Gino Buccola and Darin Zoccali give their breakdowns and picks for this weekend’s Stephen Foster and Wise Dan Stakes.
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sports grid. It’s time for another edition of the Daily Racing Form Weekend Preview. I am Gino Buccola alongside my good friend Darren Zoccali from Twin Spires, and we brought in to talk with us this week because it’s a huge weekend at Churchill Downs, closing weekend of their meet. But before we get into all the racing, we want to let you know that you can follow along with us, get the past performances, get the data, get all that great information that you need when you just scan the QR code on the screen, or when you head to shop. Dot com free picks, data analysis, everything you need right there. Darren, you have a big weekend coming up. Also a big tournament on Saturday. Yeah that’s right. You know our first mid-major as we call it the Stephen Foster betting Challenge is on Saturday. $3,000 buy in 0 to the bankroll 1000 to the prize pool features $10,000 guaranteed cash Prize pool also guarantees two seats to next year’s Kentucky Derby betting challenge, two seats to this year’s Breeders Cup Betting Challenge and two seats to next year’s NHC. And then for every player that we get over 50, we’ll see that cash prize pool already begin to grow, and we can actually have a maximum up to six Kentucky Derby Betting Challenge seats awarded in addition to the other seats for the Bcbc, the NHC and that cash pot will just continue to grow based on how many players are in. We already are in the mid 30s, so I’m very confident that we’ll fly by that 50 and we’ll be able to give out some extra cash and seats as well. Think about the World Series of Poker and the big Tournament, and you have these qualifying tournaments along the way that also offer you big money. That’s what’s going to be happening this weekend. You want to check that out Darren. We have a really good renewal of the Stephen Foster to look at here. It’s not a big field. We only have seven horses in here. But of the seven, six of them have earned over 1.2 million. Five have earned over 2 million, four have earned over 3.6 million. Three of these have earned over 4.4 million. We’ve got two over the $6 million mark. We’ve got a Breeders Cup Classic winner, a Kentucky Derby winner and a Dubai World Cup winner. When you make a list of the five most prestigious dirt races in the world, those three are on that list. So this is about as good of a race for older horses right now as we could have hoped for. Yeah, seven horses combining for $25 million plus in earnings. That’s one of the highest average earnings per horse that I’ve seen. But yeah, I mean, if you were going to draw up this race and what you wanted it to look like a month ago, this is pretty much it. So and you can make a case, I would say for six of the seven horses on some level. So it’s a select field of seven. But it’s a really good betting race. And you just have to find the value that you feel best fits what you want to do. Of course, that you and I both like a little bit in here starts things out. That’s the number one first mission who comes off of a career best race when he won the Oaklawn Handicap. And this horse has won some big races. No grade ones yet, but he’s really talented and I feel like he could get a great trip in this race. Darren, we’re watching a replay of his most recent race, which was this win at Oaklawn. He should be able to save ground inside, maybe sit third or fourth in here and just get a good trip in this race. Yeah. Into the breach here. Weighing in between two horses leveled off and drew clear. He’s got a win at Churchill Downs by four in the alysheba on the slop. There’s a chance of some rain in the forecast. So that certainly shouldn’t dissuade those who like him. He’s rounding into great form. He’s coming in off the best Beyer speed figure in his career. If you’re a ragged sheet player you’re certainly going to like the cycle forward that you’ve seen in him in the development from age four to age five. I think this race is going to come down to who gets the trip, because I think first Mission and mind frame are both looking for the same trip here. Potentially, if Skippy Longstocking does send like I think he will. First mission in mind frame. Both want to be the horse that’s sitting in the catbird seat just off the pace. So it’s going to be an interesting game of cat and mouse. Early first mission at 4 to 1 I think is good value in this field though. Mind frame is a tough horse to knock overall. When you look at his form and what he’s done, he’s won four of his six races. The other two he finished second and when he finished second last year, twice, they were both races where it might have been his own fault, where he was a little quirky. He was still kind of figuring things out. But Darren, you’re going to kind of make a point about him that shows you that in horse racing there’s different types of ratings, speed ratings. You mentioned a couple of them Beyer speed figures rags and ratings. We seem Timeform US ratings on the screen and on those figures and ratings. While he’s a great accomplished horse, he doesn’t necessarily come out of races that are rated the strongest. Yeah that’s that’s the problem that I have with him. And if you take a look back at his efforts in the Haskell and the Belmont Stakes last year, two races in which he lost, he has not run that fast again on just about any speed