Santa Anita LIVE – Big Cap Day ’26

I'm live, but it's the hello everybody.

We've got the overlay on right now we're just getting

everything retweeted on. All right, welcome in for big

cat Dang here I would say they need a park.

Our plan was to be down outside at clockers border with boy

other nature had all the ideas. I believe we were going at radio

on the searches from Titus Head for happy hour having hanging

out for the show today. We really do appreciate you

making this part of your big cat day out here live at Santa Anita

standing next to be on Charlie Collins and Barry Spears.

We will be sure to drag them into the broadcaster.

We want to thank our friends at Stockton Mortgage for being our

presenting sponsor on this trip, hanging out with them through

the Ruby and the Bluegrass Stakes, and as well appreciate

them hanging out with us. Of course.

Racing Happy Hour, bringing Barry Spears, our handicapper on

the trip here. Of course you know here from

Smoke out Saturday on this show. Barry, if you had to describe

how windy it here for Florida, is this like Florida level BS

that we're dealing with today? There's got to be a kind of

thing. By the way, can you see the

levels, like the levels look normal on our little mixer.

OK, so how about that? All right, we'll mix them.

Terrible. Everything.

Else it's verified. Is that something that affects

your handicapping? As you go into a day like this,

you're trying to figure out if there's a tail with a headway

and if it's going to affect British.

Or are you going to do what I'm going to do, which is watch

Races 123, see if there's an effect on closers, frontrunners.

I think that ends up making things a little bit of a rider

for the situation. Yeah, we'll have to see where

things go, especially in that early part of the card, as I

mentioned. Give us some ideas of how the

track is playing. All of those other things as

well. God, you can.

All the music's still playing. Good point by Sean.

Actually, it's a good point. I don't have the headphones on.

It is a great point by Sean. So we will turn that off as we

move through the rest of the show.

Appreciate you producing on the fly.

You could also just come talk to me.

It's a podcast. This isn't Blood Horse.

We don't have to pretend that it's Blood Horse.

We don't have to pretend that, you know, Anna's here yelling at

us about how good this is or isn't.

It's all right. You understand me?

Barry's fears. No, we're just having fun.

We're out here hanging out. That's exactly right.

Just because I wear button down shirts doesn't mean that we have

to be, you know, it's the show. The show is more like Barry

looks right. Is that fair to say?

Yeah. It's more casual.

OK. That's what I'm getting.

OK. All right.

So a bunch of steaks on the card today.

Is there someone you're in in particular looking forward to to

see? Yeah, actually there's a horse

in race 6 that I do like. So in a maid special way, we'll

get to that later in the show. And one in the San Felipe that I

like quite a bit, OK. All right, yes.

And your top pick, I imagine in the San Felipe as well.

Yeah, yes, we'll get to that. We'll get to that maid special

race as as the second part of this show.

I'll start with the beholder, but that maiden special is one

of those races very on a day like Big Cap Day that those of

us who play the horses, we love these kinds of races because

what happens is 20,000 people are going to show up today,

right? And if you're a local owner here

and you get a chance to run in front of 20,000 instead of the

2000 that were here yesterday, right?

Something like that. It, it makes these cards even

better. And so Barry, for us, for horse

players, sometimes it's the undercard or the like the

nightcap that we go, OK, all right, there's eleven horses in

here. I might be able to make

something out of this, even if, say, a big cap comes up a

little. Yeah.

I mean, we're opportunists as, oh, that's right, as betters and

we seize the opportunities no matter what the race is.

So even the big ones, as disappointing as it may be that

that was decimated, there are other really good opportunities

to make money and we're just going to capitalize.

Beholder Mile is race 4 today, Barry, it's a grade one.

Splendora is back off of her win in the Lucas last out.

Of course, we saw her before both of these races of seven

furlongs in the Breeders Cup filly and Mare Sprint as well

before that of course did win over the mile course of Del Mar

in the Tranquil Lake. I know for you she lays over

this field by quite a bit frankly.

And Barry, I think an important thing whenever I handicap with

you on big days and we might have people watching that are

usually with us, is you and I are different.

I care about turns, you don't. So the move from 7 to 8 furlongs

to you, not a big deal for Splendor today.

Yeah, not, not at. All she she's finished up strong

in most of her races and she's speedy, so she can be where she

wants. She has the birthday boy, Juan

Hernandez, aboard, and I think she's going to really, really

put on a show today. Shout out to star of Socal

Saturdays, Juan Hernandez. That's exactly right.

He's great. Nice enough to take a photo with

us down at Delmar over Breeders' Cup as well.

