TDN Podcast

“You ever see me around the sales wearing short pants, you better run for cover-because the world’s getting ready to come to an end.” Seth Hancock is remembering Swale. Bittersweet animal! He slaked Claiborne’s ancestral thirst for a Kentucky Derby, trained by the great Woody Stephens. A week after Swale added the Belmont, Hancock was back in New York to see one of the farm’s fillies run in the Mother Goose. Listen to the entire podcast, with Chris McGrath.

Welcome to the Writers Room, the first edition of the new weekly TDN Podcast. Today, writers Joe Bianca, Alan Carasso and Bill Finley wrap up the Travers Stakes, the Personal Ensign Stakes, and the rest of the week’s racing. They debate the three-year-old leaders, and look ahead to this weekend’s stakes racing.

The experience of sitting in a semi-darkened church overlooking the Val d’Orcia, one of Italy’s most beautiful vistas, with just around 200 other people and listening to this music is so profound, and such a rare chance to focus in today’s world full of distractions, that leads me to start thinking about all of the things I value and enjoy in life. Travel, certainly, and history. Family, tradition, art, great food and fine wine, friendship, landscape, scenery and beauty. And now, music. Listen to Sue Finley’s story on the Incontri in Terra di Siena, a music festival unlike any other.

It is easy to think of ‘The Cowboy’ as an American entity, but plenty of other cultures have their own equivalent. As part of the celebration for the G1 Longines Gran Premio Latinoamericano—which was won by Ya Primo (Chi), who since ran second for Chad Brown in the GII July 27 Bowling Green at Saratoga-huasos came out on the track and put on a demonstration before the race in Santiago, Chile. Ride along with Amanda Duckworth and some huasos on a wine tour of Chile.

Not unlike the rise of supertrainers in racing, the last decade has given birth to the rise of the super celebrity chef-restaurateurs who operate in multiple locations, compete in televised competitions, and have their own shows on the Food Network. David Burke currently operates 10 restaurants, has a line of cookware, has appeared on numerous t.v. programs, is developing his own reality series, has written two cookbooks, participates in numerous philanthropic endeavors, and serves as a consultant to a number of corporate organizations. Sue Finley visits with him at his restaurant near Monmouth Park, and discovers his many racing connections.

There were few people more visible in the highest echelons of the sport of horse racing in the 1990s than Bob and Beverly Lewis. The California couple spent large sums at the yearling sales and were rewarded with six champions-including two Kentucky Derby winners-in the span of 10 years. But it is likely they are most remembered for their copious volumes of grace and class. Bob and Beverly were married for 58 years before Bob’s passing in 2006, and they developed similarly loyal relationships with those they employed in the Thoroughbred industry. In a 2017 TDN story following Beverly’s death, trainer Bob Baffert said, “They may have been the only owners in racing who no one ever minded losing to. They were both so well-liked and such nice people.” Kelsey Riley visits with their most famous horse, Serena’s Song, who is still happy and healthy at Denali Stud at the age of 27.

It has been 400 years since the first Spring Meeting was run at Newmarket, during the reign of James I, in 1619. While racing took place in different guises and at other locations around the world before that time, the formalised sport of horseracing as we now know it began in the small East Anglian town which remains a global focus for the ‘sport of kings’. Listen to Newmarket resident Emma Berry’s podcast on her hometown.

King T. Leatherbury is a horse racing legend, but not in the manner of a Bob Baffert or a Wayne Lukas. Leatherbury has been grinding it out since with 1958, primarily with claiming horses. But the 85-year-old trainer has been so good at what he does that he’s the fifth-winningest trainer of all time in North America and is in the Hall of Fame. Leatherbury, who may be nearing retirement, is this week’s guest on the Thoroughbred Daily News podcast, brought to you by Taylor Made.

Owner Chuck Zacney had quite the run in 2005 when Afleet Alex (Afleet) won the GI Preakness and GI Belmont and was named champion 3-year-old male. He’s had a good horse here and there over the next many years, but nothing like the duo he’s ready to launch in the major races for 3-year-old fillies and colts next year. He’s the co-owner of both GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Jaywalk (Cross Traffic) and GII Remsen S. winner Maximus Mischief (Into Mischief) and, yes, he’s dreaming of a GI Kentucky Oaks-GI Kentucky Derby double. Can you blame him? Zacney is this week’s guest on the TDN Podcast, presented by Taylor Made.

Not that anyone necessarily needed reminding, but John Gosden proved at this year’s Breeders’ Cup that not only is he one of most gifted trainers in the sport, he is among the most durable. Way back in 1984, the then-33-year-old trainer won a race at the inaugural Breeders’ Cup with Royal Heroine (Ire) (Lypheor {GB}). Fast forward to 2018 and the 35th Breeders’ Cup and there was John Gosden back in the winner’s circle with the phenomenal filly Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}). A trainer who has won far more than his fair share of big races all over the world, John Gosden is our guest on this week’s Thoroughbred Daily News podcast, brought to you by Taylor Made.