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The Future of TVG/FanDuel TV: Q&A with Andrew Moore

Some 23 years after it debuted, the TVG network underwent a major shift Thursday, its first day not as TVG but as FanDuel TV. There's a new name and a new direction. Between midnight and noon each day, racing coverage will not exist. Instead, the network will feature a number of shows that focus on sports wagering during those hours. While that may not be well received by TVG's loyal viewers, FanDuel executives insist that racing coverage is not going anywhere. Better yet, they believe they can introduce sports bettors to horse racing and increase racing's popularity and the amount bet on the game. What does it all mean? The TDN sat down with Andrew Moore, Vice President of Racing for the FanDuel group, to get his take on a new era when it comes to FanDuel's relationship with racing.

TDN: As I am sure you know, many racing fans are nervous about the rebranding of TVG and the switch over to programming focusing on sports betting, worried that this is the beginning of the end when it comes to TVG-FanDuel covering racing. Tell us why they need not worry?

AM: This a network people care about deeply and have felt that way for 20 odd years. The talent feels like friends and family to a lot of our regular viewers. They also have very tight bonds to different tracks that we show. It's very emotive. That people are concerned is a testament to what a great thing TVG has been and how much some people love it. From our perspective, we've got to make sure that we keep moving, we keep building and we attract a new audience while at the same time continue to grow and build this great thing that we've spent 23 years investing in.

From a horse racing perspective, we're going to do be doing more. We've got a number of positive things happening when it comes to the content. We will be walking the walk and showing that we are committed to horse racing content. Talk can be cheap but content, deals and commitments will be a matter of walking the walk.

We built something incredible, so why would we change? I know people are saying you're going to sack some of your talent. It's more a matter of we're going to need to hire more people because there will be more races to cover. Yes, there will be some things on in the morning that aren't horse racing that people are not necessarily going to love. But what's been on during that time before has been international horse racing of low quality.

I feel like if we really care about this network, we need to invest in it and this is the most sensible way to invest in it. Leverage the FanDuel brand. We would be doing the network a disservice if we don't lean into this and take advantage of those opportunities.

TDN: During the hours when racing is being shown, will some of that time also be devoted to sports betting? Perhaps, say, with 12 minutes to post at Del Mar, might someone come on and talk about the over-under in the Cubs game? And will there be any opportunities for the talking heads who do the sports betting programs to talk about horse racing?

AM: We will try different things. We will try to do it in a way that fits with the programming in a sense that it doesn't feel jarring. We would avoid a situation where the horses are going down to the start and we switch to a talking head telling you that Mookie Betts is plus 350 to hit a home run tonight and you can make that bet right now with the FanDuel sports book…now let's go back to Matt Carothers and hear what he has to say about this horse's stride.

They are two different subjects and it will never be perfectly seamless. But, we have to do it in a way that is not jarring and is considerate of the current viewer. We will try things. I'd be very surprised if we didn't. Frankly, when there's not a lot going on, if you do it well and have the right people on the air, who's to say that it wouldn't fit? If you're covering Del Mar and talking about the Padres, who are five miles away, that sort of thing would probably work.

It can work both ways. Who's to say we wouldn't have Kay Adams talking about the Derby? What excites me opportunity-wise is how we can feed these things into each other and how they can elevate each other. At the start, we will do things that don't work. That's the nature of taking risks. My job is to grow horse racing. It would be very easy to sit back with our ADW business and say we've got to this position of being No. 1 and, so, we can sit back. That's not the way it works. What is way more exciting is to work on how we can keep bringing in new fans.

TDN: When announcing the renaming of TVG the company also let it be known that it is very close to being able to start taking bets on racing through its traditional sports betting platforms. To have people be able to bet on sports and racing from the same wallet is something racing has longed for for years. Tell us more about the process and what this could mean for horse racing.

