The Kevin Sheehan Show - Cooley "Film" On Ben Sinnott

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Chris Cooley joined Kevin today with his "film breakdown" of Commanders' 2nd round pick TE Ben Sinnott. Also, a Kentucky Derby preview and picks with Eddie C.Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. The presenting sponsor of this podcast, as always, is Window Nation. Real lucky to have them. Call them at 86690 Nation or head to Windonation.com. If you've been thinking about new windows,

mention my name, and you'll get a free, no obligation in-home estimate. So you've got nothing to lose. call them at 86690 Nation or head to windonation.com. So the date on this podcast is Friday, May 3rd. It's actually being recorded late in the afternoon on Thursday, May 2nd because I am out of town on an extended weekend. However, it's a very good show today because Chris Cooley's coming up in the next segment. And Cooley has done a film breakdown of one of Washington. from last week.

He's done Ben Senate, the tight end from Kansas State, the third second round pick by Washington, 53 overall. Many of you said last week, reminds me of Cooley. I said the same thing. Same size, basically, almost to the exact, you know, height and weight. And playing style, very similar. Guess what? I think Cooley agrees coming up in the next segment,

and we won't take that long to get there. Cooley with a film breakdown of Ben Sennett, the tight end from Kansas State. I'm going to try to get Cooley to do film breakdowns of some of the other draft picks over the next, you know, few weeks, maybe a few months, who knows, we've got plenty of time between now and training camp. And remember, he already did a film breakdown of Jaden Daniels. That was his number one, number one overall QB. Also on the show today, Eddie C.

Eddie C's been a regular for this time of year. The Triple Crown races. The derby is on Saturday or tomorrow, if you're listening to this podcast on Friday. Eddie C will break down the race and give us his best bets. That will be in the final segment of the show. I wanted to start this show by reading this tweet from Brian. Brian writes Kev, I love you, but I was just listening to your Monday pod. Do you really think that Jaden Daniels is better off because he has DQ, Dan Quinn, and Kingsbury,

than he would have been with Mike and Kyle? I agree that it was all Snyder, but... Thank you, Brian. Follow me on Twitter on X at Kevin Sheen, D.C. Yeah, I said on Monday that the big difference between RG3 and Jaden Daniels, and there are many differences, both from a football standpoint and from a personality standpoint, I don't see them as being similar at all other than being electrifying runners and very mobile quarterbacks. But really, the biggest difference is that RG3 had to come into an organization that was owned by Dan Snyder. and Daniels doesn't. And so to answer your question, Brian, yes, I think Daniels is better off in this organization with Dan Quinn as his head coach and Cliff Kingsbury as his offensive

coordinator than he would have been had say he'd been in the 2012 draft and drafted into an organization owned by Dan Snyder with Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan. Yeah, I do. I absolutely believe that. Look, not every player came in here and failed. Not every player came in here during the Snyder era and didn't end up having an outstanding career. Look, Kirk Cousins came into this organization and he's made more money than almost any quarterback that's ever played the game and is played at a high level. And I guarantee you, he gives a lot of credit to being drafted into the coaching environment that he was drafted into.

But he didn't stay here. He didn't win much. And ultimately, too many players came into this thing and were in trouble because of the owner's proclivity for kind of saddling up next to star players. Remember, Kirk had the benefit and almost the cover of RG3 because Snyder didn't want to have anything to do with cousins. He ignored him in the locker room. Ignored him completely. Walked right by him after the Cleveland game in 2012 that Kirk started and threw three 113 yards and multiple touchdowns in a game that kept their playoff chances alive.

He walked right by him, this story is, the story goes, and walked right to Robert. You know, remember how incensed Robert was that he didn't get to play in that game and held his own press conference after the game to talk about how upset he was that he wasn't allowed to play. The doctors ruled him out. Shanahan wasn't going to go against the doctors. One of the great stories that Mike told is before that Cleveland game at the end of 2012, Snyder came out onto the field and went up to Mike and said, Robert thinks he can play. Why don't we let him play?

