130TH BELMONT STAKES

June 6, 1998

J.R. Preston

Jack Preston

Art Preston

Gary Stevens

Elliot Walden

J.R. PRESTON: J.R. Preston.

JACK PRESTON: Jack Preston.

JACK PRESTON: How sweet it is. We raced, get in a classic like this. It surprised me. Finally we win in a photo, but how more exciting could it get?

JACK PRESTON: I couldn't call it.

ART PRESTON: I think it's so close you couldn't tell. Neil Howard told us that he surely won.

ART PRESTON: We bought this horse and last November and we hoped that he might develop into a good horse, and he has met and exceeded our expectations in various ways. Of course, we have a breeding operation. We're thinking of a future there, hoping for a long racing career for him.

J.R. PRESTON: Much better.

JACK PRESTON: About 180, I'd say.

JACK PRESTON: Of course, we were up and down on the roller coaster again, like we've been so many times. We didn't know Gary filed an inquiry. We thought it was maybe Desmoreaux, suspended, and I paced for several minutes, not realizing that our horse might be taken down; but Gary said Real Quiet came into him in the stretch and he filed the inquiry because he didn't know how the photo was going to come out. He knew he had been fouled.

JACK PRESTON: You have -- you've got to say the best of everything about both of them, also a lot for Real Quiet; what a horse, super horse. He's really not, we have to say. This proves that he, like some people, have thought he is not a Triple Crown horse he wouldn't have let us beat him.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Coach Pitino saw me upstairs. He wants to talk to me.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: It basically went according to plan with the fact that Gary and I talked yesterday about, you know, kind of tracking Real Quiet. He drew inside of us so we were able to kind of sit off of him and we got shuffled back a little further than probably both of us would have hoped, but we talked about letting the horse settle. And that's where he was content and that's where he was happy. I knew that Gary and I -- that's what's we talked about. I knew Gary felt confident there. I felt confident there. The main key to what we felt like to win the race was to let Real Quiet make his move, and weather the storm; don't try to go with him. He has such a tremendous burst, but let him go ahead and exert that energy he goes around that final turn and then see if we can come pick up the pieces late. It's just, Gary rode a beautiful race. That's exactly how it worked out.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Till about five minutes after the photos came down.

GARY STEVENS: Elliott said it right there, with our meeting yesterday. That's exactly what we talked about. It was very, very difficult to hit the 3/8 pole and see Real Quiet opening up on me, and not move, not push the button. I wanted to push the button, believe me. That's what we had talked about. I think any time you have the confidence in the horse that you're riding, you're going to ride with confidence and I gained so much confidence riding this colt in the Preakness, riding him probably in a manner he doesn't necessarily want to run in and still run as gallant as he did that day. As Elliott said, we let Real Quiet make his move around the turn. He made the explosive move and opened up. He was winning the race with authority, coming into the eighth pole. That's when we just started to get wound up. We split horses at the eighth pole and this colt saw daylight. He just threw me back in the saddle. Real Quiet was getting leg weary the last eighth of a mile. I felt very confident we were going to pick him up. In the closing few strides, Real Quiet shifted out pretty drastically and made some pretty serious contact with us. It more or less stopped our colt. I felt like he was gonna win by a neck at the point, that I had got up on his shoulder and all of a sudden he hit me and it broke this colt's momentum. So I wasn't sure we had gotten up or not. I reported to one of the outriders I wanted a hold on the race. I felt the contact was significant, especially if we got beat. It was going to be significant. There was a possibility of a change. Fortunately, we got up. The stewards didn't have to go into that decision. This would have been a bad situation.

GARY STEVENS: What the confusion was, they wanted a chance to speak with me and make sure that's exactly what I was wanting, the hold, for after the race and no one came down to tell me the stewards wanted me on the phone. I was out circling the racetrack. Finally, they got through the confusion, reported to me. Kent was in speaking with the stewards on the phone and as he came out of the booth, I got on the phone. They said, looked like that horse came out and bumped you pretty hard. They said we put the hold up. That's the reason for the inquiry. We wanted to talk to you about it. Congratulations. And I walked outside.

GARY STEVENS: I'm reliving -- I just saw a clip of Kent Desormeaux out in the paddock. I know exactly what he's feeling right now. When I saw it, I was reliving a lot of emotion at the same time, knowing what he's feeling. He probably feels like he's let the whole country down right now. He hasn't. They've all done a great job being spokesmen for our sport for the last five weeks in a row. They've done a tremendous job. He has nothing to be ashamed of. I'm very happy in the seat I'm sitting in right now. I really don't feel any vindication from last year. It's a different year, it's a different race. I told somebody yesterday that this is the Belmont Stakes. It's a classic. I've got one trophy up on my trophy cabinet at home and I wanted another one to put up next to it. Hopefully there will be more to come.

GARY STEVENS: I haven't seen him since directly after the race. I ride Silver Charm for him next week in Kentucky.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: You think you're going to ride him?

