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TRAVERS THEY SAID IT AUGUST 26, 2010 "I'm afraid to put him in a non-winners-of-two allowance and he loses at 1-9. As long as he's competitive, I'm going to keep him in these races. We're waiting for him to break through and win one of these babies." —trainer Dale Romans jokes about maiden winner FIRST DUDE (Stephen Got Even), who has placed in the Preakness (G1), Belmont (G1) and Haskell (G1); for video of First Dude galloping Thursday morning at Saratoga, please click here "We're not putting a big cup on; it's a half-cup. (Jockey) Ramon (Dominguez) says it helps him focus on accelerating when he calls on him. It's frustrating. We're trying to think of things different. The blinkers took a lot of consideration before doing it." —Romans on the decision to equip First Dude with blinkers to help concentration, not to sharpen his existing speed "You can't simulate racing conditions with these horses." —Romans doesn't draw a conclusion from First Dude's two breezes in blinkers "He was a real slow learner, but he's really leaped forward. It took him a few times to break his maiden." —trainer Robert Reid Jr. on his late-developing AFLEET AGAIN (Afleet Alex) "In the Withers (G3), he was drifting out in the lane with no reason for it. (Recently outfitting Afleet Again with a prong bit) gives the rider better control of him. He's a heavy-headed horse. When he goes his own way, there's not a lot a rider can do about it." —Reid on Afleet Again's waywardness; it's exacerbated by a left-handed whip, so Reid will tell new rider Cornelio Velasquez to keep the stick in his right hand "In the morning, he's a pretty serious horse. He's laid back. You could light a firecracker near him, and he wouldn't move. It's a quirk he developed during races. He's too smart for his own good. He's in control, and it doesn't matter what that 110-pound guy on his back is going to do." —Reid on Afleet Again's contrasting moods "We gathered up our whole crew and talked about these opportunities that were facing us this summer and we all made the commitment to each other and to the horses, that this could possibly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that we were all going to focus and try our very, very best to accomplish such a goal. We still have a lot of work to do, but we're very proud and we're really, really enjoying this." —trainer Tony Dutrow on his hopes for a banner Travers Day with morning-line favorite and Jim Dandy (G2) hero A LITTLE WARM (Stormin Fever) as well as Rightly So (Read the Footnotes) in the Ballerina (G1) on the undercard "Our stable is successful; is it as successful as some others? No, it's not. But we're trying." —Dutrow keeps things in perspective "Some are on a win streak, and others are trying to get back on course, like Super Saver. It looks like they're all coming into it well and trained well coming into it." —trainer Todd Pletcher on Kentucky Derby (G1) hero SUPER SAVER (Maria's Mon) and his other runners at the Spa this weekend, including King's Bishop (G1) morning-line favorite Discreetly Mine (Mineshaft) and Personal Ensign S. (G1) contender Life at Ten (Malibu Moon) "He two-minute-licked from the three-eighths pole all the way back around to the seven-eighths pole. We just wanted to let him stretch his legs. He was real happy. He stood in the gate yesterday and he was great, paddock schooled today. We've pretty much crossed all the t's and dotted the i's. He'll go out tomorrow for a normal gallop, and he'll jog a mile and a half the morning of the race, and that's about it." —trainer John Kimmel on how FRIEND OR FOE's (Friends Lake) Thursday preparations went "(Winning the Travers) with a New York-bred would be a little bit special, especially since I trained the father. I think it shows you that you can raise a good horse in New York and be able to compete in Grade 1 company. Anybody that looks at (Friend or Foe's) form would have to think that's on a real upswing. He's lightly raced, and he didn't drop off on his speed figure going from seven-eighths to 1 1/8 miles, which I really like to see. He had a little bit of trouble (when fourth in the Jim Dandy) and there are a lot of reasons for me to be optimistic that he can move forward." —Kimmel, who trained Friends Lake to a victory in the 2004 Florida Derby (G1), makes the case for his New York-bred son "Until he won that race (a seven-furlong allowance at Belmont Park on May 22), I really wasn't thinking of anything past that. Then I said, 'Well, it looks like he's the real deal, might as well try to get him going around two turns.' We pitched the race in Jersey (the June 19 Pegasus S. [G3]) and he ran very well (to win)." —trainer Jimmy Jerkens on when he first decided to step AFLEET EXPRESS (Afleet Alex) up in class and distance "I wasn't happy until the last sixteenth of a mile. I didn't know what was going on around that turn, but he really spit the bridle out and quit running and dropped back a few spots. To be able to come back on like he did -- usually when horses do that they don't get it back together again, but he did." —Jerkens on Afleet Express's third-place performance in the Jim Dandy "I still don't know what to make of it. I don't know why he did it. I think it was just getting hit with so much dirt for so long during the race. It took us forever to get his eyes cleared up. Who knows? He might not have been able to see when he was getting hit with so much dirt. Who wants to run into something they can't see see? I don't know why, but he found a way to get going again in the stretch. That was good to see." —Jerkens theorizes about why Afleet Express may have momentarily backed out "All is well, and it's nice not having to worry about where we are going. At this stage of the game, all you can do is wait and hope for a decent trip. I think it's nice to just be in the race." —trainer Kiaran McLaughlin on Haskell runner-up TRAPPE SHOT (Tapit); it took a while for connections to opt for the Midsummer Derby over the King's Bishop "We galloped him and stood him at the gate this morning because he had some bad luck at the gate at Monmouth. He was perfect. We'll just gallop him tomorrow." —McLaughlin on ensuring that Trappe Shot doesn't repeat the stumbling start that compromised him in the Haskell
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