Saturday, February 4, 2012
WITHERS (G3) QUOTES
Kiaran McLaughlin, winning trainer of Alpha (No. 7): “He was a little wide into the first turn, looked like a couple came out into him and forced him even wider, but then on the backside he settled back in. He had to move a little bit early but he responded when asked, so it was an impressive race. It was impressive the way he finished. Ramon knows him well, he’s got great hands and he’s a great jockey, so we’re just happy with things. Anytime you’re 1-5 you get a little bit nervous. It’s nice to be 1-5 because they have you to beat, but it’s also a little nerve-wracking. We were hoping he’d win like that.”
“He was great in the gate. We’ve been schooling him a lot. It worked out today. Obviously it’s nice to be outside, but at some point he’s going to have to be inside, so we’ll see how our schooling is working.”
“I think he improved some [from the Count Fleet] because of how wide he was both trips, and he was better in the gate. He gets a better grade for this race – if it was a ‘B’ last time, he gets an ‘A’ this time.”
“The plans will be to talk to Simon Crisford from Godolphin to see which way to go. He’s here in
“There are some good 3-year-olds around the country and it’s hard to tell what he actually beat today. Union Rags is out there, Todd Pletcher has what looks like a shedrow full of them, Out of Bounds in
Ramon Dominguez, winning jockey aboard Alpha (No. 7): “He was excellent [in the gate]. He walked in there and my idea was to bring him along and try not to mess with him. The [starter] had to push him back to get him into position and he was perfect. I know they have done a lot of schooling and [the gate] wasn’t an issue today.
“I was a little concerned, of course [being wide in the first turn]. You always want to save ground, and after I went wide through the first turn my main goal was to try and get him to relax. I felt like to do that, I had to get him behind the horse that was directly in front of me. He switched off and relaxed to the point that I really had no idea whether I had any horse or not. I was going through the motions. Past the half-mile, when I tried to put a little pressure to start making my run, he jumped on the bridle and was pretty handy from there. I was a little more familiar with the horse [today] and I kind of knew what to expect, but I thought he moved forward from his last race. Although that race was good to begin with, I was very happy with his race today. I thought he improved. He finished up nice, and the last eighth he was really doing it on his own and galloped out good. Just the way you want to see.”
