KY Racing Spotlight for 7/12/2024

Welcome to the Kentucky Racing Spotlight with Louis Rebo,

presented by the Kentucky HPPA. Now here's Louis Rebo.

All right, Good Friday evening and welcome in to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight with Louie Robot.

I'm Louie Robot at Radio Louie on Twitter.

You can find the station at ESPN 680.

We are live at the studios of ESPN Louisville for the entire

show today. We will have two guests today,

both trainers and both guys have a pretty good months.

How about that? Chris Davis comes in off his win

in the Bashard Manor with politically correct Nikki, 9

doors, of course, wins the P patch.

He'll be with us first. We'll talk about how he got into

racing, obviously had to depart from a life in Chicago and

Arlington Park and all of those things.

We talked to him about that adjustment, what it's like being

in Lexington these days. Stabling a turfway if he likes

the do to Pete, of course. Lots of good stuff in that

interview with Chris. I think you'll really enjoy it.

And of course Doug Howitt will be our next guest.

He trains maybe the most interesting horse when training

in Next. He's one of those Inbetweeners

and is kind of a throwback horse, loves the distance,

longer the better. And he does it on dirt, an

unusual thing in our modern game for a horse to love the dirt

that much and would want to go a mile and 1/2.

Plus he's just a cool horse. He hears the Breeders Cup stuff.

He hears people saying, hey, send next to the Breeders Cup

Classic. I ask him, hey, are you sending

next to the Breeders Cup Classic?

Is that a consideration for you? Do you hear the chatter on the

outside? I think you'll be interested in

his answer. He'll be our 2nd guest today

here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

Everything we do on the show is presented by our friends at the

HBPA, the KYHBP, a.com, the Kentucky HBPA, stories, photos,

videos, everything you need to know about our great circuit

here in the Commonwealth. Go check them out.

Kentucky HBPA, KYHBP, a.com We'll do some handicapping to

close the show. We'll take in No no stakes this

weekend at Ellis Park. Gosh, it made me realize I'm so

used to stakes between, you know, Turfway running one every

Saturday, at least a listed stakes black type, if you will.

You know, Churchill and Keeneland, they do their thing.

Every day is a stakes day in Kentucky towns, right?

And so I had just gotten so used to that part of our calendar

here in Kentucky and so did not see a stakes on the card this

weekend at Ellis Park. Caught me a little off guard.

But we'll talk about the Saturday card, the late pick

four. We'll get into that to close the

show. But I wanted to open with a a a

conversation about an experience I had just outside.

Of the Commonwealth and Horseshoe Indianapolis last week

and Dragoon Guard wins the Indiana Derby.

Brad Cox obviously trains and at all of the normal sort of

connections, but it reminded me that I had made a trip to

Baltimore on a trip to Indianapolis this year and one

horse's name came up twice amongst the winners of the

biggest races in the day at those two places.

And it was Arrogate and we're living in an interesting time of

sires between Justify and Arrogate.

Not this time. I mean Candy Ride is all over

the place. We're living in an interesting

time. Obviously the old mainstays into

Mischief Curl and those sorts of horses that are now starting to

get a little older, frankly. But we got this very short

amount of breeding time with Arrogate, only a few classes,

frankly, if you will, few years of progeny.

But man, this year already just amongst 3 year olds, we get

Seize the Gray and we get your Goon Guard winning both the

Preakness and the Indiana Derby. Other amazing horses, Mr. Fisk,

Sub Brigade, Panda Gate. I love the gate names, by the

way, liberal arts, the son of Arrogate as well.

And man, oh man, we missed out. And something that's really

difficult about this game, and it's something we talked about

glowingly, frankly after the Kentucky Derby, was that with

Mystic Dan at least. Man, that's a 10,000.

Dollar breeding job. He's not in any hurry to head to

the breeding shed. We're probably going to get a

bunch of Mystic Dan going forward.

That's awesome. Thorpedo.

Ano's a $5000 breeding job, man. If she develops at all, maybe

she turns into an idiomatic type.

We had Brad Cox on here on ESPN 681057.

He talked about her maybe being the best Philly since Monomoy

Girl. That's heavy praise.

That's the guy who's seen a lot of Phillies, frankly.

But with Arrogate man, what what a blessing and what a curse that

he died so young. What a blessing that at least we

got a few years of progeny from him as a sire.

But what a curse that we probably won't get to see a

horse like sees the Greater Dragoon Guard as a four year old

if they run well the rest of the year because those arrogate

line, that arrogate lines just it's going to dry up without

them heading to the breeding shed.

That's a tough reality. It's a tough reality of the

modern game in general, these two turn dirt races for older

horses. I'm sure people will tell you

that's just not what they used to be.

And I was reminded this week with the retirement of Casa

Creed of something that we talk a lot about on our horse racing

podcast, the Horse Racing Happy Hour, which is to fall in love

with the Phillies. Fall in love with the Phillies.

And why do we advise that when we advise it?

Because they run longer, they're less likely to finish up a

three-year old campaign and be successful and head off to the

breeding shed. There's just a lot less money

when you can only breed one horse a year than if you can

breed many dozens. And so maybe we got lucky this

year, maybe we got blessed this year.

An intact horse like Casa Creed usually doesn't run that long.

And it was awesome to watch him. He was such a gamer, especially

in New York. Those races were always fun.

But maybe it's a Mystic Dan as I sit here and I lament the

passing of Arrogate for those breeding reasons and the fact

that it might expedite the exit from the track for horses like

your Goon Guard, like Sees the Gray.

Maybe we got lucky. Maybe Kenny Mcpeak brought us a

couple of horses that he'll keep in training for longer.

That'll make our two turn dirt experience a little bit better

for older horses. Would it be great if Thorpedo

Anna shows up at Saratoga like an absolute firework, dominates

her races and makes herself a real candidate to win the

Distaff? Would it be great if Mystic Dan

shows up huge in a race like the Traverse?

Wouldn't that be awesome? I think it would be.

I think it's a real possibility. Maybe sneak him into that

Breeders' Cup Classic field. But I thought a lot about

Arrogate this week, and I thought a lot about what might

have been had he continued down the track, had they figured out

the best way, the best kinds of mares for him to breed to.

But instead, at least we have his sons and your goon guard and

seize the Gray. And one of the very best things

about horse racing, you could fall in love with a horse and

then maybe be lucky enough to fall in love with his kids, his

grandkids. It's a very cool part of our

sport, almost an unintentional nepotism in horse racing with so

much of horse racing is intentional nepotism.

