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John Velazquez Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

The credit for the win in the GI Preakness S. goes to National Treasure (Quality Road), but the assist goes to Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Able to get to the lead and then slow the pace down to a crawl, Velazquez put in a perfect ride on his way to his first ever win in the Preakness. Fresh off his victory, Velazquez joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. He was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“It was just one of those things that worked out perfect,” Velazquez said of his Preakness trip. “You plan it but you never dream that you'll have the trip we had. The only thing that I was worried about…I saw Irad Ortiz (the rider of Blazing Sevens (Good Magic) warming up his horse in the post parade and I thought he was going try to get closer to the pace. If he wanted to get close to that pace, he was going to have to go fast enough to go across from me. So when I broke, I started drifting my horse out. So then when I pushed him out he started grabbing his horse back and he went backwards. I thought, 'Okay, he's out of there'. And I went right back to the inside. And that kind of slowed the pace really well.”

The race came down to National Treasure and Blazing Sevens in the stretch and National Treasure gamely held off his rival to win by a head. Velazquez and Ortiz were in close quarters the whole way and the two bumped. It sometimes seems that every time Ortiz is in a stretch battle something happens. Velazquez's thoughts on Ortiz and whether or not he too often crosses a line?

“I don't think he's a dirty rider,” Velazquez said. “I think he definitely crosses the line and does it a lot. I have talked to him many times. I try to teach him that we can be aggressive, but we have a line that we have to put in there. For him, it's hard to control. For me, I've been riding for a long time, so I always try to take the edge as much as I can, but try not to cross those lines. We all make mistakes. But I try to make as few mistakes as possible so I don't cross the line.”

Velazquez also revealed that he was almost taken off of National Treasure before the Preakness.

“I had to plead my case,” he said. “I made a few phone calls and I pleaded my case. I had to explain what happened in the Derby (where he rode Reincarnate (Good Magic), who was surprisingly close to the early pace), and I'm going to leave it at that.”

Should National Treasure start in the GI Belmont S., Velazquez thinks the mile-and-a-half will not be an issue.

“His gallop-outs are really strong every time,” he said. “He's always given me the feeling that he can do more and, obviously, he put it together in the Preakness. He put in a really good effort and his gallop out was really, really good. So I think the mile-and-a-half shouldn't be a problem. The way he gallops out, he's always giving more and more.”

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, XBTV, Lane's End and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, Bill Finley and Randy Moss reviewed the Preakness and the incredible highs and lows Bob Baffert experienced during the day. The breakdown of Havnameltdown (Uncaptured) and the way it was covered by the mainstream media was a major topic of discussion. Finley said that it is time for the sport to take another look at synthetic surfaces, noting that horses are 3 1/2 times more likely to die in a dirt race than they are in a synthetic surface race. With the Belmont next, Moss and Finley took a look at the story of Forte (Violence) re-emerging in the Triple Crown and wondered if he will be ready for his best after what would be a 10-week layoff and some missed training time due to the bruised hoof that led to his being scratched from the Derby.

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

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Remi And Pierre (Peb) Bellocq Join The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

It's not hyperbole to call cartoonist Pierre Bellocq a legend. Since he arrived in the U.S. from his native France in the mid-fifties he spent the next 50-plus years making readers of the old Morning Telegraph and the Daily Racing Form laugh. His cartoons were always creative, witty, thought-provoking and, most importantly, fun. Now 96, Peb lives in Princeton, New Jersey and, if you ask him to do so, he'll crank out a cartoon that is every bit as good as anything he's ever done. We brought in Peb and his son, Remi, who does a weekly cartoon for the TDN to join us this week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. They were this week's Green Group Guests of the Week.

Peb explained how it all began for him, back when he was a young boy in France.

“I always tried to copy from the newspapers,” he said. “When I was a kid I was copying cartoons and it was my ambition to draw. I made albums of a caricature of politicians. I have albums full of those things. I had a great passion for that.”

Because his father was a head lad for a French stable, Bellocq was also interested in racing and capturing the sport through his cartoons. In 1954, John D. Schapiro became aware of Peb's work and brought him in from France to do the art work for the inaugural running of the Washington D.C. International, which would lead to a job with the Morning Telegraph. His accommodations on that first trip over weren't necessarily first class.

“They invited me to come to America, but they were wondering how they could bring me here,” he said. “I found that a friend of mine was putting together a plane in Chicago with four horses that were coming for the Washington, DC International. So, they said, if you want, you can take advantage of that. So I went on as cargo. I was sitting on the hay in cargo with the horses. This is how I came to America. It was absolutely wonderful. And as you know, I ended up here for good.”

At one point in his career, Peb was also doing political cartoons for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Walter Annenberg owned both the Inquirer and the Form. But he sold the Inquirer and the new owners told Peb he had to make a choice, racing cartoons or political cartoons. He chose racing.

“The paper soon got sold from Annenberg to Knight Ridder,” Remi Bellocq said. “He had to make a decision to go for one or the other. I want to point out that had my father decided to stay with the Philadelphia Inquirer, with Knight Ridder, he'd probably have a wall full of Pulitzers at this point. A lot of other cartoonists have said so. That might have been the loss of the political world, but our gain certainly in horse racing.”

