Talkin' Horses : Talkin' Horses

Trainer Dale Romans

aspradling — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Thank you for listening!

Dale Romans, who is having the best year of his career as a trainer having won the Pacific Classic and Arlington Million, both $1 million races, and two other grade I races, was the guest on “Talkin’ Horses with The Blood-Horse” live podcast Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012 at 2pm EDT.

Currently, Romans is third among North American trainers, with $8.3 million in 2012 stable earnings. Through Sept. 17, he had 97 winners from 560 starters. Last year, Romans ranked 8th in the trainers’ standings, with $7.8 million in earnings.

Among his achievements this year have been grade I victories in the Arlington Million with Little Mike, $1 million Pacific Classic with Dullahan, Metropolitan Handicap with Shackleford, and Just A Game with Tapitsfly.

In addition to winning grade I races coast to coast, Romans has also been an outspoken opponent of efforts to reform medication rules across the country, particularly the move to prohibit raceday administration of the anti-bleeder medication furosemide.

The podcast will be co-moderated by Ron Mitchell, online managing editor of Bloodhorse.com, and Tom LaMarra, news editor for The Blood-Horse magazine and Bloodhorse.com and co-host of Bloodhorse.com’s “That Handicapping Show.”

Kentucky Derby 138 Winning Trainer Doug O'Neill

aspradling — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Trainer Doug O'Neill, who won his first Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) when I'll Have Another ran down the game Bodemeister in the stretch at Churchill Downs, will be the next guest on Bloodhorse.com's popular Talkin' Horses podcast at 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 15.

O'Neill, a Michigan native who has evolved as one of Southern California's leading trainers and among the leaders in stable earnings nationally each year, has had a successful working relationship and friendship with his primary owner, J. Paul Reddam. O'Neill and Reddam
employ some unorthodox practices in their stable operation, including the use of shock wave therapy and having a chiropractor work with his
horses.

In addition to I'll Have Another, O'Neill is perhaps best known for his work with Lava Man, who went on to earn more than $5 million under his
training after being claimed for $50,000 and is now a stable pony within the operation, accompanying horses such as the Derby winner to the
track.

Tom LaMarra, news editor of The Blood-Horse magazine, and Jason Shandler, co-hosts of Bloodhorse.com's "That Handicapping Show," will
conduct the podcast. Following the segment with O'Neill, LaMarra and Shandler will also discuss handicapping, including a recap of the Derby
and the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) victory of Believe You Can as well as looking ahead to the May 19 Preakness Stakes (gr. I).

Thank you for submitting your questions, the podcast will begin at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, May 15.

Michael Hernon and Brian Graves of Gainesway Farm

aspradling — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:25:00 GMT

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This edition of BloodHorse.com’s popular Talkin’ Horses live podcast featured Michael Hernon and Brian Graves, from the Lexington-based Gainesway Farm. The podcast was recorded at 2 p.m., on Tuesday, March 20.

Owned by the Beck family, Gainesway Farm’s stallion roster includes such prominent sires as Tapit, Afleet Alex, Birdstone, Orientate, and Corinthian, among others. In addition to its stallion success, Gainesway is among the leading consignors at North American auctions, has achieved success with its pinhooking ventures and horses on the track wearing the farm’s colors.

Hernon, a native of Ireland with a commercial horse background, was appointed Gainesway’s Director of Sales in November 1996 and his responsibilities include sales of seasons, identifying stallion prospects, developing partnerships, and purchasing breeding stock.

As Yearling Sales Manager at Gainesway, Graves is in charge of recruiting and purchasing select yearlings for Gainesway consignments, and managing those yearlings to the sale. He is also in charge of Gainesway’s yearling sales and communications with clients regarding their yearling sales.

The podcast is co-moderated by Ron Mitchell, online managing editor for BloodHorse.com, and The Blood-Horse magazine staff writer Esther Marr. The Talkin’ Horses segment of March 20 also includes handicapping analysis by Jason Shandler, a staff writer with The Blood-Horse who co-hosts "That Handicapping Show" at BloodHorse.com.

Special Edition - Lane's End Staff on Zenyatta's Pregnancy and Foal

aspradling — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:33:00 GMT

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When 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta produced a healthy colt by Bernardini at William S. Farish’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., it marked another chapter in the storied career of the popular mare owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss.

Managing such a high profile broodmare is no easy task, and those responsible for the care of Zenyatta discussed the great mare’s pregnancy and delivery of the foal during a special edition of BloodHorse.com’s popular Talkin’ Horses podcast.

Joining Talkin’ Horses moderator Ron Mitchell and Blood-Horse magazine staff writer Esther Marr were Lane’s End manager Mike Cline and Charles Campbell and Donna Vowles, who manage the broodmare operation at the farm and were in charge of Zenyatta during her pregnancy.

The trio of Lane’s End professionals answered questions that included those submitted via Twitter, Facebook, and email about Zenyatta’s personality traits, daily schedule, and how she handled being in foal. They also offered insights into the new-born colt and the plans for him and Zenyatta over the next several weeks.

Photo Courtesy of Mathea Kelley and Team Zenyatta

David Milch

aspradling — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT

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David Milch, the Thoroughbred horse owner who created the racetrack-themed dramatic series “Luck” that premiered on HBO Jan. 29, was the guest on Bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21.

“Luck,” which is centered primarily at Santa Anita and stars such actors as Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, and Dennis Farina, has garnered rave reviews and large audiences and has been renewed for a second season. The show, which airs on Sunday nights, offers a behind the scenes look at the world of horse racing, including owners, trainers, jockeys, and gamblers.

Milch, who has owned two Breeders’ Cup winners and is the creator of smash hits such as “NYPD Blue”, “Hill Street Blues”, and “Deadwood”, has called "Luck" his “love letter” to horse racing. Retired Hall of Fame jockey and current HRTV analyst Gary Stevens is also among the cast members on “Luck.”

In addition to the questions posed to Milch by Tom Lamarra, news editor of The Blood-Horse, and Ron Mitchell, online managing editor for Bloodhorse.com and moderator of the monthly podcasts, the Talkin’ Horses segment of Feb. 21 includes handicapping analysis by Jason Shandler, a staff writer with The Blood-Horse who co-hosts “That Handicapping Show” at Bloodhorse.com

Photo by Tom Keller

Cot Campbell

aspradling — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:52:00 GMT

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W. Cothran "Cot" Campbell, who revolutionized racehorse ownership and syndication through his Dogwood Stable and who is being honored with the 2011 Eclipse Award of Merit, was the special guest on BloodHorse.com’s “Talkin’ Horses” podcast at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17.

The podcast was be moderated by Ron Mitchell, online managing editor for BloodHorse.com, and Evan Hammonds, executive editor of The Blood-Horse magazine. Also during the podcast, Jason Shandler, co-host of BloodHorse.com’s “That Handicapping Show” recaps and analyzes the newest Eclipse Award winners that were announced the previous night, including Campbell who was honored for his lifetime of achievement in Thoroughbred racing.

Campbell bought his first horses in 1969 and founded Dogwood Stable in 1973. He introduced the concept of syndicated racehorse ownership, bringing hundreds of new owners into the sport. Campbell estimated Dogwood has attracted approximately 1,200 partners during the past 35 years.

Since Mrs. Cornwallis became Campbell’s first stakes winner in 1971, she has been followed by such Dogwood notables as Dominion, Domynsky, Nassipour, Southjet, Wallenda, Trippi, Smok’n Frolic, Limehouse, Cotton Blossom, and Aikenite.

Dogwood won its first Eclipse Award in 1987 with the steeplechaser Inlander. The stable raced 1990 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winner Summer Squall, and his daughter Storm Song, who won the 1996 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) and became the stable’s second Eclipse Award winner. According to Dogwood, it has raced 76 stakes winners, including 14 grade I winners and six $1 million earners.

Craig Fravel - Chief Executive Officer of Breeders' Cup Ltd.

aspradling — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:01:00 GMT

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Craig Fravel, who just oversaw his first World Championships in the position of president and chief executive officer of Breeders’ Cup Ltd., was the special guest on Talkin’ Horses podcast on Tuesday, December 20 at 2:00 PM EST.

Fravel succeeded Greg Avioli at Breeders’ Cup and took over July 18 after leaving his position as president and general manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Southern California. He also served as chairman of the Southern California Off-Track Wagering Inc., chairman of the California Marketing Committee, and serves on the board of Equibase and the National Racing and Medication Testing Consortium. He is a previous chairman and current director of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

Fravel joined Del Mar as it executive vice president in 1990 after working as a partner in the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton and Scripps, where he specialized in corporate law and finance. He was promoted to Del Mar’s president and general manager in 2010.

Steve Haskin also be joined us as a guest analyst during the live show.

John Asher - Vice President of Racing Communications at Churchill Downs

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:54:00 GMT

John Asher, vice president of Racing Communications at Churchill Downs, will be the next guest on BloodHorse.com's Talkin' Horses.

John Asher has worked in the Thoroughbred racing industry as an award-winning journalist and publicist for more than 30 years. He joined Churchill Downs and has served in his current position since March 1999.

As a radio journalist at WHAS-AM and WAVE-AM in Louisville, Asher earned five Eclipse Awards for “Outstanding National Radio Coverage of Thoroughbred Racing.” Other horse industry honors include the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners’ Warner L. Jones Jr. Horseman of the Year award in 2006; the Charles W. Engelhard Award for excellence in media coverage from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders; the Dean Eagle Award from the Knights of Columbus; and a media award from the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association.

His non-racing industry reportage earned a National Headliner and Scripps-Howard Award, and honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, Radio & Television News Directors Association and Kentucky Broadcasters Association. He was honored seven times by the Associated Press as Kentucky large market radio’s “Best Reporter.”

A native of Leitchfield, Ky., Asher is a graduate of Western Kentucky University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.

Thank you for your questions.

Mike Repole Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:09:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Want to know more about Uncle Mo? Twice a month, Mike Repole will be authoring an Uncle Mo Diary as part of Jason Shandler's Triple Crown Talk blog. Look for Derby Mo-jo starting in February.

Transcript

Ron: This is Ron Mitchell with the Bloodhorse.com Talkin' Horses podcast. Today, our special guest is Mike Repole. As many of you know, he is the owner of Uncle Mo, the champion 2-year-old of last year and the favorite for the derby. Welcome, Mike.

Mike: Hey Ron. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

Ron: Thanks for taking your time from your busy schedule. We've had a lot of questions for you. Some were repetitive, as we expect, but mainly everybody wants to congratulate you, first of all, on success for your stable, especially your work with Uncle Mo. As we go through the questions, we won't read all of those compliments and congratulations; we'll just try to stick to the questions themselves for the sake of brevity, if that's okay with you.

Mike: Yeah, definitely okay and I definitely appreciate it. It's been really nice that the fans have not only just reached out to Uncle Mo but obviously, to me personally and the Repole Stable connections and it's a good feeling. Mo's got a lot of fans out there and it's nice to see. I'm just fortunate enough to own him.

Ron: I think a lot of that is based upon your excitement level as an aggressive young horse owner and certainly everybody's embracing that. Let's go ahead and get started with the first question and what everybody really wants to know, how's Uncle Mo doing and when he will have his first workout in preparation for the Tampa Bay Derby?

Mike: Uncle Mo is doing great right now. He's galloping a mile and a half a day. His first workout can be as early as tomorrow, as late as probably Monday. Todd is down in Florida right now and he's just going to go by the weather. He'll probably just breeze three furlongs, probably gallop out in four. Obviously, we want to work him on the dry track and it could be anytime this weekend - Saturday, Sunday, Monday, depending on the weather.

Ron: I got a question from Jonathan on Facebook. Were you close to selling Uncle Mo? And then also, he has two questions -Why only two preps before the Kentucky Derby?

Mike: Right after Mo won his maiden race, I was offered a lot of money for him. After he won the Champagne Stakes, I was offered even more money for him and then after the Breeders' Cup Juvenile win, I was offered a lot more than both the Champagne and the Special Stakes. It's been a dream of mine to own a special horse like this. Todd Pletcher gets a ton of calls from people that want to know if the horse is for sale. Jim Martin, my racing manager, gets the same. The horse is not for sale. To me, it's like a child; I would never sell a child and the horse is not for sale. I will own Mo throughout his racing career, so be it. In this game, it could be one more start or it could be 25 more starts. We don't know.

Ron: So we should tell those agents and big time horse owners from overseas just quit calling?

Mike: I beat you to it, Ron. I've already told them to stop calling me.

Ron: Back to the second question there - Only two preps before the Kentucky Derby? Any concerns about a lack of stamina with that kind of a schedule?

Mike: I'm not concerned at all. In fact, lately, if you watched the last - I think either four to five Kentucky Derby winners - it seems to be the norm nowadays. Boys at Tosconova is going to have two preps in the Derby. To Honor and Serve is going to have two preps in the Derby. Obviously, when you're trying to do more than just win the Derby, possibly maybe even win the Triple Crown, you're talking about a race two weeks after the Derby; three weeks after the Preakness is the Belmont Stakes. We know he's good. We know he's fast. He basically had two races at Churchill Downs in which he ran 108 Beyers. We want him to grow up a little bit and we're looking for a long campaign, but it doesn't need to start so early. I'd rather have his campaign go from March to November than go from January to May.

Ron: It makes a lot of sense. Next question is from Mr. Glassoniongirl. What is it that really attracted you to Uncle Mo?

Mike: I really have got to give the credit to my racing connections. Jim Martin, my racing manager, and Jim Crupi from Newcastle Farm who not only buys most of my yearlings, he also breaks my yearlings. I don't go to too many sales. I do look at the pedigree books and I go through that, but I put together a really solid team. Sometimes Todd is involved, sometimes Todd is not involved, but Uncle Mo was really a combination of Jim Crupi and Jim Martin, basically finding a horse at the yearling sale in September. There was over 6,000 horses. Mo was hip #1193-a number I'll never forget--and they really put me on to this horse. I wasn't super excited that he was an Indian Charlie, but I'm definitely a guy who listens to his team and they said I had to have this horse and I paid for it.

Ron: So now you're a big fan of Indian Charlie's, huh?

Mike: I would buy Indian Charlie tomorrow if he was for sale. Yes, I'm a big fan of Indian Charlie.

Ron: Next question comes from Ace Spradling - I'm very interested in following an entrepreneur such as yourself and Rob Dyrdek. You are proof that young people can have fun with horseracing ownership, be involved and use it to your advantage in marketing. Have you used horseracing to grow your personal ventures and found value beyond your joy of racing?

Mike: That's a great question. Being a young entrepreneur, I use a lot of the same business philosophies with horseracing and Repole Stable that I do with Pirates Booty or Energy Kitchen or Vitaminwater when I co-founded that. It's all about working hard, having fun, being passionate, doing things that you love. I really think that all my businesses kind of leverage each other.

The one thing about an entrepreneur being Mike Repole, if you're going to get involved with something, and the advice I've given young entrepreneurs, is make sure you're passionate about it. The one thing I find is that when I'm passionate about something like horseracing, really the sky's the limit and also it just makes it more fun. I see too many people get into businesses where it's something they're not interested in or something they don't like. I've always advised young entrepreneurs, college kids even high school kids, if you love what you do, it's not really work, it's just life.

Ron: And in the end, it ends up working for you and you have been very successful and made a lot of money, so that's a win-win.

Mike: I think at the end of the day, if you have a passion, you love what you do, the money is not really the strategy. It's just an aftereffect of just doing something that you're passionate about and you love and it comes when you're passionate about something, whether you're a baseball player, whether you're an actor, or whether you're an entrepreneur. If you really love what you do, money is not the primary goal. If you love it and you're passionate about it, a lot of times it's the end result.

Ron: That would kind of go hand-in-hand with this next question from Anthony Roberts - As a first time owner, what kind of advice can you give me and other first time owners?

Mike: Go into horseracing with training wheels on. Do not go in there and try to conquer the game day one. I could have spent $3-4 million a year six years ago when I got into the game. I could have bought high-priced yearlings. Start off with maybe a small private purchase. Start off with one of the great partnerships that are out there. There's a bunch of them out there. Start off slow. Put your toe in the water before you dive in head first. See that it's something you enjoy or you like. There are racing fans that love the ownership side and there are racing fans that the ownership side is not for them, it's just better to be a racing fan. And I would definitely become a percentage owner of a horse with four partners or maybe be in a partnership, one of the syndicated partnerships. Just start off slow. Learn the game. Ask a lot of questions.

Man, I mean every time I interviewed a trainer, I asked him a ton of questions. Every time, I spoke to jocks and jocks agents, or racing officials, the more questions you ask, the more answers you'll know about this game. It's a tough enough game when you don't know much about it, but it's a really tough game when you don't know enough about it.

Ron: Would you say it's a pretty steep learning curve?

Mike: Steep might be an understatement. Yes, it's a very steep learning curve because in this game, luck plays such a factor because you can almost do everything right here and have the best principles and the best strategy and the best game plan in the world and maybe the horse just might not cooperate. Unfortunately, sometimes there are injuries that play a big role in this game and the best one on the farm gets hurt or your best yearling gets hurt or your best hero gets hurt. There are more lows in this game than there are highs, but the highs are so much higher than the lows.

Ron: Is there any one word of advice or cautionary word you could give to potential owners?

Mike: Again, ask a lot of questions. Be very careful of who you do business with. Ask trainers if they have references, farm managers if they have references. Call other owners that are doing business with these people. Make sure that they're telling you the truth. Sometimes if you ask the same question 10 different ways, make sure you get the same answer because if you get 10 different answers, I'd be very cautious. You need to do your homework. In any business, you have some people with great morals and you have some people that are going to lie to you and it's not just horseracing, it's any business. To me, do your homework, do your research, and then choose somebody that you think fits your needs and you're comfortable with.

Ron: That's good advice because I'm sure you've heard the tales. We've had quite a few people who have been very successful in one field or another come into horseracing and they seem not to apply the same attributes to the horseracing that they did to their other business and sometimes it doesn't work out.

Next question is from Fran - There's so much talk about the fans of Zenyatta and a lot of trainers, owners, and horses now have their own Facebook pages. Just how important is the fan to the industry as compared to those who are just bettors?

Mike: To me, whether you're a bettor or you're not a bettor, you're a fan. I mean there are people who are just racing fans who don't bet and I think that they play a huge role in the marketing and the future of this sport. They are the backbone of the industry, but there are a lot of people who bet that are also racing fans. So I don't really separate racing fans on whether they bet or they don't bet. To me, if you go to the track just to watch races and you're there just to have lunch and watch races, you're as important to this game as somebody who goes to the track and bets $200 or $2,000. The more people we can get into this game, the better off we're going to be. So to me, I treat all the fans the same whether they're betting $500 to win on Uncle Mo or they're just there to watch him win a race by five lengths. The fans are the backbone of this industry and without the racing fans, there is no sport. I've said this many times and it's our job as an industry to do a better job accommodating in making the fans more accessible and I plan on doing that on my part and hopefully, others will lead by my example.

Ron: Considering that, for example, you got Uncle Mo with Todd Pletcher, whose stable is run very, very tightly, how are you going to make Uncle Mo accessible particularly working within the confines of a stable like Todd's? I love Todd. It's not a knock on him, but he has a lot of horses and it's a very business-like operation. The access has really not been there for a lot of horses.

Mike: I think at the end of the day, the first thing people have to understand is that mostly trainers just like Todd Pletcher start their day at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and are really busy until 11:00. I mean they work through a full day. Then a lot of post times are anywhere between 12 and 1 o'clock, and it's a seven day a week job. I mean there's no holidays. There's no vacation time. It's really, really a tough job. I think Todd, for the number of horses that he has, is probably one of the most accessible trainers out there. He has over 150 horses. I think if Uncle Mo keeps doing what he's doing, I think he'll have a lot more access to fans than you can imagine. But fans do have to understand, if Todd Pletcher went to go watch them work every day, it'd be a distraction and at the end of the day, the horses are there to obviously stay healthy, be taken well cared of, and training to get better. But Uncle Mo, there's going to be a lot of access to Uncle Mo. It's not going to be a petting zoo, but there's going to be plenty of times that fans are going to be able to meet Uncle Mo, see Uncle Mo. There's already been a couple of special requests that we've already met, but I mean he's got over 2,000 fans on his Facebook page and people I think that want to see him and meet him, and it is kind of overwhelming. He is focused this year on, I'm trying to do something really, really special; something that hasn't been done in 32 years and that is win a Triple Crown.

Ron: But we will have some access?

Mike: Yes, there will be some access. In fact, there already has been some access.

Ron: Next question is from equination.net - Far too many fan favorites are retired immediately following the 3-year-old campaigns. Provided he stays sound and competitive, will Uncle Mo continue to race in his four-year-old season?

Mike: That's way too early to tell. I did say that if it was up to me and not my connections, I would geld Uncle Mo and run him until he's 10 years old. So obviously I'm a racing fan. I'm not going to get a big thrill of owning him as a stallion. With this racing game, it really is one race at a time. My biggest concern and priority is the health of all my race horses whether you're Uncle Mo or you're a $10,000 claimer. It's hard to predict what's going to happen in the future. I'm just trying to get him to his first spot. After his first spot, we'll try to get him to the second spot and then after his second spot, we will get our fingers crossed that he will be in the Derby on May 7^th. Next year is way too early to talk about it, but to me, I'm a racing fan first. I want him to race as long as he tells me he can race.

Ron: So anything else is really speculation, really. Next question is from Ed - Any kid growing up in Queens has got to want to see his horse win the Wood Memorial. I'm guessing you'll go from the Tampa Bay Derby to the Wood?

Mike: First of all, we're targeting the Tampa Bay Derby, but that's really not set in stone. There's other races on March 5^th. There's other races on March 12^th. When Mo goes into training, I'll have some say, but at the end of the day, Todd Pletcher will make the final decision on where Mo's first start is going to be. Obviously, we're going to do what's best for the horse. There is no doubt that the second start is going to be the Wood Memorial if everything stays on course.

The Wood Memorial has been a race that I've gone to as a kid, when I was13, 14, 15 years old. I've gone there the last five years from Eskendereya to I Want Revenge. It's the biggest 3-year-old prep before the Kentucky Derby from New York racing. I can't fly 5,000 friends and family over to Kentucky, but I can drive them in to the Aqueduct racetrack and get all of the Queens and half of New York City to watch Uncle Mo at the Wood Memorial. That would be a very, very special day.

Ron: So what you're saying almost is that the second start is more set in stone than is his first start this year?

Mike: The second start is more set in stone than the first one, absolutely. If all goes well, the second start will definitely be the Wood. If on the first start, the Tampa Bay is definitely the leading logical target, but it's not set in stone whatsoever.

Ron: I think Todd's phone is now ringing from racing secretaries all over the country to have a decent race on or around the first weekend of March.

Mike: It's been ringing for the last two weeks. Trust me, Ron. J

Ron: This is from our own Jason Shandler - Mike, is your Eclipse Award speech still going and if so, when will it be over?

Mike: As long as Jason is not speaking, I think most of the horseracing fans are pretty happy. So anytime I can speak and keep Jason out of speaking to the racing fans, I think it's good for racing. Todd said the under and over was 30 minutes. I timed it, it was under 30 minutes, so I bet the under, so I thought it was okay. I think that's why they put me at the beginning of the night because they were afraid that I just might take until 9:30 and they're just going to go to Horse of the Year Award.

Ron: That's great, that's great. David C asked - how is it different from being an owner of primarily a claiming stable to one of the champions of classic contenders?

Mike: To me, I always said that my goal was one day to win a Grade I and a $5,000 claiming race on the same day. I love winning. I love horseracing. I'm a huge fan, always have been. The day that Uncle Mo won the Champagne, that was such a special day. I had three horses in that day. The first race, I had won the Grand Avenue. As a kid, I couldn't go to the track and I used to walk to the Grand Avenue OTB. I had 65 friends and family and we won the first race. And in the fourth race was a horse named Gerard Loves Beer which is named after my brother. It's no secret, I can tell you just by the name, you can tell what he loves - and that horse won. So all of a sudden, here it is. Grade I Champagne and I've won the first race and I've won the fourth race. I said, "Oh my God, if I win two $12,000 claimers and I wind up losing the Grade I Champagne, I'm just going to throw up." A lot of people know that I won the Champagne that day but they don't know that I actually won three out of nine races that day and I only had three horses in. You want to talk about one of the best days of racing, that was it. Winning my first Grade I, winning my first graded stake, Uncle Mo proving to everybody he's the real deal and on top of that, I get two other horses to win the same card with all my friends and family. That was one of the best racing days ever.

Ron: Wow, that's exciting! We're going on now to more of the other kinds of questions. Mary P - I know Uncle Mo loves Pirate Booty snacks and I was wondering if he washes it down with a nice dark Guinness.

Mike: No, Zenyatta washes her snacks with Guinness. Uncle Mo washes his Pirate's Booty down with Vitaminwater Power-C.

Ron: Boy, just total marketing all the time, aren't you? Another Pirate's Booty question here from Kelly - Did you pose for the pirate on Pirate's Booty bags? It kind of looks like it.

Mike: No. The pirate was a character and that's been there for a while. I don't think he's the most attractive person in the world so obviously the person that asked that question probably doesn't think I'm that attractive.

Ron: So not a compliment, huh?

Mike: That's not a compliment. Actually, I think I look more like the parrot than the pirate. J

Ron: Will we see Uncle Mo or any of your horses on the Pirate's Booty package on Sunday?

Mike: I kind of keep my businesses separated. Pirate's Booty has its own marketing plan. Mo's got his own marketing plan. Vitaminwater has its own marketing plan. Energy Kitchen, the one thing I'd probably phrase, we always say all 3-year-olds love Pirate's Booty and Uncle Mo is 3 years old, so even champion 3-year-old race horses, but I think they'll be separate.

Ron: Okay. Next question is from Michael Blowen whom you know at Old Friends. Mike, thanks to Uncle Mo for his generosity toward Old Friends and many other thoroughbred nonprofits. Explain your relationship with Cool N Collective, the 13-year-old claimer you donated to us last spring.

Mike: Now Cool N Collective is just a special horse to me. I mean, he's even in my top five favorite horses of all time that I've owned and I've owned probably over 500 horses in my life. He's just a claiming horse that I claimed for the first time when he was 9 years old. I reclaimed him back about six different times. At 11, he won a race at Belmont Park probably one of the oldest horses to ever win a race at Belmont Park. When I got him back when he was 12, I really wanted him to be the oldest horse to ever win on the New York Circuit at 13. So we trained him. We gave him two races. He came in second at his first race which was almost as devastating as losing a great welcoming because I really do love the horse more than anything. And I gave him one more try because he was very sound, very healthy. In fact, he could be still winning today and after he came in fourth in that race, I decided to retire him before somebody claimed him and I wanted to make sure he was in good hands. So I donated him and gave him to Old Friends and Michael does a great job with Old Friends. I'm very close with Michael, the staff, and he's up at Cabin Creek with Joanne up there and she sends me an e-mail at least once a month just giving me an update. When I go to Saratoga, especially during the meet, I go visit him. He won 20 wins, 20 seconds. But any horse that's 13 years old and is competing versus 3 or 4-year-old horses that could be his grandchildren, I just cannot fawn over that horse. I mean, he's just a hard knocking, he wears his hard hat, and I was so happy that I got to have him last and make sure, now I know that he's taken care of the rest of his life. And I know that when he's 25, I can still go see him on Cabin Creek's Farm.

Ron: I'm sure he appreciates the fact that he ended up with you and with Michael. He could have ended up in a lot worse hands, that's for sure. Michael also asked - If you could speak for Mo, why is he such a generous athlete?

Mike: Mo is just a generous athlete because he's good and he knows he's good. There's one thing I've been around a lot of horses and any time I get a little nervous, I get stressed out about the pressure of having the Kentucky Derby favorite. In business usually, I'm the guy that calls the shots. I'm the guy that makes decisions. I'm the guy who takes the shot when we're down two points with two seconds left. Here, it's really up to Uncle Mo. So sometimes having him in the hands of somebody else and such a wonderful animal, it's nerve wracking. All horses have unique personalities.

The one thing about Mo, he's a monster on the racetrack but when he's in the stall, he'll just lay there or he'll just be at the back of his stall and I'll just say, "Hey Mo," and he comes over as friendly as anything; he might put his head on my shoulder. Whether I have a treat or don't have a treat, he's always willing to come over. He's just a model teenage kid. He does everything right. He has no flaws. Even Todd is amazed and it's just like every time he does something for the first time, you look at him and you say wow, it's like he's been doing it like a hundred times. No matter how difficult or how easy the task is, he's just a special, special horse and I really believe that the special horses know they're really, really good and Mo knows he's good.

Ron: Absolutely. It's like Zenyatta, if you spend any time around her, you can just see that she knows, she absolutely knows. Next question is from Paul from Lexington. When will we get an Energy Kitchen restaurant here?

Mike: Right now, Energy Kitchen healthy fast-food restaurants are really in the metro area. There's 12 of them now, there's 60 in the contract anywhere from Boston to Miami and as far west as Chicago. My vision for Energy Kitchen is really to have a thousand stores in the next 10 years. The food tastes great. It's all steamed, grilled, and baked. It's under 500 calories. There's only low calorie beverages. I really think it's the future of fast-food and again, it's low calories. It tastes great and fast and there's so many unhealthy fast-food options out there and Energy Kitchen, you can only get good tasting healthy foods. So within the next 10 years, it's going to be a national brand just like Vitaminwater was and I'm not sure how fast in Lexington but I do know that we've gotten a request from Neville, Lexington, so there are people out there that are looking to bring Energy Kitchen to Lexington.

Ron: Great. Smartbid09 asks - Hey Mike, who would you have voted for as 2010 Horse of the Year?

Mike: I was on TVG and they asked me the question and they framed it up. "Mike, we're not going to ask you about Horse of the Year," and I said, "Listen, I'm a racing fan, you can ask me any question you want." And I clearly said on national TV that I definitely would have voted for Zenyatta, that Zenyatta is one of the racing all-time greats and it would be a shame if one of racing's all-time greats didn't win Horse of the Year. I think Blame and Goldikova are incredible horses. I think they're great horses. I wished I owned both of them. But Zenyatta was something special and she brought so many new fans to the sport. I just thought she was amazing, and it's not like she lost to Blame if by 22 lengths. I mean, she lost by less than a neck. The race could have went either way. Who knows if the race was 10 yards further, she might have won and we wouldn't really be having the debate so I would have voted for Zenyatta no doubt and I would have voted Blame second and Goldikova. Actually, not Goldikova third. I would voted Uncle Mo third and then Goldikova fourth.

Ron: Yeah, a little bit of a bias against the horse that only races here once in the year.

Mike: Yeah, I mean the three-peat I think is incredible. I'm so happy that the connections are bringing Goldikova back. It's exciting but if she only had one race in North America, so be it, with the Breeders' Cup, but the way Uncle Mo won his three races in electrifying fashion, at top of the stretch in all three races he just kind of separated himself from the field without even seeing or with just kind of like a hand ride with Johnny. He's the most exciting 2 year old since Favorite Trick or Arazi or even further back. You can almost make a debate that Uncle Mo probably had one of the greatest two-year-old seasons in history. So in my opinion, he probably should have been third. He had three races - Saratoga, Belmont, and Churchill. Those are three pretty historic tracks and he was by far, the best of these three. Not as an owner but I would have voted Zenyatta, Blame, and Uncle Mo third.

Ron: The next question is from Dick Downey - When will we see a workout for Stay Thirsty and do you hope to get him to the derby? Also, do you think maybe he's more of a Belmont stakes horse?

Mike: Great question. Stay Thirsty and Uncle Mo have been side by side throughout their career. They went to Todd Pletcher at the same time. They both won their maiden in Saratoga. Stay Thirsty was second the whole field. They both went to Crupis Farms for 30 days of resting and freshening. They both do have a workout this weekend. They're going to work out separately. Stay Thirsty is on target, his first race would probably be March 5^th. That would be his first spot. That one is pretty much set in stone unlike Uncle Mo. His second start is the one that is in question, we're going to see what he does in the Gotham.

Obviously being a guy from New York, I wanted to win the Gotham, and Stay Thirsty will be in the Gotham. We'll keep those two separated out for obvious reasons and our goal would what a great dream to have two horses in the Derby. I'd be ecstatic to have one but to have two, I'd have to pinch myself.

As far as his pedigree, his pedigree says that what he did last year as a 2 year old was pretty freakish. He's bred to go two miles in a steeplechase. Does he fit the Belmont Stakes better? While his half-brother Andromeda's Hero came in second in the Belmont. I think Stay Thirsty is going to get better with two turns and the more the distance, the better I think he's going to get. I think he's going to be a big sweeper this year for this Kentucky Derby one. In my opinion, he's a top 10 horse in the country right now.

Ron: That brings us to a follow up question from Josue Escobar - You seem to be so fond of Uncle Mo but how would you take it if it comes Derby day and Stay Thirsty is the winner? Would that be a bittersweet victory?

Mike: I think I'd sign up for that right now if you can guarantee that to me. Listen, winning the Kentucky Derby is a dream. Whether it's Uncle Mo, Stay Thirsty, or anybody, I love them both the same. It's like if you have two children, you don't love one more than the other. Uncle Mo has obviously, what he's done is something special and there is obviously big talk about some of the great things that he can do. If Stay Thirsty happened to be in same race as Uncle Mo and happened to be fortunate enough to win the Kentucky Derby, I can promise you, I will gladly run down that winners circle with the biggest smile on my face and it would probably be one of the happiest moments of my life.

Ron: So it'd be a sweet smile rather than a bittersweet smile.

Mike: It will be a sweet smile and I think I'll have to give him an extra carrot or peppermint instead of Uncle Mo and we'll have to get his Facebook page up to 2000 fans also.

Ron: On to different non-racing topic kind of, Joan Marie - If you could be in charge of marketing and racing to the general public in an effort to get people to the track, how would you do it? Would you find more money for primetime TV ads, for example?

Mike: Orobably the last thing I would do is TV ads. To me, the way you would do it is really focusing on the racing fan and accommodate them. There are so many people that would want to get into the game but just don't know how. When I take in new racing fans to watch one of the races, they have the simplest of questions. Mike, what's an exacta? What's a quinella? They don't even know how to read the Daily Racing Form, so I think we need to educate the racing fans more about the horses, about the trainers, about the Form. A lot of times, these new fans are picking by numbers or names. And listen, if that system works for you, I'm all for that. That's great but I think that the racing industry has to do a better job of educating the fans about the sport, about the game. I always said racing for a new owner is almost like buying a board game with no instructions. How would you know how to play the game if they don't give you instructions? We need to do a better job of educating our consumers.

The second thing is we have to make the experience much better, from how we treat the consumers to how we brand our consumers, from the program to how they're served lunch, making it an experience where they want to come back.

I always give the analogy of if you go to a good restaurant and you get great food and great service, not only are you going to probably go back, you're probably going to tell your friends and family about it. But if you go to a restaurant where the service is terrible and the food is worse, you're not only not going to go back, you're going tell people to stay away. And racing has to make an investment in their brand and their brand is horseracing. And until they make an investment in the brand, we can't expect the fan base to grow. In fact, we're very fortunate that we have such a diehard fan base and we've done a very poor job of accommodating them and we're just lucky that they're so passionate about horseracing that they're still around. But you know what, five or ten years from now, if this sport doesn't embrace change or evolve to cater to the racing fan, you know what, this sport won't exist. They'll have nothing to worry about.

Ron: Do you have some ideas on exactly how they can go about that and maybe work with them in trying to bring it up to a different level?

Mike: I've been in talks with the NTRA. They've been very open about speaking to me. I've been in talks with NYRA. I'm good friends with Charles Hayward. I've been in talks with the Breeders' Cup. They definitely are very open to listening to me. To me, you start with fan first and if you take care of the fan, everything else will take care of itself. There's a million different things. These are tremendous venues. It always boggles my mind when I go to Saratoga and there's 25,000 fans and then I go to Aqueduct and there's 650 fans. New York has 15 million people in the surrounding Metro New York area; why we can't get those fans to go to Aqueduct and Belmont? It's just poor marketing and a poor job on our part.

Ron: I'm sure they will appreciate any input you might have. The next question is from LC - Do you believe horseracing needs to have a national governing body to unite horseracing and implement important things such as uniform drug regulations, fan-friendly year-round racing calendar, et cetera?

Mike: No doubt. To me, it's probably one of the top five priorities I would have. You see it with NASCAR racing. You see it with National Football League. You see it with the NBA. There is a David Stern, there is a Goodell, there is a guy who is the racing commissioner that oversees the entire sport. One of the things that I see is a major issue and a major problem with the sport is I'm all about competition inside the race track. That's where the competition belongs. There is so much competition that is outside the race track that I'm against. Whether it's TVG versus HRTV, whether it's Thoroughbred Times versus Blood-Horse, whether it's New York racing versus New Jersey racing, we have to unite as a racing community outside and at the end of the day, there needs to be one commission above all the tracks with consistency, with different rules and regulations of the different tracks.

There are different medications that are allowed here that are not allowed here. It doesn't make any sense, and I really think in order for the industry to flourish and probably be one of the top spectator sport with a growing audience, obviously other than focusing on the fan, you have to get a governing body that acts in the best interest of the fan, the best interest of the horses, and most important, the best interest of the race.

Ron: Well certainly I hope that you can take a little bit of a leadership role in helping achieve that. I think a lot of people would like to see that.

Listen Mike, we really have taken a lot of your time today. I appreciate it. I've got many, many other questions here but I really do thank you and again, we appreciate it. I understand that starting next month you're going to be having an Uncle Mo derby diary that's going to be appearing on BloodHorse.com. Jason Shandler's going to be helping you with that and we have come up with a name for that called Derby Mo-jo. We'll be looking forward to that. And again, I really want to thank you for your time today.

Mike: Thanks, Ron. I appreciate it.

Mike Repole Bio

Mike Repole

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:31:00 GMT

Mike Repole, owner of 2010 2-year-old champion Uncle Mo, will be the next guest on bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses.

Native New Yorker Mike Repole first dabbled in Thoroughbred racing in 2004 when he invested in some claiming horses. In 2008, however, he elevated his program, both in terms of quality and quantity, with the acquisition of about 100 horses.

Since that time, Repole’s stable has risen to the upper echelons of North American racing, and in 2010 he was represented by his first graded stakes winner, after going 0 for 27 in graded stakes, when Uncle Mo took the grade I Champagne Stakes at Saratoga. Following his impressive victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Uncle Mo was voted champion 2-year-old male and is now the winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

But this is no one-horse stable, as attested to by the numbers being put up by his runners. Last year, he achieved a feat of which any owner, especially a New Yorker, would be proud of when he was leading owner at the prestigious Saratoga meet, with 13 wins from 46 starters. In 2009, Repole was the leading owner in New York for the entire year, a category in which he finished second in 2010.

Another promising 3-year-old in Repole’s stable is Stay Thirsty, who finished second last year in the grade I Hopeful Stakes. More recently, Repole was represented by another graded stakes winner when Calibracho won the grade III Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct.

Repole, 42, was the president and co-founder of Glaceau, maker of Vitaminwater and Smartwater. Glaceau was sold to Coca-Cola in May 2007 and Repole is now board chairman and majority investor in the healthy fast-food chain Energy Kitchen and Pirate Brands, makers of the snack food Pirate's Booty

Although his primary trainer is multiple Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher, Repole has horses with Scott Lake, Bruce Brown, Dominic Galluscio, and Mike Miceli.

Thank you for your questions. The podcast will take place on Friday Jan. 28, 2011 and will be posted soon after that.

Case Clay Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:23:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Case Clay Bio

Case Clay

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:16:00 GMT

Case Clay, president of Three Chimneys Farm, will be the next guest on bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses.

Case Clay returned to the Three Chimneys Team in 2004 after a year at the Irish National Stud in Kildare, Ireland and Arrowfield Stud in Scone, Australia and, upon the retirement of longtime farm president Dan Rosenberg, Clay took over as president of Three Chimneys in 2008.

Prior to his departure, he worked in sales at Three Chimneys and spent six years in Chicago, where he worked at Arlington Park, Ernst & Young and Hyatt Corporation; while performing improvisation in the evenings. Case is a graduate of DePauw University with a major in Economics. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Breeders' Cup, Gluck Equine Research Foundation, Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, Horse PAC, National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Kentucky Derby Museum, and Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass.

Thank you for your questions. The podcast will take place Wednesday, August 25, and will be posted online later that day.

Bob Kulina Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:17:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Transcript

Ron: This is Ron Mitchell of BloodHorse.com's Talkin' Horses podcast. Today our guest is Bob Kulina. As many people know, you could see his biographical sketch on our website. He is the Vice President of Thoroughbred Racing for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and the General Manager of Monmouth Park.

This year Monmouth Park has undertaken a bold experiment in which they are slashing the race dates but are offering up to $1,000,000 per day in average purses for the 50-day meet. The results have been an overwhelming success and a lot of that success is attributed to Mr. Kulina and his management.

Bob, welcome to Talkin' Horses.

Bob: It's an honor to be a part of your show.

Ron: First question is really what took so long to get to a point of thinking so far outside the box that you have gone this route?

Bob: Well, we haven't been happy with the direction of our race product and we're a firm believer that the most important thing is to produce a product that the consumer has interest in and is going to be willing to invest their money in. I've been with Monmouth my whole career and I have a great relationship with the horsemen. I guess it's hard to get any horsemen's organization to do something like what we did, reduce the dates over 50%. It's just amazing in that sense, so we worked very hard and this wouldn't be able to happen without Dennis Drazin who, along with myself, spent over two and a half years trying to convince everybody, both sides of the fence, management as well as horsemen, that this was the direction that we needed to try and to see if we can change the perception of New Jersey and racing around them. So far it's really done better than we thought it would have done.

Ron: Really, you're trying to focus more on quality, both with the purses that you're offering and the quality of fields that you're attracting over quantity. A lot of times, obviously everyday that you're open it means money for the racetrack and money for horsemen, so there had to be quite a good sales job going on there.

Bob: Yeah, it was a big sale. I'm a firm believer a good race needs field size and needs a competitive field. I mean there are such things as a competitive $5,000 claiming races but what we were seeing was our claiming races were just non-competitive. We had a lot of 6-5 shots in these races and nobody wants to bet on six, seven horse fields with 6-5 shots, 3-5 shots.

Our better races, we still had a core of great horsemen stable with us, so our better races and our Saturday cards tended to be okay the past couple of years but it's been the weekday cards that were just so weak. I was taught a long time ago that you're supposed to create your stars and the consumers who you're creating the stars for. and so we went out there and decided to put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, and offer a lot of money and try to get big competitive fields. So far, it's kind of done what we were hoping it would do.

Ron: It really has just created an overall good, positive buzz for both Monmouth and New Jersey racing.

Bob: Definitely, I mean our transmissions have doubled and that is just hard for us to believe and it isn't like we weren't three years away from hosting The Breeders' Cup. We have the Haskell, so we have good racing but to double your transmission just means the rest of the country is really paying attention. That's through half of the meet; we're halfway through... we're 24 days through I guess through the weekend and our transmissions are up over a hundred percent, our live handle is up close to 25%, and so everything right now seems to be working quite well.

Ron: We'll go straight to the questions we got from our readers, the first one is from Bob Z - I live about 20 minutes from the track and in talking to people I can definitely tell there's more of a buzz about Monmouth than in the past years. Great job and thanks for getting Rachel again. My question is do you foresee in the future being able to offer another signature marquee type of race like the Haskell later in the meet for older horses?

Bob: That's a good question. I mean the problem with marquee races - not the problem - is y ou need to find a slot that a marquee race fits. The new schedule of Saratoga with the Whitney and the Woodward it late August, it doesn't really leave a spot for one of those races. You have them on the Turf Division, our other grade I, the United Nations, the spot for the UN that works is more 4^th of July because in August you have the Sword Dancer and Arlington Million.

So right now, there isn't a division that truly fits at the end of the meet. I wish there were because he is a thousand percent right; we would love to have another post Haskell event. So we're trying to focus on building August with more marketing events. We have a crabcake festival, were running post Labor Day. We're going with a hunt meet ; we're going to do a Jersey state-bred day in early September. So we're trying to strengthen our racing but it's hard to find a race that fits.

Ron: That subject of scheduling races brings us to the next question from Shawn - This year the United Nations and Man of War were offered on the same weekend. Year after year, it appears there's no coordination with fellow Mid-Atlantic jurisdictions and New York on stakes calendars. Why not?

Bob: Well we did attempt to do that and I think it's a question that NYRA needs to answer. The United Nations was all by itself on the 4^th of July and it was a month after the Manhattan and a month before the Saratoga races. Two or three years ago, New York felt they needed to move their race. We had discussions with them last October, obviously nothing came of it. I do agree that we need better coordination of our events. Sometimes it takes two to tango and right now, we couldn't accomplish that and I agree, it's not the best thing for racing.

Ron: Okay but it's certainly something that you work on.

Bob: Right.

Ron: Next question is from William Harkins - Mr. Kulina, how have the employees reacted to the new schedule? I'm sure many employees are now working three days a week instead of five. Also, what about the businesses in the Oceanport area, have they been impacted because of less traffic coming in?

Bob: Good question. That was one of our fears going in of how would it affect a lot of our per diem employees, and it's really the opposite effect. There's more energy among our employees. Everybody's generally excited. Attendance is up over 20% and people see now that there's a future for something. For years, there was a lot of negatives surrounding racing and right now something positive is happening and right now... that is probably of all the things with the meet, the positive energy of the horsemen, in our employees and the fans; that, I think, is the thing that's the most rewarding so far after half the meet is over.

Ron: Okay, so it's just got an overall good feel about it.

Bob: Definitely, there's a lot of positive energy, a lot of excitement. People are excited about Rachel Alexandra coming. They're excited about... you know the potential right now is there for a great Haskell. So right now it's been very positive.

Ron: Okay. Ginny wants to know - If the casino industry decides not to renew its purse subsidy for New Jersey racing, what funding options will Monmouth Park have and what would purse levels be in 2011 without it?

Bob: Right now our intention is to go after funding. The Governor's Commission on on Racing is coming out with a report around the 1^st of August. Everybody's really pleased in the entire State of New Jersey with the results of this meet. So now it's going to be the job of the sports authority and the horsemen to go figure out how we can do this again but we have every intention to going out and doing this again in 2011.

Ron: Whirl Away Joe (probably not his real name} he wants to know - Do you feel this will be the future of our sport, fewer race dates, more weekend racing, larger prizes for claiming races and allowance races, particularly considering the diminishing number of horses available?

Bob: Yeah, well I definitely feel this is the only way we can put the product out there as an industry right now. I mean the customers want big races, they want competitive races, big fields and like every other sport you have to have the money to pay the athletes, and I do think this a direction in my crystal ball, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region. I think everybody needs to find a slot what's the best for them. It would be nice if somebody in the future would fill the slot of quality racing on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. (Simulcast) Transmissions is such a major part of our business nowadays so I'm hoping that down the road, you will see people, almost like I said before, it's almost like the 50's where you had these short meets and people moved around and I think that's where the direction we're headed.

Ron: Fred Danielson asked - Is your handle covering the purses being paid out during this meet?

Bob: The handle doesn't - obviously this year we have a casino supplement and that's a large part of our purse structure. So the answer is no, but the interesting statistic is that revenues and gross handles and for purses is up in 2010 with 12 racing days over 20 racing days in 2009. The business model, the current model, seems to be more profitable for both purses and for management.

Ron: Okay, that brings us on to the next question from Don - How close are you to breaking even with Monmouth during this meet?

Bob: Breaking even is - the Sports Authority is very complicated. We have two racetracks. We have the OTWs so we have to look at our business model in an entirety and this new model will bring the sports very close to the breaking even between the racing division and what's it's probably going to setup is something similar for 2011 to happen within our standardbred division. There's a lot of stuff that we're going to analyze and we're going to be quite busy in September trying to figure out what is the proper model. I mean there are definitely things - we will definitely tweak this model as we move forward.

Ron: A different topic, Bob Hut writes - I would like to congratulate you on the tremendous Monmouth Park meet. I would also like to ask if you have any plans to honor our late great friend, trainer Alan Seewald. It would be wonderful if there were stakes race named in his honor or if he could be immortalized in the Monmouth Park Hall of Fame.

Bob: That is something we'll take into consideration. Alan's a dear friend. His family's a dear friend and like anybody who's been with you a long time, all that's taken into consideration and the problem with all of that is we have a lot of people who have left us that are really good, and so it's an issue that is under consideration and we'll spend the winter and talk about it.

Ron: Rick wants to know - What has been the reaction to the new racing schedule in Monmouth Park to the trainers, owners and breeders of New Jersey breds who now have fewer races to run their horses in?

Bob: Once again, it was extremely positive. I mean everybody had a lot of fear, a lot of reservations rightfully so because that was such a bold initiative but the breeders appear to really be happy with this. You have the state breds running for maiden special run for $75,000. We're still offering over two and a half state bred races a day, or we will by the end of the season and right now, the breeders for the first time see a future, as well as the horsemen. I think one of the things that has surprised a lot of people, not so much myself, but our local Monmouth guys are doing quite well and there are a lot of guys that didn't think they'd be able to win the races and they're winning races. I have guys coming up to me and tell me, "Jeez, I finished 2^nd in a maiden special and I made $18,000 for finishing 2^nd..." or whatever it is... it's been very positive. I think everybody; guys who I know voted against it have come up to me and said, "I'm glad you were persistent with this because it's the right thing to do."

Right now I think most everybody is very happy with what we're doing.

Ron: It isn't like big time stables from outside just coming in and raiding the purses.

Bob: No, it isn't like that because if you look at our leading trainers the last decade, you have Todd Pletcher on the board. You have Bruce Levine. You have Kelly Breen who trains a high-end outfit. We've had high end people with us for a long time. Kiaran McLaughlin has been here. Mark Hennig has been here. We've had big outfits here and this isn't something new to Monmouth. We've had good outfits and the local guys are doing quite well. I mean our local jockeys are doing well. Joe Bravo is still the leading rider. We had some great riders come in, but Joe somehow... a lot of people have just seemed like they stepped up their game.

Ron: Okay, that's great.

Bob: Really when we do this next year, I believe the racing will be much stronger because guys will have more time to better prepare the horses they have for the meet. I think there's a lot of growth in the racing end of this, the product end of it.

Ron: Joe asked - How do you think Monmouth will fare in the coming weeks as Saratoga opens its meet?

Bob: Saratoga always opens at that time, so I think the numbers; hopefully they stay in step with it. That is something we're obviously looking at. How will our signals hold up against Saratoga, against Delmar? That's the unknown, but I think the racing product will be strong. Philly Park is shutting down in August, so whenever they run a week races 50, 40 some races a week less demand on the horse inventory. I just think our racing is going to be strong and hopefully it continues. I know Saratoga is the premier track in America but the flipside is our signal goes into Saratoga and they're going to have their 20-30,000 people or whatever they have on a given day so hopefully, some of those patrons take a look at Monmouth.

Ron: Barry wants to know - With horsemen getting a million dollars a day in purses, how about giving more money back to the fans in the form of lower program costs, lower costs for food and drink and also what about some instant winning cash vouchers?

Bob: We do have a marketing department. We do have direct mail with winner's vouchers in there and I think we do it twice a year. We have as far as free admission; our pay gate is right about 30%, so we put out a lot of passes. We give away free passes every month for the next month. If somebody's worried about taking advantage of admission, we were there. The flipside is the patrons are getting a much better product. We've expanded our marketing schedule a lot this year and we want to actually to continue to expand it.

Our long term goal is to have an event every weekend. We added three events in June, and I think that added to the strength in June, something that we hadn't had in the past. We added a wine festival and a music event, another food event. So we're trying to have every weekend events and we're already talking about what we want to do for next year on some of the weekends where there is a void.

Ron: That brings us to the next question from Paul Gaspari who wants to know whether or not any of those things you're trying, if more of them could be aimed at the younger crowd, particularly like mid-30's like he and his friends.

Bob: Well we're trying to do that. If you come to Monmouth on weekends it is a much younger crowd. We're trying twilight racing, we're trying that and this Friday will be the second of three. We'll sit back and analyze that.

That's part of the thing we're trying to figure out how to do; do you bring young people in there with marketing events or do you bring young or new people in here with good racing? Our thought process is you need an entertainment event every weekend with music, with specials and try to sell it. Anybody who has been to our picnic area knows it's a great way to spend the day at the races and hopefully, we can walk the people through our building and get them into the clubhouse and where they actually are getting very interested in handicapping.

I think that's a challenge for racing, we're trying but we're pretty happy with the direction we're going when we see the young people on Saturdays and Sundays because it is a younger crowd than the norm.

Ron: Another question, pretty much off the topic of current maintenance scheduling, that type of thing is from George Schwartz who wants to know why you don't use a 5½ furlong turf course more other than for stakes? Also, do you see a use for the turf at the Big M in the future?

Bob: Okay, the 5½ is out of the chute and when we have the rail out 24, 30 feet, it's a little tight turn so we don't use it that way. We don't go out of the chute that way but having one turf course, if I have the magic wand I would love to have two turf courses like New York does. There are so many divisions that you need to run on the turf. You know Mike tries not to overuse the 5½ and personally, I think a 5½ is a tough race to bet on because horses can get eliminated so quick, so we tend to prefer to use our mile races more but with that said, we still try to keep the 5½ to the higher level horse.

Ron: Jeff Strong believes that your race day is too long. He wants to know about the possibility of moving up the first post to noon or 12:15.

Bob: That is one of the things going with 12 races, I think Jeff's right; it's a long day and that is something that we're talking about for the future. Are 12 races too many? Do we need to make our post-time earlier? It is a long day. What we see some people come early and leave early and then we're also experiencing people coming later. Guys that are coming off the golf course at 3:30 and they still can get to five, six races, so it's a little bit of the mixed bag there. If you stayed the whole day, especially we've had some incredible heat like this summer like what we have on the East Coast, so the days are long. That is one of the issues we're facing with the patrons. It is a long day and that is something that we will definitely look into for next year.

Ron: Next question, Bill said he's an owner of an outdoor box with six seats and has been coming for years and loves it. He says you do a great job. He does want to know whether or not with the success of this meet, any plans to upgrade the facility, particularly in the box seat areas with better furniture and better televisions.

Bob: The answer is yes. The TVs that we have out there (not all of them), they are at the end of their lifecycle. We're looking at that. We're looking at getting a video board for next year for the infield. I think that will be our major capital objective of next year, how to get together a first rate video board in the infield. All of those things, he's right. We're moving along but at the end of the day, I still am pretty pleased with overall way this whole building is holding up.

Ron: Sure, and also I mean just considering how the economy had been in recent years, I would say it's probably hard to justify making too many of these types of investments, so certainly now with what's going on you've got a lot more incentive.

Bob: Well, we spent a lot of money for the Breeders' Cup on the facility. We did a lot of things that needed to be done...upgrading electric, things that people don't get to see, and we accomplished a lot, put two new tracks in, a new turf course, a new main track, spent a lot of money in the stable areas. Now, hopefully, we can find the resources to move forward in that direction.

Ron: This next one is not so much a specific question but just someone who has a comment about a rumor going around that it's from up the track. There's a rumor that your field sizes are starting to shrink because the track is too deep and too gritty with kickback giving a strong bias to horses who have been training over the track road and ship ins. Is this true and how do you fix this problem?

Bob: I don't think it's true. I think that I did a lot of fix it this week, we finally had the first rain in 30 days. We've had zero rain.

Ron: Nature helps a lot, doesn't it?

