Horse racing newsletter: Remembering the real Titletown Five

Hello, my name is John Cherwa and welcome back to our horse racing newsletter, as Rob Henie joins us with another handicapping lesson.

Horse racing lost one of its biggest fans on Nov. 13 when NFL Hall of Famer Paul Hornung died at 84. He was also a big horse player and even an owner. In 2013 he had Titletown Five on the road to the Kentucky Derby. The name makes perfect sense. Titletown for Green Bay and Five for Hornung’s number. Well, the Wayne Lukas-trained colt didn’t make it to the Derby but did run in the Preakness, where he finished ninth.

In March of that year, the NTRA held one of its conference calls and Hornung was a guest. I learned about it from one of our contributors, Ron Flatter, who was on that call and asking questions. He played it on the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which you can access here.

I thought this little edited snippet from the March 19, 2013, call was interesting enough to pass along from the transcript. So, here you go.

Ron: You mentioned Will Take Charge and Oxbow. Is it going to be tough enough just to have your horse be the best Lukas horse, let alone the best Derby horse?

Paul: I don’t care about the best this or best that. All I want [is to have] a horse in the Kentucky Derby. If Wayne wins it — if we don’t win it, one of Wayne’s other horses wins it. I want to see him win No. 6 .

Ron: You know Wayne so well, but why is it now after — what has it been, 14 years since he last won the Derby? Why now has he been able to get such a good crop of horses?

Paul: Well, I think it’s just timing. You know, this is a very unusual game. It’s the toughest game, maybe, in the world and everybody points, you know, for those young 2-year-olds and how they’re bred and how they run and — for one deal, and the deal is to get on the first Saturday in May to be here, in Louisville, Ky. And we love it. We think it’s one of the great sporting events in the country, and we support it very much here. You know, you still can’t get a ticket, a good ticket, to the Kentucky Derby, and if you do it’s expensive as hell.

Ron: As a guy who certainly knows his way around playing the horses, how big a deal is it that Titletown Five has a win at the track at Churchill?

Paul: Well, it’s great. I’ve got my interest already secured in Las Vegas in the winner book, you know? To be truthful, I’ve got 220-to-1 on my horse, so I took a shot at it.

Ron: You can’t get that now.

Paul: I told Wayne if we win — we’re partners, Wayne and I, and I said, “If we win, we buy another horse. Is that all right?” He said, “I love it.”

Ron: Last one from me, Paul. As a guy from Louisville, how close would you have come to being a horseman as opposed to being a professional football player?

Paul: Oh, Ron, I don’t know for that. I was always a football player, as far as I was growing up.

Ron: Since you’ve become a horseman, would there have been a lure for you to get more involved with horses at a young age?

Paul: Oh, I think — you know, I had such a love for the horses when I was growing up. I was an usher here with the Frain Usher system when I lied about my age when I was, like, 14. You had to be 17 to become an usher, so I told them I was 17. I was a little bit big for my age so I got a job, made $45 my first Derby Day. That was a lot of money. And what we would do after that was we’d go down in the grandstand and the Derby Day, everybody’d just stand up on the seats and we’d go down the aisles and steal the Derby glasses and then go outside and sell them for a buck and we added another $40 to our day. So when I was 13 and 14 and I’d bring home $100 to my mom, that was huge and that stays in your mind. And like I said, I hadn’t missed — I missed one Derby, in 1963, when I was suspended and Coach [Vince] Lombardi asked me, he said, “I do not want you to go to the Kentucky Derby. I do not want you to go to Gulfstream. I do not want to ever hear of you at a racetrack this year.”

Ron: Thank you, Paul.

(Cherwa note: Whenever Ron says it’s his last question, you know it never is.)

Weekly handicapping lesson

It’s time for our weekly handicapping lesson from Rob Henie of the WCHR (West Coast Handicapping Report), the ECHR (East Coast Handicapping Report) and the new MHR (Maiden Handicapping Report). Today’s analysis comes from the ninth race at Del Mar and incorporates some handicapping angles into the mix. Rob, take it away.

“The finale is a maiden $80,000 claimer at a flat mile on the turf, but these high-priced claimers in So Cal are on the silly side, here’s why. First off, it’s extremely rare you’ll ever see a horse get claimed for $80,000, and if any runner was truly worth, say, $200,000, etc, they wouldn’t be running for $80,000. We liken an $80,000 claimer on this circuit, closer to a $40,000 type of condition, and for many of these here on Sunday, that’s being kind. Notice as well that many of these are eligible to be claimed for just $70,000, telling us connections would be thrilled to lose their horse for even $70,000, a variable which further points to a poor group.

