Thursday, September 20, 2012
NASTY STORM QUOTES
Chad Brown, winning trainer of Awesome Feather (No. 5): “Coming into this race, we felt at the barn that she was carrying more weight and her coat was better than we’ve ever seen it. Her other three wins, she was nice and sound, but we never had her looking weight-wise and coat-wise the way we wanted. This race, coming in, was the best she ever looked to me. We’re just fortunate the race went here, that they had a race for us at
[On the pressure of her perfect record]: “There’s some extra pressure, but not from anyone in ownership. I spoke with Mr. and Mrs. [Frank] Stronach and Mike Rogers a couple of days ago, and they were real supportive of running her. They’re to be commended; they’re real sportsmen. Too often these horses are retired early, and it’s unfortunate, [but] here’s a filly that they persevered with and kept her in the game; she’s a fan favorite and I commend them for keeping her in training. I’m very grateful for it. I don’t think anyone was more confident than Mr. Stronach.”
[On her 11 ¼-length victory in 1:33.47]: “You never can predict something like that. She’s been very strong in her gallops. Six weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup, I think she needed a race, so I’m not at all upset about winning by that many and having a strong final time. I think she needed the race and we got the race we needed.”
“On the backside, before I saw the fractions go up, I thought the two horses in front – it was deceiving – were moving easily. My filly wasn’t pulling like she normally does, which we’re happy with; we’ve gotten her to relax in the morning. But then in a race, you’d love to see her dying to get by the horses. I thought in the first part of the race she wasn’t in a hurry to go by them. I might have paused for concern there momentarily, but at the quarter-pole, when she made the move, I was focusing on the competition and it looked like they were going backwards, so I was comfortable she’d at least win.”
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this great filly comes out of the race in good shape and everyone gets to see the showdown they want to see at Santa Anita.”
Jeffrey Sanchez, winning jockey aboard Awesome Feather (No. 5): “She came in ready. I trust Chad Brown. I know he trained the filly very fit. She was better and relaxed today [than she was in the Florida Sunshine Millions Distaff in January]. When I pushed her, she went much better than last time. Every time she runs, she surprises me.”
“The plan was ‘Put the filly where she could relax. When you’re ready, you move and win the race,’ but when she came behind the horses she got more intense.”
