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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.”

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The event has been scheduled to take place at Churchill Downs since 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until 2022. In a show of support and recognition that the need for funding still exists through a pandemic, those committed partners turned their event sponsorship into cash donations. Jockeys and Jeans came roaring back in 2021 with its event at Monmouth Park raising a one-year record of $342,000.

“This is our first event in Kentucky,” said Jockeys and Jeans President, Barry Pearl. “For us it's an opportunity to have those in the Bluegrass area who have so generously helped this cause to come out and meet some of those severely injured jockeys they have consistently supported and say hello to a large group of Hall of Famers there to honor their fallen brothers and sisters.”

The 17 Hall of Fame Riders scheduled to attend include Braulio Baeza, Bill Boland, Don Brumfield, Steve Cauthen, Pat Day, Early Fires, Julie Krone, Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay Jr., Craig Perret, Edgar Prado, Jose Santos, Alex Solis, Gary Stevens, Jacinto Vasquez, and Jockeys and Jeans committee Member Sandy Hawley. Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey will be present as part of NBC's Stephen Foster Stakes broadcast team and will take part in Jockey and Jeans's meet and greet segment.

Other notables scheduled to attend include two of the five living Triple Crown winning jockeys: Jean Cruguet who won the 1977 Triple Crown on Seattle Slew and Steve Cauthen who won the 1978 Triple Crown aboard Affirmed.

All funds raised will go to the PDJF, which makes monthly payments of $1,000 to 60 severely injured former jockeys. The all-volunteer group has raised over $2 million for the charity.

The event begins at 11:00 a.m. in Churchill Downs' Triple Crown Room. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster here or can be accessed at www.jockeysandeans.com and www.churchilldowns.com. Lunch is included in the event ticket price.

Noted Keeneland Sales Auctioneer Ryan Mahon will host an auction that will feature rare racing memorabilia and guests will have the opportunity to bid on rare silent auction items. The riders, including those permanently disabled, will sign special autographed posters and other memorabilia brought by fans at a special signing in the grandstand that will be open to the general public.

If you have questions, contact Barry Pearl at jockeysandjeans@gmail.com or (717) 503-0182 or Eddie Donnally at Edjockeysandjeans@gmail.com or (818) 653-3711.

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Bailey started out on the racetrack as a veterinarian and took a position as the resident veterinarian for E.K. Gaylord's Lazy E Ranch in Oklahoma, later adding the role of general manager to his duties.

He moved to Florida in the late eighties and partnered with Ken Ellenberg to start Bailey Ellenberg Select, a partnership that focused on pinhooking. Ellenberg and Bailey bought eventual 1995 Grade I Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch (Gulch) for $40,000 at the Keeneland July yearling sale with the intent to sell him a year later. They had a $125,000 reserve on him at the Keeneland April sale as a 2-year-old, but the bidding stopped at $120,000. After selling a 50% interest in him to Howard Rozin, they campaigned Thunder Gulch through his first three career starts before selling him privately to Michael Tabor.

Bailey would later partner with Lance Robinson, and the two started Gulf Coast Farms. It was another pinhooking operation, but they also got involved in breeding. Their biggest success story as a breeder was Lookin at Lucky (Smart Strike). Consigned by Bailey, he was sold for $475,000 as a 2-year-old at the Keeneland April sale. The winner of the 2010 GI Preakness S., he was named champion 2-year-old in 2009 and champion 3-year-old in 2010.

Bailey was involved with many top horses over the years. He consigned Grade I winners Honour and Glory (Relaunch), Deputy Commander (Deputy Minister), Henny Hughes (Hennessy) and Dubai Escapade (Awesome Again). Dubai Escapade sold for $2 million at the 2004 Barretts 2-year-old sale.

About 10 years ago, Bailey retired from the Thoroughbred game and moved back to his native Oklahoma. While there, he focused on roping competitions.

“Roping to him was what golf is to others,” said his widow, Leslie. “He roped every day there was. He just won a roping competition about five days before he came up sick.

