This will be the last year of the Preakness at Pimlico as we know it or ever knew it. Legendary horse racing insider and Baltimorean Dick Jerardi returns home to update Nestor on the state of the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes and the stakes of the future of industry as another Derby winner has skipped Old Hilltop on the third Saturday of May. Something’s gotta give…
Nestor Aparicio and Dick Jerardi discuss the state of horse racing, particularly the Preakness at Pimlico. Jerardi plans to attend Preakness 150 and hopes for Preakness 152 at the rebuilt Pimlico. They reflect on the race’s history and challenges, including the decline in attendance and the impact of the Stronach Group’s lack of investment. Jerardi is optimistic about the future with new management and state involvement. They also touch on the importance of attracting younger audiences and the potential benefits of moving the Preakness to early June. Additionally, they mention notable horses and trainers participating in the upcoming race.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Preakness, horse racing, Pimlico, Dick Jerardi, Baltimore, Stronach Group, Maryland, Belmont Stakes, Derby winner, Triple Crown, horse betting, racing industry, Pimlico renovation, horse ownership, equine industry.
SPEAKERS
8
Nestor Aparicio, Speaker 1, Dick Jerardi
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 tassel Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, celebrating 125 years with our partners at Coppet State University. I love this shirt, man, and it’s like such a winter shirt, so I’m gonna wear it while it’s a little chilly. Uh, things will be heating up this week at Hi ho Pimlico, Dick Girardi is our defending champion. This is my 13/5 year on the radio discussing weaknesses. I think I think that’s a record somewhere. I think it is the 35th consecutive year that my one time colleague, my compadre of Rogers, forge and beautiful York and bologna here in Towson, Maryland, has made a life in Philadelphia covering the ponies for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a legend in the equine industry, as well as college basketball and calling all things Penn State basketball. At some point he and I will kiss the the wood at the palestra, but in the meantime, we did kiss cheesesteaks in North Philly at Joes together, and I appreciate that. Dick Girardi has been my friend ever since we graced the same pages of sports first and the Baltimore news American in February of 1984 it has been 41 years. Dick, how are you happy? If I can say this happy Preakness to you this week. I mean, no, are you coming down and getting the crab King going to races or no, you just stay in Philly
Dick Jerardi 01:26
these days. No, no, I’m coming down. Look, Pico is the first track I ever went to, Nestor, and I can’t not go to the final Preakness at the present facility. So yes, I will be in attendance on Saturday for Preakness 150 and look forward to being back for what I hope will be Preakness 152 at the new Pimlico. I know there’s some discussion whether I know it’s going to be at Laurel park next year, whether they’ll be able to get back in time in 2027 or not. But whenever it’s back at the new, rebuilt modern Pimlico, I will also be in attendance.
Nestor Aparicio 02:01
Listen, I’ll mess with the Philadelphia thing later. You and I can fix the Orioles pitching, because I know at heart the Orioles were your first love, if not the Colts, if not Secretariat for you and every horse last week, and Churchill was of Secretary. That’s quite a stud fee there nonetheless. But I just want to throw the floor to you all these years into this, I don’t know how much longer you’re going to live. I’m going to live. We’re going to live, but brick is we would have thought Pimlico would have been destroyed the year that all the electronics didn’t work and they lost the paramutual wagering. And that was in 88 or 89 guy tried to punch,
8Dick Jerardi 02:37
yeah, 1998 but who’s counting?
