Pennsylvania Derby 2025 | Jessica Paquette

She'll be calling the races there of Philadelphia.

Her name is Jessica Packet joins us again this year on the

program. Jessica, thanks for making time.

How are you? Oh.

It's my pleasure. Happy Pennsylvania Derby

weekend. Of course today we have 11

Pennsylvania bread races, Pennsylvania day at the races.

So this is marathon couple of days.

Only 26 races to call, I'm sure. Is there a voice thing that you

have to worry about? Are you one of these people like

me that's got to do the honey stuff and whatever else for your

throat? Are you doing OK?

I mean, thoughts and prayers, right?

That's the best you're hoping for here?

No one will like me more than they like me on Sunday, though,

when I won't say a word to anybody.

There you go, Jessica, back out with us.

She's up there at Parks Racing outside of Philly.

They have their $2,000,000 races tomorrow in the Cotillion and in

the Derby. Any buzz this week?

You've got a really interesting field for the Derby this way,

Jessica, where I think in most years, if this were the field,

we'd go, wow, what a great 3 year old class we've got.

These poor 3 year olds in this race have run into journalism

and sovereignty so often that so often in their PPS we see things

like second place and 3rd place. But this class of horses coming

in, you've got a really nice field for your Grade 1.

I think this is one of the best groups of three-year olds we've

had as as recently as I can remember.

This is such a contentious race and you can go so many different

ways. I think this race shapes up to

be a real pace battle and from a peace perspective, that's how

I'm handicapping the race. But it's such a good group.

Hats off to the racing office. Between the Cotillion, the Derby

and the, you know, 13 other races on the card, it's a good

day of action. It really is.

You can check them out of course at Parks Racing on the socials

as well. JM Packet for everything Jessica

is doing on socials as well. Let's go straight to the Derby.

Since we started there as well, we're seeing a fair number of

horses coming out of those races that I just mentioned in a

Gozger, A Baeza goal oriented even for Bob Baffert.

But we've got one in here that I got to see in person down in

Ellis Park. And Big Trust put it all

together in the Ellis Park Derby as well.

Of of those sorts of runners, are you looking more at those

that have faced the highest level of competition or do you

think a horse like Big Trust fits in this field?

I'm looking for a horse with a running style more than anything

and I just think it's going to be such a sharp early pace,

Moplex magnitude, David Athens, I kind of wonder if he goes.

He did last time. And then of course Goal Oriented

and Gostar all have some natural speed to them as well.

So I think it's going to be a real battle up front.

I'm looking for a horse that can sit off of it a little bit.

That said, I do think Gostar is my top selection here because he

is a quick horse and he's naturally kind of in the Brattle

early, but he does not necessarily I have to be out

front to be brave. And I think if he can just kind

of then be in that second or third spot, even tucking back a

little bit, he'll be in an awesome position.

That said, I have a big, I have some big long shot opinions this

weekend and happily delusional. I don't know that he's good

enough to win. I think he can get a piece of it

and I would leave him out of your exotics at your own peril.

There you go. All right, we saw him in both

the Federico Tessio and the Peter Pan this year.

He did run in the Smarty Jones, which is the the prep for this

race as well amongst you know, you mentioned Gosger and I was I

was there at the Haskell Jessica, and I've never quite

seen anything like this. But poor, poor Brandon Walsh is

just standing there next to the winner's circle and at the very

last second, of course, journalism gets up to beat him

and he turns around and he just shrugs.

He was the most defeated man I've ever seen in my life.

Jessica like it. Just what else can this horse

possibly do besides Ron? A near perfect Preakness, a near

perfect task. Like what else can we do for

this horse? But I'm with you.

I think that this group sets up well for him to be just behind

the group that you mentioned and eventually overtake and get that

grade 1V. Like I told Brendan yesterday

when I saw him, I went to the barns to see a couple of the

horses and every Pennsylvania Derby I've called has been won

by a grey horse, so maybe it's his year.

OK, there you go. All right, just got back out

with us here. Baeza is in this group as well.

And it's interesting to see, you know, between Baeza and Goal

Oriented. And I don't want to call them

like the the California shippers or something like that because

goal Oriented has run three of his four races east of the the

Rockies in his career. But those horses coming from out

West, I mean, the jokes are there.

Baeza is eligible for turn on to life for Goal Oriented's best

win is in the slop and an optional claimer at Churchill.

But we have this 3 year old group, Jessica, where this this

second group behind a sovereignty and a journalism is

really, really elevated between Baez and Goal Oriented.

