It's the end of an era. |
It's time to tee it up and do it. |
Like everyone else, I knew there was a possibility Jerry might not ride the whole winter, but I told him before the meet began that as long as he was still riding and the horse was doing well he'd have the mount. At the moment, Edgar has the call for the Hutcheson and we've committed to nothing else beyond that point. In this game you never want to get too far ahead of yourself. |
Most trainers have a style. When you haven't raced in three months, in my opinion, I think it's a good idea to pop them out of the gate before you bring them back. Now I know he's doing fine right now. I'm sure that we'll be ready to try next week. |
My horse did everything right other than he didn't win. He ran a dynamite race off the bench, which isn't a given. His stride was good at the end. He stayed on and kept fighting, which was a good sign. |
The Champagne was his best race, he had a nice workout Saturday, we hope he has a good week here and goes out there and runs well. |
The main thing is to see how that horse is. This [race] doesn't get him to the first Saturday in May, but it gets him along. |
The proof is always in the pudding. He's got a great mind, an unusually good mind for a young horse. He'll relax. He's not a run-off. If he improves from a 2-year-old to a 3-year-old, he's got a chance. There's a little gray area there, whether he can run that far, mentally and physically. |
The proof is always in the pudding. There's no question that as a two-year-old he was a good miler and beyond, and the road we took with him was the road to the Breeders' Cup, and that was one-turn races. There was no reason to try anything else. With a young horse, though, there's always that gray area if they can go that far, mentally or physically. |
There's a little gray area there. But physically he's a big, strong horse and he'll relax. The good ones improve from 2 to 3. That's the key to any of them, and I see no reason to think he won't. |
Things just didn't go well for him today. I'm sure we'll go to Plan B, which would probably be off the Derby trail. |
This game is 'what have you done for me lately?' in all phases of it. I would say yeah, he probably is a little under the radar. I thought both of his races this year were tremendous races but he hasn't run in six weeks. |
We chose that road to the Breeders' Cup because it was around one turn. There was no reason to try anything else. |
You know, we're in it to win. But I thought (First Samurai) did everything right, about as good as he could do, other than win. I was very happy with the race. |