Preakness 149 Preview Show

Mike & Louie preview the Preakness with John Piassek (@theyreoff). The show was live from Pimlico.

Our coverage was presented by the Maryland Thoroughbred Breeder's Association.

Full Transcript

You're listening to the Horse Racing Happy Hours coverage of

Prekas 149, now live from Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore.

Here's Mike Gandolfo and Louis Rabeau.

All right. Welcome to a special live

edition from Pimlico of the Horse Racing Happy.

Hour. I'm joined, as always about that

and we've got our man John Piazza, who made me very happy

yesterday. Johnny P How about that?

Why did he make you happy young Mike Andolfo?

Well, young compared to, by the way, Pimlico Race Course and

nothing else. On, I would actually have to say

that when it comes to Blackout Susan Day.

Oh yeah. John, just.

There's something special about it, isn't it?

Has he? He gets in his own.

It's a touch it. Is and.

Just a touch if you were running in the Derby.

We hit the late pick five yesterday and I didn't hit it

just once, but I hit it. Twice.

There you go. I saved it for a dollar.

It was a freebie and it was a nice little like $1600 payout.

How about that? On a $60.00 ticket. $60.00

ticket 1600. Well, Mike, where would people

have found that if? They would have just gone to the

gold book. How much did it cost yesterday?

It was free. How about that?

So today it's gonna cost you 5 bucks. 5 bucks.

But it pays for our flights, it pays for that kind of stuff.

That kind of stuff. Money in your pockets.

That's right. You would have, even if you

would have played Louie's Shitty Little pigs.

Really. No.

This early? No, but this early.

You had six winners on top. Do not hit the dump button on

that. Just let it go.

You had six winners on top. Yeah.

Yeah, right. You killed it, right?

Actually. Being we had, we had the first

race as well, right? You paid 33?

Bucks. Yeah, we did.

So you're like, today's the day, like we're going to come out

there and get the Gold Book $5. It'll mate.

Where? Where can you find the gold

Booklet? Gold book bets.com There you go.

And frankly, we got a race to talk about.

Right now we're about four race, 4 minutes to race 2.

I I don't like that. My pick here is 3 to 5 on the

line here, so I'm going to go to John.

Well, let me let me set the race up so we again this is you have

4 minutes to place your bet. This is Race 2A Penal Code.

It's a $54,000 purse a mile on the 16th on the turf.

Which are they staying on the turf or they're staying on the

turf? Everyone it.

Is listed as good, right? Here, by the way, this is the

old Friends purse. We love our friends at old

friends. Our friends, old friends.

Awesome place to go outside of Georgia and just go visit.

It's well worth it. You're supporting a great 'cause

with with Aftercare, John. You feel differently on this.

You do not like the two horse. You are very solid on a

different horse here. Who you like?

I. Think A2 has a shot but a three

to five? I think it's kind of goofy.

I think #8 chalonian on top, going First off the claim by

Jamie Ness. Jamie Ness is is one of the a

top trainers in the region. He is very well both here at

Pimlico and at sister track Laurel Park at at Delaware Park

around here he does well as well.

This one made his first grass start in a while last time out

after racing Mosley on dirt, gobbled up ground off a pretty

modest pace and lost by just three parts of a length, losing

to a lot of very good local horses such as L Eric the King.

Cheek cannons roar not horses well known to you know the

mainstream racing public of all of them are Maryland Star Wars.

There's really no shame in in just missing against them.

As mentioned, he goes off the claim.

Jamie Ness, since the start of I believe 2022, is 32%.

First off the claim, he's as potent on grass as he is on

dirt. As as long as he has any kind of

pace that goes into, he'll be gobbling up ground late and

should get up. And Lily of course likes the 2

words, mainly just 'cause he wants to be able to say his name

with his linguistics background. Porkary rolls.

Poker Rose. Something like that, yeah.

By the way, the other horse that could totally ruin our day is

the four horse here. Breakwater, Flavia and Pratt.

Had a couple of nice rides at the end of the day there.

Five. Well, Flavian right now?

Yeah, five. One on Flavian and really nice

run last time out. First off, a very long layoff at

Tampa. Second off, the layoff here. 20%

angle here for Shug. Who brings this one in for this

button as well? Surprise, they're staying on the

turf here. No, I'm not.

The Pimlico runs on the turf in more adverse conditions than any

track I've ever been to. John, you're big on the turf

conditioner. The person here who takes care

of the turf, I can't remember what.

Is Logan Freeman? Yes, So I mean, he does an

incredible job, right? Yes, well because Maryland had

had a wrap in in the mid late twenty 10s of being a track

where of two tracks where, if it rained at all, they pull the

grass faces. Off Would you like to have a

good turf course? Well, Logan came on board.

Well, yes, I know you guys are on the struggle bus with that.

But no, Logan came on board a few years ago.

He he does an amazing job both here and downstate at Laurel.

He manages the grass very well. They took everything off the

grass last week after getting some rain just as kind of a

precaution for this weekend and and that I think has LED up to

the race of being able to stay on today.

The horses are approaching the starting gate as they begin to

load John and then you just get him like like Lily is not

betting on the five horse, which you know you're not betting his

name St. John's.

Is the name. So also if you're a Rick Pitino

fan and and Louisville and you want to bet on the five you get,

you get a little bit of a. By the way, too John pointed out

something really important is that they were really getting

ready for this day. I remember being here in 2018

during the justified previous were literally four horses shot

out of a fog because it was so wet here and they just got out a

giant roller like you would see with blacktop in a parking lot.

Just just put the turquoise back down.

Got it in shape. I expect to see the roller today

for sure but yeah, hey by the way we have we have the text

line open today, 437-9680. Texture said I just got my car.

The first thing I hear is Mike cursing at me.

There it. Is yes.

I apologize. That's all right.

Award winners right here, baby. I'm actually hoping the FCC is

listening to us. No one works on Saturdays.

That's exactly right. Yeah, they don't work at all.

It's all right. Yeah.

But there you go. So yeah, no going to stay on the

turf. They're still staying on the

turf yet, so we got a little ways until this race starts.

We got a little bit to go here again.

This is Race 2 Mile and 16th on the turf here at Pimlico $54,000

Purse. And this is all about our

friends and old friends. This is, yeah, they're going to

a. Bunch of aftercare folks here

today too as well and a lot of different programs being

represented downstairs. And I think you know we'll do

our the thing that's one of the great things about these big

days and horse racing. We got five of us here.

You know, kind of do that group bet, you know, do the Pick 5

whatever and you split it up and I'm sure we get, you know.

A nice level of a return on that we could probably put 100.

Bucks in a in a an aftercare jar if you will.

It's always, it's always good to do that.

I did the same thing when we were at Santa Anita for the

Breeders Cup and the aftercare stuff.

Being promoted at the tracks has has been an awesome addition to

that we've seen recently. It is, you know, we got to

educate people. We got to educate what happens

with these horses at the end their career.

You know, I think they don't know of the infrastructure that

exists for for older horses. That's right.

It's stunningly It's vast. Yeah, I mean it's.

In every state that has horse racing and and others that

don't, I mean they take on these horses and either a second

career and you know, maybe in dressage or in, you know, other

equestrian events, that kind of thing, or hey, just get to be a

horse and hang out with the farm.

They actually, if you, if you remember our Derby coverage they

had 20 different aftercare organizations who drew a number

and they they basically whoever won got got a big what was

$12,000. I mean they got I think the

check everybody got hunkered. Yeah, everybody got me.

And it was an that was a. Smart way of showing how many of

positions exist, right? That was a really, really

intelligent way. I mean, there's more, even more

than that. So, yeah, so they're finally on

the turf. They're walking towards the

starting gate will hopefully be having this runoff.

But no, no horses loaded just yet.

They're welcome to the gate. Talk about yesterday.

Yesterday was kind of a day. Let me at the We ended up

talking more, I guess, than we expected.

To oh for the show. For sure, yeah.

I mean, the show was a little everything that happened in

Louisville kind of, you know, didn't like, throw us off.

But I don't know what the right word is.

It just wasn't. We had to change course.

I think that's that's the way to play it.

And the other the chef plays amazing, you know it was and it

was kind of like looks hopefully everything they're set.

Up for they're set a fantastic weekend in Valhalla as far as

the leaderboard and how many people are in contention on all

that kind of stuff. Can Xander shoff?

We can stay up. That's our one of those other

guys kind of Colin Mork. I would jump up, but there's a

ton of guys, really interesting players, that leaderboard.

And so, you know, we got done with the show, kind of settled

in for I went over to the barns just hunting Dan for like 45

minutes. This is one of the cool things

about Pamela, how accessible that stakes barn is.

What did you do after the show? You just kind of wandered

aimlessly, Oh. Yeah, I would say aimlessly is

correct. Yeah, Yeah.

It felt aimless yesterday. And and whenever.

You're with Runner Rich. It's pretty aimless.

Yeah, I think that's that's fair.

You're with Zach. It's just sarcasm and

unpleasantness. Well, that's.

Exactly. I took the equipment back to the

car, right. And you know, shout out to

Raven, thank you Raven. And then we came back and Zach

went in to find you guys and that's when I went out and hung

out with Dan for a little bit and.

Every year there's a woman of a certain age that helps out this

show. Last year was a nice police

officer whose name I cannot remember.

The security here that was at the table.

She was pretty nice. And then last year was or this

year was was Raven who helped us with the parking spot?

This time is our priority, so it's all, it's all.

I don't need to mention. But you know it's.

Raised to a publico for sure, but no, a fun day yesterday.

I mean, really wish we had the weather again and for today,

right? I mean, because it turned out to

be a really. You made the point before the

show and I thought it was really astute, which was just a really

fair day on the track. Very fair day, right?

It just felt fair. It felt like, you know, if you

were the best horse, you. We saw it upset in the Pimlico

Special, for example, but it wasn't, it wasn't a fluke.

Urinate was just the best horse yesterday.

And so it's one of those. And that was a John's big pick

in the pick. Five.

You know you're playing a John Piazzi pick five when there's

like a six to five favor that you leave off your ticket.

But you got the 50 to 1 Maryland Bread on the ticket, which was

not that race. It was the race.

Before. Yeah, At the same time, it was

incredible. If you had that gold book, you

were making money. So as the day went on, it just

kept on getting better and better.

John and I like to hang up here and then we go on the roof to

watch the races. It's cool thing to do.

And then yeah. People don't know we're set.

We're on the 7th floor of this place, essentially, right?

If there were actual floors, top to bottom.

The roof, though, because we're in this, in this pub above,

we're actually under floor 8 and the roof.

Is roof level. So actually on the roof level

here and it's really, really this fantastic view of

everything that happened there at Old Hilltop.

All right, so they're they're coming around the back straight

and ready. Hit the turn.

So yeah, Louis. And then it just literally just

got better from there because we got to go down for the for the

blackout season. Oh man, now.

We're listen, we're keep talking.

We're getting joined by royalty, though.

Come on, two, stay up. All right, so but we got in

there. I we hit the foul with the black

season. Kornacki's there.

Yes, he is. I mean, we're going to get the,

we'll get the end of this race, the 26 battling.

The five's really coming too. Look at this.

But here comes the 9. The nine's flying.

The nine is flying. The Two's done.

The five, the 9:00. What is the 9's odds here?

Goodness gracious. The 9 takes it 35 to one.

Wow. And by the way, nothing fluky

about that run. Alright, tell us real quick

about this, John. So this video gets it done.

Actually ran well in his first grass start going 6 furlongs

last November, rallied well and got fourth.

Hadn't been on grass since. Added blinkers and we're

switching over from dirt to grass.

One of those who's who's kind of interesting is the horse who he

lost to last time out. Sheriff Ronnie is running in

today's 14th race, so that so, So it does kind of flatter.

Sheriff Ronnie's formed just a little bit.

There you go. All right, and then we got our

man Scott Wyckoff now joining us.

But let's real quick. We talked.

Kornacki's there, walking the watching.

The black guy, Susan Kornacki, comes off of his perch because

he cannot be amongst the commoners for too long.

Listen. I I saw yesterday the power of

Steve Kornacki, so we've had the guy in the pod.

Not wearing khakis yesterday, by the way.

Correct. Wow.

And I and I thought he looked better.

Let's be honest about it. Let's tell Steve what's going

on. Obviously, he's a single man in

New York, has no fashion sense. We're dads in Louisville, KY We

have all the fashion sense. You listen to me when I'm

talking to you, Steve Kornacki, lose the khakis.

I mean, what are we doing here? It's it's not like you have a

shtick, right? Roll your sleeves down.

Be an be an adult. What are we doing?

