Road to the Kentucky Derby Continues with Live Coverage Saturday on CNBC and Peacock

NBC Sports will present live coverage of the $1-million GII Louisiana Derby, a key prep race ahead of the 150th GI Kentucky Derby, this Saturday, Mar. 23, live at 6 p.m. ET on CNBC and Peacock from Fair Grounds Race Course. The hour-long program will also feature the $700,000 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park and the GII Fair Grounds Oaks.

Six weeks ahead of the running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 4, the Louisiana Derby and Jeff Ruby Steaks will both award Kentucky Derby qualification points, with 100 going to the winners of each race. The Fair Grounds Oaks will award GI Kentucky Oaks qualification points, with the winner of the race earning 100 points. Also, the Bourbonette Oaks from Turfway Park will be highlighted on Saturday's show.

Britney Eurton will host Saturday's coverage alongside analysts Jerry Bailey and Randy Moss.

The post Road to the Kentucky Derby Continues with Live Coverage Saturday on CNBC and Peacock appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

HOF Rider Jerry Bailey Talks Jim Dandy And More On Writers’ Room

It was a good week to have a Hall of Fame jockey on the TDN Writers' Room, presented by Keeneland, as the Green Group Guest of the Week and especially to have that jockey be Jerry Bailey, who knows a thing or two about analyzing a race for an audience. Bailey pulled no punches when asked about whether or not he felt Forte (Violence) should have been disqualified in the Jim Dandy Saturday at Saratoga.

“I thought it was a bad call,” said Bailey. “I thought he was the best horse in the race, but I thought he should have come down. The rules of racing state that even if you are not clear of somebody and you change paths and you interfere with their progress, which you clearly did, then you should be disqualified. I mean, if you look at the chart, even the chart says he forced his way out. I'm paraphrasing here, `repeatedly bumping with the outside horse.' And then he came back in and it was negligent. So, yeah, I thought he should have come down.”

Bailey said that the danger went beyond this one race. “Look, you want a safer product out on the track as you can possibly get for both horse and rider. And I'll tell you from experience, I went through it myself. I won't name the riders, but there were two or three in New York that the stewards let get carried away and go over the line repeatedly, and then the line gets farther and farther away and it gets more severe. And what happens is the riders take it into their own hands. If the stewards are not policing the riders and enforcing the rules, then the riders are left to police themselves. And that is not a good situation.”

Bailey also relived his exploits on Cigar, his Derby wins on Sea Hero and Grindstone, and told tales about his days in the jocks' room.

Elsewhere on the Writers' Room, also sponsored by Stonestreet, NYRA Bets, Lane's End Farm, XBTV, WinStar Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds, and the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders, Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and T.D. Thornton discussed (what else?) the Jim Dandy non-DQ, and the other big races of the weekend, previewed the upcoming Test, Whitney, and Saratoga Derby at Saratoga as well as the Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar, and discussed the top news stories. Those included Jason Servis's four-year prison sentence, Santa Anita's decisions on improvement expenditures in light of the closing of Golden Gate, and HISA's policy change on provisional suspensions.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

The post HOF Rider Jerry Bailey Talks Jim Dandy And More On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Coast-To-Coast Pick 5 to Support TAA

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will be the beneficiary of a special charity Pick 5 wager featured on CNBC during its next stop on the 1/ST Racing Tour Saturday. The upcoming day of coast-to-coast racing features 13 stakes races including the GI Santa Anita H., as well as the GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park and the GII San Felipe S. at Santa Anita Park.

NBC Sports will produce and air a two-hour telecast from 4-6 p.m. (ET) on CNBC. Five of the six stakes broadcast on the show will be part of a special All-Graded Stakes 1/ST COAST-TO-COAST PICK 5. The bet is a $1 minimum with a 15% takeout.

1/ST Racing and Gaming and NBC are working together on the special charity Pick 5 bet with the winnings to be allocated to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. NBC reporters Nick Luck and Britney Eurton will team up to face off against NBC analysts Randy Moss and Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey in a friendly competition. Each team will have $500 to bet on the Coast-To-Coast Pick 5 with the winnings being donated to the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

1/ST Racing & Gaming will donate $1000 to Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance no matter the outcome of the wagers.

“We are proud to support the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and are always looking for ways to raise awareness and donations to support their great work. This Saturday's 1/ST Racing Tour is shaping up to be an epic day of racing. With 13 stakes races and 263 horses entered at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Park, we thought we'd add to the excitement with a little help from our friends at NBC,” said Aidan Butler, Chief Executive Officer, 1/ST Racing & Gaming.

The post Coast-To-Coast Pick 5 to Support TAA appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Big Season Pushes Gaffalione toward 2000th Win

To the casual observer, it might appear that success has come fast and early to Tyler Gaffalione, who has yet to see the dawn of his 30th birthday. As of Dec. 7, Gaffalione has registered 1,997 wins with career earnings of just over $113 million. That's pretty heady stuff, especially for a 28-year-old. However, don't let that fool you because the young horseman has already packed a tsunami of sweat and tears–not to mention good old fashioned hard work–into a life still very much in progress.

