Synthetic Championships | Matthew DeSantis

All right, welcome in double duty here final segment on the

Kentucky Racing spotlight. This also fills in for the Horse

Racing Happy Hour episode 4 this week, at least the Thursday

edition. There is no California racing

this week, so no attempts at Socal Saturdays there.

But we just spoke with a trainer man, it just it's it's so fun on

this show. Matthew and Matthew DeSantis

with us from Naira. It's so fun on this show,

Matthew, that I get to talk to guys like Chris Davis who are in

those those parts of their career where you know the next

thing is about to happen where you know that one horse is gonna

come along and he's gonna be a player on say, the Oaks or Derby

trails, something like that. So it's just fun to catch up

with him. And the other interesting thing

that's really come out of it, Matthew, and you all are about

to have this as part of your permanent set up there in New

York is with with Turfway being year round and having the

synthetic surface man, the trainers that can get spots

there throughout the year, even if they have a dirt horse, a

turf horse. He talked a lot about longevity,

about horses just taking the surface really, really well and

and seeming to be a good spot for them long term.

I'd be interested to see how that that shapes up at Belmont.

And good evening to you. How are you?

Doing great and so happy to be joining you around this time of

year, Louis. And so, yeah, about that, yeah,

you're right, though, about the new Belmont Park, which

unofficial, but it looks like opening day is going to be

September 18th, 2026. And so we're excited for that,

obviously. And yeah, the four racing

surfaces, the two turf courses, the main track, but then also

that synthetic surface we're going to have.

I, I expect a lot of horses coming down from Woodbine, a lot

of horses coming from Hostile. And I just think that's going to

help our field sizes over the winter.

And everybody wants to sometimes complain about synthetics, but

it's amazing that when you have 12 horses in a race, suddenly

nobody's complaining about synthetic anymore.

It's a good, really good betting product.

And I don't know, I like playing Turfway Park.

I, I like playing Gulfstream Park.

I enjoy playing synthetic and I enjoy handicapping it.

So I, I love these types of races.

And yeah, excited to talk about. Yeah, Synthetic championships on

Sunday here, cancelled from last week or the cancellation last

week having to move it to this week, I should say postpone

that, I guess officially in this case here, Matthew.

But I was even, you know, making the case last week ahead of be a

a legend date for this, that I think that in a decade, guys

like you and me who if we're still lucky enough to talk horse

racing, we don't get fired or have some kind of terrible

scandal in our lives. If we are still talking about

horse racing in a decade, I think we're going to be talking

about synthetic sires and synthetic broodmares.

And I think those are things. And it might be, I don't know,

1012% of the total racing or money or something in the United

States, but it will be enough that I think we're going to have

to talk about a three surface kind of thing.

I equate it to football where there are three parts of the

game and you've got to be really good on offense and defense, but

there's also special teams, right?

And it's almost like synthetic as special teams.

Now, it's not going to be 100% of the game, but if you don't

get that right as far as your bankroll, right, then you might

miss out. Or as part of your breeding

operation or whatever it might be.

It might be that thing that's about 10 percent, 12%, something

like that. But I think it's going to.

Matter. I will say this, I very

candidly, I've talked to the people who are associated with

the sire Pucciero. And a big part of the reason why

they moved him up to New York was because they knew that his

two year olds were gonna hit the ground and hit the track in 2026

when the synthetics were going to be at here at at Belmont.

And when you look at his offspring, he is a fantastic

producer of synthetic and all weather racers.

And we saw that down at Gulfstream Park already.

And so it's a huge addition to our stallion roster in New York

to have a proven synthetic sire. I, I 100% agree with you.

You look at sires, even an older sire like Ghost Zapper, you

know, you've seen this kind of lineage kind of go on with him.

And I, I just, yeah, could not agree more with you.

And I think it is absolutely a great analogy to offense,

defense, special teams. Yeah, I think it's all three.

And I think if you're a breeding operation, if you're thinking

about Abu Caro, for example, I think you got to be got to be

mindful of it because there's going to be, you know, not just

this weekend of of 1,000,000 bucks and four races.

But moreover, I think you're just going to get, you're

already seeing it, the handicap schedule down there at

Gulfstream Park as well. I could anticipate a lot of

those 80, ninety, $100,000 kind of races we see at Aqueduct in

the winter, translating over to the synthetic as well.

So there's going to be money in it as well.

I think people are definitely going to have to be watching it.

We'll be watching on Sunday. I'll be up there in person.

Say hi if you see me. The Bicarber will be the opener

of the pick five later on race Six Mile on the synthetic there.

This is on the Philly and mare side 3 and up.

