WEBVTT

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Well, we're joined right now by
a World Series champion. And I knew

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him way before that. He was
one of those special guys that you connect

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with in a clubhouse, and we
certainly did in two thousand and four,

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in two thousand and five when he
was playing for the Dodgers before he went

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on to an unbelievable Major League career
to close out his fifteen seasons. And

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now he's part owner of the Belmont
Stakes winner door Knock. That is the

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one and only Jason Worth. Jason. Great to have you on the show.

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Great to reconnect with you. Yeah, David trazy, it's been this

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long twenty years since those days.
My Dodger days were good. Good to

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talk to you and get back connected
for a totally different reason. Yeah,

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no doubt. You know, when
we used to talk, we never really

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talked about horse racing, but I
know the Dodgers beat writer Ken Gernick was

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a big horse racing guy. Did
you you have it in your blood back

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then? Uh? No? And
as I mentioned, running into paul A

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Duca at Saratoga on Belmont weekend and
and you know, hugging it out with

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my old Dodger teammate and and talking
about horses. Was was was you know,

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surreal? Also so it's uh,
it was. It's been a crazy

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couple three years here in horse racing. I never really had much interest or

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or you know, really anything to
do with it other than watching the Triple

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Crown races and following it from afar. But yeah, here we are here,

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we are sitting here today watching watching
races at Churchill Downs this afternoon and

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uh, you know, sitting on
you know, arguably the best three year

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old in the world, and and
and Belmont Camps. What can you tell

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us about door Knock? What makes
this horse so special? To be an

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underdog of sorts at the Belmont Stakes? Yeah, which is crazy. You

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wouldn't have you wouldn't have thought,
uh he was an underdog if you saw

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my my betting ticket. We we
we believed in him. Uh. We

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thought he We thought he was the
favorite in the race. Honestly, we

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He had a he had a rough
trip in the Derby ran ran big.

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His gallop out was great. Uh. The horse the race before that was

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the Bluegrass where he had a tough
trip. Uh, similar to what the

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what the Kentucky Derby trip was.
He just didn't have anywhere to go and

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came up empty on the straightaway.
But uh, you know, maybe he

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wasn't he was offul coming off a
little bit of a you know, layoff,

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I guess, but going into the
Bell Mountain we felt really good about

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him. He Uh, it's funny. I was telling on MLB Network the

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other day. Mark dross the interviewed
me. He asked me, what what

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what he's like? And I said, and I think it's true. He's

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a he's kind of like his uh, his his dad. He's a he's

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a big, bad dude with a
big with a bad attitude. And uh,

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he shows up on game day,
so he was he's uh, he's

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cool to be around. He's tough
to train, which you know I probably

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wasn't the most coachable guy myself.
So we got a lot in common.

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And and you know, he's,
uh, he's a gamer and he's a

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he's a big horse. Uh,
he's he's uh, he's cool, he's

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funny. If you get we go
see him see him a lot. We

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give him peppermints, uh, and
like he'll start like he'll start sucking on

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his tongue and like it's it's it's
it's hysterical. But then in that like

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few uh thirty seconds of him and
enjoying his peppermint, you kind of you

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can get in there and uh and
love on him and and pat him.

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Will'll let you close. But as
soon as that's over, he wants another

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peppermint, and then he turns back
into a jerk. So he's uh,

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he's a he's an interesting guy.
Do you remember the first time you ever

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got introduced to door knock and when
you went in with ten percent of ownership

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on door knock? Yeah? So
I was at the sale uh and Keeenland

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a couple of steps ago, where
it's kind of like when you buy buy

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these horses and you don't know what
they are. I mean the guys at

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bottom that that that I ran into. I ran into these guys at the

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bar uh at Keenland after the sales, and and that's how I got in,

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just kind of sitting there chopping it
up with these guys I just met,

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and they wanted to get me in, and you know, they said,

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oh, you know, I was
buying mostly phillies, and they said,

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oh, you get you a cold, get you, you know,

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get you a horse, get you
on the Derby trail looking back. I

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mean if if when I tell people
that in horse racing, they're like,

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you know, those guys are are
full of it, you know, because

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you never no one knows what they
have when they're one. But those guys

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so good about it, and so
did I. And it's been it's been

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a just an incredible journey from from
then to now the Derby. Running in

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the Derby was was a life altering
weekend, once in a lifetime experience for

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me and the family. And and
you know, you ran tense, which

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was disappointing, but at the same
time so cool that it was just you

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know, you're just happy to be
a part of it. So going into

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the Belmont, you know, we
felt like he could he could win the

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race. It wasn't a you know, it wasn't a huge field like like

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the Derby, where you know,
I think if he got a better trip

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of the Derby, he would have
been you would have been right there as

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well. But yeah, it's just
it's just wild. I've I've gotten into

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it. It's become a passion and
it's a great sport. It's also a

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great sport for for retired athletes,
for guys like me that you know,

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competed at the highest level, uh, basically every day, and then you

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know, there's no real outlet for
those uh for that, you know,

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for those emotions for you know,
for the the competition. You know,

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you can't really recreate the joys of
winning and losing and uh, you know,

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the gut wrenches of of you know, big time you know events and

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races and and just it's been an
unbelievable outlet for me to uh to kind

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of feel those emotions again. I
don't know if you saw the video that

