March 17, 2020
Louisiana Derby Preview and COVID-19 Update
Guests
- Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of NTRA
- Mark Casse, trainer, Enforceable, Lynn’s Map (Louisiana Derby)
- David Fiske, manager of Winchell Thoroughbreds, Silver State (Louisiana Derby) and Finite (Fair Grounds Oaks)
Full transcript (note: transcript has not been edited)
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator:
Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the NTRA road to the Triple Crown conference call. Today’s coverage is being recorded. 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 questions. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host Alicia Hughes. Please go ahead.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much Jake and welcome everyone to this first NTRA teleconference on this year’s road to the Triple Crown, whenever that Triple Crown actually ends up taking place this year. These teleconferences are usually slated to spotlight the major preparations leading up to the Kentucky Derby, but obviously given the coronavirus pandemic which has prompted the first leg of the Triple Crown to be postponed until September 5th, we are definitely going to use this time to also address some of the measures that tracks are taking across the country to cope with what has become, what is definitely the most surreal and uncertain time for everybody. We do still have a couple of scheduled guests who we are set to catch up with in advance of Saturday’s Louisiana Derby, which will still offer 100 qualifying points to the winner towards the Kentucky Derby. We are scheduled to have trainer Mark Casse on and Mark Casse expected favorites within the Derby was Enforceable. While David Fisk, the manager of Winchell thoroughbreds has silver state stuff for the Louisiana Derby as well as the top sophomore Philly finite for the fairgrounds folks. Before we delve into those races, however, we are first going to check in with our interior president and CEO Alex Waldrop, who will provide a debrief on how tracks are handling this pandemic. Alex, thank you for joining us today.
Alex Waldrop:
My pleasure, Alicia. I want to start off by letting everyone know that the NTRA has set up a new section of our website. Go to ntra.com and there you will find a great deal of information, most of which we delivered yesterday in a teleconference with a national teleconference with racetracks and Horsemen’s group’s leadership to talk about the coronavirus that causes the illness that we know of as COVID-19. We talked generally about the fact that we’re dealing with a very fluid and evolving situation. So we urge everyone to keep their eyes on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC website. There are links to critical sections of that CDC website for, in this case we are advising racetrack to consider themselves as communities. And in that CDC website, you will see that there are specific, guidance given to communities and dealing with the various sub communities that reside within the community.
And a racetrack is exactly that because there are so many different entities and individuals and we’ll talk through those in a minute. But that’s one of the places that we have urged racetracks be very careful about. We also have urged and continue to urge racetracks to be in touch with their state and local health departments. So much about this. This pandemic is local in nature. We’ll talk about that a minute as well. When you’re talking about the level of community transmission, we have problems that are more severe in New York and California right now. Central Kentucky has its own special circumstances. Some tracks may be located in areas that don’t have a community spread, a community transmission to those same level. So there may be different levels of concern. And so we have asked everyone, stay in touch with your state and local health department as well as your governor’s office because governors are very involved in this, especially on the East coast.
You’ve got the three governors within New York, believe its New York and Maryland and Connecticut. I can’t think of the third governor, but I know that that you have regional alliances now forming. And so we’re urging racetracks to stay in contact with their federal, state and local authorities. Now, we do know that many of the racetracks have moved to a no spectator policy and we think that’s a great idea for those tracks that can do it. It’s an opportunity for racing to sell itself to a new audience because there’s a dearth of sports betting out there and as sports betting opportunity, so there is no sport – there are no sports, and this is a time for racing to distinguish itself. Lots of people depend upon the racing for their jobs and their livelihoods, including sports journalists who are on this call.
So we’re – that’s all important. Nonetheless, we have stressed to individuals and to tracks that it’s imperative that if they’re going to race at this time, they must take precautions to protect their employees, their stable area workers, their racing officials, jockeys, backstretch suppliers and other vendors, and even of course, and always their horses. So this is a fluid situation. There are lots of communities on the backstretch that could potentially be impacted. And here’s some of the things we’ve told people. So if you’re going to go forward and you’re going to do this, you’ve got to be responsible and you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to take care of these individuals that are on the back stretch. One good thing about this, we know that horses themselves, at least it has been determined by talking with Dr. Peter Timoney at the University of Kentucky Cluck Center.
There’s no evidence at this point in time that horses are a host for the current coronavirus or the COVID-19, and there is no inter-species communication that happens between horse and human. Whilst they’re still looking at that, scientists still don’t know exactly what that intermediary host is so that we’re still watching that. But at this point in time, that’s one of the good things that horses are not impacted by this virus. So it’s an opportunity, but we have to be responsible. Some of the things we’re talking about, again, we’re going back to the CDC guidance for businesses and employers just like many of your employers are doing today. They’re talking about social distancing and so we’re focusing the backstretch and any racetrack personnel be cognizant of social distancing, do whatever you can to keep distance between people, follow the guidance that is laid out in some detail in the CDC.
I won’t go into all that. We all know about what that means. It means keep six feet apart if at all possible. Do not be in crowds of more than 50 people. That’s the current CDC advice. Be aware of the level of community transmission. I alluded to that just a little bit earlier. That is to what extent it is being transmitted throughout the community, through sources that can’t be determined. Early on there was some focus on okay, who had you been in contact with? And in most cases now that’s over. It’s so prevalent throughout the community that you’re dealing with community transmission and that frankly puts a lot of people at risk. So you have to be mindful of social distancing and proper hygiene. We’re asking tracks to do exactly what you’re doing in your offices, which are put up posters and make sure they’re bilingual.
Talk about proper hygiene, how to wash hands, those kinds of things. Not putting your hands on your face in any way because that’s the way the virus goes from a surface into your body. We’re talking about proper hygiene for all surfaces, handrails, that sort of thing. Making sure that the entire backstretch and front stretch are cleaned thoroughly. I know that the folks at NTRA had been commended for that by their, by folks who are living back there who are appreciative of these tracks for continuing to open it to conduct racing in a responsible fashion. But you’ve got to keep up the proper hygiene. You’ve got to have ability for individuals to self-quarantine if there are illnesses of people, whether it’s coronavirus or COVID-19 or not, they have to be able to self-quarantine.
