Golden Tempo’s Derby Win & Cherie DeVaux's Historic Moment

All right, you all ready? Let's do it. Derby week's over. We're here to talk about it. It's the height differential. We got the 6'6 Neil. Do I remember your height? 5'6? The 5'6 Matt is back with us.

Matt (00:43.821)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (00:53.965)
Yep, you got it.

Nick (00:57.486)
in the 4 foot 10 neck. It goes by quick, but man, what a week. What a week.

Neil (01:04.949)
Yeah, mean, it's, I mean, around here, around the city of Louisville, it's probably, you know, most of our, almost of our favorite sports week of the calendar year. I mean, we love our college hoops around here and March madness is great, but Derby week when there's something going on Tuesday through Saturday, it's a blast. So we're going to miss it for the next 360 days.

Nick (01:05.571)
Sorry.

Nick (01:27.726)
Like we're there on Tuesday and then we went back on Friday. Like it was a perfect two day separation to get you back ready. Matt, you were there on Tuesday. Did you didn't make it back after Tuesday?

Neil (01:33.378)
We'll get it.

Matt (01:39.158)
No, didn't make it back, but stayed in Louisville. Ironically, the past couple years, Hannah and I have been out of town for Derby Week, so it was good to be back around and just being in the city. Definitely a buzz the whole week.

Nick (01:52.184)
But I would say from Tuesday to Saturday, the two of us were pretty much, or the three of us were in communication pretty much the whole time via text, betting almost every single race. You all hit a couple, every once in while I'd hit one. or Neil hit a pick five on what day was that?

Neil (02:10.243)
was Thursday, Thursday pick five.

Nick (02:13.11)
Listened to Christina on FanDuelTV, took that home, got him a pick five. But it was a rough, rough week for me. I still do not want to go back and look how many deposits I have in TwinSpires to see what my negative.

Neil (02:15.714)
Randall.

Neil (02:27.799)
You gonna be able to pay that mortgage this month?

Nick (02:30.272)
It's gonna be tight, it's gonna be tight. I need a couple more Louisville Kings games to come in town and give me some extra cash.

Neil (02:36.611)
There you go. There you go.

Nick (02:38.862)
So but I think the main thing obviously we need to talk about is what happened on Saturday Golden tempo we talked about him briefly Neil Neil was more positive on him than Matt and I were he actually Talked me into bringing him from being a toss to kind of being somebody that can be late in that that try that super Sherry DeVoe wins as a

Matt (02:39.621)
shit.

Nick (03:07.01)
Female trainer for the first time in derby history.

Neil (03:08.099)
Will you pronounce her name correctly, please? Sheree. It's not Cherries, it's not Cherry Coke here. Cherrie Devope. Yeah, you you said Cherrie. Get the name right. She made history, she made history. Put some respect on her name. Sheree.

Matt (03:10.2)
It's Shiree.

Nick (03:11.391)
Ree DeVoe.

I didn't say cherry. I didn't say cherry. I did not say cherry. I said Cherie DeVoe. Cherie, maybe you just don't know what I hear. I did not say cherry. I know her name's not cherry. She's not a fruit. Well, it might have sounded like it's not what I said. Cherie, Cherie DeVoe. Pretty cool. Like watching it and all the females there, like how did I not just bet on her? The Ortiz wins back to back.

Neil (03:25.987)
No, you said, Harry, vote below. That's what you sounded like.

Neil (03:33.922)
You didn't say Sheree.

Nick (03:44.45)
The ARAD and Jose finished first and second. Looking back, all these just seemed like so easy to pick out, and we picked out zero of them. But just your overall thoughts from the race on Saturday.

Neil (03:59.991)
Yeah, no, mean, it was an incredible run by Golden Tempo and we talked about it and how he was a deep, deep closer and man, did he come from deep. mean, he was last the entire way. And then not only that, he bid his time, saw what everybody else was doing down the stretch and he made the perfect move. He went all the way to the outside and that horse had some gas in the tank and he just ran everybody down.

So it was a perfect ride, think, by Jose Ortiz, who we mentioned, you know, with all the jockey changes and all these horses, Jose Ortiz is the only one that's ever ridden Golden Tempo. So the familiarity with that horse and the familiarity between the jockey and the trainer, I think it played into their favor and it was just an absolute great race.

Matt (04:43.244)
Yeah, mean, personally, Ocelli's dead to me, because I'm going to say this, if he doesn't do that bump on the final stretch that gets a do, that gets commandment, that gets Chief Wallaby, I think Wallaby is winning that race. Because Wallaby is still coming. Wallaby is coming along. maybe it's, know, Alvarado gave it a great trip. He was ready to go. And maybe that was part of what they talked about the Florida Derby was he had a lane, he didn't take it, didn't have the speed.

Nick (04:56.237)
took out, yeah.

Matt (05:12.908)
But if he doesn't get bumped, that's my big, my biggest what if from it was if Wallaby doesn't get bumped, does he come up? Cause he comes up on the inside and finished third. He came in front of, he finished fourth, he finished fourth. But I mean, it was a great race. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, four of the last five, derbies have been won by closers and Sierra Leone was half a nose away from being five of five.

The pace just falls apart in this race apparently.

Nick (05:40.087)
Yeah.

And what did I say last week? I think I need to change my mind. I just don't like closers in the Derby. And I was gonna mention that, like Ocelli also is a villain because you didn't even get to know much about this horse. He's kind of like kind of the rich strike variety, like just kind of shows up and like he's not talked about. Like Great White was talked about a lot as he got in because he was such a big horse. So we got to know him a little bit. I don't even think we really got to know that much about Ocelli.

Neil (06:11.895)
No, he finished, we talked about the wood memorial and how slow that was and how bad of a race it was and he finished third in the wood. Like there was no reason to talk about this horse. He wasn't doing anything. And somehow in the biggest race of them all, he showed up.

Nick (06:26.999)
But you talk about Wallaby and I was on Commandment and Commandment had a rough trip. But coming down the stretch, you see him moving a little bit and I'm like, all right, here we go. And then Ocelli and whoever, like he gets bumped, goes backwards and really he was just like, all right, I'm done. Like this is too much. So Ocelli took out a couple of horses and ruined everybody's super because I don't think too many people had him.

Neil (06:34.883)
Isn't it?

Nick (06:55.263)
Like you talk about how far Golden Tempo was out of it. And at the half mile, if you go back and listen to Travis Stone's call.

at the half mile mark, he talks about how far back Renegade is. He's 15 leans back. And then he like just kind of go and even farther back, his exact words so far behind are Albus and then Golden Tempo. like he kind of just followed, like Jose kind of just followed, I ran through traffic a little bit. And.

When they got to the wire, he would, mean, how far out was he? Seven, eight wide? When he...

Neil (07:40.355)
I mean he was way out there, he swung way wide.

Matt (07:42.082)
Yeah.

Nick (07:44.34)
And also I think another horse you gotta give credit, and I'm gonna try to say this right, because y'all cussed me out last week, Denon Bourbon. That horse deserves some credit too for being one of the few front runners that was able to finish. Now he didn't finish in the money, but he still finished fifth, which I think with seeing the rest of that pace just collapse, he deserves some credit for that finish.

Matt (07:52.514)
There we go.

Neil (07:55.747)
Yeah, he had written you, right?

Matt (08:09.708)
just look at where Danone Bourbon finished and the horses that are around it. Like it ran a great race. I think Neil, Neil, you were kind of on him too that like he was going to get out front. Yeah, he, could get.

Neil (08:17.443)
He was one of my draft picks. Yeah, he was one of my draft picks. I liked him. He was the one Japanese horse, or I guess he's a Kentucky bred horse, but races in Japan. He ran the right direction. We were worried about that, that he might go right instead of left, but he ran the right direction and he damn near almost won the thing. yeah.

Nick (08:20.879)
We'll get into that. We'll get into that.

Nick (08:27.693)
You did go the right way. It's the step one.

Nick (08:32.813)
That was step one.

And he got the call from Larry Comas. Like, he's leading the way.

Neil (08:38.967)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (08:43.223)
But one more thing with Golden Tempo, like there were a lot of people that like Matt, you mentioned before the show that Eddie Olchek had him in his like in his tries. And we all had him in our tries and our supers. just none of us had him in the front of that, right? That anyone, none of us had him to win in our tries and supers, right?

Matt (09:10.626)
have a good story about this. We're three, four minutes away from post. I've got a little bit left in twins fires and I'm thinking, you know, we've been watching racing all day. You've been trying to dissect everything. And I just got scared about Bob Baffert. And I was like, God, I got to get myself ready for Patente. Cause who, who was it? Was it you or was it Neil that said like, are we just going to throw out Bob Baffert for this race? And Neil and I were, yeah, of course. And I should have listened to Wednesday map because

Nick (09:28.545)
You

Nick (09:33.387)
Yeah, that was me.

Neil (09:33.485)
How's a Nick? How's Nick? Yeah.

Matt (09:40.312)
We were right, but I got worried about potente. So I put, I put potente on top and I'm an exacta and then did the main horses underneath. So I did renegade. did commandment. did wallaby emerging market further ado. I was going to do it. was like, do I do it for golden tempo as well? And then I thought, well, I'm going to be pissed if potente wins and like the non-Burman comes in second and I don't get anything. So I just did five on potente to win. Had I just did that with tempo, I would have been covered. Cause I had tempo.

Neil (10:07.779)
Yeah.

Matt (10:10.208)
I had tempo in second on my Xacta and then third on my Trifacta, but I didn't have them to win.

Nick (10:17.933)
mean, it's always just so easy looking back at it, isn't it? I mean, I just keep going back. They were on fire the whole week, the Ortiz brothers. And look, one thing was neither one of them have won the Derby. that was your negative on Renegade is the fact that he had our ride on him.

Matt (10:26.836)
yeah.

Neil (10:33.528)
Mm-hmm.

Matt (10:35.8)
That was the first time Ired finished in the money. his 10th Erby start, the first time he's ever finished in the money. And honestly, he probably should have won. I mean, if you want to talk about the start for Renegade, how he kept Renegade up.

Neil (10:43.821)
Yeah.

I may hear.

I mean he got bodied by- bodied through the rail. I mean that horse just went- took a smashing, out of the gate. Crazy.

Nick (10:57.737)
And yeah, you can't say he made a better run than Golden Tipo because he didn't beat him, the ride that Renegade had, I think in the end, I think he might be the best horse in the field. Would you all agree with that?

Neil (11:13.602)
Yes.

Matt (11:14.417)
So after dealing with what he had to deal with to start and to where he ended up, absolutely.

Neil (11:19.33)
I think so.

Nick (11:20.407)
But I, for one more thing with Golden Tempo, I wanna give credit to Caitlin Benson at Churchill. And she's on the Twin Spire show. And look, everybody's watching NBC, like people are watching it in venue, but they've got so many drinks by then at the track that they're not even paying attention. But this is word for word what she says on the broadcast about Golden Tempo as they're in the pack. Cherie, I said it correctly, Devo.

turned out beautifully. No wasted movement when he walks. His neck is bowed. I don't know what any of this stuff means, but it means the horse must look pretty damn good. He looks sensational. I cannot understate that enough. The way the pace is going to shake out, this horse is going to be rolling from way off. One of the last true legit closers still left. I love what I'm seeing from him. So put a little extra on

Neil (11:57.997)
Good things, I guess.

Nick (12:19.499)
Golden tempo verbatim what she said in the pack

Matt (12:25.686)
Okay, so you bring up pace. I want to talk about the pace. It wasn't that hot. Like it was 46 and a half around the first, like the first half. It wasn't like crazy speed figures, but all of a sudden it just died down the stretch.

