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PREAKNESS THEY SAID IT MAY 21, 2011 "I've won some big races, but none as exciting as that one. He's been like that (hot) before all his races. He was a little hot, but he wasn't acting that bad and it's a hot day. It didn't take much out of him. I was more concerned if he was going to hang on. It was fast, but he kind of pulled everyone else out of the race. He has a high cruising speed. We weren't worried about slowing it down as much as getting him into a good rhythmic pace and let him keep on going." —trainer Dale Romans after SHACKLEFORD (Forestry) captured the Preakness S. (G1) at Pimlico on Saturday "Its amazing. He was a little hot in the beginning before in the post parade, but he was able to calm down. He's a good horse and able to handle it. A horse like this can go any kind of speed. I felt somebody coming at the sixteenth-pole, I knew that Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux [Brz]) was the only horse who was able to come get me." —jockey Jesus Castanon, who earned his first Triple Crown race victory when piloting Shackleford in the Preakness "You know what, he's a very good rider, and on top of it he's a good horseman. If he'll come back, he'll give you feedback. Just like he told me after the Fountain of Youth (G2) to throw the race out, not to worry about it and move forward. He's a good horseman on top of being a good rider, and he doesn't get shaken. I thought he'd be nervous before the Kentucky Derby (G1), and I went up to talk to him a little bit, and he looked like he was going out on a Wednesday afternoon. He ended up calming me down when I left the room. So it didn't bother him at all that we were going out for a classic. He knew he had ridden with all these jockeys before, and he could do it again." —Romans praising Castanon "Two years ago, even though I didn't own Rachel (Alexandra) anymore, we came up to the Preakness to watch her. We were just so proud of her. She was just a special horse that comes around once-in-a-lifetime. I'm probably a little closer to Shackleford because we bred him and raised him, and we've been with him for three years now. We're just so proud of him." —co-owner Mike Lauffer, who was also a part owner of Rachel Alexandra before selling her two weeks before her historic 2009 Preakness victory "Mike and I like to spend a lot of time on an island in North Carolina called Shackleford Island, and they have wild horses there. It's a good story." —co-owner Bill Cubbedge describing the origin of Shackleford's name "It's unbelievable. It's phenomenal. It shows that if anybody that gets started in the horse business can do this, because Lord knows, 25 years ago nobody thought I'd sit up here and talk about a classic race. We had a lot of horses, and some were the cheapest of the cheap. My brother and I were reminiscing today about some of the horses and how bad they were. It just shows that if you keep doing it long enough and you get the right horses in your hands, anybody can do it." —Romans on winning a Triple Crown race "Our horse likes to look a horse in the eye. He set right off of him all the way around there, and then Flashpoint (Pomeroy) gave in and we took over the lead. I think it blew up his heart. He felt good about himself at that point." —Romans describing Shackleford's tenacity "You know, (legendary trainer) Woody Stephens said a long time ago, Belmont (G1) is a speed horse's race. Everybody's tired at the eighth-pole, so the horse on the lead can usually keep on going. I don't know. We'll see how he comes out of it. If he comes out of it as well as he did at the Derby, we'll have to seriously consider it." —Romans on the possibility of going on to the June 11 Belmont S. (G1) with Shackleford "It will be good for horse racing to have another good rivalry. I said earlier in the week, and some people argued with me, that I believe the future's going to show that this is a pretty good crop of three-year-olds. I think everybody's been knocking them a little bit when we lost Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie). I think that's shown up in the classics. I think we have good three-year-olds, and hopefully we'll have a good rivalry with Animal Kingdom when it comes down to the wire." —Romans speaking of a possible rivalry between Shackleford and Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom "It puts you in the history books, a Triple Crown race. We won the Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1), and the Breeders' Cup race, and we've won a lot of races at Churchill Downs and around the country. But to go down in history, you need to win a Triple Crown race, and that's what we did today." —Romans speaking of what winning a Triple Crown race means "I can't sum it up yet. It's been a spectacular two hours. We just set a personal record of 160 texts to return. It's been a great week. We had a great week here at Pimlico, and I'd just like to thank everybody here for the way they treated us. It's been super." —Romans after winning the Preakness with Shackleford and the Dixie S. (G2) with Paddy O'Prado (El Prado [Ire]) "It's a huge effort. From the time that the horse was born on the farm, the people who foaled him, to the training center, and they brought him to my stable, and all the grooms and exercise riders, and Faustino, and the exercise boys that had him in Florida. It takes so many people, and so many things have to go right. It's a huge accomplishment for (wife) Tammy that breezes him every morning and lets me leave town every winter with all the horses while she takes care of the kids. It just takes everybody working together to get this done, and it's unbelievable when it all comes together for success." —Romans "We have a great team, from top to bottom. We have hot walkers that have been with us over 10 years. My assistants have been together since we were 19 and 20 working for my father. Tammy's a huge part of the stable. She breezes all the horses. There is nobody that gives a better line on the horse than she does. I was telling the story this morning about when we were young and getting started together. Our second year at Saratoga, I was trying to pick Dick Dutrow's brain all the time, and one day he got tired of me and said keep the little girl that's breezing all your horses and you'll be just fine. And he was right." —Romans when asked to describe his team
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