JOCKEY QUOTES

         JOHN VELAZQUEZ, MESSIER, WINNER: “I got to work him three weeks ago, just one time though, and actually I got a good feel of him. But today, Bob said to me, ‘We got two really good chances and I think these two horses are going to impress you today.’ I mean, he was not wrong. Right from the start I thought they were right today. They were doing everything, and they were training really well so, the outcome was just as he explained it to me. The horses are doing great and they run like it. It’s a great surprise for me, just to come in and ride these horses and they show up like that, it makes my job easier.

“The strategy worked. I don’t think the blinkers would have hurt him or made a difference. It was just the way the race set up. I’m in post one and I don’t want to give the lead to them in front of me, then they slow down in front of my face and I can’t get out of there, so I asked Bob, ‘Bob, I’m going to come out running just to the first turn, I’m not going to chase them but I’m going to let him get his legs underneath of him. If they want to go faster, they can go faster and I don’t have to be on his mouth.’ He said, ‘No, do whatever you need to do.” Then he asked me what the horse needed to do and I just told him, ‘I told him to go!’.  It was a strategy that worked. The horse is doing really great, he gave me the open hands to do what I needed to do and he showed up.”

TRAINER QUOTES

        BOB BAFFERT, MESSIER, WINNER: “Jim (Barnes) had Johnny work him for me once and  he gave me some good input on him. He’s maturing, I could tell today that he’s growing, he’s getting bigger. You could tell when I put the saddle on him. He looked incredible, he looked the part. There were some good horses in there, they were legitimate horses.”

       WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE SANTA ANITA DERBY: “I don’t know yet. It depends on my other horses to see how (they are). We have always gone with whoever is doing well that week gets on a plane or stays here. So right now, we will just enjoy this and I’m just happy to have a horse like this in my barn.”

GEORGE PAPAPADROMOU, CABO SPIRIT, SECOND: “I’m very happy with him. I mean Messier is a nice horse that just beat us. But we gave it a shot. Mine was kind of a little hot and he was on his toes a little bit before the race. So, I don’t know if that affected him, but he ran a good race, switching from turf to dirt, I mean he ran a huge race. I’m very happy.”

NOTES: The winning owners are SF Racing LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, Robert Masterson, Jay Schoenfarber, Waves Edge Capital LLC, Catherine Donovan, Golconda Stable, Siena Farm LLC.