Bob: Nature helps a lot. I think the turf course as well as the main track needed the rain we got. With our history of too much rain, I'm not going to wish for rain. Actually I think talking with the jocks, they feel that the track is playing fair, that good speed horses can win and closers can close. If anything, there's no bias. The only bias is that you need to be a good horse. I think in the past maybe some cheap speed could carry itself further our track. This year the consensus from the backside from the trainers, from everybody involved is don't change a thing. Right now, we're pretty pleased with the way everything is going.

Ron: Jay Taylor asked - Does Monmouth Park have a zero tolerance policy in place regarding horse slaughter within the training colony?

Bob: Zero tolerance policy, I don't know if that's the right thing. We - the THA (The Horsemen's Association) and ReRun, we have a program in place and we're pretty pleased with the results the last two years and you know we have the ban on slaughter like everybody else but ReRun is doing a great job for us, the horsemen. I have the jockeys contribute to ReRun, the trainers and the owners association, us, and we work on a daily basis with ReRun and so far, {knock on wood} everything has been going relatively well.

Ron: Kind of on a related note, Catherine G. writes - Has Monmouth Park taken measures to protect its horses from those wanting to grab your large purses at all costs considering placing the jeopardy some of the horses? She wants to know whether $37,500 purses for $5,000 claimers actually promotes equine welfare and safety.

In other words, I guess she wants to know whether or not people will be taking greater risk with marginal horses in order to get these kinds of purses.

Bob: One, most people who are in our business love the animal and that's the furthest thought from their head. We have the stewards watch some horses that maybe don't belong and we have a stewards list and we have some horses that we told that you don't belong.

With that said, I think there's much more positive than negative. When an owner has a chance to make money and pay his bills, he's more apt to do the right thing than the wrong thing. I think people get desperate when economics come into play. So if anything, I think the large purses have had a positive effect on the welfare of the horses. I don't think people are taking advantage of them at all. There are too many good people taking care of these animals all across the country, I just don't think that's - I think that's a misnomer. But in any case, some of the people that we have pulled some people up and said that this horse doesn't belong here but overall, I think it's been a very positive effect for the owners and the horsemen.

Ron: We're coming down to the end here, Bob. Jim Gazelle who is from Matuchin, New Jersey says he's been going to Monmouth Park for many years and has had to put up with sitting in the grandstand with his family and having to endure cigarette and cigar smoke. He wants to know when smoking will be banned from the grandstand, and he said it's especially bad on crowded a crowded day like Haskell Day when there's only one designated non-smoking section.

Bob: As we speak, that whole issue is under review and we comply with the law and we're looking at Jim's issue. It's as anybody who runs a racetrack knows, smoking is a complicated issue but it is currently under review the exact thing what he's talking about.

Ron: Listen Bob, we've had more questions coming in but they were already really been asked and certainly want to thank you for taking your time. You've been, I think, very upfront and forward about everything. Our readers obviously wanted to ask you about quite a bit if different things, so I appreciate your openness. It's got to be very gratifying for you as a racetrack management to be involved in a meet like this. It has so much of a good feel about it.

Bob: Yeah, definitely it is. You know I've been here my whole life since 1963, since I was a little kid, working with horses with my dad and to have the positive energy that's surrounding the meet right now, I think that's the most rewarding thing. I'm remiss to say I think Mike Dempsey and the racing department have just done a marvelous job putting together good competitive fields. I'm really pleased with the job they're doing this year as every year, and I just have a great group of people working for us that really care about this place and hopefully, the customers feel that when they come because I have a lot of people that just put their whole life and soul into this place, and we're pretty proud of what we do here.

Ron: Have you had a lot of calls from other racetrack executives around the country asking you how do you get your horsemen to buy into this?

Bob: It wasn't as much as how do we get the horsemen to buy into this as much as what do the numbers look like? Is this better or worse? I think to get the horsemen to buy into it it's through trust, relationships. I've done everything you can do here, and I just have a great rapport with horsemen and hopefully, it's something that we all can look at and maybe can work with some other jurisdictions, maybe you can't, but I definitely think it's something the industry is going to look at.

Ron: Listen Bob, once again thank you for your time and good luck with the rest of the meet.

Bob: Okay. Thanks, Ron.

Ron: This has been Ron Mitchell with BloodHorse.com's Talkin' Horses podcast with Bob Kulina.

Bob Kulina

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Robert J. Kulina, vice president-Thoroughbred racing for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and general manager of Monmouth Park, will be the next guest on bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast.

A product of a racing family, Kulina is the son of the late Joseph Kulina, a trainer on the New Jersey circuit.

Monmouth Park's racing secretary for 15 years, Kulina was named vice president-Thoroughbred racing in 1995, after serving as general manager-Thoroughbred racing since 1991. As director of racing, Kulina was instrumental in putting together top fields for Monmouth's Amory L. Haskell Invitational and the Philip H. Iselin Handicap. He also developed the popular overnight stakes program which has become a standard in the industry.

Under Kulina’s direction, Monmouth Park this year embarked on a bold experiment by slashing racing dates, enabling the track to offer purses averaging about $1 million per day during the 50-day meet. With the expectation that fewer dates would result in larger crowds and increased handle for those dates that are being run, the meet has met and in some cases exceeded expectations.

The podcast will take place Wednesday, July 14, and will be posted online later that day. Cutoff for questions is 5 p.m. July 13.

Thank you for your questions, the podcast will be posted later today.

Steve Haskin Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:28:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Transcript

This is Ron Mitchell of BloodHorse.com's Talkin' Horses online podcast. This month, we've got Steve Haskin, who is going to wrap up the Triple Crown for us. Steve is an authority on Triple Crown and all things racing and as we all know from the Blood Horse, his work is very good. He's online and in the regular magazine.

Steve, first of all, there was no Triple Crown winner this year, but we had a lot of good stories. There was a Derby/Belmont for WinStar, the first ever in those races. Bill Mot got his first Classic. There was a cook turned Preakness winning jockey, but there was no Triple Crown.

First of all, why don't you sum up for us how you viewed this year's three races?

Steve: Well, I think they were interesting for what we had. It's unfortunate that we didn't have the Derby winner or the Preakness winner going in the Belmont Stakes but listen, those things happen in some years, so you just have to make the best of it and like you said, we've had some great human interest stories. I think we saw some pretty good horses throughout the Triple Crown. How good they are, we don't know, that's still to be determined, but great individual performances. We had three of the greatest trainers in the sport right now winning the three Triple Crown races. I mean, all in all, I think it was a pretty interesting Triple Crown and great betting races.

Ron: Speaking of the performances, one question here and it's not limited to the winners of those three races, but what in your opinion were the best performances from this year's Triple Crown trail, both equine and human?

Steve: Well, let's see - I'd have to say #1 is Eskendereya and #2 is Eskendereya Certainly were the two top equine performances (this year) were the Fountain of Youth and the Wood Memorial. I think he showed in those two races that he was heads above everybody else and looked like he had a legitimate shot of winning the Triple Crown. Certainly, he could have gotten through the Derby on that messy track, but obviously that we'll never know.

I think Lookin At Lucky's performance in the Rebel was a fantastic race. I mean he had every right to lose that race. He got stopped badly and kind of came around horses and wore down a really good horse in Noble's Promise, so I'd have to rank that right up there.

Speaking of Lookin At Lucky, top human performance right up there would have to be Martin Garcia. Lookin At Lucky had some tough breaks with Garrett Gomez and when you replace Garrett Gomez, you had better replace him with somebody better because Garrett Gomez, as we know, is one of the best riders in the game. Bob Baffert had the nerve to take Gomez off and put on Martin Garcia, who had very little experience in the Triple Crown other than to ride Conveyance in the Derby, and he gave Lookin At Lucky an absolutely flawless ride and I think that has to be ranked right up there with certainly one of the best performances. He came right back at Belmont, a track in which he has never ridden at before, pulled off a 41-1 upset in the Acorn Stakes and then gave Game on Dude an excellent ride in the Belmont for Baffert. They were right there at the 16th pole and was only beaten a couple of lengths, finishing fourth. All in all, I think we saw the emergence of a star.

Ron: How do you think based on how well Garcia did in his first appearance that maybe Triple Crown experience is overrated?

Steve: Well, I wouldn't want to think so because the Belmont is such a quirky track with those big turns, but everything just seemed to go against the norm here. Again you have that great performance by Garcia and then you had Mike Smith riding Drosselmeyer like you wouldn't normally want to ride a horse in the Belmont Stakes by just keeping him wide the whole way and losing a lot of ground going into that far turn;. That usually spells death for a horse coming out of that turn and it usually leaves them with their tongue hanging and he just kept coming. So I'd have to think that Mike Smith probably knew that the better part of the track was on the outside because that's the only way he could get away with it.

Ron: Well, Steve we do have a lot of questions from readers.

Steve: That's not the end of it? There's more? J

Ron: Yeah, believe me, a lot more. It's not just Triple Crown, but it's a little bit of everything. We got a potpourri of questions here, so let's get on with them.

From someone named UC Lyndon - During the telecast of the Belmont, there was discussion about the idea of making changes, such as changing the length of time between each leg of the Triple Crown and limiting the number of horses in the Derby. Would making changes just for the sake of having a Triple Crown winner lessen the competitive aspect?

Steve: Well, I don't know about the competitive aspect; I know a lot of people have been talking about restructuring the Triple Crown. A lot of people have suggested keeping the Derby at the first Saturday in May and then going to Memorial Day for the Preakness four weeks, then another four weeks to the Fourth of July for the Belmont. I just don't see it.

The Triple Crown is what it is. You have to make it difficult. You can't just keep spreading it out because (1) I'm not sure how short of an attention span the American public has. I addressed this in my latest column -- the American public does not have a long attention span. When you get the casual racing fan and the mainstream America, I don't know if they're going to be able to maintain their interest in the Triple Crown for two months. I just don't see it. Plus, I think it's a lot harder for a horse to maintain its peak form for two months; a lot of things can go wrong during that time.

If you end the Triple Crown on the Fourth of July, really, how many people are going to give up what they normally do on Fourth of July? People are at the beaches, they're picnicking, they're barbecuing, there are family get togethers. Even Memorial Day usually is spent with family activity, so I don't see that either.

I mean there's a lot of reasons why I don't think you should spread it out, one being after the Belmont Stakes, every trainer is going to want to give their horse a rest, especially if they run in two or three legs of the Triple Crown. What, do they come back from four weeks and run in the Haskell and the Jim Dandy? That means the 3-year-old is going to have to go through his entire year without having any kind of a break and then you're dealing with TV contracts on two of the biggest holidays.

As far as spreading it out like that, I just don't see it. What's the other part (of the question) about the Derby field?

Ron: Right, just limiting the number of horses in the Derby, I guess, or decreasing the maximum number of horses allowed in the Derby.

Steve: Well, to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think the Derby definitely would have a better shot at being a fair race with 14 horses than it does now with 20. But my main concern was that of the owners, especially the newer owners, who come into the game with money.

You ask any owners what their goal is in racing and you can bet 95% of them will say it is to win the Kentucky Derby. If you cut their chances of winning the Derby down by 30%, I have to wonder how many of them are going to be less interested in getting involved in this sport or even staying involved in the sport or even staying involved.

There are going to be six owners every year who are not going to be happy when they're left out of the race because of a rule change. The last horse this year needed $255,000 in graded earnings to get to the Derby which is unheard of. How much is it going to require to get in if there are only 14 horses - $500,000? That will mean an awful lot of good horses, deserving horses, are going to be left out each year. A number of horses are going to get in based on two-year-old earnings like the Delta Jackpot and other big 2-year old purses.

Would you rather have a horse in the Derby whose biggest claim to fame was winning the Delta Jackpot at two or the Norfolk Stakes on synthetic surfaces or a horse that just got beat by a nose by the Derby favorite in the Wood Memorial or Arkansas Derby or a horse who won a couple of graded stakes impressively like the Southwest and Rebel Stakes and then had a nightmare trip in the Arkansas Derby and failed to pick up enough earnings? You know, these are all questions that have to be asked before you really implement something like that.

Ron: ...and you run the risk of making it worse than it currently is, actually.

Steve: Yeah, I mean on the surface, a horse has less chance of getting into trouble (with 14 starters). That doesn't mean a horse is not going to get in trouble with 14. We haven't had anything disastrous happen in the Derby during the running of the race. We've had incidences, and you can have incidents in five horse fields. But again, on the surface it seems like an idea to make it a fairer race but for all the reasons I mentioned you have to think about before you do it.

Ron: Let's veer off the Triple Crown trail here for a minute. We got a question from Thaddeus Whoopie. Why do trainers' barns get hot given the quality of horses? Many sports are streaky, i.e. betting streaks, hitting streaks and this may have something to do with neurological performance cycles but it's not clear to me why trainers should be streaky other than from a significant change in staff and/or other training techniques. Do you have any thought on that?

Steve: (Laughing) That's quite a statement. Well, let's put it this way. I don't know if it's the trainers that get streaky or the barn in general. Horses don't change their routine or training methods that much that they would have a hot streak and then a cold streak. They may change their routine and their methods for one or two particular horses but not the entire barn at the same time.

One of the reasons a barn can get hot, in my opinion, is that barns are contagious. It's just a theory but horses are very sensitive to human vibes and when some of the horses get good, the vibes in the barn are positive and the other horses pick up on them. Of course there's always the more obvious reasons why a barn full of horses will start showing dramatic improvement but you don't want me to get into specifics on that. Again, I don't think trainers get streaky. I don't think they do anything different. I just think it's an overall general feeling of what's happening in the barn at that time.

Ron: But you do see some of these come in real cycles. I mean it can be up for six months and then suddenly, you get on the skids for six months.

Steve: Yeah, because a lot of trainers are on a certain schedule where their horses are going to peak at the same time. It's not that they're doing anything different. But if Todd Pletcher is pointing his top 2-year-olds for Saratoga, for example, he's going to have a great meet and he's going to start winning everything. If cardedhe's preparing a lot of these horses, maybe keeping them back a little bit from the midpoints at the end of the Belmont meeting and so he's got all of his horses loaded for Saratoga.

Well you know a lot of trainers do that on a much smaller scale at different racetracks but trainers look ahead. They see what kind of races they want to win, what kind of horses they have and what kind of races that they're capable of winning. They look at the schedule and they have their horses prepared for those races just like Linda Rice here at Saratoga. They carded all of those six furlong sprint turf races, and she had a barn full of six furlong turf horses and what happened is that she dethroned Pletcher and Mott and all the top trainers and became the first female to win a Saratoga training title, doing it basically because her horses fit the conditions of the meet.

Ron: Okay, so it gets back to the overall game plan and the business plan that a stable has and not necessarily the fact that they're not winning today doesn't mean that there's not something they're looking at down the road and pointing toward and that's when it's all going to peak.

Steve: Right, exactly. You can't keep horses in top peak condition all year. You can't have them at the top of their game, so a lot of trainers will train their horses on the same kind of schedule to have them peak at the same time where the racing and the money matter most.

Ron: Turn Back The Alarm wants to know - Can you name your five favorite racehorses of all time and say a few words about each.

Steve: Oh boy, that's always a tough one. Well, I would have to say Damascus for actually being my first favorite horse and getting me interested in horseracing and Arts and Letters, who came along the following year who actually kept my interest going. I just loved that horse. He was the horse I used to visit at Belmont Park the first time I really ever went to the backstretch and around that same period of time, Gallant Bloom, King Ranch filly who became my first favorite filly and still my favorite filly - so those three.

More recently I would have to say Invasor because I absolutely loved visiting that horse at the barn, loved watching him run. He was just a winning machine and just the most amazing horse, personality-wise to be around. Probably the smartest horse with the greatest eye I've ever seen. Because of him, it got me and my wife and my daughter to Uruguay. I barely even knew where Uruguay was but because of writing about him I got to know people down there and they invited me, so it was personal on that level. Tiznow I would have to say is one of my favorites too because his two races in the Breeders' Cup just got me as much excited as any race as I can imagine. I loved the horses' connections. The trainer was a great, great guy--Jay Robbins--and I just loved everything about the horse. I loved being around him and it gave me a lot of thrill.

I mean there's a lot more. His Majesty was another one of my early horses who I followed as a baby through Darby Dan because that was the farm that I used to visit all the time, so he was always special.

Skip Away was certainly special because of my connections with the owner and trainer, and Touch Gold who I picked out as a yearling before the sales and did a big feature on him and followed him throughout his career.

Cigar brought me to Dubai covering his race.

I'm sure I'm leaving a lot of them out but just off the top of my head those would be my favorites.

Ron: Okay. I knew we couldn't keep it to just five; it probably could have been 500.

Steve: I gave five and then an alternate list.

Ron: Right, right. Dennis wants to know - Steve, it was really nice to see Bill Mott capture his first Triple Crown race. If there was a 12 horse field of this year's Triple Crown runners and they got to run over a fast track at a mile and a quarter, who do you think would win?

Steve: Well, okay, obviously it's going to be another one of those big wide open betting races as every race has been so far, but I would have to say definitely Lookin At Lucky; he's the most consistent winner. He never loses without a major excuse and you know what you're going to get from him every time he runs, which is 100%. He even wins when he has a big excuse, like as I mentioned earlier, in the Rebel Stakes and he's a champion. So you add all those things up and if I have to - if push comes to shove and I have to put my money on one horse, I couldn't look past Lookin At Lucky.

Ron: Right, and certainly could even go back to last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile and see what he could do.

Steve: Exactly. He should have won that race too - terrible post and terrible wide trip the whole way. Like I said, he's just ultra consistent and game. He knows how to win and my money would have to be on him.

Ron: Getting back to the best list; everybody likes to pick your brains on your best list. The Deacon wants to know - With everything considered, who in your opinion are the five greatest racehorses of all time?

So the other question was your favorites and now this is going to be the five greatest horses of all time.

Steve: That's another one that's tricky; I usually hate answering questions like that because it depends on what your criteria is. Are you going by pure talent, by race record, or by accomplishments over a period of time. I would have to say if you combine them all, the best horse I've seen at 2-3- and 4 was Spectacular Bid. To me, he was the perfect thoroughbred, the perfect running machine. He defeated top competition, he broke track and world records. He carried weight. He won with 130 pounds or more five times. He raced all over the country. He won 26 of his 30 starts and in fact, he won 24 of his last 26 starts with the only two defeats coming at a mile and a half; one was when the safety pin lodged in his foot the morning of the Belmont. That almost cost him his foot because that foot got so bad that Doc Harthill had to come up and just puncture it and it just gushed like an oil well... he came close to losing that foot if it hadn't been treated. So that was one loss.

The second was another mile and a half race where he finished a close second to Affirmed in the Jockey Club Gold Cup after getting sick and missing the race before the Woodward. So he didn't even have his prep for it.

Spectacular Bid was just an amazing horse.

Ron: Probably the best horse to never have won a Triple Crown that should have and could have.

Steve: Oh by far. He still holds the world record a for mile and a quarter. And after Bid, I'd have to say in no particular order, you gotta' throw Secretariat in there, certainly Dr. Fager , who for one year (1968) may have been the greatest horse of all time. What he did in 1968 was unlike anything I've ever seen. Just an amazing, amazing horse - unlike any horse I've ever seen. It was like somebody had taken a wild mustang and let him loose on a racetrack. He just used to run with this wreckless abandon and just an unbelievable horse and his weight carrying was unreal; as was Forego who would be also in my top five for all the things he did. He was an absolute cripple and I don't know how he kept going year after year winning all these major races - the Marlboro Cup at 137 pounds, the Woodward at 135. And he could sprint.

Here's a horse who won the two mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, when it was two miles, and was the champion sprinter the same year. That would show you how great he was.

The final spot would be close between Damascus and Citation - and I'm not just saying that because Damascus was my first favorite horse. Damascus was basically a horse that you had to see to appreciate because he had the most explosive run I've ever seen . There was his 3-year-old campaign, where he won 12 out of 16 and just absolutely destroyed horses like Buckpasser and Dr. Fager. He had a terrific 4-year-old campaign, even though it was slowed by injury at the end. Seattle Slew and Affirmed, obviously, are right there too.

I never saw Citation race but just looking at the films of him and the stuff that I've read about him, he probably was good as any horse in history up until the time he got hurt and missed an entire year. But again, I'd have to limit it to the horses that I've seen because once you go back to Man O'War and Colin and those kind of horses, it's very hard to come up with a list, especially of five horses, but that's about the best I can narrow it down.

Ron: Someone who uses the username Mr. Ed (these people are pretty clever) - Is it true that you are a big Jay-Z fan and it was your idea to sing Empire State of Mind before the Belmont?

Steve: Hey listen, I don't have too many good things to say about ABC's telecast of the race, especially the way they showed the race but the best thing they did was cut that song off and go to a commercial.

Ron: {laughing}

Steve: I mean that was brutal. I mean they got this little girl to come up there to sing it and it was ... It was just awful to have to listen to . Of all people to get to sing a song about the Belmont Stakes, I mean Jay-Z. I was spawned on sidewalks of New York and even "New York, New York" was fine when they would have some of the top singers like Linda Eder come on and sing that song, it was powerful. Why they changed it, I don't know. I mean are t hey trying to make it a hipper crowd or hipper audience - I don't know.

After what I heard and after the reaction, I would say it's time to dump that song. And no, it was not my idea for them to do that.

Ron: I don't know if it looked as bad in person as it did on television, but it was brutal.

Steve: It sounded horrible in person because you couldn't hear ... you could only hear certain notes and those were the high notes and all you would hear were the same note over and over again of shrieking. Believe me, as bad as it was on TV, it was worse being there.

Ron: Do you think people were concentrating too much on that girl singing that song rather than giving NYRA credit for thinking outside the box and trying to come up with something new?

Steve: Yeah, probably. Probably you have to give them credit for coming up with something new. That doesn't mean their decision was a correct one, but I do give them credit for that. They wanted to try something new, but t didn't work. Now I hope they go back and come up with something else. There are a lot of New York songs if you don't want to do "New York, New York" or if you think Frank Sinatra is too much of an old fuddy duddy for today's hip crowd. You want to try something new and get the younger crowd more interested in the Belmont song or the New York song, or whatever you want to call it. I will give him credit for stepping out of the box.

Ron: Tara wants to know, well first of all, she compliments you on being a brilliant writer and she says she looks forward to your blogs and articles on Bloodhorse.com and in the magazine. Her question is - If someone wanted to become a writer for the horseracing world, how would you recommend they get started?

Steve: Well, first thanks to Tara for the kind words but I would have to say if you want to write about horseracing, it's like anything else, you have to have the passion for it and of course, you have to have some writing skills but don't go out there and try and be Ernest Hemingway. You write from the heart, you know as much about your subject as possible and you learn how to tell a story. I think telling a story is much more important than going out there and writing some Pulitzer Prize award winning piece. Just go out there, talk to people, come up with different angles then just think and prepare your story that you're writing and just do all the leg work and be passionate and when you read it back, just say is this the kind of story that I would want to read if I was the reader?

Of course, you have to have some kind of education and/or experience. You start off writing short things, maybe send them to the Blood Horse for a Final Turn, or you can send to any of the other trade publications. Keep writing and sending them in until someone sees it and runs it and something clicks.

We did that a few years ago. Remember Nan Mooney sent in a final turn. Nobody knew who she was; she turned out she was a terrific writer, wound up writing a terrific book on racing.

Our latest intern, Kelsey Riley, didn't have a lot of experience writing but she had the knack for it and she sent some stuff in, Blood Horse used it and she wound up as an intern, and now just got accepted via Darley Flying Start program. She's got a heck of a bright future. So just keep writing and sending things in to different publications until it hits and you get discovered.

Ron: Like they say, don't be afraid of rejection, just keep plugging and keep working at it.

Steve: Oh definitely. You're totally not going to catch on first time. You're going to get a lot of people who are going to say that this is not for them so you write another one. You just keep writing it until they either like it or they print it just to get rid of you.

Ron: On a personal note, this next question from Barry and I don't think you should get too personal here - Not counting the horseracing industry, what do you enjoy doing the most?

Steve: Oh boy well, not a lot. I don't have any hobbies. I'm happy to say my job is my hobby so I like to put all my attention to that. I know it may sound corny but I would have to say that doing anything with wife and daughter, even if it's just going out to dinner, I just love being with them and doing things with them, so whether that sounds corny or not, that's basically it.

Ron: Okay, what about, I don't know, kicking back late at night on the porch with a cup of brandy and a cigar and listening to opera?

Steve: No, I don't drink brandy, I don't smoke cigars and I'm not big at kicking back. I'd rather be at the computer seeing what's happening there or just maybe watching a little TV. I really lead a very boring life, other than when I'm traveling for racing and going all over the world at these exotic places; it's one extreme or the other. I'm either in Dubai or Uruguay or Paris for the Arc de Triomphe or just hanging around my house doing nothing, just working and that's what I enjoy doing, so I might as well do what I enjoy.

Ron: Moving right along, Ingrid asks - I've noticed there seems to be a lot of fillies born so far this year. It seems like every time you look up, you're seeing about a certain stallion having more and more fillies, does this mean that come the racing year 2012, 2013, we can be looking at the year of the filly that all the Triple Crown races will be dominated by fillies and Horse of the Year will be a filly. Also, do you think Zenyatta will match or surpass Peppers Pride's record of 19 consecutive races undefeated?

Steve: Well, I don't think we're ever going to see a Triple Crown dominated by fillies but there certainly is a trend. A lot of people were saying earlier this year that this is the year of the filly with Zenyatta and Rachel. No one could remember having two fillies of this magnitude in the same year and you add to that Rags to Riches' win in the Belmont Stakes, Zarkava winning the Arc de Triomphe.

Ron: Really 2009 was like the year of the filly because you did have a female Horse of Year and the Breeders' Cup Classic being won by a female.

Steve: Right, I mean how many times would you get a filly winning the Breeders' Cup Classic and another filly being Horse of the Year. So that just shows you how dominant the fillies were last year. I don't know if they're going to be any more dominant than that in 2012 and 2013... It's all cyclical.

I'm going to see if I can get the years right on this but I believe it was a period from 1972 to, say, 1983 when fillies won 8 of the 12 runnings of the Arc de Triomphe. That's like fillies winning 8 out of 12 Breeders' Cup Classics and I think we've had two fillies win since then, since 1983 so that's how things change. But in this country, I do think we're seeing an influx of great fillies and a lot of colts who basically can't match up to them. Is it great for racing? Yeah, I think it is great for racing, just look at the fan base that Zenyatta and Rachel have gotten over the last two years. These aren't just fan clubs.

Ron: Do you think we're really breeding bigger and better fillies or maybe if there's a mindset out there where we're seeing this because in the past maybe trainers and owners have been too timid to take their fillies and challenge them against males, maybe if they had, they would have seen that all along they could be more competitive. It seems like there is a little bit more of a philosophy in Europe as you were just recounting with the Arc, it seems like over there, a lot more, they end up running their female horses against the male horses and they see that, you know, year after year, they're just as competitive.

Steve: Yes. Well, I think it's going to feed off itself because when you see Rags to Riches beat Curlin and then you have Rachel Alexandra beating all the top 3-year-olds in the country and then you have Zenyatta beating the top old horses in the United States and in Europe. I think when, you know, owners and trainers of fillies see that, they're going to have to say you know what, if these fillies can do it - you know, do I have a great filly? I don't know but maybe the colts in the last few years haven't been as strong as they have been in the past... like is said, everything goes in cycles. And I think we just had a period where we've got several really outstanding fillies and not a lot of outstanding colts.

Now, this year, it will be interesting to see because you've got Quality Road and we're going to see what happens this weekend with Blame and Rail Trip. We've got some really exciting colts coming up now. Let's see what happens if Rachel Alexandra gets back to her winning ways this weekend and if Zenyatta continues her winning streak and if they wind up meeting these kind of horses, you know, I don't mean meeting some of the type of synthetic horses that Zenyatta beat last year or just the 3-year-olds that Rachel beat last year, you know, a solid group of older horses but not comparable to what we have this year, I don't think, at least. But let's see what happens if they meet horses like Quality Road and Rail Trip and Blame, if they continue their winning ways because these are solid older horses.