AM: We have this massive FanDuel brand which is growing exponentially with sports betting and we are the market leader in that space. We are also the market leader in the horse racing space. They are two separate worlds but there are a lot of ways that they can complement each other, including how we can expose a lot of young fans to horse racing. We felt, in regards to wagering, the best strategy was to put racing into the sports books as a part of ADW wagering and doing so with pari-mutuel wagering rather than fixed odds.

This really started in 2019 when we were working on the FanDuel stand-alone racing app. We leveraged the FanDuel brand, released an app to the market and we learned about customers' habits. What they liked, what they didn't like, all the while trying to attract a new audience. That was launched in 2020. We had a lot of pick up especially during Covid when most of the other sports were shut down.

But it wasn't in the same account wallet and the reason why it wasn't on the same account wallet was because it was really hard technically to do. Sports betting engines and tote engines are different. Tote wallets and sports wallets are different. There has been a lot of technological work that has been done over the past two years to integrate racing and the sport book so that when you log onto the sports book you will be able to bet on horse racing with the same funds you've been using to bet on sports. That was a huge challenge.

We are hoping that we will have this up and running in some states by the first week of October and have more states come on line by the Breeders' Cup. With the Breeders' Cup being such a good wagering product, we'd very much like expose it to our sports betting customers.

TDN: You said the sports book will be taking pari-mutuel bets. That goes against a sentiment in the industry that there has to be a conversion to fixed odds in order for the marriage of sports betting and racing to work. Your thoughts on this?

AM: Fixed odds is an interesting customer proposition but there are regulatory issues and the matter of getting it going in enough states so that it can make an impact. The industry is built on pari-mutuel wagering, as it is in places like Hong Kong and France. There's nothing wrong with that. We've learned a lot through (Betfair), when we tried it in New Jersey and it failed. One of reasons it failed was we didn't have the content and also we could never really stretch beyond New Jersey. Coming back full circle, we are saying, ok, let's put the tote into the sports book because that way we can have all the content and we can also scale out to numerous states because we are already in 33 states with TVG.

I think taking pari-mutuel bets on the sports book has a very good chance of working. Do I think there is a world where pari-mutuel and fixed odds can live together? Absolutely. This is the first step and right now it doesn't involve fixed odds because if we went in that direction we'd be very limited in what we can do with it. Fixed odds is not our focus because it doesn't provide the same opportunities that we will have with pari-mutuel betting. So what we will be doing is giving pari-mutuel every chance of succeeding.

TDN: If FanDuel is successful with its racing product it stands to reason that your competitors will follow. Perhaps, in five or six years, betting on racing will be widely available in the sports betting universe. What sort of opportunity would that be for racing?

AM: We are always trying to grow our audience over time and we will be the first sports book that offers racing. I am very excited about that. We see it as a unique advantage. We are going to be introducing an exiting sport to people that they can watch, make bets on and make bets where there is the chance of a massive payout. Racing has a lot going for it.

When you're talking about the number of people betting on sports you're talking millions. This year, we had more customers on the FanDuel sports book for the Super Bowl than we had in the complete history of TVG. You do not need to grab a huge share of that market to really grow horse racing pools. Eighty percent of wagering on sports is on football, baseball, basketball, hockey, which includes college sports. So 20 percent of the pie left and it includes a lot of sports and racing has an huge advantage over them. If you're not a horse racing person per se, but if you live in New York, you're aware of Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga. Everyone knows about the Kentucky Derby. Racing has a very good product that features things other sports don't necessarily have. We have to lean into that edge and capitalize on it.

TDN: So how does the sport capitalize in it? What are some of the ways racing can better position itself to make itself attractive to the sports bettor?

