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FLORIDA DERBY

April 1, 2017

Hallandale Beach, Florida

JOHNNY VELAZQUEZ: Well, the question was take us through the race.

The horse broke really well. I was expecting he was going to show a little more speed than the two horses on the outside. Obviously he showed that only speed and (indiscernible) horse took it a little bit farther back. The horse I thought would show a little more speed. He took back, as well, and he got a little bit picky going into that first turn and I had to let him do it and tried to get him to relax on the back stretch, and finally he got to relax really well on the back stretch, and from then on, he did everything very, very well.

Down the lane I asked him to make sure to keep his mind on distance, and he's done the last two races, he's done pretty much nothing. Somehow we have to teach him a little bit that he needs to run, so make sure that he runs a little bit down the lane keep his mind on the distance, and he did it really well.

Q. That last race was kind of a strange race. What did you take out of that?
TODD PLETCHER: Well, we talked a lot about what the next step after he broke his maiden at Tampa, and we selected to go there because we wanted to go two turn race into him, and the horse had been training very well, and we had high hopes for him, so we were trying to map out a strategy to potentially end up here, and we decided, talking to the owners, that the correct move was to go ahead and try the allowance race on Fountain of Youth Day, even though we felt like the Fountain of Youth is a race that he fit in, felt like he needed a little more foundation, a little more education, and we had a bigger goal later on.

In that particular race, what we were hoping for was a more truly-run race, honest fractions, give Johnny the opportunity maybe sitting behind some horses and get a little dirt in his face and hopefully win and get some education out it.

Unfortunately the way that race unfolded, it was very, very slow. He found himself on the lead, and Johnny just waited and kind of asked him to finish up the last eighth of a mile and then he galloped out really well. To be honest with you, we didn't learn a whole lot that day in the particular race, but what we did learn is that he came out of the race exceptionally well, and he was training so well leading up to this that we were optimistic that he had a performance like this in him.

Q. Talk about this horse in the context of your other Florida Derby win, how is this stacks up.
TODD PLETCHER: Well, they're all a little bit different in each case. But the one thing I can say is that leading into today, we were extremely confident in the way the horse was training, and we felt like he was coming up to it exactly the way you'd want a horse to come up to a race like this. We were quietly confident that he was going to run well.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
TODD PLETCHER: I talked to Mr. Viola about that. He's going to breeze tomorrow morning, and plan A was always to run Always Dreaming, but we talked about it actually a couple of weeks ago that you just -- as you know, in this business, things can change overnight, and we didn't want to be in a situation where God forbid Always Dreaming was coughing on Friday morning and we didn't have Battalion Runner in there. It was just an insurance policy, so now he'll work tomorrow, and then we'll firm up his plans after that.

Q. How does it feel to have a Florida Derby winner and Battalion Runner in your back pocket?
VINCENT VIOLA: Well, the best thing for me is I'm sitting next to a guy that I grew up with since I was six, seven, eight years old and know from the old neighborhood who selected the horse at the suggestion and selection of Steve Young and told me about the horse, so I'll turn it over -- Anthony has a feel, to come from the old neighborhood and win the Florida Derby.

ANTHONY BONOMO: I never thought you'd be interviewing me or being interviewed. You know, it's magical. I don't know anyone who's been in the horse business that doesn't dream of this, so the name that my wife picked, Always Dreaming, because that's what you have to do every day, especially in this business.

So the dream is get a horse like this, share it with friends and the greatest jockey around and the greatest trainer and then put a horse to do what he did. You know, we all could sit here, but that guy did what he had to do today.

And so a kid from Brooklyn whose real experience with horses was watching them pull fruit cars now gets to go to Kentucky and one of the biggest races with people you love. That's what it's really about.

Q. Mr. Viola, (indiscernible) does it make up for a lot of that?
VINCENT VIOLA: No. No. One has nothing to do with the other. (Laughter.) Anything less than a Stanley Cup is simple failure, but we're going to work even harder next year. But thanks for bringing it up. Thanks for balancing my zen at this moment of glee.

