Saturday, September 29, 2012
TVG JOCKEY CLUB GOLD CUP INVITATIONAL (G1) QUOTES
Hall of Famer Bill Mott, winning trainer of Flat Out (No. 9): "He ran a huge race last time. You couldn't have asked the horse to run any better than he did the last time out. He's a relatively fresh horse; he had a little break late spring, and he was up for it today. It looked like [Joel Rosario] let him pick off a couple of horses on the backside, and he was doing it under a hold. That was a good thing. He hadn't asked him to run. The horse was just striding out and picking up horses. That other horse [Stay Thirsty] fought on pretty well. Todd looked like he had him ready today, we just had ours a little more ready. And it wasn't by much. Both horses ran huge races and you have to give a lot of credit to the horse who ran second. He ran his butt off."
On 6th-place finisher Ron the Greek: "We have to see. Hopefully it will be the case where he just had an off day. We know that he likes Santa Anita and maybe five weeks from now it will be his day. You can't ever count him out."
On his confidence level compared to last year, when Royal Delta and Drosselmeyer came off second-place finishes in the Beldame and Gold Cup to win the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic and the Classic: "It kind of worries you a little bit when you win them. When you win the prep race, I don't know if that's a good sign. But I guess Cigar was able to win this race and go on and win the Breeders' Cup."
Joel Rosario, winning jockey aboard Flat Out (No. 9): "He was really game today. I had never ridden him before, but he acted like he's a very nice horse. He ran a really good race today. I talked to [Bill Mott] in the morning, and he told me there were a couple of horses with speed in the race. I just did my thing. He didn't have too much to say. He didn't put too much pressure on me, you know?"
Art Preston, winning owner of Flat Out (No. 9): "He likes it a lot here. I do, too, now! This is a very hard race. I think he's got what Tesio called 'morale.' He's tough minded."
Todd Pletcher, trainer of runner-up Stay Thirsty (No. 2): "I could see Flat Out building up some momentum, I knew it was going to be close. We layed some pretty solid fractions along the way, I was hoping we had enough to hold on. It was a big effort. We'll talk to Mike [Repole] and see if he wants to try the Classic, or not. It's his call."
Ramon Dominguez, rider aboard runner-up Stay Thirsty (No. 2): "He made the lead and I tried to slow it down as much as I could turning for home, but they kept on coming for him and he just kept on battling. He fought hard all the way to the end."
Ian Wilkes, trainer of beaten favorite and third-place finisher
Brian Hernandez, rider aboard beaten favorite and third-place finisher
