Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm on our Heart Radio, the iHeart Radio out and
Fox Sportstgame dot Com, d Mark Mitchell, Jeff Sasser, coach
Jeff Gray, but Lee Christian in the Orthopedy Clinton Studio.
Next Saturday, the Run for the Roses, the Kentucky Derby,
and it's our Kentucky Derby preview shows we have on
every year, and boy do we have the primetime guests
(00:20):
as we always do. It's time to go to that hotline,
Hamilton's Hotline. Hamilton's has two locations in Auburn to serve you.
There's a Hamilton's on Magnojah, Hamilton's on Ogle Tree, two
separate restaurants named the same and different restaurants on locations,
but I'll assure you will enjoy both of them. She
is the queen of horse racing in my world, Donna Brothers.
(00:41):
She works for a lot of places in the NBC Sports.
She's actually on the track the day of the Oaks
and the Derby. She gets to interview the winning jockey
and actually she can talk to the horse too. Donna
Brothers is live. Good morning, Miss Donna.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You doing this?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm good, Let me get all this mute.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm happy to be queen Queen for the day. You're queen.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You're always the queen. There you Lee's in the house
in here too.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's so good. How are you? I'm good? Thank you good.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Are you at home? Miss Donner? Are you in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm in Louisville at home.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's right. I forgot about it. I said, double bad.
You're not at the track, though, are you?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I am not at the track because I'm talking to
you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well you know out there it is. Ian wils was
busy wall ago. He had a little time for so
I'll enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Watching the work show. By the way, I watch that
every day.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, I was trying to get Is it on Churchill
Downs dot Com?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Uh? No, just go to YouTube and then put in
Kentucky Derby Works Show Thank You in the search engine
and it'll come up.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's where I'm going right now. I was looking for
it early, so I was hoping to get that. But
I was thinking I watched it on the Uh they're
the channel, you know what I mean, Churchill Downs. But
I'll go to the old famous YouTube. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Are you ready? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Are you ready to go?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This year?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Always always you got your horse picked out.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I've been riding the same horse for the last eight years.
He's Ron and Laura Moquette stable horse, stable pony. His
name is Sherman okay, and it is short for Sherman
Tank because he's a big old boy. He used to
actually be a racehorse, but a quarter horse racehorse. He
didn't run for very long. And he's about as chill
as they can get. He's just laid back and just
(02:29):
hangs out.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love it. I love it all right. So now,
will you'll be there Thursday and I mean Friday end Saturday?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, We're on air on NBC Sports both Friday and Saturday,
not on NBC proper. I don't know exactly. You'll have
to check your local listings, as they say, but we'll
be on air for something like five hours on Friday
and I don't know, twenty five hours on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeez. I know it's a long day, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's a long day.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
How much work do you do?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Donald, Well, once you get to be about first of all,
my prep work starts in February, watching the prep races
and learning about all the connections. But I don't get
too focused on it because of course in February there's
one hundred horses pointing to the Kentucky Derby and we
come down to So I would say that I get
(03:23):
really intensive the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby.
But I've spend somewhere between four to six hours a
day on my computer reading articles and watching races, and
so I'm always kind of prepping for it, but then
it gets very intensive from about two weeks out.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, that's what I figured. I like to watch all
the shows. I mean the shows, the races as well
the pre races, and there's actually a few in December,
so you know, in kind of late December, early January,
and the field is sit now in my world, other
than journalism, it doesn't seem like there's a real hot horse,
just like the favorite.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Doon?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I would say that Samman is going to be pretty
close to him favor and part of that reason is
that he's going to be over bet because one of
his part owners is a guy named Griffin Johnson, who's
the social media influencer I've heard, and he's got something
like nine million followers on TikTok and two and a
(04:27):
half million on Instagram, So he's going to take more
action in the wagering than he probably should. Like I said,
he's going to be over bet in the race. But
I think the horse from Japan Lecture Cafe, I don't
see him going off at much longer than six to one.
He's he's definitely a live horse. So yeah, I mean,
(04:51):
I think there's CapMan Street. I'm sorry to Pan. The
proper pronunciation to Pan rhymes with Japan. Think to Pan
Street's going to take some money. But yeah, I don't
think journalism is going to be a heavy, heavy favorite,
is what I'm saying. He's not going to just stand
far and above everybody else in there.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Do you think that? I don't think there will be one.
