July 7, 2020
Blue Grass Stakes Preview
Guests
- Bob Elliston, Keeneland Vice President of Racing and Sales
- Ryne Poncik, Jackpot Farm, owner Basin
- Bret Calhoun, trainer Mr. Big News
- Bob Edwards, owner Rushing Fall (Jenny Wiley Stakes)
Full transcript (note: transcript has not been edited)
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator:
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the NTRA Road to The Triple Crown Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, participants are asked to press star one to register for a question. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ms. Alicia Hughes. Please go ahead, Ms. Hughes.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much, Casey, and welcome everyone to this week’s NTRA teleconference on the road to the triple crown. This week, we are going to be previewing this very unique Keeneland meet we have coming up as – in especially the Grade Two Blue Grass stakes, which is the signature race of what is going to be an unprecedented five-day Keeneland meet. Obviously, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Keeneland had to cancel its traditional meet in April and shifted stakes program to July. They will host 10 greatest stakes worth more than 2.5 million this week. And we are fortunate as to have Bob Elliston, the Vice President of racing and sales for Keeneland on with us today to discuss all those measures that were taken in order for this meeting even happen. Later on, we will also check in with Ryan [inaudible] of Jackpot Farm, which has one of the leading contenders for the Blue Grass Stakes in grade one Winner Basin. We are also slated to be joined by trainer Bret Calhoun, who is set to saddle, the improving Mr. Big News in a Blue Grass Stakes this weekend. And we are also scheduled to have owner Bob Edwards of eFive Racing who will have multiple grade one winner Rushing Fall seeking to continue her cumin dominance when she attempts to defend her title in the grade one Jenny Wiley Stakes this weekend. First up though, without further ado, we welcome Kim and Vice President of racing and sales. Bob, thank you so much for joining us today.
Bob Elliston:
Thanks for having me, Alicia. Great to be here.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you again for your time on this. And I mean, it goes without saying Bob that this year has presented all of us with challenges that we could never have expected you to the COVID virus. And I know that has certainly, obviously been the case with all of the Thoroughbred Racing. Just talk a little bit about some of the measures and the protocols that you all and Kim have put in place to just even make it possible for this meet to even transpire.
Bob Elliston:
Well, I think that that’s a critical subject to talk about because obviously, we were very disappointed. Our owners, our trainers, our entire community was very disappointed that we couldn’t do the race meet this April. It’s so much a part of the fabric of central Kentucky. But as we looked at what we possibly could do as we all take steps to try to return to normalcy as those things change every single day, what we were looking at was being part of a program that fit within the Kentucky racing circuit, but also fit within a national stakes program. That’s critically important. As you know, did we have 10 steaks that we’re going to be running this summer and or this week. And this is not a normal time to run these 10 stakes, and there are critically important stakes all over the country that we want to be respectful of in New York, in California, in Chicago and other places.
And so, the first order of business was to do it in a way that was not intrusive to the Kentucky circuit nor intrusive to the national stakes program. The second piece of this is our year, other than the spring race meeting, most of our year, both in terms of racing and sales happens in the second half of the year. And what we were trying to do with the summer program was create a foundation that we could build on that created confidence with our regulators that be in the Kentucky horse racing commission, the governor of the Commonwealth, our health officials in our community and our customers quite honestly, that they had the confidence when they do come here that we’re going to take care of them. We’re doing the most we can about their safety. And so, what we’re doing in the next five days builds on what happens for the September sale. And that builds on what happens for the October race meeting. And, Oh, by the way, we’ve got this little thing called the Breeder’s Cup World championship in early November. And then we sell horses about 4,500 more horses in November. So that’s what we’re trying to do, create a foundation we can build on that creates confidence for everybody who’s participating.
Alicia Hughes:
So, you’re a little busy then, is what you’re basically saying.
Bob Elliston:
I’m not, I don’t want to trade place for anybody. I love this. I mean, this is what we do. We’re fortunate to be in this business and yeah, it’s difficult, but we’re all having these unprecedented circumstances and impediments in front of us. And we’re just doing what we can to overcome them.
Alicia Hughes: Absolutely. I said, I know you like everybody else has been dealing with so many moving parts just to try to make this racing happen here. So, Bob, I said, I know we have a fair amount of media on today. So, with that, I’m going to throw it back to our operator, Casey, and she can check in with the media to see if they have any questions for you.
Operator:
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad now. If you’re using a speakerphone, please make sure that your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. And again, that is star one, if you would like to ask a question. And we’ll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. And our first question comes from Steven Wine with the Associated Press.
Steven Wine:
Hey Bob, thank you very much for doing this. I’m curious, kind of what goes into the kind of a conversation and debate about allowing stands[?] into the track and maybe even looking ahead to potentially the Breeder’s Cup in November, kind of what goes into those conversations in terms of talking to local health officials and also kind of monitoring the situation around you?
