Derby They Said It 5-5

Last updated: 5/5/07 11:12 PM

DERBY THEY SAID IT MAY 5, 2007 "We got beat by the juvenile champion. Carl (Nafzger) beats me all the time. I have a hard time beating him but I know my mother's happy. She said if I couldn't win it let Carl win it, so she ought to be tickled. We just got beat by a better horse. " trainer Larry Jones on the pacesetting HARD SPUN's (Danzig) finishing second to the Carl Nafzger-trained STREET SENSE (Street Cry [Ire]) in Saturday's 133rd Kentucky Derby (G1) "It was about what we had to do to do it. We would have loved for it to be in :48 (seconds for the half-mile) but the horse was running easy and we were trying to get away from them. I felt pretty good around the turn. I could only see one horse moving. But he came with authority. We took our best shot." —Jones on Hard Spun's leading the Derby field "The horse is fresh. That is one reason why we came into this race with six weeks off. We were hoping this was the first of a three-race series. We'll go and hopefully Carl's horse won't like Pimlico as much as he does here." —Jones on Hard Spun's trying Street Sense again in the May 19 Preakness S. (G1) at Pimlico "I'm ecstatic with the way he ran. He broke well and relaxed nicely for me. He was just cruising along there. At the top of the lane, he was running easy. I said let's go, and he got to running. But the winner came up and passed me. No disgrace. My horse ran great." —jockey Mario Pino on his first Kentucky Derby ride aboard Hard Spun "He shuffled back and checked himself a few times. He really didn't level off. He'd never had that experience before to be behind like that. But turning for home he came running." —jockey Robby Albarado on CURLIN (Smart Strike), who suffered the first loss of his career when third in the Derby "He'll be going to the Belmont (S. [G1] on June 9) and a little more distance. He really shows he wants the mile and a half. I knew he'd be running in the end, but he lost a lot of ground on the turn. He must have been about 10 wide. I am very pleased, though. I'm very happy with his performance" —conditioner Bill Kaplan on IMAWILDANDCRAZYGUY's (Wild Event) finishing fourth in the Derby at odds of 28-1 "He may go back on the turf. It looks like he got a lot of dirt in his face and he couldn't keep up. He got outrun." —Kaplan on his other Derby entrant, STORM IN MAY (Tiger Ridge), who ran 16th "We had a great trip and he was running at the end, but the others were just going faster. I wanted to ease him away from there and stay out of the shuffle into the first turn and we did that. It was great. Like Mr. Kaplan (trainer Bill Kaplan) said, we were here to have fun and we did." —jockey Juan Leyva on his ride aboard Derby 16th-placer Storm in May "Without seeing a replay, I don't think I could see any major excuses for my horses. But it's hard right after a race to know all you have to know. Edgar (Prado) told me his horse (Scat Daddy) was just spinning his wheels. He said he couldn't get a hold of the track at all. Garrett (Gomez on Any Given Saturday) said he got bumped up on the turn, but he said he just couldn't get a good position with him. Was the plan to send Cowtown Cat to the lead? No. That was the rider's decision. We wanted him to be comfortable out there." —trainer Todd Pletcher on three of his five entrants in the Kentucky Derby, SCAT DADDY (Johannesburg) (18th), ANY GIVEN SATURDAY (Distorted Humor) (eighth) and COWTOWN CAT (Distorted Humor) (20th); his other runners were CIRCULAR QUAY (Thunder Gulch) (sixth) and SAM P. (Cat Thief) (ninth) "I'm not going to tell you I'm not disappointed. I am. I am disappointed that the horses didn't run better. But I said this before and I'll say it again: it isn't the end of the world if you don't win the Kentucky Derby. I still have a job to do and I'll be out in the morning doing it. I'm not going to go home tonight and cry. That's just not the way." —Pletcher on his quest to get a Derby winner "I had a really good trip going into the first turn, I was behind Nobiz Like Shobiz and Scat Daddy - I couldn't pick two horses I'd rather be behind. It was working out really good until the half-mile. About the three-eighths pole, half-mile pole, I had to kind of edge my way out. I got jostled a little. It wasn't too bad. I got up on my feet and he started making a little run, and then Street Sense came blowing through there and it was like a big old wave. When he came through there he knocked my horse out from under me and knocked him off his feet again. But that's the Kentucky Derby." —jockey Garrett Gomez on Any Given Saturday "Right now, I'd have to say that none of these five would go to the Preakness. We've been training King of the Roxy (Littleexpectations) for that race and he's our horse for it." —Pletcher on whether his Derby horses will try the Preakness next "He ran dynamite. If he had more experience...I don't know if we would have beaten the winner, but look at the gallop out. Ten jumps past the wire he was in front and he couldn't do that in the race. It was just a matter of experience. We had to wait a little bit, but that's to be expected in a big field. Actually, I was following Street Sense, and he opened a hole for me." —jockey Mike Smith on Derby seventh-placer TIAGO (Pleasant Tap), a half-brother to 2005 Derby winner Giacomo (Holy Bull) "He didn't handle the track. I thought he'd run better than that." —trainer Barclay Tagg on NOBIZ LIKE SHOBIZ's (Albert the Great) running 10th in the Derby "We were obviously disappointed but they both came out of the race great. We'll regroup, and our hats are off to Street Sense. I haven't even seen a replay of the race and I couldn't get down to the track in time to talk to the riders. My assistant said David Flores (jockey on Liquidity) figured they were absolutely flying. Neither of them was good enough today." —conditioner Doug O'Neill on his two Derby entrants, GREAT HUNTER (Aptitude) (13th) and LIQUIDITY (Tiznow) (14th) "We just didn't get the job done. No excuses from us. He appears to have come back fine; he came back sound. We'll go back to California with him." —trainer Jerry Hollendorfer on BWANA BULL's (Holy Bull) running 15th in the Derby "I'm sure Street Sense was the best horse today, but there's a lot of horses that come back to win the Preakness. Louis Quatorze (Sanders was his exercise rider) ran 16th in this race (in 1996) and came back to win the Preakness. (Teuflesberg) looked good and he was sitting up there and they kind of cut him off coming out of the turn and (jockey Stewart Elliott) had to check him and that was all." —conditioner Jamie Sanders on TEUFLESBERG (Johannesburg), who finished 17th on Saturday "We got bumped around at the three-eighths pole, but by that time he had thrown in the towel. All I can say is that I'm very, very happy for Calvin Borel. He's a very nice man." —jockey Kent Desormeaux, who was aboard Derby 19th-place finisher STORMELLO (Stormy Atlantic) </div></body>

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