Trainer Ron Moquett & Whitmore

You know who else is fantastic? Who's that Ron Moquette?

How about that? I'm I'm assuming Ron's in the

air. Do we have Ron?

OK great. So listen we we wanted to do

this piece and so for people who don't know Ron is an amazing

trainer based out of the Oak Lawn mainly comes up here for

sure and is actually have a weird Ron moquette story that he

100% does not remember that we've actually met before.

But the. Could you introduce him and

bring him on the show? Yeah.

We're bringing him on the show, but we wanted to talk

specifically. We're not here.

To listen to you. All right, we're.

Here to listen. To Ron Moquette.

Ron, how's it going today? Good.

How are you? It's great, Ron.

Like you know, the the reason why I think we wanted to bring

you on today is we wanted to talk a little bit about how

horses get to the Kentucky Derby.

But specifically, you had a horse run dead last in the

Kentucky Derby who ended up having an OK career.

You may have heard of him. That's.

Right, his the horse named Whitmore.

They've actually got stakes races named after him.

He's unbelievable. I heard they're considering

naming it Oaklawn Whitmore. Yeah, yeah, I've heard.

That, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, and and we really want to

just talk about, like, you know, we know that the winner's going

to go to the the stud barn pretty quickly.

There's a lot of horses that come out of this race that have

amazing careers and just not the classic distances.

So tell us a little bit about Whitmore's story, how he

qualified that Arkansas road to the Derby and and you know, how

you all kind of figured out who he was going to be after the

Derby? Well, when we got him

originally, he's bred out of a scat daddy mare being but

pleasantly perfect that won the Breeders Cup, you know, Classic

and the Dubai World Cup. He's actually on paper looked

like to be a route horse. We knew he had a tremendous

amount of speed and we knew he was precocious, but he's bred to

be a route horse. His father, his father went in

the Breeders Cup Classic and and all that stuff kind of indicated

that the further was the better. And so when we started, you know

all signs pointed to a good horse if you have one going to

the Kentucky Derby. So we allowed him to develop in

that way. We've been lucky enough to go

you know, and be second in the Arkansas Derby with far right.

So we knew the the way to get there and we kind of took him on

that same path. We thought it was a lot better

horse than far right. You know as far as talent wise,

and I know he had better pedigree, but he runs second in

The Rebel we got beat by by Baffert.

I can't even remember the name of the horse but I did curse him

that day pretty well. And then we run third in the

Cupid was. The name of that horse in that

race. Yeah, yeah it was Cupid.

And actually we they had to leave and they left Cupid to

ride on the van to to Kentucky with us.

So we actually helped load Cupid and he rode right beside right

beside Whitmore. But anyways, we we thought that

he had a shot. We believe that you know, if you

deserve to be there, if you've done all the things to do to

deserve to be there. We've watched horses, you know

Super Saver run second in the Arkansas Derby and and won the

Kentucky Derby. Little ET had run, you know,

third, I think in the Arkansas Derby or or second and won the

Kentucky Derby. So we felt that he deserved the

right to be there and the gambling public did too.

He went off at, I think you know, about middle of the pack,

but he got trapped down on the rail that day and he come out of

the race with a chip. Knee he.

Ended up running absolutely last and you know we we took care of

the knee. We give him time and we brought

him back and decided that we were going to bring him back

short and and see how that went. I I don't care if you run a mile

and a half. I'll bring your if you're coming

off a layoff, I'll let you do a couple short races before I

stretch out. And he he did it so easy, like

whenever he was sprinting, he'd come back to the test bar and

he. Wouldn't be blowing hard.

So I was like, maybe he's telling us that this.

Is easier. For him and and it'll help keep

him around longer to to do. What's easier for him?

So you're not straining him and pressing him to run this further

distance. So we basically kept him short

and, you know, thank God that we did because, you know, you know

what followed after that 4. And a half million dollars,

first money. Yeah, yeah, Four and a heck

$1,000,000. But not only that, you know, no

matter what, all these trainers that have horses in the Kentucky

Derby, they're there because the horse, not them.

And we go everywhere we go in this business is on the back of

a race horse. And just imagine if I would have

just kept going at a route to try to make him something he's

not. He wouldn't have carried us near

as far as he carried it. And, you know, it's kind of a

deal where he told me what he wanted to do and I was, I was,

you know, lucky enough to listen to it.

Well, it's a really interesting point because I think when you

said you look at the breeding like this horse should be a

route horse, right? So we get all this data and all

this stuff. We got too much data in horse

racing in some type of ways, right?

It's the original. It's the original.

Oh gosh. Analytics.

Sport, right. It's the original analytics,

yeah. Right.

And you could have easily said, oh, this horse should be

routing, should be routing. And then all you had to do is go

see what the horse was doing it. But talk about that as the job

as a trainer a little more. Unpack that, like, you know that

you're looking all this data you think you figured out.

Louis and I talk about how horses are basically middle

school athletes and when they're come to the Kentucky Derby and

we just really don't know what that horse is going to be on.

So, like, what's that? What's that process overall

like? Just like about just trying to

figure out what they do really want to do so.

A lot of stuff that I've learned in this business is by listening

to other people and asking questions, obviously.

And one of the things that Lucas said a long time ago that I

always remember is that is that trainers and gamblers have

opinions, horses have the facts. So.

Whenever you when you buy a horse or you bet on a horse you

do it based on your opinion and afterwards you got to you got to

look at what happened. The horse is going to tell you

the truth. Your job is to figure it out and

then you know. For instance, I'll give you a

big for instance, if you look up the horse that is is 1/2 brother

to my Tolley, which was. Whitmore's nemesis.

You know that horse was better at a mile and a eight?

Yeah. And yet my pulley was one of the

best sprinters we've seen in in decades.

And yet his brother. What is this, my boy Charlie, or

whatever his? Name is.

He's a. He was a very good horse at a

mile and A8, so you. If you didn't.

Take what? What?

And if you bought that horse to be a sprinter and then you just

did that, you would have never, you would have never won those

grade. Ones with that.

That horse is now standing stallion that is 1/2 to my toy

that never run well under 7/8. So the other thing that I.

Could. Tell you is.

Is. You know the old saying mom Paul

Jack had nine or mom Paul Dempsey had nine sons, only one

Jack. So every they could have the

exact same pedigree and be different individuals.

I mean, why do we have to be? Why are we listening to Wayne

Lucas, the only one that's raced like what, 4 * 25 Eclipse

winning horses? Yeah, he's, yeah, he's, he's

been there a few days. So I think we we should listen

to it. I, you know, I have an

interesting take on the Derby. I want to win it.

I think everybody in this business should have changed to

win it. It's the biggest race in the

world and if you're not trying to win the biggest race, then

what are you doing? However, I will tell you that if

you're a gambling fan or a racing fan, you know there's a

lot better races on the card in the Kentucky Derby.

We won 100%. Talk about that every year.

You know how everyone's looking at these three-year old horses

about how the like they're the stars and lo and behold, you

have a wise Dan on the track or something like that.

It's like that. Classic.

Field has like 6 stars in a year.

Right. Yeah, Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. And I think if you go there as a

fan, if you know that you can, you can set aside, you know,

some some money to say, hey, look wise, Dan's not running

without me. Watching and betting on it.

I don't care if there's a bunch of three-year olds I've never

seen run before or not. We understand what brings people

in, but you know at the end of the day you need to.

You need to make the memories while you can.

And a lot of times I feel that some of these good horses are

overlooked. And I want to.

We should always build up the best in our business.

Rob Mccett's with us. He's a trainer.

He's based at Oaklawn Park. He had Whitmore as as his, his,

his greatest trainee ever. Like I said, they're renaming

where he lives to Whitmore and the Hot Springs are moving it

out of the way. They're just going to.

Call it Whitmore, hey. There's a horse in the Derby

this year named Endlessly and he came out of the Jeff Ruby

Stakes. His his trainer, Mike McCarthy

is really convinced his future is on the turf.

Obviously the ownership is the the big push for him to run in

the Kentucky Derby. I don't want you to speak for

Mike McCarthy, obviously, but is this a commonplace occurrence

for for for trainers? Do you do you have owners call

in and say, hey, I'd like to try this, I want to do this.

And how much do you do you ask your owners to rely on, you

know, what you're getting. You know that feedback, frankly,

just from the horse itself. Well, I mean the fact of the

matter is, is that Bob? Baffert, Steve Asmussen and Todd

Fletcher get by with with saying what they want to do and doing

it more than somebody that's Mike McCarthy's age or stature

in the business. If if Bob said do it, they'd

probably say, OK, do it. But Rich Strike has made it

tough on all of us that don't think our horses belong in the

Kentucky Derby. If you remember Rich Strike, the

owner wanted to go, the trainer didn't and it just kind of

happened and you won. So anybody that's a gambler

wants to have a shot. Yeah.

There is pressure, definitely there is pressure.

And Mike's a good horseman. And at the end of the day,

you're going to make more money listening to the people you put

in charge that know about the horse.

But I understand the passion. There is a thing that is

documented called Derby Fever and you're you're not going to

outrun it. If you want to do business with

people that want to go to the Derby and you have a horse that

qualified and you didn't, that's probably the quickest way to not

do business with those people anymore.

Well Ron, I needed since you've mentioned everybody's name, I'm

going to tell you where you and I actually met before because

the story is like one of my favorite Derby moments of all

time. Let's go.

I it was, it was like the weekend before the Derby before

all the media circus gets here and I got here stupid early and

I'm up in the observation deck and actually Wayne Lucas comes

up on his you know, huge the huge horse.

He rides out here. He always has the duck get to

the barns and whatever else and he he just pulls up and we start

having a conversation and before I know it, you come up, Baffer

comes up and I'm like, what the hell am I?

Doing here. Like I'm sitting here with like

these these. Awesome baffer.

