KY Racing Spotlight for 1/31/25 | Trainer Tommy Drury

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We are ESPN Louisville. Welcome to the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight with Louis Rebeau, presented by the Kentucky HBPA.

Now here's Louis Rebeau all. Right, Welcome in It is an end

of January 2025 edition of the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

My name's Louis Rebeau, I'm in the studios of ESPN Louisville,

680-1057, where you can find me 11:50 every single weekday on

Rebeau and Co. If you're not hanging out with

us on that show, what are you doing?

We'd love to have you as part of our dailies.

We'd really love to hear from you as well.

We got a fun text all of those kinds of things, but of course

you're here for the horse racing banter of the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight presented by our friends at the Kentucky

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all the great resources they have on their website.

Of course, if you are a fan of our great sport, of course you

can check out the videos, the articles and the great sound

bites from around the Commonwealth.

Great people that make our great sport go 3 Derby preps tomorrow.

And so obviously a lot of the focus of a lot of the focus of

our sport is on those races and, and, and rightfully so, of

course, it's that time of year, it's stretch out season as you

if you want so many horses were trying to figure out both on the

mayor's side or excuse me, on the Philly side and on the cold

side. Can you do the two turns?

Can you go ahead and step forward from those 678 furlong

kind of races and make 9 your new reality?

Can you be one of those? And eventually, of course, on

the Colt side, can you get 10? We always have those

conversations. What a magical time of year it

is. That's something I'd never get

tired of. I love these kinds of

conversations. I love trying to figure out who

it is that's going to be the next star, who it is that's

going to take to that second turn with no issue.

And I wanted to mention a couple of guys with pretty serious

connect Kentucky connections. One of them happens to be

geographically a neighbor of mine and not same street or

anything like that, but we we live in the same part of town

here. And his name is Whit Beckman.

And if that's a name you don't know a lot about, it's OK.

The young guy, this is really essentially his fourth full year

of training. And he had Anna Marie in the

Derby last year and of course was the winner of the Kentucky

Jockey Club. You're back as well.

Navigated the road, got into the Derby starting gate and you

know, I think of Larry Demerit, for example, with W Omaha, just

navigating that path all the way to the Derby and getting all the

way there with all the West Virginia connections and

different things in that barn. What a great job he did.

And of course, would Beckman, another one of those guys

utilizing the road to the Kentucky Derby the right way

with a horse that in Anna Marie that frankly is great to what

we're going to get to see again this year.

And I'm sure it's a question and it's question for it's a

reasonable question, frankly. Can you do it again?

Right. It's one thing to watch a horse

run a record, you know, a personal best buyer speed

figure, Equibase speed figure, whatever you know, form you're

looking at. It's one thing to see the horse

do it. What's can they run it back?

Can they repeat the performance? And people aren't terribly

different that way. All right, great.

Nice job getting Anna Marie to the Derby.

Can you get another horse to the Derby?

It's a reasonable question. So we're going to find out with

Whit Beckman what his chops look like.

He's got another top end horse. Her name is Simply Joking.

We haven't talked about her a lot.

We haven't talked about Whit a lot, but sometimes on a very

public stage and in a very public way, we get to watch

people grow up in front of us. Certainly the Anna Marie story

was one of those. But Simply Joking is a little

different here. Obviously a daughter, practical

joke. She begins.

She begins her career in the littelier.

It's memorial and it's at fairgrounds.

It's a six for long Sprint in a stakes.

She wins the stake race first time out.

She comes back, takes the lead, never looks back in the silver

bullet day. So she's got a very specific

running style. She's got those things.

But hey, you know what's a great running style?

If you can make it work, Getting out front, staying out front.

What a what a novel concept, eh? Some of you may have watched a

race called the Breeders Cup Juvenile in the fall, horse

named Citizen Bowl got the lead, kept the lead.

Torpedo Anna and so many of her races last year got the lead,

kept the lead. The one I always think of as gun

runner. I don't know why I justify was

the same way, but we're seeing with her with simply joking.

This Pennsylvania bred by the way, how about that, that Whit

knows what he's doing, man, that he can handle these high level

horses and I think it's a matter of time before more and more of

them are in his barn. We'll talk next with Tommy

Drury. He'll be our guest today.

Had a great time with him. My goodness, what a lovely guy.

And I get to ask trainers all the time.

Jimmy's and Joe's, Ex's and O's. What's you know, what matters

more than having great horses or your training methods, How you

run your barn. They all tell you the same

thing. And a horse, like simply joking,

boy, I tell you what, I'm sure you're about to have a Philly

like that. But it's fun to get to watch

Whit Beckman grow up this way. It's very public.

Get to watch this horses train, get to watch them start their

careers at two stakes races. It's exciting, and I don't want

to overreact to a horse that's only run twice.

I don't want to overreact to a horse before she's been amongst

less regional competition, if you will.

Right, get away from New Orleans, go face some other

horses in other places, some other Phillies.

We'll find that out soon enough. Almost certainly because someone

will ship to the fairgrounds. We'll have to see her run

against, you know, maybe one of the giant stable of Brad Cox

Phillies that's ready for the Oaks.

Who knows, but I think it's very fun to watch Whit Beckman come

up in the sport. It's very cool that he's got

another horse this year that while might not run on the 1st

Saturday in May, might be a runner on the 1st Friday in May.

This is the Kentucky racing spotlight.

I'm Louis Roubo and another another man whose whose career

needs no explanation. Frankly, he's not in his third

year full time of training. Is Rod Maquette down there

mostly right now of course at Oakland Park.

And quick story about Ron, who's been on this show, Good guy,

great interview. He tried Whitmore, of course,

and, and Whitmore's one of those horses, one of those horses, I

think so many of us were fans of him.

And, and a big part of I think fandom in horse racing is if you

get a horse that you know is going to bring an honest effort,

every time you fall in love, you just do.

You fall in love with their style.

You fall in love with how they run, you fall in love with how

they compete. Whitmore was one of those

horses. I remember being fortunate.

It was a very different time. But I'm very glad I got to go

and I hope it's never like this again.

But I was at Keeneland for the Breeders Cup in 2020 during

COVID. Very few of us were there.

And yeah, it's cool to be able to say, yeah, I was, I was

covering the COVID Breeders' Cup.

But do you think it was as fun as the full Breeders' Cup

meeting all kinds of people from all over the world?

Now it's not as fun, but Whitmore won the Sprint that

day. It was a parking lot of

Keeneland. It was an absolute parking lot.

And no one was closing from off the pace until Whitmore did.