But Swadora in this field, by the way, I wanted to point out

she's probably now that mine frame is retired, probably the

best Maryland bred in the training.

So that's kind of a fun thing to see out here.

Of course, in the Bob Baffert barn, you can always tell with

Baffert who his most serious 2 Turner rate horses are because

they work this 45656 kind of pattern in the workouts.

She's there, she's doing all those kinds of things.

He uses those four to get a little gate speed in them, then

he uses those six to make sure they're maintaining that speed

afterward. Chick checks all the boxes.

Here, Yeah. I mean, Bob Baffert's a master

at getting his horses prepared to go two turns or even longer

than they really want to. I, I've seen him get the most

out of horses that probably shouldn't be going as far as

they should. And I think this is one of those

situations, this horse has gotten really good in the past,

you know, like 5 months. So I, I, I think she's ready to

explode. Here, who do you like after her

in this race? If we were trying to play say a

cold exact or something like that, I.

Actually, like the other Bob Baffert, who was the 6th Nafisa,

she has a lot of speed and I think she's pretty much the

target for Splendora, who I think needs a target.

This, you know, Nafisa is going to make sure that she has one.

I'm just a little worried about the price, that she might

attract a little bit more attention.

But if she's 8 to one, I'm all in on that.

Exactly. Yeah, no, that's a fun one too.

And she wins the La Canada, which is the prep for this race

essentially, right? The mile on a 16th, the Grade 3

for this condition. Interesting to see her here at

Splendora getting the 7th furlong race before this one.

We've at least seen Nafisa over the two turns.

That's pretty attractive to me. If it comes in three-game win,

three-game winning streak, win streak in general in in races.

I think she's she's a good right now.

One of the things about Nafisa that we've talked about before

with Rodriguez is that they weren't really trying to to run

her to win. It didn't seem like she was

running with a lot of Bob Baffert's other horses, but then

the last three she got on her own and she showed what she can

do. So these horses that are quote

UN quote rabbits for Bob Baffert aren't slouches at all.

Yeah, and this one was on the turf for much of her career.

Oh, for 8:00 on the turf, A bunch of 2nd place finishes

there, moves to the dirt and has been in the Tribe affect the six

of seven runs. Anyone else in this group stand

out to you? I mean, I, I know Alma Joy is

kind of a cool story here with Aggie Ordonez.

We're rooting for her for sure. This is one that we saw when the

Torrey Pines go in the Two turns mile.

Frankly at Del Mar. She got a shot here.

Yeah, yeah, she definitely she could get the trip.

I I mean there is plenty of speed in here.

Simply joking had some speed there and the move was

definitely going to go to the front or try to Yeah, I'm

enjoying might slip into a really nice trip behind

Splendora and and show up in the picture.

Yeah, no. She's a, she's a fun one for

sure. A cowbread out here.

We'll see a number of those and frankly, I think some with some

shots today, which is really interesting and kind of fun.

A little bit of a cowbread renaissance I think going on

right now. We're seeing some of them

crossover from those cowbread stakes, especially out here.

Twin grade, three different things.

AMA Joy checks that box. Haven't won the Torrey Pines

just this last fall at Del Mar Race 6 on the card today is a

maiden special weight and we are always interested in who the

next horse might be, Barry. And so we'll go ahead and talk

about that one right now. But this is a field, Barry, that

you and I went through on Socal Saturdays yesterday.

You saw plenty of time to go watch that episode if you would

like to. But this is 1 where I mean what

does Baffin have three in here? O'Neill has 2.

Yep, Jonathan Thomas has an interesting first timer.

Captain Shreve is back, and by the way, all of the hype around

Potente is built around him beating Captain Treve, who's 5

to 1 in this field. I mean, that's what we're

dealing with in this race. Just a spectacular.

One, this is a loaded maiden race for three-year olds and,

and I think the, the fireworks will be on display.

I I think there's a lot of speed in this race and it could go a

lot of different directions. Myself personally, I would never

want to take a favorite in a race like this.

So memory the likely favorite here we see Baffert and Juan

Hernandez. We just kind of assumed debut

runner. They're going to be great.

This was a low horse until a couple of weeks ago, Barry, but

moved over to Santa Anita. You can't deny those those gate

works. There's nothing about that that

says that this horse shouldn't be competitive today.

Is it simply just, hey, first time something could go wrong,

the value's just not there. Is that essentially it?

We got ten horses here. Captain Shreem is a good horse,

for instance. Is it more of that kind of logic

here? Yeah, I mean, you know, Captain

Shreem really has one way of going and it's to the front and

from the outside, everybody's going to have to get involved in

to kind of keep up with that horse.

