April 18, 2024 • 12 mins
Former jockey and current NBC racing analyst Donna Brothers breaks down her viewpoint of the Kentucky Derby and the recent ruling that says Bob Baffert cannot participate in this year's race. She also helps Annie Locke preview the upcoming Brain Injury Alliance of Kentucky run/walk that is coming up on May 11th...
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In the studio with me. Ohmy gosh, one of my greatest neighbor
friends of all time, Annie Locke, has returned. Hello neighbor, Hello,
how are you. It's great tosee you, friend, great to
be here. The legendary jockey DonnaBrothers. When you said legendary jockey,
I thought John Belasco's was here,Frankie to Tori, But you are,
(00:22):
Donna. Thank you. It's greatto see you again. It's good to
be with you, Terry always.And by the way, I haven't been
a jockey since nineteen ninety eight.Does it matter. It doesn't matter.
People see you on NBC Horse Racing, where you're there with the microphone and
the winner's face right after they rightafter they finished running. That's one of
(00:44):
the tougher assignments and broadcasting. That'sthe whole idea, those breathless interviews right
after the big win. How doyou see the race? By the way,
are you watching on a little monitorlike on your phone? Do you
see the way the horses come downthe stretch runner because you're in a different
part of the track. Yeah,Keep in mind, I'm riding a horse
right so I am standing behind thestarting gate as the horses are loading into
(01:04):
the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby, and right before they take off the
direction that they go, I takeoff in the opposite direction, and so
I meet them on the backside.But as I approached the half mile pole
from one direction and they're approaching itfrom the other, I stop there and
I let the field run by.Right they're on the rail. You're on
the out correct, I'm on theoutside fence. I'm actually standing there with
(01:27):
an outrider, the guys in thered jackets, who are there in case
there's a loose horse on the track. So I stand there with the outrider.
We let the field run by,and then I take off running again.
And so I'm listening to the callof the race the whole time in
my in my earphones. You know, I've got my little IFB in.
But I couldn't also watch the racebecause I've got to ride the horse.
(01:47):
I need to use both hands.But that big board that they have now
that you can see from outer space, I can see it. So if
there's trouble on the home stretch orwhatever, you at least see that,
and you're able to comment on that. Yes, and the track announced or
Travis Stone is great, but theannouncer that I have in my head is
Larry Coolemus, who's on our shows, and both of them do a great
job, but they're picking up allthose different things too, and I'll hear
(02:08):
it in my ear, and thenas soon as the horses crossed the wire,
one of our executive producers, AmyZimmerman, will get in my ear
and say, it's the four heonly won by a nose, or it's
the four he won by seven lengths, And so I get a little bit
of an idea, but I don'treally know much else. I didn't see
the race, and by the way, I used to think that was a
(02:29):
disadvantage, but then once I realizedthat most of the viewers, unless the
horse went from wire to wire,I'm lead the whole time. Most of
our viewers also didn't see what happenedto that particular horse throughout the running.
So it gives me a chance tosay, Okay, I couldn't see the
race from where I was, Canyou talk me through your trip? Right?
And that's what they'll do, andthey'll say, this happened and I
(02:49):
got pushed in this that or whatever, And then we saw the shoot,
and I found the opening exactly.You got it, so you could do
it unless it's someone who's not verytalkative. And that's a challenge. See
you're good at that. Yeah,you're good at pulling that out of people.
That's a skill. Actually the challengeis the Latinos who speak perfect English
until they get excited and then I'mlike, okay, wait, so I
(03:12):
think what you just said is,oh that's funny. Obviously I have to
ask you about the news of theday. Judge Perry here in Louisville ruled
out the owner of Mouth for becausehe's strained by Bob Baffort. So Bafford
is not in the Kentucky Derby.You know what the pushback's been over all
(03:34):
this time. Churchill Down's issued astatement a little while ago today I thought
was rather interesting, A little snarky, wasn't it. It was? Yeah,
So, Emir Zidon, I hopeI'm saying the guy's name right.
