Readers and followers of BloodHorse's website and social media channels have recently been seeing a new face appearing: Louie Rabaut.
The Louisville, Ky. radio talk show host and podcaster partnered with BloodHorse earlier this year to launch the "BloodHorse Monday" podcast and has co-hosted the show each week with BloodHorse's assistant news editor Sean Collins.
Rabaut got his start in broadcasting thanks to the "Horse Racing Happy Hour" podcast, which he started with former co-host Mike Gandolfo. That podcast opened a new career in broadcasting for Rabaut. Among the several shows he hosts is "Rabaut & Co.," a two-hour radio show on ESPN Louisville where he analyzes the state of Kentucky's college basketball and football programs in addition to horse racing.
Rabaut spoke with BloodHorse about how he got started in broadcasting and horse racing, how his career developed, his love of the sport, and more.
BloodHorse: How did you first begin to develop your love for sports and interest in horse racing?
Louie Rabaut: I was born in east-side Detroit. When I was very young, my dad got a job in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's the same size of Louisville, but the three religions of Grand Rapids are: Christianity, your family, and ice hockey. I played 15 years of very high-level ice hockey, even as a 3-year-old I was playing high-level ice hockey. I loved it, but I got a series of very serious concussions and had to quit playing sports.
I didn't go to a horse race until I was in my twenties. It was a Sunday and my parents had come to visit my wife and I. We were graduate students in Bloomington (Indiana) and newlyweds. My parents knew we couldn't afford vacations, so they would come and meet us in towns close to Bloomington. We went to brunch at Churchill Downs on Millionaires Row. That was my introduction to horse racing, but I didn't fall in love with horse racing that day.
BH: When was the moment when you fell in love with racing?
LR: Five years later, we moved to Louisville because my wife got a really cool opportunity with a medical practice. I asked everybody what's to do for sports around here. They'd ask are you red (University of Louisville) or blue (University of Kentucky). I went to college, I have a team already, I don't need that again. I said, 'That thing holds 100,000 people, what is that?' Well that's Churchill Downs. I said, 'Okay, I'm going to go figure that out.'
I toiled for three years going by myself, no one to explain anything to me or help me out. That's how the Horse Racing Happy Hour started. It was my own frustrations of going to the track and no one helping me. If you don't grow up with someone taking you to the track, it's really not an easy sport to get into. My first sports credential ever was the 2018 Kentucky Derby.
BH: Where did the passion for broadcasting come from? Was it something you ever thought you'd be doing?
When I was three or four years old, I would make radio shows and do a tape deck as a little kid. I always wanted to do this. I was a very good student and I'm very adept at learning languages. I've done horse racing interviews in South America, Europe, all over the place because of my linguistic abilities and I love it. I always thought that was where my life would go: that ability to speak languages. Instead, I fell in love with horse racing. Mike Gandolfo took a shot with me because he heard me talking horses in a parking lot at an elementary school as we picked up our kids. We talked enough and he said, 'Hey do you want to try radio?'
BH: How did you get your start in radio once the podcast got going?
LR: I joined in with Mike on a show called "Road to the Winner's Circle." We were the preview to the preview. A man that I really respect in E.J. Clark had a show called the "Kentucky Winner's Circle." What that did was allow me access. My break was the Maximum Security disqualification in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. I'm going to pick on E.J. a little bit here, but I respect him a lot. It takes 20 minutes for the disqualification, and he says, 'Okay, Mike. Let's read the payouts from race 1.' Mike starts reading the exacta payout from race 1. I was not set up to do the post-race, my job was pre-race—I had done all my work for the day. I put on a headset and said, 'Hang on guys, we have to talk about this DQ.' E.J. said, 'Well, rules are rules. If this was a Wednesday claimer at Parx they would have taken the horse down.' I said, 'E.J., this isn't a Wednesday claimer at Parx, this is the Kentucky Derby. This is a massive deal.' We ended up discussing it and it was that moment that I knew I could hold my own and try this thing. That was the first breakthrough.
BH: How did that lead to your show on ESPN Louisville, Rabaut & Co.?