If they can't, you'll see it really quickly.

But I think that opens things up for a horse to come off the

pace. My pick on top, personally,

we're going to be #6 deep tracks.

Hey, Mike Smith rides for Peter ERT what do you like about this

one? A lot of good works after that

first run. They didn't get the best of

trips in that Captain Shreve race and I think the workout.

This was the 3rd place finisher in the potenti.

Excuse me Captain Shreve race. That's right.

And I think that that race is pretty live between those top

three in this race, they should be pretty tough.

But I like the the going long though, the five furlong works

and then not super duper fast, which makes me think that this

horse might be able to raid a little bit off the pace and then

finish strong. That's what I'm looking to see.

8 to one we get that sizzle. Time yeah no I get it.

I'm going to shoot on Gallatin here man the 8 horse son of

authentic in this spot Jonathan Thomas been pretty good recently

with first time starters Armando Ayuso gets the mount here.

Most recent work is a bullet tons of workers that day at the

end of February but I what I like here Barry is a 12 to one

price. I'll take 12 to one out of first

timer this guy to race. I'm going to give that one a

shot, shot at least included in some exact boxes.

Try to move it around a couple different ways, because I'm with

you. If you're willing to just close

your eyes, hold your nose, whatever it is, and toss Emery

out of your top 2 and just go for it this way.

Nice. Exact.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

I mean, while things happens in race like this, especially with

good horses, sometimes it's the time to beat them his first time

out, second time out because then they get good and and you

won't touch them. So that's what I'm kind of

looking for here is for memory kind of stub his toe or not run

his best and somebody else. Pick up I son of Uncle Moe there

a $775,000 purchase at the Keeneland September sale back in

2024. I do want to bring in Sean

Collins here for at least a little bit of a discussion on

this maiden race here, Sean. So get in here, buddy.

Now that this maiden race is out of the way, let's talk a little

bit of San Felipe before we get too far into this card.

Of course, you guys know Sean from Blood Horse Monday hanging

out with me every every Monday there on that program in the

drops in the evenings, usually around 5:00.

So go ahead. And find us out.

Four or 5:00 PM Eastern. Somewhere around somewhere ish.

Depends how much editing you make me have to do by how much

we jump around on the. Show there's a lot of jumping

around for sure, but this San Felipe we see a bunch of

different interesting storylines and you know we'll talk in a

minute about the the viability of the big cap at this this time

of year and what you know what the landscape of that what we

used to call the handicapped division, the older dirt male

division, whatever we want to call it, what it means to have

this race. I think the San Felipe, we're

not very far from this being the highlight race of the day you

grew. No, I think this is the

highlight race of the day. And for one, that's because

obviously the Kentucky Derby points are on the line when it

comes to this. But also it's just a phenomenal

race. Yeah, as you mentioned, there's

a couple interesting storylines. You have the question whether or

not so happy he's going to be able to get the distance.

You have the question as far as Brandt goes, is he going to be

the same horse we saw on the Delmar Futurity or are we going

to see kind of the version of him that showed up in the

Breeders Cup Juvenile and how good is the Breeders Cup

Juvenile? So I think this is probably the

one that could be the most open-ended of the races today.

Of those horses in this group, which one do you do you trust

the most to do it? Is it so happy getting the

distance or would it be a branch coming back and repeating that

form S2? I trust so happy more than I

trust Bran coming into this. You and I talked to Mike Smith

on Blood Horse Monday a few weeks ago.

He seems confident that the horse is going to be able to

handle the stretch out in distance.

Everybody's questioning that because of the run happy, run

happy pedigree here. But you know, run happy sire,

Super Saver, Kentucky Derby winner.

Oh, it's out of the blame there, so.

Lots of distance in that pedigree, even if Dad was a

great spreader. That's right.

And. We never really got to see Run

Happy take a real legitimate shot at anything longer.

I think he ran a mile one time kind of toward the end there

where he maybe wasn't at his peak.

So we still don't know, and so we'll see what happens.

He was so happy. I think the way that he won the

San Vicente was impressive and it looked like a horse that

should be able to stretch out that little extra distance to

that mile on the 16th. And so I think that I I'm more

confident in him of those two for sure.

Grant, as far as when we're looking at kind of the races

he's coming out of, I'm starting to be a little suspicious as to

how well these Breeders' Cup juvenile horses are going to do

as we get into the three-year old season.

Obviously Ted Nafi is off the Derby trail, so we won't really

get to see him for a while. Mr. AP is off the Derby trail,

so we won't get to see him. But like litmus test just got

beat last week coming out of this race blackout time, who are

no scratch from the Breeders Cup juvenile, but was considered to

be kind of one of the major contenders in the race.

