@DonnaBBrothers Triple Crown horse broadcaster @NBCSports joins @ONTHEDMARK1 prior to @PreaknessStakes

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm gonna play something right here.You this young lady that is next on
the mark Donald Brothers Barton, thisis she is on the pony on the
horse after the Kentucky Derby and theTriple Crown, and she gets to talk
to the winning jockey. And thisis from the Kentucky Derby and the leading
writer in the United States. Fourtimes. It took sixteen tries for you

(00:22):
to finally get your first Kentucky Derbywin, though, Javier, or what
are you thinking right now? Firstof all, thank you Lord Jesus Cribe
for giving the opportunity to win theDerby, the dream tree for any jockey,
any trying to any horses, andthey indust to the whole races.
I never give up. I alwaystry hard to the right team. He

(00:43):
took me a little while to getthere. I finally get it. I'm
being pleased and truly honest to giveme opportunity to hord the way he did
it today, the leading mage,he did it really well today. He
got a lot of dirt in thefaith come from my horse, but TONI
a home. He got a lotof horror. It's a little horse.

(01:03):
I would be harsh a little horsewith only three starts coming into this race.
Did you think he had this inhim? Absolutely? I think the
way he'd wrong the last the lasttime, the fun to you, and
then it's Flodia Derby. The wayhe did it, finished second, the
way he finished, I think Ihave a lot of potential to week.
Mary is Javier Costellato talking to ournext guests, Miss Donna Brothers Barton.

(01:26):
Good morning, Miss Donna, Goodmorning, Mark. How are you today?
I'm absolutely great. Thank you forbeing on the morn I'm sorry,
go ahead, you can just callme Donna. All right, Donald,
you got it. I try tobe professional and pol How about that.
You do an awesome job, girl, you do an awesome job. Well,
thank you. I have a funjob. I've been lucky enough to
do it for Oh gosh, sothis was Derby I think twenty three for

(01:52):
me. So yeah, then it'sbeen a fun ride. I enjoy it.
Well, you started when you weresix, That's what I was a.
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. I've had many more than twenty
three Derbis actually, but this isthe twenty third, but NBC Sports and
it's been a lot of fun andit's you know, it's really special to
be able to be there right afterthe race and talk to the winning jockey,

(02:15):
because, as I've often said,it's going to mean a lot to
whoever wins it, but it's goingto be a little something different to each
one. And you know, tobe there with Javier Hall of Fame jockey,
I think he wrote his first Derbymaybe twenty five years ago, had
come into this year fifteen and oheven though he's in the Hall of Fame,
been leading writer in the nation fourtimes, and so to see Javier,

(02:37):
I mean, really couldn't be anicer guy, and to see a
guy like him finally add that tohis resume. It was nice to be
right there with him. Oh,I know, and he was emotional at
the end. Did that kind ofget to you? You know, I
expect for them to be emotional.I'm surprised when they are only philosophical or
analytic about it, because it's definitelyan emotional experience. The life's changing win,

(03:00):
you know, the winning that racecan have the potential to change your
life and in case in point,how your's business is actually picked up.
Just in the last few days,he wanted another stakes race up in New
York over the weekend, a gradedstakes race, and so even a guy
who's forty five years old, andyou would probably say before him winning the

(03:22):
Kentucky derby a guy who's in thetwilight of his career, he might now
be on the upswing. Well,you may be right. He did a
heck of a job there to winthat. He's one of my favorite riders.
I love him, like just watchinghim race. He's pretty consistent and
did you did you would getting ahorse in position, he gives the horse
a chance to win and they can'twin from there, then it's it's usually

(03:43):
the horse's fault, not hobby.That's a good point. I noticed where
he made a very good move bygoing early to the rail in that race.
I saw that early. Yeah,you know, after the race he
said that he had talked with theconnections and they had plans abc ND.
They knew that the horse wasn't goingto break sharp and they weren't going to
try to change who he is,and so he's not going to break sharp,

(04:05):
what do we do from there?They did have pads in the starting
gates this time, which just givesa horse a little bit more comfort.
It takes up the room so thatthey don't feel like they're swimming in the
starting gate. And Maige isn't avery big horse, and so it was
nice to give him some pads andgive him a little better chance. Pretty
still, he's just not a fasthorse away from the gate, and so

(04:25):
the intention was always to just getout and get over the rail. But
how many horses they were going tobe behind was the part where it planned.
ABC and D came in. Yeah, you're right, that's a very
interesting tap at Trice Never just couldn'tget it going. No. He you
know, came into the race withfour consecutive wins and his running style was

(04:48):
well documented. He was going tocome from off the pace and he was
last in the first turn and upthe backs, I mean made a little
bit of a run, but hejust never he never, you know,
that's a horse. It was goingto be a tough race for him to
win. A lot of people likedhim going in, but his running style
actually isn't ideally students with the Derbybecause he doesn't have a quick turn of

(05:09):
foot, meaning if he gets stopped, he's not a horse who can quickly
accelerate again, and you know he'sgone wide in his races in the past.
But you can't do that when there'sseventeen other horses in the race,
and so he wasn't going to beone of my top three, but he
also wouldn't have surprised maybe one.He's a good horse. There you go,
Who were your top three? Dona? Well, I ended up picking

(05:31):
Dermosota Goak on air because my tophorse was FOURTE. But you know,
hindsight is twenty twenty and FOURTE narrowlybeat Maids in the previous starting You know
what, why didn't everybody do that? That's a very good point. Go
ahead. Yeah, So I wentwith Dermosota Gaki because his numbers were better

(05:51):
than any of our American horses.But the UAE Derby jinks strikes again.
I think they're now over eighteen,and so I think I'm gonna have to
take the position mark going forward thatuntil one of them went it, I'm
gonna lose. If they went yeah, she's starting why are those why are
those horses do so bad? Overhere? And went over there, I

(06:13):
guess it'd be better. Well,the UAE Derby in particulars it's a big
turn, right, So you're goingfrom running in Dubai to shipping all the
way to the United States, acclimating, recovering from the big race that you
ran in Dubai, and getting readyfor the biggest race of your life.
And I think what has sort ofproven out over the years is that it's

(06:36):
a lot to ask and farther hasn'tbeen a horse that's been up to the
task. And Dermosotagaki didn't run terrible. I think he was the seventh or
eighth, but he you know,he got away a little flower and was
a little further back than he normallyis. Um. I'm not sure that's
really much of an excuse because rarelydo you have the perfect trip in the

(06:57):
Kentucky Derby, including the winner.Um. And in this case, you
know, he um have ever wrotea great race. But he came out
of the second term very wide andvery got beat. Then people would have
gone, well, he was reallywide in the second term, right,
but he didn't get beat. Hewon very good point. Donna Brothers with
his Donna Brothers Barton, she isthe Barton brother. I'm sorry I call

(07:18):
you Donald Brothers because that's what I'veknown you forever, and I apologize for
Brothers works you don't even need theBarton is actually part of my middle name.
Now, okay, you can justdrop it all right, good deal.
Then Donna Brother, she's with NBCSports. She'll be Are you gonna
talk to Saturday? Donna? Doyou think oh dollar questions? Right?
Yeah, it is, you know, I, um, obviously I didn't

(07:42):
pick Major in the Kentucky Derby,and right after the race, if you
ask me, you know it's inthe first win the Triple Crown. My
answer is no, I don't thinkhe's the kind of horse is gonna win
the Triple Crown. I mean Americanparer on Justify. There are people who
are saying that they could win theTriple Crown before they ever won the Derby
and the Point Majors and the horselike that. However, the Freakness is
coming up a bit light, andthere's a good possibility that Mage is the

