Travis Stone | Claiming Crown

All right, let's go. Welcome to Hit Horse Racing

Happy Hour. It is a November 14th, 2024

edition of the show Backyard. Of course, my name is Louis

Rebaux here in Louisville, KY. Another guy who's in Louisville,

KY. About that, I don't get to say

that very often on this show. Usually we're visiting with

someone in, I don't know, Laurel, MD or Carlsbad, CA, But

instead we went just down the street.

His name is Travis Stone. He'll be calling all of the

action for the races that we'll be discussing tonight on

Saturday as part of the Claiming Crown.

Travis welcome in. Any good ones today?

What do we have good today? I'm surprised you're sitting

outside, although I guess that the rain is out of here.

The We had a 2 year old debut today called Donut God who was.

Well, dunk from you on that. One I heard.

Yeah, yeah, sometimes you got to, sometimes you got to be

corny on a sleepy Thursday. But yeah, no, that's the cool

part about excuse me racing in Kentucky.

You just never know when those types are going to pop up.

I mean, there was a story on this horse and word travels fast

and obviously went off a huge favorite, but they still have to

go out there and do it. So it was kind of a cool way to

to highlight the day. Oh, there you go, you'll be

calling a bunch on Saturday this November meeting, you know.

How long have you been to Churchill?

Now? I actually should probably open

with that. Is this your 5th year?

2015 So what is that 1010 derbies or 11 derbies, whatever

it is. Yeah, there you go.

You know this November meet, it always is.

It's two things, right? We get those year end

championship sort of races with the Clark in that day, but we

also get to meet a horse like like old Doughnut there on a 2

year old race as well. Has one stood out so far this

meeting or maybe even in September that you thought

That's what I'm going to watch as we get into these Derby

preps? Yes and no.

I mean, I think the one today was certainly stylish, probably

the one that would stick out the most.

Maybe that's a little bit of recency bias too.

You know, the stars of tomorrow, the first one opening day.

There's a few good winners that day, but we want to see them

come back and and wheel it back and do it again.

It my favorite day of racing is the stars of tomorrow too.

I thank you in the fall meet because, you know, it's sort of

it's go time for them to get going and it's also, we see them

go two turns and we've seen a lot of good ones roll through

that goldenrod at Kentucky Jockey Club.

So I'm looking forward to that the most, yeah.

You were calling races at Churchill the Friday and

Saturday of of Breeders' Cup this year at Del Mar.

But I know you and I know you were watching those races and

wagering on them and all those things.

Anybody stand out in this year's Breeders' Cup?

Were you happy about anything that you saw this year?

I I got even for life on more than looks.

Had a boy. Good.

I like hear that. I mean it, it took a very

aggressive punch to get back to even.

We'll take it. We all have that horse, don't

we? Yeah.

I actually thought that was a just an awesome ride by Jose to

like sort of get into position, go going down the back stretch.

He had to. He had no other choice.

That stretch there so short. I'm a little bit annoyed with

myself. I probably made Sierra Leone a

second tier contender. He probably should have been a

top tier. I had to in my head that he was

a horse that even with the pace, he kind of lacked that little

extra oomph. I actually don't know if I'm

wrong on that because fierceness was still fighting him pretty

hard in at mid stretch. He just had no chance on top of

that pace. The other thing is I I think you

can go ahead and and forgive a lot of the efforts in the

Breeders Cup juvenile. I just don't know if that was

representative. I've I've thought that chance

Midpatrick was a one turn horse. He's he still gets another

chance and obviously East Avenue does too.

Although I will say, even if East Avenue doesn't stumble, I

don't know if he's necessarily running that race.

He just, he looked flat, looked flat.

Oh, the baffle was super live that day too.

So it's not, as you know, Sisson Bull gets out there.

It's not by an accident that he wins the race either.

That was a huge miss by me. I was all over gaming.

In fact, I was so confident going into the far turn, I was

looking at my double S from gaming to the next race most to

myself. He he had no excuse.

It was, you know, he had the perfect trip, but I don't know,

we made it, survived. I wrote this year that I think

this year's Kentucky Derby with everything on the line and that

finish and the frankly, I, I'm starting to look back now.

Not just the finish, Travis, which of course you nailed on

the call, but the the crowd reaction when it happens and

then the crowd reaction when they show the replay.

I don't think I'll ever hear anything like that ever again.

Is that the greatest horse race you've ever called?

Probably just the magnitude of it and everything going on and

the significance of it. You know the 3 noses with a

great ride from Brian, the the Japanese interest in Forever

Young who by the way got a horrendous ride in the Breeders

Cup Classic in my opinion and Sierra Leone who was widely

considered to be maybe the second most likely winner of

that race. The only thing was missing was

fierceness running his race. The one thing I'll say in the

crowd is I've said this now two years in a row when they went to

the gate for Mage 2 years ago. That first turn set up has just

amped up the atmosphere of the Derby tenfold.

And when you're from where I call the race on the 7th floor

on top of the finish, you are looking at it what is like a

serial bowl of a race track surrounded by people and the

energy from that. I think Mahomes did riders up

that year. The moment he did that until

they they hit the wire. That place is just, it is

unbelievably electric. And I have a feeling it's going

to get more so as they continue to flush out with more

development around the track because it's just, it's just

awesome. It really is.

And and this year was no exception.

And I don't think it's going to go away.

Like it's just going to be the same thing every year now.

That just brought it to a whole new level.

Did I lose you? Got to love it when Louis

freezes right? That's quite the look.

It is. It's a beautiful look.

I was worried it was me, is it not?

It's not me though. No, it's totally him.

He's frozen. So what are you looking forward

to this year in the Derby? I mean, last year was 150,

right? We're going 151.

Like how do you as an announcer prep yourself for the next year,

right? Like you just had one of the

biggest years ever. Yeah, I mean, I'm very critical.

So I went back and watched the replay probably 1520 times and

took notes and everything. And there's definitely some

stuff I want to improve on next year, work, you know, really

inside baseball stuff. But you know, stuff nonetheless

that it might, the average listener won't be able to tell.

But for me, I'm like, well, I got to.

I got to do better with that. It's like on the podcast when we

screw up and we're like, Oh my God.

And then you other people are like, what?

You messed up and you're. Like, no, I didn't, yeah.

Announcers have a little bit more of an ability to cover the

nonsense up 'cause we can just start rattling off names.

Nobody has any idea. Like the shoot at Churchill and

they start behind that wall. Sometimes I have no idea what's

going on. So if you just start rattling

off names, you can kind of cover yourself up a little bit, you

know? Yeah, what?

What are you looking forward to most about the races this year

with the week coming up? Like last year was insane the

number of races they had that week.

Not, not, not looking forward to that 12A day.

That's a long day. Yeah, it's, I don't know.

I think I'd like to see the turf racing get a little bit more

established, particularly Derby Week with international

participation. That seems to be the Derby has

checked that box. There's good global

participation there. But I think some of the

undercard races that can continue to ramp that up.

I know that's something Churchill's thinking about.

I think that's a smart idea. And you know, I think I'd be

remiss if I didn't do the Louis question, which is, you know,

when do you think we'll know where we at, where we're at with

the turf? Like when?

When are you going to feel comfortable as an announcer with

the turf? It's a great question.

Like, is it going to be like February, March, Like you start

to see horses running? The turfs, No, the turfs, always

the turfs. Been fine for Derby week.

It's going beyond that. Right.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

And and frankly it's been a little bit tricky in November

too of in recent years. It's it's definitely the best

November it's had That's. Good.

Yeah, but getting through, getting through the Derby is not

the problem. It's what does it look like

Memorial Day weekend and beyond so.

Yeah. Could you ask about the turf

course? I am very proud of you If you

just ask Travis Stone about the the turf course named after Matt

Wynn, do you mention Matt Wynn's name when the horses crossover

onto the turf? Do you do that?

I do not. No, no.

I was convinced for many years because of your calls that there

was no name of the turf course at Churchill Down.

So there you go, the things. Isn't there?

Is it named the Matt Wynn turf course?

Tell me that I write about this for the love of God.

I don't know it's that's an. Honest.

Wait, let me come on and laugh really loud.

I don't, I don't know, Matt. I don't know if it is.

Turf course, the Met with Turd course.

New turf course debuts. The new Matt Wind turf course is

rebuilt to be better and stronger than ever.

Yeah, so there you go. How about that?

I have no idea. What a great moment.

Oh, this is, this is fantastic. I apologize.

During the Derby turf races, he's gonna be like on the mat

wind turf. Course.

He doesn't need to. It's all good.