Did not really want run well when he came back in the Rebel

and I just feel like we haven't really seen those horses that

have come out of the Breeders Cup Juvenile perform well.

Brant, they missed the Rebel Stakes with him, Bob Baffert

said They were a little behind in training him and I even

though this is a week later, I don't want to hear that on an

even money. Favorite going into?

This race that they were behind training him and missed a race

last week. Could he be ready to go?

We'll see. I do.

I'm kind of cautious though. I'm a little cautious when it

comes to him. Potente would be the first

second time winner since or second time starter since.

When I think 19. OK, so I mean, it's been a very

long time. I was a young person when that

happened here. Your parents may not have known

each other when that happened, but the but but a horse like

Potente, Does it mean anything to you, for example, that Brant

has Floral Guru aboard? If Flavi and Pratt had them out

last time, Potente is in here. Juan Hernandez gets them out

from Al Baffert. Kazuchi Kimura was aboard last

time so that doesn't matter. Are you surprised to see Juan on

Potente rather than Brant? Not necessarily just because we

have seen Florent on a couple of Bob's horses already.

If this was like his first one that he was suddenly on, I would

put more into that, the fact that Juan's on Potente rather

than Brant, but the fact that Bob's already been willing to

put Florent on some of his good horses.

For me, that doesn't necessarily take away from Brant here, but I

do. I do find it interesting that

Juan Hernandez is on Potente. Obviously we've seen Bob be able

to do this stretch out before the six furlongs and then in a

maiden win coming back. Justify you think of because of

that same timeline where if he ends up running in the Derby,

Potente would be on that fourth start having probably run in the

San Anita Derby, not Justify was an allowance race, not the San

Felipe. So there's a difference with.

That but. It seems like a trend where he's

been best flat in the past. So out of the two Bafferts, I do

like Potente a little bit more. Interesting.

OK, all right. The third Baffert in here, of

course is secured or excuse me, secured freedom of trade by Tim

Yak team. Dan Blacker has the two horses

on the inside guiding me to do that.

But Robusta on the outside. By the way, an interesting one

to me, just so everybody knows, the seven horse in here because

obviously Haramillo is riding here, This is one that did break

its main gold a mile before. It just wasn't ready, I think

for the Lewis hopefully gets back son of Accelerate, Man,

we've seen crazier things than Accelerates winning out of this

kind of race. So hopefully we see day that was

really the last. The last good winner of the Big

Cap. So might as well.

Have his son run well here. On that's exactly right, but a

fun field, I think for the San Felipe.

Do you have any thoughts about the the Santa Anita Handicap?

Because I'm going to ask you about it in just a minute.

We're going to drag Barry back in here to give his official

pick for the San Felipe. So we'll, we'll got you back in

here. We'll come back in, all right.

OK, there you go, it's the Horse Racing Happy Hour presented by

Stockton Mortgage. Moved in inside because of windy

conditions here at Santa Anita Park.

Where amongst the horse players? Because where else would this

podcast be? Never, never.

This is it. This is all we do.

San Felipe. Who you got top brother?

I like secured freedom quite a bit in this race.

I think they stand to get a really good trip.

I love this place if you saw the Lewis.

Last time this horse was really wide, about four wide the whole

way around. Finished up well.

And again, I'm not a huge gallop out guy, but this horse finished

out in front of the two, the two that finished in front of them.

And I think that that bodes well for the nice class and well, not

class relief post relief this time.

What's interesting about secured freedom too, is, you know, a lot

of times you and I, you know, on SoCal Saturdays we talk about

this a lot where a horse is trying something for the second

time. Sometimes there's a learning

curve for horses and maybe go in the 2 terms was something he had

to figure out. It wasn't a distance issue.

Like you said, it wasn't the Gallup out was there.

And frankly, he closed into those two top runners by the

time he got into the stretch. Might just be something where

he's got to learn, oh, I'm, I'm doing this twice, right kind of

thing. And maybe a little bit better

today, yeah. I think he got a little tired

too. I mean he.

Yeah. He ran a lot farther than

everybody, everybody else. Plutarch was very good that day.

The race really didn't set up for him.

This one sets up a lot better. There's more speed up front.

The post again. I think they get they stand to

get a. Unsecured freedom here.

The 4-5 and six are likely favorites here.

Brant, Potente and so happy. Of those three, who do you like

the most? So happy that that horse really

impressed me the last time in that win in the San Vicente and

I think they can build upon it. It's just a matter of how far

this horse really wants to go. I'm not overly confident that

this horse wants to go too much farther than what they've gone,

but we'll see. It's an interesting race for

sure. Let's go to the big cap.