They have to be places where they can go where they won’t around other people for an extended period of time, maybe as many as 14 days. Obviously telecommuting is not an option for most of the people who work at a race track during a live racing setting. Because that’s what we’re telling people is only let those people who are essential to the racing on that track. That means excluding even owners. And that’s what NTRA has done. We commend that. That’s the right approach. We also come in folks like Kaylan[?] who decided not to run. That’s certainly understandable under the circumstances because the requirement is high. Making sure that you’re taking the proper steps that you’re being responsible for all the people on track, Kaylan made a determination that given the level of community spread or transmission in Central Kentucky that it was best that they not go forward with racing.
We had to respect that. But we can also respect those who go forward if they’re taking the proper precautions, making sure that the proper hygiene, making sure they self-quarantine, doing everything they can to take care of everyone who’s there. We focus specifically on jockeys, jockeys quarters put them in close proximity. They also travel a lot. So we make sure that we’re asking them to not travel as much, to consider keeping jockeys localized because if you get transmission between communities, it’s more likely to spread within the backstretch. So we’re focusing on the jockeys, making sure that they remain – use good social distancing if possible. Don’t put them all in one small confined area and spread them throughout the facility if possible so that they can have that proper social disciplining – social distancing.
Something else that we would consider a best practice and Kaylan is actually doing it. Because remember, whether you’re racing or not, you have a community of people who are taking care of the horses and there’s no chance that these horses are going to go somewhere else. At this point in time, the movement of those horses would only create a potentially more problem as people move from place to place. So we’re urging people to keep those horses that they have in place, and whether they’re racing or not, making sure that there is limited access to those horses. One of the things Kaylan is doing, even though they’re not racing, is they’re taking temperatures of people who come and go at the stable gate so that they know that anybody who’s running a fever above 100.1 cannot be admitted because that person is a likely a transmitter of the disease at that point in time.
That’s the sort of thing is making sure that you’re limiting access to that facility is critical. And so, those are the things that we are focusing on and we are supporting, again, go to the website. You can see there we have some information about – for horsemen from the TOC that been owners of California. They had a teleconference, last Saturday. There’s some good information there. Also the Maryland horsemen, they put out the procedures for their horsemen and want to do to protect themselves. And there were workers and that’s a great thing. We have a conference call. We actually have a, it was about an hour long conference call we had yesterday with the industry and you can see that the entirety of that call can be accessed there on the website as well as the CDC sites.
As for federal assistance, what we’re telling folks right now is we’re working in Washington DC, the bill that has just passed out of the house, actually it passed on Saturday, but it was actually – there were some technical corrections that came out on Monday afternoon. It was passed by consensus vote and it’s on its way to the Senate right now. That did made benefits primarily for individuals supporting or expanded the marriage and family leave act so that people could take leave from their job as a result of the virus without any sort of someone taking a job action against them. So the variety of things that help individuals, workers and those are important changes. There’s not much in there for tracks themselves at this point in time or for employers. Many trainers are small businesses. That is now being discussed. We expect legislation within the next week or two. President Trump was quoted today saying he wants an $850 billion plan, economic stimulus plan for businesses affected.
Will racetracks be affected? We’ll all know that casinos are in the conversation. So if they’re in the conversation, racetracks will be in the conversation. We’ll have no more of that against the develop at this point in time we don’t know much about that. I think Senator Schumer the minority leader in the Senate is talking about this $750 million stimulus plan. So either way, we’re talking about a lot of money that could be made available to businesses nationwide and we’ll be at the interior. We’ll be there looking out for the industry to make sure that if there’s any relief that we can provide for those who have been damaged by this, that we’ll be there to help. So with that, I will stop and take questions, and see if I can – I’ll try my best to honor them to answer them as honestly as I can.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you so much Alex.
Operator:
You – sorry, go ahead.
Alicia Hughes:
Oh no, I was just going to say, I was just going to throw that back to you Jake to check in with the media. We have a lot of them on here to see if anybody had any questions for Alex.
Operator:
Of course. Ladies and gentlemen to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Keep in mind if you are using your speaker phone, make sure the mute function is released to allow your signal to reach the equipment. Once again, star one for questions. We’ll start with Lynn Snyderson[?] with Freelance.
Lynn:
Good morning everyone. I was just wondering if you – I know it’s really early in [inaudible], the Derby and the Preakness really affects the schedule. I’m thinking in terms of the Travers for Pennsylvania Derby and things are all very different now. Has there been any thought to basically have the schedule is completely upside down now?
Alex Waldrop:
Not really. This is this news today what Churchill has done. I suspect that Churchill is in contact with other tracks, certainly the other Triple Crown tracks to talk about that. We’re not involved in at the interior in those conversations. We’re as interested in those talks as you are. Our focus right now has been primarily on the coronavirus, and in helping tracks and horsemen deal with the crisis at hand. So I can’t really comment on that any further.
Operator:
Now we’ll take a question from Jim O’Donnell with the Daily Herald.
Jim:
Alex, thank you for the informational window this morning. There are growing indicators that Arlington Park will not be opening this season and it is probably done as a race track. What will losing Arlington mean to the industry?
Alex Waldrop:
Well, I don’t know that I’ve heard those rumors. I’m not accepting that as a fait accompli. We certainly want Arlington to continue to race, horsemen need those opportunities. It’s wonderful race track and it’s got a stellar history. [Inaudible] has done a wonderful job over the years then with Churchill Downs of conducting some historic race mates. So we’ll be looking to support those parties any way we can to keep that track operational. But again, those are conversations directly between the track ownership and the horsemen and I’m sure government as well. So we’re going to be optimistic about the future because Arlington is key to the middle Midwest, certainly key to Indiana, Illinois horsemen and we support the racing continuing to thrive there and in Illinois.
Jim:
Thank you.
Operator:
And we’ll now take our next question and that will come from Willie Weinbaum with ESPN.
Willie:
Good afternoon. I was wondering if you could elaborate perhaps maybe you have data regarding the new fans who are coming to the sport with all other sports, just a bad shutdown. You mentioned earlier that this is an opportunity to sell the sport to a new audience. And I’m hopeful that you have some information about what’s gone on in the last few days.
Alex Waldrop:
The information I have with the anecdotal, and it would be specifically, it would be aqueduct in New York. They last Saturday I believe that I’m speaking off the top of my head, but I believe they had a record handle, even though they had no fans in the stands. So it’s evidence of the fact that we do have a very robust online wagering system that people can access. We’ve been able to conduct legal and regulated sports betting on horse racing for many years. And so it looks as though people are finding their way to these new channels and that one piece of information, again, is anecdotal, but it points to the fact that if properly marketed, and certainly aqueduct and the narrow are through their relationship with the Fox Sports channel doing a great job of promoting that racemate. And so there’s possibility there. There’s opportunity. And we congratulate now for taking on this challenge. And I would also say that we’ve got great ADWs and not just the narrow bets, but you’ve got TVG and TwinSpires. You’ve got lots of companies out there that are pushing this. They probably can tell you more about the actual benefits than I can.
