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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 2, 2018

Louisville, KY

THE MODERATOR: We are live in the post race interview room with the happy winners of the inaugural Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

On the left is Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, and on the right is Mr. Teo Ah Khing of the China Horse Club. Congratulations to you both.

Elliott, first of all, I'll ask you, the horse won in wire-to-wire fashion off just the start on Gulfstream on a typically firm South Florida turf course. Were you concerned at all about the elements of the unknown with the soft turf conditions going into the race?

ELLIOTT WALDEN: I was a little bit. You only make one start, and it's in South Florida, and as you said, the conditions were completely different.

Loved this post. Thought the 5 hole couldn't be any better because you're not too far inside where you could be yielding and you're not far outside. When he broke so cleanly -- in fact, he broke, and Javier lost an iron. He said, when he broke so fast, that Javier lost an iron. When he broke like that, I felt like we had a good chance.

Then the 9 came up, and I thought the 9 was going to win its quarter pole. Looked like she was traveling very well. This horse, you got to give him credit, he's 2 for 2, and was drawing away at the end.

Q. Mr. Teo, it's been a storybook year for you and China Horse Club. You and WinStar team up with Justify. Now you put the first Breeders' Cup winner of the weekend in the books. Can you summarize what almost a magic carpet ride this year has been?
TEO AH KHING: What can I say? I think we have a great partner, and I think the horse, they recognize that, and the horse performing well. It's a good start for the Breeders' Cup season, and we still have a few more tomorrow. So we're looking forward to that.

THE MODERATOR: Elliott, we're unable to be joined by Todd Pletcher and Javier Castellano, who are busy getting ready for the next race. Did Javier impart any thoughts on the course condition?

ELLIOTT WALDEN: No, he didn't. I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. He just was very impressed with the horse. That's all he really said. It has been a storybook year to have partners like Mr. Teo and the China Horse Club. It makes it really fun to win these kind of races. It never gets old.

We're just blessed to be here. We're blessed that Mr. Troutt and WinStar, Mr. Teo and SF put up the capital it takes to buy these kinds of horses. We have a great team looking at them and trying to find them, and we just got lucky.

So it's really a nice day. We had two City Zip's win. He's gone. That's exciting as well.

THE MODERATOR: I'm going to turn it over to the media in just a second. You can ask a question from the main press center, and it will be relayed down here.

Elliott, I want to ask you a racing manager's question. Horse had just the maiden win. It wasn't the typical maiden win. This horse was under a drive late. It appeared you were trying to make the margin of victory as low as possible. Did you know what you have in this horse and try to do something special, run up the score, if you will, to qualify and get into this race?

ELLIOTT WALDEN: I'd like to say that's smart, but Todd's a great trainer, and Todd felt like he should go to Florida and try to win a maiden race down there and point for the stake we were in with the possibility of coming here.

The maiden race didn't go, brought it back two or three times, it didn't go. So Todd felt like enough of the horse, the horse was trained well enough that we should try the stake.

So at that point, the horse then put on a showdown there, and his training from there until now has just been exceptional. I'd like to say we weren't trying to win by that much -- but any time you win by that much on the turf, it's extremely impressive because most of the time the fields are bunched up. So to win by daylight twice like he has, he's a special horse.

THE MODERATOR: This is win number four, incidentally, for WinStar at the Breeders' Cup, most recently with Tourist, also with Drosselmeyer and others. Questions from the media for Mr. Walden?

Q. Do you all together have in partnership all totaled or a ballpark? And then, obviously, it's a 2-year-old. Would you think about a dirt campaign for the Classics next year?
ELLIOTT WALDEN: We have -- we put about 25 horses in training a year, colts, so we've done that for the last four years now, including the yearling crop we just assembled, and we're always looking for the classics. I don't know what we'll do with this horse, Bulletin. It's the first time we've been in a situation to win a grass race like this with a 2-year-old, so I'm just going to enjoy today, and we'll figure that out later.

But I think City Zip's * are good on the grass, so I don't know what Todd will figure out, but we'll huddle up and figure it out. The one thing I thought about is how impressive would he be at Royal Ascot next year? We've tried that the past two years with a couple horses. Mr. Teo is a great sportsman and loves to run at Royal Ascot as well. So that might be in his future as well.

Q. Mr. Teo, Bulletin was expected to be one of the main pace setters. So was Soldier's Call from the 2 hole. Not that you ever wish any of your opponents poor luck, but was part of you a little pumped up to see Soldier's Call not get the best of starts, to put it mildly?
TEO AH KHING: Well, I think, if you watch the race, he wasn't too far behind. The number 2 horse was always at the rail, and he was at the start of the furlong, or first 200 meters he was close by. I think they are also in the midst of a lot of European horses today and they're all turf horses, so we must take credit to the winner today. I think he performed well, and credit is due to the winner.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. Well, an exciting second race in the career of Bulletin and certainly leaves a lot of hopes and expectations and excitement to the future. To Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm and Mr. Teo Ah Khing of the China Horse Club, congratulations. Here's hope there's good luck for you as the rest of the weekend progresses.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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