Keeneland Players’ Podcast #8 – Closing Friday (Jim Goodman)

***Please note this was done with AI and likely contains errors and inaccuracies. ***

Hey everybody. Peter Thomas foreign, a towel here, and we’ve got a great show for you today, but before we get into it, just want to give you a word from the sponsor of this new podcast, Caitlin select some great promos. You want to be aware of heading into this meet. There’s a signup bonus. If you bet $300 in the first 30 days, you will receive $100 back into your account and new for spring.

If you sign up for Keelan select now and bet, 500 on Caitlin racing during the spring meet you’ll receive $50 back into your account. Bet another 500 and get another 50 back maximum of 1000 wagered on the Caitlin live meets still. That’s a nice kickback and a really. Good deal. We want you to use the promo code ITM 19 to sign up today.

Again, make sure you use the promo code ITM 19. When you sign up for Caitlin select for more information, go to Keeneland, select.com

and the letter.

Hello and welcome to the keen Lynn select players podcast. This is show number eight, our final episode of the spring season of this chemo and select players podcast. I’m your host, Peter Thomas foreign, a towel back with you to talk about the late pick four on Fridays races. A little bit later in the show, we got a special meet recapping visit from our friend, Jim Goodman.

You’ll want to stick around for that. But first I thought I would bring in the co-host and talk about this late pick for as, for that co-host he’s out of Lexington. He’s back on the planet, Texas, as far as I can keep track of his peregrinations. Anyway, he is the people’s champion. He is Jonathan kitchen.

J K. Did I get that right? And what’s up. Peregrinations we are, we don’t know if we have enough time. I’m going to pause the show, do a little Googling. Your parents.  patients. Peregrinations one. You’re that? You’re a wandering soul JK. You’re never in the same place for very long. Yeah, I guess I get a little, a little antsy.

So anyways, uh, yeah, everything’s good. I’m I’m home. I’m getting ready to go pick up Austin from school here in a little bit. And then Friday is going to be Avengers, uh, end of what I ended up game or end of whatever it’s called wash Avengers tomorrow morning. The one with Thanos is that the one with Fanno Senate.

It is, it is, I think it’s they nose, but, uh, Austin’s corrected me in many, a times when I tried to put the thought nose on it. So I believe it is thick enough. You gotta say it. You gotta say it like you’re from New York banjos. Hey, um, speaking of New York fans of this show, go ahead and check out our.

Companion podcast where we’ll be going over. Niara late pick fives. That’s going to be continuing. You can also stick with us on our flagship show, the, in the money players podcast. And right now we’ve got a special edition, really looking forward to Derby. Jeez, we’ve gotten some great feedback on it. It’s been out less than 24 hours.

We’re calling it the monster pod JK monster pod, Kentucky Derby preview. You’ve been hearing some decent feedback about that one. Yeah, I have, I actually listened to the whole thing yesterday. Um, last night I was kind of bored and there was a couple of segments that you, you know, the power of radio and power of recording.

I actually wasn’t on. So I wanted to listen to those, um, just cause I was curious, um, and I ended up listening to the old two and a half hours and like I was even on most of most of the interviews and I, I still learned something and pick something up. I tweeted late last night, clay Sanders has convinced me.

That long range. Toddy is a horse that needs to be included in your underneath gimmicks and stuff like that. For the, uh, for the Derby idea, just trying to give a view on each of the 23 runners, if two and a half hours sounds insane. Break it up into chunks. You know, it’s, it’s not quite two and a half. I think you can basically do it in three.

45 minute pieces. We want you to check it out and enjoy it. And hopefully the new fans who’ve come along with us for this Keeneland show are going to stick with us on our other properties. That’s the hope anyway, I’m sure I’ll talk to Jim Goodman about this in a few minutes, JK, but just wanted to get your thoughts also sort of recapping the Mead about the bittersweet feeling that comes at the end of a great meet, like Keene Linda, how are you emotionally with this as it is an upsetting time of year?

Or are you so focused on Derby that you. You don’t really get those sad fields. It’s always a really sad thing. I think that if. It was any, if the following week was any other week, but Derby, I would be much sat more sad about it. Right. But it’s like, like you mentioned, I’m completely distracted. You know, Caitlin’s gonna go away in the middle of the night.

Like the, like the, like the, uh, like the Browns did from Cleveland and I’ll wake up tomorrow and I it’ll be all Derby all. I won’t even notice that the, uh, the Browns are now the Ravens. And then by the time I realize that Derby will be over. Well beyond the Preakness, it’ll probably hit me somewhere out a second week in between the Preakness and the Belmont.

I’ll probably realize it and Caitlin’s over and I’ll probably shed a tear. Then you’ll be heading back to Lexington plenty in between. I’m sure you’ll be seeing your, uh, you’re loyal. You’re not only your loyal following there, but all the, all the friends who you’ve made over the years, it’s a special place.

And like we did in the last show, we encourage people to book their travel already start thinking about the fall. And of course, Caitlin select as a betting option, that’s available all year long and we encourage folks to support our partner by playing with them as well. And with that JK, I think we should look and see how we’re going to close out this meat on a winning note, hopefully.

And as all, we’re going to start with race seven on Friday. Where’d you land in here? Yeah, these turf races are tough and, and throughout the meter continuously realized that that, uh, I can, I can kind of get my thing together on the dirt, but the turf races are the ones that often throw the most curve balls.

