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Aron Wellman Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

It was a huge week for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and its President and Founder Aron Wellman. Over a 24-hour period, Eclipse swept the two Grade I stakes races run during Keeneland's Fall Stars Weekend. It began with a win by Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GI Alcibiades S. on Friday. Twenty-four hours later, 'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) came through with a determined win in the GI Breeders' Futurity. Both will now head to Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup.

Eclipse couldn't quite pull off the trifecta when Anisette (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}) ran a game second in the GII Rodeo Drive S. at Santa Anita.

To talk about his Keeneland wins, his Breeders' Cup plans and the latest on Nest (Curlin), who did not run well in the GI Spinster S., Wellman was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland.

Wellman admitted that he wasn't overly confident with Candied. She was coming off a three-quarter length win in a maiden special weight race at Saratoga and would be facing the likes of 'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole), who won the GIII Pocahontas by 8 3/4 lengths, and the undefeated Grade I winner Brightwork (Outwork).

Aron Wellman Joins the TDN Writers' Room from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

“I'll give (Trainer) Todd Pletcher, of course, the credit,” Wellman said. “Any time you train a filly to win her debut going six furlongs and then win a Grade I race after that with just that one start under her belt, well, that is just an epic achievement. I would say I was mildly surprised by the win. We were hoping to get valuable Grade One black type with her. We thought we would accomplish that, and anything beyond that would be cherry on top of the cake. She's a very gifted filly. She's done nothing wrong.”

While Candied was 4-1, Locked was sent off at 3-5, not surprising since he was coming out of a super maiden effort at Saratoga, where he got a 96 Beyer figure in a 7 1/4-length win. This time around, it wasn't easy. Locked was caught four to five wide on both turns and then he had to battle a determined The Wine Steward (Vino Rosso) in the stretch before edging clear to win by a half-length.

“In my handicapping, I didn't make him 3-5 by any stretch of the imagination,” Wellman said. “When the post positions came out, I didn't mind that he was drawn wide because he's such a big, long-striding, high-cruising speed type individual. I thought that if we could keep him in the clear, that would be okay. We just didn't want to be five wide going into the first turn and five or six wide around the far turn. But Jose (Ortiz) had to make some decisions during the course of this race. He was wide and chasing into a pretty soft pace and Jose pushed the button at the right time, which under normal circumstances probably would have been a little premature. But considering the slow fractions, knowing that it was the short stretch finish, I thought it was a really smart ride on Jose's part. It did concern me a little bit when he had so much momentum coming off the elbow of the turn and then didn't separate from The Wine Steward. I was very concerned inside the eighth-pole that The Wine Steward, who was an undefeated horse with three races, wasn't going to back down and he didn't. But you could tell that Locked was kind of reserving something in the tank.”

The one thing that didn't go right for Eclipse was Nest's race in the Spinster. She was fourth, beaten 11 1/4 lengths. In her prior start, the GI Personal Ensign, she finished third, losing by 4 1/4 lengths. Eclipse co-owns Nest with Mike Repole.

“Nest didn't have her best day on Sunday in the Spinster,” Wellman said. “So far as going to the Breeders' Cup, I think we're just going to have to evaluate her over the next 10 days to two weeks and see how she responds. Todd Pletcher is going to consolidate all of his Breeders Cup hopefuls at Keeneland, so she's already there, which is nice.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the 1/ST Racing, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, WinStar Farm, the KTOB, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley took a look back at the dozens of major stakes races run over the weekend. Finley said that the win by Up to the Mark (Not This Time) in the GI Coolmore Turf Mile S. was the performance of the weekend. The team was also high on the win by 'TDN Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic) in the GI American Pharoah S. Repole's pronouncement that the owners need to take greater control of the sport was a major subject of discussion. The consensus was that it will be hard for Repole to pull this off, but that if anyone can do it it is him.