Nestor Aparicio 02:41
Okay, the guy tried to punch the horse. What year was that? I think that
Dick Jerardi 02:44
might have been. It might have been the same year. It was a little later. Was it? I think it was in the 2000s Yeah, that one year when
Nestor Aparicio 02:52
8it’s all over with. And I’ll write the story about the two girls from Albany in the get nasty van back in the 90s too, in the infield. But I have to, Bob Leffler stole on the planet, so I got to make sure I don’t tell that. But I mean, in all Look, man, I love the Preakness. All my buddies and I went out there. We got hammered. I got sunburned. I missed the Loma. I missed a Sunday silence in a Lomas ruler because I, you know, I was drinking. I was 21 like I’m 56 now the track stool there, you’re coming down to kiss the old girl. I’m going to be in Vegas this weekend doing the Maryland party. You know, there’s a point. I’ve been out there when the grandstands closed. I’ve been out like I’ve been out there there’s nobody. I’ve been out there when it’s raining. I’ve been out there when, you know the singer from train sang Mary me to me and my wife in the infield. I’ve seen Stacey Keebler dance the legs with ZZ Top. I’ve seen Bruno Mars twice, once in the rain, right? I’ve seen Tommy Conwell in a young rumors. I’ve seen boobies, a lot of boobies in the 80s and nine I got pictures. So, I mean, I’ve seen it all. I don’t know what it’s going to be dick. And I sit here all day long. And I do baseball here. $600 million for Mr. Rubenstein, the team’s in last place. Katie Griggs doesn’t take my phone calls like I go through all of these changes. I mean, the football team, they got a kicker who’s whatever the hell he used to be, and then they draft another kid that gets thrown out of her so like all of the ethics, all the morality, all of the is the horse on Lasix, or is it not all of that you’ve been at this a long time. Does this make you sad, Dick Girardi, to come down here, or does it make you sort of new beginning? We’ll fix this. We’ll fix the triple. I mean, the Derby winner is not even coming, and this isn’t spend the buck, and it’s not 1985 it’s 40 years later, Dick, and now on the regular the Derby winner doesn’t come,
Dick Jerardi 04:38
right? So a lot of things need to change here. One is that they’re doing right? The old pilmako needed to be knocked down. It just it’s, it’s outlived its useful life, right? And that is has for quite some time. It’s just not up to the standards for having any big race, much less a race with the history of the previous which, as we said, will be run for the 100 and 50th time on Saturday. So that’s. Freight. Look, the Stronach group, they just kind of lost interest several years ago. Nestor, to be fair, they just didn’t work putting any more into it, because I think they knew that they weren’t going to be there for the long term. I mean, they didn’t bid on the casino. That was kind of the writing on the wall that this was going to happen. So now that the nonprofit has come in, and the state of Maryland is involved, and they’re going to make a big investment in Pimlico, the property. I’m optimistic for the future. I think there’s possibilities here. Billy Knopf, I’ve known he was at Monmouth Park. He’s now the new general manager. He’s running the place. Hopefully they get some people with Maryland ties in there that understand the history of the race that what it means to Baltimore, what it has always meant, and get it back to what it was look let’s try to figure out
Nestor Aparicio 05:47
what it means to Baltimore. You know what I mean? Like, that’s where I am in this. Because I’ve seen one great nights. I’ve seen the Clydesdales. I’ve seen this thing just deteriorate on my watch as a media member that’s been thrown out of their press box three years ago when we’re trying to promote their freaking race. The race is going on this week, and you wouldn’t know it, like, other than b, a, l, being all snuffed up into it because they’re like media partnered into it. The city’s not stopping. You know what I mean? Like, I and all the movers and shakers go out to Las Vegas, and that’s, there’s 2000 business leaders that go out to Las Vegas this weekend and do business and just sort of skip the race. The cooker has to go. But, yeah,
Dick Jerardi 06:28
here’s the way I would look at it. Nestor look at it this way. Alright, so the Colts left for Indianapolis. It was probably the worst night in Baltimore sports history, right? Well, the like, what, 15 years later, the Ravens came in and they become a huge deal in the city. The Orioles were bad. Had been bad for a long time, until two years ago. Then they got young. They got good. I don’t really know what is happening this year, other than all their young pitchers are hurt, and they got 100 year old guys out there that can’t pitch anymore, and the interest was renewed. This is going to be a little harder, because it’s a once a year event, but the fact that they’re putting all this money into Pimlico, and everything is going to be framed around the Preakness, and you have new management with some new ideas, but they’re going to have to recreate something that had, that was a gigantic success. There really were 100,000 people out there or in that vicinity, for a long time when you look at the infield, but having been there the last couple of years, Nestor there. I don’t know where all the people went, but they’re
8Nestor Aparicio 07:32
not there. The infield became something, and I was a part of it. Dick, sure, it was part Baltimore, but it was really a frat party in sorrow.