(08:03):
best horse in the race, andso I think there's a possibility that we
see Maje win the second league ofthe Triple Crown. Anyway, um Sugar
mcgahey's bringing a horse and names Perform, who has won his last two races,
including the um Federico Testio at Laureland they're supplementing him for one hundred

(08:24):
and fifty thousand dollars, so theyhave to like him a little bit.
He's a horse who has done bettersince he stretched out, and yeah,
he's he's in a roll, right. And when you say suppment, they
had to pay to get that inthe race, is what you're saying.
Right. He was not nominated forthe Triple Crown. So as you know,

(08:45):
Mark, when a horse is nominatedfor the Triple Crown, it makes
him eligible to run in. Hehad the three races without having to pay
a supplemental. See, so theearly nomination costs six hundred dollars. The
second nomination, if he didn't nominateearly, I think sometime in March,
that's right, it closes for thesecond time to nominate and that costs six

(09:07):
thousand dollars. But if you missthat, mark, then to get into
one of the races, it costsone hundred and fifty thousand dollars to supplement
to get in. And he wasn'tnominated and it supplemented him. Now,
having said that, his owners arethere's a group of owners and they all
have a whole lot more money thanyou and I do. That was a

(09:28):
dollar fifty of them. Yeah,yeah, not a lot of money from
that, and they're dividing it afew different ways. Handle it very good.
Well, you want to tell ourlisteners what's going on with Fote?
Yeah, I was going to goover that he's out for a while,
isn't he. Yeah. So Forte, as we know, ended up being

(09:48):
bet scratched the morning of the KentuckyDerby. There was talk about it that
week that he had to hook afoot bruise and that he may be scratched,
and then you know, ultimately thehist the rules dictate that if a
horse is scratched by the vets thatthey have to not race for two weeks,
and in order to get off thebets list, they're on the bets

(10:11):
list automatically for two weeks, andto get off the bets list they have
to have a workout in front ofthe vets, a published workout. And
so it wasn't possible for for kto make it to the Freak Mistakes only
because you know, he couldn't dothe published workout of that published by the
way, his um two weeks wouldbe up on the day after the Freak

(10:31):
Mistakes and so the two weeks precludedhim from being able to point for the
preake mistakes, which is unfortunate becausewith a hoof brows they can heal up
in twenty four hours or it couldtake a week. And so we certainly
know that by preak mistakes, I'mon the back side of church. You're
good, You're good. Well,that's what the loudspeaker is. But in

(10:52):
any event, um, I thinkprobably in hindsight, you know, if
if Todd would have thought about thatin advance, he would have just said,
no, don't beat scratch him.I'm going to scratch him. Good
point. I was going to askyou that. I was going to ask
you that question. But this isa new HI rule, like everybody's like
now adjusting to the news rules,and it's a highsp the rule. And

(11:15):
so I'm sure in hindsight, youknow, like, okay, Lesson learned
going forward, this is how Iwould handle it, right. It just
wasn't something that he had any sortof precedence for. That's good point.
When they showed the Donner Brothers withthe NBC Sports, she talks to the
winning jockey right after the Triple Crownraces. She's on Our Hamlet's Online d
Mark Jeff and Lee Christian here inthe Uth Pete Clinton Studio on Fox Sports

(11:37):
nineteen thirteen ten when when when theywere showing the video, you could tell
the foot was bruised. The horse, you know, moved his foot away,
and I wondered, then how long? And I'm like, why didn't
you scratch him? Why did youmake that? But I didn't know that
particular situation that you were talking about. So very interesting there. So he'll
be ready for the BELLMLL probably,I would think, yeah, And it

(11:58):
might not be the best race forhim. I'm not sure if he would
point really a mile and a halfhorse. Todd has a knack for getting
his horses to run well on theBeaumont Stake, So I guess I'll make
him a mile and a half horse. There you go, There you go.
There's been a lot of a lotof bad news too that I hate
to talk about. Eight horses nowhave passed away. I think one the
other day this past weekend, maybeI think, don't know, yeah,