Nick (12:42.689)
Do you think these horses aren't as great as some of the horses we've seen in the past?

Matt (12:48.214)
Because I know, as we started to get scratches and more speed came in, I was expecting a faster pace. And that's kind of why I wanted to get Tempo involved because it was just going to be a breakneck speed. I mean, I think Tempo, I think they, I saw somebody say Tempo got a 95 buyer and it's the lowest buyer of a Derby winner since they've been doing the buyer ratings in the eighties. So it's interesting that like,

It wasn't that fast of a race, but a deep closer still won. So like what happened?

Nick (13:22.733)
You see they were almost five wide and they're all together coming down the stretch and it just was kind of chaotic honestly and and then you just see all those five except for the DeNom-Burbin really they all just start backpedaling and like I just wonder like maybe the quality of horses in this field weren't as good and I've seen some experts talk about that afterwards thinking like look looking back like the favorites in this race

probably weren't as good as we let them to be. And my mistake was not putting in a, even if I didn't love Golden Tempo, he's 23 to one and he's going to be a closer. He has a chance to win this thing. looking back, they're saying the same thing we are that they could have figured this out. It's just, you don't.

Neil (14:13.667)
I yeah, I would have liked to see the Puma run because that was my Derby pick. I think if he were hit run, maybe something turns out differently. So I think he was a quality horse that probably could have won this thing. So hopefully we'll get to see some Puma down the road, maybe the Beaumont or something like that. See, see what kind of quality horse he is. But I wish we would have seen.

Nick (14:32.097)
I think he's very similar horse to the commandment, I think. And maybe ran a better race in the Florida Derby, but just got caught at the wire. I mean, it could have changed the race, I don't know if he's that much better to where it would have changed the outcome of the Derby. I would have liked to see more more talented horse there, for sure. There were too many scratches. Kenny McPeak was not happy about it either.

Neil (14:37.357)
Somewhere,

Matt (14:57.74)
No, Kenny McPeak, Big Mad.

Neil (15:00.973)
What was he I didn't hear that, what was he mad about?

Nick (15:04.577)
It's just the horses are getting scratched when they shouldn't get scratched. They're being overly cautious with them.

Matt (15:04.62)
He

Neil (15:08.563)
overly cautious. I mean, this is a topic of conversation we have every year, is the amount of horses that are running. Like, you know, everybody's talking about health and safety of horses and you're throwing 20 of them out there in one race. This one ended up with 18, but is that too many?

Nick (15:24.577)
means it's not gonna change.

Neil (15:26.369)
I don't want it to change, I like seeing a big horse field. But, what do think?

Nick (15:30.061)
Overseas they run races like this all the time. Like we're one of the few countries that this isn't the norm.

Matt (15:37.816)
Because isn't like Royal Ascot like 30 horses or something like that? It's like a ridiculous number.

Neil (15:38.915)
Are there- Yeah. aren't there tracks a lot wider? Are there tracks not wider?

Nick (15:41.462)
Yeah, they're running a lot of just straight races without turns. They're also primarily, like a lot of them are on turf too, which maybe is a little, I don't know, easier on the horse. So they're able to have more horses out there, but I don't, I mean, it's not going to happen. They're not going to reduce the field sizes.

Neil (15:47.608)
Yeah.

Neil (15:51.725)
Yeah.

Neil (16:02.676)
I don't want it to. I don't think the trainers want them to either. Owners obviously don't want them to because you want to run in the derby. But that always comes up.

Matt (16:09.153)
I mean, this could be a good segue to talking about the schedule. We were going to talk about the schedule, right?

Nick (16:16.353)
Yep, yep, just obviously the big change this year was Oaks not going off till what 840.

And dude when you're pulling up we got there what race three race four

Neil (16:31.107)
Yeah, we got about 130. Yeah.

Nick (16:34.029)
You're getting there for race four and the Oaks is still eight hours away almost. And drinks are free.

Neil (16:46.083)
you

Nick (16:46.303)
and they're just handing them to you everywhere you go. A lot of people are saying that they noticed the crowd being smaller at Oaks. They have videos of a lot of people leaving. They have videos of a lot of people at these parties around town watching it on TVs instead of being there. I mean, it was a success for TV. It was the most watched Oaks in history.

Neil (16:49.603)
Yeah.

Nick (17:16.109)
The Oaks got a record audience of 2.4 million. I think that was more than five or six times the previous record.

Neil (17:26.211)
Four times the previous record, which was in 1997 when it was on ESPN back then.

Nick (17:30.189)
So, I know a bunch of people in our city are upset about it. And look, I get why restaurants are upset about it. But after they put up those numbers, we ain't going back.

Neil (17:44.013)
Do not. No, we're not going back. I don't understand the whole, like, does it cut into the restaurant industry? Maybe, but there's still, there's no, people need to eat dinner. There's still plenty of people in this city that are gonna go out to eat dinner. They're gonna go out and watch the Oaks. Like, stop crying about this. Like, there's a million people that just live in this city, just little-villians. And then you add in everybody that's going to Derby, you're gonna be fine. There's people that are still gonna come to your restaurant. Stop crying about it. Stop crying about it.

Nick (17:52.001)
Yes, no, there's no maybe it does.

Nick (18:01.261)
They're not all maniacs,

Nick (18:11.063)
But there were restaurants that didn't even open for dinner. Like they completely shut down.

Neil (18:13.845)
Because they wanted to want to cry. They cried and they'd close their doors like little babies. Keep your doors open and guess what? You probably have some people roll through. They didn't even want to try it.

Matt (18:22.392)
They did the Notre Dame football. They took their ball and went home.

Nick (18:22.497)
Matt?

Neil (18:26.657)
They did. They cried about it and they whined about it. They didn't, they, woohoo. They just decided not to even try to open the doors. Why don't you keep your doors open, see how it goes, and then maybe next year you make a different decision. They didn't even try.

Nick (18:36.909)
I don't disagree. I think it's a good point and to be fair everybody's not maniacs like we are and Head into another bar as soon as everything's over or heading to dinner like that's a long day Most people are probably going home, but I I do agree with you leave your doors open Don't say we're closing because we're pissed off and there's no chance for you to come

Matt (18:56.386)
Yes!

Neil (19:00.419)
Thank you. But also, if you're coming from out of town, let's say you're coming from California, you're coming from New York, or there's people that come from overseas, they come from Britain, or the Netherlands, or whatever. You're probably going, if you're at Oaks, you're probably going to Derby too. So you're probably, maybe don't stick around for the 830 Oaks, because not a lot of people really care a lot about the Oaks, like they do.

But it's not even anywhere as close to as big as the Derby. And the numbers show that. When there's 24 million people watching the Derby, and there's only 2 million watching the Yokes. So these people will probably go to the track. They go to the track and-

Nick (19:29.837)
So there's never been 500,000. That 500,000 was the previous high for watching it.

Neil (19:35.393)
Right. So these people will go to the track at noon or one o'clock like we did. They'll stay for a little while and then they will leave and get on with their evening and come back to the track the next day. So there's probably I think there was less people at Oaks at post at 830 but that was to be expected. But I'm not buying the whole restaurant industry boo-hooing and crying over it because people will still leave and go to dinner. And you're not eating chicken fingers at Oaks.

Matt (19:58.104)
I think that sh-

No, I think the two people that affected the most to me are the people that are going to Oaks and going to Derby because that's like the first, mean, you're, I mean, you're probably not getting the first post for Derby day, but that's 11 AM and you have an eight 40 Oaks and then.

Nick (20:16.793)
it's hard to do the back-fright no matter when the times are.

Neil (20:19.255)
That's why I think they leave Oaks early. I think those people are the ones that leaving early, which then they're going to dinner and they're going home, or going to their hotels or their parties.

Matt (20:20.842)
Right. Yeah. And, and the people go into the gala's. It's the people that are doing the double and the people that going to the gala's because yes, Oaks is a cool race. It's a great thing. But if you're paying thousands of dollars to be at these gala's, you're going to go to the gala's.

Neil (20:28.663)
Yes.

Nick (20:41.932)
Yeah, there's no doubt. But also if there's five times as many people watching it on television, doesn't that bring more awareness to it? And now more people might eventually go to the Oaks. Like the number this year for the attendance was 103,290, which was up last year where it was just it was almost 101,000. But a year ago, that was the smallest Oaks Day crowd this century. And the most ever at attendance was 2016, where it was almost 125,000.

Neil (20:47.491)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (21:11.798)
So you're talking 20,000 less people than this year, or 20,000 less than this year's attendance is the record. So I mean, if more people were watching on TV, will eventually more people start coming to the Oaks again? Like, is that what they're hoping for or they just want the TV money?

Neil (21:29.847)
Both.

Matt (21:29.976)
think the problem is too, when did they implement mainly all-inclusive for Oaks? I feel like that problem, because that probably priced a lot of people out.

Neil (21:40.643)
The price of Oaks has probably tripled or quadrupled since they did that, which I think 100 % is going to hurt your attendance, there's no doubt about it. I don't know, kind of personally, I kind of like it. I like going later time because we got out there at 1, 1.30 and passed Oaks. First race is at 10 o'clock in the morning. We'd be getting up at 8 and you're rushing to the track, you're trying to get there. Those first couple of races, they put them real close together.

Nick (21:41.492)
The Price People Out.

Matt (21:50.103)
I mean...

Nick (22:01.504)
No, I-

Neil (22:08.195)
I mean race 1, 2, 3, they're running through them until you get to about race 4, 5, or 6 and then they start spacing them out. But those early races, they start bunching them up and you're trying to get there to see some horse racing. You're getting there early.

Nick (22:10.442)
BAM BAM BAM

Nick (22:19.564)
I think most people are like us though. I really don't. Like I think most people would like to get there at like 11 and be not be there till nine o'clock. Like I think we're in the minority. We're maniacs.

Neil (22:22.979)
What do most people like? They like to get up early.

Matt (22:34.53)
think, like, I'll say this from somebody who wasn't there. It looks great on TV. It got a good audience. My question is, is there a happy medium? Can we do, can we, can the NBC coverage start at seven and Oaks go at 740? Like, cause the end of the day, NBC didn't come on the air till eight. It's not like they were on the air.

Nick (22:39.275)
Okay.

Nick (22:52.896)
Well, they're not under the lights. And I think they wanted it to be under lights.

Nick (23:00.554)
Wagering was up big time on Oaks Day. I think it was up 18%, $89 million. Better on Oaks Day. Here's my question. Was Oaks, I mean, it was a practice run to see how this worked in primetime for Derby eventually. Is there a, huh? You don't?

Neil (23:24.611)
I don't think so. I don't think so. I'll tell you why in a second. No, but go ahead.

Nick (23:30.27)
Okay, well is there a chance that they just wanted to practice it on Oaks? They'll move Derby to prime time and then eventually move Oaks back to where it was?

Neil (23:39.339)
Is 702 not primetime? What is primetime?

Nick (23:42.954)
It's four o'clock on the west coast, so I'm gonna go.

Neil (23:46.125)
But on Saturday, NBC always rolls into NBA playoffs or NHL. And you're not pushing that back till 10 o'clock. I think they keep...

Nick (23:52.513)
Well, that's another thing too I think we need to talk about is the way they quickly went to the NBA playoff game when people have been watching Derby all day and you're cutting away that quick after the race. Where they want to, I think people want to see the post game festivities. It's a big part of it.

Neil (24:12.205)
Do they switch it over to like NBC Sports?

Nick (24:15.924)
Yeah, I think you could watch it on Yeah, you're right. It was probably peacock people were doing that

Matt (24:16.824)
It was probably on Peacock.

Neil (24:19.267)
or something like that. yeah, there's just no way they're gonna push Derby that late to Oak's time of 8.30 or 8.40. It's gonna ruin your program. You can't put anything on after it.

Matt (24:27.032)
I don't think book is the...

Nick (24:27.916)
I wouldn't say no way.

Matt (24:34.55)
I think that like the NBC goes on air at 2 30 on Derby Day. They're on.

Nick (24:34.732)
I mean, it.

Nick (24:40.704)
They went and it felt like was earlier this year, did you?

Matt (24:43.352)
They were on 2.30 and post isn't till 7, so they're on for a long time. When you're only going on 40 minutes before the Oaks post, it's, I think, I really don't think you're gonna push the Derby back, because Neil's right. There's gonna be a 7.30, 7.45 NBA game that they're gonna go to.

Nick (25:01.59)
But if they're getting 24 and a half million at seven o'clock, you don't think there's a chance that they want to see what they can get at nine?

Neil (25:10.851)
Not if there's a game seven Celtics and game seven Celtics and Sixers to play.

Nick (25:16.672)
But then, you run the race at 9 o'clock, you stay with post game until 10. They can do that. They can figure out content.

Like the numbers right now for this horse race, which horse racing is declining across the country in every other race except for this race. And it continues to grow.

Neil (25:39.413)
Even the Breeders' Cup's declining.

Nick (25:41.653)
Yes, the viewership for the Breeders' is declining. The Derby is an absolute outlier. But this race right now is getting more viewership than the college basketball title game, than the World Series, than the NBA playoffs. Pretty much everything except for college football, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, and other one-off events.

Neil (25:44.663)
Okay.

Nick (26:09.974)
Those are the only events that are getting more viewership than the Kentucky Derby. And it's ran at seven o'clock. After they saw the success of what it did with the Oaks, I think it's the next step.

Matt (26:23.512)
But your biggest thing is derbies on a Saturday. I don't think moving it back on an hour on Saturday is gonna make a difference.

Neil (26:27.341)
Yes. Why do you think there would be more people watching Derby at 830 than there would be at seven?

Nick (26:36.396)
I do. So do you think they did the Oaks just to see if they could get more like that was the only reason. Which see, I, to me there's a part of like, it's a test run for the Derby.

Neil (26:41.129)
Absolutely, a thousand percent.

Neil (26:48.055)
No, as Matt said, it's on a Saturday. Derby, you're not, four o'clock on the west coast, who cares? Nobody's working. You're having a derby party. I don't think, I think seven o'clock, that's seven two post time is the sweet spot on a Saturday. I just don't think you're gonna get any more. If you get more, I think you might actually get less at eight thirty. But if you get any more, it's not gonna be a significant amount more. I wouldn't try to mess with it. I wouldn't try to mess with it at all.

Nick (27:01.42)
And that could be the case.

Nick (27:10.666)
No, it was just this.

Nick (27:14.892)
I mean, it's a risk, obviously, because it's working. It's working.

Neil (27:17.987)
Don't mess with it. It's great. We just talked about how well it's doing. Don't mess with it.

Matt (27:23.458)
Yeah. I bet part of the reason why they went late on Friday was NBC said, we can get you on NBC, but we can't start till eight. Like, is it got their nightly news and all that stuff? Like all that stuff. Yeah. Like Saturday doesn't matter. NBC's on at two 30 for the Derby coverage. I guarantee you if NBC said that they could do it at seven, they'd probably do it at seven on Friday. But NBC was like, we can't do it till eight. And Churchill was like, sure.

Neil (27:33.591)
Yeah. Nightly news, the local news, yep.

Neil (27:52.055)
Yes, I agree a thousand percent.

Nick (27:53.505)
Well, no, mean, look, the thing that I laid out is there a chance that the Oaks can move back and the Derby would move up. I do think eventually the Derby could go later. I just think there's a possibility. The Oaks is never moving again.

Matt (28:11.884)
the restaurant owners have to get over it.

Neil (28:12.043)
Unless they go to... You might move to like, if you can move it to 8, make it 4 minutes earlier.

Nick (28:16.768)
They want it under lights. It's like, I mean, we were standing there. It really wasn't, it wasn't pitch dark at 840.

Neil (28:24.599)
No, it wasn't.

No, it's not. mean, yeah, no, it's not going back. It'll never go back to 530 like it was.

Nick (28:36.036)
Derby week handle anybody has anybody looked up the number for the week? What I said it was 89 for the for Oaks day

It was up 3.5 or 3 % from last year. $487 million. The Wink, The Wink.

Neil (28:53.547)
This is the week or this is the week? Is that Saturday to Saturday or is that Tuesday to Saturday? Okay.

Nick (28:59.178)
I think it's Tuesday to Saturday.

Neil (29:05.794)
You contributed a significant amount of too, didn't you? Said you contributed a nice amount. It took a change to that number now, didn't you?

Nick (29:06.038)
Derby day crowd was duet.

Yeah, that's why you might be seeing me in a different location next week for the show. The crowd on Derby Day was 150 for 15, which was up a little bit from the year before. I mean, heck, the record for Derby is 170. So they're 20 off. I I think they've just priced some people out. I think you're all right.

Matt (29:13.304)
You

Neil (29:15.792)
Hehehehehe! He even sent in his car!

Matt (29:17.079)
You

Matt (29:36.13)
You're pressing people out of the infield now.

Neil (29:36.587)
They keep adding. I can't imagine. don't even know what the... Like, what is it? Back in our day, was 60, 70 bucks. Now it's gotta be like 100.

Nick (29:41.206)
Bye!

It was 40. It was 40.

Matt (29:45.625)
I think it's a buck sixty now for the infield and you can't go to the paddock anymore. You should be able to go to the paddock. You can't go to the paddock now.

Nick (29:48.254)
And look.

Neil (29:51.105)
Yeah, right. Yeah, you can't even do that. Yeah.

Nick (29:53.325)
Well, also, and everything's not all inclusive. you, yeah, right, so you pay 160 and then you're buying drinks. So you're spending, like, I don't know what the cheapest ticket you can get is to not be in the infield at the Derby, but I'd say at least a thousand, right? A thousand plus.

Neil (29:56.725)
No, it's not in the infield at all.

Neil (30:02.648)
Yeah.

Matt (30:14.306)
They have those grants that...

Neil (30:14.659)
No, no, have walk, they have paddock passes. if you go to Costco, do you see Costco? For $699, you got a three day walk around pass for Thurby, Oaks, and Derby. Which basically got you, yes, it got you to the front side of the track, like basically where the paddock is. You don't have a seat, so you're just basically walking around the track, but you're on the side that, yes, you do get the food and the beverages.

Matt (30:20.898)
Yeah.

Nick (30:21.268)
I mean, I've heard of Roswell.

Nick (30:26.314)
And is that included all inclusive?

Matt (30:38.134)
And I think down around the final turn, there's grandstands. There's not boxes. There are grandstands down there that I think they sell that it's still all inclusive, but you don't have like a, you don't have to get a box. You don't have to get six seats.

Neil (30:46.273)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you're probably looking at 300 bucks maybe.

Nick (30:55.596)
So basically, buying an infield ticket is really just not that smart, to be honest.

Neil (31:02.455)
Unless their kids are smarter and have come up with even more creative ways to sneak in booze like we did.

Nick (31:09.002)
I think it's and we were creative with it. We were carving out holes and loaves of bread. Girls were taking their Ziploc bags full of alcohols with their bodies. What else did we do? We were super gluing the leaders back together. But I mean, back then we were able to bring tents in and chairs. We'd get up there so early, we'd set up, we'd have our spot.

Neil (31:10.155)
It's a lot tougher. But maybe you just need to figure it out.

Neil (31:17.601)
Sandwiches. Sandwiches. Yeah.

Neil (31:23.575)
Yeah, we're super glue super glue in two liter tops

Neil (31:38.337)
Yeah.

Nick (31:38.732)
I mean, you looked at the infield on Friday, there's hardly nobody in there. And I mean, I'm sure it was pretty crowded for Derby Day, but I mean, you just look at these numbers alone. Like the financial, the smart thing to do financially is to just buy those $300, $600 tickets that you all are talking about. And then you get free food and drinks.

Neil (31:41.411)
was empty. No, it was empty.

Neil (31:57.313)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Nick (32:03.872)
I just, I don't know, the week goes by fast. But I think the Tuesday Friday strategy as far as going was perfect. Because it gives you two days to rest. And there was, there is no way in the world I was going to the on Saturday or I was going on Wednesday.

Neil (32:10.827)
Okay.

Matt (32:18.208)
You

Neil (32:20.557)
But you talked about no other horse race is really comparing and numbers are down except for the Derby. There's a pathway for the Preakness and Belmont to get big numbers and it requires these owners to run their damn horses. And that's what we're gonna talk about is who's running the Preakness, we don't know. But you gotta run the horses. People will tune in if Golden Tempo is running. If Golden Tempo is not running, guess what? Nobody's watching, because nobody cares.

Nick (32:42.112)
You

Nick (32:48.524)
And it's been a problem, what, for the last six years?

Neil (32:51.159)
thousand percent.

Nick (32:53.894)
And we didn't even get into our draft. we even, do we need to get into it? Like your top horse scratched, did you still win because of that?

Neil (32:59.149)
That way that way

I don't know. Who did I have? I had...

Matt (33:05.144)
I had a bunch of middle-pack guys.

Neil (33:07.84)
Add to non-Burban.

Nick (33:10.708)
You had Dadaan Bourbon and Wallaby.

Neil (33:12.963)
Thief, yeah. had... what? Two of the top five. Two of the top five.

Nick (33:15.692)
So if we just counted our top two, if we just counted our top two because Puma scratched, I had Renegade in second, but I mean, where did Further Do finish?

Neil (33:21.163)
Yeah.

Matt (33:29.068)
further back.

Nick (33:30.272)
Yeah, further back. then Matt.

Matt (33:32.246)
All three of mine were top 10, because I had Commandment, Market, and Incredible.

Neil (33:36.513)
Further ado finished 11th. Emerging market was 10th.

Matt (33:41.174)
And then Commandment Incredible was what, six, seven?

Nick (33:41.58)
So.

Neil (33:42.625)
NIMH67

Matt (33:45.634)
So I think if you do the top two, Neil gets it. You can't do all three because Neil had a last scratch.

Neil (33:51.843)
I mean, Nick, didn't you have to crash too? Yeah.

Nick (33:52.94)
Yeah, I agree. And plus my guy, I had full effort to scratch too, then I replaced it off air. But I mean, Renegade was second, if you just have further to it was what? 11th?

Neil (34:03.031)
Further do, finish 11th.

Nick (34:05.228)
So that's 13 for me. If you want to do it that way.

Neil (34:09.793)
Yeah, I would be... 9 would be my combined.

Nick (34:16.844)
See how good our math is on the spot. You don't beat that, you Matt?

Neil (34:17.539)
I'll take the victory.

Matt (34:20.92)
No, because I'm 6'7", so I'm 13.

Nick (34:23.276)
Well, let's, let's, give Neil the roses.

Neil (34:24.492)
I'll take the victory.

Matt (34:25.622)
Yeah, you'll give it to Neil.

Neil (34:29.175)
We're a handicapper over here.

Matt (34:29.334)
I mean, and he was the one that said golden tempo, keep him around. So I really do think that you can get tempo by proxy.