I'm not the expert, though. Will there be one?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Be one? What?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Will there be a heavy favorite? You think? Or no?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, I think journalism will be the favorite. Okay, I
just don't think there's anybody who's going to be you know, uh,
three points lower odds than the next price towards Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So it's going to be interesting, you think? Is it
one three to one? That was about that ask that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, I would say journalism is probably going to be
somewhere around seventy two. Yeah, let's split the difference there
three to one and four to one.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
There you go, Okay, how many know there's obviously we
know there's twenty in the race. How many can you
think all twenty can win the race?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Donald? Absolutely not, But I also didn't think Rich Drake
could win the race, or mind that work Entucky Derby.
That's why they make them line up and prove what
they can do.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's going to happen this year is we're going to
have a suicidal pace up front where we've got so
many horses that have to be on the lead. Admire Daytona,
who won the UA Derby only wins on the lead
East Avenue. With what they did with him last time
out in the blue Grass Stakes, we know he's sending.
We know that Citizen Bull has only one on the lead,
(06:30):
Rodriguez has only one on the lead. So there's going
to be a very fast pace up front. So it
should set up for a closer, right But then, honestly,
the rest of the field are all closers, So then
you have to decide which closer do you want, And
there's some that are more nimble than others. Meaning there's
a difference between getting a Ferrari stopped in traffic in
(06:52):
a semi truck stopped in traffic. Right, one of them
can can pick up the pace a lot easier than
the other one. And I love sovereignty. I felt like
this is a billy mad horse. I felt like his
race off the layoff showed what he's capable of. I
think he had a chance to regress in his next
race because he had such a big race off the layoffs,
(07:15):
and he did regret it. But he is a bit
of a plotter. He's the kind of horse that he's
more like a semi truck. You know, you really can't
get him stopped. Journalism had a bad trip in a
five horse field and sant Anita Derby and overcame. It
showed that he can overcome it. But now he's got
to face nineteen other horses, and so you know, with
(07:36):
all the respect to his jockey and bert to Reesbalow,
he found a way to get them in trouble with
four other horses in.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The race, I'm not agree with you.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I want to hear these nineteen other horses in the race.
So I am just not loving that whole scenario. And
then Sandman is by tap it, but he's tap it,
believe it or not. One of the leading sires in
North America has never produced a tacky derby went on.
So maybe he's due. I don't know, but I think
I'm probably gonna like I think Astinson has a strong
(08:07):
hand with Fantastic. He's a horse there you go, Oh,
he's a good closer. He's running a maiden in there.
Publisher who also he picks up the mount on him.
I think he looks like he's got a good chance.
And these are the kind of horses that you're gonna
have a longer price, you're actually gonna be able to
make some money on if they win. And so I
would rather take a chance on a horse that I
(08:28):
think has as good as shot as the favorites, but
I get a better price.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I love that Donald Brothers with his NBC Sports. She
is the queen of horse racing. As I say, she's
out on the track, she talks to the winning jockey
right after the race. He's in the action. Lee, we
were about to ask for something well, I was going
to say, they say a rider can't make a slow
horse fast but a rider can get you be.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well. You know, people always as you know, I was
a jockey and people always ask me, what is it
the horse with the jockey that I mean the jock
or the horse that's responsible for the win, And I've
always said it honestly, it depends on where the horse runs.
If the horse wins, then they go, oh, what a
great horse. If the horse gets beat right, jockey screwed.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It out, You're right, he didn't do a good job.
You should have broke he should go ahead, right.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So anyway, it's it's going to be different in every
single situation in scenario. But when you get to the
Kentucky Derby Field, you are going to have the best
riders in the world. Really, because we've got a couple
of riders coming in who we don't see a lot of.
Christophe Lamar will ride the admired Daytona and then there's
(09:38):
a jauoh Morera is coming in to ride Luxer Cafe.
Now he's got an interesting background because he's from Brazil
and he has ridden all over the world. He's ridden
in Saalar Arabia, Dubai, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and so
he is one of the really top rid the world.
(10:01):
His nickname amongst the world is Magic Man, the nickname
that he coined in Singapore when he was riding there.
