June 11, 2025 • 19 mins
NYRA Handicapper, Andy Serling, talks horse training, the atmosphere of the season, and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back on the Rob Dibble Show. Ven Darnelt live
from one hundred and fifty seventh running.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of the Belmont Steaks at Saratoga.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Our favorite person is here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh yeah, Andy Sterling, NYRA handicapper and uh you know,
one of the most talented analysts out there as well.
But just a great guy. You can talk about anything.
Our best racing friend every time I come to the track,
the juice, the walking around. Now I can see why
lou Panela and Pete Rose and guys that I was
(00:28):
around a lot. We're here all the time. It's just
one of those places. If you like it, you like
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And I think you know, it's pouring rain out right now.
Fortunately supposed to stop soon, and it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Everybody's ah gotten though. I think you're even happier, Tranny.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
It's it's it's Serto is the happiest place on earth,
it really is. I mean, you know, listen, I love racing,
I love Aqueduct. Wherever I am, I'm happy. But you
come to Saratoga. You don't get this kind of fans downstate.
You do here and it just you walk outside. It's
like I always say to my bosses. If you ever
in your office and you're feeling bad, walk outside, you'll realize,
(01:04):
you know, sometimes you get you know, you're in your office,
you here the negative stories and negative stuff and all
the things, and then you walk. It's not like the internet.
It's like real life. And in real life people are
actually nice, yes, and they love it here. And you know,
my friend John Angelos is just mentioning to you before.
He said once to me about.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Sarah John hired me at message Johnson, I'm a big
fan Johnson. Tell John, I said, well, good good man,
been a friend for a long time. He said.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know, it's like Fenway, Wrigley, Sarah Tooga, Cami Yards
to a certain extent. You know as well, there's a
feeling of ownership by the fans, which at times can
be you know, a little bit of a right, but
it's your own regul thing because people feel invested in
what we're doing and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I feel that way now.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
I think this will be my tenth weekend at Saratoga,
and I love being the tour guide.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I love telling people who have never been here but
have lived close and have never gone and like, oh man,
this is what you're missing, and I do feel that
sam of ownership.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'm jealous of you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You're a lifer.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
You like used to walk over here when you were
a little kid. Give our listeners a taste of that,
Like what were you doing at the What were the
earliest ages of Andy serling over here in this venue
at Saratoga.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I definitely didn't get any girls. I just don't get
that many do more, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I literally I walked in here with my dad the
first time he took me here in seventy four, and
I looked around and.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Thought, I'm home, you know. And I mean from then on,
as a kid, I would come.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I think they opened up at ten or eleven, and
i'd come before they opened, and I'd hang out in
the employee cafeteria so I didn't have to pay, and
then I'd watch the movies, stage show and learn about horses,
and I just loved the place and I never left,
you know. It's it's I feel like the luckiest guy
in the world. I know that it's forty and people
say that, but to have my job, getting paid, making
(02:51):
a living doing what I do, to me, I can't.
I'm a kid who wanted to be a fireman growing up,
and I grew up and I became a fireman.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
You know, I love what I do and meeting guys
like you.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You know, I mean when when we first contact you,
you'd never really been the races before, and.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh he is totally I love the races, but it's
always because of Pete scared to death and Lou, like
I'll tell you quick, Loupanella start. I mean when we'd
go to La he'd go to Santa Anita and you know,
we need to line up in by three o'clock in
the afternoon, and Lous walking through the door at six,
and so you know, these are grown ass men sitting
there going, am I playing tonight? Am I not playing tonight?
(03:26):
So now they're like, you know, and then you know
they're doing a lot of different things. So then he'd
walk in and he'd you know, throw down like a
napkin with the lineup with the lion, and that's what
he was doing, prob But.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You know, that's that was the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
These guys were always they needed juice, even when their
careers were done. And so for me, I'm like, I
got to stay the hell away from there because I'm
an addictive person. I smoke for twenty five years just
because I liked smoking, and it's not like I needed
it because when I quit, I quit, I never picked
up another one.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So, you know, we were just talking about Jason Worth,
who I just ran into, and Jay since. All in all,
I understand when you have a worse like door Nick
and you get that kind of success. But he's I mean,
he loves it, and it's just I mean, that's great.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You know, it's not. Once again, nothing is for everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But if you catch the bug and you come here,
and there's no better place to come to Saratoga because
it's the town. It's going to the track in the mornings,
it's being in the afternoons, it's going down out of
the restaurants. And I'm going to tell you I'm going
to say something I've never said publicly before. I'm going
to show you a picture on my phone in my
Twitter account for be able to follow me on Twitter,
I apologize. There's a picture of a worse on the
(04:32):
top of my Twitter account. That horse is stable to
Belma now and that horse his name's Sirling.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Oh my god. My friend Chad Brown and Steph Clarman.
He hasn't run yet.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Okay, he might suck, but it's they're hopeful that he's good.
