The Preakness runners race through the Pimlico Race Course stretch for the first time on Saturday with Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and champion Classic Empire dueling for the lead. (Eclipse Sportswire)
Let’s hear what the jockeys and trainers of the competitors had to say after the second jewel of the Triple Crown:
“It’s unbelievable. A lot of teamwork. It couldn’t happen to greater clients than Seth Klarman and Bill Lawrence. Seth, he got into racing by coming to Pimlico. He was just telling me he remembers coming out as a kid to the infield. He grew up in Baltimore.”
“I thought he ran outstanding. I always worry about him starting because he stumbles a little bit. He won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile going out after it and I said to Julien, ‘Second doesn’t mean anything.’ I said, ‘Let’s go and try to win this thing.’ It ended up getting us in the end.”
“We got the trip we wanted, outside Always Dreaming. The only thing is, Always Dreaming backed out of the race early, so I got to the lead early, maybe too early.”
“It was a great race. I was happy with him. He showed me he could compete against these kind and has continued to improve. He’s a really good horse with a huge future and I think we’re just getting started with him. A mile and a half and the Belmont is going to be really up his alley.
“I got a little stopped around the first turn when [Steve] Asmussen’s horse [Hence] got the jump on me. I had to step on the brakes a little bit. Halfway down the lane, he showed his heart. I couldn’t be happier with this colt. He’s got a legitimate chance to win the Belmont. See you in New York.”
“Lookin At Lee keeps trying. Fourth in the Preakness, second in the Derby, he’s still trying.
“Watching the race today from Always Dreaming, I was surprised. I felt that, watching his performance in the Derby, that there was a better chance of beating him here in two weeks — because of him being lightly raced and the spacing — than in the Belmont. But just like horse racing always, it’s never about one horse. It’s about all of them.”
“I thought the track suited him better for the Derby, being a little more sealed maybe. But I was back there where I thought I would be, and when I called on him, he was there. We just didn’t get it done. At the three-eighths pole, I was hoping to grind them down and that they would come back to me. I didn’t have the charge I had at Churchill. Even from the gate, to me, he just didn’t travel as well over the track.”
“I was a little disappointed with the race. I thought he would be more in the race, but it was a little too fast for him. He ran two times already from the outside post, so that didn’t bother him. My rider tried to put him in the race, but it didn’t work out. I think he could go to the Belmont.”
“We didn’t have an excuse. We were in the position we expected to be and I think the turnaround was a little too quick. He ran so hard in the Derby and today just wasn’t his day.
“He didn’t seem to relish the track, but I don’t really think that was it. It was just that he put so much into the Derby that it wasn’t meant to be.”
“He just got beat. I didn't have it. That's it. Not much to say. … I knew I was in trouble on the backstretch when the other horse got to him, almost head to head, and engaged him. I knew I didn't have it. That's horse racing. He didn't have it.”