figure system that you use, whether it’s buyer, whether it’s time form us, whether it’s rags in. And I get concerned about that. Specifically when you’re talking about horses who are going from age three to age four, I’ll forgive it for one race because horses need a race to come back. But if they come back in that second race and don’t take a big step forward and look, I can’t knock him. He’s never run a bad race and he probably had no business whatsoever winning the Churchill Downs, the way the race was run and the trip that he had. He’s a very good racehorse, but he’s going to have to run the fastest race of his life to win this race. And that does call into question when you have to look at, well, what’s his price going to be and what’s my investment going to be? And him doing that, that’s the approach that I’m taking in a competitive race. If you have to pick nits with the short price, that’s that’s the kind of stuff that you’re doing with these horses. Skippy Longstocking, really cool horse. Darren, nine time graded stakes winner, no grade ones. My only concern with him, he’s been so well spotted by his trainer that most of his wins are in soft races. I think eight of his wins have been at 3 to 1 or under another, one at 7 to 2, another one at 4 to 1, another one at 9 to 2. So generally he’s in races when he wins and runs well, where he’s like the top contender or one of the top players, he’s a little bit more of a long shot in this field. Yeah, I think what you what you’re looking at with him is he’s a horse that when he runs in the grade twos and the grade threes that’s where he that’s where his bread has been buttered. Yep. When he moves up to the grade one he’s typically not quite good enough. The 2023 Breeders Cup Dirt Mile is probably one of the best races he’s ever run behind Cody’s Wish and National Treasure when he ran third. And that’s kind of what we’re talking about here. Now, that being said, is last. This is an interesting kind of counter. His last two races on the Beyer scale have not been great. His last two, his last race on the rags in sheet actually was really good at six and a quarter. And if he runs back to that they say he’s going to move forward. But I do often look at those rags and figures for Southern California and see they come in a little bit faster. He’s one that’s going to have to accomplish something at a level he has not done yet. Stone cold closer. But the Breeders Cup Classic winner from last year, Sierra Leone, he’s got one of the higher ceilings in the race, Darren. But the first six months of the year haven’t been the best for him. He got backed up in his training. He was supposed to run in a race in Saudi and it didn’t end up happening. Then he ran at Fair Grounds and that race didn’t really shape up for him, but he didn’t fire. Kind of feels like this is a starting over point for him for the second half of the year, but I wonder if he’s going to get the pace shape he needs because he really does want them to go fast early so he can come running late. Yeah, this is where we talk about age three to age four. The first race you can forgive. He’s I would expect him to run better. My problem with him is the Breeders Cup Classic. He got the setup of all setups to win that race. I mean, they could not have gone any faster. And there’s certainly a case to be made. And I believe in the case that Fierceness and Forever Young probably even ran a better race than he did that day. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I don’t know if he’s getting that same setup here, but I do think he’s going to run better because he was a flat third last time out. Mystic dam was the Kentucky Derby winner last year. He tailed off for a while, Darren, but he put his last two races together as the best races back to back that he’s ever run in his career. So he’s in really nice form right now. He’s got a great trip inside, but he really likes Churchill Downs. Yeah, and I’ll always love him because he’s part of one of my better derby scores of my lifetime. And he loves Churchill Downs, like you said. So you can’t knock that. But the knock is he’s never run a race fast enough to win this. And typically wherever he goes, because he’s a derby winner, he takes more money than he probably should. And if he’s anything, I think his fair value in this race is more along the lines of seven or 8 to 1 than 3 to 1. So I would say tread lightly. If he’s a short price hit, show will come running late. He just won one of the biggest races in the world. But when he was facing tough company in the US before that, he was a little bit below this type of level. Do you think he’s got a shot here? I mean, he would if a closer is going to win this race, why is it him and not Sierra Leone is probably what I’m trying to think of. I thought he had a great setup in the Dubai World Cup. Forever young didn’t fire his best race that day. There were some issues in the paddock and getting him to the racetrack and he was all washed out, so I think there was a lot of stuff in play in Dubai and Dubai. Form doesn’t always travel for good or for bad. He’s never run a race fast enough, in my opinion, to win this either, especially in the US. So as one of the contenders, he’s probably the one I’m fading the most. And as we finish up, we’ll all be rooting for the Dwayne Lucas runners this week as the coach is dealing with health issues. But I couldn’t really make a case on paper. Darren, for Ashcroft could, you know, I mean, he’s