The, uh, the kind of the unexpected results, the, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they went that slow results or opposite going that fast. Uh, the first horses that caught my attention, obviously, and this is chronologically, I would imagine based on the numbers. Um, chronological is print out the right word, but the one in the one, a dull knife and Olympic runner, I think both of those horses obviously demand some attention.

Uh, Olympic runner was, was on the Derby trail for a couple of minutes. Um, now back to the turf where he originally started his career, he’s a son of Gio, Ponti, obviously something that makes a lot of sense that he’s going to want to be on the grass. And then Dole knife. Who’s a half Tucker bond who is in a, a very quality older turf horse.

Uh, with, uh, with Karen McLaughlin that well, I’m sure we’ll see it Saratoga. That’s won some big races as this is a scat daddy, half to cure bond. So obviously a ton of, of breeding there. Those two horses make a ton of sense, but because they’re an entry, they’re likely going to be over bet. I’m going to try to pick up.

Um, a little bit of value here with two horses in particular, the first one in my top pick will be magnificent McCool, a horse that got a little Derby fever, like a, like all of these three-year-olds tend to do at times, um, broke his maiden on the turf. And then curiously got back on the dirt where he didn’t have any success and realized that’s not what he wants to do.

Uh, switches now to, to Steve asked me, he said, I don’t believe that was a. Uh, negative trainer change. I just think that Phoenix, thoroughbreds has a relationship with Doug. O’Neill also with Steve asked me to sit in with, in, with, uh, uh, wanting to get involved in some of these three-year-old turf races. I think that that Phoenix probably thought it was better to get him to Steve.

Uh, he shows up here in this spot. I think he’s extremely live. And then the other one that I would use a little bit is Jeff Mullins, his horse, uh, originator, the Irish bread, putting a blinkers on for the first time. Uh, didn’t have really anything that gets you too excited on the poly. Uh, but maybe, uh, the, the addition of Lasix, maybe the addition of, of actually getting to turf.

Uh, could, could do this one. Well, so I’m going to try to build around a lot around the four and the three. Um, and, and see if I can’t try to beat this one who I think will take a ton of money. Yeah. Your point about it being an entry and that’s sucking all the value out of the equation is probably correct.

When you’re talking about the USA pools. I wanted to get your opinion on the horse that I’m going to pick here. And that’s number eight, crafty daddy, a couple of different ways. You can look at the last race. It does look like it sure was a great setup. One of those times when being left at the start probably didn’t hurt things at all.

Given how fast, uh, it seemed like that. The pace was coded red throughout by time form. But here’s the thing. It was the way that crafty daddy did it wrapped up late, still finishing. Well, I wonder if this just isn’t a cult who’s getting good and could really benefit from that run maybe. And move forward again.

I’m going to take a shot with crafty daddy, but I do want to give you a chance to comment. If you think I might be onto something here. Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s funny. This is the type of horse that I, it just kind of created this idea in the last 25 seconds. Listening to you talk was with these young horses that get setups, closing, you know, get, get the closing type of setup, I think often assume, Oh, that horse got to set up last time.

I don’t want him here. But the truth of the matter is, is like, we don’t know what crafty daddy is. He’s only run three times twice on the surface that he wants to be on. The first start was off the turf. So he’s only had two opportunities and yes, both of those opportunities he came from out of it. Um, but, but what if he breaks sharp?

And what if he finds himself close to the front, we don’t know enough about this horse to not know that that’s an impossible, uh, impossible situation that could come up. Um, he’s obviously shown some talent. He’s overcome adversity. He was closing into slow fractions. Um, his first turf race, he was closing in two, uh, some nicer fractions.

Some more advantageous fractions when you’ve missed the break. And you know, a lot of real weird things going on. So he has a right to improve. Now, if he drops out of it, 13 lengths in this race that doesn’t seem to be like screaming, pace, melt down. He might be in a little bit of trouble, but we don’t know enough about this young three-year-old to know what his limitations are, where he could put himself.

He has shown that he likes to get his nose in front. And that’s always a, a definitely is something you want with these young horses. Well, I’m glad you, you made me feel better about that pick. I’m going to stick with it. I assume we might end up seeing some crafty daddy on your tickets as well though.

Your primary picks in there just to recap. JK were the four magnificent McCool and the three originary correct. That is correct. Excellent. And with that, let’s move on to race eight, six for longs on the dirt. I’ll kick this one off with lady TNT, who I thought might have the speed to clear and just looked like one who was rounding into form, not my most creative suggestion, JK, but this is what I definitely want on my tickets.

And I’m going to make my top pick. What did you think of this race? It was a tough race. I mean, you know, this is, this is kind of the poster child of, of, of, I, you don’t need to have a 10 claimer, a 16 horse, 10 claimer on the grass to make it a good betting race. I mean, there’s a lot of ways you can go here.

A lot of angles there’s value that you can find there’s stands that you can take. Um, maybe this is fair. Maybe it’s not. I find myself trying to beat Wesley ward when it’s not a two year old sprint race. Um, He’s obviously a very capable trainer and do what he does with these young horses, I think is, is definitely, uh, says a lot about his horsemanship.

However, these older horses, I feel like tend to be over bet and he doesn’t Excel with these older horses as well as he does with the, the, uh, the younger. Athens queen is an interesting, one’s been off for 323 days. That’s obviously a long layoff. Wesley can obviously train a horse to run well on debut, the same attributes.