What are? You gonna wear Everybody's

trying to get them happy. Right now, Sean.

Sean thought he'd make it look like he's coming.

Together. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, just hungry for lunch.

Yeah, we get a we. See Can we get on?

Can I get on the? Show.

But Kornacki comes off and we're able to present him like, yeah,

Zach. Zach is carrying around this 3D

printed gold trophy that is like it's breaking in every place

possible. By the time that we're able to

actually present this thing to Kornacki, there you go.

And I did. Kornacki cried.

I mean, I I follow. Who makes fun of me for crying?

It was close. Kornacki was close to cry.

He was close. I mean, it was the greatest

honor. He said it's the greatest honor

he's ever received in horse racing.

Direct quote. Well, yeah.

Of course it's the happy hour draft.

We'll do it, of course. It's the happy the first, the

greatest draft trophy. That's right.

It's the It's all won it last year.

We're not giving. Him a call at the day in Thistle

Trophy. Oh, who won the first one,

though? It was just the three of us at

the time. You mean Megan?

I can't remember who actually won the draft.

I have no idea I'd have to. Go.

Yeah, We'd have to go back and look, yeah, yeah, but yeah, but

Thistle did win it last. Year Thistle did come on our

show with no shirt on, so I like that.

Yeah, that's a great point by you, Shirtless Thistle did.

Happen. Wyckoff's, like, not gonna do

that. You can already tell.

Like he's he's, he's not coming on the show shirtless.

I don't think he. I don't think Wyckoff's like big

time enough to be shirtless on our show.

Do you feel that way? I I I could definitely pull it

off. But it would be, it would be

disturbing, you know, you get that.

Message on Facebook or Instagram.

That material not appropriate anymore, yeah.

Yeah, Scott, like off of this man WBAL here in Baltimore.

He gets up way too early in the morning.

He makes horse trainers feel lazy.

Yeah, How about that? You nuts?

Yeah. Yeah, you're mine.

I'm going to be on with you at 2:00 today.

We've we've now made that an annual thing, which I, by the

way, I really love and I appreciate that very much.

You Pete Medhurst, you guys from the from the Navy network for

sure. Scott, you're a You've been

doing how many Preakness to think this is for you now?

22nd 2 OK, 22 straight. I started here in Baltimore 22

years ago and the news director said, hey, can you run over to

the track and help them out with their morning thing?

And I've never left. No, I I believe it for sure.

Look, we've talked a lot of like future of Maryland racing, all

that kind of stuff for sure. But the the Preakness itself and

you, you and I always get into this.

You know, now I should say last year we got into this, We'll do

it again this year. Just who shows up and who

doesn't. That kind of stuff.

It is really the, you know, we had you and and Callie and and

Dave Rodman on last week. It really is the the watching

game of getting into that first weekend after the Derby.

Who's coming, who's not who. Oh, catching Freedom's coming.

Oh God, Mr. Danny is coming. Awesome.

You know, that kind of stuff. Oh, just Steel's coming.

How about that? Figuring that out.

But then, you know, Tuscan Gold comes down from New York trying

to figure out from the different spots.

It's a very different thing than the Derby, where we watch these

prep races, we know who's coming and then here it's more like,

hey, good luck, figure it out. It's very uneasy and very

unsettling because people get worried.

And I my stomach kind of turns after the Derby.

I'm like, OK, you know, go the most important two weeks in

sports for Baltimoreans is who's going to come to the Preakness

and, you know, getting burned a couple years ago.

People remember like, boy, that was awful.

And you know, and then when when it happened and people are like,

oh and gosh, you know, people, you know, start looking at

Baltimore, I said, well, you know, maybe people are going to

go to Baltimore anymore. And then, you know, we've seen

what Todd Pletcher done, done over the years.

You know, if he does not win the Derby, he's not coming to

Baltimore and he's got a lot of good horses.

But then you look at a Chad Brown like he's doing today with

his horse Tuscan Gold, a horse that, he said.

I'm not going to point him towards the Derby, give him a

little more time. I like the Preakness.

The guy has two Triple Crown wins in the Preakness, right?

And almost a third last year. That's right.

Yeah. Could could be easily been a

third So that situation. But I I'll admit those early

days after the Derby, I'm, I'm, I'm going like, who's going to

come here? And I try not to get too

attached to anyone because if you do, then they're not coming.

And look at Muth. We got all excited.

You know, Muth is coming. Muth is coming.

It's flying in. You know, we're waiting from the

airport. You know, Woo Woo, they got

their escort in or you know. Beep.

Beep. Beep.

The trailer's backing up. What?

Other sounds do we hear when horses.

Come from the airport. I I'm standing there, all the

photographers are at the stakes Mart shooting towards the

trailer. I'm behind the trailer because I

want to get the because that's radio.

You can't see a picture. You can hear the you can hear

the air, air brakes. So I get the air brakes and so

moose here what happens Wakes up in the morning spikes a fever

too close to the race. Boom.

So it's yeah that that's that's what we go through here at the

Preakness. You mentioned Todd Pletcher not

bringing his show, his his horses here bringing, you know,

his his best stable, but Brad Cox is sending Catching Freedom

this year. Does that give you hope that

he's going to start targeting this race with Derby Run?

Yeah, and he, I think he thought he had a potential Derby winner

last that scratch literally right before.

I mean that was one of those because it was kind of the wise

guys pick and everybody was getting on board and when that

horse went away, people are you know and that opened the door

for Bob Baffert. I think Baffert and Lucas are

very wise when they come here because they they come kind of

lying in the weeds. You know, Bob might not win the

Derby in previous years, but he'll bring the horse here,

'cause maybe he liked he came out of the race in pretty good

shape and and Dewayne, you know, he he'll bring a horse here to

make the owners happy. But then he'll also say, you

know what, I've proven that I can win this race and then it

keeps him relevant and I think that's that's a big part of it.

Yeah, Scott Wyckoff with WBAL joins us here on the Horse

Racing Happy Hour, ESPN 681057. You can text the show 437 9680

on our UPS Jobs text line, so get in with the show that way.

Black Eyed Susan happens yesterday.

We get a great performance from Gunsong, a really great day

record handle on Black Eyed Susan Day.

It's something that I've noticed.

I've been coming since 2015 that they've they've elevated that

day. It's something that Kentucky has

done very well, turning Derby Saturday into a week.

Essentially. There's 20,000 plus people five

days in a row with the track, that kind of thing.

That used to be the norm, of course, in horse racing.

But I'm not going to live 50 years ago.

I don't care about that, frankly, for this conversation,

are they going to be able to keep that momentum going on that

Friday? It seems to be.

Frankly, the locals have figured that out.

Is not an expensive ticket and it's a fun day.

And in addition to the handle before COVID, there was huge

crowds here. I mean they were selling out

tickets to the to the hospitality.

And one of the great hospitalities here that is

really unique to Baltimore is this trackside terrace.

You're literally right there on the rail and the turf course.

You can literally stand out on the rail on the turf course when

they come by, then go back to your table of 10.

The buffets open all day. The drinks are part of your

ticket. They've got huge screens.

The bedding windows are right there.

I I, I know so many people that come on Friday with a bunch of

friends and they're watching on TV at home on Saturday because

it's so much fun. It's just a little more chill.

And like you say though it is a great day to bet there is some

incredible and and and you know not to badmouth Todd Fletcher.

He'll bring horses for the undercard.

I mean he's had some great horses for the undercard here.

I'm talking about the Preakness, but I mean the the card

yesterday and and to see, you know up and coming trainers

start to take these races. And it's almost like when you

see a band get that Grammy nomination and you kind of knew

about him. You know you kind of knew about

Zac Brown before Zac Brown hit and then when they get to the

Grammys and they hit. I think you see a lot of that on

Black Eyed Susan Day and NBC loves it.

I mean, NBC, you know, people are saying, you know, oh, they

put it on the Peacock. They put it on Peacock for

reason because they wanted people to buy and sign up for

Peacock and people do. That's exactly right, Preakness.

Today you got to pick. You know what?

Imagination. You know, I'm kind of, I'm kind

of going that way. You know, Bob was very

underspoken yesterday. I can understand why you know

the disappointment but I I think you know he's come in with that

horse but like you say Brad Cox he and but you know what we kind

of forget about Chad Brown because we never see him during

the wake. I don't like he's like he's

missing in action radio silence and he just kind of shows up you

know you see him and we we never get ready to talk to him.

So you know our job is to try to tell the stories of the

different people and you know his main owner Seth it grew up

here in Park Heights you know and and so we know that story

but we we talked to Chad very little but man you know his

horse today could just boom when it here and then who knows what

that horse could do this summer. That's right.

No, that's exactly right. Sets up for all the different

traverses and Pennsylvania derbies and all the Haskells and

that kind of stuff for sure, yeah.

I mean, so yeah, we're here today.

What did you learn yesterday, Louie, about the track or

anything? It was.

Super fair yesterday. But again, this was like, you

know, the the thing that happened at Churchill that we

followed was we do the biases of the track Tuesday through

Thursday, that it rains on Friday.

And we wondered coming back for Derby if we would get the same

track we had before that. The answer was yes.

We got all the same biases, all those same things.

What we learned here was I don't think there was anything fluky

about that race. I think the Nine was just the

best horse in that it ran the best race at least and and you

know you can come off the pace that sort of.

Stuff, but it also I think showed with the rain we've had

that the turf is fair right now because the closer was able to

close, I think there was a concern that you know how much

moisture that turf had taken in that would that be a

possibility? And I mean these are the first

races on this turf of this meet. They've been holding this turf

for today and yesterday all. Right.

Real quick. Let's just kind of talk about

the two top races from yesterday.

We'll start with the blackout. Susan.

Yeah, we saw an impressive run out of Gun Song.

What What do you expect out of this feeling moving forward?

That's a great question. I I thought and it was

interesting. I was just talking about this

with with Johnny P before the show.

I think you saw, you know, that mile and an eighth.

I think that's as far as she's ever going to want to go.

So, like, I don't think of her as like an Alabama horse, but if

she continues to get better, we watched her dad get better with

age, right? And Gun Runner.

I'm not. I'm not ready to call her a

distaff horse yet but John was talking about it, what he thinks

her next spot should be and that's in the acorn at at at at

Saratoga this year. Frankly, if she comes back at

that distance at that mile and because of how that shoot is set

up, John, it's almost like a a turn and a half kind of race,

right, That kind of thing. Could we see her in more like

mile and a 16th type races mile and an eighth kind of capping

out because I think she ran as far as she wanted like ever

wants to yesterday. But again it's also a three-year

old. She could develop into something

completely different by the time we go.

Her dad is Gun Runner. I mean, of course you can get

the 10 furlongs at Subway, probably, right?

But you think the Acorn's a good next spot for her?

I think so I'm I mean yes it is a a a fairly quick turn around

only about a three-week come back from today.

Oh wait, we just got some news. Oh boy, here we go.

Race 5 for those betting, race five has I believe I'm.

I'll talk through this. Don't do this on the air.

Don't do this. Off the grass breaking news here

on ESPN Louisville, OH. Man, how about that So.

But the ACORN for for gun, for gun song.

Yes, makes a lot of sense. Yes, it's a a quick turn around,

but it's a great one opportunity.

It's going a mile against the old Phillies.

Don't have too many of those. No, that's right.

Not just in who 3 old you, but. Maybe ever.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I would say and even if they don't go in the acorn, a good

target for down the road that and the cotillion at poked in

September at a mile and eight, I think those are two spots we'll

like to see you in. But like I said, I'm not, I'm

not ready to throw her in that distaff field yet, Mike, but I

thought she looked very comfortable with a mile and an

eighth. She was so professional.

Coming around that turn. Johnny Velasquez was like a

statue, never touched her. And then they got to the top of

the stretch and he was like, it's time to go.

And she said, oh, OK, there to go.

But so, you know, and we talk about this a lot with young

Phillies, the ones that are willing to be out front and win.

We love that, right. And so she's one of those that's

great. All right.

The other race I just want to touch on real quick.

Becoming a favorite of yours? It's becoming a favorite race.

Last year in the Pimlico Special, John and I wrote Top

here, watching Rattle and Roll and Speed Bias.

What are the best finishes ever in this track?

On those two horses just broke away from the field and it was,

I mean it was about as close as you're going to get rattle and

roll getting that victory. That's a horse that we saw run

the Indiana Derby. I feel like a horse that we

almost kind of grew up with. I don't know.

I agree. And so it was awesome to see

rattle and roll get that W in the Pinnacle special last year.

By the way, 2 weeks later ran back at Churchill Downs in a

grade 3. And won and won.

Just Kenny Mcpeak right there, yeah.

