Jim Mulvihill: Thank you members of the media for joining us on this our first NTRA national media teleconference of 2014. We’ll be with you most Tuesdays from now through the end of May talking primarily about three year olds on the Triple Crown trail; occasionally the fillies on the Kentucky Oaks trail. This Saturday, of course, marks an important milestone on the road to the Kentucky Derby in terms of the points available to make the starting gate. We’re kicking off what Churchill Downs refers to as the Kentucky Derby Championship Series. Those are the final 16 prep races, most of which carry 50 or 100—50 or 100 points to the winners. Saturday, of course, we have the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream and the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds. Both of those are worth a total of 85 points. That goes down to fourth on a 50, 20, 10 and 5 point scale. Both of these races on Saturday are at one and one sixteenth miles.
In case you’re wondering what’s it’s going to take to make the gate for the Derby, the Wynn Las Vegas is offering an over/under prop on the points needed, and that line last we checked is at 20.5 points.
Also underway Saturday, the Kentucky Oaks Championship Series, with the Davona Dale at Gulfstream, and the Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds. Both of those, of course, are 85 point races as well. Later in this call we’ll talk with Jeremiah Englehart. He is the trainer of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner, Ria Antonia, making her three year old debut against her own sex in the Rachel Alexandra, but possibly still a candidate for the Kentucky Derby. We’ve also got Elliott Walden racing for WinStar Farm to talk about Commissioner, and Jose Garoffalo, trainer of the Hutcheson winner, Wildcat Red. They’re both in the Fountain of Youth.
But first to start us off, we’re going to bring in Rosie Napravnik who rides Lecomte Stakes winner Vicar’s in Trouble in the Risen Star. Rosie currently leads the jockey standings at Fair Grounds where she’s won the last three riding titles. She’s one a Kentucky Oaks, of course, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Last fall she won a title at Keeneland, and finished 2013 with more than $13 million in earnings. That’s the most ever by a female rider. Last year she also became the first woman rider to pick up a check in the Kentucky Derby, finishing fifth on Mylute. But, of course, she’s hoping to outdo that this year, perhaps with Vicar’s in Trouble.
Rosie, welcome to the call. You’re on with Jim Mulvihill in New York.
Rosie Napravnik: Thank you.
Jim Mulvihill: Hey, we’re glad you’re here with us. We’re going to start talking about Vicar’s in Trouble. You’re the only rider that this colt has known in the afternoons. He won the Lecomte so easily. That was his first try around two turns. What have you learned about him this winter, and especially what did you learn in the Lecomte?
Rosie Napravnik: Well, I’ll tell you what, I think, breeding aside and everything aside, from a horse that came from such a speedy and impressive sprint win, there’s always a question of how will it stretch out to two turns especially against graded company, and he couldn’t have been more impressive in the way that he did it. I was really impressed. I I had the same questions as everybody else did just because he’s so speedy and he had been sprinting. And I mean he handled everything extremely professionally. He rated and he kicked out fabulously and was very much the best, and it sort of answered everybody’s question does he belong in this company, and yes he does.
Jim Mulvihill: And then for Saturday’s race they drew yesterday, and unfortunately you drew the 14 hole. What kind of trip do you expect from there, and how does it change the way you ride the race, especially going into that first turn?
Rosie Napravnik: The 14 hole wouldn’t have been the one that I would’ve handpicked for myself, but I—like I said to my husband, Joe, who is the Assistant Trainer overseeing Vickar, I said, well, it’s better than the 1 hole. So—and he’s very quick out of the gate, and I think there’s some other speed in the race and he has the ability to stalk or go to the front. So, it’s not my first choice, but it could’ve been worse, and I think with his tactical ability, it’s—we should still be able to get a good trip from the outside.
Jim Mulvihill: Now you mentioned having some of the same questions everybody else had coming into the last start, and I think one of the ones that people latched onto was the fact that this is a Louisiana bred, and it’s been many, many years since we’ve seen a Louisiana bred in the Kentucky Derby or even winning the Louisiana Derby. From your perspective, what does it mean anything where a horse is foaled? I mean from a jockey’s perspective, the horse doesn’t know where it’s born.
