Oaklawn/ Smarty Jones w/ Matt Dinerman

Is that Matt Dinnerman? We're going to talk to Matt

Dinnerman. How about that?

Let's get Matt Dinnerman in here at ten O 8 Central time.

His name is Matt Dinnerman. He joins us from Oaklawn Park.

He's got a Smarty Jones and he's got a Mockingbird to call

tomorrow. Matt Dinnerman, How are you, my

friend? I'm well Louis, glad to be able

to talk with you. There was a little hiccup on my

end, but glad we can make it out your way.

Yeah, I don't know. Glad you could do it.

I got to say, it always makes me smile, Matt, because your life

when you called races in the Bay Area and the, you know, the

media requests and sort of just the general request for your

time as opposed to being in Hot Springs, they could not be more

different. Yeah, I would say it's a, it's a

little bit different for sure. You know, going living in the

living in the, in the Bay Area, you know, it's a totally

different type of living, obviously, and, and even the the

community and how they be racing and, and how many people come

out and just the how centric racing is in the town of

Arkansas is very different as opposed to California, where,

you know, there's a lot of different things going on.

And not to say there aren't things going on here, but

there's a lot of things going on and, and here it's you know,

this is the only we we say it, this is the only professional

sport in the state of Arkansas. So it's it's it is a heck of a

good time. He's Mad Dinnerman at Three

Colts Handicap on the socials. Go find him there.

He'll be calling the races down there at Oaklawn Park as he has.

You just went over 10,000 career races called.

You have a friend who keeps track of that for you.

What's it like to have a good friend?

Having a good friend is very, very important in life.

Louis so I've but 10,000 races. Man, that's that's a huge

number. You got to be really proud of

that. I am very proud it it, you know,

it's really you think about, you know, how many races that is

and, and you think about all the, the, the journey and, and

the fact that there are so many people that that have been so

kind in this business that I've worked with and, and helped me

out along the way and, and, you know, working really hard to get

there. So, so it's a it's a cool little

thing. My, you know, my friend, being

able to, to, to jot all that down was pretty cool.

And it's it's a really nice thing.

Mockingbird tomorrow. It is a six furlong Sprint.

Is that Matt, in your opinion? You know, this is going to lead

eventually to, you know, the honeybee and the Martha

Washington and those kinds of races.

Do they run it at 6 furlong simply because of the layout of

the track there? That the shoot there is a six

furlong shoot. That's correct.

So we we do have a shoot on the back stretch, but it it doesn't

go farther than than 6 furlong, there's no 6 1/2 seven.

So with regards to that, the sprints that we run here either

5 1/2 or 6 and those are the only two distances we run here.

We get the Mockingbird, it's Race 7 starts that late pick 4

down there. We get a very, very, very four

to five favorite. Flavian Pratt's going to be in

town to ride this weekend. A daughter of Metoli, one of my

favorite horses of all time. Zach is is is running here.

She's so spicy. I think is the name of this

horse. Is she a worthy 4 to five

favorite in this 1 then? I well that that's a little low,

but I think that she should be favored.

I think she definitely should be favored.

She's probably the most likely winner on the card.

I I think she'll be tough in there.

I think that the field she finds here is a little bit lighter

than what she saw in her last fake in Kentucky.

She went off favored, ran well, but I still think she's the one

to beat. And I don't think that if she

runs her race, she she just appears a little bit faster than

these. It's just my opinion.

If you are looking at a horse like let's say GW's Girl whose 2

races coming in were both on the turf, obviously you have a a

single track, a single dirt track at Oak Lawn.

Only thing you can offer as far as your cards.

How? How are horses running coming

off the turf onto the dirt at Oaklawn this year?

Well, to be honest with you, I think we have seen a lot of

these horses that when they're, they seem to have better form on

turf, they're not running as well here at Oaklawn.

That being said, we see the sample size of those horses seem

to be horses that have a lot of experience.

They're they're older horses. So with that in mind, I, I, I

would say with a younger horse like this, it's a little bit of

a different scenario. I would give her a shot on the

dirt, but I I actually would say that for the first month or so

here, the turf form has not really been transferring great

to the dirt form from what I've seen on.

The outside will be chatter. That's a horse that ran and

broke its maiden last out at Keeneland.

Ramon Vasquez, who rides a lot out there at Oaklawn, gets the

mount. In your mind, is that the most

likely upset winter chatter on the outside?

Well, I it's funny because I, I basically I'm going to

contradict myself. I I picked G WS girl 2nd to

maybe upset just because coming out of that Governor Sam race.

But but I would say this. I think shatter will be it

wouldn't surprise me if she goes off as the second choice.

She she ran real well. I thought that made winning

shows some some real determination.

So she's got some ability. She's got a good post and there

is a good chunk of speed in here and I don't think Chatter's one

that's going to go to the lead. I think she's probably going to

sit right off that speed brigade as opposed to she's so spicy

where it looks like there's probably one way for her to go.

She's probably going to want to be quick.

So I think Chatter's got a pretty legit chance in there to

get the right trip. Matt Dernerman's with us.

He calls the races at Oakland Park in Monmouth in the summers

and of course that means he calls them up at the Big M as

well. Look, the Smarty Jones will be

Race 9 late double starts here. Milan is 16th, so we're

stretching them out here. We've got a 2 to one runner in

Kale's Angel. I made the joke yesterday that

of course this horse was running in California previously, Matt,

because it's called Kale's Angel.

Is that a good joke or not? Yeah, I think you have a feature

in stand up comedy. So really.

What's going on? The eight to five favorite will

be the Brad Cox trainee in a hot property.

Flavian Pratt gets the gets them out here.

Marcelina Pedroza was aboard for a maiden score at the

fairgrounds. This is something we see a lot.

Matt is is horses moving between Fairgrounds and Oaklawn this

time of year? Especially, of course, have

horses been translating well from fairgrounds so far this

meet. I think they have, yes.

And I think, you know, looking at these horses, the key is

really, and we've talked about it before off there, you and I,

it's about putting them in the right spot, you know, and I

think that you get these trainers that have the same

types of horses in certain scenarios.

And because Fairgrounds in Oakland is an easy ship, I can

sort of separate them. You get big barns that they have

maidens and they run one maiden here at fairgrounds and one

maiden over here at Oakland. So I, I would say the form has

been very solid when they come from the fairgrounds.

But I would say that generally the dirt maiden races or the

dirt allowance races are not as strong as the, the, the form

here at Oaklawn. So if they're running at

fairgrounds on the dirt and they're running in open mains,

open allowance races, I would say Oaklawn's got a little bit

stronger quality there, but the form has been transferring well

enough. So hot property will be the

favorite. Obviously.

They debuted him at the mile in a 16th distance.

I'm interested in a horse in here in optical out of the

Desormo barn. Wanted a mile last out in a

starter optional or excuse me, in a in a starter allowance at

Churchill Downs. Do you find horses translating

well from, say, a mile distance at another course to that

shorter stretch at at at Oak Lawn as well?

I've I would say that is the case.

I would say horses are doing just fine going from the 1/3

mile to the two turns. But I think the key there is

generally, but it's more about the the turns than it is the

distance. So I think there's some horses

that it's been pretty predictable, horses that have

experienced that maybe you're a little bit better.

I don't want to turn mile. It's a little bit more difficult

to transfer it to the two turns. But horses that have shown that

they can do either, they usually do either no problem.

But in this particular scenario it's a little bit tricky because

you know, you get a horse like Optical who who doesn't have a

ton of T turn experience. Yeah, he'll be an interesting

one because I think I think he's very live.

Axel Concepcion has not been riding there at at Oakland.

So it'll be interesting to see how he picks up when he does

that. Any trends that we need to know

about? Is speed holding up up there?

Are closers doing well? What's going on at Oakland right

now? I think the big thing that I

have seen is by the time you turn from home here at Oaklawn,

you need to be around. We have seen horses come from

off the pace. I think the track has been fair.

I think it's been pretty fair for the most part.

But The thing is though, right when you turn from home that

you're not really seeing horses from 8th flying down the center

of the track winning it. It's not happening that often.

You need to be within a few lengths of the lead turning for

home. So if you're watching a race and

your horses eat lengths behind at the quarter pole, you're in

deep water. If if you're around turning for

home, you got a shot. So that's the only real bias, so

to speak, I've seen. But other than that, I've seen

horses throughout the meet come up the rail, come from the

outside, went on the lead, went from off the pace.

So for the most part it's been fair.

You just got to be around turning for home.

He's Matt there, man, that three Colts handicap on the socials

and you'll hear him on the calls today, tomorrow and Sunday, of

course, at Oakland Park as well. Happy new year, Matt, Hope

you're doing well. We'll talk to you next time.

All right, Louis, great chatting with you, buddy.

Happy New Year to you all. Right there you go, Matt

Dennerman down there. Hot Springs, AR cigars for you.

If you head over to see our friend J Shepherd at J Shepherd

Cigars, Bardstown Rd. we'll call a shot.

We'll do it next.