BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 5, 2022

Ryan Moore

Aidan O'Brien

Keeneland Racecourse

Press Conference

Filly & Mare Turf

THE MODERATOR: Tuesday takes the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. We have jockey Ryan Moore. Two wins yesterday for the same connections. And now Tuesday, today, really strong finish from this 3-year-old filly. This is now her ninth start of the year. She's been well traveled. Tell us about your trip.

RYAN MOORE: She had a beautiful trip. Everything went perfect in the race. The pace was strong and was in a good spot. I was able to go where I needed to go.

The second she hung in there tough and she made me work to get her. I was thinking I could pick her up a little bit easier than I did. But she's obviously a very good filly. And my goal, it's her ninth run, she was a late foal, always thought an awful lot of her.

She ran in four classics this year. She won the Oaks, and I thought she would sort of win Group I's spot all year. And for whatever reason, things worked against her. She was beat by Alpinista, which was a huge run in hindsight.

But today she showed up and put in a really good and professional performance. She's probably from the best family in the stud group, really. And when a horse with that pedigree and the horse is running that well, that's why they're able to go and perform like they did.

THE MODERATOR: Just a young filly as you mentioned 3-year-old, a late foal. Having that many starts, do you think, though, that having that many this year kind of just gave her a lot more experience for something like this?

RYAN MOORE: Oh, yeah, as I say, she done everything beautifully today. It always helps. I thought she would have won a couple more this year, but she won Oaks and a Breeders' Cup (indiscernible). So it's a fantastic double for any racehorse to achieve.

THE MODERATOR: Quite incredible. Three wins so far for you at this Breeders' Cup at Keeneland this year. And few more mounts to come.

Q. She's a classic winner. Now she's a Breeders' Cup winner. Like you said, you expected maybe even some more Grade I's. Can you put your finger how she turned the corner today to get back to her winning ways?

RYAN MOORE: Aidan, he's got these horses here in unbelievable shape. And obviously we had Toy and Above the Curve. But Aidan was, last week he was happy with how this filly had been doing in between the arc weekend and the Breeders' Cup.

I felt he had her in a good place today. It's all credit to Aidan and the team at home. Lucky he put me on her today and she ran well.

Q. As a rider, I'm curious, when you have a horse like In Italian, a legitimate Grade I winner on the front end, does that play into your mindset at all? She's not just like some rabbit that's setting the pace; she's legitimate to go all the way. What's your mindset going in?

RYAN MOORE: For me it's always about making sure -- I can't ride the other horse, I can only try to keep it comfortable for my filly. And judging her how she is and if you force him to go after too early or wait a little long people might think you're giving her too much to do. But if you move a little early then you're empty.

You just have to trust your horse and, look, today it worked out. The second is obviously a very good filly. And I thought she's possibly better, a little bit short on distance. I was thinking my filly gets a mile and a half and hopefully that would be the difference.

THE MODERATOR: We'll get to trainer Aidan O'Brien. We just had a nice chat with Ryan on this filly. He always felt that there was another Group I in her. But just kind of take us through because now this is her ninth start of the year.

AIDAN O'BRIEN: Absolutely. When she ran in the Guineas, first run of the year, she wasn't even three. So the day when she won The Oaks she was just gone three. We had to be very conscious that she was very immature.

And we had her in this race kind of all year. And we knew that she had to compete from The Oaks to now. But we had it in her head as well if we trained her hard we would stop the physical improvement, stop her from maturing. We trained her for the races but every race wasn't a be-all-end-all, if you know what I mean.

From the last day she ran a very good race in very bad ground from a bad draw. And Wayne was very happy with her. But the intensity of her work improved or increased since then. And sometimes when you do that, you don't get improvement.

But the improvement seemed to come at home. But obviously you're never sure until you run. But Dean rides her every day. And Jamie, who is in charge of her, both of them were happy coming here.

So Ryan gave her a brilliant ride. It was an evenly run race. We always felt her trip was maybe a mile and a quarter even though she won Oaks at a mile and a half, she was always a filly that had that bit of kind of class to run well in -- obviously to run well in Guineas on the way to an Oaks. So that was her, really.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan mentioned, with her pedigree, home bread Coolmore, one of the finest pedigrees in racing.

AIDAN O'BRIEN: Absolutely. She's a full sister to Minding. And her pedigree is just incredible, 100 percent home bred. She's an incredible filly, really. Like I said, she was a very late foal. But very exciting, really.

THE MODERATOR: Any plans going forward since she is so young?

AIDAN O'BRIEN: The plan to come here, Steph and Ty might to go to Ashford after the race. But depending on her run. Talking to MV and Michael and JP and Tom after the race and they were going to speak to Jon and Derrick and George. But I think there's a good chance she could stay and train for next year. So that would be exciting.