So you know, we've got top jockeys from all over
the world in this race. And I mentioned in Bertu
resonably and getting a horse in traffic in journalism and
traffic in the San Anita Derby. I'm going to be honest,
(10:21):
it's easy to get a horse in traffic in a
five horse field, especially when you have a target on
your back and everybody's trying to make sure you get
in trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I have a hard time.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Is from Italy and he's a top he's the top rider.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, I want to ask you this down a five
horse field versus eight, fourteen, twelve to twenty. I mean
you can watch those and you go this ought to
be easy, but sometimes they have a harder race. You
just kind of mentioned it in a five Why is that?
And can you judge that versus like that feels small?
He's still he got in trouble twice and smoked the field,
(10:54):
you know what I mean. So I don't know how
to look at that as a as a race.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Got under it is because the other there's still a
couple of horses, went to the lead in there and
set an awfully fast paced and then the other horses,
the jockeys on the other two horses were watching from
version recently on journalism, and they were going to do
everything they could to get him boxed in, stopped whatever,
and they did a good job of it. Now, in
(11:18):
a twenty horse field, you can't focus on just one
other horse. You've got to focus on survival, right yep.
You've got to get you to get the trip for
your horse. You can't focus on trying to make somebody
else not get the trip.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah, I just it just it's interesting me. You made
a good comment. There's twenty horses. He's got to avoid trouble,
but those four kind of teamed up against him. You're
right in that last race, all right, Bob Baffort, he's
back and he's got some good horses, doesn't he does.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He's got Reguez Intitizim Bull. I'm not sure he's going
to be live enough to win, but they both have speed.
Every time Rodriguez has run against so he breaks this maiden.
The second time that he ran he was in a
maiden special weight race. He went wire to wire in
his next two starts, that's the Robert B. Lewis and
(12:12):
the San Felipe. He faced his stablemates, and so in
the next start he had Citizen Bull in there, and
in the following start Barnes was in there. In both situations,
Rodriguez threw the outside post compared to the other Bafford horse,
and so they're not gonna intentionally get into a speed duel.
(12:33):
So whoever draws the inside post, they're going to say, okay,
let him go to the lead, and you just lay
off right, And so they let Citizen Bull go to
the lead. He wins, and Citizen Bull wins and Rodriguez
was second. Then in the San Felipe, they let Barnes
go to the league. He gets beat by Journalism and
Rodriguez is third. And then finally in the Wood Memorial,
(12:55):
no other Vafford horse in there. Mike Smith's on him.
He can do whatever he wants, set him to the lead,
never looks back. Whin's by open length, but he's not
going to get that kind of lead in the Kentucky Derby,
and so Bathward's got two horses with the same running
style and lots of other horses in there who want
to be in front.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Interesting, you nailed it. You know what, Donal, who win?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Give me? Give me your winter Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Give me a week in Derby. So again, I think
the work shows are important to watch. I think if
somebody really wants to handicap these races, you need to
watch the work shows. And then so I watch them
every day, and then the week of Derby, I'll go
out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning and see the horses in
the flesh, see I think they they are doing. And
(13:41):
then I won't decide on my Derby horse until the
morning of the Kentucky Derby. But you can watch the
show because they make us give our pick, they do,
and so you'll find out.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Then I'll be there though, you know what I mean.
So I'll watch it though. Yeah, and you know we're
talking to the queen and we didn't even talk about
the oaks. I should have started with that. The ladies,
come on, I got to have the phillies that even
bring that up.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, the Kentucky Oaks this year is probably going to
be a little bit undersubscribed. It well, it might be
it might be a full field of fourteen Phillies, but
I'm not sure that it's going to be really the
kind of field that we're seeing in the Kentucky Derby,
where everybody's just you know, intent to get into the race.