I would think that can train a horse to run well off of the layoff. Hi habits. Athens queen is that, you know, I noticed in the workout report, I try to take notes in the workout report. When lady Pauline one, Athens queen was working with lady Pauline now, Most people are going to say, Oh, well, lady, Pauline’s really good.

And she’s, you know, she’s really good. She’s fast. She’s going to ask it. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, but this is like an older three-year-old. Who’s had two stars. Who’s undefeated. And like, that’s just a weird pairing for me when it comes to work. And so I’m a little bit confused about that. I’m going to try to beat Athens queen.

I’m going to do it with the horse that you mentioned, lady T and T. I also liked the outside horse, Shanghai rain. I think when you’re going to take a stand and try to beat a horse, that is the favorite. You, you, you have the license to reach for another horse or two that you might not reach or otherwise, because we’re always trying to preserve value.

Uh, the two. Instant council is one of those horses, the type of horse that a normal situation I might try to be, might try to get creative, both races. The bass last few races were on sloppy tracks, wet tracks, but because I’m trying to beat both of these Wesley ward horses that are going to take all this money.

I’m going to go ahead and use a horse. Like the two is stand council. My top pick will be the sick Shanghai rain. Do you give lady TMT any count? Yeah, no, I like her too. I’m using her as well. I mean, I see the rates six, three, two. If I, if I had to, if I had to lay one out and pick it, um, that way the, the one negative I have on lady T and T is back at Oaklawn, uh, in February, uh, that race where she ran second beaten, a link chase, kind of slow pace and, and, uh, Came back and was beaten for.

And so I just want to kind of figure out exactly how good she really is, but she does have some numbers that make her make sense in this spot. And she’s definitely a use if you’re going to try to get cute, like I’m going to try to do and beat both of these Wesley ward runners. All right, race nine. We are going a mile and a half on the turf in the bewitch stakes.

And there’s a horse. I kind of like here. J K number two sky full of stars going out for the first time for Christophe. Claremont did not run poorly really at all. All things considered in the EPE Taylor for the old barn. And I give extra credit to German. What they would call in England, middle distance horses.

You’re talking about the mile and a quarter mile and a half. I find their bloodlines stack up. Pretty well to the USA horses in here. I trust Claremont implicitly. This Phoenix, thoroughbreds runner looks very live to me and I hope the nine to two of the morning line becomes a reality. I’d have a bet at that price.

What did you think of this one? Well, for the sake of not being repetitive. I agree with you completely. I think that that Phoenix, thoroughbreds, obviously they spend a lot of money. They’ve got a lot of them. They, they make a lot of impressive buys and they’ve got some horses on the Hudson horse on the Derby trail.

They’ve got some nice three-year-old sprinters. They’ve got some Oaks Phillies. They’ve got a lot of things going on. I agree with you completely with that German, um, German pedigree and, and, uh, I believe, I believe in will kingdoms. Dan was German. Is that, did I make that up? No, that’s correct. All right.

Cool. I like it. So I’m with you on that horse. I’m also going to go with the three flower party, uh, for Michael Stedham. I thought flower party, uh, was, was extremely interesting based on the fact that, uh, with got loose in the post parade last time. Uh, that’s kind of one of those deals where you see people running to the window to cancel their tickets.

Well, for whatever reason, they didn’t scratch the horse. The horse went ahead and loaded in the gate. Um, Had trouble within the race was wide on a turf course. I think being inside was a little bit better. Um, I want to bet her. Based off of the fact that that most horses run terribly. Yeah. After breaking through the gate or getting loose in the post parade, you know, obviously a nervous situation for them and, and wasting a lot of energy, but this is a really tough race.

I mean, those are the two horses that I would build a lot of things around. I think that outfields horse. Icky macho makes a ton of sense. And it’s a lot of fun to say. Um, if Mike maker, you know, normally when I see these mile and a half races, I just looked to see where Mike maker is. And then it’s like an auto use.

I think Mike maker does an unbelievable job with mile and a half turf races. I think he does a great job with all horses, but, uh, so that makes Peru definitely a use here. Ken and Sarah Ramsey obviously love getting their wins at Keenan. Uh, Sherry devote X assistant for Chad Brown with the seven horse, makes a ton of sense.

Uh, ran a good figure, closing into a, to really slow fractions with Santa Monica was a mile and a half. Turf filly, turf mirror that I’ve, I’ve always been a fan of. This is an extremely tough race. Um, I would try to probably spread if you can afford to use as many as you can in here. Cause you never know what’s going to happen with these terms.

And when K gives a whole rundown like that mentioning half the horses in a field, when you’re listening to him, do that spiel, you can Intuit. Exactly what he said explicitly there at the end that it’s a spread race for him. If you have the opportunity to use all those horses, you can, some opportunities, some that come along, you won’t be able to spread like that.

In that case, you’re going to want to focus down on the, the narrow and, and the sharp end for you there. JK, just to recap, the, to see a sky full of stars and the three flower party. I like what you said about flower party and I’m tempted to use. I just wonder, I almost really opposite about Italian form in these types of spots.

As I do about chairman form, which the Italian breeding industry just gotten, not that the horse was bred there, but the racing they are very weak. And so sometimes I see people, they don’t, they wouldn’t know the difference between the, the German forum and the Italian forum. And I think you can sometimes find some value.

