BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 25, 2003

David Flores

B. Wayne Hughes

Kris S. Robillard

DAVID FLORES: I will take you as many times as you want.

KRIS S. ROBILLARD: Me too.

DAVID FLORES: Right there the horse is just slow, but I just tried to let him get into the stride. Just take my time. Going through the first turn, I can see everybody's just battling for a position. So I was just very comfortable back there.

DAVID FLORES: When you're back there you can see what's going on in the first group in front of me. Then in the front of them there's another group that they were battling for the better position. I know that was going to be a pretty good speed up there. So I was just taking my time on the back side and I just kind of started getting working after the 5/8 pole. But by the time we got to the turn, this horse he was unbelievable. He just shifted to another different speed. I was closer. I was getting to the quarter pole, this horse was kind of slowing down more. So it was just I saw one spot open and I just went through there. And this horse, it was -- he had such a big heart. He was not afraid to go in there. By the time we got to the 8 pole, it was all over. This horse was just reaching so much ground that it made me so, so happy. I don't know, it's hard to explain. It was a great feeling. Just to get to the last 16 pole and be in front and just keep opening up more and more. It looks different from here. (Laughter.)

B. WAYNE HUGHES: Yes, I would say that it is my biggest thrill as an owner.

B. WAYNE HUGHES: Well, I mean I don't get any credit for that. That would be Ron Ellis and Seth Simpkin who buy the horses. I'm happy to own the horse.

KRIS S. ROBILLARD: Well it's a long story I'm sure don't have time. To make it short is a trainer friend of Forrest Wells showed me the horse, I fell in love with him. I went to buy him at auction. My mother died and the funeral was the day of the sale, I didn't get to buy him. The person that bought the horse brought him back, my dad bought him back, named him after me and then my father died. It's a sad story, but the horse has been keeping me going for so long. I lost him last year, it was very difficult for me. He's been just a blessing and I wanted today, I wanted to be here today because I had a feeling it was going to be a special day like 10 years ago when he had two winners and a third. And I'm just so thrilled. Kris S. Deserves so much accolades that he didn't get. And I hope he still gets it now. Because he's one of the best, if not the best. I'm partial though.

B. WAYNE HUGHES: Well, it was totally Richard Mandella's call, not my call. The horse, we -- actually I asked him before the race which of his three horses did he like best. And he said he couldn't tell which one of the three would be the best. But if he was betting he would have bet on this horse. Because it had the longest odds. We felt this horse was something special early on. After the second race he worked him a short work, but very fast. He changed overnight and began acting like a different horse. If you saw him galloping in the morning out there, they had special equipment on him and stuff. He's awake, he wants to go. He's a good horse.

B. WAYNE HUGHES: No. If they didn't drop out we might not have been eligible. So that part. From the very beginning we knew we had a special horse. We wanted to go if we could.

B. WAYNE HUGHES: You would have to ask Richard Mandella. My choice would be to try to break the jinx on the Derby. And give him a little time off. Get him ready for the first Saturday in May.

DAVID FLORES: I want to thank Wayne Hughes. He's the one that got me on the horse. Originally I was riding Siphonizer first time out. He got a little tied up with another horse. He won the Norfolk easy. I was without a horse in this race. And I got pretty lucky that Wayne chose me to ride this horse.

B. WAYNE HUGHES: It feels very good. It's a nice feeling. It's like no feeling that I could describe. I just would like to make perfectly clear that David Flores was our, was my first choice to ride the horse, okay. He did not get the mount as a second choice.