So if you're hoping I'm Dan, he's done before with other

horses. This year, Brian Hernandez gets

the win. His, I mean, looks great.

Perfect. I mean he he's set himself up

right now to have just he's already got 5 greatest stakes

wins this year. You know a typical you know for

him I guess a typical year 6-7 maybe 8 every once in a while.

So to already have 5 right now he's probably ahead of pace.

Pirate's gets the win over Kings Barnes.

Kings Barnes. A heavy favorite in that race.

But I don't think. I don't think Kings Barnes ran

poorly. I think Pyrone was just the best

horse yesterday and so I am, yeah John had that of course in

the pick five late on our gold book and so that was really the,

the linchpin of that late pick five right was you had to get

pier and I had to get it right. And so good job for sure.

And that's that's why he's what's that?

Kings Barnes was not even on his ticket.

Red route one, yeah. The other one that's that's

actually the to be the other story out of this is like I

think Kings Barnes will be fine. He'll run in some like high

level listed greed. Threes like he'll be fine.

We'll figure those races out for him.

Whatever that is. It's Red route one.

He's such an on or off horse and and when he's on he can win high

level handicaps at Oaklawn. When he's off it is like where

are we on this track? I mean like he was for that.

It was not a good race for him yesterday.

Well, the problem is, is he's so at the most of the early pace,

like when he won the New Orleans Classic now three starts back,

he got a very fast pace to close into in Oaklawn Handicap.

Two starts to go. He didn't get as fast as

fractions and he didn't do much. Same thing happened yesterday.

So really the only way he's going to win a big race is if he

gets a lot of a pace meltdown in front of him.

That being said, you know he is a kind of horse who can suck up

and get third avoid in these big races, get a lot of checks and

be a pretty useful hoist to have around.

There you go. I do want to remind folks, we

are presented by the Maryland Thoroughbred Breeders

Association, Maryland thoroughbred.com.

Go check them out there for everything that they do.

A great breeding program here in Maryland.

Frankly, if you're looking to get in to breeding your own

horses, Mike, the cost of doing business in Kentucky in the

breeding side is more than on the racing side, right?

It just is. It's just the nature of the

place. You get some pretty good Cyrus

here, mayor here in Maryland, you want to get some good, say a

good Sprint or something like that.

Obviously lots of horses have come out of the Maryland

program. Next Go is a recent example of a

very, very high level Maryland bread that went on to one a

bunch of things. Obviously that's where we met.

Johnny P was through through that organization, but they just

have such a great, great program here.

We follow that road to the Preakness on our show and it's

such a logical progression of races and how they set

everything up. Getting ready for that Federico

Tessio stakes leading into here, so Maryland thoroughbred.com, go

check them out. We're also presented by my

friend at Johns Hopkins graduate.

Brian. No.

Brian Detman. Yeah.

Yeah, that's all right. Texted me this morning.

Go. I know, I know.

I get it, man. No, he's a he's a he's a dirty

lawyer. There you go.

Brian Devon, injury lawyer. Go check him out online.

He is the banner ad at the horse racing Happy hour.

Horse Racing happyhour.com. He's also presenting our

coverage here. Have you go there?

By the way, could you get the gold book?

Where? Could you go to the horse rising

happyhour.com? There's a link to the Get the

Gold book there is right there as well.

And by the way, there's a sign up, bonus, QR code, all of that

stuff with our friends at Am Wager.

If you want to get in and get in on that today, that is at Gold

Book bets.com or at first Gen. Sports.

All right. We're going to go ahead and

we're going to head to our first break.

On the other side, the horse joins the show.

Louis will be having a conversation with Dan Issel and

they'll they'll go through Races 6 through 9 on the card.

You also have race three about midway through those segments,

so we'll talk a little bit about that as well.

So stay tuned. This is the horse racing happy

hour. You're listening to the horse

racing Happy Hours covered you Preakness 149.

Now we're live from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

Here's Mike Gandolfo and Louis Robot.

And welcome back in This is the Horse Racing Happy Hour here on

ESPN, 680-1057. We are live atop unrenovated

Pimlico Race course here in Baltimore, MD.

My name is Louis Robot hanging out with you until 1:00 here at

the station. Preakness coverage after us, of

course. And of course we'll go out to

that PGA Championship at 2:00 on ESPN, 680-1057.

Be tuned in for all. Love that, but we do welcome in

the man they call the horse. His name is Dan Issel joins us

from Denver this morning. Dan, good morning.

Thanks for jumping on. My pleasure, Louis, How's

everything in Baltimore? It is not raining anymore, so

we'll take it. How about that?

I always say, Dan, it is college football and horse racing for

the big days. You look aside away from the

weather and you just show up no matter what.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And I know you're in plush,

plush accommodation, so. Everything at everything at

Pimlico is plush. Everything.

Yeah, it's, it's fantastic. So do you have any luck

yesterday, Dan? Any winners?

I had a couple of winners, but you know nothing to nothing to

brag about. I I did have the winner of the

of the Black Eyed Susan. I thought that Philly Philly

stood out and especially the way the track was playing yesterday.

Yeah, she, I thought she won really impressively.

And I thought in the ride, you know, going back and watching

it, Dan, you know Johnny Velasquez is there.

He's a statue for the first, you know, cripes, the first 7-7

furlogs of that race, you know, And then they get to, they get

to the top of that stretch. He asked her to go and she goes,

man, what do you think the ceiling is for her?

Obviously, you know she's got a gun runner for a dad.

Mr. Greeley on the mom's side, a $400,000 purchase there just in

just in the OBS sale there in March last year.

Do you think she could be, you know, sort of, you know, if she

keeps developing A distaff horse this year?

Well yeah, sure. If she keeps developing.

I, I, I I think you have to be a little cautious.

That wasn't exactly the the strongest addition of the Black

Eyed Shoes that I've seen. I mean Lucas's horse went off

what, second or third choice and she'd gotten her head kicked in

the last two starts. So it it wasn't a great field

but but that Philly. Philly Hennigs was was

impressive. Yeah, Dan Issel with us here on

the horse Racing Happy Hour, previewing the rest of the card

here for Preakness 149. How about that?

Dan was actually at the second Preakness.

I know you missed the first one in 1870, Dan, but we're so glad

you. Were yeah, I was in the

playoffs. I was in the playoffs when they

ran the first one. But I'm but I made it for the

second one. I think basketball wasn't

invented when they were in the first one.

That's fantastic. But hey, I wanted to ask before

we get going on these races, Dan, with an off track, you

know, with some moisture and it was some moisture in the turf,

is there anything that you change about your personal

handicapping? Do you look at the dirt races

differently, the turf races differently?

Well it depends on how bad the track is, and as you said it's

it's quit raining and they don't run the Preakness for what about

a day and 1/2? So it it could.

Be. It could be fast by by post

time, but you know if it's really sloppy or or muddy, yeah

you have to take that into account.

But after the after they ran the first race here at the AT

Pimlico, it doesn't look like the track.

Is that off to me? No, I agree with you.

He is Dan Issel joining us here. Let's get to race six though it

is the chick Lang of course. This is the Sprint on the card

here. One of the two sprints grade

three $200,000 in the Kitty here.

This is a three-year old Sprint with a lot of history.

Dan, who did you land with on this one?

Well I you know you obviously have to look at the six Frost

free who will be the favorite very very fast horse and the the

the jockey upgrade. I mean there's nothing wrong

with Ramon Vasquez but IRAD might be the best jockey in in

the world right now. So that that helps.

I I actually went to the one horse Lou, Mr. Skylight that

last race of Keeneland. Now if this race had been early

in the meat when the track was just a conveyor belt I discount

this a little bit. But it was later in the meat

when the track was playing a little more fair and and he he

goes from Alvarado to to Pratt which is another upgrade I think

and the horse just seems to be getting better and better all

the time. There's a lot of speed in here.

Last time he was head and head for the lead but the the race

before that he came from off the pace.

So because I think I'm going to get a better price on Mr.

Skylight than frost free, I went with the one horse.

Yeah. On these days, Dan, when we get

horses that, you know, ship in from everywhere for these

steaks, for, you know, the big days, an angle that I really

like is if they've won at multiple tracks, right where it

doesn't seem to matter what kind of dirt surface they're on.

It travels well. Mr. Skylight, one of those is

one at Gulfstream, one at Keeneland, like you mentioned,

last out Frost free, obviously one at Oakland Park as well.

Do you look for that kind of stuff too?

Yeah you know you're that's a great that's a great point Louis

because on days like this and and early at Churchill and early

at Keeneland you do have horses coming.

I mean you at at Keeneland you've got horses coming from

Oak Lawn Fairgrounds, Gulfstream Turfway Park you know so that's

that's a great point that that that is an advantage for a horse

if he if he's shown he doesn't have to take his track with him.

Race 7 is the Gallaurette Mile and a 16th on the Turf Course

100K here Phillies and Mares 3 and up in this one Turf Course

has been playing really fair Dan yesterday and I thought was

really fair even with the upset and Race 2 here, I don't think

it was an upset because of the course.

I think the Nine was just the best horse today.

Who did you end up on the on in the Gallauret?

Well, Fluffy Socks is going to be a huge favorite coming coming

out of the grade one at the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland.

I Rat Ortiz, Chad Brown. I mean, there's there's not not

much to dislike about that except she's six years old,

Louie. And you know, sometimes these

mayors decide that it's time to be a Mama instead of a

racehorse. And so I went with the the three

horse Blissful I, Sheree Devoe, could not have had a better day

than what she did yesterday. And this horse looks like he's,

she's always there or thereabouts.

And Brian Hernandez is right riding great right now.

So I think Fluffy socks is the obvious one, but I'm going to

take a shot with Blissful. Yeah, I also have Blissful on

top in that one, so it should be interesting to watch that turn

out. I think 5 Towns is interesting

there as well. Dan, the six horse here.

Breton Britton ran overseas over a bunch of those kinds of tracks

before did win a handicap at Windsor in Great Britain before

shipping over here has won a couple of times.

But another one, Dan that won on synthetic that won on the turf

course at turf Point or excuse me at a Laurel last part last

time out under under Ruiz who won a stakes race here yesterday

as well. 4G Motion has been riding really well so I'll be

including the six five towns in my handicapping for that one as

well. Race 8 is the Maryland Sprint.

Guess what? It's a Sprint in the state of

Maryland. It's for three-year olds and up

six furlongs on the dirt. Dan I landed on coastal Mission

here. The one and the reason I did is

because that that Charlestown thing, it seems to always rain

to Charlestown. They always run in the slop and

this Horseman 6 for eight lifetime in the slop.

I don't anticipate by 2:48 that we're going to totally be dried

out with this track. Where did you land?

Yeah I you know I I said earlier the two horse with Irad and

Brenda Walsh. Brendan Walsh Purvalence will

probably be the favorite but that that race at Keeneland

Louis was early in the meet and you know I think that's I

wouldn't get too carried away with that 6 1/2 length win at

Keeneland. I I I landed on a little bit of

a price here and that was Dewayne, the Coach #7 bourbon

bash at six to one. I thought that his last few

races have been, although you know they've been allowance, but

the last time he stepped up got beat by Obesos at Churchill, and

so that's I I came down on #7 bourbon bash.

Yeah. 4 year old son of city of Light obviously has run really

well last two times out under Keith Asbos and picks up Joelle

Rosario in the irons there. Jackson travelers in this race

day and I'm including that horse because every time I don't he

kicks me straight in. The family.

I'm going to be including the four taxi traveler here.

Oh bad. It's just one of those.

Everybody has those horses, Dan, you know, and he's just one of

those that seems to. Pick up my tickets.

I'm not. I'd anticipate again for sure

the Murphy is race 9 here, the James W Murphy, this is the

three-year old turf race here, $100,000 in the Kitty here.

I I anticipate very much Dan that we're going to be on the

turf for this one especially when we get to the stakes point.

I I was telling the story earlier that when it was

justifies year it rained like 7 times as much as it did this

week here, but it was just disgusting they stayed on the

turf for those. So who'd you lay it on in the

Murphy? You know what, Lou?

I thought this was a very tough race.

I I thought it was. I thought it was wide, wide

open. And if you make me pick one, I'm

going to take Nap Town for Graham Motion, Tyler Gafflione

coming in from Woodbine. But you know it to me.

In my horizontal plays, this is going to be a this is going to

be the all burger. I'm going to push the.

I'm going to push the all button on this one.

OK, wow. OK.

Is there anybody that stands out at all here?

Is there any? Yeah, the data.

So I. Say stand out.

If you made me pick one, I'd take Nap Town.

