BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 26, 2002

Berbely Lewis

Robert Lewis

D. Wayne Lukas

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, as you know, we just had one chance to; we tried to make the most of it. It just didn't fall into place. When Spain wrote the record that was held by the SERENA'S SONG of the Lewises they changed the complexion. We were talking about running her this year and then we, last her. We backed up a little bit on our two-turn two year olds and it just didn't fall into place. We were happy to have the one we did have in there. It was our one bullet but we fired it pretty big.

ROBERT LEWIS: I don't think that's possible at all. I think he'll remain at that level because he has D. Wayne Lukas doing the handling and that's so important. I'd just add to that, if I may, that if you go back, you members of the press, you know so well that the number of horses and great horses that Wayne has brought Beverly and I. I could just go on and on and on with all of them, and I know I bore you with all of my conversation --

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I know them all. I'll help him.

ROBERT LEWIS: The list is just endless; what he's done for racing is just absolutely incredible.

ROBERT LEWIS: Well, we ran against a very, very fine athlete and we're very happy for the Phipps. If you can find an athlete of that stature and run second and third, you can't feel usefully bad. We certainly have had kind of a history, and Wayne can attest to this, of running second so we're kind of schooled and trained to run second once in a while, and that's your -- lot and lots of times in this business. In this case today we came home winners, and ain't it nice to be first, second and third?

D. WAYNE LUKAS: They handle it pretty well, guys.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, we didn't look beyond this but we did have a little bit of discussion and Bob and Beverly and I will get our heads together. I would say if we were to come back at another race we'd probably look for seriously at the cigar mile.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, we thought he was a pretty versatile horse and we think he would be a very, very effective miler and maybe even longer. We were looking for a very effective strub horse as you pointed out, Bill, but we had a wealth of riches in the sprint division with YONAGUSKA and this horse and then SNOW RIDGE and then as the summer went along SNOW RIDGE was retired due to injury, and we talked about maybe letting this horse do what he does best. We always thought he was very quick, and once I made the commitment and through Bob and Beverly we decided we were going to sprint him, he responded, and probably -- I'm a little bit at fault trying to think that he would be as effective as he's been sprinting stretching out. In hindsight, I wouldn't have done that. I think he's the fastest horse in the world today and we need to let these horses do what they do best.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I had GULCH the entire year. I got him right after his three-year-old year and I had him the entire year going right up to the sprint. I'm guilty of pretty much the same thing with GULCH. I ran him a mile and 16th before the sprint and I remember Peter saying you're crazy, you're taken us out of the sprint, you've taken all the spread away and we got into quite a discussion. Anyhow, we find that in training that if a horse has natural speed that the easiest thing in the world to do is to sharpen him and get him to run six furlongs. I think of all the things we try to do as trainers, my colleagues included, is shorten them up and get them to sprint if they've got natural speed.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Actually CARSON HOLLOW was causing a lot of heat. I was looking for extra heat. I thought she'd be up there. I even thought TOUCH TONE might be up there. We talked in the paddock, when you bring them from all sections of the country, it's one thing when you run at Belmont or Santa Anita, you might have one or two horses but when you get to the Breeders' Cup there are five or six of that caliber so we were concerned about a hot pace. I told Pat Gary and Dave both that you're going to have to play off the break and see what happens. With CARSON HOLLOW I thought something had to give and Jerry was very patient on waiting for that thing to come back. The thing that did surprise me at the eighth pole that horse didn't come back and I turned to the people I was with and said Scott Lake's horse was running a hell of a race. I don't want this to sound wrong or boastful, but I was not concerned that we wouldn't finish. I didn't know we would win it, but like I said earlier, ORIENTATE has mile capabilities and I thought if we were in contention at the eighth pole we could finish with any horse no matter what the pace was.

BEVERLY LEWIS: Well, racing form had in print that the Lewises had a drought as far as the Breeders' Cup. They could handle the Triple Crown but had a Breeders' Cup drought. Now we've broken that drought.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I bought MT. LIVERMORE, the sire, and trained her and bought DREAM TEAM and trained her. This was a family package all the way. It was a little extra because these wonderful people let me go back and try it one more time once those two were mated together. The happiest people out there next to the Lewises might have been the Gainsway (phonetic) Farm people.

BEVERLY LEWIS: They're happy.