Dick Jerardi 07:40
It was an East Coast College thing. It was
Nestor Aparicio 07:43
an East Coast Kutztown State would bring two plus loads of girls down here to get hammered. That’s what this was, right?
Dick Jerardi 07:51
8And they got to figure out a way not only to recreate that, but also get a buzz around the race itself, where you can get the people that are willing to pay big numbers, not the Churchill Downs numbers, where people are paying 810, 1000 for a day. I mean, that’s not going to happen in Baltimore. It’s and you’re never going to be the Derby, but you can make it bigger. So the couple things need to happen. One, this new building needs to be, hopefully, as good as everybody wants it to be, and then they got to go out to the all the communities that you need to go out to and sell this race again, and the Nestor, probably most importantly, and that this is, this is something that could happen fairly soon, but may not happen at all. You mentioned before no Kentucky Derby winner this year that can happen in the future. The only way you can make sure that doesn’t happen move the race. The race has to get out of the middle of May, has to go to the beginning of June. So you give the Derby winner four weeks. And I think the way right now there’s no incentive for that to happen. NBC owns the rights of the previous of the derby. They don’t want to move it. Fox owns the rights to the Belmont. They don’t want to move Belmont does not want to move off their date. So here’s what’s likely going to happen. May, may happen. NBC is going to hold on to the derby. The Preakness is only is most valuable as a national event with the Derby winner, right? So you got, how do you get that Derby winner? Will you move the race back? Well, then Belmont parks, and I say, well, we don’t want to move our race back. Well, guess what? Find a way when this contract runs out with NBC to go with Fox and the Preakness, then fox will have an incentive. They’ll want a triple crown on the line, right for the Belmont. They’ll have an incentive to move the Preakness to get it four weeks away. And then that way, you get the Derby winner, and then you’ll have a chance. The Belmont Stakes is a much more valuable property, dramatically. So when there’s a triple crown on the line. And trust me, Belmont Park is not happy that the Derby winner is not here. I know he’s going to run in their race, but it ain’t the same as the horse running in their race. And keep in mind also, while Pimlico is being reconstructed, so is Belmont Park, they’re going to open probably. In 2027 and they’re going to want this ironed out so we can find a way to get back to the real triple crown. And anybody that says it would be different, it wouldn’t be the same with not the two weeks. Forget it. The whole sport has changed. The fact that the Derby winner isn’t here for the third time in seven years should tell you something, and it’s not the fault of Pimlico or the prudence is just the whole the whole sport has changed. Horses at that level do not run back in two weeks, except for during the Triple Crown, which just happens to be the marquee series of the sport.
