Bill Mott, winning trainer of Seek Again (No. 2): "They went along and set an honest pace, and you have to set an honest pace to set the track record. I thought he got away well, and going into the first turn I was hoping Sayaad would eventually put a little pressure on Silver Max, which he did. When he left the half-mile pole, he started to turn it up, and he was looking for his best chance to win the race, and it amounted to a good fast pace for us.
"The pace scenario was good. The only tense moment was when our horse was trying to find his room at the eighth pole. I'm hoping he just finds his room."
What were your thoughts at the eighth pole? "I was thinking it could be over at the eighth pole, when I saw he had to alter course two different times. I thought, well, we could be in trouble because it's awful late in the game to have to stop your momentum and go a different direction."
How did you pick the race? "It's a good purse, it's at Saratoga and it's at a distance we wanted to test him on. He's got some versatility to him. He can obviously run fast at a mile, but he did win a Grade 1 at a mile and a quarter, and he was third in the Manhattan. I wouldn't have passed up the Arlington Million if I didn't think he could [succeed at a mile]."
Joel Rosario, winning jockey aboard Seek Again (No. 2): "We had a lucky trip. He showed up today. At first, there wasn't a lot of room [along the rail]. I had to stay there because he likes to run a lot that way, that's his style. He's a good horse, he fires all the time. When he sees a horse in front of him, he comes to get [him]. So we had the winner today."
Dale Romans, trainer of 6th-place finisher and beaten favorite Silver Max (No. 1):"They went really fast. We were going to go fast, we knew it all along. Second start back, maybe I didn't do enough with him. As long as he comes back good, we'll be back. [Jockey] Robby [Albarado] said he felt fine, and he came back fine. The only thing I could see is that it looked like he was kicking up a lot of sod. I don't know if that had something to do with it. It just looked to me like he wasn't comfortable on the ground. That's a pretty easy excuse. Right now, I have no idea. I want to go back and check him. I watched him closely jog back and walk off and everything looked fine. We'll see how he is in the morning. He doesn't owe us anything. If he decided not to run today, that's his prerogative. He's won 12 races and [nearly] $2 million. We're not going to be upset with him."
**Seek Again's winning time of 1:33.25 is a course record. The previous record was 1:33.42, set by L'Oiseau d'Argent on August 5, 2004.
Fourstardave Handicap (G2) Quotes
December 10, 2019