Any time you see a horse loose on the lead like that you get nervous. If that loose horse lost concentration at any point and took a right, it would have been very bad. |
He definitely ran a better race. That's where I was hoping to be last time. We're headed in the right direction. He is still not right where I want him in fitness. |
He has every reason to move forward. He got tired, blew hard after the race, and has come back and has trained good. |
He is the horse. He's in front. There's no performance anybody has seen yet that rivals what he's done. |
He looked very comfortable, the horse that we're hoping he'd be. |
He worked quicker than I hoped, [but] he came back fine. He seemed to do it well within himself. He came out of it in fine fashion. |
He's a nice, big horse, |
I expected a better showing from him. He got tired. He was exhausted when he came back, but he recovered fairly quickly. I think that he's got plenty of miles in him, so it didn't knock him out. |
I haven't had a 2-turning-3-year-old horse that was this serious of a Derby prospect at this time of year. |
I think he ran a good race and right now I'm happy with him. He's still not right where I want him in fitness. |
I thought they both worked really well. You try to treat it as just another work, but I couldn't help being excited by the way they worked. |
I train, and I try to stay on schedule. Here and at the Fair Grounds, the thousands of horses I've worked, I'm absolutely secure in it. Sam Houston, Fair Grounds, Churchill, I won't alter my work schedule at any of those places when it's wet. |
I was just making sure that they both came out of the work well and they were going to run. I waited until this morning to see if they were still healthy. |
I was very worried about the loose horse. Any time you see a loose horse on the lead, you get nervous, especially when it's a two-year-old. If (the loose horse) lost concentration at any point and took a right, it would have been very bad. |
I'm definitely not going to rule anything out, ... The three possibilities are the Breeders' Futurity, the Champagne, or training up to the Breeders' Cup. |