Uh, fading the Italian form a little bit in favor of the, of the German form, but you make too good of a case and I will try to be alive to some flower party as well. All right. To your point, though, from a figure standpoint, flower party does need to improve, but based on the trip she had, based on the pre-race antics, based on the way the turf course was playing, I’m hoping that I can find.

10 points time for the U S scale. The two had been running one 19th, one seventeens. The four has been running one 17, one twenties flower party with a one Oh eight. Last time is going to have to improve, but you make a good point. I’m just hoping I can find those points, uh, with a better circumstance. And I think for me at the end of the day, those kind of trip angles that you mentioned.

Trump, what I was saying about those European format angles. I just wanted to throw the idea out there. Maybe it’ll help somebody cash a ticket somewhere along the line, but you make too good, too many good points about the trip angles on the horse for me to fade at this point. And with that, we’re going to go to the saddest race.

So the meeting, the last race of the meeting, we’ve got maiden, Phillies going six furlongs on the dirt. Uh, there’s one. I kind of like in here, but I’m gonna let you go first. Yeah. You know, there’s only three that I really need eat, uh, or that I like, there’s probably only two that I really need. And one that I really like.

So let me start with the one. I really like, I really liked the far outside horse, the 11 Ms. Hannah for Kimmy peak. Um, th this horse had shown a ton of speed going 70 and, and now is cutting back to six. I love horses that have those kind of really fast paced figures at the six for a long call, but they got out of there for a long to get, and they S they tend to slow down.

But if you take that, that figure from that six for a long call, And realize that that figure is faster than what everyone else is running. It makes a little bit of sense that the horse could actually, uh, improve on the cutback. Ms. Hannah is one of those horses. I feel like can improve on the comeback on the cutback.

Um, I love Corey and Landry. Um, he’s, he’s, he’s probably 10 post positions away from where he ideally would like to be. Um, but that’s okay. That’s okay. I’m fine with that. I mean, this course is tactical enough, could clear the field. He could end up on the rail or just could be forwardly placed and try to get over and save a little bit of ground.

The other horses that I thought were interesting, uh, was the six sharpen. Um, if you look at that horses debut in July as a two year old adult at, uh, Delaware, solar’s got a nice number and it got a pretty nice number there. And then, uh, comes back and runs at Monmouth. And it has a little bit of a trip again.

Um, and then it was just bet and you know, barely gets beat and then he gets beat by 13. Then he takes the break. Then he run comes back on the turf. Now he’s back to the dirt. If he runs to his form or excuse me, her, if she runs to her form that she saw last summer, I can see how she can improve. Joel Rosario does not need any introduction when it comes to his performance at this Kima meet.

Um, I got a pretty good shot. I think of winning the meet. In fact, last time I looked at the standings, not that the five, a little Bay was interesting. Um, the, uh, the, the, the first run at Kean Lynn in the slop last October, I thought was impressive. If he can find, she could find a little bit of that form as a three-year-old.

I think that, uh, she has a good shot. I will point out that Javier Castellano probably would have won the title. Had he elected to ride here the last few days, but with him out of town, things are getting very tight. That’ll be a storyline to follow throughout this Friday card as well. Let me put in a word for number two, ballad Dera in here, JK looking at the pedigree.

I think dirt is what she wants, did not break. Well, last time spent part of the race, at least on a rail that I didn’t think was very good. Still ran really well. Lots of scope for improvement on this Bay Philly. I wouldn’t get beat by Bella Dara in the last race of this spring, meet at Keeneland and now J K, you’re going to bid a Jew and we are going to bring in our special guest, but, uh, you have a closing thought for the listeners of the Caitlin select players podcast.

Our friend, Dave Weaver, I believe it’s ice cold Exacta on Twitter. He had a question, a Twitter poll. He put out not too long ago. Maybe it was yesterday, the day before where I don’t even think it should have been a question, but he asked whether or not his followers thought that the burgoo at Keeneland was better or like some carved sandwich.

And I told him that it was ridiculous that he would even ask that question. It’s a no brainer. It’s the burgoo. So that’s the thing I’m the most sad about is the Keelan. Burgoo not, uh, not being back in my belly until the fall. We’re going to have some burgoo I believe at this Kentucky Derby party, I’m throwing at Treadwell park West in Manhattan.

We do have plenty of New York area listeners. If you’re around for the Derby, come on by at least four o’clock. We might get started earlier, but I’ll, I’ll give it a soft start time. A four o’clock. All kinds of specials going to be great. We want to see you there. And maybe someone will have had the keen Lynn burgoo.

They can see if our burgoo can measure up. It’ll be hard. It’s a big ask, but we’re going to do our best. All right. Now it’s time to bring in Jim Goodman. And now we’d like to welcome back to the Caitlin select players podcast for the final segment of the spring. Meet Jim Goodman. Director of mutuals. How are you, Jim?

I’m great. How are you doing today? I’m doing well. I’m a little sad. The end of the meat for me is pretty much of an unmitigated negative. I mean, I guess it means the Derby’s here and all that, but I just like it when Keeneland is on so much. But for you, I imagine there’s a bittersweet element as you’ve been working so hard throughout the course of the beat.

And now at least you get a little bit of a, of a break from the grind of hosting live racing. It’s really a mixed emotion. I liken it back to when I was in college a few years ago when I was a resident assistant, uh, on the basketball floor. And I was the closest person of all the RAs. I was only 30 miles away from my home, so I got to stay on campus through Christmas and is one of them.

