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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD THOROUGHBRED CHAMPIONSHIPSNovember 1, 2014Roger A. BrueggmannFlorent GerouxKaren PapieseRichard PapieseARCADIA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the Xpreessbet Breeders' Cup Sprint was Work All Week. Winning rider Florent Geroux is making his way into the room. And I'll introduce who we have up at the table. On the right, we have Richard and Karen Papiese of Midwest Thoroughbreds, and we have trainer Roger Brueggemann and Florent Geroux is here now as well. Congratulations to all of you. Richard, you look spent. Tell us what's going through your mind right now? RICHARD PAPIESE: I'm spent. KAREN PAPIESE: He just ran six and a half furlongs. GRAHAM MOTION: I didn't do anything, but I'm spent. They did all the work, and they should be spent. But I'm spent. THE MODERATOR: We'll give you a chance to catch your breath. Florent, congratulations, you were out there chasing an incredibly wicked pace. Tell us about your trip and whether you worried that maybe you might be too close? FLORENT GEROUX: No, to be honest with you, my horse broke very sharp today. Before we knew it, I was already like in second position. No, I just like take him. I didn't want to be going too fast or bring too slow, and I knew I needed to be right here. I was very confident the whole turn. By the quarter pole, my horse just catched a nice breather and I knew he was going to be very tough to catch. THE MODERATOR: The first Breeders' Cup start for all of you, correct? RICHARD PAPIESE: Yes. THE MODERATOR: Roger, congratulations. Can you take us through the race from your perspective? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: I really don't know what to say about it all. He just was really a nice horse. That's all I can say. THE MODERATOR: Watching it all unfold, I mean, they were going so fast up front. Were you concerned at all about the pace? Or you knew he could handle that? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: No, he can handle it. Florent said he was the fastest horse out there. So why worry? THE MODERATOR: You were pretty confident this week, I understand. ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Tell me about this horse's development leading up to the Breeders' Cup, and what gave you that confidence? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: Well, he just does everything we ask, and how can you not be confident in him. He's just a great horse. THE MODERATOR: He has been remarkably consistent, although this is a new level for him. ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: Pretty much. THE MODERATOR: But talk about maybe that consistency in his ability to fire every time? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: They kept saying we didn't beat anybody, but I wonder what they'll say now. THE MODERATOR: Beat everybody today now. ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: That's all I've got to say. THE MODERATOR:  Richard, it's been an amazing year for you. You've been winning races in bundles the last few years, but the quality has improved. You won with the Pizza Man in the American St. Ledger. It's been a landmark year for you. Talk about where your operation has come? RICHARD PAPIESE: We're obviously in transition where less is more. It takes time to turn a barge around. It's not a jet ski. So we asked everybody to be patient with us when we heard people saying we're trying to do all these different things. We're not. We're trying to fold into who we are, but it takes time to mold that. Everyone's cooperated. We've had great trainers. Obviously, Roger and others are working with us. They understand that less is more. And actually, I can't thank Jim Schenk enough, the little guy that's around here somewhere. It's just an oddity that this happened through home breds. What you'll see are the horses that mainly Jim has bought at the sales for us the last two years. It's time for me to get out of his way. THE MODERATOR: Midwest Thoroughbred, so everybody knows, is the leading owner in the country right now by wins. But if you could talk about not just being a home bred, but also this one being an Illinois bred? RICHARD PAPIESE: Yeah, well, he doesn't know where he was born. Nothing against Illinois. I mean, he thinks he went through the ring at Keeneland and brought in 3.5. That's how he feels. You'll notice when we're in the ring, he wasn't intimidated by anything. Look, we have a lot of respect for everybody here. All the connections, there are some incredible connections and some incredible athletes here, great jockeys and great horses. But we talked about it. We really didn't fear anybody. Roger and I talked the other night because somebody asked him who are you worried about most in the race? He said the 13. You know, we try to worry about what we need to do. Everything else, we can't control what else is going to happen. We're going to try to do the best we possibly can with what we can do. Everybody's done a great job working together. Again, this is about three elements on this horse. It's about Roger, it's about Florent, and it's about the horse, obviously. We're just lucky to be along for the ride. THE MODERATOR: Despite your confidence in feeling like you had the right horse, it's nonetheless a remarkable achievement. So I would just like each of you to talk about what it means to win your first Breeders' Cup Race also in your first try. Flo, maybe you can start? FLORENT GEROUX: Yeah, it feels great to win in the first try. To be honest with you, I was very confident before the race in my horse. First of all, he's undefeated on dirt. He did everything we asked him to do so far. The question everybody kind of asked us, can he beat those horses? Can he compete? Is he fast enough? He's not fast enough? I think he's the fastest horse in the country to sprint right now. And if I want the lead, I could have the lead. If I was inside, I probably would have been on the lead. But do we want to be in there and finish nowhere or not? That was my job is to try to ride a smart race. And I think that's not my job. I think I would like to thank everybody involved, especially with Roger's staff and Midwest operations. It's teamwork. It's not only my job, it was just a good passenger today, but I think it's about the team first with everybody, Roger, the groomer, breeder, owner, everybody involved with the horse. That's teamwork. THE MODERATOR: Roger, your first Breeders' Cup win. Tell us what it feels like? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: It feels great, and I can't wait to do it again. It's a great feeling, great. THE MODERATOR: For those in the room that maybe aren't familiar, can you tell us a little about your life in horses and also how you came to train for midwest? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: Well, Richard just called and asked me if I'd train for him and that's how we got started. But as far as career, I just started out with Fairmont, the cheap track, and went to Chicago. Just kept getting lucky enough to get better horses, and here we are now. Q. As Jim said, this horse has been remarkably consistent. What is that special quality in him that makes him so reliable race after race? He gives you 100%? ROGER BRUEGGEMANN: He doesn't want to be beat. That is the important thing with him. He tries hard all the time, and he just doesn't like to be beat. THE MODERATOR: Karen, we'd like to hear from you as well? Your impressions? KAREN PAPIESE: He definitely works all week, and it wasn't easy living with this guy the last couple of days either. RICHARD PAPIESE: I apologize. This is wonderful to do this with Roger. We love Roger. I'd want to say this, we'd like to do this with all our other trainers.  They work hard. We love Roger, though. I want to thank Nick, and I want to thank Mike for all the work they've done today. KAREN PAPIESE: And Geralyn. RICHARD PAPIESE: And Geralyn who keeps everything together. This horse gets more therapy. He must feel like he's at a spa every day. If he doesn't get it, she goes crazy on everybody. THE MODERATOR: I did forget one obvious question is what happens now and what do you look forward to with this horse? RICHARD PAPIESE: He's going for a rest. He's on the way to Florida to our farm. Roger and I talked about it, win, lose or draw, he was going to get a rest. He needs a break. Unless Roger changes his mind, that's what's happening. He'll get on a plane on Tuesday and head to Marion County. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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