Bob Elliston:
Well, I think it’s what everybody, every business is dealing with, what every community is dealing with, Steven. And that is how far can you go based on the knowledge that you have, and the worst thing that can happen. And unfortunately, there are some parts of our country that I think that are experiencing this and that is perhaps they went too far and they’re having to resent some of those actions. We’re trying to build solid foundations that will stay in place, will create confidence for those who were coming. Because that’s part of it. It’s not just about not pulling people together. Quite honestly, there’s a whole thought process that folks really don’t want to come together in some quarters because they don’t – they haven’t been convinced that[?] when they go to those places that their health is being protected.
So that’s the fundamental issue that we’re dealing with and we want it with progressively more people anticipated coming. We want to make sure that what we start with and set in July can be built on and can be sustained in September, then in into October and November. And as we all know, and the facts that the things that affect how we go about our business changes rapidly. And so we’ve benefited quite well, I think from our level of dialogue with local officials, as well as state officials and Churchill’s involvement in terms of what they’ve done the three weeks prior to us and now Ellis for a weekend, have kind of provided us a lot of guidance that I think will serve as well these next five days and honestly, on and into the fall.
Operator:
And our next question comes from Jason Frakes with the Courier-Journal.
Jason Frakes:
Hey Bob, thanks for joining us. Cutting kind of along those lines, I realize it’s sort of apples and oranges comparing attendance at Ellis Park versus attendance at Keeneland, but giving what Ellis Park has done these last few weeks, I was curious if you would ever even consider a plan that would have allowed for even limited fans this week.
Bob Elliston:
Well, I’ll take you all the way back to March 15th when we were initially talking about an April race meeting, the two – the first two weeks of it being without fans and the last two being normal circumstances. Well, that obviously changed dramatically. Yeah, I mean, we have – we Churchill, ELOs, Kentucky Downs, all of us have kind of a working group that have been looking at a set of protocols that we would use, we are using every day on our backside. Because as you know, each of our operations it’s have been optically us all the way since March, Churchill from early in May and Ellis more recently have been homes to lots of people and lots of horses that are conducting business each and every day. So those protocols, I think served us well in terms of going to the governor and go into our local officials to say, we believe this is – can be applied across the board and work in each of these communities.
And as you know that Churchill, they weren’t allowed originally, and for most of the race meeting to have any spectators whatsoever. And then I think most at the very tail end they had their owners become involved. That’s where we started in Southern Kentucky, as you well know this is a hotbed for ownership of horses. Many are bred here and raised here, and those breeders and owners are also very active on the racing side. So, we want to do what we could to get them here. And we will be having a representative group for both the undercard and the steaks program this weekend. I – it is a, you know, when we process 35,000 folks on a Blue Grass Saturday and those kinds of things, there’s just this expectation of a Keeneland way we go about it, and the demand is significant. I’m not suggesting it’s not at Ellis. As a matter of fact, they have some wonderful days in the summer down there as well, but for us to do it the right way. And as I said, build upon a foundation that that creates confidence, we just believed it was prudent to go with owners initially. And hopefully when we return back here on October, we can do more than that with our spectators.
Jason Frakes:
Thank you.
Operator:
And as a reminder to our audience, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one now. We’ll take our next question from Chelsea Hackbarth with the Paulick Report.
Chelsea Hackbarth: Good afternoon. Ray passed this question on to me. He wants to know if Keeneland plans to provide Tom VanMeter sales[?] and accept his entries at upcoming sales.
Bob Elliston:
Well, I think it just in our statement yesterday that when we had heard about the posts that Tom had made, we obviously condemned that, that there’s absolutely no place for that kind of racism comment in our sport and in our society for that matter. I think that we only learned about that in this last 12 hours. And I think the last statement or the last part of that statement, we talked about everything on the table. I think that’s exactly where we find ourselves. We are looking at all the avenues that are in front of us to appropriately respond to that behavior on Tom’s part. I’m encouraged quite honestly, that he made an apology today. That’s a first good step, but it doesn’t erase what was said. And we’re evaluating all those consequences right now. And we’ll look forward to bringing those forward as soon as we have a decision on that.
Chelsea Harkbarth:
Thank you.
Operator:
And we do have one final question from Byron King with BloodHorse.
Byron King:
Hey, Bob, I was wanting to follow up with you, yesterday Indiana Grande put out a release about some restrictions on horses from Lone Star or not horses, I should say the horsemen from Lone Star participating in their meet, are there going to be anything related to that for Keeneland meets or for any other jurisdictions?