Who do you think? Who do you think has an edge

there? Oh, by by kind of a country mile

and I think by is going to turn out to be one of the best horses

of this group. I think the best is so far ahead

for this horse. I think of John Sheriffs is such

a conservative kind of trainer, right?

And to have a precocious 3 year old is one thing, but to be so

ambitious, shipping him kind of all over the place.

He's dodged nobody. I think that speaks to kind of

how resilient and durable this horse is, but also to how

talented he is. And I I just imagine he's going,

we have a monster 4 year old year.

This may be his first Grade One win if he gets it tomorrow, but

it won't be his last. Interesting by is of course, a

son of Mackenzie the mile and an eighth distance should be about

where he wants to Max out, but we shall see tomorrow I'll talk

about Jessica packet. She'll call the races at parks

tomorrow. The cotillion will be right

before it. I was so excited, Jessica, to

see this field. So, so many great Phillies in

here and if we had done on blood horse, we did a we did a mid

season eclipse awards and we gave the the 30 Philly award a

good cheer for her first half of the year.

Since then, though, of course, a 5th place finish in the acorn.

A good second though to nitrogen in the Alabama.

She's 5 to 2 here. Do you see her as the favorite

or is there someone else in here you're looking at?

I think between her and Scottish Lassie, they're both the kinds

of powerhouses in a very stacked group.

And this, spoiler alert, is my strongest opinion not only of

the weekends, but probably of the entire year here at Parks.

After the Katherine Sophia, I texted kind of every all my

horse player friends right and said our daydreaming girl wins

the cotillion and I'm standing by that.

Fantastic. Talk to me about the horse that

ran second behind Dry Powder in that race in the Catherine.

Sophia, I'm not picking on you at all, but just tell me why

this horse out of the Linder barn, local barn for sure, horse

that's run six times at the track, she's hit the board five

times. What do you see in her?

So I'll show my work here. This is the Billy that is

coming. She is coming in.

She had a monster terrible trip in the Catherine Sophia kind of

worse in person than it looks if you watch the running lines.

And the second she got in the clear against a really big

field, right, she was full of run on, full of run late.

I think Dry Powder had kind of everything her own way.

And has anyone collared her, put any pressure under her?

I think our daydreaming girl catches her.

That said that she's also doing my favorite thing as a

handicapper today and that on Saturday is making her third

start of a form cycle. She got a big layoff from

February to July and I think sometimes in that third start

back, that's where you see the good ones really run a bang up

race. And this is trainer intent too.

Lulander is not one of those guys that just puts a horse in a

big race for kind of the sake of being there.

There are, you know, there are plenty of trainers throughout

the country that you see them put the horses in some spots and

you go, huh? You do know you can buy tickets

to the race, right? Like you can go if you don't

have a horse in there, right? And Lou's not that sort of guy.

And I think the plan has always been for his ownership group to

get this Philly here in this spot, and they got there.

Leonard and Ruiz, of course, a mainstay there at parks, have

won 21% of their last 85 races together at parks.

On the inside will be Scottish Lassie.

How do you look at horses that make a jump in speed figures and

and those sorts of things in their previous race?

Do you do you hope they repeat that or do you play, try to play

against it? What do you think about Scottish

Lassie here? She beat three horses.

She got loose and got brave on the lead and beat three horses.

I think she's a really nice filly.

Obviously she's done very little wrong, but she does seem like

the kind of horse that if she gets loose, she gets very brave.

And I don't think there's any scenario with Lacara to her

outside that she gets loose on the lead.

Yeah, I think that's really fair.

I like a long shot in here as well.

In Clico, who's going to break from the three for the

aforementioned? Brendan Walsh, I read gets the,

gets them out here. This is a bit of viewer bias.

I was at the Indiana Oaks and I was in the winner's circle with

her, and I was talking about this on the pod yesterday.

Jessica, she is just so professional, so calm.

I don't know that you could do anything around her to really

startle her. She's a remarkable, calm Philly

and you know, like a daughter. Quality Rd. got out to that mile

on the 16th. Twice is really like the

distance. I think she can do it again

tomorrow. Real test against this field.

What do you think of her coming in?

Well, I think she got all the good of quality Rd. with that

kind of easy going disposition. She's just all business, right

She and funny because physically she so takes off of the tappet

side of her family. But she is just so professional

and I know Brendan thinks highly of her and that's enough for me,

honestly. Yeah, that's exactly right.

As you mentioned, a quality Rd. tap it on the damn side of royal

obsession with mom there. Steve Kornacki told me yesterday

he thinks a lot of Indie Bay coming out of that.

Charlestown Oaks, of course. A2 turn 7 furlong race there.

Do you think she could add the two furlongs tomorrow?

Furlong and a half, I guess, yeah.

It's a sentimental rooting interest for me with this

Philly, if you go down into a female family, you'll feel 1000

years old, but couple of damn back.

Harmony Lodge was one of my all time favorite horses when I was

a kid. And you know you're old when you

have to go like several generations back in the pedigree

and you go, I remember when your mom was 2.

So I thought it's kind of cool, this sport.

This sport is really fun sometimes and it brings you back

to all the reasons you loved it in the first place.

But I think everywhere in the source's pedigree, especially on

the female family, this is a sprinter.

Lots of Breeders' Cup interests tomorrow at your place.

Which which races tomorrow are wins and ends for the Breeders

Cup? Not none of them are, but we

look forward to seeing quite no wait a minute in the Breeders

Cup. The Pennsylvania Derby's not a

win and end for the Breeders Cup.

I know, that's funny, isn't it? Jessica, why is that lodged in

my brain as a fact? My God.

We, I mean I. What a bad job by me.

We are very professional here but we have seen so many horses

come from, you know, parks here on these big days and go on to

really great efforts in the Breeders Cup, even in from the

undercard like Ventornado who is huge in the Sprint last year.

So there can always be Breeders' Cup implications even if you

don't stamp your ticks there. All right, well, the Gallant

Bob's the race before that. There are some good sprinters of

this one as well. They're shipping barns in from

the West Coast. Is the back for camp.

Of course that is on. There's a Don racing folks

there. Of course.

I really like neo equos on the outside.

Another viewer bias of course. Saw that one in the Jersey

Shore. Didn't love the two turns in the

Hilton last time. Between those two favorites, is

there someone that can beat them?

I don't this is a race where I am so blinded by some of the

local horses because I am fond of them and I've seen them so

often and Neo Echoes is my logical top selection.

But I swear Alchemism is good enough to hit the board here.

His effort last time out, he was going to finally run the race

that I have thought was in there with this horse for so long.

I have thought so highly of this Pennsylvania bred Senses debut.

David Zatolo is a small outfit here.

I don't let those that over 24 trick you.

He's a good horseman and Alchemism was going to run

finally the race that this horse has hinted that he has in him

and Paco had one of those real Paco kind of rides and it put a

stop to that. And it was he got interfered

with so significantly that he had no chance.

And I he's just, he's better than that last race.

Alchemism will break from the four Pennington Dotalo

combination there. Of course, you'll get a nice

number on that horse as well. 30 to 1:00 in the morning line

almost will be a we'll be around that number or higher.

I was just going to say when we get to that earlier in the card,

of course, the parks Dirt Mile, the Liberty Bell, the Greenwood

Greenwood Cup, anyone you're looking forward to and how sad

are you that Next is not making the trip to Parks this year?

I mean, we will absolutely miss next, but it does make the race

a lot more interesting. You have fair enough in the

Liberty Bell. I think that actually shaped up

as one of the most competitive races on the card.

I am a huge fan of #2 Aulani for Michael Moore, who I think has

done a phenomenal job with this silly.

She's from the female family of Mom's Command.

So if you are a little horse crazy girl of certain age, you

idolize Mom's Command and Abby Fuller.

And it's just fun to see that pedigree way down a couple of

generations back. But this one has shown she can

run out of town. She can run well anywhere.

She's a stakes winner at Colonial and I think back on our

home track, she'll give a very good account of herself.

The thing that's funny is we saved kind of one of, I think

the best races of the card for the last race of the card.

The park Sprint is so good and so competitive and I'm just

hoping it's not run in the dark like it was last year because

that was that was a lot for the announcer.

Let me say after a whole day of racing doing it in the darkness.

You don't want to call a 13 horse race in the dark, Jessica.

I mean, come on, are you a professional or not?

What are we doing here? At least bump and run is grey so

I know I'll be able to see one of them.

We'll do that for sure. Well, Jessica, I have a bunch of

great calls tomorrow. Appreciate you jumping back on

the program. 77 and sunny. Good job on the weather.

You know, I, I at least I can deliver on one thing there.

You go enjoy the day tomorrow, 11 races today, 15 tomorrow.

They're at parks. Build that bankroll today and

have fun on Pennsylvania Derby Day out there at parks.

Jessica, I have a bunch of great calls.

We'll talk to you soon. Thank you.

Good luck everyone.