We get Caitlin, her greatness in here.

She won the Ontario Matron earlier this year by Open Links

under Flavian Pratt, who gets the mount again here and

daughter of Omaha Beach, One of those sires that I think we'll

be talking about as far as synthetics for a little while.

Matthew, do you want to go chalky here or do you think

there's someone in here to beat her?

I'm going to try to use a horse that's run up against her a few

times and and gotten the best of her once before.

And that's the number 3 literate right next door for Brad Cox.

Second time in the barn and first time out was in the

Chaluki on the dirt, not where that Philly's future is really

or past is. I mean she's a synthetic horse

and I think it's very promising that our ride artiste junior

stays on the mount after that Chaluki effort.

I know he's in town probably to ride Howard Wolowitz is the kind

of the number one reason he's here, but still encouraging to

see Cox get this one up. And and again, second time in

Cox's barn back on the right surface.

I just think literate is going to make that late run and you

can see that at Turfway Park Horse.

It's synthetic. That's the other thing.

Very fair surface in terms of horses being able to come from

off the pace, not just going to a bunch of gate to wire jobs.

So I think literate, I'll take a little bit of a shot against

Caitlin, her greatness in this race.

Yeah, I think if you're going to go long shot in here, I'll try

the other Machado. Is that a thing we're doing now

with. Next up, the 8th Corset here for

Matt Sims and this is 1, you know, a daughter of Accelerate,

3 year old. She's kind of coming into her

own and I thought her two stakes runs this year, one in the

listed stakes in the Ellis, I guess it's a black type, the

Ellis Park turf that is 4 on the Philly side.

In August she comes back though the Grade 2 Valley View and she

did a lot of really good work, was right there at the end under

Mario Gutierrez. And I think, you know, we saw

her in those two runs without Lasix.

She was good to go. And on top of that, guess where

her first run was? And yes, it was in a maiden 30,

but that was under Gerardo Corrales right here at Turfoise

Park. So if we're going to go with one

maybe that late in the three-year old year, boy, have

we heard that from Accelerate before.

Maybe that's what we might get from her here because I thought

the performance of the Valley View was as good as anyone

there. But you're talking about admit,

you're talking about classic Q in that race.

Those are nice Phillies, man. And so I think Next up in here

if you're trying to beat Caitlin or greatness with a longer shot

might be in the 8 hole there. Yeah, definitely took a long

look at that one. I actually like the main

Machado, if you will, right next door is my long shot in this

race. The number 9, She's looking

lucky, looking at lucky. Very good synthetic sire as

well. This one doesn't have a race

over the surface, but I've been working out well leading up to

this. Matt Shire, trainer, I like in

this sort of a spot, a little bit of a layoff, but certainly

very competitive figures. If she's able to translate that

over to the synthetic, that's going to make that one pretty

dangerous. Some of the races off Lasix

haven't been great, but also ran a very good race in the Cardinal

of Churchill Downs off Lasix and just finished a very close

second that day. So more than capable of making a

good run and a little bit of an honest price at 8:00 to 1:00.

Yeah, she's looking lucky. An interesting one here because

if you take the dirt numbers out, this is a horse that's been

in the trifecta 9 times in 11 races on the turf, right?

So maybe it'll be one of those that likes the synthetic because

it's more like turf for them, something like that.

So it should be an interesting one to watch.

Matthew DeSantis with us here. This is the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight horse racing happy hour crossover for this week.

We are looking at Sunday's races at Turfway Park as part of the

Synthetic championship. Staying on the Philly and mare

side for Race 7, the holiday inaugural is a six furlong

Sprint. We're going for a quarter

1,000,000 bucks here. Ella J in here.

Gosh. The Ella J Foxwoods folks, named

the horse after their operation usually decide that they think a

lot of her, but pondering will come in as the five to two

favorite here. Like the two faves, or we're

going to go outside of them. I do like the two favorites, I

think they look pretty tough. I was a huge fan of Pondering

last time out and I just Brendan Walsh so dangerous at Turfway

Park and I I just that one ultimately ended up on top.

But you bring up a good point about the name when L&J names a

horse L&J probably a pretty live runner and it wasn't ran really

well at that race. Press Kyle 2 back on the

synthetic, certainly more than capable.

I just like what pondering brings to the table in terms of

that first until he saw so much good tracking speed there.

I think that's when I rads at his best, tracking that pace,

not being up in the lead, not being a deep closer, kind of

sitting that stalking mid pack trip.

And I think that's exactly what pondering gets.

That 90 speed figure looks tough last time out.