“He was most proud of our success in the Thoroughbred business, his ability to pick out an individual, an athlete, and all his achievements in roping.”

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Rosario's agent, Ron Anderson, predicted that his rider would be out for about three weeks and could be ready for the Dec. 26 opening day card at Santa Anita.

“I haven't spoken to a doctor yet, so we're just waiting to find out,” he said. “It's going t be two, three weeks before he can ride again, so we're going to have to bite the bullet. Opening day at Santa Anita is 23 days away. It's possible that he can make that, but I do not know.”

With Rosario closing in on a number of records, the jockey and his agent had planned a busy schedule over the final four weeks of the year. Rosario has won 49 graded stakes this year, six shy of the record set by Jerry Bailey in 2003, and his 69 stakes wins on the year had him within seven wins of the record set by Garrett Gomez in 2007. With $32,944,478 in earnings this year, he was also within striking distance of the record held by Irad Ortiz Jr. Ortiz set his record in 2019 with $34,109,019 in purse earnings. It appears that Rosario will run out of time when it comes to establishing any new records.

“I am just concerned about him being comfortable,” Anderson said. “He's not the type to dwell on something like (breaking records). We'll just roll with it and maybe we can do it next year. We will move on.”

Riding Irish Constitution (Constitution) in the second race Thursday, Rosario was unseated after the wire.

“Last night on his way home, he called me and said that when he breathed it was painful,” Anderson said. “I got off phone thinking it had to be a rib or something like that bugging him. He got x-rays and it showed he has a fracture.”

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Anderson is taking aim at both records this season with Joel Rosario, the leading jockey in North America by stakes, graded stakes and money won in 2021. The 36-year-old native of Dominican Republic also has a very good chance of surpassing the single-season earnings record of $34,109,019 set in 2019 by Irad Ortiz Jr.

“We get up every morning to try and do things that other people haven't done,” Anderson said, adding that the records are important to both him and Rosario, the favorite to win his first Eclipse Award as outstanding jockey of 2021.

“Joel is a humble kid and not an 'all me' type of person,” Anderson said. “At the end of the day, to be mentioned in the same breath as Jerry Bailey and Garrett really is a big deal. He's the nicest, sweetest kid, respectful to hot walkers and grooms, a very special person. I don't know that I've ever been around anyone like him.”

Entering Thanksgiving week, Rosario has won 49 graded stakes and 69 stakes overall in 2021, with $32,159,053 in mount earnings for the year.

He is currently riding at Churchill Downs, where he has picked up mounts for Mike Maker on Army Wife in Thursday's Grade 2 Falls City Stakes and on Midnight Bourbon for trainer Steve Asmussen in the G1 Clark Stakes. Churchill Downs has four stakes scheduled on Saturday, including the G2 Golden Rod Stakes and G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.

Rosario will then go to Aqueduct to ride Dec. 2-5, including the Dec. 4 program that features four graded stakes: the G1 Cigar Mile Handicap, G2 Demoiselle, G2 Remsen, and G3 Go for Wand Handicap.

After that, Rosario will take a week off while serving a three-day suspension he received Preakness week in Maryland last May. He'll then surface at Remington Park on Dec. 17 for a day that includes five ungraded stakes, topped by the $400,000 Remington Springboard Mile. The following day, he'll be at Gulfstream Park for a Dec. 18 card featuring five stakes, four of them graded.

The following weekend, Rosario will ride the opening day card at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, featuring six graded stakes and Anderson has plans for Rosario to ride in the final graded stakes of the year, the G3 Robert Frankel, at Santa Anita on Dec. 31.

Rosario will kick off 2022 at Oaklawn, where he has not ridden full time, though two years ago won with 17 of 45 mounts at the Hot Springs, Ark., track, a 38% strike rate. Rosario appears to be well situated to pick up mounts at Oaklawn from the powerful stable of leading trainer Steve Asmussen, whose partnership with jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. seems to have soured after the latter went through a prolonged slump this fall and lost mounts to Rosario on G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Echo Zulu and G1 Preakness and G1 Travers Stakes runner-up Midnight Bourbon in Friday's Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs.