And Mike said, absolutely not. The doctors have ruled him out. And he said, well, he's not very happy. And Mike said, well, I don't care. Talk to the doctor about it. If the doctor clears him, he can play. And then Dan and Robert were just absolutely pissed off. off, Kirk lights it up, doesn't run one read option that day, if you recall.

And Robertson, they're holding a press conference after a game he didn't play in. It was insane. It was really, it should have been the first clue, because a lot of us knew something was percolating, but we didn't have all the details. But I do remember saying that was odd that Griffin held his own press conference, but we were in love with Griffin at that point. but Kirk had the benefit of not having to deal with Snyder as a best friend or wanting to be his best friend. Yeah, I absolutely think Jaden Daniels is better off in this organization than one owned by Dan Snyder. And I get your point, Mike and Kyle, you know, and Kyle and all of those coaches, phenomenal coaches for quarterbacks.

And almost everybody's benefited to a certain degree just being. around those guys. But I like Cliff. I like Cliff Kingsbury. I mean, there's a lot I don't know about what he's going to be at this level with just being the coordinator, but he's been a QB guru and an offensive creator everywhere he's gone. And 2021 offensively for that Arizona team with him as the head coach was not a bad year

offensively. Okay. So no NBA games to talk about, no Nats game to talk about, because again, I'm recording this on Thursday. So let's just get to Chris Cooley, and we'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, guys, now with the NFL draft behind us, it's time to focus on springtime games, like real games, playoff games. For me, it's the NBA playoffs. and if you're a Daily Fantasy Sports player, I've got the app for you. PrizePix is the app that's easy and exciting and a new way to play DFS.

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That's harries.com slash S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a $3 trial set. In a blinding snowstorm, beautiful, I said it. Look at him going. In a blinding snowstorm Thanksgiving Day weekend, Ben Sennett, 10 catches, 136 yards, and a touchdown for Kansas State, who was playing at home and lost on that day, 42 to 35 to Iowa State. But he was great in the game. Coolie's film breakdown of Ben Sennett in a moment. But first, let me tell you about Wind Donations' semi-annual sale.

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really good care of you. All right. Cooley is here, and we will get to his film breakdown of Ben Cinnett. But I have to start by just asking you, were you paying attention to the draft at all, or was it just a case of you not following it at all?

I wasn't following it at all. I watched the first four picks. like I told you I would. And that was it? Or the first five quarterbacks, which is insane to have five quarterbacks on the top ten picks. Six. Six in the top 12.

Six in the top 12. Maybe you had turned it off at that point. Maybe it was still five in the top ten, and that's what I just told you. Yeah. Yeah, Bo Nix went 12th overall to Denver. So Williams-Daniels, May, Pennix Jr., to Atlanta, at number eight. You did not do a film breakdown of him.

I wanted you to do a film breakdown of him because I actually kind of liked him. And then J.J. McCarthy 10 and Bo Nix 12. It's wild. Yeah. You just turned it on for a little bit and then went and sprayed some foam into some ceiling area. I watched some of the Saturday draft.

You did? The second day draft. And then I watched them of the third day. Well, what was eating dinner? I was looking at it. I know none of the names, so it really doesn't make any difference to me if I'm watching it. Right.

All right, well. Hey, we watched the quarterbacks. I thought it was crazy. I thought it was crazy to go one, two, three, and then, what, eight, ten, twelve. I actually like Bonix. You do? Okay.

You know, the other thing I was thinking about with this draft is, like, is Minnesota's got to be sitting there saying that we, Penix is our guy. Nobody's taking penics, right? Atlanta's not. Chicago's already taking the quarterback. There's no way Atlanta takes a quarterback. I don't know. I think that Kevin O'Connell saw J.J. McCarthy as Kirk Cousins, but more athletic.

Okay. How about Denver? Denver is hoping that Minnesota sees J.G. McCarthy is more athletic. I'm just surprised that somebody didn't. There's no way you would have got it. Atlanta would have taken a quarterback. No. No, that was... They would have tried to get up to seven. They'd try to jump them.

Tried to jump who? Who would have? Atlanta. Well, Atlanta was sitting there at eight. Tennessee wasn't going to take a quarterback at seven. Yeah, they would have had to jump to seven. Who would have? Take penics. Oh, yeah, but I don't think anybody below them was going to take penics.

