Kim Dutrow, wife and assistant to Tony Dutrow, trainer of
A Little Warm (No. 5): “We’re thrilled with the post. We talked about it
before the draw, and we wanted to be right about there. The only thing we
didn’t want was to be all the way outside.”
Kiaran McLaughlin, trainer of Trappe Shot (No. 2):
“We feel like he can get the mile and a quarter, and not too often will you be
second choice in the Travers. Both [the Travers and the King’s Bishop] are
great races, we didn’t have to worry about shipping or getting our rider to go
somewhere different – both races are here on the same day, so we just waited
until the last minute to see everyone was going where they thought they were
going.
“We were hopeful to be outside the speed, but it looks like
we have speed on either side of us. Miner’s Reserve is fast and he drew the one
hole, and First Dude has blinkers on – I’m not sure about that, but I’m pretty
sure he has blinkers on – and he’s already fast, so I think he’d probably clear
the field from the four hole. We’re in the two hole, so we’ll save ground. At
least we don’t have to worry about being wide, and we won’t be too far back. As
Todd [Pletcher] said, several horses on the outside are going to drop back, try
to save ground, and make a run, so we’ll probably be stalking.”
Todd Pletcher, trainer of Super Saver (No. 11): “The
interesting thing to me is, it looks like most of the speed has drawn inside.
You’d expect First Dude, Miner’s Reserve and A Little Warm to be the main
pacesetters. Admiral Alex showed speed in his first race and Trappe Shot
obviously is a very tractable horse. It looks like your main speed is 1-2-3-4-5
and the other horses who have drawn the outside can kind of fall in there
somewhere. Sometimes, the No. 11 might be a little further out than you’d
ideally like, but I think at 1 ¼ miles it’s OK. You get a decent run to the
first turn, so Calvin [Borel] should have the option to kind of survey
everything inside him.”
Elliott Walden, vice president and racing
manager at WinStar Farm, owner of Super Saver (No. 11): “The second race off the layoff is typically his best. We
hope he learned something off the Haskell and will have a good race. He's got
to step up. We'll let him do the talking. He's set up to run very, very well.”
Jimmy Jerkens, trainer of Afleet Express (No. 7):
“The speed horses drew well. That’s ideal for Miner’s Reserve, I would think.
It’s good for us. He tends to break a little on the slow side, so it’s probably
better to be a little bit out of the way than being down in there.”
Dale Romans, trainer of First Dude (No. 4): “We’re
very happy with the draw. The No. 4 hole is perfect. It’s a good spot; the best
we’ve had the past few starts.”
Nick Zito, trainer of Miner’s
Reserve (No. 1), Ice Box (No. 6), and Fly Down (No. 8): “I would have preferred to be a little outside with
Miner’s. It’s a tough post. We’ll see. First Dude is outside of him. Trappe
Shot is outside of him. It doesn’t look too promising there, I’ll be honest
with you. The other two are fine, they come from behind. But that’s kind of
rough.”
John Kimmel, trainer of Friend Or Foe (No. 9): “His
sire (Friends Lake) is a horse that Mr. Broman bred,
he’s an A.P. Indy out of the mare that kind of got him started in the game,
Antespend. Friend Or Foe really is the first quality horse that Friends Lake has sired. He’s a homebred, by a
sire that was homebred, so it’s special for the Bromans and special for me.
“He’s a very ratable horse and that’s a very good quality.
If you need him at some point to get to a spot, he’s got good tactical speed
and he can be placed wherever he needs to. He’s not rank. So those factors, and
his running style, should certainly spell well for the rider to keep him in a
good spot. Basically I think we’ll be tracking the speed, and there should be
some good quality speed in there. I think there will be enough horses in there
that the pace of the race should be somewhat legitimate.
“I really think the horse is going to benefit greatly from
his Jim Dandy effort. We were asking the horse to go from seven-eighths of a
mile to a mile and an eighth against some improved horses and he showed very
well. He got bounced around a little bit, continued on well, and galloped out
well. The gallop-out was a good sign for me – he galloped up right past the
winner [A Little Warm]. I think that now that he’s had that experience, he
should move forward off the race and that’s why we’re here. I think it’s a wide
open race, with seven or eight horses having a legitimate chance in this race
and it’s just going to come down to who gets the right trip and who runs their
race on the day.”
Leon Blusiewicz, owner/trainer of Admiral Alex (No. 3): [On
going from a debut maiden win to a Grade 1] “Well, I've done it before with
Snow Plow [in 1981]. I went into the Grade 1 Selima and beat an undefeated
filly named Larida. I beat her there, then I came back to win the
Demoiselle. She was the first horse in 35 years since Bed o' Roses [to do
that]. So I don't think that I'm in deep. I've done it before.”