And I'll be honest, by that point in his career, he had, I

don't want to say he'd lost a step, but it wasn't as fast as

it once been. But on that day, he was perfect,

man. He was perfect.

And there's no, there's no doubting what he did in his

career. There's no doubting that

performance. Did I happen to leave him out of

my tickets that day? I did, yeah.

Did I still get up and did I still get up and applaud?

What do you want? I did.

It was that cool. No one did what he did that day.

He did it so effortlessly, so gracefully.

Just flew down the middle of that track, splitting horses.

It was incredible. And Ronald, of course, if you

ask him about that, totally, totally happy to talk with you

about that. But he's got one now, a son of

Volatile and a horse named Speed King.

By the way, I love this name for a son of Volatile, right?

What do we think of what we think of Volatile?

My gosh, we think of that turn of foot.

My gosh, he was so fast when he was running the distance.

Of course, the question, he gets it done last week.

Guess what? On the front, get out front,

stay out front. Now, we're early in the

three-year old development process, but Speed King seems to

be legit. I was talking with John Lindo

yesterday. He's with Thoroughbred Los

Angeles, and he was on my podcast, Horse Racing Happy

Hour. He talked about Speed King and

he talked about what it is that he looks for, what he's trying

to determine, these Derby horses and these kinds of things.

And what he said about Rafael Bejarano, the jockey here, was

people just forget that he won every Santa Anita writing title

like three years in a row when Santa Anita was still rock Rock

Rocket decided to move his tack here.

I've talked to him before and we'll get him on this show at

some point, but he just wanted some some, excuse me, some

stability for his family. We've seen this with other

people where they know they can just move to the Kentucky

circuit and largely live in the same place for most of the year.

Yes, he's riding at Oaklawn right now, but he's still able

to have his family in one place and most of the year be with

them. But make no mistake, Speed

King's legit man. I don't know that he'll make it

to the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby, but this is a

fast horse with a lot of good qualities.

Everybody in that field was doing their best to be behind

him, I think, But I thought he was really fast and really

impressive for a first timer in a stakes race at least.

And certainly going two turns draws the outside position.

Post position, no problem. I love that kind of stuff.

So for Speed King to be on that kind of list ready to go that

way, I thought it was pretty impressive.

A worthy addition to 2nd place on the road to the Kentucky

Derby. Standing so far, we see the

return of the leader of that and someone who could probably lock

up a position. How about this lock up a

position in the starting gate is Citizen Bowl.

He runs in the Robert B Lewis for Bob Baffert tomorrow at

Santa Anita. They'll be the six to five

favorite. Baffert's.

Got two others in here, of course, five for his field, 3

Baffert's. You know how this goes.

You'll hear in the final segment.

By the way, my friend Matthew DeSantis from Naira bets, He was

on Rabo and Co this morning with me and we'll replay that heady

capping session. We go through all three of the

Derby preps with him. But Citizen Bowl does return,

Obviously got off front, stayed off front.

The Breeders Cup Juvenile, his his stablemate gaming did not

show up very well at Arkansas last week, so it will be

interesting to see him off the layoff here.

It's been working like a madman at sanity.

Looks really great. But if he wins this week, and I

think he probably locks it up, man, I think he'll have 70

points. That's enough.

Might actually be 60 if I'm doing my math rate.

Yeah, 3010, yeah, it might be 60 points.

Usually most every years you're trying to get 4045.

Now with some of the changes, it might be a little bit higher,

but I think 50 is going to get you in.

That is second place in 100 point race and so if he can get

to 60 this weekend, I think he's going to be in a great spot.

It's crazy to think that on February 1st a horse might be

qualified for the Derby, but if Citizen Bowl can show a

carryover from that Breeders' Cup, Juvenile Performance,

Lookout, Lookout, we saw it with Nyquist.

We saw with Nyquist, we saw it, you know, very occasionally with

horses being able to come out of that race and then come into

their three-year old season to be great.

Let's hope that Citizen Bowl is certainly one of those.

This is the Kentucky Racing Spotlight with Louie Rabo.

I'm Louie Rabo. We're presented by the Kentucky

HBPA, KYHBP, a.com. Next up is Tommy Drury.

He's a trainer. Talk about some of his recent

successes at Turfway Park. But certainly just get to know

him. This was really a fun

conversation. I'm really glad that I got

connected with Tommy for this one.

Talks a little bit about how it is that he came up in the sport,

what he's focusing on right now and what he thinks he'll be

doing down the road. We talked with Tommy next and

then after that, of course, Matthew DeSantis from Naira Pets

helps us handicap those 3 Derby preps.

Tomorrow we'll look around the country, Long Island, South

Florida, of course out on the West Coast there in Los Angeles

as well. I'm Lou Rubbo, two more segments

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Kentucky. Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and One O 5 Seven.

Now here's Louis Rebeau. All right.

Welcome back in second segment on a January 31st edition of the

Kentucky Racing Spotlight with Louis Ribow.

I'm Louis Ribow. Find me on socials at Radio

Louie. You can find me 11:50 every

single weekday here at ESPN 680-1057 were presented by the

Kentucky HBPAKYHBP a.com. Get in with them.

Great photos, videos, articles from around the Commonwealth.

All the great people that make our great sport go here in

Kentucky. So one of those people is

Trader. Tommy Drury joins us here on the

spotlight for the first time. Really excited to have him in.

We were talking off air Tommy, about a buddy of ours, David,

who's a mutual friend, smaller, smaller ownership group there

with the Bluegrass Racing Club. How much fun do you have?

You were telling the story just before and I I kind of want to

just open with this. And again, thanks for thanks for

doing this because he breaks his kids to the track.

You know, if he breaks his kids to the track and just kind of

there's no other sport in the world like it is there where the

kids are in the paddock and hanging out and doing the thing.

It's just it's such a beautiful thing.

Good. Good evening, Sir.

No, there's at first and foremost thank you for having

me. And no, there's, there's nothing

better. I I was fortunate enough to have

some horses for the Churchill Downs Racing Club, which Mike

Ziegler and Gary Palmisano from Churchill came up with.

They were just trying to get people involved in the horse

ownership and David and and several others were involved in

that group. I was able to have a horse for

them that that allowed us to all meet each other.

They, you know, after doing it for a while, they ultimately

decided they wanted to do their own thing.

And, and we've bought a few horses, we've won a few races

and it, it's always exciting when you win for David because I

you stop watching the horse and you start watching David just to

see what he's going to do next. Is he?

Is he? What kind of What kind of

fantasy? Is he a snapper?

Is he a smoocher? Is he a leg hitter?