If you go inside of those two, Miss tard is an interesting 1

here and this is maybe an opportunity to get some value

because I think you're going to get every bit of 15 to 1 on this

horse, but comes in having run really well at Presque Isle

before. The horse is 5 for 10 lifetime

on the synthetic. And if you look at the numbers

this meet, you might look at Adam and skits and go, oh man, 3

for 34. But I something that's happened,

Matthew, to, to those of us who play the race is, is we've been

so influenced by field size and so influenced, frankly, with

payouts, with caws and different things that we expect it to.

You know, if we see a Miss Tart, for example, and we see an Adam,

this gets a three for 34, we think, oh, he's not doing a good

job because we're used to A7 or 8 horse field.

No, no, Adam's three for 34 because there's twelve horses in

every race that he's in, right? That's why it's like that.

So you got to go down to the jockey trainer combo for this

too, between John Ennis and Adamus.

It's a they hit together at 27% at Turfway Park together.

And this is a horse, like I said, is 1/5 out of 10 on the

synthetic is 7 for two or two for seven.

Excuse me at the lifetime at the distance.

I don't know that she wins here. I want to be really clear

daughter Maximus Mischief. But I do think she's absolutely

a candidate to hit the board here.

And if she does win this race, I think all of us will look at the

form and go, OK, that one made sense.

You know, that's one of those, OK, that one made sense on

hindsight. And so one of those that just

just stands out. So a long shot for me in this

race would probably be missed hard.

Yeah, I would actually go to the other Walsh as a potential long

shot that I like. The number 7 Sivetta with

Machado aboard, this one's 12:50 in the morning line has not run

over the synthetic yet is all turf and in terms of up, in

terms of pedigree, certainly underneath and obviously the

racing career as well, but it's been working out over the track

of turfway, which I like to see just getting those works in over

the synthetic surface. Clearly Walsh has seen enough to

think that this one can easily handle it and it shouldn't be an

issue. You have Lola Machado up here

and honestly see what makes Machado so impressive.

Yes, he rides a lot of short prices, but still 1012 horse

fields and he's winning 17%. That tells you, I mean, he knows

how to ride the surface, he knows how to ride this track.

And I just think you get him on a Brendan Walsh horse at 12:50.

That feels like a really honest price and a really good price to

get on a horse that has some very nice races to run back to

and also has been the model of consistency.

I mean, just really running very similar numbers race after race

after race. And I like to see that sort of

thing as particularly at a bigger price. 10 seconds as well

on top of the nine wins for Machado Sivetta, of course, out

of the Godolphin bar trained by Brandon Walsh will enter that

one late double or excuse me, like pick three starts with the

Prairie Bayou probably the most famous of the races on this day

carried it over to the synthetic championships.

It is one mile on the synthetic course there for 1/4 million

bucks. We switch over to the colt side

up for this one, Matthew. And OK.

So this race came up very interesting to me.

You get a horse like Theisman, for example, who's been running

really well on the turf three in a row.

He comes in for Peter Erten to try the synthetic.

You get some other horses in here that are going to be more

favorites. You get Encino getting back to a

surface I think he likes a lot. I think if you want to get

really aggressive, you go single with Encino here because I think

that outside post is actually going to affect him in the

betting. But what?

What say you, Matthew, about this one?

About the prayer bag? Yeah, I I agree with you that

it'll affect him in the betting. I do like Encino as a horse.

I, I, I am falling into that trap that you just talked about.

I don't love the outside post position.

It is. Listen to Matthew, everybody.

Listen to Matthew, please. Yes, it's a para mutual game.

And I, I, you know, I'm going to go call me basic, but I'm going

to go back to another Brendan Walsh horse and cameo

performance. I just, I love this horse. 9:00

to 2:00 in the morning line. I just think you get a really

good price on a horse that is just so good.

I just race after race. Finished third to Dresden Row

last time out in that Autumn Stakes up at Woodbine, but ran a

really nice number up there and only has three starts over the

synthetic is #1 but has also never run poorly over the

synthetic. And I just think the mile and

shortening up a little bit is actually going to be beneficial

to this one. Maybe get a little bit more

pace. And I it flattened out a little

bit at that mile underneath, in my opinion, that last little

bit. And so I thought shortening up

to a mile made a lot of sense. And again, if you're going to

give me 9 to 2 on this, I'd rather take that sort of a

price. But I agree with you, it feels

like a very wide open race in a lot of ways.

And you know, a horse like the number 2 horsepower, I think is

a little bit of an interesting long shot to potentially

consider as well. A horsepower, you know, a son of

Good Samaritan. I really sometimes, you know,

Matthew, I just, I try to put these names together and I just

can't do it. I, you know, I just maybe it did

the Samaritan do something like heavy lifting?