AM: That's the most intriguing part of that, when will customers drift over to racing and how do we execute on that? We will be watching our customer behavior very closely and there's a business fit and there's a customer fit. Suppose we discover that the customers are going to racing at a certain time of the day. This is a complete hypothetical, but let's say we find that for the Thursday night football game we get a lot of horse racing pick up at a certain time, maybe before the game starts. If that's a time when people are actually discovering racing and interacting with racing, we'd love to see the tracks react by offering their best products. Even though it would be Thursday and in the evening hours, how about a major track running and running some big stakes races? It will be a fun exercise to figure out how the customers interact, what customers like and don't like and what we need to give them more of and when.

The post The Future of TVG/FanDuel TV: Q&A with Andrew Moore appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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‘You Can’t Afford To Be Risk Averse In This Game And I’m Not That’

Andrew Black is renowned in the gambling industry, being co-founder of Betfair, one of the biggest exchanges in the world.

However, there is much more to the 59-year-old than being the man who revolutionised betting; he is also hugely passionate about breeding and playing cards.

Black got to the semi-finals of the world Bridge Championships last week and his breeding endeavors at Chasemore Farm continue to go from strength to strength.

He will bid for Group 1 glory at Haydock on Saturday when homebred Brad The Brief (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) runs in the Sprint Cup while Noble Style (GB) (Kingman {GB}), sold by Chasemore at Book 1 to Godolphin for 525,000gns last year, is well on his way to becoming a top-notch colt after landing the G2 Gimcrack S this season.

From breeding potential superstars like Noble Style to discussing his plans for Chasemore and revealing a recent near-death health scare he suffered last Christmas, Black makes for a fascinating interviewee.

Brian Sheerin: It has been a brilliant year for Chasemore Farm and it could get even better with Brad The Brief in the Sprint Cup on Saturday. You must be looking forward to it?

Andrew Black: I am, assuming we run. It's well known at this stage, he likes a cut in the ground, and I think there's rain forecast for Friday night or Saturday morning at Haydock. He wants it soft, good-to-soft would be okay, but as he's got older, the need for soft or heavy ground has reduced a little because his knees are better now than they've ever been before. In his early days, he suffered from immaturity issues and, as time has gone on, that situation has improved. If the going was good, I would expect him to find things a little hot, but if it's on the soft side, I'd expect him to be in the mix.

BS: He's two-from-two this season, including at Group 2 level. It's interesting that he was in the horses-in-training sale last season. Was that ever a realistic destination for him?

AB: I don't think so. It's interesting that Hugo [Palmer] seems to have done better with him than Tom [Dascombe] did. We have paid a good bit of attention to his knees and it seems to be working. Tom didn't want to campaign him at a high level and was always insisting to us that he was a 90-rated handicapper at best and we should aim quite low with him. Hugo has sorted out an issue with his knees this year and he seems to have progressed. He's definitely moved on this year and to see numbers like 120 beside his name, that's pretty exciting. I think he can do more–when conditions come up right, I think he could pull off a Group 1 win.

BS: Has anything been changed in his training routine to bring about the improvement?

AB: The only thing that has been changed is that, when he came back to Chasemore Farm, we observed that his knees might benefit from being medicated. He's had two separate courses of medication and that's possibly what made the difference as he's moving very well now–he'd always been a bit scratchy. He's a very good-looking horse and is everything that you'd want a sprinter to look like. That little bit more freedom of movement appears to have made the difference.

BS: You have been quoted as saying, “for me, seeing an animal you bred winning a big race is as good as it gets.” Things have been going pretty well of late, not just with horses running in your own colours, but with Noble Style as well.

AB: This year has been amazing for us. You could consider it a breakthrough year. Not only have we had a lot of success on the track, but a lot of the yearlings that we have going to the yearling sale this year are a lot more interesting; we have some good stuff coming through. Noble Style obviously tops the list. He's quite a fiery character and, as he grows up, I think he's going to improve more. He looks like much more than just a 2-year-old to me. His mother [Eartha Kitt (GB) (Pivotal {GB})] didn't do it until she was three. She could have been even better at four but we retired her early as we lost her mother. She won a listed race on her final start at three but, if we kept her in training as a 4-year-old, we'd have got a lot more out of her. I'm certain of that. I was actually out-voted on that at the time, I wanted to keep her in training but we have got Noble Style out of it so I can't complain. I think he's really special. He could be a proper Group 1 horse. I don't even want to say that out loud and I am touching wood as I say it.

