Rail Talk Podcast

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green are reunited and it feels so good, as they catch up after an eventful few weeks that included their respective trips to the Breeders’ Cup, Jon’s week in Kentucky and his resulting illness. Joe makes the Eclipse case for Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies heroine Super Corredora, Jon gives his take on the ongoing vet scratch controversy, and the boys collectively appreciate the war horses of the Claiming Crown.They then welcome champion trainer Dale Romans, who talks about the motivation for his U.S. senate run in 2026, fixing America’s immigration system, how he plans to juggle training and campaigning, and what he hopes to accomplish for our industry if he wins.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content! Be sure to subscribe to the show, and join our tens-of-thousands strong family by smashing that button on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Thank you to our all-star lineup of sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group and Epic Insurance for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca is back from an unforgettable Breeders’ Cup, and is joined by guest co-host, Sam Houston racecaller and outstanding handicapper Nick Tammaro to break it all down from every angle. Forever Young takes a classic Classic, a monster upset in the Turf, and Joe tells us all about the best day of his racing life thus far, as Super Corredora takes the West Point Thoroughbreds team to the winner’s circle in the Juvenile Fillies.

Joe and Nick are then joined by FanDuel TV’s excellent host/reporter Christina Blacker and get her reactions to all the scintillating racing action, plus her thoughts as a horsewoman on the controversy surrounding the unprecedented amount of vet scratches. The hosts then give their takes on that sensitive topic, the latest major CAW-affected odds plunge, and Joe’s got a bee in his bonnet about an otherwise stellar Breeders’ Cup experience.

Don’t miss any Rail Talk content! Be sure to join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Huge shoutout to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group, Epic Insurance and Arion Pedigrees for supporting our vision!

This week on Rail Talk! The Breeders’ Cup is finally upon us, and Joe Bianca and Jon Green can barely contain their excitement. The boys take you into the mind of a participant in the World Championships, with West Point Thoroughbreds sending out Intricate Spirit, Super Corredora and Vahva and DJ Stable’s Nitrogen attempting to lock up an Eclipse Award.Joe and Jon then pore over a Classic for the ages, give some of their best longshot ideas for the weekend, and welcome Arion Pedigrees’ Andrew Stewart to tell you which international runners to lean into and which are worth betting against. They also celebrate a major viewership milestone for the show as Rail Talk has surpassed 5,000,000 total views on our YouTube channel!On that note, if you haven’t yet, please be sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods! Thank you to our world-class lineup of sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group, Epic Insurance and Arion Pedigrees! Best of luck this weekend and enjoy the Breeders’ Cup!

This week on Rail Talk! Breeders’ Cup pre-entries are out, and Joe Bianca and Jon Green are here to guide you through the 200+ horses entered for a spectacular 42nd running of the World Championships at Del Mar.That list includes over 50 international entries, and a star-studded lineup for this year’s Classic, which stacks up with any renewal of the $7-million centerpiece. Joe and Jon react to it all, plus look forward to some of the ‘home team’ entries highlighted by Nitrogen in the Distaff.The boys also discuss another decline in the foal crop numbers, Santa Anita experimenting with races written by an Equibase rating system, Monmouth Park not paying its purse money yet, associate producer Julia Agresta’s fabulous wedding and more!Don’t miss any Rail Talk content—be sure to 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 brilliant lineup of sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group, Epic Insurance and Arion Pedigrees for their support!