I think it's going to make things very exciting if we can get those three older horses against these two fillies at some point at the end of the year hopefully in the Breeder's Cup Classic.

Ron: While we're on the subject of these fillies both running this weekend, considering that reigning horse of the year is running against grade III horses and Zenyatta's putting her undefeated win streak on the line against grade I company - what does that say, if anything, about the respective horses and their owners or trainers at this point in the year?

Steve: Well, you know, it's not what everybody was envisioning. How do you explain to the casual racing fan or even the non-racing fan, more so, why Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra are running on the same weekend and not against each other and running on opposite ends of the country. Really, how do you explain that?

When they were supposed to run against each other, Rachel backed out. I don't think she was actually ready that early in the year and I don't know what we're going to expect from Rachel. I mean, she did not work for five months. You don't see that. If a horse is hurt, then they don't work for five months. They don't just stand in their stall when they're perfectly sound for five months and not work and if she was hurt in some way, why not send her to a farm and let her run around the paddock for a couple of months unless she had an injury that you didn't want to do that. Nobody knows. That's the problem. We don't know what's coming out of that camp. We didn't even know what race she was running in until a couple of days ago.

Ron: Right. Right.

Steve: We really don't know what's happening. As far as Zenyatta, you know, they said before the year that this is the year they want to show her off to the American public and have some fun with her. So you know, they brought her to Oaklawn, which was great and now they're going to run her in the Vanity again, which is running twice and now they say they're going to run her at Del Mar in the Clement Hirsch which she has won twice. That basically eliminates Saratoga and I was kind of hoping to see Zenyatta at Saratoga, which I think would have been fantastic, especially if she could have met Rachel Alexandra in a race like the Personal Ensign or some race at Saratoga. The excitement is there.

They're doing what they feel is best for their individual horse. It's just unfortunate that we're not going to see Zenyatta at Saratoga. It's unfortunate that we're still waiting to see these two fillies run against each other and hopefully it will happen later in the year. Once Zenyatta gets through Delmar, they'll bring her east for Belmont Park, maybe for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, one of those two races and then the Breeders' Cup Classic.

I think if they could have fun with her at the end of the year, that will be fine because you can't keep taking a filly - any horse - and just keep shuttling them back and forth from one coast to the other coast. A horse can only take so much. Zenyatta, she can get highl strung at times. She's a good feeling filly and so they probably figure, you know what, we'll keep her at home for the summer and then travel with her in the fall. So we'll just have to have patience and wait for it.

As far as Rachel goes, let's just hope this is going to be a key race. Let's just hope not in so much that she wins but let's hope that we see the Rachel Alexandra of last year. We did not see that Rachel Alexandra in these first two performances and sometimes - listen, like I said before, when you're at work for five months, you've got to get their head back on straight, and she was doing things in those two races and in some of her workouts that she didn't do last year. Though let's hope that she's progressing. She's going in the right direction and we start seeing the Rachel from last year and then we can start getting excited again.

Ron: Next, not so much a question but an idea is from Chris. Chris writes - The stories that go with most racehorses are very compelling. Why don't you work with PBS and start a program that is about the people of racing? It would include horses and give a face and a profile that is positive for racing and hopefully change its image. You can start with Skip Away or maybe Mrs. Dupont and Kelso.

By the way, Steve, speaking of Kelso, you didn't have him on any of your top lists there but -

Steve: They only asked me for five.

Ron: But you went ahead and gave us eight to ten either way...

Steve: Hey, listen, I wrote a book on Kelso, so he's certainly going to be in the top 10 but you know, they only asked for five and hey, listen, what can I tell you? I left out a lot of great horses.

Ron: What do you think about Chris's idea?

Steve: Why don't I go to work with PBS? I don't work for PBS and I don't know anyone at PBS but as far as the idea goes, I think it's an excellent idea. I think PBS, if they were willing, would be a tremendous outlet for racing. Basically, what Chris has to do was write to the NPRA. They're the ones that are supposed to be marketing and publicizing the sport, everything has to start with them unless you know some outside marketing firms that would have an interest in it.

Now racing does have a couple of very good private marketers. I don't want to mention names. Hopefully, they're listening and they'll like the idea but, yes, racing, working with PBS would be fantastic. Some are great documentaries... there was one documentary that appeared on PBS that was produced in Canada years ago called "Secretariat's Last Race" about this documentary on his start in the Canadian International. That was one of the best racing documentaries I've ever seen.

So if we can get PBS interested, we've got a lot of great filmmakers nowadays, I mean, just look at all the great documents we've had on racing. We've got the John Henry movie that just came out that's looking for someone to market it and distribute it and do something with it. I saw that movie, it was great. Of course, "The First Saturday in May "was fantastic. There had been others too. "Race to the Derby" which nobody even saw was a phenomenal documentary. There are a lot of documentary makers out there and PBS is the way to go. These people put up a lot of their own money and they want to see a little bit more return.

Ron: Yeah, it is fairly interesting that you haven't seen more; let's say horseracing considering its history on PBS or even the History Channel for that matter.

Moving on, Nancy says - Due to the economic downturn and difficulties facing racing across the board, do you think that breeders and owners will return to breeding racehorses that have stamina and soundness, i.e. good bone and speed rather than whisking them off to the breeding shed? Will trainers use tried and true methods of the past for keeping horses in their charge sound and off drugs?

Steve: Oh Nancy, if only this were a perfect world. You know, as far as the speed goes, speed is the essence of horseracing, it always has been but we've infused our horses with so much of it, unfortunately, we're about to OD on it. We've all but removed stamina from the blood of our horses and there were just too many quick-fix owners out there right now in the sport who don't have the patience to wait for longer races so they pay ridiculous amounts of money for speed and then they want to know why they don't have any horses left by the time they're three and four.

Now as much as I'm not a proponent of synthetic surfaces, I thought at first maybe breeders and owners would want to concentrate more on grass and stamina horses in order to make the transition to the synthetics because there was so much money being offered on the synthetic surfaces like we saw in the 2009 Breeders' Cup and even last year. You look at the 2009 Classic where the first two finishers were both grass horses from Europe and we had a lot of grass horses and more stamina horses than speed horses but all I know is if we don't do something now, there won't be any stamina left to put back into our horses. I'm not sure there's that much left now if you look at all the great stamina influences in racing and all the little LeFabuleuxs and the Herbagers, they're disappearing, they're now back into the fifth, sixth generation.

As far as talking about drugs, well you know, that's a topic that would take a long time to go into but just getting rid of this overload of drugs certainly is a necessary first step and we're only going to do that by having much stricter penalties.

Ron: And along the same lines, we've got a question and observation here from Nick Regine who, discusses breeding the stamina out of the breed and he goes on to say, "I have attended racing in England and in Ireland and there seem to be more respect for the horse over there and that respect seems to be lacking here."

His conclusion is he wants to know how do you see the sport of racing in the US 20 years from now.

Steve: Well, first of all, yes, I mean as far as the respect, yeah I would have to agree with him. Having been to Europe and seeing the relationship between the fans and the owners and the fans with the horses, there is a lot more respect but the game is different. The fans don't get to see the horses the way our fans do. You can go to the racetrack and watch a horse and go visit them in the barn. As far as the seeing the sport 20 years from now, I don't know how I see the sport two years from now, never mind 20. And as far as...you're looking at the gambling aspect of it, we let other forms of gambling pass us by and now we have to turn to them to help us survive mainly with the slots. We need to have slots in New York, in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, Maryland, something has to be done there.

As I mentioned before, we need stricter penalties for drug infractions and most important, we need people even if it's a single commissioner who actually know what they're doing, who can combine the key business and marketing minds with an astute knowledge of racing. We need a rule maker for everyone in the sport and strict enforcement of those rules. Any racetracks who don't like it, well, they can start looking for land developers. We need to weed out the greedy racetrack owners, even at the expense of running at fewer tracks.

Ron: Right, and you're not implying at all, racetrack owners are greedy just...

Steve: No, it's done by now...

Ron: It's already out there, you need to weed them out.

Steve: Yeah, the thing is that racetracks and racetrack owners are entities unto themselves. They live in their own little island and they're oblivious to what happens, so they're only interested in what happens on their island and not what's happening in the other islands where you want to get all these islands together to form one nation to go off on a tangent a bit. But these racetracks can't just think of themselves. They have to think of the sport as a whole and a lot of the racetrack owners aren't doing that. So we need somebody to make up rules the way we have a football commissioner and baseball commissioner and listen, you don't think the owners of these football teams or baseball teams that wanted to do what they feel like it but there are rules. And they've learned that they have to adhere to these rules and that's the same way with the racetrack owners. If they want the sport to succeed the football has and the way a lot of other sports have...

Ron: Everybody has to play by the rules.

Steve: Sure, of course.

Ron: Be it the owners, jockeys, trainers, or racetrack owners.

Steve: Yeah, we need...everything's got to be uniform. You know, uniform licensing...we have to have these owners and trainers going to the racetrack and not having to get a license for every single racetrack they go to. I mean, the keyword is uniform. Everything has got to be the same for everyone. It's got to be one sport and not 50 different racetracks forming one sport.

Ron: Steve, we can go back to the records of the trade publications from the 30s and 40s and see where people were talking about the need for uniformity on policies amongst states and where are we now.

Steve: Sure.

Ron: So what makes us think it's going to happen over the next two years, as you're saying, or the next 20 years as this writer suggests?

Steve: I'm not saying it's going to happen; I just said I'd like to see it happen. There's a big difference. I mean right now, racing doesn't seem to be moving in the proper direction. We have some vocal people. We have like a Satish Sanan who's not afraid to come out and say things whether they're controversial or not, but he has the good of the sport in mind. We have one person who is trying right now to get on the Breeders' Cup board, Jerry Jamgotchian, who a lot of people frown upon because they consider him a troublemaker but he's an idea man and he's got great ideas. He's come up with a whole proposal for the Breeders' Cup, which I read and I thought most of the ideas he had were great. Now let's see what the Breeders' Cup people do.

Ron: It sounds like you're Jerry's campaign manager.

Steve: Listen, I really don't even know him, I haven't even met him, but I know what he's done and I read his Breeders' Cup proposals and I know he's an idea man and what have you got to lose. If after six months he starts getting on everybody's nerves, you boot him out, that's all, but give this idea man a chance.

Ron: Yeah. I mean after all, what we're doing right now isn't working too well, is it?

Steve: No, it's not.

Ron: Next question from Dr. Drinkingbaum - again, I don't know where these guys...

Steve: Oh, Dr. D., sure I know him from my blog.

Ron: So he writes, Steve, your writings sometimes bring tears to the eyes, sometimes it's tears of joy, sometimes because of a tragedy. Other than a breakdown, my most devastating moment was Smarty Jones' loss in the Belmont. Can you tell us yours?

Steve: Oh boy. Well, other than a breakdown? Well, you know Smarty Jones would be right up there. Even though that I was happy for Birdstone and I was happy for Nick Zito, but the sport was just absolutely clamoring that year for a Triple Crown winner. I remember at the quarter pole when they came to the top of the stretch and Smarty Jones opened up three or four lengths and I turned around and the fans were already jumping and hugging and kissing each other and it was unbelievable. The fact that everybody was let down the way they were and there were actually people crying, I found that pretty devastating. I really did. I mean it was just an emptiness inside that boy, this was it. Undefeated horse would have been one of the greatest stories in racing history and even the owners going down on the track, Marylou Whitney and her husband, John Hendrickson, they weren't even in a good mood. John said, "Oh no, this was bad. We didn't want this." Marylou almost looked like she had lost the race. She was devastated because she was rooting for Smarty Jones.

I would have to agree with Dr. D. that that was pretty devastating as far as the defeat, of course all defeats by horses that were my favorites. I thought Cigar getting beat at Del Mar and not being able to break Citations' record was pretty devastating. Again, those are the losses, you have to put up with those.

On the scale of Smarty Jones, I don't know I've seen anything bigger and only because of the fact that the fans was so disappointed and people that had come all over from Philadelphia and there were so many kids there. I was at Philadelphia Park during those weekends when they galloped Smarty Jones and they had 10,000 people showed up and kids sitting on their father's shoulders with Smarty Jones hats and t-shirts. The kids loved him, it was just a great story of the little horse that could, that survived this horrible injury when he was a baby and just the connections, so yeah... I'm getting myself all worked up just talking about it.

Ron: Yeah and I'll tell you what, I mean anybody who was at the Belmont that day could just tell you how it went from what you were talking about, everybody already celebrating that win and just going ballistic and then a 120,000 people stunned silent. You can hear pin drop as they crossed the finish line.

Steve: Even Tom Durkin's voice, you know, you can hear it. He jumped at this unbelievable crescendo and then at the end it's, "And Birdstone wins the Belmont...." it's a voice of plummeted and you know what, watching the race over again and I know it sounds strange to say this but I actually felt sorry for Smarty Jones. Looking at him, it's almost as if I'm envisioning him. If you could think, if you put human tendencies into horses, saying "This is not supposed to happen. I'm not supposed to lose. I've never done this before," and he tried so hard. People forget that he ran his third quarter in that race in :22 and four-fifths seconds. Unheard of! The three horses, he had to beat all ganged up on him, and he ran them all into the ground, all into the ground and when he hit the quarter poll, he ran them out on a quarter in the seventh fastest time for the Kentucky Derby.

Ron: Wow.

Steve: The horse that beat him was the horse that Edgar Prada was riding for second. That's why he won because he just sat back and let of all of those other three horses just do a number on Smarty Jones. Obviously, he had a target on his back and it was unfortunate that it happened and that those riders had to ride that way but what are you going to do, time to move on, but that was a cruel day for all of those 120,000 people.

We better stop talking about it now you're going to get me start crying.

Ron: Greg J wants to know - Do you know how Kip Deville is doing since your last update?

Steve: Well, unfortunately, I do and I'm keeping my fingers cross. I found that actually as of yesterday that Kip has taken a turn for the worse at the Rood & Riddle. He was doing well and they discovered his foot was red hot, he was unable to stand on it, and the vet told Mike Iavarone that it looks like they're in trouble. I'm just waiting to hear anything further but for all of you Kip Deville fans out there, right now it's not looking good. I wish I had better report to give because everything was going so well, the vets were so amazed at this horse and its will to live and listen, we went through that with Barbaro.

Ron: Oh yeah.

Steve: Barbaro was supposed to be released. Remember how he was supposed to be released?

Ron: Oh yeah.

Steve: Just right after Christmas and everybody was looking forward to him and it was just unbelievable then all of a sudden...

Ron: He even got out and ate some grass in a paddock.

Steve: Yeah and he took... that's why laminitis is such a horrible thing. It's just that you're never, never out of the woods and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed for Kip Deville and maybe another miracle will happen.

Ron: Actually, Steve, we're going to close on that note. Wish it could have been on a more uplifting note but it's been an interesting session with you. I always enjoy it. Maybe we should do this more often. Maybe we should meet again here.

Thanks for insights on the Triple Crown and your best list and I'm sure you have more of those best lists where that came from. I really thank you for your time.

Steve: It's always a pleasure talking to you, Ron. Take care.

Steve Haskin

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:01:00 GMT

Submit your questions below for Steve Haskin.

Steve Haskin is an award-winning Turf writer renowned for his Kentucky Derby commentary, with weekly articles, Classic Spotlights, and the "Derby Dozen" all found on the BloodHorse.com website's special Triple Crown Mania section. He also moderates the popular “Hangin' with Haskin” blog at BloodHorse.com. Haskin, who has won six Red Smith Awards for his Kentucky Derby coverage, is the author of biographies of Dr. Fager, John Henry, and Kelso, as well as "Tales from the Triple Crown", all published by Eclipse Press.

Thank you for your questions. The podcast will be taped on Thursday, June 10.

Robert LaPenta Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:54:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Robert LaPenta Bio

Talkin' Horses with Robert LaPenta transcript:

Ron: Welcome to Bloodhorse.com's Talkin' Horses podcast. Today we're pleased to have as our guest, Robert LaPenta, a major horse owner who just first started his stable in the early 2000s and with Nick Zito as his trainer's come a long way in a short period of time. This year, he has two top prospects for the Kentucky Derby, obviously the Florida Derby winner Ice Box and another horse who hasn't achieved as much yet but certainly, for which he has high expectations, Jackson Bend.

Welcome to the podcast, Mr. LaPenta.

Robert: Well, thanks for having me.

Ron: Some of our readers may not know that you first got started in the horse business in the early 2000s and one of your first partners was University of Louisville basketball coach, Rick Pitino. We've gotten quite a few questions. A lot of them are long, similar lines so we'll just go ahead and start off with those.

The first one is from Bob Smollen - Congratulations on your win with Ice Box in the Florida Derby. Are you comfortable with the six-week gap leading up to the Kentucky Derby for your horse or would you have preferred something else?

Robert: Well, to answer the question directly, yes, I am comfortable with the six-week break. You know Nick Zito's a pro at getting horses ready for these big races, I think the horse is in top shape, he's training well, and as you know, with Birdstone, he proved that it could be done I think when he won the Belmont off of a long layoff. So the answer is I am comfortable and I think the horse is going to be in great shape on the first Saturday in May.

Ron: Next question from Kelly Inman - Do you think Ice Box's running style as a closer will need to be altered at all to have a shot late in the race with this large of a field?

Robert: No, actually, I think the way this race is setting up, I think it's setting up perfectly for a closer like Ice Box and maybe even Pleasant Prince. They've had a pretty good duel already in two or three prior races and I think this one sets up for a closer. I think everybody knows that there are a lot of front runners in any race and you know this is a long race and I think this one's going to set up well for Ice Box.

Ron: Let's just say you probably would not want to be as far back as Mine That Bird was last year.

Robert: {laughs} No. Actually, you know I was surprised that Ice Box was as far back as he was in the Fountain of Youth and the Florida Derby. So maybe he'll be a little bit closer but again, it's a long race and I think there are going to be a lot of tired horses when they hit the top of the stretch.

Ron: And again, and Mine That Bird showed that it can be done.

Robert: Well, I think his performance there was really one for the ages. I mean that performance, if you looked at it from the aerial view, it looked like something you'd see on a videogame. {laughs}

Ron: Yeah. In fact, you probably can't expect that type of thing to set up every year in the Kentucky Derby.

Robert: No. And I think the one X factor in this race, you know there's going to be Eskendereya and this is a horse that has a very, very versatile running style. If he can get in the clear in a stalking position, he's certainly going to be the one to worry about as far as I'm concerned.

Ron: Well, and that brings us to the next question which is from Joe in Niskayuna, New York. He says Eskendereya beat Ice Box pretty handily in the Fountain of Youth and came back easily to win the Wood, what makes you believe Ice Box is close to gap on him and gives you a chance to beat him in the Derby?

Robert: Well, you know if you looked at Eskendereya's performance in the Fountain of Youth and particularly in the Wood, I think anybody would have to say that there's no question he's the horse to beat. As we know in the first Saturday in May with 20 horses in the field and everybody jockeying for position, a lot of strange things can happen. I think he's an improving horse and he certainly proved a mile and a quarter is not going to be any problem for him. I think Ice Box is also an improving horse. I think he gets better and better. He's done two turns now at a mile and eighth and I think his performance and his closing kick in the Florida Derby would have to give anybody in that race a concern. So I think they're both getting better. It's going to be a very difficult race. I think Eskendereya is the horse to beat and we'll just have to see what happens. One thing's for sure in this game, nothing is ever for sure.

Ron: That is correct. Who else do you see as the biggest challenges as far as the horses we're pretty sure are going to be in that Derby field?

Robert: Well, we've all watched all the Derby preparations. There are a couple of big ones coming up this weekend in the Arkansas Derby and the Blue Grass. I think the Blue Grass has lost some of its luster because it's gone to Polytrack and the winners there, the good performances are question marks, as are a lot of the horses on the West Coast. So I think a horse that is a closer is going to have a particular advantage in this race. So although he's not in the Derby yet, I expect a horse like Pleasant Prince, maybe Awesome Act, some of these that come off the pace I think is going to be in a good position in the Derby.

Ron: Next question comes from racefan47 - What are your thoughts on Jackson Bend's second place finish in the Wood and what's down the road for him?

Robert: Well, you know, I think Jackson Bend is probably one of the best 3-year-olds in the country. I think if you look at his record and what he's been able to accomplish and the tenacity that he shows whenever a horse comes up to him in the stretch, he just refuses to lose. If Eskendereya weren't in both of those races, he'd certainly be one of the top horses, top picks in the country but you know visually, it was not impressive because of the way Eskendereya just ran away from the field. I mean Eskendereya in the Wood looked like a horse that was on jet fuel. It was just amazing.

Jackson Bend in nine races, you know he won the Florida Stallion Stakes, he had an amazing performance in his last race there where he stumbled coming out of the gate, he went five wide, he was challenged in the stretch, caught another gear and you saw a little bit of that in the Wood. So he's an amazing horse and I think he's underrated.

As far as what we think of him for the Derby and can he do the distance, I think Jackson Bend never runs a bad race. So we're going to see how he develops over the next couple of weeks, we're going to see, hopefully, he'll put on a little more weight. But for me, it'd be nice to have a horse that could be in the stalking position, you know, four or five lengths off and then have Ice Box maybe a little further back. So that, to me, would be an ideal position for us going into the Derby.

Ron: And along the same lines with Jackson Bend, this question is from Dick Downey . He wants to know how he's been doing since the Wood Memorial and when is he scheduled to arrive at Churchill Downs?

Robert: Jackson Bend came out of the - he came out of the Wood in phenomenal shape. I mean that night he ate everything, he was kicking the barn, he actually does not like to lose and he knows when he loses. So he's in great shape, thank God, he's doing well and in fact, I think he'll be going to Churchill I think maybe even this week.

Ron: Concerning another one of your 3-year-olds, a reader named Paul asks - I am the breeder of one of your promising young three 3-year-old colts named Miner's Reserve, I was hoping you might provide some information with regards to your future plans for him.

Robert: Miner's Reserve is another great - you know we're just fortunate to have a number of nice horses in our barn. Certainly, Miner's Reserve is one of them, Our Dark Knight is another and we have a couple of more that I think are going to be coming on a little later in the year. Miner's Reserve, obviously, it was a risky decision off of just a couple of races to put him in. It's such a tough position in the Florida Derby but a lot of people felt that he was really going to be the horse to beat aside from Eskendereya and a couple of the others. Rule I think was the other colt favorite.

So he came out of the race well and our fallback position there when we decided to run him in the Florida Derby was to run him in the Cliffs Edge Derby Trial on the opening day of Churchill Downs and right now that's what we're thinking about.

Ron: Wow. Wouldn't that be something to be winning the race that you're sponsoring?

Robert: That would be awesome.

Ron: I guess you present yourself with the trophy, correct? {laughing}

Robert: That'd be a great day.

Ron: And what about Our Dark Knight, is he going to be in one of the Triple Crown races?

Robert: You know I don't know if he's - right now we're looking for another - he had a really nice race on the day of the Florida Derby, you know coming from behind, very strong kick in the stretch. We're looking for maybe a little easier race for him now. Depending on what happens there, we'll think about what we're going to do. When things get to around the Belmont, a lot of strange things can happen so we're going to keep our options open but one thing's for sure the Belmont is a race that if you make a decision to run in it, you really have to think about the horse because a lot of horses come out of that race and they're just basically done for the rest of the year. So we're going to think real hard about that.

As far as the Preakness, again, I think we'll have to see what happens in the Derby.

Ron: Next question comes from Sheila - Do you think that having 20 horses entering the starting gate for the Derby cheapens the field by allowing horses that obviously do not belong in the same race with top flight runners just because the connections have a breathing 3-year-old and then an attack of Derby fever?

Robert: You know the Derby is Thoroughbred's racing Super Bowl; everybody wants to go to the Super Bowl. It's just an incredible day, the ambiance, the excitement, the crowd, the international coverage, so it's a day that everybody wants to participate in. I think 20 horses is not too large. I think if you limited the field you actually would probably keep out some pretty good horses like what happened last year; but you know, every horse in the Derby is a quality horse. There's no question about it.

This year, it's going to take somewhere between $225,000 to $250,000 of stakes earnings to get in so there's no question every horse is going to be a quality horse and the fact that you have 20 3-year-olds out of the 30,000 3-year-olds that are born says that there's no question you'd have the cream of the crop in the race. The only question you might ask and I really don't know the answer to it or whether it's ever been considered is quite often, horses that win 2-year-old stakes races are different horses and really don't step up and mature when they make the conversion to pre. So there maybe some consideration, maybe discounting 2-year-old earnings a little bit but that's the only thing that I would consider.

Ron: Next question Claude Ciancio - Besides his record of success on the track, what traits and attributes did you see in Nick Zito that has led you to use him as your trainer for so many years?

Robert: Well, going back to when I began in my partnership and even before I got directly involved, I use to watch the classic races and one thing always stood out and that was that Nick had a tremendous eye for talent and a real ability that I think differentiates him from a lot of the other trainers in being very patient with young horses, not pushing them too hard and being able to develop them and hopefully keep them healthy to get to this level of racing. So that was the one trait that I looked for, his ability to - you know he's got a great eye and I think patience, perseverance and a tremendous amount of experience and success.

Ron: Also along the same lines of your trainer, Jim Labadini asks - I admire your dedication to the sport and also I greatly approve of Mr. Zito as your trainer, how do you select the horses that you purchase at sales and do you solely rely on your trainer?

Robert: No, actually - well, I'm a firm believer of picking a good team, people that are experts that are really good at what they do and that to me is the key to success of every operation. So I really don't try to get involved too directly in things that I should leave to the experts but we've had a great relationship and really what I do is I give Nick some guidance on horses or maybe sires that I like. For instance, I said to Nick let's go find a good Fusaichi Pegasus, let's go find a good Mineshaft, let's go find a good Medaglia d'Oro, let's go find a good Bernardini. So with loose guidelines and then saying let's buy some speed horses, let's buy some distance horses, we try to get a nice mix. You know I have an annual budget and basically, beyond that though I allow Nick and the team to go and execute on that plan.

Ron: Who else is on the team, can you say?

Robert: Well, I have my racing manager, Ernie Richards who really knows everything about racing and breeding and he really tracks the horses and he's very important to me at the sale. You know I have a breeding expert who's on the team, Dave Floyd, really very into the whole bloodline thing and he assists in the process. My son is very involved. We track all of the horses and the sires and so it's kind of a team effort and it's working out real well so far.

Ron: Next question is from Eric Mitchell who asks - To what do you attribute your fortune, great people, racing luck, what has allowed you to remain successful?

Robert: Well, I think like anything else, you've got to have good people which we just talked about. I think you need a good plan. I approached the racing game and when I entered it, a lot of people said why you're getting involved in a game when all you do is pour money down a hole and lose a lot of money. And my answer to that question was I thought that if you could have a good business plan, if you had good people working with you to execute it, then you could put together a successful program. There's no question in this game with the Thoroughbreds and oddly, the better they are, the more prone they are to getting injured. So this is a very, very difficult sport to be successful in, there's a lot ego, there's a lot emotion, there's a lot of competition but I think if you have a good business plan and good people to execute it, you can be successful. And so far, {{knocking on wood}, I'm knocking on wood as we speak, we've been able to do it.

Ron: And I guess a certain element of luck.

Robert: There's no question that luck plays a big part of success in this game.

Ron: Next question is from David who asks - What advice do you have for an owner just getting into the business on the selection and purchase of young horses?

Robert: My advice to a young owner getting into the game for the first time would be to join a partnership to really become familiar with a lot of the intricacies of the sport, the horse selection process, really get into the game. I would suggest you get in very slowly and spend literally a number of years before you become heavily involved because there are so many different things that can happen along the way and so many obstacles that a novice getting into the sport and trying to do it on his own right off the bat I think would be a mistake.

Ron: So pretty much I guess just kind of segue into it and I guess by spreading your risk among other people in a partnership, it's a good entree at a level of which you're not going lose too much money as you learn.