What is he? He, he goes to the program with

if you've seen that or not, but he goes to the program with

occasionally. But they won their first race at

Churchill Downs and, and, and I truly thought David was going to

pass out. It was, it was such good stuff.

And, and, and, and it was a good reminder that that's why, you

know, we as trainers, that's why you get up every morning is to,

to work for people, people like that.

And they've just been a blast. And he, he brings the boys out

to the barn on the weekends and, and they hang out with him and,

and they're, they're starting to kind of, kind of meet the people

associated with horse racing. And you can kind of see they're,

you know, they're becoming horse racing fans.

So it's it's been good stuff. Tommy Drury with us here on the

Kentucky Racing Spotlight. My name is Louis Rabo.

Thanks for hanging out with us on yet another Friday edition of

the program, Tommy. I always ask trainers when we we

sit down and we get into this. I looked you up on Equibase.

Like, I look up everyone, of course, and not a lot of druries

are listed there. And so, you know, many, many

times in this sport, Tommy, you know this.

I'm a guy with a last name that no one else has in the sport.

Very unusual. So often we get to meet people

and I'm a little jealous of this, you know, that, like,

David's kids get to grow up around the barn and do those

things. I didn't even attend a horse

race till I was in my 20s. And so I always ask, you know, I

always ask trainers, you know, how did you get into the sport?

Who was the person that first brought you to the track?

That kind of stuff. Well, my father trained, I'm

actually a junior, so I think right as he was stopping his

career and right as I was starting my career was when

Equibase really started to really keep track of everything.

So I think he and I might be kind of kind of stuck together

on a couple of those years. But but I grew up.

I grew up around the racetrack. I got my trainer's license when

I was 18 years old. I was the oldest active trainer

in Kentucky at the time. And, and, and I've been doing it

ever since. Now I there were said, if you

looked on Echo Base, you're well aware of this.

There were several years that I, I think there was a two or

three-year span there where I, I maybe won one race, if that I

mean it, it was slow going and, and I, I always had the gallop

horses on the side and, and, and, you know, just to try to

kind of be able to pay the bills and, and I was, unfortunately I

was able to work for some of the top trainers in the country.

I was able to gallop horses for Wayne Lucas when he was rolling

and Bill Mott when he had the Firestone horses and and Frankie

Brothers and and people like that.

So I, I guess I like to call it continuing education.

I was, I was doing some continuing education while I was

training on my own and being, being at Skylake Training Center

really sent my career to the next level.

That allowed me to there for a long time.

I wasn't really so much worried about horses that I was training

myself, that I was racing as much as I was just trying to

work with other trainers on whether it was a horse that

needed to be laid off or whether it was a young horse that needed

to be brought along. And, and, and by doing that,

that that helped me to get my foot in the door with, well,

Cleburne Farm, for instance, that that's how I got my foot in

the door with Claiborne is I leg some babies up and, and.

You know, did some behind the scenes work and was was thrilled

for the opportunity and and now here I am.

You mentioned, you know, the Claiborne connection and all

that and a lot of this right now, Tommy, of course, this time

of year for you, it's happening at Turfway Park.

And when I moved to the area in the late aughts, they were

running for $5000 at a lot of races and this kind of stuff.

It's a different world now. You know, if I look at your

entries page, you got horses in for 83 and these kinds of

things. Not in for A tag of 83, but you

know, $83,000 purse, this kind of stuff.

And you know, we've watched the, the development of this circuit,

Tommy, with the addition of a Kentucky Downs with Ellis's 2

year old program taking massive steps forward.

Are you the kind of guy, do you think as you, you know, you

evolve in your career and we watch the earnings go up every

year, Do you think you'll be able to stay largely in Kentucky

or are you going to have to be one of these multi state guys?

And I mean, frankly, I'm, I'm hearing more and more from

folks, I mean, Dale Roman's different people, man.

Maybe I don't have to go to Saratoga for a great 2 year old

program anymore. No, I, I, I truly don't think

you need to leave the state of Kentucky anymore.

I, you know, these allowance purses that you just mentioned,

I think just just not too long ago those purses were like

18,000. So, you know, to, to go from 18

to 80, that's, that's, that's unbelievable.

Now, of course, you know, you start giving money away,

competition's going to show up and, you know, suddenly, you

know, Turfway Park's not what it used to be.

It's a little tougher. And I'm just glad that we're

able to compete at the at the level that we want to, you know

that we want to compete at that. And and that's just that we've

just been blessed to have horses for the right clients.

They give us opportunities and we just try to make the most of

them. And and that that's really been

good. One of the real positives for

you and trainer Tommy Drury with us here on the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight is is that you've been able to team up with a young guy

named Irving Moncada. We had him on the show a couple

weeks ago after his first stakes win and, you know, getting to

talk to him. I have to say, your stories

aren't terribly different, right?

Where you just kept showing up, right?

And you just learn from the very best and eventually you get to

try your own thing and kind of break out that way.

Talk about working with Irving. I'm in love with the guy.

I'll tell you really honestly, he was terrific on this show.

And he's the kind of guy going forward, Tommy, if we're going

to have, you know, stars in our sport and people that are able

to both excel but then also do this part of the sport, too,

Irving's one of those guys. What's it like work with him?

Jokingly referred to him. He's the son I never wanted.

He he, he stood, he stood next to me at Churchill all summer.

He was there every morning. He he, he came out every

morning. He was always respectful.

Yes, Sir. No, Sir.

If I can help you with anything, let me know.

And for the longest time, I, you know, I kind of had my people in

place and I really didn't, didn't give him as much of an

opportunity as I probably should have.

And but man, once he finally did work his way into the barn and

it was just to help breeze a few horses.

You know, it certainly wasn't Irving, you're going to ride

these horses. It was come over and help us

out. We're a little short handed

today. And and he did and he did a

great job And and that just kind of led to, well, I've got a

couple I'm going to run at Belterra.

You, you want to go out and ride those.

I think the kid when his first three out of five or four out of

six, he rode for me. And it's like I'm asking the

agent, I'm like, where you been hiding this kid?

He's got I mean, this kids got this kids got more raw talent

than than anybody I've seen in years.

So, you know, next thing I know I'm I'm I'm throwing him up at

Churchill Downs and he's still doing what he does.

He's still winning races. And you know, he was a 10 LB bug

last summer and now he's the leading rider at Turfway and I'm

struggling to get him. So it's I, I think that's truly,

you know, I'm, I'm so proud to be able to say that I've played

a small part in his success. But this kid has been, he's been

cut out to be a next level rider.

I, I, I mean, he really is. He's, he's one of those guys

that when he comes to the paddock, he's watched the

replays of the horses, he's done his homework.