“With this in mind, the horse who makes some sense to us at a big price, would be BINGOS SYSTEM (#4). Bob Hess took over from recently retired Matt Chew, and off the freshening, she ran evenly going 5 ½ on the main track against $32,000 types, but again, if we view this level/group as a $32,000-40,000 bunch, that rise in class on paper is fabricated a bit. She’s also back in only nine days, which means she returned to the barn, ate up well, showed little sign of running, thus the quick turnaround. And now, they add two turns to the mix, the turf, Edwin Maldonado returns, and it’s likely they’ll push from the gate, simply forcing the issue throughout, making the others pick up their feet turning for home. BASIL FLAVOR (#3) is interesting. She debuts for Paddy Gallagher, who turns to his longtime “go to jock” Drayden Van Dyke, going a distance on the turf at first asking, and though his stats aren’t reflective of a trainer who wins often with debut runners, when he does, it’s this type of scenario with Drayden summoned to ride.

“Hot / Cold Race Trends: none

“Win Contenders (order of preference): 4-3-5

“X Out Runners (eliminating on the win end): 9

“Negative Notes:

“8 Redemption Code - Debuts for Gaines, but the presence of Jessica Pyfer could be an issue, as she hasn’t proven she can win from off the pace, likely the pace scenario on Sunday.

“Breeding Notes:

“1 Malibu Hannah - She debuts for Doug O’Neill, by Malibu Moon, a sire who often produces runners on the fragile side, thus were more pat to back if mated with a hard-trying broodmare, but this one ran only twice, thus, we’re gonna make this one come beat us.

“First Timers:

“5 Quick and Dirty - Debuts for Mike McCarthy who’s more than capable with a debut type, and it’s interesting Mike Smith sticks around late in the day to ride, although of late, sometimes his presence hasn’t exactly been a positive trait to be backing.

“TOP PICK: BINGOS SYSTEM (#4 20-1 Maldonado)

“SECOND CHOICE: BASIL FLAVOR (#3 6-1 Van Dyke) Debut”

The West Coast Handicapping Report can be found at www.westcoasthorseracing.com. It has been endorsed by leading trainers, handicappers and industry sources.

Del Mar review

The feature was the Grade 3 $100,000 Native Diver Stakes for horses going 1 1/8 miles. It’s a good thing Del Mar ran it early as it scratched down to just four horses. It was the reverse of last year’s race with Midcourt going wire-to-wire with Extra Hope in second. On Saturday, Extra Hope took the race gate to wire to win by a length over Midcourt.

Extra Hope paid $10.40 and $2.80 with no show betting. The rest of the field, in order: Midcourt, Combatant and Royal Ship.

Richard Mandella (winning trainer): “[Being on the lead is] what we planned with Extra Hope. I told [Juan Hernandez] ‘Spin the tires’ out of the gate a little bit. [Extra Hope] kind of doesn’t take life real serious, so he wasn’t getting out of his training what he needed to before his first race off the layoff. But the one race did it. He’s been doing good since then. We’ll look at the Big ‘Cap [next year] and possibly the San Antonio on opening day at Santa Anita.”

Juan Hernandez (winning jockey): “That was the plan — to go for the lead right away. He helped me a lot the way he broke so good out of there. Then he was running nice an easy for me; he was relaxed. At the quarter pole I asked him and he gave me a good reply.”

Del Mar preview

Sunday’s nine-race card starts at 12:30 p.m. There are four stakes races and one stakes. The feature is the $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes for Cal-breds going seven furlongs. Galilean is the morning-line favorite at 5-2 for trainer John Sadler and jockey Umberto Rispoli. He has won half of his 12 lifetime races and has won three of his last four. Last out, he won the California Flag at Santa Anita.

The second favorite, at 3-1, is Take The One O One for Brian Koriner and Jose Valdivia Jr. He has won six-of-17 lifetime but hasn’t won a stakes since July 27, 2018. He was in heavy company last out finishing fourth in the Awesome Again finishing behind Improbable, Maximum Security and Midcourt. Post is set for around 3:55 p.m.

Here are the fields sizes, in order: 10, 6, 8, 10, 8 (4 also eligible), 8, 10, 10, 10.

Bob Ike’s DM pick of the day

EIGHTH RACE: No. 9 Loud Mouth (12-1)

Don’t know where his last effort came from or if he can repeat it against this tougher Cal-bred stakes field, but the Steve Knapp trainee ran out of his mind last time when beating first-level allowance company. He contested a hot pace, then turned away a challenge from Jamming Eddy and drew away. That was his first dirt win, let’s see if he can do it again here at a price.

Saturday’s result: Colosi (9-2) never got any kind of position while caught in no-man’s land throughout, was all done by the quarter-pole. Poor effort, poor pick.

