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149TH TRAVERS STAKESAugust 25, 2018Jonathan ThomasRobert LapentaRandy GullattSaratoga Springs, New York Catholic Boy THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we're happy to present the winning connections of today's Grade 1 Runhappy Travers of Catholic Boy. We have on hand Bob LaPenta, of course. We have Robert Gullatt, Siena Farm, and as well winning trainer Jonathan Thomas. Let's start off with you, Jonathan. Can you talk about your thoughts just before the race, your instructions to Javier, and how everything played out. JONATHAN THOMAS: The beauty of having Javier and riders of his ilk is you really don't have to give him much in the way of instructions. The only thing we asked is go ahead and warm him up, and Bob gave him sage advice about keeping his face clean, which we thought as soon as we drew the 11 hole. When I saw him warm up the way he did, he just seemed happy and moving well, and I thought we'd probably break sharp. I still have to kind of sit down and digest it, but the way he was traveling, and when he threw up the first quarter fractions, half fractions, I thought it was a reasonable time for where we were. When I saw him still traveling nicely to the 3/8 pole, I thought we were golden because that's where he really starts to get strong. The mile and a quarter has always been something we've really known is his best distance. He proved today maybe he's better on the dirt. THE MODERATOR: Mr. LaPenta, your comments on winning the Travers today. ROBERT LaPENTA: I can't even put it into words. I've been coming to Saratoga since I'm 18 years old. I won't tell you how long ago that was. This race has always been my dream, even more than the Kentucky Derby. I know a lot of people don't understand that. The Midsummer Derby was always my dream. We always one it a couple of times with the cliff's edge and a couple of other horses. This horse has been special from the first time we heard of him, and Jonathan and the team, they have done just a phenomenal job. This is something that they should make a movie about. I mean, a trainer that's never won a graded stakes race to buy a horse for us, the horse went RNA in the sale. He goes back, we close the deal. He was not considered to be an A horse at Bridlewood, and Jonathan kept saying, there's something about him that I like. I said, okay, now you're going to have a chance to prove it, and he did. Unbelievable. Take me to church. Q. Mr. Gullatt, your comments from Siena Farm. RANDY GULLATT: He jumped in on this horse in the spring after watching him train with Jonathan. We were clients of Jonathan's, and we've been impressed with Jonathan and the horse. Just watching this team learn this horse and make this horse happy every day was very impressive. We're just so proud of the team and each and every one of them that worked their tail off and just learned this horse. We're just happy to be a part of it. THE MODERATOR: Getting back to Jonathan, can you talk about just his development, Catholic Boy's, from the Florida Derby, to Sam F. Davis, to running on the turf and switching back now on the dirt, and his performance today being able to hold off and run away from Mendelssohn on the front end there? JONATHAN THOMAS: Going back to the Florida Derby, we had that one-off bleeding episode, which is really unusual because it never happened before or since. So we had to kind of draw a line through that. We were encouraged. He finished fourth. He wasn't beaten in 20 lengths and finished in 12th. The guys like these allow you to be patient. We huddled up and made the best of not the greatest situation. They allowed us to take the best care possible of him, and we got rewarded. Any time you take care of a horse, they try to take care of you back. Without owners like these, you wouldn't be able to do that. Once we kind of regrouped, I thought the turf -- the Belmont Derby was a great target. We used the Pennine Ridge for that, obviously answered the bell there. The Belmont Derby was an incredible feat for him, and he came out so well. Winning that Grade 1 allowed us to think about -- to go ahead and roll the dice slightly for this race. We never thought we were outmatched. There was a question mark hanging over our head, but he trained so well. We just put it to the horse, and he put us there. Q. For Jonathan, what is next for the horse, and your thoughts going ahead to the Breeders Cup? JONATHAN THOMAS: He's going to get a bath and about nine quarts of feed in about two hours, and he's going to get a lot of pets when we get back. I don't know. We're just going to savor this moment and just see how he comes out of it. We've always been very methodical about our approach, and we'll just take it