He's a three year old now, but it's an honor,
you know, it means a lot to me to have that.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I don't know, I'm hoping he can help me. Will
once again, all.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Right, speaking on this baseball horse racing theme that we've
already started talking about your trainer, man, Chad Brown, I
wanted to ask you this coming up here, what does
a trainer really do?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Andy?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Do they really out there every single stop watch? I
see them.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Dressed like you in suits every weekend at the crem
Day LA Crem's spots. Are they really training these horses?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
And I'm thinking maybe it's.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
A little bit like baseball coaches or gms of a
franchise with the minor league system. You know, you don't
know when a guy is ready until they're really ready,
and that GM has an eye for that kind of talent.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
They're setting up a program.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
For them to come through and when they're really ready,
they'll see the big guy Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher, those
kind of trainers to get pushed out to the track.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
How does it really work?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
With these guys.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Years ago we did a draw for the Belmont and
we had a really fun Q and A with Todd Pletcher,
Wayne Lucas, Dale Robins, and Bob Baffert and somebody asked
it was before I think Justify.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
It was Mary Varahju just by going throple ground.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And somebody asked the question, Bob, how will you will
you do things differently tomorrow morning? And Todd said, and
Todd's Todd is a funny guy.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
He just doesn't it's kind of quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
He said, Well, you know about four in the morning,
Wayne'll show up at the barn. I'll show up around
five thirty or six, Bob will rolling around nine to thirty,
and Dale you'll be here around noon.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
And it was very funny. It was having fun.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But I mean it's listen, it's a commitment. I mean,
you cannot be a horse trand it's a twenty four
to seven. It just never stops. And the other thing is,
you know, you show up at the barn every morning
concerned or your phone rings in the middle of the
night and something You're waiting for something.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Bad to happen.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Because horses are tough, it's tough to keep them sound
and keep them racing. I think the difference between the
best trainers and the worst trainers. Obviously it's getting the
right horses and getting there, but it's nuanced. It's like
anything else you as a pitcher, there were guys who
weren't that far from the talent you had that could
never make it in the and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
There was way more talented guys than me.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Right, And it's just one of those things.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I don't know if it's a feel for the horses,
it's understanding the little things. It's where you place them.
A lot of it is putting them in the right races.
You know, do they want to go along? Do they
want to go short? Are they on the turf? They
on the dirt? You know, knowing spacing, where to run them,
knowing the condition book, the races they should be running in.
And I think the best ones work backwards. I want
to get to this race, and this is more for
the good horses. Obviously, you know we're you know, the
(07:20):
best lay player. It doesn't work out, but you say,
I want to get you know, against the Breeders Cup.
How do I get there? And you know, in a
perfect world it works out. It rarely does, but it's
a it's a full time commitment. It's it's not an
easy job. And and the thing is the ones who
straight by, they can work as hard as the guys
who are making a real living at this. It's not like,
you know, necessarily you do better because you outwork people,
(07:42):
but obviously you have to have a commitment and be there.
And you're dealing with owners as well, and there's a
lot of facets of the game. They're tough, and it's
also your staff. The best trainers are only that because
they have great people working for them. And Chad Brand
will tell you that, and anyone will tell you that.
Todd Pletcher's had a number of people that work for
him that have gone into good things. Cox will tell
you that You've got to have people that work with you,
(08:03):
that you not only can trust, but that really know
what they're doing. And it's a shared endeavor. You win
together and you lose together.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Talking Andy Serling, Nyra, We're live from Saratoga. It's the
Belmont tell us about the race, tell us about these horses,
sovereignty journalism.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He asks the question, do they know each other? They've
been in horses?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Can he look across in the gate right before they
open those gates and go like, I hate that horse.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I would like to have a horse that feels that way.
They're the toughest ones. I do wonder. I don't know,
you know, like the New York Bred Stakes, right, they've
been running against each other all the time, but they
were going to go there, so they were going to go.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I'm glad he's not here today. Exact you know, Spear.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Of Saint Louis, who's one of the best turners in
the country for Chap Brown, he's running in the race
before the Belmont. He's a New York bread but he's
moved on. He's won a couple of great ones this year,
so I think the New York Breads are happy not
to see him show up with the paddock. I don't know,
you know, I don't really know if there's any familiarity.
It's probably a smell thing or something. They very well
might but that's not my expertise. It's a great race,
(09:04):
and you know, obviously for us, our business is always
going to be best if there's a triple crown align, right,
you get the biggest crowds, the most attention. Fox Sports,
who's a great partner of ours. You know you want
to have the eyes on trible crown. Having said that,
as far as not having a triple crown, you couldn't
get a better Belmont Stakes than this because you've got
the first three finishers from the derby. So you've got
(09:26):
sovereignty and journalism squaring off in the rubber match. You've
got Baeza, who I like, who's trying to beat the
two of them. He's lost twice to journalism and he
hasn't run since the Derby.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
You've got he'll road for.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Chad Brown, trying to take a step forward show he belongs.
