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TRAVERS STAKESAugust 24, 2013Willis HortonD. Wayne LukasSARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, gentlemen. Terrific win, an excellent race, and Mr.Lukas, third Travers victory for you, a horse that's shown glimpses of quality all year, but finally put it up here at Saratoga. Congratulations. What is it that led to this tournament win? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I felt all along there were five or six horses in here that would be deserving, no matter who won it. You could make a case for them all week long. We felt ours was one of them. We just felt like he was getting better. He's a big, growthy horse. I told Luis that I thought he grew a half inch here in the last month even. He's top 17 hands now. When you get those big, long, striding horses that are growing and making that growth sport, just like in May and June, sometimes they maybe take a little time to find themselves. I think this one's finding himself pretty good. THE MODERATOR: You mentioned part of the race about you being a basketball coach in the past and making a decision to change jockeys here, Luis Saez, makes you look pretty smart now, huh? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Any time I'm in a jockey situation led with my heart, I got burned. So I get realistic about that. I try to match them up. I try to get somebody that I think might fit the particular horse I'm running, and Luis has been wonderful to go along with that aspect all the time. I didn't even call Luis and ask him; I just made the change and felt that it was in the best interest of what we're trying to get done. You look terrible if it doesn't work, but it's sweet if it does. THE MODERATOR: Mr.Horton, this horse ran in all three Triple Crown races and had some legitimate trouble in the Kentucky Derby. How rewarding is this for you to get a Travers victory with him? WILLIS HORTON: Well, man, we knew we had a good horse, a well‑fed horse. He's going to have to catch up with his growth, and we had to get him going; and we kept pushing on and pushing on trying to get him quicker. But we finally made it here today, and this is a real pleasure. THE MODERATOR: Biggest win in your career owning horses. WILLIS HORTON: Yes. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. D. WAYNE LUKAS: When you stop and think about it, this horse ran in March, in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and traveled the country coast to coast, so to speak, and now shows up and gets his best run here at the end of the year. So that's significant. Q. Wayne, the way the track was playing earlier in the day, did you have any concerns if this horse's style was going to be compromised? Did you change plans or change strategy? D. WAYNE LUKAS: We didn't change any strategy. Willis and I had a meeting this morning with the jockey and talked about what we want to do when the rider came out. We said, look, you understand exactly what I want to do? He said, yes; and that was the end of that conversation. I was concerned to answer your question at the 3/8 pole, I thought we better get moving now because I had told the rider this morning that you've got to be a little bit careful. These are quality horses, and when they get on the lead and get cruising, it's not the third race on Wednesday where they stop. They keep going. I said, you've got to be concerned about those horses that are running that easy. If they're cruising on the lead, don't wait too long and make your run because these good ones don't stop that much. Realistically, I would have like to see him going 46 or a little quicker. But it turned out all right, didn't it, Willie? WILLIS HORTON: You betcha. Q. Wayne, as it's coming to the finish and it's going to be maybe as close as last year, what's going through your mind as it's shaking out? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I was thinking about this guy. I've been blessed so much in my career with so many nice horses, and it's only because I've been blessed with some beautiful clients down through the years and I've lost some of them in the recent years, but I always feel like on these particular days, Belmonts, Preaknesses, whatever, it's the most wonderful feeling to be able to get somebody put up his money, stay by you, believed in you to give them that moment. Three strides from the wire, the only thick I thought of was him and his wife. I really mean that sincerely. Q. Wayne, yesterday my wife and I walked into the track with your wife and yourself, and I asked you? D. WAYNE LUKAS: My fiancée; I don't have a wife. I'm working on that though. It will be a lot easier to do this now. We're trying to gather up enough money for a wedding. As soon as we get that, we'll be all right? Q. Okay, sorry. I asked how he compared with your other two Travers winners, and you said Thunder Gulch you thought you should have won the Triple Crown with. And you may have gotten lucky with Corporate Report, but this horse was a lot better. You seemed very confident. Can you talk about that? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I think probably this was our best training job. You know, Thunder Gulch, he had really set himself up for the Travers. He went through the Triple Crown, and then he goes over and wins the swaps in California, comes back, and he ran in every race. He was a tough, hard‑knocking horse. But this particular horse we had to do a little with. We had to change him. We had to get his weight up. We had to get some of the things that we changed things. We took the blinkers off of him; we changed riders. My theory has always been if you're not winning, and Willis put it up very much to me right after the Belmont, he said it isn't working the way we're doing it now, let's change up. So we did. We made some changes. Q. Willis, can you speak about winning a Travers? Obviously, winning the big race is what we put the spotlight on, and now that it's maybe sunk in a little bit, what are you feeling and what does it mean? WILLIS HORTON: Well, it's hard to describe, you know? I'm so happy. You know (Indiscernible) our time is coming. D. WAYNE LUKAS: We've got a few more. WILLIS HORTON: Oh, yeah, I think we've got at least 15. Q. Wayne, what does this result do to the divisions? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I think it puts it in turmoil. That's upside down. You have a lot of material that you can write about now. You can massage this. You won't have to worry about the last paragraph. You'll be able to go on for weeks about this. John Nerud, the wonderful trainer that's turned a hundred now, he told me years ago, Wayne, championships are never won in the spring; they're only won in the fall. And there is a lot of truth to that. We'll go to the next dance, and we'll look at it and get together, Willis and I, and figure out what we're going to do next. But usually championships are decided in the fall. I'm looking forward to leading these horses again, and I'm sure some of those that got beat today said, look, we're looking forward to taking on Will Take Charge again. So it will sort itself out. But in the meantime, we'll have a lot of fun massaging it and trying to figure out what it should be. Q. When you began the week, I think you put Oxbow on a van to Calumet, sent him home; how realistic did you think that would be when you put the best one on the van? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I don't know. I thought these horses were very close together. Sometimes the condition of the race and the field and everything dictates what you can do with each of them. When we run the Preakness, you know, Oxbow had things, he could do something I couldn't do with this horse. But it is so beautiful to have two like Todd has three, four, five or six or whatever he's got. You are able to go back and say, okay, we lost Oxbow. He's not in the deal; let's do the best we can with this one. That happened one other time with me. I remember when Timber Country won the Preakness, and Thunder Gulch was third, and Timber Country spiked a temperature on Friday night, was a scratch, and we went down and looked at that little Thunder Gulch and said, ball is in your court, here you go. That's kind of what happened this time. We sent Oxbow home for some freshening and cranked this one out? Q. We talked to you at the drawing and you spoke about the toughness of this field. Probably one of the best fields we've seen in 25 years. Does that make this win even more special? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Without a doubt. Any time they run the Travers, we have a tendency to evaluate these horses who has what and everything, but these races, the Triple Crown races, the Breeders Cup and the Travers, especially, at this time of the year when horses have had hard campaigns, they're special. There has never been a bad Travers. This one was really solid, but they're all great. But they don't put up a million bucks on a Grade One and just hand it to them. You better get on your belly and have a horse ready to run or you're not going to win one of these. Q. Wayne, could you talk about the contracts that you've made a career out of and a champion out of shots that other people would take a pass at and lesser resistance, perhaps. Certainly this colt. He was a graded Stakes winner, but he wasn't a group one winner at that point. Talk about that and what might be next for him? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, we feel like the horse is dictating his program a lot of times. We feel like if we get one right with the risk of maybe running too often, maybe running at a distance isn't perfect or running against competition where you're 25 or 30‑1, the reward is much greater on these group ones. So we've never been shy about cranking one up. To Willis's credit, we never even discussed missing this, did we, Willis? When he went to the barn, walked around a little bit after the Jim Dandy, we said, well, the Travers is next. I think you've got to put him out there. These things are bred. When they started breeding them three hundred years ago, they wanted them to run. If they're sound and doing well, I think you're really remiss and not fair to your clientele if you get cute and think you've got to manage them. I think more horses are mismanaged than are managed properly. I don't say I manage this one properly. But I believe, like I've always said to you, Jamie, I've won a lot of races running where I don't belong. Q. What might be next, Wayne? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I don't know. I'm going to get together with the boss here and we'll take a look. We're probably going to have to have one more, and certainly if I can speak for Willis, I certainly think we're headed toward the Breeders Cup, aren't we, Willis? We'll have a little meeting. All the votes aren't equal. Q. Mr.Horton, how many horses do you have and tell us a little about your operations? You selected this horse out of a yearling sale a couple years ago. What made you like this horse? WILLIS HORTON: What made us like him? Q. Great pedigree, obviously. WILLIS HORTON: Pedigree, his size, his confirmation is terrific. I've been in this business about 50 years, and not on a big scale. I did it on a small scale. But this was the best looking horse I've ever seen in a sale, and so where I was unlucky, Bryan was bidding against me. D. WAYNE LUKAS: I thought he was the best one in the sale too. I looked out and saw Willis bidding and I thought, whoa, I better back off here. We've been friends forever. If they had two trophies, one for the Travers and one for the horse show part, we'd get both. Q. Mr.Horton, don't you only have two horses in training right now? WILLIS HORTON: No, I've got three here at Saratoga. Well, we shouldn't say anything about that one. D. WAYNE LUKAS: Yeah (laughing). Q. Mr.Horton, how old are you? WILLIS HORTON: 73. D. WAYNE LUKAS: I've got a birthday coming up next week. This is a good birthday present right here. Q. Wayne, talk about the year a little bit with you. You come in following Oxbow pulling off the upset in the Preakness, and he runs well, and now you pull off an upset in the Travers. This is a vintage year. D. WAYNE LUKAS: Yeah, people have been saying, boy, you're having a great year. I've had a couple of good days. They've been kicking my ass out here pretty regularly and I'm not getting along too good. But these are the ones that count more than the others, obviously. But I've had some good days. But the horse is the most important ingredient. As long as you get something like Willis provided us with here, the Horton family to train, we've always got a shot maybe to win one of the big ones. We go about it every day, seven days a week, and we're always looking for that next one. But you've got to have something to work with. You can only do so much with them in order to get them to where we got them today. Q. You've had some great owners over the years, Gene Klein on up. Can you talk about how you get such great people and your relationship with some of the clients over the years? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Well, most of those that you're referring to, Bill Young, Bob Lewis, Gene Klein, Bob French, who recently passed away, and Lucy and Capote and all those, and Willis, they have a way of finding you in a lot of ways or you get lucky. I mean, Gene Klein and I had that athletic background and we met through Dick Butkus. So you get a relationship, but some of these relationships aren't that great. Some of them, you have to get somebody that believes in you, and they have to give you a little bit of leeway, because it's so easy with today's technology and you guys covering it. They call you up and they tell you that he shortened his stride four inches from 16th pole to the wire. I mean, the technology is amazing that they feed into clientele. So you've got to get an old‑school guy that just says Mike Willis, or Bob Lewis or Bill Young, Wayne, you're driving the bus. If you can get that feeling with them and that rapport, this thing becomes so much easier. I feel no pressure in letting Will take charge. I never felt any pressure with those other guys you just mentioned either. I have had some client that's I do feel pressure with. I have a nice two‑year‑old right now that belongs to a guy that's been with me 22 years, Bob Baker and Bill Mack in New York. He won here the other day, Strong Mandate, we'll probably run him back in The Hopeful. But they stay with you through the thick and thin. Last year we brought four horses and none of them could run. Well, the year before now. This one's pretty good. You guys were really great about leaving me alone all week. Q. That is the secret. The more we leave you alone, the better your horses do. Wayne, I don't know if anybody asked you this, but you were saying this week you thought this horse had his name on one of these. What made you have so much confidence in that? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I think it's a day‑to‑day evaluation. I think what you do is you get up every day. Hell, even the exercise boy, Rudy, was getting high on him. He said, Boss, I don't know what we're doing different, but it's coming together. He said, I can feel him underneath me. It's a day‑to‑day evaluation. You tweak it a little bit. You do this, you do that, and you hope you're right. But don't ever underestimate the experience factor here in these races, the Derby, the Triple Crown, the Breeders Cup, these races. That experience factor is huge because there is no how to book, as I've always said. You have to make a judgment every day to get that horse where you want him to go. Bill Young told me one time, he said, when I go to those high‑powered board meetings, he said, I don't worry about those young guys with their hair slicked back and three‑piece suits. He said, I worry about the real quiet ones with gray hair at the end of the table, and that is the same thing with this game. Q. Were you surprised at all with the performance of Verrazano? I know was Palace Malice was left and Orb. Were you worried about them going into this race? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Absolutely. I was really worried about them. I thought Orb, I said to Willis, when they were waiting for the ballots to come out, I said, Orb looks better than I've ever seen him. Yeah, I was concerned. Todd Pletcher was with me for years and years and years, and I knew his horse would be ready to run. At this level you're concerned about them all. You wonder about your trip. You wonder if your rider is going to have the depth and experience to maybe make the right judgment when he should. All of those things factor in and it has to come together. Q. One last one, Wayne. You've said before you like to win the race when you jump up and surprise people. Did you surprise people today? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Yeah, about 80%, I think. What were we, Steve? 9 to 1? Okay. There were 4 others that they liked better. WILLIS HORTON: Didn't surprise me. D. WAYNE LUKAS: This guy will step up, folks. Trust me. He'll step up. I knew it would be tough, but I was perfectly confident, and I wasn't a bit nervous or worried about it. I felt we've done everything we can. Stick them in the gate and let's see what happens. Q. As far as the race was unfolding around the turn, it looked like he was going well enough. But the horses in front of him, and Orb starts coming through on the inside and Moreno's not quitting either. What were you thinking coming to home? D. WAYNE LUKAS: I bet you Willis was thinking the same thing. We went by the grandstand and we're in the race and we're outside, which is probably for Luis, a pretty good spot to be. Going down the back side, I glanced at the leaders and the fractions, and I thought they were in cruise control, and that concerned me. I thought, you know, I wish somebody would come up and jump on him and get that down into the 47 range or something like that. I was only concerned on the far turn about closing it up and getting in the race. Luis did exactly what we told him. Give him a chance to win at the top of the stretch. Just give him a chance to win, and I think he'll carry you home, and he did that. He got on that little guy, he got on his belly and gave him a spot to run and rode him and rode him and rode him. At the 8 pole I thought we were going to run out of time and real estate, but that wire came up just right? Q. Did you know you had won it right after they crossed the wire? D. WAYNE LUKAS: Andy Serling was behind me, and he never said anything to me, and that worried me a little bit. I'm down from the wire, and it's kind of a bad angle. I didn't jump up and hug my girlfriend or anything. I said, you know what? That's going to be a heartbreak if we didn't get this. Then NYRA shows that replay instantly right after it within seconds they come with the stretch run. When they went by that time, we erupted. THE MODERATOR: We'll make Luis Saez available. He'll be here after the 14th race. Once again, any other questions before Mr.Horton and Mr.Lukas go celebrate? Thank you very much, guys. Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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