Take our first break here. Chris Davis will join us on the

other side. He's the trainer, politically

correct, and Nikki 9 doors. He's got some runners coming up,

including in a 2 year old race. Answer told.

We talk about all of it next here on the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight presented by the Kentucky HBPA.

Welcome back to the Kentucky Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and

105.7. Now, here's Louis Rabeau.

All right, welcome back to the Kentucky Racing Spotlight with

Louis Rabo. I'm Louis Rabo at Radio Louie on

Twitter, broadcasting from the studios of ESPN Louisville.

Thanks for making us part of your horse racing weekend this

fine Friday night. Really glad to welcome in

another trainer. How about that, a little Chris

Davis on a Friday. Chris, good afternoon.

How are you, Sir? Pretty well, thanks.

Thanks for having me. On no problem.

You're the first person to ever get a text from me about this

show and be like, man, can I can I call you and get the details?

So I appreciate your attention to detail.

Is that what kind of train are you?

I'm kidding. Thanks for joining this show.

Look, man, a lot of good things happening for you right now, but

I always like to go back to the beginning.

How does a Chris Davis get involved?

In horse racing. My parents trained, my mom

trained for 30 plus years in Chicagoland and my dad was kind

of her assistant also, you know, exercise.

Rode for basically a lifetime and worked on the starting gate

in Chicago for roughly 32 years, I think.

So kind of, you know, grew up in it.

Yeah. So the starting gate thing, how

does a guy even get his start doing the starting gate?

So I've always wondered this. Right.

So we've got outriders. I understand wanting to be an

outrider, being on a horse, that kind of stuff.

Getting into a starting gate, Is that a job do you think your dad

was like, that's what I want to do.

I want to be in the starting gate.

No, I think it, it was, it was a job that when you're an exercise

rider, you have free time in the afternoon and you know, the

pay's OK, but it's just something to do in the afternoon

that you're still involved with racing.

And you know, in Chicago anyways, it was a, it's a union

job. So the the health benefits were

well worth it when when you're raising a family of with four

kids, you know, the health insurance, you couldn't beat it.

Well, there you go. Chris Davis with us, trainer of

such horses as Politically Correct.

Let's go ahead and get into it. I would say in your career, he's

got to be up there as far as talented 2 year olds.

You've had obviously last out wins his stakes race there at

Churchill Downs. How how good is this horse?

And I mean, are you allowing yourself to kind of look ahead

and get excited about the Derby trail this fall?

You know we're we're right now the the short term goal would be

November try to get back to Delmar.

You know, he's he could be any type of horse.

He's got the size, he's got the ability.

Obviously he has the the mental side down pat.

I mean, he's just he's sound as a pound mentally.

He just is about a classy as an animal as you'd like to find.

So right now we're we're trying to get to November Derby trail.

We'll worry about next year, get through November this year and

you know, hopefully have a nice three-year old going forward.

You've had Jose Ortiz ride for both his maiden and his his win

there. Obviously in the Bashford Manor.

When when a guy like horse rides this kind of horse, does he come

to you after the race and say, hey, I'd I'd like to keep this

mount if I can, That sort of thing.

Well, I mean any, I mean, obviously Jose gets gets called

all the time. I'm fortunate enough to have a

pretty good rapport with him and his agent.

And you know, when when we seem to to pair up where our horses

usually are pretty live. But yeah, you know, I mean, he

knows a good horse when he sits on one and you know, he makes

he, you know, makes him better and gets at least the most out

of them with what they can. And he was really happy with the

way he performed in Bashford, obviously, kind of, you know,

going to 180 from his the way he won first time out to sitting

last circling the field and and drawing off and winning

impressively in his gallop outlook.

Well, and you know, he has to be, you know, before you out

force what's next. So we'll, we'll sit back and,

you know, we're going to take our time with him and keep him

fresh, keep him healthy. And you know, hopefully, like I

said, get back to Del Mar in November.

Yeah, he runs at the end of May is potentially is it, is it

Ellis? Is it Saratoga?

What's his neck? You know, you mentioned Del Mar

for the Breeders Cup, but you can run a 3 year old adult or a

2 year old, excuse me, in the summers of Del Mar as well.

Is there a plan necessarily for him or we are you literally just

taking a week by week with him? No, right now we're, we're,

we're looking at three spots. You know, the race at Ellis, the

fraturity 7-8. So it goes a little bit farther,

which obviously distance doesn't seem like it's going to be an

issue for him. At least, you know, at, at one

turn. So there's that race.

The Iroquois is kind of the main target right now because he

likes Churchill. He's 2 for two at Churchill.

It's a mile and a 16th. And ultimately it's a, it's a

win you're in. So we don't have to pay to get

back to Breeders' Cup. You know, the the hopeful at

Saratoga's also possibilities again going 7 eights to grade

one, which is kind of a big deal for, you know, potentially being

a stallion timing wise. I'd rather probably do the the

Ellis race and then the Iroquois kind of keep them local without

having to ship them across country quite yet.

And then if he wins the Iroquois, obviously we'll we'll

just probably go up to, to Delmar for November.

You mentioned, you know, over one turn, over one turn.

You know, he's the son of violence Candy ride on the mom

side. How much do you as a trainer

yourself, how much do you allow the breeding to get into your

head before you really get to know these horses or, hey, you

know, he's the son of violence. But yeah, but if he wants to go

two turns, we're just going to send him two turns.

Like what's your approach with that?

Well, so obviously pedigree is big, but you got to take the

horses as the physical. He's 17 hands tall.

I mean, he's a he's a big horse. He's not small.

And there's nothing about about him that even says Sprint.

I think I said that in the post race interview with Caitlin

Free. There's really just nothing

about him that says he wants to be a sprinter.

He's just a big, strong horse that.

That is talented. Candy ride on the mom side?

It sounds like a turf sprinter to me.

I'm just kidding. The candy rides sort of do

everything. Don't they?

It's. Pretty wild for sure.

They do indeed. Yeah, kind of like the old City

tits. You, you are already over all

but one of your career years for earnings this year.

Outside of 2021, you've never quite been at this level.

We like to, you know, I do, I get to do a general sports show

around here at ESPN Louisville, which I really love.

And one of the things I always try to ask coaches when I get to

talk to them is, hey, is this an X's and O's game or is this a

Jimmy's and Joe's game? And I got to tell you, Chris,

not once has the coach said X's and O's, not once, it's always

Jimmy's and Joe's. How much of this is I've got a

horse like politically correct in my barn and therefore I'm

having a good year. And how much of this is you

learning and getting better as a trainer?

