BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 29, 2005

D. Wayne Lukas

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Go right ahead. You're doing fine.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, again, you have to deal with what you have in front of you. Some of these fillies, I think, are big, heavyset fillies Ex Caelis is one example. This fillie put so much into her mornings. She's a very aggressive fillie. In fact, I told Edgar, I said, just keep her settled in the post break, because I've got her on a short fuse. And you don't need to stir her up in the post break, just take her over there and she'll do the rest. She put so much into her mornings and when she ran that monster race here in the matron, she didn't even hit the wire and I said that's it. She's not going to have another out until we get to the Breeder's Cup; called Bob and Beverly Lewis that night said, Bob, if it's all the same to you, I'd like to go the 42-day break and come into this off of that one good effort. And of course, typical Bob and Beverly Lewis, Bob, said you're driving the bus. That was that. So I felt really comfortable. In hindsight, if you look back at the day of the Frizette and most of you were here, I'm not so sure if I was in the Frizette. I would have run in it. That was a horrendous day. It was sealed. It was windy, wet, cold. And, you know, you look at the present the matrons, the Al Sibidens, these races, the Oaks out in California, you looked at them to move you forward, but if they don't serve that purpose, it jumps up and bites you here.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I agree.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, Bob called me and said that he had some minor thing that he had done examination or something and his doctors didn't want him to fly for a couple of weeks. Like you said, the timing was terrible. But they're there. I told them -- I called him on the way over here and I said, get in front of the TV and get the champagne on ice we're going to kick ass and take names.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Very much so.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I don't like to compare from era to era like that. I will say this, when we drew the one hole, I thought that was a minor setback. I wouldn't have chose that if we had gone to the Derby route, where we could choose our post position. That wouldn't be what I would choose. Having said that, I thought we had the best horse and then I felt we would get some pressure, not so much from the fillie that did pressure us. I said to Edgar, you're not going to get an easy lead. This is a Breeder's Cup and this is not the junior prom. This is tough. So I said, you're going to have to make an adjustment, but take what comes easy, and don't try to get creative out there. And by that I mean if she broke good, let her alone. If she was laying third, and you were comfortable, leave her alone. Ride your race, like she was the best fillie. Of course, Edgar has had such a great year. He fits this like bacon and eggs. He fits this fillie, and I knew that that's why I made the change mid-season. Those are not easy changes. I took a rider off that won the Anadondack on her you know. It's a coaching change, as I call them. We have to do these things. In this game we lead with our heart a lot. Sometimes you have to do something that's a little bit tough, so I did that.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I didn't realize that. That's an amazing statistic as well as he's riding and has been riding for years. But he's got a great agent now. He's on some live ones yet. I'm tickled that's the first of anything. So if we were the first to get him a win, so be it. I told him going through the tunnel, like olives in a jor, after you get the first one out, they come easy. So he'll probably have a good day.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: This sure in is not my first barbeque.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: First of all, again, you have to look again what's in front of you. She's a slight fillie. She is not a typical Wayne Lukas fillie that we would buy maybe in a sale. But she's got a little more scope and length to her. I think she's going to be a great two-turn fillie. I'm already thinking Oaks, and you can put that down. It would be interesting to see how the juveniles run. The thing about her, though, she's a little bit slight and so forth. And I thought we were maybe overriding her a little bit earlier in the year. She's so genuine and gives you so much, and I thought maybe we were asking her in those five and a half six and a half furlong races to get into it and grab the bit and go a little bit. Once we changed up a little bit on our rider situation, changed up on our training situation, she's starting to relax and come back. But the matron was a surprise by the way she won it, not that she won it, and then I felt pretty good about this one.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: She shows a lot of his characteristics. Looks a lot like Tisnow, you expect Tiznow to look. She's got the ability to get the two turns which is probably going to help. I trained the mother, you know, which was a storm cat fillie, which doesn't hurt either. She was not one of Bob and Beverly's big time fillies. I don't know I guess Bob sold her. John Monaghan here with us? He would know. I think we sold her which was probably a mistake. We made some other people happy. She does have a lot of the Tiznow look and action and style and I don't have any question about her try. It's there. In fact, I spent all summer slowing, take ago little off her fast ball.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Yes. Ex Caelis, I think, is going to be a major player. She's a Fusaichi Pegasus. The light bulb hasn't gone off there yet. She earned her way into this race. I thought she ran a credible race, before I was really pleased with her. But I don't think we're getting all we can yet. I think by spring you're going to see her be a major factor, too. She's a big growthy, looking around a little bit not too focused not sure why she's out there, but she's got a wealth of talent and she's going to be okay.