BS: What's pretty cool about Noble Style is that the family extends all the way back to Baldovina (GB) (Tale Of The Cat), one of the first horses you've owned. It's a family that you have nurtured.

AB: That's what's really amazing for us. What interested me about Baldovina when I claimed her was, not the black-type on the page, but the fact that there were not many animals in the pedigree full stop. The black-type as a percentage to animals on the page was interesting. Her dam, Baldwina (Fr) (Pistol Bleu {Ire}), was a Group 3 winner, so it was only really Baldovina who had failed. After I claimed Baldovina, her dam went to Japan and produced Jeweler (Jpn) (Victoire Pisa {Jpn}), who won the Japanese 1,000 Guineas, among others. Baldovina amazingly had become a half-sister to a Classic winner after I claimed her for just £17,000. She was one of the first horses I ever bought, so that was a bit of a turn up for the books. We did so well from selling horses out of her that we got her money back many times over. There's always a lot of interest from Japan whenever we go to sell anything from the family. It's an emerging family. We have a lovely Camelot (GB) filly foal, who is a half-sister to Noble Style, and we also have a Frankel (GB) half-sister to him as well. She is now a 3-year-old but unfortunately she could never race but she's a beautiful filly and I think she will produce something for us.

BS: If we didn't know you and know your backstory, we could say that Baldovina was beginner's luck.

AB: In the case of Baldovina, it was beginner's luck, but she should never have been in that claimer in the first place. She was a daughter of a French Group 3 winner who only had the one foal in the UK before she went off to Japan. Not only that, she finished second in her first two maidens before her form fell off the face of a cliff, which happens. She was by Tale Of The Cat, who I felt was an interesting stallion, given it is that Storm Cat line. You don't see many pedigrees as interesting as that in claimers, certainly not fillies anyway, and I think they made a mistake putting her in there. Maybe they didn't appreciate what they had and I was very happy to claim her and take my chance. I thought I made a mistake for a while, and even put her in the sale and bought her back, as I did with Ceiling Kitty as well, but I think that's because I was under a bit of pressure from other people at the time. I had bloodstock advisers who were wondering what I was doing. I had a fair bit of money and they were wondering why I was messing around claiming horses when I should have been buying expensive well-bred fillies. As it happened, she was the most exciting animal that I had at the time, despite the fact I paid quite large sums of money for some very well-related fillies. None of those left the footprint she did at Chasemore Farm. Not by a long way. We got that one right but made other mistakes.

BS: You've obviously got good business instincts but it's interesting that you also trusted your gut in racing and breeding despite the fact you had advisers trying to steer you in another direction.

AB: I would always respect the advice of others. But, at the same time, if you don't learn any lessons and chance your arm every now and again, what is the point? You've got to go out there and do a few crazy things. If you are afraid of making a fool of yourself, you won't achieve much in this game. I never liked looking stupid. Nobody likes to look stupid. But I won't let that stand in my way and, in cases like this, I didn't. I mean, I claimed Beacon Lady (GB) (Haafhd {GB}) after she came last, and she went on to win eight races for us. You can look pretty stupid when you claim a horse after it finishes last but, again, that one worked out. You've got to be prepared to lose money and to get things wrong from time to time. I don't think you can afford to be risk averse in this game and I'm not that. In fact, I'm probably a bit too far the other way. I'm always happy to chance my arm.

BS: I know that you said before that you'd like the broodmare band at Chasemore Farm to be around the 25 mark. I also see that you bought Chachamaidee (Ire) for 200,000gns at the July Sale just gone. What is the philosophy going forward?

