Wade Jost | Horse Racing Free Tips

Michael Blowen Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Michael Blowen had no money, no farm, no horses and no backers. But he did have an idea. He wanted to open a farm that would be a sanctuary for some of the sport's biggest names who were either gelded or no longer being used as sires or broodmares. Somehow moving mountains, he pulled it off and his Old Friends Farm became home to hundreds of Thoroughbreds and a popular tourist attraction.

But now he has decided to retire, 20 years after he opened Old Friends, and turn the reins over to John Nicholson. On this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Blowen discussed why he is retiring and some of his fondest memories from a job he instantly loved.

“When you get a certain age and you can see the finish line, you know,” Blowen said. “It's like you're turning for home and you go, 'Oh, there's a finish line.' So you better figure out what's going to be happening or what you can do to make everything a little better. And so I started looking for somebody a couple of years ago to take over, and I could never find the right person. Then I ran into John Nicholson. And I would probably still be doing this if I hadn't run into John, because John was the perfect person. I thought, 'boy, oh boy, if he'll do this, it would be great'. People who know John know that he ran Kentucky Horse Park for a long time. He loves the horses.”

His favorite horse? Silver Charm.

“It's hard for me to explain it in one way, because it's hard to explain why you fall in love with somebody,” Blowen said. “No matter who or what you fall in love with your life is going to change. When Sandy Hatfield called me in November of 2015 and said, how would you like an old gray stallion at your farm, I freaked out. The only problem was I couldn't tell anybody. They're supposed to keep it a secret. And then I did keep it a secret, which is probably the only secret I ever kept in my life. But I kept that one. And when he got here on Dec. 1, 2015 that was the greatest day of my life. I didn't even know him, because the first time I ever laid eyes on him in person is when he got off the trailer on that day, but I know I was totally enthralled.'

Though retiring, Blowen plans to spend plenty of time at Old Friends.

“You'll have to drag me out of here,” he said. “I told my wife, when I die, the house where we live in, we have a great house here, and the back backyard is one of the two places where we have cemeteries. I told my wife, when I die, get me cremated, throw my ashes out the back. Just don't put my lifetime earnings on the side.

This week's look at a Coolmore sire focused on Jack Christopher (Munnings). He won three Grade I races and was five-for-five around one turn. He was such a special specimen that Zoe Cadman never forgot her impressions of him when she saw him at Saratoga before he ever raced, noting that he was so perfectly put together that she knew he would be a star.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Elite Power, WinStar Farm, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ 1/ST Racing, the Green Group, West Point Thoroughbreds and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Cadman and Bill Finley expressed their gratitude for having earned an Eclipse Award in the Multi-Media category. Our interview with Wade Jost was selected as the winner. Jost is the father of Carson Jost, who, like Cody Dorman, suffers from Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. Jost, a classmate of Terry Finley at West Point, went in with his syndicate on Carson's Run–named in his son's honor. All agreed that it was Jost who made the podcast so memorable and the team decided it will gift the Eclipse Award trophy to the family.

The team also touched on the big shakeup in Maryland, where a new entity, the Maryland Thoroughbred Operating Authority, which will be similar to NYRA, is set to take over the operation of Maryland tracks and, finally, will rebuild Pimlico. That will also mean that the GI Preakness S. will be run at Laurel in 2025, 2026 and 2027. The group also examined the 2024 economic indicators for racing, which included a 3.7% decline in total handle and a small decrease in purses.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

The post Michael Blowen Joins 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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Eight Juveniles Face Off in With Anticipation

A field of eight juveniles will head postward in the 1 1/16-mile GIII With Anticipation S. over the lawn at Saratoga Thursday. West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's Carson's Run (Cupid) is already a winner over the course and trip where he broke his maiden by a late-running neck July 29. Carson's Run has worked back three times since his victory, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:03.25 (3/4) over the Oklahoma turf training track last Thursday.

“He had a good work on the grass the other day. He's trained very forwardly and we're looking forward to running him again here at Saratoga,” said Miguel Clement, son and assistant to Christophe Clement. “[Jockey] Dylan [Davis] has been breezing him in the mornings. He's always been high on the horse from Day One. The horse has a good turn of foot, and I wouldn't swap positions with anyone else heading into this race.”

While Carson's Run enters his first start against winners as the 7-2 co-second choice on the morning line, he will be an emotional favorite for the Saratoga faithful. The colt's namesake Carson Jost, 30, suffers from a genetic condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. His father, Wade Jost, is a longtime friend of West Point Thoroughbreds' President and CEO Terry Finley and is a partner in the horse's ownership.

Christophe Clement will also saddle the With Anticipation's 3-1 morning-line favorite Spirit Prince (Cairo Prince), who adds blinkers after finishing a narrowly beaten runner-up in his July 22 unveiling over the same course and distance. The gray colt finished a half-length adrift of Noted (Cairo Prince) that day and that rival returned to win the Aug. 26 Sapling S. at Monmouth Park.

The Bill Mott-trained Gala Brand (Violence), scratched from Wednesday's one-mile off-turf P.G. Johnson S. versus her own sex, is the lone filly in the field. She was flying from far back to win her 5 1/2-furlong unveiling at Saratoga Aug. 3, kicking clear in the lane to a 2 1/4-length score that was awarded a field-best 71 Beyer Speed Figure.