Just like nod my head and not say a word.

And so you know, like I said 100%, no, you would not remember

that because I didn't say anything, I didn't introduce

myself, but it was just unbelievable for me to be kind

of in that conversation. So.

But that's the kind of magic stuff that happens Derby week.

That's right. Yeah.

And you know, that could be something like.

I promise you, I was probably. Doing the same fanboy thing that

you were doing because. If you get a chance.

To be around Bafford, it's one thing, or Lucas it's one thing.

But if you get a chance to be around all of them together,

that's magic. That's that's something that's,

if you're in this industry, that's something that you can

tell your grandkids about. I sat next to Wayne Lucas and

and Bob Baffert giving each other so much grief one day and

it was like the best banter back and forth because they're both

good at it. And I'll never forget it.

And I did just look like what you said you did.

I just sat quiet and in amazement and looked like, you

know, watching 22 Legends rumble.

It was. It was a blast.

Absolutely, man. We're big fans of Arkansas.

Go ahead, Louis. Yeah.

No Ron, we're just up at the at the top of the hour here and I I

think a good closer for Ron. Yeah, we used to have a a man

here who did radio in the afternoons buddy of ours, Jason

Anderson. He's he's since moved on to the

Kansas City market and he would ask all of the coaches that came

on a question. Would you is it XS and OS or

jimmies and Joe's in basketball. What matters more if every

single coach he ever had on said jimmies and Joe's.

It's about the players. Yeah, I have to imagine, Ron, is

it about training or is it about the horses?

No, here's the thing. If I couldn't have the

individual relationship with my horses, I'd quit.

There's not enough joy in it. I like the I like the individual

relationship, but we are a product of what we take care of

no matter what. I'll tell you a quick story real

quick. Yeah, sure.

I want you to look up the the look up the the coach of

Shaquille O'Neal whenever he was a junior at Houston in high

school and that's that's how we are with horse racing.

And here's what I mean by that is this man had a 50 year old 50

year career. And the the year that he had

Shaquille O'Neal, he was the USA TODAY high school coach of the

Year. So I'm going to tell you, if you

don't think that Jimmy's and Joe's moved the needle, I can.

I can train a guy all day, every day if it's a four foot, if he's

4 foot tall, to dunk a basketball and coach him up to

the best of my ability. And he's not going to be able to

touch a, you know, dunk a basketball, basketball.

So you want the people with the talent and just like with

horses, we want horses that have the ability to get us to where

we want to go and then we'll coach them up and train them the

best we can. You're not going to, you're not

going to make a force of God dunk a basketball by coaching.

I will say Mike and I happened to be very fortunate and we were

there at Keeneland, won his race in the Breeders Cup, he won the

Sprint and it was even even in a subdued environment like that

Ron, I I think Mike remembers. I actually stood up and

applauded. Especially can deal with the

win. Well, no, no, no, not that.

It was the one before that. Yeah.

So it was the Covad 1. Yeah, yeah.

No, no. But remember, front runners were

winning everything. And he actually came from on

the. Pace that day.

And it was that was an all time round, that was an all time

Sprint performance. And I, and I hope when you have

trouble sleeping, you think about that you're able to just

fall right asleep. As happy as thank you.

Well, I can tell you this that that was laid out for me because

I was going through health issues and if it wasn't been for

the COVID year, I wouldn't have been able to go, I wouldn't have

been able to witness my Breeders' Cup win.

And also it was so quiet there that all the trainers were

sitting beside each other. And one of the reasons that I

love that so much is because as we're going down the stretch,

you know Steve Ashley and I give each other a hard time.

He beats me every chance he get. I try to compete with him.

But as he saw that his horses wasn't winning and he looked

down to see who was in front, When he saw that he wasn't going

to win and that Whitmore was the horse that he recognized was

winning, he started screaming for us.

And that is the the thing that people don't.

Understand it wasn't. Just Ron Moquet.

It was a good horse that tried for several times to get there.

And finally he did. And that's what this, this game

is about. That's what keeps you from,

from, you know, driving off of a bridge.

I mean, you've got to have those moments there.

You go, well, he is. Ron Moquet.

He's down there at Oakland Park, joins us here.

Honorable Co, ESPN 680-1057. Ron, don't be a stranger, buddy.

We really. Appreciate and we hope to come

down there and visit you too. We want to get we.

Love Matt Dinnerman? Give us a Matt Dinnerman story.

He's, he's the man. He's.

I I'll tell you this, he's. One of the up and coming guys,

Oaklawn is very happy to have him and you know he is just like

you and I. He's a fan of all things sports

and all things racing and that's what I want.

There you go. All right.

He is a I Know CZ Rocket Forenze, Fire Empire of Gold,

Manny Watch Creek. Hustle oh.

Man, that was Frank. Rocket was in that race.

That is one of the great Breeders' Cup sprints of all

time. Ron, thanks so much for joining

us, man. We'll talk to you soon.

All right. We'll see you guys later.

Bye. All right, there you go, Ron

Marquez.