I think Minnesota wanted McCarthy. If you think Denver wanted penics, yeah, Denver would have had to make that move in front of Atlanta, but they wouldn't have known that. They would have thought probably sitting at 12 they could get panics. But I, you know, I've talked a lot about this this week, and I know, you know, you've considered it a little bit as well. It's one of the, and I'm not just obsessing over it because it's Kirk Cousins involved, all right? It's just that it's one of the craziest picks in recent years, not because it's not a good player,

not because having a succession plan, a quarterback isn't a good idea. It's that they should have just gone into the offseason saying, we're going to take Michael Pennix Jr. And we're going to take the $100 million that we would have spent in free agency on a quarterback and build a really good supporting cast around him. It just doesn't make any sense how you pay somebody $100 million bucks and then you pick a 24-year-old quarterback and say he's not going to play for two or three years. But anyway, tell us about Ben's Senate, unless you have a comment to that.

I don't have much of a comment, but the thing I actually like is you take the guys you want when they're there. You say, screw the rest of it. You can make whatever argument you want to make for Atlanta having a question of whether or not they're going to get panic. right? Because they make it a giving up capital. It's like, here's the other thing. If you know you want pennics, you've got a hundred million dollars to you're giving a cousins. Don't do that.

And instead give up draft capital and go up to four where you know you're going to take him and take an Arizona spot. Well, that would be the guarantee because then no one else can take the spot. So spend time of the off season just making sure you get to four, so you're going to get pennacks. But there was no mock draft. or evaluation of the draft that had Pennix Jr. going four, five, six, or seven. They knew once they fell in love with Pennix Jr. that he would be there with their pick.

If anything, they could have potentially considered trading back picking up draft capital and still taking Pennix Jr. Look, I thought Pennix Jr. was rising. Denver was going to take him over Bo Nix. So they weren't going to trade back much. All right. Fair enough. I got to assume Denver would have went. Pennix. Maybe.

But I like bunyx. Yeah. All right. So tell us about Ben Senate, tight end, Kansas State. Looks like you. He kind of looked like you, didn't he? Watch some state film, and you're like, that is Chris. Looks a lot like you.

No, it's wild. If he's wearing number 47, we're identical. Right. It's because you see him coming out of the backfield a ton. He's really an H-back. Or what most, I guess, what most teams would call an F or something. What Joe Gives calls him an H-back. He's versatile.

Yeah. Off the line of scrimmage, running around, and he'll spread him out. They use them everywhere at K-State. They can go all the way out at a wide receiver. He can be in that tight split where it looks like what Travis Kelsey does a ton, with one back to the side. Put his hand on the ground, he can be in the wing spot. He's playing fullback quite a bit.

he plays next to the quarterback and shotgun in a bunch of situations. So he's got to be a really, really smart kid. You can't take a guy like this and play them every single position week in and week out without having a really intelligent football player. So I think he's got to be an intelligent football player. The point I was making, I guess, with this split out stuff, is too. Vertical release is really good. I'm watching him because when you're watching film, it's like,

He runs a little bit upright. I'm sitting there watching. I'm like, this dude is fast. We're going to have 4, 6, 8 at the combine. Yeah. I mean, he's got wills. And then I'm sitting there watching, and I'm like, the dude can run routes.

He's really, really qualified as a route runner. Technically, he's got good feet. He's underneath himself. He makes good breaks. He comes out of cuts well. He's almost always friendly to the football for the quarterback. Clearly a big-time target.

They're big-time target. They want to go to them. They're drawn-up plays for him at K-State. So fun to watch him. A couple things. As far as a receiver, I love that he catches the ball's hands. Like, he's a hands catcher.

Right. You know, he's not a body catcher. And it was funny, though, to say that, like I was watching the Peyton Manning thing on ESPN. What are those Peyton's places? Yeah. And Lynn Swan was talking about being a chess catcher because he wanted to protect the ball. It's crazy Lynn Swan when you think about or watch him, though. All those plays he went up over the top of everybody to still catch it with his chest.

