134TH BELMONT STAKES

June 8, 2002

Gary Drake

Richard Galpin

Ken McPeek

Edgar Prado

GARY DRAKE: Thank you, I really don't know what to say. I mean, we were really, really excited about this horse since we brought him over here last year and he broke his maiden in his first start on the dirt around two turns at Churchill Downs. A lot of good horses come out of those races. Then we had a quarter crack. We missed the Derby. I was disappointed about that. Obviously, the horse turned a corner and was doing well. He was training great all week. Kenny and I were over there watching him train every day. Looking at each other in disbelief, how much this horse was improving every day. It was a surprise but it wasn't a surprise, because the horse was touting himself to us.

GARY DRAKE: Well, yeah, of course. Of course, we were shocked. You know, you don't lead one over there at 70-1 and not be shocked when they cross the line first. The horse paid $75 the day he broke his maiden in at Churchill Downs. He's used to people discounting him and not giving him attention. I imagine they will give him attention now.

GARY DRAKE: You know, I told Kenny going into the race, I said, you know, I really think that this horse is getting across the ground really well out here. He was galloping really strong every morning, passing horses and passing horses. And Kenny last time instructed Edgar to leave the gate and put him in the race. He's such a relaxed kind of horse. He'll sit back there chilly and relax. If you don't get him into the race, he'll stay back there until you ask him to go. If you leave him too much, obviously, you've got a problem. That happened to him in those couple of seconds we had in the allowance races. The last race Kenny gave him the instruction to shake him up, get him in the race, let him settle. He'll relax. When he turned him loose, you got plenty of horse. I told Kenny going in, this horse has a great cruising speed over this racetrack. I think he's going to be up closer than he has been on his own. Edgar shook him up. Put him in the race, settled him. He was exactly where I thought he would be. When he started picking up on the backside, I thought he had every opportunity to win. When he turned for home and made the lead, I looked at Ken. I wanted to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. I thought I had the wrong horse. I looked at Kenny, I said he's going to win. I watched him come down the lead. It was great.

KENNY McPEEK: I'm not totally surprised. This colt has been doing great. I think the distance was a nonissue. He's a galloper with a good turn of foot. We didn't know how good he was. Of course nobody did until you throw him in the ring with these kind. He proved himself and I'm really proud of everybody involved. You know, from Gary who originally kind of encouraged me to take a chance with him at Pimlico and then my staff did a great job. We've got great people, positive energy working for me right now. Of course, Sue, she's always great.

KENNY McPEEK: I don't think he wants anything to do with any dirt in his face. When that happened, I thought we got a chance.

RICHARD GALPIN: G A L P I N. And together with an English trainer called Brian Meehan, my company Newmark International, which is based in Kentucky, purchased Sarava as a two-year-old at the Fasig Tipton two-year-old sale. We purchased him for Susan and Paul Roy. Paul Roy is the joint CEO of Merrill Lynch. Therefore, he's in New York a great deal. This is the first horse he's ever had ever raced in the United States. He's been -- he's only been racing fairly recently and his horses in Europe are trained by Brian Meehan. He listened -- he watched the race on English television. They staged it about midnight. It was 11:00 o'clock. I'm very, very deeply grateful that when the horse went to England, although he didn't go well on the turf, we always knew from the way he had worked at Fasig Tipton that he handled dirt very well. And therefore I asked Gary to take a part of the horse so that Paul would feel, Paul Roy would feel his interests were being -- were in partnership with somebody who would be on-site and committed in his first venture to race in the United States. And of course the horse won his first race on dirt. And he then had a bad quarter crack and Kenny, he was first with Burt Kessinger did a very good job in his first win. Kenny McPeek took him on and quietly, quietly, quietly, I think we wanted to push sometimes and he said, patience, patience and brought the horse brilliantly. And all I can say is that thanks to God because without God you don't win races like this. And the horse.

KENNY McPEEK: It's pretty ironic having the favorite to win, Repent, and to win it with the horse that was 20 stalls down from those guys is awesome. I think it's a reflection of the quality of the horses that we're pursuing and trying to get better quality horses. I'm getting better at selecting them and preparing them. I think it's all a learning process and you have to take each one of them as an individual, learn how to handle them. It's a pleasure to handle nice horses.

KENNY McPEEK: I am pinching myself, of course. Who wouldn't at 70-1. You know, I think we've had horses, I've had enough horses that are in the category of these types to be able to kind of feel it out. I've always felt like this horse got a great hip. Richard picked him out at auction. I loved his hip. You got a horse with a great hip, long stride. You've got an opportunity to win some nice races with him. He had a great turn of foot. You've got to put the two together. I've always been impressed with him from the beginning. We had to get through the quarter crack and get him ready, had to get a little foundation under him. I'm not going to call it a rush job. We were able to take our time, everything just really fell in place.

RICHARD GALPIN: The horse has a fantastically good temperament, extraordinarily settled, the horse is.