AB: If anything, I'm increasing my numbers at the moment. My business life is going very well. Outside of horse racing, I am involved in two industries; one is oil and the other is vaccines. Both of those have had a very good run in the past few years. In years to come, I could have more money to spend, so things have panned out well for me. I think I will probably be spending more at the sales and the plan is to steadily upgrade over time. It was always my plan to upgrade anyway. The idea was, after buying the farm, that I needed to go out there and buy a certain number of broodmares. I needed to stock up, get my processes going and get good people working on the stud. The idea of starting with four or five horses and then building my way up to 30 didn't make much sense. I needed to get up to 30 quite quickly and then upgrade them over time. So that was the plan. That has been playing out and, whether we get good mares like Chachamaidee by going out and buying them or if we breed them ourselves, it doesn't matter to me how we get them. We've got a fantastic team here at Chasemore and we've got a couple of really good clients here as well. We like having the boarders here as it keeps us sensible and it's good to have customers. We're seeing a bit of success, which helps us to believe in ourselves a little bit more.

BS: There's also been a change to your approach to racing. You revealed that you were in the process of selling your share in Manor House Stables around the time that Hugo Palmer was announced as Tom Dascombe's replacement there.

AB: Yes, that's correct. By the time Tom left Manor House, I had decided to leave anyway. The reason why I left is not because I had any problems with Manor House, as I am very happy with what's going on there, but it's just a long way away. We decided to be a bit more supportive of Epsom. The problem with Epsom historically is that the facilities were a little bit weak. That's being resolved and Epsom is becoming a better training centre. Money has been spent on the gallops and there is the potential for more to be spent. It feels like Epsom is on the up and we want to support the training centre, which is right beside where we are. The idea of getting out of your bed at seven o'clock in the morning and going to the gallops at Epsom as opposed to getting out of bed at four o'clock to travel to Manor House also appeals as I am getting old and don't have as much energy as I used to have. The four-hour trip to Manor House is not as attractive as it once was. There's a lot of good people in Epsom as well so I think we'll be a little more involved there. I am always going to send one or two horses to Manor House, just because I want to keep that relationship with Michael [Owen], who's a great mate. We've had a lot of fun together and Hugo is training very well from there now so there's no reason not to send horses there. I just won't be sending the numbers that I used to. We'll have horses around in different places and will have some in Newmarket as well.

BS: But I gather your main interest lies in breeding rather than racing?

AB: Yes, I think so. I have got as much pleasure watching Noble Style winning for Godolphin as if he were mine. I realised that I get an awful amount of pleasure out of watching horses we've bred come out and win. They don't have to run in my colours. The breeding side of things is what has always really interested me. I never interfered too much on the training side of things and always left that up to the trainer to make the decisions. Also, I'm not somebody who particularly likes the limelight in any case. It's not what I am about so, for me, breeding is more interesting.

BS: And what else excites you on the farm at present?

AB: We have a pretty good draft for Book 1 and Book 2 at Tattersalls this year. It will be interesting to see how that goes. We've got a very nice Siyoini (Fr) foal out of a Red Clubs (Ire) mare. He's really quite powerful. We have a Kingman half-brother to Uncle Bryn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and he looks pretty interesting. All four of my Book 2 animals are interesting and the pedigrees have improved just this year. We have a sister to Lezoo (GB) [Brogan], for example, by Pivotal (GB), and she is a potentially interesting producer. We have a full-brother to Breege (GB) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) who is good-looking and there's a number from the Ceiling Kitty (GB) family as well. But, if I had to pick one as being the most exciting on the farm, I'd say it's the Camelot (GB) out of Eartha Kitt (GB). That's a foal and will never be sold. She could be very nice.

BS: You've always had a soft spot for Camelot.

AB: I have and that's just me as a punter. You see certain horses on the racecourse and grow an affection towards them. I absolutely loved Camelot. I thought he was a fantastic physical specimen and always wanted to produce a nice horse by him so I have favoured him over a lot of stallions, in truth. Camelot and Kingman, I have spent a lot of money on those two stallions.

