Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
Friday, November 1, 2019
- Jeff Drown
- Chad C. Brown
- Don Rachel
- Jose Ortiz
THE MODERATOR: Jose, like to start with you, because there was a lot of traffic in that race, a lot of trouble for some of the other runners, but you managed a nice trim. Can you just tell us about it.
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JOSE ORTIZ: Yeah, I had a good trip early on. He broke really sharp for me in the perfect position, really nice and comfortable, he was very relaxed. But then when we hit the second turn, I didn’t really like where I were, so I decide to ease him back just a little bit and let Tyler clear me. And when he did clear me, I came outside of him. And I had a lot of horse, he overcome everything. We.
Had some traffic, but good horses overcome it, and he did it.
THE MODERATOR: The way you handled him like that, that says a lot about the horse, as well as Jose’s ride. Chad, your impressions of both of those of the.
CHAD C. BROWN: The horse ran terrific. He had been training really, really well. I know he came into the race undefeated, but he — from his last win until today, the horse actually has matured and strengthened a lot, and he’s really learned a lot.
He’s a class horse. I think Jose did a terrific job. Irad decided to ride the other horse, but when Jose is available, it wasn’t much of a decision for us. We were thrilled to have Jose ride the horse. Even though he was drawing well on the inside, there’s still a lot of decisions to make in there, and Jose, he made all the right decisions.
I was real proud of both their efforts.
THE MODERATOR: Don and Jeff, you guys are friends from the construction business, correct, in Minnesota?
JEFF DROWN: Yeah, we’re friends. You bet.
DON RACHEL: Especially today.
THE MODERATOR: Chad was telling Nick afterwards that he can’t wait to try this horse on dirt. Your thoughts on not only today, but what could be ahead for a talented two-year-old.
JEFF DROWN: I can’t wait to see Chad try him on dirt. No, I mean, the opportunity for a horse on dirt and turf are plentiful. And if he takes to the dirt and we’re able to try to make some noise in the spring, I think that would be — that would just be super exciting. If we take a different route, we have got a good horse, and we’re excited about that as well.
THE MODERATOR: Chad, you were saying earlier, but if you can just repeat it for the folks in this room, about how the horse was working well on the dirt but you debuted on the grass because more you wanted to go two turns.
CHAD C. BROWN: Yeah, he’s a really true two-turn horse, and I would see in his work that hustling him off the bit early in some faster works in the morning, he didn’t — he wasn’t really effective. And up at Saratoga, looking to get him started, and if you’re running those short-distance dirt maiden races, they can really come up difficult and fast. So I didn’t want to just run him off his feet and blow him up early.
And Jeff and Don are great. They said, Whatever you think we need to do, we’ll do. And sometimes can be a real expensive horse like this, it’s buy a horse that was a really classic dirt horse, Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, and you tell them you want to debut him on the turf, it’s normally a disappointing phone call for an owner.
But these guys are great. They said, Listen, if you think that’s what you think you need to do, you’re the expert, put him on there and see what happens, and here we are.
And I would like to try to get him on the dirt in the spring, but I think Jeff said it perfect: It’s not to take away from this; if he wins the Belmont Derby next year, we’re going to be just as happy.
But he does — I have been here before with other horses that have won these Juvenile Turf races, and I don’t think I’ve ever said I’m going to run one on the dirt. So this horse, he gives me the feeling like he’ll take to it, but we’ll see. But we’ll enjoy this.
And also like to say, I know we’re getting the trophy up there, about how it’s our first Breeders’ Cup starter and winner, we have been here before, doing that with Bob Edwards, same way, but I’ll tell you something, it’s not just beginner luck because they have owned horses, Jeff, with me now for at least a couple years, and there’s been setbacks and some disappointments along the way, and he’s never backed up and got sour on it or disappointed. He’s got the patience that it takes to stay here.
And it’s not just like this is the first horse they bought. So I think he deserves a lot of credit for just staying with it, and his approach is going to lead him here more times, I can tell you that.
THE MODERATOR: Questions from the room?
Q. Obviously he was a pricey purchase that has proven well worth it. But what went into the thought of spending the money for him given his pedigree, given that it was a new stallion and also talk a little bit about winning your first Breeders’ Cup in your first try. That’s got to feel pretty good.
JEFF DROWN: Well, you asked a couple questions there, I’ll take a shot at the first part. Maybe you’ll want to answer the second. But I think that we, over time, have put together a great team. People that, Mike and Mary Ryan with our bloodstock agent, just going out and finding good horses, they’re very talented people. They work with Chad, we try to collaborate on picking out the right horses.
And then, of course, you look at — I think I told Don, he was telling me when we were talking down the tunnel, he said, I remember when you bought the horse you said you might have raised your hand one too many times. But turns out not, turns out it worked out great. Great team that we have been able to assemble. Do you want to talk about winning your first Breeders’ Cup?
DON RACHEL: Jeff said it all, so thank you.
Q. Chad, you said that despite your past successes in this race you haven’t really had a situation like this where you looked forward to running one of them on the dirt and yet this has been a pretty productive race the past few years for horses that have ended up trying the dirt. What is that all about why has this race become so productive for the spring race?
CHAD C. BROWN: I’m not sure, it’s actually my first time winning this race, but I won, on the filly version we won several times and there’s the same question about win the Kentucky Oaks, so that’s sort of where I was going with that.
I’m not really sure. I sort of just focus on my own horses and, you know, you’re dealing with a newly turning three-year-old colt and they’re a grade one winner, even if it’s on turf, you can’t help but explore running on the dirt, I would say that’s one reason for it.
And just to follow-up what Jeff said about Mike and Mary Ryan, I think it’s well known now that Mike is my partner in a lot of what we do. And without him we wouldn’t have this horse today. I had nothing to do, I didn’t even see the horse at the sale. Mike bought this horse and recommended that Jeff send him to me and he was adamant that this was a top horse when he picked him out. And he’s picked out many, I’m sure he’ll pick out many more and definitely want to thank him for finding this wonderful talented horse.