Yeah. I didn't. I can't remember how Vince. He was. Yeah, I can't. He was. But that surprises me. I would have, if you had asked me, was Lynn Swan a hands catcher or a chest catcher,

I would have just assumed he was a hands catcher. You would all, you would assume that, but he's a chest catcher. Purposely, he said, he said that was on purpose. Do you think it's smart to be a chest catcher on purpose? I think it's smart to make sure you catch the ball. Some people can catch it with their chest all right. I can catch it with my chest. You did catch a lot of balls with your chest, don't you think?

Yeah, in tight spots you do. actually protect the ball better. It's easier almost to turn and run, too, if you catch it on the side of the end of your chest where you're turning to run. I bet Ben Sinnick could do that. He's a hands catcher, though. He reaches those hands out and snags it.

Yeah. He is. He is a big-time hands catcher. He can high point of football, man. So I'm watching him go up and get a ball and then go back to the combine. Like, does he really have a 40-inch, freaking vertical? Do you know what his vertical was?

40. It was 40 inches? 40 inch vertical. Do you know what his RAS score was? I don't know what that is. You don't know what RAS is? No. So it's relative athletics score?

I actually had the guy that created it. Incredibly high. It was outrageously high. I went back and looked at yours. So, hold on, I had that up. So Benson, at a scale of 0 to 10, his was 9.73. That is very high. Yours was pretty good, too, but it wasn't as high.

It was 8.75. And they categorized that back then as good. You were 6.3. What was your weight coming out? Who's 65, but I wasn't. Yeah. It says 265 here, and I'm like, that doesn't seem right. I was never that.

I did an agent thought that I would be projected more as like a solid blocking tight end. You really didn't know. And so we did like a sodium load for a week or 40 years before the time. I was just so bloated, yeah. It didn't help me running either. It didn't help any of my RAS score. My RAS score would have been much better at 251, what I normally weighed. Do you remember what you ran, the 40 in?

I ran a 480 at the combine. It says here. I ran a 465 of my pro day. It says 489 here, but that's fine. It's a 480. Yeah. Yeah, he's a tremendous athlete. Apparently, he played every sport, too.

Like somebody mentioned to me that he's even a decent tennis player. Yeah, I can see that. He's a big time hockey player. Right, hockey too. Wanted to play college hockey. Actually, there's a walk on the K-State. Right. which is crazy

and now you're a hang around a draft pick all right hands catcher um awesome run after catch like again

the guy wearing a weird number making plays after the catch as an hback I kind of like that but he's really he's tough to bring down he runs through everything um

it's not always like an explosion. It's almost like I feel like I would never try to run guys over. It's like I'll take it on the side a little bit. Usually I could shake it. And that seems to be a lot of what he does. But man, he to me is a guy that in a third down and six, you throw him the ball on a crosser or something short. He'll find a way to get the first down.

He's also probably a guy that knows how to run the crosser to the depth that you need to run it to because he seems like a really smart player. So a guy that you could throw a screen to at any point, and I think is going to be dynamic and getting yards. This is really cool because if you look at the ultimate positive, the intangibles, the versatility is outstanding. He can do whatever you want to do on a football field. It's really so helpful when you have backs, tight ends,

slot receivers that can do a bunch of different things because it makes your personnel so unpredictable. You've got two tight ends in the game, but is this guy here we're going to play tight-in? He's going to be a fullback. Are we going to split them out of the receiver? Oh, by the way, he was a receiver in high school. I don't know what the personnel group it is.

It's hard formationally and personnel-wise for defense to dictate when you have that much versatility in certain place. The run-after catches a huge intangible. I mean, it's awesome. His hands are big-time intangible. So those are three things that I really like from Senate. Okay. Let's go through the rest of this.

Run game. Average, really, really average in the run game. He's able, when he gets on guys in space, like if he's out in space and he gets the sand on guys, he's able to run his feet. He's a willing blocker. Like, I don't want to say he's an unwilling blocker. And he can play physical when he makes good contact.

But he's a poor hand striker. Like, he's not great with his hands, his hand placement, his immediate fit, his footworks average. And so he's not getting on to blocks with a lot of physicality early, which he can work on that. That's something that he can absolutely improve on. The other problem is he's got a lot of bad misses. He's got a lot of overrun blocks where he's trying to track a linebacker, and it's like, whoa, where did he go?

