Alex Lieblong Joins TDN Writers’ Room Ahead of Reef Runner’s Dubai Bid

Wandering Eyes · 2026-03-10T19:57:41Z

After another big week of Kentucky Derby preps and with the Dubai World Cup on the horizon, there was plenty to unpack in this week's TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland.

The trio of Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss, and T.D. Thornton broke down the weekend's biggest performances. Cadman made sure to school her American colleagues on the correct pronunciation of The Puma (Essential Quality), the winner of the GIII Tampa Bay Derby.

“He is named for Gustavo Delgado Sr., because apparently that's what they call him and I can kind of see why,” she shared. “He broke his maiden here and congrats to Ramiro Restrepo, the team that bought Mage, for purchasing him off Hidden Brook for just $150,000.”

The team also looked at Potente (Into Mischief)'s win in the GII San Felipe Stakes and Majestic Oops (Majestic Harbor)'s upset of champion Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GII Azeri Stakes.

Alex Lieblong was this week's Gainesway Guest of the Week. The Arkansas native and veteran horse owner joined the show to discuss his homebred Reef Runner (The Big Beast), who is currently in Dubai training up for a bid in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint Stakes on March 28 following his win in last month's G2 1351 Turf Sprint in Saudi Arabia.

Despite regional tensions, Lieblong confirmed he and his wife, JoAnn, are ready for the trip.

“Somebody said that they can hear missiles going over and this and that, but it hasn't bothered [Reef Runner],” Lieblong said. “They say he's actually training a tick better than he was in Saudi Arabia. We're planning on going if they open up the airspaces.”

“Seventy-five is the time to take chances,” he added. “At 75 years old, you don't want to leave things on the table.”

Reef Runner, who won last year's GII Eddie D. Stakes and was fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, is out of a half-sister to multiple Grade I winner Paradise Woods (Union Rags). The 5-year-old gelding trained by David Fawkes is a son of Lieblong's Grade I-winning stallion The Big Beast (Yes It's True), who stands at McDowell Farm in Arkansas for $2,000. Lieblong is understandably proud of his latest stable star.

“It's fantastic,” said Lieblong. “What's so great about it is that I've got so many of my trainers who have all got something to do with this. [Steve] Hobby was the first trainer of The Big Beast, but I remember Hobby coming to me when he was a 2-year-old and he said, 'Hey, he's too fast. If we go in now, you're not going to have a horse.' Not a lot of trainers will tell you that anymore. We ran him I think in March of his 3-year-old year. And then as Oaklawn wound down, we thought, 'Okay, he'd fit better up in New York.' So Tony [Dutrow] took him up there and did a great job in the GI King's Bishop. [Richard] Mandella is actually the one that picked out the mare. Of course he was close to the family. And then Steve Asmussen ended up training the mare.”

As the chairman of the Arkansas Racing and Gaming Commission, Lieblong offered his take on the role of gaming in modern racing.

“There was an old guy that used to tell me when I was kid, 'I believe every tub ought to sit on its own bottom,'” he shared. “In a way, racing is not sitting on its own bottom. It's taking contributions from other areas. I'd like to be able to see it stand up on its own, but I think still at this stage, it's got to have some help. We're lucky at Oaklawn. We have been very fortunate with the purses and we're very fortunate because the ownership at Oaklawn truly likes racing. That's hard to find at this stage of the game.”

Also on this week's show, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV, the KTOB, and West Point Thoroughbreds, Moss shared that the Fastest Horse of the Week, presented by WinStar, was Joe Sheisty (Air Force Blue), who earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure in the Big Daddy Stakes.

The team took a look at the GI Santa Anita Handicap, won by British Isles (Justify). After several scratches, the Big Cap only garnered five entries.

“Clearly, the race is struggling for whatever reason,” said Moss. “It used to be a million dollars. 2016 was the last time Santa Anita gave away a purse of a million dollars. Now it's $300,000 and I know this is a little bit of a one-off because of Skippylongstocking scratching and all that. It's not usually this weak, but it's in grave danger of losing it's Grade I status after a field like this.”

“There are no easy answers,” said Thornton. “You can zero in and try to drill down what to do, to complain about or hopefully fix the Big Cap, but it's endemic for other Grade I races and it's accentuated in Southern California because the circuit essentially functions as an island right now.”

Turning to international waters, the crew debated the potential American contingent for the Dubai World Cup and reflected on the career of trainer John Kimmel following his recently announced retirement.

Watch or listen to this week's show below: