TDN Writers' Room | Horse Racing Free Tips

Legendary Handicapper, Turf Writer Steve Crist Joins Writers’ Room

Revolutionary handicapper and racing writer Steve Crist has been out of a public eye after retiring five years ago, but still has as much passion and enthusiasm for racing as he's ever had, and Wednesday morning, he joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland for an expansive discussion on a variety of industry issues. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Crist discussed his increasing involvement in the game from an ownership standpoint, racing's progress on detecting and punishing cheaters, the Bob Baffert saga of 2021 and much more.

Asked for his reaction to the FBI indictments of Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro and the potential enactment of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, Crist said, “The Servis/Navarro stuff, I think every horseplayer knew that these guys were cheating. This was not exactly something you were shocked to learn; you knew what these guys were doing, with the routine form reversals and the accompanying floods of money on their horses. I'm delighted that racing finally went after actual cheaters, instead of continuing to dither about Lasix and accusing every prominent trainer who wins at 25% of cheating. These are two different things, and I hate to see racing having wasted so much time on issues like Lasix instead of going after real cheaters.”

Crist mainly spent his career as a horseplayer and writer, but now owns a handful of horses, and spoke about how that's changed his perspective on the game.

“I've got to say, it's been more fun than I expected,” he said. “It really is. There's a different kind of enjoyment and a different kind of rooting that goes on when it's your horses, I've thoroughly enjoyed that part of it. But I've also had my eyes even more opened to the fact that it's so difficult for people to stay in this game now. Unless you're a plutocrat or a super trainer, this industry had become very, very hard to make a living in. Our trainer, Phil Gleaves, retired at the end of the Saratoga meeting, in part because it's just so hard to make a go of it as a small stable these days. Hiring help, dealing with workman's comp, and all these other issues have made it really hard for smaller trainers to stay in business. That's not a healthy thing long term for the game. And I don't think we want to end up with 10 super stables and no small outfits in American racing. That's not going to be good.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds, Legacy Bloodstock and Woodford Thoroughbreds, Joe Bianca and Bill Finley broke down the ramifications of Bob Baffert's loss in court Tuesday, reacted to the strong handle numbers thus far for 2021 and applauded Gulfstream for its suspensions of trainers for clenbuterol use. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version of find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Red-Hot Charlie Appleby Talks Arc, Breeders’ Cup On Writers’ Room

It takes a lot for a European trainer to become the biggest story in North American racing, but that's exactly what Charlie Appleby has accomplished, among many other things, this year. Capturing three of the four Grade I races at Woodbine plus the Jockey Club Derby at Belmont last weekend to follow up several other successful raids of top-level events in the U.S. this summer, Appleby has quite simply taken the racing world by storm at just 46 years old. Wednesday, during a short break from shopping the Goffs Orby Sale in Ireland, Appleby joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland to talk about his whirlwind year, his contenders for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Breeders' Cup and all the history he is still trying to make.

Asked about this weekend's Arc, where he has two of the top contenders in standout 3-year-olds Adayar (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and Hurricane Lane (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), Appleby, calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week said, “Adayar won the [Epsom] Derby and went on to win the King George, the first horse since Galileo to do so. We met with a minor setback in preparation for a trial [for the Arc], which was always annoying, you don't want to have a setback at any stage, but I told myself during that point, no horse has actually won the Arc trial and gone on to win an Arc, so I took it as a positive that someone was telling me not to go. Subsequently since then, he's not missed a beat and he couldn't afford to miss a beat either. So he looks great, and he's the best horse in the race. Hurricane Lane is a rock-solid horse, he's won an Irish Derby, a Grand Prix de Paris and a St. Leger. No horse has won a St. Leger and gone on to win an Arc. So along with the excitement of running in the 100th Arc, there's the potential to create history with Hurricane Lane. We don't look back on history, we try to make history. So we'll have a crack at it.”

Appleby also discussed his upbringing in racing and the wealth of experience he accrued that has allowed for his unprecedented success in recent years, saying, “I was brought up in the west country of England. You become more hands-on down there in dealing with the horses. From there, I moved up the country and went to my first stable in Newmarket with [11-time British champion jockey] Lester Piggott. In terms of racing knowledge, I don't think I could have been in better hands. I spent a lot of time watching racing with Lester and the great [trainer] Barney Curley. I learned how to read a race out there and understand the styles of racing and the pace of a race. Then I went on to David Loder's yard, which was a force to be reckoned with in the '90s and 2000s, where I learned a lot about 2-year-olds, how far to push them and what we needed to achieve to get them to Group 1 status. Then I joined Godolphin at the age of 19 or 20 and from then on have been very lucky. I've had a management position throughout my whole career in Godolphin. It allowed me to travel worldwide and go overseas. I spent a lot of time at Arlington and Belmont. It allows you to meet people out there who I never normally would have met in the racing world. You see these entrepreneurs and they influence you, you get a buzz, and you learn how they strive for success. It gets instilled in you in a way. So 'can't' isn't in our vocabulary. We strive to achieve, and if it doesn't happen, we take the positives out of it and move on. The negatives are brushed aside.”

Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Spendthrift Farm, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, the writers reacted to the news of Arlington Park's official sale to the Chicago Bears, lamented the case of a horse who shouldn't have been allowed to race at Belterra Park and looked forward to a massive weekend of racing on both sides of the Atlantic. 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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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.

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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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