And I've also told you this, and I'll bet you anything, it's the same instance. It's like Donnie Warren told me, did you have to be, you're closing your eyes when you get to contact you. at least in the run game. And I focused on it, and I was 100% closing my eyes, which is a normal and natural instinct. For anybody who is five yards away from another human being and is going to run at them and smash them as hard as they can, like a car crash.

You just close your eyes. It's a flinch. So he's got to focus. For me, I bet he'd have to focus on that. But he's got some bad misses. And a guy that can play tennis, that's played hockey that's played everything that's not unwilling to hit, doesn't have bad misses.

Unless they're closing their eyes. There's no chance. So I think that some of the misses in the run game and blocking are pretty simple fixes if they can figure it out. Okay. So he'll go blogger. You can pull up film where he'll smash him in the mouth. I mean, he's not afraid of contact by any means.

And I don't think he has a strong dislike of blocking in the run game. I think he's not technically there. so that's something he'll have to work on. But shoot, Kev, like, you go, if this guy can make plays down the field and vertically be a problem, which you will for NFL defenses, and figure out of all the things you can do, like, how many times do we talk about someone like Travis Kelsey's blocking? Right.

You know, which is actually not bad. Right. He works hard at it. We talked about gronks blocking, though. Yeah, grunks blocking was very good. But being an average to just above average, Average blocker. When you can use the guy in that many situations is 100% good.

Is that what you would describe him as? I'd say he's really average in the run game. Really average. I don't think it's size. I don't think it's physicality. I mean, he could probably gain some strength. He thinks 4-250. Yeah.

You know, I think he could probably get a little bit stronger. He'd probably work on his at, like, at-concounter. contact moment quite a bit, and he will. They will work on that. And at that point, you find ways to put him in situations where he can excel. He can have some success. You don't put him on the line of scrimmage, put his hand down on the ground, and have Trell Suggs two yards outside of you as an outside linebacker.

Say, hey, go out there and try to block him, reach block him. Right. Those are hard to happen to me. Those are hard situations. So I think they'll get out. I mean, you had Joe who wanted to play smashmouth, and he's going to be in an offense with Cliff Kingsbury and Jaden Daniels, and they're probably going to open it up a little bit more.

Probably are. I'll tell you right now, though, Joe Gibbs would love Benson. This would be his guy. Like, he would draft this guy. Right. This is his H-back, who can play tight-end and play receiver. But he shouldn't. He's a tight-ins, right?

He's a versatile tight-end. Yeah. he's a VT. He's a VT. Was there anything else other than at this point just average as a blocker that concerns you? The only other thing that concerns me is he had some drops.

Again, I don't know if I see that as a... He doesn't have great hands. I had some drops in my career and it was one of those moments where you're, like, why? Why? Yeah. I catch, I have no problem catching this ball. Because he can go up and make tough catches.

He can make contested catches. He can make a whanded catches. And then all of a sudden, they're playing, for example, they're playing Missouri. It was a tight game back and forth. And he's got to drop on like a 10-yard dig route that he reaches his hands out and and try to him and catch the ball on 30-6. And that's what's like 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter in a tight game. they end up coming back, tied 27-27 down.

Going down the field, there's about a minute 46 there at midfield. This would have put him in a field goal range. He's running a theme route, vertical, down the numbers, hits him in the hands, boom, drop. They end up losing that ball game. Yeah, unlike, if I recall, it was like a 60-something-yard field goal, actually, that won the game for Missouri. It's a crazy game. So he had a big drop on the drive when they had a chance to take a lead. He had two big drops.

Yeah, two big drops in the fourth down. But yeah, it's about a minute 46 left in the game. Okay. They throw him a team ball and it's a drop. And I guarantee he's, that crushed him. Yeah. Try does not want to talk about those things. And the way I watch him attack a ball with his hands and the way I watch him catch

and he has soft hands, it doesn't concern me a lot. You're hoping it's not that it's a big moment in the game, but I don't. I don't necessarily see that. I think it's... So you really like this player? Making a big play. Yeah, I do. I'm a big fan.