just not fast enough. It would be a tremendous story given the news of the week, if this could possibly happen. But I mean, obviously this is a massive swing for the fences and no disrespect, but he would need to run the race of his life and then some to beat this group. He preview the wise down when we return from this break. As we know it’s just we enter every year and it’s. Is this the Ravens time? Is this Lamar Jackson’s turn? Can they get past the Chiefs and all these other you know, stalwarts of the AFC. But it’s always really about Kansas City when we’re talking Baltimore. This potentially Adam as I send it back to you potentially is a game changer in that you get a very talented quarterback at a discount price. Newswire only on sports grid. We are seeing unbelievable temperature surges over the past couple of days. One day I ask you this question to let the people know, like how do we account for that in our handicapping? Like two good pitchers on the mound. But you look at a place like Wrigley Field, let’s just say 20 mile an hour winds blowing out 90 plus degree temperatures. Is it almost like you say to yourself, you just have to fade the environment and not worry about the pitchers, because if we’re hitting fly balls, they’re going yard pro baseball today only on sports grid. It was the first time, I think, in Dodgers history that the ballpark was full. In the first inning. Everybody was there to see. Shohei Ohtani threw his first pitch as a Dodger, and I had mixed emotions about this for a few reasons. Number one, it was a reminder of, wow, this is so crazy, right? You’re watching him hit 98, 99, even 100 on the radar gun going, this guy is not human. Nobody should be able to be this good of a hitter or this good of a pitcher. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. I can’t even believe I’m saying pitchers battle and using the words Patrick Corbin. But can I tell you, Scott, he’s a different guy. He’s a totally different guy with the Rangers than we’ve seen. I say this all the time, you know, don’t worry about the first five. Like, don’t even watch the first five innings in Texas Ranger game because for whatever reason, there’s a ton of runs scored in the first five and then it just stops. It just stops. Game time decisions only on sports grid. So we previewed race number 11. The Stephen Foster that was the feature race. But a really good race is right before that one on Saturday. Darren it’s the wise Dan the grade two wise Dan named for a horse who was really good in our era. Really nice turf horse. This one is going to be a mile and a 16th race on the turf course, with a $500,000 purse. And I thought this was a pretty kind of fun race to take a look at. Now the complexion of the race will change a little bit. We did have an article that came out from one of our colleagues, Nicole Russo, on Drf.com, that mentioned Mercante wasn’t quite feeling himself. So he said, you know what? He’s been doing really well. We’re going to sit this one out. So you’re going to take Mercante out of this race? Darren, we didn’t necessarily have Mercante on top, but we certainly thought he was in the mix horse, who you were probably going to use in tries and exactas and stuff like that. So that will take him out. Probably give favoritism to a horse like Brilliant Birdie as we meet the field here and we start things out with Henry. He’s actually going to try the turf for the first time. It’s not the easiest spot to try. Turf for the first time. Does have a couple of siblings that won on the turf, and he himself is a stakes winner. Sprinting on the dirt, but not even really a graded stakes caliber horse on the dirt. Yeah, this is a puzzling spot to try the turf for the first time because you knew it was going to come up. Turf come up tough. I mean, he did have a filly sister of his that was by Summer front, which is the family of war front, as you mentioned, that had a turf background. But his main sibling, Street band did his best work, actually running long on the dirt. She won the grade one cotillion. She ran third in the Alabama. Yeah, I mean, this is just a total, you know, dark throw and kind of prove it to me type of situation with Henry. The number two land use is a grade three winner, and he’s been pretty consistent over the last couple of years on the turf in spots like this. Right. Routing on the grass. He’s just been a little bit unlucky. He’s gotten some trips where he got stuck in traffic, some trouble, but he’s solid just a little bit below brilliant birdie who’s beat him a few times but not by much. Yeah I mean if he’s a little bit below brilliant birdie. It’s a very little bit below. Yeah. Because he’s finished within a half length of him in each of the last couple of starts. So he had trips where he’s run into a little bit of traffic at times. And he’s been kind of pinballed around a little bit in the opening verse. But when you take a look at it, I mean, if you like Brilliant Birdie, who’s probably going to be 2 to 1 in here, I mean, what has he done that makes you think that he’s that far behind? Brilliant birdie and he’s going to be three times the price. So if you’re looking to spice up the exotics, Lagano is certainly a horse that I would look to before I took the chalk in. Brilliant Birdie. Me Hermano Ramone is the number three. He’s been one of the better West Coast turf horses in this sort of division over the last year or so. Darren, he comes off of a pretty good effort in the grade