years I've really come up with my own style.

Paul Allen had a big influence on me as well, The voice of the

Vikings in Canterbury Park. You know, in fact, Rona used to

tell me he's all mate, he's all you, just he's all your Tony

Kayla with a lot of PA in you, you know, and I got a little bit

of you and me and he looked at me and he's like, but no, I

mean, Michael was so instrumental, so instrumental.

He he really to think, to think what he did for me is pretty

cool because you know, Louis, he would let me hang out.

It's awesome. You tell the story.

Please. It's awesome.

Yeah, no, he, he answered my letter and he basically, and

we're, we're fairly close in age.

You might be a year, year and a half older than me.

And he basically allowed me into his booth as many times as a

week. I as I wanted it started out

once a week and at Bay Meadows. The booth at Bay Meadows is so

small. In fact, you know, it's, it's

cubicle size. Golden Gate was very spacious.

He would let me just hang out in there all day long.

And I, I found a little perch outside of the booth where I

could go call the race and I would bring my tape recorder in

and we would queue it up to the replay.

And he would take all that time out of his day, which probably

he could have been taking to listen to his own replays.

So hey, so he could, you know, know what he said?

He he took all that time out of each and every day.

And I can't even imagine like, you know, when people come to

the booth, it's it's I, I'm very cheerful and I'm happy to have

them there. But I'm also underneath my

breath. I'm like, all right, it's time

for you to go because you know, we're you just want your own

space and you want to, and for him to just open that booth up

to me the way he did is it's, it's crazy and it speaks a lot

about him. Yeah, Speaking of Golden Gate,

I'll be at the Haskell next week and I'll see my friend Matt

Dinerman, who's now calling the races of Monmouth, another

Golden Gate guy for sure. And Matt talks about the

experience of Golden Gate, how positive it was now.

And we know he's got big boy jobs now.

He's got Oaklawn, he's got Monmouth.

Those are big, you know, different time of year kind of

jobs, grade ones, the whole thing.

And he talks about calling the the races at Golden Gate and

what he he had to learn from those, especially since it was

turf and Tepita. Not only did the riders have to

learn patience, he had to learn patience.

So set the race up, let the race develop because on those Tepita

courses, on those turf courses, it's going to take a minute to

develop. And certainly the best riders

had to do that. He said he thought even the best

announcers had to do that out of Golden Gate.

And it really set him up, he thought in his mind at least, to

be ready for, you know, an Oakland, which is obviously

could not be more different, the Golden Gate Fields and start

only right. And then getting to Monmouth as

well, called the all turf at Monmouth, up at the Meadowlands

as well. He's getting to do some cool

things now. But I thought of that when you

mentioned Golden Gate Fields. Yeah.

Yeah, well, you know, when I called Golden Gate, it was dirt.

It was dirt. But you are right, though, you

have to like a turf way. I've learned how to also.

You just want to wait. You try to wait.

And the other thing you don't do on the tapeeta is you just don't

put a horse in the winner's circle too soon because you

could get, you could get really tagged late because horses jump

out of the ground. Yeah, you know, synthetic racing

gets a bad rap if people just kind of approach it like they're

handicapping A turf race. You can kind of, you can kind of

make some sense of it. The one thing I'll say about

synthetic racing is you just have to be careful because the

last race isn't always the way it's going to unfold.

And you might have 6 out of the same horses in a 12 horse field.

And you'll get different pace scenarios depending on pose.

And just certain times other horses will set pace that don't

didn't the time before. So I find that the trickiest

with synthetic racing. We haven't caught up since, but

the synthetic championships happened at Turfway, obviously

the Ruby Day. I was up there for that.

I waved at you because I know your preferences and I did not

bother you in your booth under on Ruby Day because I know if

you don't want me in there on a Wednesday, you sure as bleep

don't want me in there on a big day.

So what? It's not that.

Come on now. You kind of came up and said on

the Wednesday, you're more than welcome to come hang out.

I had Mark, I had Mark Midland from Horse Racing Nation crash

the booth for three of his buddies.

I was like, all right, Mark, you know, even though you didn't

know Mark had a chance to hire me at Louisiana Downs Once Upon

a time, made a phone call to me. I'm in a hotel in in

Albuquerque, NM calling races and all of a sudden it's like

late at fairly late at night. It's Mark Midland.