Well, if you go back, I mean, we, we did pretty well when I

was racing in Chicago. Again, it goes back to the Joe's

right when I was getting the horses from trainers like Al

Stall and Brian Lynch, kind of like they're they're B string

kind of horses. That dish didn't fit in Kentucky

and they would get sent to me in Chicago.

We we, you know, we did very well.

We crushed. And obviously with Arlington

closing in Chicago, you know, kind of on the decline in terms

of racing. The last two years have really

just been a rebuilding just for the talent and clientele and

just trying to get an opportunity with some of the

better quality of horses to be able to compete.

When you're, you know, I'm not a big stable, not small, but you

know, I'm not pulling from 150 or 200 horses.

I've got like 35 to 40 somewhere in that range.

And you know, as you get more horses, you find better quality.

So that's just kind of, it's just been a rebuilding period.

And also I think the the transition back to a synthetic

track for me was key for the year at least.

You know, it seems that way. I'm stable right now at Turfway

and you know, I, my confidence level training horses on a

synthetic and knowing, you know, given basically a lifetime of

growing up on a synthetic track, you know, for the most part in

Chicago, you have a pretty good idea of what horses will

translate to dirt, to grass. But for ultimately, it's keeping

them safe, keep them healthy, keep them fresh, and I think

that's really, really helped turn the barn around as well.

You mentioned the turfway thing. I call it the turfway phenomenon

because it's, it's the surface, it's the new buildings, it's

people being comfortable. You know, you're there year

round, right? You're able to train on that

surface year round as a training surface.

Do you like it? And, and is the turfway, you

know, it's kind of in the middle.

You can get to Keeneland easily. You can be at Churchill, you can

get to Ellis if you need to. You can head up to Belterra,

Horseshoe, Indianapolis if you need to, those sorts of places.

Do you find Turfway to be a good landing spot for you as far as a

home? Would you rather be at Churchill

and and how much do you like that actual because it is a

different synthetic surface than you grew up with at Arlington?

How much do you like the newer synthetic?

I think it's fantastic. I mean, I've had little to no

issues, knock on wood. You know, training on that

track, it's very consistent and obviously the horses are

translating to, to the dirt just fine, especially in these two

year olds that we've gotten this year.

I've had, I've got 4-2 year olds at OBS and three of them have

one on the dirt, One has not started yet.

So obviously it they're trans transitioning fine, actually

probably better than fine. They're fit enough and they're

just like I said, they're they're very sound, you know,

living, you know, it's just being being a turf boy for me is

is just very comfortable. It just gets me back to being

like when I was in Chicago and, you know, just kind of knowing

what I need to do and, and how to, you know, kind of campaign

some of these horses. Underrated Taco joints around

Turfway Park, do you have a favorite?

Couldn't tell you one. I live in Lexington.

I I live in Lexington. I drive back and forth every

day. I spend a lot of time in this

car, but I don't eat that much. Don't really don't really have a

Taco place up there. Look, we don't need to rehash

the what happened in Arlington and the closing and all of those

things. But you do decide to stay in the

industry and make the move to Kentucky.

How has the move been? How is it different than what

you used to do at Arlington? And is it better, worse, or is

it just different? Oh, it's the same.

I mean, to be fair, I mean I, you know, when I was an

assistant, I came to Kentucky. I've been all over the country.

It's you either got to adapt or get out.

And I'm still young enough to where I can adapt.

You know, obviously I'm engaged now and I have a 2 year old

daughter and the move to Kentucky is great because it's

year round. It's probably the best racing in

the country money wise, there's no question.

There's only what one or two places that could even get close

to trying to rival it, you know. And this is where owners want

their horses to be if they're good enough.

I mean, we want Saturday horses. We don't want, you know, just

just horses to be in the barn. We want the good quality horses.

We want to be seen on Saturdays in these grade ones.

And that's where I think every trainer wants to be.

And if you don't, it's kind of like saying you don't want to,

you know, you want to coach but not win.

We all want to be a a championship kind of barn and

have those kind of horses. Chris Davis So you have you have

you have to, you have to be where you're going to get them.

And that's in Kentucky. Chris Davis with us, he's a

trainer of politically correct and another Saturday.

You call her a Saturday horse. Nikki 9 doors wins the P patch

the other day for those of us who better was a very, very nice

price. Tell us a little bit about this,

Philly. Very athletic, very nice.

Obviously her moving back to the turf.

She's done very well. She's she's about as fast as

you'll you'll find a Philly to be just, you know, Gerardo rotor

fantastic the other day and hopefully we can get a big race

over at Kentucky Downs. Yeah, right.

OK. So Speaking of money, right,

getting ready for that, will we see her say on preview day?

Is she going to have enough time between races?

Preview There's a possibility I might just sit in honor until

till Kentucky Downs or, you know, look around and see if I

can find some done, you know, graded that might come up a

little soft. But the ultimate goal is going

to be Kentucky Downs. Do you think that running style

in that race where she's very close to the front the whole

time and then overtakes at the at the, you know, in the stretch

essentially, is that her best running style going forward, do

you think? Just clean.

She's a type. She's still pretty lightly

raced. I mean, if you look back what

two starts to go when Jose wrote her in the 1X after the man

Wenzel, she had not the cleanest trip, just really just didn't

have any real racing luck that day and was still a little in

like intimidated being in between horses.

And you know, when he tipped her out, she really picked up and

and ran on again and just missed, you know, a placing that

day. And he came back and he

apologized and said it just didn't go our way.

But she's probably the best horse in the race, which is kind

of also why we went to the P patch instead of just running

her back in a in a 1X and again, straight 3 year old Phillies.

I think she's as good as the three-year old Philly is on the

grass probably anywhere in the country right now.

At least she kind of proved that the other day.

So she's just, she's just a really nice Philly.

The Kentucky Downs thing, the money, the the surface, the, the

undulations, all of the things that come with Kentucky Downs.

Is it more positive than negative?

Is it something you talked about having to adapt, you know, and

being adaptive and, you know, being a younger trainer that has

to, you know, adapt to new things.

Is Kentucky Downs something you have to adapt to or is it just

there's so much money we got? To try to figure it out.

It's more of a horse thing, trying to find the figure out

which horses are are going to handle that course.

It's kind of one of those deals where the undulations, the right

hand, left hand turns very European style, you know, track

that. You never know.

You know what you're going to get in terms of the surface.

It could be wet and soggy or it could be rock hard, fast and

firm, but it's just whatever horse kind of handles that that

turf course and you got to take a chance.