Robert: Exactly right, yeah. I think it'd be a paid internship for a new owner.

Ron: Along similar lines, what do you think racing can do to attract new people to the game?

Robert: Well, you know it's a frustrating part of it for me. I mean it's really one of the greatest sports. I mean it's been around for hundreds if not thousands of years and you know I think today that the sport is not anywhere near the level of popularity that it should be. So I look at it almost like basketball maybe 15 to 20 years ago when the sport was waning, weren't a lot of people attending the games, I think you need to bring young people into the sport, you got to make it much more relevant. I mean nobody wants to go to a racetrack and be there with 500 people. I mean you want it to be vibrant, you want it to be alive, you want music, you want a lot of activity, you know you want to make it an event and I think racing is missing that and they've just got to bring it to the next level and bring a lot of young people into the sport. I think there's no question that OTB has altered the sport because it's brought a lot of people away from the track and they can make a phone call or they can go to the various OTB parlors but you got to bring people in the door. It's advertising, it's appealing to the young, maybe getting rock groups at a lot of these not only on a Saturday when a Wood Memorial or a Saturday when the Kentucky Derby or some of these big races. You got to make people want to come, you have to have good food and I think the VLT thing is actually going to help the sport also because you'll pull them into the parking lot, like Gulfstream. I mean you can go there during the week and there will be a thousand cars in the parking lot. So you feel like it's relevant, you're participating in something that people want to participate in and that's what I think we need to do.

Ron: In other words, make it a little bit more special?

Robert: Make it more special, make it more lively, bring in events, you've got to bring young people into the sport.

Ron: Do you think that year-round racing has kind of sapped the energy from those types of things you're talking about right there?

Robert: No, I don't think so. Racing is like a seasonal thing and there's a season for every part of the sport. You know at the beginning of the year it's all about the Kentucky Derby and the young 3-year-olds and when you get past the Triple Crown races, you know Saratoga is a national venue that everybody's there. It's a party atmosphere. It's a great thing. And then when you get into the fall, you know Belmont, Aqueduct and the other tracks that reopen, it's a great thing. November/December, you're looking at the 2-year-olds who may be stars in the following year. You have the Breeders' Cup. So I don't think the year around racing is the issue because I think there's a season and the sport I think handles that pretty well. I think you just got to make it more lively and whether it's limiting, you know maybe the weekday races and doing more from Friday to Sunday or Thursday to Sunday kind of thing, I'd consider doing that because you know during the week people are working, you're not going to get a lot of people out, and I think that does detract to a certain extent from the popularity of the sport.

Ron: Have you and would you recommend to your friends and business associates that they become involved in horse racing either as fans or owners?

Robert: Well, there's no question. You know this is a great spectator sport and I don't think people realize it's a great family sport. I mean you've seen me at a lot of races and they don't have to be Breeders' Cup races or Triple Crown races. When we have a horse running on a weekend, I get my whole family out, I get friends out, anybody that has a connection to the sport wants to be involved. They love going to the paddock, they love attending the race, a great day. So family, you know a lot of times you'll invite them over for a Sunday dinner and nobody will come. If you say we have a horse running on Sunday or Saturday at the track, you'll get the whole family and grandchildren and so everybody wants to be involved. So there's no question it's a great sport if people feel a connection to it.

The first part of your question would I recommend that friends get involved in this sport? I think it's a great sport. A lot of people can't get directly involved in owning a football team or a basketball team or a baseball team. Here, you can get involved and you can get involved to the extent of your financial and your time. You can get involved as much or as little as you want to. So yes, I would recommend people get involved in this sport and once they get involved it's infectious. I mean people will tell you - I mean even George Steinbrenner, winning a horse race to him was in some sense a greater experience than winning the World Series. So it's a very, very emotional sport. It's a great sport, great hobby. But again, I would recommend that if you're going to get involved, you start with a partnership, you learn the ropes, you learn what it's all about and then you could decide where you want to take it from there.

Ron: Next question - Obviously, you've gained quite a bit of success quickly in the industry and have a lot of respect among your peers in the industry, do you have any interest in getting involved in the alphabet soup organizations that run racing or are you happy with your niche as an owner?

Robert: Well, I think if I would ever get to the point where I'm not as active in my professional career, learning businesses and doing thing, I think I would like to get involved in the management area of sport because over the years, I've learned a lot. There are a lot of things that I think I would like to contribute. I think one thing that the sport lacks is a governing body that really regulates the whole sport. I would really do a lot more in the areas of substance, drug testing, I would increase the penalties for anybody that's caught crossing the lines in that regard. In life, I think we all know that if anybody steals something, a thousand dollars, they go to jail. In this industry, if people are doing things that they shouldn't be doing, they get a 20-day suspension. There's something wrong with that because it's stealing millions of dollars. And then I'd like to get involved from the perspective of making this sport more popular. I'm thinking about things of how we could do that, how we could bring more people into this sport. So two things: regulation management and getting more people involved.

Ron: I think there'd be a lot of organizations looking forward to you kind of segueing out of your primary business and moving more into the racing aspect of it that you just mentioned.

Next one is from M R Bradley - What is your opinion of the idea of a permanent site for the Breeders' Cup? Personally, I think it is a colossal mistake.

Robert: I agree. I think the Breeders' Cup in many respect is like another Super Bowl, it's an international event, great, great coverage around the world. So I think it should be treated like that and cities should actually bid, different sites should bid to get the Breeders' Cup for different years. It brings a lot of tourism and revenue into the hosting city. So I think it's a great thing. The thing that, to me, I would consider though is the different surfaces, the synthetic surfaces I think are greatly altered. What happens in these races and unless it caters to the majority of Thoroughbred racing participant, I think it detracts a little bit from what it should be. So for instance, Santa Anita and the Polytrack I think detracted somewhat from the broad appeal of the Breeders' Cup because it gave it much more of a European turf flavor. So that's a consideration that I think the Thoroughbred, International Thoroughbred Association people and the Breeders' Cup association should consider when selecting a site.

Ron: So in other words, have it on a surface that has far greater appeal on a more universal basis across all the lines of the industry.

Robert: That's right.

Ron: Next questions from Esther Marr - Looking back over all your successes, what has been your favorite moment or memory so far in the industry?

Robert: Well, I've had a lot of great moments myself, my family, my friends and I think it would be hard to pick one because each one of them was a little unique but certainly, The Cliff's Edge, winning the Blue Grass and becoming a favorite for the Derby early on, that was my first real success. So like anything else, it's right up there as far as just great, great memories and days but certainly, War Pass, winning the Breeders' Cup was just an incredible day and Da' Tara coming out of nowhere at 35 or 36-1, whatever and beating Big Brown who everybody considered to be the Triple Crown winner, that was an incredible day. So there have been a number of - the Florida Derby certainly was right up there at the top and we just had a great day and I'm hoping that one day soon the Kentucky Derby will be on the list.

Ron: And she has a follow up which is - Who has been your favorite horse of all the ones you've had, not necessarily the most successful but just your favorite even from a sentimental point of view?

Robert: Well, I think the fact that I sponsored The Cliff's Edge in the Derby Trial I think is an indication of what the answer to that question is. He not only was my first great one winner but for me, he really exemplified what the sport is all about and what horse racing is all about. He was an underdog, he was a very unlucky horse but he just kept trying and trying and he was actually voted the most unlucky horse of the year but he has a horse with tremendous ability, tremendous heart, never gave up but to me he displayed a lot of the qualities that people should have in life.

I had an executive meeting once and I actually sited The Cliff's Edge as really a horse that exemplified what it means and what it takes to be successful in life. And despite hard luck and setback, he kept trying, you try to win and you become successful.

Ron: Well, let me wrap up our podcast today with a question from Paul Sedgwick. Your philanthropy is very commendable. Do you also support Thoroughbred retirement programs and what became of Little Cliff?

Robert: I'm a big supporter of Thoroughbred retirement programs. Again, I'm glad to see that this thing is now garnering national attention, people are focusing on it, there is current legislation pending about penalties and criminal actions against people, transporting horses for other than racing and retirement. So I'm a benefactor. I support two or three of the foundations, the retirement foundations, and I think a lot of work has to be devoted in this area.

I think mentioning Little Cliff as one in particular on everyone of our ownership certificates for horses, we have a sticker that says if I ever sell a horse or if the horse is ever in the ownership of anybody who's considering selling that horse for the purpose other than retirement or racing, then I would buy that horse back, and we were able to save Little Cliff who was on his way to a very unhappy fate and we were able to rescue him at the border and bring him and put him in the retirement.

Ron: Wow, that's great. Congratulations. Certainly, more owners should be doing those kinds of things most definitely.

Robert: Absolutely, absolutely.

Ron: Well, that's all the questions I have. I want to thank you for your time. It's been very enjoyable and I think our readers really get a lot from your expertise. There are a couple of things here that aren't on the subject that are more personal.

Tony Repola has written in and said - Bob, a name from the past, Tony Repola of H&S White Plains Office just wishing you and Jackson Bends, Ice Box exacta box.{Robert laughs}

And then someone asked whether or not you are related to a Christopher LaPenta. He was from Colts Neck, New Jersey. Ring a bell?

Robert: No. At least I hope not, I'm embarrassed to say, because I don't know.

Ron: Okay. Listen, it really has been an enjoyable. I do want to thank you for your time. It's been great.

Robert: Well, I really appreciate it and it was good talking to you also, Ron.

Ron: Okay and I'll see you at Louisville.

Robert: Alright.

Robert LaPenta

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:58:00 GMT

Robert LaPenta, a native of Yonkers, N.Y., who now resides in Westport, Conn., was introduced to racing during his youth by his mother. He first became an owner in 1998 in partnership with University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino. LaPenta established his own stable in 2001, with Hall of Famer Nick Zito as his primary trainer. His stable consisting of more than 60 horses also includes horses with trainers Doug O’Neill and Ron Moquett.

LaPenta’s maroon and gold silks (honoring his alma mater, Iona College) have become familiar sights in 2- and 3-year-old races in recent years and many of LaPenta's runners had the classics in their sights. LaPenta again finds himself on the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) trail this year, with Zito-trained Ice Box, winner of the Florida Derby (gr. I).

Among the top horses campaigned by LaPenta have been 2007 champion 2-year-old male War Pass, Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) winner The Cliff’s Edge, and Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner Da’ Tara. Although the top 2-year-old of 2007, War Pass never made it to the Kentucky Derby due to an injury. But LaPenta went on to achieve classic success that year when Da’ Tara upset Big Brown in the Belmont at 36-1 odds. The Cliff’s Edge finished fifth in the 2004 Kentucky Derby victory of Smarty Jones and later in the year ran second in the Travers Stakes (gr. I).

LaPenta has also stepped up to help boost racing by signing on to sponsor this year’s Derby Trial, the traditional feature on the opening-day card at the Churchill Downs spring meet. The race will now be named after The Cliff’s Edge, who stands at stud in Kentucky.

In addition to his racing success, LaPenta has also become a successful pinhooker, buying horses and reselling them at a profit. One of his biggest scores came with Fusaichi Samurai, bought for $270,000 as a yearling and sold as a 2-year-old for a then-record $4.5 million.

Outside of racing, LaPenta is board chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions, which provides solutions and services that protect personal identities and assets. He is also co-founder and former president and CFO of L-3 Communications Corp. and is a former vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation. A member of the Iona College board of trustees, LaPenta donated $7 million toward construction of the college’s LaPenta Student Union Building.

Thank you for your questions. The podcast will be taped on Thursday, April 8th.

Steve Davidowitz Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:07:00 GMT

Steve Davidowitz bio

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Transcript

Eric: Welcome to Bloodhorse.com Talkin’ Horses, I’m Eric Mitchell, editorial director. Our guest this week is Steve Davidowitz. He is a professional handicapper, reporter, editor, consultant, and columnist for more than three decades. He is the author of “The Best and the Worst of Thoroughbred Racing” and the best-selling “Betting Thoroughbreds,” which sold more than 150,000 copies. That book has been expanded into an updated version “Betting Thoroughbreds for the 21st Century,” which provides insights in to synthetic track handicapping, track biases of more than 20 tracks, profiles of nearly three dozen high percentage trainers and a variety of advanced exotic wagering strategies.

Steve has got a varied background. He was a baseball star at Rutgers University. He traveled to Cuba as a teenager. He has scuba dived in the Caribbean, played folk guitar, photographer with magazine covers and exhibitions of his work. Steve, welcome to Talkin’ Horses. It’s great to have you. I can’t think of a better time to have somebody with some handicapping expertise at this time of the year.

Steve: Glad to be here, Eric. I’m sure you have a lot of good questions for me.

Eric: We do. As many of you who listen to this program know, we solicit questions from our visitors to bloodhorse.com. Right out of the gate, I have got to ask you about Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta who are on the minds of everybody right now. What’s your opinion of this potential showdown at Oaklawn Park?

Steve: Well, I personally wish it happened at the end of last year when they were both really in high gear and top form but of course, Rachel, I think spent her bolt when she won the Woodward in early September and obviously needed some time to recover and Zenyatta had been retired. I applaud both camps for trying to make the re-match happen. It seems like good placement for the forum for it to occur at Oaklawn at a mile and an eight in April.

But at the same time, there is no guarantee that either of these female race horses is going to be in top form when they get there. And they have prep races scheduled on March 13th in different places. We’ll know a little bit more about what shape they’re in when they run and come out of those races. I’m hoping they both get to the match, I’m hoping there are some other legitimate horses in the field for $5 million at Oaklawn.

Personally, I think Zenyatta is one of the most unusual race horses that I have ever seen. She is a mare that doesn’t seem to be at the mercy of pace issues at all, where normally a match-up between two horses of any kind comes down to which horse can get the jump on the other and certainly Rachel Alexandra has that going for her. But I wouldn’t put it past Zenyatta to go rolling by her in any legitimate race.

Eric: Interesting insights. It will be a very interesting race and I really hope everything – the stars align and everything comes together to see that. But as you say, it’s a question of are they going to be in top form? Well, I guess we’ll find out.

The same question – I had a two part question – the second one was someone asking your opinion of Barbaro’s brother, Lentenor – any thoughts on this horse as he progresses?

Steve: Well, I love him personally from what I have seen of him but I think he’s behind schedule if they’re seriously thinking about a Kentucky Derby. If you remember, Barbaro had won stakes already on the grass in the fall of this 2-year-old season. I was at Gulfstream Park when he won the Holy Bull, which at that time was a mile and 16th race and he galloped out so impressively after winning that race that it looked to me he could have won the mile and a quarter Kentucky Derby that day.

I think Lentenor, who has only been on the grass so far, needs a dirt test to see exactly where his form lies. But I predict he’ll be a grade I stakes winner, at least on the turf, and we might see him in major dirt races if he passes any kind of a test for handling the surface during the late spring into the summer. I doubt seriously we’ll see him in the Kentucky Derby but who knows, if he were to run really big in a dirt test soon, in his next start whatever that might be, I wouldn’t put it past him, he’s got a lot of ability.

Eric: There is one for us to watch and certainly the family connections draw a lot of attention. We got a question here from a Bill Daley, who really loved your “Betting Thoroughbreds” book and has really gotten a lot out of that book. His question is what is the most important advice you could offer to bettors today?

Steve: Well, it depends on how much experience they already have. If they’re novices -- if they’re going to the track fairly early in their betting careers -- I would say that they should find out a little bit about who they are first before they try to pick out the way to go as a player. What I mean by that is I find there are three different types of horse players. One is sort of a visual person, another might be a mathematically-inclined person; another might be a problem-solver.

If you’re a visual person, I would try to build my game up from going to the paddock and getting physical observations of horses and then comparing what you think you see with the way a horse looks and how athletic it is and how controlled it is or how crazy it might be behaving, and see the results of the race as it plays out according to what you observe. I’d also watch races very carefully and take notes for the next time.

If you are a mathematical person, I would get into speed figures, pace numbers and explore the ways that horses have advantages using those numbers. And if you’re a problem-solver type of person, I would look at the patterns that trainers employ to win races by comparing the past performances of winners that they’ve trained and see if there are any common denominators amongst them, any keys; like a workout that took place five days before a winning race or a switch in distance that seemed to tip off the winning race, things like that. And then, when you see what kind of person you are, you can sort of build your game outward.

Now if you have some experience, if you’re a player and you’ve been around, I would try and find the races that you think you’d do better at, and I would keep better records than most players do. I would say that you should try to keep records to see what areas of racing you do best and concentrate on finding races like that – if you’re a turf specialist or if you like stakes races or you’re very good with 2-year-old maidens. I would focus my game more on those areas, become more of a specialist myself and try and take advantage of my skills.

Eric: That’s good advice. I had a related question from Brandon. He admits he is a terrible handicapper and he wanted to know what steps he should take to become better. It sounds like you have already given a lot of advice, but if you’re a brand new horse player and you don’t really kind of know where you fit into that visual or mathematic or problem solving, what do you think is the best way for people to start to get their feet wet?

Steve: Well, I think you do have to look at yourself is what I was trying to say in the previous answer, and try and see what you’re good at in real life. If you are visually inclined, you spot things that are unusual in your visual panorama of whatever you’re looking at, that indicates that you have visual skills and you should be watching races like I say, and going to the paddock. If you manipulate numbers or like puzzles or things like that that have to do with numbers, if you were good at math in school – those are reasons why you should gravitate towards these speed figures and pace numbers like I suggested. And so you take stock of yourself.

That’s the advice that I would give in both questions. For the person who asked the question who says he’s a terrible handicapper, what should he do first? I think he has already done what he should first. He recognized that he needs help. {laughing}

Eric: Okay. I had a question from JP. He was wondering – is there a single powerful handicapping angle or is it just a myriad of things that you need to look at?

Steve: Well, it’s obviously not a single thing, but again if you find yourself showing ability in a certain type of race situation; you’ll see the key factor or factors that relate to that specific race situation. You’ll know that to win a maiden race, if you have a first time starter, you probably need a trainer who is good at first time starters with workouts that support it, with breeding that suggests that that horse is suited to the race situation, to have any confidence at all. If you look at those maiden races and you say, well, first time starters don’t have a very high percentage winning, let me look at the horse who has already run – you’ll see that horses that have had far too many starts to be successful are unworthy of your support. You look for horses that showed maybe one race or two races and trainers that seemed to improve horses very quickly off a race or two.

You’ll get to the meat of what each race is and so I’m saying that if you have an area where you feel good at, you examine that area, you figure out the keys that make that race more likely to be won by certain types of horses; and you’ll do your handicapping accordingly. So, even though you are in one of the three categories that I outlined, you’re going to find that certain areas of racing specifically, you’re more likely to identify the most logical contenders and pick better winners when you not only take stock of yourself and see what kind of a player you are, but you look at the specific races and see that there are certain type profiles that dominate in those types of races.

Eric: Very good. Handicapper, know thyself. We got a lot of questions about 3-year-olds and Triple Crown horses – this from Christian Miller. He says that it seems handicapping 3-year-olds is heavily dependent on how the horses are maturing. How do you evaluate a young horse’s development and how important do you think it is in this – as part of the handicapping formula?

Steve: Well, I think he’s on to something there. The maturation rate of a 3-year-old racehorse is akin I think to a teenager growing into young manhood of a male athlete -- basketball player, football player, or any male athlete. You know, there are some exceptions, like a swimmer sometimes will mature much earlier. But when you’re looking at 3-year-old race horses, you’re looking at horses who are going to go through tremendous change in growth between the fall of their 2-year-old season in the spring of their 3-year-old year.

So if you’re seeing the kind of development from race to race, or a horse who comes back as a 3 year old who shows vast improvement over what he did at 2, you’re looking at a horse that’s headed in the right direction for the major 3-year-old races. When Eskendereya was a 2-year-old last year, he ran a relatively unimpressive race in the Breeder’s Cup juvenile, but at the same time he was bred to improve tremendously as the distances would lengthen and as he would mature.

When he came out this year and won an allowance race, he sort of said, “Okay, we’re right about that.” And then when he exploded in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, everybody could see that this is a horse who not only is improving but he seems very well suited to the distances that he was bred for. And that’s the type of thing that you have to get into when you’re trying to identify a potential Kentucky Derby winner.

Eric: I have a question from Carl Park. He says you don’t hear much about the dosage index as connected to Derby eligibles. Do you think this index has become something of the past?

Steve: Well, it’s certainly has in many ways but it’s still a valuable tool also in some ways. Steven Roman was the one who created the dosage index off of work that was done by other people prior to him. It was an ingenious little tool that sort of suggested what the breeding potential of an individual horse is when distances would lengthen. The numbers, you can find out what they really mean, but low numbers in the dosage index indicated a potential to do well at distance races.

Yet, over the last 10 years, we’ve had a few horses that broke through barriers that they weren’t suppose to break through from this index. So now, it isn’t really considered to be the yard stick it once was to help predict future Kentucky Derby horses. Nevertheless, it has validity as a general indicator of distance capability in the breeding line of the horse. It’s not a worthless thing. It’s not something that should be totally ignored, but as far as the rules that pertain to the use of it for predicting Derby winners, don’t think much about it.

Eric: Well, I’m going to take this opportunity to kind of jump in with a question that came to my mind as you’re discussing the ability to assess a horse’s stamina. Just within the last month or so, we’ve heard a lot about the genetics research coming out of Ireland and the speed gene that was discovered and has been tested – or it’s called the speed gene – indicates a degree of muscle mass in the individual and seems to show statistically whether that horse is more suited physiologically to be a sprinter or a middle distance or a route horse. What do you think about that research?

Steve: Well, I think all of that research is very intriguing scientifically and I also think that it’s worth a follow-up. I’m giving you a general answer but if for handicapping per se, until they publish the information as part of the past performances, which is a long way down the road, or until every 2 year old that’s on the list of Derby nominees, for instance, is given a line or two that suggests what that research is – it’s very difficult for players with their betting money to have any real application to it.

For breeders, it’s probably going to have some power. Over the next decade, there’ll be more research and more availability of this information, and it’ll be tested better for its reliability. I’m sure there’ll be other indicators that’ll come along as well.

Look, if we can measure the heart of a horse – Secretariat supposedly had a very large physical heart. If we could have the stride length of a horse indicated in the past performances, we might find that has value.

Right now, I don’t think we need that from a handicapping standpoint. I think our eyes and the breeding pedigree information that indicates stamina or precociousness we can see for ourselves, and the way horses mature during the fall into the spring of their 3 year old season, we can make our judgments accordingly.

I have more to say on this. I don’t know how long you want to go but like when we watch the Bob Lewis Stakes. in which Bob Baffert had Tiz Chrome in there and there was another horse in the field as well who showed a lot of speed – American Lion. They dueled with each other in their first attempt to go two turns, and gave way late as the stretch running and undefeated California bred Caracortado, went right on by.

Now, in that instance, we could possibly say well, these two horses – American Lion and
Tiz Chrome, are unsuited to distance racing. But we shouldn’t be so quick to do that. We should give them at least one more chance because the Pro Ride that they were running over was not conducive to speed to begin with, and secondly they dueled each other into submission, and there was that first time around two turns factor. So, let’s give them at least one more try and after that we can draw our firm conclusions on whether we think that they can go on beyond sprint distances.

That’s what we do as handicappers. But if we had a measurement that came out of this study that said specifically before they ran in the Bob Lewis, “This is a typecast horse for sprints only, and it proved out right there – we would be hard pressed to go against it next time out. But we don’t have that information available to us as players.

Eric: Your book includes a section on synthetics. Since we talked about those, you just mentioned the Pro Ride, what is your take on the synthetics?

Steve: Well, it’s as complicated as the synthetics are themselves. I hate to use a negative in giving a positive thing – I’m not against them as most horse players seem to be. I know it threw the whole handicapping game into disarray and changed a the way people were looking at races, and that form from dirt to turf to synthetics was very difficult to translate, and it’s still difficult.

The problem is with the synthetics is that they were pushed upon us way too soon. As horse players, as people who run races, as trainers, and all the different nuances that are involved between each race track, have yet to be given enough time to show what they are. In the meantime, the maintenance issues are catastrophic.

Talk about trying to protect, or prevent, catastrophic breakdowns. Well, we’re getting catastrophic track problems. We’ve had cancellations of races after races. There are differences between the Polytrack tracks that are at Keeneland and Turfway and Arlington Park – the same manufacturer.

Yet, I believe in the future of synthetics on this basis. If we had given them more time; if we had experimented with them on training tracks more; if we’d chosen a select meet –as I say “we” – there is no “we” in here to make such unilateral decision on a nationwide basis, and that’s another issue completely that racing has yet to really deal with.

If we have had time to experiment properly, we could have come up with a safe synthetic track that was easy to maintain as they promised us. That hasn’t been true. Of the synthetics, at this point, I think the Tepeta track that Michael Dickinson has created has proven to be the best of them.

But as far as handicapping is concerned, they do present opportunities to players who are willing to take a closer look at what wins on those tracks, specifically the track in their neighborhood – the Santa Anita track, the Hollywood track, the Arlington track – and to focus on the angles that are turning out to be successful on those individual tracks. When they do that, they’re going to be way ahead of the crowd that’s perplexed by it, that doesn’t seem to have a handle on what is really going on. It’s sort of like a throwback to the old days when there wasn’t as much information in the Daily Racing Form about every little aspect of the game, and you had to do research for yourself.

I find them fascinating from a handicapping standpoint, but I also do think that there are several problems, as I suggested earlier, that we need more time to evaluate and to work with. It’s all done on the fly right now which is terrible because there’s no reliability amongst them and between them.

Eric: Right. Well, clearly we’ve seen a lot of inconsistency and a lot of it depends on where the track is. Some surfaces seem to do well and in temperate climates and not do well where it’s hot and dry. It depends on what it is.

You mentioned the Tapeta surface. It’s getting a new testing ground, if you will, at the Meydan racetrack in Dubai. So, it’d be interesting to see how that surface performs.

Steve: You’re 100% right about that and at the same time, I do think that it’s really unfortunate that this was done so quickly and by mandate in California, and they’ve had so much trouble because it’s going to set back the idea of synthetics being developed 10 years. It may even hurt the potential of real good testing and experimentation.

The fact that the Dubai people built a billion dollar race track and then decided to put in a synthetic of any kind shows that they do at least have some confidence in that particular brand – the Tapeta track – and I think that’s noteworthy.

Eric: Let’s steer back towards some of the 3 year olds this year. We got a lot of questions about 3 year olds.

We have a question from someone who goes by Curlin Lover, who wants to know what do you think of Dublin’s status right now? He seems to be having some trouble and he or she (Curlin Lover) is having difficult assessing where this horse is right now.

Steve: Well, I thought his race in the Southwest was a very encouraging effort. When we consider the man behind the horse, D. Wayne Lukas – he’s only won four Kentucky Derbys – and while he’s been kind of silent over the last several years on that front, he knows what to do when he has an animal that’s worthy of it. I thought that the throat operation that the horse had during the winter, obviously, had helped this horse because when you come back off a layoff like that and you close ground in the race at a mile around two turns as a startup . If he stays healthy, I believe the horse is going to be a player in the Triple Crown series.

Eric: He had a great run coming down the stretch in the Southwest and with a little more distance, may have caught Conveyance.

Steve: Well, you don’t have to win those races. That’s the bottom line. People don’t understand that. It’s one thing that I think is something that Todd Pletcher has to really look at when it comes Eskendereya.

If you look at Carl Nafzger’s approach to the Kentucky Derby, you’re looking at a textbook approach to how to win the Kentucky Derby. If you look at what happened to D. Wayne Lukas after he lost a whole bunch of Derby opportunities, and won with Winning Colors and then went on to win three more, you can see that you learn lessons. These prep races, as rich as they may be, are not the target. It’s the first Saturday in May that’s the target.

So, you have to leave something in the tank and you have to also help your horse develop. Now, when you come back out off a layoff or a throat operation, like Dublin did, and you run an encouraging race finishing second, in your first start back, that is something that you should be able to build upon. If the horse remains healthy, I think, as I said, he’s going to move forward.

