After we got going, I just found myself in front. I had to work for it some, but he was up to the task. He just ran and ran and ran. He's some horse. |
He came up firing but them came up empty. He was just flat. |
He felt good, he acted like he always does and he actually left the gate wonderful. But when it came time to run he just wasn't there. He must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed. |
He ran a good race. I didn't want to be down on the fence when we turned for home but it just worked out that way. He made the lead there and I really wish I could have been head and head with somebody to keep him focused a little better. |
He was a little throttled up from laying over on the field and I had his mouth gagged over going into the first turn. Once I headed up the backside I just kind of let him out a notch and tried to just get him to find his stride and get comfortable. |
He was looking at everything. |
He's a grinder. I was very impressed with the way he handled everything. |
He's got phenomenal speed. If he can keep that bottled up and enjoy himself, he's ten times better. |
I don't know what happened; he was just flat. |
I felt I had plenty of room when I started up in there. Just about the eighth pole, the outside horse came over. He was about four wide, five wide. When I come off the turn and come over, I had no room. It cost me the race. |
I really wasn't planning to move as early as I did, but he was doing everything so easily I didn't want to take a chance on letting something recoup and give me a run for our money at any time. |
I think a mile and a quarter [the Derby distance] will be right up his alley. He's a big, long striding colt. I knew when I pushed the button, he really wasn't going to go anywhere. He's a grinder. |
I thought I was in a real comfortable spot and the fractions were fine for us. Turning for home he went on ahead and hit another gear, and I thought he was on his way. … He did what he's supposed to do. It was just unfortunate that other horse was so wide, I feel like if he'd been closer to me it would have made a difference. From where I was at, I still thought I got there. |
I wouldn't say I thought I had the race won. It was all in the way he was going to respond to me when we turned for home. Once we headed to about the three-eighths pole, he seemed to start to come back to me a little bit more than I liked. And I said, 'I'm going to go now.' I thought I went fast enough that as long as I had him going I wouldn't give anyone a chance to even get close to him. |
I'm just happy to be able to participate, much less win two and then accept the Bill Shoemaker Award. It's beyond my wildest dreams. |