(12:22):
yeah, there was another breakdown thisweekend. I have no idea what's going
on in that market. Um.You know, one of the things about
First of all, let's back upa little bit. In the past ten
years, the rate of breakdowns inthe United States has gone down by thirty
seven percent, so that's significant.Yes, and the rate of breakdowns at
Churchill downs is below the national average, so that's significant. But the problem

(12:46):
with breakdowns is that they typically arethere's some element of mystery around them.
And also in this case, theyweren't all breakdown. So we had two
horses that had sudden down those withSophy, Yeah, and then he smarily
suspended from Churchill. We had ahorse that broke down on the turf,

(13:09):
one broke down in the morning training, a horse that flipped over and hurt
itself irreparably in the paddock and hadto be euthanized. So they were they
were so unrelated to one another asto not be able to pinpoint, you
know, what the heck is goingon other than just say apparently racing just

(13:31):
had some really bad luck right now, because the last thing we needed was
this sort of a black eye areright around our biggest arevent of the year.
It that's what happened. Yeah,I agree, you make a good
point, and I think one ofthem early in the week just took a
tumble to coming down the grass stretch. If I'm not mistaken, that was
the Philly that broke down on theturf. But yeah, you said that

(13:52):
he had a fatal injury. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. There was
nothing. Yeah, that wasn't Yeah, you're right about them all being different.
Aren't so very interesting? But yeah, they're completely unrelated. And even
the horses that have had catastrophic injurieson the dirt course, none of them
have been in the same time.No, I know, I know that's
what I looked at leave. Didyou know it's not a track condition thing.

(14:13):
I know they closed a Laurel fora while to rework the surface.
Um, yeah, they had.They definitely had some problems at Laurel that
UM addressed. Actually they were addressedby two different trackmen. They had Dennis
More from California come out. Hehad been helpful in the Santa Anita and

(14:35):
yet and I'm in good shape.But then they also had I think Frank
Pissaro, who as a long timetrack man there in Maryland. They had
both of them come and work onthe Laurel track and I'm sure they'll get
it to where the horsemen are comfortablewith it. There you go. When
you headed to to Pimlico, Ihad up on Thursday morning. My first

(14:56):
meetings are also Thursday morning, soI'm on a seven thirty am flight,
and I think my first meeting thirdaround ten am. And yeah, we
just hit the ground running, andthen we're on air Friday and on air
all day Saturday. You got theblack eyed Pea Friday. Who gonna win
it? Black eyes? Who?Black class seasten to me, I'm thinking
about No, ma'am. You wouldthink I would be down there. You're

(15:16):
right in black eys and Friday forthe ladies. That really good Philly of
Bob Bafford's Besa is going to bein the black Eyed Dude. Yeah,
he's as Philly who would have beenthe favorite when the Oaks had she been
permitted to run at Churchill Downs.But the owners of Beza or one hundred
percent on Bod Bafford's side, andthey said, you know what, we're
not moving our horse. If youdon't want Bob Baffort, you don't want

(15:39):
us. And so they get theKentucky Oaks because of the sanctions against Bafford
here at Churchill Downs, which,by the way, it end on.
I think July first. Sometime inJuly. Will you get through a Baltimore
early enough for the Alibi Breakfast?I think that's Thursday, isn't it.

(16:00):
Yeah, but aren't you going Thursday? Yeah? But our first meeting might
be it might conflict with that.I don't know. I always go to
the Olive I breakfast if I can. We all do because we like it.
But it will just depend on whetheror not our meetings conflict with that.
There you go. You gotta takecare of your business, don't you,
Donna exactly, There you go.You're a champ. You're a true
professional. I really appreciate you beingon the mark again. You're so nice.

(16:22):
Mark always good to talk to you. Yes, ma'am, you too.
I'll be looking for you Friday onSaturday, all right on TV?
All right? Take care? Areyou? Thank you? Yes, ma'am. Donnad