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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 4, 2006

CHURCHILL DOWNS, KENTUCKY

ERIC WING: Okay. We are here live in the interview room with the happy connections of the winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Dreaming of Anna. On the left is Frank Calabrese, who celebrated a Breeders' Cup Juvenile fillies and his 78th birthday on one day, and next to him is trainer Wayne Catalano.
Gentlemen, congratuations. Rene Douglas is riding in the next race, got the last laugh so he won't be able to join us right now. For those listening upstairs in the press box, you can ask a question yourself, even though you're not down here, just find Lara Levine and she will relay the questions down, and Wayne, if you could, could you name the gentleman on your left.
WAYNE CATALANO: Steve Levin, the racing {manager} for Mr. Calabrese.
ERIC WING: First, Wayne, any concerns at all with the length of the delay with your filly sitting there in Gate 1 for so long?
WAYNE CATALANO: She's pretty calm, cool, collected filly. I wasn't that concerned, but it started to get a little bit there at the end when she was standing very good. I wasn't that concerned.
ERIC WING: Your thoughts of the fraction it's played out not all that severe on the front end, despite on paper that the presence of a lot of speed.
WAYNE CATALANO: I did not see the fractions. I was watching my filly and I seen Rene was very comfortable. Everything was coming together perfectly and the result is just what we looked for.
ERIC WING: Mr. Calabrese, happy birthday to you. I notice your filly is named after your late sister, Anna Anderson, so this has to have all kinds of special meaning to you in addition to the money and the glory.
You've repelled a lot of offers for your filly. Looks like a wise move to hold on to her. Now she's in a year where we saw Lava Man and Barbaro excel on both turf and dirt. Now there's a third. Proven it at the highest level.
What are your thoughts about today and your plans for next year.
FRANK CALABRESE: I always said I wanted to win a Breeders' Cup, Kentucky Derby, the Belmont and the Preakness. She stays healthy, I think she can do it. Ray anyway says she had a lot more in the tank so I'm hoping.
ERIC WING: You're hoping to maybe try - you've already beaten boys once. Trying him again wouldn't be a problem in your mind?
FRANK CALABRESE: She doesn't know the difference.
ERIC WING: Okay. And by the way, anybody who would like to ask a question, we have a couple of wireless microphones right here and get that rolling right now.

Q. Wayne was that the summer at Woodbine that you really shout yourself, we know the distance, we know the horse can do it on the dirt as well as grass the way Rene said. Do you we have a horse for the Breeders' Cup?
FRANK CALABRESE: Is it Wayne?

Q. Either.
FRANK CALABRESE: I have another horse racing in the 6th race, Lewis Michael. He's a lot slower developing than Julie Navana. Wesley Ward who broke both horses called me, a good friend of mine, and he said if you think Lewis Michael is good, Dreaming of Anna is three times as good. I said, Are you kidding?
Then I went out there and watched her work. I was impressed, totally impressed. I've been in this business 50 years and --
ERIC WING: Lewis Michael, by the way, is a full brother to Dreaming of Anna. I believe that's the first time full siblings have ever run at one Breeders' Cup card and they've already got one win in the bank.

Q. Mr. Calabrese, I come from Chicago. I'm especially happy and with your 78th birthday, this is cause for a double celebration. My question is: Every one of the races she has won on the front end.
What's your plan to go to the front today and don't you think as she handles bigger tasks and longer distances you have to think about changing her running
FRANK CALABRESE: She could do anything. You could rate her. She's like a car, push the gas pedal and she goes. You watch her race on the turf, it's like she's cutting grass. She never touches the ground.
Other horses go by and make boom, boom. Hers there's no noise at all. She just floats.
ERIC WING: Wayne, I'd like to ask you you and your racing manager a question. Your filly, she's undefeated, you came to a fork in the road with her by entering her in the Arlington Washington Lassie, the track came up a sea of slop and mud. It turned out that every horse on the front end that day finished way up the track. You scratched her, you ran her against boys and somewhat unconventional move up in Toronto.
Was that the key? I mean, did you ever stop and think if you had run her that day, you might be in the same position as change up who is also very talented finished in the back and is still a nice filly but wound up winning a Grade 3 instead of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies?
WAYNE CATALANO: We like not to run because the track come up often. We didn't want to take a chance of running on that kind of race pack.
The summer stakes was Mr. Levin's idea. It was a backup plan of mine. He originated the plan. I use it as a backup. It worked very well for us. I mean, we knew she could handle the turf a lot better than the dirt.
Her pedigree says grass. She can dirt. She can do it all, but who is going to stay home and perform in front of the crowd at home a track. We decided to go the other way.

Q. Wayne talk about the significance of this win for your career. Also, do you have any thoughts just looking ahead a little bit, maybe it's not a little bit to next spring, would you consider coming back to the Kentucky hosts?
WAYNE CATALANO: We always are going to consider that, but what it's done for my career, Mr. Calabrese told me, I'm going to put you on the map. He says to me, I'm not going to steal this filly. I'm going to take her to the big dance and show the guys what you do, display you on a big stage. I'm thankful to Mr. Frank for giving me the opportunity.
WAYNE CATALANO: We'll look everything over. We'll discuss Mr. Calabrese and Steve Levin. We'll go over. Obviously, it will be in the plans.

Q. Is a win over this track --
WAYNE CATALANO: That would be Steve Levin. I don't really care about because she'll refer over any surface.
ERIC WING: As a reminder to the media, we need to ask the questions into the microphone.

Q. Congratulations Wayne, Frank, Steve. I'm just wondering, there's a story in the racing form this past week about the horse. There was some concern about her down in Keeneland. She wasn't feeling well. Can you just talk about what you did to get her back to top of her game?
FRANK CALABRESE: When I got down to Keeneland, I looked at the horse and I said, By the way, she has the same color hair as my sister. That's why I named her, the way she moved like my sister. I said, She doesn't look right. When she was -- her stool was like golf balls. Something is wrong.
So Wayne went next door to "Stennen" Barn and got her some new feed. Threw it on the mat and she started eating. I started feeding her apples every day and she turned around. By the time I left, she was a hundred percent.
You know, I always kid around and I don't like Wayne personally, but my whole attitude with Wayne really changed when I worked with him for a week. Totally dedicated, totally dedicated trainer. Hands on. He's extremely bright where cutting horses are concerned.
I mean, it's been a great experience. I learned a lot.
I know how to look at a horse and tell if a horse is sick or not. I have another horse in the Breeders' Cup, 10, 11 years ago. Went down to the barn and told the trainer, This horse is sick. They're like kids. You look in their eyes. Sure enough, the horse raced bad. Laid up for about seven months after the race. But I put up $180,000 to be in that race, and I was ready to kill him.
In fact, the waitress says, Can I get you anything? And I says, Yeah, get me a gun with two bullets, one for the trainer and one for...
Wrote about it.

Q. Mr. Calabrese, make sure I understood. When you first came in, are you seriously considering running her in the in Kentucky Derby and then going on, pursuing the Triple Crown, or are thinking about the Oaks?
FRANK CALABRESE: She stays sound ,that's where I'll go with her. You know, everyone told me she's a turf horse, and I said she'll run anyplace. Just the way she moves, like when Westen Ward said, Come out and watch her. You could tell she's a good athlete, like a good basketball player or football player.

Q. Wayne, what do you think of that?
WAYNE CATALANO: We're talking on emotions right now. I'll see how it goes.
ERIC WING: Frank Calabrese and Wayne Catalano, you've obviously made all the right decisions so far with Dreaming of Anna and people in Chicago know you're a force there and now you're a force on the national stage with the finest two-year-old filly in the country. Congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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