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They spend the rest of the year strong-arming 1,000-pound thoroughbreds into disappearing holes. They starve themselves. They don't make shortstop money. When they get hurt, ambulances are called. They are there in front of you at least four times a week, risking themselves at least eight times a day, in a game that only pays three finishers. At the end they catch hell from the drive-by bettors.

They are jockeys. Dr. Robert Kerlan famously called them the greatest athletes in sports. The Kentucky Derby is their day.

“I try to explain to people how gifted they are,” said Ron Anderson, the jockey agent. “They're the elite. It's like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. They weren't taught to do what they do, and they can't sit down and explain it to you.

“It's not an easy go. I had Jerry Bailey from 2000 to 2006. He was always very edgy. He wanted to win so bad. He retired and told me later that people didn't realize how hungry he was. For 20 years.”

Bailey now analyzes the races for NBC.

“The day after I retired, I planned it out with my son Justin,” Bailey said. “People asked me what I wanted and I said, 'Lunch.' That's what I missed the most, so I had a turkey pastrami at Two Jays in South Florida. It was awesome. So big, I couldn't even have dinner that night.”

Anderson talks of the “20 races with 20 different animals” in the Derby, and the “18 decisions” that Bailey had to make when he won with Grindstone in 1996.

“Every one of them was right,” Anderson said, “But sometimes you need a horse that's nimble and athletic enough to get in and out of situations, too.”

A jock also needs an agent who can play the probabilities, to find the right horse in the right race. That's where Anderson comes in. His jocks have won 15 Triple Crown races, including five Derbies, and 37 Breeders Cup events. On Saturday he'll have Joel Rosario on Rock Your World, and John Velazquez on Medina Spirit.

He had Bailey, Gary Stevens, Fernando Toro, Corey Nakatani, Chris Antley and Garrett Gomez and, until recently, Umberto Rispoli, who was riding Rock Your World.

Rosario was aiming for a Derby ride with Concert Tour, trained by Bob Baffert. But when Concert Tour ran poorly at the Arkansas Derby, Baffert steered him away from Louisville. That freed up Rosario for John Sadler, Rock Your World's trainer. Rosario and Sadler have teamed for 247 victories, 34 of them in graded stakes, and nearly $21 million. With Anderson as a conduit, Rosario is on Rock Your World Saturday and Rispoli is out, a decision that Sadler called “agonizing.”

“These are business situations,” Anderson said. “I remember what D. Wayne Lukas would tell riders who would win a race and want to get back on the horse: 'These are one-race contracts, my boy.' Harry Silbert was Willie Shoemaker's agent, and they worked for 36 years on a handshake.”

Agents only represent two jocks at a time. Velasquez had been the regular rider for Malathaat, the favorite in Friday's Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies. He was riding Medina Spirit for Baffert in the Santa Anita Derby (and losing to Rispoli and Rock Your World), so Rosario took over Malathaat and won the Ashland Stakes. When it came time for the Oaks, trainer Todd Pletcher reached back for Velasquez.

“Joel totally understood,” Anderson said.

It's a long way from Mt. San Antonio College, and Anderson's goal of attending UCLA law. But he was a racetrack regular, and agent Chick McClellan gave him Toro's account, and Toro became Anderson's racetrack professor.

“Ronnie is successful because he's smarter than anyone else,” Bailey said. “He's able to interpret the data from the numbers, speed numbers, patterns. If your agent is wrong, it can cost you a lot of money. Maybe $5,000 in an allowance race, but maybe a million in a big race.

“Some agents will say, what do you have for me? Ronnie has already done the homework and says, 'I want horses A, C and F in races 1, 6 and 9.'”

On Saturday Anderson will sit back and watch Rosario and Velazquez and the others become the biggest men in the world. On Sunday he'll bury himself in charts and numbers again.

All days means money to racetrack people, but Anderson knows and understands why one day matters more.

“You tell somebody you're in racing and the first thing they want to know is, did you win the Derby?” he said. “That's the one that lasts forever.”

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