The joke on this show, Travis, is that we have, you know,

whenever they run at Saratoga, we always make fun of how much

they romanticize Saratoga. And so it's always, yeah, it's

like that kind of stuff. So I'm like, we need bougie

stuff at Louisville, too, you understand me?

And so, yeah, that's the idea. We have the Matt Win turf

course. The best part about that is we

have the Matt win stakes, but it's on the dirt, so we run the

Matt win, not on the Matt win. Correct.

Yeah, That sounds like Churchill.

Yeah, that's all right. Yeah.

When you when you've been around for a very long time, it's OK

You're gonna have names like that for sure.

I think the last thing I wanted to ask you did Sierra Leone win

the Eclipse Award for three-year old by win in the Classic, you

think? That's a coin flip.

I think that really depends on what the voting public thinks.

That's kind of a contentious topic on the old social media.

I would not be surprised if he wins.

I would not be surprised if fearseness wins.

If I had a vote, I might lean fierceness because I mean,

voting is a personal thing in that sort of scenario.

To me, the race fierceness ran, I thought sort of cemented

himself as being a little bit of the better horse.

And I, I won't name his name, but there's a trainer out there

that we were talking about it and he said to me, he goes, if

you put him in the gate in a match race, who wins?

And I said, well, I mean fierceness, he goes, that's

probably the better horse. But I wouldn't, you know, I, if

Sierra Leone won it, I have no issue with it.

He's he's deserving to. Well, there you go.

He is Travis Stone. He's the track announcer at

Churchill Downs. We'll be out there Saturday for

the claiming crown. Get to those in just a moment.

Want to remind you about our friends at manscapemanscape.com.

Our promo code is horse racing, 20% off and free shipping to

your house. As part of that, join such

dignitaries as Dan Issel who shaves his face with the

straight edge there from our friends at Manscape.

So there you go. You might be like Travis and do

you not need a a real reason to go to the Barber anymore?

And so they also make great products for that.

So go check themoutmanscape.com promo code horse racing, get 20%

off your order and of course, free shipping to your house as

well. The claiming crown itself and

and you're a handicapper. You're a better on top of

calling these races man. This.

It does have a feel, frankly, of a Breeders' Cup where a lot of

these horses and a lot of these races could jump up and win.

You could, I mean, you know, we get a full Serrano in the Dirt

Mile at the end of the day, for example, on Saturday, a

Breeders' Cup and everyone looks at it and goes, yeah, that makes

sense. Do you get that sense about

Saturday as well? Yeah, they're just competitive

horses coming from everywhere, moving up and down the ladder,

big fields, which typically yields honest paces.

So yeah, that's just going to be, it's going to be tough.

Yeah, it is a tough one. Reminder to as you head out to

the track this weekend. Our buddy J Shepard over at J

Shepard Cigars has the latest release from the The Pravada

Club. You can go where Dale Roman

shops for his tobacco. How about that?

Our friend J Shepard over Bartstad Rd.

There you go just north of Eastern Parkway.

The late pick 4 does feature 4 starter allowances.

If you're new to the claiming crown, essentially, you know

what? I will let Travis Stone explain

this, but it's put on by the National HBPA and it is four of

those horses. And I what I love about the past

performances, looking at this weekend, it's all 8 starts this

year, 10 starts this year. You know, these kinds of horses,

lots of data on these horses. And why do we have that data,

Travis? It's these are blue collar,

every day, day in and day out hard working race horses in the

game. A lot of them are geldings or

are, you know, are not stallion aspirations.

So they're going to they're going to ride out their careers

on the racetrack as long as they can.

To get to this level, you have to be pretty consistent and you

have to be fast and effectively, you have to have been offered

for a claiming price and some sort of race at some point.

There's varying conditions in each of them.

And then we could really bore the audience if you wanted to

dive into that. But if you've been offered in a

claiming race, which means you're for sale in that race,

that qualifies you for races like this races, all of them.

So that's what a starter allowance is.

You have to have a qualified. And so you just get a really,

you could have a horse that wins a stakes race four years ago and

then two years ago runs for 25,000 and is eligible for this.

And by the way, it can go the other way too.

You can run for 20,000 and then you win a stakes race because

you get really good. You're you're eligible for this

stuff. So yeah, it's just very

competitive. Absolute fun day of racing.

Travis and I are gonna look at the late pick four.

We're gonna play a game called who you got on top and who do

you like as a price. So that starts in race 9.