Nestor Aparicio 10:33
Well, Dick Girardi is our guest. He is our defending champion in his previous week around here. And I’m trying to separate fact for fiction and trying to not have uh, K Fabe industry people blowing smoke up my rectum about what this is, because I’ve witnessed this for 35 years, and it is not a going concern. Horse racing here, my friends Acosta are opening in the Timonium racetrack, and what used to be Nick’s grandstand grill. And I went there, Dick. It was, it was Derby Day. I went there, and this is no offense, and we just lost Mr. Costas, who was very involved every man. And it was all men in that parlor. And OTB Timoney were contemporaries of Mr. Costas. I was the youngest person in the room by a lot, and I’m 56 and I don’t know where. And it was Derby Day, and people were betting. And these were real. These were guys who, if you walked in, you would have gotten applause, because they all know you in that world, but and they’ve known you for 40 years in that world, because you’re in that industry, in that way. I don’t smell the youth in this I don’t smell and much like baseball being so Caucasian that it’s frightening, I don’t smell any sort of crossover in this, or young play in this, or outside the Beltway play in this for coming to detract the other 364, days of the year, and with all of the horse racing, part of gambling and Guys and Dolls, and when you were A young guy, it was a place you could get action, other than Louis, the bookmaker man in this world, where you can bet on every pitch now, on baseball and all of that, the betting part of horse racing that made it so uniquely line aligned with betting where we’re in a world that you can bet on anything, anytime you Want, from anywhere you want that part of it as the cell. It now has to be an entertainment vehicle where people fall in love with the horses, the jockeys and the horses don’t talk. Jockeys don’t talk a lot. They have to fall in love with the the pageantry of it, or it just has to be a really nice place to go in a good time and something for people to do. And that’s a complete baseball’s got the same issue. I really believe that of this introduction of what it’s going to be when I come I go to baseball games now, as a DJ, it’s loud, it’s a it’s a completely different thing than the reason I went, and that’s cool, but people have to buy it. And I don’t know horse racing. It’s been so long since I’ve seen multicultural, multi age people anytime, anywhere, and that can be concerts, that can be painting your face with the clowns, or day in the park or booze in the infield, or whatever it is, but getting people in and around it Pimlico has been so um, broken down that they can’t have even the WHO concerts they were having there 20 years ago, or whatever out in the infield. It’s been that I don’t know what the vision is, and Dick from the the top down for the race for all of this to succeed, there’s so many things working against it, including this television thing and all of this that’s working against it. I just much like the the football people, we gave them $600 million you know what they did? They threw people like me out of the press box, moved the press box to the roof, took the 50 yard line and turned it into a $50,000 a year club like that’s what they did with their money. I don’t know what the baseball team’s going to do, but I’m really wondering, like, soup the nuts this project, what are they really expecting horse racing to be and racing on Northern Parkway in, let’s say 2029, or 30, when it’s done, what’s it going to look like from a meat perspective, from a purse perspective, from the money that’s going to need to be generated to support this and the interest around it? And I ask these questions about baseball the time, because it feels very unsustainable to me for what Mr. Rubenstein purchased. I don’t even know the the numbers on any of this. I just know that from Annapolis down through the city, we’re going to support this in the Preakness is ours and all of that. I just don’t know who’s going to breathe it back to life, Dick. And I don’t think it’s your industry, by the way.
Dick Jerardi 14:42
Well, look, it’s a complicated question with not an easy, not any easy answers. But I think, look, Maryland has something that a number of other states do not have that are in kind of California’s in kind of an even more dire situation. They. Some tradition in the sport, and they have the previous so you can frame it around something that is an event, right? They have one of the best three events in the sport. They have a triple crown race and with great history. And there is a way to do this, because it’s been done before, but the whole world has now changed, right? Let’s go back two weeks to the derby with this horse, Sandman. There’s a kid, I mean, Griffin Johnson, I believe is his name. He’s an influencer. He’s got, like, billions of followers. Well, they made him a percentage owner of Sandman. Then all of a sudden, Sandman is all over the place. Hey, the name is great, right? And all of a sudden he’s getting publicity. The horse was the second favorite because of this kid, because he was all over the place, and his followers got interested. So you need that. You need look, I’m not a huge fan of how they’ve run their race tracks, the strong group, but they’ve tried to do something with the Pegasus in Florida. That’s Belinda Strong’s thing. She has this vision of fashion and money and all of that. That’s fine, and the infield at Pimlico, but unfortunately, they the fundamentals were let go right the track had just deteriorated to the point where it just wasn’t a it’s not a fun place to go. So I’ve also