Rosie Napravnik: Absolutely, and he’s showed—in his first start at Keeneland against (inaudible) company that he was competitive there, and, you know, actually I laughed and said to Mike when I got off of him after finished third in that race, I said, well, he’ll do it in Louisiana. And yet the way that he ran in the maiden race when he broke his maiden, which was a state-bred race down here at the Fair Grounds, pretty much shows that he’s a little bit above that class. So I mean obviously everybody has that question when they see the state bred in front of his name, but he’s, you know, it’s all about the horse and he’s so far proven that he’s ready to go to the next level, and he’s absolutely, you know, couldn’t be (inaudible) in the Risen Star. So Louisiana bred or not, he’s going to have every chance that any other horse would.
Jim Mulvihill: All right, and before I open it up to the media, you also ride on Untapable in the Rachel Alexandra. You were on her, of course, in the Breeders’ Cup, and I’m wondering if you’ve been on her in the mornings recently?
Rosie Napravnik: I breezed her once I think there last week on Monday, and then I breezed her the week before that. She breezed fabulously; sat off of another horse, and just completely powered it home, and a great, great finish (inaudible). She seems to be doing extremely well, and I know Steve’s really pleased with the way she’s been training, so really looking forward to that. I loved her going into the Breeders’ Cup, and obviously that was no display of her talent. I mean I’m not really sure why she didn’t run good that day, but I’m really looking forward to her in her three year old year.
Jim Mulvihill: That’s great to hear. Well, I’m going to turn it back over to Michelle to get some questions from the media. I’m sure people will be curious about some of the nice fillies that you rode this past weekend, as well as perhaps some other questions about Vicar’s in Trouble. Michelle?
Danny Brewer: What about the building process that—of Vicar’s in Trouble, and what kind of role have you played in getting this horse on the road to the Kentucky Derby?
Rosie Napravnik: Well, actually with this particular horse I’ve only been there on the race days. I don’t think I’ve ever been on him in the morning. My husband Joe is Mike’s Assistant Trainer that has been overseeing Vicar, and unfortunately he loves to get on him, so he’s done all of the work in the morning with him, and basically done the building craft (inaudible). And, Mike and Joe have done a great job, and he’s really been, you know, gone through all the steps the right way, and so I’m really looking forward to taking this next step a little further and against some real legitimate company to see just how good he is.
Danny Brewer: Talk about Kentucky Derby fever for just a moment and how it’s gripped you. I know you’ve obviously been the highest finisher of any female in Derby history, so how does Kentucky Derby fever grip you, especially right now?
Rosie Napravnik: It’s an exciting time of year. As far as looking directly at the Kentucky Derby, I know from the three years that I’ve had horses pointed in that direction that it definitely doesn’t go the way it’s ever planned. The first year I ended up picking up a mount in the Louisiana Derby, and that horse went straight to the Kentucky Derby when I never thought I would’ve ever ridden in the race. The next year I thought I was going to ride (inaudible), and he was through on entry day. And then this past year we had Shanghai Bobby was a favorite going into it, and I ended up riding Mylute and had a great finish in the Derby. So for me it’s, you know, it’s not really Derby fever but it’s just the fever of the season, and watching the prep races, riding in some of the prep races and, you know, jockeys and up flip-flopping on and off different horses, and then, you know, come Derby time you end up on maybe someone you didn’t plan on riding in the Derby or maybe nobody at all. So for me, I like to sit back and wait until it all happens and take it in then.
Danny Brewer: You have been extremely successful in a male dominated sport. When you won the Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can, was that poetic justice for Rosie Napravnik being what you’ve been able to accomplish over the last few years?
Rosie Napravnik: Absolutely. Winning the Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can was probably one of my most—or the most memorable moments of my career. Just riding that filly through the preps, and having been so close to winning the race the year before, and knowing that it was possible and then just being able to accomplish that for my own personal sense of where I’ve come from and how much—how hard I’ve worked to get here, and it was just, you know, solidified all the hard work and just flashed the question of possibility.
Jim Mulvihill: All right, Rosie, before we let you go I wanted to ask about some of the promising fillies that you rode this past weekend. A lot of people were looking at Samantha Nicole, the full sister to Rachel Alexandra. She was a bit of a handful. Could you just give us your impressions of her debut?
Rosie Napravnik: Actually, I was never around Rachel when she was running, but everybody that was around Rachel said that she looked and acts exactly the same. She was a real feel good filly and she was acting up a lot in her debut in the paddock and the post-grade. And she actually stood very well in the gate but broke extremely awkward, which really put us at a disadvantage position-wise in the race considering the pace. And she ran a very good race. I mean it was really an impossible setup for—but she still did everything that I asked of her and finished well, and I think she’s really going to learn from that experience and become desensitized to the whole first race experience, and hopefully she’ll be a little bit better behaved next time and maybe a little less rambunctious, but she definitely has some talent and I’m looking forward to riding her in the next race.
Jim Mulvihill: Excellent. And then another one I’m very interested in is Fiftyshadesofgold. You went over to Sam Houston. You’ve had a ton of success there the past few years, but this Texas bred filly trained by Bret Calhoun and had been off since Saratoga, but comes back and looks perhaps like she might be on the Oaks trail.
Rosie Napravnik: You know, she ran a great race, and Bret did a great job getting her back from the layoff after having a very successful summer with her as a two year old, and then, you know, coming back into the full force of the three year old filly season is definitely not something easy to do coming off a layoff, but I think they managed her perfectly by putting her in the Texas Bred Stakes, where’d she be in an easier spot and the distance was perfect, 7 furlongs, so she didn’t have to stretch out off the layoff for the first time going around two turns. She did it very well. In the race we sat off the pace and I was actually kind of moving out on her early but just sort of in a sense of just getting her going as opposed to trying to beat the horse in front, because once we turned for home I kind of—I knew that we were going to beat the horse that was on the lead and there was just the matter of getting there. I never ended up using my whip, because I was that confident, but she did gallop on by easily. So I think it’ll be exciting to see her go two turns. I think she’s going to be twice the filly that she is once she does a go round of her own, and it’s very exciting to—for when she makes her next step.
Jim Mulvihill: Excellent. Well, it sounds like you’ve got a lot of great options and lots to look forward to this spring, so we’re going to wish you luck on Saturday, and hopefully talk to you again later on in the coming months. Thanks for coming on with us.
Rosie Napravnik: Thanks a lot, Jim. Thank you, everybody.
Jim Mulvihill: All right, Rosie Napravnik, everybody. She’s going to ride Vicar’s in Trouble in Saturday’s Risen Star Stakes.
Now we’ll move on to our next guest, and that is trainer Jose Garoffalo. He’s got Wildcat Red in Saturday’s Fountain of Youth. Garoffalo is a native of Venezuela. He was born into a racing family. Grew up on a horse farm, started out on his own as a breeder, then he became a trainer before moving to the US in 1999. He’s trained for more than 20 years. He won his first graded stakes in the 2012 Davona Dale. That’s at Gulfstream. That was with Yara, who went on to run in that year’s Kentucky Oaks. Let’s see, Saturday he’s got, as I mentioned, Wildcat Red; winner, of course, of the 7 furlong Hutcheson that was on February 1st.
Jim Mulvihill: All right. Thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk first about the Hutcheson. You said afterwards that you were very pleased with how Wildcat Red focused in that race; something that maybe he had had a little bit of trouble with before, but you saw some progress in his mental development. How did he come back from that race, and how has he moved forward since then?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, he came back very good from the race. He finished the race, winning easily with no effort during the race. And I also noticed that the horse was more focused, more relaxed; that he could run just behind the speed with no problems, and then he showed that he can finish strongly if he runs kind of relaxed in the beginning. And I think that the slower the pace, the longer he can go.
Jim Mulvihill: Excellent. My next question was going to be about how long he can go. I mean he’s by a stallion who was a Grade 1 winner sprinting. What more have you seen that tells you that not only is a mile and a sixteenth within his scope, but perhaps further if he earns the chance?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, I’ve been training the horse for longer distances maybe since December, so I was looking forward to run in the Gulfstream Park Derby one mile, and he handled the mile very well. He got beat just by maybe a nose or a hair in that race. He proved that he can handle the mile in a very good way. So after that race, I still had the horse training for longer distance and I was planning to run in the Holy Bull which was—it’s our race. We couldn’t make it for that race, the horse already had the mile to go longer than he went in the Hutcheson was enough training for a long distance, he needed that race. So for the Fountain of Youth, he’s already had a lot of mile gallops and he can go longer. He had showed me in the training that he handled the two turns very easily. His pedigree doesn’t show much stamina, but I think he might be the exception to the rule; he might go longer.
