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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 27, 2007

OCEANPORT, NEW JERSEY

ERIC WING: We are joined again in the interview tent any the winning connections of Lahudood. From left-to-right, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, Rick Nichols, manager of Shadwell Farms and Alan Garcia who has just won his first Breeders' Cup race of his life.
Congratulations, gentlemen. Seems like when there's a big day of racing, Shadwell Stables is represented and no less today with Lahudood. First question to both Kiaran and Rick, it comes from upstairs, Sheikh Hamdan reportedly told you guys after the Beverly Dunes, throw out the rut, the ground is soft, she doesn't like it. What is it about Lahudood that made her able to handle it quite well today?
RICK NICHOLS: Well, as Kiaran pointed out, she's a little bit of a fussy type of filly and she may not have liked all the plane rides over to Chicago and all that going on where this is like the Flower Bowl was at home and this was a lot closer to home. You know, it just pleased her a little better and maybe that had something to do with it.
The ground today sure didn't bother her a bit.
ERIC WING: There was also a little bit of a back and forth within the stable on who your best female grass runner was, Lahudood or Makderah, and Kiaran, funny how things work out sometimes.
KIARAN McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, there was no struggle between the two. The boss said Lahudood was the best and he's the boss and he was right. We just thought Lahudood was a very nice filly to train her. We were sorry she couldn't make the Flower Bowl and had to go home but with a nice replacement.
ERIC WING: Were you also in the Makderah camp?
RICK NICHOLS: It was nice to have a good second team to come back with, if that's what you call it. But like Kiaran says, Sheikh Hamdan, ever since the two came home last winter, he always said Lahudood was the better of the two fillies.
ERIC WING: Alan Garcia, congratulations on your first Breeders' Cup win and has to be the best day of your career so far. Tell us about the trip. You got in tight when things started to bunch up around you the first time around, you got a little bit of a shuffle, and then once that was all solved, then you had a perfect trip, and also, were you aware of any of the shenanigans going on outside you with Simply Perfect taking out Arravale and Precious Kitten.
ALAN GARCIA: Yes, thank you so much. It's exciting for me to win my first Breeders' Cup. The first part, my filly, I want to be close to the base and inside and I don't want to lose too much ground. And then when the horse is coming outside and then one horse is inside to me, I don't want to lose my position. I try to keep him there but I was so close and I have to shake it out and then he was trying to be behind the speed, maybe too close and too far wide.
But when I relaxed a little bit, he was on the back side. The second tour, the horse he went out and he spread everybody and then he has position for so much room and keeping my position clear and nice and confident enough, too, and after that, he was so nice.
Then when the horse was outside he wanted to put pressure and I didn't want to lose the pressure I have and then the filly, he won the race.
ERIC WING: It didn't seem to affect Lahudood at all but were you able to see what was going on with Simply Perfect drifting out wide?
ALAN GARCIA: He was a little difficult, the filly, but after that, I don't think so.
ERIC WING: Kiaran and Rick, I'd like you to comment on Alan. A lot of people are familiar with the most recent past, Shadwell's exploits with Jazil and also last year's horse of the year, and a big part of that was an unheralded part of that story was a 17-year-old jockey named Fernando Jara and today we have a slightly older and perhaps equally unheralded rider that fans in New York are familiar with but perhaps not fans in other parts of the country. Can you talk about your willingness to trust your very best horses with riders who are not necessarily marquee names?
KIARAN McLAUGHLIN: Luckily Rick is involved with me daily and talks with me about jockeys and this year, Alan Garcia has been riding quite a bit for us with success, and when he won a Grade 1 obviously on her last time, we were not looking to change riders, so we were happy to have him here today and he rode a great race.
ERIC WING: Anything to add to that, Rick?
RICK NICHOLS: I don't think you necessarily need the premiere rider if you have a good horse and you have somebody that really knows how to ride like Alan does and Fernando does. They can get you where you need to be.
We like giving these people an opportunity to prove themselves, and we have confidence in them that they can because they are good.
ERIC WING: I'm not sure what time it is out there, but has any contact been made with Sheik Hamdan yet?
RICK NICHOLS: Yes, he's very happy and very pleased. I think his words of wisdom to Kiaran and I all year long have been vindicated by our victory.
ERIC WING: Did he say, "I told you so"?
RICK NICHOLS: He never says, "I told you so," but he's probably thinking that, yeah. It's not that we didn't believe him by any means because she's always been a good filly.
But quite honestly, I saw her the first time in, what, January, went down to Palm Meadows, right after she came in. And she's quite a different filly now than what she was then. She was very light and spindly looking. I really wouldn't have thought that day that we would be sitting here today, but we are and it's mainly due to Kiaran's excellent horsemanship, of his staff and everyone. They have built her up and made her stronger into a gorgeous filly.
ERIC WING: By virtue of the Flower Bowl win and today, outstanding chance to be named champion female grass horse, what's the future?
RICK NICHOLS: She's going to be a mama on Shadwell before too long.
ERIC WING: Next year, will she be bred?
RICK NICHOLS: Yes.

