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Bret Calhoun Joins Writers’ Room

On the heels of a breakout performance from his juvenile filly Hidden Connection (Connect) in Saturday's GIII Pocahontas S. at Churchill, trainer Bret Calhoun joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning to talk about his new barn star, upcoming career milestones, the closure of his old home track Arlington Park this weekend and more.

Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Calhoun was asked about how Hidden Connection's 9 1/4-length tour de force beneath the Twin Spires compared to his expectations for the filly.

“Trainers have got a million excuses, we're always nervous. We don't have quite what we want. Nothing rarely goes perfect,” Calhoun said. “But this filly showed a lot of talent early on. She breaks her maiden impressively, very easily. But we've got basically 30 days from a 5 1/2[-furlong] maiden race at Colonial to come to the Pocahontas at a mile and a 16th. So there wasn't a lot of time to prepare like I wanted. She always looked like she wanted to go two turns in the morning, but until you do it, it's a

lot to ask. With that being said, I did have a lot of confidence in her going in and I really felt like she would run really, really well that night. I thought she would get a good position on the first turn,and we really thought she wanted to go on. But like I said, until they prove it, you're not for sure.”

Calhoun has accomplished a lot since taking out his trainer's license in 1994, and currently has 3,308 wins to go along with over $92 million in earnings. He expressed gratitude and said he's far from done when asked to reflect on those numbers.

“It's been an unbelievable run. I'm hoping to reach 4,000 wins and $100 million in earnings. I love the sport. I love the horses. And it's provided a good living for me. I can't say enough about the business and what it's done for me. A lot of people have to go to job every day that they can't stand. I go to a job every day that I love.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers returned to the studio to discuss trainer Charlie Appleby's dominance in America, Tomas Mejia's 10-year suspension for using a buzzer, Bob Baffert's scratch of Medina Spirit (Protonico) from the GI Pennsylvania Derby and more. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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

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Keeneland CEO Shannon Arvin Talks September Sale On Writers’ Room

The early returns have been strong at Keeneland's marquee September Sale, both in the numbers on the board and the overall vibe on the grounds, and Wednesday morning, the company's president and chief executive officer Shannon Arvin joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about her first September Sale officially running the show, the return of some normalcy to the auction environment, what to expect at the upcoming Keeneland Fall Meet and more.

“The word we keep saying is electric,” said Arvin, calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, about the atmosphere on the grounds. “We've worked really hard to try to create the right environment that Book 1 deserves. So we've got a lot of flowers, we've got cocktails, we've got brunch. The barns are full of people, domestic buyers, international buyers. There were a lot of people sitting in that pavilion and really excited to be here. The electricity is palpable and we really do have that hustle and bustle back, which is what we want at a public auction.”

Arvin has Keeneland in her blood, as a Lexington native and the third generation of Keeneland management. She was asked about her early memories of Keeneland and spoke to her reverence for what the company means to racing as well as the Lexington community.

“It's funny, since I've been in this position, a lot of people say, 'Well, of course you were going to be president of Keeneland.' Nobody ever knows they're going to be president of Keeneland,” she said. “There are so many people that revere this institution, and what it means to racing, what it means to the Thoroughbred industry, what it means to our community. I definitely am one of those. My grandfather was the first general manager and he was here from 1936 until 1971. My dad grew up on these grounds and was lawyer to Keeneland and was one of our three trustees when he passed away in 2008. My early memories are from working here. I answered the switchboard and I worked in the sales office. They had Dough Daddy donuts every Saturday, and graham crackers and peanut butter in the break room … We are a company that was formed by horsemen for horsemen. In order to fulfill our mission to be a model racetrack, and promote the best in Thoroughbred racing and industry world leading sales company, we have to have horsemen on our team that understand what our customers are going through. So I think that's helped me really have strong ideas about who we need to have here.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca and Bill Finley were joined by guest cohost Gabby Gaudet to discuss a smashing Kentucky Downs meet, the declining foal crop numbers and Churchill Downs's announcement that horses in the barns of suspended trainers will not be awarded Road to the Kentucky Derby points. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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O’Rourke, Serling, Ortiz Join 100th Writers’ Room

The crew of the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland celebrated a major milestone Tuesday, recording the 100th episode of the ever-growing podcast, and did so with a star-studded show shot from the New York Racing Association's television stand overlooking the majestic paddock at Saratoga. Welcoming as guests NYRA CEO David O'Rourke, America's Day at the Races analyst and Saratoga veteran Andy Serling and Eclipse champion jockey Jose Ortiz, the writers got insight on the future of New York racing both upstate and downstate, the significance of fans returning to Saratoga, what it takes to win a Spa meet rider's title and much more.

First up on the set as the Green Group Guest of the Week was O'Rourke, who touched on a variety of industry issues, including the moral imperative to institute major drug reform, the way forward on partnering with sports betting outfits and whether closing Aqueduct and/or downsizing Belmont figures into NYRA's long-term plans.