But I also like the 10 horse, a broomer if he, if he can get an

easy lead. I mean this is definitely a

need, the lead type horse. And again I read and I think

Joseph won a stake yesterday, did he not And so he didn't.

He didn't ship him up here for nothing.

But if that horse can get an easy lead, he's he's liable to

go wire to wire. One I like in that race, Dan,

and the reason you're using the All button, for example, is the

12 on the outside has run four times this year.

Fulmaneo has run second three times in those four races.

And you wonder if the move to Flavia and Pratt will be just

enough of an upgrade to get over the hump, right?

That kind of stuff. And so there's lots of horses in

here with angles. I think that makes sense.

But Fulmaneo on the outside is one I totally agree about.

Abramar. Who else do I have in here?

I'm looking at the wrong document.

What great radio that is. When I look at the wrong

document, no. You're.

Right as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Crystal, Crystal Quest as well

is interesting. Dan, like you mentioned with

this all button, she comes out of Florida bred races, but she's

winning them, right. So it's not her fault that she's

beat the horses that are in front of her, in front of him.

Excuse me. And so maybe 6 to 1, seven to

one, whatever we might get on Crystal Quest could be a good

value as well. But let's get to the big race of

the day. Dan, thanks for hanging out with

us. His name is Dan Essel.

Kentucky Denver. All the things here on the horse

racing happy. I'm Louis Rebel.

We'll be on till one here. And then of course the national

coverage will pick up for the PGA Championship after us

Preakness this year, you know. You know we do on the show.

Dan is this a grade one? Is this a Grade 2 when it comes

out? Is this a good rendition of the

Preakness? I happen to think that it is.

I think it's a good one. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's a good one. It's not a great one, you know,

I don't, I don't think, you know, I mean it's got the Derby

winner in it. So it has to be a good one.

But I think, Lou, I I think there's only three horses in

here that have any chance of winning.

And so I wouldn't call it a great, I wouldn't call it a

great Preakness all. Right.

So let's go through here. And so we're going to play the

game that we always play with you, Dan.

It's Preakness or Preakness. Are you ready to go?

I'm ready. All right, how about that?

Mugatu is the one horse here. Trade by Jeff Engler comes out

of the bluegrass at Keeneland, and before that, of course, the

rush away at Turfway Park. This was a Turfway horse for

much of the winner under Joe Talamo.

Joe Bravo gets them out here, Dan.

Is he a Preakness or a Preak? No.

And why? He's a preak.

No. He's a big freak.

No, because he's there's not there's not a race there's not a

race on his on his pee pees that shows he can run with these kind

of forces. I mean he has he has one

lifetime win and you know the only time he ran in a graded

stake was at Keeneland and he got and he got beat by by 7 1/2

lengths in the bluegrass. I know I'm.

I'm chucking this one. All right, Uncle Heavy is the 2

trained by Robert Reed. Of course.

Irad Ortiz picks up the mount here.

Ran 5th in the Wood Memorial. First first run in this new form

cycle here did win a Muddy Withers in early February.

He is under 10 to 1 Dan. What do you what say you about

Uncle Heavy? Preakness or Preak?

No. I'm going to go preak.

No, I think that again you know if if you look at, I mean the

Withers, who did he beat? I mean LL Grande ran 2nd and

lifeline light line ran third. I've never heard of those horses

and you know society man ran second in the wood.

I just don't think that he's there's there's no way that he's

this kind of horse. And then, Catching Freedom,

trained by Brad Cox, ran and won the Louisiana Derby third behind

Leone in that sloppy risen star. Before that, six weeks off runs

a game fourth in the Derby, beaten by less than two lengths.

I think he's kind of the forgotten horse Dan of this

Kentucky Derby. Brad Cox doesn't always ship for

this race with a horse from the Derby.

He's my top selection in the Preakness.

What? Says Dennis.

Yeah, I, you know, I, I love Brad.

I, I just saw an amazing stat. Louie in in graded stake races.

Brad finishes in the money 54% of the time.

Is that incredible? Because you know, when you run

in graded stake races, you're running against the best and he

hits the board 54% of the time. Yeah, I I I like this horse.

He's not going to be my pick, but he's one of the he's one of

the three that I think has a chance to win this race.

There you go. We are playing Preakness or

Preak. No, with Dan Issel we have two

Preakness with Mugattu and Uncle.

Have we ever Preakness with catching freedom?

Would Muth have been a Preakness for you?

Oh yeah I think a Muth would have been the winner.

If he doesn't I mean he he I I think he he's definitely the

best 3 year old that Bafford has and he ships into Arkansas and

wins the Arkansas Derby by by a couple of lengths.

That the the only really bad race.

And it wasn't a bad race. He ran second, but he he got

beat in the Breeders Cup. Juvenile by fierceness but

fierceness freaked that day. So yeah, Moose would have been

my huge pick had he run. The Derby winners in the Five

Hole. His name is Mystic Dan, trained

by Kenny Mcpeake. I have seen Kenny Mcpeake's dog

about 30 times this week. Dan, just so you know Brian

Hernandez junior won the Pimlico special yesterday.

A great ride on Pier and A comes in, of course having won the

Kentucky Derby. That historic 3 horse photo

finished a 16th of a mile less Dan, which I think does play to

Mystic dance. Best qualities.

Obviously the off track not going to bother him after that

performance in the Southwest Stakes back in February.

What's this? Danessel Preakness or Preak?

No for Mystic Dan. Yeah, yeah, Preakness he, you

know I'm this is the horse I'm hoping wins because I love, I

love when you go to the Belmont for for the Triple Crown And the

fact that the Belmont's a mile and 1/4 this year instead of a

mile and a half, I think would definitely help Mystic Dan so

that this is the horse I hope wins.

He's a Preakness, for sure, but he's not going to be my pick.

With Mystic Dan, let's say he wins.

Let's just play this forward. Will you have any kind of

asterisk or any kind of reservation about calling him a

Triple Crown winner? Would he, if he were to win at

Saratoga? No, because it's not his fault.

I mean he he didn't decide to renovate Belmont Park and make

and make the the Belmont a mile and 1/4 this year.

So, no, I I mean if if he wins all three races he he deserves

to be a a a Triple Crown winner. Could not agree more Dan Isle

with us. We're playing Preakness or

Preak. No sees the Gray coming out of

that win in the pat day mileage Churchill Downs a horse that I

really like and no one else likes.

What says you, Dan, about Preakness or Preakness for sees

the Gray, The six? Yeah, I I think he's a freak.

No, again, you know, I I don't know what he beat in the Fat Day

Mile. I mean that race was very

impressive but when you look at the at the numbers he just he

hasn't run fast enough to win this race.

Just steal. Is the seven here.

The other Lucas runner here? Disappointing Derby did run

second in the Arkansas Derby right behind Muth.

Can he recapture that form? Is 7 just steal?

Yeah, I the thing I like about this horse and again I'm not

picking him, but it wouldn't surprise me because I would draw

a line through the Derby. I mean, you know, Keith asked me

it was great that it was great that Wayne kept him on the

horse. But you know he goes 46 and

three the half, the first half mile of Churchill.

And so I I draw a line through that and then if you look, I I

don't know what it is about Wayne's horses, man.

Sometimes they rank. They run like they're like

they're they're the, the best thing since sliced bread.

And I mean he he he got beat only two lengths on a fast track

in the Arkansas Derby by Moose. He got beat ran second in the

Southwest and Mystic Dan on the track that we know Mystic Dan

loved. But then in in the Rebel he gets

beat 18 lengths. So I I don't know which which

horse shows up today, but I like the switch to Rosario and I I

draw a line through that Kentucky Derby.

Tuscan Gold is the 8. We've seen Chad Brown almost go

back-to-back blazing sevens last year.

Loses by a nose year before. Of course, early voting wins

this rate race. Tyler will be in the mountain

again. We last saw this horse in the

Louisiana Derby so we're talking a bit of a layoff 25% the

winners for Chad Brown off that kind of layoffs scratched out of

that great three Peter Panda run in this one.

Dan, do you give is Tuscan Gold a Preakness or a Preak?

No. He's not only a Freakness he

he's my pick. I I I think that you look at

Chad Brown and you mentioned Xandon and and early voting

remember that he also won the won the what was the name of

that horse. Oh my goodness he won the

Preakness Cloud computing. He he won the Preakness in in

the same deal. I love the the buyer going up

rates significantly and you know he he's done it before so I'm

going to say he's he'll do it again And with the scratch of

mood I saw this morning the early the early betting

yesterday Tuscan gold was like 7:00 to 2:00.

So yeah that's that's my pick Tuscan gold.

Louis. All right, Dan Thistle is on

Tuscan Gold in the Preakness. You heard it here.

First, the 8 horse. Of course.

Imagination on the outside will go ahead and round out the

field. This is Baffert's runner.

We saw him yesterday, a subdued Bob Baffert Yesterday you could

just tell he was disappointed about this fever and all that.

With Muth for this week. Frankie Dettori gets them out

here on imagination. Dan Preakness or Preakness for

Imagination. Yeah, pre preak.

No, you know, I think he came with, I'm not even going to say

second team. I'm going to say third or fourth

team. And I just, I'd love to see

Louis de Torre win the Preakness.

Can you imagine how I jump off that horse's back, Louis.

But, but I I don't know the the, the if you look at the West

Coast horses and not just steak horses but allowance horses that

have come in to run at Keeneland and at Churchill they the their

form hasn't been very good. I know the Philly Rams.

On race three, yeah, we just watched our Miramati run third

in a race and a Laurel horse just won the race here at in an

allowance at at at Pimlico. Yeah.

By by violence, buy violence. If anybody wants to buy a

violence, I just happen to have one but for sale.

But now I this is a preak. No, I I don't think I I don't

think this horse has much of a shot.

By the way, people need to know Diesel got out of the game

December 1st. I decided to hang it up.

Turn 75 got out of the game and I'm like, hey, we're doing

Preakness and Preakno and he's like, I'm back at it like riding

a bike. This radio thing for you, man,

it's just, it's just old habit. How about that?

Hey Lou, you've you've been very good to me.

I'll I'll do anything you ask. There it is.

All right, Well, he is Dan Esley.

He's out there in Denver. It thank you for waking up so

early and bothering your wife. Are you in the basement, or is

she letting you be somewhere that's actually in your house?

Now she's she's actually up. I know.

She must have gone to bed early last night.

She's he's he's on her second cup of coffee.

How? About that, Well, we all say hi

to Sherry here at the Horse Racing Happy Hour.

Dan. Have a great rest of the day

buddy. I'll talk to you soon.

OK. Thanks, Lou.

All right, there you go. Dan Essel, of course, the the

Hall of Famer at Dan Essel 44 if you're the one person not

following him on Twitter, which he doesn't check.

So it's probably a fruitless endeavor.

Anyway, reminder, we are presented here on the Horse

Racing Happy Hour live at Pimlico Racecourse by our

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Association, Maryland thoroughbred.com.

If you thought about getting into horse horse racing, wanted

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Maryland might be a great spot for you to get involved.

Or maybe you just want to diversify where your horses are

running. If you're based in Kentucky,

great opportunity here in the Mid-Atlantic with our friends at

Maryland Thoroughbred Maryland thoroughbred.com and of course

our friend Brian Dettman, injury lawyer Brian Dettman, injury

lawyer 2TS1 N 1 N Excuse me, Brian Dettman, injury lawyer.

Go check out his stuff online as well.

We'll take an early break here and we'll come back.

I'll reintroduce Mike Gandolfo and Johnny P to the audience.

I'm Louie Rebel live atop unrenovated Pimlico Racecourse.

This is the Horse Racing Happy hour on ESPN 680-1057.

You're listening to the Horse Racing Happy Hours coverage of

Preakness 149, now live from Pimlico Race Course in

Baltimore. Here's Mike Gandolfo and Louis

Rabeau. All right, well, back to the

horse racing Happy hour. Hour to Special Edition.

Going so fast. It always is.

Every year it's humble. Right here at Pimlico.

Louie keeps on calling it unrenovated.

Pimlico, that's going to change here.

Very soon. And it's one of the it's one of

I've been making jokes since I think the first time we did

radio it was 18. I've been making the jokes and

said back then the joke was I was in that auxiliary press room

on the back of this building which has tables in it older

than me. It's not even a question.

It's not even a thing. I think in that room is older

than I have. The television, the tables in

there, the lights, the plugs on the wall are for show.

Like all those things, right? It's they're about to do a

really good job here, no doubt about it, because we talked

about the Maryland Stadium Authority and all that stuff,

the football stadium yards, you know, all those things are

really, really great. I I'm more interested in how

they're actually going to operate this place than I am

actually building it because I have trust that they're going to

do a good job with the stadium. Everybody the the joker in here

though is like, what are they going to do with the media if

there's going to be a press box? So what just happens with that

tuned and you find out? Did you get through now with

Mistress? All right, there you go.

