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PEGASUS WORLD CUP INVITATIONAL

January 28, 2017

Hallandale Beach, Florida

THE MODERATOR: We'd like to congratulate jockey Mike Smith, trainer Bob Baffert, and owners of Juddmonte Farms. It was indeed a race we will never, never forget. Since Mr. O'Rourke and Mr. Baffert are talking, Mike, I'll ask you a question. From my vantage point, it looked like you were pretty happy with the way you got away, and from my particular standpoint, it looked like you were exactly where you wanted to be going into the first turn, tucking in off the speed and pocketed up as we like to say. And then you worked to the outside moving around the far turn. From a standpoint let's call it a grade, how would you rate your trip in terms of what you wanted before the race and what you got on the racetrack.

MIKE SMITH: Well, honestly, I mean, my intentions were if I could make the lead I was going to try to. But if not, I wanted to just be able to save ground, get into a good comfortable stride down the backside and at some point hope that we put enough distance in between the leaders and the horses behind us that I could tip out at some point.

Halfway down the backside, when I noticed California Chrome not up next to me at that point yet and I looked back and I saw Victor kind of nuggle, so I knew he wasn't firing, he wasn't running his race, and going into the far turn I was able to use that angle to tip out, and once I got out I was loaded.

Q. Looked my way from my vantage point. That's when the excitement took hold for me. Now, Bob, you were obviously watching the same race we were all watching, same question to you. Is that the trip you wanted, or are you just happy the way it worked out?
BOB BAFFERT: No, we were just -- you know, Mike, we just -- you know, his plan was to get him away from there and be first, second or third, even in the first turn, make sure he had a clear. And all of a sudden he was behind Noble Bird, and I thought, well, Noble Bird, when he's on the easy like that, I've seen him run some big races, so I thought he was going to be tough.

But the middle of the stretch, I'm down the backside, he was just galloping along. I wasn't really sure what to think then. You don't know if is the sand bothering him. He's still a young horse. Hasn't run that many times.

But I could tell, I could see that Chrome was having trouble and he wasn't -- he had his outside of us, and I could tell by Victor's body language that he was struggling on him a little bit. And then when Mike made that little cut to the outside, I knew right there, well, he's going now. He's running his race.

And as a trainer, all you worry about is they get away clean and when they hit the 3-eight pole they start running. If they don't, they don't run well. And so when I saw him take off, I thought, well, it's going to take something really special to run him down, because he's just -- he's a superior race horse. We've seen it since the Travelers. And so to be able to train a horse like that is pretty incredible and have a great -- my assistant, Jimmy Barnes and Dana Barnes who gets on them, just does a tremendous job with them, and Lalo, he had the same groom that American Pharaoh had, how lucky is he to come with these two great horses.

I've got a great staff that works with me in California, my assistants, Mike Marlow, Pascal, Rivera. It's a great team. And we had to train at San Anita under the elements of the worst rainstorm we haven't seen in years. It was just going crazy.

But thanks to the -- San Anita has a great track man. Everybody worked alongside to make this happen. And it happened. It was meant to be. And so here we are and greatest, biggest race ever in the history, and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Thanks to this man right here, it was his dream, and I don't know how he does it for such a young guy, but I told him it took 12 million to get me off the couch.

FRANK STRONACH: We got Bobbie off the couch, 12 million.

Q. Mr. O'Rourke, Bob just talked a little bit about the training coming into the race, the terrible weather in California, California Chrome shipped there just a couple of weeks ago. You got here this week. Talk a little bit from your vantage point as the U.S. racing operations manager for Juddmonte, were you frustrated? Did you have the confidence that Bob would have him ready to go? Could you have been that confident with the rain coming into the race and only getting here on Tuesday? Talk us through your thought process?
GARRETT O'ROURKE: Well, I've said this before that I've been lucky enough to be around some brilliant trainers in my time. And you can pick up from there just their mannerisms, their voices, you know when they're confident.

And by the time Bob got that one really good workout into him, I think he made it pretty clear that he was back on schedule and he had that confidence sound in his voice again.

So, no, I don't think we ever even doubted. And that's why the prince has always insisted on hiring the very, very best and that's what Bob is. And in his capable hands, we had total confidence.

THE MODERATOR: The question is trying to compare American Pharaoh and Arrogate.

BOB BAFFERT: It's like comparing your two children. One won the Triple Crown, went through the excitement of going through that. This horse, he's just coming around.

But one thing they do have in common, they make life so much easier as a trainer because they're superior animals. We just stay out of their way, keep them happy, keep them healthy.

And luckily I've been fortunate to have a lot of good horses. And so when we get lucky and we get a good one like this, we know what we need to do. And I want to thank also Martin Garcia who helped work this horse, got him ready, same guy that helped me with Pharaoh. But I've got to give Mike Smith a lot of credit.

I sleep at night knowing that Mike Smith is going to ride this horse and my whole crew that I have. And so it's, like I said, we just have a winning team. But today we were nervous. I've got to admit, I was really nervous. I just didn't know what to expect. We came in here. We were flying in. We've been working on nothing but mud for the last month.

This is the first time he's ever seen a dry track in a month. And so they asked us if we wanted anything to eat. Bode, my wife, Jill, my brother, we couldn't eat anything. We were pretty nervous today just hoping to get this done.

But, you know, watching him turn for home, we knew what a great horse he is. His stride is just incredible, and he came back and he's really not that tired. So I'm glad that Juddmonte kept him training an extra year and we get to run him through the year and have him ready for the Breeders' Cup and Frank's race, maybe the Pegasus next year, but I've got to talk to Garrett about that.

Q. What does Garrett think about the Pegasus World Cup for next year?
GARRETT O'ROURKE: You know, everything is on the table. It's obviously premature, but this has been a very unique event that I think everyone wanted a decision watch. But today just had that feel of a huge sporting event, and I think at the beginning that it got today, hopefully it will establish as one of those great racing events.

And obviously the prize money is just a phenomenal incentive. So, yeah, it's very much on the table.

Q. Mr. Stronach, it may sound cliche, but I'm sure there's a lot of people in the audience that want to know the answer to this. How are you feeling right now? How do you as the man who conceived the idea of a $12 million race at the end of January, how are you feeling now that the race is in the books and what we saw on the racetrack today?
FRANK STRONACH: I believe it was a great race, and I'm always trying to do things which will benefit the racing industry. I want to have horse racing on a level higher, and I think horse racing should really be the number one sport in the world because it gives so many people the feeling and they could be winners. When you look at the crowd, at the spectators, they're riding the horse home. And I'm Mike Smith, I'm riding, I'm riding. So it's so great that you feel like a winner. When you have only two bucks or five bucks on the horse. So that's great.

And we want to do, of course, the Pegasus World Cup, we try to have this an annual affair. I think Belinda, my daughter, I think has done a great job. And I think we'll learn a little bit from. We are looking forward to have Bobby back here, back East, and Mike Smith, Mike Smith is a young guy. Looking forward to another year.

What do they say, Mike, you never die, if a man buys a yearling, doesn't matter how old the man he is, but if he's got a good yearling, he'll live at least the horse is two or three years old.

So, anyway, great for all the fans, great for all the reporters to come here, and I look forward to meet all of you next year. And I think if we all will work on that, we could make racing really, really great. Okay. Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Mike. Thanks to the Arrogate people for being here. And hopefully the horse stays in training.

Q. What are the options for Arrogate as it relates to the Dubai World Cup? I think it's best answered by Bob and Mr. O'Rourke.
GARRETT O'ROURKE: We said from the beginning we'd take it one step at a time, and today obviously was the primary goal.

We totally trust Bob and his judgment of the horse. We want, of course, the horse to have a championship season. So the end of the year is very important. At the moment we won't think about anything until we get out a few weeks and we will leave it to have Bob come back and tell us what it is and his judgment of the horse at that time.

Q. How does the vibe and the atmosphere of today's race compare to the other big events that Bob and Mike have been part of?
BOB BAFFERT: Mike, he was in the jockey's room the whole time. But it had a Kentucky Derby feeling, a lot of vibe young crowd, vibrant, everybody's having a good time. It's like a big party. And people really enjoying themselves.

They really pulled it off. And it was -- everybody was having a good time. I mean, everybody was really enjoying themselves. A lot of cheering, yelling. Got to meet some really interesting people today. Kurt Busch, the NASCAR driver, got to meet him and people up there. But I would say the vibe, it was hopping today up there.

MIKE SMITH: Definitely had the big vibe to it, was like the Breeder's Cup Classic times two. I try not to think about things too much other than what I have to do and just get my job done. But I can honestly tell you, when they said riders up, I said, oh, man, 12 million. Got a little extra jitters there, but it was a good kind to have.

Q. The question was asked as to what Mike and Bob felt the atmosphere was. We know what your dad envisioned the race to be, but the concept of the atmosphere and the experience that the fans and the guests would have today, that was very much your baby, if you will. So how does what you envisioned it to be compare with how it actually was?
BELINDA STRONACH: Well, I think it was a great team effort to begin with. So my father does think big. We just have to look next door at the parking lot, at the Pegasus statue, which is the icon behind the race.

So he thinks pretty big on a global level. So we wanted to make this race more than just a race. We wanted to create an event around it and that it becomes a marquee racing event on a -- it can compete with anything around the world. And we also wanted it to be a lot of fun and just start attracting a newer and broadening the fan base.

We wanted to introduce it to younger people. We wanted to bring the lifestyle component. So it's lifestyle, entertainment, fashion, Saks Fifth Avenue is our fashion partner. We had a really sexy crowd up there.

The food is just great. And we wanted to just have a really good time know horse racing, come back, broaden the fan base and the sport can grow and grow.

Q. Has there been any further discussion after today of relocating the race to elsewhere, or is it --
BELINDA STRONACH: I will jump in before my father has a chance to answer that one because I might have to backtrack.

We've established such a good relationship with the South Florida community here. And it has been such a great team effort, the whole Gulfstream Park team, Tim Ritvo and Billy Badgett, P.J. Campo and the team has been working 24/7 for not only the last couple of days but for a long period of time.

We established relationships with World Red Eye and throw it out the Seth and a number of various partners in the area. This was our first one. So we tried some new things. We're going to learn from it.

I think next year we'll get better and better. And I think there's been such a vibe in the Miami area, and the whole city has been looking forward to this. So we want to create an epic racing event. And I think we've established a base, a presence today which we want to build around. And so my vote would be to keep it here.

We haven't formalized it yet, but it's got a real Miami vibe to it.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297

PEGASUS WORLD CUP INVITATIONAL

January 28, 2017

Bob Baffert

Belinda Stonach

Frank Stonach

Mike Smith

Garrett O'Rourke