Neil (34:38.903)
Thank you.

Nick (34:39.852)
And mean, and he was more on Denial of Urban than the other two too, than both of us. So, all right. I'll give respect when it's due.

Matt (34:43.169)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Neil (34:48.887)
Thank you.

Nick (34:49.866)
And it is due. We talked about the preakness and.

Matt (34:53.772)
I say, wanna let's before, before we totally go off the Derby, I am very pun intended. I am so happy that I was right about so happy. Everyone kept talking about so happy and I'm like, why are we talking about this horse? And I mean, it.

Nick (35:12.928)
Well, I think a lot of it was a sentimental story. I really, and his name.

Neil (35:16.713)
And the name, like the name, people bet the name.

Matt (35:17.752)
Yeah.

I mean, I was just like, mean, keep throwing money on it. It's great. But I was like, there's no way. And they were talking, like they ran him, like Mike Smith had him upfront pretty much the whole race. And I don't, that probably wasn't the smartest choice, but.

Nick (35:36.726)
But that's what I think a lot of handicappers love about the Derby and these racists that are getting bet by people that don't normally bet is because stuff like that happens. mean, what was Portnoy's horse in the the oak? Like got way over bet, way over bet. And like if you know even a little bit, you can take advantage of that. And look, you were right on that. You just weren't right on other things. And that's why you didn't hit.

Matt (35:50.904)
Lovely gray.

Neil (35:52.291)
Lovely Greg, I got back down. Yeah, yeah.

Nick (36:05.737)
Being right on something helps you.

Matt (36:07.692)
Yeah. mean, Neil, I actually do think it helped that the Puma didn't run for you because if those rumors about Taylor Swift and Kelsey put owning stake in it, those would have hammered the odds. The Swifties would have been all.

Neil (36:08.045)
Yes.

Neil (36:18.915)
That's also true, you're right. You would have been a one to one favorite.

Nick (36:23.435)
How does that rumor come to be?

Neil (36:29.667)
Yeah, it just came out of nowhere too. leading up to the, like, yeah, I didn't really heard anything about it until a few days before the race.

Matt (36:36.918)
Well, because the drama was up until he scratched was who was going to walk, who was going to walk with the horse because I think they might have owned enough of a share where they're making the walk rather than the actual owners. So it would have been it would have been nuts. But I think for Neil's sake, mean, those I would have loved to see what the odds would have been. Because if so happy, could get to five to one.

Nick (36:52.363)
Really. So it was good.

Neil (36:53.079)
Madhouse. That would have been a madhouse.

Matt (37:06.944)
A Swifty horse might be. Yeah.

Nick (37:07.317)
Which was just wild.

Neil (37:09.101)
I think he would have been, yeah, think he probably, what was Renegade at post time? Was it Renegade five to one? Four to one, down to like nine to two.

Matt (37:12.696)
Two to one.

four and half? Four and a half? Five and a half?

Nick (37:18.719)
They were like renegade commandment so happy we're all just right there like about the same.

Neil (37:23.587)
Yeah, I think the Puma would have been right there with him. Yeah.

Nick (37:28.587)
And you know, one other thing we got to do before we go to pre-gness is it's the second time in three years that the same jockey has won the Oaks and the Derby as Jose Ortiz did it with Always a Runner and obviously Golden Tempo. mean, Brian Hernandez did it just two years ago with Torpedo Anna and Mystic Dance. So before that, it had been all the way back to 2009 when Calvin Bowe Rale rode the rail with Rachel Alexandra and Mind That Bird.

Matt (37:38.102)
double.

Neil (37:55.733)
ORAIL

Nick (38:01.771)
So that's another thing too, just bet who won the Oaks and you win this race. There's just so many angles. There's so many angles.

Matt (38:05.88)
Yeah. I mean.

Neil (38:09.079)
Sound strategy. Sound strategy.

Matt (38:12.054)
I mean, if you like, imagine thinking about having your top three horses that are written by Jose Ortiz, Irad Ortiz, and Tyler Gafleon, and it paid out what, 5,000 to one or whatever it was. Like those three jockeys coming one, two, three paid out that.

Nick (38:29.119)
Yeah, and Gavrilo didn't even ride. Right? Like he picked up that ride late. Yeah.

Matt (38:35.281)
yeah, yeah, right. Who was he on? Was he on...

Nick (38:39.337)
I think he was on full effort.

Matt (38:40.821)
Use on full effort.

Nick (38:45.192)
I don't know like just just like and my dad does this pool where he has like 20 people where they all pick three horses and they throw these Super these tries together with five horses They do a bunch of like $24 bets We would me and him without even talking to each other were the only ones that put golden tempo in our tickets And I did it because of Neil and I was like he might hit the try and he's got his a number and we never even talked about it until afterwards he's like

You know, we were the only two that even mentioned Golden Tempo. I was like, well, why didn't we talk about that? We probably could have bet on him.

Neil (39:19.075)
My wife was smart enough to buy Golden Tempo in the Andrew Storm Derby Party auction. her share, she put in 13 bucks, she split it, so they bought the horse for 26 and won 790 bucks out of it.

Nick (39:22.265)
We could do this all day.

Nick (39:37.493)
So like, what's the favorite going for that in that?

Neil (39:40.799)
the favorite, so Renegade was bought solo by Adam Field for like 80. Then Commandment, Adam, Joe, Joe and I split Commandment. We went in for 80 something on Commandment, but we split it. So 40 something each.

Nick (39:47.051)
Okay, that was the highest one.

Nick (39:55.372)
So you're talking about a fourth of the price almost third of the price

Neil (40:03.523)
But yeah, the overall pool was 700 and I think was like 790. Her share of $15 ended up paying 370 something. All because the, as you would call her, cherry de voe. The females wanted to buy the female trainer and it paid out. It worked for them.

Nick (40:03.723)
Yeah

Matt (40:23.831)
Yeah,

Nick (40:24.255)
Well, I'm glad some females did that because, I mean.

Matt (40:26.87)
No, I've got a story there too. I was locked in on all the prep races this year. I was tuned into all of them. I didn't get anything. Hannah's like, I like the storyline. I'm putting a couple bucks on Golden Tempo.

Nick (40:42.379)
So at least your family wants some money.

Matt (40:44.386)
Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Neil (40:45.291)
Yeah, we won't be homeless. We won't be homeless like you.

Nick (40:46.335)
keeping both of y'all, both of y'all. I just, I got nothing. I got nothing. And I am, I am not betting until Preakness Day.

Matt (40:48.6)
hahahaha

Matt (40:58.656)
Yeah, I did. I remember last year I bet the Black Eyed Susan day and it was just awful odds like the whole day. It was a lot of one to one, four to five, three to five. just was, I might bet that I might do the Black Eyed Susan race and then bet I'm pre-missed day.

Nick (40:59.093)
I'm.

Nick (41:14.697)
Yeah, well, I probably actually will do that, it's part of

Matt (41:18.464)
I do have $35 of wagering bonuses I need to use in the next week, so I'm going to see if I can try and keep that stuff alive.

Nick (41:24.457)
I don't even have any of those. And like normally I'm betting the last two races on Churchill. I didn't even look. I was just... I was done. I was done.

Matt (41:36.312)
I had four straight second place finishes in the middle of on Saturday like the middle of the stakes races I was just second place second place second place second place

Nick (41:48.053)
Do we need to talk about these CAWs real quick?

Matt (41:51.35)
Yes, the T.O. Elvis thing is one.

Nick (41:54.645)
So, Neil, do you know about this?

Neil (41:57.633)
Yeah, those are basically the computers that come in last minute and put a bunch of money on it and drive the odds down right after basically the gates are opening. Yes.

Nick (42:06.399)
Yeah, so there's one specific race on Saturday than Matt, the TO Elvis race. I don't remember what race number it was on the card, but he was like a 30 to one morning line, right?

Matt (42:13.378)
I think it was race eight. I think it was race eight.

Matt (42:18.68)
31 morning line they were walking into the gates and I want to say it was Randy Moss or what one of the guys said hey TOL this is pretty live you're getting a good price 12 to 1 and then comes through and finishes and then I think it was Tariqa right away goes whoa five to one what happened there and then they started talking about it just live on the air be like yeah it's a big topic of conversation and Nick you sent the screenshot it was what three or three hundred or four hundred thousand that was bet in that last second

Nick (42:48.735)
Yes, in the last second. Right before you can't, you know how you bet you've been late before and it's just like, nope, too late, bro. Like these computers know exactly what to pounce and they've got it set and they put 300,000 plus on this horse at the last second and

Matt (42:48.748)
or something like that.

Neil (43:08.481)
And Churchill's given them a bunch of rebates and stuff. They're incentivizing them to do this.

Nick (43:13.451)
And it's just crushing us normal people. Like you actually get one right. You think at a $10 bet, you think you're about to make over 120 bucks and instead you're making just over 50.

Neil (43:25.645)
There is a law that they've been talking about that has passed in Kentucky and I think we're the fifth state to do it that will go into effect in July of locked odds, like fixed odds. So whatever you bet it at, it gets locked. It's like sports betting. So if you're betting something that you're taking the sixers at six and a half and the line moves, you're still getting them at six and a half. So that's the same with horse racing that will eventually go in so something like this won't happen. Like you'll get your 10.

Nick (43:52.726)
Well, and also if you want to compete with sports betting, which everybody's used to their odds being once they get them, that's what they got. And you want people to bet horse racing that aren't really that familiar with it and they bet a horse that's 12 to one when it leaves the gate and then you, you, your final is five to one. There's going to be a lot of people, well, I'm done with that. Right.

Neil (44:12.609)
Yeah, it was changing.

Matt (44:14.68)
I mean, just think about it, Neil, you had a pick five this week. Imagine if you had that in your pick five and how much of a difference that would have made in your payout, going from 12 to one to five to one on a pick five, like, come on.

Neil (44:24.515)
Oh, it's been huge. Huge difference. Huge difference. Yeah. Huge difference.

Nick (44:31.775)
Yeah, and I mean, I don't know like the ins and outs of it. I think it affects like single race wagers more than it does like your exotic, like your pick fours and your pick fives, but it still has to affect them a little bit.

Matt (44:43.768)
The biggest thing it affects are the exactives. I've seen, I saw a bunch of people, because I clicked on a couple on my For You page and now they're all over the place, of how it nukes some exactives by like 50, 60%, which is crazy.

Neil (45:00.451)
That's stupid.

Nick (45:00.811)
It's already impossible to win. And then when you actually get one right and you just see your winnings drop more than half after the gates are opened, that's just, that's a tough one. And it's going to turn a lot of people off on the game, maybe forever.

Neil (45:19.245)
I mean, is. mean, the common, the money bet by the common person is going down, which is why Churchill wants these C.A.Ws. They're putting money into the pool.

Matt (45:27.138)
Yeah. I mean, you saw you went, let's go back to Tuesday when we were all there. Those, there were not really great odds in those races at all because yeah, yeah, all that too, because the CAWs are just knocking them down. So even if you think you get something at three to two, it's going off at three to five and you're like, well, I won a couple bucks.

Nick (45:36.523)
No, a bunch of favorites and we still are hitting them.

