Trainer Danny Gargan Derby 150

Straight into horse talk. His name is Danny Gargan.

Joins us here on ESPN 680-1057. Inside and outside posts.

I I have to say, there are lots of things.

Who did you piss off? I'm not the first trainer to

have it. Karen McLaughlin actually had

the one in 20. Wow.

Yeah. And his Jock Ride society, man.

He's a good friend of mine. So yeah, I I thought I was

setting a trend, but obviously Karen beat me.

Not not a trend do you want to set?

Right there. I'm not.

You know, you sit around and worry about 20 posts.

Actually he's been lucky the last few years and the new gate,

I don't think the one pose, what it used to be, the one post is a

little different. We have a different gate.

So you're not breaking at an angle, you're breaking straight

away like any other gate. So not really.

You know, he's a speed orientated horse so he's going

to come out there running. He just has to run straight,

doesn't have to get over, so as long as he breaks good and

breaks sharp, he'll put himself in a real good position fast.

Danny Gargan joins us. He's the trainer of both the one

horse and the 20 horse. That was a joke.

Mike was just making Door knock will be on the inside, of

course, society man on the outside.

Let's start with door knock. And it's interesting you bring

up that one horror, that one hole I should say.

Excuse me? Did you just say what I think

you just said? Yeah, I did.

OK. Where are you mark that for the

mix tape for sure. So where you you're used to

essentially if you started in the one you had to take a right

turn out of the gate essentially right that those days are gone.

It's a very big difference now, you know, back in the day it was

a kiss of death, it was a gloom and doom, but like I said, now

you break from the one hole and you're breaking and running

straight. So it's it's a totally different

situation because if you break you got plenty of time to get

yourself in position because it's a straight run and we're

lucky there's no speed right outside, right to the 234,

they're not speed orientated horses and the rest of speeds

outside. So I I don't see it as being

such a negative as other everyone else try to you know

acts like you know get got upset and people are worried.

But I'm I'm fine with it and you know it's not worried about it

at all. And the 20 posts, Like I said

earlier, it's been a lucky post the last few years and he's more

of a closer. He'll break and try to get over

and try to be four or five wide in the first turn and save some

ground. Get.

That big ground run. Well, Frankie de Tory's one of

the best riders in the world. He's rode more 20 horse fields

probably than anybody in this field.

I don't know that for sure, but I'd be willing to bet on.

It it's him and bed Curtis, right?

I mean, it's actually, it's got to be him for sure.

That's right. He's been riding a lot longer

than Ben, and then I mean just Royal Ascot alone.

He rides in 30 horse fields all the time.

So we're Frankie knows how to ride.

We're just going to tell Frankie, do your thing, try to

save ground as much as you can and good luck, because we can't

tell him how to ride a race. He's one of the world's best

that's ever done it and now we're just blessed to have him

and proud that we can be a part of the day with him.

So I do a lot of your training in New York, of course, right.

And so you run in the Wood Memorial Society, man.

We'll stick with him for now, 50 to one.

He's one of these horses people, you know, look, did it last 16

years, The last, I mean, the last betting choice of the races

won this thing, right? And so I mean it's not out of

the question. That just kind of threw that

race out, brought him back. He broke his maiden, really

impressive and I thought he looked really good breaking his

maiden. So I gave him one more chance to

step back up because he was Ben door knocks workmate going into

the Remsen and he always worked, always works really well and

trains well. So we gave him another chance to

give yourself a little opportunity to prove that he

belonged on this stage. And you know he ran a really

credible race. He didn't have a great trip in

the wood, you know was that had to wait and pause.

He was out and he was in the way out in the far outside when he

broke that day. So you know he's a Trier and

he's a very determined horse in a race.

So if he breaks, gets over and saves ground, he's a a horse

that always couldn't show up at any time because he trained so

well. It's not a good magic.

We watched him run an OK Derby here as well.

So maybe a little bit of that we'll we'll fly in here with

him. You know he runs he runs his

race in the in the Wood memorial he runs it well.

We've talked a lot on on our shows about that that Remsen in

December and how three of the horses in that race are now

running in the Kentucky Derby, including Door Knock right in

the famous stretch duel now with Sierra Leone.

Do you think horses coming off of that aqueduct surface this

year, for whatever reason, are just running better in other

places? And that could translate for a

horse like society man? I don't think Aqueduct has

anything to do with it. Obviously the three of the

horses that are the Remsen didn't, they never trained it at

Aqueduct. None of us trained at Aqueduct

And you know Chad trained his horses in Florida and door Knock

trained in Florida Society man trained all winter.

