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PREAKNESS STAKES THEY SAID IT MAY 18, 2013 "What a story this is. I'm happy for Gary (Stevens) and I'm just so happy for Mr. (Brad) Kelley. He's trying to revitalize Calumet, and now Calumet is back in a classic race. That's just very gratifying. I have great respect for the Phipps family and Shug (McGaughey), but I was telling one of your colleagues that I get paid to spoil dreams." --Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas after spoiling Orb's Triple Crown hopes by saddling Oxbow to win Preakness 138 under fellow Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens "Let me say, this I think I got a Hall of Fame ride. I think we can plan this thing, we can talk about it, we can talk about strategy. But once that gate is open, they have to make decisions. Gary made some great ones. He really -- I told him, if you get on the lead, get into that cruising speed and just let it happen. Actually, we thought that maybe that Goldencents and a couple of those other horses might show a little bit more speed and we would not inherit the lead as easily as we did today. Gary was smart enough. When he threw up the 1:13 and change, I knew we were in good shape. We weren't totally confident. But I knew the way this horse cruises and gets into stride, you could see how relaxed and how easy he was getting over that ground on the backside. I said, this isn't over by a long shot. We're going to be tough." --Lukas praising Stevens' ride aboard Oxbow "We talked about strategy and I didn't expect to be on the lead. In these classic races you don't give up anything you get for free. They gave me a free three-quarters of a mile today. I was smiling pretty good midway down the backside. I actually thought about Wayne (Lukas) up in the grandstand. I knew he would be looking at those fractions and be pleased with what he was seeing. I jumped on (Oxbow) at the quarter-pole and said, 'Let's go now and just try and last.' We did more than last today. When we pulled up he wasn't a tired horse." --Stevens after winning his third Preakness victory "This horse has such a high cruising speed that he'll fool you a little bit. I was very comfortable and he was very comfortable in the Kentucky Derby. When I hit the half-mile pole, the leader was out there a ways. Normandy Invasion came up outside of me, and that forced me to move possibly a bit earlier than I wanted. But when you're in the Kentucky Derby, you don't give anything up. You try to get away with what you can. I won't say it backfired on us, but I learned a heck of a lot about Oxbow, what he did the final eighth-mile when he was breathing fire a little bit. Everybody else caved in, he didn't. Had a heck of a time pulling him up after the race, and it showed me how much heart he had." --Stevens on what he learned about Oxbow in the Kentucky Derby "I thought he had the best day of the spring (on Friday). The gallop boy that gallop's him all the time was on him the same. And I said that is the best he ever looked. He just seemed like he was in the zone, relaxed, got over the track. He can get aggressive in the morning. He's not an easy horse to train at all. He's so aggressive. You think you're doing too much every single day with him, but the good ones sometimes do that." --Lukas on Oxbow coming into the Preakness "They're all special because they were all with a different client. That is the thing. The key, if you're training horses, try to win one every once in a while for a new guy. We've got a new guy in Brad Kelly at Calumet, and that is just the good economics of it. You give that guy that special moment to stand up there with his daughter and to know that he was watching at home and put Calumet, who we all know that name, back on the front pages of the racing publications is very special. I'm so happy for him just to have the opportunity to represent him." --Lukas when asked to compare his Preakness triumph with Oxbow to the other five times he's won the second jewel of the Triple Crown "The thing about it is you get up every day and look for that one that you maybe can do something. But as long as we've got something to work with, we're going to be around. I think that we're not through by a long way here. I feel like we can get up and maybe get another one someplace down the line. But that's what makes it so interesting. You have to have a passion for it. It's not a 9 to 5 job." --Lukas "Yes, yes, definitely. At 77, I do, yes. The first one, I thought I was going to win quite a few more. I won the first classic I ever ran in was Codex right here. I told my son, this is no big deal. We'll win a bunch of these, and then I went 10 years before I got another one. Bob's a good friend, and it meant a lot to me to have him come down all the way from where he was and congratulate me. I called him this week at home. He was on the fence maybe he'd even run here. And I said, 'Bob, get on an airplane and come back. You need to be here. We'll have some fun.' So what does he do? He comes back, wins the Black‑Eyed Susan, wins the Sprint. He didn't get this one, but he had a hell of a day." --Lukas agreeing with trainer Bob Baffert's comment that he would appreciate winning this Preakness more than his first one "Some of us in this great nation get up and get after it in the morning; others sleep in." --Lukas when asked by press corps if he could delay Oxbow's 4:30 a.m. Sunday departure time to 5:30 a.m. "I shared that record with a very special man in this industry in Sunny Fitzsimmons. And if I never broke it, I was proud of that. I know he meant so much to the Thoroughbred industry. I never knew him personally, but I thought that that was something I'm really proud of. I don't have it documented anywhere. You guys reminded me of it all week. I thought maybe we'd win another one, but to get it done, it's probably going to be on trivial pursuit in about five minutes, but that's it." --Lukas on breaking the record for the most Triple Crown race wins "Well, I enjoy it so much. I don't wake up every day trying to prove I can train a race horse anymore. When you're younger, you keep trying to prove yourself in this industry. But at this point in my career, I'm very comfortable with where we're at. I don't wake up and say, 'Gosh, I've got something to prove to you all that I can train a race horse.' I do it for the personal satisfaction of working with the horses and developing some young assistants. We've still got some guys coming through the ranks, and it's just a wonderful lifestyle. I mean, where in the hell can you get paid to ride out there? I ride on my saddle horse in beautiful weather four hours in the morning, go to the turf club, have lunch. Deal with great people. I mean, is this a great country or what?" --Lukas on why he keeps training "Well, I'll just say that my great friend Mike Smith, who is more like a brother than a friend to me, we've been through so much together over the years, watching what he has done since my retirement over the last seven years and to continue on as he has at a high level was a big inspiration for me. Just did an interview from a French television station as well, and watching Olivier Peslier do what he's done. I've ridden with him for so many years and watch him ride at the level he does, both of those guys gave me a lot of inspiration. "I thought back to Lester Piggott and his comeback in the Breeders' Cup and what he did...I won't go where he was and came out of retirement and pulled off what he did with Royal Academy, but you don't forget what you're doing. You're only as good as the horses you ride and the people that you ride for. And I rode for what I consider to be one of the greatest trainers of all time today." --Stevens "I haven't had any doubt at all until this past three weeks. I went out from California to Keeneland, and only won three races during that short meet, which wasn't bad. It was one of the most competitive boutique meetings in the United States. So I was happy enough with my three wins there. But shifting my tack to Churchill Downs, I have not won a race since leaving Keeneland. It's been a month since I won my last race; granted, I haven't had a lot of opportunities in the right place. "But Oxbow two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby was one of my best finishes, a horse that really went out and performed for me. I thought maybe my business was lacking, maybe this was a mistake. I've been questioning myself, and when riders go through slumps, I don't care if you're 15-years old or 30-years old, you start changing your stirrups on your saddles and this and that. I told myself, you know what, if it's meant to be, it's not going to matter where your stirrups are, it's going to matter what horse you're riding. "When I won on Skyring, a $50 horse just prior to the Preakness, you don't know what kind of boost that gave me going into the Preakness, and it was for Wayne Lukas. And I thought to myself, 'Man, this guy, it doesn't matter what the form looks like on a horse.' You go out there with confidence, and you can throw an upset. I went out on the turf course to be legged up on Oxbow, and I couldn't have had more confidence. After the pre-race warm-up, I was actually joking with Donna Brothers in the post period, and I said, 'Can I borrow that microphone and take it with me and interview Joel halfway through the race?' And she said you're not getting this microphone. "But I was very relaxed, and very happy, and it's just funny how things go. But one race can really boost your spirits. Doesn't matter if you're 16 or 50." --Stevens on whether or not he's had any doubts about coming out of retirement to ride again "I'm disappointed. It was a great opportunity. We were 3-5 and we finished fourth. I would be disappointed any time you had this kind of opportunity and didn't get it done. This was quite a run for a couple of weeks. We'll pack it up and go back home and see what kind of horse we've got down the road and figure it out from there." --trainer Shug McGaughey after Kentucky Derby hero and Preakness favorite Orb finished fourth "I don't think two weeks had anything to do with it. Oxbow ran back in two weeks. Itsmyluckyday ran back in two weeks, Mylute ran back in two weeks. I just think he got himself in a position where he wasn't comfortable and then without the pace scenario in front of him; they really weren't spread out a little bit more than maybe I'd hoped. That probably affected him more than anything else. "The pace was slower than I anticipated. I thought the pace would be quicker. I thought maybe they would speed it up a little bit but they didn't. I still thought we would close into it, but it just wasn't his day. He was just never real comfortable once he got down in there. I'm disappointed. I'll probably be way more disappointed tomorrow but I know the game. It is highs and lows, probably more lows than highs. We had a great run two weeks ago. My hat's off to Wayne to win his sixth Preakness. That's pretty remarkable." --McGaughey "I'm very pleased with the way he ran. He ran his race. He simply just got beat by a horse that was trained perfectly by Wayne Lukas. We did run our race, but we just weren't lucky enough to win." --trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. after Itsmyluckyday improved from 15th in the Kentucky Derby to second in the Preakness "My horse ran awesome. The speed didn't develop the way I thought it would. I thought Oxbow would be third or fourth, then all of a sudden I look up and Bob Baffert's horse (Govenor Charlie) gets left and Oxbow was on the lead all by himself. I worried then about my horse, but he ran great." --jockey John Velazquez, who piloted Itsmyluckyday "My horse ran great. The pace was a disappointment up front. I thought there would be more speed; it didn't materialize. We were probably at the biggest disadvantage of all, coming from way back and being the widest in the race. We've got nothing to be ashamed of. I actually look at this like a missed opportunity because my horse ran a big race today." --Tom Amoss, who saddled Mylute to third in the Preakness "He was very sluggish out of the gate for the first quarter of a mile. Then he got going. This is a tough course. I was too far back to see who the leaders were. This was a tough pace to follow. But he ran great down the lane and closed well." --jockey Rosie Napravnik describing her ride on Mylute "I thought Kevin (Krigger) had him in a great spot and when the winner kicked there, we just couldn't keep up with him. I'm very proud of Kevin and the horse. We're going to be fine. We've got a bright future. Definitely, he belongs among these horses and we're going to be in good shape. We'll be OK. I'll have to talk to (co-owner) Glen (Sorgenstein) and we'll put our heads together and see what's next." --trainer Doug O'Neill following Goldencents' fifth-placing in Preakness 138 "He had no excuses. It looked like he got over the track OK. He just didn't go on with it like he usually does." --conditioner Al Stall Jr. after Departing ran a one-paced sixth in the Preakness "I had a great trip. On the second turn, Orb was inside of me and we spurted away from him and got up to third. But he was just a little dull today. I don't know why. It seemed like he handled the track OK. But it was a little deep." --jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. on his trip aboard Departing "He just really struggled with the racetrack. His legs were going everywhere from the word 'go.' He just couldn't get a hold of it at all." --Mike Smith, who had piloting duties on Lukas trainee and Preakness seventh Will Take Charge "If they would have yelled "about-face" I would have won easy at the wire. My horse missed the break and never really was in the race. I'm happy for Gary (Stevens) and Wayne (Lukas); that's awesome." --trainer Bob Baffert, whose Govenor Charlie finished eighth on the Preakness wire after a slow start "(Gary) Stevens took the lead early, and I was just kind of sitting there. I felt like I had a lot of horse under me when we turned for home. But he just kind of flattened out in the stretch." --Julien Leparoux, who rode Lukas' third Preakness 138 starter Titletown Five to a ninth- and last-place finish
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