Neil (45:48.567)
Yeah, there was some really bad thoughts. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (45:49.088)
Yeah. No, I mean, look, there is a strategy to it and I want to be good at it, which is why I love doing it and why I can, I can handle losing a couple hundred if I have to during derby week, just because I enjoy it. And I want to try to solve the puzzle. Like it's different than like in watching other sports, you don't get all these numbers on a page and try to figure out who's going to win. Right? So that's, that's a part of it. I enjoy, but

I don't think everybody's like that and you just don't want simple things like that that are going to turn people away. When betting is so accessible for everything now, like it's not just horse racing. almost pretty much everybody in the country can bet on whatever they want, whenever they want. And I horse racing, obviously the numbers wagered for Derby Week are fine, but it's the other 51 weeks of the year that are.

dropping pretty exponentially and I do think fixed odds will help that.

Matt (46:51.318)
Yeah, because if you know you can lock in your price, it'll keep the casuals around and you don't have to worry about what it's going to go off at if the C.A.W.s get on.

Nick (47:04.031)
Will we see any horses that ran in the derby run in the previous?

Nick (47:11.923)
because I think there's a good chance we won't.

Neil (47:14.979)
You don't think tempo runs?

Matt (47:16.49)
No, this is probably a really dumb question. Is pregness just a little bit shorter than the derby or is it the same length as the derby?

Neil (47:23.573)
It's shorter. Yeah.

Nick (47:24.139)
360.

Matt (47:26.072)
And Belmont, Belmont's still Derby, but we're still at Saratoga, right?

Nick (47:27.604)
And it's,

Neil (47:28.931)
No more than a mile and a half.

Nick (47:30.901)
But we're still Saratoga and are we at Laurel this year?

Neil (47:34.371)
Oh. We're at Laurel Park in front of 4,800 people for the Prigness. 4,800 people. Prigness is a joke.

Nick (47:38.559)
Yeah, we're at Loro this year.

Matt (47:39.315)
I forgot about that.

Matt (47:44.6)
So is the preakness, or do they keep the 3 16ths even at Laurel? Cause I know when Belmont's been at Saratoga, it's the Derby length. It's the Derby length. Yeah. It hasn't been the mile and a half. Oh yeah. Because we'll think about.

Nick (47:49.355)
So think they're keeping the 360s.

Nick (47:55.028)
It's been, it's been a quarter. Yep. Which honestly, I kind of hate that.

But they don't run mile and half in Saratoga. So they don't.

Matt (48:06.124)
Yeah. Well, if you think about it last year, if you were at Belmont, Biazza would be a perfect horse at a mile and a half. The way Biazza was coming at the end, it was a perfect Belmont horse, but they were at Saratoga.

Nick (48:21.311)
Yeah, it's annoyed me the last couple, like I love it being in Saratoga and I want to, obviously it's one of the most historic tracks in the country. I want to go there, but it changes it to me because it changes the distance. Like it's just not, it's not the same and it's already not the same because it's not a Belmont, but at least make the distance the same.

Nick (48:42.165)
But I, dude, I think there's a really good, and not just the Derby winner, like nobody, like usually there's at least two or three horses that make the quick turnaround and get there in two weeks. Like I think great white is pointing there after, after it scratched.

Matt (48:58.584)
It makes sense.

Matt (49:04.258)
I have my pre-eateness winner already.

Nick (49:04.875)
Who is it?

Matt (49:07.768)
crude velocity. It's Baffert's favorite three-year-old horse.

Nick (49:12.255)
Well, that horse just ran, right? On the weekend, too.

Matt (49:14.538)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But he didn't run in the Derby. He ran in the Path Day mile, right?

Nick (49:19.435)
But it's still the two weeks, it's the same damn two weeks.

Matt (49:22.774)
Yeah, but running in the pat day mile on the turf is it's less strenuous than the Derby and Baffert was talking that horse up like crazy. So I'm assuming it's going to run. Maybe it's not going to run, but if crude velocities in the pre-knees put in your tickets because it ran away from Kingsman and Kingsman's a really good horse.

Nick (49:25.427)
It's different. I guess it's less strenuous.

Nick (49:44.331)
Well, also if nobody's going from the Derby, then just send Goal to Tempo and go win the damn thing when there's nobody that good in the field.

Neil (49:55.255)
Yeah, I had a group.

Nick (49:57.055)
Just go win the damn thing.

Nick (50:03.975)
Is it, I mean y'all, we have to change. Like I get it, it's history, right? It's way it's been. But do we have, like they're gonna change it here in a, was it, it won't go into place next year, right? Is it as soon as next year? Okay.

Matt (50:16.408)
thought it was going to, I thought it was next year.

Neil (50:17.047)
Good, yeah, it's good. Yeah, Churchill bought it starting for next year.

Nick (50:23.275)
So then we would move it to what, the first Saturday in June?

Matt (50:26.856)
No, I think it just moves back one more week. But I think I saw this tweet. I think I think you also move at the same.

Nick (50:29.493)
Okay, one week.

Neil (50:31.895)
What do do with the Belmont?

Nick (50:35.647)
You have to push it back too. Cause then you'd be in the same situation.

Neil (50:37.773)
week. Right, because you go from three weeks to two weeks instead of two weeks to three weeks.

Nick (50:41.067)
Right

Matt (50:44.62)
I saw this tweet and I love it. I feel like, and again, cause all the old timers are gonna say, well, if you win the Triple Crown, it's not gonna be the same anymore. But if no one runs to the Triple Crown, who cares? I think you should have the major races to start every month. Derby's the first week of May. Preakness is the first week of June. July is the bell.

Nick (50:52.715)
Yeah

Nick (51:00.299)
Alright.

Neil (51:03.395)
Well, July 4th weekend for the Belmont, I'll be sick in New York. Fourth of July weekend for the Belmont, hell yeah.

Nick (51:05.321)
I'm good with it. I think it's perfect. I think it's perfect.

Matt (51:06.028)
I mean, come on.

I mean...

Nick (51:11.977)
You've got to figure out a way to get the horses that people are familiar with in these races.

Matt (51:16.76)
Yes. Yeah, because if you do that, then you can have Breeders' Cup preps in August and then Travers don't have it the last week of August, have it Labor Day weekend. You're telling me you could have Belmont, Fourth of July weekend, Travers Labor Day weekend, and it gets more people into horse racing because you know, it's the first weekend of the month, we got a big race going on. Where are we at? What are we doing?

Neil (51:41.859)
You imagine like having your buddies over, you're having a little 4th July cookout, everybody's having a good time, a little pool party, and a Triple Crown's on the line. Everybody's gonna be tuned into that.

Nick (51:52.736)
Well, but here's the thing too, if say Renegade and Golden Tipo ran in the Preakness and Renegade wins this time. But even if, even then, if you're bringing them back for Belmont and you're seeing them run for part three, like who can win? Like that's still going to bring people. Like you need these horses to run in all three legs. And if you did it a month apart, I think they would do that. And I used to be one of these people that said, yeah, you can't screw with it.

Neil (52:05.187)
Rematch. Yeah, rematch. Yeah. Correct.

Yes.

Matt (52:13.932)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (52:22.473)
Screw the history. Like it's boring. Nobody wants to watch this Preakness race with nobody in it at Laurel Park. Let's get these tracks fixed and get them ready. And once Pimlico is good to go, once Belmont is good to go, I'm 100 % on board with Matt's idea. Let's go first week of May, first week of June, first week of July, and let's do this forever. And it will change horse racing.

Neil (52:29.067)
You're a perv.

Matt (52:32.493)
Yeah.

Matt (52:44.438)
You're telling me the new Belmont with all the suites and all everything, and you tell them it's a 4th of July weekend and a big fireworks show after? I mean, come on. It's a no-brainer.

Neil (52:54.793)
sick. That's sick.

Nick (52:56.201)
And the Belmont is so reliant on the fact that they need a triple crown effort. Like that's, they're obviously they're big sell, but if you've got all the horses running in all the races, you're not going to need that as much. Like it would still help obviously if you've got that chance, but.

Matt (53:11.416)
I would argue the Preakness needs it more. Who gives a crap about the Preakness if you don't have a Triple Ground Runner?

Nick (53:17.503)
Well, that used to never be a problem, and now it's a problem every single year.

Neil (53:23.159)
Yeah, you know, it's more of a problem for the Prigness because a lot of these horses could come. I mean, we've seen in the past couple of years, they skipped the Prigness and just go straight to the Belmont. Didn't Sovereignty win the Belmont last year? Skipped the Prigness, came back to the Belmont. So, I mean, like, I would expect to see some of these horses in that Belmont race. But like you said, the Prigness is just going to be dead.

Nick (53:33.973)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Matt (53:34.359)
Yeah.

Matt (53:45.176)
Because I think Commandment and Wallaby already shipped up to Saratoga, right? I think I saw that. I think some horses have already gone straight to Saratoga.

Nick (53:49.632)
measure.

Neil (53:52.619)
I'm already ready to go.

Nick (53:56.172)
Well, I mean, they're here four weeks prior to the derby getting ready. You know?

Neil (54:00.333)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (54:03.817)
I just, dude, if there's not a single Derby horse running at Laurel Park, like what is the viewership gonna be on NBC for that one?

Neil (54:14.337)
I don't know, but now that Churchill's got control of it, think going into next year they're going to fix it. I think they will fix it.

Nick (54:18.399)
Will, all right, here's, will it be fewer than the Oaks NBC numbers on Friday night?

Neil (54:26.657)
No.

Matt (54:27.928)
and,

Nick (54:28.319)
mean there's no pageantry, it's a completely different track. Like you don't have any runners running that are in the derby. Do you think there's no chance that it's smaller?

Matt (54:37.144)
It's still a Saturday. I think you get enough people that even if you're just like, cause I think the biggest thing of like, if you have it on a weekend, people will turn it on their TV. They might not be actively watching, but they'll turn it on. Whereas like Friday nights you're out doing like you're more likely to be out on a Friday than you are on a Saturday. And then that'll yeah, it'll get more.

Neil (54:38.701)
Saturday. Yeah.

Neil (54:56.995)
I think it gets me.

Nick (55:00.905)
I think it probably would.

and the numbers aren't gonna be good.

Matt (55:08.48)
I I was at Laurel Park, my gosh.

Neil (55:11.075)
4,800 people. already sold out. 4,800 people. Yeah. You're going from 150,000 or whatever we called it, the Derby to 4,800.

Matt (55:12.696)
I would hope it's sold out. If it's not sold out, we got problems.

Nick (55:21.973)
Dude, there's more people at Louisville Kings games.

Matt (55:25.762)
That's a fact, not opinion.

Neil (55:26.017)
Yeah, there's more people at Louisville Bats games. Well, yeah, on some weekends maybe.

Nick (55:29.803)
I don't know about that right now. That might be a stretch.

Matt (55:33.24)
When they had the Louisville humidity jerseys will be out there. There'll be 4800 people out there.

Neil (55:36.717)
God.

Nick (55:37.675)
No, like on Fridays and Saturdays, There's more. I have 40. Are tickets expensive? Like, like, secondary market? Like, do people even care?

Matt (55:49.826)
Let me...

Neil (55:49.827)
Is there even an infield? I don't know.

Nick (55:53.707)
I don't know. Is it just their one year?

Matt (55:54.584)
Let me see what's on Snapchat right now. I hope so. Now this year we were supposed to be at Belmont, right? And they needed another year to fit, like it wasn't going be ready in time because it was only supposed to be at Saratoga for two, right? And this is the third year.

Neil (55:58.241)
I think, I think so.

Nick (56:09.461)
I think it's this is yeah, you got pushback and it'll be back at Belmont next year.

Nick (56:16.565)
I mean, aren't you sick of seeing Belmont at the big A?

Matt (56:21.335)
Yes.

Nick (56:22.889)
Like, just quit calling it bitch, just aqueduct. Like I get it, it's Belmont's meat, but.