He's probably think he's the only horse in the racer.

Trained all winter in New York and he trains what he trained

well there. My sister Orlando did a fabulous

job with him all winter to get him this is.

He stable to Belmont, yes. OK, And he's done a fabulous job

to get us to this point with the horse.

He's a great rider. He did tremendous work to get

him here and we're just blessed that he made it.

He actually looks and trains a lot like good magic.

Very similar looking door knocks.

Also good magic, but he looks more like Puka the mayor.

Quite a bit like her. The same markings in the face,

same shoulder, same eye. So they're totally different

looking horses by the same sire. Look, you've got door knock.

His brother wins the freaking thing last year.

Yeah, he's in your barn and and and Mage wins, I was going to

say. And Mage wins the Derby.

What? What goes through your head when

he's a 2 year old? I was pretty excited.

I still owned probably 32% of him or when major in second the

Florida Derby and you know, I own the part of society man

also. So it's pretty exciting.

And then we also really, really love the way Door Knock was

training in Ocala. I had a few of the bigger

clients come and look at him and talk to and I decided Randy's

been a big supporter of mine. And I told Randy I thought this

was going to be a big, really special horse.

And he said if Danny, if you like him that much, I'll buy

him. And then Randy bought him.

And you know this is our second time to the Derby together.

He owned part of tax, which I also own part of him.

I might be the first trainer in history to have owned 3 Derby

starters at one point, but I owned a part of him and Dean and

Randy bought him off of me. And so it's, you know, both of

those guys have been with me a long time, Dean and Randy.

So we're just blessed that both of them are going to get to do

the Derby, walk over with us again.

I know with society, man, you're just hoping he has the best day

of his life on Saturday, but with door knock, you know he

doesn't. You know, it's not his best race

in the Bluegrass last out of Keeneland, but Mike and I've

talked about this a lot. Look, that Bluegrass is a great

predictor of who won't win the Derby, frankly, right?

It is one of those races. But a race that is, is the

Florida Derby and he wins the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream

Park. You and I know I'm doing this

track to track thing, but that's what you have to do with the

Derby. But the Gulfstream Ghostream

surface seems to translate well here.

Should we be looking more at the Fountain of Youth?

Luis Saez being aboard a guy that rides here a lot?

There's a lot of positives about Dornak.

You know, it was we were unfortunate, you know, we missed

a little training going to the Bluegrass and then there was a

big storm came and we didn't want to ship into the storm so

we had to delay our vans. He got the Kingland 2 days

before the release. That's a 19 hour van ride two

days before the Bluegrass. As you know the gate situation

was a little hectic that day and as right before they broke.

I don't know if you ever watched replay, one of the gate guys

runs behind the gate. He reared up at the start just

right before they broke, broke a little behind them or he would

have been right on the lead that day or closer.

He got stuck in behind horses kind of resented it and ate a

lot dirt, fought being back in there.

Louis, you know, checked him two or three times in behind, kept

hitting his ass on the saddle and finally got out in the

stretch. It, you know, he had every right

to just fold up and go home. But finally when he got clear on

the outside, he started running again late.

The last bit of the race, he picked it back up to be come on

to be fourth because I thought it was going to flatten out even

worse. But then he switched leads late

and then come running at the very end.

So we learned that how that race we don't want to be in behind

horses. So we're going to come out

running this time and if somebody goes, we'll get on

their outside. If not, we'll be on the lead.

Oh, OK All right. Mike just pointed back at me.

I'm going to keep going. I'm a little robo.

This is Roboco here. Adios.

I'd like to get all your 157. We're hanging out with Danny

Garden. He's got two horses at the

Derby. That's why we're hanging out

with him. I'm loving it, man.

He's hanging out with me because I have headsets and I'm hanging

out with him because we've got. Two horses.

We've been talking about this forever.

I feel like the Remsen's been a big thing.

You know big racing. You know this horse, Sierra

Leone. You.

Know that's exactly right. And so I mean, at 20 to one,

this just feels like. We were the favorite in the

Rimson, yeah. Right.

Oh, yeah. No, no.

Yeah, we. Were a big favorite in the

Rimson. We're a big favorite in the

fountain. Of youth.

One to five in the fountain. Of youth, Yeah.

And then, you know, I I don't see the morning line having us.

I thought I was a little confused at 20 to one.

I thought he deserved to be 15 to one.

I agree, 12 to one. But you know, the guy that does

the morning line here is not very good at it.

What was that decision like though, to?