I do know that they’re also actively engaged in efforts. TVG in particular concerned about the coronavirus because they actually have people some of whom are on at these racetracks. And so they’re helping to communicate and helping to keep people safe and healthy, safe and healthy during this time. But anecdotally it’s been a good thing. And New York, we think elsewhere. That’s all I can say right now.
Willie:
One quick follow up. Would you be in a position to provide the numbers on how many tracks would normally be open at this time of year and how many are admit this crisis?
Alex Waldrop:
Alicia and I will talk and see if we can get you something there. That’s something that we’ll certainly try to get sure. Alicia make note of that.
Operator:
Well, now move to the next call with Ben [inaudible] with USA today.
Ben: Yeah, the Triple Crown looks like it’s going to move to the fall. In your mind, does that force the Breeders’ Cup to take a look at their date?
Alex Waldrop:
Too early to tell. I haven’t – again, I haven’t given a lot of thought to this. We’ve been focused on the coronavirus. I presume that that Churchill Downs has been in contact with the Breeders’ Cup, with the folks at Caitlin, where it’s going to be held. It is being held a week later this year, first weekend in November. So I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion between the various entities and how they will work these together. It’s be too early for me to speculate right now as to how that’s going on – that’s going to end up.
Operator:
And that will take a question from Frank [inaudible] with Blood-Horse Magazine.
Frank: Hey Alex, you mentioned support to riders looking for something to do the next few weeks, months. However, I was this curious if any sports outlets they’ve reached out to you guys? I’m working from home as you can hear the dog. I was just curious the kind of the only game in town, if you’ve heard from sports editors or website platforms that might be interested in more coverage of horse races.
Alex Waldrop:
I’m going to turn that question to Alicia because I haven’t, but I’m not generally the first person to get those calls.
Alicia Hughes:
Hey Frank, how’s it going? We have received a few a few requests mostly from outlets looking for some information as far as regards to like what is handled looking like with it being the only game in town. As far as actual coverage goes, I haven’t seen any of that yet. But again, that might be coming, that might be something that I don’t know if they’re still probably having some discussions internally and a lot of newspapers and magazines. I know, I don’t need to tell you resources are precious right now for all print publications. I know you guys at the trade are – you’re always on, you’re going to cover this stuff no matter what. But I said we have started getting some requests more just for some information and data on to how the sport has kind of been sustaining during what’s been a pretty crazy time to say the least.
Frank:
Thanks. Thanks.
Operator:
And we do have one more question in the queue. Dan Ralph with Canadian Press Toronto. Go ahead please.
Dan:
Thank you very much. And forgive me for coming in late. It took a little bit to get on the call. So I’m going to ask a question that’s probably been asked before, but I’m wondering what the status is of the Louisiana Derby given the coronavirus situation in North America right now.
Alex Waldrop:
Well, it’s my understanding that it’s going to be, it will be conducted this weekend. There would just be no, there will be no crowds. They will be operating like so many racetracks, which have no spectators.
Dan:
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator:
Well at this time, no additional questions.
Alex Waldrop:
Well, I thank everybody for calling in. Yeah.
Alicia Hughes:
Yeah. Alex I just want to thank you again for taking the time out. I know you’re trying to juggle about 50,000 things on your plate right now with everything that’s going on within this industry. Is there anything maybe that we haven’t asked you about how tracks are or coping that you’d like go ahead and add in there before we let you go?
Alex Waldrop:
No, I just say that we had a huge interest in the call yesterday and I think the racetracks are taking and horsemen are taking the challenge seriously. And I’m proud to say that people recognize the opportunity, but they also are serious about the responsibility for keeping people and horses safe and healthy. So I’m going to say thank you to them and to the industry for stepping up in this difficult time.
Alicia Hughes:
Perfect. Alex, again, appreciate your time as always. Stay safe and stay out of the office.
Alex Waldrop:
Okay. Thanks guys. See, I’ll take care.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you. And next up we are going to go to the man who has one of the leading contenders for this weekend, for the Derby, trainer Mark Casse who will send out both Enforceable and Lynn’s Map. Enforceable captured the [inaudible] at fairgrounds on January 18th and then closed very well last time I was to get up for a second in the Risen Star despite the lack of pace in front of him. Mark, thank you for coming on the call today.
Mark Casse:
Oh, thanks for having me.
Alicia Hughes:
Okay, Mark, I said before we go ahead and start talking about a Derby prep race, we certainly have to address the news of this morning that the Kentucky Derby and likely the rest of the Triple Crown has been postponed until September. Just in general, what was your reaction to that news and how much is that going to alter how you prepare your good three-year-olds going forward?
Mark Casse:
Well, it wasn’t a surprise. I mean, I’m given the state of the world right now. There’s stress drastic measures every day going on. So I wasn’t surprised, maybe a little disappointed, but we have to – there’s things that are much more important right now than horse racing. So we have to look at that first. And so we’re going to have a Kentucky Derby in September and that’s okay. That’s fine. It would have been terrible if we didn’t have any Kentucky Derby. That would have been extremely hard to take. So I’m fine. Of course, it’s going to change a lot of things. We geared our horses, we’re ready. I’m trying to be ready for the first Saturday in May, but this is new. This is new territory for all of us. But we’ll get through it.
Alicia Hughes:
Absolutely. And to say that it’s been kind of a wild stretch of news the past few weeks in the sport would kind of be a bit of an understatement. And I know that you in particular, you’ve been very outspoken about many of the issues that have come down of late. What would you like racing to kind of take away from some of these recent incidents that have come down, specifically with regards to the federal indictments?
Mark Casse:
Well, I just – and anybody that knows me and read my article, I’m just kind of tired of the cheating and that was a big step the other day. They took out some bad guys. There’s a few more, there’s more to come I hope. And I think maybe what we – if it looks too good to be true, it usually is. And I’m hoping let’s not just rely on testing, but let’s just look at common sense. And like I said, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. And I think we need to I think we need to start investigating those horse, the trainers that are doing that. And you saw some big wins go. I can tell you this. I would say I had been thinking about how – I didn’t know if I wanted to continue to be a horse trainer. I had thought about, seriously thought about retiring, because it’s just so frustrating. It’s frustrating when you work and you’re working at work and you know you’re not getting beat by a better horse or a better trainer, a better track. And I have a new, I mean, I’m excited again. I told one of my biggest owners, he called me a few days ago and he said, how are my horses? I said, they’re going to get faster and faster each day that goes by since Monday. And he said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, there’s going to be a lot of them that are going to get slower. That’s going to make ours faster. So I’m excited. Like I said, there’s still work to be done, but I look at what just happened as a beginning, not an end.
Alicia Hughes:
I said, why words as always from you. I said, Mark, again, we’ve got, a kind of media on here. So with that, I’m going to get out of the way and let them and see if anybody has any questions for you.
Mark Casse:
Okay.
Operator:
And once again, ladies and gentlemen to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. At this time, we will begin with Childs Walker with Baltimore Sun. Please go ahead.
Childs Walker:
Hey Mark, how are you?
Mark Casse:
I’m good.
Childs Walker:
We know how much you love running in the Triple Crown races. Not just the Derby, but the other teams as well.
Mark Casse:
I love [inaudible].
Childs Walker:
Yeah, I know. No, I know. Assuming that they are running in September and October, how different do you think those events will?
Mark Casse:
Well, I mean, everything’s going to be different this year, right? But I think if well planned out, it can be just as exciting. Why not? I don’t know that it’s necessarily the time of year. It was just the events and you’re still going to have great events. So I’m looking forward to it. My only hope is that I have something good enough to run in it all. I know.
Childs Walker:
Thanks Mark.
Operator:
And we’ll now move to the next question that will come from Jason Frakes with the Courier Journal.
Jason Frakes: Hey Mark, thanks for joining us today. I was wondering if you might comment on the difference in the maturity of a three year old from May to September and what we might see different from a horse running in the Derby and a horse preparing for the Derby in may versus a horse preparing for a Derby in September, or is there a difference?
Mark Casse:
Oh yeah, there’ll be a big difference. Yeah, absolutely. When you start getting into September of a three year olds a year, I would say a two year old two-year-old we’re looking at maybe 10 or 12 year olds competing as we get into the spring of in May we’re talking about more like older teenagers. Well, we get into September, you’re going to start, you’re going to see some adults. These horses are not only able to compete against their own age group, but by that time they are able to compete against olders. So you’re going to see a lot stronger, probably a bigger, stronger horse. May, depending on the weather could actually run – they’ll probably even run a little faster since, well they will, just depending on the track. So you’re going to see a more mature horse and you still, no matter what, you got to have some lots of this is going to – there’s going to some horses that will go by the wayside as we go. And then there’s going to be some coming on that if we had ran the Derby the first Saturday in May, they would have never had any chance.
Mark Casse:
So it’s going to help some, it’s going to hurt others, but there’s no reason why the Kentucky Derby in September can’t be as great as the first Saturday in May. And not just the Kentucky Derby, hopefully we get the entire Triple Crown, something gets worked out with Tim Wilco and Belmont. And we can have another Triple Crown. It looks like it could be, I could see them changing the Travers. So we may be prepping in either the Haskell or the Travers, so it’s all, it can easily be done, but we’re still going to have a great race and so I’m just happy. I’m happy that we’re just able to still have it.
Jason Frakes:
Thank you Mark.
Operator:
[Inaudible] with Associated Press we’ll have the next question.
Speaker:
Hi Mark. Thank you very much for doing this. I want to follow up. I want to follow up on Alicia’s question just about the FBI indictment. I’m curious what, in terms of this horse racing integrity access in US Congress right now, what would that do for the sport in terms of evening the playing field and having fair testing and what can the industry in general do to make sure it’s an even playing field and that folks who are doping horses or cheating aren’t part of the sport now?
Mark Casse:
Well, my hope if we could get the integrity act that one, there’d be one body looking over it. It’s as a horse trainer, it’s so frustrating because each state should go to and even in country, if you’re going into Canada, there’s so many different rules. And I tell you, I blame a lot of different individuals or organizations for what was allowed to continue to happen. I think some of these race tracks, they know there’s a problem and they just don’t know how to stop it. And hopefully this, if we can get this new organization or the government intervention, some of that can change. I was listening just about the coronavirus and so many things we can do on our own, try to stay in, try just do the right thing. And that is same thing kind of similar with racing. I think racing managers need to look at something and say it is something fishy. Is this not or an owner’s check your vet bills, check to cheat costs a lot of money.
And I think that what happens is in life you have to figure out what’s more important, winning at all costs or your integrity. And I think sometimes owners and trainers and racing managers and Bloodstock agents worry only about winning. And so we all, everybody can help. And again, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is and it needs to be investigated. And we’ve seen now that the testing, I mean, they didn’t find Lance Armstrong by testing, they didn’t find the steroid users in baseball by testing. They found it by investigations, by people talking. You know what, if it doesn’t look right, go to those barns, talk to these guys, investigate the – I promise you, if the trainer is doing something, the assistant trainer probably knows about it. Grooms know about it, the vet knows about it. Let’s look at it and let’s get on it and just say, oh yeah, well, yeah, he’s probably cheating. We know, we have a pretty good idea who’s cheating. We have numbers that that should not vary. If it’s a buyer number, if it’s a thorough graph number, you can see it vary a little bit at a time. But when somebody gets involved and it’s constantly changing and getting better, we have a problem. And those guys that are now in trouble with the FBI, it was quite obvious.
Speaker:
Thank you very much.
Operator:
And we will now take a question from Tim Wilkin with Albany Times Union.
Tim Wilkin:
Hey Mark. Now that you have the new date for the Derby, do you have to sort of like train your horses all over again to get ready for that spot because you got four months or so? I mean, do you have to all of a sudden start over again?
Mark Casse:
No, not really. No, I don’t think so Tim. So normally the way it works, I mean, obviously you’re going to have to change some. So the way I do it, and I think a lot of trainers do it, we look at what is our goal and what is the best way to get to it? And so you apply the course. So obviously we have the Favored in the Louisiana Derby on Saturday. Hopefully he can stay happy and healthy and so after he runs, we’re not going to change. We’re not going to change paths. Right now we’re there. It’s a big race. We’re going to do our best to win it. And then we’ll look, we’ll come back and we’ll say, okay, now we’re going to run in the Kentucky Derby because it’s still going to be, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an January, March, November, whatever it is. It’s something that everybody wants to win. So it’s going to be their biggest goal. At least it’s mine. So then I’m going to go back and almost say, well, how many races do I want to get into my horse between today and that race? And then you’ll look, like I said, I would bet or I would think you’ll see some different arrangements.
