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144TH PREAKNESS STAKESMay 18, 2019Mark CasseTyler GaffalioneBaltimore, Maryland THE MODERATOR: First question is to Mark Casse. Coming off what happened two weeks ago, how sweet is this to come back here and win the Preakness? MARK CASSE: It was going to be sweet anywho. It's sweet. I've been following horse racing since I was like five, so 50-some years, and the Preakness has always been so big so me. But you know, I just felt like there was so much written, so much said that our horse never had a -- he wasn't going to win, he wasn't going to do this, and I felt bad. I felt bad for him, and I felt very bad for Gary Barber. I just wanted a fair shot. That's all I wanted. You know, we were coming back in two weeks, and there were a lot of fresh shooters. So I was extremely proud. But it wasn't -- a lot of people said, oh, is this revenge or -- no, I just wanted to win. THE MODERATOR: You just talked to Gary Barber, who can't be here today. Why? MARK CASSE: He's in France at the Cannes Film Festival. He has a day job unfortunately. We always kid, he says -- I say, Are you going to be there. He says, I don't want to quit my day job, and I say, Please don't. Q. Mark, you have been very aggressive as opposed to some other trainers. Do you feel rewarded for that? MARK CASSE: Absolutely. Anybody that knows me or follows my training, they know I'm aggressive, and I'm not afraid to take chances. We won the Breeders' Cup with Shamrock Rose last year off of two weeks. Personally, I don't think it's done enough. I think too many times trainers are too worried about their win percentages. I'm not -- we're not afraid to run them. Q. Tyler, can you please explain how the race unfolded for you? TYLER GAFFALIONE: The horse broke well. He relaxed more than usual today. That was the key. We warmed him up to do so. Mark said, just jog him today, let him walk, try and keep him as calm as possible, and it worked out. We just followed Warrior's Charge the whole way around there. He came off the fence going into the turn, and I thought about waiting to go outside him, but he kept going out, out, out. So I took my shot and went through there. The horse didn't hesitate and he finished the job. Q. Mark, did you give Tyler any additional instructions because of the No. 1 hole? MARK CASSE: We did. We talked about it yesterday. It was more about the warmup. I thought maybe we got him a little too fired up in the Derby, and we had planned on coming away from there. But you know, this horse has won from off the pace, or so I said to Tyler. I called him yesterday, I said, I want to talk to you about this before we get into everything. I said, I just want you to jog him and let him relax, and if they want to go, let him go. We were sitting -- with the exception of our horse was a little too eager in the Derby, we had a great trip until I call it the incident. You know, I would like to think if it wasn't for the incident, it would have been an interesting race down the lane. Q. Mark and Tyler, when did you notice or did you notice that there was a riderless horse in the race, and what was your reaction? TYLER GAFFALIONE: To be honest, I didn't know until we pulled up. They started yelling, "Loose horse." I'm glad to hear John Velazquez was all right. MARK CASSE: I knew right away. I knew right away. I saw it and I asked my wife Tina, I said, "Who was it," and she told me. I said, that was Johnny. And Johnny is a dear friend of ours. A lot of these guys are our friends. So we were worried. I used to -- I used to always tell my riders, Good luck, good luck, until a few years ago we had a horse go down and get hurt, and from that point on, I always just say, "Be safe." And I told almost every rider that went by, "Be safe," because that's the most important thing of all for everybody, be safe. Q. Mark, what were the last couple of weeks like for you and was it hard to focus with everything you had going on? MARK CASSE: My wife will tell you, I don't have a problem focusing. I focus. But you know, honestly, right after the Derby, I just felt -- it's hard to believe, but I felt joy and relief that he was okay and that we didn't have the worst disaster in horse racing history. I was good the next day. I was fine. I was out at the barn smiling, happy, talking to everybody. I went and saw Bill Mott, congratulated him. I knew that's not the way Bill wanted to win the race, but I went and saw him, and I felt bad for everybody. It didn't start until about Tuesday, and Tuesday there was a remark that somebody made that it was Tyler's fault. That got me