Joe Bianca | Horse Racing Free Tips

Keeneland VP of Sales Tony Lacy Talks Smashing September Sale On Writers’ Room

Even in a booming yearling sales market, Keeneland's marquee September Sale has exceeded expectations, selling a remarkable 13 seven-figure yearlings in Book 1 and passing its 2021 gross numbers Monday despite having five sessions left to go. Tuesday, Keeneland's VP of Sales Tony Lacy joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about the banner results, the preparation that goes into selling over 4,000 yearlings, what the future of the sale will look like and more.

“I think you had to be cautiously optimistic, seeing the figures of the other sales during the year,” Lacy said of expectations heading into September. “They were up, they were healthy. The demand for horses right now is really good. I think the industry's in a great spot, and we're in a little bit of a golden era, to be quite frank. There's a lot of enthusiasm. Coming out of COVID, a lot of people are really appreciating having fun, getting together with friends and enjoying being at a social event like racing can provide. I feel that we've got to not take this time for granted, look at ways of how we can capture what's working and maintaining that certain uplift that we're enjoying right now.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the PHBA, XBTV, Three Chimneys, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Randy Moss reacted to the continued dominance of Charlie Appleby, persisting issues with timing races and more. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Del Mar CEO Joe Harper Talks Banner Summer Meet On Writers’ Room

The Del Mar summer meet, always a hot attraction in Southern California, could not have gone much better this year. The stand set records for average daily handle and average field size, and crucially, recorded zero racing or training fatalities, the fourth stakes Del Mar meet with no racing breakdowns. Tuesday, Del Mar CEO Joe Harper joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about how the track has become the gold standard for racehorse safety, what the future looks like for Del Mar, his childhood acting career and more.

“We spent $5 million putting in a new surface,” Harper said when asked what the keys have been to eliminating breakdowns. “It's kind of like picking up a carpet and shaking it out and putting it back down again. We re-banked the turns, and I think the main thing was just keeping our eye on these horses in the morning as well as when [trainers] put in stall applications. I want to know where they've been, how long the layoffs have been, why there were layoffs, take a look at vet records, and then when they get here, we put a lot of eyes on them. We hired a number of veterinarians to watch morning workouts, and they're really good. They know every horse on the grounds. They know the trainers. So if they see something a little off, they call the trainer and say they're going to come by the barn and take a look at this horse. I think it took a while for the change of culture to sink in. There's a little bit of, [when horsemen say] 'I think we've got one more race left in this horse', saying to them, 'I think it's time to retire them.' It was great getting that change of culture and the horsemen to accept the fact that we all had to do something. And it worked. It worked the first year, and it's been working a bit better every year.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the KTOB, Lane's End, XBTV, West Point Thoroughbreds, Three Chimneys and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and guest co-host Barry Spears reacted to closing weekend at Del Mar and Flightline (Tapit)'s stud deal at Lane's End. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Seth Merrow Joins Bettor Things with Joe Bianca

On this week's episode of Bettor Things with Joe Bianca, the host welcomes Seth Merrow, a public handicapper for the industry-leading Capital OTB channel and administrator of Equidaily, a popular racing news aggregation and handicapping site. Merrow talks about growing up a half-hour from Saratoga and the way he's seen the track change over the years, the challenges of being a public handicapper, the current state of racing journalism and more.

In his Breeders' Cup handicapping segment, Bianca lays out plays for Saturday's GII FanDuel Turf Sprint S. and GII Kentucky Cup Turf S. at Kentucky Downs, two Win and You're In challenge qualifying races for the Breeders' Cup. See below to watch the show. Click here to listen to the audio version at the TDN, or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Taylor Made CEO Mark Taylor Talks Not This Time, Yearling Sales On Writers’ Room

Business is booming at Taylor Made, not just because of the company's continued status as the largest sales consignor in the country, but also on the stallion side with the continued ascent of their young star sire Not This Time. Tuesday, Taylor Made CEO joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about Not This Time's newest Grade I winner in Runhappy Travers S. romper Epicenter, his team's approach to yearling sales and more.

“You can never predict that a horse is going to do what Not This Time has done,” Taylor said. “We've been down this path before. We had Saint Ballado, who led the general sires' list. We had Unbridled's Song, who led the general sires' list. And then we've had a lot of horses who never even got close to leading the general sires' list. So when a horse starts out and they're showing promise, people love their babies, the market is reacting positively to them, you feel the momentum building, but then you don't know what's going to happen when the racetrack acid test really happens. But he's just a horse who's gone from strength to strength. At every stage he's excelled and we're very blessed to have him on our farm. He just keeps ratcheting up from one level to the next, and we don't know where it's going to land him, but it looks pretty promising right now.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, Lane's End, the KTOB, West Point Thoroughbreds, Three Chimneys, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers broke down a huge Saturday at Saratoga and looked forward to Flightline (Tapit)'s much-anticipated start in the GI TVG Pacific Classic. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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