Nestor Aparicio 16:18
racing in the state when the purses went down and,
8Dick Jerardi 16:22
yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s partially, that’s certainly on them to an extent, and the fact that they didn’t get involved, they didn’t bid for a casino license, when that could have dramatically helped the purses, all of that stuff. But I do think with the state, the state is now invested in this, right? The state of Maryland is invested in the future of horse racing. I think they think it has residual value. I mean, all the stuff that you and I already know about. But how can you build up the day to day? That’s not easy, because look, 90% of the money bet at Horse Racing is bets are more than a racetrack anyway. Now, because you got your phone, you got different things, but if you can lead in and Maryland has another name, and Maryland millions a big event. They have a couple of big events, but the Preakness is a giant event. If you can find a way to bring that back, and I think it’s doable with the right management, the right vision, the right people there, if you can bring that back, then you can make this into something. But yeah, if I told you I knew what it’s going to look like in five years, I’d be making it up. I know what I hope it looks like, but it’s gonna, it’s gonna take a lot of hard work, because all those people that used to be coming to the Preakness every year Nestor, they’re not coming anymore. So you gotta find you. I don’t know if that you’re bringing them back, because they’re no longer a college age, but you gotta find some of those people. You gotta find some new people. And to your point, you got to find some people younger than 50. It’s just not going to work. It is. It’s very analogous to baseball in that way. Baseball tried to speed it up. You can’t really speed up horse racing. It’s going to go at the pace that it’s going to go
Nestor Aparicio 17:53
at. Dick Girardi is a legend in the equine industry and horse racing at the Philadelphia Daily News. Been my friend for 41 years. We’ve been colleagues at various points in our lives, and have maintained a lifelong friendship. And more than that, is always been based around this week. This week is been on this show this week for 35 consecutive years, talking about the race and the breakdown and the jockeys and the ownership and the connections, and now we’ve just deteriorated into save the race was a big thing for about a decade. Save the track, save this, save the name and all that. Now we can’t get the Derby winner here. This was always problematic, going back to the genesis of our relationship with spend the buck, which you told me, the story of winding up Philadelphia Park and New Jersey and New Jersey, whatever the Derby, whatever the hell that thing was called, Jersey Derby, Jersey whatever it was back in the day, 1985 people can look it up. For me. All these years later, I still look at the totality of all of this, and I think it’s analogous to horse race or to boxing, where because the IBF and the WBA and the WBC and the mafia don King and Aram, and everybody’s got a piece of this, and HBO has got this, and Showtime’s got that. Like everybody’s into something else. There’s no governing body here. And I think the real problem for the Preakness is the Belmont, right? And where that money would be, and who owns what, and everybody hates everybody, and nobody communicates. And I, every 52 weeks, you and I get together and talk about this, but it this is as acute as it’s ever been that the schedule’s wrong, the schedule’s wrong. Fury, the schedule is wrong. So if Belmont is not going to move, what I
Dick Jerardi 19:31