I mean, you have to because you just don't know exactly until

you run them. You know, I, I had Brian Lynch

on last summer and we were talking about Kentucky Downs, he

said. One of the underrated things

about it is that it is out in the country in a certain, a

certain type of horse reacts very well to being out in that

kind of environment. Do you find that as well either

going to an Ellis where you're a little bit more rural or going

to, you know, maybe even a Keeneland where there's less

sort of, you know, human clutter?

Do you find that you have horses that react differently when they

go to Kentucky Downs? Yeah, I've had, I've had, you

know, positive experiences there and and not so positive

experiences there with horses. I ran one there a few years ago

I thought would absolutely love it.

And Florent Giroux wrote them for me and he just came back

because he thought he was galloping in the field.

He just. Was.

Lost because he was looking around, just not really paying

attention. I ran him back ten days later

and he won on a traditional track.

So again, you just kind of, you got to just see which ones

really just handle that atmosphere.

Obviously it's getting bigger, it's getting more built up.

They got the casinos bigger now, the hotels, the grandstands are

getting better, more tense. So it's getting more of like a

racing, you know, it's more of like a traditional race track in

terms of what's getting built around it.

The backside. Yeah, it's it looks like you're

you're turning them out into A to a farm, you know, kind of

layout. But yeah, it just, it just seems

like the ones that like that place really like it.

You have Windy Walk running this weekend.

It's us, daughter of Money of Munnings.

Excuse me. Three of her last four she's

won, starting in a maiden claimer, by the way, at

Keeneland. Managed to keep her in a barn.

Tries to start her allowance at Churchill.

No dice. Drops back into claiming wins.

Drops up to a starter allowance. Wins.

Obviously shipping to to Saratoga's.

Never an accident. What do you what can you tell us

about Wendy Wok? She's doing great.

Yeah, she was kinda, she kind of, you know, made me scratch my

head a little bit. And in fact, the whole team, to

be fair, cause in the morning, she, she could do no wrong.

It didn't matter who I worked her with, what I did with her.

She, she just kind of dominated her competition and her first

few starts we were just kind of baffled by to be fair on.

And we ran her on the dirt early on and she just didn't, She just

wasn't mentally precocious. I think that that drop in class

wasn't the, the level wasn't where we wanted to run her, but

it was the race that went and luckily we got away with it.

That's not always the case. But with her past form, I wasn't

overly concerned that somebody might jump in and take her, you

know, with her, you know, time off in between some races and

just, you know, the way she handled the first couple.

But it seems like when she got that first win under her belt,

the light bulb kind of went off. It's like, oh, this is what I

need to do in the afternoons and not just the mornings.

Yeah. Winning three out of her last

four Jose blinkers on, I think really made the difference with

her because three out of those last four were were blinkers on.

And she's, Yeah, taking, taking the steps forward to where she

was, what we thought she was before we ever ran her.

It's just nice to see her, you know, mentally coming together.

You're winning at 21% this year. That's, you know, you do

anything above say 1718 percentage in, in horse racing

you're you're going to do very well.

The 21% win percentage, do you care about that?

It makes it easier to sell yourself and, and obviously

we're all competitive, right? I mean, you want to, you got to

think you're 21 percent or 20%, you're losing 80% of the time.

That's still a lot of losing. So, but 20%, twenty 1%, that's,

you know, the target is, you know, to eventually try to get

into the Hall of Fame. And if you want to do that, you

got to keep your 1% high. And because it gives you a

better opportunity to get the quality of horses that's going

to help you to move on and, and have a successful career.

You know, it's, it just makes it all the much better when you go

to a sale or you're, you're trying to, you know, pick up a

new client here and there and they look you up and like, oh,

OK, well, you're not useless. You know what you're doing and

I'll trust you with $1,000,000 horse.

I appreciate it. Trainer Chris Davis with us.

You can find him at Chapter Davis Racing on Twitter as well

if you want to head over there. We had an interesting Triple

Crown this year Chris, and obviously your horses didn't get

to win any of those races this year.

Did anything stand out this year to you were you are are other

trainers kind of I don't know, do you get motivation out of

watching a guy like Kenny Mcpeak sweep the, you know, sweep the

Oaks and the Derby and frankly do it with a 5000 and a $10,000

horse, that kind of stuff? Do you get inspiration out of

that or do you see the coach still doing it at ADA to get

inspiration from that? Or do you go, damn it, it's not

my horse? Like what's?

What's the Chris Davis take away?

From, from that kind of stuff. You know, you you want to see

people, you want to see your friends do good.

And you know, Kenny's been doing it a long time.

And, you know, obviously he's fantastic at what he does.

He buys a lot of his own horses. You know, he does a lot of the

light work himself in terms of going to find these these

animals, which is not always the easiest, you know, task.

But for us, I mean, we want to be there.

We want to compete. You know, sitting on the

sidelines is, you know, you want to cheer everybody on and hope

for safe, safe Triple Crown. You know, we need you know,

we're racing is getting a lot safer.

Any time there's a tragedy, it gives us all kind of a a black

eye. The fact that it was a safe year

this year was. Fantastic.

And yeah, I mean, it was a great story for Kenny.

Couldn't be happier for Brian Hernandez.

He's a good buddy of ours and you know, it's much deserved for

him and their whole team. And but yeah, I want to, I want

to be in those races. I want to run against those guys

and and be again, sitting on that the the Derby dinner, you

know, being on the stage with them.

And that's that again, that's our ultimate goal is, is to be

kind of when when you enter up with the on a Saturdays, you

know, Triple Crown card, you want your name to be there and

people go, oh man, you got a good one.

So, you know, you just take you just take it day by day.

You know, obviously being 35 years old and what I think I'm

eight years in to my career, I started a little bit sooner than

what I I wanted to, you know, we're just grateful for the

opportunity that we're still in the game.

You know, there's a lot of people that have that I've

watched and. Grew up with.

That, you know, they're, they, they outlived their owners and

their clients and they're, they're had, they're struggling

to get new clients. So we're, again, we're just,

we're happy to still get in the game.

I interviewed West Saratoga's exercise rider and I interviewed

Saffy Joseph Junior the week of Derby.

And I bring both of them up on purpose because both of them

talked about laying in bed at night before they're falling

asleep dreaming of being in certain winner circles and that

the job is really difficult, so you need to dream to keep, you

know, the motivation going. Do you find yourself doing that?

Is that part of your your day in day out?

Or are you just so in love with the job you don't have to dream?

