Rail Talk Podcast

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green are joined in the studio by very special guest and presumptive Eclipse champion jockey Flavien Prat! The three of them discuss Prat’s winding journey from France to California to New York, his enormous victory aboard Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, all of the work it’s taken to bring him to the precipice of his first Eclipse Award and much more.Joe and Jon also reflect on a huge stakes weekend for West Point Thoroughbreds and what it means for the turf male division in 2025 before discussing perplexing trends Jon is noticing in the stallion and auction market. They then touch on the precarious situation with Woodbine’s main track and whether or not Kenny McPeek has a legitimate case to be Eclipse champion trainer.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content—join the ever-growing family making us one of the leading podcasts in the industry by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, etc. Huge thank you to our dedicated sponsors Taylor Made, The Green Group and Fasig-Tipton for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green welcome guest third host Michelle Yu to react to a star-studded weekend at the Breeders’ Cup.

An outstanding reporter and analyst for Santa Anita and NBC Sports, Yu gives us her railbird review of Sierra Leone’s Breeders’ Cup Classic score, what it means for champion 3-year-old honors, whether or not Thorpedo Anna has locked up a Horse of the Year trophy and everything else that stood out to her from racing’s most important weekend.

As someone who spends every day on the backstretch, Yu also speaks candidly about the new HISA amendments on their provisional suspension protocol and whether or not the program is catching actual cheaters.

Don’t miss any Rail Talk content—join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Thank you to our industry-leading sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made and The Green Group for their unwavering support.

This year’s Breeders’ Cup is so spectacular we had to drop two episodes of Rail Talk in two days, this time providing a betting companion to the 41st World Championships! On the latest edition of Breakaway Rail Talk presented by Arion Pedigrees, Joe Bianca is joined by friend of the show, owner and excellent handicapper Jim Politano to put together Breeders’ Cup tickets in hopes of making our subscribers some money this weekend.

This week on Rail Talk! We are on the eve of Breeders’ Cup XLI, and Joe Bianca and Jon Green can barely contain their excitement. Starting with the intrigue of the Classic, the boys touch on what they’re most looking forward to in Friday and Saturday’s 14 combined championship races.

This week on Rail Talk! Our good friend and wise sage Tony Cobitz, a.k.a. Tinky, returns to the studio for another fascinating conversation with Joe Bianca and Jon Green on the state of racing and breeding.The three discuss the upcoming Breeders’ Cup Classic and its international flavor with main contenders City of Troy and Forever Young shipping in from all over the world. Has the City of Troy hype train run off the tracks? Will there be enough speed to set up Forever Young? And where does top domestic hopeful Fierceness fit into the race?The conversation then turns to the world of stallions, and Tink brings observations and graphics aplenty. Why are even today’s top sires producing relatively few graded stakes winners and fewer horses who stick around longer than a dozen or so starts? What, if anything can be done to reverse this trend?Don’t miss any of this illuminating and thought-provoking Rail Talk content. Join the ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Thanks as always to our sponsors, Fasig-Tipton, The Green Group and Taylor Made for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca returns to the mic from his honeymoon in Greece to catch up with Jon Green on all the latest happenings in racing, breeding and sigh HISA litigation. The two appreciate Irad Ortiz, Jr. after the jockey’s 4,000th win and discuss the effort by the IBEW to unionize the backstretch at Belmont.

On this week’s episode of Rail Talk, Jon Green and fill-in co-host Ren Carothers discuss some of the weekend’s WIN AND YOU’RE IN races including the three-way head bob in the Jessamine, the awesomeness of IDIOMATIC and CITIZEN BULL’S gate to wire victory. They also dive into the explosive 1-x family and which juveniles benefit from those potent genes.

Host Jon Green welcomes Fasig-Tipton’s Jesse Ullery and Leif Aaron to talk about the wild success of Fasig-Tipton digital sales. The clearance rate for the ultra-convenient, ultra-popular platform run at 83%. Jesse, a very familiar face, is the sales announcer and also an account executive. Leif, a former stallion nominations manager for Juddmonte, is the director of digital sales.

This week on Rail Talk, Joe Bianca and Jon Green lament the predictable tragedy we saw Saturday on the Parx turf course. Despite obvious problems with the safety of the ‘grass’, horses were allowed to race over it on Parx’s biggest day, and it took one race for a horse to break down and have to be euthanized. How was this allowed to happen, and who shares in the blame?

On Episode 61, hosts Joe Bianca and Jon Green welcome esteemed lawyer and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, Alan Foreman, to discuss the investigation into the University of Kentucky lab and Dr. Scott Stanley. They talk about the lawsuit at Hawthorne and the constitutionality (and success) of HISA and HIWU. The boys then reflect on last weekend's Woodbine Mile card which included some good DJ Stable success and preview the Pennsylvania Derby. Newlywed Joe Bianca shares an intimate look at his wedding celebration set to the voice of his dad (and 70's rock singer) Russ Bianca. Don’t miss a moment of Rail Talk content. Join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Major shoutout to our devoted sponsors Taylor Made, The Green Group and Fasig-Tipton for giving us this platform.