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PEGASUS WORLD CUP INVITATIONALJanuary 27, 2018Belinda StronachGoncalo TorrealbaSteven AsmussenRon WinchellFrank StronachHallandale Beach, Florida THE MODERATOR: We have Gun Runner's connections and we have Belinda and Frank Stronach to take your questions. Q. Steve, I know that the ownership group pretty much said the same thing to Nick Luck in NBC that I thought going into the first turn of the race, but we didn't get your thoughts on it. There was so much talk before the race about the post position, the post position, would you get packed wide, would they try to get in front of you. And off the record you probably had at least some reservation of that; I know the ownership group said they did. But going into the first turn, you had just about seven furlongs to go, with that said -- you're laughing, you know exactly what I'm getting ready to say -- put us in the mind of Steve Asmussen as they got to the seven-eighths pole in that race? STEVEN ASMUSSEN: As you said, everybody is aware of the lack of success from the outside going a mile and an eighth. But I thought Scott Blasi said it best, he was back at the barn during the draw and I texted him where he drew and he texted perfect. He drew better than he did last year. And it set it all aside because I don't think it's what number it is, it's who you put in that number. And Gun Runner rose to the occasion. And just very thankful for the Stronach Group to put on an event like this to showcase a horse that we feel so strongly about, for him to be able to go to his next career on this note is just a true blessing. As you said, a fairytale ending to a beautiful story that some families have got to enjoy the dream. (Applause) Q. Next question is for the owners. We already got your answer to my question to Steve. But another question to you guys is going into the race -- and everybody had wanted Gun Runner to be Horse of the Year, you didn't know if you would be Horse of the Year, you thought you would but you didn't know -- was there any added pressure after Thursday night of the Eclipse awards now we've got our Horse of the Year title so this fairytale is really coming together pretty nice. Did you have any sort of pressure? Were you guys just pumped up? RON WINCHELL: I think there were 16 million reasons of pressure. (Laughter). But just thinking about his week, got crowned Champion Older Dirt horse, Horse of the Year, Eclipse Award. And then he tops it off with the Pegasus. So it was fantastic. THE MODERATOR: He's not here but we have to give him some credit, we can do it one or two ways. You guys can give him the credit or I can give him the credit. Florent Geroux, reactions from all of you regarding the ride that he gave it. STEVEN ASMUSSEN: Everybody knows that Florent is a great rider, but the proudest thing of it is, is what a great person he is and how much he wanted this for Gun Runner. I honestly believe Florent does it for all the right reasons and that makes it all the more special. We're all aware that he lost his father recently and his father is so proud of him just like the rest of us are. Great rider but a better person. (Applause) Q. I realize this might be an impossible question for all of you, but you've campaigned so many good horses, you guys as owners and of course Steve your resume doesn't need any introduction. I hate to ask this question but we are looking at the world's richest horse race and the first time there was ever $16 million on the line. That's a first in your career as I'm sure. But in terms of a special scenario, where does this rank? Can you even put it somewhere? STEVEN ASMUSSEN: That's the beauty of it. I mean, for Mr. Stronach, the Stronach Group to come up with this scenario is unimaginable. And we were just fortunate or blessed to be in the right spot when this dream for us came true. RON WINCHELL: It's hard not to smile when you're thinking of Gun Runner, what he just accomplished. This has been an unbelievable week, unbelievable year with Gun Runner. And all the horses I've had, it's hard to think of one that can top the experience we had with the winning the Horse of the Year and the Pegasus. It's awesome. THE MODERATOR: That's high praise, folks, if you don't know, the illustrious career of these gentlemen. GONCALO TORREALBA: If I may, I'm going to brag a little bit. This year one of the best feelings was to watch Florent with his hands down going into the last turn like he did today. That was a great feeling. There was a lot of horse under him. THE MODERATOR: I can only imagine, I think we're all wanting to live vicariously in your guys' emotions in that moment. I can only say from the top of the grandstand I was feeling for you guys. I said the seven-eighths pole but you also described a key moment there when he kind of took the steam out of Collected and you saw West Coast was two lengths behind you. I can only imagine with$16 million on