I would be shocked if the Travers would be so close to the Derby. I would see it possibly on a little earlier at Saratoga. But if you do that, then maybe the Jim Dandy goes to Belmont. So these are things that can be worked out. And I don’t think they’re that difficult given the situation we’re in, if that’s the biggest problem we run into, then we’re very, very lucky. I do want to say I appreciate the race tracks that can stay going because we have, there’s a lot of – and I know it’s not just horseracing, everybody is suffering. But we have a lot of people that are involved with racing and if we can operate it and do it at a safe manner, it’s great. And it gives people something to do, something to look for at and we may get a few more horse racing plans.
Tim Wilkin:
One last thing, Mark. Saratoga is going to look a lot different this year, isn’t it?
Mark Casse:
You mean, it’s going to look different in a few different ways. It’s going to look different and I’m not sure which one you’re talking about.
Tim Wilkin:
As far as [inaudible].
Mark Casse:
Oh, definitely the land. That’s definitely going to look different. And the trainer colony is going to look different. And because obviously one of the trainers that was just indicted was a big factor there at Saratoga. And we’ll see I think like I keep saying there’s more out there and so that could change that way as well. Yeah. So there could – there’s going to be – there could be a few different changes, but definitely I would think Tim that New York is going to change the state schedule. I would think so. I don’t know for sure.
Tim Wilkin:
All right. Thanks Mark. Good luck.
Operator:
And before moving to the next question, I’d like to remind everyone just limit yourself to one question. We’ll now hear from Ryan Dickie with Horse Racing Nation.
Ryan:
Hi Mark.
Mark Casse:
Hi Ryan.
Ryan:
Okay. Along the way you’ve answered my specific question. So I think I just want you to expound on it. I’ve heard some grumblings that the Kentucky Derby won’t have as much luster or it won’t have as much meaning because it’s older three year olds and I for one don’t believe it. But my question for you is, would you rather win a Travers Stakes in August or a Kentucky Derby in September?
Mark Casse:
Oh, that’s a good question. As for me, well, I want to win them both, it’d be great, but you’re going to – you’ll have a tough time. When I was eight years old, they did a TV show on my brother and I, or maybe I was 10, and they asked me what I wanted to do when I got older and I said, I want to win the Kentucky Derby. That hasn’t changed. So that should answer your question.
Ryan: Right. I mean, you win the Kentucky Derby, it doesn’t matter like you said, what month it is still, that’s what every trainer, owner, jockey strives for.
Anybody that knows anything about horse racing or you say to somebody, well, what do you do? And I’ll say, I’m a horse trainer. Have you ever won the Kentucky Derby? Usually I’ll say, have you ever ran in the Kentucky Derby? But they don’t ask whether you’ve won the Breeders’ Cup. They don’t ask whether you won the Travers. They don’t ask. They ask if you’ve won the Kentucky Derby and it doesn’t matter like I said earlier, it doesn’t matter what month or day they run it on.
Ryan:
I appreciate it.
Operator:
We’ll now hear from Dan Ralph with Canadian Press, Toronto.
Dan Ralph:
Thank you. Mark, what’s it going to be like running a race with no fans?
Mark Casse:
It’s definitely not as rewarding, but it’s a necessity right now. So we’re getting through it. I did think, I have to tell you Dan, I thought about what would happen even though I never thought it would be running the Kentucky Derby without fans and that just would not be the same. The Kentucky Derby is so big and the fans are so big. Same goes with the Preakness. The fans are what makes it such a big race and to run those race without fans, I don’t think – I think to LeBron James said he didn’t want to play basketball without fans. We have to run races now because it’s so important for our industry to stay as strong as it can. It’s going to take hits as all sports are, all industries, but this can limit it the hits to be not as bad. Somebody asked me today, obviously and you’re from Canada, said, what do you think about Woodbine? Will they start racing? And I said, hopefully so because they haven’t had racing now for four or five months because they’re obviously off for the winter time. These people that own these horses, train them, take care of them, they’re probably getting very low on their – with their income and their money and I don’t know if they can survive if they don’t race. So it’s important. It’s important to get racing going as fast as we can. If that means no fans, then we can live with that for now.
Dan Ralph:
Thank you.
Operator:
And Mulkin[?] with the USA Today has the next question.
Mulkin:
Yeah. Mark, just curious, Derby on September 5th, Breeders’ Cup scheduled for November 7th. What kind of choices is that going to present to trainers who might want to run in the Triple Crown? And also, I mean, could you see potentially the Triple Crown being run out of order, just sort of given the Breeder’s Cup is probably anchored to that date?
Mark Casse:
Well, right now – that’s a good question. That’s a good question. That’s a very good question. I don’t know you’re 100% right. If you start on September 5th and we do our two weeks and then our three weeks. Yeah, that’s going to make the – that would make – if you wanted to make the Triple Crown that would definitely make the Breeder’s Cup almost impossible. So that’s kind of above my peeve pet. I don’t know. That’s just another piece in the puzzle. But it’s a very good question. I think it might – it would probably hurt the – it would probably hurt the Belmont more than it would hurt anybody because I think if you, unless you had a Triple Crown winner going, you may opt to go to the Derby and miss the – maybe go to the [inaudible] and then heading for the Breeders’ Cup. So, yeah, that’s a good one. I don’t know.
Mulkin: Thank you.
Operator:
And now Wilson with Southern California News Group has the next question.
Wilson:
Yeah Mark, just touching on an answer you gave to a couple of questioners earlier. Alex was on the call earlier saying that the NTRA supports any of the tracks, they want to continue to race without fans provided they follow the proper protocols and precautions. And then you have other camps out of here who is saying that the horse racing should shut down like the major sports leagues have done. It sounds like you are totally in favor of continuing to race.
Mark Casse:
Absolutely. And we’re a little different than other sports. I mean basketball players are on top of each other, football players – yeah, to me it’s an entirely different deal. We’ve already proven just in the last week that they can run, they don’t need – I see now and I agree with this, as much as I know owners want to be there, they don’t need – they should just stay at home and watch on TV. But, yeah, I think they’re just, I think you’re talking about two different kinds of sports. I mean, you’re talking about basketball and those now. Now baseball I guess if they really wanted to play baseball, they probably do baseball. But every sport is different and I don’t know, just because one sport shut down doesn’t mean if the other one proves they can, do it and do it in a secure manner, then why not? That doesn’t makes sense to me.