Chad thinks he's training great and he knows it's a
herculean task, but he thinks he's going to run well.
And you've also got Rodriguez for Bob Baffert, who didn't
run the derby. But as a speed horse, he'll probably
be pressured by Crudo.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
The faster.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The pace is going to help sovereignty, but sovereignty is
a worse that really benefited from the Derby because a
big field, a ton of speed, deep closer.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
He could sit back and make the last run.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And I think journalism ba Baeza had some trouble. He
sort of made the last run, but I think fab
and Pratt was concerned about moving too soon into a
fast pace, and I think as a result, he probably
didn't ride him the way he'd like to ride him,
and in a smaller field, a different scenario. I think
Baasa can be the first mover Journalism, the second mover Sovereignty,
and Hill rode the third and fourth movers.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It's a bit of a chess match, and these the
riders are all fabulous and it'll be interesting to see
how it plays out. I don't know, and I think
for me, in my heart, I'm rooting for Journalism because
in all this talk about changing the Triple Crown and nonsense,
they're running in all three races. They ran second the Derby,
they had that incredible win the Preakness with all that trouble,
(10:44):
and now they're back for the Belmont, and I want
him to win in a way so Ptata people, good
horses can run three times in five weeks and show
up every time.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
So in my heart, I'm kind of rooting for him.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Financially, I'm rooting for Baiaza personally a little bit for
hill Road, because that's my buddy.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
So Journalism, if he was to win this, a second
in the Derby, a win at the Breakness, a win
at the Belmont, where does that put him in the
landscape of greatest horses? Obviously behind the thirteen Triple Crown winners,
but still is there more to come? Perhaps for the
Travers and Breeders' Cup, But where in your mind you've
seen them all? Like Journalism fit in that conversation.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
This is a well above average group.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
They're not spectacular bid, they're not affirmed an Alley Dar,
they're not Sunday Silence, an easygoer. But this is a
very strong group of horses. I mean, listen, you know
this stuff. My job is to try to make things exciting.
There are days where I'm thinking to myself, what are
you talking about? Thers suck exact, they're good horses, And
I don't have to lie for this race because these
(11:45):
are really good horses.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh we got to listen to it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh no, don't worry about that scratching job. Iers was
afraid're taking a raise off serve They're not. You want
to see the run, hopefully that runs four year olds.
Reasons we haven't had as many great horses is so
many retire after their three year old seasons and they
don't mature into their four or five. So the how
American Pharaoh, who knows how good he could have been if.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
He ran as a four year old.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I'm hoping that a couple of these stick around,
two or three of them this year. Fierceness coming back,
Sierra Leone coming back, so many good horses back makes
for better races.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
And you want good horses in the best races. You
don't want to leave and go.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I did a lot of promoting there, but I was
kind of lying they're just sort of average good horses.
But you do, I mean, it is what it is,
you know, I mean, you know, you understand, and so
I think these are very good horses, but they're just
starting out and I'm hoping they have long careers and
we get to say in a year and a half.
Man journalism is one of the greats, you know, sovereignty
by ASA. You know, you want to have the opportunity
(12:44):
to see it, but you'd want to see it on
the race track.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Talking to Andy Certin from NYR, all right, So I'm
looking how they're spread out, and sovereignty and journalism. I
think sovereignty is in the two hole, journalisms in the
seven Do they spread them out on purpose?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
How do they?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Probably? Lucky?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Off? Is a drawing this?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah, we had.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It's not like a couple of people go, hey, we
better separate these two.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
No, no, they don't. They don't. It's all up there. No, No, Now,
another part of the tell you I always get the
outside post. I always get stuck on.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That wasn't really the question I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Since there's not twenty horses and there's only eight, does
that really matter where they start?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
No, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
It posts, and this race will start around here the
eighth pole, So you've got about three sixteenth to a
mile before you hit the turn. So there's plenty of
time to sort yourself out, get your position, not worry
about being too wide in the first turn. So post
position is relatively meaningless. But post positions, especially in the derby,
can mean is uh. Let's say you have a speed
(13:45):
horse and you you want to be outside of other
speeds because you want to be able to break and
see where they are and adapt to where they are.
Whereas if you're inside. You know, sometimes you draw the
rail with a good horse and you may not want
to go to the lead, but if you don't go
to the lead, you get shuffled out of the race.
The rider needs to be more aggressive in a race
like this. It's not that consequenttion. If there were two
(14:05):
big speeds in this race, and you would want to
be the one that drew outside the other one because
you could stalk, I think you'd rather be outside than
sort of encumbered by the horse that's outside of you.
So post vision can matter, but in this race and
in this situation, it's pretty irrelevant.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
I really appreciate you let me peek at the notes.
I just love how your brain works. And see what
you do. I think it doesn't work. I'm confident that
I'm somewhat following the Andy Sterling one oh one how
to handicap some horse races. I do some different pins
as well. But I like your technique. When it starts
to rain and you get something an element like that
bad weather, do you scrap everything or do you have
(14:43):
notes for bad weather and sloppy track?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I think you want to think about it a bit.
