Andy Serling

Andy Serling from NYRA joins the show to share why Saratoga is special town and gives insight on some of the betting trends you should be on the look out for. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Joining us on the Bobby V's Hotlineas Andy Serling from n y r A.
And he was one of the besthandicappers and one of the best racing
analysts out there. And Andy isOpening Day tomorrow at Saratoga and it's got
to be like Christmas for racing enthusiasts. No, it feels like a masor
holiday. I mean, it's youknow, it's funny this year because we're

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obviously here month ago for the BelmontStakes, which was an incredible weekend and
oddly addressed rehearsal for this. ButOpen Day, the meat is always just
such a special day. And youknow, my first opening Day was fifty
years ago in nineteen seventy four,and I've been to probably forty five or

(00:41):
more Opening day since then. Ihad to miss a few when I had
a job, which was really awful. But yeah, it's an amazing day.
You know, it's just it's crazyto be back in Saratoga. It's
such a happy place. As youguys will know. Describe to our listeners
about that. Because you grew uparound this track, it is somewhat magical.
It feels like you get transformed backin time. This is one of

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the oldest sports venues in the UnitedStates or are sports venues in the world.
Just tell everybody about like the stuffaround the horse racing. That's a
little ancillary but a part of thecharm. Not just the track, but
the town of Saratoga. Yeah,I mean, you're right, it's that
old state saying. I think fromthat red Smith or Damon, right,
I think is red Smith. Yougo up, you know, you go

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up the Throuway from New York Cityone hundred ninety miles, you take a
rite and you go back one hundredyears and it's so little has changed.
You know, it's still the samesort of ambiance in the backyard. And
one of the nice things about thetrack is you see your friends that you've
met over the years, because peoplereally come back to Saratoga. Fracts themselves
are as the petitives they used tobe, but Saratoga everybody comes, whether

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it's for sustained period of time ora week here and a week there.
But also yeah, the town.I mean, you know, we have
a training track across the street wecalled the Oklahoma where about half our horses
are stable. And that's a trackthat as a dirt and turf track as
well, where they train in themorning. So that opens in April and
stays open until the end of October. And you know, there are times
you could go there in the offseason and it's hard to believe in the

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morning that we're not racing the afternoon, there's so much activity. But you
know, aside from that, Saratogais a relatively small town, and you
know, within a mile of theracetrack is the whole downtown scene where there's
a lot of bars, a lotof restaurants, a lot of shops for
people to shop in the afternoons,and things like that Broadway itself. You're

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sure you've been on. It isextremely busy. It's not just the race
track. You know, you've alsogot spack from in our center in the
park on Dave Matthew's there last weekend, their concerts all summer long, the
ballet's there, I think this weekthe orchestra comes to build. Every orchestra
comes in in August for par thesummer, and that's about a mile and
a half in the track. Everythingis basically within walking distance. You know,

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you don't need to have a car, you don't want you can just
sort of walk around and the townitself is great. The restaurants are fun.
There's a great sort of synergy betweenthe track and the town where you
know, you go out at nightto see racing personalities, you know,
trainers, riders, and I thinkit's just a great atmosphere for people morning,
noon and night. Talking to AndySerling and why are a racing expert.

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You can hear them on talking horseswith their expert picks, and that's
going to go before these races.Tell me about some of the traditional races.
I know today opening Day at Saratoga, you've got the two year old
Phillies that are going to run.Is that sort of how the season goes
that a lot of these races areaccording to what you've been doing for one

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hundred and fifty years. Yeah,I mean the state schedule. Sometimes you
make small changes. We're running theJockey Club Gold Cup of the Sunday of
Labor Day weekend this year, butin general the things stay the same.
In the Stylarville, which is theopening day feature through a terrific field,
I think of eleven horses for twoyear old abilities, and then on Saturday
we have the mail equivalent, theStanford or the Serato Special if you never

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keep straight, and we run statesfor the two year olds, culminating at
the end of the meet with thespin Away, a Grade one for phillies
and the hopeful Grade one for colds. And I think a lot of what
happens in Saratoga in the summer istwo year olds start running. You know,
a lot of maiden races. Manyof the best, best ultimate three
year olds were saying the Derby evena favorite for this year's Derby, though