Unless you've got a big opinion in the kill row.

No, I do not. Don't have a big opinion in the.

Big opinion, no opinion always, but not a big one.

You've got the three on or? No, you've got the.

You're going to try Almadar's in here.

Yeah, he ran. Great in the.

Peggy, I did want you to ask, I did want to ask you about

Almadar's because you saw that horse in my.

Yeah, he he ran great that day, better than expected.

I mean, he was 37 to one, but even even beyond that, I think

he was labeled as a Miller. He went a mile and an eighth.

Now cutting back, I I think he stands to get a really good

trip. Test score is no joke.

One stripe really ran well that day.

So I I think he's going to Tyler.

'S going to have to get him involved a little early if he's

going to catch up with this field because El Potente, for

example, is going to get out of the gate and frankly finish the

Thunder Rd. in $1.33 and change in the early fractions were 22

and change and 46 and change. Almodara's suggestion, do not

fall. Do not fall far behind because

you're going to have some you're going to have a target, you're

going to have a fast target in El Potente, but do not fall

behind in that race because boy, that pace up point, he's able to

do it. That's the horse.

And that's, I assume that's why they tried him down the hill,

because they just assumed because that early pace, he'd

get even more of it and be able to.

Carried out. But Hector Barrios, of course,

aboard El Potente, who I am picking on top here in this

race. I'm very fascinated to see me or

Mono Ramon back after this amount of layoff at this

distance. And if you look at how they're

working them, they're working them fast.

So I think they're going to try to have him right up on the pace

with El Potente. I hope so, because that's sets

it up very, very well for Amandari.

We need somebody, anybody to run with.

El Potente we get, we might have a shot.

There you go, under a cover here out of the wind at Santa Anita

Park. This is the horse facing half

door, so it's very fierce. He was actually nude and I don't

know if that's OK. You know what, Maybe that's the

thing you can do in California. You can't smoke anywhere you

can't do. Anything you can't do it in

Florida, but you could do it in Florida, but it's consequences.

I feel like nudity out here would be better looking than

Florida. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Like Florida nudity.

Yeah. You know, it's good.

We'll deal with the plastic. I'm OK, Aesthetically it works.

Let's get Sean in here. Let's go 3 wide for this

conversation because I want to talk about the handicap, a big

cap itself, and I want to talk about.

Please, a big cap. Let me just say.

I mean, is there an easier double to pick than Potente El

Potente? You know what back rate?

It's a great job by you. Yeah, it's.

Just a great job. I mean, I feel like that just

you have to bet that double. Pays attention to detail.

He does, yeah. I feel like that's just

destined. It's a good job.

Yeah, that's just the fact that those two are in consecutive

races. I feel like it's just.

Somehow that would make me mad a little bit, yeah.

I don't know. Well, you can be mad.

I will cash in. All right, so.

All right, So let's go ahead. Let's go ahead.

Let's let's talk about this big cap.

And obviously the field comes up to light so everyone gets in

their feelings about the race and what it is and all of these

things. And one of the things I hate the

most in horse racing is getting lectured by people 20 years

older than me about how things used to be.

Guess what? It ain't used to be.

It's now, OK? That's where we live.

That's where I live. That's where I have to operate.

That's how I have to make a living.

So stop telling me about how it used to be.

The Big cap was the marquee grade one out West at this time

of year. This was the biggest day on the

calendar for San Diego Park for many, many, many years.

The Derby is now more important. It's OK of the San Anita Derby

is more important than the big cap.

It's all right. It's all the things.

What it does, though, is we still get these great races on

this day, right. And so it fills in the day that

way, given the fact that it does fill in the other races on this

day and it does have a historic spot with the San Felipe aside

aside it, you know, the you know, with the kill row, all

those good races that we also get, you know, the beholder mile

on this day. Should they keep it here or is

it in the best interest of the race to actually move it to

another time? Given the the you know, look,

we, we didn't think about Dubai having 8 figure races and Saudi

Arabia having 8 figure races when the big cap was in its

heyday. You never would have imagined

that $1,000,000 race here would ever decline, right?

And so instead, we're dealing with a race that may need to

move times of year. What do you say about?

That yeah, I think you're right. I think this if you now I get

your point about the big race day aspect, right.

We're getting to the point where I think the San Felipe is such a

big Derby prep, you could almost kind of use the San Felipe as

the anchor of this car. And so if you want to move the

big cap, because the thing I'm looking at is if you look at the

last couple years and this thing's in danger of losing its

grade one status, when it loses the grade one status, you'll

probably see the purse drop again down to that 200 K point.