“Five, ten years out, if there's one facility [downstate] it will be Belmont Park,” O'Rourke said. “That's really our hub. That's what we're going to attack this winter in terms of planning. What are our options? There are three. You can knock [Belmont] down and build a smaller building, you can redo it, or, one of the things we did this year was build the Triple Crown room on the second floor. That was, in a sense, an experiment. What would it start to look like if we took sections of this building, and build out rooms that we need for big dates like Belmont Stakes Day, or potential Breeders' Cups? So those answers will start to flow out. What you're looking at is a smaller conditioned footprint at Belmont for 10 months a year, and the ability to expand out for something like the Belmont Stakes or Breeders' Cup.”

Next up was Serling, who has been coming to Saratoga for decades and has recently become a key cog in NYRA and FOX Sports' successful daily broadcast from Saratoga and Belmont. Known to many as an outspoken, opinionated personality, Serling was asked whether or not he gets blowback, personally or professionally, for his style of speaking candidly on air.

“I never get that from NYRA,” he said. “[NYRA Bets President and TV Executive Producer] Tony Allevato and Dave O'Rourke have my back actually. If I said something out of line, Tony might say, 'You might want to tone that down,' but he would be right if he said it. I don't understand this whole notion that I'm this incredibly outspoken person, because I've been betting horses my whole life. Horseplayers are argumentative, that's what we do. Isn't that what we like about racing? That we have differing opinions? We throw them around, we say, 'You're an idiot,' 'I'm an idiot', then they run the race and we're probably both wrong, and you move on and try to learn from it. What do people want? Do they want people who say, 'I like the 4-5 favorite, I don't dislike anybody, they're all beautiful.' I thought that's what people want to do about racing is, argue about it. So I'm not going to change what I do. It seems to be working. I mean, at least they're listening. Love, hate, they're all listening.”

Last but not least on the set was Jose Ortiz, 2017's Eclipse Champion Jockey, currently enjoying a successful meet, sitting second as of this writing in the Saratoga jockey standings. He was asked about how the Puerto Rican jockey school and older Puerto Rican trailblazers have helped him and other young riders successfully transition to America.

“It's huge,” Ortiz said of the Escuela Vocacional Hipica. “Angel [Cordero] and Johnny [Velazquez] set the path for us, and hopefully we're setting the path for the ones coming behind us. And it's good for the school because it works on government funds. So if the government keeps seeing the results like they see now, they're going to keep helping the school, and we need that. We work hard, because I have in the back of my head that everything I do is going to be reflected on the school back home and the kids that look up to us now. You've got to keep that in mind at all times.”

Elsewhere on the milestone Writers' Room, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Spendthrift Farm, Legacy Bloodstock and the 2021 Minnesota Thoroughbred Assoication Yearling Sale, the crew celebrated being back together along with fans at Saratoga, reacted to a huge weekend of turf racing and the unceremonious goodbye some got from Arlington Park, and discussed the suspension of leading trainer Wayne Potts at Monmouth. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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New Hall of Famer Mark Casse Joins Writers’ Room

Fresh off of a year-delayed induction into racing's Hall of Fame Friday, Mark Casse joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Wednesday morning for an expansive discussion on his career and the sport at large. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Casse reflected on his family's growing legacy in the sport, remembered arguably his most famous pupil Tepin (Bernstein) and assessed where the industry stands on stamping out its drug problems.

Asked about the emotion of his Hall of Fame speech, Casse said, “[Racing] is all I've ever done. I was raised on the racetrack. Saratoga has been my life since I was a little boy. Horse racing has been my life. My father passed away five years ago, and I have so many memories of him at Saratoga and in the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion and the Hall of Fame. Then I sired my first graded stakes-winning trainer son. It wasn't easy to get out, but to have him there and have the family continue on, I know my dad would be very proud.”

Casse has been instrumental in the movement to ban clenbuterol in racing ever since he penned an op/ed in the TDN talking about its performance-enhancing effects. Since then, a number of jurisdictions and racetracks have moved to restrict its use or ban it altogether. Casse was asked about the progress racing is making on that drug and others that have plagued the sport for years.

“I'm very proud of that,” he said of his letter and its aftereffects. “I just felt that at this time of my life, it was time to give back to sport, and the sport has some issues with it that need to be cleaned up. I just felt, you know what, I really don't care who I upset. I'm going to tell it the way I feel it is. I think there's been some serious movement. We saw a quick turnaround in Canada. They moved quickly. Things have changed in New York and Kentucky has been a little slow to adapt, but they're getting there. What's the one thing still going on that is disappointing to me? We've made a lot of new rules and rules are good, but they're only good if they can be enforced. So what happens is the men and women that play by the rules, every time you add a rule, it gives us that much bigger disadvantage. There's a lot of people out there that they only live for today and they're not looking long term. I just recently had a conversation with a big official and I said, if we're going to have these rules, it's your job to make sure that they're abided by. When they're not, [trainers] need to go. If we could do that, it would make our sport much better. It's very, very frustrating to me. Very frustrating.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Spendthrift Farm, Legacy Bloodstock and the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association's 2021 Yearling Sale, the writers reacted to a huge weekend of racing at Saratoga that included Steve Asmussen's record-breaking victory, and, in late-breaking news, analyzed the development of Jorge Navarro's guilty plea. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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