Wilson:
Right. Okay. Hey, good luck this weekend.
Mark Casse:
Oh, thank you.
Operator:
And Victor Ryan with Horse Racing Nation has the next question.
Victor Ryan:
Yeah. Hi Mark. I’ve got to go ahead and ask you – I’m going to go ahead and ask you about Saturday’s race. I saw you were quoted, I think it was Louis fairgrounds[?] publicity that you feel you’re able to live long shot here with Lynn’s Map at 30 to one. Can you kind of expand on the reason for optimism that you provided there?
Mark Casse:
Well, a lot of people didn’t realize, even though I did say it a few times, was he got knocked around pretty good at the start of the resin star. In fact he’s scraped his leg up, he came back bleeding on the outside of his right front leg. And if you’ll notice, if you look at his past performances, he was much farther back than where he was in previous races. When, it was, after the race, I’m trying to think, it was Corey Landry came back and he said to both David Carroll and I. He said if I ever got a clear path where I could keep him in a straight line, he said we might’ve won this thing. So my point in saying that he could be long live shot is just, he didn’t have a real true trip last time. Well he did beat Mr. Monomoy two races back. So he’s shown that he can run with the bigger and the better horses. So that was my reason. I just think his last race was much better than it looked. You remind me a lot of, I don’t if many people remember this, but when we ran Sir Winston in the Tampa Bay Derby, I said afterwards, I said if I could get this horse to the Derby, he would run very well because he’s a good horse. He just needs more ground. And Sir Winston did a similar thing in the Tampa Bay Derby. It looked like he was going to get nothing and this at the end started running and that’s kind of what Lynn’s Map did last time too.
Victor Ryan:
Okay. And real quick touch on the rider switch to Gaffalione and also give an update on having the paper in the race with Enforceable.
Mark Casse:
Well, as far as Tyler Gaffalione, obviously anybody that knows me, he’s one of my go to guys. He’s going to Dubai for me to ride for Wednesday. [Inaudible] and asked, he said he wanted to try to get a big name rider and I suggested that we get Tyler and he agreed and that’s why Tyler is there. I asked Tyler to come. I told him the same thing I just said to you guys. I told him, I said, I think this horse is better than he looks and will you come riding? And I don’t ask him often. So when I do, he usually comes.
Victor Ryan:
Right, and Enforceable.
Mark Casse:
Enforceable is doing really well. We’re hoping that maybe he’ll break a little quicker and I don’t want him close. I think he’s shown that he likes to come with a big run, it’ll be nice if we weren’t last. We weren’t so far back. Julian had to make a decision. I think it was the right one. He had asked him twice, he got him close down the backside, then kind of got hung up and came wide while the other horse, Mr. Monomoy was on the lead kind of running free. We need some pace. I’m a little worried. It looks like, Brad Cox has got another horse, West something, I can’t think of his name right now was just second in the – I don’t know, it wasn’t the Smarty Jones, but one of the races in Oakland. He looks like he’s the big speed in the Louisiana Derby. I’m just hoping that he doesn’t pull up another Mr. Monomoy on us and hopefully there’s some more than one speed in the race.
Victor Ryan:
Okay. All right. Thanks Mark. Good luck.
Operator:
And once again everyone, please limit yourself to one question. We’ll now move to Danny Brewer with horseracingscoop.com.
Danny Brewer:
Mark, how are you?
Mark Casse:
I’m good Dan.
Danny Brewer:
Enforceable, is he your typical prototype Cassie horse? I mean, eight races, four different tracks. He’s been around the block a time or two. I mean, does he kind of fit the mold? Because you don’t really have a home drag. You’re like really top. You’re bad. You’re nationwide.
Mark Casse:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s extremely important and I’ve said a million times. I like my horses to get starts. I like them to look at different scenarios. I like them to ship around. It becomes extremely important when we, especially if you think you’re going to go the Triple Crown, you’re going from the Derby to the Preakness to the Belmont. So I believe in getting them experience. Unfortunately, sometimes it hurts my win percentage, but I really don’t care about that.
Danny Brewer:
Appreciate your time. Wish you the best of luck.
Mark Casse:
Thank you.
Operator:
Moving now to G Perfmon[?] with Daily Racing Forum.
Speaker:
Hey, Mark, how are you?
Mark Casse:
Good today.
Speaker:
Just a quick question regarding the Louisiana Derby. The distance was extended this year to a mile and 316 and just your thoughts on how that can benefit your riders this weekend.
Mark Casse:
Well, even before, I said, so what I’m going to say doesn’t have anything to do with the position I’m in today, but this weekend. But I thought it was a good move. I’d like – they moved the Risen Star to the mile and eighth, and you see how popular it was. They divided it, right? Now they’ve made the Louisiana Derby a mile and 316 and it’s an overflow field. So I think that kind of tells you something. I think some of these race tracks might want to have a look and take note and maybe make a few changes. As to my horses this weekend, it should help them both horses. You can see in their last starts, we’re running on in. It’s something that we tried to do it. You can’t do it with every horse. Not every horse will settle and make a run, but it’s something that we work really hard on and it’s something I believe in. And so I don’t think a mile and 316 is going to hurt either of our horses.
Speaker:
No, it’s actually just, I would think would help. Right.
Mark Casse:
Oh yeah.
Speaker:
Thank you. And good luck.
Mark Casse:
Thank you too.
Operator:
And now moving to a question from John Pricci with horseracinginsider.com.
John Pricci:
Good afternoon, Mark. I’d like to commend you for blowing the whistle on the Clenbuterol on that podcast and talking about the Clenbuterol Lasix cocktail. I was wondering is there anything else you can tell us about a misuse, a possible misuse of other therapeutic medications that you know of? And if I could have a point B to that. We’ve got horses are born to run and they don’t feed themselves. And many of our backstretch workers live in close proximity to each other in dorms and whatnot. In terms of their safety, should we be looking at, that they should be wearing masks or wearing gloves or checking those kinds of precautions? But first maybe address the medication and then the safety of the people who work back there.