Worst feelings you’ll ever have in your life. And one of the worst feelings you ever have in your life at Caitlin is walking it through the paddock on Saturday morning, after all the activity on Friday, on Friday, ending a 16 day meet. So, uh, it’s uh, it is bittersweet. Uh, it’s a great meat. We, we do it for a reason to have a boutique meet that everybody looks forward to, but it goes too quickly for us.

You mentioned your university experience. Where did you go to school? It was a Hilltop for, at Western Kentucky university. Very nice. There. I was there when we went to the final four with Jim McDaniels back in the early seventies. Oh yeah. Very cool. Yeah. You don’t remember that. You’re not that old. You may have read it.

It’s true. I’ve only read about that team. I wasn’t going to, I, wasn’t going to show you up by saying that though, Jim, but since you brought, they were awesome. I saw every home game that year. They were awesome. That’s must’ve been very cool to be part of something like that. And of course, super cool to be part of the magic that goes on at Keeneland.

Let’s do a little bit of general meet recapping. Then we might delve into some more questions about your background and how you got into racing and all that. But let’s start with this Caitlin meat. Were you happy with the way? I mean, you guys are you’re so I would imagine to some degree you’re really at the mercy of weather, it doesn’t seem to be sitting from afar.

That weather was that kind to you, this meat, but were you happy with the numbers all in all? How would you sum things up? Well, given the weather, I think we are happy with them. And with the numbers, we had a really bad Saturday. We had the first two Saturdays, we had 34,000 people here. The third Saturday we had 17.

So the weather costs us at least 17,000 people, obviously that translates to OnTrack handle, which is your most profitable handle. Uh, we still did well off track that day. So it wasn’t a disaster, right? We also had a terrible Sunday the day. That’s a great one. Gamble was here. We took everything off the turf and we had 46 scratches.

So those, those two issues, the, the bad Saturday, the bad Sunday probably cost us about four to $5 million in handle. But given that. We’re right there with last year, we have two good days. The last Thursday and Friday, we’re going to, we’re going to meet last year. We’re not going to beat it, but we’re within 1% right now.

Um, given the state of, of horse racing this spring with Santa Anita and Belmont, both being an aqueduct, both being down, I think we’re pleased with the numbers. We also saw something that happened this year, that hasn’t happened, Oaklawn staying open through the month of April. So that. That translates to a little bit of money being spread out.

Um, although Oaklawn after Arkansas Derby, uh, was not a major signal, but they still did, you know, $3 million a day, which pulls away from the other, other major tracks. So all in all, I think we’re happy. We set an all time, all sources, wagering record on bluegrass day, we had 25.8 million, which is over $3 million.

Better than last year, which was our all time record. We set records for daily, double exactly one place show and pick five. So we had a wonderful Toyota bluegrass day. Maybe Tacoma will get us a Derby winner. It was Mr. Castillano needy his first Derby winner. Okay. It’s going to happen eventually. And the bluegrass was going to produce a Derby winner again, eventually it seems just like a matter of time, but who knows?

Maybe the time is now. That’s a good segue to asking you a question about racing wise. What your strongest memories from this meet are going to be. I imagine Takoma is on that list. What other performances stand out when you think back? Yeah, I think the coma, the bluegrass day, um, uh, Is basically is basically my, my main memory from, um, uh, from that I think, um, the returning of rushing fall, um, uh, came back here and won her fourth, uh, consecutive stakes during the stakes race at King Lynn.

It’s probably my favorite memory. Uh, but Como was, uh, kind of a, uh, not a long shot. He wound up being the saver, but, um, that moved him into the. Upper echelons. I think of Derby, uh, favoritism. And, uh, even though he’s got that kind of strange action, he really finished strong down the stretch. I don’t think he’s going to like the mile and a quarter.

So I think he’s going to be good. But rushing fall is probably a math favorite memory of the spring mix. When I think about the law of unintended consequences and horse racing, something leaps to mind. And it’s this idea that because of Wesley ward success at Royal Ascot, Keeneland has become this.

Premiere prep meeting for Royal ass, get runners. How much does that idea tickle you? And you will you be watching the Ascott meeting, looking for some of these keen Lynne maiden alums? Oh, absolutely. I think it’s a, it was a connection that was never there. It was, uh, Wesley kind of broke, uh, broken down a barrier by taking his, his fillies and Colts over there and, and running them in those straight sprints.

And he loves to take keen linter of course. Uh, the timing obviously is perfect for them to have a prep race here and go there in the summer. And, uh, so it’s, it’s really cool to watch Ascot and, and to be quite honest, uh, you know, Ascot was something that I never thought about very much before, but it’s very much in the forefront of our, of our thought process in summertime.

Cause you know, we saw that Philly run here, you know, it’s really cool. I do like the cross-pollination for one I’m a big. Fan of it and hoping to work with them at some point to maybe even expand the contest world internationally and get something going over there. We’ll see if that dream of mine becomes a reality could be very fun because you know, so many people have asked it as a bucket list item anyway, and we’ll give them the reason to go.

Whether it’s qualifying in potentially to a tournament over there or buying in let’s, let’s make it. Let’s make it a stop on the tour for HorsePlayers that’s my idea, how it would be, I would be all in on that because it’s on my bucket list as well. Well, there you go. You’ve I’ve got some I’ll market to you directly.

If I can get this thing off the ground, let’s talk about the grade one gamble. You had a tough decision to make this year with the weather making. You have to wash off the grass races, lots of scratches. And you made the decision, which I applauded. To add some simulcasts races. Now, obviously that was something you were doing for the HorsePlayers.

You’re not going to get as much money handle wise, golden dollar wise on simulcasts races, as you are by making people bet at Keelan. What went into the thought process ultimately of why you made that decision and players are so funny. I can imagine a world in which they weren’t all happy. I would have been happy with it.

I wonder what the reaction was among players though, as well. Well, sometimes you make your best decisions, uh, in crisis times. And I got to work that morning probably at seven o’clock and I got a call from, uh, the racing office at about eight and said, we’re not only off the grass. We have decimated the fields.

We’re going to get multiple scratches and every race we know we’re down to four and one of the races. So I had a few minutes to, to let that sit can, and, uh, by the seat of my pants, I just decided, what would I want to do if I were in this contest, would I want to be forced to bet the Keelan races that are, that are decimated by being off the turf?

We had five turf races that day, really good card that we had set up for the Sunday tournament. And, um, I basically made the decision within a 15 minute period and said, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to get it out to everybody. Exactly the same time around 9:00 AM. That gives them four hours before our first race and actually five and a half hours before the first race that I added to handicap everybody’s on a level playing field, knowing that some people would complain about it.

Um, luckily, yeah. Out of 181 players, I really only had three that were desperately complaining about it. And I had two people that actually withdrew when I gave him their money back. Uh, I had one guy that wrote up for me in the elevator to the fourth floor, complaining about it all the way up the fourth floor.

And I finally told him, I said, listen, I’ve made the decision. I understand if you don’t like it. I’ll give you a full refund. And he looked at me, he said, Oh no, I’m going to play

out of 181, uh, you know, to lose only three people out of it. I got a lot of positive comments from the people during the tournament. Um, we obviously didn’t make as much money, but the churn was actually okay. As good or better than it has been the past, because we had such short fields where players could play through those races, be conservative and maintain their bankroll, then take a shot at the end.

And that’s what a lot of people did. Uh, our churn was actually 1.9 and it’s usually about 1.8. So we did over seven, we did over $700,000 in that contest. We did five 50 on Cayman and 150 on aqueduct and Gulf stream. So, you know, I lost some money on the 150 bed on the other tracks, but I think I gained a lot of, um, positive publicity out of the decision that we made.

I think we did the right thing for the players. Um, so I, I do the same thing again. I’m glad to hear it. And I, yeah, I’ve made sure to shout you out on Steve Beck and also on our other show, the, in the money players podcast, because I thought it was a brave, bold and correct decision. Let’s talk about the contest itself.

Uh, favorite story to emerge from this year’s grade one gamble. Well, there were two favorite stories. Uh, you know, Farrah McKibben’s won it and he’s just amazing. I mean, I’ve watched him from afar. I’ve watched him play in our tournaments and the guy has no fear. Um, and he, he, two years ago he won the Belmont contest.

And the Mar contests in the same year, which is amazing in and of itself. And then he wins our tournament and, uh, you know, he did it a hundred dollars exact box in the last race, in a five horse field, uh, and caught a $62 exact, uh, with a two to one shot and a 13 to one shot. Um, so I give him all the props in the world.

He, he basically didn’t do anything spectacular until the last race and as. I’m sure a lot of your listeners know, we, we make the person that has their bank row on either the first, either the next to last or the last race. And that that’s where strategy comes in and he fired it the last race and hit it.

And he went up with $31,000 for an $80,000. Roughly. The other thing that sticks out to me is that Dan Slattery, which is, Hey, Dan has spent almost all my tournaments. He’s from Bethesda, Maryland. After the fourth after the first race goes off at Gulf stream, which is Gulf Springs, fourth, which is our first non Keeman race.

He comes running toward the front. I think he’s going to have a stroke and runs up there to tell me, he said, thank you so much red in Gulf stream. He had a $19,000 lick on that one race. It’s a 2020 to one shop at 42 bucks and he had it every way. You could have it. He had the, he had the wind bat and he had an exact and, and try.

So he shot to the lead and kept the lead until, uh, the last race. He dutched basically the next, last race and kept his 19 to $20,000. He lost about a thousand dollars on the race and then was very conservative in the very last race where, um, Fair and passed him, but he’s still, it was, it was really, uh, he was so thrilled about the hit that he made and he wanted to win the tournament so badly.

So that’s my two that’s about two memories. No, no. Tommy masses memory this time about standing up in the green room and saying ladies and gentlemen, you have a new leader in the clubhouse, but so Tommy went busted. So I didn’t have any Tommy Tommy moments, but, uh, uh, I saw him on Twitter today. He’s still, he’s still doing the Tommy moments.

I noticed. Oh, yes, they’re there. And I, and I made the giant mistake of encouraging him, which is, which is on me, which is on me. I mean, he’s, he is, and I’m glad you brought him up, but before I get to asking you, uh, another Tommy question, I do want to just underline the shout out, not just a Farren who had the pleasure of interviewing in an earlier edition.