I'm like, all right, great. You're going to hire me.

No, I'm not. I'm like, come on, you've got

to. He's all.

I'm going to hire somebody that everyone, no one's heard sort of

right now, but you'll all know about him pretty soon.

And that was Travis Stone. May have heard of him.

Yeah. My favorite lot of Louisiana is

Dave Rodman. But don't tell Travis I said

that. So that's all.

Right. Yeah, Rodman.

I met Rodman, 2019 Preakness Stakes.

A buddy of mine, Blaine Wright, had his horse and another twist

of fate made the Preakness and I got to meet Rodman there.

Great guy. Incredible race caller as well.

We are. You know it's.

Interesting how people talk about race calling and different

things. I think we're in a golden age

right now. I think the the folks going

right now are as good as have been.

I mean, everywhere from down in Miami.

I think Pete does an incredible job.

The number of days that guy has to call and he's doing down

there. Obviously Rodman in Maryland,

you've got the New Yorkers, the multiple Chris is great.

Frank comes up for, for, you know, the races at Saratoga.

He's doing the Santa Anita thing.

You've got Michael, guys like you and Travis in this state.

Obviously what's going on at Keeneland as well.

I mean, there's, I just, I don't know, man, I think it's, I think

we're sitting on a bunch of great callers right now.

I agree, including at New Orleans and Indiana.

I mean, it's we're loaded right now.

It's a great, it's a great there.

Was there was something somebody put out?

I think Swifty put up top five announcers the other day and

couple people were saying my name.

One guy was giving me a hard time telling me I'm no good and

I'm not top five and this and that.

And it's like I, I never claimed to be any.

I think there are so many good race callers right now and I

kind of take offense to it when people say that the North

American race callers aren't that good.

We're I think there's a lot of very good race callers right now

this country. Frankly, A stunningly long list.

I mean, Paul Allen, I didn't even mention him.

He's great like. There's there's so many.

There's so many. A friend of mine, Bill Downs, is

filling in fingerlips right now. John McGarry down at Louisiana.

Downs is called races for a lot of years.

There's a lot of good race callers, Jason Bean, throughout

this country, so many of us. There really are.

I'm missing quite a few of them. Yeah, I'm sure it was a terrible

idea for us to start that list. It's.

Yeah, there you go. It's a terrible place.

That's exactly right. We'll go back to Turfway.

Just the synthetic championship. I was up for that day.

You were very fortunate to be inside.

But I thought, man, what a great idea and frankly.

I'm only partially inside, by the way.

If you come to the booth, you'll realize I have to call the races

outside. Oh boy.

There's now granted I have, I have, I have a three sided glass

like shower case, but it is cold.

Believe me, I, I go home at night and start to, I develop a

little bit of rosacea during the winter.

You know, my cheeks get a little flushy because, you know, not

because of the vino, by the way, but because of the no, But it is

kind of, it's like the only indoor outdoor booth.

It's pronounced bourbon at. Least I believe it is what

there's probably a few of them I'm.

Sure, but but the synthetic championship, I thought not only

conceptually graded, yeah, I thought the first attempt was

very good as well. It's something we expect we

should expect to see again this year.

Yeah, I think so. I was talking with Gary

Palmisano and basically the days of trying to have one stakes

race a day, those you know, they're they're fine, but boy,

it just makes for so much better atmosphere, better handle when

you can really showcase it all on a day.

We've we've seen that over the years that the handle can jump

off the charts. The people are excited, get all

sorts. It's like, it's like having like

a little mini Breeders' Cup at your racetrack because you get

all sorts of different specialized horses at different

distances and you know, so it's kind of cool on that front.

Yeah, no, I thought it worked out great.

And I thought, like you said, that mix of couple of route

races, couple of Sprint races really works out well.

And you're right, the sport has moved to and I think it's

something we're all sort of acknowledging, you know, that

while there are those of us who don't, you know, like today I'm

I'll, I'll play a pick three at Horseshoe.

Not now, it's Wednesday, whatever.

That's great. You know, I'm glad they're

running and, you know, whatever else, the sport is moving toward

big days, right? And as the younger generation

gets interested in horse racing, I think that people in the sport

are realizing their event folks, right?

Their experience generation, right?

They're not a things generation. And so they'll go to the track

on those big days when they might not just go on a Thursday.

And that's OK. Like, you know, but if if we can

get them in the door at all, that should be one of the goals

for sure. Definitely, because hopefully

you'll you'll, you'll attract them and they'll want to come

back. Obviously if they make a couple

dollars, that's probably going to influence them wanting to

come back. But if they have an overall good

time, you know, enjoy a couple of beverages, have some food,

listen to some music, you know, guys staring at girls, girls

staring at guys. It's always a good thing there.

You go I the Ruby day itself, so I was up there for that.

It was breezy, but otherwise a beautiful day.

I really enjoyed it. I had a great time doing some

broadcasting up there as well. That race has now really become

part of the mainstream conversation leading into Derby

day. Obviously Rich strike and two

fills and and endlessly even finishing the way that he did.

When you call that race, it does it does it feel, is there added

pressure to call it a Derby prep like that?

Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.

You know, obviously that's the richest race that I've ever

called it. That's probably the most

important race. I told I told some people when I

got hired at at Bay Meadows in 19 nine.

Well, you know, I started Bay Meadows in the early 994, but I

didn't become the full time announcer till 98.

Well, I had to call my first El Camino Real in 1999.

That was like pressure to me. Then I got hired a Golden Gate

and I had to call my first San Francisco Mile.

That's the that was a great too. That was pressure.

What's that? Quarter $1,000,000 right?

There's a big race. You know, back in the day it was

a really, really big race. A lot of big horses would come

in from Southern California. My very first one was

incredible. Tuzla one it for Julio Kanani, a

very talented mayor. There were eight of them stacked

across the course by about two lengths.

It was, it reminded me so much when I was a kid, my dad took me

to Golden Gate Fields and I watched the San Francisco Mile

and a horse named Don Alberto won the race in very similar

fashion. And I was like, it was like Deja

vu, here I am calling the race and it was just so reminiscent

of what I remember seeing as a kid.

But when I got hired at Turfway, that was a that was what I told

my buddies. That's why I told my close

personal friends, mark it down in your calendar this.

And it was like a countdown. All of a sudden one we got

through January, we're in February.

I'm seven weeks out from Ruby. Oh my goodness, it's March.

I am three weeks out from Ruby. This year.

I didn't still, I didn't have that same like final countdown

because I got through the first year.

But it's definitely it's pressure.

You know the thing with this year, Ruby, you were there.

The audio system was so loud. It was, I don't know how it was

for a van, but for me as a race caller, it was.

It was so much louder than it had been any other day.

It. Created it created a little bit

of trouble for me. I could hear my own race call

and I was just like, and, and race callers, if there's just

something a tad off with us, whatever it might be, it can

really just affect you. And I thought I did good that

day. I didn't think I did as good as

I did the year before. It was just my own personal

nitpick. I had one, one or two races, you

know, said I was like the rush away.

I didn't like the way I said, I said megalodon instead of

Megalodon or vice versa. Those little things eat at me.

Those things are what bothered me.

And I was like, and I just didn't feel comfortable.

I was like, you know, I'm giving, I'm giving changes.

And there was no audio to hear that all of a sudden, midway

through the changes, the audio came on.

I was always, I was having to constantly tell the audio

people, hey, I needed a little lower just so, but no, Ruby,

it's a it's a great day. I I'm, it's exciting and and

yeah, I always, I have it on my calendar.

Yeah, it's, it's nerve wracking. It's not to the point where you

I watch out, but it's definitely many ultra breath, you know,

extra breaths and a lot of tea that particular day.

Tony Kalo with us, he calls the races at Ellens Park and of

course at Turfway Park as well. You're on the desk at Churchill,

this run of pick fives that you went off it.

Was luck. I was going to say, is this

usual for you? Are you a pick five player?

We don't. Know no there was something that

Travis and Joe and our our director Keith Wetzer had all

come up with hey you know what let's get more tickets given out

to the fans so it was like OK we're going to emphasize

obviously on the Derby City 6 and then we're going to

emphasize on the early and late pick five.

I just happened to get some assignments and happened to get

lucky early on in the season. Hit a couple and you know the

first one I gave out I believe was the Tuesday before the Derby

and I was alive to six horses and the chalk wins it and pays

3300. The horse who ran third got beat

2 heads. That ticket was coming back 30K.