Like is that part of it? Like, is that what happened

here? Or like the Samaritan, like very

quick to move into place anyways, the horse.

I got nothing. The other horse in here that

you've mentioned already is Dressed in Row, and this is a

horse that frankly doesn't miss the board in synthetic races.

So if you're betting this race at all as an exact trifecta, the

five horse Dressed in row and absolutely must include 12 for

12 lifetime in the trifecta. Six wins, 4 seconds with 2/3

Quattro CentOS in here for Fausto Gutierrez.

I love, by the way. I don't know why I love it so

much, but there's something about seeing Fausto Gutierrez

name at Turfway Park that tickles me.

And I'm not sure what it is, but Julian Leperu gets them out

here. He's got a couple wins already

at Turfway. He's got a couple of he's

finishing in the money essentially a 25% of the time.

This is a horse that's been running in really good company

and comes in seven to two. And I bring all of that up to

say I would rather look elsewhere because I do think a

horse like Feisman, if we're going to go on a horse that's

going to be switching services, this one's at least one over the

surface before before stretching out as a 5 year old.

And so this one to me makes more sense if I'm going to get 10 to.

But I do think Dresden Row is the absolute best include in

this sequence. Yeah, I mean, if you're

including, if you're playing any sort of gimmicks, you absolutely

have to include Dresden Row. I mean, just, yeah, super

consistent. And it'll be interesting with

Theisman and the Faustu Gutierrez horse.

They both like to go to the front.

And so that'll be also kind of interesting to see.

And then that should help some of the other horses you like it

and, you know, maybe get a little bit of pace to run into.

But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what the betting does on

Encino because he is a horse that loves the surface.

But like I said, I am worried about that post position.

You mentioned Howard Wolowitz, he'll be running in race 9.

Start of the late double is the holiday cheer, $250,000 on the

line, 6 furlongs on the synthetic.

He comes in here, This was the one that they were obviously

pointing for. After a couple of mile races,

he'll get back to a quicker distance here.

Bullet, bullet, bullet. If you look at the form as well,

you mentioned it, it's probably why irads in town is to get the

$10,000 check for this one. What make you what makes you of

this race? Is this the old we're going to

go ahead and single here. You're going to try to beat him.

I'm just single. There are there are some really

good runners and I, when I single a horse like this and

he's going to be a lot shorter than 5 to 2 because rolling Big

Joe is likely the scratch because he ran last week at

Oaklawn when this race was initially drawn.

But what I'll say is in this sort of an instance, I'm

singling here and I'm doing nothing but big prices

underneath inexactives. So it's Howard Wolowitz over

12:50 or higher basically. And so and there's a lot of

horses that you could choose from in that spot.

I just think, yeah, this horse, he doesn't run many bad races.

Howard Wolowitz, especially when you get to this distance.

I think Jose DeAngelo, one of the real bright young stars in

our game in terms of a trainer who we just saw win 2 Breeders'

Cup races this year at Del Mar, is racing.

Yeah. And I, yeah, I just, he's super

sharp and he knows the synthetic surface.

Obviously training down a Gulfstream Park a lot.

And you're just starting to see his, you know, his, his barn

grow and grow and flourish. And I just think this horse is

the goods. He he right now is showing up on

big days as well as anyone. That's actually just something

you can just say his horse is already on the biggest days And

and if that's what Sunday is at Turfway Park, then our our role

is going to win that. That part is pretty simple.

I agree with you on that end. I think there are a lot of

places you can look. I think Ron Carson breaking from

the 2 is really interesting as well.

Was in the holiday cheer last year and 2nd.

I I think there are, you know, an out on bail because you get

that maker Pratt thing. Would any of us be surprised if

that horse comes out of Aqueduct?

The winds here was good at Kentucky Downs.

Once in a while, it's just good to grab a horse that's good

everywhere, right, Matthew? I those are literally the two

horses I broke up the naira beds.

I I did a write up on this race and those are the two horses I

said, look, that's who I'm pairing with underneath with

Howard Wolowitz. And I just think you're

absolutely right. 12:50 runners who have good synthetic form,

who can you know, and just have been really good consistency.

You know, out on bail is trying synthetic for the first time,

but tis the law. You want to talk about sires who

people pay attention to 25% win rate for his progeny and

synthetic sprints. Hello, that's pretty good.

But it's so, you know, clearly he's a sire that has, you know,

he has pedigree of synthetic background for himself, but he's

really starting to produce some nice synthetic runners as well.