You get one job. You did it.

The. Show called Preakness or Preak?

No right? And our guy also showed up like

crazy. I.

Mean that's what he does. And you know, he got it, he got

it done. So we will then pick up where we

all left off and we're going to start with 10 Johnny P here with

us as well. John Piasik, the racing biz,

Find him at there. Off THEYRE the correct there.

How about that. Look at John went to college.

Acts like it. Off OFF of course on Twitter.

How about with the late pick 5800 and whatever, 809 bucks

801, how about that? It's over $800, how about that?

And then over under 800 we went over there.

So that was great on a $30 ticket by the way.

It wasn't like you had to play it for $144.00 or $244 or

something, so he joins us for this part of the segment as

well. And then we'll have also we'll

talk about race four in the segment as well, but let's go

race 10, this is the Sir Barton a mile and the 16th on the dirt

got some scratches here. The seven horse is scratched,

the 8 horse is scratched Flavin and Pratt is going to run on the

two so. Nice change from no Rider to

Flavian Pratt. Yeah, I mean, that's how you do.

That interesting strategy, Cotton or whatever, you know,

we'll see what happens. You know where Where'd you land

on this Louie? So in the 10th race here and

we're giving make sure that he's there we go.

I landed on So what were the scratches?

Again, I'm so sorry. Tuscan Sky is out, right?

So Corporate Power is my top pick here.

The five horse here, I think that is the actual favorite.

I was going to try to beat this horse with Tuscan Sky and so

this was a big scratch for me coming out of that Wood

Memorial. I did like that this horse in

Tuscan Sky had that muddy and sloppy experience.

So that's really disappointing in this spot.

I thought one that could really jump off of Ross Corporate Power

did run just fine in the slop last time at Aqueduct against

winners for the first time. So I think comes back here in a

good spot. This race is restricted John, as

you pointed out to me yesterday to horses that haven't won a

stakes race in this calendar year within 2024 since the

beginning of the year essentially.

And so the the real question to me was, man, I wish they would

allow like the Tessio winner to run in this and something like

that, like like Copper Attack shouldn't have to be an MTO in

another race, he should be able to be in this one.

But because he's won a lesser stakes at Laurel and I'm not

trying to pick on any of the stuff, he's not eligible for

this, I think they should revisit that at some point.

And frankly, they could play it to Maryland's advantage by

exempting the races from Laurel, encouraging people to run at

Laurel. That, and I just feel like it

could make it like not only of a graded stakes in 2024.

That way you don't have too many horses dodging the Preakness

right? While so having a steady crop of

like horses who who fit more in in this race and on quite

radical prime time. Yeah.

And frankly, you know, we talked about, you know, Marilyn

Thoroughbred British Association hanging out with us this

weekend. You win this race, right.

And then you go to stand in in Maryland at some point like this

matters, right. And so this is the kind of

thing. Yeah, it makes you, you know a

couple grand on the on the stud fee whatever it might be.

And so I, I, I just, I'm thinking about that as we get

into this. But the five horse corporate

power will be on top for me after the scratch of Tuscan Sky.

After that I looked at Imperial Gun on the outside, 10 horse

here as well. We talked about this race last

night at Jimmy Seafood. Ended up being a really nice

night out there as well. Did run second at Oaklawn Park

in a listed stakes. This is sort of a a lateral move

in stakes level, probably a a slightly lesser field than he

ran against at Oakland Park. So 510 for me on top for sure.

Now one thing is kind of interesting about Imperial Gun

is if you look at his running line comments it says Keen on

the first turn both times. So that kind of tells me he's

had a little trouble settling in his last few starts.

He may be used up a little too much of his energy early on, and

while it wouldn't have mattered in the oversaw Derby because

he's kind of outclassed, if you factor that in and of the fact

that he got into some traffic trouble at the top of the

stretch of about House Row, he may well have been the best

choice that day and just end up having a little bit of bad luck,

both self-inflicted and out of his control.

So if he's a little more relaxed going into the first turn, I'd

be very confident with him. One voice I always like to

highlight is #3 in Maryland. Incidentally, that's so-called P

for Flint Stites and Ricardo Chiapi.

This one, I mean, on paper he ran really lousy in Federico

Testio last time I lost by 28 lengths.

But again, if you look at his comment lines, it it says

bumped, checked along, erratic. If.

If you watch the replay, he got settled in as usual.

Spot towards the back of the pack around the first toad.

Checked a few times, never really felt himself, and then by

the time he was settled it was too late.

And after he was, obviously well-being, Sheldon Russell

really didn't ask him for any run at all.

And so rather than losing by perhaps a more respectable 16 or

18 lengths, he lost by 28. Take out that race and his form

looks a lot better. In fact, he's only one in the

field who's won a stakes. He won a Maryland juvenile

against Maryland bread or Maryland side horses last

December, coming from well off the pace to win that one.

Put in a a pair of nice closing bids in the Miracle Ward and and

private terms with Jorge Hernandez aboard, who's a local

jockey who's only four foot 6. Which kind of means he might not

be, and it's not his fault, just not as strong as some of the

other jockeys. He gets.

Ricardo Chiape back in the saddle, who has one with him, a

four and is a little more of a normal sized man.

Think Circle P should be running on late, and I think at the very

least he's worth looking at for the exacta or the trifecta all.

Right. We're going to move on to the

next race which is the 19th running of the Jim McKay turf

Sprint. Jim McKay obviously like a

broadcasting legend and so they they honor him with a with the

name of race here. This is 7/5 for all turfs Sprint

$100,000 on the line. John, where did you land in this

one? Of course, Jim McKay also

founded a Maryland million the year Invent a Maryland sired

horses. Top choice in here is number 12.

You Can man who actually won this race last year in his

second start off layoff, much like he's doing just off the

pace that day. After that, laying on a fast

pace, he battled, then he backed up, then he came back and won by

a neck, yelled his own against better competition towards the

end of last year. We had some big speed figures

along the way. Didn't do too much in the Shaker

town last time out at Keeneland and didn't have much of much of

an excuse. But it was his first start of

the season, His first start off about a five month break and we

saw last year he was making his his second start off a very long

layoff that day as well. He didn't do too much in like

before, but stepped up and won on that day.

Think he'll do the same thing again on this day.

And Flavian Proud, who won with him last year, keeps the mount

also like #11 witty, who is 1/2 brother to a horse named

Caravel, who was Buddhist Cup turf Sprint back in 2022.

He is bred, owned and trained by Lizzie Merriman, whose family

has been involved in Maryland racing for many generations.

His sister Katie Ross, a longtime trainer and Buddha

around here, you know, owned by Katie Cobra Aloha W one of the

biggest Cup Sprint a few years ago.

Anyway, back to Witty. He's only put it together in his

last few stars. He's won four of his last five

on both dirt and grass, one a pair of steaks towards the end

of 2023, both of them on grass tracks that had moisture in them

over a good track. He want to stretch duel in the

Benz Cat. Then last time out he won.

The Maryland Miller Sprint from last track was labeled firm.

However, it was kind of drizzling at lower Park all day

that day. I think that might have leaned

more toward a good track. Ran well First off the bench

last time out in the King the Liberary went, went extremely

wide. Got to win by a neck.

He is a bit at the mercy of the early pace and have to weave his

way to traffic. But if he can find smooth

sailing under Tyler Gafflione, he's live and one long shot.

I kind of like is number six Smooth B Butch Reed and Michael

Sanchez Butch Read of course was Saddle uncle Heavy in today's

previous smooth B has only raced on grass twice in recent times.

Both were good races he the Marshall Jenny Stakes last

August at Parks new Philly by 1/2 length Loss to Witty who's

coming back here and was a talented man who won yesterday

in in tough second level Smooth be had to deal with some traffic

trouble that day. Still closed very well.

Might have won with a cleaning trip then came in second and

that's time out in the toef monster stakes at Parks on

absolutely waterlogged. It was pouring that day in

Philadelphia. It was really how to track.

Victor run on, but they still ran on it and he ran a game

second, actually, on a very good figure, a 95 on the prison at

scale. He didn't do much First off the

bench last time out, but again, he got a race under his belt.

He's worked well since then. I think he's live at a price,

yeah. Did you mention boats are

rocking? I did not the. 8 horse Great.

I'll do that one then and we'll get to the next race here.

Trevor McCarthy rode last time in New York in the turf Sprint

championship at Aqueduct over the six Furlonger there.

Moves to new barn here. But I do think a little bit off

the layoff here, Mike. But if this horse has its best

form. Boats rocking under Rodriguez.

Help me out. Jaime Rodriguez here.

It's Jaime right? Yeah.

Look at look at me, look at me deep in Maryland.

No renovations. Just understanding.

It's Jaime Rodriguez. Boats are rocking very live to

me in this one. All right.

So you mentioned that we're getting, right.

Away tons of text on the text line 437968.

Appreciate folks hanging out. I'm not asking Dan questions

about the Scheffler incident. We're not doing that.

Yes, we did race the six through 9.

Yes, it's funny. I appreciate that people are

catching up on the Jones. Come on, it's been that long day

a little bit. 69 all. Right.

The fourth race is about 5 minutes away.

It probably was closer to seven if I had to be completely

honest. So you have time to get your

bets in here. This is the ski pat stakes or is

it the sky pat stakes ski pat? So you know we got a little 6

furlong Sprint here on the dirt. 100,000 for Phillies and mayors

3 years old and up. What was the pick on this one?

Just so we can get people to get a quick pick in.

I know what John's going to say already, John.

Heavy on the three here. As is the public.

Yes, and then he likes the four to come in second.

There you go. I'm on the four and so that's

where I think I'm three or three.

Four. He's not that bad for radio, but

it's good for us. So yeah, so 3-4 there, 3-4.

I'm 43, like my guy Ron Nicola, you understand?

I mean, yeah. Yeah, there you go, Lots of

threes and lots of fours in the 1-2 spot here in our pick three

play, we have those two horses in race form.

Cali like in the one horse area a little bit.

So there you. Go Royal Copy Royal Price.

Yeah, so that's what we got going on in Race 4.

Get your tickets in about four minutes to post.

Gold book bets.com, 5 bucks, $5 huda play stock card Ed.

Just go gold book bets.com. I'm not kidding what I tell

people. It's not like I'm paying my

mortgage with that thing. We're paying for travel.

We're paying for our website. We're paying for for the

equipment for our show, that kind of stuff.

It's just an easy way if you have 5 bucks to support the

show. And in beyond that, we will

continue talking about the next race here on the card, which is

race 12. This is the race before we get

to the previous six. This is the half million dollar

Inner Party 6. Very cool history here.

They ran this 1st 1870. OK.

So the previous wasn't run until 1873.

Do you know the name of the horse that won or party in ATC?

That's. Correctly, he goes, they ran

their Derby after the winner of The Dirty Party Stakes, which

was the big first stakes ever here at Old Hilltop.

Of course we are on Old Hilltop and in the Preakness Stakes.

They run for the Woodlawn Base and the Woodlawn Base originated

just down the street from where I live.

Literally right. Down St. we pass.

We pass the whip on twice a day. Every day.

Yeah, no question. So the little Kentucky roots on

that one as well. So if you've ever been to

Woodlawn Park in the neighborhood in in Louisville,

right there by the the Hubbard's, there you go Lane St.

Kroger. You know exactly what we're

talking. About you're you're a vase

person. I'm a vase person.

What's says Johnny? Pi say vase.

I mean, you guys are upper, upper crust, that's all there is

too. No idea.

Yeah, you're in the jeans today. You're a man of the people

wearing a flat bill, doing the thing.

Yeah. No, it's a man of the people.

I mean, you made me think I was gonna have to wear headphones

today and that was gonna mess up the whole lawn right there and

you know. You can't do that.

What's it like having a lawn? I have no idea.

You know, you just keep it short, keep it tight.

You can manscape that thing all day long.

You know I don't. Like you, either, Producer Zach.

So we give her away. Put that hat back on Johnny P,

by the way. Makes me sad every time.

I see. We were going to come.

I've never had long. We were going to.

We were going to manscape his head last night.

But then he hit, you know, hit that.

Pick 5 S he. Hit the pick five and he he saw

there was a lock on his door. It's smart.

It's a good move by him. We can still get him.

I'm pretty sure we can still get him.

By the way, we've made a we've made a determination before we

get to the dinner party here if we hit the Pick 5 today, OK,

very famously, Roboco people know, I, you know, I made the

decision last summer to hang up my drinking days.

Yeah, it's just one of those things I needed to get healthy

and do those things. And listen, being here with how

much you. It's not good.

It's not easy. Last year, at one point I walked

out of a liquor store with a 24 oz.

Natty Bow opened it and said this is my New Orleans and

people on the street looked at me and said what in the actual

this guy doing and I understand that I'm I'm very well.

With Rob mainly. Yeah, but like, the guy across

the street was like, who is that?

And why is he in a seersucker jacket in the middle of

Maryland? You know, like all these things?

I'm going to take a I'm going to take a shower in Eddie Bow if we

hit the Pick 5. Today, a whole shower.

Yeah, it's a shower. We're going to just get a six

pack and dump it on me. Why?

Don't we just go somewhere, get like a pitcher and just.

I think that's even better. We can do that way into that.

Yes. Yeah.

We'll get we'll get it on film, the whole thing.

So we got to hit the Pick 5 today.

We're. Going to hit the all right?

Is that the pick five? Starting which?

Which Pick 5? Pick five, we'll play the one

leading into the into the Preakness, So that starts race

9, right? So starting with the Murphy, So

the last race we talked about with Dan and then the ones we're

talking about now. Awesome this this dinner party

by the way like you said very historic race set piece.

Some like a hot brown Catholic boy just going over some of the.

Absolute Big Boy race. That's patio Predo.

I mean, there's some. I think this is actually this is

absolutely a great too, given who's.

You feel this year I. Think it is.

OK, there you go I think. It is, yeah.

I said it could be upgraded next year, maybe increase it's it's

not worth $500,000. Right, so people.

Half million dollars. You have to put this on your

calendar for your high level trainer.

There's no question. About it, Grade 3, like we said,

it is where they stand right now.

We got some some names that you're going to mention here.

Again, the turf is a little wet. They just took earlier you heard

us talk about how they're taking Race 5 off, which we'll talk

about next segment because we've got a ton of scratches now in

Race 5 now that it's going to the to the dirt.

But we expect for this horse would this race be on the turf?

No question. Yes, they they're doing this if

they took. Everything off, this out of this

building today, they would still run this race on the turf for

sure, that's right. All right, so scratches in this

race 7 Adamo. Who was a contender?

Big. Big one Emmanuel and is another

big scratch shake, time scratch and fantastic again.

The 12 a a big scratch as well. I mean, I mean, it was a lot of.

Fantastic again is the kind of horse that ruins your day.

Right. For 12 to one, John Velasquez

just sets it up. You know, Wesley Ward, all that

kind of stuff, by the way. Wesley Ward over his last 25 and

graded stakes. I was surprised to see that the

other day when I was handicapped.

So where did you land on this one movie?

Yeah, so in the 12th race here, dinner party stakes, it's a I

went to beatbox, actually. So I had a manual second in my

handicapping. So I landed on the 9.

Here, beatbox. Go ahead, do that again.

Yeah, that actually sounded really good coming out of the

Muniz Memorial down there. Grade 2 before that though did

win over soft go in the fairgrounds of Grade 3 down

there. We watched Overcharge for

example come out of state bred company in Louisiana when at

Churchill Downs on Derby weekend.

So we're seeing that turf course travel to other places.

Again as I talked about with Dan something I really look for on

these weekends, John is, is this a horse that can win at multiple

places is OK comfortable on different surfaces because they

may come to Pimlico once and never be here again.

Right. And so that's the kind of thing

I, for beatbox definitely checks a lot of those boxes for me.

Joel Rosario, by the way, had a really nice day yesterday,

trained by, I don't know, Cherie Devoe, who won three steaks

yesterday, feeling really good that I I picked that horse

before she won 3 yesterday, but she backed it up for sure.

Running B is in here for Chad Brown.

I'm out of my mind if I don't play Chad Brown on the East

Coast. And so I'm just going to include

that horse as well. And then Bolinikov is in here,

Bolnikov coming out of the West Coast.

This is a Phil D'amato and we're starting to see, and we talked

about this, Mike, some of these trainers who are West of the

Rockies running more and more east of the Rockies.

I expect after this and if you look at Bolnikov's previous

races, you have to go back to October of 22 to see this horse

anywhere east of the Rockies. This horse ran at Del Mar, Santa

Anita and Golden Gate is running out here after running in the

the Grade 3 San Francisco last time out was right there at the

finish, just didn't get it done. I think this horse goes back to

Kentucky actually after this race as part of the Phil D'amato

chain. So I've got those three on top

there. I'll go on 95 and 3:00 here in

the dinner party. You and I are on pretty similar

wavelengths. I I do want to know also about

running B on paper is a step up in class because it says he

faced allowance company last time.

However that was a Keelan that was pretty much a stakes quality

field just labeled as an allowance.

In fact the horses came in 3rd that day.

Masterpiece came back to win the grade 3-4 mostly next time out

at aqueducts. So don't sleep on that race at

all. He's had a great trip and got up

to win two horses who Louis didn't mention who.

I want to note the 1 Highland chief of a grand motion and

Jorge Guise. Jorge has been doing a great job

with grand motion horses both on this grass and elsewhere, and

his first start off a really long layoff last time out in the

help and the Elkhorn at Keeneland showed a early speed.

Wild wide. Never really got set on and

faded. Still, I got a race under his

belt. Think he's live here?

Second off the bench and he has a very high ceiling.

In fact he's a Grade 1 winner in his distant past and the 11 eons

for Oh no. Delacour also goes second off

the bench. He ran well on off grass courses

last year on the Prince George's County at Laurel Park by a nose

over good going in July, then in September came in second in the

Japan Turf Cup with a career best prison at speed figure,

also on a good surface. And we always talk about if you

want to follow horse racing, you should, you know, look at the

Phillies and mares. But you should also look at

these turf horses, because we got a horse in here that you all

didn't mention atone who actually won the freaking

Pegasus turf. I mean it's a Grade 1 winner and

you're going to get 12:50 on that horse, but that horse is 7

years old and you to see these horses run for a long time.

So often a tone actually ran this race last year didn't fare

so well. So we'll see how a tone runs it

back in this one. And they're, as they're in the

gate, ready to start with Race 4 here, so.

Yeah. So they're going the gate.

As we said, I got the three. It is to go look for Butch Reed,

very speedy move from the inside to get to the front.

Keep on going. The four Apple picket on the

Boba Ficci, a big local Sprint back in February.

So John, let's just talk about ticket construction here just a

little bit because you were talking upstairs like you almost

have to choose one of these horses because three and four

are such heavy favorites that if you box them, you might not, it

might not work in your favorite, like you got to take a stand.

So you took the three up top and then put the four in second.

You did not box here the way to play this for ticket

construction ways. I mean, they're off.

You can't do this now. Supposed to be for the people to

construct in the future. I mean, I feel like making money

in who are saying is all about taking stands.

You can't be too defensive. So if you're using a favorite in

in say a pick four or a pick five who you don't really like,

but you're like, well, I'm afraid they'll beat me.

That's going to be like in in in in long term.

It's going to cost you a lot of money, especially because making

big scores in the pick four and the pick five is all about

beating favors like we saw yesterday.

The key to that pick five sequence was beating Kings

Bones. There was three other winning

favorites in that sequence. Will really all you had to do is

come up with Pyrenees and you were good.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we're going to see

that I think in the pick five ticket that we're going to put

together here in just a little bit.

Right now the seven and the six are up top.

They look pretty strong. The four is coming hard.

The four is coming. Two runs out of time or if he

gets there, it's going to be. You know what?

Go there. We go 4. 7213.

Give me that mic. I had that on top winner.

You did. You had the four on top, winner

give. Me, that mic, What do we do?

I think, I think it, Russell. But it is a Brittany Russell

trained hoist. Brittany Russell, the top

trainer in Maryland, gets a stakes win here on previous

weekend with Apple picker and it and and as I know earlier it is

her second I'll pick that is second stakes win of the year in

Maryland following her big win in by Richie and we'll see if if

deeper waters are nest for this man.

And we got listen this has been a meet where female trainers I.

Mean yesterday was they could have just kept her in the winner

circle to wait for interviews yesterday because she won so

many things. Just terrific.

And it's so fun to watch. Man it.

Really. It really is.

And John, did you, you're the one who sent me the article

yesterday that you just posted about the the rise of the female

trainers here in Maryland. And Brittany Russell is going to

be a star down the road. I mean, she's she's a local star

and she's going to be a national star before long, right?

No question. First of all, if anyone wants to

read that story, visit midatlantictb.com.

It's the monthly magazine of the MHBA and he wants to subscribe,

you know to do some online or call 410-252-2100 during

business hours. Getting back to female trainers,

yes, there are tons of them in Maryland, a long history in fact

at last use law for me to 21 at the top 100 trainers in the

standings were women and and and that's not really something that

you see at other place. Obviously Brittany is the queen

of all of them. She's done well in New York with

some stake strippers. She had a voice named Post Time

who was a big Maryland bread. He won a big race in New York in

April called the Carter Stakes. Will not surprise me both

considering Britney's success in Maryland and her high profile

owners if she opens up a full time strength in New York in the

near future all. Right, Louie.

That win right there kicks off your pick four.

Pick three. Yeah, in the in the gold.

Book. Yeah, we're good to.

Go I think we should take a little bit of time right here

just to talk about race five from the stands up.

Just understanding the scratches since it's off the turf.

I am actually having a little bit of trouble pulling that up

on my phone. So we're going to scratch the 1

sweet Danny girl. We're going to switch.

But who was very live in this race, the two Dana's beauty

scratched. We are scratching the 8 Ninja

Abario who Louis is very upset about because this could have

been Horse of the Show, right? Oh yeah, yeah, with the name

like Ninja Barrio, I mean if you ask.

So that leaves us with the three, the 4567 and the nine in

race five that will be on the main track.

There you go. How does the main track affect

your handicapping on this one? I have not even looked at that

Mike. I'm going to be totally honest

with you but just looking quickly I mean if if you

mentioned the seven is still in here.

Yes right smile. Ry Smile's only interesting

because it's the second time starter and and Brittany Russell

trains here. If she left the horse in the

race that's not by accident. I'm gonna this is.

Refresh 'cause I don't know if my phone refreshed correctly.

Oh, OK. Yeah, if the seven is still OK,

we got it here. Great.

Thank you. Scratch, scratch, scratch.

So. Seven is still in here, so

really the only scratches are one and two. 12612 and six.

OK, I gave. I gave the wrong, wrong horses.

I apologize. My phone did not.

Yeah. So 1-2 and six are out here, so

we lost the two as part of our bets.

I had five 7-8 on top here. Obviously I meant that for for

picking on the turf. But one we saw in race one, for

example, the one horse was just the best horse, right?

Was meant for the turf. Today, Mike Maker says I'm just

going to leave that horse in the race.

So I'm going to do the same thing here with Brittany

Russell. I'm going to trust that the

seven's going to be the best. Brittany Russell trying to get

back-to-back wins, you know, on Preakness to have a day, have a

day. She had a she had a great

weekend last year on Preakness weekend, if we all remember.

And this is kind of playing out, you know?

No, that's exactly it's it's it's great.

So I would, I would lean on, rise, smile here.

I still think this horse will be just fine.

It's been training on the dirt and training just just fine.

All right. We will go ahead and take an

early break here, see that we'll come back.

We're going to go through the entire Preakness field.

Get you set up for the 149th running of the.

Yeah, we want to thank our friends before we go to break

Maryland Thoroughbred Breeder Horse Breeders Association.

Make sure you jump in with them on their website,

marylandthoroughbred.com. All the great options for

breeding here in Maryland, of course, our friend Brian

Dettman, 2TS1 and Brian Dettman, Injury lawyer as well.

And of course all the things that we do on this show are are

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This is the Horse Racing Happy hour here.

ESPN Louisville, ESPN 681057. You're listening to the Horse

Racing Happy Hours coverage of Preakness 149, now live from

Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore. Here's Mike Gandolfo and Louis

Rabeau all. Right.

Welcome back to the Horse race and Happy hour live from

Pimlico. It's previous 1:49 and we are

here to talk about this race, the 149th running of the

previous states. The the second time I've been

here. I don't know how many times you

been here. Only the 5th time that John

Piazzi has been here. I know I've been to more

Preakness than John. John was shocked.

The good news is, number of times attending Preakness does

not affect how good your pick fives are.

Yes, that is good. That is that is very true.

We're going to go through the field.

We're going to Preakness or Preak.

No, Preakness means yes. There you go.

And thumbs up. Is is is that?