one Shoemaker mile, where he was second beaten just a neck by King of Gosford, and now he’s going to make his third start back kind of the form cycle. He’s putting a few races together. We could feel like another good race from me Hermano Ramone. He wouldn’t shock me if he’s in the mix. No, he’s as honest as the day is long. He always runs a good race. He’s got several good tries and good grade one company. I thought his effort in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational said that he fits amongst this type of field. He ran very well that day to finish just about a length behind integration. So for me, you know, sometimes when these California turf horses, I put them a level below the best of the East and Midwest turf horses. But in this particular instance, I’m not totally sold on a lot of them. So I think he’s got a better shot than I would normally give him. Mercante is the four, but as we mentioned, Mercante is going to be scratched out of this race. So that’s going to take out one of the major players. We move to the five DS. That’s event detail finished fourth in the grade three Arlington and wasn’t beaten all that much. The problem is the three horses who finished in front of them were all entered back in that race. Two of them will be running on Saturday, so he’s going to have to turn the tables on those horses like Brilliant Birdie and Langness. Yeah, this guy caught my attention at Turfway Park this winter, where he ran two tremendous races and showed a really good turn of foot, especially in the race that he won. But even the race that he got beat, I mean to say that he came from nowhere that day is a is a dramatic understatement. And he is a rapidly developing five year old with making his 12th lifetime start. I really tried to make a good case for him in this spot, but I mean, his last race was just kind of even like he was just there and I just didn’t see anything that would tell me, okay, he’s now going to take a step forward and beat all of those horses that just finished in front of him. I think with the scratch of Mercante, one of the horses that could really benefit most from that scratch is the six taking Candy, who you and I both like a little bit in here, Darren taking candy has the ability to sit pretty close to the pace and just kind of natural tracking speed. Last time out. Had a wide trip in a pretty tough race in the Turf Classic. This is a softer spot overall. He gets to put two starts together. I’m just expecting a much better performance from this horse for the very talented Cheri Devaux barn. I agree and I nearly picked him on top. I picked him second for a lot of the reasons that you just said I didn’t like the ride or the trip last time out, he he looked like he wanted to go forward. And it looked to me like Jose Ortiz was trying to kind of fight him a little bit to where he wanted him to be, and he resented it, and he ended up having to check off heels a little bit into the turn, and then he ended up three wide in the first turn, and he ended up wide in the second turn. And it was just from start to finish. Not a good trip for him. And you know I know he got he he finished 10th. But Ortiz knew that he was done by the time they got to the 16th pole. And he really eased up on him late. He was still right there fighting tooth and nail inside the final furlong. So I agree with you. Second race. Back off the layoff with a much better trip. I think he’s a logical horse that is a candidate to improve. Another Cherie DeVoe trainee is brilliant birdie, who ended up on the lead last time out. Darren and I will almost always as a gambler, be happy that the horse I picked is on the lead or getting that type of a ride, an aggressive placement. But this was a horse who had never been on the lead previously. I think he didn’t really have the same sort of finish. Not really sure what to think about him. It’s a fine spot. I think he’s a player in here. What do we do with Brilliant Birdie? Yeah, I mean he finally broke well and he ended up on the lead. He typically does not break out of the gate well. And that’s usually put him in the spots that he’s been in which sometimes has worked to his benefit. If he gets that trip again I’m really not going to like him too much in this spot, to be completely honest with you. And with the scratch of McKinzie, maybe he does try to break alertly and go forward here, but my look of my take on him is he’s within a length of several other runners in this field and he’s going to be half their price, if not more. You like Fort Washington though? I picked him second. I think you have him on top. He’s a multiple graded stakes winner. This trainer does this with a lot of horses. He’s patient with them and they just get better. And this particular horse has actually had some wide turf trips and won. With those that aren’t normally the type of trips you win with. And he may get that same sort of trip on Saturday. Yeah, he had no business winning the Canadian turf. I still don’t know how he got up in that race over major dude in a four horse photo. He did that over a highway painted green of the Gulfstream Park turf course, and then he went to the dinner party in a bog at Pimlico, and he made a monster middle move on the far turn, took the lead, leveled off nicely. He’s versatile. He’s on top of his game right now. He can run over any type of a turf surface. He’s my top play. Coming off of what I thought a two monstrous efforts. Seminole chief rounds out