BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 26, 2002

Mike Smith

MIKE SMITH: I told a good friend of mine last night if she gets the opportunity to run her race early that you might see something special today, and that's what she did. She broke better than she ever had. I used to have a lot of trouble with her out of the gate. She's going through a growing stage. She used to be all legs. That's why you see her form, all of a sudden, change. She's gotten stronger and more agile and now she leaves the gate like a rocket where before it took her four or five jumps to get all her legs going in a forward direction. That's the difference.

MIKE SMITH: She dug in and came back on. I opened up a half a length to three quarters of a length with her. Any other racetrack in any other race period, you have to win. I ran into a champion -- my mare is a champion, today I ran into a champion and a half. She came back -- I was having trouble the whole way down the backside gauging her. I knew she was the horse to beat and I wanted to follow her. That's why I kind of gave up my spot in the first turn because I didn't want her running at me because I watched her run and she tends to loaf when she made the lead. She just continues to open up, and so I didn't want to give her a target. I wanted her to make the lead, let her loaf like she did and me attack. Everything was great until the end. She just come back -- she come back in three jumps, I mean fast. Horses just don't do that. It takes them a 16th of a mile. When you open up three quarters of a lead with the room I had, I wasn't falling apart, my mare was running. In three jumps she came back. I almost let my legs buckle like someone hits you with a good body blow, they take her legs out. My mare ran a great race.

MIKE SMITH: Are you talking about STORM FLAG FLYING? I got about a half a length. I thought I did. I wasn't counting or looking. I knew I blew by her, but then again, within a few strikes she got it together. Johnnie left-handed on her and she blurted back. I was wanting to fire fast. You have the momentum. By the time she got back on it -- I knew she was going to come back on me and I would have thought I could hold her off by a neck or so. She caught me two or three jumps.

MIKE SMITH: I rode a mare called INSIDE INFORMATION who was one of the best mares I had ever ridden, SKY BEAUTY and her, and JERSEY GIRL. INSIDE INFORMATION of course retired after the Breeders' Cup, but AZERI, I don't know, she does something more. For some reason it just gives me the feeling anyway -- you never know until run two of them together, but I think she has even the potential to get better. She's just now really maturing and growing into her body. Laura has in her barn a picture from her first race all the way to her last one and they don't look the same. The color and the markings are the same but the bodies are totally different. She could be the best filly ever.