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TVG’s Weekend Broadcast Features Live Coverage Of Louisiana Derby Day

Mandaloun, the winner of the Risen Star Stakes (G2) in February, will continue his road to the Kentucky Derby (G1) and face seven rivals in Saturday's $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2) from Fair Grounds. TVG will be broadcasting live from Louisiana with expanded coverage of the supersized fourteen-race card which features seven stakes races.

TVG's Mike Joyce, Joaquin Jaime and Scott Hazelton will be reporting live from Fair Grounds with exclusive interviews, selections and expert handicapping analysis. The Louisiana Derby is one of four graded stakes races on the card and is a top-tier Kentucky Derby prep race with 100-40-20-10 qualifying points to the top four finishers. The race will feature a rematch of the top three finishers from both the Risen Star Stakes (G2) and the Lecomte Stakes (G3) – Mandaloun for trainer Brad Cox, Proxy for Michael Stidham and the Steve Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon.

Saturday's card at Fair Grounds will also feature a prep race for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) – the $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks (G2). The race has drawn a field of eight sophomore fillies including Clairiere, a homebred daughter of Curlin for Stonestreet Stables. Trained by Steve Asmussen, she was triumphant in her 3-year-old debut in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) and will have Joe Talamo aboard.

Todd Schrupp, Christina Blacker and Caleb Keller will be live at Santa Anita on Saturday and Simon Bray will be contributing to the from the studio. The featured race on the nine-race card is the $100,000 San Luis Rey Stakes (G3) which will feature the return to action for LNJ Foxwood's multiple graded stakes winner United. Trained by Richard Mandella, Flavien Prat will be aboard as the 6-year-old gelded son of Giant's Causeway tries to notch his eighth career victory.

The stakes action will continue at Gulfstream Park on Saturday and TVG's Gabby Gaudet will be reporting live from the track with insights and interviews throughout the twelve-race card which features the $100,000 Hurricane Bertie Stakes (G3), a sprint for fillies and mares. The race has attracted a contentious field of eight including Slam Dunk, a four-year-old daughter of Into Mischief stepping up to stakes company after an allowance win for Shug McGaughey in February.

In addition to racing from Fair Grounds, Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park, TVG will feature racing from Oaklawn Park, Aqueduct and more. Fans can tune in on TVG, TVG2 and the Watch TVG app which is available on Amazon Fire, Roku and connected Apple TV devices.

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Between The Hedges: Determining Post Times

Determining post time – the time at which a race is scheduled to start and entrants must be at their starting positions – is a complex calculation with a number of variables for New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) tracks.

There is a general notion that tracks blindly create post times and do so without coordinating with other tracks. But most tracks do work together.
Consider the extensive race dates offered across North America. In 2019, approximately 36,000 races were contested across 4,300 race days, with the summer months being the busiest.

Adding to the post time conundrum is the amount of daylight at different times of the calendar and the fact that NYRA runs year long. Sunset in New York is generally the earliest in December – at roughly 4:28 p.m. – and peaks at about 8:30 p.m. in June and July. Hence, necessitating different post times for NYRA tracks depending on the time of the year. NYRA attempts to conclude each race day within 30 minutes of sunset in the winter, both because of dusk settling earlier and to accommodate races offered by West Coast tracks.

There is a prime signal based on which track handles the most at each point during the year. NYRA almost always hits the board in terms of the top-three handling tracks, and during the Belmont meets and especially at Saratoga, NYRA sets the market and send out our post times in advance. Most tracks will react to NYRA's times, and the company works closely with Keeneland in the spring and the fall to provide race-day updates and ensure separation.

Another wrinkle to creating post times is ensuring coordination with the broadcasting schedule, which produces more than 800 hours of programming year round. Post times have to work within television windows and track partners for the duration of the programming. Dependent upon the time of year, NYRA works with Oaklawn Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Woodbine Racetrack, Monmouth Park, Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds Race Course, Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park, and others.

Time required between races is another consideration. At Aqueduct, NYRA can comfortably run 28 minutes between races. Once racing moves to Belmont and Saratoga, additional time between races is required, given the layout of the facility and proximity of the jockeys room, as well as to accommodate post-race interviews with winning connections. The post times must work in concert with our wagering menu to give a little extra time for Pick Ns and also on marquee days with a large on-track crowd.

Once post times are created, they are circulated to an internal group consisting of representatives from NYRA's racing office, mutuels, and television departments for approval before being circulated to our simulcast partners.

NYRA's mutuels team compares our post times to several other tracks once an overnight is produced and identifies any adjustments that will need to be put out on race day morning. Our internal efforts are complemented by the external review of Equibase. A number of tracks communicate any changes to an Equibase scheduling team that then suggest changes to the others in order to avoid any overlap.