But the truth of most horses run on anything, there
are going to be some horses that may not really
like the wet. It might end up helping some speed
in that case. You know, horses don't like getting the
mud kicked in their faces, so it might be.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
To be towards the front.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Most humans don't either.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I definitely don't like either scurry somewhere outside without getting wet.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I think that there are occasionally horses that really get
better in a wet track, but they're few and far between.
I will say in terfic can matter because there are
some horses that really can't handle a deep, boggier course. Now,
I don't think this horse, even though we've got a
bunch of rain, is going to be that bad because
the course was very firm and pretty pristine.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We haven't run on in sind September.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But it's interesting because probably one of the biggest favorites
running on today's card is a very very good horse
in the twelfth race name She feels pretty and she's
way the horse to beat, and.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
She's really one of the better horse in the country.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
But the horse on the rail Forever Forever after all,
ran her last race on a boggy turf course, a
very deep, wet corse, and she won by nine lengths
and ran far and away the best race she ever ran.
So I wonder a little bit if maybe she's a
horse that'll move up on a boggy course. So I'm
going to use her as a backup forever after all,
because he may be one that really appreciates this offt going.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
But for the most part, when I pick them and
bet them, I.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Pray all right.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So my final question, because I know you're very busy today,
not too busy for you guys now watching the two
year olds, are you looking forward to who's possibly going
to be running in the Kentucky Derby next year?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I think you're always.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
One of the great things about Saratoga in the summer
and on, you know, is so many two year olds
come out. I saw winning callers who affiliate you beat
the boys to win the Derby. I've sent so many
good ones break their maidens first time out.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It's exciting.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I mean, there's nothing like in some days you see
a race in the horse sovereignty. Sovereignty debuted on the
Travers card last year and ran fourth, and a good
friend of mine his friends with the connections from Godolphin
and Dan Pride, who is in charge of Godlf in America,
and he said, they're so excited by him. That's their
Derby horse. I remember him telling my friend Pete and saying,
I'm not saying he's gonna win, but this is the worst.
They really like it. He run forth and you know,
(16:53):
there's nothing better than seeing a horse that doesn't win
runs fourth, fifth. But you watch and you see something
in the race and not only want to bed the
next time, but also you see that horse before everybody else.
I mean, it's always you know, one of the great
things about racing is you have an opportunity to be
smarter than the other people.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Right, so you know, yes, you bet your money, you
get rewarded.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
But I hit a pick six on Travers Day in
nineteen ninety three. Pay one hundred and forty one thousand.
Me and a friend. We're the only winner. We have
the only ticket. And you know, you're leaving the track
it's travers Day and you're looking down the escalator at
all the people and you're thinking, I got a little his.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yes, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It doesn't suck, you know, absolutely, And that's the game,
right because at the end of the day. Everyone can
find a short price favor, but you're trying to be smarter.
There's a parimutual betting. The odds are based on the
money being bet, so you can only win if you're
a little smarter than other people are. And it's that
kind of game, and I think we all like that opportunity.
Most of the time, I'm dumber than everybody else, but
(17:51):
occasionally I have my moments.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You got horses on top of your head for tomorrow
that are not in the Belmont that you want to
bet money on that you know, bag, I'm pretty sure
we talked Fierceness going to be in that.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
I'm betting against Fierceness.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He's running the met mile and he is the worst
to beat and without question, one of the very very
best horses in racing. But I like a horse named
Raging Torrent to wire the field. That's my my sort
of upset. I got so many pps near I here's
the fear that's I kind of like Raging Torrent. I
think he can upset him. I like a horse name
(18:25):
My Boy Prince and the jiper I mentioned in a
long shot for Todd Pletcher named Gate to Wire in
the King's Bishop, so I'm sorry, the Allen, the the
Woody Stevens being run a couple of races before. I
like Integration in the Manhattan, which is the race before
the Belmont. Oh, I got lots of opinions. Hopefully one
or two of them will win. And later today in
(18:48):
the thirteenth race, which is the run of the best
race of the weekend of just a game. I like
the three Suggesta and the one Dynamic pricing two Chad
Brown horses that are both double digit odds.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
In the morning line.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When do you start tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
When you on TV? Tomorrow's a lot. I haven't even
looked yet.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I think it's around two thirty till the majority of
time until around seven thirty.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
There am on F Fox and F S one.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
We're on Fox for an hour today from five to six,
the Big Fox, and then FS one from six to
seven thirty. And I'll be on that broadcast, but it
won't be nearly as much fun.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Of being with you guys.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I would like to bring you guys on the set,
actually look a couple of people off and.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Just have the three of us there, just tell me
what they love. I love my co works before they're
going to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'll take care of it. They won't come back, No,
they won't, and we are the best. We love you, man.
Thanks guys, thank you for coming back.
We're back on the Rob Dibble Show. Ven Darnelt live
from one hundred and fifty seventh running.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Of the Belmont Steaks at Saratoga.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Our favorite person is here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh yeah, Andy Sterling, NYRA handicapper and uh you know,
one of the most talented analysts out there as well.
But just a great guy. You can talk about anything.
Our best racing friend every time I come to the track,
the juice, the walking around. Now I can see why
lou Panela and Pete Rose and guys that I was
(00:28):
around a lot. We're here all the time. It's just
one of those places. If you like it, you like
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And I think you know, it's pouring rain out right now.
Fortunately supposed to stop soon, and it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Everybody's ah gotten though. I think you're even happier, Tranny.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
It's it's it's Serto is the happiest place on earth,
it really is. I mean, you know, listen, I love racing,
I love Aqueduct. Wherever I am, I'm happy. But you
come to Saratoga. You don't get this kind of fans downstate.
You do here and it just you walk outside. It's
like I always say to my bosses. If you ever
in your office and you're feeling bad, walk outside, you'll realize,
(01:04):
you know, sometimes you get you know, you're in your office,
you here the negative stories and negative stuff and all
the things, and then you walk. It's not like the internet.
It's like real life. And in real life people are
actually nice, yes, and they love it here. And you know,
my friend John Angelos is just mentioning to you before.
He said once to me about.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Sarah John hired me at message Johnson, I'm a big
fan Johnson. Tell John, I said, well, good good man,
been a friend for a long time. He said.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know, it's like Fenway, Wrigley, Sarah Tooga, Cami Yards
to a certain extent. You know as well, there's a
feeling of ownership by the fans, which at times can
be you know, a little bit of a right, but
it's your own regul thing because people feel invested in
what we're doing and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I feel that way now.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
I think this will be my tenth weekend at Saratoga,
and I love being the tour guide.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I love telling people who have never been here but
have lived close and have never gone and like, oh man,
this is what you're missing, and I do feel that
sam of ownership.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'm jealous of you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You're a lifer.
Speaker 5 (02:03):
You like used to walk over here when you were
a little kid. Give our listeners a taste of that,
Like what were you doing at the What were the
earliest ages of Andy serling over here in this venue
at Saratoga.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I definitely didn't get any girls. I just don't get
that many do more, you know.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I literally I walked in here with my dad the
first time he took me here in seventy four, and
I looked around and.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Thought, I'm home, you know. And I mean from then on,
as a kid, I would come.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I think they opened up at ten or eleven, and
i'd come before they opened, and I'd hang out in
the employee cafeteria so I didn't have to pay, and
then I'd watch the movies, stage show and learn about horses,
and I just loved the place and I never left,
you know. It's it's I feel like the luckiest guy
in the world. I know that it's forty and people
say that, but to have my job, getting paid, making
(02:51):
a living doing what I do, to me, I can't.
I'm a kid who wanted to be a fireman growing up,
and I grew up and I became a fireman.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
You know, I love what I do and meeting guys
like you.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You know, I mean when when we first contact you,
you'd never really been the races before, and.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Oh he is totally I love the races, but it's
always because of Pete scared to death and Lou, like
I'll tell you quick, Loupanella start. I mean when we'd
go to La he'd go to Santa Anita and you know,
we need to line up in by three o'clock in
the afternoon, and Lous walking through the door at six,
and so you know, these are grown ass men sitting
there going, am I playing tonight? Am I not playing tonight?
(03:26):
So now they're like, you know, and then you know
they're doing a lot of different things. So then he'd
walk in and he'd you know, throw down like a
napkin with the lineup with the lion, and that's what
he was doing, prob But.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
You know, that's that was the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
These guys were always they needed juice, even when their
careers were done. And so for me, I'm like, I
got to stay the hell away from there because I'm
an addictive person. I smoke for twenty five years just
because I liked smoking, and it's not like I needed
it because when I quit, I quit, I never picked
up another one.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
So, you know, we were just talking about Jason Worth,
who I just ran into, and Jay since. All in all,
I understand when you have a worse like door Nick
and you get that kind of success. But he's I mean,
he loves it, and it's just I mean, that's great.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
You know, it's not. Once again, nothing is for everybody.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
But if you catch the bug and you come here,
and there's no better place to come to Saratoga because
it's the town. It's going to the track in the mornings,
it's being in the afternoons, it's going down out of
the restaurants. And I'm going to tell you I'm going
to say something I've never said publicly before. I'm going
to show you a picture on my phone in my
Twitter account for be able to follow me on Twitter,
I apologize. There's a picture of a worse on the
(04:32):
top of my Twitter account. That horse is stable to
Belma now and that horse his name's Sirling.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Oh my god. My friend Chad Brown and Steph Clarman.
He hasn't run yet.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Okay, he might suck, but it's they're hopeful that he's good.
He's a three year old now, but it's an honor,
you know, it means a lot to me to have that.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
I don't know, I'm hoping he can help me. Will
once again, all.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Right, speaking on this baseball horse racing theme that we've
already started talking about your trainer, man, Chad Brown, I
wanted to ask you this coming up here, what does
a trainer really do?
