Photo: CDI
louisiana derby
week quotes
From
Monday morning’s Louisiana
Derby
Post Position Draw:
Trainer Neil Pessin (Mister
Marti Gras): “I feel pretty good
about him, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. He’s probably the only horse that came
up the rail (on the turf course) that day or last week and most of the
meet. He's a little better on the dirt than the turf I think. He’s doing
really well.”
Trainer Tom Amoss (Ron the Greek): “We would’ve
loved to have drawn as far inside as possible in the Louisiana Derby. Ron the
Greek doesn’t have any real speed early so the idea of being able to break and
ease right down to the rail would be great. I feel like I’m on an episode of Deal
or No Deal and an inside post wins. I was like, ‘OK, I'll pick Six’
or, ‘OK, I’ll pick Seven.’
“Anyhow, so we ended up getting a good post. Six is fine.
James (Graham, jockey) knows what to do. It’s a long run to the first turn at
one and one-eighth here so I’m sure we can get a good position as far as that
goes.
“You know, this race has some different variables from the
Risen Star and by variables I mean horses coming into it that did not run their
race in the Risen Star. So we can get a lot more speed in there. I look at
Lukas’s horse, Wow Wow Wow, and Dutrow’s horse, A Little Warm, and, of course,
Gary Scherer’s Backtrack, and all of those three horses are going to add to the
speed of this race. It’s not going to only help me it’s going to help other
closers like Steve Margolis’s horse (Stay Put). I think it will be a fair
race and that’s what we want.
“I've been here before and I’ve been favored in it (with
Fly Cry in 1994). I’ve never won it and I would love to do it this year.”
Trainer Mark Frostad (Hotep): “He drew the outside
post in the Risen Star and the one-hole in this race. I don’t know what to make
of it but certainly we weren’t pleased with his race in the Risen Star. We
basically threw him into it and it was a funny time to run a race and hopefully
he will show a lot better this time around.
“His full brother (Eye of the Leopard) got the distance
last year in the Queen’s Plate and I think he will get the distance. I don’t
think that will be a problem.”
“Our (Sam-Son Farms) good horses have always wintered here.
It’s a good track for them to get experience and to get ready. Hotep has
been slow to come around but he’s got talent.”
“Basically you just throw the race (the Risen Star) out the
window. They crawled around there and the first four horses never changed
position.”
Trainer Steve Margolis (Stay Put): “He has a lot to
overcome with the slow pace and a he’s training really well since the race. We
are very excited about how he is coming into it. With a little more
distance we are hopeful that we can run a big race.
“It is a competitive race. It’s all the top connections
and, of course, Todd Pletcher is coming off of a win, Bill Mott is in there.
It’s a competitive race but I think having two races over the
track and having more distance in our corner hopefully we can have a good
showing.”
--Interviews by Gary McMillen and Jessica Pacheco
From Tuesday morning in the stable area:
Jill Perry, assistant to trainer Bret Calhoun (Jody
Slew, Fair Grounds Oaks): “She (Jody Slew, injured in her stall about a
week ago) seems to be better today than yesterday. We’ll just continue to take
it day-by-day this week and see what happens.” (concerning Jody Slew’s
participation in Friday’s Fair Grounds Oaks)
Cincy Dollase, mother of trainer Craig Dollase (Awesome
Gem, New Orleans
Handicap): “(Awesome Gem) will arrive (from California)
Thursday and Craig gets here Friday morning. Aimee (Dollase’s daughter and
assistant trainer) is really looking forward to this. She got to saddle Zardana
when that horse came to our barn (to defeat Rachel Alexandra in the New Orleans
Ladies) and she’s really hoping to have a thrill like that again.”
Trainer Neil Pessin (Mister Marti Gras, Louisiana Derby, and Giant Oak, New
Orleans Handicap): “Giant
Oak (coming off the track at the time) is training just as good as I could
possibly want right now. Thank God he’s got the pony to take him back to the
barn instead of me (on foot).
“As for Mister Marti Gras, I think we’ll probably stay in
there (the Louisiana Derby) with him. I want to run, and the owners want to
come down here.
“I’m not in it to get a piece of it. We’re not in it to run
second or third. If I didn’t think he could win I wouldn’t have entered.”
Owner-Trainer Tom McCarthy (General Quarters, New
Orleans Handicap), who rescued a Tuesday gallop by his Blue Grass winner by
hustling up substitute exercise rider Ramiro Ramirez to ride when the scheduled
gallop boy did not show up: “I’ve known this boy (Ramiro) for years in
Louisville. He’s a very good gallop boy and I was lucky to get him at the last
minute. He fits this horse perfectly, and he did everything I wanted this
morning. I’m very pleased with the way he went today. It was perfect.”
How about drawing the outside (10) post? “Isn’t that
something? First you get the rail two straight times (when General Quarters
finished second in the Louisiana Handicap and in the Mineshaft Handicap) and
then you get the extreme outside (in the New Orleans Handicap). Obviously, I
don’t like it, but there’s not much I can do about it. That’s horseracing.”
Gareth Harris, assistant to trainer Patrick Biancone
(Feels All Right, Muniz Memorial Handicap): “The horse traveled well, nice
and relaxed. He’s doing really well. He had that one run at Gulfstream Park
(a third in the Grade II Mac Diarmada) and hopefully he can build on that and
do a little better here. That was just a little warm-up for this race so
hopefully he can get the job done on the weekend. I think we have a real good
chance.”
Tim Poole, assistant to trainer Nick Zito (Fly Down, Louisiana Derby):
“He seems to have shipped fine. He came off the van good. Juan said he had an
uneventful flight so I was glad to hear that. The weather was good so that makes
for a smooth flight.
“He’s definitely built to go a distance. He’s got a nice,
big stride on him. He’s a good-sized horse with a big stride and we’re very
fortunate to have a horse like this. He’s performed up to expectation. We
thought he was a nice colt and we’re just thankful he’s proved us right.
Hopefully he’ll continue to prove us right.”
About his most recent work, a bullet half-mile in :48
1/5 at Palm Meadows on Saturday: “The thing about him is he did it by
himself and we weren’t really looking to ‘squeeze the lemon,’ as Horatio Luro
used to say. He does everything so effortlessly and that’s what’s so good about
him.”
Matt Koch, assistant to Tony Dutrow (A Little Warm, Louisiana Derby,
and Mambo Fever, Fair Grounds Oaks): “Everybody traveled well. Shipped
good. No issues.”
How has A Little Warm been training? “He’s been
doing very well. He’s been training great. We’re expecting a good run out of
him. He tries every time and he’s getting better every time. Personally, I
think that he will enjoy the long distances.”
Neil Howard, who trained 2003 Horse of the Year
Mineshaft, the sire of two top Louisiana
Derby
contenders in Discreetly Mine and Fly Down: “Mr. Farish (Mineshaft co-owner
Will Farish) always thought it would take a while for him to catch on at stud,
but he’s turned out to be a very nice stallion. He was a big horse with a lot
of bone. A big, wide-bodied horse. Everything blended in perfect on him.”
--Interviews
by Jim Mulvihill and Graham Ross
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