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America's Best Racing, Uh, there's
a like a four minute clip that kind

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of takes you through the day and
and uh then shows us celebrating, uh

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after the one that Belmont. And
it's so great to be able to celebrate

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with you know, when you're when
you're playing, it's awesome to hear your

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teammates and and you win and and
you know you got you have these you

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know, you know, bonds you
create with your teammates when you win you

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can never break. And then you
you look up in the stands and you

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waved your family, you know,
and they're they're they're there with you,

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but not really. In horse racing, you know, you win, you

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win together, you lose together,
you cry together. You know, it's

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it's it's a It's an amazing sport
on so many levels, and I'm just

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happy to be a part of it
and looking to looking to share it and

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spread the spread the good, the
good name of horse racing. As we

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go, Jason Worth is our guest. You can hear the passion of horse

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racing in his voice. And really
that's what I was going to ask you.

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You answered, whether or not it
helps you with the competitive outlet,

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but also with winning the Belmont Stakes
compared to winning the World Series in Oh

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wait, maybe seeing door knock go
down the stretch, does it feel like

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two outs in the ninth inning?
Is there any parallels there? Definitely is.

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I mean, you know, for
people that aren't familiar with the sport

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or or just know the sport from
from the betting side, when you bet

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on a horse, you know,
from on the ownership side, it's totally

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different. I mean, it's such
a different experience. This horse becomes part

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of your life. You know,
you worry about it, you wake up

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in the morning, you check on
it. You know, there's there's videos,

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there's there's reports, it becomes like
you know, you go to see

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it in the stables, it becomes
like a family pet. I mean,

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this guy's he's got nicknames. You
know, we bring the presents. It's

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like there's a whole lot of a
whole different experience to owning these horses than

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than just betting on them or going
to the track someday in Washington. So

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it creates, you know, the
will creates a bond similar to when you're

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when you're playing then and when he
goes and runs and you know, a

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race like a Triple Crown race,
you know, like I mean, this

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is legendary stuff. So when you
win, you feel the same emotions I

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winning at the highest level, I
mean I would I would say I would

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put it right up there. If
if you know, winning the World Series

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in Philadelphia and then and then experiencing
the parade in Philadelphia, which was which

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was incredible, I would say,
you know, one in one a winning

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the Belmont would be would be you
know, a close second. So it

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was a it's remarkable to experience it, and like I said, to do

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it with my family and my friends
together, it just it makes for an

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incredible experience. I can't I can't. I can't even begin to tell you

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how special it is. That is
so awesome. Jason Wirth is our guest.

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Before I let you go, you
mentioned seeing Paul Aduca at the Belmont

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Stakes and him embracing you. That
was such a tight knit group in two

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thousand and four with the Dodgers.
Obviously, you guys did not go all

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the way, but of all the
teams that you were part of, where

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do where does two thousand and four
ranked as far as the bonds you had

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with those teammates. Yeah, yeah, I mean, awesome team. You

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know, arguably that was Yeah,
that was my rookie, rookie year.

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So it was an unbelievable start to
you know, a pretty storybook career with

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with the way, you know,
the way it went, with you know,

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the the injuries experienced the following year
and the troubles that we had to

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you know, get it diagnosed and
and get it fixed, and then ultimately,

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you know, getting released by the
team that you know, you know,

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gave me the opportunity. It was. It's the four team was was

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so close. You know, we
we ran into a juggernaut with Saint Louis

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that year. They were they were
hot, and you know we were we

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were kind of a little short,
but it was it was a great experience.

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The awesome year we had, you
know, running down the Giants down

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the stretch. You know, Finn's
hitting that big walk off grand Slam at

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Dodger Stadium. I had that.
I had that long at bat to tie

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the game and then Finn's coming up
and hitting the Grand Slam. I mean

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that that was that was That was
a great Dodger moments. And to do

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it at Dodger Stadium at packed house
as a rookie, he was. It

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was incredible. You know, obviously
had some some other big games there for

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other teams and and big moments,
but always loved, always loved Dodger Stadium,

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and you know playing in l A
was was, you know, definitely

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special in being a Dodgers. You
know, it's like it's it's uh,

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it's one of the tough sports franchises
in all sports. So it was.

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I was honored to be a Dodger
and then to experience all that and you

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know, had a great career and
now here we are running and running triple

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ground races and winning the Belmonts.
It's you know, never it never ends

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right. You always had a vision
even when you were playing. You had

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the vision of winning a World Series
Championship, a vision of being one of

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those premiere free agents, which you
accomplished as well. And I'm sure you

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had this vision of at some point
in time finding this outlet and Door Knock

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winning the Belmont Stake. So I'm
really happy for you, Jason, and

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awesome to hear from you again.
Yeah, thanks David Trading. Dormic was

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the first cult I bought, so
my first chance I had. Uh I

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would I kind of say that he
found me. I don't know if I

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found him, but it's it's been
a crazy run. We still got we

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still got the travers looking for the
travers, and then hopefully we'll be in

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We'll be in San Diego, down
there del Mar for the Breeders Cup in

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November, so I hope to see
you out there when I get on the

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West coast. Hey, if Door
and Jason Worth are at del Mar for

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the Breeders' Cup, I will be
there, So let's book it. Not

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hope I will see you out there
in November, Let's do it. Thanks

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for the time, and good to
hear your voice, and good to speak

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with you again,