the line and the entire world watching on NBC how that must have been. GONCALO TORREALBA: It's a fantastic feeling. Q. The question, he asked you, Steve, to go through the strategy beforehand, the game plan before the race as opposed to the way the race flowed out. I have to imagine there were some similarities there. STEVEN ASMUSSEN: Me and Florent have talked a great deal about Gun Runner, ever since the Breeders' Cup knowing we had one more chance with it. A lot of the discussions are just to relive the moment, just wanting him to be who he is, thought it was very important for him to break sharply with the draw. And he did and then he was as comfortable as a work -- as Mr. Torrealba said, when he went into that second turn, with Florent that comfortable on him, it was just an overwhelming feeling. As far as strategy for Gun Runner, it was us discussing the condition and mindset that we thought that he was in, and that was one of great confidence. And Florent and him obviously communicate extremely well. Q. Question for the Stronach family, will the Pegasus World Cup year three be held in Gulfstream Park? I know there's been some discussion, today. What do you think, Belinda? BELINDA STRONACH: Yes, and for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have to thank the team here at Gulfstream Park -- Tim Ritvo, Billy Badgett, and Tiffany's here, and so many others that have put so much effort into establishing this race here as the marquee race for Gulfstream Park. Plus, I have to thank my father for creating the icon, the Pegasus statue we see adjacent to the park. We can't move that. So we can't move the race. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: Just to confirm that, if you didn't hear, that was a wonderful sound bite: We can't move the Pegasus statue. So we're not moving the race. BELINDA STRONACH: I'd like to add something that we are discussing as a management team is adding complementary races to the Pegasus World Cup. We haven't totally defined what that is yet, but we have other great properties. And we are discussing potentially creating other races in the road, the lead-up to Pegasus. So stay tuned. More to come. (Applause) Q. Mr. Torrealba, what does it feel to have a horse like Gun Runner? GONCALO TORREALBA: (Chuckling). I started with horses in South America and Brazil, my native country, in '89. And we as a family decided to try -- I mean, I tried on my own as TNT for some years. It was a great experience. But then my family as a group decided to come to America. And as I said during the Eclipse awards, it was such a warm welcome, and you knew -- you always knew, probably, Three Chimneys before with Seattle Slew and so on. But then to come here and come across a horse like Gun Runner, we all know it's a dream come true. It's the horse of a lifetime. That's what it is. Ron said that it's bittersweet. It is bittersweet. But now we're going to celebrate. (Applause) Q. Mr. Stronach, how did the Pegasus idea as a race concept come up? FRANK STRONACH: When the Pegasus was built, I walked around quite a few times and there were quite a lot of people there. And they listened in once on that conversation: Who is that crazy guy who built such a big bronze statue? (Laughter) So from time to time you gotta come up with crazy ideas. And life's been incredibly great to me. I've been really blessed. And I want to make sure that -- I would like to do my part to make horse racing exciting, to think about what we have to do to get young people to the racetrack. There's a number of things -- and I will call on a lot of horse people who are involved in horse racing -- we've got to come up with -- we've got to make a few fundamental changes and bring more excitement to it. And I also might call on Steve and say, Steve, let's put our minds together: What can we do to make sure that horse racing will -- we've got to bring horse racing at a much higher level. And, again, that's something to think about. 30 years ago horse racing, the handle was about 30 billion. In today's dollars, that's at least 75 to 100 billion. But we only do 11 billion. There's so many leakages where the money disappears where so many people take the cream off, right? And we gotta sit down together, we gotta stop that. Huh? Okay. But anyway I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic that we can -- I think this year I think we should be able to unite some of the major stakeholders and say we gotta make some changes. I'm optimistic, and I'm really looking forward to -- I don't see no reason that the Pegasus purse, one of these days, wouldn't be 50 billion. Once you get the Chinese, the Japanese, it should be clearly a global affair, right? It's all there. Anyway, I'm optimistic. And I'm hopeful that when we sit down, that good minds will crystallize and say XXX, we gotta do. (Applause) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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