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DERBY THEY SAID IT MAY 1, 2010 "The win obviously is important to me, but the one thing I wanted to do was win while my parents were still here to see it." —trainer Todd Pletcher puts his first Kentucky Derby (G1) triumph in perspective "I saw them both right after the race, and my mom said it was the greatest day of her life, and you know, I'm very fortunate to have very supportive parents, not only from a racing standpoint; obviously my dad introduced me to the game and I worked with him and my mom is a huge horse racing fan and always been one of my best advisors. So it's just like I said, they are both in their 70s, and I didn't want to let that opportunity get away." —Pletcher on his parents "We didn't want to handcuff him with too many instructions. We knew he would like to save ground and only thing I told him was, 'ride him like you own him,' and, 'don't forget about getting a lead change.' He's an instinctive rider and he knows this track so well, he knows the horse well, he's ridden him well each time he's been on him and it was as simple as that." —Pletcher on his instructions to Calvin Borel "I think it will all soak in in a day or two. Obviously it's a race I've dreamed my whole life about winning. Now that it's happened, you're just -- you just kind of don't know what to feel or say. I wish I could wax poetically up here and tell you exactly how it feels, but it's kind of all soaking in still." —Pletcher is still letting the victory sink in "I said earlier in the week that Calvin Borel is a great rider anywhere he goes, but for some reason, at Churchill Downs, he's even five lengths better. He's just figured out Churchill Downs. He knows -- he knows how to ride this track." —Pletcher on Borel's unique genius at Churchill Downs "Yeah, I was actually in the horsemen's lounge there. Kind of found a lucky TV this week. Thought I would stick with it. To be honest with you, it's so hard to see from the stands and it's so hard to get up and back and down and forth. Yeah, I decided this year I was going to watch it somewhere else." —Pletcher on where he watched the Derby "This horse did not particularly have any setbacks. He just needed some time to really get going as well as he can go. There was nothing -- he didn't miss any days of training. You know, he was just kind of getting a little better as we went along, and you know, sometimes we gave him a little bit of a break after the race here, and sometimes you know, it just takes him a little while to get that going. We always felt like we were going to make it, but we were just playing a little bit of catch-up." —Pletcher on how he has managed SUPER SAVER's (Maria's Mon) road to the Derby "Nobody beats him to the barn in the morning. His diligence, and a lot of times, there's a lot made of his temperament, it's a little steady as far as the media goes, but that's what makes him a great trainer, because he's humble. He lets his horses do the talking, and he's a great communicator for a guy who has had as much success as he's had." —WinStar Farm Racing Manager Elliot Walden, a former trainer himself, on Pletcher's virtues "You know, there's times that he makes us feel like, you know, we are almost helping him make the decision and he wants to involve everybody. And yeah, he's the kind of guy that as much success as he's had, he can say, well, I've done this or I've done that, and he's a great team player. He thinks about not only his owners that he communicates very well, but then he goes to the trainer's dinner the other night and brings his blacksmith and business manager, Maggie Sweet, and he understands truly what a team is." —Walden on Pletcher as a team player "I had an awesome feeling that he would run good. I rode him here last year in the mud and I rode him at Oaklawn. He didn't win that day, but I knew he was a better horse than that. But he showed me a lot where I could get him to relax and not be on the pace where he was when I went on him as a two-year-old. After working him the other day, I think the colt is peaking right now at the right time. I don't think he was more contained when he was a two-year-old. I think this is why this colt might just get better. Todd just did a good job with him getting him here today, and you know, God willing, he's a colt that will take us all the way, because he's a nice horse." —Borel on his confidence in Super Saver "This is what I wanted to do all my life. It's every jockey's dream to win the Derby and I never dreamed I would win three Derbies. But I've worked hard and I'm dedicated to this job and I love the game. It's just what I love to do, and I'm very successful with it. I'm very blessed. I've got a wonderful wife and a good agent, good family in my life and I'm very blessed, very blessed." —Borel on winning three Derbies "Churchill Downs is a track just like Louisiana Downs and I was born and raised there, and every pole, it's exactly like Louisiana Downs and I know it like the back of my hand, and I think this is why I ride so good here. Louisiana Downs I rode all my life until I started coming here, and the track is the same thing, same poles, the pole turns. It's unbelievable how much they are alike. And I don't care what any jockey says, they favor a track sometimes. I go to a track where I get lost sometimes. I just love it here." —Borel on where his uncanny knowledge of Churchill comes from "Yes, sir, it does, it means everything in the world, because I know how that feeling is, or what that feeling is like. And you know, I mean, he's a hard worker. He's there seven days a week, and believe me you, it's hard on you. It's every person's dream, sir. This is what he worked for and this is what I worked for. I was very blessed to give him his first Derby winner." —Borel on riding Pletcher's first Derby winner "It's every jockey's dream to ride the Derby, much less win it. I was blessed enough to ride it and to have James Tafel give me a chance to ride Street Sense, when I thought he was my main shot to win the Derby and I did; and then Mine That Bird come along and this horse come along. I'm very lucky. They peak at the right time, so that's the main thing is that you have to catch them at the right time." —Borel on his three Derby winners "You know, my brother always taught me time-wise and racing and the shortest way around, you know, stuff like that. I was riding when I was seven years old, you know, so I was taught everything before I knew how to really ride, and before I even got on a horse, I was taught everything. That helped me a lot. It made me come a long way." —Borel on how he learned to skim the rail "Well, it feels unbelievable. When I was looking through the horses, Super Saver has had some success on a wet track and Calvin has had an incredible amount of success here at Churchill and everywhere. Those two factors just weighed on me, and then really it came down to my gut feeling on that and that was the logic that I used to make the bet." —Glenn Fullerton, the Derby DreamBet Sweepstakes winner, on why he placed his $100,000 wager on Super Saver "We were down on the rail, I got to see them when they came by initially and they went around and I was watching on the screen and toward the end when they flashed in front of me across from the winner's circle, Calvin was in the lead by three or four lengths or so and it was a yellow blur with a 4 on it and it was hard at that point to focus and I was like, he's going to do it, he's going to do it." —Fullerton on watching Super Saver net him $900,000
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