(14:25):
But there are obviously some standouts in there. You've got
the Philly from Brad Cox's Barn Good Cheer. She's undefeated
and she's an interesting Philly because she only does what
she has to do. She reminds me a lot of
Torpedo Anna, who won the Kentucky Oaks last year, in
(14:45):
that she's not like Rachel Alexandro. She didn't draw up
and win by nine and so she just wins by
however much she needs to win by. And then the
next time she runs, people go, oh, well, I think
we can beat her in here with so and so,
because you know, she only beat such and such by
two lengths last time out, and we beat her by
eight lengths when we ran against her, and then good
(15:07):
Year just wins and wins and wins, and so she's
going to be the start of the show. But what
side is the top points earner for the Oaks? For
John Alexander Ortiz, who's the trainer, and so Mark Cassey also,
you know, he's got one of the favorites and Sandman
for the Derby, so he's also got Lacaro for the Oaks,
(15:28):
so he has a chance to cool up what Kenny
McPeak did last year with the Oaks Derby Devil.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, make totes right here on the show. I'm gonna
win the Derby and the Oak, so you know, I
just should have took him for his word. It was
real simple, did you bet? I did, but I didn't
bet on him to win both? Did you get them both?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Donna?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Did you have them both?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Hindsight is twenty eight on bet Oh, I got too
many other things to do besides betting. Well, I've got
a lot of things I have to consider, no matter
what the alchemist like. Keep in mind, as you know,
I'm on these yeah, getting ready to interview the winner
after the Kentucky Derby, and I have to be ready
for any of twenty possible outcomes. So I've got a
(16:08):
lot of preparation that goes into those races, and me
trying to figure out who I bought on is not
going to be one.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
No, I'm just bessying, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I never bet. I go to the races a lot
at Saratoga in the summer, and I'll sit there and
bet because it's it's more exciting than just watching races.
I love it. I don't put these races gates.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You're good for you busy, you're professional, you're the best.
I'm not gonna lie. You're really good. You do a
fantastic job and everything you do on TV. And you
look beautiful. Last year you got your outfit picked out.
We had so many people wanted to buy that red dress.
Put that outfits them. Excuse me, excuse not a dress.
I didn't mean to say that your red outfit your
pants suit. I'm sorry suit, Sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, absolutely to tell you the truth. Mark, this is
the twenty five year anniversary of NBC covering the Kentucky Derby,
and I was fortunate enough to be there on that
first broadcast in two thousand and one, and so I'm
wearing silver. Oh our twenty five year celebration.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, congratulations to NBC Sports and to you and thank
you for your time every year. That means so much
to us.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thank you, Mss Donald, my pleasure and time, guys, and
enjoy the Derby. Mark I'm so happy you get to
go in person, have to catch fun.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Thank you, don I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Girl.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Take care of me all right, Donna Brothers
I'm on our Heart Radio, the iHeart Radio out and
Fox Sportstgame dot Com, d Mark Mitchell, Jeff Sasser, coach
Jeff Gray, but Lee Christian in the Orthopedy Clinton Studio.
Next Saturday, the Run for the Roses, the Kentucky Derby,
and it's our Kentucky Derby preview shows we have on
every year, and boy do we have the primetime guests
(00:20):
as we always do. It's time to go to that hotline,
Hamilton's Hotline. Hamilton's has two locations in Auburn to serve you.
There's a Hamilton's on Magnojah, Hamilton's on Ogle Tree, two
separate restaurants named the same and different restaurants on locations,
but I'll assure you will enjoy both of them. She
is the queen of horse racing in my world, Donna Brothers.
(00:41):
She works for a lot of places in the NBC Sports.
She's actually on the track the day of the Oaks
and the Derby. She gets to interview the winning jockey
and actually she can talk to the horse too. Donna
Brothers is live. Good morning, Miss Donna.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
You doing this?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I'm good, Let me get all this mute.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm happy to be queen Queen for the day. You're queen.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You're always the queen. There you Lee's in the house
in here too.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's so good. How are you? I'm good? Thank you good.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Are you at home? Miss Donner? Are you in Louisville.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm in Louisville at home.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
That's right. I forgot about it. I said, double bad.
You're not at the track, though, are you?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I am not at the track because I'm talking to
you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well you know out there it is. Ian wils was
busy wall ago. He had a little time for so
I'll enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Watching the work show. By the way, I watch that
every day.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, I was trying to get Is it on Churchill
Downs dot Com?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Uh? No, just go to YouTube and then put in
Kentucky Derby Works Show Thank You in the search engine
and it'll come up.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That's where I'm going right now. I was looking for
it early, so I was hoping to get that. But
I was thinking I watched it on the Uh they're
the channel, you know what I mean, Churchill Downs. But
I'll go to the old famous YouTube. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Are you ready? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Are you ready to go?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This year?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Always always you got your horse picked out.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I've been riding the same horse for the last eight years.