Q. What went into the decision of the timing of when she was brought over, and the decision in itself to bring her over to the United States and campaign her here?
RICK NICHOLS: Well, a lot of that is based on the fact that, you know, Sheik Hamdan has a stud in America, and we need to race more and more in America. And these were two fillies, Makderah and Lahudood, that he felt would do very well here.
After they did their racing, they would come to the stud and produce well for horses to go on and run for Shadwell Stables in America.

Q. For trainer McLaughlin, Lahudood's French lines are excellent, but her lines after she joined you are much, much better. With the exception of the Beverly, you have won two grade one races; how did she get better after she joined the stable and what are your thoughts?
KIARAN McLAUGHLIN: Well, she trains very well but early she got beat. When we went to the Beverly Dunes, she was disappointing and I lost a little bit of faith in her. Luckily Sheikh Hamdan I instructed us to go on and run in the Flower Bowl. And she's just, as far as training and getting better, she just has been training and getting better the last 60 days, and we have top exercise riders because she's a little temperamental and difficult, and they have done a great job. Lorenzo Morales has been getting on her the last 45 days and settled her down. I really have a great team of people and she's a top filly.
ERIC WING: Has it been determined yet who Lahudood might be bred to?
RICK NICHOLS: No. We talked a little bit about it, but no real decisions have been made yet.
ERIC WING: And Alan, coming down the stretch, you had secured that good trip and you turned for home and you opened up about a length, maybe a length and a half, and then you had a couple of pretty formidable fillies coming at you late, Honey Ryder of the Todd Pletcher Stable and Passage of Time who is a very well accomplished European horse. Were you confident through that stretch that you had enough left to hold the others safe?
ALAN GARCIA: I had confidence, I had a good feeling running the straights. But when I feel sure I won the race or I want to do the best -- or he do the best, my filly, he was past the wire and I said, my filly, he do the best in the race and I'm happy and Sheikh Hamdan, he's done a good job with this filly and I'm glad.

Q. What does Lahudood mean?
RICH NICHOLS: No boundaries.

Q. After winning the Flower Bowl, did you see a mental process in this horse? Did you see more confidence in her?
KIARAN McLAUGHLIN: Yes, I felt like I became more confident in her. But, she did start training better and better, and then I have a great team of people, like I said, my brother, Neil and his wife, Trish, up at Saratoga had her for quite a while and then they came to Belmont with Art Magnussen and he does a great job.
She kept getting better and better in the morning and I just felt like that she's been really an improved filly since the Flower Bowl.

Q. Was there any consideration at all to scratch this horse after the days of rain?
KIARAN McLAUGHLIN: I left it up to Rick to talk to Sheikh Hamdan.
RICK NICHOLS: Sheikh Hamdan said, no, let's run, let's give her a chance.
ERIC WING: Sounds like the Sheikh has been right all along on this filly.
RICK NICHOLS: He's very seldom ever wrong. He knows his horses and he knows the game so, when he says something, you listen.
ERIC WING: Nice when it pays off in such a big way. Congratulations on the big win and more than likely, year end championship for Lahudood.

End of FastScripts

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