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Andy?
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Do they really out there every single stop watch? I
see them.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Dressed like you in suits every weekend at the crem
Day LA Crem's spots. Are they really training these horses?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
And I'm thinking maybe it's.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
A little bit like baseball coaches or gms of a
franchise with the minor league system. You know, you don't
know when a guy is ready until they're really ready,
and that GM has an eye for that kind of talent.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
They're setting up a program.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
For them to come through and when they're really ready,
they'll see the big guy Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher, those
kind of trainers to get pushed out to the track.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
How does it really work?
Speaker 1 (05:46):
With these guys.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Years ago we did a draw for the Belmont and
we had a really fun Q and A with Todd Pletcher,
Wayne Lucas, Dale Robins, and Bob Baffert and somebody asked
it was before I think Justify.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
It was Mary Varahju just by going throple ground.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And somebody asked the question, Bob, how will you will
you do things differently tomorrow morning? And Todd said, and
Todd's Todd is a funny guy.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
He just doesn't it's kind of quiet.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
He said, Well, you know about four in the morning,
Wayne'll show up at the barn. I'll show up around
five thirty or six, Bob will rolling around nine to thirty,
and Dale you'll be here around noon.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
And it was very funny. It was having fun.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But I mean it's listen, it's a commitment. I mean,
you cannot be a horse trand it's a twenty four
to seven. It just never stops. And the other thing is,
you know, you show up at the barn every morning
concerned or your phone rings in the middle of the
night and something You're waiting for something.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Bad to happen.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Because horses are tough, it's tough to keep them sound
and keep them racing. I think the difference between the
best trainers and the worst trainers. Obviously it's getting the
right horses and getting there, but it's nuanced. It's like
anything else you as a pitcher, there were guys who
weren't that far from the talent you had that could
never make it in the and.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
There was way more talented guys than me.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Right, And it's just one of those things.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I don't know if it's a feel for the horses,
it's understanding the little things. It's where you place them.
A lot of it is putting them in the right races.
You know, do they want to go along? Do they
want to go short? Are they on the turf? They
on the dirt? You know, knowing spacing, where to run them,
knowing the condition book, the races they should be running in.
And I think the best ones work backwards. I want
to get to this race, and this is more for
the good horses. Obviously, you know we're you know, the
(07:20):
best lay player. It doesn't work out, but you say,
I want to get you know, against the Breeders Cup.
How do I get there? And you know, in a
perfect world it works out. It rarely does, but it's
a it's a full time commitment. It's it's not an
easy job. And and the thing is the ones who
straight by, they can work as hard as the guys
who are making a real living at this. It's not like,
you know, necessarily you do better because you outwork people,
(07:42):
but obviously you have to have a commitment and be there.
And you're dealing with owners as well, and there's a
lot of facets of the game. They're tough, and it's
also your staff. The best trainers are only that because
they have great people working for them. And Chad Brand
will tell you that, and anyone will tell you that.
Todd Pletcher's had a number of people that work for
him that have gone into good things. Cox will tell
you that You've got to have people that work with you,
(08:03):
that you not only can trust, but that really know
what they're doing. And it's a shared endeavor. You win
together and you lose together.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Talking Andy Serling, Nyra, We're live from Saratoga. It's the
Belmont tell us about the race, tell us about these horses,
sovereignty journalism.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He asks the question, do they know each other? They've
been in horses?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Can he look across in the gate right before they
open those gates and go like, I hate that horse.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I would like to have a horse that feels that way.
They're the toughest ones. I do wonder. I don't know,
you know, like the New York Bred Stakes, right, they've
been running against each other all the time, but they
were going to go there, so they were going to go.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
I'm glad he's not here today. Exact you know, Spear.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Of Saint Louis, who's one of the best turners in
the country for Chap Brown, he's running in the race
before the Belmont. He's a New York bread but he's
moved on. He's won a couple of great ones this year,
so I think the New York Breads are happy not
to see him show up with the paddock. I don't know,
you know, I don't really know if there's any familiarity.
It's probably a smell thing or something. They very well
might but that's not my expertise. It's a great race,
(09:04):
and you know, obviously for us, our business is always
going to be best if there's a triple crown align, right,
you get the biggest crowds, the most attention. Fox Sports,
who's a great partner of ours. You know you want
to have the eyes on trible crown. Having said that,
as far as not having a triple crown, you couldn't
get a better Belmont Stakes than this because you've got
the first three finishers from the derby. So you've got
(09:26):
sovereignty and journalism squaring off in the rubber match. You've
got Baeza, who I like, who's trying to beat the
two of them. He's lost twice to journalism and he
hasn't run since the Derby.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
You've got he'll road for.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Chad Brown, trying to take a step forward show he belongs.
Chad thinks he's training great and he knows it's a
herculean task, but he thinks he's going to run well.
And you've also got Rodriguez for Bob Baffert, who didn't
run the derby. But as a speed horse, he'll probably
be pressured by Crudo.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
The faster.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
The pace is going to help sovereignty, but sovereignty is
a worse that really benefited from the Derby because a
big field, a ton of speed, deep closer.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
He could sit back and make the last run.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
And I think journalism ba Baeza had some trouble. He
sort of made the last run, but I think fab
and Pratt was concerned about moving too soon into a
fast pace, and I think as a result, he probably
didn't ride him the way he'd like to ride him,
and in a smaller field, a different scenario. I think
Baasa can be the first mover Journalism, the second mover Sovereignty,
and Hill rode the third and fourth movers.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
So it'll be interesting to see.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It's a bit of a chess match, and these the
riders are all fabulous and it'll be interesting to see
how it plays out. I don't know, and I think
for me, in my heart, I'm rooting for Journalism because
in all this talk about changing the Triple Crown and nonsense,
they're running in all three races. They ran second the Derby,
they had that incredible win the Preakness with all that trouble,
(10:44):
and now they're back for the Belmont, and I want
him to win in a way so Ptata people, good
horses can run three times in five weeks and show
up every time.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
So in my heart, I'm kind of rooting for him.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Financially, I'm rooting for Baiaza personally a little bit for
hill Road, because that's my buddy.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
So Journalism, if he was to win this, a second
in the Derby, a win at the Breakness, a win
at the Belmont, where does that put him in the
landscape of greatest horses? Obviously behind the thirteen Triple Crown winners,
but still is there more to come? Perhaps for the
Travers and Breeders' Cup, But where in your mind you've
seen them all? Like Journalism fit in that conversation.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
This is a well above average group.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
They're not spectacular bid, they're not affirmed an Alley Dar,
they're not Sunday Silence, an easygoer. But this is a
very strong group of horses. I mean, listen, you know
this stuff. My job is to try to make things exciting.
There are days where I'm thinking to myself, what are
you talking about? Thers suck exact, they're good horses, And
I don't have to lie for this race because these
(11:45):
are really good horses.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Oh we got to listen to it.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh no, don't worry about that scratching job. Iers was
afraid're taking a raise off serve They're not. You want
to see the run, hopefully that runs four year olds.
Reasons we haven't had as many great horses is so
many retire after their three year old seasons and they
don't mature into their four or five. So the how
American Pharaoh, who knows how good he could have been if.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
He ran as a four year old.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I'm hoping that a couple of these stick around,
two or three of them this year. Fierceness coming back,
Sierra Leone coming back, so many good horses back makes
for better races.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
And you want good horses in the best races. You
don't want to leave and go.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I did a lot of promoting there, but I was
kind of lying they're just sort of average good horses.
But you do, I mean, it is what it is,
you know, I mean, you know, you understand, and so
I think these are very good horses, but they're just
starting out and I'm hoping they have long careers and
we get to say in a year and a half.
Man journalism is one of the greats, you know, sovereignty
by ASA. You know, you want to have the opportunity
(12:44):
to see it, but you'd want to see it on
the race track.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Talking to Andy Certin from NYR, all right, So I'm
looking how they're spread out, and sovereignty and journalism. I
think sovereignty is in the two hole, journalisms in the
seven Do they spread them out on purpose?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
How do they?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Probably? Lucky?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Off? Is a drawing this?
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yeah, we had.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
It's not like a couple of people go, hey, we
better separate these two.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
No, no, they don't. They don't. It's all up there. No, No, Now,
another part of the tell you I always get the
outside post. I always get stuck on.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
That wasn't really the question I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Since there's not twenty horses and there's only eight, does
that really matter where they start?
Speaker 4 (13:23):
No, that's a good question.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
It posts, and this race will start around here the
eighth pole, So you've got about three sixteenth to a
mile before you hit the turn. So there's plenty of
time to sort yourself out, get your position, not worry
about being too wide in the first turn. So post
position is relatively meaningless. But post positions, especially in the derby,
can mean is uh. Let's say you have a speed
(13:45):
horse and you you want to be outside of other
speeds because you want to be able to break and
see where they are and adapt to where they are.
Whereas if you're inside. You know, sometimes you draw the
rail with a good horse and you may not want
to go to the lead, but if you don't go
to the lead, you get shuffled out of the race.
The rider needs to be more aggressive in a race
like this. It's not that consequenttion. If there were two
(14:05):
big speeds in this race, and you would want to
be the one that drew outside the other one because
you could stalk, I think you'd rather be outside than
sort of encumbered by the horse that's outside of you.
So post vision can matter, but in this race and
in this situation, it's pretty irrelevant.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
I really appreciate you let me peek at the notes.
I just love how your brain works. And see what
you do. I think it doesn't work. I'm confident that
I'm somewhat following the Andy Sterling one oh one how
to handicap some horse races. I do some different pins
as well. But I like your technique. When it starts
to rain and you get something an element like that
bad weather, do you scrap everything or do you have
(14:43):
notes for bad weather and sloppy track?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
I think you want to think about it a bit.