No, I mean. We, we.

We. Dream.

Like every time you go to the sale and you buy a buy a horse

like say, we'll use politically correct, for example, like they

give you that extra motivation to get up in the morning and go

because it's day in, day out, seven days a week, You know, no

vacations, you know, you're working on, you're going to the

barn on Christmas, you're going to the barn on birthdays, you're

going, you know, it's legit seven days a week.

Having those good horses in the barn just gives you that extra

fuel to get up and keep you going and, you know, gives you a

reason to work as hard as we have to do and do the things

that we need to do. And, you know, dreaming about

just a certain race is never really been, you know, my style.

I just, you know, I want to win all of them.

Any race I've made, I want to win.

I had somebody asked me the other day, what's your favorite

type of race to win? I said when I'm in, I don't care

if it, I don't care if it's a maiden five, I don't care if

it's a grade one. I don't care if it's long on the

grass, short on the grass, long on the dirt, short on the dirt.

I don't, I don't care. I just really want to win and

make sure our, you know, our horses come back safe and sound

and have, you know, a healthy career.

Avoid tragedies as best we can. That's the ultimate goal.

I mean, that's why we do it. We love the animal, we love the

sport and sports about winning. I'll get you out of here on

this. You mentioned in our phone

conversation yesterday, Columbia College of Chicago.

If you weren't a horse trainer, what ridiculous job would you

have? I would probably have tried to

pursue a little bit of an acting career.

I did some stunt work. Stunt work I.

Worked at a I worked in a professional dinner theater

called Maple Times for about 5 years.

Jousting, sword fighting and worth the technical aspect of it

when I was about 15 or 16 and then went started performing in

the rioting when I was about 1819 and had a lot of fun, met a

lot of cool people, fun experience.

It's always, you know, movies and shows and stuff has always

been kind of a fashion of mine since I've been a little kid and

I probably without horse racing, I probably would have pursued

that a little bit stronger than what I did earlier on in my

life. So they need to open a Medieval

Times in Lexington is what I'm hearing.

That would be that would be a lot of fun.

I know, I know, I got a few buddies that that wouldn't mind

it, you know, but a. Little Turkey leg a little joust

right Get. After it'll be great.

Yeah, let you go make a guest appearance once in a while.

Well, there you go. He's Chris Davis at Chapter

Davis Racing on Twitter. Go find him there.

Chris really appreciate the I appreciate the time 3 entrants

this weekend. The only thing I ever say is

safe trips for all. We'll talk to you soon.

I appreciate the call. All right, there you go.

Chris Davis thanks him for joining us on the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight. I'm Louis Robot.

One more segment to go. We are presented by the Kentucky

HBPAKYHBPA dot com. Next up, we'll talk to Doug

Collins, a trainer of next one of the coolest horses going.

We do it next here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight on

ESPN 680. 105.7 Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and 105.7.

Now here's Louis Rabo. All right, welcome back in

Kentucky Racing Spotlight. My name's Louis Rebo.

You can find me at Radio Louis on Twitter.

Find our show at KY Racing Spotlight as well.

Really pleased to welcome in Doug Collins.

He's a horse race. He's a horse trainer based here

in the great state of Kentucky. Doug, good afternoon, Sir.

How are you? I'm.

Good. Louis, how are you?

Buddy, I'm I'm doing really great.

Does it feel good to graduate from Steve Beck to this show

Well? That's a good question.

How? About that, we'll, we'll wait

and see with Doug Collins. There you go.

Well, you had a hell of a weekend and there's nothing

wrong with having a hell of a weekend and you've got a hell of

a horse in next. I'll get to him in a minute.

But I always ask trainers when they come on, how is it that you

got into horse training and and why did why the heck do you do

this for a living? Well, I do it obviously because

I love it. You know, I was born around it,

raised in it. My grandfather was a horse

trainer, so I was a young kid around the horses my whole life.

He was a trainer there in Ohio. You know, when I got graduated

from high school, I went to Ohio State at that time, believed I'd

go to vet school, but that didn't pan out.

So I came back to the track and took off training.

Doug Howard's with us here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

I mentioned next. But hey, you're you're an

everyday in Ohio kind of trainer as well.

You've got one in, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at

places like Thistledown and Belle Terre.

You'll have one in at Ellis Park.

How is the Ohio circuit right now compared to say, when you

were coming up? The Ohio circuit's a lot

different today than when I was coming up.

You know, it's kind of odd because when I was coming up, it

seemed a lot tougher, but there was no money.

But then as they got the casinos and that type of gambling that

the purses went up. But the competition doesn't seem

to be quite as tough as it was, they say, 20 years ago.

You know, obviously today we got tracks all around them and the

purse structure all around them is a lot better.

And so I don't know if those are some of the reasons they're not

do. You think there's a place,

though, for the Ohio circuit, You know, as Kentucky becomes

more and more, you know, at the center of, you know, you

mentioned those purses. Look, there's no denying it.

Kentucky's got the best purses of any circuit in the country.

But, you know, does a place like Ohio have a spot in the, you

know, essentially in the oh gosh, the gravitational pull of

a Kentucky, if you will, for using like astronomical terms,

you know, for, you know, hey, I've got a horse.

Maybe he's not allowance level horse at Keeneland, but I could

go run him at Belterra. I could run him at Thistle.

I can run him at Mahoning Valley, something like that.

Is that a place for Ohio maybe going forward?

Oh, I think it's obviously a place in.

It should be a place in racing. It's a it's a great place for,

you know, there's a lot of guys that that need to come there

with different types of horses and stuff and horses that are,

that are good. And, and a lot of times, you

know, you might not want to run a horse that's worth 30 in

Kentucky because you might get acclaimed and you want to come

over there for an allowance race.

And, you know, over the years I've trained for a lot of owner

breeders of Ohio breads. And I mean, that's a great

program. And you know, several horses

made two 300,000 throughout their careers running in them

kind of races. So it's a good program.

A a horse that won two or $300,000 over the weekend is

next. And that's a little bit of an

exaggeration. But hey, this is, it's been a

little while, Doug, that I've seen this kind of buzz around a

horse that does something as unusual as next, which is that

marathon on dirt runner. Now, years ago, this was not an

unusual thing when you were growing up in Ohio.

Lots of horses ran like next when you hear, well, first of

all, let's do this. Let's just have fun.

For sure. Next is fun.

Is he the best horse you've ever trained?

Oh. He's by far the best horse I've

ever trained, and he's also the most unusual horse I've ever

trained in. What way?