That would have been one that people would have talked about

for a while. Yeah, I.

Keep reminding everybody I was 2 heads away from yeah.

It's yeah. Was it Kilroy that had something

like I think it was last? He had, he had like a $24,000

Derby City 6 ticket he gave out or something he had one of.

Those but also he went on a streak where he gave out like 8

winners in three days and none of them paid less than 20 bucks.

I mean just he. Was he was he was he was like

unconscious. Yes, he really was.

He was seeing things before that.

None of us else were seeing it. All Yeah, You know, Kevin has a

different way of handicapped. He's really big with the sheets.

And so he just happened to be. He made a lot of good scores,

made a lot of good selections. I think his last day was

claiming Crown Day, and I give him some grief because he gave

out some nice little 45 or $50 winner at the expense of my

horse Spycraft to finish second. His horse ended up eventually

getting DQ D from the purse money, so I want that off his

ROYI wanted. I want Spycraft on my ROI.

Get it done Equibase I All right we'll get you out of here on

this lot made of the purses at Ellis and you know of the two

year old program getting elevated to the way that you

know that they're they're moving and Bailey hair obviously racing

secretary down there a big part of that as well moving forward.

You know you haven't been in in Kentucky for a long time to know

you know necessarily intimately what the pee patch was like 20

years ago. But I just talked with Dale

Romans. I just talked to John Hancock

last Wednesday about what it used to be like.

They describe the, you know, the softball leagues in the field

and this kind of stuff. Even though you haven't been

here, do you still have a sense of appreciation for where Ellis

Park is now and where it's going?

Oh, without a doubt. You you can kind of.

You can tell. I remember when I first pulled

up to it they caught me a little off guard.

I would have to admit I was like whoa this is like this kind of

it has it had a Northern California Fairfield to it When

I used to pull up to Solano at Vallejo, the Solano County Fair,

my home track Pleasanton. I grew up in Livermore, CA 7

miles from Pleasanton, just had a little small town Fairfield to

it. But then obviously last year

getting to know the product and seeing those great maiden

special wade races and you have to appreciate it.

I, I think the horsemen, you know, they've got to be very

excited. It's a good opportunity to make

claims. That's why you see so, so many

aggressive claims this whole 2025 calendar year.

It's a, you know, it's expensive donor racehorse and it's never

been more expensive than it is now.

But at least with the purse structure, you have a fighting

chance to, to, to get a lot of your profit back.

But now I, I can, I can imagine what it was like back in the day

and a lot of race tracks were like that.

Northern Cal, we used to have a softball league.

We used to have a golf league because Bay Meadows had a golf

course in the infield so the employees could go play golf

after the races. Unfortunately, I was the

publicity assistant, so I was always having to do all the

after race work, decimating the information to the newspapers.

And so I didn't get to participate in the golf league,

but that I got, I used to get to watch everybody out there.

But pretty cool stuff. You know, it'd be nice if we

could bring back some of that sort of stuff again.

I'm with you. Yeah.

Now let's get back on the model. Let's get big John out there.

Let's go a little lofted in. Come on, John, Be better.

All right. Well, hey, Tony.

Kayla, we call the racist down there.

Tony Kaylow 5 on the socials. Hopefully more pick fives once

we get to September, but lots of work to do there at Ellis first.

I'll be down for both preview day and for for for Juvenile

day. Come up to the booth, then come

say hello. I will call a race.

I'm just kidding. I would never do that to the

good people of Kentucky. All right, We'll talk to you

soon, buddy. All right, Louis.

Thanks a lot. There you go, Tony.

Kayla will be calling the races there at Ellis Park all summer

and of course we'll hear him back at Turfway when we get to

that time of year when the seasons change here in the

Commonwealth. Want to take Chris?

Want to thank Tony for hanging out with us here on the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight. We are presented by the Kentucky

HBPA, KYHBP, a.com and at KYHBPA on the socials as well.

Go check them out. All the great stories, all of

the great headlines from around the state and all the great

people that make our great sport go.

I'm Louis Rabeau from the studios of ESPN Louisville.

Thanks so much for deciding to start your horse racing weekend

with us here at the Spotlight. I'll see you next week.

Lots to preview, I'm sure. We'll have a first weekend at

Saratoga in the bag. We'll have Del Mar to talk

about, but of course all the great racing at Ellis as well.

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