pretty fired up. And then I read where they were blaming War of Will. I then became not so -- not quite as nice, and I was irritated. I said other words that I later regretted because they put them in headlines. But irritate is a nice word. But I handled it -- my mom called me about Thursday in tears, and she goes, Are you okay, are you okay. I said, Mom, I'm great, don't worry about me, I can handle this. Q. Tyler, Mark answered the question was there a sense of redemption. Was there any for you? TYLER GAFFALIONE: Not really. We were just focused on getting the horse to the winner's circle. That's the main thing. And his safety, of course. But it wasn't anything to do with redemption or trying to prove something. It was just the horse deserved it. He's a very talented horse, and we're just very thankful he was able to do so today, or prove that today. Q. When did you guys know this was a special horse? MARK CASSE: Well, I was around him a lot earlier than Tyler. I had him in Saratoga, and at the same time Wonder Gadot, I had Wonder Gadot, and everybody would come by the barn to see Wonder Gadot. And I would say, Do you want to see a really, really good horse? And I brought him out and I would show him. That's when we started calling him Wow. A lot of people said, Why are you so excited, because I do train a lot of horses, and Derby week he breezed, and everybody was like, Wow, and I'm like, Now you know what I've been seeing. TYLER GAFFALIONE: I'll add more about that, as well. When Wonder Gadot was going for the Travers, there was talk that I might be able to ride her, and when they made the decision to ride Irad Ortiz, Mark told my agent, Don't worry, we have another one just as good. Q. How do you prepare, Mark, for the next race, and what's the plan for tonight? MARK CASSE: Well, my wife will tell you, whenever we have a bad day, I sleep. I go to sleep. And when we have a great day, I can't sleep. Tonight I'll be -- I don't know, we have reservations somewhere, but we won't be making those. There will be a lot go through my mind and just trying to figure out now what's the next step, how do we do this, how do you work it out. So that's what I'll be working on. And I would say if all goes well, you know us, we like to run. We'll probably be at Belmont. Q. Mark, regardless of who won today, someone was going to have to answer the question about what about all the Derby horses who weren't here. You're the guy we have to ask. Does that matter at all? MARK CASSE: This is the Preakness. We just won the Preakness. I really don't care who was in it. Q. You were questioned a minute ago about the Belmont. Have you given any thought yet to what you want to do? I know it's early in the process, what you want to do in three weeks in New York, and considering what happened today with John and two weeks ago with the whole incident, are you worried about something bizarre happening in New York? MARK CASSE: I think we've covered bizarre already, so no, I'm not worried. This is the life we live each and every day. We always have curve balls thrown at us on a constant basis. No, I'm not worried about that at all, and we'll see. First War of Will will go back to -- he's going to go to Keeneland. Very important person that's not here today is David Carroll. David Carroll is my main guy, and he had him all winter long. He wasn't here today, and I'm sorry about that because he deserves much of his credit. So he'll go back to Keeneland. We'll see how he acts, and if all goes well, we'll probably send him up maybe 10 days before Belmont. But that's a big question. Gary Barber is a very, very hands-on owner, extremely, extremely smart and a very good horse person. So there will be lots of conversations. Q. Tyler, you join a list of pretty impressive riders in this sport for over 100 years. What does it mean to you to be with the Pat Days and the Jerry Baileys and guys you may have grown up -- or that might be maybe too long ago, but what does it mean to join this exclusive club that's won a Triple Crown race? TYLER GAFFALIONE: It's such an honor, and like you mentioned Jerry Bailey, I actually called him this morning to speak with him, asked for a little bit of advice, and he was so helpful, and just how everyone -- it's so incredible just being mentioned among those. Just so thankful. MARK CASSE: One ironic thing is I call Tyler the next Johnny Velazquez, so with Johnny coming off, he's heard me say it many times -- Q. Great compliment? TYLER GAFFALIONE: Absolutely, none better. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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