Well, you know, I've been around horses my whole life and you

know, when I claimed this horse, I realized that he had a unusual

amount of stamina on. You know, I kept wanting to

thinking and trying, wanting to try a horse a mile and a half,

but I've never trained a horse that went a mile and a half.

So I'm like, I don't know if this horse really can do it.

But you know, as we tried it and stepped into it, he's obviously

done that. It's interesting to to look at

these horses and try to figure out what they want to do for

sure. When you hear people out there

and maybe you haven't heard this because you're a normal person

and you're not like me on Twitter too often.

But when people say, hey, Breeders' Cup classic, let's see

this guy, let's cut him to a mile and a quarter.

I know we can do it. These final fractions in this

mile and 3/8, blah, blah, blah. Do you hear any of that or are

you just going, hey guys, I've won five straight with this guy.

I kind of know what. I'm doing, you know, it's for

the most part, I like to keep him doing what he's doing

because one of my biggest things when I'm training a horse is

trying to find out what they really like to do.

And once you get there and find out what they want to do and

they do it well, don't don't change, you know, So part of me

says, no, we're just going to stick down this path.

But, you know, there, there might be a situation where we

get forced to try a mile and a quarter.

I can, I can almost guarantee you I will not run the horse

less than a mile and a quarter, You know, and if Pittsburgh

Stone goes at Saratoga, we're going to be in there and, and go

at it again. And, and, and a part of this is,

you know, you know, the people in this game are a lot of the

owners are wealthy and, you know, winning a little bit more

money doesn't going to mean anything to the owner.

He's, he's having a great time taking his family to the races

and, and, you know, enjoying hitting different tracks and,

and the horse shows up every single time he runs.

He, he doesn't need to bring his track to him.

He doesn't need to bring the, the type of surface, whether

it's muddy or fast or sealed or, you know, he doesn't, the horse

doesn't mind anything. He'll do whatever it takes and

as long as you just put him in his rhythm and let him do his

thing, he'll he'll go anywhere and do it.

In a different planet where he's a cult and he's by not this time

out of an awesome again mare. Are you handling him different

because he is a gelding or do you think this is how you would

handle him no matter what? Obviously I would handle him

much different if he was a cult, you know, we would try to get a

grade one and and before you sent him to stud.

But you know he's not, so we don't, we don't have to do that.

You know, I, I host a podcast as well about horse racing and, and

one of the things we encourage people.

On the podcast to do is fall in love with the Phillies and

bears. They're gonna run longer.

Boy, the same applies to these older geldings too, doesn't it?

Where you can just, you know, especially you.

You've got an unusual one here with next because he really does

prefer derp. We usually see this with, you

know, the hard knocking. You know, Casa Cree just

retired, for example. He he comes to mind as one of

these kinds of horses. Obviously he's not a gelding,

but you know, we're running around on turf rather, you know,

is it fun having a gelding, frankly, because literally all

you have to worry about is just picking the next spot for him to

go have a best chance to win. Well, you know, part of the

reason of sticking to this plan of keeping him in this races is

keeping him around a little longer.

You know, the harder we make him run, the probably the least

amount of time he's going to last.

And that's that's been part of the conversation of leaving him

where he's at and trying to have a little more fun with him.

Hoping he's around all 7-8, maybe nine, who knows, you know,

and that's that, that's part of the talks.

But he sure has been fun. It's interesting you, you almost

talk about him. Like, you know, we used to talk

about pitchers in, in Major League Baseball before Tommy

John surgery, right, where, you know, Peyton, the quarters

really mattered and you know, it wasn't thrown 100 miles an hour

that mattered. Do you feel that way kind of

with him? I do feel that way with him and

in some regards because I think that he doesn't owe me nothing.

He doesn't know the owner or anything.

If he never ran again, he doesn't owe none of us anything.

So we're trying to just enjoy the horse and try to understand

that, you know, even when you do have a grade one horse, I mean,

they don't win every time, right?

Or, or if you got a horse that's good in this division, it

doesn't win every single time. That might win one here and then

it's four and then it might come back and win another race.

So for the horse to be on the streak that he's on and just

just trying to keep the thing going and have fun with it.

Wins at Bell, excuse me at Aqueduct, Churchill Downs,

Parks, Saratoga and Belmont. The last five out you mentioned

get to travel with this guy. I mean, how, how cool is it to

show up with a horse like this knowing you've got a real shot?

Well, the horse makes the everything easy in the in the

sense that he ships very well. It doesn't matter what we do

with him. He just settles right in.

I mean, he went to Belmont on Tuesday last week and settled

right into Belmont like he'd been there all the time.

Shipped over to Aqueduct at one O clock in the afternoon on

Friday. And, you know, he just jumped on

the van, went over there and went in a hole and went in the

receiving barn with probably 50 other horses and just just like

he'd always been there. And, you know, so he makes the

job easy. I don't really have to do

anything anymore. And, you know, I got a great,

wonderful team that's been with me, most of them 15 to 25 years.

And these guys that fought into the program, they know exactly

what we need to do. So, you know, I don't need to

micromanage any of this. And the horse goes along with

whatever we want to do and, and it's been part of the fun too.

I mean, it doesn't matter if I pick a race at Saratoga.

The horse, we don't have to worry about the logistics.

See, he just goes on up there and does his thing and settles

right in for it. We're talking with trainer Doug

Collins here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

We're presented by the Kentucky HPPAKY hppa.com.

Go check them out. Videos, articles, photos from

around the Commonwealth, all the great things happening on the

racing scene here in the Commonwealth.

You were two hours north of Louisville a couple of days ago.

You and I were both at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Saturday.

Injunction Speaking of geldings, goes ahead and gets it done in

the Schaefer Memorial up there. back-to-back wins now for him.

Do you see moving out of that kind of company?

Are we moving into graded company with him or do you think

you found a sweet spot for? Him.

I don't. I don't.

Necessarily know if we're going to go to graded company, I mean

the next spot will be the RA Jones most likely.

He's come out of the race real well and when I claimed the

horse, I really noticed that he likes A1 turn mile.

I know Ellis isn't exactly A1 turn mile, but I do believe that

he will like that. He ran in that race a couple

years ago and actually set a track record.

So that's kind of the next spot and then we'll go from there.

You know, with, with a horse like injunction, you know, how

long ago did you claim him? I want to make sure that I get

this right. How long has he been in your

barn? I claimed him on May 3rd at

Churchill. OK, Was that recent?

OK, so you put him in the stakes essentially right away.