Eric: We have a question here from Tony: How do you see Baffert’s trio of Conveyance, Lookin At Lucky, and Tiz Chrome? We talked about a little bit about Tiz Chrome earlier, how do you kind of see these three?

Steve: Well, Conveyance is on the margins, like on the bubble if you will. If you’re looking at the March Madness Basketball Tournament there are teams that have to win their next game in order to get off the bubble and into the tournament. Well, Conveyance is sort of in that category even though he won a race recently, he’s not quite up to the standard of some of the leading horses we’ve seen so far. So, what he does in his next start, wherever it is, is very important to the assess that.

As far as Tiz Chrome is concerned, I said I do believe that both American Lion and Tiz Chrome deserve another chance going around two turns when they’re not fighting each other. But, remember this, that in the Kentucky Derby, if they were to get that far, not being able to handle a contested speed duel is curtains. You can’t win the Kentucky Derby on the front end unless you're much the best on the front end. You must be able to finish and if your horse is one of the few or many that are prone to be on the lead and you can’t survive a pace duel at a lower level of racing, you're not likely to win the Kentucky Derby. I would have to see much improvement from Tiz Chrome to believe in him as a Derby horse, and even though as I’ve said American Lion and Tiz Chrome deserve another chance, there are horses who seem not to need that kind of validation who are already in the game.

Eric: And Lookin At Lucky, we’re still looking to see his first start of the year. He’s aiming for either the San Felipe or the Rebel Stakes. I have to wonder at the way things have been going in Santa Anita if we might not see him in the Rebel?

Steve: Well, I think he’s probably going there. I think they have two choices. First of all, I thought this horse when I saw him last summer was the Derby type horse, and wrote about it and said so because of the way his body is put together. He has a leaner look than most horses do who are winning races as a precocious type early in their careers, and then his Breeders’ Cup juvenile was a very good race and then he won his next start also very impressively. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet. I don’t think the speed figures, the Beyers numbers, the sheet numbers and whatever numbers you use really reflect the potential that this horse has. But he had some minor setbacks and Baffert – who’s an expert, who’s won three Derby’s himself – certainly knows how to get a horse to the Kentucky Derby.

I think personally if I were him, I would run him at Santa Anita in the San Felipe and go to the Arkansas Derby or the Wood Memorial – but he’s likely to go to the Rebel from what I understand and that’s a very important thing. He wants a dirt race for this horse and that’s a very positive idea and hopefully he will have smooth sailing between now and the preparations and then beyond, because you can’t have setbacks and make any impression in the Kentucky Derby and people have to remember that. From this point forward, you have setbacks and you’re training or what have you, they’re no longer minor. They’re too important to discount.

Eric: It’s a fairly tight schedule and everyone has to stay on it. We have a question here from a Greg Wasaki who asks about Nick Zito’s Fly Down. He’s a Mineshaft. He won an allowance race at Gulfstream Park. He feels like he’s one of the most under-reported yet dangerous horses to ignore on the Derby trail. Do you know anything about this horse?

Steve: Well I think the questioner should go to Vegas or get somebody in Vegas to bet him in the future books because it’s only going to get a hell of a price on him. The truth is that these are the types of horses who can win the Derby in these days from what we’ve seen over recent years. You do not have to have the 2-year old bottom that we always talked about in previous years. You do not have to have three prep races or win a set pattern to get to the Derby. You don’t have to come from any particular race track – Mine That Bird came from Sunland Park and wasn’t even a winner of the Sunland Park Derby, although if you looked at his race after the fact that he ran there, it was the kind of race that you would be betting him if he was going anywhere but the Kentucky Derby. He ran a very wide, very difficult fourth in that race in which he showed a lot of grit and a lot of ability and it was the kind of race that would move a horse forward, but to win the Kentucky Derby was a big surprise to everybody.

So when you have a horse, like this gentleman mentions, you should take a little future book action on him and watch him carefully.

I think Zito has another horse who has some potential who is sort of under the radar as well; and it’s a horse named Ice Box. Ice Box won twice going route distances and made a move in Eskendereya’s winning race that didn’t produce anything but it showed a sign of life and in a way that Nick Zito, who has won two Kentucky Derbys, and used in his next outings. You know this game is far from over. It’s just starting.

Eric: Right. We got several questions having to do with strategy. Donald Williams wants to know do you think horses cutting back in distance fare better than those that stretch out?

Steve: In certain race situations the cutback is a fantastic weapon for a trainer to use and for a horse player to observe. It’s more widely known now than it was only a few years ago but the very best angle, one of the very best angles for a player to keep an eye out for was the horse turning back in distance from a mile or a mile and a sixteenth, to a six and a half to a seven furlong race. Typically, the horse who was in the mile or a mile and sixteenth race, whether it was a one turn or a two turn race – would show speed near the pace and then fade. And then when turned back in distance to the seven furlong or the six and a half furlong one turn sprint, the horse would show improved stamina from those longer races and finish better. You could catch prices up the kazoo with horses that were doing that. It’s still a very powerful angle, but it’s well advertised in most handicapper’s tools – amongst his tools – and you don’t get quite the same price value that you used to get.

Cutbacks in distance in general do improve a horse’s stamina when he is cut back,. But it isn’t applicable like if you took a horse who went from a mile and half to a mile and a quarter, you’re probably dulling his speed for a race that would be better off having a mile and an eighth prep going into a mile and a quarter. Likewise on the grass, if you have a horse who’s a mile and three-eighths and a mile and a half type, if you run him a mile and an eighth race on the grass – very few of those horses will convert their top form to that short a distance.

Eric: Steve from St. Louis asks with nationwide pools on nearly every race and every jurisdiction without the concentration of local knowledge and familiarity with racing circuits – he said he would assume that the number of winning favorites would drop below the long-time average of 33%. With so many more betting opportunities with nationwide simulcasting, he asks – aren’t there are many more false favorites?

Steve: Well the contrary turns out to be true by statistics, which is kind of interesting, and there are several reasons for it. Steven Crist on a recent blog on the Daily Racing Form published a very interesting listing of the percentage of winning favorites of every racetrack in the country today and what it was a few years ago, and in every case except a few it has gone up above the standard that we used to think was standard above the 31% to 33% ratio for winning favorites, to some approaching the 40% ratio at many tracks; and 35% and 36% being more normal.

The reasons for that have to do more with the size of fields that we have which are smaller in most cases around the country and the fact that people do have more information, more understanding of what constitutes good forms than they used to through the various tools that are out there on the Internet. It’s misunderstood throughout racing that there’s less interest in handicap and less interest in the game. That’s way off-base. It’s more diverse, it’s more spread-out. You don’t have the concentration of people that go to the race track everyday, but you have all of these different outlets in which people bet and you have handles that from off-track are pretty significant. If you look in different parts of the world like the Orient, they get hundred million dollar handles on a daily basis.

There’s a tremendous amount of awareness of what goes into winning races now and the strategies that are involved to handicap and I think people are more inclined to zero-in on the more logical contenders more often.

Eric: Well, I could only hope that the handle in America grows to the handle of what we see in Hong Kong.

Steve: Well, likewise, you know but at the same time I think this is part of the reason for that – and I don’t mean to come down on the racing industry – but it’s our own fault, if I can say our. We haven’t promoted the sport from the standpoint of handicapping. I’ll give you an example of something that has always irked me. You go to a track when they have a giveaway day and they giveaway a t-shirt or a hat and you get all the spinners that go in and out and in and out of the turn style to get 10 or 12 t-shirts and hats that they can sell on EBay. What does that do for horse racing’s interest? Nothing. Why don’t they give away a good handicapping book? [laughing]

Eric: Hint, hint. Okay.

Steve: Right. I mean seriously. Why don’t they provide information to the players that are coming into their grounds that will help them understand the game better? Why don’t they give away something that they can use when they go home? Why don’t they give away vouchers that they could use for betting the next time they come to the track? Why isn’t there cross-pollination between the off-track betting centers and the racetrack where if you go to the off-track betting center and you wager an X number of dollars, you get a pass to the racetrack and if you’re at the racetrack and you bet a certain amount of dollars, you get a free trip back?

And then to ignore handicapping – the best thing racing has it going for is that it’s the best game, the best gambling game man has ever invented. It’s not a slot machine. It’s not a mindless anything. You have to use your noodle a little bit and the rewards potentially are great with the pay-offs that we have.

Eric: Would love to see a lot more enthusiasm and marketing of the sport for sure. I have a question here from Phil McSween. He says, “Do you have a theory on why also eligible horses are often such a great play since they seem to run in the money so frequently?”

Steve: Well anecdotal information that you’re providing is only partially supported by actual evidence, but there still is a valid point you’re making, and that is that also eligibles are rarely considered as serious contenders by the people who are doing the public handicapper’s work in newspapers, on the Internet and so on. They escape the same attention that those professional handicappers usually provide. They’re not only also eligibles but they’re also sort of like not in the race, until they’re in the race, and so therefore if you examine them from a perspective that, “Well, okay. This horse was entered in this race but it didn’t get in because of the luck of the draw but now a spot is open for him and the trainer wants it in the race, and he’s going to draw an outside post.” Now, in some cases an outside post can be an advantage depending on what you’re doing, what distance it is; and sometimes a terrible disadvantage. But examine that horse more carefully for sure because you do have the possibility of potential value there.

Now one other point, there are certain types of horses who are automatically put on the also eligible lists at some tracks where their main track only category is not included in the body of the race at all – they’re on the also eligible list. Now those horses, when the track is wet, when they take a race off the grass, they love the fact that the races come off the grass - the trainers. That’s what they were entered for. Please let it rain and take this race off the grass so I can enter this live horse in this race, and they usually control the outcome of the race in many more cases than just mere statistics.

Eric: I have a question here from an M. Waxman. He says – Steve, did you ever get over not betting a 40-1 shot to place against La Prevoyante at Saratoga?

Is there a story there?

Steve: [Laughs] I wrote about it in the early editions of “Betting Thoroughbreds.” It was a chapter called “La Prevoyante to Win, My Wife to Place.” I was sitting with Andy Beyer and my wife at that time — I’ve only been married once and we’re still good friends — but my ex-wife Laurie was hearing Andy and I talk about La Prevoyante being somewhat unbeatable but we liked a horse that we thought could upset her and it was coming in from Chicago. We went to the windows betting this horse at a big price (to win only) and my wife went up to the window and bought place tickets on her and she cashed for a $10 place ticket when La Prevoyante romped in the race and our horse finished second.

It taught us a lesson about – I turned to Andy while we were having ice cream cones and I actually dropped the ice cream cone on the ground when I realized what has happened. I said, “Andy, you know what we just did?” I said, “What if I told you that this horse was going to run against the rest of this field and then we’re getting it 4-1 on it to beat the rest of the field, would you have taken 4-1 to beat the rest of the field? We lost that bet and Laurie was back in her grandstand counting the money.

Eric: I’ll bet she was.

Steve: She was gloating. {laughs}

Eric: Yeah, I’m sure. John O’Brien – he has a question about Beyer pars. He said I would rather have a system without pars. He says, for example, three races, seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park on Saturday produced Beyers of 99 for D' Funnybone and 80 for a maiden special weight, a 76 for maiden special weight. On a relative basis, he says, it seems like Streaker, who was the maiden special weight filly that got the 80, should be getting an 87. Do you have any opinion about pars?

Steve: I haven’t computed the Beyer figures myself for that day, I would trust Andy’s ability to read the racing surface, how it was playing and the relative speed that was shown in each individual race was clearly how fast they ran based on his estimation of how the track played. I don’t see where pars enter into that because I know what Andy does and what people who make figures for a living do and that is after a little while the pars are discarded and you use the projections of what the horses had previously run as a foundation to build your track variance of the day.

If I have a day, let’s say, there’s that seven furlong maiden race and I have three horses that have run before and they’ve run 69, 70 and 71 twice each; and now they run together third, fourth, and fifth in a race and then beaten the length amongst all three. I could probably say they ran a 70, all three of them, and then project the winner based upon how many lengths ahead of that cluster they were. That’s typically the way speed figures are truly created.

So the pars are just a baseline in which you build up information, but once you have sufficient information to make your own speed figures, you use the projection method. There is no doubt in my mind that if this fellow thinks that the horse should have gotten an 87 and she only got an 80, he ought to be betting that horse next time out when it comes into a race with other 80s – because he thinks he has a horse who actually ran an 87, and then we’ll see what happens in that result.

Eric: Well, there’s actually a little bit more information in this question. I read through it, he offers the times D' Funnybone ran in 1:22, and one for the filly who got the 80 ran in 1:23.12. The horse who got the 76 – the colt ran in 1:24.02.

Steve: Well all those times seem in line with a consistent variant in that D' Funnybone earned a much faster figure because he ran a much faster race on the same race track. There are days when tracks change during the course of the day and you have to be a little leery about sometimes when you see a number in front of you and say “Well, gee, this number’s way out line with everything else on the day. Speed figure handicapping is an art, it’s not a science, and it takes considerable experience to really hone in on good figures and to have confidence in them and that’s the bottom line.

If you make your own figures, which I strongly recommend players do just for the exercise of it, if nothing else, that’s a tremendous learning experience. But if you make figures for yourself and you have confidence in them, bet them. That’s the bottom line.

Eric: A question here from Lindsay – she was wondering how many of the best handicapping authors make their living strictly from handicapping the races, and if they are few and far between is because it is just not a reliable source of income. What do you think about that?

Steve: I get that a lot of different ways in different times. I can honestly say that no, I don’t make my living strictly off my race track play. I could tell you though that there were a few years where I did nothing and did make a living and I can also tell you that over the course of many years I’m ahead, and somewhat significantly. I would liken it to this, also: When you have a Tiger Woods, let’s say, who is the greatest golfer -- maybe he’s a bad example to use if anything right now – the greatest golfer alive, if not of all time. He makes $25 million a year through endorsements. So you give that up? Is he not a professional golfer? He wins enough tournaments to indicate that he is a professional for sure. If you have any area of success or any area where you’re good at and you’re making money with it and then you write about it, is there anything contradictory in writing about it and trying to share your ideas with the public? Tiger Woods gives golf lessons to large audiences. There’s no conflict there and there’s none whatsoever, but to be really a professional player you have to have professional skills, you have to work at it; you have to be able to go to bat often enough in a successful way to prove it to yourself.

Truthfully, it’s a symbiotic relationship with me. I write because I want to share and I learn when I share. You can’t keep it unless you give it away. It’s an old concept that I learned a long time ago that is totally applicable here. I get stronger when I share my ideas and go through examples with the public and columns or in books and, if I wasn’t playing and I wasn’t playing well, I would not be able to write about the things that I’m doing with any way or look in the mirror and say I’m writing about this because it’s true.

Eric: I got a question here from Jersey Boy. He says some commentators keep saying that weight is not that important. How can they maintain this opinion in the light of the successes of apprentice jockeys riding with an allowance? Many of these same apprentices are less successful after they lose their allowance. For him, he says weight is the key handicapping factor.

Steve: Well, I wish him well with that. I am the one of the people who believes that weight is overrated as a handicapping factor for a lot reasons, but first, let me address the apprentice issue.

When apprentice shows ability, he gets to be in demand by trainers who still believe and do believe that weight is a crucial factor to the point where sometimes a horse might be assigned 117 pounds in a stakes race and the trainer will say, “I’m not going to run a pound over 116,” and yet there have been many studies that have indicated that the relative variance of weight is not as crucial as it once was or that most people think it is. Then you take that same apprentice jockey and he no longer is getting 5-pound allowance and he no longer is getting a premium rides against the established veterans on the track that the trainer has a choice now to use like John Velazquez or Edgar Prado or Garrett Gomez – and he’s in the pool against those jockeys and he isn’t getting the same kind of quality mounts than he got before. That is the biggest issue.

Also if you take a look at an apprentice who can survive the period of time after he loses his 5 pounds who does become a winning jockey – Julien Leparoux for example, Rafael Bejarano for another – when these people show that they are capable of riding in the pool with the other big names, they keep on going as if they didn’t have any issue with weight at all. You have to be more selective in your analysis there to really take a look at that.

As far as weight in general, it used to be where a horse in a stakes race like Forego or somebody like that would carry – Kelso – 136 pounds top weight, Forego, 135, 136. Now if that same horse were running today, no racing secretary in their right mind would give him more than 127, 128 or he wouldn’t get the horse to run at the track. So the spread of weights is narrowed quite a bit and it doesn’t seem to have as much impact.

Now, when a horse is in motion and he’s carrying 116, 117, 118, 119, it doesn’t seem to affect his ability really. If you drop him to 105 and I doubt you can make that weight – it might – you take these horses that are running now as Triple Crown candidates. They’re all going to carry 126 in the Kentucky Derby and in many cases, they’ll be picking up anywhere between 4 and 15 pounds from their last start. They still run very fast. They still set their best time records in many cases in the Derby than they have ever run before.

Weight is a very, very mysterious factor, yet it’s also not something that I think you can pin one pound equals one length or five pounds equals one length. There are individual horses that do have thresholds that if you give them more than 123, 125 or whatever it is, they won’t show their form; and you have to be sensitive to that. So it’s not a factor you can completely toss, but it is not a scientific relationship and over recent years – although recent years – it’s become much more muted and less valuable as a handicapping factor to me. Now, if that person is going to cashier line by using it, by all means, keep on doing it, keep on doing it.

Eric: Yeah, if it’s working for you, don’t change it up.

Steve: I agree.

Eric: This will be our final question. We’re going to kind of throw the door open. Scott Sigman – he just wants to know if you could make one single change in horse racing – and we’ve talked a little bit about marketing and promotion – but if you could make one single change, what would that be?

Steve: I’d have much less racing around the country. I would schedule race meets that work together rather than in opposition to each other. I would not have, for instance, winter racing in New York from December to March. I would not have summer racing all summer long in the heat of Florida. I would not have year round racing anywhere. I would try to create more premiere meets with the racetracks that have already shown that that works tremendously – the Del Mar, the Saratoga, the Oaklawn, the Keeneland meets, even Churchill Downs in the spring, the Fair Grounds for a good portion of its meet.

We have far too much racing and it dilutes the product. It also lessens the importance of everyday racing, and it bleeds the money out of the pockets of horse players who may be playing the game longer than they should every year too. I tried to set my schedule so that I’m off three months a year and I don’t play the horses during the winter except for rare occasion and it refreshes me. I know that there are jobs at stake in some quarters…but I think there’d be more betting, I think there’d be more interest with less racing and I think that the whole national racing schedule would be better off if we could do that.

Eric: Interesting perspective. Steve, I want to thank you again. Steve Davidowitz – the author of “Betting Thoroughbreds for the 21st Century.” You’ve been a terrific guest with us today on BloodHorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses. Best of luck through the spring and we’ll be looking to hear more from you, as you write more about these horses moving along the Derby trail.

Steve: Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here. I enjoyed it immensely and best of luck and good handicapping to everybody out there.

Editor's Note: Steve Davidowitz can be reached via the Internet at davidwtz@aol.com. He invites direct communication about racing issues and his handicapping ideas and will provide readers of this transcript with his latest Kentucky Derby rankings.

Steve Davidowitz

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Steve Davidowitz has been a professional handicapper, reporter, editor, consultant, and columnist for more than three decades. He is the author of the “The Best and Worst of Thoroughbred Racing” and the best-selling “Betting Thoroughbreds,” which sold more than 150,000 copies. That book has been expanded into an updated version, “Betting Thoroughbreds for the 21st Century,” which provides insights into synthetic track handicapping; track biases at more than 20 tracks; profiles of nearly three dozen high percentage trainers, and a variety of advanced exotic wagering strategies.

A highly touted baseball star at Rutgers University who lost a potential pitching career due to a freak boating mishap, Davidowitz has a wide-ranging background that includes solo travel to Cuba as a teenager; scuba diving in the Caribbean; playing folk guitar in the clubs of New Orleans, and photographic magazine covers and exhibitions of his work. As a single parent, Steve also raised his son, Brad, now a corporate program analyst in Minneapolis who is married with two children.

Davidowitz says he "began to major in horse-racing studies at Rutgers University, Garden State Park Division," when a New Brunswick, New Jersey, bookmaker gave him a copy of the 1959 “American Racing Manual.” Some 40 years later, Davidowitz would help Daily Racing Form bring the prestigious annual back to print as the ARM's editor from 2000-2003.

An active horseplayer who managed a successful Pick-Six syndicate for 15 years , Steve has contributed articles to The New York Times and been a featured columnist and/or racing editor for Turf and Sport Digest magazine, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oakland Tribune, Philadelphia Journal, The Racing Times, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Houston Post, among other publications.

Today, Davidowitz writes regular handicapping columns for DRF Simulcast Weekly and DRF.com; trackmaster.com and other outlets on the Internet. He also has been actively developing www.GradeOneRacing.com a Web site that will feature high class handicapping information and an assortment of lucrative handicapping contests. In addition to his horse-race writings and commentaries, Davidowitz is the co-author of “They Can’t Hide Us Anymore,” the autobiography of singer/songwriter Richie Havens, the performer-humanitarian who was first on stage at the famous Woodstock Festival in 1969. Steve now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thank you for your questions. The podcast will be taped on Thursday, March 4.

Julien Leparoux Podcast - Listen Now!

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:52:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Transcript

Ron: Welcome to BloodHorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses online podcast. I am Ron Mitchell, the online managing editor and the moderator.

Today we are privileged to have Julien Leparoux, the 2009 Eclipse Award Winning Jockey as our guest.

I will not take your valuable time with a lengthy introduction since most of you are familiar with Julien. He is a native of France and won an Eclipse Award as Outstanding Apprentice in 2006.

In 2009, he won three Breeders’ Cup races and despite taking off most of the month of December to be with his family, he finished second among all North American jockeys by earnings just edged in that category on the last day of the year.

Welcome, Julien.

Julien: Hello.

Ron: First of all, I first noticed you when you came here and were at Lone Star Park for the 2004 Breeders’ Cup. I believe you were an exercise rider for Patrick Biancone then.

Can you tell me just a little bit about Patrick, your relationship with him and you coming to this country then?

Julien: Well, Patrick asked me if I wanted a job, so I came to America in September 2003 actually, and I worked for Patrick for two years before I started to ride races. That was a great experience.

Ron: Certainly. And, do you stay in touch with Patrick today?

Julien: Yeah, yeah, I’m still keeping in touch. We still talk and I ride a little bit for him right now and everything is good between us.

Ron: The next question comes from Bernie Dickman – Since everybody in racing mispronounces your last name, would you please pronounce it correctly for us right here so we can get it right once and for all?

Julien: Well, my last name is Leparoux but it’s very difficult to say it for you guys but it’s okay.

Ron: Leparoux, is that correct?

Julien: Leparoux.

Ron: The next question comes from someone who goes by the name of Bluegrass Cat – Congratulations on your Eclipse Award. In your acceptance speech, you inadvertently left out agent Steve Bass. I know you must have a great working relationship with Steve due to the success you’ve had. Could you tell us how you hooked up with him and did he approach you or was he recommended to you?

Julien: Actually, he was recommended to me by Brice Blanc, another French jockey. Yeah, I forgot to mention his name, but of course, he is the one behind me and we’ve got a great relationship. He’s a very great agent and so far, we have done good together.

Ron: And I guess when you’re up there on the podium accepting something like an Eclipse Award, things can be kind of hectic, you get a little nervous and so it’s understandable that you didn’t mention Steve but he’s probably forgiving you for that.

Julien: Oh yeah, of course. I mean right after the speech, actually, I went and talked with him and said, “Oh, I’m very sorry I forget you,” but he said, “Don’t worry about it.” He knows I was thinking about him and we had a good year and hopefully we can get a better year this year.

Ron: And that brings us to the next question from Lee Jay Smith – Do you rely on your agent as far as decisions on which races to ride in and do you discuss it together?

Julien: Well, it’s mostly his job to just put me on a horse he thinks is going to win. But sometimes, you get two or three horses in the same race and he would ask me which one I want to ride and which one I like him to ride better. But mostly, that’s his job to get me on the best one.

Ron: And I guess certainly in the bigger races when you have those kinds of decisions to make it takes a little bit more discussion between the two of you.

Julien: Yeah, exactly. Sometimes you’ve got two horses that kind of being the same grading and he just asks me which one I would ride.

Ron: Next question from Dave Gayheart – Who would be your choice to ride in this year’s Kentucky Derby? In other words, do you already have a horse that you’re on that you feel confident about for the Derby, or is it too early?

Julien: Well, it’s a little bit too early to say anything but – I mean, right now we’ve got American Lion. He’s from California and he’s going to run next weekend and I hope he’s a good one.

Ron: Next question from A.S. Bergman – If there was one race that you could go back and approach and/or ride differently, which race and which horse would it be? In other words, is there a big horse that you had that you like to take over again and do that race over with?

Julien: Well, I’m sure I’ve got a couple of those. I mean we all make mistakes and of course, I wish I can take back some rides I did. I don’t know… like in my mind right now maybe the Breeders’ Cup in 2006 with Asi Siempre. And then, I don’t know, I don’t know.

Ron: What happened in that race that you think you would like to do over?

Julien: I was disqualified from second and put back to fourth and I got in a lot of trouble, so maybe I should have won the race, too. And that was the Breeder’s Cup, so that was a big race. I mean, I make mistakes like everybody else, you know.

Ron: I guess something like that’s a pretty big learning experience for you, isn’t it?

Julien: Yes, I mean, that’s how you learn, when you make mistakes, that’s how you learn and why it’s very tough to make mistake like this because that’s on a big day, but also, that’s also how you learn to get better and that’s with experience.

Ron: This may be a little early to be asking this question, but from Linda – Who is the best horse that you have ridden so far, or can you say?

Julien: It’s very difficult, especially this year, but I’ve ridden a lot of good horses. Informed Decision --I would say her.

Ron: Paula wants to know – Have you ever considered riding for a season in Dubai and have you been approached with that opportunity?

Julien: I’ve never been approached about it. I would say yes and no. I would love to go to Dubai, but this time of the year that’s for American racing, you want to be here to try to plan for the Derby, so it’s yes and no. I would love to go there, but at the same time, you might have the better business over here.

Ron: Right, the spring season in the U.S. is certainly a very important time of the year, isn’t it?

Julien: Yes, it is.

Ron: Next question is from Paige – How does French racing compare to American racing?

Julien: I never rode in France, so I couldn’t really tell you what the difference. From what I’ve seen on TV, the races are just like going very slow, but they’re going so well. So it’s a little bit of a different style.

Ron: So it’s just a different style of what you have to do during the race to be able to get into position to win.

Julien: Yeah, exactly, they go pretty slow the first part of the race and then they finish the last three-eighths of the mile very fast. They can race with a little bit more faith. It is different racing.

Ron: And I guess, really, that applies to most European style racing, too, doesn’t it, and not just France?

Julien: Yeah, all of Europe.

Ron: And the second part of her question is – Why did you decide to come to the US to ride?

Julien: Well, just because I got the opportunity to come to work in the morning for Patrick Biancone, and I thought that would be a good job for me. So I just came here and I had just got out of school, so I mean, I didn’t have anything in France. And I was young too, so I just needed to travel and see around a little bit. I love it here, so I just decided to stay here and try to start riding here.

Ron: And certainly, I guess, as you say, you were young and wanted to see the world and wanted to see the U.S. and got a job as an exercise rider and one thing led to another.

Julien: Yeah, exactly. Everything came together after a couple of years.

Ron: Steve from St. Louis wants to know – Are you at all intrigued about returning to Europe to race during the summer and fall at some point?

Julien: As of right now, no. Like I said, love it here and I’m happy here, so I will just stay here. I mean, you never know; maybe when I get old or older I will maybe try to go and ride over there. But as for now, I want to stay here.

Ron: And a follow up question comes from Karen, which would not be as much about going over there for a full summer or fall, but what about – Would you like to have the opportunity to ride in the Arc de Triomphe and possibly win that someday?