mean, well, they, they make the point I was making earlier Nestor is they may, they may move. Let’s just say, if the contract is up with NBC, and I don’t think NBC is in love with the Preakness. If they can’t get the Derby winner right, and NBC can’t control that, then maybe fox jumps in. The Preakness becomes more valuable, obviously, if it’s moved where you’re going to get the Derby winner. But yeah, that’s something that hopefully will be settled here shortly, because right now it’s just a matter. It’s it’s not helping anybody, because these are the three, the three biggest single races for wagering in North America. Every year, it’s the derby than the Preakness in a Belmont in some order, depending on whether the Derby winner is coming to the Preakness or whatever. But the derby is in a class by itself. Forget that you’re never getting to that. But you can beat more than what you are at the moment, and the TV thing definitely has to be settled. Here’s the good news for Saturday. Journalism was announced yesterday. He’s coming, right? We love journalism in general, but we like journalism the horse. He’s the best three year old in the country. I know sovereignty won the Derby. I I’ve stood behind journalism before the derby. I think he’s going to put on a show Saturday. So get out there to bimlico. You’re going to see the best three year old in the country who’s going to win, who went big, my man, Michael McCarthy is coming in. They announced it yesterday. You have, you have Wayne Lucas, who won it last year, and a great story, right? He’s back. You got Bob Baffert his back trying for previous win number nine. So you have the big names in the sport, Steve Asmus, innocent, Todd Fletcher, has won every big race in the world except Except the previous he’s trying to win his first so
Nestor Aparicio 21:09
8you have all that crab cakes. You tell him that, yeah, well,
Dick Jerardi 21:13
there’s crab cakes, there’s scraps, there’s crab soup, there’s chipper Ellis, there’s whatever you need it to be. It’s all good. It’s Baltimore. So that that is all there. I can’t believe you’re in Vegas. It’s an outrage. I will be in Baltimore. I will be at the previous
Nestor Aparicio 21:26
get my press pass back Dick, and I’ll go back to the
Dick Jerardi 21:31
I will talk to new management when they take over and see if I can help you out. I
8Nestor Aparicio 21:34
don’t know who’s man even managing it that that’s the
Dick Jerardi 21:39
astronomy is in charge of the Preakness for the next three years, I believe, and then the new group is taking over the race track, Pimlico. Stronic will run Laurel until all the racing moves to Pimlico, and then they’ll do whatever they want with Laurel. They’ll sell it, but they’re not going to get any more
Nestor Aparicio 21:56
racing down there. Dick, the state of the industry and where we are with all the Bob Baffert went through a couple years ago and horses dying, and PETA groups on fire, and just all of that. Um, where is the industry? In regard to numbers, in regard to things going on in Dubai, things going on in Santa Anita, things going places where it’s successful, Saratoga, which I finally did experience a few years ago. You were right. All of you. Marty Bucha, you were right. I have not been to Keeneland yet, but it’s on my list. If I get back to Kentucky, I’ll do it, you know,
Dick Jerardi 22:31
8yeah, look the boutique meets Keeneland. Del Mar Saratoga are as successful as they’ve ever been. Maybe more. The derby is bigger than it’s ever been. So from that standpoint, at the top of the sport, the Breeders Cup is huge. They’re great. The problem is, and I know I’ve said this to you before, it’s an event driven sport without nearly enough events. It’s a year round deal. Couple good things have happened in the last couple years. So they got this hyzo, which is in charge of drug testing, which is in charge of everything they have now have uniform rules around the country. It’s not perfect, but it’s trying to do it the correct way. And I think over time, that’s going to be a positive for the game. There was just a Netflix series that followed the last year’s triple cramp. It was, it was kind of the offshoot of the Formula One series. It was so successful and helped Formula One become more popular. I thought it was fine. I thought it put the game in an interesting light. I think it was something that would appeal to younger people. You have great guys like Kenny McPeak who give ultimate access. You get a really good sense of what’s behind the scenes and horse racing, the fact that you have Terry Finley at West Point thoroughbreds, who brings in this influencer, it was involved with Sandman. That tells you that there are some people in the game. But the problem is, there’s just so many people in the game that only care about themselves, that don’t care about the sport itself. That’s the problem. And look, talking with astronaut group, and they’re going to be out, obviously, out of Maryland in a couple of years. They were making noises, and have been making noises like they want to sell Gulfstream Park. They want to sell the property. You know, that’s the entire state of Florida. It’s very horse dependent. And if Gulfstream Park goes, I mean, that’s a huge problem. And the issue Nestor is, I don’t know if you’ve been to Gulfstream, but
Nestor Aparicio 24:18
I have, but not in a long time. I mean, I’ve been there since the remodel, but then I went back to the neighborhood and partier and Prada, you know, it just, it’s a giant, like,
Speaker 1 24:29
elegant, yeah, it’s them, all right, I don’t, I don’t, looks like
Nestor Aparicio 24:33
Caesar’s Palace got dumped down.
