Rusty Arnold | KY Downs Preview Weekend

We're both really happy to welcome in trainer Rusty Arnold

here on the show. He's got a couple of runners in

what is now called Kentucky Downs Preview weekend at Ellis

Park. Rusty, good morning.

I am. I've been instructed to say

hello from Dan Isel. That's my man.

Tell him to tell you when you talk to him.

Say hello to Louie Damper for me.

Oh, we'll do that. Dan told a story last night on

the podcast. We should find it, Max, because

it's it's unbelievable. And I we should definitely share

that. Do you have you, I mean, do you

have an ISIL story that that is safe for air or should we move

on? I don't, I don't have, I have.

I guess I have a few of one of the better ones is when I first

went to work for him, we took a Philly to Fairmont Park to run.

I think her name I should buy Architect, Miss Blueprint I

think was her name. But we took Mike Smith on the

plane and Dan took us to dinner and we brought Don Brumfield in

back and we had a lot of laughs on the plane on the way back.

But that was when you get Mike Smith to ride at Fairmont Park.

And they didn't know who he was. They didn't know who I was, but

they knew who Dan Issel was in Saint Louis.

Who was the hero? There you go.

Rusty Arnold with us, he's got a couple in on this weekend,

including red carpet ready. And this is a horse that I, you

know, came up when she was when she was first running.

Rusty, did you try her on the dirt?

Because you know, if you look at her pedigree, I think a lot of

it makes sense for a turf. So the move this weekend makes a

lot of sense. But was it just bad timing with

what was going on at Churchill Downs?

It was, it was a very or a good timing for me.

She was ready to run. And Churchill had canceled the

turf racing for the for the fall meet because of the the problems

with the turf course. So I didn't want to wait all the

way to Florida to run her. I didn't want to ship her, you

know, out of out of state. I just because we were training

right here in Kentucky. So I said let's run on the dirt

one time and she'll have a race in her and then when we get to

Florida we'll be ready to go. And she won by 8-9 links and and

then has been on the dirt ever since.

Red carpet ready will be the five horse in race seven.

It is the Kentucky Downs Preview Mid Ladies Turf Sprint.

Easy for me to say quarter million bucks and that Kitty.

You know, the the Kentucky Downs thing outside of the purses, you

know, I've talked with different traders.

Brian Lynch always comes to mind and he said there's something

about being down there, just being out in the country.

I think Ellis Park has a bit of a feel to this too, where some

of the horses just like being down there.

You know, it's less crowded than say a Churchill Downs or a

Keeneland, something like that. And they can kind of stretch

their legs and be out there, kind of just be a horse again.

Do you find that about Kentucky Downs?

Absolutely. And you tell Brian, I've been

going there a lot longer than you right away.

So, but I've I've been, I wasn't there the year at Kentucky Downs

actually that they broke with a string the first year.

They didn't even have a start gate that almost every year

since. And I love going down there.

It's it's a relaxing atmosphere. It's gone through lots of

changes and one of them being obviously the money, but it's

been one of my favorite places since day one to take a horse

and have a little bit of fun while you're down there.

It's like a tailgate party is what I tell everybody.

And, and Ellis is a little bit like that.

You're not under the gun, you're not in the big crowds, and you

sit down there and saddle your horse and relax and watch him

run. And I enjoy it.

Rusty Arnold with us. He's presented by the Kentucky

HBPA here on Rabo and Co on ESPN 681057.

You know, getting back to red carpet ready, you try her on the

distaff here, the Derby City Distaff over Derby weekend.

She runs on the Madison before that.

Was it anything about those performances that made you want

to switch to turf, or is this just the right time for her?

I think it's timing right now. I know the the the racing and

the Madison wasn't a bad race. She she might be a little bit

suspect at 7/8 of a mile, but I didn't.

The race didn't go well at Churchill down.

She came out of it with a little issue behind.

Nothing major, but we had to give her some time off, as

you've noticed, and she's back ready to run.