The owner his bid to enter theBob Bafford train Arkansas Derby winner Mouth into
the Derby is not available now,and Churchill wrote this, we are pleased
(03:55):
with the court's decision today and believemisters the may suffer from a case of
derby fever, which is known tospread with exposure to horses and is contagious
this time of year. Symptoms cancontribute to questionable judgment and in extreme cases,
can result in litigious behavior. Imean, wow, so they're still
(04:17):
like rattling the cage. Pretty snarkyit is. They go on to say
there's no known cure. Nevertheless,we've communicated clearly about the rules of entry,
which are the same for everyone andare non negotiable. Then they wish
him well and say they hope tosee him in the derby in the future.
Yeah, I'll play devil's advocate forboth sides. In Zaddan's defense,
(04:39):
he did spend ten point four milliondollars at the sales when these horses were
yearlings. That are three year oldsnow, buying horses that he thought would
be eligible to run in the KentuckyDerby, because Bob Bafford had a two
year ban, not a three yearban, and so his case was based
on I spent all this money knowingthat my trainer would be able to run
in the derby, and then youall added the other year. In churchill
(05:02):
Downs defense, they didn't expect forthem to remain litigious for two consecutive years.
I think at some point they justwanted Bob Baffort to admit to some
wrongdoing, admit that you understand thatbeta methazone was in the ointment that you
used on your horse, and thatthat is a banned substance and you can't
use it. You did use it, and so you got a bad test
(05:24):
that was a legitimate And instead Baffordand Zadan sued Churchill Downs for two years
and Churchill Down spent hundreds of thousanddollars in legal fees to defend themselves.
And then their position when they saidwe're going to give him a third year
is he's never admitted to wrongdoing andhe's still suing us. And then after
that Bob Baffort and Amir Zidan droppedthat suit. They said, okay,
(05:46):
well we'll admit that. You know, we've got a suspension that we're going
to have to take, and itis what it is. But Churchill Downs
had had enough by them, andso they weren't going to just reinstate him
just because he you know, we'renot going to be litigious anymore on this
particular thing. And then i'm mearsEdan came up with this one. Bob
Baffert didn't have a part in thislast lawsuit. In fact, he didn't
(06:06):
even want to comment on it,right, I'm sure he won't. But
Churchill says again today the rules ofentry are the same for everyone and are
non negotiable. Period. Yeah.Period. I mean, at the end
of the day, it is ait's it's privately owned by a publicly traded
company and so they can do whateverthey want. And that's what when you
(06:29):
get your license application and you fillit out, essentially, you are agreeing
to whatever their terms are. Soddan. By the way, there's a statement
out that says they're going to challengethe judges ruling today, so it isn't
over yet. You know. A'mMeersedan is a billionaire who's not used to
being told no, Yeah, thatis what it is. Welcome to life.
Well, it's good to see bothof you back in here, and
I'm looking forward to just having yourvoice and face on the derby again because
(06:55):
it makes all of us happy tosee you out there doing that every year.
Well, I think it probably makesme the happiest. But thank you
very I'm glad. It brings youjoy as we are you set up for
the whole Triple Crown or is itDerby only? And then you move from
there Derby to Preakness and then FoxSports got the third leg at the Triple
Crown from us last year. Solast year I actually went to the Belmont
Steakes and got to hang out.My sister went with me. And this
(07:17):
year, because of all the constructionthat's happening in at Belmont Park, the
Belmont Steaks has been moved to Saratogaand so that's going to be and we
have a second home. Our primaryhome is in Louisville, Kentucky, but
we have a second home in SaratogaSprings. So we'll be up there and
it'll be fun. We just visitedthere last year. I love that town.
That a great town. It's fantastic. You can see why people like
(07:39):
it. It's the coolest place.People moved there from all over the United
States who have they don't know anythingabout horse racing, so they don't just
come for that little downtown's cool.Yeah, it's cool, all right.
So you and Andy Locker here foran important reason too. There's an event
coming up on May eleventh and Iknow it's to help the Brain Injury Association.