8Dick Jerardi 24:36
Actually, would not have minded keeping the old Gulf street Park. I thought it was fine, but whatever, that’s what they did. But now they’re talking about, hey, look, we’d like to find a way to take our casino business and decouple it from our horse racing business, meaning we don’t want to be in the horse racing business, is what they’re saying right now, the governor of Florida seems to be on the horse racing side. If that’s the case, then at least as long as DeSantis is there, it’s not going to happen. But. There’s that threat that they could sell the property and Nestor, it’s probably worth a billion dollars. I mean, you know where it is. It’s there between Fort Lauderdale and my happy right off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. So it’s very bad. It might be
Nestor Aparicio 25:13
worth more than a billion. Like, I’m thinking about what it is, and I’m like, Who
Dick Jerardi 25:17
knows what it’s worth? It’s worth a lot more as something other than a horse racing track. And unfortunately, the same is true of Santa Anita, which is another strong track, which is probably one of the five most beautiful sporting venues in the country, but yet it’s got all this land, and it’s also incredibly valuable. I mean, think of this. It’s just on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains from Pasadena. So you know, what is that property worth east of east of downtown Los Angeles? Who knows what it’s worth? Worth a ton. So that’s an issue. That’s a longer term issue, but it’s a big issue.
Nestor Aparicio 25:51
8Well, every golf course is worth more as a as a gated community, right? So Dick Girardi is here. He has no gates up in his community. He’s living in comfortably. Up in Philadelphia, he has escaped Rogers forge after a lifetime of Baltimore sports and Philadelphia sports journalism. Anything to add to this thing here on the to look out for and, I mean, other than you think it’s a walkover as as, as a horse race this week, right? I
Dick Jerardi 26:15
mean, I do look, I think journalism, if you look, go back and watch the tape of the derby Nestor, he got completely out of position early because Baffert horse, citizen bull, kind of took a right turn out of the gate and really crowded, like seven or eight horses. And journalism was one of those horses. I thought he’d be like fifth coming out of the first turn. Instead, he was 10th, and he was on a sloppy track, which in watching the race and watching how he normally strides, he never really looked comfortable to me, yet he still made a big move and finished second. If we can get a fast track, and we know we’re going to have half the size of the 19 horse field in the Derby, if he can get much better position, I just think he’s way better than all these horses. Yeah, I wish the Derby winner was here. It’d be fun, because I get a lot better price on journalism if he was here, but maybe they’ll have a rematch in the Belmont Stakes in four weeks, but yeah, or in three weeks. But yeah, I love journalism in the race, but there’s some good horses in the race. I mean, River Thames, a good horse for Todd Fletcher, you know, Baffert is here with a horse. He’s two for two now, he’s untested at this level, but we’ll see. We got a couple. Sandman, we mentioned coming out of the derby. American promise for Wayne Lucas, it’ll be a good race. The undercard will be good to be good racing. Be a lot of stuff to gamble on. Just give me some good weather as I say goodbye to the old pelica. Jason
Nestor Aparicio 27:32
worth in the in the horse racing ownership business, right? He is draft pick, by the way, and I knew Jason, yeah, he
Dick Jerardi 27:40
was a, played for the nationals, obviously, after he played for the Phillies, oh, Eight World Series champs. Well, you wonder what
8Nestor Aparicio 27:45
you do with all your money, worth every penny he’s in the horse racing game, huh?