He, he lives horse racing. And as a trainer, you're always,

you know, that's something you find, you find pretty impressive

in a jockey that he's, you know, when he walks out to the

paddock, instead of saying, Hey, what's the instructions boss?

He'll say, Hey, what happened last race I saw, you know, the

source did this, this and this and you know, he's, he's taking

the extra steps. So it's been a lot of fun.

It's, it's been fun to, to watch him take off and, and, and

again, just to, to be a small part of his success.

It's it's it's been a lot of fun.

It's, it's interesting talking to him too, because I, what you

just described was exactly what he said to me was I asked him,

hey, how do you prep for each individual mount that you're

going to have? He described that process where

he's, he's watching replays. He knows before he gets to the

track, he's got all of his notes in place about what, you know,

he saw last time, what might happen, all the different

scenarios, those kinds of things.

The other part of this that's very fascinating to me, you

mentioned he's one of the leading riders at Turfway Park.

Matt Dinnerman, a friend of mine, calls races now at Oaklawn

at at Monmouth. He was previously Golden Gate

Fields, and he would talk all the time about guys growing up

on that, that artificial, that synthetic surface, having to be

patient, having to be their timing has to be just so.

Otherwise it doesn't. It is so obvious with Irving

that he just has it intuitively. You're right.

He, he really does. I, I, I think he has as much

natural raw talent as as any jockey I've seen in a long time.

And I, you know, it's not going to be good for me because I,

when I first put him on horses at Belterra last summer, I

called one of my clients and I was like, this is going to be

our Belterra rider. I said this kids, OK.

And you know, he's going to be great.

The next thing I know, he's winning two at Churchill.

And you know, then he comes to Turfway and he's, you know, he's

now the leading rider. And I think he's going to

probably end up bypassing me. But we're going to we're going

to root for him every step of the way.

I truly believe he's the next level rider.

A horse that he was aboard for you was California Burrito just

won a second level allowance there at Turfway, broke his maid

to Churchill in a maiden claiming but has stepped into

that allowance kind of company. Look, it's impossible this year

this time of year. I should say, excuse me to not

ask you about 3 year olds. What do you think their

trajectory can be? Horse like California Burrito.

You know, this is the the connections here as well with

with Irving having ridden before, what's his projection?

Are you going to try to get him on the Derby trail here?

Maybe a Ruby appearance even. Well, I don't know, I don't know

that we want to use the D word yet, but we're maybe willing to

tell you that we're using the R word.

So, you know, I think he'll probably be nominated to the

next stake up there. And he he certainly, you know,

he kind of walked the dog the first part of it the other

night. But you know, in horse racing,

you always take what comes easy, and that's exactly what my jock

was doing. He he made a nice easy lead and

next thing you know, it's 2650, whatever it was.

And, but, but I was impressed that that when he smooched to

him at the quarter pole, the horse immediately lengthened out

and kind of opened up on him and finished up well.

So I will certainly nominate to the next stake and, and, and,

and as always, you know, we're just, we're just going to let

the horse take us along. And hopefully you know, if you

get to that race with the R named after it, then you know

you get over that hurdle, then you can then you can start using

other letters. So.

You mentioned the R word. What's your what's your steak?

What's your cut of steak? What's your preference there?

What are you, rib eye guy? What are you doing here?

You know what, I I can have a cheeseburger if we win a race

like that. Give give me a baloney sandwich.

And I'm thrilled if we as long as we win a race like that.

You got California burrito and and he's a son of Army mule.

I think, you know, it's interesting when we get, it

seems, at least to me, Tommy, once we get to a certain point

past the running career of horses, I think sometimes we

forget what they did in their careers as runners, right?

Because then we think of their progeny.

We think of their kids, you know, instead of their running.

Harvey Mule only showed up three times.

He did win his three races. When you get a horse like this,

and you mentioned it, you said, hey, we're going to let him take

us where he wants to go, right? His he's going to determine what

the next steps are here. But at the same time, are you,

are you because he only ran three times?

Are you really just trying to figure out what he's good at

because you know, the breeding is what it is?

You know, it's funny, we bought this horse as a yearling.

Aaron and Tori Haberman bought him as a yearling.

And they have a really nice girl named Lauren Carlisle that that

does all of their babies. And she normally shortens the

list up to, I'm going to guess and say between 2530 horses.

And then I'll, I'll go over to the sale and we'll all look at

them together. And you know, they, they were

actually, I think they were kind of looking for something for one

of these maiden auction races. We were looking to spend around

50,000. We were strictly just looking

for an individual. I, I really wasn't paying a lot

of attention to pedigree because at that price, you know, if you

get the pedigree, you got to pay for it.

So, but I, I, I, I think Lauren and I both told Aaron I we love

this cult, but we don't think he's going to be in your price

range and, and he may bring a little more money than you're

wanting to spend. And the fact that Aaron was able

to get this horse bought for 60,000, which he's not eligible

for the auction races, but he was such a good individual that

that's really what turned us on to him.

I, you know, I, I, I was fine with army mule and I, I, I like

that. But you're absolutely right.

I, you know, there's a lot of unknowns with what those horses

may want to do. And it was, it was nice to see

this horse stretch out and it was, it was certainly nice to

see him kick on the way he did the other night and then, and

then kind of gallop out in front with his ears pricked and, you

know, he just looked like a horse that was having fun.

So it was. It was good stuff.

I've tried to remember I think Army mule had a daughter that

ended up winning the winning the Black Eyed Susan if I remember

he correctly or Ransack and something like that.

So his horses have, you know, his progeny have showed up in

other places. Yes, exactly.

Yeah. He was a runner, too.

He just had an unfortunate end to his career, that's all.

Yeah. Absolutely, Absolutely.

Tommy Drury with us here. You find him at Tom Drury racing

by the way, on social media. If you want to go and interact

with him there admit is another horse that Irving was aboard for

an allowance win last out. This horse has taken really well

to the turfway surface. The aforementioned Claiborne

connection there as well. We won't mention the O word here

I guess or the the CT word either, but what is the issue?

So talk to me a little bit about her.

She ran twice it in up at a horseshoe of course, outside of

Minneapolis moves to the the synthetic surface.

Do you think it was more about the surface or more about her

just being ready to break her maiden at that point?

You know, it's, it's funny. This is where Heaven Irving last

summer came in so handy. Just, he was just getting going

and I, I, I might have him at Belterra one day, I might have

him at Indiana the next. I mean, we, we, we bounced all

over the place and we ran this Philly first time at Indiana.

And she, she didn't run real well.

