Speaker 1: This Friday and Saturday, the world's best thoroughbreds compete in
Speaker 1: fourteen exhilarating races at the Breeders' Cup World Championships. Learn
Speaker 1: more at Breeders Cup dot com. Slash twenty twenty catch
Speaker 1: all the action live on NBC Sports as we welcome
Speaker 1: in horse racing expert on loan from NBC Sports, Randy Moss. Randy,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. How has the pandemic affected this
Speaker 1: year's Breeders Cup? Oddly enough, Dan, The product on the field,
Speaker 1: the product on the track is actually better because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. It's a pretty odd situation. But there were
Speaker 1: a lot of racetracks around the country that had to
Speaker 1: shut down in late spring at early summer, and the
Speaker 1: horses had no place to run. And so now the
Speaker 1: racetracks are going again, of course, but now we get
Speaker 1: to November and the horses are fresher, They've they've got
Speaker 1: more energy, they've run less often this year. They're healthier
Speaker 1: in a way. Too bad, we won't have fans a
Speaker 1: keen one, But the actual product on the field is
Speaker 1: probably going to be better than the Breeder's Cup's ever had.
Speaker 1: We you move the Breeder's Cup around. You know, Super
Speaker 1: Bowl does this obviously, but you know, does lend us
Speaker 1: the horse know that the surface is different? And you know,
Speaker 1: how does that factor in with how a horse runs?
Speaker 1: You know, Dan, that is one of the most overrated
Speaker 1: factors in the sport of horse racing, and yet it's
Speaker 1: the one that you hear about the most often, because
Speaker 1: when a horse loses a race. Uh, oftentimes the owner
Speaker 1: is going to go to the trainer and say, wait,
Speaker 1: I thought my horse was gonna win. Why did my
Speaker 1: horse get beat? And the horse doesn't talk, so the
Speaker 1: trainer the jockey will make excuses. Uh, and typically the
Speaker 1: excuse was he didn't like the track, you know, even
Speaker 1: even though the other ten horses in the race had
Speaker 1: no problem with it. You know, it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's an excuse. That's the most overblown explanation for horses
Speaker 1: losing that there isn't racing typically there's just not that
Speaker 1: much of a difference between the racetrack surfaces as far
Speaker 1: as the horses are concerned, be it at Santa Anita
Speaker 1: or Churchill or Belmont or in this case King One
Speaker 1: here in Lexing. What about creating a Grand Slam. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Triple Crown. Has there been any thought of adding
Speaker 1: the Breeder's Cup to make it a Grand Slam? You
Speaker 1: know when American Pharaoh in twenty fifteen swept the Triple
Speaker 1: Crown and they fortunately kept him in training and didn't
Speaker 1: whisk him off to stud like some of the other
Speaker 1: top horses like Justify, and they ran him in the Breeders'
Speaker 1: Cup Classic and he won. That was that was the moniker.
Speaker 1: People started calling that the Grand Slam. Obviously he's the
Speaker 1: only horse that's ever been able to pull that off.
Speaker 1: But if we get another Triple Crown winner that is
Speaker 1: then pointing for the Breeder's Cup, that's going to be
Speaker 1: the phrase the Grand Slam. De And I don't want
Speaker 1: any credit for this, Randy in the horse racing community.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, if you want to mention it,
Speaker 1: you can, but look, I just I want to make
Speaker 1: the sport better. This is just my gift to the sport. Then,
Speaker 1: so it came from Dan Patrick. I'll make sure everybody
Speaker 1: knows that's running the horse racing now, like what part
Speaker 1: of the world is running horse racing. That's one of
Speaker 1: the problems with horse racing. It's like boxing. Every state
Speaker 1: has its own individual commission Every state has its own
Speaker 1: individual rules. There is no league office in horse racing
Speaker 1: in the United States to set the rules. There's no
Speaker 1: Roger Goodell or there's no Baseball MLB commissioner. So it's
Speaker 1: it's like a it's like a free for all. It's
Speaker 1: like a wild West. Every state does what's best for
Speaker 1: that particular state, and there's no unified push, whether it's
Speaker 1: in marketing or race scheduling or anything like medication, anything
Speaker 1: like that to sort of, you know, with the purpose
Speaker 1: of propelling the sport forward. You know, in the NFL,
Speaker 1: some team owners will maybe do vote for something that
Speaker 1: might not be the best for them, but it's the
Speaker 1: best for the NFL. No, you don't. You don't see
Speaker 1: that in horse racing. Give us a couple of horses
Speaker 1: that we should keep an eye on Friday and Saturday. Friday,
Speaker 1: it's they called a Future Stars Friday. It's for the
Speaker 1: two year olds, which are the younger horses. Horses don't
Speaker 1: begin their racing careers until age two. They run in
Speaker 1: the Triple Crown at age three, so these are like
Speaker 1: the future Stars. And there is one horse in particular
Speaker 1: running in the last race on Friday, who really looks
Speaker 1: like he is the makings of a superstar. His name
Speaker 1: is Jackie's Warrior. He's undefeated, He's won his races with
Speaker 1: tremendous style. The big question about him and what makes
Speaker 1: the race so interesting, is that his pedigree leans toward sprinting,
Speaker 1: and he looks like a sprinter if you look at him.