I think it's a good pick. I'm not sure where people had him going. He's probably a third to fourth round guy until he runs a 4-6-8 and jumps a 40-inch vertical. Right. Yeah, he was very tested ridiculously as an athlete. You know, they signed Zach Ertz. Ertz played for Kingsbury in Arizona when he was the head coach.

there. For a young rookie quarterback, who's going to be on the field the most that first year? Ertz or Senate? I don't know

how they'll play him. I would really push to have Senate be on the field more than Erds. I still like Ertz, but watching him with Arizona some last year.

He's definitely not the same guy. He can be a huge positive influence for the team. They'll both play a lot. It's a hard decision, Kev, honestly. Like, without watching him in train camp and watching him work in practice and seeing how he adapts and adjust, it could be one of those situations. And this is almost like my, if it's going to be continued to be similar to me,

he'll start and play 40% of snaps to 50% of snaps for the first seven or eight weeks and then he could develop into, hey, look, we want this guy as our, you know, is our one tight end when we go to third down situation, which you may start and play 70% of snaps, up to 80% of snaps. And by the second year, he won't come off the field. He won't come off the field in the second year. All right, great job. I appreciate you doing this.

Will you perhaps look at Washington's other two second round picks? And by the way, a very important third round pick, a guy that played tackle, played guard, but, you know, he was the only offensive lineman taken. by Washington in the draft. And that's the one area where the fans believe they didn't do a good enough job in the offseason was tackle.

So maybe we can get you to do some of the other guys in the next few weeks. Yeah, we can do the other guys. All right, go do what you need to do. I appreciate it. You do the same. Chris Cooley, everybody. He loves himself some Ben Senate.

You got really good film breakdown there from Cooley. I can tell that he spent a lot of time watching a player that kind of looks and plays like he did. He loves the versatility of Senate as a pass catcher, the ability to line them up all over the field. And, you know, the constructive criticism being he thinks he's an average blocker at this point, but he can improve in that area. All right, that was great.

Up next, a derby preview with Eddie C, our guy. That's right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast. The new sponsor is Unified Healing, Unified spelled, U-N-I-F-Y-D healing. It doesn't matter if you're a big-time world-class athlete or just a somewhat athletic podcaster like me, We all understand the importance of mental and physical well-being and proper recovery for top-notch performance. That's why I'm excited that Unified Healing is sponsoring the podcast now.

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book is the best. Their race book is the best. You can count on fair numbers and fair pricing. Go to MyBooky.ag promo code. You have to put it in exactly the way I'm saying it. Kevin D.C. To get free cash, a free cash bonus on your initial deposit. All right, let's bring on our guy, Eddie C, who gives us previews and picks for all of the Triple Crown races. Eddie C. Grew up around here, many of you know Eddie C.

The whereabouts of Eddie C's existence these days, no one knows. really knows. He is a sharp and is considered to be a sharp in the horse racing horse wagering world. We're lucky to have him. I know this derby coming up is the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. So a momentous weekend for everybody that enjoys the sport, right? Oh, yeah. It's definitely a huge deal when it's the 150th running and a bunch of good storylines behind it and one not-so-good storyline behind it. But first and foremost, thanks for having me on again, Kevin.

It's always a pleasure doing this. I guess we've done it now for like five, six, seven years. Yeah, something like that. So what's the not-so-good storyline? So, you know, for the third year in a row, Bob Bafford, who is arguably the greatest trainer now and maybe of all time is not allowed to run his horses in the derby.

He served a two-year suspension as was given to him, and then Churchill Downs decided to extend the band to this year, so he doesn't have any horses running in the Kentucky Derby this year, and he arguably has maybe the best or definitely one of the best, a horse called Moof that is excluded from running in this year's Derby. And, you know, me personally,