And, and, and we were all kind of scratching our heads.

And I remember the first time Irving wrote her, he, I, I, I

told him, you know, I think it's Philly's got a little ability.

I'm just not sure what happened the other day.

And I think he was maybe second or third.

She made the lead that day and might have got caught late if I

want to ask musings or something.

But that being said, she's a horse that's just going the

right way. She's a, you know, she's got

good size. She's she's got good length.

She's one that you would expect to be a better three-year old

than a 2 year old. And I actually broke her

mother's maiden at Turfway years ago.

So he named her mayor, named Profess and I, I had her for

Claiborne and, and, and you know, just she, it just seems

like every race she just gets just a little better.

So I don't know what her stopping point's going to be,

but she's another one that will have nominated to the next stake

up there. And we'll take a look and see,

you know, we're going to see what's coming and, and, and, and

kind of weigh our options. But I would, I would certainly

expect that she'll be nominated. Home bread for Claiborne.

And you know, you mentioned, you know, having worked for

Claiborne before. Do you get tired of seeing those

silks though? No, I don't ever.

Get tired of seeing those. Silks no, I'm no, I'm I'm I'm

just thrilled to be a part of those silks.

I you know, a funny a a quick funny story.

As I mentioned, I, I, I galloped horses for Frankie brothers who

he trained on on salary for Cleveland for years.

And, and Frankie was telling me a story one day that he went to,

and I might fudge this a little bit.

It's been years ago, but he, he went to the farm.

He went to the farm to look at the yearlings and, and Mr.

Hancock was there and he said, Frankie, he said, there's a

horse in the first stall here. I think you might like a little

bit. And Long story short, it ended

up being pulpit. So Fast forward to, Fast forward

to this time last year and I, I was going to Ocala to look at a

couple of other two year olds for other clients.

And I reached out to Walker Hancock, who's now running

Claiborne and, and I said, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to be in

Ocala. And, and not that you need my

opinion on anything, but if, if there is something you want me

to check in on while I'm there, I'm happy to do it.

And he said, you know, he said, we've got a profess Philly down

there, but that's my blame. And, and he said, he said, go by

and look at her and just see what you think.

Well, here we are. So, so I, I, you know, just just

being able to receive good horses that that's, that's going

to put anybody on the map. You mentioned blame and I think

the the call of that, you know, that Breeders' Cup I I think is

one of my favorite where, you know, it's it's Enyada.

She's there, she's running blame's there.

Do you think blame won that race?

Do you still believe it? Oh, you have to now, right?

Of course. What do we?

Do they could have won around three more times and she would I

mean, don't get me wrong, I I I'm I'm a big fan of Zenyatta

and and what she did to horse racing, but they they could have

went around three more times and she wasn't getting by him.

I mean not at any point. So, and, and, and you know, the

thing about the thing about blame is, is he did it a little

bit more of the old school way. You know, he, he travelled the

country. He didn't, you know, he didn't

just stay in one place. And, and, and I'm not knocking

Zenyatta when I say that, but she kind of stayed in California

for the, for the most part. And, and, and, you know, short

fields and, and you know, blame, blame travelled the country.

He he, he went about it the right way.

So you do have admit in you're going to nominate her for the

next level of races and and such.

Let's say she doesn't end up in that O race.

We'll leave the name out that way.

Do you think she once we get to the summer?

I know the blame, you know, I know his history, of course,

dirt and all that warfront on the on the damn side as well.

We staying on the dirt with her. You think long term or could she

potentially just what she's shown a turf race?

Could she be a turf horse? You know, I, I, we're just going

to take an E trace at a time. I, I, I wouldn't want to get too

far ahead of myself. I don't think her dirt races are

bad at all. I think she, I think she just

needed to kind of continue to grow into herself.

And I do, you know, I've seen her in the mornings enough.

We were staying with a Churchill all last summer and I've seen

her work enough in the mornings to know that that she seems to

get over that track pretty well. But I, you know, as to, as to

where we ultimately end up, I would, I would hate to say at

this point, but I'm sure I can tell you, I'm sure liking her on

the Poly right now. So she's, you know, she's

definitely going the right way. And, and I may just just from

all sides, mentally, physically and, and, and just she's, she's

just a horse that you can't help but be a little excited about.

I got three things for you. 2 We do every show and then there's

just this one here that surf is a turf way as far as training

and getting horses ready and having them there.

What do you think? How do you find it?

Do you do? I mean, I overwhelmingly

trainers tell me they love have their horses stable there being

able to use it every day. I think, I think most trainers,

at least the trainers that I speak with, we love training on

it. We just don't necessarily always

like racing on it. I think, I think for Turfway

Park, that's absolutely what they have to have.

I mean, it's winter racing. The weather's going to be an

issue and, and I think that's what we have to have at Turfway.

I don't know that every track in the country needs to be

artificial, but I'm I'm always happy to train on it.

I feel like the horses do well for the most part and you know,

some of these grass horses, you know their formal carry over to

the Polly and others are true grass horses and it doesn't.

But outside of that, I think most of the dirt horses, they,

they seem to find their way around there just like they

normally would. I get to talk to coaches on my

tend to noon show here at ESPN 680, and one question we always

ask is what's more important? Jimmy's and Joe's are XS and OS.

Every single coach I've ever talked to, Tommy says Jimmy's

and Joe's, It's not close. What's more important, how you

run your barn or having great horses?

No, I think, I think you've got to have you've got to have the

jimmies and joes. I mean, there's there's just no

good horses can overcome a lot of things.

I mean, they just do and, and, and whether that's a trainer or

a jockey or, or anything else, you know, good horses are going

to, they're going to, they're going to get you out of trouble

and, and they're going to still find a way to get there.

And, and, and, and again, that's, you know, looking at my

career over the last, gosh, I'm getting old.

It's been 30 years now, but I don't know that I've really

changed a whole lot and and how I train horses as much as the

quality of horse that I receive has gotten a lot better and it's

got me a lot more opportunities. Last one, I always ask this, you

have a job where you have to get up very early in the morning,

You get very few days off, you probably don't vacation very

often. I always ask trainers and, and

you are obviously very superstitious about these

things, but the D race and the O race and races like that, do you

allow yourself to dream about being in the winner's circle for

with those? I'm not mentioning any horses,

but does Tommy Jewelry allow yourself to dream about those

kind of scenario. I think you're, I think it's

always in the back of your mind and you're always dreaming about

it. But I think for me personally,

I'm, I'm, I'm probably superstitious enough that I'm,

I'm usually not trying to think about an individual horse in

that situation. I, yes, I, I, I mean, we

certainly, that's what makes us get up at, at, at 4:00 in the

morning is, is the, the outside chance that something like that

could happen for us. But I, I, you know, one of my

biggest pet peeves on earth is Earth is if, if someone asked

me, what do you think about your horse today?