And we, Bo and I, Bo Brahmanson, one of the owners, I got to

talk. And if you're going to go to the

grass, here's the time right now, find out if we're good

enough or if we like the turf enough to run in the race at

Kentucky Downs. And if things don't go good

tomorrow, if we don't handle the turf right, we've got two or

three other options to go with, with we'd probably point for the

the Thoroughbred Club of America Steaks at Keeneland.

So we've got it. It's it's given us a kind of a

idea of where we want to take her or where she wants to go.

And the timing popped up perfect.

And she's doing really well. She's ready, She doesn't have

any excuses. So we'll leave there tomorrow

knowing whether she wants the grass or the dirt.

Trader Rusty Arnold with us here on Rabow and Co.

You have another runner on Saturday and double clutch.

He'll be in Race 9, which is the turf, the Turf mile preview.

Excuse me, this is this is an interesting entry here, Rusty.

This is a horse that's won twice at the distance, hit the board

five times in nine lifetime runs, recently won over Good go

at Churchill Downs and an allowance.

Do do you have expectations for this horse beyond this race?

Do you think this is a good spot for him?

Well, if you look back, you can tell how much I like this horse.

Early on. I tried him everywhere.

He he trained, you know, he's a, he's a brother to gear jockey.

You know, some people don't pick up on that, but he trained so

well early on. He won his second started

Keeneland. I threw him right in the, you

know, he ran second to Annapolis I think in his third start and

then he just kind of hit a level.

He wasn't going on and I didn't know why.

I gave him some time. I brought him back.

I got one good race out of him and then he was, he was just

going down the wrong way. I gave him more time and brought

him back and I've liked all of his races this year.

I sprinted him first time back. It was a pretty good Sprint and

came back and ran two races at Churchill and I just thought

let's let's give him a try. I can run him in an allowance

race when I want. I think he's at the peak of his

game right now. He's a, he's a horse when he's

at his best. I think he belongs and if I've

got him at his best, we'll find out tomorrow.

Back-to-back, really good runs at Churchill in allowance

Company to switch to Corey Landry.

Obviously it's just because Jose is up at Saratoga.

You think Corey will fit well with the horse?

Well, Corey won on the horse. How about?

That and. He broke his mate and so we

went, went and grabbed him when you know, and as soon as we

could and had a lot of success with Corey in the past of one of

grade one with him in fact. So I'm confident in him and and

and the horse is good enough. Trader Rusty Arnold with us here

on Rabo and Co. He's presented by the Kentucky

HBPA, KYHBP, a.com Gear jockey work this morning at Keeneland.

Are we trying to get him ready to go have another great run at

Kentucky Downs? Absolutely.

That's been the program all year.

We wanted a run before that. We're not going to get it.

We've had and he's had his problems and he just has to get

there the right way. But he had a very good work this

morning, very good work. We're a good gal, very happy

with him. And you know, we've got a month

to have him ready, and if we don't have another set back,

we're going to have him ready. You have a paired entry on

Sunday and a maiden special. Which of those horses do you

think will end up running? Yeah, it might.

Be Monday. Yeah, yeah.

I'm still getting used to that Monday thing.

How about that? Yeah, yeah.

When you said that, one of them's on the AE, so it's.

OK, got it. OK, an easy choice.

So Hayaka will run the other Phillies.

Going to have to wait her turn. OK.

And what can you tell us about Hilaca?

She's a Philly that we again, she ran a really good race first

time out on the dirt at Churchill and we we wanted to

move her to the grass. She had some issues.

We had to stop on her, bring her back.

She didn't run good in Florida. We had to stop on her again.

She's very fresh, training very well and we're looking for a

good race on Monday. A text her into the show is very

impressed that you got Dan Thistle to pay for dinner.

I'll tell you what you know, that's a that might be the

shocking development of the morning, Rusty.

I think more than once I've got him to pay for dinner.

He, he told he, he, he told me one time when he had bought me

dinner a couple of times and I ended up with somebody with me.

And he said I didn't think you were going to start bringing

friends when you come to dinner. There'll be more people to pay

for. That sounds exactly like us all.

Well, he's Rusty Arnold. Good luck with everybody this

weekend. And of course, the only thing

that matters, safe trips for all of your horses this weekend.

And I'm sure I'll see you down at Kentucky Downs.

All right, guys. Thank you.