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The Ron Flatter Racing Pod

The Ron Flatter Racing Pod

By: Horse Racing Nation
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About this listen

Featuring handicapping tips and insight from insiders, the Ron Flatter Racing Pod is posted every Friday morning via HorseRacingNation.com. Check out the interviews with owners, trainers, jockeys, racing journalists, handicappers and celebrities. The pod is hosted by HRN managing editor Ron Flatter, who has been covering horse racing around the world for more than 35 years.Horse Racing Labs, LLC Politics & Government
Episodes
  • S8E42: A visit to Fairmount and tips for Saratoga
    Jul 4 2025

    With Chicagoland racing on the decline, Fairmount Park near St. Louis has become the one track in Illinois where the sport is on the rise. This week the Collinsville venue plays host for this on-the-road episode of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod.

    Vince Gabbert, a former executive at Keeneland, talks about his decision to run Fairmount Park since it was bought last year by the publicly traded gaming company Accel. He also discusses the recent opening of a casino inside the 100-year-old site, making it the first racetrack in Illinois to take advantage of that revenue stream.

    Jim Watkins, the president of the Illinois Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, discusses the challenges facing owners and trainers like him who continue to race their horses at both Fairmount and at Hawthorne in suburban Chicago. He also expresses his optimism about the potential expansion of racing at Fairmount beyond its current Tuesday-and-Saturday schedule.

    With the Saratoga summer getting an early start, handicapper Ed DeRosa offers tips for the Saturday’s card highlighted by the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational. He also has analysis for other races from the holiday-weekend menu across the country.

    Fairmount track announcer Keith Nelson fills in for John Cherwa as this week’s co-host.

    The Ron Flatter Racing Pod via Horse Racing Nation is available via free subscription from Apple, Firefox, iHeart and Spotify as well as HorseRacingNation.com.

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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • S8E41: Pop-up tribute to the late D. Wayne Lukas
    Jun 30 2025

    Hall of Fame trainer and racing icon D. Wayne Lukas is remembered on this special, pop-up episode of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod.

    The late Hall of Fame trainer died Saturday at age 89. He appeared on the RFRP nine times, and those interviews plus others dating to his first Kentucky Derby victory with Winning Colors in 1988 are replayed on this special episode.

    An indelible memory came in 2013, when Oxbow won the Preakness, a victory which marked a career renaissance for Lukas. He told the media if they wanted to talk to him the morning after that they had to show up at 4:30 a.m. EDT at the Pimlico stakes barn. Four of the people who took him up on that are on a panel discussion in this episode, including Alicia Hughes, Mike Gathagan, Steve Haskin and Flatter.

    Co-host John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times brings the show together as do replays of old interviews with Lukas, who appeared on the RFRP nine times, most recently last month.

    With regular episodes available every Friday morning, the Ron Flatter Racing Pod via Horse Racing Nation is available via free subscription from Apple, Firefox, iHeart and Spotify as well as HorseRacingNation.com.

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    1 hr and 38 mins
  • S8E40: Why Scheinman is the mayor of Pimlico, old and new
    Jun 27 2025

    He balks at the idea that he is the mayor of Pimlico, but longtime Baltimore fixture John Scheinman easily could fill that role. He has been a regular in the old press box for decades in his roles as a two-time Eclipse Award-winning turf writer and as a dyed-in-the-wool horseplayer.

    Scheinman is the lone guest this week on the Ron Flatter Racing Pod.

    He talks about the can’t-miss-him presence he has brought to Pimlico and tells stories about the last days of the old track before its planned demolition this summer and redevelopment in the next two years.

    Scheinman offers critical commentary about the reconfiguring of Maryland racing with the exit of The Stronach Group and the emergence of the new Maryland Jockey Club. He even has thoughts about the impact the new Pimlico will have on the Park Heights neighborhood in Baltimore.

    Asked to assume the imagined role of racing czar, Scheinman offered ideas on how he would lure fans back to the Preakness and how confident he is that the new racetrack and grandstand at Pimlico can meet his hopes.

    The Ron Flatter Racing Pod via Horse Racing Nation is available via free subscription from Apple, Firefox, iHeart and Spotify as well as HorseRacingNation.com.

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    1 hr and 5 mins
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