|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 31, 2015Tom McGreevyRick PorterLexington, Kentucky THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies was the inspiring Songbird. Could not have won more easily. We're joined by Rick Porter. Would you introduce the gentleman on your right? RICHARD PORTER: Tom is my agent for Fox Hill Farms and has been for quite a while. He's the guy that picked out all of these good horses and he definitely picked out a good one here. THE MODERATOR: I would say so. We'd like to hear more about that story in a few minutes. First, we want to get your reaction to the race. Mike wasted very little time getting to the lead. Tell us how you saw it. RICHARD PORTER: Well, from the ten hole, we knew we had to get a good break, and she jumped out. Mike said she always has been jumping her first three races. And he said, this was the longest jump she's had for me. So he was able to get good position in that first turn, and that was the key. And he slowed 'em down pretty good. He's a great guy, and he loves this horse. THE MODERATOR: And I assume it's safe to say you were very confident coming into this race based on her performances out in California. Tell us about your expectations and how she met them today. RICHARD PORTER: Well, I knew we had the best horse going in. But the problem is I've had the best horse in races before, and I'm still upstairs or wherever I was. But I was confident, but I always know that the best horse doesn't always win. And we got a great trip by a great jockey, and the rest is history. THE MODERATOR: I'm sorry Jerry wasn't able to join us in the briefing room. Did you get a chance to exchange a few words with him after the race? What was his reaction? RICHARD PORTER: Sure did. He was more confident than I was. I was just a little nervous. But anyway, Jerry has done a great job. I've never had a two‑year‑old other than Old Fashioned that ran early and ran in stakes. Now we've won three Grade Ones and a maiden. When he told me he was going to‑‑ he wanted to run in this Grade One after the‑‑ I said, Jerry, I usually don't do that. I don't think we ought to run her today. He said, you've got the best horse on the back side. So we did. THE MODERATOR: Very good. Now let's hear a little bit about‑‑ of that background of how you acquired this filly. I'd like to hear that entire origin story, if you don't mind, for us. RICHARD PORTER: Well, Tom had gone up to Saratoga before I had, and he had a short list that he wanted to show me. And this was one of them. Tom loved this horse, and I loved it. And she brought about close to what I was willing to pay for her, but I might have paid another hundred thousand. But we were fortunate enough to get her for $400,000, because she was a great pedigree. She looked the part, as good as anything. THE MODERATOR: What else stood out about her when you first laid eyes on this filly? TOM McGREEVY: I think most everybody that's really qualified to look at horses have the same criteria probably, about their balance and so on, so forth. I think it's more important how everything fits together. If they can have this part and that part, but they all have to fit together really well. And I put a lot of the emphasis on their walk and I think to have a really good walk, they have to have all the parts that do fit together. Also, there are intangibles we look as well, how they handle the pressure of the sale. A lot of people think that's not much. Well, it is. I look at it like it's the first time in the big city. They have to handle that pressure because, as we know, there's a lot more pressure along the way. So that is really key. There's a lot of intangibles. You look at this filly, her eye and how she handled everything. When those good horses come out of the stall, most of them show really well and they adapt very quickly to their environment and they're not timid or shy about anything that goes on. So there's a lot of intangibles. I have to compliment Rick. I make up my short list. Most of the time, it's a very short list. Very seldom have we ever disagreed on a horse we really, really like. There are horses that are maybe on the fringe that we can't maybe just quite see eye to eye, but the really good ones like this one and some of the other ones, like Havre de Grace and some of the other ones, we have never disagreed on. Rick has a good eye for a horse too when I show him the list. THE MODERATOR: We have a few questions more about the background. Let me check with the media in the room and see if there's more on the race. Q. Two questions. First, for Tom, did you‑‑ when you talk about those really good ones that you can identify, was there something extra about her that you had this kind of‑‑ that she might be that freakish freak, you know? TOM McGREEVY: I don't think anybody can really predict that any horse is going to be this good. I would never try to say it's going to be this good. Only thing I can do is say I think this is a really good horse. To try to predict it's going to be a horse of this quality, I don't think anybody can predict that really. She just has everything we're looking for. She fits everything we look for and exceeded a lot of those, especially exceeded them in how she handles her pressure. I keep emphasizing that, but that is so important with the great horses. They're very confident in everything they do and she's been like that from the word go. You can see how she was in the Paddock and all. She's just very confident about everything she does. I think one of the reasons they're very confident about that, because they're very athletic and it's not a pressure for them, you know, that they're not really that stressed. RICHARD PORTER: Tom, not too frequently, he has a word he uses, a couple words. He said this is a must‑have. That means I'm not allowed to stop bidding until we own it [Laughter]. Q. So this was a must‑have? RICHARD PORTER: No, this wasn't a must‑have. TOM McGREEVY: No. She was very close. I use that term‑‑ the only one recently was Havre de Grace. Rick and I both agreed about that one. The reason is‑‑ of course, I don't claim to know everything. There's a lot of things we don't know. But those really, really top horses, there just aren't many of them out there. I don't care what sales you go to. At the very top, it's very thin. Q. Then Mr.Porter, I asked you this week about thinking about the Oaks. But after watching that, do you think about the Derby? RICHARD PORTER: Well, I think we're a long way off from thinking about that. But she's big enough, and she's showed that she's talented enough. But we'd have to see how she stacks up with the number of RAGS and Thoro‑Graph and look at all the numbers to make sure that she could win the race. When we looked at Eight Belles, we entered both the Derby and the Oaks. But we drew the outside post in the‑‑ we drew 19 or 20 in the Derby, and we drew the 5 in‑‑ no. TOM McGREEVY: Outside. RICHARD PORTER: Outside in the Oaks, five‑hole. So I said Larry, let's go for it. He says, we got it. But you know the rest of the story. THE MODERATOR: Did Mike Smith share anything with you all after the race? Did you get a chance to talk to him on the way back up the tunnel or anything? RICHARD PORTER: Yeah. Mike and I, we were just talking about how talented she is. Mike just really loves this horse. He calls me every week to tell me what's going on. He goes the greatest thing I can tell you about this horse and Mike Smith is about three or four jockeys over here at Keeneland, and Larry Jones was standing by, and one of the people said, how good is that Songbird? And Mike said, well, I'll tell you how good she is. I was going to retire, but I'm not retiring until she retires [Laughter]. You can't say anything better about the horse than that. TOM McGREEVY: One other thing about Mike. I don't know if anybody saw the tweet he put out last night. It said something, I'm not quoting him exactly, but something to the effect that this is his love of life right now is Songbird and that you might see something special tomorrow. Which I think we did. THE MODERATOR: I believe we did. One for Tom. RICHARD PORTER: How much did she win by, does anybody know? Q. Five and a half lengths. I want to tell you every time Songbird runs and wins, it's music to your ears. Here is my question: Given how brilliant and fast she is, does she pretty much take care of herself? Is she an easy filly to train? RICHARD PORTER: Jerry just talks about what a great mind she has. And she's easy to train and Mike works her every time. I think she's an easy horse to train. THE MODERATOR: Rick, for those who haven't heard, can you relay the story of Songbird's name and the inspiration from Eva Cassidy? RICHARD PORTER: Yes, my assistant Victoria Keys, who has been with me 10, 11 years, and I couldn't do without. Anyway, she loves to get into the stories. So she found out that the song, Songbird, was originally done by Fleetwood Mac. But then she found out the story about Eva Cassidy, who was 33 years old when she died of melanoma. And she was a very shy person. But she really wasn't very popular. Nobody knew anything about her. I still didn't know anything about her. She was living in England. She did a recording and people loved it, and she became very popular, but she didn't live much longer. But she did a great album of Songbird. Everybody ought to listen to it. There's some great music on there, including Songbird. THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, congratulations. We appreciate your time. Songbird is the winner of the 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. We appreciate your time. RICHARD PORTER: Thank you very much. THE MODERATOR: Hopefully we'll see you on the first Friday in May. RICHARD PORTER: One of those days. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|