He's Ron and Laura Moquette stable horse, stable pony. His
name is Sherman okay, and it is short for Sherman
Tank because he's a big old boy. He used to
actually be a racehorse, but a quarter horse racehorse. He
didn't run for very long. And he's about as chill
as they can get. He's just laid back and just
(02:29):
hangs out.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love it. I love it all right. So now,
will you'll be there Thursday and I mean Friday end Saturday?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, We're on air on NBC Sports both Friday and Saturday,
not on NBC proper. I don't know exactly. You'll have
to check your local listings, as they say, but we'll
be on air for something like five hours on Friday
and I don't know, twenty five hours on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeez. I know it's a long day, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's a long day.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
How much work do you do?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Donald, Well, once you get to be about first of all,
my prep work starts in February, watching the prep races
and learning about all the connections. But I don't get
too focused on it because of course in February there's
one hundred horses pointing to the Kentucky Derby and we
come down to So I would say that I get
(03:23):
really intensive the two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby.
But I've spend somewhere between four to six hours a
day on my computer reading articles and watching races, and
so I'm always kind of prepping for it, but then
it gets very intensive from about two weeks out.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, that's what I figured. I like to watch all
the shows. I mean the shows, the races as well
the pre races, and there's actually a few in December,
so you know, in kind of late December, early January,
and the field is sit now in my world, other
than journalism, it doesn't seem like there's a real hot horse,
just like the favorite.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Doon?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I would say that Samman is going to be pretty
close to him favor and part of that reason is
that he's going to be over bet because one of
his part owners is a guy named Griffin Johnson, who's
the social media influencer I've heard, and he's got something
like nine million followers on TikTok and two and a
(04:27):
half million on Instagram, So he's going to take more
action in the wagering than he probably should. Like I said,
he's going to be over bet in the race. But
I think the horse from Japan Lecture Cafe, I don't
see him going off at much longer than six to one.
He's he's definitely a live horse. So yeah, I mean,
(04:51):
I think there's CapMan Street. I'm sorry to Pan. The
proper pronunciation to Pan rhymes with Japan. Think to Pan
Street's going to take some money. But yeah, I don't
think journalism is going to be a heavy, heavy favorite,
is what I'm saying. He's not going to just stand
far and above everybody else in there.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Do you think that? I don't think there will be one.
I'm not the expert, though. Will there be one?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Be one? What?
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Will there be a heavy favorite? You think? Or no?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, I think journalism will be the favorite. Okay, I
just don't think there's anybody who's going to be you know, uh,
three points lower odds than the next price towards Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So it's going to be interesting, you think? Is it
one three to one? That was about that ask that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, I would say journalism is probably going to be
somewhere around seventy two. Yeah, let's split the difference there
three to one and four to one.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
There you go, Okay, how many know there's obviously we
know there's twenty in the race. How many can you
think all twenty can win the race?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Donald? Absolutely not, But I also didn't think Rich Drake
could win the race, or mind that work Entucky Derby.
That's why they make them line up and prove what
they can do.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
What's going to happen this year is we're going to
have a suicidal pace up front where we've got so
many horses that have to be on the lead. Admire Daytona,
who won the UA Derby only wins on the lead
East Avenue. With what they did with him last time
out in the blue Grass Stakes, we know he's sending.
We know that Citizen Bull has only one on the lead,
(06:30):
Rodriguez has only one on the lead. So there's going
to be a very fast pace up front. So it
should set up for a closer, right But then, honestly,
the rest of the field are all closers, So then
you have to decide which closer do you want, And
there's some that are more nimble than others. Meaning there's
a difference between getting a Ferrari stopped in traffic in
(06:52):
a semi truck stopped in traffic. Right, one of them
can can pick up the pace a lot easier than
the other one. And I love sovereignty. I felt like
this is a billy mad horse. I felt like his
race off the layoff showed what he's capable of. I
think he had a chance to regress in his next
race because he had such a big race off the layoffs,
(07:15):
and he did regret it. But he is a bit
of a plotter. He's the kind of horse that he's
more like a semi truck. You know, you really can't
get him stopped. Journalism had a bad trip in a
five horse field and sant Anita Derby and overcame. It
showed that he can overcome it. But now he's got
to face nineteen other horses, and so you know, with
(07:36):
all the respect to his jockey and bert to Reesbalow,
he found a way to get them in trouble with
four other horses in.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The race, I'm not agree with you.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I want to hear these nineteen other horses in the race.
So I am just not loving that whole scenario. And
then Sandman is by tap it, but he's tap it,
believe it or not. One of the leading sires in
North America has never produced a tacky derby went on.
So maybe he's due. I don't know, but I think
I'm probably gonna like I think Astinson has a strong
(08:07):
hand with Fantastic. He's a horse there you go, Oh,
he's a good closer. He's running a maiden in there.
Publisher who also he picks up the mount on him.
I think he looks like he's got a good chance.
And these are the kind of horses that you're gonna
have a longer price, you're actually gonna be able to
make some money on if they win. And so I
would rather take a chance on a horse that I
(08:28):
think has as good as shot as the favorites, but
I get a better price.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I love that Donald Brothers with his NBC Sports. She
is the queen of horse racing. As I say, she's
out on the track, she talks to the winning jockey
right after the race. He's in the action. Lee, we
were about to ask for something well, I was going
to say, they say a rider can't make a slow
horse fast but a rider can get you be.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well. You know, people always as you know, I was
a jockey and people always ask me, what is it
the horse with the jockey that I mean the jock
or the horse that's responsible for the win, And I've
always said it honestly, it depends on where the horse runs.
If the horse wins, then they go, oh, what a
great horse. If the horse gets beat right, jockey screwed.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It out, You're right, he didn't do a good job.
You should have broke he should go ahead, right.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
So anyway, it's it's going to be different in every
single situation in scenario. But when you get to the
Kentucky Derby Field, you are going to have the best
riders in the world. Really, because we've got a couple
of riders coming in who we don't see a lot of.
Christophe Lamar will ride the admired Daytona and then there's
(09:38):
a jauoh Morera is coming in to ride Luxer Cafe.
Now he's got an interesting background because he's from Brazil
and he has ridden all over the world. He's ridden
in Saalar Arabia, Dubai, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and so
he is one of the really top rid the world.
(10:01):
His nickname amongst the world is Magic Man, the nickname
that he coined in Singapore when he was riding there.
So you know, we've got top jockeys from all over
the world in this race. And I mentioned in Bertu
resonably and getting a horse in traffic in journalism and
traffic in the San Anita Derby. I'm going to be honest,
(10:21):
it's easy to get a horse in traffic in a
five horse field, especially when you have a target on
your back and everybody's trying to make sure you get
in trouble.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I have a hard time.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Is from Italy and he's a top he's the top rider.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, I want to ask you this down a five
horse field versus eight, fourteen, twelve to twenty. I mean
you can watch those and you go this ought to
be easy, but sometimes they have a harder race. You
just kind of mentioned it in a five Why is that?
And can you judge that versus like that feels small?
He's still he got in trouble twice and smoked the field,
(10:54):
you know what I mean. So I don't know how
to look at that as a as a race.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Got under it is because the other there's still a
couple of horses, went to the lead in there and
set an awfully fast paced and then the other horses,
the jockeys on the other two horses were watching from
version recently on journalism, and they were going to do
everything they could to get him boxed in, stopped whatever,
and they did a good job of it. Now, in
(11:18):
a twenty horse field, you can't focus on just one
other horse. You've got to focus on survival, right yep.
You've got to get you to get the trip for
your horse. You can't focus on trying to make somebody
else not get the trip.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yeah, I just it just it's interesting me. You made
a good comment. There's twenty horses. He's got to avoid trouble,
but those four kind of teamed up against him. You're
right in that last race, all right, Bob Baffort, he's
back and he's got some good horses, doesn't he does.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
He's got Reguez Intitizim Bull. I'm not sure he's going
to be live enough to win, but they both have speed.
Every time Rodriguez has run against so he breaks this maiden.
The second time that he ran he was in a
maiden special weight race. He went wire to wire in
his next two starts, that's the Robert B. Lewis and
(12:12):
the San Felipe. He faced his stablemates, and so in
the next start he had Citizen Bull in there, and
in the following start Barnes was in there. In both situations,
Rodriguez threw the outside post compared to the other Bafford horse,
and so they're not gonna intentionally get into a speed duel.
(12:33):
So whoever draws the inside post, they're going to say, okay,
let him go to the lead, and you just lay
off right, And so they let Citizen Bull go to
the lead. He wins, and Citizen Bull wins and Rodriguez
was second. Then in the San Felipe, they let Barnes
go to the league. He gets beat by Journalism and
Rodriguez is third. And then finally in the Wood Memorial,
(12:55):
no other Vafford horse in there. Mike Smith's on him.