So if you want to preserve some of the history of the race and

try to preserve it as the big race, as you said back when you

know it was founded at this time of year, we didn't have Dubai,

we didn't have Saudi Arabia and now that.

And you were guaranteed good weather.

Here were other parts of the country you might have been

running, New York, etcetera. This was a good spot to be.

Well, and even just, you know, the Saudi Cup came along in

2020, just like even the lat those last couple years before

that, you know, this was still, you could still use this as a

lead into the Dubai World Cup. So Dubai being there wasn't

necessarily a problem. Now that the Saudi Cup is where

it is now that the Pegasus is kind of, you know, maybe taking

taking some horses as well. I'm not sure how much that

really is an impact, but the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World

Cup are obviously making a big impact on this race.

If those two races didn't exist, you'd see nice host here, you'd

see Nevada beach here, you would see hit show coming out here.

You would you would see those horses being being here in this

race. And now there's there's other

options and there's richer options.

And for those are horses that are going to have to well, nice

hosts wouldn't have to ship, but like a horse like hit show's

going to have to ship no matter what.

So ship out to the one that's worth more money.

So you're going to see a lot of horsemen kind of going off that.

If you now kind of looking at the way the racing schedule is,

the after Dubai World Cup is very light for older horses in

the handicapped division. A lot of them end up going to

the mile and sometimes I feel like that distance is not

necessarily the best for a lot of horses.

You look at fierceness and white Ovario last year.

And so I think if you put this in a spot, I know we were

talking the other day, you put it in a spot like the Saturday

before the Derby or something, the Kentucky Derby, you know,

put it at the end of April or you know, maybe even put it, you

know, kind of in that May zone, Memorial daytime.

And then you move the Hollywood Gold Cup somewhere, maybe put

the Hollywood Gold Cup here instead.

But that way it kind of gets where some of the top horses

across the country, they're coming out of those Middle East

races. They're looking for a spot, you

know, ahead of the Stephen Foster, ahead of Saratoga, ahead

of the Pacific Classic. And you could put them in this

big historic grade one spot. I think for the if you want to

look at the longevity of the race itself and keeping it at

that top level, I think that would be kind of move it to the

later in the spring would. Be a good idea, frankly, great.

They run the Santa Isabel tomorrow.

They could run that today and they could make it.

They could just make these let's be clear about it.

I know they're trying to get people here on a Sunday.

Santa Isabel is not the kind of race that's going to draw

thousands of people by itself, right?

It just is. And it's OK to say out loud.

But if it were on a day like today, we would all see it.

There'd be 20,000 people at the Santa Isabel.

So I do think there's there's a way to, you know, even just move

the, you know, the, the dates around and frankly, just have a

San Felipe had a theme day today.

Right, you know, times change, things change and the industry

has to change with it. You know, being able to adapt

and and call an audible and move this race to better fit the

schedule and everybody else's would be fantastic.

So hopefully it it does get done or thought about it at the very

least and and we'll be able to to move forward.

I mean, there really isn't a distance race for older horses.

I mean, like you said, it'd go to the that mile, that's a mile

race. Not every horse wants to do

that. They may want to go longer and

this fits perfectly and would probably be best suited towards

like May, April, late April. You you put this race in late

April, you know, kind of end of May and you might, you might

pull sovereignty in a year like this where he's not going to

make the Dubai World Cup. You're going to pull a

journalism potentially, you know, in a race like this.

These were because that's the other aspect of it too.

Not only do you have the Middle East races, you have the horses

that pause after the Breeders Cup and then if they're not

ready in time for the Middle East, at least races, they

essentially don't really have that many options and not many

grade one options available to them unless they were looking at

journalism potentially going shorter in the Met Mile.

That's kind of their top goal. If the Santa Anita Handicaps 2

months later, is there a different top goal then?

Is he then pointing toward this race rather than pointing to the

Met Mile? So I think that plays a role in

it too. Just a touch.

He's very good at not finishing. First in graded stakes races.

He's very good at finishing first and non graded.

You know what, he's 3 for 10 with five second place finishes.

Barry, you and I put him on top, I think, by default in this

race, to be fair to our handicapping, which for this

race was very unimaginative. Who beats him though if he

doesn't win? You know, I I'd like to give

Midnight Mammoth a shot and also vodka.

Vodka. I think vodka vodka actually is

the beneficiary of the Skippy long stocking scratch.

They wanted probably the same trip, and getting that trip

might be the best trip if you know the scenario would be a

speed duel between just a touch and getaway car and thinking

that getaway car can't really last.

