Manuel Franco

And he started talking to, uh, Horacio, and he said, "Oh, I want you to meet the owner.

This is Michael Bennett." And of course, I'm there meeting Manny Franco, the number one jockey in the state of New York right now.

And so he's the Jo- Jose Ortiz up there, or, or Brian Hernandez, whoever you wanna talk about.

Uh, but it was pretty cool to meet Manny Franco.

So, uh, really good effort from him again in the Champagne.

Um, gosh, I, I thought I was super mad at Manny Franco for pretty much [laughs] the whole race.

Um, but uh, you know, he had him in traffic and got him bumped around a little bit there, but uh, once he got free, he was, he was much the best again.

Um, you know, for my money, he's the best horse in the crop right now currently, and, and one of the better ones I've seen in a while as a two year old.

All right, let's move on and talk about the Champagne, and no surprise here, USS Valor taking down the Champagne Stakes in emphatic fashion.

I feel maybe Manny Franco could've been a little bit more patient, perhaps didn't need to knock anywhere, one sideways at the head of the lane, but man, was he impressive.

And it looks like Barry Irwin will take the ever so cautious route and not point him towards the Breeders' Cup.

TD?

He did so again in the one turn mile Champagne, but he was a real powerful presence in the back of that tightly packed field, and on the far turn, he split horses at the back, but he immediately had to wait.

He was caught behind the front runners.

He had a couple of tailing off horses, both to his inside and outside, and Manny Franco said, "I'm, I'm just gonna shoulder one of these horses out of the way." He did so in upper stretch, and then it was a big blast off.

Nobody could stick with him late.

The Champagne Stakes produced the most striking and sparkling performance in the shape of USS Valor, who routed a good field of two-year-olds by six-and-a-half lengths.

gearing down under Manny Franco.

For Suge McGehee, in the familiar derby winning colours of Team Valor, whose principal Barry Irwin joins me now.

Barry, let's talk performance first and then why this has become a major talking point in a moment.

That part is absolutely unequivocally true.

By the way, if you can't get Jose Ortiz, is there anybody better than Manny Franco right now?

Exactly.

That's a real question.

Six of them are in the race.

We actually don't have a morning line, but I don't think you have to stretch far to think that USS Valor for Shug McGahee, with Manny Franco up, will be the favorite.

Uncorked a 105-buyer speed figure, the best for any two-year-old this year, when he won by 13 lengths, breaking his maiden on second asking, September 5th, going seven at Churchill.

So this will be a mile, but still it's one turn.

I just think USS Bauer has a better post.

He's going to sit outside, let everybody see what develops to the inside of him.

Manny Franco rode him last time.

I had to think this was like one of those ride him in here, you'll get him in the champagne, and hopefully the breeder's cup type thing got to know him.

I can't stop thinking about is the horse acted green when he got in the stretch, when he won.

So from the quarter pole to the eighth pole, Manny Franco rode him.

I didn't think he needed to.

He let up on him the last 16th.

Because if you run straight, you're going to run right into the rail.

So you have to be able to move over.

And Manny Franco was on Goudreau.

And then he moved to Franco, right? I can't remember.

I know we joke about it on the show.

Manny Franco's riding as well as anyone in the country right now.

Yeah,

he just is.

Measure and Always a Runner both went for the same hole at about the three-eighths pole.

Always a Runner and Jose Ortiz beat Manny Franco to the hole.

Franco had to steady a little bit on Measure.

Then he followed Always a Runner and was really getting to her at the end, beating only a neck for second.