Bob Elliston:
We are – we don’t have any plans, right? I mean, I haven’t seen anything as it relates to horsemen that are shipping here. I will tell you that folks who have written we’ve had jockeys who have written, we have Keith Asmussen for example, son of Steve Asmussen. He wrote, I think most recently on June the 30th at Lone Star, he had been named on horses for Thursday. So, we actually have a process. We had anticipated not only from the Lone Star situation, but a writer from other parts of the country. That’s, what’s one of the unique things about either an April meet or an October meet. And now a July meet is we have writers from all over the country that come in.
So, we’ve got a protocol of testing that’s going on in matter of fact, with horsemen that are also out of state. If they — if you ship in, you have an opportunity each morning here on our grounds to get tested and ensure that you are negative for the COVID virus specifically on the writer from Lone Star. This morning, I believe for example, Keith he did get tested and we’re awaiting those results this afternoon. And as these folks come on, until we find that they are negative, they will be asked to quarantine themselves away from the general population. We actually will be using three separate locations for our jockey’s quarters. These five days, we have our normal quarters here in the administrative building. We also have the lower clubhouse that we’re using. And then we have a third area that we’re using for isolation in the event that somebody ships in and we’re awaiting that negative test before they can join the general population.
Byron King:
Very good. Thank you, sir.
Bob Elliston:
Thank you.
Operator:
And at this time, we have no further questions.
Alicia Hughes:
Well, Bob, again, I said, I know, like I said you and the rest of the team are tremendously busy right now, trying to try to get everything together for this meet. So, I want to thank you again so much for taking the time out to come on here and speak with us today.
Bob Elliston:
Thanks for having me, Alicia. I look forward to the next five days being very special. Have a great day.
Alicia Hughes:
Sounds good. Thank you again.
Bob Elliston:
Bye, bye.
Alicia Hughes:
Have a great one. And next up, now we are going to go to owner Ryan [inaudible] of Jackpot Farm, which we’ll send out the well-regarded Basin in the Blue Grass Stakes. Basin stamped himself early on as the top member of his class, when he captured the grade one hopeful stakes at Saratoga last September. After going to the side-lines for the rest of his juvenile season, he returned to run third in the Rebel Stakes fourth in the Oaklawn Stakes and was most recently second in the Grade One, Arkansas Derby. Ryan, thank you so much for coming on the call today.
Ryan:
Yes, ma’am thanks for having me.
Alicia Hughes:
Oh, there is say it again, thank you for coming on. First and foremost, I saw that Basin had his final major workout. I think it was on Monday in preparation for the Blue Grass. What did Steve tell you about just how he came out of that work and just in general, what is he told you about just how much he has progressed since his race at Oaklawn?
Ryan:
So, I’ve been up here – you know I’m from Houston. So, I’ve been up here at the farm for the last two and a half weeks. So, I actually saw his breeds in person last week, Monday, he’s got serious five eights[?] work which he went really well. And then just Monday was just maintenance work. He went to think 50 and 51, and Steve said it was perfect work. He couldn’t really blow out a candle after coming off the track. So, he is fit, ready to go. This is nine weeks since Arkansas Derby has really helped him. The Arkansas Derby really took a lot out of him trying to keep up with Charlatan all the way around there. So, on these nine weeks he got good weight and he’s really looking good.
Alicia Hughes:
That I said, that sounds great. And you know, I know that this whole experience with jackpot has been a real family affair for you with your father-in-law Terry Green. Just talk a little bit about how you personally got involved in racing and what are some of the long-term goals for that for jackpot?
Ryan:
So, you know, I’ve been with my now wife for 10 years and they were in the racing for about three or four years prior to me, to us meeting. And honestly, I – before her, I didn’t really watch any races. My family grew up in the rodeo business. So, I was – I guess because of that [inaudible] and my sister [inaudible] raced. So, I was always around the rodeo scene, not really the Thoroughbred. So. once I got with her, she was – she turned on the races and said, Hey, the Derby was this weekend or the breeder stuff and you know, I was just start watching it. And then I’m a really a numbers guy. I like to follow stats and just, you know, just really good at it. So, I started looking at numbers after watching the races. And then I went to my first breeder’s cup, hit the track back there and then when I guess that the breeder’s cup [inaudible], and I just fell in love with it, like the gambling side of it, or like just the competitive side of it. And obviously the horses is just, I love to be around the horses for sure.
Alicia Hughes:
Sounds great. I said, well, Ryan, like I said, I know we have a lot of media on with us today. So, with that, I will turn it back over to our operator Casey, and she will check in to see if they have any questions for you.
Ryan:
Okay, great.
Operator:
Thank you. Once again, we will open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad now. And again, that is star one, if you would like to ask a question. We’ll take our next question from Danny Brewer with horseracingscoop.com.
Danny Brewer:
How’s it going, man?
Ryan:
Good, sir. How are you bud?