Either one of those two horses should be able to pick them up.

On on Malibu day, excuse me? So opening day, which got pushed

to the 28th, we saw Vodka Vodka in that laughing Picai Junior.

It's a grade 2 here. Of course, one by Nisos.

If Nisos and Nevada Beach were in this field, they would be the

top 2 favorites. And we that's all we would be

talking about. We would be saying what a great

big cap this is. Does Vodka Vodka get a pass for

you in that race? Because ain't nobody of that

quality in here. Absolutely.

OK, yeah, nothing like that in this race.

I mean, just a touch is nice, but the distance is definitely a

question. What do we make of British

Isles? We're getting beaten over the

head with our Guy Sebastian last night about British Isles on

this one. He's got this horse on top.

You saw that one in Miami at the Pegasus World Cup.

Is there a world in which this one gets a better trip and is

actually actually a contender in this one?

There could be, I mean this could fall apart and and this

horse could come running late. I just personally think this

horse is a better turf horse. Probably isn't suited for the

dirt, but we'll see. Getaway car is a distance that

you don't like here. The whole package, I just don't

think this horse is this caliber.

I mean definitely if if they're able to shake loose somehow,

they could go wire to wire, but it'd be a tough task.

Does just touch get over the hump today?

No, I, I've been to too many of his races where he has, he

should have won and he didn't. And so I've, I've never really

been on his bandwagon, especially after a lot of these

races. Like, look at the Monmouth Cup

last year. You, you and I were.

That race. Yeah, that that's a race you

shot. I've lost.

I've been making the joke to you guys throughout the weekend that

it seems like somebody tells him that it's a graded race and he

gets nervous and and throws it at the end of the race.

So I'm not confident. What Barry said about getaway

car, I think he does get loose potentially here.

OK. And you're not when you have a

field like this where the quality is questionable.

I mean, do we really have to look that much further than

whoever Bob Baffert threw in here, which, which horse he

decided was worthy to get the shot this weekend?

So we'll we'll see. I know he was, you know, second

to Westwood last time going to mile and an eighth.

So I can see some of Barry's concerns here on the distance,

but I just feel like he could potentially get that trip on the

lead. Nobody really go after him and.

Let's go ahead taking it. Let's go ahead and we will say

goodbye to Sean Collins. Thank you, Sir.

Shots, moving races, changing calendars, doing all the stuff.

Let's go through the individual races that we just covered.

And you tell people your top pick and then who you would

include in any kind of sequence. So a double pick 3, whatever it

might be all the way up to pick 5.

By the way, my preview of this race, race day I should say, is

up at the Sporting Tribune. I did a preview of that San

Felipe Stakes and the late Pick 5 ticket as well with my Apex

for the sequence. You're welcome to go find that

again, Sporting Tribune, thesportingtribune.com.

It's available on my Twitter feed as well at Radio Louie

Beholder Mile. Who do you have on top and who

would you use in a multi wager sequence?

Would you use more than Splendora?

Yes, I I'd use probably Splendora and Nafisa.

OK. OK.

But in the early pick 5 or something you would definitely

have both of those. OK, it is your cold exacta here

46. Absolutely.

OK, all right, cold 4, 6 and you definitely know how to play.

So you you see the the cold exactas all day long.

I hang out with you a lot. The Race 6 is that maiden

special weight. Who is your top pick?

The six deep. Tracks Deep Tracks is your top

play in here. Second time starter obviously

was in the bar to John Sheriffs who passed away recently.

Mark Glatt picking up the training or excuse me, Peter

Orton picking up this particular trainee will stay in here 8 to

one on there. Who else would you include

though? Is it a lot of horses?

Is it like grab the bafferts in him and go away or what are you

doing? I would go deep in this race,

you know, use all the Bafferts and maybe a couple of others.

But yeah, this is definitely a race you want to spread.

Try not to use chalk because that typically doesn't work out

in these kind of OK All right. Man this Mark Glatt Duke Silver

was my other like looking at this.

Couldn't get over a kind of horse.

Duke, Silver, Gallatin, or both? Like this?

There's a lot of horses that can jump up and win.

It no doubt about it. All right, Race 8, the San

Felipe itself, your top pick in the Derby prep is the. 3 secured

freedom I might single that horse to be.

Honest, good for you. OK.

Usually that's that's as a as a betting mantra, that's usually

what you want to try to do is is single a horse that's going to

be a non favorite 5 or 6 to 1 higher and that this one fits

that bill and I think they're going to be close to.

That if someone thought of just a touch as a single, how much

would you go ahead and and spread in this one if we're

playing the late sequence? I wouldn't go too deep here.

