AWESOME AGAIN STAKES QUOTES

December 10, 2019

JOCKEY QUOTES

MIKE SMITH, SHARED BELIEF, WINNER: “They tried to use some tactics on me which made the win today even sweeter. They just kept taking me wide, taking me wide, and I believe if you want to press the pace or take me out a little bit, OK. But doing it at all costs just to get me beat isn’t the way it should be done. It was to the extreme, I thought it was ridiculous. You just don’t do that.”

TRAINER QUOTES

JERRY HOLLENDORFER, SHARED BELIEF, WINNER: Asked if he thought he was “double-teamed” by the Bob Baffert horses: “We’re all big boys . . . It’s no big deal for me. Mike (Smith) will have to settle up with Victor (Espinoza, on Sky Kingdom, who carried Shared Belief wide on the first turn). “It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a tough race and be double-fit for the Breeders’ Cup (Classic on Nov. 1). That race will be tougher so we’ll need to be tougher, too.”

BOB BAFFERT, FED BIZ, SECOND: “It was a great race. It looked like we had him. Shared Belief, he’s just a really good horse. Everything was going well for him, but Mystery Train, he has a way of messing up the pace – like he did for the second time (at Del Mar with Game On Dude). It’s a shame, because he did all the hard work. But you have to give credit to Shared Belief. It looked like we had him. Fed Biz dug in and tried to beat him. We got beat and it was a great race. It was one of those things where sometimes you’re at the top end of it. Our horse showed up. Fed Biz ran his race. He ran hard.”

NOTES: The winning owners are Jim and Janet Rome (Jungle Racing) of Los Angeles; Jerry Hollendorfer of Point Richmond; or George Todaro of Seattle.