Julien: Yeah, I would love to. Yeah, of course. I would love to go there and win, that’s for sure.

Ron: Next question comes from Lou G. – Julien, do you have a preference as to which surface you like to ride on – dirt, synthetic or grass? And what do you see the future of synthetic surfaces?

Julien: I just like any track as long as my horses like it. Synthetic is a good thing, but we need a couple more years to figure out all the tracks. I mean, I think it’s a good thing.

Ron: As far as your preferences – dirt, synthetic, or grass – does it matter to you? You seem to really have a real ability on turf.

Julien: Like I said, it’s all about the horses. It’s all about if your horse like the track and after that, like if I ride my horses on the grass and it likes the grass, people are going to say I’m a tough rider, but really, it’s the horses that make me look good like that. Like I said, it’s just about the horses.

Ron: Okay, that makes sense. I hear that a lot from a lot of jockeys and trainers that have a lot of success.

Chris Miller asks – What do you think are the most important qualities that help make a successful racehorse?

Julien: A good horse is usually very classy, nothing bothers him and he’s just very classy. It’s just the quality and that’s it.

Ron: Can you tell, when you're on a horse, either in the mornings, afternoons, the differences in the horse as far as their intelligence level and ability level?

Julien: Yes. Yes, of course. In the morning, when you breeze a horse, you can see if it’s a good one or not. Of course, it’s not the racing, so you can make mistakes. Some horses are very good in the morning and in the afternoon, when it’s time to race, he’s just bad as a race horse. But yeah, usually you can tell in the morning if he’s such a good horse or not.

Ron: As far as prepping yourself and learning about riding, did you watch film of other jockeys and watch other jockeys styles, or have you learned most of what you know just on your own by how you’ve gone out and ridden?

Julien: It’s just by your own, but I still look at the races. When I was an apprentice, I looked at the horses and how the big jockey was doing and I tried to learn from them, sure, but you mostly just do it on your own.

Ron: Were there any particular jockeys that you looked at their riding style and they had an influence on you – you tried to do what they did or is it just all of them put together?

Julien: It’s all together. I never really watched one but I watched all of them and just look at the good things they did and the bad things they did and learn from them.

Ron: The next question, from someone named Handel – Do you feel more pressure riding a favorite in a race versus a long shot? Do you ride the long shots any differently from the favorites?

Julien: I just ride every one the same. The longshot, sometime you want to maybe ride them a little bit like you want to finish well up there and see if you can win but try to (at least) get a little place. Like that, sometimes, that’s how you win with longshots.

Ron: Do you generally know the odds on your horse as you're going to post or is that a factor for you?

Julien: Yes. You know before the race you know. But, like I said, you got to just treat everyone the same, but sometimes with the longshot, you just want to ride them like to second or third just to be able to take a place, a show, and sometimes you win it.

Ron: The next question comes from Mindy C – You are riding a horse that I’ve been watching since his very first workout and he is my Derby horse. His name is American Lion. What can you tell me about him?

Julien: American Lion is a very talented horse. That’s the one I’m looking forward to ride this year too. I won two races with him and he still runs a little green, so if he gets better and if he improves from that race, he could be a nice horse – a very, very nice horse. I just can’t wait to ride him next weekend.

Ron: Okay. Good luck there.

Julien: Thank you.

Ron: The next question is from Steve Nick – My question is since you grew up in France, which is known for its rich food choices, how do you keep your weight down with your heritage of fine food from your country?

Julien: Well, actually, I’m a very lucky guy. I’m just natural very light and I just can eat anything I want and be okay with it. So, I’m just lucky.

Ron: Wow, you really are lucky. You burn it up then, I guess.

Julien: Yeah, I can eat anything I want any time during the day. I can eat two to three meals a day if I want. I’m very, very lucky for that.

Ron: Bill Feingold asked – How heated is the rivalry between you and Garrett Gomez?

Julien: No, it’s good. I mean me and Garrett are friends. You know, on the track, he is my competition but he’s just like every other jockey. He’s just competition in the race, but after that, he’s a very nice guy.

Ron: And certainly you guys were in the running for the leading earning title last year and he edged you out near the end, but you both just have a healthy respect for each other and are friendly until it gets on the racetrack.

Julien: Yeah, we do have a lot of respect for each other. He’s a good friend and actually when he wins races, I text him and say congratulations and he does the same when I win races. We’ve got a good relationship.

Ron: Now this question is about lead changes on horses during a race and it comes from Pam. It says – Do you think it is more important to allow the horse to decide on its own when to change leads or do you think the jockeys should make the decision and direct the horse to make it lead change?

Julien: As a jockey, you want to try to make him switch leads, but I do think that if you try and then he doesn’t want to change leads, I think you should leave him alone and just make him run on the wrong lead. You do want to try to a little bit to at least to make him succeed.

Ron: You try to do what you can but if the horse isn’t going to do it, then you don’t really persist with it, you just go ahead and let him.

Julien: Yeah, exactly. I mean that’s me though. That’s just me. I think you want to try but if really you can’t do it sometimes, you should… I just leave him alone and ride him on the wrong lead.

Ron: Next question is from Leonard Rizzie and it touches on something that we asked earlier, and if you think it’s too much just tell me and we’ll move on. Leonard Rizzie asked – Can you breeze race a thoroughbred one time and in your gut determine that it is a horse that can be a winner or do you need multiple exercises to come to a conclusion?

Julien: It depends on what kind of work the trainer wants you to do. Sometimes they want you to work a horse, it’s a nice horse, but they want to work him slow and sometimes they want to work him fast so that depends on how you work the horse. If you work him fast you can see what you’ve got and see if you can also at the wire when you’re finished. So it depends what kind of work you do.

Ron: Next question is – During your years in the states, which racetracks do you like the best, both as far as riding on them and then just being there?

Julien: Well, I have a couple of racetracks that I really love because it’s not really about the track, it’s just how people are, like Keeneland and Saratoga. It’s really fun to ride over there because every day they got people at the races and it’s just a good day when you get people at the races. It’s just fun to ride over there, yeah.

Ron: What about just cities where racetracks are located, do you go out quite a bit? What are some of your favorite cities where there are racetracks?

Julien: Saratoga is always nice, that meet for six weeks is very nice. I love Kentucky, so I would say that Churchill is a good place to be too.

Ron: In fact, you settled down in Kentucky, correct? You own a home now in Louisville?

Julien: Yes, I got a home in Louisville and it is very nice to be in Kentucky.

Ron: What are your goals for this year, 2010, after you won the Eclipse Award last year?

Julien: Well that’s going to be the test. I mean it is going to be probably the most difficult year for me just because I had the Eclipse so I’m now trying to do the same. I mean it’s still difficult to get on top, don’t get me wrong, but it’s more difficult to stay on top. So I’m just going to have to work hard and try to stay on top.

Ron: That’s quite a bit of pressure isn’t it?

Julien: Yeah, it is. I mean I don’t put myself in too much pressure. I just take everything day by day but of course, you know when you won the Eclipse award, the following year you want to do good too.

Ron: Listen Julien, I really appreciate your time and good luck out there. I hope you are able to repeat it as an Eclipse award winner.

Julien: Alright. Thank you very much.

Mike Smith Podcast - Listen Now!

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:46:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Transcript

I want to welcome everyone to BloodHorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses. Our guest this week is Jockey Mike Smith, probably doesn’t need much of an introduction after the fabulous ride in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last weekend, but a little bit about Mike.

He is from Roswell, New Mexico, living in California right now. He has ridden 53 Grade I races, won 53 Grade I races, won Eclipse Awards in ’93 and ’94, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. And you’ve had the pleasure of having ridden three horses of the year, Holy Bull, Skip Away and Azeri.

Mike, I want to welcome you. Thank you for joining us on Talkin’ Horses.

Mike Smith: Thank you.

Eric Mitchell (Editorial Director of The Blood-Horse): The format we have at Talkin’ Horses is we solicit questions from people, from the visitors of Blood Horse.com and as you might imagine, we were inundated with questions about Zenyatta. It’s all Zenyatta. I can’t imagine that you have talked about much else over the last week or so, is that probably a fair question?

Mike Smith: Oh, yeah, more than fair.

Eric Mitchell: The first question I have is from a guy who identified himself as Rich C, and he was just wondering, what does it feel like turning for home on a machine as he describes like Zenyatta?

Mike Smith: It’s incredible. I wish you all could get the opportunity to feel what it feels like. It’s as if she’s just there hitting the ground two or three times and she’s just doing it once and just running by them. It’s amazing.

Eric Mitchell: Now, when did you – I had a question from someone who wanted to know – when did you first meet Zenyatta? When did you get introduced to her?

Mike Smith: Before she ever ran, I worked her once at Delmar before she ever ran. It was a couple of years ago.

Eric Mitchell: And what was the impression at the time?

Mike Smith: Before she ever ran, we knew she was something special. We didn’t – I mean, we didn’t know it was going to be Zenyatta but we certainly knew there was something there.

Eric Mitchell: When you first get on a horse, what is it that you feel as that horse is underneath you that tells you this horse has what it takes?

Mike Smith: Well, balance means a lot to me. I have always seen the real good ones have unbelievable balance; they’ve just got a beautiful way of getting over the ground, there’s nothing wasted about it. And for as big as she is, you would think she’d be a little clumsy but she’s just so balanced and then when she pushes, there’s so much power there that goes with it. It’s just amazing.

Eric Mitchell: Amy Rooney wanted to know – Does it rattle you at all when she does that little dance that she’s doing on her way to the track?

Mike Smith: No. There’s a Spanish song I always listen to before I ride her and it sort of reminds me of her dancing to this like Spanish music. It’s kind of neat, I think.

Eric Mitchell: I mean that’s a good description; it does kind of seem like some kind of choreographed dance for her.

Mike Smith: Yeah. She warms herself up that way, too. She stretches, she’s getting loosened up because I don’t warm her up. I don’t warm her up before she runs.

Eric Mitchell: I had a question from Drew. He wants to know – As a jockey, do you go through a period of mourning when you’ve had such a great horse like Zenyatta and she gets retired?

Mike Smith: Well, it’s sad that you’re not going to ride them anymore but her going undefeated and then winning the classic like she did, it made everything okay. You can let her go now. She’s done it all.

Eric Mitchell: Well, there’s no question, she doesn’t have anything left to prove. In that race – I had a question from Christi who wanted to know kind of what was going through your head when it was just Zenyatta and Gio Ponti coming down the stretch?

Mike Smith: At that point, once I got cleared and I mean she just dropped down to another gear, I was like – I can’t believe she’s going to do this against the best, older horses in the world. She’s going to do it again without me getting to the bottom of her. I mean, it was just … I was just in awe, I couldn’t believe it, what she could do was just amazing. And the crowd, that was the first time I think I’ve ever really – the crowd was so loud. It was incredible. I’ve never seen nothing like it. And they stayed that way for a good 10 minutes, it seemed like. It was a pretty wild day.

Eric Mitchell: You’ve had your share of Kentucky Derbies as well, how did the noise at Santa Anita compare with the crowd on Derby day?

Mike Smith: Well, Derby day is certainly loud too but Churchill is so big and long, I mean you just kind of hear muffled noise all the way around, you know, where this was this compact right there, just like, bam, you know, I mean, it could almost knock you off your horse, it seemed like.

Eric Mitchell: Did the race pretty much unfold like you expected?

Mike Smith: I wouldn’t want to change it now because…

Eric Mitchell: No, obviously.

Mike Smith: …we’ve already – I tell you what, I wasn’t expecting to get away that slow. I mean, she literally spotted them four or five lengths leaving the gate. So I knew at that point, I said, oh god, all the times to do it, why today? And then, I knew I was going to have to try and cut some corner somewhere and I was just very blessed with a great trip after that, you know.

Eric Mitchell: You seemed at coming out of the turn on top of the stretch, there is a decision to go inside or outside at that point, was there a decision there to make?

Mike Smith: Yeah, I mean, you can actually see me – I was going to split them and then as I was going to do it, I pointed her in that direction. I was going to do that, then I saw that the rider on the outside pick up his right hand. So I knew that when he hit this horse, he’s probably going to go in some and sure enough, he did. I just skipped right out as he did it. At the same time he did it, I was on the outside by the time he even did it. So it was quick.

Eric Mitchell: Great anticipation. Great decision. John Leech wanted to know – at what point did you feel like you had the race, that it was just a certainty?

Mike Smith: Well, nothing is a certainty until you get on by them. But I felt really confident at the 3/8 pole that I could get there, I just needed to find somewhere – somehow to get there but I knew I had the horse. She was loaded and she was going to run huge. At the 3/8 she was just gobbling the ground. And once I headed for home and as I saw that rider pick his right hand up and I skipped to the outside, I knew then that she’s – because once I did that and I got after her a little bit. I mean she just had gears that are never ending. I mean, it was just like bam, bam by them and up come the ears again, you know.

Eric Mitchell: At least on television and to viewers, it almost looked effortless. I mean, she really… when you said you didn’t get to the bottom to her, it just looked like the race didn’t take that much out of her.

Mike Smith: Galloping out, she galloped out probably 10, 15 in front of everyone and then I mean, when she stopped and picked her head up and was looking at the crowd because they’re making so much noise and then she turned around and started dancing again. It didn’t take nothing out of her.

Eric Mitchell: I have a question here from Mike, who – he almost feels a little cheated because he didn’t get a chance to see Zenyatta race against males earlier in the year. Do you know if there had been any discussion about her running in any other races like the Gold Cup?

Mike Smith: I mean, there were always discussions on different races. The main thing that we were pointing towards was the Breeders’ Cup Classic. I mean that’s what you wanted to win. If we could get there… surely, the Ladies Classic, I thought too but I mean, the main thing was always the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Eric Mitchell: Lots of discussion right now about Zenyatta versus Rachel Alexandra, and the second race, if you will, for horse of the year. You want to weigh in on that argument at all?

Mike Smith: You know, I mean it’s up to the voters. I mean, I can sit here and tell you why I know Zenyatta is Horse of the Decade but that’s just my opinion. I think if you just see that way that she beat – I mean, she didn’t just beat she didn’t just beat colts, I mean she beat the best, the best of the best, and the best race that there is that the championship decides it, and she went out there and she won it.

Not only did she win it, she won it without getting to the bottom of it at all. She went undefeated this year. She carried 129 pounds, I think probably the only horse that won a Grade I carrying 129 and did that with ease. I mean, she just – look at the mare that won the ladies classic, I beat her three times.

Eric Mitchell: Right. Well, I think it’s…

Mike Smith: I mean, taking nothing away from Rachel, I mean, she’s an incredible, incredible filly but I wish she would have been there. I really do.

Eric Mitchell: And I had a comment from someone who only identified themselves as a Zenyatta fan. That said, if Tiger Woods doesn’t show up for the Masters’ and he doesn’t get to be golfer of the year… so you know, it would have been nice to see Rachel in the Breeders’ Cup. You know, everybody has to do what’s right by their horse.

A couple of people had noticed that after your win that you had crossed yourself after the victory. A question from Sue wanted to know how much your faith plays, or does it play a bigger role in your life, in your career.

Mike Smith:   Everything in my life… it played a huge part in that race because let me tell you something, I’ve never ever felt pressure like that. I mean, you can add up all the Derby and the Grade I and all the other Breeders’ Cups and they still wouldn’t amount to as much pressure as I was feeling. I basically just had to pray and just leave it at his hands and say I know that you’re going to lead the way. I just left it to him and I was able to ride a great race doing that. I was able to think clearly and know that he’s going to be there at all times. And it was there.

Eric Mitchell: I don’t think there’s any question about that.

One thing, a personal question; just after the race, the cameras spent quite a bit of time showing just you sitting on Zenyatta on the track, just the two of you, kind off by yourself kind of soaking in the moment. What goes through your head at that moment?

Mike Smith:   Every kind of emotion that you could possibly think of. Everything great. And extremely, extremely, extremely relieved.

Eric Mitchell: There was definitely a look of joy, man.

Mike Smith: I did it, you know. I didn’t let her go unbeaten. And then to go unbeaten and beat the best boys, it was just incredible. You couldn’t write a greater story, I don’t believe.

Eric Mitchell: I have a question here from Michael. He wants to know – Do you have any pre race rituals that you go through before you ride a race?

Mike Smith: Not… I mean, you know, I’ve certainly done my homework and I know what’s out there. I know what the competition is and at least have some idea what I believe is going to happen. And then I say a prayer that everyone’s safe and we get the opportunity to do what we know what to do and that’s all you can ask for and I go out there and ride.

Eric Mitchell: I got a lot of questions, a lot of people wanting you to compare Zenyatta with other great horses that you have ridden – Holy Bull or Azeri or Skip Away. Does she compare or maybe you can kind of speak to some or all of them, how she compares with some of the other greats you’ve ridden?

Mike Smith: I mean, like you said, you named a few there, and in their time, they were unbeaten, they were unbeatable. Whatever made them what they were was what they had. Holy Bull with tremendous speed and could carry a long ways but I’ve never ever been on a horse that can just run down anything at anything at any time, any place… You ask her – in a matter of jumps, she can make up 10 links like now. I’ve never seen that before.

Eric Mitchell: Not in any of these other horses that you’ve ridden.

Mike Smith: No. I mean they could make up ground and they’d come rolling and run down but I’ve never felt the power that she has. It overcomes anything I’ve ever been on.

Eric Mitchell: I have a question from Mitch Robbins. He was wondering about Zenyatta’s turn of foot on other surfaces. She did run on the dirt at Oaklawn Park. Is there any comparison to kind of how she reacts, how she gets that turn of foot, whether it’s synthetic or dirt?

Mike Smith: She will certainly run over anything just because she is who she is. But the stronger she’s ever felt I thought was actually on the dirt where she was going to Oaklawn Park and Ginger Punch was about 15 in front of me, going in – they were all going about three and half. She was about 10 to 15 in front of me and I thought oh, my god, I’ve left her way too much to do. How am I going to do this? And I tapped her on the shoulder twice and I went from thinking that to thinking oh, god, I’m going to hit the front way too soon.

That’s the kind of turn of foot she has.

Eric Mitchell: Wow.

Mike Smith: It was just incredible. And then everyone in that race, in the Apple Blossom in that race, all came back and won, every single horse, even the horse that ran last. The next time out, two of them come back and won Grade I, the rest have all won stakes and the one that ran dead last won an allowance race the next time out.

Eric Mitchell: That’s an amazing – now that’s a deep field. No question about it.

I got a question here from Sue Mattingly who said, she thought you did a great job riding Vindication and see that you are now riding Crisis of Spirit, daughter of Vindication. Any similarities between the two horses?

Mike Smith: You know, I found that some of Vindications that I’ve ridden were pretty hot blooded, they’ve kind of got their … their grandfather came out in them. And Vindication himself was a cool horse. I mean, he was just laid back, he was just beautiful. And Crisis of Spirit is a lot like him, she has the same attitude. The only thing is she’s really fast.

Eric Mitchell: Yes.

Mike Smith: I mean, she’s lightning quick, out of the gate. And I got her to rate the other day a little. So I’m hoping in doing that down the road, we can go long at some point.

Eric Mitchell:   We all look forward to that, to watching her to grow into what she’s going to become.

I got a question here from Paul Langner. He says – When you’re on a 2 year old, what does that two year old have to show you mentally, as well as physically, that would convince you that he’s of stakes quality horse?

Mike Smith: Mentally is, believe it or not, half the battle. They don’t have the mind to go with that ability; they just waste it all pretty much. They’ve definitely got to have… I mean, they can be hot blooded and aggressive but still keep their mind intact. I mean there’s a difference when one just loses it. So yeah, having a good head on your shoulder is like I said, I think it’s half the battle. You could probably beat more talent with just using your head than having the raw ability.

Eric Mitchell: That makes sense. A lot of people had wanted you to pick between some of these great horses, Zenyatta or Holy Bull. Is there any way to pick a favorite, even though it kind of sounds like…

Mike Smith: That’s not fair. You know, Holy Bull is totally bull is Holy Bull. He was just – what an amazing horse. I mean, his time and his place, I don’t know if anything could have caught him but right now, there’s just nothing and I’ve never – like I said before, felt nothing like Zenyatta. She’s got a … she’s got a kick that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen or felt.

Eric Mitchell: We talked a little bit about the energy that surrounds the Derby versus the Breeders’ Cup and there certainly was more drama surrounding this classic race. But are the Breeders’ Cup races themselves compared with the Derby, are they comparable in your mind or can you talk a little bit about the difference between going into each of these races?

Mike Smith: Well, I guess, the Breeders’ Cup, you got more than one chance.

Eric Mitchell: Yeah, that’s true.

Mike Smith: The Derby, you know, that’s only one time for that one three year old and that’s it. In the Breeders’ Cup, you can come back and run maybe the next division next year, this or that. But they’re all just so exciting, especially the classic. You know, they’re apples and oranges; they both are great.

Eric Mitchell: Hannah from Texas had several questions, well, three. First, she wanted to know what got your interest in horse racing and riding to begin with?

Mike Smith: Being raised on a ranch and both my grandparents owned horses and my uncle was a trainer. My father rode. I didn’t grow any (or at least that much), and I loved horses. I’ve been riding since I could walk, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do was to be a jockey.

Eric Mitchell: Tell us a little bit about your relationship with the Mosses and the Shirreffs, and kind of when you guys all got connected and began working together.

Mike Smith: Well, first of all, it’s an unbelievable relationship. All of them are just – not only are they just great people to ride for, they are great people; they are just wonderful, wonderful people, on and off camera and anywhere else. I mean, they’re just great.

It all started a long time ago. The first time I ever rode for John I flew here for a – I was receiving the George Woolf Award, and they were having a jockey challenge of the United States against Europe, and one of the horses I rode in that race was for John and I won it, coming down the hill at Santa Anita. And then when I came out to California, he said, hey, I got a Holy Bull colt that I want you come and see and tell me what you think about him.

And so I went over there and that’s how I started riding for him. It was Giacomo, and he kicked it all off.

Eric Mitchell: Because he happened to be a Holy Bull colt, did that kind of pique your interest even more of wanting to get on him and see what he was like?

Mike Smith: It was a funny story, it’s just a story, but it’s actually the truth. After I worked him – after I breezed him, I said, man, John, I really like the way he felt. You know, I mean he had great balance. I said you get him to the Derby and I want to redeem his father’s name.

And I really told him that, and it happened.

Eric Mitchell: Well, when you watch enough Derbies after a while, you kind of begin to think that history has a way of making right...

Mike Smith: Yes.

Eric Mitchell: ..of what’s happened in the past.

Mike Smith: It goes to show you, just throw it out there and who knows what’s going to happen. Put it out in the universe.

Eric Mitchell: Well, exactly. That’s a great story.

I actually have not so much a question but a comment here from a woman named Tara Scheland – and I hope I’m pronouncing her name correctly – but she said – I don’t have so much a question for you but her 9-year-old son had asked me to write to you that you had recently sent him a picture of you on Zenyatta. His name is Brandon Griffin.

Mike Smith: Yes.

Eric Mitchell: And he just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do that. She knows your busy.

Mike Smith: I remember that.

Eric Mitchell: That she just – that it meant a lot to her and just she wants to thank you from the bottom of her heart. You made her day and made the day of her son who is getting interested in racing. Right around the same time as she did and she just wanted to say, congratulations and thank you. And so that goes out to you from Tara and Brandon.

Mike Smith: Tell them, thank you. I remember signing that and sending it off.

Eric Mitchell: What kind of questions – I mean, here we have a 9-year-old boy, he’s interested in racing, who knows if he wants to be a jockey someday or a trainer, but if someone came to you and said they wanted to be a jockey, what kind of advice would you give them?

Mike Smith: Well, Chris McCarron right there in Keeneland/Lexington that got the jockey school. I mean, what a great way to get a chance to start, you’re getting taught by a legendary Hall of Famer like Chris McCarron. A great person. I mean, I’d send you right there. Otherwise, you’ve got to do it that hard way, on a farm here and try to get a job over there; there’s a lot to it. You know, I was blessed that my uncle trained so I was there; I was hands on all the time. If you could do something like that, it’s also great, but a jockey school, if you want to be a jockey that’s the place to go.

Eric Mitchell: Well, like you said, there’s a great talent there in Chris McCarron and he can show you the ropes.

Mike Smith: He’s one of the greatest. Definitely.

Eric Mitchell: I got a question from Meleah who wants to know if you think we’ll see a Triple Crown winner in the next five years.

Mike Smith: Well, I sure hope so and I hope I’m on him. Because I’ve always dreamed since at a young, young age, I was going to win the Triple Crown. I saw Secretariat do it when I was a little boy, and I said I’m going to do that, that same thing right there. I believe it’s waiting for me.

Eric Mitchell: I also had several questions about the show Jockeys that you had appeared on. Tina Lippincott from West Virginia said you appeared very relaxed in front of the camera and she wants to know how natural is that dialogue? And do you find the cameras and the crew intrusive after a while especially during private moments away from the track?

Mike Smith: Yeah, well, quite a bit actually. I’m glad I look natural. I sure didn’t feel it. It was kind of hard to be yourself, believe it or not – when someone is filming you – being yourself.

Eric Mitchell: Right. Right.

Mike Smith: It’s weird but they’re really smart about it. They use the same camera guys and the same people. You see them every day and you get to know them. They actually become your friends. I mean, those guys actually when I ran into them, a lot of them are still my friends. And that’s how they get you to relax. And then, yeah, it was a pain after a while.

They’re just with you all the time.

Eric Mitchell: Now, how did that show come about? How did they approach you? What was kind of the pitch?

Mike Smith: Well, there were two producers, two girls, that came up with the idea that actually had done a lot of research and got really close to almost hitting the same type of show kicked off several years ago. And then when they heard there was another director that was thinking about doing something like this, well they joined in with him and they already had so much research done that he thought that was great.

Then they came to Hollywood Park and talked to all of us and asked if anyone was interested and didn’t mind getting in front of the camera and doing a little interview, and that’s how they picked who they picked.

Eric Mitchell: A lot of people who are fans of that show, are they going to continue, are they doing more episodes?

Mike Smith: No, they would really like to. We had two seasons and that was it. They’d like to do something else. I know they’re looking into doing something else, but I’m not exactly sure what that is.

Eric Mitchell: I had an interesting question here from Anne Keogh who shoots photos for us. She says – Your aunts are so involved in the art world. She was wondering if you’re also involved in collecting as well and what artists interest you?

Mike Smith: Well, you think I would be but I do… I just started buying from her, actually, just about five months ago, I bought a John Moyer’s. It’s a painting of an Indian. It’s got beautiful colors in it and she really liked it and I bought it. Anyway, you can look him up. If you go to Nedra Matteucci’s same gallery – her galleries are all in Santa Fe. You can just go and look up Nedra Matteucci and you can see all of her galleries. She has beautiful, beautiful paintings, beautiful artwork in bronze and you name it, she has it all.

Eric Mitchell: Is there anything like art that you do collect?

Mike Smith: You know, I’m so into horses.

Eric Mitchell: That’s your thing.

Mike Smith: That takes up just about all of my time. If I’m not on a horse’s back, I’m in the gym trying to get stronger so I can stay on a horse’s back.

Eric Mitchell: I had a question here from Alicia. She wanted to know why can’t your wine be shipped outside of the state of California? Are you involved in the wine industry?

Mike Smith: Yes, I am. I’m not really sure why it can’t either. For some reason – I was just talking to one of my partners yesterday, and they were really looking into that. We think that anytime here in the next month or so, it should be able to be shipped out, because we have a new release coming out – an ’07 is coming out, probably in about four or five months.

Eric Mitchell: Oh, okay.

Mike Smith: It’s a Syrah. Our ’06 is a Syrah. It’s really getting pretty popular around here. I mean, it drinks a lot like a Cab, it’s a great wine. If you ever get an opportunity to get any, we have a website, it’s called jineteswine.com. And jinetes is spelled as j-i-n-e-t-e-s.

