Podcast Playback: Quotes of Interest From July 15-21

Show: Nick Luck Daily Podcast, July 21 Speaker: Naohiro Goda, Japan-based turf writer and BloodHorse columnist Topic: Japan-based runner Masquerade Ball, who finished a close second to Longines World's Best Racehorse of 2025 Calandagan (IRE) in the 2025 Japan Cup (G1), now faces that rival in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) July 25 at Royal Ascot and what a victory by him, or longshot Japanese runner Wurttemberg in the $2 million race would mean. Quote: "This is King George and their opponents will include a lot of top-class European horses, including Calandagan. His last start win in the Gran Prix de Saint Cloud was very, very impressive. This will be a very exciting rematch between the Japan Cup first- and the second-place finishers. If Masquerade Ball is able to turn the tables, I think this could be the biggest win in Japanese racing history. That's not that's like, you know, last year Forever Young won the $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic, but this would be an unequaled feat if he wins the King George on Saturday." Show: BloodHorse Monday, July 20 Speaker: Lindsay Schultz, trainer of upset Haskell Stakes (G1) winner Baby Vino Topic: What it means to be the first woman trainer to win the Haskell Quote: "Look there are not many grade 1s and there are so many exceptional horse people that have never won a grade 1, so to get one of these; I mean, it's a really big deal." Show: The Inside Track, July 15 Speaker: Christina Blacker, FanDuel TV Racing host, analyst, reporter Topic: Despite recent layoffs at FanDuel TV, the racing channel plans to provide on-site coverage of the Del Mar meeting Quote: "Obviously, it's been a transitional couple of weeks. We lost a big portion of our staff at the end of June. I think everybody knows that. We lost a lot of great people that are my dear friends and were amazing co-workers. We'll still be friends and hopefully will find new roles in racing going forward. "But it is important to remind folks that we do have existing contracts that we are seeing out at FanDuel TV over this next year. One of those is with one of our best track partners for decades, and that's Del Mar. So we are going to be live on-site every day for the Del Mar meet this summer and again in the fall. There's a smaller group of us. It is a somewhat limited production just in terms of the other bells and whistles and features that you're used to. There won't be quite as many of those this year, just with this shorter crew kind of pulling this together. But we'll come up at 1 o'clock Pacific Time every day through the month of July. We'll come up at 1:30 through the month of August, and we will have full team coverage: three of us on the desk, a reporter, and all the interviews that you're used to out there at Del Mar."