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143RD BELMONT STAKES

June 11, 2011

ELMONT, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Okay, we are now live in the interview room following the 143rd Belmont Stakes, and with us the happy connections of longshot winner, Ruler On Ice.
We'll be joined momentarily by co-owner Lori Hall. Now, we do have left to right, co-owner, George Hall, rider Jose Valdivia, Jr., trainer, Kelly Breen.
George, congratulations. I'll start with you.
Your horse in kind of a Triple Crown prep season had always shown a good fondness for lots of ground. Perhaps there was an excuse in the New Mexico race at Sunderland the way the track was playing that day.
As an owner, were you disappointed or were your hopes deflated somewhat when you did not win the Federico Tesio?
GEORGE HALL: A little bit with it. Yeah, we were.
Funny thing about this horse, Jose would always come back and say he was goofing off and he wasn't really tired at tend of the race.
So we figured what better race than the Belmont Stakes, and if he wants to be playful with the lead one or two horses, that would be a pretty good outcome.
Jose did exactly what we asked, went close for the lead and stayed with it the whole time and he showed, as usual, you can see at the end of the race he didn't want to come. He wanted to do another victory lap.
He's a much better horse than the odds had show.
Kelly, congratulations. This is not just the first Triple Crown win for our entire group, but the first Belmont Stakes.
Kelly, congratulations. Follow up on what George said, on your ongoing confidence in the horse and your decision on blinkers.
KELLY BREEN: He had been acting like he just wouldn't grow up and we were trying to see in time if he would mature.
We were disappointed in Tesio looking to get him into the Preakness, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
During the whole time, we had a little trouble, ever since the race, of shipping him and flying him to Sunderland Park. He came back and his blood reports were very low and he showed it in the stall, in the feed tub. It took a little while to get him, you know, back to normal.
We thought we had him normal going into the Tesio, he comes back out of the race and he's somewhat lethargic. So we pulled some more blood tests. I felt bad for him. He probably lost a couple of liters of blood. How we were checking on him.
I was reporting to George and saying, he's just a little bit better. Two days later, he recessed.
All of a sudden, these last two weeks, he's starting get to get better. His red blood count is getting up.
This week I reported to the Halls, this is the best blood report we've had in the past six months. It's a go.
You know, even saying going into the race that we were talking about his blood has to get better for us to run.
THE MODERATOR: Also Kelly, the blinkers?
KELLY BREEN: A was part of the maturity, he didn't mature as fast as we wanted him to. He's already a gelding, we can't castrate him again.
We put the blinkers on. His first time out of the gate, Jose was on him. He still was goofing off and didn't break great.
We brought him back last week. Broke dynamite. Sometimes you see the light bulb goes on. He's ready. Everything, it was the perfect storm for things going correct. That's how we got here.
THE MODERATOR: Jose, congratulations. Just under ten years ago you were sitting in the same room enjoying the victory in the Breeders Cup Mile champion Val Royal, who you rode for Julio Canonne(ph).
A question from me and upstairs in the Press Box, from the Press Box, what brought you into horse racing initially and from me, take us through the trip.
JOSE VALDIVIA: Well, I think I was born into it. My whole family was involved with horse racing. My father rode and trained. I have a current uncle trainer in Peru. A lot might know Fernando Jara.
He won the first Breeders Cup. He had the record. I was the one to break his record. First congratulatory call I had was from him. It stayed in the family.
The trip, Kelly said we got the blinkers on him. Doesn't appear to put a whole lot of speed. Put him into the race, and then we just hope for the best. We hit the half mile point, I hear some whips cracking behind me.
Jesus starts to look left and right, get after his horse. I'm sitting on mine. He started picking up the tempo, the beat. With a half mile remaining, I still feel like I have a lot of horse underneath me.
Turn for home and everything just started going in very slow motion. Unbelievable. The 16th pole, I thought, wow, the true test of champions. I'm going to win my Belmont Stakes. It's a great feeling. Nothing like it.
I got to thank the connections, George and Lori Hall and Kelly. I know it sounds cliche. I started this winter, I like this horse, I'm willing to freeze my butt off, come out every morning.
He acts like he's something special. He would always act like he had a lot left underneath.
Today, he tried to put the carnations around him. He wouldn't have any of it. We still haven't gotten to the bottom of him yet. I'm stoked. I'm on cloud nine right now.
THE MODERATOR: Couple of questions from the Press Box for the Halls.
One, how was the horse named, and how did you and Lori get the horse?
LORI HALL: I'm so bad at this.
GEORGE HALL: She looks good, too.
LORI HALL: The name is easy, a Roman Ruler and Champagne Glow.
About the time we came to name the horse, our son got into hockey. He started dominating quickly at the age of seven. I have two Rulers On Ice.
We acquired him at the Keeneland sale like we do a lot of our yearlings. We started breeding at home. We started running some of our home breds away.
Most of the acquisitions have come from Keeneland in the past.
THE MODERATOR: The questions are flooding in from the Press Box and here on paper.
A couple for you, Kelly. What does this win mean for your career. What do you think it will ever take, this year to win each leg of the Triple Crown.
What do you think one day for a horse to win the Triple Crown. Start with the one about your career.
KELLY BREEN: I'm very fortunate that I come from little town in New York, not like I came from a horse business family, did it all on my own.
My father and my brother are steam fitters in Manhattan, and George and Lori, who after I was doing well, successfully, a Monmouth Park leading trainer.
They gave me the opportunity to say, why don't you come and work for us. We went to the sales. They said, I think we would like to get into this a little bit stronger, and we want you to be our private trainer, you know, to stay.
When I first met them, I say I'd love to retire with them. It's a perfect job. Everything is going great. We picked up some, you know -- when it comes to the Keeneland sales, I lock myself in my room. I tell my wife, keep the kids out. I have my own system for picking some of the horses.
I have books all over the bed, you know, different colored markers, and we just got fortunate enough in the past couple years to have some really nice horses, to say a lot of the credit. There's not many people that would give somebody an opportunity from New Jersey, you know, with no name, for the most part, other than working hard and being a leading trainer at Monmouth Park. Here I am in New York, New York winning my first great one.
I have to give hats off to the Halls to say they gave me the opportunity to do what I'm doing.
THE MODERATOR: George, throwing open the questions now.
George, the three-year-old race, very wide open. Barry Irwin said earlier this week, he has no intention of running in the Haskell or the Travers. You guys are New Jersey people, is the Haskell a safe bet if the horse is healthy?
GEORGE HALL: Of course we let the horse tell us when they're ready to run and how much distance. Our home track is Monmouth Park. If we have a choice between that and any other race, we're going to have somebody in the Haskell, honored to go to some of those other great races, too.
THE MODERATOR: Questions now for our winning connections of Ruler On Ice. We'll start here with Sherry. Go ahead, Sherry.

Q. This is for the Halls. Kelly just said you asked him to be your private trainer. What was it about him that made you go to him and offer him the job?
GEORGE HALL: Well, he didn't tell the story exactly right. He had two horses in two stake racer with two different owners, one of which with us. He went to Saratoga with the other horse. I said, "This is not going to last. You're going to work for us full time. What does it take to do that?"
I guess we're control freaks. Or I'm a control freak.

Q. Kelly and the Halls, you had several horses on the Triple Crown trail, I know you were high on several others this two-year-old, where did you think this horse had fit with this group last year when you came to the barn?
THE MODERATOR: The question is for the Kelly and the Halls.
GEORGE HALL: From my standpoint, Ruler On Ice was always frustrating. I kept hearing about his ability and how much speed he had and he was still not mature enough to win races.
You know, obviously, this is our first great one winner. This is our first great one, certainly our first Triple Crown winner. We still have high hopes for Pants on Fire, but this is our guy right now.
KELLY BREEN: I think that going back to saying, in January we were extremely high on the horse that kind of proved himself as a two-year-old was our, to say, top horse, Sweet Ducky. We had an opportunity to sell him and in this day and age, when it comes to turning a profit, you know, the dollars and cents make it that we sold what we thought was our top selection, and we're going to make due and try and win as many races as we can with our two, three and four, to say maybe in January this horse was maybe number four on our list. So, you know, and it took him the longest to figure out what was going on.

Q. For all of you, this is the third straight year we've had three different winners of the Triple Crown races. What does it say about the pursuit of the Triple Crown, any kind of statement on the state of the industry, perhaps.
KELLY BREEN: You have to have a super horse. It comes down to being -- not even to say a super horse, you have to have the "now" horse.
I know next week they have something going on at Belmont Park talking about the medication rules that are going on. We have a horse that ran in the Kentucky Derby, Pants on Fire, that bled through Lasix. And I know it seems like everybody talks about the problems with medication and horses, when you have a horse that you think that highly of, that something that we've been known to stop horses from bleeding as Lasix, that I don't understand why they're trying to take it away.
Me, personally, I have this athlete of a horse by the name of Pants on Fire, not to get off the boat of Ruler, but I think that you know some of the things are talking about medication, why aren't horses running as fast as they used to.
If you're a super horse, you're going to run fast. Whether it was Secretariat, George said after the race, looking for the time. I said, George, right now times are criminals. We won the race.
You have to have a super horse. I think that to say we peaked today for this year for right now, hopefully, we just keep on getting better, but you have to have the now horse, the "it" horse, whatever you want to call it, to be a Triple Crown winner.
Those races back to back to back, you really have to be a super horse.

