The Friday Show | Horse Racing Free Tips

The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Looking Forward To The 2020 Queen’s Plate

This has been a racing season like no other, with numerous graded stakes races rescheduled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. American racing saw its centerpiece classic delayed from the first Saturday in May to the first Saturday in September, and this weekend, Canada will finally get to experience the 161st Queen's Plate. There will be no spectators at Woodbine, and fans are encouraged to enjoy the Queen's Plate at home with a variety of social media content leading into the broadcast of the race.

The Queen's Plate is the oldest continuously-run horse race in North America, run at 1 1/4 miles for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

Paulick Report news editor Chelsea Hackbarth hosts this week's Friday Show, and brought in multiple Sovereign Award-winning writer and handicapper Jennifer Morrison to learn more about the importance of the Queen's Plate to Canadian racing. They'll also give you a rundown of their favorite standouts in this year's field.

Watch the Friday Show below.

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: A Breakthrough On Integrity And Safety?

The pre-race activities of Kentucky Derby week were superseded briefly on Monday by a press conference at the Keeneland sale pavilion in Lexington, Ky., featuring United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Congressman Andy Barr and representatives of Keeneland, Churchill Downs Inc., Breeders' Cup Ltd., and The Jockey Club.

The purpose of the gathering was the announcement that the various parties had reached agreement on federal legislation to create the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, which would provide oversight – relying on the expertise of the United States Anti-Doping Agency – on medication policy and enforcement for the Thoroughbred industry through bi-partisan legislation.

In this week's edition of the Friday Show, publisher Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss raise questions about the proposal – which came without specifics as to how much this national oversight office would cost, who would foot the bill and who would appoint the oversight board. They point out that the current system – with regulatory oversight completely controlled by various state racing commissions, many of them either conflicted or incompetent – is not working.

Watch the Friday Show below.

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Derby Challenges

Nothing about 2020 is normal, thanks to the havoc wreaked upon the world by the coronavirus pandemic. Horse racing has not been immune.

We've had an Arkansas Derby on the first Saturday in May, a Belmont Stakes to kick off the Triple Crown, empty grandstands most everywhere and now we prepare for a spectator-free Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in September.

But before the best of the 2017 Thoroughbred foal crop runs for the roses, horse racing may have to get past yet another challenge: civil unrest in the wake of a police shooting of a 26-year-old African-American woman, Breonna Taylor, in her home in Louisville, Ky., host city for America's most famous horserace.

In this week's edition of the Friday Show, publisher Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss point out that the Kentucky Derby has been used before as a focal point of civil rights demonstrations. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King and others fought for fair housing laws in the city, held demonstrations at Churchill Downs early on Derby week but ultimately opted not to disrupt the big race.

Paulick and Voss also discuss the newly assembled Churchill Downs 20-horse starting gate that may pose a challenge for the gate crew that typically stands inside each horse's stall.

Watch the Friday Show below.

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The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Who’s Really Training That Horse?

Regulators and racetrack officials often shrug and say it's hard to prove when a horse is entered in the name of a trainer who, in fact, has not been supervising the conditioning of a racehorse. These so-called “program trainers” or “paper trainers” may be doing a favor for someone who, for a variety of reasons, is not at a licensed track but is training the horse at a private training facility not under the auspices of regulators.

This past week, however, the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC) told trainer Wayne Potts to vacate his 30 stalls at Laurel Park within seven days after concluding he was fronting for trainer Marcus Vitali, who was coming off a one-year suspension and unable to race horses at Laurel. Potts entered some horses in his own name that MJC officials were convinced Vitali was training at a private training center in New Jersey.

In this week's edition of the Friday Show, Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss discuss a story they co-bylined that included details about Potts and Vitali, how the trainers' alleged actions were uncovered and the role that unregulated private training centers can play when it comes to efforts by horsemen to deceive racing officials.

Also discussed this week is the warning made at last week's Jockey Club Round Table on Matters Pertaining to Racing by Stuart Janney, chairman of The Jockey Club, that more federal indictments are likely in the FBI's anti-doping probe and why there has been a delay since the arrests of trainers Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis and more than two dozen others in March.

Watch the Friday Show below.

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