So tis the law. 12:50 maker Pratt, like you said, there's a

lot to like there. Yeah, a run cars.

Yeah, the the 2 is a real nice horse as well.

So I like both those horses underneath.

Howard Wolowitz for me. The interesting thing too,

without on Bale you mentioned tis the law.

This is, you know, this is a this is a horse because maker

has as many barns as he does for training places and different

things. This is a horse that's at

Turfway already, right? This is a horse that's been

there has already got to work over the surface ahead of last

week, frankly. And so this is one that probably

got to stretch its legs at Turfway for the last two, 2 1/2

weeks, something like that. And I, I, I always think of home

field advantage, especially with a surface like this, right,

where a horse is going to have to do something perhaps that

they don't do very often or they only do seasonally, that kind of

thing. And so I think a real positive

there as well. I'm going to do the terrible

thing that a host should never do and ask you if you handicap

the last race and if you have a a a pick for the maiden race at

the end of the card. This is 1.

This is a fun one man, but if you vamp for like 30 seconds I

can give you. 2 year old race, it's a mile and a 16th.

I love this as the closer on this car, not only because it's

a 2 year old race, but man, it's a full field.

We're going to have 12 in this race, almost certainly.

At worst we'll have 11 by the time we get to scratches and

different things. But I this is 1 where you're

getting some horses debuting on synthetic debuting at over a

mile that I think are really interesting ones.

John Ennis does this actually really well.

He's really good synthetic trainer and you know, he's

bringing a horse and he's starting to do more of this kind

of work with Big Hawk, for example, the six horse, the two

horses refined the design. I'll be honest with Kenny

Mcpeak, he kind of does everything and so.

Whatever he thinks in the. Moment, I'm sure he's just like

that's what that horse is doing going in a mile and a 16th in

the cold at Turfway Park on a Sunday.

But Leparoux gets the ride there for him.

I just, I think there are a couple that are starting for the

first time that are interesting. But by the time I got to my

handicapping, I wanted to go with some horses that had

experience, including, I think Thailand is an obvious favorite

here. Yeah, no, it certainly makes a

lot of sense for Wesley Ward. Wesley Ward at Turfway.

I mean, come on, that makes a ton of sense.

You know, listen, I also just quickly looking over this, I do

think redefined is a really, you know, redefined design for Kenny

is a really interesting horse. I like whistling candy

influence. I, you know, Kenny.

Listen, here's the thing. It's an $800,000 purchase.

This is not the Kenny Mcpeak. We're going to make a global

campaign into a Derby horse. Like we're going to like, you

know, where he's, you know, like horse like Universe he has who

was like a $70,000 global campaign is suddenly there.

You know, Kenny's starting to get these horses.

He's got a couple running this weekend actually at Fairgrounds.

You know, in terms of hey, here's a $525,000 Maxfield,

here's a $800,000 Twirling Candy.

You give Kenny that type of horse flush, they're going to do

some, do some running. So I'm a I'm a big fan of that

one at 12 to one. I'll be honest, I'll throw a a

big price at you and that's the number 11, the blue factor.

Nice. Now the first timer I'm telling

you. Is a huge synthetic sire, so I

think that's another one that's really interesting at a really

big price. But for me, I'm probably going

to go with Brendan Walsh as my topic.

Milan Machado. I'm a pretty basic fellow like

that. Omaha Beach on the synthetic, I

like it. He's another sire, so

interesting. His first crop of offspring were

all dirt. His second crop, you're starting

to see him get turf and synthetic because they're

breeding him to turf, synthetic mares.

And suddenly here comes that warfront pedigree, and now he's

starting to produce on all three surfaces.

And it's no mistake that his sire, Fiat Spendthrift, more

than doubled this year because they realize they have a

superstar with Omaha Beach because they can breed him to

almost anybody. Yeah, pretty incredible.

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Thank you, Sir. We will talk to you next time.

Thank you so much lady. There you go.

That was Matthew DeSantis joined us here on the Kentucky Racing

Spotlight crossover with the Horse Racing Happy Hour.

Appreciate him joining us before that, this has been the horse,

excuse me, the Kentucky racing spotlight with Louis Rabot.

We're coming from the studios of ESPN 680 and one O 5 seven where

you can catch me 11:50 every week they hear on the station

talking general sports, but we do have our sports, our horse

racing segment every Friday at 10:20.

You can hear guys like Matthew on that one as well.

Thanks again, of course to our presenting sponsor on this

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a.com. Appreciate them hanging out with

us on this one and every single one that we do.

We'll see you up at Turfway Park.

Good luck with all those wagers this this weekend.

We'll see you in two weeks on the spotlight.