Jim Mulvihill: Okay, and you mentioned the Gulfstream Park Derby. In that race he just missed the General a Rod, and now Javier Castellano elects to ride that one back on Saturday. You pick up Luis Saez, who at 21 he’s already got a thousand wins. We saw him last year with Will Take Charge the second half of the year; obviously a very talented rider. But I want to hear in your words what you like about Luis, and why you went to him?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, (inaudible) for us we wanted to have Castellano back on the horse again, but he had some commitment with some other people, so I picked Luis Saez because I know him. He won a lot of races for me. We get along very well. He understands my style of running very, very good, and we have won maybe 20 or 30 races. He’s a young kid but he’s tough at the same time, and he has proven that he can compete with those big guys; with Castellano, maybe Rosario, whoever. He has beaten them before, and I think he has the confidence to beat them again on my horse.
Jim Mulvihill: Excellent. Well, Jose, hold on one second. I’m going to turn it over to Michelle and we’ll see if the media has any questions for you.
Jennie Rees: Yes, Jose, you drew yesterday for the Fountain of Youth. Could you talk about the complexion of the field, you know, 13 horses in there, and talk about the importance of perhaps you drawing what looks to be a good post position?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, it’s going to be a—it’s going to be a full field race; a lot of traffic in the race, but my horse, he has the versatility to run behind the speed and close to the lead. And I don’t think that there’s going to be a problem for him, because I think from the start he’s going to be out of trouble because he’s going to run very close to the lead. But if the pace is slow, he might be on the lead, too, with no problems.
Jennie Rees: He’s got very high speed figures, as good as any or better than anybody in the field. He’s got a great record. Just what’s his potential? Have you gotten to the bottom yet?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, the thing is that since he has been more focused and more relaxed he can run any distance. Actually, when he trains in the morning you can see that his pace is very steady all the way, the entire mile, all around, so that makes me think that he can be a horse that can go longer than a mile. Anyway, we always take the horse, we see what he does, but he will have the last word in the race. But at the bottom of my heart I think that the horse is going to run the two turns with no problems. But you know how the business is. They have to run the race and we have to compete, and then we’ll see if we’re right or wrong.
Jennie Rees: What are your thoughts of Commissioner and Top Billing? They’re going to get a lot of the prerace attention. They come from very high profile connections. Yet, you know, they haven’t faced you; you haven’t faced them. What do you think about those two horses?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, Commissioner is a horse that ready to run the distance (inaudible); that’s a good advantage for him, but he comes from a race that, from my point of view, wasn’t a big deal. There was not too much competition in that race. He beat I think that—a weaker group than the horses that he’s going to see next Saturday in the Fountain of Youth.
Jennie Rees: And final question, what’s the tougher way to make a living, as a breeder or as a horse trainer?
Jose Garoffalo: To tell you the truth, both are very difficult, but I don’t recommend to people who like to see his horses running, I recommend them to breeding. It’s a tough business. You have to understand the business. You need a lot of patience, and you have to be made of a special kind of material to be a breeder. So that’s why I admire the breeders in the world and all the (inaudible) in this country, everywhere in the world, because they have the patience, they have the (inaudible)l, the knowledge, and they have the money to support the industry, they are the basement of the industry. But it’s tough. It’s tough to be a breeder, and that’s why I recognize their merits. And I been there before and I know how it is.
Danny Brewer: You know, Jennie touched on this, Wildcat Red, his record is fantastic. He’s been first or second every time out. Is he a real competitive horse? I mean does he want that lead?
Jose Garoffalo: Very, very competitive. Wherever he goes that’s probably his best weapon, his competiveness, because he likes the fight; he likes to be in the lead. Now like I told you before he’s mentally more mature, that’s competitiveness is still there—it’s still better because he has the attitude now of a race horse.
Danny Brewer: Now as far as Kentucky Derby fever is concerned, have you got a case of it now, or do we wait to see what happens in the Fountain of Youth before you really start—your fever starts spiking here?
Jose Garoffalo: Yes, well I think that we have to go step by step; one step at a time. But we’re going to see in the Fountain of Youth how long he could go. And this race, the Fountain of Youth, is going to be very important, because depending on the result of the Fountain of Youth, we will be thinking about going to Kentucky. So on this weekend we will make our plans.
Danny Brewer: So obviously he’s pretty doggone good, and just, you know, what he does here he could come back to maybe becoming just a sprinter all the time do you think, because I mean obviously there’s a lot of three year old sprints out there, too.
Jose Garoffalo: Yes, you never know, and the sprints you never know. The horses they surprise you most of the time, especially when they’re young; you don’t know how far they can go. So maybe I have a horse that is going to go as fast – we don’t know. Maybe he can exceed our expectations.
Jim Mulvihill: All right, Jose. I’m just wondering if you could tell us about Wildcat Red as a two year old, and maybe your first memories of setting eyes on him, or maybe more specifically, like when you started to get a sense that this horse had some unusual talent? I don’t know if you helped to pick him out at the Ocala sale or if you didn’t see him until he came to the track, but just tell us your early impressions and when you knew?
Jose Garoffalo: Well, I went to the sale in Ocala in June, the three year old in training sale, just—at the very moment I saw the horse I saw a lot of potential in him. When you buy a horse and you like the horse and he shows you some talent, you never know how far he can go —but that one was the very first time I saw him I knew he was going to be a decent horse. I checked the breeze before the sale, and he did it very easily with no effort in that breeze, and you know, it was the way he went about that was impressive to me. And at the same time I got lucky because we had a budget—I had a budget of $30,000 exactly, and that was the price of the horse. Maybe if somebody else was interested in the horse I couldn’t buy it, because that was the budget that I had from the owners to spend.
Jim Mulvihill: So he was the only one that you bought at that sale, or the only one for that owner?
Jose Garoffalo: No, that was the only horse that I bought for him; for that owner. But since I saw the horse in the sale I liked him. I liked the way he looked. He’s very athletic; his disposition is very nice, very muscular body, very nice. And when he came to the racetrack, he started to develop—he started actually to run as soon as he got on the track.
Jim Mulvihill: Terrific. Well, Jose, we really appreciate your talking with us today, and we wish you luck Saturday.
Jose Garoffalo: Thank you very much, guys. We’ll stay in contact.
Jim Mulvihill: All right. That’s Jose Garoffalo, trainer of Wildcat Red. He’s in the Fountain of Youth on Saturday, as is, of course, Commissioner. Commissioner is going to be represented on this call by Elliott Walden, who is the President, CEO and Racing Manager of WinStar Farm. He’s probably known to most of you listening, but in case not, let me tell you about him. Walden’s a third generation Kentucky horseman. In 20 years as a trainer, he won three meet titles at Churchill, two at Keeneland. He trained a Belmont winner and a multiple Grade 1 winner in Victory Gallop. In 2005, he became WinStar’s Racing Manager, and now he oversees nearly all of WinStar’s operations on and off the farm. And, for example, with WinStar’s homebred Commissioner, Commissioner is trained by Todd Pletcher, but we can be certain that Elliott Walden is closely involved in all of this colt’s racing and training schedules. Elliott, you’re on with Jim Mulvihill in New York. Thanks for being here.
Elliott Walden: Hey, Jim.
Jim Mulvihill: Commissioner broke his maiden at Saratoga going a mile and an eighth, and then he didn’t race again the rest of the year. And from what I’ve read that was by design, so my first question is why stop on a promising two year old in late summer if you don’t have to?
Elliott Walden: Well, really because we were down at that point decided to emphasize his three year old strength, and felt like the best way to have him fresh and ready was to give him a little time then. You know, he was also a horse that wasn’t as fast as some of the other two year olds at the time. He wanted to run a distance of ground, and the opportunities for horses that want to run that far don’t really get to that point until late November, and at that point you’re thinking about if you truly have a three year old for the spring, and you’re thinking about shutting them down not getting them going. So, you know, August seemed like a good time. We got the couple runs in him and felt like it was a good opportunity to give him e a break and get him ready for the spring.
Jim Mulvihill: And right now you’d have to say that that plan is working. What progress have you seen between the summer and then his comeback in January?
Elliott Walden: Well, we hope it’s working. Well, I guess we’ll find out Saturday. You know, we were very pleased with his last race comeback, and, thought that—looking at it now it looks like a very good race, and the horses that he ran with were of high caliber even though it was an allowance race. You know, obviously you have the second choice or maybe even a fav