It's like, because you're, you know, you're super suspicious.

You're always afraid to say anything.

And, and it, it, it literally just makes my blood boil.

And somebody asked me if I like my horse because I, you know,

you feel like as soon as you say you like them, something's going

to go wrong. And you just stopped them.

And it's just one of my little things.

But yeah, I definitely, you know, anytime you've got a 2

year old that wins a race and goes on to, you know, to the

next level, as a three-year old, you, you can't help but to have

thoughts like that. It just, it just, yeah, it just

happens. He's Tom Drury joined us from I

imagine somewhere near Turfway Park or Churchill Downs or

something like that here on the Kentucky Racing.

Polly, where are you? Actually, I left the house this

morning at 4:15 and drove to Turfway for training and up 71.

I went in an hour and 15 minutes and I just finished putting I'm,

I'm back at my house right now. I just finished putting payroll

in my system and I'm going to be packing.

I'm going to be packing a bag later tonight.

All right. Well, we appreciate Tommy Drury

joining us here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

I'm Louis Rabo. This has been a very, very fun

segment with Tommy. We got some handicapping to do.

We got 3 Derby preps this weekend, so we will lead in to

that. Again, we are presented by the

Kentucky HPPAKY, hppa.com. One more segment to go here on

the spotlight. Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and One O 5 Seven Now Here's Louis

Rabeau. Matthew DeSantis is his name.

He joins us from Naira Bats at Field of Menace on the socials.

Go find him there. 3 Derby preps tomorrow.

How? How is the weather there at

Aqueduct? It is raining like crazy here,

but Matthew, the temperature starts with A5, so I'm not mad

about it. Well, the temperature up here

starts with a four and that is thrilling for us in New York.

There you are. A little overcast but we are

fast today. We are expecting maybe a little

bit more rain but not quite as much as we initially thought.

So we had some overnight but like I said with the track goes

fast and expecting a really great day of racing tomorrow

too. Matthew DeSantis with us.

As I mentioned from Naira bets at failed to Menace on the

socials, we've got the three Derby preps tomorrow, but I kind

of wanted to start with something a little bit more

generic. Have you seen anyone in the past

couple of weeks that has especially caught your eye,

frankly, either on the Derby or the Oak side?

You know, not really, it's been, it's been interesting.

It's been, you know, one of those things where I'm kind of

waiting for a horse to pop. You know, I feel like we saw

Barnes and the San Vicente really make a statement and that

was certainly one to take notice of.

But I feel like some of these other favorites like a Patch

Adams from last weekend or something like that, you know,

kind of disappointed, quiet sigh, kind of disappointed, you

know, the last week in the preps at Oakland.

So, you know, honestly, one of the horses that might have been

the most impressive over the last couple of weeks, and I

don't know how much his future has, is Cold Battle winning,

winning the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn about a month ago.

And I bring that up because the horse that he beat at the

springboard Miles speaking, came back to win the Southwest.

So clearly that's a pretty good horse and one that has very, you

know, obviously smaller time connections with trainer Lonnie

Briley. But that's a horse that actually

I thought looked really impressive in that race in

Oaklawn. So excited for this weekend

because I think we might have a chance to see a couple of really

big performances that really pop off the screen.

It's interesting you bring up that springboard mile, Wow,

because it might end up being one of those linchpin races this

year the way that the Remsen was last year.

And it's a nice reminder to those of us who do this and

follow it. The way that you and I do,

Matthew, is you got to pay attention to all of it.

You never know where those performances are going to come

from. Right now, I'm being very

serious. And the other one I'll say I

have. I have one that's popped one,

but it's on the Philly side. And her name is Simply Joking.

That's Whit Beckman's horse down there at Fairgrounds.

First time out, started her at a stake and then came back in the

Silver Bullet day last out and just got the lead, kept the

lead. And I get it.

It's early and horses are going to develop and they're going to

close better than they do now. I understand all of it.

And is a mile and an eighth for her.

I don't know. But man, I I think he's got

something there and watching him, watching him, you know,

work with Otto Marie last year, getting to the Derby with him

and those sorts of things, it gives me it gives me hope that

he's able to do it again. Just on the Philly side here.

Yeah, I hear you with a trainer that I find myself rooting for a

lot. Obviously has a ton of

experience being an assistant for Todd Pletcher and Chad

Brown. And someone, like you said last

year, had an honor, Marie, so understands the the rigor of

going through these races and getting a horse ready for these

big spots. And yeah, he's got a nice one

down there at the fairgrounds. Was simply joking.

So that's one. Again, we'll see what happens

when she faces maybe a little bit more pressure up on the

front end and, you know, which continues to stretch out.

But yeah, it's definitely one to keep it an eye on them, the

Philly side for sure. And you know, Bob Baffert's got

a couple running on Sunday in the last for Janice.

Yes, you know, you might want to keep an eye on too, in terms of

Tenma and Chipper Yani. Yep, Tenma returns on Sunday in

that race as well. By the way, just for those

interested, sat down with John Lindo yesterday.

We did the Robert B Lewis card, at least the middle part, the

four stakes out there for Saturday on the Horse Racing

Happy Hour. You're welcome to go check that

out, but we're talking with Matthew DeSantis here, Audra Bow

and Co on ESPN 681057. Dan Isel at 11 today to talk

about Cal's return to Rupp Arena.

Let's start at your neck of the woods there with the Withers.

This is a mile in an eighth race up there, 20 points for the

Kentucky Derby. Race 7 starts the late pick

three up there. Quarter million bucks in here.

Very rare. David Aragona Co second

favorites at 3:00 to 1:00 with Elko Jim and low quality.

Captain Cook gets the five to two favoritism here after a

massive performance in the slop, but that was in the norm Cassie

Barn. We've moved to Richard Dutrow

here. What do you expect going two

turns with this one? Yeah, I, I don't know.

I mean, it's a practical joke, so I'm always maybe a little

skeptical of about going a mile and an eighth, but they can get

that distance if necessary. Stretching out from 7 furlongs.

I do think you can question whether or not, of course, that

poke its maiden so impressively over a sloppy sealed track at 7

furlongs is going to want to stretch out potentially over a

dry track, but keep Manny Franco aboard, which I think is notable

because there's the Brad Cox horse in this race that Manny is

opting not to run, right? I would imagine you would have a

first chance of first or feudal for Brad Cox up here.

