Monday, October 8, 2012
PEBBLES STAKES QUOTES
Todd Pletcher, winning trainer of Peace Preserver (No. 3): “We’ve tried to fine-tune her running style. We maybe had her too close to the pace to begin with; she was a little keen. Then we took the blinkers off and felt like she was a little too settled and a little too far off the pace. We’ve been trying to find a happy medium there somewhere. It was nice to see her get settled and handle the soft ground well today and finish up very strongly. We haven’t looked too much past today; we kind of focused on this. We’ll see what kinds of options come up. She’s made a lot of progress over the last month or two, so we’ll see if she’s going to run again this year.”
John Velazquez, winning jockey aboard Peace Preserver (No. 3): “[Assateague] was the only speed, but considering how soft the track is you have to expect them to come back to you. You have to be really good to run on the lead the way [Assateague] was running. I played it by ear. My filly was handling the turf. I waited until the quarter pole to start getting after her, and she responded very quickly. A little quicker than I thought she would!”
