| Monday, September 1, 2014
G3 Saranac Quotes
Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds, winning owner of Ring Weekend (No. 1): "I thought Johnny rode a great race. I thought we were going to be tough today. Obviously, the outside horse is a very talented horse and I felt pretty good when he was hung a little wide in the turn. I thought down the backside, we got very comfortable. I thought if we didn't have any major trouble then we had a good shot turning for home, and that's the way it worked out. "I thought he ran all right on the dirt - he's a beautiful-moving horse, but I thought he was probably a little bit better on the grass. He broke his maiden at Gulfstream on the dirt, so we pushed on and ran him in the Tampa Bay Derby. When you win the Tampa Bay Derby, you've got to push on to the [Kentucky] Derby and the Triple Crown. But [it was] in the back of our minds, we talked all the time about that. "I think he's such a good mover on the turf, I think we've found a home, at least for now. If he gets beat a couple of times, we can always come back to dirt. He's a big, sound horse. I know he's a lot different now than he was in the beginning of the summer. He's a bigger, stronger horse and it's good to have a 3-year-old that can really run at this time of the year." John Velazquez, winning jockey aboard Ring Weekend (No. 1): "I rode some very nice horses today and they showed up at the right time and made me look good. "There was not much speed other than the two horses that were on the lead here. I was a little concerned that I might be a little stuck inside and I was right behind the horse that I thought at least had a chance to take me to the quarter pole. I was pretty tight on the hedge all the way around and he handled that really well. I got to the five-sixteenths pole and got him to the clear and the rest was pretty easy."
Dave Wallace, assistant to Tom Albertrani, trainer of runner-up Smooth Daddy (No. 7): "The horse ran huge. What more can you ask for? We wanted to let him do his thing. If nobody wanted to lead, [Jose Ortiz] just went ahead and rode him like he rode him last time. He did everything [Jose] asked of him. He had an easy comfortable lead, and the horse ran on again. He just got beat by a better horse."
Jose Ortiz, jockey aboard runner-up Smooth Daddy (No. 7): "I had a perfect trip. He went out and took the lead and was comfortable, but we were no match for the winner."
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