Of the Keelan show, but also Dan Slattery. I’m a huge fan of his, I met him in the green room and we’ve become friends. We’ve got a lot in common and he’s just a, he, he, he and his wife are good people and I’m glad to see his success. Absolutely. As for Tommy, he did not score out in the contest. Now. I normally wouldn’t a mutual else.

Sweet. And he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t mind, mind us talking about this because he posts the ticket on social media and everything looks like he might’ve done. Okay. What was his big hit in the, and I assume he was in his dirty green two lane sweatshirt in the green room when he hit it. Oh, no, he was for the big six.

He wasn’t here. I just assumed, I just assumed he bet it. Uh, I don’t know if he’s back in Toronto, physically or not, but he bet on the, uh, ADW for Canada. Oh, okay. HPI. He wasn’t here. Uh, but uh, you know, he gave a shout out to Bruno and it’s funny because I had the same horse. Um, I have a friend who follows Bruno, religiously.

He called me that morning. He said, Bruno loves the nine in the last race. So I usually pick four, but didn’t hit. But then I, um, I did catch a trial with it. So it was funny because I can’t believe that the following Bruno has that horse went off at 15 to one because I heard it from three different sources and Tommy singled it.

I mean, think about, think about what he had riding on that last leg of the pick six. He singled to a 15 to one first-time starter. Unbelievable for, for a hundred grand in Canadian, I think you wound up being like 75 grand or something in America. Um, Tommy strong now I was the first time I met Tommy. It was like, yeah, this guy’s a little bit off, a little bit goofy, but he, he has the wit.

Uh, uh, of a comedian, he, his timing is impeccable. Uh, he loves Caitlin. So he’s got a, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Tommy. Uh, uh, he, he, his eyes brightened up when he comes here and there is something about, I truly believe this. When you’re a basketball player or football player, there are certain places you really want to play.

And Tommy comes to Kaitlin and he knows he’s going to do well. I don’t know what it is, but he loves the sunshine here. He loves to sit outside and the grand stand. He loves the green room and interacting with people up there, but he does well at Keenan because he has the mental, uh, mindset. He has the mindset to take Keeneland and make, basically make it his own.

He’s he’s amazing. Yeah. It’s his backyard and you’re a big part of it, Jim. I mean, he’s told me, uh, you know, you mentioned that he is a comedian and he’s a comedian who likes to work blue, but he’s even said to me like, Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have, I don’t want Jim Goodman to hear that he is going to think less of me.

I don’t think so, Tommy, he, he knows, he knows what he’s getting Tommy Tommy’s the whole package and somebody who based on my first interaction with him and how annoyed he was at me for introducing myself. After he’d had the big hit in the breeders cup betting challenge, but before it was official, I think he thought I was a mush right from the get-go and to go from that day, when he was very suspicious of me to have him become someone I’m proud to call a good friend and somebody who I respect his opinions, not just about horse racing, but about music books.

He’s a very well rounded dude. Always appreciate the opportunity to shout him out on this podcast and wherever I can. Alright, Jim, I’ve had you on here for as long as I said I was going to, but I’m going to take advantage and, uh, just ask you one or two more questions. I’ll do one personal and one general.

I didn’t want to ask you about where your love of racing began as the first question. My love of racing began when I was in college and a buddy of mine, I grew up in Southern Kentucky and went to Western Kentucky university, which is about two hours from Lexington. But horse country is in central Kentucky.

It’s not, it doesn’t really extend to the Western part of the state. I mean, I rode ponies when I was, when I was on the farm growing up, but. Really hadn’t, hadn’t been to a thoroughbred race until I think it was 18. And I went to Churchill with a buddy of mine, and obviously it fell in love with Churchill, but I really fell in love with the next, the next spring.

He talked me into skipping school at Western and coming to a King London. I walked in the Gates at Keeneland and I, you know, This sounds corny, but, uh, if you’ve been here, you understand it. Uh, it’s just a different world. And I still love Churchill. I’ve got some great friends that work at Churchill downs, but Kentucky Derby is second to none in the world as a sporting event.

But when you come to Keeneland, you, you feel different. And I, I felt that when I walked in this place, I had no idea I would ever be working here. And I wound up, uh, with a career in state parks in Kentucky. And, uh, before I retired, uh, when I was 49 years old, I was deputy commissioner and, uh, a couple, a couple of meets.

I had perfect attendance at Caitlin because I would come into work at 7:00 AM. Go, go back. I leave at 11 and come to Kaitlin and take a half day vacation day on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So you take a day and a half vacation time and you can come to kingdom for five days. Life is good. Here is April and October.

So that’s how I fell in love with it. And, you know, I guess it. I was growing up in the era of affirmed and Allie Dar and spectacular bed. And, and then a little later on Sunday silence and easy goer. And those were my formative years. And Sunday silence is still my favorite horse ever. Uh, so which is weird because easy goer was the local horse.

And Sunday silence was the West coast horse. Um, but I. I just, it’s a love affair. It’s been lasted. This lasted for me for a better than 40 years. And, um, and then I, I just got lucky coming to work at King. Uh, when I retired, I was looking for something part-time and I came to work as a beautiful clerk here.

And I worked two meets and then a management position opened up and they have an internal promotion, uh, policy here at Caitlin I’ve, uh, basically applied for the job and got it with my 30 years of experience in customer service. And, um, a couple of promotions later here I am. So it’s um, but a great, but a great ride and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

The last question is what’s next for you in terms of like what your responsibilities are going to look like between now and the fall meet? What, what happens to you from here? It really switches for me. We have an O on OTB at red mile. We’ve got a joint venture over there where we opened a, a, an instant racing facility back in 2015.