Speaker 1: Horses are the same as people in that respect. Sprinters
Speaker 1: tend to be stockier and more muscled up than long
Speaker 1: distance runners, and Jackie's Warrior definitely fits into stocky category.
Speaker 1: But he's so good and so fast he probably I
Speaker 1: can't run far enough to be a Kentucky Derby horse
Speaker 1: next year, but it's going to be interesting to watch
Speaker 1: him go a mile and a sixteenth for the first time.
Speaker 1: In the Breeders Cup Juvenile and the Saturday there's a
Speaker 1: lot to look forward to, but the coupde Gray is
Speaker 1: always the Breeders Cup Classic, the last race on Saturday,
Speaker 1: the richest horse race in North America. Well, I was
Speaker 1: until the Pegasus in Miami popped up, but the Breeders
Speaker 1: Cup is got The Classic has got one of the
Speaker 1: strongest fields in it that we've seen in recent years.
Speaker 1: You've got the Kentucky Derby winner of this year, authentic,
Speaker 1: the Belmont winner of this year. Tis the law that
Speaker 1: what should have been could have been the Kentucky Derby
Speaker 1: winner last year maximum security, it was disqualified and some
Speaker 1: other really good horses thrown into the mix. So that's
Speaker 1: going to be a great way to cap off Breeders
Speaker 1: Cup Saturday. Have you ever ridden one of these horses?
Speaker 1: You know, I had a few experiences where at farms
Speaker 1: and such, they decided to put me on the on
Speaker 1: the back of a X racehorse, a Thoroughbred ex racehorse,
Speaker 1: and let's just say it didn't end. Well, Well, you're
Speaker 1: not I am not an equestrian, Dan, not by any
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination. Well you're a little too tall
Speaker 1: for Johnkie. Well, I tell you what. Here's a here's
Speaker 1: a just a quick story. We were at a farm,
Speaker 1: your buddy Kenny Maine, myself, some other people and they
Speaker 1: thought it would be fun. We were in a show
Speaker 1: jumping ring to get on the horse's back and had
Speaker 1: pictures taken. So they put the helmets on and get
Speaker 1: on the horse's back. Ny Kenny was hamming it up,
Speaker 1: you know, acting like he was whipping the horse when
Speaker 1: he really wasn't and the horse was just standing there
Speaker 1: like an old plow horse. And so they put me
Speaker 1: on the horse's back and I thought, you know, this
Speaker 1: is boring. Who wants to just sit here? And you know,
Speaker 1: so I got on the horse's back and kind of
Speaker 1: getting him a little bit with my heel, took off.
Speaker 1: They I couldn't get him pulled up. He kept going
Speaker 1: round and round the ring faster and faster. The owner
Speaker 1: of the farm look he was having a heart attack
Speaker 1: because I didn't have a helmet on. Finally I got
Speaker 1: him pulled up, but that was my last time on
Speaker 1: the back of a X thoroughbread. I hope you're well,
Speaker 1: have fun on Friday and Saturday, and my best for
Speaker 1: the crew there. Thanks for joining us, Randy, and thanks
Speaker 1: for the Grand Slam idea. Dan appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1: You're welkare NBC sports horse racing expert Randy Moss and
Speaker 1: once again Friday and Saturday, world's best thoroughbreds competing in
Speaker 1: fourteen exhilarating races at the Breeders Cup World Championship. It'll
Speaker 1: be in Lexington, Kentucky. Learn more Breeders Cup dot com
Speaker 1: sighed twenty twenty. Catch all the action live on NBC
Speaker 1: Sports