LR: Andy Sweeney was the program director at ESPN Louisville when we moved the Horse Racing Happy Hour coverage from the WXVW station (in Louisville) to ESPN. Andy went to bat for the show to be on the air. It's been a great partnership for us. One day I was filling in on a show for someone—doing it just to have fun—and Andy said 'Louie, I don't know what you do for a living, but have you thought about doing this full time?'
I started a show with Dan Issel, the leading scorer and rebounder in Kentucky basketball history, called "Issel and Louie." It was very popular. Dan turned 75 and decided to retire. Now I have my own show. I always loved hoops and football, those are sports that I enjoy. I get a fair amount of compliments that I weave horse racing in and out of basketball and football commentary and that I treat horse racing like it's any other sport.
BH: What are some of the struggles you've encountered becoming a broadcaster in racing?
LR: It's really difficult to get phone numbers in horse racing. Once you do, some people just don't return phone calls. For a while, we would have to not be from the Happy Hour and be from WXVW or ESPN Louisville. I still run into that with some people. The credibility is something I feel like I'm still working on, but then I have moments where someone randomly walks up to me at the track and says they really enjoy what I'm doing.
BH: That credibility increased when you and Gandolfo became the first podcasters accepted into the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association. What does that mean to you?
LR: It's an incredible honor and one I still talk about a lot. It means a lot to me. Mike said he thought we needed to try and get into a professional organization. We're at all these events, and we see all the same people; they know us. We have a spot at Derby. I've had the same table since that Justify Derby, it's a great honor to go to that table every year. We do the show at Pimlico in the same spot every year, we're at the Breeders' Cup every year. Mike just looked at me and said, 'I think we need to apply and we have plenty of people in the organization that will write letters (of recommendation) for us.' He was right. I heard afterward that people in very traditional places, like BloodHorse, went to bat for us. That meant a lot, it was an incredible honor to hear how easily we got in. We knew we had something earlier than that, but it was an affirmation that—to the people in that room—we were colleagues and not just blogger boys. Being in the Turf Writers has changed the general trajectory of what I do.
BH: Recently, you partnered with BloodHorse on a new podcast, "BloodHorse Monday." How excited have you been getting this project going?
LR: I have a joke: I told Andy Sweeney if I ever landed with BloodHorse I would do one show and retire. It was a level I would never get to. I remember getting the reply email about me wanting to tell BloodHorse about the concept and being excited. Getting invited to Lexington to pitch the show was exciting. I respect the work of people who set the foundation of what we get to do. One of the reasons I was excited to get into the Turf Writers is because I know the next great person to do what we do hasn't even watched a horse race yet, picked up a microphone, or thought of writing an article. But somebody is going to get inspired. They'll go to a racetrack and say this is for me. That person is out there still. That next person is out there; that's why the Turf Writers and the BloodHorse Monday podcast is so exciting.
BloodHorse Monday also allows me to interview people I don't otherwise. On radio and podcasting, you're doing preview shows and concentrating on the betting side of things. There's nothing wrong with that, that's what funds our sport. But getting to talk to owners like Michael Banahan from Godolphin, to learn how in-depth that operation is—it still is stunning to me that a horse ever gets to a starting gate, let alone a place like Godolphin to have the kind of success they've had. The amount of people, hours, money, and resources it takes to have any of these operations is spectacular. Then you get to interview people like the Habermans about California Burrito and going snorkeling if they win, fun stuff like that. I love that with BloodHorse Monday we get to pull back the curtain on people that I imagine otherwise are not available for the average horse racing fan. A guy like Michael Banahan, you hear him and you realize how human he is, how much he enjoys the job, how this is his entire life's work. That's what I love about BloodHorse Monday.
BH: What is the thing in horse racing you enjoy the most?
LR: I'm a little opposite of most horse racing fans. Obviously, I appreciate the horses. I think they're magnificent, but they're not why I love the sport. I love the people in horse racing. That makes me a little different I think. I have fallen in love with the people in this industry. The people who love it are so ardently in love with it. They know they have something that can go away, so they're especially passionate about it. I love, in a weird way, being part of the cause. And horse racing right now is a cause.