KENNY McPEEK: I don't gamble at all. I don't approach it that way at all. I thought he was very much overlooked. I thought if you looked at the race at Pimlico, he ran a mile and 16th in 44 and 1, and the Preakness ran in 56 and 2, I believe, so we needed another 8 and 12 and a fifth on my math. That's pretty good math, and I felt like he kept coming. He went six the last 16th of a mile at Pimilco. I thought if he could knock out another 8th of a mile in 12, he's right there. We ought to teach some of these handicappers to do a little math.

KENNY McPEEK: Losing Repent was a big blow. We got beat by a pretty nice horse when we lost in Illinois. He had a chip in his ankle. That was one of the things you had to deal with. You have to be very resilient to play it. It's a game. There's only one guy that can sit here today, 11 or 10 others, 1 including Allen Jerkens didn't get a chance to win it. And with Harlan, I think the race didn't set up for us that day. Things are kind of going. It's downhill before the Derby, Harlan's Holiday. Nothing panned out, but we had a lot of -- a lot of things coming together on this horse. We took a shot. I knew we fit some way or form. I didn't know how.

KENNY McPEEK: Different styles of horses. It depends. My colt actually broke on the wrong lead today. He popped over on the correct lead. I don't know, going a mile and a half, don't know it's as vital as with a horse like War Emblem, who I think on paper you could see that he needs the lead. If he didn't break sharp, which I didn't watch him myself, it didn't look like he broke that well, may have cost him the race in a big way.

KENNY McPEEK: Edgar and I have great rhythm together. I like him. He's a first-class guy. Believe it or not, he's only lost two races for me since he's been riding. One of them is a Kentucky Derby and the other one was the Preakness. I don't know if I'll forgive him for that. But he's won five stakes for me in seven runs.

KENNY McPEEK: $250,000, two-year-old in a training sale. Richard was responsible for selecting the horse.

KENNY McPEEK: Well, he actually entered my stable in December of this past winter and we were trying to get him on a van to Florida so she shipped him to Turfway. He was at Turfway for a week. We couldn't get a truck down. We finally got a van down. He was vanned to my barn at Gulf Stream. I was able to train him for a bit. He was uncomfortable on the quarter crack. We were seeing a problem. I didn't like the way he was hitting the ground. He had an abscess. We had to cut the foot back. It as long process. That's part of handling these kind of things. I was impressed from the beginning. Even when the quarter crack was bothering him, he would train through it. Good horses will train through little issues if they're stiff or they have foot problems. He shows class rules in a racehorse, if you ask me. He shows a lot of class when he was handling the quarter crack. Of course, I had to back off and sort it out before I move forward.

KENNY McPEEK: Well, I felt like Elliott Walden without the crutches. My foot still hurts. If I had them, I would have raised them in a V. It's a great honor to be a part of it. I didn't really think about it going into the race. I think you've just got to concentrate on your horse. If your horse is good enough and he gets it done, great. If he doesn't, you go on to the next dance.

KENNY McPEEK: I found out Tuesday afternoon around 2:00 o'clock and he was -- he left the next morning. Naturally disappointed. Proud of the job we did. Very proud of the job we did. Little confused about why he left. But that's not my -- I don't need to worry about -- trying to keep putting one foot in front of the next, moving forward. I'm not going to look back on that.

KENNY McPEEK: Maybe he's dehydrated.

KENNY McPEEK: I think it was major. Obviously, you have to have the horse, but you have to have the right circumstances. When I ran Pineaff up here, he ran embarrassingly bad. I was so upset. When he came back off the track, he was exhausted. I took that little nugget and I saved it. I said next time I run a horse in the Belmont, I'm going early, make sure he gallops over the track a steady gallop. Make sure he gets a good sharp breeze. I think another thing, try to pay attention to other horsemen. In that year Lemon Drop Kid won the race. Scotty Schulhofer. I remember him. You can't train a horse to go a mile and a half. He either can or can't. I think I pressed the issue the first time maybe. This time I tried to focus on doing what I done. He worked great the last couple of races. He's not normally a good workhorse. I think bringing him up early is a major good time.

KENNY McPEEK: No. The key was Niall O'Callaghan winning the Lone Star with Wiseman's Ferry. We made a point to watch the race. We had run second to him at Keeneland and we knew we needed the race that day. Wiseman's Ferry ran so impressively from the 14th hole at Lone Star. Gary promoted, he said, hey, listen, we got a really good horse here. Maybe we ought to try some bigger bear. We nominated him to the Pimilco race and I wasn't sure I wanted to go or not. Gary was encouraging it. I said, let me think about it. So I got the past performances of the race. I took kind of, you know, like anything, an analytical approach to. I want to look through this, make sure I got a chance. I don't want to go up there and get beaten. I want him to win. After looking at everything and the horses he was up against, and the way he was doing, I said, let's go. And we had a nice talk in the paddock before the race. I told him, I said, hey, he was worried about pressing me. I said, hey, we come into it together, we go out of this together, no matter what happens. That was our same approach this week.