I think just like any sport, everybody kind of pushes the envelope to get an advantage performance-wise. But Bob's been clean for more than two years. And it just seems like a personal vendetta, a bit of a witch hunt

against Bob Baffert and a lot of people are happy about it, but more people are very unhappy about it because it doesn't allow us to see the best horses run. So tell me about the horse that you were specifically talking about. What's the horse's name again? It's Moose, M-U-T-H. It's arguably, it's definitely top five horse in a three-year-old cult in the country. and he's got a couple of other three-year-olds

at least one other that would have qualified for the derby but again, they're excluding all his horses. You know, and in previous years, they actually transferred horses to another trainer so they could run in the derby. But this year, Bafford and his owners decided, no, we're not going to transfer our horses. And just so you know for future, for a couple of weeks from now,

moose is probably going to be running in the preakness and will definitely be one of the favorites. That's what I was going to ask you. Will it run in the last two legs, the preteness and the Belmonton? So it will be at the preteness. Well, let's talk about the horses that are going to run tomorrow. Before we get to your picks, your annual selection of all three of the Triple Crown races, tell me about the field how big it is and how many, you know, decent horses there are in the field. You know, this is a very interesting year. It looks like we're going to have a full field of 20 horses running.

I'm very hopeful that it looks like it's supposed to rain a lot on Friday and early Saturday, but hopefully the rain holds off for, you know, for the latter part of the Saturday card and the Derby is run, you know, without rain. but we did have a late scratch of a horse called Enfino. So there's a horse, what they call an also eligible. Epic Ride has been entered to complete the field of 20 horses, and Epic Ride has the chance. It's an interesting field because there's a lot of horses that I think could run second, third, fourth.

I mean, just a lot of good quality horses. But I do believe that there's a couple of horses that totally stand out in the race. All right. So tell me about them. Okay. Well, the favorite morning line favorite right now is a horse called Fierceness. He was the two-year-old champion, won the Breeders' Cup juvenile, came back, and most recently won the Florida Derby, ran the best numbers of any horse. this race.

Very, very good horse when he's on his game. The thing about fierceness, who's trained by Todd Pletcher, who's won the Derby twice, very, I mean, just very talented. The connections are great. He's owned by a gentleman by the name of Mike Rapoli, who's a very outspoken individual. He's great for the game. He's trying to make the game better right now by trying to create a game. commissioner's type office.

That's another story, maybe for another time. But the thing about fierceness, there's two things that concern me about the horse. One is he has a pattern of running a good race and a bad race and then follows it up with a good race and another bad race. So he just ran maybe his best race yet. So if the pattern continues, he may not run the best race. And he's a horse that needs to be either on the lead or right by the lead. and he's breaking out of the 16th hole, so he's parked out wide.

So he's going to really have to hustle to get out. And he's also had a little bit of trouble getting out of the gate where he gets banged with other horses or he stumbled in the past. So, and then there's this other thing that popped up this week, which I was not aware of, is they treat his hoofs. He's got thin or weak hooves. So they've been treating them with what's called Equalox, which is like an adhesive of a resin that's used as the filler for horses with weak or thin hooves. Have they tried bourbon?

Have they tried bourbon, did you say? Yeah, maybe just rub some bourbon on those hooves. Yeah, you know, the Kentucky bourbon, there's a lot of good positives in using Kentucky bourbon or anything. There's some concern about the horse's hooves at this point. Um, publicly not so much. I just found out about it by, uh, by somebody who's quote unquote in the know down there. So, uh, it may be something that gets popped up on, uh, on the, on the, on Saturday on the show. Right. But, um, the other horse, um, and, uh, well, there's a Japanese sensation horse that, uh, is undefeated. Five for five, uh, has run at, uh,

in many, in five different, or four or five different countries, the name is forever young. He just recently won the Saudi Cup and the Dubai Derby. He's going to have a huge following. The only thing is Japanese horses have come over here and not performed well in the derby. And he's a horse that is going to be coming from the very back. doesn't like a lot of dirt in its face, so he races wide, and that's not conducive to the race. So while he has proven to be a great horse, five-for-five winning big races, I'm not a huge fan of it. And then you have Sierra Leone, which for those that don't know, and I didn't know this,

but it's named after a country. Yep. because it's kind of a female name, but it's a cult, a male horse. This horse has done nothing wrong. He's run four times, one three, got nosed out of, took the lead, and got nosed out in the last hundred yards, he came second in its other race, trained by Chad Brown, who's never won the derby. And I talked to Chad recently. I talked to Chad about this horse back in January.