So, does it work?

Yes, for the most part. A review of 2019 off times (pre-pandemic) compared to any races within 5 minutes of NYRA races on either side of the off time yielded the following:

Aqueduct's meets (winter, spring, and fall) had 69 of its races (8%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 229 races from other tracks fell within this window.

Belmont meets (spring/summer, fall) had 99 of its races (13%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 409 races from other tracks fell within this window.

Saratoga had 68 of its races (17%) run within 5 minutes of others. A total of 253 races from other tracks fell within this window.

The results support that the increased racing during the warmer months makes it more difficult for tracks to avoid each other given the volume of races.

While it is not an apples-to-apples comparison, in that NYRA did not run every day of the year, there were just 891 races out of 36,000 in 2019 that were run within five minutes of any NYRA races. That is only two percent.

The takeaway? Trust the process. A lot of work goes into NYRA's post times and the entire industry benefits when scheduled properly.

Send your questions for Between The Hedges to betweenthehedges@nyrainc.com.

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Here We Go Again: Can Anyone Beat Baffert in the Derby?

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley

The year changes and so do the names of the horses. But the story remains the same. It's no longer about beating a particular horse in the GI Kentucky Derby, it's about trying to beat the stable that has an unprecedented hammerlock on the race. Can anyone beat Bob Baffert?

After this weekend's results, it's looking more and more like that is going to be hard to do. Baffert already had the early favorite for the Derby in the ultra-talented Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who was bet down to a ridiculously low 2-1 in the Derby Future Wager. His win in the GII San Felipe S. had been the most impressive race run by a 3-year-old this year.

But now there is some competition. Concert Tour (Street Sense) ran away from seven rivals in the GII Rebel S. Saturday at Oaklawn, dominating quality horses like Caddo River (Hard Spun) and Keepmeinmind (Laoban). On paper, he looks a lot like Life Is Good. Both are unbeaten at 3-for-3, have won two stakes, and are coming off sizzling performances.

“From day one, we knew he was something special,” Baffert said of Concert Tour.

For good measure, Baffert finished second in the Rebel, a race he has won eight times since 2010, with Hozier (Pioneerof the Nile). About two and a half hours earlier, he unleashed another horse with monster potential. Triple Tap (Tapit), a half-brother to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile), romped in a maiden race at Santa Anita and will, no doubt, be heard from again.

Not that any of this was any sport of surprise. What we have now is a trainer who is feasting off of his own success. As Baffert wins more and more races with top 3-year-olds, more and more owners flock to him. As more owners flock to him, the better his stable gets. Lather, rinse, repeat.

He trains for an All-Star team of owners-Godolphin, Coolmore, Gary and Mary West, Juddmonte, WinStar and China Horse Club, SF Racing, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables, Stonestreet, Zedan Racing Stables. His barn is stocked full of the best bred, most expensive horses in racing. No one else's compares.

“You can't do it unless you gets the results and I worked hard at it,” Baffert said. “It took me years and years to get here. My program is to get young horses and try to get to the Classics and Breeders' Cup races with them. I don't train a lot of horses. I like to keep it as a very elite stable. We want to be in all the big races, all the big shows.”

But he is not going to rest on any laurels. The 2020 race to the Kentucky Derby proved that just about everything has to go right to win the Derby. Baffert won split divisions of the GI Arkansas Derby with Nadal (Blame) and Charlatan (Speightstown), Neither one made it to the Derby. Instead, Baffert came to town with two horses. After Thousand Words fell in the paddock and had to be scratched, Baffert was left with one horse. It just happened to be Authentic (Into Mischief)

“Last year I was really strong, but found out how quickly things can fall apart,” Baffert said. “So I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I was strong when I had Real Quiet (Quiet American) and Indian Charlie (In Excess {Ire}) and when I had Point Given (Thunder Gulch) and Congaree (Arazi). But these two (Life Is Good and Concert Tour) are really strong.”

Baffert has five horses among the Top 20 on the Derby points list and all five could make the race. It looks like Triple Tap won't be there. It would be very hard for a horse to make the race after debuting in mid-March. Baffert's 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy) didn't make his first start until Feb. 18, but that extra month made a world of difference as it allowed Baffert to get in preps in March and April.

“Triple Tap is a little late to the party,” he said. “It would be a little tough to make the Derby. We want to develop him the right way. If the Derby was in September again, like it was last year, we could do it. I'll have to see how he is in a couple of weeks, but I don't want to do anything rash with him. I can see him winning a Grade I stakes. He's that caliber of a horse. I just want him to develop the right way.”

Baffert said he'd like to get an allowance race into Triple Tap and, since he doesn't think such a race would fill in California, he may wind up running him next at Keeneland.

