Trainer Jose D’Angelo

Joins the TDN Writers’ Room

      In racing circles, trainer Jose D’Angelo might not yet be a “household name,” but that’s not going to last much longer. In this country for about five years, the native of Venezuela is coming off a stellar 2024 in which he won 140 races, including his first Grade I with Howard Wolowitz (Munnings) in the Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson S. And it looks like 2025 might be even better. He has a loaded stable that includes Guns Loaded (Gun Runner), the winner of last Saturday’s Mucho Macho Man S. at Gulfstream, a race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. We checked in with D’Angelo when he appeared as the Gainesway Guest of the Week on this week’s TDN Writers’ Room podcast presented by Keeneland.

  Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by WinStar Farm, 1/ST Racing, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders’ Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, and XBTV.com, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss talked about the sizzling win by the Bob Baffert-trained Barnes (Into Mischief) in the GII San Vicente S. at Santa Anita as well as the impressive performance earlier on the same card by his stablemate Rodriguez (Authentic), who earned ‘TDN Rising Star’ status. They took a look at the first 2025 edition of the TDN Derby Top 12, which is authored by TD Thornton. The sad story of War Envoy (War Front), a winner at Royal Ascot, being in poor physical condition and having to be rescued by the authorities from a Franklin County, Kentucky farm led to the panelists imploring the industry for what seemed like the 500^th time that it must do better by its horses.

Click here to watch the show.

Click here for the audio-only version.

photo credit: Ryan Thompson