Saturday, April 28, 2012
Bill Mott, winning trainer of To Honor and Serve (No. 6): “He ran well. We’re always happy to see him come back off that long a layoff and run well. You never know what to expect, sometimes. He’s been training well and we thought with a good effort he’d win the race, and he did. He looked good. He was kind of idling down a bit at the wire. He made a nice move around the turn to catch the leader and it looked like he was holding everybody off well enough. He’s obviously one of the leaders right there [in the handicap division]. We’re fortunate. Our early season goal is the Met Mile [Grade 1, $750,000, May 28]. That would be a goal for anybody, I suppose, for any part of the season. That would be a big accomplishment if he could do that. So, we’re going to cross our fingers and hope he trains well coming into that. We would love to see him run well in there. He’s matured, and that’s what I was hoping he would do from the time he was a 2-year-old. You could tell he might be one of those horses who was going to be better as he got older.”
Jose Lezcano, winning jockey aboard To Honor and Serve (No. 6): “Yes, he broke good and [Bold Deed went to the lead]. He settled good, he was relaxed. When I asked him – I didn’t even ask him – I let him do it himself. At the quarter pole he changed leads and he galloped. Very easy.”
Charlotte Weber, winning owner of To Honor and Serve (No. 6): “That’s what we were looking for. That’s a nice start to the year for him. So we’re very pleased, and we hope to see you back here later this spring. He ran very well today. We’ll take one step at a time and be grateful, and we’ll see you soon.”