(08:00):
I get that right, Biak Yeah, biac Bran injury lines of Kentucky.
But association works also. I thinkthey actually were an association at one
point. So you know, you'rejust way ahead. So what do we
have going on in this event?Well, first of all, Annie and
I are co conspirators in this.It used to be just a walk and
then last year we added the fiveK element to it to make it a
run walk and I couldn't have donethat without Annie Locke's help. As you
(08:24):
know, she's been a fitness iconand professional in Louisville for well ever since
you moved here. And so Annie, you got the Louisville Sports Commission involved,
and really she made the five khappen. Well that's just because Donny
can make you do anything anything.But no, I think it's a I
think it's a wonderful cause and that'swhy I jumped on board. And then
(08:46):
my friends at the Sports Commission.I called them up and I was like,
I think this is something you wantto look at, and they jumped
right on board with it. Butyou know, and she can explain everything
that it gives back with such aphenomenal cause. With one of the guys
from the Sports Commission a couple monthsago and he said that, you know,
they do thirty two or whatever eventsa year, and this was their
(09:07):
favorite because they saw so many peoplewho were physically challenged or mentally challenged just
to do the one mile walk inthe parking lot, which is four times
around so it's a loops so youcan only do a quarter of a mile.
You can do a quarter of amile in the sense of accomplishment that
these people receive from just coming outand being able to do this with other
people who also had challenges for whateverreason. And so there's there's something for
(09:31):
everyone. There's even activities for thekids where they can play, people can
bring their pets. But it's theweek after the Kentucky Derby, and we
know that Louivillians do a lot ofdamage to their body this derby weekend,
no doubt, So this helps youto undo some of that damage. But
I have to say it couldn't happenwithout the sponsors. And I'm saying this
because it's been more and more difficultthese days to get sponsors. And I
(09:54):
realized that businesses are stretched pretty thinly. But I think business need to understand
that these sort of community activities don'thappen without the sponsorship of the you know,
the businesses in Loisville. So forus, if we didn't have Delta
Dental, U of L Health,Norton Healthcare, Porchini, TBI Cycle Bar
(10:15):
came back on for the second yearin a row as a sponsor and that's
Annie Fi Fi Wellness Club. Wereally couldn't do it without them. It's
fantastic, all right, May eleventh, and then where's where's the whole event?
Where's everybody gather? It's at TomSawyer Park and you can go to
biak dot us to register. That'sbiack dot us to register and all the
(10:35):
event details are there. You canget your pack at the day before or
you can come at seven thirty inthe morning for registration, but the event
itself starts at eight thirty. AndAnnie you'll help map out the course again
this year. So it's a crosscountry course. So it's absolutely beautiful.
Like you go out into the parkso you can walk run it and like
she said, you can go aroundthe parking lot, but it's absolutely beautiful.
(10:58):
So to anybody can do it.It's a course that we came up
with that took you all through thewoods of Green. You know the greens,
Well that's where you and I wereneighbors near there, and I'd go
over for a run at six inthe morning and Annie would have fifty women
out there already working on this oneof them. That's like, I mean,
the sun wasn't. What is anyin the Marines now? Anything too?
(11:22):
Yeah. I can get her todo anything fitness, and she can
get me to do volunteer for anything. But I hear this right as cycle
bar. Are you at the endof your cycle bar? I am at
the end. I sold it acouple of months ago, and I retire
next week. I have one moreweek left. Like she's going to retire,
that's not happening. I don't know. You never know. Well,
thanks for helping us this important cause. Thank you to Brain Injury Alliance of
(11:45):
Kentucky. And it's b I AKdot org dot us dot us. Okay,
b I A K dot us forfull details on the event May eleventh,
which actually is after the derby andprior to the PGA Championships. So
you're getting people in shapes so theycan up for that too, big Tom
for our city. Absolutely good tosee both of you. Oh I forgot
to mention something important, Please dohonorary chair this year. Officer Nick wil
(12:09):
He and his family are going tobe there and also some of the people
from the Louisville Police Department are goingto come out and support of officer will
Hero. Yes outstanding. All right, thanks so much. B I A.
K. Dot us Back in afew on news radio eight forty WHA s
In the studio with me. Ohmy gosh, one of my greatest neighbor
friends of all time, Annie Locke, has returned. Hello neighbor, Hello,
how are you. It's great tosee you, friend, great to
be here. The legendary jockey DonnaBrothers. When you said legendary jockey,
I thought John Belasco's was here,Frankie to Tori, But you are,
(00:22):
Donna. Thank you. It's greatto see you again. It's good to
be with you, Terry always.And by the way, I haven't been
a jockey since nineteen ninety eight.Does it matter. It doesn't matter.
People see you on NBC Horse Racing, where you're there with the microphone and
the winner's face right after they rightafter they finished running. That's one of
(00:44):
the tougher assignments and broadcasting. That'sthe whole idea, those breathless interviews right
after the big win. How doyou see the race? By the way,
are you watching on a little monitorlike on your phone? Do you
see the way the horses come downthe stretch runner because you're in a different
part of the track. Yeah,Keep in mind, I'm riding a horse
right so I am standing behind thestarting gate as the horses are loading into
(01:04):
the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby, and right before they take off the
direction that they go, I takeoff in the opposite direction, and so
I meet them on the backside.But as I approached the half mile pole
from one direction and they're approaching itfrom the other, I stop there and
I let the field run by.Right they're on the rail. You're on
the out correct, I'm on theoutside fence. I'm actually standing there with
(01:27):
an outrider, the guys in thered jackets, who are there in case
there's a loose horse on the track. So I stand there with the outrider.
We let the field run by,and then I take off running again.
And so I'm listening to the callof the race the whole time in
my in my earphones. You know, I've got my little IFB in.
But I couldn't also watch the racebecause I've got to ride the horse.
(01:47):
I need to use both hands.But that big board that they have now
that you can see from outer space, I can see it. So if
there's trouble on the home stretch orwhatever, you at least see that,
and you're able to comment on that. Yes, and the track announced or
Travis Stone is great, but theannouncer that I have in my head is
Larry Coolemus, who's on our shows, and both of them do a great
job, but they're picking up allthose different things too, and I'll hear
(02:08):
it in my ear, and thenas soon as the horses crossed the wire,
one of our executive producers, AmyZimmerman, will get in my ear
and say, it's the four heonly won by a nose, or it's
the four he won by seven lengths, And so I get a little bit
of an idea, but I don'treally know much else. I didn't see
the race, and by the way, I used to think that was a
(02:29):
disadvantage, but then once I realizedthat most of the viewers, unless the
horse went from wire to wire,I'm lead the whole time. Most of
our viewers also didn't see what happenedto that particular horse throughout the running.
So it gives me a chance tosay, Okay, I couldn't see the
race from where I was, Canyou talk me through your trip? Right?
And that's what they'll do, andthey'll say, this happened and I
(02:49):
got pushed in this that or whatever, And then we saw the shoot,
and I found the opening exactly.You got it, so you could do
it unless it's someone who's not verytalkative. And that's a challenge. See
you're good at that. Yeah,you're good at pulling that out of people.
That's a skill. Actually the challengeis the Latinos who speak perfect English
until they get excited and then I'mlike, okay, wait, so I
(03:12):
think what you just said is,oh that's funny. Obviously I have to
ask you about the news of theday. Judge Perry here in Louisville ruled
out the owner of Mouth for becausehe's strained by Bob Baffort. So Bafford
is not in the Kentucky Derby.You know what the pushback's been over all
(03:34):
this time. Churchill Down's issued astatement a little while ago today I thought
was rather interesting, A little snarky, wasn't it. It was? Yeah,
So, Emir Zidon, I hopeI'm saying the guy's name right.