Matt (56:26.157)
Yeah, it's accurate.

Matt (56:30.488)
All right, so there's like five sections that you could be in according to ticket to a stub hub. Right now, your cheapest tickets are $497 in the section called apron one.

Nick (56:49.502)
apron

Matt (56:50.674)
Apron one you're in the apron and then there's tycoons level one, which is about a thousand

Nick (56:53.333)
What is it?

Neil (56:59.275)
Awful. Good joke.

Nick (57:00.809)
What is, how far, it's 30 minutes away from Baltimore.

Neil (57:04.299)
Screw it, just ride it back to Churchill.

Matt (57:07.458)
Right? Like if you're only going to get 4,000 people in there, like what's the point? Like do it at Churchill and split it 50 50 between what like, you know, whatever Baltimore racing association in church, like, you know, split the pot.

Neil (57:14.295)
Run it back in charts.

Nick (57:22.261)
Well, if Churchill would have bought the Preakness prior to this already happening in the Loreau, I bet this probably would have happened.

Neil (57:28.087)
give it a hundred percent of the instruction. That is true.

Matt (57:30.54)
Heck, put it at Keeneland before you put it at Laurel Park.

Nick (57:33.237)
Dude, that would actually be awesome.

Matt (57:37.804)
That's what they should have done was put it in Keeneland. Maybe if Keeneland wasn't Hoefstein Breeders' Cup, not that it's close, like, I mean, would have been great. I love Keeneland.

Nick (57:47.947)
But we talk about how horse racing is struggling everywhere except for the Derby. But Keeneland sells out every single day.

Matt (57:56.226)
Keeneland spring meet was great. I kept seeing posts as racing's not dead in Keeneland.

Nick (57:58.924)
It sells out every single day. mean, Churchill doesn't do that. They don't try. This is their week. This is where they're trying to sell it out.

Matt (58:05.836)
No, no.

Neil (58:09.633)
It's impossible to sell out Churchill unless it's Derby. It is so massive.

Nick (58:11.753)
Yeah, no, I get that. But still, outside of Derby week, Keeneland's average attendance is higher than Churchill's.

Nick (58:23.253)
So, I don't know, anything else on the ponies?

Matt (58:28.46)
Now just remember, remember crude velocity if it runs in the greatness.

Nick (58:28.735)
We want, we want...

Nick (58:33.279)
Do you, we were gonna talk a little bit about expansion being official, going to 76 teams. Do you wanna stay on here and talk about that or you're too close to it, but you don't really feel like you should?

Matt (58:42.221)
Yes.

No, I think I can talk about it accurately enough.

Neil (58:51.469)
We all agree it's terrible. Yeah, like it's... What are we doing?

Matt (58:52.877)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (58:54.635)
it's awful. so here on the men's side, these are the games we would have saw last year if we would expanded. Arizona State versus California. Bobby Hurley got fired because they were terrible. Oklahoma State versus Virginia Tech. Indiana versus Oklahoma. Indiana couldn't win a game the last two months of the year. Auburn, San Diego State, and then SMO, Miami, the two that actually did happen.

And then they're gonna make it to where all 16s have to play to see a one, which Neil and I have talked repeatedly about how much we hate. 16s have to play another 16 to get the face of Blue Blood. There's gonna be some, yeah, there's all four. Every single one of the 16s are gonna play each other. And then there's gonna be even two 15s that I think have to play each other to play it too.

Matt (59:30.85)
Neil (59:35.235)
So there's gonna be more of that.

Neil (59:40.899)
That's terrible. That's so violent.

Matt (59:40.908)
No.

Neil (59:46.594)
No.

Matt (59:48.396)
No, those are your conference champions. They're in. You don't have to play each other. Yeah.

Neil (59:51.405)
Don't screw them over. Yeah, don't screw them over.

Nick (59:54.571)
We couldn't agree more.

Matt (59:57.368)
If you're gonna do this, it needs to be bubble teams and bubble teams only. Like Miami of Ohio versus Auburn. Just have it like that. The teams that are barely getting in. If you're a conference champion, you should be playing in the round of 64 and no sooner.

Nick (01:00:02.795)
100%.

Neil (01:00:03.754)
else.

Neil (01:00:10.442)
thousand percent.

Neil (01:00:15.971)
1000 %

Nick (01:00:16.043)
Well, I agree 1000 % and they've earned the right for that. But also, I don't think people really want to watch two 16s play each other. So I'm sorry to say that, but they don't.

Matt (01:00:20.556)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (01:00:32.683)
So nobody wants to watch it and they've already earned their way in the tournament. Let them play Duke. Let them play Michigan and Arizona.

Neil (01:00:38.765)
Yes.

Neil (01:00:44.003)
Yeah, it's like the thrill of a lifetime for these kids to play in those games against Dukes and Michigan State's and Louisville's and Kentucky's and Carolina's. Like, they've earned it, but they're not getting the full tournament experience.

Nick (01:00:57.995)
100%. They're not on the court with those guys. Even like the pregame stuff that they get to be a part of with the one on the other side is just stuff they'll remember forever. Like you didn't do this when you're in, when you're at conference tournament to play another 16. And now all four of them are going to have to win a game. Like, yeah, everybody's like, well, they get to win a game. Well, one of them does. The other one doesn't.

Nick (01:01:29.456)
And are you to be excited to watch Arizona State California play basketball?

Matt (01:01:39.032)
It's not gonna be good. It's just not.

Nick (01:01:44.651)
It's just like, it's all TV, man. It's the same thing as with the Oaks at 840. It's all TV. And they don't care if the game sucks, cuz they get more avid in inventory.

Matt (01:01:58.776)
Yeah, because all you're doing is you're going to be going from complaining about team 68 versus 69, then you're going to be complaining about team 76 and 77. And you're going say, 77 got screwed.

Nick (01:02:05.749)
Yep.

Neil (01:02:09.655)
mean, there's going to be teams with losing records at some point. At some point, there's going to be teams with losing records in this tournament.

Nick (01:02:15.903)
think there's gonna have to be.

There's definitely going to be teams with losing records in confidence.

Matt (01:02:22.784)
And I think you should be at 500 or higher to make it. I'm sorry. Conference record, yeah.

Neil (01:02:27.235)
Yeah, it's like a bowl game. I think it should be like a... Like if you're a conference champion, like you win your tournament and you have a losing record, you get in. But it should be like a bowl game. you're not 6-6, you don't go to a bowl. If you're not 500, you're not getting into the tournament.

Nick (01:02:29.515)
Well, you're gonna run out of spots then.

Matt (01:02:43.542)
No, because what was it, two years ago when you had like six in 12 Oklahoma in the SEC and they made it? Look, there's no way. There's no way.

Nick (01:02:49.771)
Yeah.

Neil (01:02:50.829)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (01:02:54.379)
I mean, Auburn was under 600 or under 500 in the SEC. They would have got in here. I mean, we watched smooth play. How bad did they look? Like they did not deserve to be in the postseason with dealing with the injuries that they were dealing with. They just were not a tournament team. And now they're it easy.

Neil (01:03:08.087)
bad nonsense. Yeah.

Nick (01:03:17.739)
There's six clear. What? Maybe more than that. What's eight clear? Yeah, there are eight clear. Good to go. Not even nervous on Selection Sunday.

Neil (01:03:26.307)
Cal being in the tournament.

Nick (01:03:32.457)
Is this the last time? Or does it keep getting bigger?

Matt (01:03:38.028)
don't know if you can, because then you have to change the format. There's only so many games you can play early, right? Because you have to play these games on, what, Tuesday or Wednesday? You have to. So how many games can you play on Tuesday and Wednesday before you're changing the format of the whole turn?

Neil (01:03:56.023)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick (01:03:58.806)
Well, right now we have four, right? There's two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday. And now you're going to have 12. You're going to have 12. You're going to have these six with that largest. You're four 16s and then you're two 15s.

Matt (01:04:03.894)
Yeah, so what does it expand to now?

Neil (01:04:07.555)
Six on both, innit? And it's six on both. Yeah.

Nick (01:04:19.531)
So.

Neil (01:04:20.703)
Six games on Tuesday, six games on Wednesday.

Nick (01:04:23.787)
Well, they're not all gonna be in Dayton anymore.

Matt (01:04:25.911)
Okay, I'll switch.

Neil (01:04:26.243)
I think there's gonna be a West Coast site. think it's one on the one in Dayton Dayton for sure still gonna host But I think there's gonna be a West Coast site like maybe Vegas or something

Matt (01:04:34.942)
If there is one positive, hopefully the West Coast game is where they like whoever wins those goes to their West Coast because the stories about winning the last game at Dayton at midnight and then having to go out to Portland or LA like that's crazy.

Neil (01:04:40.963)
Yeah, you should.

Nick (01:04:51.915)
They always go on a run though.

Matt (01:04:53.566)
I know, which is wild. Those teams find a way.

Nick (01:04:57.259)
There's always a team from Dayton that goes on a run.

Neil (01:05:00.461)
Did they both lose in the first round this year?

Neil (01:05:05.687)
I know Miami, Ohio did.

Nick (01:05:07.807)
No, who was the other game? Texas. Texas won the 26th year. Yeah.

Matt (01:05:10.316)
was Texas, Texas.

Neil (01:05:11.679)
Texas, yeah Texas did go on run. Yeah Texas went on the run. Yeah. They sure did. On a buzzer beater too.

Nick (01:05:17.939)
I think when this starts, the run stops.

Nick (01:05:23.093)
You're not gonna see that anymore. Bon hot take.

Neil (01:05:26.743)
Not even one of these teams?

Nick (01:05:29.215)
I don't want it to happen, but.

Neil (01:05:31.491)
Like, I can still see the Texas going on a run. You're not gonna get the Californias going on a run, but you might still get the Texas going on a run.

Nick (01:05:40.351)
Yeah, they have no business playing a game.

We've been dreading this for how many years? And we escaped by this year because we all thought it going to be this year.

And I mean, to be honest, you can be a bad basketball team and make the NCAA tournament.

Which kinda sucks.

And like these schools like Arizona State, Oklahoma State, that don't have a ton of basketball tradition, guarantee it's going up in the rafters. NCAA tournament, 2026, 2027.

Matt (01:06:15.263)
yeah.

Nick (01:06:21.557)
We're one of, what is it, is it 76 teams now? They're at an eight, right? Yeah, the eight at largest.

I don't know. I hate it.

Matt, you're wearing a mat hat. What's that all about?

Matt (01:06:37.656)
It is a bar in Omaha. It is called the mattress factory, but it is just the mat and I was like I feel like I need to buy this hat and I love how it doesn't have anything else on there because people probably think I bought a hat with just my name on it, but it's an establishment.

Nick (01:06:53.951)
I love it.

Neil (01:06:55.779)
You're a Northeastern sports fan, Patriots and are you a Celtics fan?

Matt (01:06:58.84)
you

So I will be honest with this. I am not the biggest Celtics fan. I'll obviously tune in for the playoffs. If I'm given a choice, I'm more of a hockey fan than a basketball fan. So I'll watch a regular season Bruins game before I watch a regular season Celtics game.

Nick (01:07:19.595)
What are your thoughts on Jalen Brown's favorite season of his life? Playing without Jason Tatum and getting bounced in the first round?

Matt (01:07:28.866)
So essentially, on top of my Derby and Oaks unsuccessful weekend, I had my hockey team have their season end Friday night. I had my basketball team end their season Saturday. And you could say the Red Sox season ended too because they're just hot garbage right now. I literally am just waiting until training camp right now. But Jalen Brown, very good player, had a good season.