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The post Aron Wellman Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Jena Antonucci Joins the TDN Writers’ Room

Prior to the running of the GI Belmont S., Jena Antonucci was hardly a household name, even within racing circles. Not anymore. The win she pulled off with Arcangelo (Arrogate) in the Belmont and the story it involved, a female trainer with a small stable and her $35,000 yearling creating history at Belmont Park, has energized an industry that was desperate for some good news.

How did she do it and what did the win mean to her? Those were among the questions we asked her when Antonucci joined the team for this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. Antonucci was the Green Group Guest of the Week.

So far as why her story has been such a popular one, Antonucci believes people relate to someone who keeps going in the face of adversity.

“There have been opportunities that I have wanted or that I have been asking for and the answers were no. And no is two letters,” she said. “It doesn't define where you're going and what you're doing. It's a no right now, but it may be a yes later. So handle yourself appropriately. But if you're not happy with what's happening in your space, don't be a victim to that. It's up to you to take ownership of that and to pivot.”

It remains to be seen if the Belmont win will change the course of Antonucci's career and improve the type of horses she gets to train. Whether it does or not, the trainer said she will keep doing things the way she has always done them, focusing on surrounding herself with quality people and doing her best by the horses.

“My focus is to deal with good people,” she said. “When you deal with good people, good things will happen and our focus will never change with that. As for the horses, we're going to do our best to steward the best possible outcomes for the horses that come into our hands. That's always been a core foundation of who I am as a person. I've said it from day one–I'll never train a million horses, but any horse that comes through our hands, we're going to do our absolute best to make responsible decisions and steward the best possible outcomes we can no matter what those outcomes are.”

Antonucci has been on a whirlwind media tour since the Belmont and has been an ambassador for the sport. What is the message she wants to convey about racing?

“That it's amazing and it's full of amazing people,” she said. “I'll talk about the taboo topic and I don't have a problem talking about it. It's breakdowns and fatalities. I very clearly understand that the general public views our industry as [if] we're profiting from horses and we're killing them. That's the thread that we are all trying to navigate and do better with. So if we aren't telling our story and if we aren't sharing with people how we're doing better, whether you want to lean into HISA or not, we have to. We have to and we are. We are doing better and we will continue to do better. It's about setting realistic expectations and educating people on what amazing things happen and what amazing lives these horses have and how much they enrich life for so many people.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, 1/st Racing, WinStar Farm, XBTV, Lane's End and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley, Randy Moss and Zoe Cadman reviewed the Belmont and the races on the Belmont undercard and delved into the recent developments involving Linda Rice and Kent Desormeaux.

The post Jena Antonucci Joins the TDN Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Japanese Racing Journalist Toshi Onikubo Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

With at least two, and perhaps three, horses from Japan set to compete in this year's GI Kentucky Derby, everyone wants to know more about these horses and why the Japanese runners have had so much success internationally over the last few years. To answer those questions and more, the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland called upon Toshi Onikubo whose website, netkeiba.com, is among the best sources of information on Japanese racing anywhere. Onikubo was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. He is a graduate of the Darley Flying Start program.

The biggest name among the Japanese horses set to run in the Derby is Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits), the runaway winner of the G2 UAE Derby. The Writers' Room's Randy Moss has made him 6-1 in his early line for the Derby. Can he win the Derby?

“I believe he's definitely one of the best 3-year-old horses on dirt in Japan,” Onikubo said. “But we don't really know because we don't have any benchmarks when it comes to comparing him to American horses. And it's a big ask, to come over and win the Kentucky Derby. We recently have had really successful results, on turf and on dirt and in the Breeders' Cup two years ago. But we haven't really had those successes previously. So it's still a big ask for Derma Sotogake. And I hope I'm wrong, but this will be really tough for him to do. There are a lot of things to overcome.”

Mandarin Hero (Jpn) (Shanghai Bobby) is next on the Japanese depth chart, but he may not get into the race because he currently does not have enough points to qualify. Nonetheless, his performance in the GI Santa Anita Derby, where he lost by just a nose to Practical Move (Practical Joke) was a big one. Mandarin Hero races in Japan at the National Association of Racing (NAR) tracks, which are considered inferior to the Japan Racing Association (JRA) tracks. So what does that say about Derma Sotogake, who, in Japan, is clearly regarded as the better horse of the two.

