130TH PREAKNESS STAKES

May 21, 2005

Joe Judge

Jan Reeves

Tim Ritchey

Jeremy Rose

Chuck Zacney

TIM RITCHEY: -- athletic enough to overcome clipping heels and almost going down still get up and win the race. It was an amazing performance.

TIM RITCHEY. Jeremy has absolute, complete confidence in this horse. He thinks this horse is from the planet Crypton. He thinks he's a superhorse. After John had to ride Bandini and the ride that Jeremy put up in the Arkansas Derby, I don't care what you heard and read, it was an unanimous decision from that time on. The next day that Jeremy would ride this horse the rest of his career.

JEREMY ROSE: I think he'll go a mile and a half without a problem. I always have. Ever since I had him as a two-year-old in the Breeder's cup. It wasn't to be. So as long as he comes out of the race, we've got three weeks to prepare him for the Belmont. My plans at this point are to go forward to the Belmont:

THE MODERATOR: What does this race say about Alex's heart and his ability to jump back up in the face of adversity?

JEREMY ROSE: No, it didn't. I didn't realize that I was watching my horse. The whole race I don't even know who ended up second or third. He started to run. My eyes were on him and past the wire, my eyes were on him to make sure he was okay. That's the main thing. Health of the horse.

TIM RITCHEY: No, I said before, hopefully Belmont day, I would move for every racetrack to have a lemonade stand on Belmont day throughout the entire United States and give a dollar to the lemonade stand or their local Juvenile Cancer fund. Because it's a great cause. And, like I said earlier, everybody who was fortunate enough to bet on this horse, makes a little money, just take $1, donate it to Alex's lemonade stand or Local Juvenile Cancer Fund, and maybe we can make the world a better place.

TIM RITCHEY: Absolutely tremendous. Maryland's biggest race. I lived in Maryland since 1992. It's tremendous to win a race in the state you reside it, and the biggest race in Maryland.

TIM RITCHEY: Truthfully, I've seen horses take bad steps in races and win. I never see horses stumble that badly and lose his momentum that much and come back on and win in a grade one race like this, that's the first I've ever seen it.

JEREMY ROSE: Around the first turn I tried to get down, on the backside I was about two or three wide, saw a horse trying to make a move to get past on the outside, so I got back in. It was a really well executed trip by Alex for the most part. I just kind of followed his lead. It wasn't so much my athleticism, as it was Alex. He could have very easily went down and he we could have been run over by the field.

JEREMY ROSE: I'm going to say 90 percent horse. Because if he goes down, I don't have any chance. Mostly was scared. I hung on. When he clipped, his nose was a little dirty after that.

JEREMY ROSE: When I clipped heels, yeah. I mean, I had enough time to think about hitting the ground, and he popped up back in. I held off on what I had. He came up back underneath me.

JEREMY ROSE: Yeah, I the thought process was I was going to get run over. The instinct was to hang on and try to get my balance back.

CHUCK ZACNEY: I'll tell you what, nerves, nerves, nerves, nerves. I see him clear and soon as he took the rail, I knew he was going to fire. I seen the other horse move out. I went oh, my God. Oh, no. Then he recovered. Jeremy, unbelievable, I love you buddy boy. Tim and I were actually next to each other, we're talking and we're cheering the horse on. Alex made the big move. Top of the stretch, the five horse started to drift over, Tim and I are saying oh, no, no. Jeremy held the horse together. Alex, once again, just kept it and we won. What can we say?

JEREMY ROSE: No, not really. I think the most vindication was for Alex. If anybody knocks him now, says anything, sorry.

JEREMY ROSE: Just the last quarter 6-mile.

JEREMY ROSE: Looked a lot worse than it felt. It was a quick thing to happen. I didn't know how close we got. We may have to go blow out Alex's nose when we get back.

JEREMY ROSE: I haven't got a chance to talk to Ramone yet. Trust me, he didn't do it on purpose. I saw him hit his horse left handed, looked like it might have been the first time the horse might have been hit left-handed. He just jumped out from under him. You can't stop that.

JEREMY ROSE: It was -- I think he was probably a little scared to hit the ground. Definitely athleticism. He's an amazing horse. No horse I've ever seen in any race stumbled like that. And I don't know any horse stayed up after going that close to the ground. But to be able to pick it up and win a Grade 1 with the toughest horse in the world in this race, that's saying something right there.

JEREMY ROSE: I'd say double whatever we did win by, we probably won by four or five. It probably should have been 10. We were rolling. We were going real fast.

JEREMY ROSE: Obviously, getting better. The whole northeast coast is getting better. Last year it was Smarty Jones that came in and did this. Finished one, two years here. It was great for here Delaware, Maryland, we're starting to get the good horses.

CHUCK ZACNEY: Let's keep that a secret.

TIM RITCHEY: I've been a trainer over 30 years, so you put your time in at the small tracks, you finally get an opportunity to find a horse of this ability, believe me, it's the horse. Horses make trainers, trainers don't make horses. I don't care who tells you what. He's the star. And I was just fortunate enough to come across this horse and, you know, it's a little sweeter, probably the fact that it took me 30 years to get here, and I've done it through a lot of cheap races, cheaper horses, a lot of hard times.

CHUCK ZACNEY: It was actually a $75,000 investment. (Inaudible)

CHUCK ZACNEY: If you told us after the second race we would be here, here we are?

Realistically, no. I mean, what a ride. Less than a year to the Breeder's Cup. Churchill Downs, now the Preakness. Unbelievable. You know, what a dream come true. And that's the one thing we realize how lucky we were and we're very, very thankful, and I got to tell you one thing. We've got to thank all those little angels, boys and girls out there. We have been getting so many cards, emails, we have so much support, thank you very much.

JEREMY ROSE: There was quite a bit of contact. Bumping is not a big deal. Clipping is a huge deal in racing. Usually, oh, yeah, we clipped heels. We clipped probably his right heal with our left front. That's one of the worst things that can happen in racing, clipping heels.

JEREMY ROSE: No. Not like this. I've kind of clipped heels where the horse stumbles a little bit. But I mean, he was not 8 inches from going down. That's the closest I've ever been without hitting the ground.

JEREMY ROSE: I thought for sure we were going down. I was going to try to go down with him as close I could, because I figured that was my best shot getting away. Luckily, he came right back up underneath me.

JEREMY ROSE: I'm sure it was a plus. You know, I have relatively good balance and fear makes you very, very strong. And I was willing to hang on.

TIM RITCHEY: I didn't hear what she said.

TIM RITCHEY: I just told them to enjoy the experience, enjoy where we are, be grateful. We're here, you know, and we've done our job. I did my job as a trainer. I thought Alex was ready to run a very good race. We have faith in Jeremy, obviously, because he has absolute confidence in this horse. You know, and enjoy yourself, win, lose or draw. This is a life-changing experience, even more so since we've won; but you may never get here again, even if you. Like the Derby, may never get here again. We were third, got beat a length, give credit to the winner; but enjoy the experience.

TIM RITCHEY: I agree. My long-range plan when we first started this was to get through the Triple Crown races as strong, as healthy, and as fit as we possibly could, and you know, I wanted him to have so many miles underneath him that he could go through these races, and do things like he just did. Fitness, you know, I mean, that makes a big difference. So you know and that was the goal to get to the Belmont.

TIM RITCHEY: Absolutely, I thought Smarty Jones was absolutely the best horse in the Belmont. It was the way the race was ridden, the way the race was set up, and it was a shame that he didn't win it. We don't have that opportunity, because we, unfortunately, didn't win the Derby. You know what? We've got to plan our plan and, you know, if John gets some satisfaction out of the fact, if we can get the job done, then that's great.

TIM RITCHEY: It's called fear.

JEREMY ROSE: I had -- when I threw my cross thrust to go back past him, I held the mane. I think that helped out quit a bit. It gave me something to hold on, squeeze my butt together pretty much.

JEREMY ROSE: The first part I looked up, the horses weren't really running away from me in the early 16th of a mile. I thought they were trying to slow it down. Quick as I said that, three of them shot out of there. I said, I'll sit here and see what happens, and see what kind of pace by that backside, I was 8 to 10 out of it. I knew they had to be going a pretty decent pace. He was extremely relaxed, even if they keep going a little bit. I think I've got a good chance to make up the ground on them.

TIM RITCHEY: When I first watched the race, and I saw the 23 and I saw where Jeremy was, I thought we were in perfect shape, you know, Jeremy when he first started riding he really had to learn how to judge pace and he has come a long way in a quick time, because he did an outstanding job judging where he needed to be.

TIM RITCHEY: Well, he did a great job, there's no doubt about it. A lot of things could have happened when that horse stumbled. He could have easily fell off. It was his athletic ability and Alex's athletic ability, it was a partnership, truthfully.

CHUCK ZACNEY: It actually myself and four friends. I was looking to put a group together. Obviously we needed a love for horse racing and needed to be risk takers at the same time. And it all came together when we chose Tim as a trainer. Once again thank you, Tim.

TIM RITCHEY: Thank you.

CHUCK ZACNEY: Bob, and I owned horses together in Louisiana for a couple of years, the other three, Jan, Joe and Joe, this is their first experience, so I think they're having a little bit of fun.

TIM RITCHEY: Three of them have never had a horse before.

JAN REEVES: I just can't believe it. Obviously I'm very emotional. I'm so proud of Tim and Afleet Alex and Jeremy. We're a big family. Words can't explain how I feel, I'm so thankful.

JOE JUDGE: Each time I think it's getting good, it just gets better. So we've been riding for a long time. The support of everybody out there for Alex is unbelievable. The credit really goes to Tim, Jeremy and Alex. What can I say?

CHUCK ZACNEY: We're trying to keep it a secret.

TIM RITCHEY: I'm going to have to wear a moustache, a big hat.

JEREMY ROSE: I knew when we didn't go down that, he still picked it up right where he left off. He missed about half a stride. But he didn't slow up much. I knew if somebody was coming real hard maybe they could get me for that quick lapse in time, but I didn't think they could catch me.

JEREMY ROSE: Absolutely fine. I asked Tim when we walked back to the Winner's Circle the first time just to look at his legs make sure nothing was wrong. He feels great. He may be a little sored up tomorrow, any time you clip heels like that, you're going to have some repercussion in the body. I didn't see any cuts. Tim didn't see any cuts. I think he'll be just fine.

CHUCK ZACNEY: That's actually a name I always like to entertain, I thought it to be a great name for a horse partnership. No rhyme or reason.

TIM RITCHEY: Unfortunately, most of the horses went down like that. So, I mean, when they're going -- and actually they're going faster than they are over fences when they're running on the flat. So it's split, absolute split-second timing and you know and Jeremy and Alex somebody else up there was with us.

JEREMY ROSE: I talked to him quit a bit. I told him he did it. He got his respect and he deserved it. I was hoping he was all right. Which, he seemed fine. It didn't bother him. I don't think anything bothers this horse. People were chanting his name, screaming, hollering, he was soaking every minute of it up. Now I'll go back and give him some peppermints.