So you know, the fact that it's a Dutcher horse and one that was

privately purchased as well for about $400,000 after that debut

effort. So even though that debut effort

for Norm Cassie was not really that great, then comes back and

wins that second race for, as you mentioned, Rick Dutcher

Junior's barn, which is starting to heat up still, I'm going to

try to beat this work. I think there might be a little

bit of a regression after that last race.

All right. Then who is it in this field

that you think could do it? Is it potentially Omaha?

Omaha on the outside? I will I, I, I think that you

can look at the four, the five or the seven and Omaha.

Omaha is a horse that was closing in the Jerome and

closing behind slow fractions. I think that's what's

particularly notable is this horse just makes its run every

single time. You figure the horse is going to

like the distance 1 going two turns, Laurel going a mile and a

16th. So the mile inmate should not be

a problem at all. And the key is just staying

within earshot, quite frankly, of at the beginning of the race

and not falling so far back. I think going two turns might be

a benefit sit there for Omaha Omaha.

I also think a horse like Uncle Jim for Brad Cox has every

chance to move forward this next time out.

Had a little bit of a tough go last time and ran behind a horse

Cyclone State, who we saw come back to win the Jerome.

So you know, was running against very good quality horses.

Went only a 68 fire a little bit light, but I think can move

forward. Then finally, no quality.

Finished second to the aforementioned cold battle in

that Smarty Jones. Trainer Chris Davis brings this

horse up to Aqueduct now to run them in New York to try to get

some more Derby points. But that one, I do have some

questions on the mile and mates with the Motown sire.

That one I'm not sure what's a mile on an existence, but we'll

see. Uncle Jim, the Brad Cox trainee

written by Jose Lescado, who has already won 21 * 22% win at

Aqueduct to this point in the meet.

Holy Bull will be race 11 in the start of the late double there

at at Gulfstream Park. Excuse me, a mile and a 16th on

the dirt there. In this one we see that the

return of Ferocious who finished fifth in the Breeders Cup

Juvenile at Del Mar. Obviously a little bit of time

off in the Gustavo Delgado barn. We see some other ones in here

though in Guns Loaded coming out of that mucho Macho Man where he

won under Luis Saez, switching Jock there to Irad Ortiz Junior.

I think Louie's riding on Tappan St. in this one.

Interesting race here because we get a bunch coming out of maiden

wins and we get a bunch that have tried other things.

How do you look at these races, Matthew?

Do you care about class experience at this point in the

three-year old season, or are you kind of just looking for the

best horse? You know, I still am looking a

little bit of class and and ferocious has that class edge.

I mean, you look at the names that he's run against since the

best of this generation at this point, Chancellor Patrick and

Citizen Bull and East Avenue. These are excellent horses and

he's largely never run a bad race.

Even that Breeders' Cup juvenile was not a bad effort considering

how far back he was and God was the only worst to make up ground

late in that race. I love that they're putting the

blinkers on him. One of the things I said after

that Breeders Futurity, I said get this horse out of trouble.

I can get this horse up on the lead and he's going to do a lot

better and I think that's what they're finally going to do.

I think he's probably in a little bit better conditioning

honestly, than he was leading up to that Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

He shipped out to caliper the last possible day.

I'm not sure he was 100% cranked for that effort.

This one, it feels like he's a little bit more ready, but I'm

very high on Tappan St. and I think you mentioned that Luis

Saez off Guns Loaded and goes to Tappan St. for Brad Cox.

He wrote him in debut. Very impressive.

That 7th for a long win usually is an indication that these

horses like to continue to stretch out some nice works

leading up to this one. I am a little hesitant about

Guns Loaded who you mentioned. Barely wing that mucho macho man

who was able to set everything up on his the front end his own

way. Went very slow by by Gulfstream

Park standards in that race and almost lost, you know, yes,

picks up Irad, but he's going to face a lot more pace pressure up

front this time going a little bit longer.

So he's a little bit of a play against for me.

I love Burnham Square on the outside in this one, not because

he's on the outside, but rather because you do get Edgard Zayas

and that's a guy. If you look at the numbers with

him, he essentially hits the board.

I I think well over half his race is so 333535 and 241 starts

so far. He's just a guy really knows the

course brace is made in the last time going those two turns.

Exact same course by the way, at Gulfstream Park before that

almost did it at the very highest level here at Churchill

Downs in November. And so I think one that's just

building son of William's map. We've seen these kind of do lots

of different things, but they went, you know, as soon as they

could second race to a mile and a 16th time to get the two turns

for that one. So interesting.

At least include for your exact exact or a try.

No, I couldn't agree more. I I think include that one in

your horizontals too. That was just my second choice

in that race. I I like that was a lot can

pass. Other horses can go to the

front. So I, you know, Edgar's got a

lot of choices and and you're going to get a good price

because it's not Brad Cox, it's not Bill Mott, it's Ian Wilkes

who's the trainer down there. But it's not as much of a big

name. And I, I think you're going to

get a much more fair price on over side Burnham Square.

Seven of Ian Wilks's starters. Four wins, 3 seconds.

All of them in the top two of his 22 starters so far.

They're at Gulfstream in the championship meet.

The Robert B Lewis will be race four starts the middle pick four

there at Santa Anita tomorrow. It's a mile on their dirt

course. It is a mile dirt course.

So start line, finish line will be the same for this.

It's Baffert, Baffert, Baffert, Ward and Mendoza in here for

you. How are you approaching this

race? Because I, you know, when I was

talking with John Lindo from Thurber in LA yesterday, we were

talking about the pace set up for this one and how it might be

Matic hit Rd. who might be the only one that's really set up to

be off the pace behind, frankly, three other horses here, Citizen

Bull, Rodriguez and Clock Tower. Are you seeing it that way or

are you just going to look 'cause I think I'm starting to

lean toward just give me Rodriguez and give me the the

pure talent and speed in a mile race and just run with that.

Get out of my mind the 10 furlongs that we've got to do in

three months. Just worry about tomorrow.

Yeah, I, I think especially in California, how many times do we

look on paper and go, well, there's a lot of speed and then

all of a sudden going into the first turn, there's one horse

that's just out up front by themselves and, you know, two

out of and off behind. So and so many times that Santa

Anita main track can just carry speed so well.

So I, I tend not to overthink the speed dynamics in these

types of races sometimes. And Rodriguez super impressive

last time out. One note of caution I will give

you was on Lasix for that effort and is now facing, you know,

winners obviously for the first time.