I mean, you know, secured freedom, Brant Potente probably

would be the three I would go with, all right.

Fair enough. OK, what do you make us so happy

in this spot? I like so happy, but there's

there's a question on the the distance that I can't get over.

She's definitely, he's definitely a horse that can

definitely get the, you know, to win against this caliber horse,

but I'm not sure it's going to be at this distance.

Any world of witch Robusta jumps up to that.

No, no, I don't like that horse at all.

I know Harmea might make this that actually that horse might

make more of an impact than the the morning line would suggest

because of the fact they're going to be speed.

If they can get, you know, anywhere around Brant and

Pretente, they might affect the outcome of this race for sure.

You. Know we're talking about vodka.

Vodka. What do you make of start the

riding here? The Cal Brent.

You know, home team ran really good, really good and.

Breaking maiden in. A in a section.

Exactly. That's kind of rare, but you

know, why not? I, I mean, I agree, I like long

shots. I would never talk anybody off

that one. But me personally, I'm not going

to include that one. Yeah, no doubt about it.

Declared a non starter in his first start there at Del Mar.

So technically one for one lifetime coming into this one in

the kill row. You love Almendaras in here.

Would you also include El Potente though?

Yeah, OK. I I think I'd use just those. 2

Just those two that race. Armando Ramon just not winning

enough for you? No, I, I, I think he's got a

shot, but I don't like his post position all that much.

It kind of forces him to get into the race a little bit

earlier and if he gets too far back he's not going to have a

chance. OK.

And then going into the San Anita Handicap, how many we

using in here? There's five horses front.

I'd probably use three. OK, wow, it's a lot.

OK, who you using? I would use a getaway car and

vodka vodka and throw in British Isles as the wild card.

OK. As a long shot because of the

fact that so you're going. To try to be just a touch.

Yeah, I think I am OK He's. Inaudible is just a touch, a

ruin your day kind of horse now, Yes.

OK, OK. But The thing is, no.

But that's fair. Sean Collins says something like

definitively it's true. He said it about sovereignty and

he's a monster. Says it about just a touch.

I think he's correct. OK, there you go.

I was going to ask if people were surprised they kept Giroux

aboard when they knew Tyler was going to be here.

Yeah, that was a little. Strange that was, But Tyler was

going to be aboard Skippy, so I'm sure they didn't want to do

all the politics of switching and doing all that stuff.

But I I I might have done that just to see what happened.

Yeah, maybe. Let's find out right in the last

one. You and I did not talk about

race 11, but to close the show here, Barry again, horse racing

happy hour. Thanks to our friends at

Stockton Mortgage for hanging out with us.

If you're anywhere frankly from about Michigan to Florida, you

get a great mortgage with our friends at Stockton Mortgage and

those rates are starting to drop so go check them out.

Who'd you land on in the finale? My.

Friend, you throw 1 downfield going to the 6.

Prince Dolce ran a good race last time, was claimed by Steve

Knapp, who does pretty well First off the claim.

And I think this horse has some potential to to kind of

breakthrough here at a price in the last race like we got

yesterday. I think we might get a price

today. Too cool thing about him too,

was a mile and an eighth, but he sat in the pocket, the hole.

Yeah, you got to go, but that's a concern a little.

Bit sure about Ricardo Gonzalez, man, he's been really consistent

lately. And so I mean, he's he's hitting

the board at a very, very good percentage.

And so I think I think that's not a bad play at all.

And like you said, Steve, not very good off the claim there.

Well, happy big cap day, buddy. I'm so glad we got you out here

to Santa Anita Park, just a spectacular, spectacular venue

here. And I want to make sure that we

get our guy Steve Unger in here. I'd love to see how the joy

pulled the upset bit of fans since Barry turned me on to her

last year. And we did see her on the Socal

Saturdays quite a bit in those, you know, in those Cal bred

races and that kind of stuff. And so very, very fun to see it

that way. But race is underway here in

about 25 minutes. Thanks so much for hanging out

with us here on the Horse Racing happy Hour.

He's Barry. He's Sean.

I'm Louis. We'll see you very, very soon

together. There you go.

Secure freedom clue. Hey, All right.

Sean, do you have a best bet of the day?

Do you think, can I bet just a touch to lose?

Yes, By the way, in that race, a fun thing to do with those races

is you didn't put like three horses that you think you'd be

able to put him in second of the exact.

But that's just kind of single of the exact in the second spot.

I actually don't think that's a bad point, Potente.

El Potente. That's right.

Forgot about that. There you go.

All right, well, we're going to get out of here.

This has been the horse racing, yeah.