The segment also included a contest between the two Bellocqs. Each was asked to draw a cartoon about the 50th anniversary of Secretariat winning the Triple Crown. The two cartoons are shown during the podcast and viewers were invited to vote for their favorite. A random drawing will be held among those voting for the winning cartoon and that person will win the original cartoon. To do so, friend Remi Bellocq on Twitter at @BellocqRemi. On his Twitter page, you can then cast your vote.

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, XBTV, Lane's End, Three Chimneys and West Point Thoroughbreds, podcast regulars Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley took a look at the GI Preakness S. The consensus was that Mage (Good Magic) will be tough to beat but that he's no lock. With Mage being the only Derby starter to return for the Preakness, the subject of changing the spacing of the Triple Crown races produced a lively debate, with all three arguing that the time has come to make some necessary adjustments and improvements. The reports that Forte (Violence) tested positive following his win in last year's GI Hopeful S. brought about strong condemnation of the New York Times for sensationalizing the story and using the word “doping” in the headline. And everybody was left scratching their heads over the fact that it took more than eight months before the matter was made public.

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

The post Remi And Pierre (Peb) Bellocq Join 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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Ramiro Restrepo Joins The TDN Writers’ Room

Ramiro Restrepo has done a little bit of everything in the racing industry and now he has something else to add to his resume, GI Kentucky Derby winning owner. Restrepo is one of the owners of Mage (Good Magic), the winner of the 149^th Derby. To share his thoughts on the race and what it meant to him, Restrepo joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland. He was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“I still can't sleep,” said an emotional Restrepo. “I keep watching the race. I can't believe that we won. We won it. It's incredible. The emotion is totally raw. I haven't really been able to put it behind me. I'm still just soaking it up.”

Restrepo has been there from the start. Along with Gustavo Delgado, Jr, the assistant to his father, Gustavo Delgado, Sr., he picked Mage out at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale 2022, where he was purchased for $290,000. (He sold the prior year as a yearling at Keeneland September for $235,000). From there he was sent to the Delgado barn and made the quick transition from being a first-time-starter on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream to the Kentucky Derby winner.

“We knew we had a talented colt,” Restrepo said. “He had shown flashes of being really fast. But I didn't know anything back in January. And anyone who ever says I knew I was buying a Derby winner when it happened is just doing it for pomp and circumstance. In reality, you always try to buy just a nice horse, whether that means a champion sprinter or a monster turf horse or whatever. You're over the moon with that. But what happened with this horse, it is just like a Hollywood ending.”

The GI Preakness will be next and for Mage, it may only be a matter of holding his form from the Derby. But for a horse who is coming back in two weeks and had only three races to prepare him for the Derby, will that happen?

“That's what makes this such a hard series to compete in,” he said. “And that's what adds to the special mystical flair of the two-week turnaround and of the Triple Crown. You have to deal with the cards that are in front of you. The horse was never really pushed to get ready for his maiden. So it's not like he ran 20 races in the morning. The races are making him, and he is evolving physically and mentally. We keep waiting, much like everybody else, for signs that the races have gotten to him physically or mentally. He's flesh and blood and at some point it's just the natural way of the animal, those things catch up to them. No one can answer that question, but the horse at the moment came out of the race as good as one could ever ask for. What you have to do is ride the wave and see how long you can ride it.” .

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

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Andy Beyer Joins TDN Writers’ Room to Handicap the Kentucky Derby

Andy Beyer, the longtime racing columnist for the Washington Post and the creator of the Beyer Speed Figures that appear in the Daily Racing Form, is never short of opinions, especially when it comes to who will win the GI Kentucky Derby. With the race right around the corner, we asked Beyer to give us his thoughts on the race and share his handicapping acumen on the TDN Writers' Room podcast, which is presented by Keeneland. Beyer was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

After some spirited and amusing debate about how to pronounce Forte's name, Beyer said he's no fan of that horse, saying that Forte (Violence) “won't hit the board.”

“I don't like him,” he said. “I don't like him because the name issue grates on me every time I hear it. He is not historically what we look for in the Kentucky Derby, which is a horse on the upgrade coming into the Derby. He clearly doesn't fit that profile. Yes, he is trained by Todd Pletcher. But as we know, Todd's forte is not training horses to win the Derby. His record in this race is two for 62. So I don't think you get any extra credit for being in the Pletcher barn in this race. I want no part of Forte. I don't think he'll hit the board.”

Then who does he like? It's Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits).

“I am looking for a history making Japanese victory on Saturday night with Derma Sotogake,” Beyer said. “It's not a great Derby. But what makes it really interesting to me is the Japanese presence. And I've been looking a lot at this and I think that Japan is really on the brink of becoming the number one power in world horse racing, eclipsing even Great Britain and the United States. It's going to happen at the present rate eventually. And the coming out party just might be Saturday.”

Beyer said he is so bullish on the Japanese horses that he even gave a long look to longshot Continuar (Jpn) (Drefong).

“I was going to pick Continuar as my 50 to 1 bomber just because he is trained by the top Japanese trainer and was really going to be under the radar,” Beyer said. “But he evidently has not trained that well since he's been at Churchill.”

Based on the Beyer figures, the field for the GI Kentucky Oaks is among the slowest ever. Predictably, Beyer didn't have anything good to say about that race.

“I was so depressed looking at the figures in the Oaks that I just haven't even focused on it yet,” he said. “The idea that nobody in that field has run a figure over 91 is just embarrassing. I've never seen a race this famous look so bad from the speed figure standpoint.”

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