No, he's not to. Go to the bluegrass instead of

going to the 4th Derby. What was that decision like so?

Well, you know, like I said, he come out of Fountain Youth.

I missed a little training, so I really didn't have much of A

decision, yeah. Just cause of the timing, yeah.

He had a little reaction to some glue on shoes and we had to

delay training after the race for a few days and it kind of

eliminated all decisions and and you know we wanted to educate

him in the Bluegrass. We didn't, you know, we wanted

to stalk. And I get stuck down on the

inside and everybody come out there running and you know, you,

you know you have to qualify for this race.

You can't run a rabbit for yourself, do you think?

He Do you think he learned something on bluegrass?

Oh, he learned a lot and we learned a lot.

You know, we, you know you can't practice in the Derby.

So like I said we're going to come out running.

If somebody gets in front of us, they're going to have to

slingshot pretty quick from the far outside.

But you know I I just don't see, you know like everybody keeps

saying this horse is fast, that horse is fast.

We went 46 and changed at Aqueduct.

Don't look at the, you know, the, you know, the bluegrass,

because we, you know, we raided him and the fountain of youth,

he's bounced along in 47 by itself, but I mean to go 46 and

11 at Aqueduct going a mile and 8th, there's no one in this race

fast enough to do that besides us.

And we'll just go from there and we've come out running.

He, you know, there were several horses that tackled him in that

race and he kept kept running. So we're going to come out and

be real aggressive and see where the chips fall.

The 10 furlongs. Dad's good magic.

We're not worried about either. Of these guys and both mayors

were round horses society, man's mayor, one going to Mile Nath

Puka 1 going long. So I don't know.

I don't do the dosages and all that stuff.

But I'm not worried about distance with both of them.

They're bred to get the distance and.

Who could be calling you this week?

What a weird, I mean weird thing.

How are you in demand? That was.

They wait for you to get. In how many airport runs are you

going? To they wait for you on TV or on

the radio and they they, they're listening to it is my favorite

and still calling like they don't know it's live.

It's amazing. My favorite summer.

Text you while you're doing. Yeah, while you're alive and

they walk up and they say, are you on air right now?

With the headphones. That's right.

Did he go? I'm.

Just talking out to. The Yeah, we're just having fun

together here, hanging out, talking to each other on the

radio. So you you grew up down the

street, man. Yeah.

And and your dad rode here, won the Oaks, won the Clark

Handicap. I mean, really accomplished guy.

This is a personal place for you.

You're doing a lot of training in New York.

Is there any thought in in, you know, you know, making a move

back here, anything like that or is New York the Danny Gargan

spot? No, we're coming in the fall.

I'm gonna go to Kingland with a stable of 10 to 15 and then, you

know, if we can get Ben Huffman to give us stalls.

You know, it's a little tough. You know, put a little pressure

on Ben together. Ben.

Hey, he wanted me here bad this year with door knock to make the

bluegrass. Sure.

And I, you know, but we plan on coming in the fall with around a

dozen and stay all fall maybe come right after King.

You know, come after Saratoga for the September meet with

some. Stay for Kingland, Stay for the

fall. You take some shots at Kentucky

Downs. I ran.

I've only run a couple, two or one there, I think, and it was

second. I ran one horse there last year.

I think that's my only Kentucky down starter.

There's not been many, but it's. Our places of I check in.

Kentucky. Well, the problem with here, But

if you're in New York, it's a long way to go.

No, that's right. It's a big ship.

You know, I shipped shifting 20 hours to run.

He still ran a really good second Irad Road and he kind of

didn't you know, should should have probably won the race.

He ran second. He come back and won his next

race horse named Tarigo. But yeah, we're going to come in

here with a few in the fall. Couple of my big owners.

We have less New York breads this year, Keene Reeves that

we've talked about it and he'd like to have some horses here in

the fall to separate his horses from his other trainers in New

York. So we plan on bringing some of

his babies to Kentucky in the fall.

And so it'll be fun to try Churchill.

I've never really stable here. We've won races here.

Obviously I won the Chaluki with Divine, Miss Gray and several

other races between here and Kingland and a small sample, but

we're going to come with a little few more horses and have

a little more fun here. How much of the purses plan to

that? Let's just cut to the brass

tacks of that. It just does the money matter.

And the money matters a whole lot.

But I'd say the biggest thing for why we're going to come try

it, yeah, is it's so much cheaper to operate here.

As to New York, you know, New York is very expensive to

operate. Minimum wage is going up to

$16.00 an hour. I don't even know what it is

here. It's probably 12 or 11.

You know, Kentucky's just cost of living.

