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BREEDERS' CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 6, 2009

Jonathan Sheppard

ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA

ERIC WING: We're here with the winning trainer from the recently concluded Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard. Jonathan, it's nice to have you here on a winning note rather than on a close second note. Congratulations. Hard to believe this is only your second Breeders' Cup victory, the other coming last year with forever Together.
But Informed Decision, just an incredible race horse over synthetic surfaces. An incredible race horse, period. But almost a machine over synthetic surfaces, 7 for 7. What is the key for her remarkable success?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: She's just a super fast horse. The main key for my point is just trying to avoid doing something stupid so that she doesn't have a chance to show what she can do. She's just a stone cold runner. Always has been, and is not quite my usual type horse because I've been known more for longer races and grass races. She just kind of got me to where I am pretty much up to her own natural raw ability.
ERIC WING: I know you've been asked this question before, but for good reason people often tend to associate you with the long distance, long winded grass runners, the Steeplechase runners. You've had so much success with them. But does it give you an extra measure of satisfaction, kind of, to show your training chops with a sprinter like Informed Decision?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: Well, I think definitely, yes. I mean people do tend to get branded a little bit as a certain type of trainer. And I think most of us trainers, you know, we all have a little bit of pride.
We like to think if we're a good trainer with one kind of horse we probably are with another. But not everybody has the opportunity to prove it, and I'm very grateful for Mr. Strawbridge to provide me a horse that I see can show that is possible.
ERIC WING: Julien, of course, is out riding Rainbow View for Mr. Strawbridge. But when you spoke to Julien after the race, what did he tell you about the trip?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: He said really he never had that much of a problem. Really everything fell into place exactly as we had hoped. We had a nice outside post. We were hoping to be sitting in the starting position not too far off the lead.
Of course, Ventura we knew was going to come with a late run. She actually hit the lead before us when we beat her at Keeneland. And I think a lot of people felt that maybe she had moved a little bit too soon and I was pretty sure that Gomez was going to wait and have to pounce on us right at the end, which he tried to do. But our filly galloped so hard to the line she wasn't able to catch us.
ERIC WING: When you were watching the race, I don't know whether you were watching through binoculars or on a television screen, were you keeping one eye on Ventura?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: I certainly was, yes (laughing). She was a little bit further back, you know, later in the race, and than I kind of expected - I assumed that Gomez was riding to instructions. And once our filly hit the front, I knew it was going to take a hell of a burst of speed to catch us.
The one thing our filly does is have a high cruising speed to get good sprint position, but gallops very strongly to the wire. She's not a one-dimensional sprinter that's gasping a little bit when she goes the extra eighth. She gets the extra eighth very well.

Q. Why didn't this filly run in this race last year in the Breeders'?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: We weren't sure that we had something quite that good. We sort of tried to take her up the ladder one step at a time. We threw her in the deep end a little bit in the third start of her life at Gulf Stream Park, and it wasn't a good result at all. It's the only poor race she's ever run, actually. And I wanted to be sure that when we did test her in the very deepest waters that we were properly prepared.

Q. You had a little bit of a setback with Ballerina when she was third behind two really good horses. Then you made the decision to turn back and run her back almost on short rest. It seems like all of her races had been about a month apart. What was your confidence going into that Presque Isle Race, and did that really turn the corner for her?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: To be truthful we really planned to one run one or the other, the Ballerina or the Masters Distaff, I think it's called at Presque Isle. But we were pretty disappointed after the Ballerina. The track was extremely sloppy.
She got in behind some speed horses going into the far turn and really didn't extend herself very much. She wasn't disgraced, but we knew it wasn't her best effort. She barely even blew after the race. She caught up very quickly, recovered well and was bucking and squealing the next day.
Actually, it was never my intention to run her back. But two days later I was still telling Mr. Strawbridge how well she came out of the race. He said is she still nominated for that race at Presque Isle? I said I don't think that's quite the thing to do with a horse of this quality after two weeks and a fairly bad defeat.
Then I went home and started thinking about it. We've got horses there, Presque Isle's not that far a ship from Saratoga. Let's keep our options open and see who shows up. Maybe it might be a good thing to do. Obviously, we went ahead and did it, and it turned out to be a slightly tougher race than it was. There were three other Grade 1 winners in the race, but she won rather easily.

Q. How many times have you won the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase? Also, prior to recent years you were known for your excellence on the flats or on dirt I suppose was known more for your feats with Storm Cat. When do you think more current events will override the old Storm Cat stories?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: Well, yes, to be truthful I'm not sure how many times we've won the Breeders' Cup Steeplechase. Not a lot of times. Probably three or four, I think. But, of course, in most people's eyes that doesn't really count as a Breeders' Cup. It's not on the same day, of course, as it is a very important race.
But we've been kind of knocking at the door. Storm Cat was second with Anticipation. And a good filly called Alice Springs was up there a couple of times. And it was just a wonderful relief, very emotional moment for me as a trainer to get the job done last year and to come back this year with another horse in a different type of a race was certainly the icing on the cake.

Q. Can you discuss what the future plans are for Informed Decision?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: I'm pretty sure we'll keep her in training for next year. We'll give her a break as we did last year. Probably bring her back somewhere around Keeneland time somewhere in the spring.

Q. Will she sprint or go long?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: There has been talk off and on during her career that she could do equally as well going two turns, and I've always tried to discourage Mr. Strawbridge from pushing me too hard to do that, because she's doing so well doing what she's doing. I wanted to get through this year.
It is something we might think about when we start her fresh next year. She's certainly bred for distance, but she does have a lost high energy as you can see from today, and tremendous amount of speed. You wonder if it would be taking something away to try to on harness that and stretch her out. If it didn't work, he might have blown whatever ability she has as a sprinter, too.
My guess is we'll probably keep doing the same thing.

Q. Could you give us a comment about Forever Together's third place performance in the Filly and Mare Turf?
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: Well, it was sort of an emotional race for me because it's most likely her last race. She's been such a big part of my life the last few years. She's an extremely high class quality filly. Genuine. Very consistent. And it would have been wonderful to go out with a win, but unfortunately that wasn't to be. She certainly wasn't disgraced, and we're proud of her.
ERIC WING: I know a trainer wants to win every race, but three starters today, a win with Informed Decision, a second with Cloudy's Knight and a third with Forever Together, still a very good day at the office. Congratulations for your victory. Just a few minutes or so ago with Informed Decision, and good luck with her next year.
JONATHAN SHEPPARD: I appreciate it. I should mention that winning is definitely better than finishing second or third.

End of FastScripts

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