The owner his bid to enter theBob Bafford train Arkansas Derby winner Mouth into
the Derby is not available now,and Churchill wrote this, we are pleased
(03:55):
with the court's decision today and believemisters the may suffer from a case of
derby fever, which is known tospread with exposure to horses and is contagious
this time of year. Symptoms cancontribute to questionable judgment and in extreme cases,
can result in litigious behavior. Imean, wow, so they're still
(04:17):
like rattling the cage. Pretty snarkyit is. They go on to say
there's no known cure. Nevertheless,we've communicated clearly about the rules of entry,
which are the same for everyone andare non negotiable. Then they wish
him well and say they hope tosee him in the derby in the future.
Yeah, I'll play devil's advocate forboth sides. In Zaddan's defense,
(04:39):
he did spend ten point four milliondollars at the sales when these horses were
yearlings. That are three year oldsnow, buying horses that he thought would
be eligible to run in the KentuckyDerby, because Bob Bafford had a two
year ban, not a three yearban, and so his case was based
on I spent all this money knowingthat my trainer would be able to run
in the derby, and then youall added the other year. In churchill
(05:02):
Downs defense, they didn't expect forthem to remain litigious for two consecutive years.
I think at some point they justwanted Bob Baffort to admit to some
wrongdoing, admit that you understand thatbeta methazone was in the ointment that you
used on your horse, and thatthat is a banned substance and you can't
use it. You did use it, and so you got a bad test
(05:24):
that was a legitimate And instead Baffordand Zadan sued Churchill Downs for two years
and Churchill Down spent hundreds of thousanddollars in legal fees to defend themselves.
And then their position when they saidwe're going to give him a third year
is he's never admitted to wrongdoing andhe's still suing us. And then after
that Bob Baffort and Amir Zidan droppedthat suit. They said, okay,
(05:46):
well we'll admit that. You know, we've got a suspension that we're going
to have to take, and itis what it is. But Churchill Downs
had had enough by them, andso they weren't going to just reinstate him
just because he you know, we'renot going to be litigious anymore on this
particular thing. And then i'm mearsEdan came up with this one. Bob
Baffert didn't have a part in thislast lawsuit. In fact, he didn't
(06:06):
even want to comment on it,right, I'm sure he won't. But
Churchill says again today the rules ofentry are the same for everyone and are
non negotiable. Period. Yeah.Period. I mean, at the end
of the day, it is ait's it's privately owned by a publicly traded
company and so they can do whateverthey want. And that's what when you
(06:29):
get your license application and you fillit out, essentially, you are agreeing
to whatever their terms are. Soddan. By the way, there's a statement
out that says they're going to challengethe judges ruling today, so it isn't
over yet. You know. A'mMeersedan is a billionaire who's not used to
being told no, Yeah, thatis what it is. Welcome to life.
Well, it's good to see bothof you back in here, and
I'm looking forward to just having yourvoice and face on the derby again because
(06:55):
it makes all of us happy tosee you out there doing that every year.
Well, I think it probably makesme the happiest. But thank you
very I'm glad. It brings youjoy as we are you set up for
the whole Triple Crown or is itDerby only? And then you move from
there Derby to Preakness and then FoxSports got the third leg at the Triple
Crown from us last year. Solast year I actually went to the Belmont
Steakes and got to hang out.My sister went with me. And this
(07:17):
year, because of all the constructionthat's happening in at Belmont Park, the
Belmont Steaks has been moved to Saratogaand so that's going to be and we
have a second home. Our primaryhome is in Louisville, Kentucky, but
we have a second home in SaratogaSprings. So we'll be up there and
it'll be fun. We just visitedthere last year. I love that town.
That a great town. It's fantastic. You can see why people like
(07:39):
it. It's the coolest place.People moved there from all over the United
States who have they don't know anythingabout horse racing, so they don't just
come for that little downtown's cool.Yeah, it's cool, all right.
So you and Andy Locker here foran important reason too. There's an event
coming up on May eleventh and Iknow it's to help the Brain Injury Association.
(08:00):
I get that right, Biak Yeah, biac Bran injury lines of Kentucky.