Q. For the Halls, could you describe, please, what was going on with you during the running of the race, what was happening, what your feelings were throughout?
GEORGE HALL: Ready? Try.
LORI HALL: It was unbelievable. I saw it happening. It was happening in slow motion. Everybody was doing what they were supposed to do the way they had told them to doing it, the way we envisioned it happening. It was playing out the way we had discussed it.
I think that in itself was unbelievable and I just remember there was a lot of screaming going on. I'm still shaking. It was amazing, because we really were the underdog and I couldn't have dreamt it any better, but here we are.
GEORGE HALL: I'll echo that.
I think what I always look for in a race is the horse doing what we ask the jockey to do and the jockey doing what we ask him or her to do.
He did a great job. We said we want to get right into the race. If you're a little behind Shackleford, that's fine, stay with him. Let's make them come and chase us down.
Jose did exactly what we asked him to do. The whole race I was just thinking, he's doing precisely what we asked him to do.
Coming into the far turn, just a question of if we had enough horse, and we did. It was just a wonderful race.
When we crossed the finish line, I think I was stunned a little bit. I don't know exactly what I was thinking. It was wonderful.
Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Couple of questions from upstairs for Jose.
Jose, first of all, what did you think of the challenge of winning here at Belmont in the Belmont Stakes, and did you make any adjustments because of the sloppy track?
JOSE VALDIVIA: There were, you know, as the races were being run, I was paying attention. This seemed like speed was actually good. Couple of races I saw they were four and four and change. Although there were sprints, not a lot of horses making the run down the lane.
What we talked about, the Halls and Kelly, put him into the race and let it play as it comes.
The horse had been training good. We're all being asked to go a mile and a half. I know a lot of pedigree comes into it. The bottom line, I have to go around him. There's nothing like.
I started my career in the New York, my New York resident. This is the true test of champions. It goes to show you not only to win not only the mile and a half race, to go through the grueling Triple Crown campaign, it takes a lot on the horses. You have to have a lot of horse.
The next horse that wins the Triple Crown has to be a super horse. After five weeks to run grueling mile and a half race is tough. Happy to put my name alongside of it.
THE MODERATOR: Also for you, Jose, you had Thirsty on your inside down the stretch. Brilliant Speed on our south side, were you confident at all times that you were going to be able to hold off each of those two challengers?
JOSE VALDIVIA: To be honest with you, when I got past the eighth pole, as I started seeing all the camera flashes, getting closer and closer to me, I just happened to this take a little glance at the big screen TV and I saw Stay Thirsty coming up on the rail.
The wire is going to come up on time for me. I still felt like Ruler wasn't slowing down. He was maintaining his speed. It was just a great feeling that last 16th of a mile.
THE MODERATOR: Brilliant Speed was third at one point, it looked like he might have gotten in front of you on your outside, that happen?
JOSE VALDIVIA: No, I never felt like it. I took a glance, we turned for home. The one I stayed a little more concerned about was Stay Thirsty. The wire is getting close I straightened my neck, I really couldn't tell Brilliant Speed came up on side. Once we took the lead, we never gave it up.
THE MODERATOR: They want you to expand the answer before what you think it would eventually take for a horse to win the Triple Crown this.
KELLY BREEN: I think I answered it, you need the super horse, the "now" horse. When you're coming into -- say we were growing into the Kentucky Derby two years ago, and I had spoke to my wife and Henry Sullivan on the drive up here that we were in such a grueling pattern to try and get our horses to the Kentucky Derby that when they got to the Kentucky Derby they were tired. You need a horse that's going to be the horse in the first Saturday in May and continue it for six more weeks. But you really, you know, to say the "it" horse, I keep on saying the "it" horse, it's tough to have a horse that goes on and on starting from January until, you know, June.

Q. George can you just talk about how you feel about winning in this environment, you went to school not far from here. You talk about what connection that is for you.
GEORGE HALL: No better place for us to win a big race. My brother and I used to start coming to Belmont and Aqueduct when we were kids, when were nine and five. Our grandfather used to take us almost once a week and we come to the track. Right after the race my brother gave me a hug he said congratulations, he said, I had flashbacks in when we used to come with Grandpa. We would love to have won the Derby, winning the Belmont is just as special.
THE MODERATOR: A follow up question, Lori, from the Press Box. You mentioned the name Ruler On Ice it was a child who plays hockey for the on Ice part. What's the name of that child?
LORI HALL: George.
GEORGE HALL: Little George.
KELLY BREEN: Little George, not the big George.
THE MODERATOR: Big George would be an enforcer.