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green start to look forward to the Breeders’ Cup and share the perspectives of readying participants for the World Championships at Del Mar. That leads into a deeper conversation filled with gratitude about the ups and downs of competing to win races and being around special horses. They also bestow a new Rail Talk Citation after a historic win at Keeneland and look forward to their friend and star associate producer Julia Agresta’s wedding this Sunday!Joe and Jon then welcome Damon Thayer to give the industry a briefing on where the fight against decoupling in Florida stands. Thayer discusses the intense lobbying/fundraising effort necessary to stave off the demise of Gulfstream Park, how crucial Florida is to the racing and breeding ecosystem, potential alternative racing sites and much more.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content, as we approach two major viewership/subscriber milestones, be sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods! Huge thanks to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, The Green Group, Taylor Made and Epic Insurance for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! The last round of major Breeders’ Cup preps is in the books, and Joe Bianca and Jon Green react to all of it: Nitrogen’s narrow second in the Spinster, a fitting win for Rhetorical in Keeneland’s Turf Mile, Ted Noffey’s continued dominance in the Breeders’ Futurity, Intricate Spirit punching his ticket to Del Mar for West Point and much more.The boys are then joined by legendary trainer Graham Motion for an illuminating discussion on HISA, Paco Lopez, the importance of speaking out in a Trump-heavy industry and much more. Joe and Jon also discuss the economic indicators through three quarters of 2025—what does it mean that total handle is down but handle per race day is up?Don’t miss any 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. Huge thanks to our all-star lineup of sponsors Fasig-Tipton, The Green Group, Taylor Made and Epic Insurance for their support!

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green give their takes on the major controversy surrounding jockey Paco Lopez’s six-month suspension by HISA: Does the punishment fit the crime? What effect should Paco’s extensive prior record of being unable to follow the rules have? What’s the significance of his fellow riders standing so uniformly behind him?The boys also react to the first of two huge Breeders’ Cup weekends and look forward to the second at Aqueduct and Keeneland, which provides two of the best days of racing in the sport. There’s also a ton of exciting action on tap for the home teams, with Ewing, Curtain Call and Nitrogen headlining a jam-packed weekend of high-profile runners trying to punch their BC tickets for West Point and DJ Stable.Don’t miss any Rail talk content! Be sure to join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods. A million thanks to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group and Epic Insurance for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green sit down with HISA CEO Lisa Lazarus to answer horsemen’s questions about the regulator’s proposed $78 million budget for 2026. How much is going to drug testing? What are some ways we can be more efficient going forward? And what is the intrinsic value of racing on a more level playing field compared to the cheater-infested landscape we had pre-HISA?The boys then react to Baeza getting his well-deserved Grade I in the Pennsylvania Derby and look ahead to a phenomenal Breeders’ Cup Classic. Joe and Jon also discuss the New York stewards’ latest colossally infuriating screwup over the weekend that put bettors in a terrible spot, and Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale leaving the game.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content—be sure to join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods! Thanks to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group and Epic Insurance for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green are back after a week away grinding for their day jobs and react to the seemingly nonstop fireworks at the Keeneland September sale. The market is, like, so hot right now, and Joe and Jon break down what the staggering numbers mean for the industry, the jaw-dropping success of Flightline’s first crop in the sales ring, the latest West Point-DJ Stable collaboration and much more.The boys then look forward to an excellent card Saturday at Parx just outside of Philadelphia, where the championship race heats up in the Grade I Pennsylvania Derby and Grade I Cotillion Stakes, and discuss concerns from horsemen’s groups about HISA’s proposed $78 million budget. They also touch on disappointing handle and field size numbers from the recently-completed meet at Monmouth and the continued absurdity of the overlapping mid-Atlantic racing calendar.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content, be sure to join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods. Mega shoutout to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, Taylor Made, The Green Group and Epic Insurance for their support.

This week on Rail Talk! Joe Bianca and Jon Green react to a Labor Day weekend full of controversy and superstar performances as we enter the home stretch of the championship hunt.First, the boys dissect the scary bumping incident in the roughly-run Jockey Club Gold Cup, which caused Irad Ortiz, Jr. to fall off Mindframe. Thankfully, disaster was averted, but how can we avoid situations like this to begin with? Who was at fault? And is it time to eliminate the ‘rabbit’ strategy from the game?Then, Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Junior Alvarado stops by for a fantastic interview, where he discusses what makes Sovereignty so special, the resilience necessary to bounce back from so many injuries, his observer’s take from the JCGC mess and much more. Joe and Jon also react to some of the weekend’s most impressive efforts, highlighted by Fierceness in the Pacific Classic and Ted Noffey in the Hopeful.Don’t miss any Rail Talk content, be sure to join our ever-growing family by subscribing to the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible or wherever you get your pods! Thanks as always to our sponsors Fasig-Tipton, The Green Group, Taylor Made and Epic Insurance Brokers for their support.