And so all of our off-track betting goes over there. After Derby, we opened up here for Darby, have about 15,000 people here, but for the summertime it’s over there and the summertime is actually, it’s a flip. Deal from what I used to be in the summertime and state parks was my busiest time. The summertime now is my easiest time.

Uh, so I can basically enjoy racing at Saratoga and racing at Del Mar. Uh, we have some contests over there on Friday nights. Uh, do a little bit of promotion on simulcasting. Uh, I’m also responsible for Keenan select our ADW. So, um, my, my job gets a lot easier from now, especially after Belmont. Through September when we start getting geared up for the October feature, will we see your name on any leader boards?

I know you’re an accomplished contest player yourself. What’s what are the plans for that? Um, my plans are to play in the contest this summer and qualify for an HCM. Missed it. Last year, I had done it five years in a row, and last year was a tough year for me, basically, uh, with work and some other things going on and I didn’t play as much as I should have, but, uh, I’m planning on going hopefully to Monmouth this summer to play in Brian’s tournament.

Uh, I haven’t been to as yet, so, uh, I’d like to make the Saratoga tournament and I’m going to try to qualify for the Del Mar I’m. I’m not going to hit the hip for 7,000, but if I qualify online, I’ll go out there. So that’s, that’s my goal for the summer. Um, my wife would love to go to Del Mar again. So I think that, uh, that’s my immediate goal.

Before you, let me go on, we’ll talk about something too, that that happened yesterday here at Keeneland that, um, that hit. A little bit of Twitter yesterday. We had a situation in the fourth race where we had a very late odd shift. I think you noticed it as well. Um, uh, re uh, research did it, one of the people on Twitter and I don’t, I don’t respond on Twitter when they start.

Negative things because I just can’t go there and my job here, but I’d like to basically state this is that we do care about late odd shifts. Uh, somebody put it on there that they’re not betting keenly anymore because we don’t care. And that’s the furthest thing from the truth. And I spent an hour and a half yesterday researching what happened after somebody brought it to my attention.

Um, and we had a situation that was a little bit unique in that the two horse in the fourth race, uh, Was seven to two loading the gate and wound up going off at eight to five. And in our size of pools, that’s, that’s a substantial change. And I understand why people, the optics of that are not good. Um, but I went back and looked at it and as you know, the computer wagers hit it at the last second.

And we had a substantial amount bet on the two horse. Box some computer wagers and also by a large, better in Canada that came in and the last 15 seconds. So, if you look at the odds progression, it goes from seven to two to two, to one to eight to five. And I just want to state for the record that every single wager was placed prior to the lock of the gate.

Uh, I double-checked every single wager, uh, there’s nothing going on. Under the table at Kaitlin, there’s nothing going on that we’re trying to hide something. I’m very transparent with my, with my wagering information and we do care about it and we do check on it. And I just want to let everybody know that listens to this podcast that when something like that happens, please bring it to our attention.

Be glad to answer the questions. Any any way I can answer them because we want people to trust the fact that we do things the right way here. Wow. And Mike Maloney himself, who obviously has been very involved with researching these types of things throughout his career or throughout the last, uh, couple of decades of his career holds you up as an example of somebody who has been very helpful in those kinds of searches.

And I will just say from my point of view, that my frustration is more with the industry as a whole, for not. Investing in better toad technology to prevent these things from an optics point of view, never, ever meant to question the integrity of people, such as yourself, Jim, I just want to make, and I wouldn’t have thought that, but there were a couple people on there that did, and you know, they take every opportunity to take a shot at us.

I get that. We raised to take out a couple of years ago and we, we deserved some of the, some of the, uh, the hits that we took, but. Uh, we, we dropped it back down to where we are the lowest takeout in the country right now, except for Kentucky downs. And, um, so I think, I think we do care about, I know we care about HorsePlayers, uh, you’ve walked into this place and there’s no place that treats a horseplayer better than King Lynn.

And, um, I want it to be known that. Uh, integrity. Hasn’t left this place and it will not leave this place. And, um, yes, I would love to see that something where the technology available that as soon as it hits that, that the, um, the tote is up updated. But when you have somebody that’s batch bedding and it hits two seconds before the race, it goes off, it’s almost physically impossible to not update it after the race goes off.

Now it shouldn’t update halfway through the race. So that’s, you know, that’s something that we update every 10 seconds here. Um, And, and that’s as good as it as, as good as the system will let us do right now. Well, thank you for that explanation. And, um, I was, uh, aside, I’m very glad to have can’t think of a better guest to wrap up this spring’s edition of the Keelan select players podcast.

Then you Jim Goodman, hopefully we’ll be back in the fall and we’re going to, uh, you know, like I always say around here, no good deed goes unpunished. We’ll we’ll definitely have you back again as a regular. Thank you so much for your time today. I need a dollar dollar, dollar

Hey everybody. Peter Thomas for Nitel back with you one last time, just to remind you, if you use the promo code ITM 19, you can get some great promotions from Keelan select, including an opportunity to bet 300 and get 100. And then again, to bet, 500 and get 50 back, two separate times over the course of the meet.

Make sure to check it out@caitlinselect.com. Use that promo code ITM 19.