Citizen Bowl really very similar story to ferocious in the whole

league, has absolutely the best back class, had never lost with

jockey Martin Garcia aboard and had the patented double bullet 6

furlong, 5 furlong workout pattern you see Bob Baffert have

for those big efforts. So I this horse is a physical

beast. I mean, when you see Citizen

Bull, he was just a big horse. He's got a big hind and he's got

the ability to really run an endurance.

He's a very impressive horse. But I think Rodriguez is

probably faster in the first term, particularly with Juan

Hernandez Accord. Kind of a yes or no question,

but of course you're welcome to elaborate.

Yes or no. The Kentucky Derby's better when

Bob Baffert is part of the road to the Derby.

Is there an answer beyond yes, maybe, Hell yeah, Absolutely yes

Yeah It it is better because a it, it brings in more fans,

quite frankly. I mean, he is easily the most

recognizable face in our sport, no matter what you might think

of him. The blue tinted glasses, the,

you know, the white hair, everybody knows who bought that

for this. And he's got the best horses

every year. And the fact that he doesn't

have to transfer them to barns and do all sorts of other

things, it's better with him in it.

There's more star power with him in it.

And one of the things you and I have talked about is, listen,

the last couple of winners in the Kentucky Derby haven't

really gone on to do big things. One of the things that we see

from Bob Baffert is when his horses win the Derby, they tend

to go on and win other races. And that's a good thing for the

Kentucky Derby, and that's a good thing for a horse racing.

Yeah, I tend to agree with you. And I even when you know Barnes,

you know, they ship Barnes into running the maiden special here

because they happen to pay 180% more for maiden races here than

they do in Southern California. And he runs past Lucas's horse

in in the stretch who's come back and won since then, by the

way, both those horses coming out of that race really, really

well, just the general feeling around it was like, oh, OK, we

can have this again. OK, good.

Like this is this is a good thing to have.

And so you can just kind of tell.

I mean, even amongst the folks at Churchill Downs, there was a

real sense of readiness, as far as I can tell, that that people

are ready to move on, you know, close the chapter on that And,

and, you know, get the Derby back to, you know, having those

kinds of great contenders in them.

And it's, it's been weird having, you know, the, the

frankly, the Santa Anita Derby winners we've had in the last

couple of years. It's, it's hard to figure out

who they are and what they're, what they're good at, etcetera.

So it'll be hopefully whoever does end up winning that.

And by the way, it doesn't have to be a Baffert trainee because

there are several good 3 year olds as well in that group out

West. But I think we're going to get a

better sense of how good the Santa Anita Derby winner is this

year. I couldn't agree more.

And I mean, between a horse like barns, between obviously a horse

like Citizen Bowl and Rodriguez, even of course like Romanesque,

I think is a very nice horse that finished second of barns.

And then you have a horse like Journalism who's not a Bob

Batford horse who I'm very, very high on as well out there.

There's a lot out in California. I think that the other thing is

honestly the Kentucky Derby the last couple of years felt like

an East Coast Midwest race. There just wasn't a big

California presence in general. You had Phil Samato with

Stronghold, obviously you had Acting with a couple of horses

that got transferred to him from Baffert, but it just felt like

we were excluding California from this race and it's really

great to have the whole country back in it.

Obviously it's going to help just increase the viewership

that much more this year and the hopefully betting interest that

much more and what is truly the greatest race in our sport.

I do want to defend a little bit who was in the race last year

only because Stronghold did it goes to the Indiana Derby and

Dragoon Guard takes him out, you know, this kind of stuff.

So I'd say, you know, it was, it was the quality was east of the

Rockies last year. It's OK to say, but part of that

is the Baffert effect for sure. And so it's better when you know

both sides of the Rockies represented in that race, as you

mentioned, who you got the Pro Bowl.

Oh, the the Pro Bowl, I didn't even know that they're playing

that, you know, I, I'm going to take the NFC because I'm a

Philadelphia Eagles. Fan, I was making the Pro Bowl

joke to make the Super Bowl joke.

How you feel it a week out? Nervous, and that is, I'm very

nervous, but I listen, I'm a Philadelphia, I, like I said,

lifelong Eagles fan and I, you, I am accustomed to bad things

happening to the team that I root for as a Philadelphia

sports fan. But you know, honestly, feeling,

jokes aside, feeling pretty good.

I've got the offense figured out a little bit against the

Commanders and definitely feel like they are on the right track

heading into Super Bowl 59. Hey, if it turns into a track

meet, you've got Saquon Barkley on your team, so you might be

OK. We got A.J.

Brown, we got Devante Smith, we got, yeah, we we got a squat.

So football. Talk drag a horse racing.

You like that, Zach Antrell? I know you like that.

How about that Little Eagles talk?

Do you love the mayor of Philadelphia not knowing how to

spell Eagles? That's the most Philadelphia

thing I've seen all year. That's I, I love everything

about it. It speaks to the quality of the

Philadelphia schooling system and it speaks to it speaks to

just the overall insanity that we have and just a bunch of

mongos that root for the Eagles and just, you know, the guy

pushing the shopping cart through the parking lot while

roasting a pig. I mean, it's just, listen, we

are caricatures of ourselves. And that's The thing is like, I

know on camera I'm very dressed up and I have a little cap and I

have a tie and it's a test and it looks all very nice.

If you ever see me root for a sports team, you would think I'm

a raving lunatic. So it is we, we all have that

inside of us. And it was great to see.

Yeah, that's when I saw that. I was like, those are my people.

The good thing around here is that Kentucky basketball fans,

Louisville fans, they're all, they're all very sane people,

very rational. Yeah, very rational.

No, it's it's great. Never overreact or anything,

yeah. At failed to menace if you want

to find our guy Matthew DeSantis on Twitter, of course, at Naira

bets as well for all of his content.

Tons of stuff up right now at their YouTube page as well

previewing all of those races. Matthew, we appreciate you buddy

and I'm sure we will talk very soon.

Absolutely. So good talking.

To you, Louis. All right, Matthew.

All right. And thank you to Matthew

DeSantis for joining me earlier today on Rabo and Co here on

ESPN 680-1057. He's with Naira Bets, of course,

at Failed to Menace on Twitter if you want to go find his

stuff. And that'll wrap us for this

week. We'll keep the Derby preps

rolling next week here on Spotlight Show, keep you ready

for some of the Oaks preps and different things going on as

well. And where do people, you know,

we're talking Arabian Peninsula races and those kinds of things

as well. Plenty to get into as we get

into it. Next week with you here on the

Kentucky Racing Spotlight presented by our friends at the

Kentucky HBPA, KY hbpa.com. Good luck with all those wagers

this weekend. We'll talk to you next week on

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