GARY STEVENS: Bob's a competitor. He knows I'm a competitor. He said something when I got up on the horse, wished me luck. With Bob's sense of humor, as I was leaving into the tunnel, he was standing there screaming at me. I didn't look at him. I had my game face on him. It was time for no jokes. I know what he was trying to do. He was trying to get me out of it. That's his job. He probably thinks I didn't hear him, but I heard you Bob.

GARY STEVENS: Well, I actually split horses at the 5/16 pole before the one at the 1/4 pole. That hole was tighter than the one at the 1/8 pole. When he went through the one at the 5/16 with no problem. I wasn't worried at the one at the 1/8 pole. He's full of gameness. You point him at something and direct him and he'll run through it.

GARY STEVENS: Was bumped the first time at the 5/16 pole when I was going between horses. The outside horse floated in, inside horse floated out. They both made contact. He was still relatively fresh at that point. Even though it was late in the race, he was still getting wound up with his run. Any time you got a fresh horse underneath you, they can withstand a little bit of contact better than when they're tired. The contact three or four strides before the finish that was definitely significant enough that it could have cost me the race, had we come up a nose short.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Right after the Derby we felt like the race we would have the best chance in was the Belmont. We vacillated whether we should go to the Preakness and the simple fact of that matter was that we felt like we wanted to be on our best, have our best day right here today. And then things changed in Pimlico, and we kind of redirected our sights, but always with the focus that we were gonna give them a hard time in the Belmont. This horse is suited to the mile and a half. He always, as Gary said, he's very tenacious. He finds room which good horses do. And, you know, he's a fighter and you know we're just fortunate that the five weeks went as well as they did. You know, we had one little setback with the skin disease that everybody seemed to make a big deal over. I kept telling everybody I didn't think it would matter. Of course, if he got beat today, I would have been wrong. You know, when we came in the paddock and he kind of swells up, he's not a real big colt, but he bows that neck and gets to prancing in place and he thinks he's a big horse. I saw it in his eyes. Gary said he saw it warming up. He felt it underneath him. He's just a great horse to train.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Well, it's been a roller coaster. You know at the 1/8 pole had flashbacks of Churchill Downs that we might not get there. I saw Real Quiet tiring and saw Gary coming, and, you know, I knew this horse was gonna give it all he had to try to get there, and I was just hoping that he would get there and right at the wire. I didn't know what to think, so it's been a tumultuous hour since the race. But it's a great feeling and, you know, that's what we get up for every day and I'm just thankful that people like the Prestons give me these horses to train, because as Gary will tell you, that's what makes the difference is the good horses.

GARY STEVENS: Not until late. I knew I had a lot of horse throughout the race. When you're dealing with these quality horses and you have a quality horse in front of you, you really don't know until the race is over with, especially in this case. I'm not going to tell you that I knew I had that horse at the corner pole. I didn't know I had him till we hit the finish line. But I did know that I had a lot of horse underneath me and we were going to be competitive when it came time to run.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: I would hope that makes him feel better about coming to the Queen's Plate. I would like to have taken him to the Queen's Plate. I know it's their premiere race. When the Prestons bought this colt, that was an option that was probably number one on the priority list at that point, not knowing if he was a Triple Crown type horse or not, that race looked like it was dead in his sights. They've called me for the last month and a half about this colt wanting him to come to Canada, and, you know, he's a tremendous colt. You know, I think people should take pride in where he's bred. And you know he stands well for Canada today.

GARY STEVENS: No, I really wasn't. That's something that Elliott and I spoke about last night. We felt that may have happened because of the adrenalin factor. When you're dealing with $5 million and a bonus, everything else, we thought that that was a possibility. That colt does have such an explosive move. He gets there quick. When you push the button, he explodes; so, no, I wasn't surprised.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: It's pretty simple. You've got to train your horse and not his schedule. This colt lost some weight after the Preakness. Real Quiet experienced the same type of down time that this colt did, and Bob reacted in a way that he felt was necessary with Real Quiet and I reacted in a way I felt was necessary and that was cutting workouts back from 2 to 1. I normally work a colt twice between a three-week interval, but the colt lost some weight and I felt like that he was as fit as he was going to be. He had been on a tremendous training schedule from the first of March on, and if one workout was going to make the difference, we were in big trouble because I felt like he needed to pick up those, bounce back, and he did. He's just really blossomed the last week. His coat was, you know, subpar a week ago. His weight is a little light. In the past week, as the week went on, I got more confident. After the Preakness, I felt like Real Quiet trounced on us really good. I felt we should have beat him in the Derby. I felt like we came in here with a shot. As the week got on, I felt more confident as the week went on.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Bob, you know, I don't feel any empathy for him. Bob has had a tremendous two years. And Bob is a great horse trainer. And, you know, I'm just happy for my connections. It's not about beating Bob Baffert. It's not about beating Real Quiet. It wasn't about beating Favorite Trick in the Arkansas Derby. It's about trying to win the races and a win for the people that pay me to do it. I don't have any feelings one way or the other for Bob about that.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: We hope to give him a break and point him towards the Haskel?