You know, is he, you know, when you first get a course like

this, what, what gives you the confidence as a trainer to go

run him in a stakes like the Schaefer?

You know, the horse ran such a huge race the day I claimed him.

You know, obviously when I claimed the horse, you always

think, well, I just hope we can hold there and keep steady.

And but the horse ran such a big race that day.

I mean, the fractions were unbelievable and he kept

running. So, you know, we got him out of

the race. We really was trying to pick out

an Ohio race at Churchill, but nothing really fit for the horse

at that point. You're like, what to do next?

And we nominate him for the Hanson and then the Shaffer 2.

And I had him entered in both races at the same time and the

Hanson just seemed to be a little bit deeper than I really

wanted to to get into. So that's the reason we went to

Indiana for the Schaefer. With a horse like Conjunction,

another gelding here, how much is and, and I mean this with

every bit of respect to the Schaefer, which is a fine race

for sure, but it was for less money than he ran for last time

at Churchill and an optional claimer.

How much are you looking at checks and how much are you

looking at stakes? Do those matter or is it just

the right spot for the horse? Everything in the not only those

two horses is the right spot for the horse.

You know, it's about winning for me, not about money necessarily

and getting the horse in the right spot.

And I believe that's why we're so successful.

I mean, if we need to take a horse to to put the pistol

downs, we will. We need to take a horse to

Indiana, we will. It doesn't matter.

So it's about finding that sweet spot for the horse and getting

the horse there in a good, orderly fashion and trying to

win the race. Luan Machado aboard Next and

then you had Edgar Morales aboard injunction.

I'm not asking about those two guys in particular, but when you

go and you and you, you just said it, you're trying to win

races. You're trying to put your horses

in the best spot. A guy like Luan Machado, for

example, with Next, is he always going to ride him?

Is that just a connection between rider and horse that you

don't want to break up? Is that something you focus on

as a trainer? That's a small piece of it.

I mean, you take a guy like Luan Machado, he's in the bar 2-3

times a week breathing horses and helping figure out some of

them even when he's not going to ride the horse.

So, you know, the connection between him and next, that'd be

silly to take him off the horse like that.

But you know, there's other situations where he'll breathe a

horse and, you know, think that someone else might fit the horse

a little bit better. And we're not opposed to doing

that in other situations. You have a couple in this week,

you've got a bar, you've got Barberini in this weekend at at

Ellis Park on the 14th. I guess that's on Monday about

that. I'm still getting used to that

schedule. By the way, Doug, does that

change much? By the way, I I meant to ask

multiple traders about this. I got to talk to Grant Forster a

little bit about it last Wednesday.

Does the the does that Saturday through Monday, does that change

much for you? Or is it just, hey, we're gonna

go race on? Monday instead of Sunday.

It doesn't change anything for me.

You know, the every day of the week is just about the same for

the most part. And you know, we attack every

day almost exactly the same. So whether I run on Sunday,

Monday, it don't really matter for me.

Barbara Reedy is going to run this son of Flintshire, bred

here in Kentucky. Tough run of it this year.

Hit the board twice in four runs.

What about this spot made sense for him?

You know, I ran the horse at Churchill Derby week and horse

ran a bang up race when he came back at Churchill.

We were the horse caught a funny turf course that it rained the

whole day before. I honestly thought they were

going to take him off the turf and the turf was a little bit

softer and the horse really didn't go for the going that

day. So we're, we're, we're hoping

it's a little bit firmer over there on Sunday and the horse

can't be doing any better and we're expecting him to run well.

I'll get you out of here on this with a, you know, with a horse

like next I I got to ask the question because I feel like

it's my job here. But you know, obviously you're

going to put him in spots and you mentioned not going shorter

than a mile and a quarter. It is the Breeders Cup Classic

on the radar at all. It's it's on there, but just as

a blip. It's it's not like the end goal

for me at this point in time. I can't tell you that that

wouldn't change in the next 30 days.

This was some things that that may or may not happen and OK,

wait to see where it goes. All right, well, he is Doug

Collins. We'll talk to him down the line.

Thanks for joining us here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight

and safe travels for safe trips, I should say, for all your

horses this weekend. OK Lily, thanks for having me on

all. Right, Doug?

No problem. There you go, Doug Collins,

trainer of next an injunction. Couple of stakes wins there this

past weekend, both at WOW at Aqueduct and then up at

Horseshoe Indianapolis. Guys everywhere, how about that?

We'll take a quick break here. We are presented by the Kentucky

HBPAKYHBP a.com. Go check out the website.

Go check out all the great options they have for all the

horse people here in the state of Kentucky.

I'm Louis Ribow. One more segment.

We'll wrap it up here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight on

ESPN 681057. Welcome back to the Kentucky

Racing Spotlight on ESPN 680 and 105.7.

Now here's Louis Rabeau. Alright.

Thanks to Chris Davis and Doug Collins for joining the show

today here on the Kentucky Racing Spotlight.

We're on ESPN 681057. I'm Louis Rabo.

We're presented by the Kentucky. HBPAKYHBPA.

Dot com go check out all of their articles their pictures

the great videos from around the state great great interviews

with with trainers and and different things are the good

folks the HPPA out at the track early on in the day to make sure

that you are all caught up on wall the happenings around the

great state of Kentucky. Our great circuit here in the

Commonwealth did want to do a little bit of handicapping on

Saturday car at Ellis park. I love this move, by the way,

for Saturday through Monday racing to have these stakes on

Sunday when we do get back into a more regular stakes schedule,

just to allow the guys who to the higher level riders, let's

go ride at Saratoga on Saturdays and then come back to Ellis on

Sundays. I think it makes an incredible

amount of sense and I think people should deserve, you know,

people deserve credit over Churchill Downs for making that

decision. I also am not mad when I have a

place to put a couple bucks down on a Monday.

That will start this week at Ellis Park, but on the 13th on

Saturday, they'll go ahead. They'll run a bunch of races,

anywhere between a maiden 16 and these allowances for up to

$75,000. I have a $73,000 turf race that

we'll talk about in a second here, but the late pick four

starts in race six. It's maiden 16 going that mile.

Shoot the turn and a half, if you will, at at Ellis Park and I

think you're going to have to go skinny in this part of the

ticket to be able to include horses later on.

I'm going to try to beat the favorite here in endless rain,

who's pretty good last out first time on dirt under Declan Cannon

in a $50,000 maiden at Churchill Downs going 6th and Afro looks

Gorado Corrales, who has won half of his races to start the

year at Ellis Park, 4 for eight. We're going to try to beat him

because we're idiots. But this horse I think is not

going to like the at a distance. I think going back to to to a

mile is not going to be helpful. This is a horse that's never

finished within six and three quarters legs of a finish of a

of a first place finisher in a race.