But association works also. I thinkthey actually were an association at one
point. So you know, you'rejust way ahead. So what do we
have going on in this event?Well, first of all, Annie and
I are co conspirators in this.It used to be just a walk and
then last year we added the fiveK element to it to make it a
run walk and I couldn't have donethat without Annie Locke's help. As you
(08:24):
know, she's been a fitness iconand professional in Louisville for well ever since
you moved here. And so Annie, you got the Louisville Sports Commission involved,
and really she made the five khappen. Well that's just because Donny
can make you do anything anything.But no, I think it's a I
think it's a wonderful cause and that'swhy I jumped on board. And then
(08:46):
my friends at the Sports Commission.I called them up and I was like,
I think this is something you wantto look at, and they jumped
right on board with it. Butyou know, and she can explain everything
that it gives back with such aphenomenal cause. With one of the guys
from the Sports Commission a couple monthsago and he said that, you know,
they do thirty two or whatever eventsa year, and this was their
(09:07):
favorite because they saw so many peoplewho were physically challenged or mentally challenged just
to do the one mile walk inthe parking lot, which is four times
around so it's a loops so youcan only do a quarter of a mile.
You can do a quarter of amile in the sense of accomplishment that
these people receive from just coming outand being able to do this with other
people who also had challenges for whateverreason. And so there's there's something for
(09:31):
everyone. There's even activities for thekids where they can play, people can
bring their pets. But it's theweek after the Kentucky Derby, and we
know that Louivillians do a lot ofdamage to their body this derby weekend,
no doubt, So this helps youto undo some of that damage. But
I have to say it couldn't happenwithout the sponsors. And I'm saying this
because it's been more and more difficultthese days to get sponsors. And I
(09:54):
realized that businesses are stretched pretty thinly. But I think business need to understand
that these sort of community activities don'thappen without the sponsorship of the you know,
the businesses in Loisville. So forus, if we didn't have Delta
Dental, U of L Health,Norton Healthcare, Porchini, TBI Cycle Bar
(10:15):
came back on for the second yearin a row as a sponsor and that's
Annie Fi Fi Wellness Club. Wereally couldn't do it without them. It's
fantastic, all right, May eleventh, and then where's where's the whole event?
Where's everybody gather? It's at TomSawyer Park and you can go to
biak dot us to register. That'sbiack dot us to register and all the
(10:35):
event details are there. You canget your pack at the day before or
you can come at seven thirty inthe morning for registration, but the event
itself starts at eight thirty. AndAnnie you'll help map out the course again
this year. So it's a crosscountry course. So it's absolutely beautiful.
Like you go out into the parkso you can walk run it and like
she said, you can go aroundthe parking lot, but it's absolutely beautiful.
(10:58):
So to anybody can do it.It's a course that we came up
with that took you all through thewoods of Green. You know the greens,
Well that's where you and I wereneighbors near there, and I'd go
over for a run at six inthe morning and Annie would have fifty women
out there already working on this oneof them. That's like, I mean,
the sun wasn't. What is anyin the Marines now? Anything too?
(11:22):
Yeah. I can get her todo anything fitness, and she can
get me to do volunteer for anything. But I hear this right as cycle
bar. Are you at the endof your cycle bar? I am at
the end. I sold it acouple of months ago, and I retire
next week. I have one moreweek left. Like she's going to retire,
that's not happening. I don't know. You never know. Well,
thanks for helping us this important cause. Thank you to Brain Injury Alliance of
(11:45):
Kentucky. And it's b I AKdot org dot us dot us. Okay,
b I A K dot us forfull details on the event May eleventh,
which actually is after the derby andprior to the PGA Championships. So
you're getting people in shapes so theycan up for that too, big Tom
for our city. Absolutely good tosee both of you. Oh I forgot
to mention something important, Please dohonorary chair this year. Officer Nick wil
(12:09):
He and his family are going tobe there and also some of the people
from the Louisville Police Department are goingto come out and support of officer will
Hero. Yes outstanding. All right, thanks so much. B I A.
K. Dot us Back in afew on news radio eight forty WHA s
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