You know, in general, feeds cheaper straw hay gas.

Everything's cheaper. New York's a very expensive

place. Workman's comps a lot cheaper

here. We hear the workman's comp part

of this a lot too. You know, we're out in, you

know, in Southern California for races and those kinds of things.

We hear it. I mean, in California, those

poor guys, how they do anything. Minimum wage is $8.20.

Here, there you go. And so the. $8.20 in Kentucky.

And and Danny just moved his entire bar and.

It's 725 in Kentucky, but Lexington was 820.

Really. So minimum wage is going to be

$16.00 in New York. So you get 2 for one.

Well, I mean, you can pay your help a lot more than you know,

right? And you know, we pay by the

hour. Obviously everyone has to, but

jeez, I wonder if he's making money in Kentucky.

But you you, I mean growing up here and and watching what the

circuit in Kentucky has developed into, because I'll be

honest when we, when we talked to guys in New York, we talked

to guys in in California, they're still adjusting to the

idea that this might become the center point of of American

racing. Now I got to say one of the best

things that happened this year in horse racing in the last

calendar year is that they approve the Belmont loan, right,

and that they're going to renovate Belmont Park.

I think that's a really important move forward for the

sport to have New York City as one of its main spots.

But I mean, watching development here, what do you, what do you?

Think I just don't think it's going to do anything to, I mean

New York has to find a way to make it to where we can afford

to train there. And I guess starting with the

workman's comps probably going to be the first thing to

address. But you know if you train here

in Kentucky, Florida and New Orleans have programs or you

know Louisiana that you know your workman's comp comes to

them and they subsidized some of it and we just pay per start.

And you know the trainers that go to to New Orleans can use

that workman's comp in Kentucky. The guys that go to Florida can

use that workman's comp in Kentucky to where we're only

paying very, very low rate of about $100 per start or 200 per

start, which it is makes it so much more reasonable to be

training here. As you know, when you get to New

York, it's, you know, you pay by percentage of the salary and it

gets really expensive. Then when you're paying, you

know, such a big cut of the of your money just for workman's

comp. And it's kind of ironic that it

would be more expensive in New York because the riders, the

exercise riders and the jockeys are covered by the racetrack.

So the workman's comp for the grooms and hot walkers, they're

not a high risk, but we're paying the high risk.

Just like they're a jockey or an exercise rider when they're very

low risk compared to the riders, the exercise riders and jockeys

have tremendously dangerous jobs and hard jobs and they should be

high risk. But the the stable employees

should be considered more you know working with animals.

It should be more like farm workman's comp.

But hopefully New York some at some stage tries to fix some

things. But right now you know I

probably, you know when I started in New York every, you

know, New York was a place to be.

Everybody wanted to be in New York, and I thought about coming

a couple years ago, and I probably should have came with a

stable four or five years ago when I had more claiming horses

where I could have got established here.

The claiming game was good back then.

Here it's not as good in New York, and I haven't claimed a

horse in over a year, but it's something I would do if I was

here because the claiming game is a lot better in Kentucky.

But you know, it's one of those things we're going to address

and try to fix and be here some in the fall.

Trainer Danny Gargan with us here on ESPN 680-1057.

Get you out of here on this. Do you allow yourself to to

have, you know, close? Imagine the Derby winner circle.

Do you allow yourself to do that?

No, I tell you one thing, I'm not a very sensitive person, but

that might be a crying moment. Yeah, no, I was going to say

what happened to you win the thing.

I mean, come on, man, you go up around here.

I mean, you win the thing. Yeah, I mean, I I just, I don't

want to imagine it because it's something that I'll just break

down. You know, like you said, my

father won the Oaks, which is a special thing to win here if

you're from Kentucky. For me to be able to win the

Oaks or the Derby one day would be special.

I'll cry for either one. But I couldn't imagine it.

Let's just hope it happens. It'll be something crazy.

But I'm just proud of the fact that my assistants, Carol in

Orlando's helped me get, you know, they've been with me a

long time and both of them been with me over 10 years, and I've

only been training 11. This is my 11th or 12th year,

Not that many. I was a job station for quite a

few years before I did this. And my help, you know, they're

all done a lot, Leo, Priscilla. I've got a whole crew that works

real hard and I'm just proud of all of them that the fact that

we worked hard enough to get ourselves in this position and

hopefully, you know, we don't come every five years.

We get to come every other year or every year for a while.

You know, at least with I'd love to come back and run one in the

Oaks. That's something.

It's a special race for me. So we bought got some nice

Phillies this year.