I'm going to go to quiet Rush instead, who ran in a $30,000

claimer at a mile at Churchill last time.

We're going to shorten up a little bit under under twan for

Rusty Arnold. Look over six together at at

Ellis Park. But this is a horse I think that

will benefit from the mile shoot getting back into that kind of

set up over four at the distance, but I think does set

up well here. Kate Broncho's in this race for

16 ran in a maiden ten last time really well at a mile 16 is

going to come first in off the claim here under Navas.

I'm going to try the 6-7 to start the late pick four here

just to try to get some value because I think a ton of money

is going to go in on endless rain and Chulligan I think might

be an an include here. If you wanted to go super, super

skinny, use the five. Chulligan here in Race 6 on

Saturday, a son of Justify. We just talked about that in the

opening segment of this show is going to go 7 furlongs.

Last time just ran out of time under Floral Guru.

Picks up Axel Concepcion for this one from Matt Shire, who

won his only race at Ellis last weekend.

Should be an interesting drop here.

Matt Shire does win 32% of his races off the claim, so if you

wanted to get some value, use that 6:00 and 7:00.

My single in here would be Chulligan trying to beat Endless

Rain for Gerardo Corrales and Brian Lynch in that race.

Race 7 is a maiden special. Same, excuse me, same course

over that mile 1 1/2 turn if you will down there at Ellis Park.

71K in the Kitty for this one. A couple of interesting second

timers in here. The the one horse Petty Royal is

it for Martin Garcia. Steve Asmos and trains over 7

together the two of them but hitting at 15% overall.

The horses actually moved it's training to Ellis Park has a

recorded time on July 1st of one O one in five furlongs.

Not out of the gate, just breezing.

So a nice time there as well. There is a second timer here for

Doug O'Neill. We're seeing Doug O'Neill's name

a lot more in this part of the country for Rafa Bay Herano as

well. Random maiden special 32,000 in

the Kitty there at 5 1/2 furlongs at Indiana.

Second timers, though for Doug O'Neill only at 8%, so not

really his best angle. So I think we'll try to stay

away from that. But a man who's very good with

second time starters is Wayne Catalonato.

The cat man's got. She's a little stinker in here

with Axel Concepcion. A10 horse at six to one.

I'll lean on that horse as my top selection here.

You may look at the at the Forum and see that horse up the track

almost 14 lengths off the winner Princess Madison in that race

and you would be right to notice that.

But this horse has been working well at Churchill Downs it they

are not moving this horse out of maiden special at this point.

Wayne hits at 21% in those maiden specials and at 21% in

second starts and so look for that horse to absolutely be part

of the equation at the end. Sustancias in here as well.

Tried the mile on a 16th last time under Jose Ortiz.

Gets back to a more manageable mile here.

Last distance was really good under Luis Saez in the slop over

Derby week earlier in the year and so I'm hoping the horse will

regather some of that momentum. Second off this kind of layoff,

Eddie Keeley goes at 29%. So let's go ahead and use the 10

and the 8 get some value here in this maiden race and race 7 at

Ellis on Saturday. The final two races that late

daily double, we're looking at a 5 1/2 furlong turf Sprint here

as an allowance. It's essentially a a non two

lifer race for horses that have won their maiden, but that's

about it. Maybe they won in a lower level

as well and they could qualify for this.

Makeup is in here for Luis Machado and Steve Asmussen.

Really, really impressive. Second time out.

First time on turf at Keeneland in a maiden special.

We're in a one O 3 for a 5 1/2 furlong turf Sprint, but it's

been off since October. Gosh, I hate that amount of time

off Steve Asmussen does a good job placing his horses back at

18%. Source has been working at Ellis

Park for a little while on the dirt course there.

We'll be interested to see this one get back on the turf and I

think it's the kind of horse that can absolutely win here.

That's the three make up in Race 8 here at Ellis Park on

Saturday. La La Rose is the four horse

here. Charlie Gottfile Leon had been

the right of the last two times out.

Mitchell Murrell picks up the the mount here.

Moving to turf at 10% is Greg Foley.

So this is very clearly an intentional move.

This horse did run really well at Fairgrounds first time out

and when they were taken off of the turf.

So they tried this horse on dirt did break its maiden at the

highest level of Churchill, $120,000 maiden at 5 1/2

furlongs. I'll give this one another shot

here under Mitchell Merrill. I think it's got a real shot to

win here as well. And then if you'd really tried

to find a longer shot, a little bit more of money, man, you

might have to look at our dotsy. This is a horse that's been

running at a mile at Churchill Downs and at Gulfstream Park, so

going two turns on the turf. But this horse has one at Ellis

Park in its maiden last year in August, has been running well

enough, finished third, almost won the race, frankly, a couple

back at the end of May under Jose Ortiz.

Gets her out of Corrales here. Like I said, really, really

sharp. Good start to the meet here.

Speed figures all match up as well.

So we're going to use the nine are dotsy as well on top of

three make up and four La La Rose to try to get a little bit

of coverage here in race 8. And then we'll close it with

another $16,000 claimer. This is not for maidens.

This is for anyone that is a three-year old Philly or up and

essentially that have never won three races.

For non 3 lifers here going a mile on the turf course, this

will be the last leg of that turf.

Pick three. If you haven't checked that bet

out before, $3 minimum tends to be a very, very fun bet as well.

A ton of good options in here. Miss Tappy Tone.

The seven is 7:00 to 2:00 in the morning line.

Rafa Berano and Chris Hartman did win at the $10,000 last

time. Chris Hartmann horses it do

don't changed surfaces very well.

So I'm going to try to play against this one.

Only one one of his last 46 starts with those tribes of

starters. But this is a wide open field

because of the price. And so I would grab as many

horses in here as you can. But hey, if you wanted to try to

find value in this sequence, it's going to be in this leg and

it's going to be beating a horse like Miss Tapitone, maybe with a

10 Lil town sis who's coming back after a mile run at

Churchill Downs in the 20 claimer one last time out for

Steve Asmussen. His horses go dirt to turf at

16% of do win back-to-back at 19.

All right, that'll wrap up the show.

Want to thank our friends over at the Kentucky HBPAKYHBP a.com.

I'm Louie Robot. This has been the Kentucky

racing spotlight. We look forward to talking to

you next week, and good luck with all of your bets at Ellis

Park.