Excuse me, Race 8 on Saturday. I'm looking at race 9, but I

need to have race 8IN front of me as well.

This is an $8000 starter allowance here.

Going 5 1/2 on the turf here on that, on that beautiful Matt

Wind turf course. As we've discovered today

together on the show, this is for horses that have started for

a claiming price of $25,000 or less in the last two years.

And so not a lifetime starter, but rather one that has started

recently for that amount. Travis, you mentioned horses

that have run in stakes races and that kind of stuff.

We get a couple in here, but frankly, we get a bunch that

have been superstars at the optional claimer type of level.

Who do you have on top here? I kind of got a little bit Chuck

in this spot with Hilarious Affair who though he had a a

good set up last time. I thought he was on the worst

part of the turf course at Aqueduct that day.

Just a consistent closing sort. And in the turf races on the

Matt Wynn turf course, one of the one of the developing themes

in my opinion is it feels like you want to be closing on the

outside in the stretch. I I feel like there's been a lot

of horses that have dove to the rail and sort of treaded water

and not really had the late punch.

It's hard to close on the rail, so that that could be part of

it. Horses don't like to come up the

inside much, but to me, hilarious affairs can be one of

those that's going to come from the outside and I don't know if

I trust a lot of the speed in here.

Yeah, so the 10 hilarious affair, what do you think of the

five final verdict in here is going to be the almost certain

favorite here with Tyler aboard comes out of that win under

Dylan Davis at Aqueduct, ran at Saratoga before that in an

allowance kind of field as well. Do you see that as this race as

a step down for that horse in classes, or is this a classy

group that essentially is an allowance type?

Group and one of the things I I think is reliable is when races

when horses from Kentucky and New York converge, trust the

Kentucky dirt horses and trust the New York turf horses.

And that's not a slight on the mat one turf course.

They just they have a a much larger, more robust turf program

than we do. We have a very solid dirt

program. So final verdict who's when he

changed barn several starts ago has just really turned a corner.

But I just felt like he had a couple of good trips in a row

and might not get that in in this sort of field.

And who's your price in here? I, I wanted to try and like

Voodoo Zip a little bit off the freshening.

I think that's a Juan Cano is a sort of a sneaky solid trainer

horse. Had a couple of races on paper I

thought could maybe get him into the number.

The way I like to play long shots is I like to find deep

closers that are going to rally for 3rd and 4th.

A lot of people are trying to find long shot winners.

It's a lot easier to run 3rd or 4th.

So that's what I try and do, try and find deep closers that are

going to sort of get to that level.

The other one was Doctor Oserin for Joe Sharp, but I don't think

he's going to be much of a price.

Although I'll be honest with you, you look at some of these

races, I don't know how they're going to get bet because they're

they're that hard to handicap. Yeah, I'm with you.

I would love it if the 13 would draw in here in this one in

Philobedo. I don't I I would lean on you in

a pronunciation there out of the Escobar barn man they made the

switch to turf with this horse very recently and all of the

form has been really, really good 3 for four lifetime has

never tried the distance in particular has been running at 5

furlongs on the course up there in Minnesota.

But if that translates at all that speed of a horse running,

you know, 21 and change 41 and those sorts of fractions on that

Matt Wind turf course, Churchill Downs, I do think that that's

the kind of horse, if it draws in on the outside, as you

mentioned, man, maybe that is the running path for for a speed

horse like that. Yeah 100% good trip last time

but can win for sure there. You go.

All right, so Race 9 I will follow up with here.

Late pick three starts here as well. 16,000 K starter allowance

for $60,000 price the last two years 23 or 24 for these horses,

$125,000 in the Kitty A7 furlong Sprint on the dirt there as

well. I'll go first here, Travis.

I have the 8 on top here in global sensation.

This is a horse. I think I don't want to call it

a free a free space here, but it he is 3 for four lifetime at

Churchill Downs with a a second in the other race, 3 for three

lifetime at the distance. Jaime Torres keeps them out

here. The horse has been mega

consistent at both Churchill and at Keelan and frankly at Ellis

Park as well. Local horse here.

I'm going to trust the local form.

You said it in the previous race, Trust that dirt form in

Kentucky. I'm going to do that with Global

Sensation on top here. Yeah, horses.