Maybe don't say it's your favorite season ever when you won a title in your finals MVP one year.

Nick (01:08:04.187)
and your other best player didn't even play.

Neil (01:08:04.375)
What's the deal? Why does he hate, does he hate Tatum? Does he hate Tatum?

Matt (01:08:09.996)
I don't know if he hates Tatum, but I think he likes being the Alpha number one option, which again, anybody would like that. But it's really hard to say that a first round exit when you blew the, I want to say it's the Celtics first ever time they've lost a 3-1 series lead in franchise history in the playoffs.

Neil (01:08:31.043)
Well prior to that it only happened 13 times in NBA history and it's happened twice in the last two days but yeah it's not very often.

Matt (01:08:38.764)
No, you don't want to be saying that.

Nick (01:08:42.923)
No, it's just, it's, it's a stupid thing to stay. It's you get bounced and like, even if you want to be that guy, you don't say that when the best player in your team, he, Tatum is better than Jalen Brown, right? He's your best player. And when he's not on your team, because he's hurt, you can't, you can't, you just can't say that this is my favorite year.

Matt (01:08:58.05)
Yeah, yep.

Neil (01:08:58.241)
Yes, when healthy.

Matt (01:09:06.963)
And it's tough too, because Jalen played so well during the regular season. Like the reason the Celtics fans expectations got higher was because of how well Jalen played, how the other role players stepped up. And everyone was looking fondly of like, man, this guy can do it. And it was basically thrown away in this last week when like, we were coming back from Orlando. We're watching the Orlando airport. Tatum hits that three in Philly with like 20 seconds left. They go up three one. I'm like, all right, let's move on to the next series. And to blow a three one series lead.

I mean, like you can say, Oh, well, Tatum wasn't out there. go, well, you play, played with their food. They lost game five when they should have won at home. The crazy part about Boston sports is the Celtics won game one in the garden. The Bruins went over three in the garden, their series and the Celtics lost their last three. So both teams went one and six at home.

Not good. Not good.

Nick (01:09:58.892)
I mean, I have no rooting interest, but I ain't gonna lie, like I was pulling against him.

Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. And they don't even play Vucovic. Like, what did they get him for? They don't even play in Game 7.

Matt (01:10:11.998)
That there there was a lot of criticism of that of like, you know, if you're going to trade for the guy, why is he not playing in game seven? And like couldn't Anthony Simons have helped you in that spot? Probably.

Nick (01:10:25.513)
I don't know, but I tried to jump on the Tampa Bay Lightning BAM Wagon because I need a hockey team. And after the Olympics, I'm like, all right, let's go. They lose game seven, allowing, and the Canadians have the fewest amount of shots on goal in the history of the NHL. I just start watching it, and that's how my team gets bounced in game seven.

Matt (01:10:45.181)
Nine shots. Nine shots and they won a game seven, game seven on the road.

Neil (01:10:47.971)
That's interesting.

Nick (01:10:48.171)
And did you see how the third goal or the second goal went in? It was a third goal, right? It was two to one, right? Yeah, two to one. From behind, Neil, like he's behind the goal and it hits the back of the goalie from behind and just bounces in.

Matt (01:10:55.992)
A second, because it two to one. It's two to one.

Neil (01:11:06.659)
It's all about angles. It's all about angles.

Matt (01:11:09.442)
Yeah. That's why I'm one of the guys that yells, that yells, the puck all the time. Cause you never know what's going to happen. Just get the puck on the net. You never know.

Nick (01:11:09.941)
Yeah. It's luck. It's luck.

Nick (01:11:18.623)
Just get it up, get it close there. I know, I did have fun watching it. Well, they've been bouncing the first round several years in a row, despite being a higher seed. So I don't think it's all my fault, but their record was pretty severely worse after I jumped on board. I will say that.

Neil (01:11:21.069)
So it's your fault. So maybe it's your fault that they're bounced, right?

Matt (01:11:38.86)
The Inahakikin.

Nick (01:11:39.487)
But I even know like a few players now, like I'm gonna try to continue this next year.

Matt (01:11:45.144)
Hockey's fun, it's a good time.

Neil (01:11:46.541)
Why are Canadian hockey teams so bad in playoffs?

Nick (01:11:49.973)
Well, one of them's not, because they just bounced my squat.

Matt (01:11:50.103)
Yes.

Neil (01:11:52.599)
No, but like, haven't, nobody, no team from Canada's won a Stanley Cup since 93. And for being a big hockey country, and as much as they care about hockey up there and all the support that they get, why do they all suck?

Matt (01:11:57.602)
that is correct.

Matt (01:12:05.88)
That's a wonderful question, but it's great to always bring up because it's yeah, I mean, the Bruins beat Vancouver game seven in Vancouver back in 2011. That was the closest a Canadian team has gotten. I think they've only had one other team make the finals recently.

Neil (01:12:08.515)
Screw them. I agree. Hope they never win another one.

Neil (01:12:24.545)
the flames might have made didn't the flames make the Stanley Cup one year like in the 2000s I think you're kind of

Matt (01:12:29.43)
Yeah, well, guess Edmonton made it in back-to-back years with McDavid and they lost to the Panthers. So you had Edmonton in there, the Canadians made it in the COVID year where they played, I forgot, well, they had the all-Canadian, the playoffs, was the all-Canadian teams and somehow the Canadians made it to the finals, but lost to your Lightning, Nick, your big Lightning fan, lost to the...

Nick (01:12:29.739)
from something.

Neil (01:12:33.896)
yeah, yeah they did. Yeah.

Nick (01:12:51.509)
Yeah, I was there. I was big. It was an exciting moment in my life.

Matt (01:12:57.848)
How are the Reds doing? How are the Reds doing? How are the Reds doing?

Nick (01:12:58.943)
You know what? Hey, not a great weekend.

Neil (01:13:03.619)
No, we got swept by the Pirates watching tonight. It was good for a while. We were up 3-0. And then Seya Suzuki just hit a 3-round bomb to tie it in the fourth. So we're tied 3-3 against the Cubs.

Nick (01:13:15.143)
Atlanta Braves off to the best start in franchise history since like 1890s 25 and 10 they were the Boston Bean Eaters

Nick (01:13:28.107)
But Ronald Cunha did just pull his hammies on the eye out for a little bit. And Strider still does not look like old Strider yesterday.

Neil (01:13:28.236)
awesome beanie.

Yeah.

Matt (01:13:36.716)
Does he not have the velocity anymore?

Nick (01:13:38.891)
I'm getting worried about it.

Matt (01:13:42.141)
He's all speed. If he doesn't have the speed on his fastball, he doesn't have secondary pitchers that can help you out there.

Neil (01:13:48.279)
I mean it also helps the Braves that they're playing you're in the worst division in baseball. The Phillies and the Mets are trash.

Nick (01:13:52.843)
I mean, that's true. Yeah, they're playing to the fourth and the fifth highest payrolls in baseball.

Neil (01:13:59.063)
who also have two of the worst records in baseball.

Matt (01:13:59.16)
and they're awful.

Nick (01:14:00.639)
And they're awful. And they're awful.

Matt (01:14:02.552)
The Red Sox are like sixth in payroll and they have the worst record. It's great. And Roman Anthony got hurt tonight. They won, but Roman Anthony got hurt. So, Rangers Forrest left his start early yesterday. Roman Anthony just got hurt. Crochet is on the IL. Sunny Gray is on the IL. It's awesome over here. I love it.

Nick (01:14:18.635)
We got any other sports we gotta talk about before you wanna do this? We'll just leave you on here. You're gonna play what would Joe do, whether you like it or not. I gotta write one, I gotta get in the booth. We are playing, our buddy Juice, we used to play this game, Matt, with him at work, where we predict what he was bringing to lunch and what he would eat. So we've called Juice's Lunch Pell, and I would sing the jingle.

Matt (01:14:26.712)
Sure. Amen.

Neil (01:14:29.101)
Do have a theme song for What Would Joe Do Yet?

Neil (01:14:33.933)
Okay.

Neil (01:14:43.063)
we would call it what induces lunch pail.

Nick (01:14:48.105)
And it would go, da da, da da da, what's in Juice's lunch pail? And then we would say, Juice has three items in his lunch pail. And you would have to guess item one by one. And you would be like, damn sandwich, and Juice would look at you and go, And then, yeah, he did hate it. We tried to get him to do it on the show, but he just, he's Juice. But I needed what, so Joe's our buddy that comes up with these.

Neil (01:15:00.205)
He hated it.

Neil (01:15:05.665)
He hailed.

Matt (01:15:10.456)
Mm-hmm.

Nick (01:15:16.721)
Either or things. So I need a what would Joe theme what would Joe do theme song? This one is you must pick one or the other for the rest of your life Never taste food again. All food is tasteless. You still have to eat for nourishment, but you can't taste it Or never hear music again Anytime music is playing all you hear is silence

Nick (01:15:48.831)
I think it's, to me, think it's easy.

Neil (01:15:50.851)
I got a clear one. Yep.

Matt (01:15:51.992)
I think I've got a clear one too.

Neil (01:15:54.455)
I would rather not hear music again.

Nick (01:15:58.247)
I want the other one.

Neil (01:15:58.275)
There's way more good food in this world than there is good music. that's bad.

Nick (01:16:03.018)
I'm with the other way.

I'm going to be healthy as hell. Because I'm not tasting it anyways. I'm going to be eating kale greens, sardines, the healthiest food ever. And then I'm going go jam out at some concerts and listen to music in the car.

Matt (01:16:23.928)
I just think you're eating food more in your life than you're listening to music.

Nick (01:16:28.466)
There's no doubt. There's no doubt. But there are many times in my life where I'm like, I'm hungry, but I don't know what the hell to eat. And if I could just take a pill and be full, would be, I'd be fine with it.

There are times where like, look, I enjoy eating.

I knew you all were both gonna say give up music. So I'm trying to go an alternate route. And like, I do think that there would be benefits to food being tasteless. Like you really would eat healthy. And I mean, I can still drink for flavor.

Neil (01:17:01.731)
You would.

Neil (01:17:05.719)
Don't you wanna taste like you got the-

Nick (01:17:10.344)
Right?

Neil (01:17:11.939)
Is that cheating?

Nick (01:17:13.716)
I mean, this is food. Like, I don't think I'd be able to do like a smoothie.

Matt (01:17:19.552)
Yeah, because, there's a lot of gray area.

Neil (01:17:19.809)
No, you can't do a smoothie.

Nick (01:17:20.074)
But a straight liquid, I think I can still drink beer.

Matt (01:17:25.72)
Well, yeah. Like what about a milkshake? Does milkshake count? Like, is that food? Is that a drink?

Neil (01:17:26.979)
Well yeah.

Nick (01:17:27.059)
Right?

Nick (01:17:31.154)
I would go milkshakes probably in the smoothie category because I can't eat ice cream.

Neil (01:17:39.031)
I don't know, there's just a lot more good food in the world than there is good music. You might go to one concert a year, so going to live music, not a big deal. And then if you're in the car, just flip on some sports talk radio.

Nick (01:17:50.932)
Well, I'm back. Yeah.

Matt (01:17:51.672)
There's so many things you can listen to.

Neil (01:17:52.905)
Odd guess, Sports Talk Radio. Whatever.

Nick (01:17:55.658)
That's the obvious answer is look, I'm just gonna listen to pods.

and this is just not just not go to concerts but there's also think about this how many songs do you love that you never can listen to again like it's not just new music like there's songs that mean a lot to you i'm sure right and have a lot of meaning in your life and you're never going to be able to hear them again

Neil (01:18:02.635)
You do anyway.

