Alumni Hall worked great, and he's trained real well and he's sharp. You get indecisive when you have another race that suits him 20 miles away. Of course, the Gold Cup is a great race so we're kind of on the fence right now, but we'll have a decision pretty soon. |
He's got all the attributes of a good horse. He's good enough that he makes his own luck. He can run on the front end, but he doesn't have to have the lead. I don't know about everybody else, but I know Lawyer Ron is the real deal. |
I think he could get a nice position, maybe three, four lengths off the lead. |
I thought he ran well. We just haven't had a chance to get the seasoning under him so we're playing catch up. We just want to watch him now for a couple days and then we'll discuss our options. |
I'll probably breeze him just an easy half, in 49, 50 [seconds]. He worked the other day. We'll go from there. |
If he runs well, gets a lot out of it and gallops out strong, it will be something we can build on. |
It's frustrating. There was no indication leading up to it. If there was anything going on prior to this, there were no outward signs. We had no concerns. I've just been apprehensive with her because she had been training so well and looking so well. It's just the usual thing, you hope the race comes up soon. |
She was a big filly, a blocky filly, and he looks a little bit like her. She also had a good demeanor. She was a very nice mare. |
She's got a couple of tears in the upper third of the tendon, which spells retirement. It's not horrible, but a filly like this, the way she's come around as of late, there's not even a question. It's just a shame. She couldn't have trained better since the race at Saratoga, but that's how these things happen sometimes. |
The extra week makes all the difference. We were running out of options to get to the Rebel, and the week's delay makes a big difference. His work this morning was perfect, and he's all set to go. |
The horse is doing good. I don't have any problems running him. |
The way he's eating, and the way he looks and the way he's been training, all signs are indicating that he should be able to add a little bit to that last effort. |
There have been some unusual circumstances that have worked out in our favor the last few years. We've had some nice horses ready to run, and the Ben Ali came up at the right time. |
We're not going in there with any preconceived notions. We want to see him closing ground and galloping out good. Of course, we want to win it. Who doesn't? But you know at this point we're playing a little catch-up, so we want to see a good, strong race from him, take into consideration what Robby has to say after the fact, and go from there. We're going into this race very open-minded. |
We've already discussed it, and it's a good possibility. |