Saturday, October 23, 2010
EMPIRE CLASSIC (NYB) QUOTES
John Kimmel, winning trainer of Friend Or Foe (No. 2): “As he started widening at the eighth pole, I didn’t think anyone was going to catch him. This is a good horse. If he stays healthy, I think he’s got a real nice future. He’s capable of running with any kind.
“Any kind of performance like this kind of validates the things that you think you see in the morning. A lot of horses can go out and train like he does; this horse has shown me now what he does in the morning is no mirage, and that what he does is translating into being a serious horse on the racetrack.
“I’m not exactly sure what his next spot is. He’s pretty versatile, he can run seven-eighths to 1 1/8 miles. I think if he’s really doing well, the [Grade 1] Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile [Aqueduct, November 27] kind of jumps out.”
Alex Solis, winning jockey aboard Friend Or Foe (No. 2): “I’ve been working him in the morning and all along I’ve felt like he’s one of those horses who can give you an easy :22, :45, and keeps going as long as you keep him in a rhythm. I just wanted to put him in the race right away, break as sharp as we could, put him in the bit and let him do his own thing. He’s so deceiving – he feels like he’s going so slow, but he has that high cruising speed. At the five-eighths pole he switched leads and that horse came next to him, he got back in the bit. From then on I just sat, and got on him at the three-sixteenths and let him go.”
Rajiv Maragh, rider aboard runner-up Icabad Crane (No. 5): “He just missed the break a little bit. He made a little stutter step to the front of the gate and kinda lost back and broke awkwardly. He ran an incredible race and he finished strong.”