KENNY McPEEK: This horse or why he was beatable this weekend? I thought that War Emblem was tailing off a little bit. I thought the fact his number dropped down from the Derby to the Preakness, when you see horses tailing off on form, you know, a classic handicapping angle is, he didn't run as fast last time as he did the one before, you can maybe anticipate they're going to run even worse the next time. Old saying: Horses is like strawberries, they can go bad at any time. I think the other thing I told Sue before the race, I said, he worked better his first breeze after the Preakness and second breeze he worked a little slow. Horses, to me, I like mine to work slower the first workout and sharper the second one, and that means to me they're on the improve. They're continuing on. Took a shot.

KENNY McPEEK: Yes.

GARY DRAKE: There's two owners. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Roy of Surrey, England, who bought the horse out after two-year-old sale, took him to England, raced on the turf, wasn't doing well there. Richard was kind enough to tell me he picked the horse out of a two-year-old sale. Along with Brian Meehan, did a good job of getting the horse to relax as a two-year-old. When he came to the US, then broke his maiden first start. Richard brought him to me and asked if I would be interested in managing and racing in the US and I said I would. We structured a deal. I don't have the horse. I race in the partnership of New Phoenix Stable, but I'm the only owner of this particular horse. I actually had friends who today are probably jumping from bridges because I gave them the opportunity. And they didn't.

KENNY McPEEK: You never know how it happens. I think we -- we're not sure. I think it got really cold in December up in Kentucky. I Think he may have bruised it or started over a frozen surface. But it was on the right foot and it was on the inside of the right foot. We've got pictures of it when it --

GARY DRAKE: Frightening pictures.

KENNY McPEEK: We emailed Gary the pictures during the winter. He said, oh, my God.

GARY DRAKE: He was doing things the right way. We got a Derby horse. Maybe. Carved away a third of the foot. I said, Kenny, let's send the horse to the farm. He said, no, these guys doing the patch -- what's they guy's name?

KENNY McPEEK: Bruce Scott, Jim Brummet, Bob Boston.

GARY DRAKE: These guys got on the phone with me, calmed me down. We can fix this. Cigar's were worse. We can fix this. Let us get it right and go on with him. Kenny had to put up with me calling every week, saying, okay, when we going to get the horse going again? Once he finally got the foot right, couple of months.

KENNY McPEEK: Long time. Bruce Scott worked on Cigar and Jim Brummet was the main blacksmith, a meeting of the minds. It was the worse quarter crack ever, when he came back, he worked through there.

GARY DRAKE: It's still there. The patch. He's grown out a lot of foot. He's still running on a patch.

KENNY McPEEK: Now, if my foot would only heal.

KENNY McPEEK: Oh, yeah.

KENNY McPEEK: He didn't pay as much.

GARY DRAKE: Let me tell you about the origin of the name. I'm not sure what the meaning is. I hope I get this right so Mr. Roy won't be mad at me. Anyway, he said that he loves a Brazilian musical that Sarava is one of the title songs to, and the dam has a musical name to it. I think it's Rhythm of Life. So he made the correlation between music and this wonderful song that he really likes. That's where the name came from.

GARY DRAKE: Mrs. Susan Roy, which she actually is the owner. She and Mr. Roy obviously co-own the horse with me. She races in the name of Mrs. Susan Roy.

GARY DRAKE: Yes, sir.

KENNY McPEEK: I would have to look back at my records.

KENNY McPEEK: Late January, early February.

GARY DRAKE: It was mid-February.

KENNY McPEEK: We went back and forth. We had times we sit at the Drake. He still wasn't comfortable. We had to back up, typical.

EDGAR PRADO: I'm feeling really happy, Derby and Preakness and looked forward to today. Never lose our faith, work hard to get to this point. Like I said before, Kenny gave me this opportunity one more time. I'm glad I'm part of the team today.

EDGAR PRADO: Definitely. Who you going to follow, the 70-1 shot or 8-5? I was watching War Emblem. I thought I was in a good spot. He move up nice and he's in the turn and I follow him. Then I had to get out of there. That's what I did.

EDGAR PRADO: He make a nice move around half mile pole. He make like an 8th of a mile move, that's it. Around the 5/16 pole, he started to stay where he was and I know I have a horse, I move my horse to the outside, that's when I put my horse in the clear. And I only saw that I had one horse left to beat, that was Medaglia.

EDGAR PRADO: Yes. Like I said, he was a horse to beat and I thought I was doing the right thing to follow him. Especially when three or four horses battle for the lead and he was behind the leaders. When he make his move, I had to follow him. That's what I did. I follow him for maybe an 8th of a mile or so.

EDGAR PRADO: I have an few scratches.

EDGAR PRADO: Well, you know, much as I wish we have a Triple Crown for our business, bring more people to the business, were in the game to try to avoid that. I mean, we're friends with Victor, we get along great. But we go outside. We forgot about that. We had to beat each other, 11 against 1 and 1 against 11. That's what we try to do. That's what we got paid for.

EDGAR PRADO: Yes, I did, he was the first one to congratulate me. Like I said, we're professional, get along well and conduct ourself in the same manner. Like I said, one being a jockey, one on the racetrack. The racetrack, we don't have no friends.

GARY DRAKE: What was the run time?

VOICE: 2:29.71.

EDGAR PRADO: He's slowing down a little bit his percent. I was kind of concerned about it. Now I think I can hang around him a little longer.