Q. (No microphone.)
VINCENT VIOLA: Me? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think the horse has a good chance to be looked at favorably, and he has the potential, and I can't thank Johnny and Todd enough on behalf of Anthony, Mary Ellen, Teresa and myself because this horse was a management and training and riding effort, really. The horse had a little bit of a funny road to get here, but they've got him at the right condition, the right mentality, the right psychology, if there is such a thing, at the right time. If we don't do at least what we did today, I will be greatly disappointed. Anthony?

ANTHONY BONOMO: Yeah, Johnny and Todd are fired. (Laughter.)

But you know what, I was saying this this afternoon when I first got here, someone came over to me and said, I hope your horse runs well. Of course we want our horse to run well, but we wanted to be the one that runs well the most. Anybody who tells you, well, I'm glad I was in the race and didn't win, that's not where we come from. We only knew one thing was to try and win. In Brooklyn you won; that's what it was about.

And so, you know, it's nice to say even for myself because I've been on that side way more than on this side, and you say it but you really don't mean it.

You know, when they said it to me today, I was gracious to say thank you, but underneath I said, I want to win this thing. We were fortunate enough to be sitting here now.

Q. (No microphone.)
ANTHONY BONOMO: Yeah, yeah. Williamsburg is a great place, and a lot of great people there. Our friends are friends, and no matter what you do, no matter where you go, your friends are your friends forever, so we've been lucky like that, and we've made a lot of friends along the way, but it always goes back to our roots. I'm sure there's a restaurant there right now where all our friends stay and watch the races, and I can guarantee you, Vinny is getting a big bar bill next week because all the drinks are on him there.

You know, it's exciting. And I want to thank Steve, also, for his work with us because this horse Steve saw, and I have to actually acknowledge my son, too, because my son was the one who said, Dad, buy this horse.

VINCENT VIOLA: And we can't forget Jimmy Crupi who breaks the horses, helps select them, and really got Always Dreaming ready to go, so when Todd got him, he was ready to launch. But we're talking way too much.

Q. Todd, it looks like you've got a pretty good hand right now for the Derby. How strong is it compared to other years?
TODD PLETCHER: I mean, it seems like a really strong group, and as I was saying earlier, you have to appreciate these things and you have to hope that they stay healthy, and the next five weeks is a long time. But knock on wood, this horse has had an exceptional winter and early spring, and if he can have another five weeks like he had the last four weeks, then we'd be confident that we're bringing a very talented horse into the most difficult race in the world to win.

Q. Along with the other horses.
TODD PLETCHER: We'll see how some of them continue to do. We've got some other major preparations the next couple weeks, and as you've seen on this trail, it changes weekly. But we're blessed. Very blessed.

Q. (No microphone.)
TODD PLETCHER: That's right. With Wait a While and Alan Cohen.

Q. Is there room for Always Dreaming to continue to progress?
TODD PLETCHER: Well, I think part of the strategy of bringing him up to the race the way we did was that we'd have a fresh horse coming into today. Hopefully we still do. I think just initially watching him pull up and come back, he didn't seem too terribly stressed out about the whole situation, and I loved the way he finished the race, loved the way he galloped out and came back to the winner's circle pretty composed and wasn't blowing real hard. So yes, I think there is room for improvement.

Q. Johnny, were you kind of wondering or waiting to see whether he would get stressed?
JOHNNY VELAZQUEZ: Like I said before, I made sure once I got down the lane and I made a switch to the lead, I got after him, and like I was telling Todd, I had to teach him to do something, and the last two races he hasn't done very much.

Today is a big day. I had to make sure that he does a little bit of something, we learned something about him. We wanted to learn a little bit more about the first part of the race, probably put him behind horses and behind horses he was a little picky, and we didn't learn much about him other than finally he got to relax in the back stretch. But other than that, he did everything very, very well.

Q. But you never kind of like wondered (indiscernible)?
JOHNNY VELAZQUEZ: I looked back in the quarter pole, I didn't see him. I didn't care for it. I said, I'm going to teach my horse something and I'm going to let him run down the quarter pole. If he's coming, he's going to have to run really hard.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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FLORIDA DERBY

April 1, 2017

Vincent Viola

Anthony Bonomo

Todd Pletcher

Johnny Velazquez