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: As for the first part, it makes me feel old. I will say this: Right at the head of the stairs when we came down here to do the interview with you folks, Todd was the first one that waited in the tunnell, gave me a big hug and was very complimentary and that I would expect nothing more from him. I am so proud of those guys I look down through the roster today in the Breeder's Cup race from top to bottom, my guys, as I call them, are all down through there. But we've got to be careful we can't let the pupil beat the teacher. That's very important.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, I'm going to answer that two ways. First of all, when this first was developed, we first started talking John Nabor called me and said we're going to do a series the Breeder's Cup, explained it to me. I told our staff, Jeff included, that I thought this would be a bigger event than a lot of people even had the focus and vision to see coming. I said this is going to get big. We need to start pointing for this just like we do the Triple Crown. We have Rick put great emphasis on these races. We started pointing for this back in early May or June and getting ready and thinking what we have to do. I had a long talk with Gary Stevens at dinner the other night and he said I know exactly what you're doing here.The other thing is, we've been blessed with so many good people, clientele, when you're backed by the Bill Youngs of the world, Bob and Beverly Lewis' of the world, and they continually support you through a 20 some year run on this series, you not only are going to do well, you should do well, you're supposed to do well. And this is, I think, what makes it -- just like any other athletic event whether it be NCAAs anything else, it gets down the players. If you get the players, you don't get in their way, you got a pretty good chance of being here often.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Right after the race, John Monaghan, the stable manager had him on the phone, he was elated. They were home. Him and Beverly were on home. I wanted to talk to him more, we had to get the fillie in the winner circle I'll talk to him tonight. They're so appreciative. I'm trying to tell him how happy I am for him, he's trying to tell him how happy he is for me. They're so appreciative.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: In all of these years we have done that through all the Triple Crown races, whether it be the Preakness, the Derby. Well, the Derby we're usually stable there. Anytime we ship we like to come in on top of the race. We think there's an advantage. I have never been advocate of getting familiar with the racetrack working over two surface, getting that last work in and so forth. I don't think that that's a move forward. That's just my philosophy, so we come on a Wednesday. Wednesday is our MO. Always has been. We come in on Wednesday, lightly train Thursday, Friday. Boom we lead them over there. The first time she saw the backside over there in that shoot was this afternoon at 1:20. I mean, she had never been over there. I walked her through the paddock one morning, I even thought second thoughts about that. She was raising hell in there and feeling good. We think when you get to this point in their development, late two-year-old year all of that is a little bit overrated. That's for the trainers and the media and stuff, that's what all that's for not for the horse trust me.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I wasn't more tuned in, I was disappointed I didn't get more in. I would have liked to, you may this is silly but I'd like to see A.P. Arrow get in the Classic. I thought I had the rascal coming the right way he was finishing up like a good horse. The way this is going to play out in the Classic. I think he might have been a factor. It will be another day. He's only three, maybe he'll be better. Bill Young once told me something. He said, when five experts tell you you're the 15th best horse, he said you need to pay attention, they're probably try to tell you something. Probably I'll take that for advice. I wish I could have had more. I've run multiple horses in these races other years. We don't have the numbers we used to have, Todd's got them all. Mark's got them all. Dallas got them all. We'll take what we've got.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I'm going to go eat, hell with that.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I'm going to watch that a little bit we got some three-year-olds, we didn't have them right to bring them in here. It will be interesting to see how that race unfolds. Our fractions were brutal and we hung around for the trophy. It will be interesting to see how those speed balls do here in a few minutes see if any of them hang around for it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: One minute to the polls? Let's go watch it.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I thought of the dictated everything.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Going down the backside, I was a little bit worried. I thought that was too quick. On the other hand, I didn't think Edgar had a lot of options. She broke so smooth I turned to my girlfriend said, boy, she got away clean. She broke so smooth, I thought he had to take it. I wish it would have been slower. As it turned out the end result's good but I was concerned going in the head wind.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, you know, you guys determine the favorites definitely. You always have. And it's nice to be a favorite. The only time you want to be a favorite is after about 10 minutes after the race then if you're everybody's favorite that's the only thing that counts. I didn't bet on her. My girlfriend wouldn't let me. I wanted to.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: I'm going to get together with Bob and Beverly. I think we'll probably put her away. We've got a couple of other nice fillies. We've got a fall state coming up the Debutante at Churchill Downs and a couple here. We've got two or three other fillies that might very well be you know good enough to run in there. I don't see any reason to do anything but point her for the Oaks. We'll take her to California let her have a little sunshine and point her for the Oaks.

D. WAYNE LUKAS: Thank you.