BS: Of course, you were a professional punter at one stage in your life. Has the breeding replaced the punting or do you still bet?

AB: I still bet. I've had a bad year betting for whatever reason. I've had some good years but this year has been terrible and I don't know why. I just can't seem to get moving. Can't get going. Every time I think I'm on a run it just peters out. I've lost loads of money gambling this year, it's just been one-way traffic, but I don't bet like I used to. I still bet in reasonable sizes when I bet but I rarely spend a day betting. I probably place four or five bets a week whereas, in the old days, I'd have been betting heavily every day. I think I'm getting old. I find it a little bit boring and can't follow the form like I used to. The time I would have spent studying the form, I now spend studying the matings and looking through pedigrees. The breeding study has replaced the betting study.

BS: That's twice now that you're after saying that you are getting old.

AB: Well, I had a heart attack last year. It was actually quite a severe heart attack and it happened on Boxing Day. Maybe that's why I feel old. It was a good thing in many respects as I have lost five stone since then and I am doing a bit more exercise now. It has been a good year for me apart from that. I got to the semi-final of the World Bridge Championships last week and knocked out the World Champion in the quarter-finals. That was amazing for me. I take Bridge pretty seriously and play on a team. It's a big thing in my life and I came so close to winning the semi-final. Mentally, I'm in a pretty good place and that showed me that, if I can still compete at the highest level playing Bridge, my brain is still okay. I think I'm in a good place. The heart attack has been a good thing for me. I'm on God knows how many pills now to keep things steady but they're working for me and my blood pressure is low and I'm very calm. I try to stay in that calm place and I spend a lot of time thinking, which is what I most enjoy. Listen, I see myself as getting old but I am perfectly happy with that. I am 59 years of age and the heart attack scared the shit out of me. It was pretty scary to contemplate one's own death so, having failed to lose any weight for a long time, it became a lot easier to make the effort. I got some positive impetus out of that and I just have to build on that now.

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Eyeing a Championship with War Like Goddess

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY–With a sterling race record that befits her very distinctive name all wrapped in an engaging story, War Like Goddess (English Channel) is an impossible-to-ignore race mare bidding for a championship.

Though her late sire was a champion on the track and a top turf stallion for many years, the first foal out of Misty North (North Light {Ire}) brought a mere $1,200 at auction as a weanling and did not draw a single bid at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale. At the June 2019 OBS sale, bloodstock agent Donato Lanni purchased the 2-year-old for $30,000 for longtime client George Krikorian.

“I bought her with that name and I told Donato 'I don't like that name,'” Krikorian said. I didn't see the horse then because he was in Florida and I was out here in California when he called me about the horse. I didn't get to see her for maybe four months or five months later. When I saw her, I looked at her and I said, 'Hey, we don't need to change her name. She's beautiful. She is a War Like Goddess.'”

Some 38 months after Lanni identified her as a budget-priced project, War Like Goddess is certain to be the race favorite for the seventh-consecutive time when the 5-year-old goes to the post Saturday in the $600,000 GII Flower Bowl S. on the inner turf course.

Unbeaten in her three starts at Saratoga Race Course, War Like Goddess has won eight of 10 lifetime starts and earned over $1.2 million in the care of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. She took the 2021 Flower Bowl by 2 1/4 lengths when it was run at Saratoga for the first time at the new distance of 1 3/8 miles. Long a Grade I, it was dropped to a Grade II this year.

After War Like Goddess won the GII Glens Falls S. by 1 1/4 lengths at 2-5 Aug. 6, Mott said he was considering running her against males in the Sword Dancer on Aug. 26 to give her another shot at a Grade I win and keep her at 1 1/2 miles. He opted for the Flower Bowl, where she drew post four in the field of seven.

In the Glens Falls, she won by a narrower margin than in 2021, but Mott said it was just the result of a patient ride by Joel Rosario.

