Podcast Playback: Quotes of Interest, July 29-Aug. 4

The Show: BloodHorse Monday, Aug. 3 The speaker: Owner/breeder Jon Green of D. J. Stable The topic: The Thoroughbred Championship Series, which will see horses compete for a $5 million bonus in races at Churchill Downs and New York Racing Association tracks when it launches in 2027, but currently does not include the Preakness Stakes (G1), which is slated to return to Pimlico Race Course in 2027 after being run this year at Laurel Park; Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park; or Pennsylvania Derby (G1) at Parx Racing The quote: "Overall, it's good for the industry but it's going to hurt sectors of the industry. … As a global owner in the industry, I think it's great. I think it's a very positive step. … "I give Churchill and NYRA a ton of credit for being entrepreneurial and offering this kind of opportunity with a six-race series coming up for 3-year-olds. On a micro-level, as a guy who cut his teeth at Monmouth Park, this is a death blow. I mean this is an absolute killer because basically it takes the Haskell out of the equation of importance when it comes to stallions and when it comes to making races. "This is going to push the industry into a couple of different series at a couple of different levels. I think you'll have New York and Churchill Downs offering races at a certain level with Oaklawn (Park), Keeneland, and Kentucky Downs and tracks like that. And then there's going to be a secondary group, especially here in the (Mid-Atlantic) where you have the Monmouths, the Delawares, Parx, Maryland, and Virginia, and racetracks like that. Maybe (they) need to get together and say, 'OK, the 3-year-old colt group now has a series. Maybe we try a series for older mares on the turf? We need to have a signature series also to continue our relevance in the industry.' "The Preakness is basically dead or dormant now with this series. The Haskell is going to lose a lot of juice with regard to importance. The P.A. Derby is not going to be getting the same horses it's been getting. … Those, I think, will eventually be downgraded and less important. "It's a call to arms for a lot of these racetracks in the industry that are independent and kind of doing things on their own schedule. They better get with the program and learn how to do something together; otherwise they're going to go extinct." The Show: Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Aug. 3 The speaker: Jim Mullen, CEO of The Jockey Club of Great Britain The topic: On The Jockey Club's plans to form a new organization with Ascot and other like-minded partners to represent racing following its decision to leave the British Horseracing Association because of concerns that the trade body would stifle needed changes The quote: "We've done some base-level work but now that we've decided to leave, the real work starts. That's to make sure that this is representative of British racing, or parts of British racing, so that we can give our view. We would like to work with other individual resource groups who already have made the decision to say, 'Look, these matters are really, really important.' How can we basically structure ourselves to make sure that if we're aligned, we can be represented properly? And that work essentially starts today." The Show: Horses in the Morning, Aug. 3 The speaker: Ashley Winch, director of podcast operations for the Horse Radio Network The topic: The passing of horse whisperer Monty Roberts, who died Aug. 1 at the age of 91 The quote: "Monty didn't just train horses. He listened to them at a time when the world relied on force. Monty showed us the quiet power of trust. He taught us that violence is never the answer, that trust is a two-way street, and that if you listen closely enough, horses have a language of their own—one spoken not through coercion but through understanding and join-up. "His legacy isn't measured in the thousands of horses he helped or the millions of people he inspired—including royalty, veterans, and everyday riders. It's measured in the quiet moments in arenas all over the world where someone chose patience over anger, gentleness over dominance, and kindness over fear. Monty proved that kindness is not weakness. It is the strongest, most effective force on earth."