Baffert will be shooting for his seventh win in the Derby, which would move him past Ben Jones as the winningest trainer in the race's history.

“I don't think about that,” he said. “You just want to get there with a horse that has a good chance. When you go with a horse that you think has a chance to win, it's exciting. If you go with a horse who has no chance of winning it's not exciting. It might be exciting for the owner but not for me.”

At Churchill Downs, he will meet a lot of worthy opponents, a list that right now includes Essential Quality (Tapit) and Greatest Honour (Tapit). So the race isn't over. Far from it. But beating Baffert, never easy, has never looked more difficult.

A Stellar Apple Blossom

The other big winner over the weekend was GI Beholder Mile winner Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil). She looked terrific making her 4-year-old debut, easily beating back the challenge of six others, including the Baffert-trained As Time Goes By (American Pharoah). Her win sets up the potential of Swiss Skydiver-Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) II in the GI Apple Blossom S. at Oaklawn. In their first meeting in the Breeders' Cup Distaff, Swiss Skydiver lost all chance when stumbling at the start. She will be out for revenge. Monomoy Girl will be out to prove that no filly or mare can beat her. Could be some race.

Aqueduct Over the Years

Up until 1976, when the inner track was installed, Aqueduct would always open in mid-March after a winter hiatus and New York horseplayers flocked to the track for opening day. Fifty years ago, the opening day crowd, on a Monday, was 40,025. One of the big stories on the day was the increase in price for the Morning Telegraph, which preceded the Daily Racing Form. The price was hiked from 75 cents to $1. But the Aqueduct subway special was still going for $1.

Opening day was splashed all over the New York Times sports pages, which noted that Aqueduct had about twice as many fans as did a heavyweight championship fight at Madison Square Garden. Good Behaving won the featured Swift S, paying $11.80. Angel Cordero, Jr., still around as a jockey agent, rode the winner.

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Excellent Timing Takes New York-Breds By Storm In Damon Runyon

Excellent Timing made his first start for new connections a winning one with a geared-down 6 3/4-length front-running win in Sunday's $100,000 Damon Runyon, a seven-furlong sprint for New York-bred sophomores at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

The Not This Time colt was purchased privately by Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables and Michael Dubb following a second-out maiden win for conditioner Charlton Baker in December at the Big A and transferred to the care of four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown.

Excellent Timing trained with Brown's string at Payson Park in Florida before shipping back to New York and breezing once at Belmont Park last Sunday ahead of his stakes debut.

“We had open company on our mind, but this time of year, everyone throws 3-year-olds to the wolves,” said Dubb, who celebrates his 65th birthday on Monday. “This horse could have a nice and long career, so we wanted to develop the horse the right way and not get him where he loses interest. We want to get him used to winning. Hopefully, once we do that, we can go to open company. It's the right thing to do with the horse.”

With Manny Franco up, Excellent Timing did not break sharp but was hustled to the front to mark the opening quarter in 24.49 seconds on the fast main track. The dark bay showed the way down the backstretch under pressure from It's Gravy as Perfect Munnings drafted behind rivals in third.

It's Gravy continued to press Excellent Timing into the turn as A Longlongtimeago was angled off the rail by Eric Cancel and rallied into contention with the half-mile ticking by in 49.19. Excellent Timing put away It's Gravy through the turn and opened up a 6 1/2-length lead on Perfect Munnings at the stretch call. Perfect Munnings chased in vain but there would be no catching the 3-5 mutuel favorite, who stopped the clock in a final time of 1:28.02.

Perfect Munnings completed the exacta by five lengths over It's Gravy. Rounding out the order of finish was It's a Gamble, A Longlongtimeago, Echoes of Destiny, Reggae Music Man and The King Cheek. Reggae Music Man, who leapt at the break and was caught in the hands of the starter, was declared a non-starter. Eagle Orb was scratched.

Franco said he followed instructions to the letter.

“The plan was to go to the front,” said Franco. “I just let him break out of there and get comfortable. He took me to the lead and did the rest. He's getting better. Chad had him for the first time today and did a really good job with him and I think he'll keep improving. I think he can go a little further, a mile maybe. We'll see what Chad does with him.”

Brown's New York-based assistant Dan Stupp said he was pleased with the effort.

“The horse ran huge,” said Stupp. “The team down at Payson did a good job preparing him this winter. He came up in great shape; he put on some weight and his coat looks great. Manny did a great job allowing him to show his natural cruising speed and getting him to relax and settle. The horse did the rest from there.”

Bred in the Empire State by Sequel Stallions New York and Lakland Farm, Excellent Timing banked $55,000 in victory while improving his record to 3-2-1-0. He returned $3.30 for a $2 win ticket.

Live racing resumes Friday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card. First post is 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

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