He can do whatever he wants, set him to the lead,
never looks back. Whin's by open length, but he's not
going to get that kind of lead in the Kentucky Derby,
and so Bathward's got two horses with the same running
style and lots of other horses in there who want
to be in front.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Interesting, you nailed it. You know what, Donal, who win?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Give me? Give me your winter Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Give me a week in Derby. So again, I think
the work shows are important to watch. I think if
somebody really wants to handicap these races, you need to
watch the work shows. And then so I watch them
every day, and then the week of Derby, I'll go
out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning and see the horses in
the flesh, see I think they they are doing. And
(13:41):
then I won't decide on my Derby horse until the
morning of the Kentucky Derby. But you can watch the
show because they make us give our pick, they do,
and so you'll find out.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Then I'll be there though, you know what I mean.
So I'll watch it though. Yeah, and you know we're
talking to the queen and we didn't even talk about
the oaks. I should have started with that. The ladies,
come on, I got to have the phillies that even
bring that up.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Well, the Kentucky Oaks this year is probably going to
be a little bit undersubscribed. It well, it might be
it might be a full field of fourteen Phillies, but
I'm not sure that it's going to be really the
kind of field that we're seeing in the Kentucky Derby,
where everybody's just you know, intent to get into the race.
(14:25):
But there are obviously some standouts in there. You've got
the Philly from Brad Cox's Barn Good Cheer. She's undefeated
and she's an interesting Philly because she only does what
she has to do. She reminds me a lot of
Torpedo Anna, who won the Kentucky Oaks last year, in
(14:45):
that she's not like Rachel Alexandro. She didn't draw up
and win by nine and so she just wins by
however much she needs to win by. And then the
next time she runs, people go, oh, well, I think
we can beat her in here with so and so,
because you know, she only beat such and such by
two lengths last time out, and we beat her by
eight lengths when we ran against her, and then good
(15:07):
Year just wins and wins and wins, and so she's
going to be the start of the show. But what
side is the top points earner for the Oaks? For
John Alexander Ortiz, who's the trainer, and so Mark Cassey also,
you know, he's got one of the favorites and Sandman
for the Derby, so he's also got Lacaro for the Oaks,
(15:28):
so he has a chance to cool up what Kenny
McPeak did last year with the Oaks Derby Devil.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, make totes right here on the show. I'm gonna
win the Derby and the Oak, so you know, I
just should have took him for his word. It was
real simple, did you bet? I did, but I didn't
bet on him to win both? Did you get them both?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Donna?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Did you have them both?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Hindsight is twenty eight on bet Oh, I got too
many other things to do besides betting. Well, I've got
a lot of things I have to consider, no matter
what the alchemist like. Keep in mind, as you know,
I'm on these yeah, getting ready to interview the winner
after the Kentucky Derby, and I have to be ready
for any of twenty possible outcomes. So I've got a
(16:08):
lot of preparation that goes into those races, and me
trying to figure out who I bought on is not
going to be one.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
No, I'm just bessying, you know what.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I never bet. I go to the races a lot
at Saratoga in the summer, and I'll sit there and
bet because it's it's more exciting than just watching races.
I love it. I don't put these races gates.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
You're good for you busy, you're professional, you're the best.
I'm not gonna lie. You're really good. You do a
fantastic job and everything you do on TV. And you
look beautiful. Last year you got your outfit picked out.
We had so many people wanted to buy that red dress.
Put that outfits them. Excuse me, excuse not a dress.
I didn't mean to say that your red outfit your
pants suit. I'm sorry suit, Sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, absolutely to tell you the truth. Mark, this is
the twenty five year anniversary of NBC covering the Kentucky Derby,
and I was fortunate enough to be there on that
first broadcast in two thousand and one, and so I'm
wearing silver. Oh our twenty five year celebration.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, congratulations to NBC Sports and to you and thank
you for your time every year. That means so much
to us.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Thank you, Mss Donald, my pleasure and time, guys, and
enjoy the Derby. Mark I'm so happy you get to
go in person, have to catch fun.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Thank you, don I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Girl.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Take care of me all right, Donna Brothers
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