TVG COACHING CLUB AMERICAN OAKS (G1) QUOTES
Kiaran McLaughlin, winning trainer of Questing (No. 1): “She didn’t run so well on the turf [in
“Irad [Ortiz] did a great job. He rode an excellent race for a 19-year-old kid. We thought we were faster than [Yara], but he said, and we talked about it, ‘If she goes, let her go.’ And he rode a great race. He used good judgment. He did everything right.”
“She drifted out, a little scary, but she crossed the wire first clearly, so we’ll work on that later.”
Irad Ortiz, Jr. winning jockey aboard Questing (No. 1): “I broke good, and when the No. 3 horse [Yara] went, I saved my horse. She was good and relaxed. When I asked her turning for home, she went on.”
On his first graded stakes victory: “It’s so exciting. It’s unbelievable to get my first graded stakes at
Tom Albertrani, trainer of runner-up Zo Impressive (No. 5): “She ran well, but the winner was more impressive today. We were second best. We took a shot at her at the quarter-pole. It looked like we were going to get by her [Questing] at one point, but she broke away from us again. If everything goes well over the next couple of weeks, we are definitely looking at the
Rajiv Maragh, rider aboard runner-up Zo Impressive (No. 5): “My filly ran a great race. The winner just happened to have everything her way. Not that anything went really against me, I gave [Questing] a good challenge at the quarter-pole and thought I was going to be able to give her a good fight, but once the other jockey [Irad Ortiz, Jr.] set his horse down, he kind of pulled away from me.”
Javier Castellano, jockey of beaten favorite, In Lingerie (No. 6): “She ran good. The winner, I give her all the credit. They didn’t come back to us. My filly took me there and put me in the race but at the quarter pole, she was a little flat. Maybe it was it was because she was inside horses. I think she would do better coming around horses.”