“This year, she was sitting there and he rode her from about here to that wash rack,” Mott said, point to a spot fewer than 40 yards away. “It looked like to me that she was sitting, sitting, sitting and he got her going, he scrubbed on her a little bit.”

The final words of chart notes describing the Glens Falls win were “as rider pleased.”

“He took her back in his hands, it looked like,” Mott said, “as he was approaching the wire.”

Lanni recommended that Kirkorian ask the ever-patient Mott to train the filly. Mott agreed and said he doesn't recall there being any expectations about her when she joined his stable.

“You just kind of wait and see,” Mott said. “You just train them and do the best you can. We had to give her a fair amount of time. She didn't run until September of her 3-year-old year. It took that long to kind of get her ready. She had baby stuff, shins, stuff like that.”

In that first start at Churchill Down, War Like Goddess rolled into contention from far back and won the nine-furlong by three-quarters of a length. Mott said it is an obvious strength that has her batting .800 in her career.

“She can run,” he said. “She's got a very good turn a foot. That's what it takes. She's quick.”

Krikorian, the president and CEO of Krikorian Premiere Theatres, has a lifetime of experience with Thoroughbreds. His father, George Krikorian Sr., was a trainer on the New England circuit and he was raised near Rockingham Park in New Hampshire. As his entertainment venue businesses grew, he became an owner and then a breeder. Equibase stats show him with 290 victories–24 in graded stakes –from 1,729 starts in his name since 2000.

With the $323,500 she has earned this year, War Like Goddess has leaped over Grade I winners Starrer (Dynaformer) and Hollywood Story (Wild Rush) to the top spot on the Krikorian career stable list. Her ability to unleash a late run has made her Kirkorian's third millionaire and fifth Grade I winner.

“It's amazing when she just puts it on, how fast she accelerates,” he said. “It's just amazing to watch her do that. She's very competitive, as you can see. She does not want to lose a race. She'll fight hard.”

The first horse Lanni recommended that Krikorian buy was Starrer, who was picked up for $35,000 at the 1999 Fasig Tipton Fall Sale. In 2002, they bought Hollywood Story for $130,000. Krikorian said that when Lanni–now a well-known advisor–calls he listens.

“We have a bloodstock agent in Donato Lanni who has an eye for a horse that most people don't have, most of the bloodstock agents don't have, for sure,” Krikorian said. “We've known each other and been friends and have done business for years now. And when he tells me he sees something that he likes. I'm really happy to hear that because he's usually right, for sure.”

War Like Goddess won her first-level allowance in late October in her second start and launched her 4-year-old year with a fifth in the 1 3/16ths miles the GIII Very One S. at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 21. She rebounded from that setback and rang up four graded-stakes wins before finishing third by a half-length as the favorite in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Mott thought that over all she ran well in the Breeders' Cup.

“She did it maybe a tick wide and maybe a tick early,” he said.

This year with Rosario replacing Julien Leparoux, she returned to the races in April with a second victory in the GIII Bewitched at Keeneland. A minor physical issue kept her out of the GI New York in June and the River Memories S. on July 10 at Belmont Park did not fill. She handled the field of seven in the Glens Falls off a three-month layoff and heads into the fall in the Flower Bowl toward the 12-furlong GI Breeders' Cup Turf against males.

Mott said he is inclined to run in the Turf because the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf will be contested at 1 3/16 miles instead of the 1 3/8 miles due to the configuration of Keeneland turf course. He believes she at her best at 12 furlongs, where she is 4-for-4, and that he is not concerned about her having a bit of a lighter schedule this summer.

“Maybe it'll help,” he said. “She's not a great big, stout filly. Although she can run, I don't think she's one you want to be leading over there every three weeks. Of course, the way the races are, we wouldn't be able to do that anyway. We would have had one more race in her, I guess. And maybe they did us a favor. Sometimes those things work out. Maybe the fact that we didn't have a race down at Belmont, maybe that's to her advantage later in the year. We always use the term 'they happen for a reason…,' you know.”

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Second Chances: ‘Team Flightline’ Well-Represented on Pacific Classic Undercard

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar.

Before the brilliant Flightline (Tapit) puts his unbeaten record on the line in Saturday's GI TVG Pacific Classic, Hronis Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing and trainer John Sadler will also send out the well-bred Hawker (c, 2, Justify–Flaming Heart, by Touch Gold) for his second career start on the undercard.

Given a 6-1 chance going five furlongs on debut at Del Mar Aug. 6, the chestnut jumped well from his outside draw, but was quickly outfooted and began to climb as six of them threw down for early control. Under a busy ride in seventh through an opening quarter in :22.16, Hawker started to figure it out entering the far turn and launched an eye-catching four/five-wide move around the bend.

Looking like a winner as they straightened despite his early struggles and wide journey, he had his sights set on the drifting Mister Iceman (Girvin) in the stretch and just fell a neck short of the game pacesetter while coming home in a field-best :12.01. It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to runaway next-out maiden winner Carmel Road (Quality Road), who was forced to check late while a troubled third.

Hawker, given a respectable 76 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, has posted three workouts since, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:00.40 (20/97) at Del Mar Aug. 28. He drew widest of all in post 10 in an absolutely loaded contest going 6 1/2 furlongs this weekend. Flavien Prat has the mount.

“You're up against it with a horse like this going five-eighths, there's no doubt,” West Point's Terry Finley said of Hawker's debut run. “I thought he was gonna pull up after a quarter of a mile, he was climbing that badly. But then you could see him level out as they went into the far turn. Really neat horse. I know Sadler is very excited to see him come back and make his second start.”

Finley continued, “This will put him in a spot where we'll be able to take another step forward. He's been really good coming out of his first race. He's definitely a horse that we're thinking of–he's gonna make a name for himself.”

Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, Hawker brought $675,000 as a yearling out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment at last year's Keeneland September sale.

Triple Crown winner Justify, currently sitting atop the freshman sire standings, is already represented by 11 winners, led by three graded winners. Hawker's dam Flaming Heart, a graded stakes-placed, two-time stakes winner, brought $1.5 million from WinStar Farm in foal to Street Cry (Ire) at the 2007 Keeneland November Sale.

Her winning first foal Mythical Bride (Street Cry) went on to produce GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner and champion older male Vino Rosso (Curlin). Flaming Heart is also responsible for three-time graded winner and narrow GI Belmont S. runner-up Commissioner (A.P. Indy), graded winner and narrow GI Breeders' Cup Sprint runner-up Laugh Track (Distorted Humor) and graded placed Intrepid Heart (Tapit).

“It's a solid pedigree,” Finley said. “Touch Gold as a broodmare sire has been a little bit underrated and Hawker's first dam has a lot of quality to her in her progeny. The Justifys are running to the hype overall. I've been very impressed with them–we have four of them. I think he's as good as any from the younger stallions in their first and second-crop year.”

The 'Second Chances' honor roll is headed by two-time Breeders' Cup winner Golden Pal (Uncle Mo), GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby winner and Lane's End stallion Honor A. P. (Honor Code) and MGISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Paradise Woods (Union Rags).

This term's GI Carter H. winner Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), GI Forego S. winner Cody's Wish (Curlin), GI Preakness S. third-place finisher Creative Minister (Creative Cause), Curlin S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Artorius (Arrogate) and streaking Cinema S. winner War At Sea (War Front) have also been featured in the series.

Other standouts include: GSW Moonlight d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), GSW & MGISP Spielberg (Union Rags), GSW Backyard Heaven (Tizway), MSW and 'TDN Rising Star' Gidu (Ire) (Frankel {GB}); and GISP A Mo Reay (Uncle Mo).

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