Danny Brewer:
Good, good, good. Alright, so, you mentioned the Arkansas Derby and it was a pretty taxing race, but you got to be awful proud because he never quit. He ran all the way through the wire.
Ryan:
Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I was. His heart is bigger than his body. You know, he’s got a big, big cult, but his heart and he don’t – he will not give up to the end and actually praise Ricardo also to ride him to the end, even though we’re getting kind of less than in the dust[?]. But he won’t give up until he passes his wire for sure.
Danny Brewer:
You know in that race; he broke well settled in nicely kind of stalking the pace. Just is that where you guys want him to be? I mean, you think he’s multidimensional, has he got different aspects or what’s your thoughts on that?
Ryan:
We always like and forwardly placed. He always breaks well, so that shouldn’t be a problem breaking out of the gate. You know, I was talking to Steve, I guess yesterday, and I guess the kickback at Keeneland is pretty rather hard, so we definitely want to be formerly placed in the clear, so he doesn’t have to worry about any kickback hitting him.
Danny Brewer:
Yeah. You know, this year he’s kind of been the bridesmaid and not the bride. What, makes you think that, Hey, this is his chance to catch that bouquet of flowers and be the one.
Ryan:
You know, so his first race getting third in the rebel he had his, that’s what you can say, his heart and made him get third and heads out three techniques for third. In the Oaklawn steaks, I kind of threw that race out. It was very, very muddy. He got all in all kinds of trouble on the far turn, so I’ll[?] try to guide him to the right spot, but just everything was just bottled up. So, I kind of filled out race out and then his best races is a three-year-old around two turns was obviously the Arkansas Derby. And you know, like I said this last nine weeks has got, he’s gotten really, really stronger, really thicker, and he’s just a happy horse right now. And I think with a good post, a good break and overly placed, I think we have a pretty good shot.
Danny Brewer:
I certainly appreciate your time and I wish you all the best of luck.
Ryan:
I appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
Operator:
And as a reminder to our audience, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. And at this time, it looks as if we have no further questions.
Alicia Hughes:
Well, Ryan, before we let you go, I do have one more quick question. I wanted to ask you. I noticed that you guys purchased him as a 2018 Keeneland sale in September. Just wanting to ask you real quick. What was it about him that kind of made a bit of a standout for you all?
Ryan:
So, I actually was not at the sale. I actually left the day before I had to go back to my day job, I guess you could say out in West Texas. But from what I heard when that we bought him is Bobby Powell, our kind of like our good friend of ours/health consultant helps us with all the, our yearling buys and actually in some broodmare buys. He told Terry do not stop bidding on this horse. This is what we want. This is what we’re looking for. So – but from what I’ve heard is this, his walk, his Gaskin, he’s just erased the type of a [inaudible] which, you know, no one knew at the time with Liam, so what we we’re going to do so obviously taking a gamble. But he was just a late May 12th fall, but he didn’t look like a May 12th fall. He looked a little more mature.
Operator:
It looks as if we do have a question here from Byron King with BloodHorse.
Byron King:
Yes, I wanted to follow up as well. And just get your reaction. I’m sure you probably saw yesterday. The reports came out of Bob Baffert acknowledged that Charlatan who beat your horse in the Arkansas Derby had tested positive for a second time for lot of cane. And obviously you participated in that race. And if a disqualification does happen with Charlatan you know, it would make your horse, the winner of the Arkansas Derby on that division. Can I get your thoughts and reaction to the news event coming up?
Ryan:
Well, you know, obviously is little, you know looks like it’s a little bittersweet. Of course, we’re excited if we get I don’t – I’m kind of new in this game. So, I don’t even know the whole process of a DQ. I haven’t talked to Steve about her or anything like that, so I don’t know how long it will take. But all of us we’re excited to get another grade one. You know, a grade one as a two-year-old and also the grade one as a three-year-old will help boost any kind of value that Basin might bring, but yeah, it’s, you know, Charlatan is a great horse, obviously a lot of cane, I don’t even know what a lot of things does to horse, but we’re – I guess we’re just excited. Hopefully the process, it goes quickly and let’s go from there.
Byron King:
Thank you.
Ryan:
Thank you.
Operator:
And at this time there are no further questions.
Alicia Hughes:
Well, Ryan, once again, I really do appreciate you taking the time out to come on and join our call this weekend – this week. Thank you again for all this and continued best of luck with everything this weekend.
Ryan:
I sure appreciate it.
Alicia Hughes:
Thanks again.
Ryan:
Bye.
Alicia Hughes:
And next up, we are going to go to trainer Bret Calhoun, who will be seeking his first win in the Blue Grass Stakes when you send out Mr. Big news. Mr. Big news opened the 2020 season by breaking his maiden at Fairgrounds on January 20th and two stats[?] later, he pulled the upset in the Oaklawn Stakes when he prevailed by a half a lane, [inaudible] 46:1. Bret, thank you so much for joining our call today.