“It definitely was a surprising result,” Onikubo said of the Santa Anita Derby. “The JRA, that's division one, league A, and NAR is league two, division two. The primary leading trainers are basically all on the JRA circuit, and Mandarin Hero is not from JRA. He was coming from a NAR track and running in one of the best prep races for the Kentucky Derby, an international Grade I race on dirt and finished a very close second. That was a really surprising result, but it's an encouraging result as well.”

The third potential Japanese starter is Continuar (Jpn) (Drefong). He was third behind Derma Sotogake in the UAE Derby but has made the Derby field because he won a “Win and You're In” race for the Derby in Japan. Onikubo said the best thing he has going for him is his trainer, Yoshito Yahagi. Yahagi was the mastermind behind the Japanese invasion of the 2021 Breeders' Cup, where he won two races. Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) won the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mate Turf. Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) won the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff.

“He's trained by the master, Yoshito Yahagi, an internationally successful trainer with the two Breeders' Cup wins,” Onikubo said. “He's also won the Saudi Cup and he won the Cox Plate, so he's a really successful trainer on international stages. He seems to know something other trainers don't know.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore,https://lanesend.com/ the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, 1/st Racing, WinStar Farm and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Moss, Zoe Cadman, and Bill Finley took a look back at last weekend's biggest races, including the bounce-back race by Clairiere (Curlin) in the GI Apple Blossom H., which vaulted her back to the top of the older filly and mare division. Looking ahead, the team focused on the GII Oaklawn H., with all agreeing that it has assembled a top field worthy of Grade I status.

In off-the-track news, the trio talked about the fate of Turf Paradise and delved in an interesting story in the TDN by Dan Ross that shed some light on computer assisted wagering play in California and whether it is hurting the industry or not.

Click here to listen to the audio version of this podcast or click here to watch the video version.

The post Japanese Racing Journalist Toshi Onikubo Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Lynn Cash Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Don't tell owner-trainer Norman (Lynn) Cash that horses need eight weeks between races and can only run four or five times a year. Cash, who has been training only since April, 2021, has found success running his horses as often as possible. Led by the remarkable Beverly Park (Munnings), who, on Monday at Mahoning Valley, will make his 29th start of the year, Cash's stable has earned $3,816,293 on the year. He says it has been profitable in 17 of the 18 months it has been in business.

Brought in to talk about his unique approach to training and owning horses (Cash owns every horse in his stable), Cash was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland.

“I personally think that 11 or 12 days between races is absolutely perfect and it works for me,” Cash said. “If you go 10 or 11 days between races you can get 98% out of what the horse has to give you back. That's enough for them to recuperate. They're ready to go. Usually, you're working the horse anyway after a race; you're giving him a work that is a lot like a race. I thought maybe we should just race them into fitness instead of working them into fitness.”

On Beverly Park, Cash said he is a horse who loves to get out there and run.

“He's just such a competitor,” Cash said. “An iron horse, that absolutely fits him. We've not had to do any work on him. He's just an incredibly sound horse. He's just the epitome of a workhorse. Every time he gives everything that he has. He's just such a such a sweet and amazing horse.”

Cash owns a roofing business, which was his primary source of income before getting into racing. He has turned the day-to-day operation of that business over to his sons, so that he can focus on racing. He couldn't be happier with the decision to change careers midstream.

“I'm having the time of my life here,” he said. “They say I've changed careers. But I don't know about that because I don't call this work. This horse racing, it is addictive.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, Lane's End, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley took a look back at the GI Cigar Mile H. win by the ultra-game Mind Control (Stay Thirsty), as well as last week's GII Remsen S. and GII Demoiselle S. They also discussed the latest news on alleged drug cheat Jason Servis, who appears ready to enter a guilty plea. Cadman and Finley also touched on the story of Maryland-bred star Post Time (Frosted), who is undefeated in three starts while being ridden in the afternoons by his regular exercise rider, Eric Camacho.

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