JOCKEY QUOTES

        MIKE SMITH, TAIBA, WINNER: “When one comes along like that, he showed he was really good.  He didn’t really get away very well.  In the first turn, I didn’t want to get in the way.  I wasn’t in any hurry.  I felt the others would do the dirty work for me and it set up just fine.  He showed just how special he is.  He belongs with anyone. He just recovers really well.  I’m not getting any younger.  As I get older, I have felt that something special is going to happen.  This just may lead to that.  The sky’s the limit.”

            JOHN VELAZQUEZ, MESSIER, SECOND: “We didn’t get the result we wanted, and there wasn’t much I could do to get him up there. Mike was ahead and did the work.”

TRAINER QUOTES

        TIM YAKTEEN, TAIBA, WINNER: “You could have poured me out of a shot glass earlier, but these two horses represented me unbelievably in this race and I’m just absolutely thrilled, floored with the effort that Taiba put forth.

“That was a sensational race, he’s just a super horse.

“I had three great riders, two Hall Of Famers, you don’t need to tell them anything.”

   NOTES: The winning owner is Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.