the field, probably a long shot showing some speed from the outside, right? Yeah. He’s going to push the pace along here coming out of the shoemaker. Maybe the loss of Mercante might benefit him slightly, but he’s in a spot where he’s got to run faster than he’s ever run before to be a contender. Here. We’ll take a quick break. When we return, we’re going to tell you how we’re going to bet these races on Saturday. Don’t go anywhere. Take a look at selections as we get ready for the break. What do you make of this price tag here? Reportedly of $1.7 billion for a club that right now technically doesn’t even have a home ballpark? We don’t see a lot of teams sold to Major League Baseball. I mean, if you go back to 2020, Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets for $2.4 billion. The only team sold since then was the Orioles last year, also for $1.7 billion. Newswire only on sports grid. We’re going to go with Cam Young at 30 to 1. I think it’s a really nice course for him at the Rocket Mortgage in Detroit, Michigan for him. Wyndham Clark at 36 to 1. And I also like Alex Noren at 60 to 1. My Morenci drunken Brett Dart toss golf pick which does win like 2 or 3 times a year guys. Some insanely enough. But I’m going to say Matt Fitzpatrick sports rage tonight only on Sports Grid. The two guys that can do it all. Too much electricity this morning. This is a good time. We’re having a lot of fun. I had to do a triple take. Why? Because of parody? I didn’t mean to offend. Yeah, it’s not going to happen. Load management is a dirty word. Let him rip. You know what circumstances provide the results? What? How do you do this one? Oh, Donny, you got such a good show there. A network that is booming. The early line only on sports grid. I do believe that now is the number one player in the world. The things that he could do from the point of attack offensively and defensively, his ability to drive downhill and score in all three levels. And the thing I like most about this young man at 26, he’s so humble, he’s so humble. And that speaks to the whole culture of OKC that Sam Presti and Mark Daniel has built a humble team, folks betting above the rim only on sports grid. Okay. We previewed races ten and 11 on Saturday at Churchill Downs. They’re really big races. We gave you our selections. But the real important part how are we going to bet on those races? Let’s start with race ten. It’s the grade two wise. Dan, we were just talking a little bit about Fort Washington. This is a horse who should offer some nice value. You like this horse. You’re going to put him on top and kind of try to build some stuff around him. Yeah I actually gave him out. If you watch the Twinspires jury earlier today is my best bet of the weekend anywhere. So it’s good thing we’re talking about this race because it’s a very strong opinion of mine. Yeah, I mean, at his price you have to have a win bet on him. I mean, at 5 to 1 or better. You can’t let a horse like this win and you’re not cashing because you get nosed out for third and or try or you don’t have the horse second. So you have to have a strong win, bet on a strong opinion. That’s what I have here. And then my exacta key box I’m trying to beat Brilliant Birdie in the second spot, just because I do think that some of the others are pretty comparable to him, and they’re going to offer much more value on the bottom part of the exact. I imagine an eight seven exacta is probably going to return like something like $30, whereas an eight six exacta is probably something like $100. So yeah, I’m putting him in an exact to key box using the two, three and six. And what that means is he has to be first or second, he being Fort Washington. And one of those other three also have to be first or second regardless of the order of finish. So I’m keying off my best opinion, trying to maximize that value in that second spot. So for me, sixes and eights would be absolutely fine. DC I’m going to try to make my opinion that those are the two price horses I like in this race. I’m going to put both of them in the win spot for a double. So if either one of those horses wins, it gets me to mind frame in the next race. Who will talk a little bit about. I’ll play 1 or 2 tickets where I’m leaning on mind frame, and then I’ll also have another one where the other horse that I like in that race wins. We can also hit that thing. So for me 6 or 8 would be great. It would be a really nice race. Fort Washington win would get Darren his win money. Maybe Darren could hit his exacta and get my double alive and move us along to the Stephen Foster DC in this race. You like first mission as the horse you want to build some things around. So talk to us about how you play your tickets here. Yeah just from the standpoint of the trip and how it’s going to work out where he’s drawn down to the inside, the progress that he’s made, both on the buyer scale and the rag is in scale. And at 4 to 1 in the morning line, he’s the play. Look, I don’t want to be critical of morning lines because I made them for a long time at the Meadowlands. Mystic Dan’s not going to be 3 to 1 in here now, and mind Frame is going to be shorter than him. Right. Those two in particular will flip flop a little bit. Mind frame. And I think first mission is going to be shorter than him. And I think agree. I think Mystic Dan and hit show are going to be upwards of six 7 to 1 in here, to be honest with you. Yeah. And I think the majority of the play is going to come in on on mind frame on first mission and on Sierra Leone. So with that in mind, I kind of put mind frame to the bottom of my trifecta. I put a win bet on first mission. I’m hoping he’s no worse than third choice in here. I think 7 to 2 is fair enough value and we might get that there. And then I put the horses that I like, you know, next level in the trifecta using Skippy Longstocking and Mystic Dan just to try to get a little bit more spice up in that middle part of the tri and then put a big spread underneath, because when you play tries, just about anybody could be third usually in these races. So that’s my approach. We need first mission to run big. And you can see for either of these races like if the eight Fort Washington wins that race, Darren’s going to try to capitalize on that strong opinion. If first mission wins this race, Darren’s going to try to capitalize that on that opinion. I mean, a win from first mission at around 4 to 1 with Skippy Long Stocking or Mystic Dan running in the second spot. That’s a really nice looking trifecta that Darren would be able to complete right there, and he’d have that thing five times. A couple different plays from Darren. How about for me? Let’s go to my wagers for the Stephen Foster so talked about mind frame. Maybe we’re alive in the double with the two mind frame. I like him so I’ll play one strong opinion with him. On top of first mission in Sierra Leone and then all in the third spot of that trifecta. Then I’ll play the other one, which is kind of like my saver. Darren, because I do really think First Mission has a big shot as well, just like you do. I want to make sure if he wins, I can get something out of that, especially if Sierra Leone or Mind frame runs second. And then I have a lot of the logical contenders underneath in the third spot for that trifecta. So try to ping that thing a few different times, see if we can hit that trifecta. Darren and I could both hit the tri with with some possibilities there with first mission with Sierra Leone and then with some of the others underneath. So DC, I was really impressed with both Saturday and the Sunday cards coming up this weekend at Churchill Downs, not only Saturday, where races seven through 12 are all stakes races, it’s an all stakes pick six you actually see Thorpedo Anna, last year’s horse of the year. She’s going to be running in race number seven. You see the Derby winner from last year, he’s going to be running there. And then on Sunday there’s also a really, really strong card. So for those of you out there looking for some horse racing action this weekend, I think you really want to be focused both days at Churchill Downs. Oh yeah. The closing part of the meet is absolutely loaded. Yeah, you’re going to have this Derby City jackpot pick six potential mandatory payout on Sunday as well if we can get it there. 1.2 million carried over into the Thursday night card. So we’ll see how that shakes out over the next few days. And by the way, they’re carrying the momentum right into Ellis Park because the overnight has come out for the Thursday opening day card at Ellis. And it is stacked full of horses. And if that is what that meet is going to look like, it is going to be a very popular meet from the wagering public as well. It’s that time of the year we’re going to be turning the pages to the summer meets Ellis Park, Saratoga opening up next week, and then Del Mar not too far behind. Thanks so much, everyone for hanging out with uk on the Daily Racing Form Weekend Preview. It just seemed like a salary dump. And that’s the shocking part of it is. But also let’s take a look at this from a Giants perspective. They have money to spend. People weren’t taking their money now that they hit the trade market. And quite frankly, I thought they got a steal. You’re talking about a guy that should be good in the major leagues for the next 7 to 8 years in his prime, and the going rate of a salary for a great baseball player from the free agent market, it’s 300 plus million dollars. San Francisco made out well pro baseball today only on sports grid. What do you make of this price tag here? Reportedly of $1.7 billion for a club that right now technically doesn’t even have a home ballpark? We don’t see a lot of teams. So the Major League Baseball, I mean, if you go back to 2020, Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets for $2.4 billion. The only team sold since then was the Orioles last year, also for $1.7 billion. Newswire only on sports grid. It was the first time, I think, in Dodgers history that the ballpark was full in the first inning. Everybody was there to see. Shohei Ohtani threw his first pitch as a Dodger, and I had mixed emotions about this for a few reasons. Number one, it was a reminder of, wow, this is so crazy, right? You’re watching him hit 98, 99, even 100 on the radar gun going, this guy is not human. Nobody should be able to be this good of a hitter or this good of a pitcher. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. I can’t even believe I’m saying pitchers battle and using the words Patrick Corbin. But can I tell you, Scotty, he’s a different guy. He’s a totally different guy with the Rangers than we’ve seen. I say this all the time, you know, don’t worry about the first five. Like, don’t even watch the first five innings in Texas Ranger game because for whatever reason, there’s a ton of runs scored in the first five and then it just stops. It just stops. Game time decisions