Third off the freshening and improved a little bit last time

numbers wise, despite having a little bit of a suboptimal

start. I have no problem with Global

Sensation, he was my top pick, but my like Live Bomber and the

horse that I don't want to get on the board is Keen Cat, who's

got a few good efforts on paper running against some slow paces

at Prairie Meadows. I'm not totally against how it

ran. Most recently was the first race

since August, the perfect sort of tightener for this spot.

Horses 16 for 20 on or 16 for 30 on the board.

Just felt like a live runner in a race that again, I, I sort of

want someone come from a little bit off. 7 furlongs is a very

tough distance to, to go the distance.

And when the money's on the line for horses like this, you can,

you can almost be assured that there's going to be some horses

that send it early and set up the race for some horses coming

from behind. So King Cat to me was a big

bomber that I was interested in and I had the same top pick as

you had. Nothing creative.

It's probably going to win. Yeah, I landed with on No Easy

Days is my my second been running at Laurel Park.

A note I have in my handicapping here, Travis, is, you know,

watching these horses come in from different tracks.

We talked about Del Mar, the short stretch there.

Churchill's got that classic long stretch, but so does Laurel

Park. And this is a horse that's in

out of Laurel Park has been running that longer stretch as

well. Gets Axel Concepcion knows the

course a little bit here as well.

So interesting to see if that's a horse that maybe is part of

that early pace. Can the horse pick off the race?

I'm not sure, but I think it'd be involved certainly in an

exact or a trifecta type of play as well.

The late double will start with race 10, and this is the big

race on the card. It's a $35,000 allowance here

from 23 or 24 mile and an eighth on the dirt.

We're running for $200,000 here. Some names that people have

probably seen before in this one as well.

And who was your top pick here, Travis?

I think that well, First off, from a pace perspective, I think

this race is a little bit weird because I don't find a ton of

one way speed. I find a lot of stalking sort of

pace presser type speed. Although Larry Ravelli, who

claimed General Mathis, I don't think I've ever seen a Larry

Rivelli horse not have speed. They don't have speed.

They usually don't win. So I'm anticipating General

Mathis being very aggressive out of the gate and getting out of

there and sort of making things tough.

And, and, and like, then you start to look at the field and

it's like, OK, well, that means Bourbon Day and Laughing Boy are

all horses that are going to probably stalk and have a have a

a fairly solid chance. My top pick is Balaka, though,

for Kelsey Danner, who has quietly developed herself into a

very legitimate trainer on not only this circuit but other

circuits. She had big efforts up at

Saratoga, big efforts at Colonial.

This horse was against the track most recently at Indiana Grand,

in a race that came apart a little bit, but not a ton.

Yeah, I just like the post for this.

I like the fact that this horse could handle the distance to me.

Will Lock wasn't one I wanted to go to there.

You go 30 to one. We would love that kind of price

for sure. I'm going to try a little bit of

a price frankly on top here as well.

I love the last effort out of The Sims barn for hurry hurry.

The four horse here. Man, if I get 8 to one on this

kind of horse in this kind of field, Travis, I think I'm going

to have to pounce into a serious way.

But this is another one of those horses you're talking about.

He's going to need every inch of that stretch to make his late

move. But I do trust that Jose Ortiz

will have the horse in a good spot when he does exactly that.

He is 2 for five lifetime on the dirt course there as well.

And just to his outside as auto as auto glide one in the Battery

Park earlier this year in a mile and a 16th at Delaware Park and

I think was ready to run a lot, lot more.

This is one of those pressing types that you talked about.

I think it's probably gonna be sitting mid pack, maybe front of

that mid pack as they're on the backstretch under Julian

Leperoux ran in the deputed testimony.

We make a lot of Maryland jokes on this show.

I don't know if you know that Travis, but deputed testimony,

of course, 1983 Preakness winner, the last Maryland bred

to win the Preakness. So he ran in that stakes at

Laurel Park. But before that, of course, like

I said, won that Battery Park at Delaware.

We've actually seen that Delaware park form.

It's traveled to lots of different places.

So if I'm playing a long shot here, man, I get 8:00 to 1:00

and 12:50 there with the four and the five.

I think I'll be throwing them in as well.

Is that, is that the kind of race?

You know, it's that two turn, the full mile and an eighth.

Do you love that as an announcer?

You get to watch the full development of the race and all

those kinds of things that first turn, who's trying to get in

position, those sorts of things. Yeah, when they go by you, you

sort of are able to get an idea of who's who and who's where and

and allow the call to develop. You know, there's no wall

blocking your view. So that helps.

