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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPSOctober 27, 2007Bob BaffertHal Earnhardt, IIIGarrett GomezOCEANPORT, NEW JERSEY ERIC WING: Our winning jockey Garrett Gomez, the co-owner and breeder along with his wife, Patti, Hal Earnhardt, and also winning trainer, Bob Baffert. Gentlemen, congratulations and Garrett, first I'll ask you, you secured the lead, you slowed that first quarter down; were there any anxious moments for you at any point in the race? GARRETT GOMEZ: First of all, I'd like to thank Bob Baffert and Earnhardt and Grey Goose for sponsoring these races. You know, she left the gate really good for us and my main concern with her, the other day, the one-turn mile, she got a little aggressive with me, so today I tried not to warm her up too much and leave her. One race earlier, I was near the lead a little wide and the second race, I was last and circled around wide and this race I was on the lead and on the fence so it seems to be playing pretty fair. ERIC WING: Is it safe to say this is your biggest win as an owner and breeder in your pretty a accomplished win in thoroughbred racing? HAL EARNHARDT III: Yes, by all means, it's a great day. Like I explained earlier, it's nice to have a homebred, Bobby had the mare, Shameful; my wife and I raced Indian Charlie. There's a lot of gratitude all the way down the line and we still have the mare now. It's really special all the way around. I'm the longest client that Bobby has. We started together, never had another trainer, it's only been him and all our successes -- BOB BAFFERT: Don't forget John Basset. HAL EARNHARDT III: Oh, that's the quarter horse guy. We owe a lot to Bobby for the great care he takes in this horse. When he was first working this mare, he said, you have something special. But we all know horse racing and he made a decision to take her back to Saratoga for her first out which he won impressively and we went to Frizette where she ran very well. All of the management is owed to Bobby on this. We're a hand-off owner. What we do, when Bobby tells us to show up, and show up on the right ones, we did. ERIC WING: Bob, congratulations on Breeders' Cup victory No. 4 for you. You've had winners with V indication and Silver Bullet and now today with today's winner, Indian Blessing. Bob, was the mud a concern at all for you today, and also, not that you ever want a horse to not make a race, but is it possible that having to be forced to scratch Cry and Catch Me may have actually helped Indian Blessing a little bit? BOB BAFFERT: Well, that's something that we'll never know. It's a shame that we had to scratch her. She got sick. She was training extremely well. In this business, I've learned, you can never look back and just go forward. Thank God she didn't get very sick and we got it under control in time so she'll be back to race again. Today, it was all about Indian Blessing and Garrett Gomez. My wife earlier asked me, "What are you going to tell them? What are you going to explain?" I said, I've got the best rider in the country and she's training just better than ever. At Frizette, she needed that race, and her two works were sensational and all you can ask for. But one thing about Breeders' Cup, and Bob Lewis, we've run races and we've got beat and, well, we got beat because these are the best horses in the world and that's what it's all about, the best horses in the world and today the best filly won. ERIC WING: Did the mud change your thinking one way or the other today? BOB BAFFERT: Just changed my thinking about going out to greet Garrett because I was not going to ruin my shoes. HAL EARNHARDT III: We made my daughter, Daisy, do it, so now she has muddy boots. Q. Had Indian Blessing been stabled at Del Mar this year? BOB BAFFERT: She was at Del Mar, matter of fact I had her entered at Del Mar and I scratched her. She was in the day of the Classic and I didn't feel comfortable running her there. She had been working very well there, but you know, Hal never really gets involved, but he said, hay, Bob, if you want to take my filly to Saratoga, just go ahead. I just put her on the plane, sent her to Saratoga, and away we went. Q. It was noted that some of your horses were shipped east because of concerns over Polytrack. Did she fall into that category or was it more of a coincidence? BOB BAFFERT: No. Just the track, I felt she was doing so well and I wanted to take her to Saratoga and just threw a bunch of nice horses there. I felt Midnight Loot -- I wanted to run these horses there where I felt -- I wanted to go to a track that I thought was fair and that's the only reason we left Del Mar because we felt, you know, it was totally different afternoon. You don't know what to expect. So I took her up there. I changed riders. I've been lucky with Garrett. He's been my big money rider and I just feel really confident when I have Garrett on my horse. I can sleep at night and I don't get nervous. Now, Hal, he's a nervous wreck. He was a nervous wreck. HAL EARNHARDT III: Thank you, Bobby. ERIC WING: Is it nice off and on a big day like this where you may have a few butterflies to get a win right off the bat? BOB BAFFERT: It's frustrating if you know that you have the best horse. Today when she broke out of the gate, I was watching with my wife, Jill, and I said, "What do you think?" She looks good, she's in good shape, no excuses. I saw 46 and 3, I saw ten and change and Jill said, is that too fast? I go, it's not too fast, they turned for home, same thing she did at Frizette, seemed like that stretch run took five minutes, but today she did another best run. Q. Is it too early to compare her to Silver Bullet day? BOB BAFFERT: Silver Bullet, her explosiveness, she would be sitting four or five off. This filly, she's incredible. She's just a fast filly that just takes her speed and she's going to run them into the ground like a Smarty Jones type with filly and just gets out there, you look at her and she's built like a sprinter but she just -- when they are that good, you can't run them down. They just keep going. Q. Do you have any feel for what the plan may be heading into 2008? BOB BAFFERT: A lot of love. HAL EARNHARDT III: We're going to enjoy this day. Whatever Bob says to do, we'll do, but he's mapped out a great plan for her and leading up to this, just a remarkable training job, let alone a very special filly to us. It's very special to myself and my family, but just a great job of also managing a great filly by Bob. BOB BAFFERT: I want to thank my team in New York, John and Tonya Taranova, they did a great job overseeing everything for me. They are right back there. ERIC WING: Bob and Garrett, you guys obviously have a lot more action today, but the first one is in the bag and congratulations on the terrific performance by Indian Blessing. End of FastScripts |
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