JOCKEY QUOTES

             JOSE VALDIVIA, JR., BOB AND JACKIE, WINNER: “We were the speed of the race. He broke well, but I had to use him quite a bit to make him take the lead. Once he did take the lead, he settled beautifully. His ears came up and he was just waiting for company. When I asked him, he was there for me. We worked our way up and then held on.

“He was kind of waiting around a little bit, but when the horses came to him, he dug in and tried to fight some more. But hat’s off to Ritchie and Calvin for just taking a shot. It was already a short field and it was going to be even shorter so why not.”

TRAINER QUOTES

          RICHARD BALTAS, BOB AND JACKIE, WINNER: “There wasn’t a discussion. We never tried him on the dirt, he has a little pedigree for the dirt even though he looks like a grass horse. We had a couple of good scratches in there and I just said, ‘we had nothing to lose, we need to go.’  I’ve seen this horse dig in before and Jose did a great job down the backside to get him to relax. He kind of throws his head up but he does dig, and he dug in, it was a great win.”

(On going for the lead): “Those were exactly my instructions to Jose.  I told him he has natural speed and to go ahead and go for it.  He really dug in in the stretch.  That was a big win.

“Now I have to decide if I keep him on the dirt.  He’s been a grass horse the whole time.  With the key scratches, we thought we would give it a try and see if things would go our way.

“We will see how he comes back and we’ll go from there in deciding if we keep him on the dirt or go back to the turf.”

 OWNER QUOTES

            CALVIN NGUYEN, BOB AND JACKIE, WINNER: “This is wonderful, it’s a great Christmas gift and to have with my brother Joey…Jose and Ritchie have done a wonderful job with this horse and we are so grateful.”

            NOTES: The winning owner is Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran.