BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 25, 2003

Joe Iracane

Steve Margolis

Satish Sanan

Cornelio Velasquez

CORNELIO VELASQUEZ: I knew I had a lot of horse. He closes easy. He was a lot of horse. I had a lot of horse under me today.

JOE IRACANE: Yeah, we can't say enough about the race. We're just thrilled. So happy to be here. Just absolutely happy to be here. We want to thank Satish and his family. And Cornelio and Stephen Margolis did an unbelievable job with the horse, bringing him along. So I guess everything lined up for us and we're very thankful for the situation that has come about right now.

SATISH SANAN: Well, Joe's an old friend and Joe loves racing just like I do. A few years ago he was at the farm, he had come to the farm and Cam and Joe came and this horse, it was a tough horse to train. So we gelded him and Joe said, could he have a piece of him, and I said sure. So Joe bought half and he put it in Joe and John's name, and we have had a few others. And he's a lucky son of a gun, every time he buys a horse. So he's lucky and I think a lot of credit goes to Steve. This horse, when he was with Cam, he was training well, he won big races. But I think he's a changed horse ever since Steve's had him. He's improved many, many, many lengths. And I think he's improved five, six lengths since the last race.

STEVE MARGOLIS: Thank you.

STEVE MARGOLIS: Well, he had run a bad race in the slop at Church Hill and just came out of it really body sore and stoved up and I got the horse from Cam and I did some work on him and gave him some time. He's a little horse, doesn't carry a lot of weight. So you have to not drill him and run him too often and train him too hard. But over his last couple races he's just gotten stronger and better each time he runs. His workouts have shown it. That's why we took a shot and came here today.

SATISH SANAN: I tell you he was a little bit reluctant. I said, "God damn it, we don't get too many opportunities, let's go for it." That's exactly what I told him. And I'm glad I did.

CORNELIO VELASQUEZ: My horse, he got a little brave. He was in a position and on the pole. The last pole I think may horse he went easy. A lot of horses, a lot of horses are on top of me. Thank you for the owner, the trainer, to give me a chance.

SATISH SANAN: You're a great rider. You're going to be one of the big riders in the future.

STEVE MARGOLIS: No, he was gelded before.

SATISH SANAN: He was gelded at the farm.

SATISH SANAN: Yeah.

STEVE MARGOLIS: We were thinking about the Francis Dash at Maryland, but they told me, yeah, the horse ran a big number on the speed figures and they follow the speed figures more than me and they said he ran a huge number. And I said, well, sure, we'll train the horse for a while. And the horse kept training better and better after he came out of the Kentucky Cup Sprint better than he went into it. After he started training, we said, let's do it. And I said, okay, let's go.

STEVE MARGOLIS: Yeah, he was well placed. Cornelio did a great job getting him in good position and his fight with Scott Lake's horse. When they turned for home I could see he had a lot of horse. He opened up and I was yelling and he kept going. He just -- the horse has improved from race to race. He's gotten stronger and better and more confidence. He's just a wonderful horse.

SATISH SANAN: I think this victory, I think it's both. I think it's a little bit of a vindication of our program. We are very committed to the game as most of you know. And a lot of people were second guessing whether we were committed to the game or not. But I think more importantly this horse was not given a lot of credit earlier on. As I said earlier, ever since it's moved to Steve the horse has improved a lot. New connections, new trainer, new jock, it's just tremendous. Steve's done a great job. And I think you're going to see an awful lot of both of these guys in the future.

JOE IRACANE: Actually I did hear from coach. He left a message on my machine that I looked 25 pounds heavier on the television camera than I should. He said, "If I were you, I would let Satish take the front and you take the back row." That's what I heard from him. But as far as It's Awesome Baby, we're having a lot of fun and hopefully we're lucky. I would rather be lucky than good anyway and I've been pretty lucky.