Mark Casse:
Yeah. John, to answer your first question, the Clenbuterol is something that I know it’s been being abused and I wrote about it. The stuff that ended up coming out in the FBI, I really didn’t know anything about that. So to answer your question, do I know of anything else that’s out there that’s being abused? Not really. But if we could just go and clean up Clenbuterol that would be a huge thing. The problem with Clenbuterol is the way the law is written and the way everything works, it’s still legal to use as long as it doesn’t show up in the test. The problem is I don’t believe the tests are catching the Clenbuterol the way it should. But more importantly Clenbuterol, we can, I mean it shouldn’t exist. Any study you read says it’s got an anabolic steroids. It isn’t, but it is the same effect. It also, it causes bone density. I mean if you think about it, if I put that to a bunch of fifth graders and said, look, you’re going to make this horse bigger but his bones are going to be not as tough, what’s going to happen? I think it’s a large reason why we’ve had as many breakdowns as we have. I think it’s the major reason and that’s why it has to go.
The other problem is John is it’s not just being used with our race horses. It’s being used with younger horses to try to get them ready for sale. If you pull a hair sample, a hair sample can show on a horse up to six months, whether the horses received Clenbuterol. I think everything, horse sales, horse racing, it should be a zero tolerance. I don’t know the owner’s name, but he owns Los Alamitos, the quarter horses. He did a deal where if you walk in, if you come into his race track, we’re going to pull a hair sample on you. And as long as it shows Clenbuterol, you will not run. And that’s what I would love to see happen throughout our sport. You would see a lot less breakdowns in my opinion. And also you would see a lot leveler playing field.
To answer your question about the employee, the backstretch people. I’m not a doctor and I’m not, so I don’t know. The only thing I’ve ever heard is the mask only help it if you actually have something. But for the most part they don’t, it’s not like they work in some room where there may be 50 people sitting in a room working, they’re in a barn out there. There usually is for the most part some distance between each person, but that’s way, way, way beyond my pay scale. I don’t know enough about it. I know that I’ve got my own people and I’m telling them to try to stay away from each other as best they can. And I have a big training center in Florida but we’re doing all we can and there’s a lot of horses out there that have to be taken care of.
John Pricci:
Yeah. Well now they’ve to talk in groups of 10 people not 50. And I don’t know if you’re talking about this because you are probably working and getting ready for this sport. But American, the Maryland Jockey club is actually sort of taking a survey, taking everybody’s temperature as to when they should run the Preakness. And the derby hasn’t always been the first race in the sequence, so the sequence can change. It would seem to me that if you had the three races that comprise the Triple Crown at sort of at any time in any order well, that kind of gets the job done? Can you comment on that?
Mark Casse:
I don’t disagree because as we were talking about earlier, it’s definitely going to – we’re going to start running in. If the Kentucky Derby is the first part of the Triple Crown, we’re definitely going to run into the Breeders’ Cup. And what would be interesting is if a Pimlico did run before the Derby, it would -he’d probably have the biggest Preakness that he had in a while. Definitely biggest field, it’d be interesting. I would hope to be there. I don’t care which one they ran first. I want to win them.
John Pricci:
Thank you very much for your time and have a safe trip on Saturday.
Mark Casse:
I didn’t John, and I appreciate it. I didn’t realize that they have ran out of sequence before. So that’s interesting. Something to think about.
Operator:
And once again, ladies and gentlemen, please limit yourself to one question. We’ll now take a question from Lynn with Freelance. Go ahead, please. And Lynn, your line is open.
Lynn:
Oh, I’m sorry. Hey Mark, it’s Lynn, how are you?
Mark Casse:
Hey Lynn, I thought maybe my answers were so boring you fell asleep. Go ahead.
Lynn:
Oh no, I’m sorry. I was sort of [inaudible] you said earlier in the fall you were seriously considering retirement. Could you talk a little bit more about that and maybe how close you came to a decision before the FBI?
Mark Casse:
Well, I don’t know that I was close, but it was at least something that I started thinking about. Like I felt like when you do something your entire life, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’ve done it over 40 years and like I sit there and my wife and I have went out. We built this big training center. We try to do things the right way. And I feel like I’m a really good horseman. I think it’s all I wanted to do. It’s all I’ve ever done in my entire life. And when you see things and you know that they don’t make sense, it’s hard to take. Every time I would see a Navarro horse win and do strange things or adjacent surface source, it gave me a little sick feeling in my stomach and I’m just about to be 60 years old and I was like, do I want to keep – do I want this to irritate me and bother me the way it does? I can go ahead and retire now and go fishing and I wouldn’t have to deal with that. Yeah, I was thinking about it but I have to tell you that was one of my incentives with writing my letter to the editor. But there was one of my biggest owners who is just a wonderful, wonderful person, been in the game for over 40 years told me they didn’t know if they wanted to be in it anymore because of the cheating. And I said, you know what? I cannot sit still and do nothing.
This game has given me so much. Everything I have is because of horse racing. And I’ve come to the time of my life where I want to give back. And I just – when I wrote that, I said, if I upset every trainer and owner in North America or in the world, I don’t really care. I’m going to say what I’m feeling and so be it. But the response has been unbelievable. The response has been unbelievable. And I’ve learned a lot of things since that letter, because I’ve probably taken four or 500 calls and I do know there’s more things to fix. And if you know me well, I don’t stop easily. So we’re going to keep working on it. And I believe that like I said, that was the beginning the other day, and it’s going to get better. It’s going to get better. You’re going to see our playing field get more and more level. What if you think about Lynn, you’ve been covering this for a long time? The other frustrating, how many good trainers have we seen, good horsemen that went by the wayside because they chose integrity over winning at all costs. Isn’t that a shame? And that’s what’s happened and that’s going to change and it started changing last week.
Lynn:
Thank you very much.
Mark Casse:
You’re welcome.
Operator:
And no further questions in the queue at this time.
Alicia Hughes:
Mark, I can’t think of anything possible that I could ask you to follow up on all of those fantastic questions that we’ve had just now. Again, like I said, it is always a pleasure to have you on here for you to share your knowledge and your wisdom of this sport. You’re a rock star. Thank you again for everything and best of luck going forward.
Mark Casse:
Well, I appreciate everyone, it happened me and you know I want this sport to be at all it can be. And anytime, if I can help just a little bit, I’m here. Okay.
Alicia Hughes:
Thank you again Mark. You have a great one.
Mark Casse:
You too.
Alicia Hughes:
And last but not least, guess what? We still have one more to go. We are going to go to David Fisk, the longtime manager of Winchell Thoroughbreds. Winchell Thoroughbreds as most of you all know, have had numerous stars, curious colors throughout the years from eventual game changing champion sire cap it to 2017 horse of the year gun runner. This year the Winchell team is back at the forefront once more with a promising silver state for the Louisiana Derby and Finite who currently sits atop the road to the Kentucky Oaks ranking. Finite scored a massive victory last time out when she defeated champion British idiom in the Rachel Alexander steaks at fairgrounds. David, are you with us right now?
David Fisk:
Yeah.
Alicia Hughes:
David, thank you again so much for your patience and for hanging in there. I’m going to start off. First and foremost as I did with Mark was wanting to get your thoughts, obviously on the news of the day with the Kentucky Derby and the Oaks and potentially the entire Triple Crown being postponed. What are your thoughts about that and the effect it’s going to have on so many top races going forward?
David Fisk:
I just look at it as, it’s the reason they invented the asterisk. I don’t know if you can – I don’t know why we would be any different than the NCAA tournament or the masters’ tournaments or NASCAR or major league baseball or anything else. I mean, everybody’s inconvenienced. I’m kind of like Mark, I don’t care when they run them, I just want to win them. So I think the record books for us and any other sport are going to be filled with asterisks after this year.
Alicia Hughes:
I say that’s a perfect way of putting it. And just to switch gears obviously back our focus to the racing this weekend. When we spoke the other day, you mentioned that you thought Finite’s win in the silver bullet day might’ve actually been her worst race so far. Just talk a little bit about why you felt that way and how encouraging it is to have a horse kind of win despite themselves, especially at such a young point in their career.
David Fisk:
Well, she just didn’t seem to be herself in the paddock that day or on post parade. She’s usually pretty calm, laid back, takes everything in stride. That day she was very agitated, anxious, on her toes, amped up. She was trying to pull Ricardo down the backside. So that and the fact that she was three wide on the first turn and three or four wide on the second turn and still managed to grind out the wind, I mean I thought that was her worst race and if that was her worst race then we’re in pretty good shape.
Alicia Hughes:
That’s good. Again, David, we’ve got a ton of media on time is precious. I’m going to step back here and throw it back and see if they have any questions for you.
Operator:
Again ladies and gentlemen, star one, if you have any question and remember, limit yourself to one question. We will begin with Danny Brewer with horseracingscoop.com.
Danny Brewer:
How are you doing today?
David Fisk:
Excuse me.
Danny Brewer:
[Inaudible] never been worked in second. So do we know how big she is yet?
David Fisk:
Ah, no, I don’t think so. It’s still relatively early in her three year old year. She’s going to get bigger, stronger like all horses do. So like Steve oftentimes says this time of year, your last race is rarely good enough to win the next one. So she like all the colts and everybody, we’re going to have to keep improving.
Danny Brewer:
I certainly do appreciate your time and I wish you best of luck.
David Fisk:
Thank you.
Operator:
And as a reminder, everyone, if you would like to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Just keep in mind if you’re using a speaker phone, make sure the mute function is released so that signals can reach our equipment. Once again, star one for any questions. We’ll pause to see if there’s any further questions today. And at this time we have no questions in the queue. And excuse me that is not correct. We have Danny Brewer, horseracingscoop.com. Go ahead please.
Danny Brewer:
Hey, I want to take the dangers about getting the chance so you don’t, with all this stuff that is going on, you’d have to take the boat of if you had lemons, make lemonade.
David Fisk:
Yeah, I mean the only thing you could do is just put your head down and keep going forward. I mean I’ve survived ice storms on the farm and MRLS and herpes outbreaks at the race track and on the farm. But the only thing you can do is just keep moving forward. It’s an inconvenience for everybody, but the fact that I don’t get to stop at Starbucks for a couple of weeks, I think I can survive that. It’s an inconvenience for everybody. So we all just need to hang together and keep moving forward.
Danny Brewer:
I think you’re just happy [inaudible] that make does make things a little bit more, especially because you said you don’t got to find ships for Winchell.
David Fisk:
Oh sure. I mean, Tap’s been a life changer and I don’t know if anybody likes him more than we do. So, yeah, we’ve got a bunch of Tap in there and it’s always special to see him in one of our pedigrees or anybody’s pedigree.
Danny Brewer:
When you think about the horse in Louisiana Derby, what’s kind of give me a little bit of insight on him as far as the silver shea?
David Fisk:
Well he was a yearling purchase at keen Lyndon and we already bought Willis Horton and he is a big cold, much like hard spun[?]. So we’ve been trying to take our time with him and just kind of crank up the heat incrementally, kind of turn the screws on him. I think it’s taken him a while just to get fit. He’s very – he’s a very efficient mover. It’s hard to get him tired in the morning. So about the only thing you can do is race him into fitness and hopefully we’ve got him fit and unfortunately we won’t get to race him the first Saturday in May, but we’ll see what we can do the first Saturday in September.
Danny Brewer:
Right. And gives an [inaudible]. Does that help her as far as the Louisiana Derby is concerned for him?
David Fisk:
I think we’ve always thought that was something that he could do. We’ve had other opportunities he could’ve gone to Oklahoma and he could’ve gone to just about anywhere. And we had some other colts that we had some thoughts about leaving in New Orleans for the Louisiana Derby. But I think the distance suits him. I think he should run okay.
Danny Brewer:
Yeah. I appreciate your time, man. And I wish you all the best of luck.
David Fisk:
All right, well thank you.
Operator:
And at this time we have no additional questions in the queue. I’ll turn the call back to your host for closing remarks.
Alicia Hughes:
David, again, I just want to thank you for hanging in with us and coming on today to share your thoughts. Like I said, I know the original May targets are not there, but nonetheless, looks like you guys are well positioned going forward with some good young horses for this year.
David Fisk:
Well, thanks. Yeah, hopefully it works out.
Alicia Hughes:
Appreciate your time as always, David, you take care and have a great one.
David Fisk:
Thank you.
Alicia Hughes: And that will do it for this NTRA national media teleconference. I want to thank all of the media for hanging in with us today. An audio file of this call will be up later today on ntra.com and a transcript should be up tomorrow, usually it takes about 24 hours for us to get a full transcript, so you can check there tomorrow on our website for that, ntra.com. Once again, I would like to thank our guests today, Alex Waldrop, Mark Casse and David Fisk. And thank you again for coming on here. We are tentatively slated to be back next week on March 24th to preview the Florida Derby and the Dubai World Cup. Although given how fluid the current landscape is, things can change at any moment. So now back to our operator Jake to wrap things up.
Operator:
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference for today. We do thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.
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