ELLIOTT WALDEN: We hope to give him a break and look at the Haskel and the Travers. We feel like this colt possibly could be three-year-old champion if the rest of the year goes right. You know, again, he got unlucky in the Derby. He turned the table on Real Quiet here today and, you know, I think it puts him on even footing. So it's going to be good for racing to have these two hook up again. I'm looking forward to it.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: I don't know about that.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: The question was, if I thought I won the race when I crossed the wire. I had absolutely no idea. I knew it was very, very close. I really had no idea.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: If I had to run, it would have been --

ELLIOTT WALDEN: I tell you what, it's been okay because of the fact that I've had one horse to focus on, which is what I was supposed to be focusing on in the last two weeks. It hasn't affected me at all.

GARY STEVENS: As I said, when you go out of this jock's room to go up there and ride with the weight of the world on you, there is more pressure than you can even imagine, and you don't realize that pressure is there till after the fact. As I said before, Kent Desormeaux has nothing to be ashamed of. He did, obviously, what he thought was right at the time. That's what we get paid for. He is a champion, a future Hall of Famer.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: That's how the horse won the last two races with that middle move.

GARY STEVENS: Elliott is exactly right with that middle move. I think if he is knocked for his ride, if I was in the situation, I wouldn't pay too much attention to it.

GARY STEVENS: I think really it's not fair to say how stiff the competition is or how good this crop is or last year's crop until six or seven years from now we'll have a pretty good idea. But overall, I think it is probably a more competitive group than what last year's was. Especially at this point in time, these two colts are standouts. They're both sound. There's no foot problems, none of that. So hopefully they're going to hook up a few more times before the year is over with. We'll see a rivalry that will carry us through next year.

GARY STEVENS: You mean last year?

GARY STEVENS: It was a lot more relaxed. Any time you don't have the media spotlight on you, it's a lot easier to focus on your duties at hand and keep up with your normal routine. Last year I basically did the same thing that I did this year, except I came to New York early last year to hide out from the media a few days. It was a lot easier to hide in New York City than it was in Arcadia, California. This year I came to New York City to have a good time, a vacation for a few days before the Belmont Stakes; but I don't know, I felt very confident coming into today's race. When I walked into the paddock and saw Victory Gallop come walking in, I was even more confident. I could see -- I'm not a trainer or anything else, but I could physically see a difference in him today, other than the few spots on his back and rear end that had dried up. He looked as though he had put on weight. His eyes were glowing. He looked like a different horse today. When I got on his back in the paddock, he swelled up, as Elliott said. I grabbed the bridle. Warming up today, he was a different horse.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: Well, that's undisclosed, but -- and I don't think it's really relevant at this point, but the relevant part is that the Prestons have a theory that has proved successful for them over the years. And that is to go out and try to buy horses that can run successfully and go back and stand and stud. I've just been fortunate enough to be part of the team. They bought Distorted Humor and turned him over to me, and Victory Gallop, and turned him over to me. At the time both colts, they were advised by Jerry Brown of Thoro Graph, but the theory is they go buy horses, run a few times, show versatility buying young horses. In fact, I think you sell your yearlings.

JACK PRESTON: Prestonwood does.

ELLIOTT WALDEN: It's a very businesslike attitude but a very loose -- I don't feel the pressure that I feel sometimes from, you know, owners, in the fact that I feel like they have confidence in me. They've paid me to do a job. They have a farm manager named Rich Decker who I get along with really well. We have great communication lines. He's a liaison, so to speak, to the Prestons so that we can keep an open line of communication. And, you know, the great thing about today was that in the Derby, in the Preakness, nobody hung their head. The Prestons and myself, we came out of there even though we might have won. We kicked the water bucket. We came out of there with our heads high and in true appreciation for our horse and he tried as hard as he could go and second was all we could get. No second guessing. No, what if we did this? No, what if you did this? It's really good to train for people like that. That makes the difference, not only winning and losing, Gary will say this, too, I'm sure. You know, we all want to win. But it's fun to win with the right people. You know that's a big thing. I just appreciate the Prestons for it.

GARY STEVENS: Probably last week. I'm pretty hard on myself. And if you nitpick things enough and watch films of races that I've rode and I'm talking about myself, everytime I run second, doesn't even matter if it's a big race, I can find a reason that I could have improved upon my performance. That maybe a little too hard on myself sometimes, but that's the way I am, and that's part of the game and I think you notice that there's a lot of successful athletes in any sport.

GARY STEVENS: Yes, he will. Next two weeks will probably be very difficult for him. Fortunately, last year, I went to England and I was over there for about 14 days. I had to focus on some other things. So it took my mind off of it. You know, I felt very blessed to be able to do that. I didn't have to live a nightmare for two weeks. That's just something you learn to cope with and it's part of the game.

GARY STEVENS: As I said before, I don't feel like I'm the spoiler. I went out to ride the Belmont Stakes for great owners and trainers on a great horse. My goal was to win the race. That was the media's thing of thoroughbred horse racing. I'm a professional jockey. I'm paid to go out and try and win a race. That's the mindset I have. Very, very happy I won the race. The Victory Gallop won the race for the Prestonwood Farm. That's how I feel right now.