I've had great people surrounding me,” he said. “I've had a lot of support throughout my life and I'm just so thankful because they helped get me to where I am today.”

Success appears to have always been in the cards for Gaffalione. Blessed with a rider's pedigree courtesy of his father and grandfather–former jockeys Steve and Bobby Gaffalione–he demonstrated his riding prowess early.

“My father, my grandfather and my cousin are all jockeys,” he explained. “So, I pretty much grew up in racing and spent a lot of time around the racetrack. I used to go to Calder frequently. I fell in love with horses at a very young age.

He continued, “We moved to Ocala when I was about eight or nine and spent quite a few years there. My dad trained some horses and he was also galloping there, so I started to go to work with him. When I was 10, he started letting me pony with him. I started galloping after that and when I was 11, I'd gallop in the morning before school and in the summers.”

Having grown up in Davie, Florida, the Kansas City native made his mark early in his career in the Sunshine State, collecting his first career win at Gulfstream Park in September of 2014. While still toting his bug status, he won a pair of stakes at the Hallandale oval in 2015, also enjoying a banner day that spring when winning five races on a single Gulfstream card. He rounded out the 2015 racing season by earning an Eclipse Award as the champion apprentice jockey.

Quickly becoming a fan favorite on the Southern Florida circuit, he tied jockey Jerry Bailey's 19-year-old record by winning seven races in a single card at Gulfstream in 2017 and quite notably, amassed over 200 wins in his first three full seasons in the saddle. Coincidentally, it was the Hall of Famer who Gaffalione had tied with at Gulfstream that had proven so important in giving him the blueprint to his own bourgeoning career.

“I watched Jerry Bailey and Garrett Gomez a lot growing up,” he said when asked who influenced his riding style the most. “Even now, I'll call Jerry and get some tips that I can apply to my riding.”

Riding high after rounding out 2018 with his 1000th career victory at Gulfstream that December, he returned the next year to collect his first Classic victory with War Of Will (War Front), trained by one of Gaffalione's biggest supporters, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse.

While those sparkling credentials could surely stand on their own, the horseman enjoyed a season for the ages in 2022. Knocking on the door of a win during the World Championships with seven prior top three finishes, he finally broke through in 2022, annexing the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with D.J. Stable's Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief) on the Friday card.

“It couldn't have happened on a better filly or for better connections,” he said. “Especially that my first [Breeders' Cup] win came with Mark Casse. He gave me my first Grade I win [on Salty in the 2018 GI La Troienne S.] and my first Triple Crown win and now my first Breeders' Cup win. He gives you all the confidence.”

Wonder Wheel, winner of Churchill's Debutante S. in July, finished second in Saratoga's GI Spinaway S. but bounced back to take the GI Darley Alcibiades S. before her Breeders' Cup score. Gaffalione has been aboard all five of the dark bay's starts.

“She just didn't really break running,” he said of the championship-defining race. “Normally, she shows a lot of gate speed, but that day she was just a little flat. It took a little bit for her to get underneath herself. We wound up being farther back than I anticipated.”

He continued, “Going into the first turn, we got pushed back and we got over to the fence. She wanted to do some running, but she came back to me nicely. Spots just kept opening up when we needed it and she took every single one of them. If you look at the overhead view, you could see at about the three-eighths pole and I was still kind of checking on her, but she wanted to run. As soon as the spots opened, she didn't hesitate. She was just full of heart.”

Not short in praise that has been lavished upon what can only be described as a perfectly executed and well-timed ride, Gaffalione remains steadfast in his modesty.

“She is a tremendous filly,” he said. “I think anybody could have ridden her that day because she gives you all the confidence. I love her.”

On Breeders' Cup Saturday, Gaffalione returned to add a second victory to this year's haul with a score by longshot Caravel (Mizzen Mast) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.

“It was such a blessing,” he explained. “My agent [Matt Muzikar] and I have put in such a huge amount of work to get to that point. It's something that I have wanted to accomplish for a while. It's definitely been a fun experience. I've been enjoying myself.”

In 2021, Gaffalione's mounts amassed over $19.2 million, which seems impressive enough. That is until you look at this season, which has yet to be completed, where his tally weighs in at a healthy $26.6 million. Could a second Eclipse Award be not too far in the offing?

“That would be a dream come true,” he admitted. “I always wanted to win an Eclipse Award. We were fortunate enough to win one as an apprentice, but [to win one] as a Journeyman would be a whole other story.”

He concluded, “Coming into this season, [Muzikar] and I just wanted to ride in the most races we can and get on as many as we can on each day. The way I see it, it betters your chances of winning and it doesn't hurt to have the experience. I have a long way to go [in my career], but I am happy with what we've accomplished up until now.”

The post Big Season Pushes Gaffalione toward 2000th Win appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights