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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD THOROUGHBRED CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 31, 2014Steve AsmussenRosie NapravnikRon WinchellARCADIA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff was your Kentucky Oaks winner also, Untapable; and we're joined now by winning trainer, Steve Asmussen, as well as winning jockey Rosie Napravnik who just dropped a bomb on national television, I believe. Hopefully we'll have Ron Winchell right here shortly. Congratulations to awful you. Incredible performance today. Rosie, I'd like to start with you. If you could take us through the race and tell us about your trip? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: She was unbelievable today. She was just, she broke well. The race, when I looked at it on paper, I said it might not set up perfectly, but from the outside post and there's a lot of horses in between that have speed. But we settled into a good spot, and down the backside I could not have had more confidence. She was just very powerful underneath me, and she started to take me when she was ready to move. I mean, we were wide around the second turn, but I was just sitting on going, and she was waiting on my call. So she just ran excellent today. THE MODERATOR: Steve, your impressions of the race? STEVE ASMUSSEN: What a tremendous feeling to be involved with this filly all year long and the races that she's giving us and how good she is. Just very proud to be associated with her. THE MODERATOR: Rosie, for those that might have missed the news after your race, would you mind sharing with the room here? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: I am announcing my retirement starting on Sunday, and my husband Joe and I are going to be starting a family. His career is brand new and thriving, so it's kind of good timing. He's going to step into the limelight and I'm going to step out. THE MODERATOR: Just to clarify, that's a permanent retirement and not a break? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: It's indefinite. I'm not thinking about a comeback in ten months, but I can't promise to stay off a horse forever. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations to you. ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Thank you. THE MODERATOR: Ron, your impressions of the race, if you would? RON WINCHELL: It's hard to put in words. The results are what you dream about all year long. The stellar year that Untapable has had with the Oaks win and coming back and being able to be as effective as she was at the end of the year, basically the results are what you dream about at the end, and it happened, and we're so proud of her. THE MODERATOR: Untapable is the first Kentucky Oaks winner to come back and win the Breeders' Cup Distaff in the same year since Ashado in 2004. Steve, could you just talk about this campaign overall this year and running at such a high level throughout? STEVE ASMUSSEN: A testament to who she is. I don't think anything she did this year was easy. It's just on her ability. Very proud of her being a Winchell homebred and getting early training at my parents' place. It's very special, very gratifying to be a part of a true champion. THE MODERATOR: Rosie, can you address her development from the spring up until now in the fall? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: She's absolutely impressed me every step of the way from when she was a 2‑year‑old in her first start to moving up to going two turns. She's just always progressed so well. You know, I actually thought she ran really well in the Haskell. We didn't get a very good trip that day just being wide and not having a great position. I thought she ran a very credible race. Came back and ran excellent in the Cotillion. I mean, she's just always moved forward. Steve has done such an excellent job with her. She can get a little high‑spirited, and they just take their time with her and do such a good job with her. Just so thankful to be involved with this filly. Thankful for Ron and Steve for having me back on her after my injury in the spring when they had one of the best jockeys in the world had ridden her. So couldn't be more thankful to have the opportunity to ride this filly. THE MODERATOR: Steve, there's been a lot written about the family history with the Winchells and Asmussens. Now that it's culminated here on this day, can you talk about what Ron's confidence in you throughout this year has meant? STEVE ASMUSSEN: Well, it's something that evolves. You're truly blessed to be a part of it. To be able to participate on this stage, under these circumstances, with a homebred as brilliant as Untapable and just truly special, it's what you dream about as a little kid. Just can't say how proud I am of everybody involved. The job that Carlos and Scott have done with this mare since she came out here. She was obviously spot‑on today after a very long year. So it's something we'll look back on and be very fond of for a long time. THE MODERATOR: Ron, could you just talk about your history with Steve as well as both of your fathers? RON WINCHELL: Yeah, our history is a long one. Obviously Steve used to break horses when he was younger when his dad was breaking them down in Laredo, so the history goes way back. I do want to add one thing. Steve has done a phenomenal job in preparing Untapable and all of our other runners as well. And Rosie has done a phenomenal job today. Just want to say thank you. Q. Rosie and Steve, Steve, if we get an upset tomorrow in the Classic, do you have the Horse of the Year? STEVE ASMUSSEN: Well, that's out of our hands. Q. Would you make a case for it? STEVE ASMUSSEN: She's deserving. Q. Rosie, how long have you been planning this? If you hadn't won, would you have waited until you did? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: You know what? I've been planning the retirement since I found out that I was pregnant. I'm about seven weeks pregnant. I would have waited‑‑ my plan was to wait until after the weekend, and I don't know if I had won on another horse if I would have said anything. This filly has just been very special to me, and it's a very special way to go out, so I just couldn't resist because they asked me how much it meant to me. Q. Rosie, you were three‑ and four‑wide all the way, and you lapped well. At one point Close Hatches and Rosario went around you. It looked like you were squeezed? Was that a worry at that point? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Which point of the race are you talking about? Q. On the backside when Rosario went around you. ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Yeah, his filly likes to be up close, so he was pretty insistent on that position. I didn't think that without having to put the pressure on my filly, I needed to, so I was content to sit behind him. I just had so much horse going into the second turn that we came up around him. And I didn't really have a problem going wide because I was just sitting on a lot of horse. Q. Steve, it's such awesome news about Rosie. It's amazing. This to me is one of the greatest jobs you've ever done. When we move forward and get into what you deserve, I think you might look back on that because this is a filly who almost has run once a month for most of the year. She started in February. The last two times she went wins the Goose, the Oaks. The track's against her in Parks, the track's against her today. Her speed figures the last couple of races seemed to tail off a little bit. Was there any part of you that thought maybe she looks great, but is it possible she's slightly over the top or did you never lose confidence in her? STEVE ASMUSSEN: The confidence in her ability is immeasurable. We're fortunate enough to be around a true champion. You do everything you can to have her in the right mindset to show it. Just like Rosie said, the Haskell wasn't a bad race. It was a bunch of little things that added up to it wasn't your day, but it wasn't an issue of ability or anything else. It was just a bunch of little things that added up to it wasn't your day. It was somebody else's. There is never a reason, never a whisper, never a doubt to not think that she was this good and just stay the course and follow the plan and get here today. The reason you're sitting here talking to her and getting congratulated is because of the ability of Untapable. THE MODERATOR: This is Ron's second Breeders' Cup win, he also won the Dirt Mile with Tapizar, Tapit. Tapiture ran huge today as well. Could you just talk about Tapit and what he's meant to you going back to when Tapit was running but also as a stallion? RON WINCHELL: The reason we're here today is because of Tapit. That kind of sums it up. He's brought us here now with two Breeders' Cup winners, so I really have to give him credit for making all of it look easy for us. But he does deserve the credit. He was a phenomenal race horse when he was running. He didn't have a long career for various reasons, but today he gets all the credit in my mind. Q. Ron, what are your future plans, if any, that you have for Untapable as of right now? RON WINCHELL: My plans right now are to keep her in training next year so she's not‑‑ she'll be around next year and hopefully back here, and hopefully she'll be competitive next year in the same race. STEVE ASMUSSEN: That's good news. THE MODERATOR: How long of a break does she get? What would be the likely targets? STEVE ASMUSSEN: I think that we'll just follow her back, see how she's doing. Possibly tack walk her for a little while, help her let down. David Fiske is quite capable and familiar with the mare of knowing when she needs to go back in training. Q. Steve, did you have any concerns about bringing her back here after her performance last year in the Breeders' Cup? STEVE ASMUSSEN: It was in the back of my mind, not having the real reason why. But she's a completely different mare. She's 150, 200 pounds bigger. Very young. As much talent as she had last year and as much confidence as we had in her, you always knew she'd be better with time. You see how she acts, how she looks. She's a bigger, stronger version of a tremendously talented filly. Q. Rosie, considering the magnitude of today's win and your announcement after the race, how does this rank as far as victories in your career? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Couldn't think of a better way to go out. Q. So you're not going to be running tomorrow then or riding tomorrow? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Oh, no, I'm riding tomorrow (laughing). Yeah, no, I'm riding tomorrow just as well as I rode today, hopefully. Q. So you're not going out like Ted Williams with a home run in your last at bat? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: Yeah, the timing worked out that I feel wonderful. I feel great, so Joe and I talked about it when we found out, and we're very excited. But it was good timing to get through the Breeders' Cup. Nothing makes me happier than to be able to retire, hopefully, if everything goes well tomorrow, healthy and on a great note. And Joe and I are very, very excited to be starting a family and moving on to doing something else. Q. And you've ridden here now seven times, seven races at Santa Anita this year and you've won five of them. What is it about this place? You seem to love it here? ROSIE NAPRAVNIK: I love Santa Anita. It's been very, very good to me, and I've been very fortunate to be invited here by some great connections, owners and trainers for very good horses. To me, from the very beginning, my goals have been about riding good horses, and this is where good horses come. It's been great here at Santa Anita. Every time I come, I do well. So can't complain. Q. Steve, if there is a huge upset in the Classic tomorrow, is Untapable in the Horse of the Year picture? STEVE ASMUSSEN: Well, she is for me. I can't make up other people's minds, but she definitely is for me. Q. Tom Durkin calls Untapable poetry in four‑legged motion. Who wrote most of those words? Was it you, Rosie, Untapable, Mr.Winchell or the whole team? STEVE ASMUSSEN: I'm sure, it's Untapable. I think that we take the responsibility of her very seriously, but we realize how blessed we are to be associated with her, and she is truly poetry in motion. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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