TDN Writers' Room | Horse Racing Free Tips

Gary Stevens Talks Secret Oath, Jockeys Leaving California On Writers’ Room

Ever-popular retired Hall of Fame jockey and current television analyst for Fox Sports and the New York Racing Association Gary Stevens joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday afternoon for an expansive discussion on an array of racing topics and issues. Sitting down with Joe Bianca and Bill Finley as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Stevens gave a huge personal endorsement to star 3-year-old filly Secret Oath (Arrogate) as she prepares to take on males, analyzed the shuffling of the California jockey colony, talked about his role on the acclaimed Fox/NYRA broadcast and much more.

When it comes to Secret Oath, who's undefeated by 23 combined lengths in her last three starts and set to try the boys in the Apr. 2 GI Arkansas Derby, Stevens has a unique perspective. It was he who in 1988 piloted Winning Colors (Caro {Ire}) to only the third win by a filly in the GI Kentucky Derby. Like Secret Oath, Winning Colors was trained by the legendary D. Wayne Lukas, never afraid to try something unconventional with his horses.

“Wayne has never been afraid to jump outside the box, and I think in today's times, with a lot of negativity going on surrounding our industry, this is a feel-good story,” Stevens said. “And Wayne has always been about this sport. He's 100% the best ambassador that we've ever had. People have asked me, 'Is [Secret Oath] anything like Winning Colors?' I actually think from what I'm seeing in the mornings, she may be better than Winning Colors. She's got a different style, she loves to sit off the pace and be a stalker and accelerate. She's got brilliant acceleration for a dirt horse–almost like a turf horse. When she drops [her head] and puts in her kick, she gets it over with in a hurry. Now, granted, she's been running against fillies, but I think there's a lot more in the tank than what we've seen.”

Stevens was later asked about the recent news that Southern California's top two jockeys, Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli, would be moving their tack to New York this spring, and whether or not he was surprised.

“No, I wasn't at all,” he said. “I thought that this move would have come a couple of years ago, to be quite honest with you. We've all seen the success Flavien has had when he's traveled to the East Coast. He and Umberto are climbing into what I consider the toughest jockey colony, possibly in the world. But you've got to think about the future, and I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. We see the smaller field sizes in Southern California, and that's one reason I'm in Arkansas right now with Geovanni Franco and Tiago Pereira. They're very good riders who were sixth, seventh on the list of people's choices, and when [tracks] are running shorter fields and multiple trainers have multiple entries in these short fields, it doesn't leave a lot of crumbs for the rest.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, XBTV, Canterbury Park and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to a Franklin County judge denying Bob Baffert a stay of his suspension, celebrated the drastically improved breakdown record of California tracks, and Finley reads an extraordinary reply to his story on Jorge Navarro starting his prison sentence.. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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Terry Finley Talks OBS March, Next Start for Flightline On Writers’ Room

Shortly before purchasing eight horses on the first day of the OBS March Sale, West Point Thoroughbreds CEO Terry Finley joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland Tuesday morning as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about the strength of the sales market, trying to find the perfect formula in analyzing and purchasing horses at auction, the latest with superstar Flightline (Tapit) and much more.

“There is no secret sauce, and we bring that up to prospective partners all the time, to acknowledge something that's obvious to all of us who have been in the game.” Finley said about buying sale horses. “There's a small segment of the group of horses that are going to be sold [this week] that, on the surface, are obvious. They put everything together–they pass the vet, they work really, really well. Those, you don't really have to think a whole lot about. But the vast majority of them are in the middle … Some consignors, if you see a :10 1/5 [furlong breeze] and know their history and the way they bring these horses to market, you know that might be very, very good. Then you see somebody else with a bevy of :9 4/5s and they have a horse breeze :10 2/5, that's a factor. You talk about the way they come away from the pole. There are some of them that don't come away from the eighth pole as quickly as they probably could have, so :10 2/5 on top of a good gallop-out is going to pick our heads up. You look at the way they've come out of the breezes and the way they're acting because they've got a lot of stress on them. There are so many things that come into play. It's a beautiful game, and you've always got to continue to improve your process.”

Finley was later asked for an update on undefeated supernova Flightline, who is three-for-three, with each performance more devastating than the next, but missed a planned start in Saturday's GII San Carlos S. Mar. 5 due to a strain in a hock.