Bret Calhoun:
Good afternoon.
Alicia Hughes:
Thanks again, Bret. Always a pleasure to have you on with us. I know on the odds board when this – when Mr. Big news – when the Oaklawn Stakes, it was considered a bit of a shocker, and he beat the field that day that included some good horses, like Thousand Words and Basin. I know you personally were not surprised by that result. What was it that you were seeing from him that was giving you confidence going into that spot?
Bret Calhoun:
Yeah, we definitely were not surprised by the outcome. He’s a horse that had kind of developed the late his two-year-old year already, this three-year-old year, we could see a rapid improvement from him. We tried to bring him to the Louisiana Derby, he got excluded. I really felt like he had a big chance in that race that day and didn’t get in. So, moving forward to the Oaklawn Stakes, we had a lot of confidence in him. He’d just been training phenomenally.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. That kind of leads into my next question. I was going to ask, you know, it looked like it took him a few stats[?] in his career just to sort of get himself just figured out into breaking his maiden. What do you think has been the difference for him and just being able to take the step forward in this three-year-old season? Is it just a matter of him just kind of kind of growing up and figuring things out?
Bret Calhoun:
I think of a lot of it was physical and mental maturity, and I actually think Gabe, Sayers gave him the kind of trip that he was really looking for in that last out. He had gotten a lot of those trips where he had been car jammed up on the inside and he wasn’t able to kind of use his stride and be a free running horses, kind of what I think he wants to do. And I think he gained a lot of experience in those early races being down inside, catching a lot of traffic and kickback. And I think that prepared him for that race. And then he kind of got the trip that he wanted, and the pace scenario set up very well for him that day. And he was able to get on [inaudible]
Alicia Hughes:
Good. Yeah, like I said, he definitely has his look up a horse who was certainly on the improve right now. So, with that, like I said, I know we have a fair amount of media, so I will throw it back to our operator, Casey. And she will check in to see if they have any questions for you today.
Operator:
And once again, we will open the floor for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one now. We’ll take our first question from Byron King with BloodHorse.
Byron King:
Hey, Bret. I hope you’re doing well, man.
Bret Calhoun:
All good.
Byron King:
Alright, man. I was – this is slightly off topic from the bluegrass, but I wanted to ask you just about the Keeneland meet in general. Obviously, it’s – see you’ve got a number of horses in, and I already looked through the first couple of days, you’ve got digital in and a turf sprint. So, then you could chat a little bit about him in that sport. And then also just about running a team I mean, in general and your reaction to this kind of unique meet, and the next coming together.
Bret Calhoun:
Well, obviously I’m excited, like the rest of the horsemen are to be back racing at Keeneland. Obviously, we’ve missed some key days this year and it’s nice to be back there. As far as digital goes, obviously this is kind of something new for him, the turf you know, if I had my choices, I’d probably be running seven eight on the dirk somewhere, but with some limited racing now, race at Keeneland, I mean Churchill did not go. So, I thought this is a really good time to try the turf. I think he’ll run a really good race tomorrow.
Byron King:
Great. Thanks much. And good luck on Saturday.
Bret Calhoun:
Thank you.
Operator:
We’ll take our next question from Danny Brewer with horseracingscoop.com.
Danny Brewer:
My man, Bret, how you doing?
Bret Calhoun:
Hello, Danny.
Danny Brewer:
Will we talk about Mr. Big News? Is the Blue Grass important for him in many ways, but there is a lot the aspects to show that he is for real, that it was the Oaklawn, wasn’t just some kind of flute because it was muddy and all that kind of stuff. So, is it important or do you even think about that kind of stuff?
Bret Calhoun:
No, absolutely. You’re right. I mean, they’ve got to prove themselves every time they go out there. This is a very, very prestigious race. He was long odds at Oaklawn, floppy track. A lot of people aren’t going to believe in him. I think that basically a fluke. So yeah, he’s got to prove it to everybody. You know, we’re seeing him in the mornings, he’s proven to us in the afternoons, this is another step forward, and he’s a really royal-bred horse and I think he’s going to prove himself. I guess horses like this in a prestigious race like this.
Danny Brewer:
When you think back about the Oaklawn, the size of the field and all that stuff, does that make it a little bit more special too, because I mean, he ran a fantastic race, being able to navigate and explode like he did in the stretch.
Bret Calhoun:
I think it does make it a lot more special. And I think it proves a lot. When you’re in a large field like that and a lot of quality, I think it means a lot more than a five-horse field.
Danny Brewer:
Now, moving forward from this obviously Kentucky Derby is the end goal for Mr. Big News?