But the truth of most horses run on anything, there
are going to be some horses that may not really
like the wet. It might end up helping some speed
in that case. You know, horses don't like getting the
mud kicked in their faces, so it might be.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
To be towards the front.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Most humans don't either.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
I definitely don't like either scurry somewhere outside without getting wet.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I think that there are occasionally horses that really get
better in a wet track, but they're few and far between.
I will say in terfic can matter because there are
some horses that really can't handle a deep, boggier course. Now,
I don't think this horse, even though we've got a
bunch of rain, is going to be that bad because
the course was very firm and pretty pristine.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We haven't run on in sind September.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But it's interesting because probably one of the biggest favorites
running on today's card is a very very good horse
in the twelfth race name She feels pretty and she's
way the horse to beat, and.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
She's really one of the better horse in the country.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
But the horse on the rail Forever Forever after all,
ran her last race on a boggy turf course, a
very deep, wet corse, and she won by nine lengths
and ran far and away the best race she ever ran.
So I wonder a little bit if maybe she's a
horse that'll move up on a boggy course. So I'm
going to use her as a backup forever after all,
because he may be one that really appreciates this offt going.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
But for the most part, when I pick them and
bet them, I.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Pray all right.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So my final question, because I know you're very busy today,
not too busy for you guys now watching the two
year olds, are you looking forward to who's possibly going
to be running in the Kentucky Derby next year?
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I think you're always.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
One of the great things about Saratoga in the summer
and on, you know, is so many two year olds
come out. I saw winning callers who affiliate you beat
the boys to win the Derby. I've sent so many
good ones break their maidens first time out.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It's exciting.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I mean, there's nothing like in some days you see
a race in the horse sovereignty. Sovereignty debuted on the
Travers card last year and ran fourth, and a good
friend of mine his friends with the connections from Godolphin
and Dan Pride, who is in charge of Godlf in America,
and he said, they're so excited by him. That's their
Derby horse. I remember him telling my friend Pete and saying,
I'm not saying he's gonna win, but this is the worst.
They really like it. He run forth and you know,
(16:53):
there's nothing better than seeing a horse that doesn't win
runs fourth, fifth. But you watch and you see something
in the race and not only want to bed the
next time, but also you see that horse before everybody else.
I mean, it's always you know, one of the great
things about racing is you have an opportunity to be
smarter than the other people.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Right, so you know, yes, you bet your money, you
get rewarded.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
But I hit a pick six on Travers Day in
nineteen ninety three. Pay one hundred and forty one thousand.
Me and a friend. We're the only winner. We have
the only ticket. And you know, you're leaving the track
it's travers Day and you're looking down the escalator at
all the people and you're thinking, I got a little his.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yes, fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It doesn't suck, you know, absolutely, And that's the game,
right because at the end of the day. Everyone can
find a short price favor, but you're trying to be smarter.
There's a parimutual betting. The odds are based on the
money being bet, so you can only win if you're
a little smarter than other people are. And it's that
kind of game, and I think we all like that opportunity.
Most of the time, I'm dumber than everybody else, but
(17:51):
occasionally I have my moments.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You got horses on top of your head for tomorrow
that are not in the Belmont that you want to
bet money on that you know, bag, I'm pretty sure
we talked Fierceness going to be in that.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
I'm betting against Fierceness.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
He's running the met mile and he is the worst
to beat and without question, one of the very very
best horses in racing. But I like a horse named
Raging Torrent to wire the field. That's my my sort
of upset. I got so many pps near I here's
the fear that's I kind of like Raging Torrent. I
think he can upset him. I like a horse name
(18:25):
My Boy Prince and the jiper I mentioned in a
long shot for Todd Pletcher named Gate to Wire in
the King's Bishop, so I'm sorry, the Allen, the the
Woody Stevens being run a couple of races before. I
like Integration in the Manhattan, which is the race before
the Belmont. Oh, I got lots of opinions. Hopefully one
or two of them will win. And later today in
(18:48):
the thirteenth race, which is the run of the best
race of the weekend of just a game. I like
the three Suggesta and the one Dynamic pricing two Chad
Brown horses that are both double digit odds.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
In the morning line.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When do you start tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
When you on TV? Tomorrow's a lot. I haven't even
looked yet.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
I think it's around two thirty till the majority of
time until around seven thirty.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
There am on F Fox and F S one.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
We're on Fox for an hour today from five to six,
the Big Fox, and then FS one from six to
seven thirty. And I'll be on that broadcast, but it
won't be nearly as much fun.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Of being with you guys.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
I would like to bring you guys on the set,
actually look a couple of people off and.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Just have the three of us there, just tell me
what they love. I love my co works before they're
going to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'll take care of it. They won't come back, No,
they won't, and we are the best. We love you, man.
Thanks guys, thank you for coming back.
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History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.