I've never heard Chad or seen Chad so animated and excited and confident about a horse. And the horse is impeccably bred. He's out of a sire by the name of Gun Runner. That's one of the all-time great horses. And he's somebody that's going to have to come from the back of the pack as well. But, you know, he's coming out of the – he's in the two-weigh, hole. And I think that actually helps him because he's going to save ground, and then he's going to make a big run turning for home. And I think Sierra Leone is the horse to get there.

All right. So let's get to your picks. Okay. So I'm doing something a little bit different this year because, you know, hear your top contenders real quick. Fierre Leone. freedom, forever young, which is a Japanese horse that we just talked about, and another horse called Just the Touch. I'm doing something based on I talk to a very good friend of mine who's arguably the best handicapper I know about how to do the exotics, meaning like what to do with trifectives and superfectives in a race like this because they, you know, they pay off thousands of

if you hit the trifecta or superfactor. But my pick for the win is going to be Sierra Leone. All right. Again, trained by Chad Brown. You were unfamiliar with that even being a country until it became a horse in the derby. Yeah, I mean, you know, and that's funny because I consider myself to be a geography officiato, and I just did not know about it. I think the guy who played Charles Minor, Idris,

Oh, God, he's such a good actor. Idriselba, I think this is the last name. He played Charles Minor in the office, was in that really good movie. It was a good gambling movie, a good poker movie. And I'm forgetting the name of the movie right now. Molly's game. He was in Molly's game, too, with Jessica Chastain, which was a good movie and a true story, by the way. But yes, I think he is from Sierra Leone.

I'll have to check that. But continue, please. You like Sierra Leone for the win. Yes, I like Sierra Leone for the win. Should go off somewhere around three to one. Maybe if we get lucky, we get seven to two, four to one. And then as far as exact as, I like, I mentioned just a touch and catching freedom as two horses. They're morning line 10 to one.

I like them as well. But there's a horse I like a little bit more for second, But I'm going to do exactly with using just a touch and catching freedom. But there's a horse called Stronghold that is out of one of my favorite sires, Ghost Zapper, that was one of the best horses. Bobby Frankl and old trainer will tell you that he's the best horse he's ever had in his life. And I like that horse quite a bit. And Strongholds probably go off close to 20 to 1.

So, you know, if Stronghold can run second, you'd get a really, nice, exact the price there. So my plan is to use Sierra Leone and exactives with stronghold, just a touch, and catching freedom. And then, as I preface this by saying and talking to my handicapping friend, in trifectives and superfectives, I'm going to key Sierra Leone, which means

it has to win. He has to win. I'm playing them on top only. And then I'm going to use stronghold, just a touch, catching freedom, and this other horse called endlessly in the trifecta. I'm going to use them second, and then I'm going to use all,

every other horse underneath them. And the reason I'm doing that is, as I said at the beginning of the call, there's so many horses that could come second, third, or fourth in this race. So I'm not going to try to pick it just, a horse for second or third. I'm going to use the all button because that's where your value comes in. All right. So Sierra Leone to win the exacta with just a touch catching freedom and

stronghold. We'd love to see Sierra Leone at 7 to 2 or maybe even 4 to 1 by the time we get to tomorrow. And then for the trifecta endlessly, but you're going to hit the all button as well with those three horses. Pierre Leon with Stronghold, just a touch, catching freedom endlessly, and one of them has to come second, and the all-but-knap. The all-but-knap to that.

Got it. All right. We will reconvene in a couple of weeks before the Preakness. Thank you for doing this, as always. It's Eddie C, and you can follow him on Twitter at Notebook Picks. Good luck.

Appreciate your help, as always. Kevin, one last thing. Just for the people to know this year, very special event that Belmont is being held at Saratoga Rastrack, first week in June, and everybody is welcome to come on up. Let's go. It's an area you're very familiar with, and many of the people we know are very familiar with. All right, enjoy. I'll talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate it. Eddie C., everybody. Thanks to him, thanks to Cooley, of course. Back on Monday. Have a good weekend. On 1st and 10, Howard throws, and it's caught by Senate. Comet covered up, breaks tackles, and stays upright.