Bret Calhoun:
Obviously, we would love for him to take us there. We’re not really worried about the points and all that. We’re kind of a little – hopefully let him take us there. If he belongs there, he’ll gain enough points to be there, if not, we’ll take a different path. But we’re excited about having the opportunity to be talking about a Kentucky Derby horse, and we hope he keeps continuing to take those steps forward and become that horse. But there’s still a lot to be proven
Danny Brewer:
When – just off topic just a little bit. What about my man Mr. Money? Give me a little status update on him.
Bret Calhoun:
Well, obviously we’re having a hard time finding a race for him. There was actually an extra, the king of the day for him that did he not fill[?] so he could end up in West Virginia and the Governor’s Cup next on August 1st. But we really have missed out on a few opportunities. Some of these races have been canceled and we’re kind of in a holding pattern right now, but he’s doing extremely well. And we’re just looking for a place to run.
Danny Brewer:
Could he be maybe a Del Mar your Bing Crosby, something like that. Could that be something that you might think about?
Bret Calhoun:
I think everything’s on the table. I haven’t given a lot of consideration to go into California, but with so few opportunities, we’ve kind of got to take a look at everything.
Danny Brewer:
Bret, as always man, appreciate your time. And I wish you the best of luck.
Bret Calhoun:
Thanks a lot.
Operator:
And again, if you would like to ask a question that is star one on your telephone keypad wow. Our next question comes from John Clay with Lexington Herald Leader.
John Clay:
Bret, you mentioned about races being canceled and races not filling, for a trainer like yourself, how difficult has this period been, keeping your horses trained and fit while also trying to find places to put them in races?
Bret Calhoun:
Well, it is extremely challenging because you don’t want to overdo it and not have any places to race, but you want to be ready when they come up, become available. So, it can be a bit of [inaudible] but – and it does get quite for us grading, but this is a new world we live in and kind of got to take a deep breath and use a little patience. Eventually things will come around and we’ll have races for these horses. And obviously we all have year-end goals and Breeder’s Cup being at Keeneland this year is something in the back of my mind on several of these horses that I have that I think are one of that kind. So, we’re trying to keep him as fresh as we can to get there, but yet give them some races along the way.
John Clay:
Thanks, Bret.
Bret Calhoun:
Thank you.
Operator:
And we’ll take our next question from Marty McGee with Daily Racing Form.
Marty McGee:
Hey Bret, [inaudible]. Hey, how you doing? Oh, same as what’s next for, By My Standards. And there was a short period there with Mr. Big news. Were you were going to run him, but you didn’t because you didn’t like the way he was eating or something like that? Can you just refresh my memory on that too?
Bret Calhoun:
That is correct. I thought it was a little quick back from Arkansas and he was being a little finicky eating. He went through a four- or five-day period before that race and I just decided that the Derby wasn’t until September, and we got a lot of time and it’d be best to get him a hundred percent and point to something different. Get him originally pointed towards the Indiana Derby and knowing that Maxfield was going to be a heavy favorite in the Blue Grass and with the defection of Macksville, we kind of shifted gears and pointed towards the Blue grass.
Marty McGee:
Okay. And how about By My Standards? What are we going to do with him?
Bret Calhoun:
By My Standards came out of that esteem foster fantastic. And I think we’re pointing towards the Whitney, looking forward to it. It’s going to be a very deep quality field and we’re just hoping he’ll continue to take steps forward and you know, Tom did that run a spectacular race that day, tip your hat to him, and hopefully you see him down the road and it’ll be our day. But I was very, very happy the way he came out of the race.
Marty McGee:
Alright. Thanks a lot, and best of luck.
Bret Calhoun:
Thanks a lot.
Operator:
And as a reminder to our audience, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one now. At this time, it looks as if we have no further questions.
Alicia Hughes:
Bret, before I let you go, just wanted to ask you real quick. I know you and [inaudible] Chester Thomas, you guys have just been on a great run together the last few seasons, just talk a little bit about how that partnership kind of came together and what it would mean to you personally, if you’re able to give him a Blue Grass stakes on this weekend.
Bret Calhoun:
Well, Chester approached me a couple of years ago and like you said, we’ve had some phenomenal success, you know, kind of fairy tale stuff. We’ve been very lucky together. Chester’s given me – obviously he’s trained some very high caliber horses. You know, he’s put some very well-bred horses in my barn. And it’s given me some great opportunities. And in turn, we’ve been lucky together and had some – had a tremendous run.
Alicia Hughes:
And so how many horses do you have total for him right now?
Bret Calhoun:
I really don’t know the count, but it’s quite a few of them. I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 15.
Alicia Hughes:
Oh, yeah, I said, you guys have, certainly, I said, you guys have come together and had some great success. And I said, hopefully something that is going to kind of to continue on this week. And I know you guys have a horse who really looks like he’s on the upswing right now.