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The Next Cody’s Wish? An Emotional Win at Saratoga for Carson’s Run

The tale of Cody's Wish (Curlin) and his association with Cody Dorman continues to be a powerful, feel-good story for the sport of racing. Cody's Wish was named for Dorman, a young man who suffers from Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome, and the horse's six-race winning streak has brought joy to Dorman and his family.

Wade Jost knows just how the Dormans feel.

The first race at Saratoga Saturday was won by Carson's Run (Cupid), who is owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey. The 2-year-old colt was named after Carson Jost, 30, who also suffers from Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome, a chromosomal deletion syndrome resulting from a partial deletion on the short arm of chromosome 4. Features include a distinct craniofacial features, delayed growth and development, intellectual disability, and seizures.
Jost's father, Wade, is a co-owner of the horse through West Point and was classmate of Finley at the U.S. Military Academy.

“I get emotional talking about this,” Jost said. “We were overwhelmed. We weren't expecting that. That the horse performed the way he did was phenomenal.”

West Point Thoroughbreds' Terry Finley and jockey Dylan Davis | Sarah K. Andrew

Finley and Jost had stayed close since their West Point days and the two had conversations at the annual Army-Navy game about the possibility of West Point naming a horse after Carson. Finley told Jost he would find a horse for him and did just that at this year's OBS April sale, where he purchased Carson's Run for $170,000.

“I've talked to him for the last couple of years and he said `I really want to get a horse for our boy Carson,' and over the years, he's had a lot of challenges and has really been an inspiration to all of us,” Finley said. “And when we bought this horse, it all just came together. I said, `I think I need to call Wade,' and I did and he said, `I'm in. Whatever you need me to do.'”

Carson is Wade's oldest child and has three siblings. None of the other children in the family suffer from Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome. According to a story posted on West Point's website, Jost served in the Gulf War, and was conceived and born shortly after Wade returned home. According to the West Point report, it was later determined that members of Wade's unit in the Army had a high rate of abnormal births with their kids born after they returned from the war. The fathers and children were put into a study group to try to determine the cause. Ultimately the results were inconclusive, but the Gulf War has been a proven link to many multi-symptomatic disorders in hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans who served.

The Jost family gathered in front of a television set Saturday in their home in Washington State. Making his first career start, Carson's Run was sent off at 5-1 and was ridden by Dylan Davis. Trained by Christophe Clement, the two-year-old was sixth early on in the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf race and took control inside the final furlong to win by a neck.

“No. Carson has the mental capacity of about a one-year-old,” Wade Jost said when asked if Carson understood that a horse named for him was running. “We put him right in front of the TV and when the race took off he really got animated. It was kind of cool. He doesn't usually get all that animated, so it was neat to watch him do that.”

“We run a lot of horses but this was extra special,” Finley said. “Wade and I have been friends for a long time. It was very, very cool.”

While Cody Dorman has seen several of Cody's Wish's race in person, Carson Jost has yet to meet his namesake. Wade Jost said he hopes that will soon change.

“We would love to come for one of his races,” Jost said. “We found out just last week he was going to race today and we need more lead time than that. It is our plan to try to make it out.”

Jost said he first became aware of the Cody Dorman story while watching this year's GI Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC. Cody's Wish ran on the Derby undercard, winning the GI Churchill Downs S.

“When we decided to do this early in the spring with Carson I hadn't known anything about Cody's Wish,” Jost said. “I sat down to watch the Kentucky Derby and saw the story about Cody come on. As soon as I saw Cody I knew before they even said anything about Wolf-Hirschorn Syndrome that Carson and Cody had the same thing. The similarities and facial features is just overwhelming.”

Both Jost and Finley said they didn't want their story to compete with the story of Cody's Wish or do anything to deflect from the attention the horse and the Dorman family has received. There was no need to worry. Within minutes of the finish of the race, Finley received a text from Kelly Dorman, Cody's father, congratulating him on the victory.

Winner's circle celebrations following Carson's Run's maiden win at Saratoga on Saturday | Sarah K. Andrew

“I didn't want anybody to think we were trying to copy Cody's Wish and their story,” Finley said. “I got a beautiful text from Cody's father Kelly after the race. He had introduced himself to me at the Belmont. He said that he saw me saw me at the Breeders' Cup (where Flightline (Tapit), co-owned by West Point, won the GI Breeders' Cup Classic) and noted how emotional I was. It was very moving for me. I I told him how much I admired how they had handled the story of Cody and how it was very inspiring.”

“We will be reaching out to the Dorman family,” Jost said. “I didn't want to take away from the great story that is Cody's Wish. So I was happy that they reached out. We will get together. I look forward to that.”

Finley said that Carson's Run's next start would likely come in the GIII With Anticipation S. on Aug. 31 at Saratoga.

Maybe the Jost family can make it for that race. Win or lose, the presence of Cody's Run will make the With Anticipation a race worth following. It looks like Carson's Run is a good horse who will have a good chance of picking up a graded stakes win. A good horse and a great story.

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