136TH BELMONT STAKES

June 5, 2004

John Servis

JOHN SERVIS: I feel good. I knew when we turned on the backside that we were in a little bit of trouble. He just wasn't settling as nice as he had in the previous two races. That was one things I was concerned about the whole three weeks. They got the half fairly slow. I thought maybe we'd still be okay, and coming to the far turn when I saw those horses press him and Stew really had him bent in half. I knew he wasn't settling. I didn't feel good about it.

JOHN SERVIS: No.

JOHN SERVIS: Well, I mean, it's tough, you know. I mean, we had a shot to make big history here. We didn't do it. We've had a great year. I'm not going -- I'm not going to put my head down, we accomplished a lot and our main goal was to get to the Derby, and I'm really proud of what we got done. I'm proud of the whole team and everybody needs to be happy. They don't need to be sad.

JOHN SERVIS: It was pretty awesome. I felt bad for Mr. Chapman. I don't think he got to see much of the race.

JOHN SERVIS: Very briefly. He asked me who won the race. I really wanted to get down and talk to Stew, never did get a chance to.

JOHN SERVIS: I think Stew did a fine job. Like I said, I knew down the backside when he was dragging him out of the saddle, I had a bad feeling. You can't do that and get a mile and a half. That was one of the things that helped us so much going into the Derby and the Preakness. He relaxed so well, he just didn't do it today.

JOHN SERVIS: He seemed fine. He seemed fine.

JOHN SERVIS: No, he's going to get the break he deserves, you know, and we'll sit down and Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and I will discuss that. You know, map something out, hopefully get him to the Breeder's Cup. Right now he's going to get a rest, he deserves that. Maybe that's why he was as rank as he was. Maybe it's time, you know?

JOHN SERVIS: I don't know, he seemed so good at the Preakness and the Derby. And he was very behaved in the paddock. He seemed to get a little cranked up when they were having trouble with Rock Hard Ten getting him in the gate. He didn't seem bad. He broke running and going in the first turn, you know, I was really watching him to see, hoping to see Stew drop his hands and have him get off the bit a little bit. When they turned off the backside, he drug him in the lead. I didn't feel good. I could tell you.

JOHN SERVIS: I don't know. I mean, I worked really hard to try to take a little edge off him. I felt he was too sharp. I did what I thought was the best thing to try to keep him from being too cranked up. Obviously, it didn't work. He was too sharp. And I don't know what else I could have done differently. As far as I know, I did everything I could and that's it.

JOHN SERVIS: You know, I'm not going to take anything away from my horse. My horse is a very, very good horse and he's done some incredible things all year long. You know, again, I think if he would have settled, we'd have had a Triple Crown winner, there's no doubt in my mind I knew when they turned up the backside when he was against the bit like he was, I knew we were in trouble. It just wasn't there.

JOHN SERVIS: 564.

JOHN SERVIS: As much as it hurts me to say what you just saw is one of the things that makes this game so great. You know, you can look like you have everything wrapped up and you're heading into that winner circle, and it doesn't always turn out that way. You know, that's horse racing and you just saw it as good as it gets.

JOHN SERVIS: Yeah, I couldn't get him to settle. Again, that's what I was concerned about the whole three weeks. You know, I let him get a couple real good strong gallops in. We worked him the 7/8 and tried to get him off the bit. He worked really nice, relaxed really nice. It's frustrating from a trainer's standpoint, because I knew where he had to be and I didn't have him there. It's a shame.

JOHN SERVIS: He ran a good race. I mean, if he had run horrible, I would have said maybe he got beat a length.

JOHN SERVIS: Again, we got our championship. The Kentucky Derby was our championship and I read an article yesterday. It was great. They said winning the Kentucky Derby is like claiming Mt. Everest and winning the Triple Crown is like climbing it three times. As far as I'm concerned, we climbed it twice, and we just tried to climb it too fast a third time.

JOHN SERVIS: Again, I think everybody is as competitive as we are. We're starving for a Triple Crown winner, and I think everybody thought that this was the one, including myself. But that's, you know, again, that's what makes this game so great. I mean, you know, Nick would have been tickled to death for second. He walks away the big winner. My hat's off to him. He did a great job. We came up a little short.

JOHN SERVIS: No, because I saw Birdstone running. Even with Rock Hard Ten right alongside going into the turn, I saw Stew was still sitting on him, but again, he wasn't relaxed. He just never settled. You can't run a mile and a half and not settle. You can't do it. So, you know, turn for home when Birdstone was getting to him, I knew he was going to dig in. I knew he was going to try to give it all he had, and he didn't have anything left.

JOHN SERVIS: I don't know if it was so much of a move or the other two were backing out, to be honest. Stew was still sitting at that point and, you know, at that point Birdstone was running, and I was really hoping he would flatten out.

JOHN SERVIS: When you see him break sharp like he did, which he broke sharp in the Preakness and went an eighth of a mile, you could see his head go down, Stew's hands go down. He looked comfortable and relaxed and today he didn't do that. Today he broke sharp. You could see his head bowed in. He was against the bridle the whole way down. The backside, he drug into the lead and, you know, that's not settling. You can't do it.

JOHN SERVIS: It's been great. The past five months has been great. I'd do it again next year if I could.

JOHN SERVIS: Well, he's not done. He's not done. You'll be seeing plenty of him and hopefully we'll get to race him next year, and he'll go on and, you know, do some great things. And he'll be noted as the great horse like Spectacular Bid that didn't win the Triple Crown.

JOHN SERVIS: My pleasure. I enjoyed it. Thank you.

JOHN SERVIS: No, I mean, it's been done, you know. It's not just the three races. I've said it a thousand times, I mean, it's the whole, from the beginning of the year when you map that out, and you do it; but I tell you what, really, to me what really makes it tough when you get there and you get that Derby win, is you've got to have your horse sharp for the Preakness and completely opposite for the Belmont. That's a tough task to get done.

JOHN SERVIS: Again, I think it's, you know, it's the end of the road for the schedule that you mapped out. For us, you know, with the Derby was the end of the road. We hadn't planned on being here, and I think the mile and a half certainly has something to do with it. But it's, you know, those three races, I think the biggest training challenge is the mental aspect of it for the horse, really.

JOHN SERVIS: Birdstone, he fell in there. I mean, he was a horse that showed as a young horse that he relished the distance. You know, again, he just set back there and I'm sure he loved when he saw those three horses out there and, you know, Edgar just decided he was going to make a big run late and see if he could get home. You know, I mean, I was really concerned about Rock Hard, Purge was coming off a big race. I expected him to run good. I knew Eddington would be close the way they were bearing down on him. I was afraid what happened might happened. Might set up for a horse closing late. Any time I look through the only horse I could come up that would do that was Birdstone.

JOHN SERVIS: Fairly early. I talked to Eric, I think we were going to do something at 8:30 for a press conference or something.

JOHN SERVIS: I'm a Phillie sports fan myself and all I can say to them, and our championship was the Kentucky Derby, and if they can't accept that, then they need to take this road down the Triple Crown one time. They'll see where I'm coming from.