Bret Calhoun:
Well, he’s a Kentucky-bred himself and he’s a big backer of UK and he spent a lot of time in that area and believe me, it would mean a lot for him to win the Blue Grass.
Alicia Hughes:
I’ll say, Bret again as always thank you again for taking the time out, to come on the call and to speak with us and share your thoughts and wisdom. Continued best of luck with everything and hopefully we get to keep having these good conversations again after this weekend.
Bret Calhoun:
I hope so. Thanks a lot.
Alicia Hughes:
Thanks again, Bret. And last, I said, I believe we are trying to connect to Bob Edwards of eFive racing. I think we are reaching out to him or do we have Bob?
Bob Edwards:
I’m here. How are you doing?
Alicia Hughes:
Bob you’re with us. I said last but not least, obviously, we have the great Bob Edwards of eFive racing who still will be carried this weekend by one of the best [inaudible] in the country with Rushing Fall. Rushing Fall has made Keeneland a bit of her personal playground for much of her career winning four grades of stakes at the track, including her triumphs in last year’s edition of the Jenny Wiley. Bob, thank you so much for joining the call today.
Bob Edwards:
You’re over billing me, but thanks for having me.
Alicia Hughes:
I said always a pleasure. You know, if Rushing Fall does what she usually does at Keeneland, and if she wins this weekend, I believe she would join Lady Eli and behold her as the only North American based females to win grade one races at ages two, three, four, and five, and needless to say, that’s pretty big company. When you reflect on just her career in the way she’s really just been able to kind of reinvent herself in her running style, just what does it say just about her level of quality and just raw talent?
Bob Edwards:
I mean, she’s been a phenomenal mare for us. Through her entire career she just keeps getting better and better. And like you said, she keeps changing up her style, you know, she’s doing it on her own, she’s a fierce competitor. And I’ve said this before people ask, you know, I’ve read the [inaudible] to Frankel, that the book on the Horse Frankel, and it’s kind of from the horse’s perspective. And every time I read it, I think about, I think of Rushing Fall, how, when she goes into the gate, you know, she especially early as the ins season coming off, you know, layoff. You know, she’s ready to roll, her ears are ready. She kind of looks at the competition and of late she’s been just jumping out in front and just kind of wire everybody. And we’d love to see that. And hopefully she keeps coming on strong and she put on a lot of weight for us in the off season here. And she looks like a different horse than she did last year.
Alicia Hughes:
And that’s saying something, because I just remember personally seeing her in the [inaudible] last year before the Jenny Wiley, I just remember thinking she looks about as good as I can see a horse look before a race.
Bob Edwards:
Yeah. She’s looking, I mean, she’s looking the best she’s ever looked, and it was a conscious decision to run her again this year. You know, not to go after the two marriages that you named but just to run because racing’s fun. You know, we love racing as a family and the sport itself is great to have something that you can be competitive with on a regular basis, like Rushing Fall is just more fun.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. I mean, that kind of answers my next question. I was going to say, you know, she’s a multiple grade one winning daughter of more than ready. It would have been very easy to just retire her at the end of last year and send her to the stallion of your choosing, how hard was that decision or was it even a hard decision to go ahead and decide to keep her in training for another year?
Bob Edwards:
You know, her last race at Keeneland, she’d come off a few really big races. You know, she – the just the game she almost broke the record for that race when she ran in it and then she ran at the Diana and she put up her best figure ever. And obviously she ran against the Monster and Sistercharlie, and she went to Keenland she just – wasn’t a hundred percent, like she just didn’t have that same glow about her. And I didn’t want her to kind of end on that note. Not that it would have been bad because she had some really great stats[?], but I thought maybe we take her back to the farm and let them evaluate her and kind of tell me within a few months of being in the farm, should I keep her going or should I retire her. And you know, the moment she got back on the track for a nice rest she was ready, and she looked like she wanted to come back. She put on that weight; she was carrying great flesh. And she just had that look about her.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. I said, when she’s on her game, she’s as good as anybody in that division. So, I said, Bob, with that, I will step back and throw it back to our operator, Casey. She will check in with the media to see if they have any questions for you.
Bob Edwards:
Awesome. Thank you. Great talking to you.
Operator:
Thanks. And again, that is star one. If you would like to ask a question. And we’ll take our first question here from Byron King with BloodHorse.
Byron King:
Good day, Bob. I hope you’re well.
Bob Edwards:
Yes, sir. All good.
Byron King:
Good. You know, I have quick question for you, is you know, this year and the Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland, the Filly and Mare turf is shorter than it is in many other, in many other racetracks. It’s a mile and three sixteenths. When I think of Rushing Fall, I think of her primarily, you know, the bulk of her wins have come from a mile to a mile and an eighth. Could she potentially be in place for stretching out a little bit at the end of the year or pursuing a race like the mile against the boys?
Bob Edwards:
You know, both the races have become[?] a discussion and I guess we’ll kind of see how she plays out here the next couple of races and I’ll leave that to Chad. I’m an owner, not a trainer and he’s got the great idea he’s done really good get her to the Breeder’s Cup, obviously get her to those grade one races in keeping her condition. So, it’s kind of where she slots and you know, we’ve got a few months to ago, right? And it’s crazy to think that we’re doing the Jenny Wiley now, but we still have a few months ago until we get to the Breeders’ Cup. And we hope the horse spring is there.
Byron King:
Very good. Thank you.
Operator:
And again, as a reminder to our audience, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one now. We’ll take our next question from Danny Brewer with horseracingscoop.com.
Danny Brewer:
How are you doing today?
Bod Edwards:
Well, sir.
Danny Brewer:
Quite well, thank you. Rushing Fall, is she won like the epitome of what you want from a racehorse? I mean, she just seems like you said, she’s better now than she’s ever been. And you know, in this sport, we like to see horses hang around because it builds a fan base and all that. So, she really – what kind of we should strive for in racing maybe so to speak?
Bob Edwards:
No, I think she checks all the boxes and you it is a business for a lot of folks too. And it is for me, I breed as well, and we like good magic and we made the decision to kind of send him to stud after his three-year-old campaign. Maybe it’s a touch different with Mare’s, but she checks all the boxes. I mean, she’s getting better, she’s consistent, she’s more mature, she’s put on, like I said, she’s put on some weight, and it’s fun to have a nice horse and you guys like, you know, race her hard. It doesn’t matter what your racing, it’s hard to win it. You know, she just been a consistent producer. She’s fun to watch. She changed up her style and she really – she makes racing fun for us.
Danny Brewer:
You know, you mentioned business and I guess that’s true with everything, right? I mean, it’s all about the money that’s what makes the world go round. But you know, guys like me appreciate guys like you that want to keep some, a horse like this in training for all of us to write about and admire and all that kind of stuff. Like the wins are hard. What does it say about her competitive desire that, does she want, is she is still hungry for all this?
Bob Edwards:
Yeah, she’s a racehorse for sure. And you could see, like I said, like, you know, when she got in the gate, the last race and you could just see your ears and she could – she – just her eyes and even you guys probably know if my daughter’s taken [inaudible] and they own him. [Inaudible]. And I talked to him the next day and he you know, I could just tell when she got out of the gate, she was just toying with us
Danny Brewer:
Moving forward from here hope to complete this year, and I guess then just kind of see what happens.
Bob Edwards:
Yeah. You know, this would probably be her last year racing. But you know, we’ll see how it plays out. You know, like I said, my family enjoys racing, this is our sports franchise, right? So, and she’s our home runner here right now. And like I said, we enjoy it. It’s good to have a horse’s caliber on your roster.
Danny Brewer:
Well, when you got a power header, you bought them clean up and that’s what you did. I just wish you the best of luck, okay.
Bob Edwards:
Thank you.
Operator:
And as a final reminder to our audience, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad now. And at this time, it looks as if we have no further questions.
Alicia Hughes:
Bob, one last thing that I just wanted to ask you before we let you go is, is it almost bittersweet sometimes having a top turf Filly trained by Chad Brown because you know that very likely her biggest competition is going to be coming from within her own shed row.
Bob Edwards:
You know and it’s, once again, it’s a decision that I make regularly. You know, Chad still gets great horses from me, right? So, you going to be competitive if you’re going to run against him either if he’s training you or if he’s not, right? At some level, at some place in the country, you know, if you’re going to race on a Saturday, on the grass, chance are you going to race against a Chad horse? And he’s done good by us. Like I said I’ve got three Breeders’ Cups sitting on my mantle because of Chad Brown and the horse that we give him. So, that’s chemistry that I’m going to continue until it doesn’t work.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. I mean, it’s obviously hard to argue with anything that Chad has done with everything that he’s achieved in this sport. It’s been a pretty remarkable stretch to the watch, but all I said, Bobby, I said, I know you like everybody. You’re busy right now. So again, I want to thank you again so much for taking the time out to come in and talk to us and now continue best of luck with everything. Like they said you have a great Filly and I’m excited that we get to see her again for another season.
Bob Edwards:
Well, thanks for having me. I hope to see you soon.
Alicia Hughes:
Thanks again.
Bod Edwards:
All the best. Take care.
Alicia Hughes:
Take care, sir. And with that, that will do it for this week NTRA national media teleconference. An audio file of this call will be uploaded today on ntra.com and a transcript will be there tomorrow. Once again, I’d like to thank all of our guests for joining us today and thank you to all of our media participants for coming on and joining today. And now back to our operator, Casey, to wrap things up.
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. Thank you for your participation, you may now disconnect your phone lines.
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