Dick Jerardi 27:49
Yeah. So, yeah, he was a, he had a small piece of dornick who won the Belmont Stakes last year. And then he has a, at least, maybe even a more substantial piece of a horse that ran in the derby this year. Didn’t run very well, but he did run a bit. Jason’s great for the Jason’s great for the game. I mean, he’s an athlete. He’s still fairly young. Loves the game. Great spokesperson for the game. Needs to bring some of his friends along with him, all of whom have lots of money, like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and all those guys that played for those great Phillies teams in the mid
Nestor Aparicio 28:18
2000s all your Philadelphia royalty, by the way, Chase Utley, the dirtiest play in the history of baseball. I see Dick last thing for you, because you’re you’re a degenerate gambler who’s made a lot of money on horse racing, as we’ve talked about over these years. Here’s my gambling proposition for you. Did you think you would live long enough? And I know you saw Secretariat make the run back in the day? Did you think you would live to see every horse in the Kentucky Derby be bloodline of Secretary? Would you bet on that or against that? Knowing what you know about horse racing,
Dick Jerardi 28:50
8I would say this Nestor, I saw that out there. I don’t know that that’s true. I don’t know that it’s untrue. I haven’t actually gone back and seen and checked it out. I mean, I know it was on the internet. How can that be possible? Everything you see on the internet? Well, anything’s possible. I mean, you’re now four and five generations removed, right? I mean, Secretariat ran into Preakness 53 years ago, so, or 52 years ago, so, right? I mean, think about that. There’s a lot of foals. I mean, Secretariat only lived till 1989 but, you know, Risen star was the son of Secretariat. Lady secret was the daughter of Secretariat. So, yeah, they just over time. So that is possible. Yeah, it’s a little crazy. Another thing I would tell you, speaking of gambling, I’m doing stuff all week for bet online.ag. For our buddy, Jimmy Shapiro, get on their website. It’s a very cool website. Lot of great Derby or a lot of great Preakness props will be on there, and a lot of a lot of Preakness bets. So yeah, bet online.ag, really good website to get on all things Preakness this week.
Nestor Aparicio 29:49
Bet online. AG, my man Jimmy back in Philadelphia just in time to win championships up in Fauci. Hey, and I’m just, I just want to say thank you for the cheese steak at Joe. Those great family, nice people. My buddy Todd raym came out. He lives there in Fishtown, you know, 88 miles away, Tommy conwell’s playing up at King of Prussia on Friday night. You never know. You never know when I’m going to show up on your door.
Dick Jerardi 30:13
Nestor, you now know where Joe’s is. You don’t need me anymore, and you know the owner. So you’re good man. Anytime you want to go,
Nestor Aparicio 30:20
you’ve given me the relationship, the legend of chink, the whole deal. I know everything that’s going on. Dick Girardi is my man. He is up in Philadelphia, but he will always be part of Baltimore. He is licking his wounds and probably doesn’t have any innings in him and out of the bullpen for the Orioles. But life for Oriole guy and life for Pimlico guy, you gonna shed a tear walking at Pimlico or no? You No, it’s
8Dick Jerardi 30:41
good question. Probably not. But who knows? We’ll find out late Saturday evening, I’m going to hang up normally. I ran out of there pretty fast last year. I think I’m going to hang around this year to kind of just wander around a bit before I bolt out of there. And you mentioned earlier, my first sports love the Colts. That was my that was my team. I mean, I love the Orioles, and I spent many nights 85 cents in the red field bleachers talking to Frank Robinson, but yeah, the Johnny, you let him. Moore, Raymond Barry, Jim Parker, Geno mark, any goals they were by squads? See
Nestor Aparicio 31:12
that? See, I mean, that’s why I love you, Dick. Dick Girardi is my man. He’s up in Philadelphia, legend for the Philadelphia Daily News, still writing and thinking about a horse racing as well as college basketball. Still owes me a day at the palestra. We’re working on that one day. We’ll make that happen. Happy Preakness week to all celebrating, we’ll be broadcasting from the pool at the Encore. Steve win, also a Baltimore connection. We’re going to be out at the Encore pool all weekend long for the Maryland party. Can learn more about the everything they do. It’s a big statewide community networking event for lots and lots of business owners and people prominent about keeping our state running, which we appreciate. Horse racing is running. Luke is running with the baseball team this week is the Washington Nationals come to town. I’m running out to Vegas, and if I just survived this AC DC concert and the Pat Benatar show at lyric this week, I’m rocking and rolling. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