Yeah, these are. These are always fun.

How with the seven for a logger is it you're on TV and then

you're and then you're trying to wait for the exact moment that

they hit that sort of five and a half for a long spot?

Yeah. Anything 7 or longer the mile

it's yeah. I was saying when you were re

logging back in, like if you, if you listen to my calls sometimes

you can tell I have no idea who's who and I'll just name

every horse in the race. But it make it sound like I know

who's who. You know, 'cause it's tough.

You can't see him. There you go, close the card in

race 11. This is another $25,000 starter

allowance here in 23 or 24175 in the K here, in the Kitty here

and we are going a mile and a 16th on the turf of the mat

wins. Excuse me, sorry.

Sorry everybody. Apologies.

The Matt Win Turf course there at Churchill Downs and this is

like I said, a mile and a 16th on that turf.

Busy channels in here. You get some horses that frankly

have Kentucky Ghost and then others who ran in grade once

this year. You mentioned these horses might

have run a grade at stakes a couple years ago.

Don't have to look that far for a horse like Segoy who I have on

top here. I won't be surprised if Segoy

wins. I totally get it.

I do have three. I I looked up the odds of two of

them. I'd have to check on the on one

of them busy channel. You mentioned him.

I think busy channel is very live in here.

Last time out the pace wasn't particularly solid.

The race didn't completely come apart posted inside.

I think the horse outran its odds a little bit last time and

this time is going to offer the right price and has just sneaky

form and some races on paper that give him a real chance in

here. I don't know if I love him on

top. I think he's a very live board

hitter and then two slots to that one's outside his title

forces a very similar profile. The New York shipper into

Kentucky, a legitimate turf force there.

This is more of an underneath there as well.

But that last race they went 1-2 the the whole way around that.

The the winner sat 2nd and the leader faded the second.

So it sort of was up against it and ran a number that I think

gives this horse a real chance. So that was the other one that I

was sort of interested in and then good governance that

Keeneland last time was what, 70 to 1?

So demand value here because you need a value on a horse like

this. But what is wrong with this

horses? I mean, I guess you could say

this for almost anybody on Saturday, but what's wrong with

this horse's record? He he always fires.

He's like 15 for 22 on the board.

He's going to be that outside closing type and if things get a

little bit wonky, maybe he comes on for a piece at another big

price. So those are the three that I

was looking at in there. Yeah, good governance 11 for 19

just on the turf alone, right. And so this is a it seems to

really like the surface and they really figured out what it is

that he wants to do. There's an also eligible here

that I'm interested in that you would have called a race for

just earlier this month in St. in the city, the 13 quick turn

around here. Do you?

I actually that's an angle that I really like Travis, because

usually that means a trainer really thinks this horse is in

good form. Obviously we're chasing checks

too. In this case, you know, 175

doesn't always come around for horses like this.

Frankly, just random that aloud it's probably for 127, something

like that. Do you like a horse coming off a

short layoff like that? Yeah, the data says it too.

The data supports it. Horses that are Wheeling back

quick, they tend to outperform what the public anticipates.

The public sort of, you know, things sad they can't do this,

it just ran. But actually when a horse wheels

right back, they're in form, they're in shape and they're

doing good. So 100% I'm I'm all on board

with quick turnarounds. And I I know you're a longer

ticket player, so pick five kind of player, but this card, this

offers great especially exact and trifecta kind of bets, no?

Yeah, I mean, I don't mind playing pick fives and pick

sixes and pick fours. More so pick fives and pick

sixes. I love playing Super fetus.

I mean, I can play yeah, I love playing super.

So big fields like this now yeah, I'm working Saturday.

I, I don't bet races that I call, but if I were there as a

recreational fan, that's what I'd be playing Dime supers and

pressing certain opinions and that you try and back into

having a super for $0.50 or for a dollar if your opinions real

sharp. Because the way races are run

when there's big fields, they tend to promote flow and horses

can come from off the pace a little bit.

And as I've said a few Times Now, that's the type of style

and type of horse I want to play.

I want to play a horse that's going to come along for a piece

at 20 or 30 to one. And if you get lucky with an 8

to one winner, you've automatically injected some

value into your play. There you go, he's Travis Stone.

Found him at Travis Stone on Twitter and of course on the

call Saturday over at Churchill Downs.

