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00:00We're going to focus on Aqueduct over in New York with their Graded Stakes Race and kick
00:06it off with the Grade 2 Cigar Mile.
00:08And if you want some more help with those races, if you're following us on social media
00:12like on X, we at DRF and DRF in Espanola will be posting a lot about that.
00:18I know our friend Roberto Rodriguez over there, he's been sending in a lot of content, so
00:22keep an eye on that.
00:24Let's make some money here, so we have plenty of money in our bank accounts and our accounts
00:28to fire away on the Hong Kong races.
00:30This is a good one.
00:31This is the Grade 2 Cigar Mile and you're going to see a lot of real quality horses
00:36in here.
00:37We'll start with the one, Alexa Bookham-Dano.
00:38He's a Grade 1 winner.
00:39He will have to step up though and face older horses for the first time.
00:43Comes off a race where he had a little bit of trouble at Keeneland when he was the heavy
00:46favorite.
00:47He finished second, beating the neck last time out.
00:48What do you think about Bookham-Dano in this spot?
00:51You know, Bookham-Dano is so talented.
00:53He's a millionaire.
00:54He's never done worse than third.
00:55He's won 60% of his races.
00:57He likes to sit a few off the pace, but also just a really tactical horse that can handle
01:02multiple pace scenarios.
01:03I really do think he'll get the spot he likes.
01:05You know, time premiums does predict him to win, but I think this is a really competitive
01:10race and I just had to make difficult choices, so I didn't actually include him, but it's
01:14not because I have anything negative to say about him.
01:16I just like some others more.
01:17I completely agree with you.
01:19This is the type of race where there are six or seven horses who you legitimately feel
01:23like could win this race and you can't use them all.
01:26For Alexa and me, we put up our selections.
01:28Sometimes it's top three or top four.
01:30In this race, I was the exact same.
01:32I don't really have a whole lot of knocks on him.
01:33I just sort of like others a little bit more and maybe the prices that we'll get on others
01:37a little bit more than on Bookham-Dano.
01:40We move to Nelson Avenue.
01:41He's sharp.
01:42He is in really nice form right now.
01:44He's grade three place, but he will have to step up and face tougher.
01:48I think he'll probably be part of the early speed.
01:50That's where time form US hasn't projected, Alexa.
01:52Yeah, I agree.
01:54He stepped up to that graded company last out and got second to Coastal Mission, who's
01:58also in here.
02:00I agree with you and time form that he's going to be setting the pace.
02:03He has that 126 early pace time from US rating, which is huge, but I'd be surprised if he's
02:08able to stick around and hold that position to the end.
02:10Repo Rocks is the next one.
02:12He comes off of a kind of a non-threatening fourth.
02:14He was behind Coastal Mission and Nelson Avenue last time out.
02:17He got really good last year.
02:19It kind of reminds me of a team that had a great year last year where everything was
02:22going well for them in the middle of the year.
02:24And then the next year, you're a baseball team or a basketball team.
02:27Sometimes you win the World Series and then the next year, it just doesn't go quite as
02:30well.
02:31He's not in as good a form right now as he was last year at the top of his game.
02:34I agree with you.
02:35You know, he's almost a seven year old gelding, so he's against a lot younger and tougher
02:38in here.
02:39Vince Sanity looks like a long shot horse who comes off kind of a disappointing effort
02:43last time out and now has to step up.
02:45Do you have anything positive about Vince Sanity?
02:48No, I don't understand why Vince Sanity is in this race.
02:50Yeah, he's in a tough spot.
02:52Mulliken, though, looks like one of the real horses to beat.
02:56Shout out to Rich, our producer right now.
02:57I know he's smiling thinking about Mulliken.
02:59He's a grade one winner.
03:00He's a multiple graded stakes winner.
03:02And when he was in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, he was actually favored, but he didn't get
03:05the normal trip, Alexa, where he shows his early speed.
03:08A lot of times when that happens to horses, they just back up.
03:11But he actually showed a new ability to come from off the pace.
03:14I was pretty impressed with that.
03:16Even though things weren't his way, he didn't get discouraged and he showed that he's got
03:19some fight.
03:21Yeah, I really like Mulliken.
03:22Mulliken was one of my favorite bets on that Breeders' Cup day and it didn't work out.
03:26But like you said, we saw something new.
03:28I'm actually stretching him out longer than he's ever been and he had that easy six-for-long
03:32work to prep.
03:33So I really like Mulliken in this spot.
03:35Yeah, and he could be the one to catch in here if he gets a good start and gets out
03:38of the gate quickly.
03:39Law Professor is just a really cool horse.
03:42He's been up and down the block for the last few years.
03:44You see him on the turf.
03:45You see him on the dirt.
03:46He's not quite as good.
03:48Maybe he doesn't have a ceiling as some of the best in here.
03:51But he's one of those horses that you might want to use in your tries and your supers
03:54because he usually outruns his odds and he has kind of a nice running style where I wouldn't
03:59be shocked, Alexa, if he hit the board and he were to run like third or fourth in here
04:02and maybe spice up some of the exotics.
04:04So I love Zaqueduct and he's proven at a mile.
04:07One of my personal favorite horses that I like to root for here.
04:11What do you think about Law Professor?
04:12I completely agree with you.
04:14This is a really good long shot to use underneath.
04:17This is a niche spot for him.
04:18He loves Zaqueduct.
04:19He's run your seven times, one five, never off the board and also likes this distance.
04:23So it could be a good price.
04:25Locked comes into this race looking like a major player.
04:28Locked was actually the favorite in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last year.
04:31So he was at the very tip top of the division.
04:33And then this year he was supposed to start in the Fountain of Youth.
04:36He had a knee injury that backed him up all the way to October.
04:40So he's only made one start this year and it was a win.
04:43I think he's ready to take a big step forward now.
04:46Second start off the bench, Alexa.
04:48I feel like this is a really nice spot for Locked.
04:50Totally agree.
04:51I mean, the fact that after a year off he had such an impressive performance, like we
04:55can only expect him to improve.
04:57Yep.
04:58Locked looks like one of the major players in here.
05:00Grade one winner last year.
05:02Pipeline will probably show some speed.
05:03The eight pipeline is grade one place, but was actually in this race last year and in
05:082021.
05:09Was ninth and then was eighth.
05:11Do we think he has a shot in this year's Cigar Mile?
05:13Not really.
05:14You know, his figures haven't really improved since the last few times around.
05:17So I don't really think we can expect to see much different results.
05:20Señor Buscador is another really cool horse in this race.
05:23We have some fun stories and one of them is Señor Buscador, who starting last year was
05:27in this race, then went to the Pegasus World Cup.
05:30He was second in both of them.
05:31Then he went and won the Saudi Cup and then was third in the Dubai World Cup.
05:35So he went on a stretch of like four or five of the biggest and most prestigious races
05:39in the world and ran really well in all of them.
05:42He comes back this year, kind of trending back into positive form.
05:46The only concern we have with him, Alexa, is just his running style.
05:49You kind of know what you're going to get from him, right?
05:51He doesn't have a whole lot of early speed.
05:53He's going to drop back and he's going to make that one late run.
05:55Oh, he's 100 percent a clear cut closer.
05:58So I mean, that is his style.
06:00You see it on, you know, the time from U.S. pace projector as well, that he has that late
06:04late pace flag.
06:05I mean, he's won almost 13 million dollars.
06:07The source knows how to collect a check.
06:10And I like him a lot.
06:12I think if Mulligan doesn't, you know, stick around, then Senor Buscador picks it up at
06:16the end.
06:17He's a real interesting horse because he's coming off of a good effort in the Breeders'
06:20Cup.
06:21And if you just look at the four horses who were in front of him that day, they really
06:23could.
06:24Sierra Leone, Fierceness, Forever Young and Newgate.
06:27Any one of them in this race would be a major, major player.
06:30Coastal Mission is another cool horse to root for.
06:33He's a 14 time winner.
06:34He's done a lot of his work at Charlestown because he's a West Virginia bred, but he's
06:38now a grade three winner.
06:39Do you think he fits with this group?
06:41You know, he got fifth in this last year.
06:43He's a millionaire as well.
06:45He's beat some of the other opponents in here, but he's also lost to Mulligan and Senor Buscador.
06:50So I think it's going to be a tough spot.
06:51It's not an impossible ask, but a tough position to be in.
06:55We have a couple of horses in this race who were in the Breeders' Cup and who hit the
06:58board in the Breeders' Cup.
06:59And one of them was Postime.
07:01Postime is another one kind of like Senor Buscador.
07:04He's a late closer.
07:05You know what you're going to get.
07:06He's remarkably consistent though.
07:08He always hits the board.
07:10He always shows up with the late run.
07:11He just kind of needs the pace to get it right, to get the big money.
07:15Yeah.
07:16He's the other closer in here.
07:17I like him.
07:18He's actually my third selection.
07:19You know, it's the, the Russell duo, Brittany Russell, the trainer, her husband, Sheldon
07:23is riding.
07:24So that's kind of fun to root for, but he's a great closer.