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he obviously didn't run well with fierceness. Well, he debuted on the Friday
before Travers, so you'll see alot of the top horses will debut in
Saratoga and you start of ever know, it could be a Saturday, it
could be a Wednesday or a Thursday. And two year olds are a big
part of the program of getting themstarted with their careers. And one of
the exciting things is you know youcan go and sort of any day and

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you might see a horse that becomesfamous over the course of his lifetime.
And that's the fun thing. Ican you know, I can remember many
horses I saw berate their maidens thatwent on to win winning colors, utility.
They won the Derby. I sawa breaker maids here. It's part
of the thrill of Stereatoga. Butthere's a state rate. I think pretty
much every day. There's the CoronationCup for the three year old Phillise of
the Turf on Thursday, I thinkSaturday there's three stakes. We're running one

(05:08):
the Kelso on the turf for amile for older horses. We're running this
fw year old race I mentioned wherePierces, his full brother is actually the
favorite men team. And we're alsorunning the Diana, which has a big
ten horse field a mile and eighthof Grade one. It's the first grade
one of the Meat on the turf, and you know they're Grade ones every
weekend and just huge races. Ithink we run about eighteen Grade ones during

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the course of the Meat. Soit's a lot of quality racing. And
you know, if the weather holdsup, the racing's great. And it
feels like a good chance that maybeOpening Day won't be spoiled by weather as
the storm they've been predicted, itmay, it may miss us. As
Dib said, you can see thisguy every race day at talking horses.
As a tradition of mine before Istart my picks. I always watch Sirling

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on Talking Horses and then see themall the time on FS one. As
Andy calls it, the Big Fox. Big Fox has taken over for some
of these major stake races. Goahead, what'd you got? Yeah,
yeah, we're on that FS one, FS two pretty much the entire meet.
You know, there may be anhour here and there on a sporadic
day or two or where he startedtwo or something, but for the most

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part, every single race is shownon our Starato Alive show, which which
broadcasts all day long. There aresix six Saturdays, not this Saturday,
but starting the following Saturday, we'llbe on for I think two and a
half to three and a half hourson Big Box, you know, the
Major Box network, and when thosewill be covering the main stakes, I
mean, the biggest race days hereare the first Saturday of August, which

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is the Whitney, a huge racefor older horses, one of the most
important races in the country. Lastyear was won by the eventual Breers Cup
Classic winner White to Barrio the Alabama, which is the third Saturday in August.
That's sort of the ultimate three yearold Philly race. I mean,
they talk about the Kentucky Oaks,Well, that's an important race. The
day before the Derby, the Alabama'sbeen run for I think over one hundred

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and forty years and it's really theoldest and most important mile to quarter race
for three year old phillies. Andthen the following week is the Travelers,
which is the sort of known asthey call it the Midsummer Derby, even
though for some reason they call itthat, it's the late Summer Derby,
and you know, it's not aTriple Crown race, but it can be
that kind of prestigious race and potentiallythe winners of all three Triple Crown races

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and many others could beat up thisyear in it. So that's a huge
day. And then we have,you know, the closing week, which
closes out with a big bank Butthere are you know, major races every
single weekend and stakes throughout the weeks, and the racing is fun, and
I mean, it's just it's aplace where if you just walk around Saratoga,
even if it's a rainy day,you walk around and people are having

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a good time. And it seemslike in this world there aren't enough places
where you walk around and you seea lot of people smile like and having
fun, and it's really one ofthe great things about Saratoga. It's a
happy place for everybody. Andy asfar as the horses and the heat,
and like you said, there's aimpending weather systems that are coming in and
things like that. Is there atemperature that the horses maybe don't run or

(08:07):
is there any kind of weather thatthe horses don't run in. Well,
there's a couple of situations. Ithink we've had over the last about twenty
years, two cancellations due to heat. It's something to do with a heat
index, you know, if itgets like over one hundred and five or
ten. I don't know the exactnumbers, but there is a cutoff point