I'll be out there, Travis. Have fun on the 7th floor since

he moved to Lexington. Is Cooper bothering you less

during your calls? I haven't seen him.

I saw him once in September. OK.

All right. He's a Keeneland guy now.

I don't even know what to tell you.

I I don't like it. I don't like it.

You know, we got to get him down here for Saturday.

Cooper's finicky. We have to ask Kurt Becker, the

announcer at Keeneland, if he plants himself on his couch like

he does mine. Yeah, let's make sure, Kurt,

you're better than that. You're not.

You don't have to do that. You don't have to deal with

Cooper Assad. All right, Well, Travis, we

appreciate you, buddy. A bunch of safe trips and a

bunch of calls on Saturday. Enjoy the weekend, we'll see

y'all. Appreciate it.

Thanks. There you go, Travis Stone.

Joining us here is Zach. Jump up on here with me, man.

You're doing the show from New York.

I had to get this thing going 'cause you were on the freaking

subway. Most New York bleep ever.

Have you ever seen the joke that people do where they're like,

Seinfeld wouldn't work now because if you could text that

whole show's dead. I always, I always think that

would keep her on the subway. They're like, I'm on the subway.

I'm like, you can text me from the subway.

Like, I know where you are. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It just wouldn't ruin that show

for sure. But there you go.

Poor Travis Stone has to hang out with me and our Internet,

Like, our house crashed. I'm on my phone hotspot right

now. Our our house just straight up

crashed. And so I appreciate that you

were back and jump in able to jump in by then.

But man, how are you, man? How's New York?

It's good. It's cold compared to Austin

where it is 78° and here it is 38.

So wow. I bought this sweatshirt today

because four days of wearing a short sleeve shirt walking

through downtown New York was not.

Optimal. It's not good, folks.

Oh man, this day is fun. Man, this, it feels like almost

a little bit of Deja vu. You were out in San Diego with

us. It just you look at the cards

and you're like could win, could win, could win, could win, could

win. And that's really a cool part

about this weekend as well with the claiming crown.

I'm so glad it's back at a place like Churchill Downs because it

provides two things. They've got the space for all

these horses for sure. But the other thing is I get it.

You get the same check if you win this race at and I'm going

to pick on a track and I'm not trying to at Prairie Meadows in

Iowa with Churchill Downs. But you're not in the winner's

circle underneath the twin Spires at Prairie Meadows,

right? And so I got to imagine that, no

seriously, but for some of these guys who are running these

races, this is their, this is their Breeders' Cup, right?

This is their stake, that kind of thing.

And so it is nice to have that sort of excitement, experience,

etcetera, for folks to, you know, just having their career

and say, you know what, yeah, I had that.

I had busy channel as an 8 year old, by the way, love that about

these kinds of races. And you know, he he ran great

and he won as an 8 year old under the twin Spires.

And I got a picture with my family and blah, blah, blah.

I'm sure a lot of folks are hoping for those sorts of

things. You've been around this show

enough to know One of my favorite questions to ask

trainers is do you allow yourself?

So do you allow yourself to dream?

Do you allow yourself to dream about that Kentucky Derby

winner's circle or the Breeders Cup, you know, classic winner's

circle, whatever they all say, yes, all of them.

The job is hard. The hours suck.

It's not easy to raise a family to do with those.

Those folks do. And and so I'm sure a weekend

like this, a Saturday like this, hey, get the family out.

Let's go to Churchill and let's see if our horse can't win

something in the claiming crown. So there you go again.

Want to thank our friends at Manscaped.

Our promo code is horse racing. Get in with them 20% off your

purchase and free shipping to your house.

And like I said, the new Pravada clubs are out.

I have this is last month. So this is the the kick off.

The turduckens are out folks. And if you haven't had a

turducken yet, stop by and see our guy Jason on the way to the

track there on Saturday. Zach, let's wrap this thing up.

Let's get some music going. A short addition to the horse

racing happier. Caitlyn Free joins me Adra Bowen

Co on ESPN Louisville tomorrow. We'll have it on this platform

as well as part of our our happy hour, our our happy hour

platform. So you'll be able to download

that one as well for producer Zach and of course our guest

Travis Stone, track announcer at Churchill Downs and all the good

folks who work on the Matt Wind Turf course.

My name is Louis Ribow. This has been the horse racing

happy hour.