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00:00Alexa Zepp is with Daily Racing Forum, and she's here today to talk about the derby.
00:05You can follow her at Alexa underscore Zepp.
00:07What a great name.
00:08All I think about is Led Zeppelin when I think of your name.
00:11I think it's fantastic.
00:13I'm excited to have you on the show.
00:15I want to start with this.
00:16Bob Baffert is back between the spires, finally, at Churchill Downs after being suspended.
00:25And what has he got, three horses in this thing?
00:26Because I'm used to NBC spending eight hours every year talking about Bob Baffert at the Kentucky Derby and no one else.
00:36Yeah, he's back.
00:38He served his sentence, you know, three years out of it.
00:41And he's back with a vengeance with a couple good ones in here.
00:44Not my top picks, actually, though.
00:47I've landed on journalism, and I really hate picking the favorite who is going to be the favorite.
00:52But I just think this horse is so good.
00:55So buyer speed figures are, like, our standard of measuring speed in horse racing.
01:00And he ran a 108 last year.
01:02To put that in perspective, the last 11 derby winners have not run that figure.
01:06The fastest winning derby figure was a 105.
01:09So he's really fast.
01:10He's got a good running style.
01:12Like all derbies, this race is going to have, like, a ton of speed in it.
01:16So he's got kind of like a mid-pack, closing, running style.
01:20And I think it's just going to set up really, really nicely for him.
01:24He has been running in small fields, though.
01:27He's been running in, like, five- and six-horse fields.
01:28So you can maybe throw some shade at him that way and look at some other ones in here.
01:34But he's beat a lot of the really other strong contenders in here already.
01:39So I'm just really impressed with him.
01:41I'm going to use him.
01:42I'm not going to single him, though.
01:43I'll throw some others in there.
01:44I like Sandman a lot.
01:46Sandman's the number 17.
01:47So that's, like, the dreaded post position.
01:49It's the only post position that has never won the derby.
01:52This is the 151st running.
01:54So you could hear the groans.
01:57But Jose Ortiz is a badass.
01:59I think he's a great jock.
02:02And I've got to ask you about Rispoli.
02:05Does he have the stones to pull this off and win with this journalism?
02:09I know journalism's won four straight races.
02:12And can McCarthy and Rispoli do this?
02:14We know what Ortiz is capable of.
02:17Yeah.
02:18I mean, Umberto's, like, one of the best out there, I think.
02:20So I think he definitely has it.
02:23But you're right.
02:24I mean, Sandman's got good connections.
02:25These are all the best connections, right?
02:27Everybody's fighting to be in this race.
02:29So from a connection standpoint, yeah.
02:31I mean, Sandman looks really good.
02:33He, I have been in love with this horse since his performance in January in the Southwest.
02:38So the horse, like, went to his knees at the break almost.
02:43And you were like, oh, my God, is the horse okay?
02:46And then not only was he okay, he, like, came and closing like crazy at the end.
02:51He ended up losing by a couple of lengths.
02:54But showing that kind of grit is a huge deal in a race.
02:58Because the Derby is a race you're never going to get your way.
03:01It's never going to set up perfectly exactly how you want it.
03:03So I like seeing that from a horse ahead of time that, you know, he can handle it.
03:08And then he won the Arkansas Derby last out really convincingly.
03:11He is 0 for 3 at Churchill, which is, you know, a bummer.
03:15But those were a lot earlier in his career.
03:17So I really like, like, Simon quite a bit.
03:20There's also the 7 Luxor Cafe, who's a Japanese.
03:24That's a Japanese horse, right?
03:25Is that not the horse that races in the Far East?
03:28And he's won a bunch of races as well, like four in a row over there.
03:32Four in a row, two of them by five lengths.
03:36He's been favored in all six of his races he's ever run.
03:40And the Japanese contingent gets stronger and stronger every year.
03:43Last year, you probably could say they had the best horse, Forever Young,
03:46who found some trouble late in the stretch and lost by a nose.
03:50But he's looking really good.
03:52All of his running lines, which just give you a little feeling of how the horse
03:55acts throughout the race, just say, like, he takes command.
03:59So I like seeing that.
04:01And then I have to comment on the number 21, Baeza.
04:05So not yet in the Derby is the one alternate entry.
04:08So if one horse scratches, he'll get in.
04:10And I just really want this horse to get in.
04:13I think it's a good story.
04:15First of all, he's very talented, but also a really good story
04:17because his mom is the mom of the 2023 Kentucky Derby Winter Mage
04:22and then also the mom of 2024 Contender Doorknock,
04:26owned by MLB star Jason Wirth,
04:28and then won the Belmont, so the third leg of the Triple Crown.
04:31That's right.
04:32I interviewed him at the Super Bowl after he won the Belmont.
04:36That's fantastic that he's into horse racing now.
04:40I think it's great.
04:41He's been another derby runner.
04:44Real quick, 20 seconds.
04:45How many of these derbies have you been to?
04:46I've been to it.
04:47I think it's the greatest thing to go to.
04:49It's so much fun.
04:50This will actually be my third year going.
04:52It's just a total blast.
04:54I recommend everybody at some point get there in your lifetime.
04:57It's so much fun.
04:58I mean, I just had so much fun there.
05:00Everything about it, the people's clothes,
05:03everybody drinking booze, gambling on the ponies.
05:06It's just a fantastic day at Churchill Downs.
05:08Alexa, thank you.
05:09Great job.
05:10Enjoy yourself.
05:11Have fun in Louisville.
05:11First, enjoy myself.
05:16Merry Christmas.