It's no. So let's real quick just a

little bit about what has happened in the Preakness

recently. It has been a a race though

since 2019 we've had all new shooters come in and win this

race, which we mean by that is horses that did not run in the

Derby and in this field of eight horses with the scratch of Muth,

we have three horses that are coming back from the Derby.

But we have another horse that ran Derby weekend in the pad de

mile and then we we have what I would call would you consider

sees the brand new shooter or there's more about the time and

the layoff? Sees the Gray is a new shooter.

OK yes. Sees the Gray is I'll.

Put him like 1/2 a new shooter because to me it's more about

the the distance in between I. Understand, yes.

To me though, running a mile and running a mile and a quarter is

very different and going one turn instead of two is very

different. I I I actually like that as an

angle for him that he had to do less work to win in.

Well, we're not there yet on Siege the Gray on our Preakness

or Preakness. But I I understand what you're

saying. So let's just say 3 1/2 horses

and maybe, you know, I don't know, so and then 4 1/2 real new

shooters, but we're going to start off talking about, you

know, so just to go again, we haven't had a Derby runner win

this race since 2019. Or will the last Derby winner

was actually justified in this Triple Crown Year 2017 Two.

1018, Yeah. Justified.

It was 18. Are you sure?

Yes, I am. Yes, it is 2018.

Yes, you're right. You're right.

And then beyond that, we've had a lot of talk about and I guess

you got to throw in Swiss Skydiver again in 2020 because

she did run that weekend, if I'm afraid of the same thing, right.

We've had Chad Brown doing what he does, cloud computing and

early voting. Almost Lazy Summer last year.

Got a very similar horse this year, so we're just going to go

through this field. We're going to start off with a

couple of new shooters. Mugatu, Preak.

Nesser. Preak.

No. This is a horse that came in

fifth in the Bluegrass Stakes. Is this a Preakness or Preak?

No. Preak, No.

And the only interesting thing about him is he is Maryland

sired. Not Maryland, Maryland sired.

He's by a horse named Blofeld, who's in a big up and coming

Maryland stallion stands at at Momu Farm owned by Audrey and

Kent Murray however. And he's also a first Maryland

sired horse to run in the pregnancy since Malibu Moonshine

in in 2005. However, he is not good enough

to win this race. He he's never won a figure that

could beat this field. He he's he kind of clunked up in

the Battaglia, clunked up in the rush away, clunked up in the

bluegrass. I think he'll be lucky to be one

horse home. And Louie's going to be if, if

that, if he would have won any of those horses or any of those

races at Turfway Park, yeah, the four races that he ran, Turfway

Park, Louis would have been all over it because.

He's won a Turfway before. Yeah, but those four, that those

four before the bluegrass Stace is what I'm getting at, right?

All right. Pre know for me the.

Gulfstream. He didn't win that Turfway.

Oh, the synthetic at Gulfstream. You're right.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

All right. So he's a he's a preak.

No, Preak. No.

For you. Yeah.

That moves us on to the. The next by the way, that's the

kind of horse that if he jumps up and runs third for some

reason, like just has a good day at the office, could really set

you up for a nice trifecta play. This, this next horse is kind of

interesting to me, OK? And it's being bet.

Because it's named after you or what?

No, mainly because it won the Withers right And the Withers

was a was a muddy track Uncle Heavy won that won the list of

stakes he was in before did not fire in the wood memorial.

King well King and 5th I mean, but his speed figure was down in

that race as well so kind of had a little bit of an off race in

the wood memorial. We could be talking about this

horse completely differently if he runs the same race as he did

and the Withers. Or if he were coming in straight

from the Withers, right? Like, like Tuscan gold is coming

straight in for the Louisiana Derby, right?

So we just don't have a bad data point from Tuscan Gold, right?

We have a bad data point here in the Wood Memorial.

I don't hold races at Aqueduct against horses.

There's something about the deeper surface on Long Island,

whatever it might be, if they just don't like it.

I don't hold that against horses.

And if you wanted to be positive about this horse, you could do

two things. Talking about Uncle Heavy, by

the way. Uncle Heavy, the two we named it

after. We named it after Mike the You

are an uncle on board. Yeah, right.

Winds of muddy Withers before that mile and an eighth were

only going half a for a long longer here.

Right. So this is the kind of horse

here picks up Irad second in this new form cycle.

They gave this horse March off maybe second off the bench maybe

getting if it stays muddy today that would be your positive.

I'm gonna go preak. No, especially at the price.

I think he's like 7 to one or something like that.

To be that is far too. Short where would he be?

For him to be a Preakness where it's like, hey man, I'm 15 to

one, I'll take a shot of this. 15 to 1 sounds right.

Yeah, that's actually probably about the line that I would not

want to go below where a $10 bet gets me back one 6170, something

like that. If I had to pick one, 'cause I

can't say preak, maybe, I'd say preak, no, but I said going into

the wood. If Uncle Heavy, who is APA bred,

by the way, a Mid-Atlantic bred horse.

If he ran well in the wood, I probably would have bet him in

the Derby, 'cause I loved his Withers closed a lot of ground,

got twin by a nose. Butchery has said he he's the

kind of horse we know he's going to want more distance.

Although the only problem is is I know it's it's it's kind of a

meme at this point. The closers generally don't do

as well at Pimlico as you do at Aqueduct and I know you

mentioned it's kind of a a a funky track at Aqueduct and yes

it is but but he also won over it before so I'm not sure how

much of the wood was just him disliking track and how much of

it was he just didn't fire that day and he's really not

trustworthy. That being said, I think he'd be

playing a trifecta or a super factor.

Even at 71, he's worth respecting And he also has a

very cool back story and he can read all about it and more,

including about how he he he he got his name on the MHB, the

MHBA offices, and requesting a back a back mulch issue of

Mid-Atlantic over magazine. Yeah.

He listen our. Promotion today is unbelievable,

no? Whatever.

Magazine. I mean, get out of the way

everybody else. We're doing the Mid-Atlantic

work here, you understand? Yeah, it's a preak.

No for me as well. I I think.

He'd be. But by the way, I think because

he hit the the pick five yesterday, Johnny P for the Day

should be able to say Preak maybe.

OK. OK.

Yeah. The Preak?

No. For me it comes from a couple

different ways. I'm just not sure that this

horse is fast enough. I think that's.

Probably right. And and at the end of the day, I

don't see the improvement moving forward that I would like to see

out of a three-year old. Because by by the way, one of

the things we haven't said about this field is that it's slow.

Yes. Leading up to the Derby, we were

worried about speed, right? In general.

But I think we all think catching freedom is fast.

Yeah, right. We think Mr. Dan has some speed,

sees the Gray, for all of his faults, still ran in a race with

22 and 44 as the splits finish that mile in a sub 136.

Right. So it's not a speed issue that

we're talking about in this race.

It might be, though, however, for uncle.

For our uncle heavy. OK, so we're going to move on to

that three horse that you just mentioned.

This is catching Freedom, trained by Brad Cox, ridden by

Flavoring Pratt. And you know this is a horse who

I, I was doubting coming out of the Louisiana Derby and now he

comes in, runs a very respectable Kentucky Derby,

comes in fourth. He was the one horse not

involved in that unbelievable photo finish, right.

I, you know, this is this horse is catching a lot of buzz.

Is he the favorite right now? He's either the favorite or

right there catching favorite. I mean he's either Co favorite

or favorite for sure. And he's my favorite.

He will be my pick today. Flavian Pratt figured out the

course yesterday. By the end of the day, I think

he's going to have a really big day today.

Brad Cox doesn't always do this, doesn't always turn around this

quickly. Again, I it's something I talked

about with this. So there's something about that

six weeks off between the Louisiana Derby and the Kentucky

Derby and maybe he just needed that.

It's a weird thing to say. Maybe he needed the Derby to run

in the Preakness, and that's a strange thing to say out loud,

but maybe that's just what happened.

As far as his calendars, how it's set up right when you're in

a when you're in a barn like Brad Cox, he's got to ship

horses all over the place to not have them compete against one

another, to try to get as many spots in that starting gate in

the Kentucky Derby. He's sort of forgotten this in

this Derby, and for good reason by the way.

He wasn't in the three horse photo finish, but he loses by

less than two lengths and a mile.

He's right there. Mile and a quarter race.

He's right there. I'll go ahead, I'll put him on

top and and I'll, I'll take my chances.

Of course we had the the scratch last year first mission and Brad

Cox really thought he had the chance last year.

You know it was kind of kind of moved like this year like it was

you know at the same way. So John, what do you think I

mean? Freak.

Yes. And that he has a shocked freak,

no, in that I think will be bad value because he's, as you said,

favorite or Co favorite. And you know, yes he did run

well in Derby. He lost by less than two

lengths. But and I haven't seen this

point brought up too often and we'll talk about it more with

Mystic Dan. The pace in the Derby really

blew up like the only horses who really hung around, who were

close to the early pace after 1/2 mile for Mystic Dan who won

and Stronghold who also ran a big race in his own right.

So considering how fast the pace was, that was kind of fell and

catching Freedom's lap he was 13-8 lengths off the pace after

1/2 mile. That's just about the right spot

you want to be if you're closing into a fast pace.

You got out kicked by both Sierra Leone, out kicked by for

the young and couldn't run down Mystic Dan.

You're doing well though two starts back in the Louisiana

Derby did come from off of slower fractions to win.

He can absolutely win. I think if you have a big budget

in a pick five he's a good hoist to use.

But to win at at at 3:00 to 1:00, I can't go for that of.

Course, Ron flatter getting his free food as you can always find

Ron flatter on wherever the free food is.

There he is exiting. All right, we're going to move

on to there's free food. There's free food.

I've already had two crab cakes. The cornbread is excellent.

They're. Going to have a hard. 4 crab

cakes we're. Going to have a hard time

backing up the short ribs yesterday.

Those were fantastic. They were.

They were really good. Flatter.

Did not like them. So.

Oh, no. I was like a little surprised by

that. OK, here we go.

This is the Derby winner, Kenny Mcpeak.

Sonny Mcpeak. Trained.

I got the pet Sunny this morning.

You know so? That dog has never met a

stranger. That dog goodness friendly.

What was the story that was being told this morning though?

I guess another dog came to the lobby of the hotel and the dog

like, tried to take off after. That's.

It's awesome. By the way, I want to I want to

point out that we just got this text at 437968 and our UPS jobs

text line. How does the Pimlico track pass

rush technique of Michael Parsons?

It's an important. It's a very important question.

The Cowboys will not win the Super Bowl again.

Let's just say that. Or the Preakness?

Or the Preakness. Kenny.

Mcpeak No on the Cowboys. How about that deal with the

Dallas? Kenny Mcpeak trying to become

the first trainer since, you know we had California Chrome

come through. Yeah, that not named Bob

Baffert. Right to win?

The first to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown.

Does Mystic Dan not feel like a California Chrome as far as his

breeding and how much he cost to breed and that kind of stuff?

Like doesn't. He, I think the apology between

Mystic and Calvin Chrome are so, so similar.

And I was, I was talking to Sherva, you know, this morning

about it and talking about if he wins this race and he goes on to

win the Belmont and Saratoga at a shorter distance.

You know, Sherva's an asterisk guy, obviously.

I'm not an asterisk guy. And Sherva's like, well then

we'll never see him race again. And like that it would go

straight to the breeding check because he's a Triple Crown

winner. No, he won't.

I I I disagree. I think we're going to see this

horse race for us. We might even see this horse run

as a 5 year old for a slight amount of time.

But I think we're definitely going to see this horse run as I

can see him. Especially running like the

horses in the Arabian Peninsula as a five year.

Old. Absolutely.

Yeah. Early and then maybe call it

quits or whatever else. But then and of course that's

barring any kind of injuries or whatever else that that happened

in horse racing. I I am emotionally pulling for

Mr. Dancing. I want to see Kenny Mcpee.

The best, the best result today is that he wins the race and

we've got three weeks of talking about a Triple Crown, no

question. No question about to be great

for horse racing. He's the he's the perfect

trainer for it. We got the that's all set of

owners for it. They're they're enjoying the

ride. They're on the backside, they

got all this swag that they created and whatever else and

they're they're a loving life, man.

I mean, that's what it is. By the way, Lance Gazaway, it's

been on with me on on ESPN. Louisville is the kind of guy

you want to, when they sit to do the owner interviews, just an

Arkansas guy loves Hot Springs, happens to have this horse

that's just through the roof. Talented.

It's a really great story and easy people to root for.

And unlike the owners of California, from Right so.

Creek nest for me, Yes, absolutely.

Has a shot here, John. You've got him on top.