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where we would run. But Imeant this summer there's going to be warm
days. There are always hoses andwater available after the races to hose the
horses down, you know, Sothere is always people ready and always ready
to cool the horses out. Imean, even on a day that may
not be super hot. Right,So we're always making those precautions and we
take that very seriously. And thelast thing we'll ever do is run a

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situation where it's just not safe forthe horses. As far as you ask
me another question a weather stuff,yeah, we you if there's lightning in
the area. I don't know theexact numbers, but it's something like eight
or ten miles. If there's lightningwithin that, you know that that area
we have to wait a certain periodof time and people will notice. There'll

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be you know, two or threetimes during the meet where a big storm
will move through and if there's lightning, there will be a delay. And
if the delay is twenty minutes,twenty minutes, if it's an hour to
an hour, you know, we'renever going to sort of say, well,
you know, we're trying to getthe car and it's oh, we'll
run with the lightning around. No, that will not happen. And listen.
Occasionally, as you know up herethere are a few storms and we've
had some delays at different times,but you'll hope for the best. Let's

(09:37):
get down in dirty here. I'mtrying to divorce myself a speed rating this
year when it comes to Sarahtoga here, I'm going to just ask you this
in a broad general question because Iknow we're short on time. I feel
like Chad Brown, you got toput them in the field. If we're
on dirt, Todd plut or excuseme, on turf, sure, Todd
Pletscher, you got to have hishorses in the field. If we're on

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dirt, Michael Maker, you gotto have his horses in the first half,
especially the July meets more so thanthat August meets. Am I right
on all those things that I've saidso far. You're not wrong. But
I think one of the great mythsabout Chad Brown is the only wins the
turf. The guy's won two Freaknessesin the last flight seven years, so

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you know in his numbers on thedirt are very similar as numbers on turf.
He's just known for having a lotof better turf forces over the years.
He's also run some very good twoyear olds that have won their debuts
up here over the years, whetherthey were Practical Joe or you know of
horse Blazing Sevens, who's beinished secondin the Freakness last year. He broke
his name as the two year oldhis first start. So you got to

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be careful with those things. It'sinteresting to say about Maker, and you're
right. Maker had a meet withit last year where he was on fire.
Maybe it was two years ago forthe first flight, three or four
weeks and then he just sort ofran out of ambo. But Mike's a
dangerous trainer, and I think youalways want to look for trainers to come
out kind of hot, you know. And one of the things that happened
Seratos. We get a lot ofshippers, a lot of people come in

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from Kentucky, and I always tryto pay a lot of attention to how
they're doing in general. Ducky horseis running well? Are they horses sort
of random? You know, they'llrun well, some not and some years
they don't do well. And Ithink you want to pay attention to the
trainers that are able to shift inand has success, because some will and
some won't. So I try todo that. But I think at the

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end of the day, you wantto try to find horses that you know.
I mean, if you bet ChadBrown and Todd Fletscher all the time,
you're gonna bet a lot of shortpriced horses. And you want to
try to find some kind of underthe radar trainers, you know, guys
who win or gals who win,like a Linda wright right and try to
get better prices in those situations.You know, the Irad or Cheese is
a great jockey, but this isan incredible jockey colony, and Irad is

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the most habitually over bet rider I'veever seen in my life. I thought
Irad wrote great when we just leftAqueducts for our meeting there, I think,
is roy a two dollars win beton every horse he rode? You
got about a dollar fifteen backs everytwo dollars, whereas Slavi and Pratt,
who's a sensational rider, he wasclose to two dollars because he doesn't take
the kind of money that Irad has. And if you're, you know,

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habitually betting horses that should be payingten dollars and they're paying seven, you're
gonna lose a longer term. Sodon't go there and say I'm just going
to bet Irad or keys. Don'tbe that person. Do you want to
bet a jockey? Bet Bob toPratt and he enjoyed man seventy one steak
races this summer. It starts tomorrowwith opening day at Saratoga. And we

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really appreciate you coming on and tellingus all about it. I appreciate you
guys having me, and I hopeI see you guys this summer. I
look forward to it.