Eric Mitchell: All right. Now, is that – are you partners in this…?

Mike Smith: Yes. Me, Alex Solis and an owner that we both ride for, his name is Tom Leonard.

Eric Mitchell: And how long have you been doing that?

Mike Smith: Just about three years, I think. For our first release to come out, three or four years for our first release to come out. And we’re just being close friends and we love Napa and we love wine and we go up there all the time together and that’s how we got it going.

Eric Mitchell: Well, that sounds interesting. What’s the label? What’s it called?

Mike Smith: Jinetes which means ‘riders’ in Spanish. And that’s j-i-n-e-t-e-s.

Eric Mitchell: Very good. Well, good luck with that.

Mike Smith: Thank you.

Eric Mitchell: Hopefully, something will break free for you here.

You had mentioned being in the gym, wanting to stay fit, ride as long as you can, have you ever thought about what you wanted to do after riding?

Mike Smith: You know, I have, it’s a scary – actually a very scary thought for me because I’m so passionate about riding that I don’t know if I’ll be ever able to find anything else to be that passionate in. I like doing things that I’m very passionate in because it makes it not work – you know, it makes it just having a lot of fun all the time.

Eric Mitchell: I can understand that.

Mike Smith: I’ve done a lot of commentating on off times and that’s somewhere to go. I don’t think I’d train because then I’d have to get up even earlier than I do now. [chuckles] That would be kind of hard to do for the rest of your life, you know.

Eric Mitchell: Right. Well, you know, the door – I’m sure a lot of doors will open up for you.

Mike Smith: Something will come up, hopefully. And it’s going to be in the industry, whatever it is; it’s definitely going to be in the industry.

Eric Mitchell: This is an interesting question and it’s from a guy named Barry, and maybe it will shed some light on the life of a jockey. His question was related to the top 34 jockeys by earnings in the country. He wants to know why the top jockeys are riding in low claiming races or races with lower purses and shouldn’t those top jockeys only focus on the bigger races with the bigger purses and let other jockeys have the opportunities to ride these less expensive races?

Mike Smith: It sounds like a plan to me. I like his thinking. {laughing}

Eric Mitchell: Oh, you do?

Mike Smith: I don’t really have to ride… it depends … what Barry needs to understand is it depends on what part you are in your career, where you’re at. Where I’m at in my career is exactly what he’s saying. I look for quality, not quantity, not a bunch of horses. I just like to ride three or four days, that’s it. And I like to pick my spots. If you’re able to do that, that’s great, but that’s very hard to do and stay at that top level. I mean, you have to ride day in and day out. The same trainer that you ride a good horse for has a lot of other horses, too.

Eric Mitchell: Right.

Mike Smith: That’s how that comes about. But when you’re young, you want to be the leading rider, you want to be the leading rider in the country, you’re looking to ride as many as you can, all the time. And you know, those are goals that are set by a young rider. So that’s what happens there. but when you get to your top older riders, most of them will pick and choose a whole lot more than they use to.

Eric Mitchell: But as you say, you’re working for a trainer, he’s got a barn full of horses, not all those horses are going to be stakes horses; they’re all going to have their different level.

Mike Smith: And same owners, you know, they have a great horse but they also have lower level horses and they want you to ride those two, and it’s hard to tell them no, you know?

Eric Mitchell: Right. Right. Okay, well appreciate that.

Let’s see what else we have. We got so many, so many questions here about Zenyatta and Rachel and one person wanted to know – we have thrown out – it has been thrown out by several people and certainly out in the blogosphere about a shared Horse of the Year honor. What do you think about that? Co-horse of the year?

Mike Smith: Absolutely not.

Eric Mitchell: Absolutely not – that sounds pretty definitive.

Mike Smith: Absolutely not. No, I don’t believe in that at all.

Eric Mitchell: And why do you say that?

Mike Smith: Because it’s going to be one Horse of the Year, not two. Not in the same year anyway.

Eric Mitchell: Well, and I guess, I’ve also heard people say, well, you know, it’s kind of like the Heisman trophy; you can have a bunch of really talented players but you have to sort them out and you have to pick one.

Mike Smith: That’s what makes it prestigious, you know.

Eric Mitchell: All right.

Mike Smith: Maybe you know, you can give them away to everyone who had a great year, and then there would be five. Before you know it, there’s going to be three Horse of the Year. It’s got to stay one.

Eric Mitchell: Well, I can understand that. You want to leave the prestige of the title.

A couple of people…

Mike Smith: That’s my opinion, anyway…

Eric Mitchell: Yes.

Mike Smith: I’m sure other people have others but…

Eric Mitchell: Sure. And now, you’re from New Mexico, do you get back to New Mexico? Do you still have family there?

Mike Smith: Yes, I do. My mother lives in Roswell. I have a lot of family around there. And my aunts are all around in Sante Fe. So I get back quite a bit actually. A matter of fact, I’m going back on the 6th of 7th, there’s a party for me. I’m heading back to New Mexico.

Eric Mitchell: I have a question from a Dom Temmallo. You have ridden the roller coaster of a lot of people in racing whose careers peak and ebb and wane, and you went through some tough times, they want to know, did you at any point when you were struggling just think about retiring at that point? And what kept you going?

Mike Smith: Certainly in ’98, I got hurt really, really bad. And so, you know, in ’98 and ’99, it was tough. It was the low point in my… certainly my career.   I never wanted to quit or give up, but there were times that I didn’t think that I have a choice. It got down so bad one time, it’s just the love of riding and knowing that I can still do it at a top, top level. I just knew I could. If I really believed I couldn’t, I would have just walked away and I hadn’t won the Derby yet. And you don’t know how bad – we all want to win the Derby, I understand that.

I made it into the Hall of Fame before I won a Derby and was blessed to do so, but given the opportunity that I’ve had in the Derby, I should have won one or two and I didn’t believe that I really belonged in there because I hadn’t done that yet, and that’s just my belief on my career because I was given some great opportunities. So to finally win a Derby is just incredible. I was second like three times before I finally won one.

Eric Mitchell: I mean that was your own expectation of yourself and what you expected out of you.

Mike Smith: Yes, of myself, exactly. Out of myself. Just given the opportunities that I had, and I had some great chances to win. I mean, they ran well, I just didn’t win.

Eric Mitchell: Well, the Derby is like that.

Mike Smith: It’s an amazing… all it takes is one good horse to get rolling again and I came from New York to California, and I was doing pretty well in New York. And when I first got here man, bam there was Azeri. There you were, right back in the limelight, you know. It’s amazing what a good horse will do to you, or for you.

Eric Mitchell: Absolutely.

A question from Kaitlynn Wallace, wanted to know if you’d ridden any other disciplines; before becoming a jockey, did you ride western?

Mike Smith: Yeah, I rode western a lot. Of course, being out from the Midwest in New Mexico you know, rodeoed a little bit myself too. But I never did like dressage or jump and dressage it’s a lot harder than it looks, especially if you think you just go around there jogging. It’s nothing like that. It’s very difficult. It takes years of practice and there’s an art to it and jumping, the same way; I never really jumped. The only time I jumped is because my horse got away from me and we jumped a ditch or something. {laughs}

Eric Mitchell: That’s the extent of your jumping career.

Mike Smith: Yeah, I never did no competition in jumping, as far as that goes. But I really admire all of it though. Played a little polo too and I really loved that. That was something, before I hurt my back, I used to do quite a bit of it up in Wellington. During the winter time, I’d go up there and play with friends of mine that were 10-goal players up there, and they would teach me. A guy named Nemo, and Carlos and Ruben Garcia, they were brothers and an uncle that lived up there. And they still play polo actually.

Eric Mitchell: Well, that’s an interesting sport, polo. I mean, and talk about a lot of coordination and paying attention and…

Mike Smith: I love it.

Eric Mitchell: ..figuring out how to steer and hit and watch the other players. Boy, there’s a lot going on a polo field.

Mike Smith:   A lot to it, a whole lot to it. And I really took to that.

Eric Mitchell: We’ve got a question from Wendy P., she just wants to know – What’s an average week for a rider who is riding at your level, what is it like?

Mike Smith: Well, actually it was amazing. {laughing} It was incredible. Before that, I mean, my head was going to explode, just the pressure was just amazing. I had never let pressure ever really hit me like that. It really did. I mean, two nights before, whew, it was really bad and then I just let it go. Like I said before, I just prayed and let it go and it was just incredible.

When you get the opportunity to ride at this level and ride the beautiful horses that we get to ride, it’s a great life. Let me tell you something, I’d like to tell you how we go through these hard times and we do this and we do that, but it’s just an amazing way to live, as far as I’m concerned.

Eric Mitchell: So that entire week before Breeders’ Cup, were you just trying not to think about it?

Mike Smith: Yeah. Everybody would say, “Are you getting excited, are you exciting, aren’t you excited?”   I’d be like, “No, I don’t want to be yet. It’s too far out.” You know, let it start now, I’d be dwindled up to nothing by the time it comes around, you know?

Leading up to every race with her just got more and more because you’re going unbeaten, I never…going for Personal Ensign record to win at 13…

Eric Mitchell: Right.

Mike Smith: … I mean that was a big thing for us, especially, you know all of use, especially Mr. Moss is a huge fan of Personal Ensign and so even just to do that was incredible for all of us and him, especially him. And then after that, I knew that it was coming. If she’s going to do a 14th, it’s probably going to be against the boys, and I just knew it. And she was doing too well and training too good, not to. It was time, you know. Just step it up and to not just beat the boys, but beat the men.

Eric Mitchell: Well, I think you have to admire the Mosses for taking that chance for…

Mike Smith: It was a great thing for racing to run in the Classic. They running her – I don’t think the Breeders’ Cup Classic would have been what it was without her in it, you know?

Eric Mitchell: I would not disagree with that.

Mike Smith: It really made the show.

Eric Mitchell: Wendy P. had another question. She just wanted to know – and as you said earlier, you mentioned the injuries that jockeys often get in your line of work. She wanted to know, maybe you talk a little bit about just the risks that they take and what can you do to try and avoid those risks or mitigate those risks.

Mike Smith: Well, you know, we had a tough year in racing as far as riders getting hurt this year. You look at Rene Douglas, he was paralyzed up in Chicago and Michael Straight and you had another good buddy, Dale Beckner getting hurt really, really bad up at Presque Isle. I mean it was just amazing how a good rider like Rene, who is the leading rider in Chicago and on top of the world and it just takes one race and it’s all over. That’s the scary part. And the other parts, you’re just really riding well and paying attention out there and staying physically, physically, physically fit. And I try to do all of the above and then some.

Eric Mitchell: Right. Well, very good. Well, we have run to the end of our questions. Again, I really appreciate your time. It’s been really terrific talking to you this morning.

Mike Smith: Thanks for having me.

Eric Mitchell: Again, a big congratulations on the victory in Zenyatta. I’m sure it’s going to be very interesting seeing how Horse of the Year shakes out. You make a strong case for her. And good luck with the rest of your career. I hope you continue to be healthy and that it’s a long one.

Mike Smith: Amen. Thank you.

Eric Mitchell: Ok. Thank you, Mike. We appreciate it.

Mike Smith: Thanks.

Eric Mitchell: You take care.

Mike Smith: Do the same. Bye-bye.

Eric Mitchell: Bye-bye.

Mike Smith Bio

Jockey Mike Smith

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:54:00 GMT

Mike Smith, who just rode Zenyatta to a dramatic victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I), will be the next guest on bloodhorse.com’s popular Talkin’ Horses podcast.

With regular rider Smith aboard, Zenyatta ended her illustrious career undefeated in 14 starts while beating an international cast of male horses. It was an emotional and historic win for the pair as Zenyatta became the first of her sex to win the Classic and it propelled her into contention for Horse of the Year honors.

Smith, 44, a native Roswell, New Mexico, was elected into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2003. He won Eclipse Awards as leading rider in 1993 and 1994, the year in which he won 20 grade I stakes and a record 68 stakes, eclipsing the previous record of 62 stakes he had set in 2003. He was leading rider in New York in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Additional honors include the Mike Venezia Award – 1991, 1992, 1993 – and the George Woolf Award in 2000.

Smith won the 2005 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) with 50-1 longshot Giacomo, who, like Zenyatta, was trained by John Sherriffs, with whom Smith has had a long working relationship since he relocated to Southern California in 2000.

Among the other top horses ridden regularly by Smith have been Azeri, Skip Away, Lure, Cherokee Run, Unbridled’s Song, Stardom Bound, Tiago, Prairie Bayou, Holy Bull, Thunder Gulch, Sky Beauty, Ajina, and Coronado’s Quest. In 1991, he became the first U.S.-based jockey to win a European Classic when Fourstars Alltar won the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (Ire-I).

In addition to his riding career, Smith has become one of the stars of the Animal Planet’s reality series “Jockeys,” as the successes and travails of him and his girlfriend, jockey Chantal Sutherland, have been chronicled for the program’s fans.

Please submit your questions for Mike Smith below. The podcast will be conducted Tuesday, Nov. 17, and the deadline for questions is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16.

Linda Rice Podcast - Listen Now!

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:37:00 GMT

To listen to the podcast, click the PLAY button above.

Linda Rice bio

Transcript

Ron: This is Ron Mitchell of BloodHorse.com Talkin’ Horses podcast. Today, we’re privileged to have as our guest, Linda Rice.

Linda made history earlier this year when she became the first female trainer to win the training title at Saratoga, beating out Todd Pletcher for that title.

Linda, thanks for taking your time to join us.

Linda: You’re very welcome, Ron, I’m happy to do so.

Ron: First of all, I think as most of our readers and listeners know, you grew up in a horse family down in Florida. Can you just tell us briefly what you learned from that experience of your family’s background, working with horses from an early age?

Linda: Well, I am a third generation horse trainer and grew up in Pennsylvania, actually, and my father was the leading trainer for over ten years as I was a teenager, and by the time I… and I’ve got three older brothers and they’re all in the business and their families are in the business.

My family relocated to Ocala, Florida when I went off to college and that’s where they currently live now and they operate training centers there – breaking and training centers.

That’s how I got my start.

Ron: And I guess obviously that background is what prepared you for what eventually became your career.

Linda: Yes, it is.

Ron: Starting with the questions from our readers, this one is from Bill Hirsch, whom I believe is a client and a friend – Linda, congrats on winning the Spa training title. Has that success brought you additional business and what kind of social life do you have?

So two distinctly different questions there.

Linda: Yes, and that does not surprise me from Mr. Hirsch. Well, I’ve received some phone calls. Most of them are congratulatory calls, but I hope that in the coming year that I do find myself in a position to train maybe a little higher caliber horse, possibly some horses that will run a classic distance. So I hope that winning a training title will put me in a position to do that.

Ron: Your social life, if any?

Linda: My social life, frankly, someone like myself works too much so that’s (social life) limited.

Ron: I mean, would you like to change both things? Would you like to get a bump up in your business and a bump up in your social life?

Linda: {chuckles} Yes, actually I would. Obviously it’s a balancing act (personal life and work) and as far as my business goes, I’m not really trying to increase the volume of horses that I train, but more the caliber, and that’s what I’m looking for.

Ron: Next question – Which aspects of training do you like best – either working with the horses or the job itself and which do you like least?

Linda: The most rewarding to me is that I shop a lot of auctions weanlings, yearlings, 2-year-olds. I shop horses off of farms, and when I buy a horse, a young horse, possibly even a weanling, and then direct its career and develop it into a successful racehorse and then when it goes on to win stakes races and do well for myself and my clients, that’s very rewarding. It’s kind of like painting a Picasso, and I get a lot of reward out of that.

The worst, I would say, would be when we have a horse that has shown a lot of promise and we lose that horse due to an injury. It’s both a financial and an emotional loss for myself and my clients. That’s difficult.

Ron: So both of these really are the highs and lows – the highs being able to see a horse that’s a product of your program come up through the ranks and do well and then the other is what everybody hates to see.

Linda: Yes.

Ron: Next question – Which horse you have trained was the most talented, not necessarily the one that accomplished the most?

Linda: City Zip was probably the most talented horse I’ve had. He had the ability to outdo a horse on the lead like Speightstown in the Amsterdam at Saratoga, or he could run them down in the stretch as he did Yonaguska in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. He could get started and stopped several times in a race and re-engage and he had a great desire to win.

Ron: So he really was talented and also turned out to be one of the best horses you’ve trained to date.

Linda: Yes, he was very unique.

Ron: This next question is from Olivia Newman – What advice do you have for aspiring women trainers? What challenges do you face being a woman trainer?

Linda: Well, I think that being any trainer, but also being a woman, I mean obviously you have to work hard at it. You can’t be discouraged easily. You have to pay attention to the financial end of it so that you can afford to get through the good times and the bad and that’s a big part of it.

Ron: And that would be advice for probably any aspiring trainer, regardless of gender.

Linda: Exactly.

Ron: Throughout your career, have you faced gender bias, since you are succeeding in a predominantly male profession?

Linda: Over the years, there’s been a few gender related issues that I have had to address along the way, but I find at the end of the day, people are really looking for results. As long as they’re getting good results, that takes care of any type of gender biases.

Ron: Next question is from Betty Ingerson. What is your least favorite part of being a trainer?

Linda: Probably one of my least favorite things is dealing with all the paperwork – whether it’d be workmen’s compensation issues, immigration issues, and Department of Labor issues that go along with running a stable. There’s going to be part of any business that you don’t enjoy and that’s probably the part that I enjoy the least, but it’s not going to all be fun.

Ron: Next question from R2L – I have an 18-year-old daughter who wants to be a trainer. She has ridden her whole life –show jumping, cross country -- and galloped Thoroughbreds since she was 14. What advice can you provide other than “it’s a hard life, don’t do it,” etc. She’s heard all that, but yet she’s passionate and determined to do what she loves.

Linda: Well I think if you’ve given her all the negatives and she still has the desire to do it, you should go ahead and help her and make sure she gets directed to some people that she could learn from and support her with her decisions.

Ron: And by that, would you suggest she go ahead and go to the racetrack, try to get on with a stable or a lower end job and just work her way up through the ranks?

Linda: I mean, myself, I was a rider, I broke and trained horses at a young age. In high school, I was breaking horses and riding horses for my father and it was just a natural progression. I’m sure they could contact some reputable stables and place her with someone like that.

The one thing that I always want to point out to them is typically it’s a seven day a week job, and vacations don’t come very often.

Ron: And I guess that by signing on with a stable, that will go ahead and give her the taste of whether she wants to go forward or not.

Linda: Yes.

Ron: Next question from Ingrid Beecher – Linda, congratulations! What an achievement! Describe the type of horse you most like to train and who was the best horse you trained that never got to prove how good he or she was?

Linda: Well, I don’t really have one type. It’s not colts, not fillies, not turf, not dirt. Frankly, despite the statistics or what most people may believe, it’s not a turf sprinter. I buy and shop a lot of horses. I’m always shopping for talent. I think that my greatest gift as a trainer is that I am quick to identify talented young horses, whether they are weanlings, yearlings, or 2-year-olds. I see it as my job next is to identify what they’re going to be good at, whether that’s short on the turf or long on the dirt, to identify that quickly and help them succeed in that arena. I don’t really have one type that I prefer; I just hope they’re good at something.

Ron: So you don’t feel like you could be typecast as one particular niche?

Linda: Frankly, I enjoy working with all of them no matter what their niche is as a horse and (that) they’re predisposed to be good at usually one thing.

Ron: And the second part of that – the horse you trained that never got to prove how good he or she was?

Linda: I had a 2-year-old filly I thought was brilliant – a filly that we lost to laminitis last summer. I felt that she was probably the best 2-year-old that I had since City Zip, and it was a real heartbreaker when we lost her in July before Saratoga last year.

Ron: You recall her name?

Linda: Yes, her name was Psycho DJ.

Ron: Next question is from Gene Roberts - Your stable of New York-breds demonstrated their strength and racing value running in the prestigious Saratoga meet. Do you work closely with the New York breeders?

Linda: Well I have focused on buying New York-breds for a lot of my clients to try and help them with the dollars and cents of this business and allow them to continue to participate in something that both I and they may love because there’s an added advantage to that as far as the purse structure (is concerend). And over the course of time, I’ve become familiar with a lot of New York breeders and I’m a member of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders as well and I am now training independently some New York breeders. Fortunately, that has occurred through time and it’s been good for my business.

Ron: Next question is from Jack. Did you train your horses differently this year for the Saratoga meet from previous years, or do you think the good weather kept a lot of the racing on the turf and that helped your program too?

Linda: Well I think that because I’m heavy in grass horses right now, that the good weather certainly helped me. You know, I wasn’t constantly running a horse off the turf that was much better on the grass (when races were switched from turf to dirt). So that was definitely a plus for me. But I also think that throughout the year, I’m constantly trying to put myself in a position to create more opportunity, whether that be with more horses and better horses, that I can lead over there that have a chance to win, improving my staff or the number of stalls that I have for stabling. So it’s a year-round process and throughout the year I’m trying to continue to move my stable forward, so there’s a lot that goes into it. So I think the weather helped but that’s just a part of the picture.

Ron: Or probably more than anything, it’s just that everything just came together at Saratoga.

Linda: Yes.

Ron: Next question from Jose. How do you feel now that you won the training title at Saratoga against one of the best trainers in the US, Todd Pletcher?

Linda: Well, I was certainly in good company, so it’s real honor to have won the training title there versus maybe at a smaller venue. Listen, I always knew I was good, now maybe a few other people think so too.

Ron: Next question from R. Patterson . How much longer before you bring a serious 3-year-old to Kentucky for the Derby?

Linda: Well right now, I don’t think that I have the right kind of horses in my stable to get to the Triple Crown races. It’s my hope that winning a training title and the recognition that I’ve gained this year will put me in a position to train more Triple Crown or classic distance type horses but I don’t see that necessarily taking place for this next season. I’m hoping that that will take place in the near future, though.

Ron: So I guess for like most trainers, Kentucky Derby is a goal for you?

Linda: Yes. I mean, I’d like to win the Kentucky Derby, the Travers, obviously the Triple Crown, but I’ll start one with leg at a time.

Ron: Also, what about prospects for this year’s Breeder’s Cup?

Linda: I have a few horses that I’m racing that there’s an outside chance that they will be Breeder’s Cup type horses. I have a City Zip filly, Canadian Ballet, that will race at Keeneland this weekend. If things go well we may venture to take her to the Breeder’s Cup Sprint on the turf. I also have a 2-year-old filly and a 2-year-old colt that could run in the mile on the turf as well. So, we’ll take one race at a time, though.

Ron: We look forward to seeing how that evolves. Next question is from Ed from Lexington. You’ve always had success with 2-year-olds. Do you attribute this to buying the type of horse you think will be predisposed to success at 2, or do you feel like you have a training style that enables you to get a horse to do well for you at 2, or both?

Linda: I think it’s a combination of both. I think that if a horse is genetically predisposed to be a good 2 year old (he will do well); if he’s not I can’t change that. On the flipside, I think that if he was meant to be a good 2-year-old and he’s in the wrong hands, that horse’s chances could be squandered.

Ron: And again, you don’t typecast yourself as a horse trainer of a particular kind of horse, but certainly you have had really good success with 2 year olds.

Linda: Well interestingly enough, my grade 1 winners that I’ve had have been the Spinaway with a 2-year-old filly and the Hopeful with a 2-year-old colt and two grade I’s -- Queen Elizabeth which was a 1-1/8 mile on the turf, and the Garden City 1-1/8 mile on the turf. So it appears by the numbers that 2-year-olds and grass horses is where I’ve had the most luck, but I want to keep that door open.

Ron: Next question is from Tom – Please be kind enough to share a little about yourself from a personal standpoint.

We may have already covered that because the second part is do you have a personal life? I don’t think many trainers do, do they?

Linda: Well I’m single. I live in Floral Park near Belmont Race Track. I don’t see enough of my family, and I probably work too much. But that’s typical of a horse trainer.

Ron: Do you have hobbies and are you able to have some semblance of a normal life?

Linda: Yes, of course. Usually in the winter when we’re not quite as busy, we’re shopping horse auctions. I’ll take the middle couple of months and do a little traveling and get caught up on a few things that don’t entail work. So usually November, December, January is a downtime for me and I get a chance to do a few other things.

Ron: So you do get to have some fun.

Linda: Yeah.

Ron: Next question from Wayne. I live in the Tampa area, I was wondering if you’re planning to take any horses there for Tampa Bay Downs in December. I know you have some roots there.

Linda: Yes. My family lives in Ocala, Florida, so it’s close but I stable at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream and Tampa. I find that it puts me in a position to race grass horses at a level they can compete. If the race is too tough at Gulfstream, I take them over to Tampa, and it also creates more opportunity for grass horses because, of course, you’re dealing with the weather as well and difficulty of getting in the entries. I race at both places, but I stable at Palm Meadows.

Ron: Tampa has a reputation, both tracks, of being pretty kind on horses.

Linda: Yes.

Ron: George Johnson says – I read where your father knew D. Wayne Lukas when he was just getting started. Were you around Wayne at those times and did you ever listen to your dad and Wayne talking horses?

Linda: No, actually my father and he are lifelong friends but my relationship with him is one of respect and admiration; it’s really not a personal one but he’s been a great role model for me.

Ron: Leonard Blush would like to know. How would you describe the current state of affairs in New York racing?

Linda: Well I think it’s politics at its worst, and I hope that we get to the end of that soon.

Ron: And by that would you mean just the fact that everything’s delaying the ability to have slots working at the race tracks?

Linda: Yes, that is correct. I am on the Horsemen’s Board in New York -- have been for three terms -- and you know we’re all sitting on the edge of our chairs waiting for them to select an operator. We have been waiting a long time, and I hope that that comes to an end.

Ron: I guess everyone thought the hard part of that was going to be able to get the slots legalized but it’s certainly been a lot longer since that happened.

Linda: Yes.

Ron: Next question from Gabby O’Toole. I’m a fan of one of your fillies, Mother Russia. Where is she being pointed to and is she a sweet filly?

Linda: She’s actually a tough filly. She was a handful as a 2-year-old. We had to work very hard at her gate schooling, she was difficult there. I’m pointing her towards a grade III at Keeneland, going around two turns. That would be the last race of the year for her. She struggles a little bit with distance but she does seem to handle it better around two turns than she does around one.

Ron: That’s all he questions I’ve got Linda. I really appreciate your time. Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like to discuss?

Linda: I think that’s it, Ron.

Trainer Linda Rice

Blood-Horse Staff — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:36:00 GMT

Linda Rice, who edged out Todd Pletcher to become the first female trainer to win the Saratoga meet title, will be the next guest on bloodhorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast.

Rice, 45, was born into a racing family in Racine, Wisconsin. Her father, Clyde Rice, is a former trainer who operates a training center in Ocala, Florida, and her mother, Jean, and brothers Wayne, Brian, and Curt are all involved in the horse industry.

After a two-year stint at Penn State University, where she was majoring in computer science, Rice became an assistant trainer and exercise rider for her father. She started her own stable in New Jersey in 1987 and won her first race with Contraboss at Garden State on June 3, 1987. She relocated to New York in 1991 and is currently a board member of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association.

Among the top horses trained by Rice have been grade I winners City Zip, Lucifer’s Stone, Things Change, and Tenski.

In advertisements in trade publications following this year’s Saratoga meet, Rice thanked her extensive list of clients for their support and also commented on winning the training title. She also expressed gratitude to fans, horsemen, jockeys, and agents for their encouragement.

“I am sincerely honored not only to be the leading trainer at the Saratoga meet but also to be the first woman to win a training title at historic Saratoga Racecourse,” she wrote. “The race for the leading trainer title was a lot fun and created much excitement and enthusiasm for the racing industry and I was proud to be a part of it.

“And let’s not forget the horses,” she continued. “These beautiful animals are what this great sport is all about! In addition, I want to congratulate trainer Todd Pletcher on a fine meet and applaud his professionalism; he is a true credit to the industry and it was fun competing with him for the title.”