Yes, I like him quite a bit. And as I touched on when talking

about catching freedom, I think Mystic Dan is being really

underrated going into this race. He ran huge in the Southwest

three starts back. He won by 8 lengths over and off

track. The best figure on the business

scale of one O 1 got third despite a wide trip in the

Arkansas Derby behind move. Then as I noted a few moments

ago in the in the Kentucky Derby, he was really one of the

only ones who was close to the pace and still held on.

He was four and a quarter lengths back at the quarter

pole, two and three quarter lengths back at the opening

half. Opening half was 46 and three

and pretty much everybody was near that pace, including just

Steele who's also back in here, finished way, way up the track.

And yet Mystic Dan, thanks to a great move by Brian Hernandez up

the inside, pulled clear in the stretch, Fennodoff, Sierra Leone

and Forever Young and got the job done.

There's not a ton of speed drawn to his inside if he do his

outside, not so much to his inside if he breaks cleanly.

I I wonder if Fran Hernandez is going to try to control the pace

on the inside, hopefully slow things down a little bit, and

then as long as he doesn't have too much traffic trouble, he'll

be in great shape late. Now I have a question if Mystic

Dan wins later later today and he wins in like normal style,

not by like 10 lengths or something, is he favored in the

Belmont? Probably, Probably not, right?

I don't think Sierra Leone's probably favored, right?

Yeah, I think that's probably right.

Yeah. And at the end of the day, my

question is now. To be fair that that might be

morning line. I think by the time we get to

the race, so many people put in those two dollar bets just to

have the slip that it it actually does move.

You know what's going on like Belmont day at at Churchill will

be busy that kind of thing. People on track Gulf St. parks,

they'll never catch. That's exactly right.

Someone at sitting at Aqueduct watching the race on Long

Island, that kind of thing. I I do think that will happen.

But I think, I think many people will pick against him at

Saratoga I. Would I would totally agree with

that my question too. It has more good question

though, this race in general if the layout, the rails not live

right now the rail is slow so does he take Missy Dan to the

middle of the track and and still you know at the whole

point of him when the Derby was really how much track he how

much? How much ground he saved.

Ground he saved, well, you know, totally rail.

So he's going to have to, like you said, he's got to run a

little bit differently, I think, John, in order to pull this one

off today. The good news is what what he

It's interesting because what John just described was actually

what Thorpedo Anna did in the Oaks, not what Mystic Dan did in

the Derby, right. So that kind of that kind of

route. We've already seen Brian

Hernandez do do do that in the last two weeks.

Certainly he can replicate it today.

We've talked. We're 3 minutes away from race

five. We already got Louie's picks.

John, who's your picks here? And.

Real quick 'cause we got. To go quick.

For Moderosa, show speed on debut at at Jordan's last

September and faded has worked well since, as Lasik for the

first time should be tough in a knot crate field.

All right. So we're going to move on to the

six horse now this is sees the Gray, the winner of the pad day

mile in impressive fashion. Dewayne Lucas one of the two

Dewayne Lucas horses here. I'm.

I'm actually going to go preak. No sees the Gray.

Now where are you at on this one?

I'm also Preak now. Of course, I I do want to know.

Wayne Lucas two weeks ago became the first great grandparent

saddle a Derby horse and now he's first great grandparents.

Hire a fitness horse. There you go.

I mean, I mean, he's the Gray is a nice horse.

He ran well in the path. That mouse sat just off a very

hot pace and got up to win. But his ceiling is not that high

on the Britain scale. He's never going to figure

faster than 92. Even Mugatu has run that fast.

At some point in his career he's going to have to improve at

least 5-6 points and hope a few other horses progress.

I don't see it. I think it up against.

I would like to point out that booth in the Arkansas Derby,

everybody got really excited about how how well he ran and he

wins by open lengths. His mile was 137 and one OK sees

sees the Gray just won his pad de mile in a sub 136 and he that

was after he had gone past everyone and I think wasn't

running his fastest at the end of that race.

He's a Preakness for me. I feel very alone in this pic.

It's very interesting. People making fun of this horse

on on social media at pool parties, it's a whole thing.

It's a very strange. Thing that's going on on on

social media and and at this table frankly when I'm not going

to stand for it sees the Gray is my second pick in the Preakness.

I would say out of all my Preakness, he's the most likely

one to be. I think by the way.

I'm. More likely, I'm more likely to

include him and say an exact trifecta play or at the end of a

longer ticket, hoping that we cash on him like that.

What's What's the future for this horse, though?

Back-to-back to the one turn Mile 7 furlongs, something like

that. Like the Churchill Downs next

year at one, at one turn 7 furlongs, it's a grade one.

You know what? We it's a weird thing with the

Arrogates, right? The sons of Arrogate.

Because we have so little data, so few foals.

He passed away so. Quickly.

He died so young. As a, as a, as a sire.

We just don't have all of the data.

So seize the great might just it might be a path that we just

don't really know about. Just because we're not, you

know, we're not able to really know what's going on.

All right. We're going to move on to the

next horse. We're talking about the seven

horse and that is just Steal. The other D Wayne, Luke is here.

Just steal another horse that's coming out of the Kentucky

Derby. Just steal has not won a race

yet as a as a three-year old. To me this is a preak.

Probably a preak. Hell no.

I'm pretty close to that actually, yeah.

I'm not sure why this horse is here, other than owners wanting

to come. D Wayne's coming anyway brings.

Bring a second one. He knows there's a spot in the

starting game, maybe. Yeah.

Pick up a check if he runs like he did in the Arkansas Derby, I

guess. Yeah, I mean.

I mean I guess he he was second in that Southwest takes if you

wanted to do that. He was behind Mystic Dan in that

Southwest. Of course, the money track.

So. So maybe maybe he can do that

again if the other horses just don't take to the track.

But he's Preak. No for me Preak no.

But I will offer this caveat. If you look at his figures, he

has a very in and out pattern like he won the Ed Brown stakes

last November at Turtle Downs. We had a Britton that figure up

up 96. The client a bit in the Smote

Jones we had an 86 improved. In the Southwest we had a 91

dropped back in the Rebel in the 86 improved up to a 97 in the

Arkansas Derby. Then in the Kentucky Derby he

got caught up it in in the early pace that finished a $10 Uber

ride behind Mystic Dan. But that being said, now he is

on the he's at the point in his form cycle where he should run a

peak race. I don't know if peak race is

good enough to win this, but I think he should hopefully take a

big step forward off his Derby F.

Me too, because I like Wayne Lucas.

I think he's great for horse racing.

Yeah, and I don't care 88, like I think it's fantastic when we

have those guys on their horses everyday.

Him. Belmont reminds me the similar

cut of those guys. No, he's great for the sport, so

if he won it. At all.

And we're trying to refresh the text on here, yeah. 437-9680

Send us your Preakness pics. We'll read them on there.

All right, Race the horse at the rate this is, this is obviously

the Buzz horse. Chad Brown trained Tyler's

aboard Tuscan Gold Whitely. Race was in that.

Louisiana Derby came in third behind catching freedom on

Autumn Marie. It was really the first step up

into that kind of class. That's right.

And both of those horses finished top ten in the Derby.

Correct. Yep.

Autumn Marie. Yeah, I think you're exactly

right. Yeah, 7th or 8th, right?

Yep, Yep, Yep. Frankly, better than I thought.

And after his start, his horrific start in the Derby,

still running in the top eight. It's really impressive in the

Derby. It's got to be the most likely

new shooter to win this race. It just feels like a really big

step up to me. Yeah, Essel picked him on top.

Yes, this is absolutely a step up, but this is what Chad Brown

does. It is.

And at some point, we just have to recognize the pattern.

This is what he does. Horse was aimed for the grade

three Peter Pan last weekend ascent.

I don't want to call it a guaranteed $120,000 check, but

they passed on that. Let's be clear about what that

was and a chance to just be fresh for the Belmont, have the

full month off, be ready to go, he said.

Nah, Nah, This is my blazing sevens.

This is my early voting. He's got a shot here, so I'm

going to ship him down. He's an absolute preakness for

me. I say freak.

Yes in in that I pick up second behind Mystic Dan.

Though I do feel like most people's reasons of picking him

are just because he's Chad Brown and not based on an actual mess.

Because yes, Chad did win with cloud computing and early

voting, but those horses did have a little more foundation in

stakes company than Tuscan Gold. In fact, at least I know at

least early voting and maybe cloud computing too could have

run in the Derby if they wanted to.

Chad just chose not to. I don't think Tuscan Gold had

enough points to run in in in the Derby.

Even if he wanted he he, he took a very big step forward in the

Louisiana Derby. Might have been a little bit

short for that race was only his third start and he made kind of

a promising move and flattened out.

And I kind of wonder if the same thing is going to happen here if

he gets his trip and makes what looks like a winning move only

to flatten out late and get 2nd to 3rd just because he he he

doesn't have enough foundation and he's being bent like he's

being hammered, he's. Hammered, Yeah.

Seven or two at last check. We're not shocked.

Value not there. Where's the?

Where's the? Where's the line?

Where the values? Not there.

I would say I need at least six to one on him.

OK, you're 5 to 1, Louis. I'm fine.

Yeah, I'm 5:00 to 1:00. On five O 6 I'll say that, but

center 2 is too low and if anything he could go off lower.

Man, by the way, our guy Longshot and and Zach and I got

to visit the Beer Depot, the central lab Beer Depot.

And that if you could, if you could recreate that place and

drop it in your basement, you would.

It's it's, it's a terrible bar. This is longshot.

Shout out to you is. An ESPN producer Zach Not, yes.

Not Austin, Zach, but Louisville Zach.

That's exactly right. No shout out.

Shout out to Longshot, who sent in his catching freedom.

Just steal exacta box. So there you go.

How about that? Alright.

Catch a couple couple Derby Derby horses there, alright?

The last horse that we're going to talk is the fifth race is off

and running. Yep, we've only got a couple

minutes left here. This is the Bafferts Other

horse, the Nine Imagination. 9 looks great here.

By the way, This would be our first gate to wire in any race

today if this horse is able to hold on in the stretch here.

The four moderosa who's been bet into favoritism is coming late

here as well. The nine though on the prenus

stakes imagination. I don't think here unless Muth

is making the trip. I I mean I agree with that I I

think this. I don't think Baffert likes this

horse. I think I told Sherva this

morning that you've taught me how to how to understand Bob

Baffert language and know when he likes a horse and when he

doesn't like a horse. Which means, of course I'm

besmirching the horse to the horses for sure going to win.

Imagination is 100% a preak no for me.

OK, I disagree. I think he's got a shot here.

It's just I don't. I don't love him either, but I

do like a horse that's never finished Worse than second and

6th career starts and and so two runs for wins, two runs for

seconds. This year he's run four times.

Did win the San Felipe at a mile and a 16th under Frankie de Tori

comes back, gets pushed out of the way by Stronghold.

Last time out in the Santa Anita Derby, I don't know how good of

a prep race that was, but this kind of layoff where a horse

comes back 5-6 weeks later. Baffert hits at 30%.

He wins graded stakes at 31. That's inflated by the field

sizes and graded stakes in California for sure, but this is

the kind of race that he wins. He's won the Preakness 8 times.

I wouldn't be stunned if we got a 9th today.

It sounds like you would be. I would not.

Listen, I think if he wins, it's going to be one of those things

where he wins at the very wire because I don't think this horse

wants to break away from the field.

Correct. I mean four of his his, his six

up career start have been a photo finish either way, win or

lose. I am also pregnant on him.

Unless everybody else in the race is really passive, he's

going to have a hug. I'm getting to the rail and the

lead from the outside post and as we just saw a horse who

wouldn't get to our on the rail just won.

As such that spot is not totally hopeless.

I think he he he should have won the Santa.

He he went off as a big favorite.

Didn't really show that winning punch, really fun.

Should have won the San Felipe by a lot more.

He was four to five that day and really had to work for.

This is a much tougher field than anything he's ever seen at

back. Who beats me.

He beats me. All right, Louis, that's the

field. That's us, buddy.

I mean great we're we're out here 149.

We're having a great time. Thanks to all the people at

Pimlico. Thanks to to runner.

Rich to producer Zach. There you go.

Johnny P, Johnny P how about that?

You know Danielman, all of our like this is it felt like more

of a homecoming. We get to see so many of our

friends now. It's become very fun to get

here. It's been a whole lot of fun and

you know everyone from Earl who takes care of it, Chuck and all

those guys and and you know, this is a great place.

Time to go have some Black Eyed Susan's, smoke a cigar and and

hang out with. The people we're going to pay

the tab. We're going to get out of here

thanks to our sponsors. We'll see you Thursday nights, 4

straights and happy hour TuneIn. Love you then.

Have a great day everybody.

Horse Racing Happy Hour