Neil (01:18:17.237)
I mean, we'll never be able to sing Gangster's Paradise together again.

Nick (01:18:26.44)
Yeah, how are we going to get chicks in Florida on vacation?

I mean, that was a big strategy.

Neil (01:18:34.925)
That was a big strategy.

Nick (01:18:37.012)
Paris, we were up on the stage like it was an actual concert, an elevated floor. Like we're four feet up on the stage and had just like crowd around us. Like it felt like we were actually like famous.

Matt (01:18:41.127)
my gosh.

Neil (01:18:41.921)
No.

Neil (01:18:47.787)
I will say though, my answer probably would change if I was a single guy.

Matt (01:18:52.248)
Mmm.

Nick (01:18:54.334)
Okay, well I'm a single guy.

Neil (01:18:55.095)
Because like you can bond over music, I mean you can bond over food too I guess, like you bond over music, you go on a date, like when you go on a date and you go out somewhere, there's probably gonna be music involved somewhere.

Nick (01:18:58.506)
You can bond over food too.

Matt (01:18:58.712)
Yeah.

Nick (01:19:04.508)
Also, look, if your wife or your girlfriend can't cook, you don't even have to say anything. It's like, this is delicious. Now let's go listen. Let's go listen to some music.

Neil (01:19:12.259)
That's a great point.

Neil (01:19:17.463)
That's a great point.

Nick (01:19:19.528)
Right? She burns, she burns the casserole. it looks delicious, hun. Crush it. And then go bump some Parker McCullum or some George Strait or some Are you changing sides?

Neil (01:19:25.985)
point.

Neil (01:19:30.934)
Good point.

Neil (01:19:38.227)
I'm starting to drift into the other lane here.

Nick (01:19:44.616)
Are you holding strong Matt?

Matt (01:19:46.235)
yeah, 100%. Look at me, I need to eat food.

Nick (01:19:50.187)
Like, I'll be honest with there's very few times in my life where I eat something and I'm just like, damn, that was delicious. Like, it just, I don't know. It's just, huh? I don't do that a lot.

Neil (01:19:58.275)
There's a lot of There's a lot of times.

Lamb chop,

Matt (01:20:07.192)
seafood.

Nick (01:20:07.644)
I would miss my mom's cooking honestly more than anything. I don't know, when I go to restaurants, I'm never just like, that was out of this world, I can't wait till I do it again. It very rarely happens.

Neil (01:20:18.243)
Well it's cause you guys have an IHOP with an Applebee's touch to it on the Dixie Highway. So your culinary options on the Dixie are not exactly the greatest thing ever. So like what are we talking about? Golly. You got an IHOP connected to an Applebee's and you're gonna sit there and say that, oh there's not really like, well no shit.

Nick (01:20:23.37)
It's not even opened yet. It's not even opened yet. I drive to the East End for your ass once or twice a week.

Nick (01:20:36.586)
Ask all of our friends where Neil's favorite place to go is and guess what they're gonna say Applebee's and now he's on here just straight crushing it

Matt (01:20:37.89)
Well, here's the-

Neil (01:20:45.187)
It's not. I haven't been to an Applebee's in 10 years. I haven't been to an Applebee's in legit 10 years.

Nick (01:20:50.696)
But be honest, did you use to be- I love Applebee's!

Neil (01:20:53.643)
Applebee's was great back in the day. Dollar beers and boneless wings for like five bucks.

Matt (01:20:59.148)
Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. When you're, if you're going to Hoops or Twin Peaks, they're not gonna, it's not a high cuisine type place. But the amount of times I've gone to really nice restaurant and been like, that meal was fantastic, is more than of, man, that song's really good.

Neil (01:21:07.779)
Yeah

Nick (01:21:15.978)
I don't see I don't I just that's why I'm picking this because even when I go to Rooskris or somewhere like that I was like yeah it was good but I just it didn't blow me away

Neil (01:21:26.595)
You have a children's palette then.

Nick (01:21:32.478)
I mean, some people like to eat more than others. Also, like, I get full fast. So I'm just not crushing. Like, I hate the feeling of being full. I hate it.

Neil (01:21:42.647)
I've seen you crush some Funyuns before, the ol' tailgate.

Nick (01:21:45.034)
Oh, dude, now look, you're at a tailgate, those snacks, you can get your whole bag. You're good to go. And I would miss the Funyuns at the tailgate. But I can sacrifice a steak.

Neil (01:22:00.46)
I'm still going with the food.

Nick (01:22:00.615)
I, losing mom's home cooking would be the hardest part.

Nick (01:22:08.618)
But at least I'd still be able to karaoke and do my best to try to pick up some chicks. Because my other stuff ain't working.

Nick (01:22:20.852)
Okay.

Neil (01:22:21.773)
Good luck.

Matt (01:22:22.936)
Yeah, Godspeed.

Nick (01:22:24.328)
That was a good one though.

Neil (01:22:26.787)
This one Joe's better.

Nick (01:22:28.842)
The last one we just straightened, the last one was how many 10 year olds could you beat up at once? And Matt, I'm like, maybe zero if it's a big 10 year old.

Matt (01:22:43.025)
yeah, you would have to be how many unathletic 10 year olds for you.

Nick (01:22:44.382)
Neil, yeah, Neil said he could maybe get 10.

Neil (01:22:51.341)
me a whole class of 10 year olds.

Nick (01:22:54.186)
I mean, I was just watching them play kid pitch earlier today. And I was, as they came up to the plate, I was like, could I take him or could I not take him? Also, we've talked about your kiddos and running track and my nieces and nephews running track. Kid pitch at nine and 10 might be even worse to watch than that, where you're just watching the carousel of walks and everybody's still in second. It's it's tough.

Neil (01:23:23.139)
That sounds awful.

Nick (01:23:24.778)
It's tough. Now once you get to All-Stars, it's fine, which my nephew will play All-Stars, the quality of baseball, but the regular season games are just, they're tough to watch.

Neil (01:23:38.903)
Yeah, that sounds awful.

Nick (01:23:40.648)
And then you see the kid barely get hit by pitch and then it's a five minute delay every single time where he got hit by a 45 mile an hour fastball.

Neil (01:23:43.735)
they start crying.

Neil (01:23:47.971)
my god.

Nick (01:23:52.49)
You

Neil (01:23:54.083)
call.

Nick (01:23:55.883)
I mean, you never know what you're gonna do. You can always end the show just crushing nine and 10 year olds playing kid pitch baseball. You don't know how this show is gonna end. Will in a week, will we even have a pre like a pre just a preview? Like what are we even going to talk about if none of the horses are in the derby like from

Matt (01:24:01.912)
you

Neil (01:24:14.113)
When is the close position draw?

Matt (01:24:17.528)
It's not to like Tuesday or Wednesday, I think.

Nick (01:24:17.898)
I don't know. If we're going to talk pre-k, we'll do the show next Wednesday.

Matt (01:24:29.171)
It is...

The post drive is actually Monday at 5. Next Monday at 5.

Nick (01:24:35.4)
Okay. Okay. I still say Wednesdays get closer to the race. Let some people scratch out.

Neil (01:24:40.557)
Wednesday.

Nick (01:24:45.162)
It's kind of turned into a horse racing part and I'm not even that mad about it.

Nick (01:24:51.466)
I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and break down the NBA and NHL playoffs for now.

Maybe we can get something right pretty this weekend.

Neil (01:25:02.915)
Get out of your old shit.

Nick (01:25:03.21)
I'll get the balls to look at my account to see how much I actually lost by then too. I'll give you all the official numbers.

Matt (01:25:10.104)
you

Nick (01:25:14.344)
You have anything else?

Just, it's kind of sad it's over, isn't it? You wait for it all year and it goes by really fast.

Neil (01:25:23.981)
Did you end up eating the leftover frozen pizza that was sitting uncovered in your fridge?

Nick (01:25:29.258)
What do think?

Neil (01:25:32.291)
I'm gonna say no. If you did, then maybe you really don't taste food.

Nick (01:25:37.994)
it.

Neil (01:25:39.031)
Yo my god, yo. No wonder you said-

Nick (01:25:40.808)
Now look, all the leftover. So everybody came over to my house on Tuesday, Matt, and they left. A box of donuts, a box of blueberry muffins, a box of smoochie, coot, moochies, whatever Carl made.

Neil (01:25:54.377)
the whoopie pies?

Nick (01:25:56.371)
Yeah, the Whoopie Pies, that was close. Did not touch one of those. Did not touch them.

Neil (01:26:04.301)
What do you have against donuts and blueberry muffins? What do you have against donuts and blueberry muffins?

Nick (01:26:07.528)
Huh? I just, I don't know. I have noticed I'm not a big, don't have big sweet tooth. Now the, yeah, cause I had to eat food at that moment and it was there, but.

Neil (01:26:14.071)
What five day old pizza you ate.

Neil (01:26:19.415)
Frozen DiGiorno Red Baron pizza uncovered on just bare naked in your refrigerator five days old five days old No, it had no clothes on it had no wrapping. It was not in any tub aware. It was butt naked in your refrigerator

Nick (01:26:25.948)
It's in the refrigerator, it's not there naked, it's in the fridge. It's in the fridge.

Nick (01:26:37.098)
I that is true.

Neil (01:26:38.625)
and you ate it five days later, you've got problems.

Nick (01:26:40.97)
I did eat it, but I gave all the sweets away.

Neil (01:26:44.801)
And we sit here and wonder why you can't get chicks. Cause you're eating five day old DiGiorno pizza.

Nick (01:26:50.154)
I crushed the Chick-fil-A minis that were left though. Those weren't going to waste. Now I did eat them just as chicken nuggets. I got rid of the bread and then dipped them in like some leftover. Like you keep the sauces that you have extra when you go to like McDonald's at Chick-fil-A, right? So yeah, pulled one of those out and dipped them in that. It was like I almost had Chick-fil-A one day.

Matt (01:26:53.56)
Mmm, those are good.

Neil (01:26:56.227)
are good.

Neil (01:27:01.283)
I think that's normal.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's normal. Yeah.

Nick (01:27:13.718)
All right, we really need to get out of here. But Matt, thanks again for doing this. It'd be hard to talk a race with just two people when we're also just not very smart to talk about the race. So having somebody that's a little more smarter than us is beneficial. You're still an idiot. You're still an idiot. You got lucky. mean, you got lucky once. How many drafts have we done? It's the first one. He's won,

Neil (01:27:28.757)
I won the draft, what are you talking about? You're an idiot.

Matt (01:27:30.262)
Yeah, I was gonna...

Neil (01:27:37.527)
some research.

Matt (01:27:37.56)
Okay, I'll be.

Matt (01:27:43.16)
I'm excited for the pre-miss draft.

Nick (01:27:43.434)
Congratulations, I am too. I think we probably will definitely only do two.

Matt (01:27:47.767)
That one we might only have to do two horses each.

Neil (01:27:51.971)
Probably only an eight-horse field.

Nick (01:27:54.443)
Yeah, which is eight horses for 4,600 people. That gives you what?

Matt (01:28:04.376)
I'm not good enough.

Nick (01:28:04.458)
575 people per horse.

Nick (01:28:11.298)
Alright, I'm ending this shenanigans For the 5-6 Matt the 6-6 Neil, I'm the 410 Nick. We appreciate y'all listening to our derby breakdown We will be here again next week to talk freakness and also remember if you haven't liked or subscribe do that and then follow us at the height differential We'll talk to you next week