day by day and see where goes. The beauty of it is from a timing perspective, you can go dirt or turf now. Don't know if you go to the Hill Prince and back into deeper waters after that. Q. This is for Jonathan too. I don't think you're surprised you won the race. Are you surprised how easily it looked at the end for him? JONATHAN THOMAS: That part did surprise me just because there were so many good horses behind him. I was waiting for something to kind of appear from out of the clouds, and when they didn't -- normally, with these sort of races, by the time you're at the quarter pole, it just becomes kind of a slog to the wire. I was impressed that he just kept going, and the rest of the horses are kind of just peeling back. He just keeps surprising us every race. I mean, the last three races were nail biters, and then he goes and wins by five against what's left of the best of the 3-year-olds. That's part of the game is just being -- there's the attrition and the training and the racing, and he's still here. So it's a big credit to him. Q. Bob, with a name like LaPenta, I'm guessing there's a good Catholic Boy in your background somewhere. Why did you name him this? ROBERT LaPENTA: Well, you know I'm a graduate of Iona. He runs in the maroon and gold. When I graduated from college, they put a picture. Under my picture in the yearbook was he's More Than Ready to succeed. His dam is Song of Bernadette. So I said what a perfect opportunity to connect the whole thing with Iona, the colors, and Song of Bernadette. He's obviously got God on his side. Q. Robert, you talked about wanting to win this race. The way that he won it, were you able to enjoy it there down the stretch? ROBERT LaPENTA: I couldn't even breathe. I actually thought we had a really good chance to win. You know, you listen to the analysts, and the Florida Derby was a major hiccup. I mean, we thought we were on our way to the Kentucky Derby, and that's every owner's dream. You know, you buy horses. You know if you buy 20, maybe one or two of them give you a chance, if you're lucky, to get to that race. So he was on the right track. At the Florida Derby, Jonathan said he bled very badly. There's something about Gulfstream where horses bleed there that either never bled before or never bleed again. But all of the analysts and everybody, very few picked him because we didn't think he'd run well on dirt. We knew he'd run well on dirt. We didn't know he'd run this well. Q. Jonathan, how long do you think it will take for you to sink in you won a Travers in your first time saddling a horse in it? JONATHAN THOMAS: It will take a little while. I mean, it's -- I can't think of a better place for something like this to happen. Saratoga's got a special place for me. It's really the first place, when I left home, I got my car and came up here and lived on the back side. So it has a lot of special memories for me. To win a race like this here means a lot. Q. Robert and Jonathan, can you talk about the decision to go with Javier Castellano for the mount? Now a six-time Travers winner, five previously, holds the record. Can you talk about getting him to ride Catholic Boy from the Pennine Ridge on till now, till the Travers? JONATHAN THOMAS: I think one of the unsung heroes is right there. John Panagot has been an integral part. He has a twofold job, where he started with Mr. LaPenta as a racing manager, and they've been incredible together, and then he picked up Javier. It just had a great feel to it, the whole arrangement. We've come a long way together. We've have had each other's backs from the beginning and have always tried to put the best interests of Mr. LaPenta and the horse ahead of anything of our own. So fantastic to see that play out that way. Javier, it's a no brainer. If you can get Javier, you get him. All you have to do is look back at his last three runs to see why. Q. Robert, your thoughts? ROBERT LaPENTA: Funny the way things happen. John and I have been together for seven years now. Racing, if you want to be at the highest level, it's a very difficult sport. But there's no sport that brings families and friends and people together like this sport. When Catholic Boy began to show promise, I think I told John -- and I think this was before he even won his second race, the With Anticipation Stakes up here -- I said, we ought to get Javier on this horse because he's never won the Derby. It was my dream that we would win it with Javier, and it's just weird the way this thing turned out. So it was meant to be. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. Congratulations once again. ROBERT LaPENTA: Thank you very much, everyone. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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