“As much as everybody else, we'd love to run him more,” Finley said. “It's just the circumstances. He's not an unsound horse by any stretch. He just strained a hock and that took him out of training for three-and-a-half, four weeks, but he's back at the racetrack and he's just about ready to turn around and start galloping. We'll be there in New York on Belmont Stakes day for the Met Mile, and we can't wait. We'd love for it to be as solid a field as possible, because I think when he runs against those better horses and is successful, the aura around him continues to grow. It'll be a long, long wait between now and late in the day on Belmont day, but we just hope the wait is worth it. It's an honor to be associated with a horse like this. Anybody that buys horses and plays the game, they see the Justifys, the American Pharoahs and you dream about, 'What does that feel like?' I asked myself on a continuous basis, 'When is it going to be our time?' Horses do so much for us, and when you get one like this, it's a very, very special feeling. He could be one of the ones they talk about 100 years from now. And that just puts a smile on your face.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders, Lane's End, Canterbury Park, XBTV and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the state of the GI Kentucky Derby trail, D. Wayne Lukas's decision to try filly Secret Oath (Arrogate) against males in the GI Arkansas Derby, Churchill running the GI Arlington Million card in Louisville this summer 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 Terry Finley Talks OBS March, Next Start for Flightline On Writers’ Room appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Richard Mandella Talks Forbidden Kingdom, Beholder On Writers’ Room

Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella looks to have a great chance of saddling his first GI Kentucky Derby starter since the mid-2000s with a major contender in GII San Felipe S. romper Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah), and Tuesday, Mandella sat down with the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about his electric speedster, the impending Hall of Fame induction of former trainee Beholder, his view on the state of California racing after its trials of the past few years and more.

“Truly excited,” Mandella, calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, said when asked his reaction to Forbidden Kingdom's 5 3/4-length score Saturday. “I was a little concerned when he opened up so fast early, but he's just gifted with such natural speed and he enjoys using it. He came back great and is doing very well. We had big expectations for him and he's never let us down. He's a gorgeous horse, a very smart horse and has a lot of class about him.”

The conversation turned to Flavien Prat, the perennial leading rider in California who has a close relationship with Mandella and announced over the weekend that he will be moving his tack to New York.

“Selfishly. I just hate to see him go,” Mandella said. “He came to me at 18 years old from France and immediately I just saw a star. There was no secret; anybody that would've looked at him close enough would have seen it. He just has everything, all the ingredients it takes to be a great rider. The horsemanship, the athleticism, the intelligence and then the class to go with it. The person he is, the rider he is, it'll be a big loss when he leaves. On a larger scale, California's going to be hurt by it. I think Flavien's attracted a lot of players and fans that watch purely because of him. And I hope that doesn't take too much away from California.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, Canterbury Park, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to a huge weekend of racing and discussed the controversies surrounding rides by Paco Lopez and Jose Lezcano. 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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Ricky Courville Joins TDN Writers’ Room

Heading into the GII Rebel S. a lot of people may not have known the name Ricky Courville. That's the way it is when you're a small-time trainer based in Louisiana who, going into the Rebel, had never had a graded stakes winner, let alone one in a $1-million race.

They know who he is now. Courville pulled off the upset of the year when winning the Rebel with 75-1 shot Un Ojo (Laoban), a one-eyed horse who now has enough points to make it into the field for the GI Kentucky Derby.

Courville was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to tell his story and the story of a horse who has surpassed all expectations after losing by 24 lengths in his first career start.

A former jockey who began training in 2008, Courville went to work for owner Cypress Creek Equine, breaking babies and training some of their cheaper horses. Eventually, owner Mike Moreno started giving him some of his better horses to train. But Courville didn't make the trip to Oaklawn for the Rebel, leaving his son Clay in charge. He tried to watch the race on his phone, but said the picture froze.

“My son calls me and he's just screaming on the phone, he's just hollering and screaming,” Courville said. “Then I started getting texts and phone calls for hours after the race. I never got to watch the race until 10:00 that night.”

Courville said the fact that Un Ojo is missing his left eye hasn't caused any serious problems.

“Running, he's fine,” he said. “Handling him around the barn is different. You have to watch it because it's on the side you handle him from, on the left side. Actually, when he first came in, he was really, really timid and he would brush up on you. He put himself against you where he could feel you because he couldn't see you. He wouldn't walk on the side, he'd walk behind you and nudge you with his nose all the way around the barn. But on the track, it took him a long time to really get comfortable. He was maturing late, but once he started running there haven't been any problems. He'll go inside, outside. It doesn't matter to him.”

Courville said that Un Ojo will run next in either the GI Arkansas Derby or the GI Toyota Blue Grass S.

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, West Point Thoroughbreds, XBTV, the Pennsylvania Horse

Breeders Association and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers discussed the latest twists in the Bob Baffert story and speculated whether or not he will win his legal battle and be able to compete in this year's GI Kentucky Derby. They also discussed last week's stakes action and the story of D. Wayne Lukas winning the GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn with Secret Oath (Arrogate) and previewed this coming weekend's action.

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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