Bob Ike is a Partner/VP of Horsebills.com (here’s a video) and the proprietor of BobIkePicks.com (full-card picks, 3 Best Plays and betting strategy).

Ciaran Thornton’s DM pick(s) of the day

SECOND RACE: No. 1 Democrat (6-1)

SECOND RACE: No. 2 Roman Centurian (8-1)

Democrat and Roman Centurian offer nice value in a race that has an odds-on debut horse from trainer Bob Baffert. Democrat at 6-1 is the “other Baffert” horse and regular rider Abel Cedillo with his 44% win rate for this trainer rides. Democrat does not have the normal best of the day workouts one sees with Baffert horses but these “other” horses tend to do well. Roman Centurion at 8-1 debuts for trainer Simon Callaghan and owners Qatar Racing. Qatar does very well here at Del Mar. ‘Roman is the most expensive horse in the race costing $550,000 at auction and had a sharp workout last week. This trainer wins 22% in debut races. I will be using both these value plays looking to beat the favorite.

Saturday’s result: A Real Hero looked very green to start the race and found himself 10 or more lengths back. Into the turn he made a very nice but too late six-wide move to finish fourth. Make a note of this horse next out.

Ciaran Thornton is the handicapper for Californiapick4.com, which offers daily full card picks, longshots of the day, best bets of the day.

Big races review

A look at graded stakes or races worth $100,000 or more on Saturday.

Woodbine (3): $150,000 Ontario Damsel Stakes, Can-bred fillies 3-years-old, 1 1/16 miles on turf. Winner: Mereillux ($6.10)

Aqueduct (9): Grade 3 $100,000 Red Smith Stakes, 3 and up, 1 3/8 miles on turf. Winner: North Dakota ($19.40)

Woodbine (7): $101,200 allowance, fillies and mares 3 and up, 5 furlongs. Winner: Betwixting ($3.80)

Woodbine (8): Grade 3 $125,000 Ontario Derby, 3-year-olds, 1 1/8 miles. Winner: Field Pass ($7.70)

Churchill (9): Grade 3 $100,000 Chilukki Stakes, fillies and mares 3 and up, 1 mile. Winner: Finite ($4.40)

Woodbine (9): Grade 2 $175,000 Kennedy Road Stakes, 3 and up, 6 furlongs. Winner: Ride a Comet ($6.90)

Woodbine (10): Grade 2 $175,000 Bessarabian Stakes, fillies and mares 3 and up, 7 furlongs. Winner: Artie’s Princess ($7.00)

Del Mar (2): Grade 3 $100,000 Native Diver Stakes, 3 and up, 1 1/8 miles. Winner: Extra Hope ($10.40)

Big races preview

A look at graded stakes or races worth $100,000 or more on Sunday. All times PST.

9:50 Aqueduct (3): $100,000 New York Stallion Series (Thunder Ruble Division), NY-breds 3 and up, 7 furlongs. Favorite: Funny Guy (6-5)

11:25 Woodbine (3): $126,800 maiden special weight, fillies 2-years-old, 6 ½ furlongs. Favorite: Road to Romance (2-1)

12:28 Woodbine (5): $126,800 maiden special weight, 2-year-olds, 6 ½ furlongs. Favorite: Lenny K (2-1)

12:45 Aqueduct (9): $100,000 New York Stallion Series (Staten Island Division), NY-bred fillies and mares 3 and up, 7 furlongs. Favorite: Prairie Fire (8-5)

1:28 Woodbine (7): $101,200 allowance, 3 and up, 1 ½ miles. Favorite: Flame Zapper (5-2)

2:28 Woodbine (10): Grade 3 $125,000 Grey Stakes, 2-year-olds, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Helium (2-1)

3:28 Woodbine (11): Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes, fillies 2-years-old, 1 1/16 miles. Favorite: Souper Sensational (1-1)

3:55 Del Mar (8): $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes, Cal-breds 3 and up, 7 furlongs. Favorite: Galilean (5-2)

Chris Wade’s LA pick of the day

ELEVENTH RACE: No. 2 In My Heart (8-1)

She is a Kentucky-bred quarter horse who finished a solid second in a much needed career debut against quality opposition at Ruidoso Downs. She earned a competitive figure in that event even after breaking a bit sluggish and outward to give up some ground and the early racing momentum to the perfect tripped winner. The sorrel sprinter showed a determined run from there to finish a close second in that outing. With a solid number in her holster and with an expected improvement, let’s push this runner steadily to give her rivals a run for the money in the penultimate trial to the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

And now the stars of the show, Saturday’s results and Sunday’s entries.