Hello and welcome to the in the Money Players podcast. It's day one of the Cheltenham Festival. PTF back with you. Coming to you from the media center this year we'll see. Hopefully there's ambient noise, but there's always noise when we do these shows. I think it might sound a little better. You guys let us know. And we can always go back to standing out in the. In the today. You know, beautiful sunshine. Usually it's not so nice, but very happy to be joined as ever by a man whose opinion is very respected on this network, whether we're talking about racing in the US or around the world. You know him from the Saratoga Special. This is horse racing, Riverdy Stables. We're going to talk to you about that in a second here. Sean Clancy, welcome to Cheltenham.

Welcome back. It's crazy. Been a year and good to be back, that's for sure.

Well, before we get talking about Cheltenham, I want to talk about a horse that we touched on briefly last year who's been back in action recently. Sherminator. Back to winning ways. Tell us what's been going on with him a little bit.

We won a race. He won his handicap debut at Exeter Friday, which made him that improved his hurdle record of four for five. He's got one blemish, bad management. We ran him here at Cheltenham and against Old Park Star and those horses. So we had to take a step back after that. He's won two since and that was good, polished effort at Exeter Friday and hopefully we'll just keep climbing, climbing steps.

It's great. I love to see you with runners over here. Obviously you have tons of horses around the States as well. Folks interested in getting involved. You're not like a public partnership like some are, but you do take on investors from. From time to time.

Yeah, exactly. Now it's a partnership we keep pretty small. I'm kind of a select. Select number of people, select number of horses. A lot of steeplechase horses in America. We do flat racing to two horses here. So we're going to keep trying to expand, keep trying to make it big.

I love that because you got the jump element, the flat element, the US element and the overseas element. So a lot of bases cover. Best place to get more information. What's the website?

Riverdistable.com.

good. I wasn't sure if it was. I wanted to put an S on the end. So I'm glad. I'm glad I let you say it. All right, let's get these races to Cheltenham. We'll do our usual quick Rattle through and we're gonna start off with the the sky bet Supreme Novices hurdle. Who do you like in the Supreme?

I went with Talk to Talk. I just thought I was impressed with his last race. Coming off that fall to run the way he did at the Dublin Racing Festival. I think he wants good ground. It looks like a type of horse who wants good ground. He's kind of got a flick and I like him. Obviously his race are tough, but I went there. Old Park Star has done nothing wrong. I just thought Talk to Talk might be a little more street wise on the day and again on the ground. I think he might, he just might have proved.

I'm glad to hear you say that because that's one of the ones that I was planning on getting involved with. Let's keep the grade one action going with race number two, the Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices Steven Chase. We'll give him the proper name. Who do you like exactly?

I end up on Kopeck deboer. I mean it's a big ass second start his life but you know, Willie Mullins and Willie we trust. Right. So if he's willing to do it. I think the horse is by far, you know, one of the absolute stars over here. I think he's, you know, he's just so much talent. Lulamba is very good. I just thought Lulamba took a little while to warm up the last time and maybe in a, in a fastly run article trying to, you know, run with these horses. Maybe he's just a little bit vulnerable. Just a little bit Steel Alley. Alley. I thought he might be third. Karjay's good. I mean it's, it's a tough race. You start throwing out good horses in races like this.

Am I right that Kopeck has and this is a profile you and I have talked about over the years. A little bit of that boom or bust profile. Either a freak and just going to win or maybe doesn't have to be in the places.

Yeah. I mean possibly just because, you know, if he gets beat, it's probably going to be inexperienced, not talent. Right. I know how much talent he has, but it's obviously as you know, and he hadn't gone right. I mean obviously Willie Mullins when he started out the season wasn't planning on coming to the ark off of one run. They say he's had two kind of training races, you know, big schooling days. He did those well. Again, I just think he's the most talented horse out of the horses. I've seen over the last year. He impressed me and I just think he's the best horse.

Let's talk for a second about the concept of the training race because we see that in the States too with certain barns. I think a pletcher specifically when they. When he's got all the maidens and we'll sort of team scrimmage them in the morning. How much does a training race replicate the experience of a race for a horse, whether it's on the flat on dirt or here over the jumps.

Yeah, I mean I like it. Look, I like when Willie Mullins decides to do something. I think it's in his hands. He's obviously can control it. He can create the way he wants it. I think he really just wanted to be able to create the experience and do what he wanted in those races. So again, I just think when it comes to horses like this and you have to have faith in a guy like Mullins. So it just, you know, it's. Of course it worries you. A horse making a second start in the article worries you less when Willie Mullins is in charge.

Race number three is the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle. This one it starts to get a little bit chaotic. Do you have a strong opinion? That's my first question. And where did you land? Is my second.

Not a strong opinion. I mean these handicaps are tricky. You start diving into these. I wound up with Saratoga maybe because of the name, you know, not very objective there.

I was going to accuse you possibly.

I'll take full responsibility. You know, when you're not partial. When you're not being partial. But I thought his race was good the last time. I thought he just got a little lost. I thought he was going to go on and win the race. He drifted to the inside. He was kind of by himself. I think he can improve on that. I just thought he was an impressive looking horse leap going in this. I thought Glenn to Glenn's race was very good. That race. Just watching it visually I thought was good. I do like that horse. Winston Jr. I thought was interesting with Jack Kennedy aboard. But it's a deep race like all these handicaps.