Q. Question for Kelly. Why did the horse remain in Monmouth and you shipped it over this morning.
KELLY BREEN: The horse really liked Monmouth Park. If you see the horse this horse, trying to get him into the Winners Circle, we've been dealing with this since maybe before February, late last year. This horse has antics, and even going back to when he was being broke at Barry Eisaman's farm in Ocala. Barry called me up. He said everything is great, everything's going fine "but". You always have the "but." He says, this one horse that is a little nuts, and he says, I think that we need to geld him or else we're going to have trouble or he's going to hurt somebody because that's how nutty he can be. So, to say that he liked Monmouth Park, he liked the stall at Monmouth Park, I have a plain barn at Monmouth Park that holds 20 horses, he didn't like to be in our main barn. The Belmont winner is in our "B Barn" right now because we found out what he liked, he liked to be off the beaten path, he liked where he was at. It made him happy. You try and have a happy horse. He liked Monmouth Park. He likes going out and training first thing in the morning. He's the first horse on the track. That was the main reason of saying we're going to keep him at Monmouth Park. We have a tendency of shipping horses in to get them used to the track early wherever we do go. Seeing this a hop, skip and

jump away, he liked Monmouth Park, he was training well.

Q. I apologize for this being kind of an odd question. We usually associate Kentucky Derby with hats and women and I was wondering if there's a story any tradition between you and your hat?
KELLY BREEN: First day I was really started getting into wearing hats, George had made comments before, it was the day before the Kentucky Derby two years ago when we had the everyone wear pink, ladies day, I put on a hat. George liked it. He said he liked it. We're throw-back people. We like the old times. I like to say that I get dressed up all the time. I like to represent myself well. I like to represent who the owners are for the horse well, and maybe going back a little bit maybe when we won the Sorority of Monmouth Park, they have a camera very high up and my wife said to me, you have a bald spot in the back. It was like a no brainer. I said, the hats are in.
I've got a small collection going now. I think they're classy. To say I consider myself a little bit of a throw back, I like the old ways of how racing was. Maybe I'm out of style now to say maybe we're bringing them back. Maybe I missed my time. I should have been born 50 years earlier.
THE MODERATOR: For the benefit of the media, Kelly, can you tell us what your plans are for taking the horse back to Monmouth and also what your media availability will be tomorrow?
KELLY BREEN: We have four horses running at Monmouth Park tomorrow. The horse will go back to Monmouth Park tonight, probably get back about ten o'clock tonight at Monmouth Park. This horse is going from here, we have another horse racing next Saturday, Pants on Fire, and the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park. That might be one of the horses we look to take to the Haskell. The Haskell is a thought here. The Travers, all of these races that I've been watching for years, you know, we have some real contenders, and whatever it takes to win the next big one we'll be there.
THE MODERATOR: So you and the horse will be departing Belmont tonight then?
KELLY BREEN: Correct.

Q. Kelly, you mentioned what you liked about being home at Monmouth Park. This was the horse's seventh different track in as many starts. What makes you comfortable shipping him for racing versus training had?
KELLY BREEN: He honestly doesn't ship well. As he acted trying to get into the paddock, the Winner's Circle he pulls his antics. We're slowly getting used to what he lies. He has his own van. You know, he came over here, the attendant held him the whole way, which you don't usually do for a horse shipping 60 miles away. It's like trying to take baby steps with this horse to get him to -- we're I think just understanding what he wants or what he needs and we're just pacifying him. I think the day he went a down to Maryland our van driver said that he had to go get a couple of the bars fixed from him kicking the back walls of the van. Today you know we turned him a little more sideways. Whatever we've got to do to try to settle him down. Had an attendant holding with him, petting him, what we needed to do to get him here. Luckily he made it to Sunderland Park. That's one of the thoughts we had is he going to be okay on a plane. He has a nasty side to him.
THE MODERATOR: We have time for one more question. Go ahead.

Q. How do you guys keep, Monmouth Park, how do you keep him calm and focused to win these big races, what ways do you this keep him calm and focused?
KELLY BREEN: Just to say how we were trying to do things to keep him happy, to say that he's in our "B Barn" he's not in the "A Barn" where he kicks the walls all day long. He still kicks the walls in our other barn, but not at bad as he did. We're trying to learn his antics and trying to see any way we can get him to conserve his energy. If we think it's working, we continue to do it.
GEORGE HALL: He likes Jose, we keep had Jose on him.
THE MODERATOR: That certainly was a winning combination today, three year old picture just gotten more wide open, and congratulations to all four of our winning connections, Lori Hall, George Hall, Jose Valdivia and Kelly Breen. Terrific performance in the 143rd Belmont Stakes, Ruler On Ice. Congratulations.

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