Yeah. It doesn't get any easier with the race I'm about to ask you about. That comes up as race four, the Ultima. Another one that you can go a whole bunch of different ways. But one where this was one where I want to ask you if you think I might be out to lunch or if I might be on to something with. With Oroko and Quebec was two. I was Going to play against the field.

Yeah. I mean I, I ended up going Jaguar just because I think this is the distance, this is the trip he's always wanted. So Mark Walsh goes there. I like that horse in here. Obviously, JP McManus, you know, you set these, they set these handicaps up. They have a yes. You know, the amount of horses they have, they have an advantage in these races. So it's hard not to start leaning that when it comes to those horses. I thought, I thought, I thought that horses.

Quebec.

How do you say it?

Quebec was.

I think I thought that horse was interesting. I kind of picked him second. Nichols Cogn. I think they're very good. I thought Confusion was interesting horse. He's gone from. He was rated nine. He was right. 92 over over fences. And now he's. He's climbed the ladder. That. That stables had a great season. Joel Parkinson, Sue Smith. I thought he was interesting. Maybe a little bit of a price. But it's again deep race. But yeah, I ended up on J.

Do you remember in Saratoga. I don't feel like it gets talked about as much now, but for a few years it was a buzzy thing. The Bill Mott birthday angle. For a number of years in a row, he had won a race on his birthday.

Yeah, I asked him about that one day when he won a race on his birthday and I said, yeah, there you go, just setting this up again. He said, yeah, they don't know. I entered her seven times and the races didn't go. And they brought this race, this race back as an extra. Well, so that was the last time I worried about that theory.

I bring it up only because you know that March 10th is JP McManus birthday and he has a pretty good record.

He does every day. His birthday here.

Exactly.

A lot of good days here.

Not an angle, but just something funny that came up. Richard Hoyles brought that up at a preview night I was at the other night. So I figured I would steal it here and get you to tell that Bill Mott story. We go to another big one. In race number five, we've got the champion hurdle. Who's going to win it.

I ended up on the new line just kind of by default. I was having trouble separating the three girls. I mean, lossy mouth, golden age predator days ahead are all, you know, they're stars. I'm glad they came. Trying to. Trying the champion hurdle. Obviously it's a race where you've lost the, you know, lost constitution Hill State man. It doesn't have quite the star Power as usual. But I wound up on the new line. I just thought out of all the horses, maybe we haven't seen his best, you know, maybe he's still climbing the ranks. I just have never thought a Lossy mouth as a two mile horse on good ground at Cheltenham. I could be wrong. I love her. She's great. Tries hard every time. I mean she's, she's an absolute star. Golden ace. You have to love her. She shows up, you know, when the other ones fall down, she continues to show up. So be interesting to see her brighter days ahead. She's never run a race here. The trainers, the connections have given her excuses. But I ended up on the new line.

Let's go to race number six. We've got the racing plate. We're back into the inscrutable handicap. Your boy Jaguar won this one last year. Who's going to win it this year?

I was all over the place here. I ended up on Zurich. I thought he was in interesting. Maybe set up for it a little bit. You know I think in these races you end up. I, I always. You just start tending to go to the trainers who, you know, you deem shrewd. You know the Henry de Bromheads, the Gavin Cromwell's, the Dan Skelton's, those kind of guys that are. That are just very good at this type of thing. So I went. I was a tepid Zurich I had down memory lane in there, no questions asked. I thought I could form is a possibility but I was kind of all over the place. I thought Will the Wise even was interesting off of. Off of an interesting race. But yeah, it's tricky. I was all over.

I noticed some money in the market for Will the Wise this morning. So that, that was one that had caught my attention already where I might, where I might end up landing.

Yeah, I just tend to. I just tend to start looking at guys again. Those trainers that you know are shrewd, there's. They're just, they got a lot of horses and they're pointing for these races

and it's a game within a game, right. This whole thing.

Yeah, of course. I mean and I just thought, I thought he was pretty interesting. Maybe race.

All right, let's go to race number seven and then I'll send you off to the Guinness village.

Guinness. I'm doing this without a Guinness so I don't know, we'll see if I'm better or worse.

Yeah, you can let us. That's another thing. Without the Guinnesses people can email me

and let me know, my friends would say worse. My parents would say way better. So, you know, that's what we're dealing with. Right? My critics out there, we.

We wrap it up with. With the National Hunt Novices Handicap Steel Chase. Who do you like?

Okay. This is my strongest opinion of the day. Oh, I love to hear that one. Big bang.

All right.

I'm on my horse tracker a while back, and I said, stay. Stayed up the Cheltenham hill. That was, I think, January 1st last season, 2025. I think he's just crying out for this trip. I. I just. I love him at this trip, so I like him.

That's great. Good stuff, Sean. All right, we'll send you to the Guinness Village. We'll do it again tomorrow. It's all ahead of us right now. Godspeed, my friend. Really appreciate you. And want folks to check out Riverdy Stables as well. This is horse racing. Sean's work should not be missed, and we're gonna try to have him on more and more this year. So thank you, buddy. Appreciate you very much. To everybody out there, thanks for listening, and may you win all your photos. Boom. All right.